jezzajjmail Reviews

Big Little Lies (2017–2019)

Lots to like but disappointing end

[8/10 · 27 March 2018]

I liked a lot about this show, the scenery, the acting, the general pace and vibe were all on point in my opinion. I watched the entire thing over the course of three days so I definitely had the motivation to keep watching.

The end however was a bit disappointing to me. The fact that the wifebeater was also the rapist was a little bit too convenient IMO. Apart from that I didn't really like the 'we killed the monster aka 'the man', so now all the women set aside their differences and are happy' thing at the end. Bit of an SJ-dub bonanza going on there...

The Curse of Downers Grove (2015)

Not worth it

[4/10 · 22 August 2015]

I decided to check this out despite the low 4.7 rating as the brief description kind of reminded me of 'I know what you did last summer', a personal favourite of mine (granted, probably in part cause it reminds me of my own youthful days, plus Sarah Michelle Gellar and a young Jennifer Love Hewitt). That movie also only has a 5.6 rating here and while I understand why I still found it a fun film to watch. So I decided to go against my rule of thumb of not watching anything below a 6 and gave it a go.

However long story short this is not worth the time, even though it's not that long. The entire story evolves around a curse that may or may not be related to the Indians but the events that happen in the movie are so mundane that the whole Indian curse thing seems like an afterthought. Especially the weird flashback/lucid dreams where you can see an Indian and some random shaky images seem forced and distract from the story more than anything else. But hey, maybe that was in fact the intention cause there's not much to the story.

The acting isn't actually that bad, though having seen the odd 8 simple rules episode back in the day and therefore knowing that the guy who plays a 15 year old boy must in reality be the best part of 30 was weird to me personally. I guess if you don't know that though he might even get away with it. The rest of the cast are also OK, there's not much to work with as the characters are kind of one dimensional, but then in a movie like this that's expected.

It doesn't salvage this film though. I'm giving it a 4/10 because there's a bit of room below it for the complete and utter pieces of junk that exist in this world but if I could go back in time I wouldn't watch this again.

The Leftovers (2014–2017)

Intrigued, but I like dogs.

[8/10 · 3 July 2014]

Wasn't really aware of this new series yet until I stumbled upon it and I'm glad I did.

Not sure what a couple people above here are moaning about in terms of 'flat characters' and lack of info; consider my curiosity peaked by this first episode. Completely agree with the comment above about this not being a movie, thus making it kinda silly to demand a complete explanation of everything that's going on in the first episode.

The whole thing kinda grabbed me and didn't let go, the only thing that kinda threw me off was the dog killings so I withdrew some points for that. If there is ultimately enough of a story here or not in the end remains to be seen obviously, but I'm looking forward to find out.

Empire State (2013)

Worth a watch, about 6.5-7.0 movie

[7/10 · 24 August 2013]

When I saw the rating on IMDb it kinda put me off watching this film. Usually anything that rates lower than a 6.0 on here is actually pulp, IMDb works great that way. Pulp is OK every once in a while so I still sometimes watch some of those films if I like the cast or the storyline, however I usually draw the line at anything below 5.0 cause it's mostly just a complete waste of time.

Made an exception for this though after seeing the cast and reading the story outline, I thought how bad can it be, so I decided to find out.

I was pleasantly surprised, at no point was this film hard to watch or boring to me, just an OK thriller like many others that is worth watching even if it's not blowing your mind away. I would say it deserves about the same rating as 'man on a ledge' or 'alphadog' or 'savages'.

Anyway maybe there's some hate in some of these reviews because of some cast members or because it could have been better (it could) or because it sometimes gives you an atmosphere like your watching the departed, however then the film isn't nearly as good or it uses historical cues like argo but it's not as good as that either...all that doesn't take away from my opinion that it's still an interesting story to watch with generally decent acting.

7 out of 10 to boost the rating a bit, would give it more like a 6.5 myself.