radufl Reviews

Full Circle (2023)

Low-paced thriller

[8/10 · 1 August 2023]

Surprising low scores for this excellent, dark mini-series. In fact, once you start watching it, you have to watch all 6 episodes.

It's a low-paced thriller which carries a lot of suspense yet it is easy to follow and all pieces come together during the last 2-3 episodes. The story is quite complex and develops slowly but it's rewarding. Some of the visuals haunted me for some time, since the director immerses the audience into a weird and unfamiliar world, from both ends of the society.

Very good cast, acting is great and especially the young actors are convincing. It's really worth watching, I enjoyed every minute of it.

The Castle (2020)

Subtle and emotional

[9/10 · 10 June 2021]

This movie deserves much higher ratings. It is a story about immigration, poverty, music and family, yet it goes on a different path than expected. The superb acting is completed by great cinematography and realistic story-telling. I would have thought of a different ending, however it was a truly emotional experience.

Friends: The Reunion (2021 TV Special)

Mixed feelings

[6/10 · 29 May 2021]

'Friends' was pretty good, and I always watch the reruns. Two decades later, we're all a bit older and less fun, however Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox look really weird - I have no idea why some good-looking celebrities mess up their faces when getting old. Matthew Perry was also looking tired and older than you would expect. On the other hand, Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlanc were really funny and seem happy with their looks.

A lot of pointless and crap footage: some other celebrities (?) with no link to the show, a painful to watch Lady Gaga moment, fans of the show from other countries, a cheap fashion parade etc. Part of the reunion was hosted by the obnoxious James Corden, a very bad choice. I expected more former 'Friends' guest stars or additional cast to show up, but it wasn't possible apparently.

The bloopers, rehearsal and unreleased scenes were interesting and quite funny, as well as some of the stories shared by the cast.

Overall, I wasn't expecting much, but it could have been much better.

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

Painful to watch

[2/10 · 1 April 2021]

What a waste of time and money. Not mine, of course :) Bringing together characters from totally different stories, movies, timelines etc. - only for the sake of watching some boring and gratuitous CGI fighting scenes - shows how poor and uninspired screenwriting has become nowadays. Not to mention the utterly absurd (if not embarrassing) behavior of both Kong and Godzilla, who seem to have human-specific reactions most of the time. Kids these days watch Batman vs Superman, King Kong vs Godzilla, Thor vs aliens (?!?) and many other garbage stories which ruin the fun and beauty of the original comics or mythology. A big salad of timelines, characters and preposterous stories, drowned in a lot of CGI sauce. Disgusting...

Men in Black: International (2019)

Really, really bad...

[2/10 · 24 August 2019]

After a slow start, it becomes unwatchable. Special effects wasted on very poor script and bad acting. Chris Hemsworth (whom I don't really like) is not funny, and was clearly a wrong choice for the movie. Tessa Thompson is cute, but not funny as well. Overall boring and painful to watch from the first screens. Waste of time and money.

Un surîs în plina vara (1964)

Samples from the collectivization campaign

[2/10 · 13 June 2011]

Typical communist propaganda movie - set up in the early '60s, in rural Romania, part of the collectivization campaign. Was meant to motivate young people to live and work in the poor rural areas under collective farming structures (CAP). Meanwhile, from the late 1940s to the late 1960s, the communist government was establishing the reign of terror, carried out mainly through the secret police, launching other several campaigns to eliminate "enemies of the state" (individuals who were killed or imprisoned for arbitrary political or economic reasons). As expected, the script is poor, as well as the acting. One could only smile, shut off the TV after 10 minutes of this movie, and pray those times would never come back!

In fiecare zi mi-e dor de tine (1988)

Beyond imagination!

[1/10 · 2 April 2006]

Jesus, what an awful movie! It's beyond anybody's imagination, not only boring and badly structured, but the musical moments are of the lowest quality ever. Watching this movie may be used as an alternative torture method - Amnesty International would be humiliated! The dialogs are clumsy and the plot inexistent. A good example, though, of the quality of movies made in communist Romania in the late 80s. At that time, some good Romanian actors have decreased their prestige by playing into this movie. You'll be surprised to find Florin Piersic, Stela Popescu, Emilia Popescu or Jean Constantin playing here. The director was one of the classic communist movies director - he also directed historical movies or "working class" movies, playing the game of the ruling communist party. Nobody remembers him today, although at that time he was one of the mainstream directors. I am unable to understand how this movie made it to IMDb. Its low quality makes it not even worth mentioning it. The one and only thing which convinced me to watch it all the way was the fact that I was 18 years old at the time of the shooting and I felt a bit nostalgic. Actually, this movie is supposed to be a musical. You cannot watch more than 5 minutes in a row, it is that bad! By the end of the movie they sing the song "Tzurai" at least three or four times... in the mean time, the common people were waiting painfully, in long lines, hours and hours in order to get something to eat from the few stores in town. Better be warned, don't waste your time by watching it. Or even better, forget this movie ever exists, it doesn't make any difference.