What can be stated about this program that hasn't previously been stated? In all aspects, it's terrific. The writing, direction, acting, flow of the storylines, and feel of an oft-forgotten culture is tremendous. I felt that that the particular efforts of Devery Jacobs and Paulina Alexis were amazing. They both played quite difficult, delicate roles, and they absolutely nailed them!
Some of what I greatly appreciated about this show was how deeply-ingrained the culture of Native American peoples were into the storylines. This show existed on so many levels at once, and all done so well, it was truly astounding. It was quite the achievement in television. Most importantly, the writing didn't gloss over life events that affect us the most. This show encapsulated a tremendous sense of loss on the behalf of many characters, b/c that was a fact of life on many Indigenous reservations. The fact that the writers didn't create a singular episode from it, but instead, used it as an overarching storyline was to their credit and should be commended.
This show could be difficult to watch at times, b/c it wa so powerful, but the lives of the characters were important and deeply-rooted in a community that mattered. This was the type of television we should be watching, not just b/c it was so fantastic, but b/c, it was so important to how we relate to one another.
This story had so much heart rooted in its message of family, friendship, and togetherness in community. It's unfortunate that we were only honored with three, short seasons of this masterpiece, but in a way, I believe that its brevity will cause it to linger in our collective conscience for a long, long time. These characters, especially the four at the core of the series, Elora Danan Postoak, Willie Jack, Cheese, and Bear Smallhill, left an indelible mark of how friends and family were there for one another through thick and thin. I'm glad that I got to spend some time w/ all of them, and learn of their culture and community, while gleaning a bit of understanding of what makes them who they were as a people and as individuals. Mvto, Rez Dogs.
The source material for this could've been constructed much better by the writers. Frankly, I'm surprised that Dennis Lehane carried much of that workload. He's a much better writer than was presented in this mini-series. This very much had the feel of a made-for-TV movie, and given the content of the storyline, I think that it would've done much better as that type of presentation. There really wasn't enough story for six hours of a mini-series.
Taron Egerton's performance was uneven, and while Paul Walter Hauser put in his usual strong performance, the character he portrayed simply didn't have enough depth of material to draw from. There was something missing in the depiction. Both Sepideh Moafi and Greg Kinnear played interesting roles quite adeptly, and Robert Wisdom, in his limited screen time, was excellent, as usual.
I gave this a seven based on the interest of the true-crime aspect of the material, but if I were giving a rating based on how the entire mini-series was pieced together, I'd likely have given it a grade of six.
I've always thought that this movie was hilarious. If you enjoy anthropomorphic puppets, this is definitely the movie for you!
This was an interesting movie based on a true story, and both Annette Bening and Bryan Cranston really fit their roles well. The film imparted a sweet message at the end, which was, the purpose of their venture wasn't about winning money but rather building community and bringing people together.
The first season of this was really strong. It's not the most well-made television program ever, but it's definitely watchable, and main character actors are quite solid. Alan Ritchson is great as Reacher. For a character who can be monotone, he's quite funny, charming, and compelling in his nature. Willa Fitzgerald was an excellent choice as his partner this first season. Her acting ability covers a wide-range of ground, and she's as tough as nails as she is soft as silk. She really defined her character well. Malcolm Goodwin was also strong addition to the cast. He played a strong character who did an excellent job of looking outside of himself to find answers to a befuddling case. I also really loved Maria Sten in her role. She was tremendous as Reacher's only "friend." Although her part was limited in this first season, I'm hoping to see more of her in the seasons to come.
Overall, the script was interesting, as it intermingled many subtle layers to bring the story to life. It wasn't necessarily an original story, but it was told in a way that kept me engaged. I cared about the characters and what happened to them, and to this point, I liked that the writers introduced some side characters, who were the focus of parts of a few different episodes, that were designed to get me to care about them, which I did. In too many of these types of shows, these side characters are introduced, then quickly forgotten. In this show, however, these characters were introduced, and we were able to follow their progression through the remainder of the story to see the outcome of their character arc. I really appreciated that aspect of the writing, and I felt that it was the sign of a strong writer's room.
