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All of Us Strangers (2023)
Great movie about life and being alone somewhat marred
Profound movie and brilliant acting by Andrew Scott.
I'm afraid it is spoiled for me by the predictable and somewhat irritating female lead in Claire Foy - all other acting is superb. Her performances are always the same, and not with the nuance that would have been appropriate here (or even a non-Crown accent - her accent was completely discordant and jarring in the presumed moderately working class background of the protagonists). Two stars removed for that.
The initial encounter between the men was scripted in a way that did not make the final reveal 100% plausible - it should have been at least slightly concordant as a possibility, and did not seem that likely to me.
Jack Ryan (2018)
Degenerating by season
Season 1 and 2 get rating 8. Then it starts to degenerate. I'm giving a low overall rating because I don't much like watching series that go astray.
The plot in S4 is just ludicrous, nonsensical. Nobody really knows what they are doing and why they are doing it. Dangerous convergence and other such nonsense - seems written by someone paid to pen garbage by the minute. A pity because the acting is by and large great, and the sets and action sequences are pretty good too. It's a small matter of content....
And as for the infectious disease academic transmuting into some sort of medical saviour with completely different skill set - spare us all.
The Diplomat (2023)
Really wanted to like it but.....
Really wanted to like this having been a big fan of the West Wing. This is no West Wing however.
Snappy dialogue sure, but all way to fast and incomprehensible. Nothing is introduced - You are just trying to figure out what the status of a particular character is and miss about 15 sentences. Throw in the usual Netflix fare of inappropriately cast individuals of Ghanaian descent, bad white males only, and some totally unrealistic politics (like governments are really going to have some unknown foreign ambassador making high level decisions) and we have something that is not that clever at all.
Overall like pulling teeth.
Smallville (2001)
Too many superpowers, target audience unclear
To put this in context I liked the series Jessica Jones and Daredevil, and sort of liked Gotham - So hopefully this will help readers who liked these series. I stopped watching Smallville at Episode 11 of series one. It doesn't seem to have a clear idea of it's audience - directors seem to be catering for a teenage audience not realizing that teenagers don't necessarily need or like the schmaltzy Californian beautiful-people gloss that typifies the worst of US teen TV. The glossy fake-beautiful people.... And there were just way too many people with special abilities to make it at all interesting, without any real development. When a new character with an ability pops out in every episode - most of whom have powers far in excess of our Mr Kent - the whole thing loses interest. The ONLY thing that distinguishes Mr Kent is that he has a good heart and comes from another planet. Apart from that he is just a boring character who has no need to hide his special abilities, because everyone and his brother has special abilities.
I gave up finally in Episode 11 - persuading people to commit suicide is definitely not the stuff of legitimate teen drama -- only in America.
Certainly there might be a case for having zillions of super-powered persons (not one of whom have a good intent apart from Mr Kent) in a later stage superhero series - but it doesn't fit well with a developmental biopic of someone who is going to be special (but is not special at all).
Harry & Meghan (2022)
Sheer tripe
Sheer tripe - and yet another reason to avoid restarting my Netflix subscription. A dull dreary pity party by a pair of indulgent lying hypocrites. Pure nauseating fiction. With a narrow vision of racism, the world and their role in it these taxpayer funded buffoons bring only discredit to themselves and their money grubbing but rather stupid promoters. It is hard to imagine what they hope to get out of this. What is much harder to imagine how Netflix executives think their decisions will bring any benefits to the company and shareholders. A lot of people deserve to be fired and I am sure will be as Netflix declines.
Within the Whirlwind (2009)
No real heroes here
I am somewhat of a student of the early history of Nazi and Soviet-Nazi terrors and abuses, and this is a reasonably accurate, well acted portrayal of a small aspect of that. The problem with this as a movie - is that there are no real heroes here. Nobody one would really root for. Evgenia Ginzburg was as much of a tyrannical thug as her captors - a group of people holding the "party line" - party insiders - who underpinned a ludicrous utopian philosophy that led to the death of millions. Through some infighting between communist factions, some met with the same fate as the millions of non-members they impoverished - not only in the USSR but in many other places besides. It was, for me, a bit like watching a documentary about infighting between Hitler and some rare Nazi opponents who attempted to undermine him - both sides leaving an equally bad taste in the mouth.
The Man in the High Castle (2015)
Incredibly weak and morally duplicitous ending
I agree with others that the ending is weak. Overall I enjoyed the "show" which is why I'm rating a 7 overall. However the overall impact of the show is bedevilled by the prejudices and blindnesses of its makers.
Those murdered in the Holocaust are never going to return from a different world. And the "good" Alt- world versus the bad Nazi one was never a good unqualified setting for anything. One would not have guessed that in the 20 years of the good world between 1945 and the 1970s at least 40 million people were murdered by Stalin and his philosophical supporters, and another 40 million by Mao in China and his supporters and who began the colonisation of Africa (now mostly in effect an imperialist Chinese Colony) and the brutalisation of Europe by the Soviets. And that those very same people, having babbled on in our Western Universities about the glories of Stalin and Mao and now making these movies. Hell, the John Smiths of this world are alive and well in people like Jeremy Corbyn, and they never went away in the new world (of which the only badness seems to be the continued maltreatment of the African American population -- the rest is neatly whitewashed.
There are important historical stories/allegories which could have been told. But they are mis-told.