I just finished the first two seasons, and near the end of the first season, and at the beginning of the second, I felt that watching this show was akin to watching Hercules: The Legendary Journeys back in the '90s. Of course, this was well before Kevin Sorbo turned into a white nationalist Christo-fascist and international joke. Aside from that, you had Hercules traveling from town to town each week running into a different crisis and trying to help local villagers. In fact, the show looked very much the same as The Mandalorian. Thankfully, they strayed away from this formula in the second half of the second season, and the show got back on track.
It's not great by any stretch, but it's definitely watchable, and it's still fun to see the Star Wars lore after all these years. I'll definitely stick around for the final two seasons.
I had never heard of this character before, but I'm not a big Spider-Man fan, so there was no reason for me to have heard of him. However, I found it entertaining enough. It wasn't fantastic, and the casting was a bit odd, and the story was rather formulaic, akin to that one Spider-Man movie w/ the James Franco as the Green Goblin, but other than that, it was interesting enough. I'm not certain what all the hate was about, unless it was something to do w/ a big departure from the comic book character, but it wasn't the worst thing I've ever seen, although for a major comic book film, it was rather lacking in a number of areas.
This is another of those football, family, faith, Christian bullshit movies that had no business being made, this one in particular. This film had zero direction, the football action scenes were shown in a way that was visually awful and they would play 30 seconds of one contest, then flash the score from that game as well as the next on the screen, as if it didn't really matter. My only question from this debacle was, what was Laurence Fishburne doing slumming in this movie?
Surprisingly, this was more amusing than I thought it would be. This movie was really self-aware, and I thought that made for the best and funniest parts of the film. Chloe Coleman was also really impressive in her role. I've also really liked Parisa Fitz-Henley, since I saw her in Midnight, Texas. I find her to be quite charming, and she has a very natural presence that comes across well.
I felt that this show really should be evaluated in three parts, as it’s almost as if there were three shows in one. The first season was based on the novel of the same name, so the writers had clearly marked signposts to follow. As the novel was quite compelling, so too was the first season of the show. However, this is where the book ended, and the writers had to take up the slack. The natural progression of events led them to follow the court case surrounding the death of Hannah Baker, as well as the criminal trial of Bryce Walker..
I felt that these two seasons should be evaluated in terms of being different shows. The first season was clearly the best season of the four b/c, that’s the material the book covered, and the writers didn’t have to come up w/ any of their own material. The second season, although panned by some fans and critics, still followed the same themes of the first season, yet it was not up to par in terms of storyline or writing.
The third and fourth seasons should be considered a third show all on their own. While they did stick to similar themes from the first and second seasons, the writers clearly had no plan in place to go beyond the end of the novel. These last two seasons, especially, felt completely disjointed from the first two. The third season was long and drawn out, and the payoff in the end was neither surprising nor all that interesting. If they had maintained more of a mysterious atmosphere over what they were doing, it might have been better.
The fourth season was just a mess. Watching a main character who’s moody, bitter, angry, intense, depressed, and slipping into schizophrenia is not a compelling watch. They began this in season three and continued on in season four. It really added no particular value to the show or the character of Clay.
As for the storyline in the final season, it was absolutely ludicrous. I won’t go into the details, but suffice it to say, the writers really didn’t put much thought into what they were doing. The last two episodes of the show were especially pointless. The prom episode was completely unnecessary, as was the finale, at least the way it was filmed. And, it certainly didn’t require 90 minutes to portray the events of what happened in the finale. Not to mention, the last scene of the show was absolutely awful.