La catedral del mar (2018)
Ludicrously and gratuitously violent
Stopped after one episode. Violence has its place but this was gratuitously disturbing for no good reason. It should not have been made. The world is a worse place with this series in existence. Be warned. Degrading.
The Power of the Dog (2021)
Great photography, mood and acting but empty
This movie is ultimately empty. Great photography wonderfully set mood, and excellent acting doesn't lift something which is ultimately empty. I watched this in two parts over a couple of days - getting back to the second part was something that felt more of a chore, a task to be completed, than something to to be looking forward to with joy or anticipation. The emptiness is ultimately down to Campion herself - reflected by her ridiculous tangential comments on Trump and capitalism as if they somehow invest the movie with meaning. The movie is also ultimately homophobic, sexist and not at all life-affirming. More like a medicine.
Dark Waters (2019)
But the baddies were not really taken down at all
Overall this is a misrepresentation. Dupont assaulted the public and science and got away with it.
This was a bit of exposure as a result of a good and decent lawyer, but this is no win. A win involves murderous thugs going to prison. A vitally important story but the telling of it is a lie.
An extra 2 stars removed for the horrible Mark Ruffalo and his performance.
Tyrant (2014)
Realistic charicatures of Middle Eastern fascism
Partially trite, entertaining nonsense, but not particularly unfair or inaccurate. Not up to the standards of Homeland and some irritating acting. Tin pot dictators.
La casa de papel (2017)
Watch S1 & S2 then stop
S3 onwards is crude and incomprehensible rot. The whole thing is morally ambiguous but fun up to that point. But is then spoiled by nonsensical plotting and infantile crudity.
The Vast of Night (2019)
A little bit of nothing - well made
A minimalist review for a bit of minimalist fluff. Nice and short.
Rectify (2013)
Wonderful, profound series
... in every sense. Tremendous casting and acting, deep characterisation and plot, and inspired cinematography. Probably the best series of this type I have watched.
Wynonna Earp (2016)
Was 7 now 3
Started great - great premise, good casting -- gun toting western, woman fighting zombies - what's not to like. But went rapidly downhill the last 2 episodes of season one with the abysmal casting of the third sister - and outright dumb by four or five episodes into season 2 -- at which point I gave up. By the time it got to the footballer ripping his heart out, I'd had enough.
Undercover (2016)
The most ludicrous plot ever
Totally implausible and ludicrous. Nothing hangs together. If you like running a cheese grater over your face... might appreciate this. The motives of all parties is incomprehensible. Really BBC - if this is the sort of unintelligible nonsense you derive from my licence fee, perhaps I should stop watching.
Sophie O is a great actress but hopelessly miscast. What a load of utter bilge. The story holds together as well as a floppy jelly, and the ending is a disaster -- a real pity it takes till the very end to realise quite what an unrecoverable mess it all is -- 6 hours of wasted life. Avoid....
The Spy (2019)
Superb -- top class acting and plot
It is pretty biased however -- completely ignoring the brutal reality of the plight of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Syrian prisons, the use of Palestinians as political pawns by ruthless despots, and the reality of the thousands of real Arabs brutalised and mis-led by their leaders.
Fauda (2015)
Fantastic balanced portrayal
It seems fairly clear that those reviews that say it shows any real bias have other interests in mind or haven't watched or thought about anything at all apart from their reflex prejudices. As a student of Middle Eastern politics, this is an ultra-realistic portrayal of attitudes and interests which perpetuate the sorry state of affairs.
13 Reasons Why (2017)
Life destroying TV - No merit at all
People die as a result of this. Please don't watch. This is TV that causes harm. It should never have been made.
Gentleman Jack (2019)
Interesting enough - spoiled a little by the increasing willingness of the BBC to twist history
A good story, sort of well told (the encrypted diaries are fascinating, but hardly explored). The real diary entry about her Shibden love -- : "I care not for her - tho' her money would suit." is hardly evident from the narrative. The real story is of a woman in love with herself, who regarded the sex lives of heterosexuals as "legitimised prostitution" - hardly a trailblazer LGBTQ woman - more a manipulative and conniving woman who just happened to be LGBT.
Certainly there was no there was no guilt, or self-hatred in the real Anne Walker - which is where she blazed a trail - but there is a certain contempt for others, LGBTQ and otherwise - which makes her a less than laudable lesbian entrepreneur. The BBC do touch on these themes, but far too softly.
Poldark (2015)
Season 5 is dreadful
The scripting is really bad. It's fine to make up your own story to some extent -- but the injection of politically correct claptrap that sticks out like a sore thumb spoils the whole thing. This is semi-historical drama, and story-lines that come from a different planet and would never have taken place do not sit well.
Presumed Innocent (1990)
Wooden acting some 28 years on
Re-watched 2018. Some movies don't date - this one has.
Velvet Colección (2017)
Velvet was good - this ain't
Has the feel of something made up on the fly as cast members do a runner. A fairly senseless collection of plots and sub-plots, some sillier than others.
Velvet (2013)
Good sloppy entertainment
Very light amusing distraction. Stuff for watching before bed with the wife.
(Avoid the follow-on Velvet Collection - which is trash)
In the same genre - Spanish sloppy stuff - Grand Hotel is better.
Deadpool (2016)
Peurile
This from someone who likes superhero stuff in general. A Peurile sense of humor, peurile cartoons, peurile themes. Unintelligent tripe.