I think that the worst part of this show, however, was the treatment of two characters, Bryce Walker and Montgomery de la Cruz. In the third season, the writers actually spend quite a few resources rehabilitating the image of Bryce, as if there was some redemption to be had for him. He was a serial predator, and his actions would have stemmed from a deep-seated psychological disorder that wouldn’t have simply gone away, b/c he acknowledged his wrongdoing and felt bad about it. They did something similar w/ Monte in the fourth season, and I felt that it was incredibly disingenuous, dangerous, and irresponsible to take this path, b/c it showed that they really hadn’t researched the topics they were writing about. It was really surprising to watch this, and even both of Jessica’s relationships w/ Justin and Diego were quite questionable, especially given her role as head of the women’s rights movement on campus.
I had heard such great things about this mini-series that I believe that my expectations may have been a bit too high. First off, the acting was top-notch! There were so many stellar performances in this, it was really hard to single any one particular individual out, although given that the series focused prominently on Kate Winslet's character, she did just a remarkable job. Julianne Nicholson, Angourie Rice, Jean Smart, Chinasa Ogbuagu, Sosie Bacon, Evan Peters, Enid Graham..the list goes on. All of these actors were really tremendous in this project.
I also have to commend the production for creating a female-centric police drama/murder mystery. It isn't often that we see casting such as this for a show of this type, and not only was it was quite refreshing, but it really gave this series that extra emphasis, when it came to the character-driven drama that was the other half of the storyline. It really worked particularly well in this production.
All of this having been said, what I was not impressed by was the writing, particularly how the pieces of the storyline flowed together, some of the dialogue, the apparent lack of research, and the odd character arcs. The script that Brad Ingelsby wrote came across to me as something less that he'd spent time researching the topics of and more drawing from previous television productions. On more than a few occasions, I found myself realizing that specific bits of dialogue or storyline were quite derivative of other shows. Obviously, stories are rehashed, but this seemed much more like a patchwork of pieces taken from other productions and put into this one storyline.
Due to the derivative nature of the story, some of the dialogue came across as very clichéd and out of place, as in it really didn't fit w/ the storyline. For instance, in the scene at the waterfront after Mare and Zabel’s date, Mare made a comment about she just couldn’t let go of this case, b/c it’s one of those that just “gets inside you, you know?” I thought to myself, “Really? This cold case that you’d moved on from, b/c there were no leads and no evidence, where you didn’t want any outside help, but you weren’t actively working it, either.” This is exactly the type of clichéd statement you’d hear in any generic detective drama, and in this particular case, it literally made no sense in terms of the storyline.
As for some of the characters, they came across as really incredibly awful human beings. Then, they seemingly and miraculously grew hearts that allowed them to do selfless things that put them in harm’s way? Again, this was something that just didn’t fit w/ the nature of the story, and it threw the characters into disarray, b/c there was really no need for this type of role reversal. Additionally, one of the characters who was portrayed as this small-town girl w/ no prospects, looking for trouble around every corner, we suddenly find out was a strong student w/ collegiate potential? Some of these character traits and attributes just came out of nowhere and served no purpose in moving the storyline forward.
The last thing about the writing that I didn’t care for was how the pieces around Mare were shifted. It was almost as if she were in a room w/ one door, and everyone else was in a circle that constantly rotated around the outside of the room. Every time Mare opened the door, a new character would be standing before her, and she would interact w/ them before closing the door. She would then reopen it, and new character would be standing there for her to interact w/. It was almost as if many of these individuals were simply pieces of furniture in her life, there as set-dressing, rather than as characters to drive the storyline deeper.
I believe that the one exception to this was Mare’s mother. Her interactions w/ her showed that this script could have been refined in such a way that many of the characters could have been made fuller and richer w/ more meaningful interactions w/ Mare.
The bottom-line for me was, while the cinematography looked fantastic, and it provided a genuine look and feel that really gave this story series credence, there is a big difference in looking spectacular and actually being spectacular. I believe that the director and producers very much went for a True Detective esthetic, but looking like True Detective isn’t the same thing as being True Detective.
This movie was about nothing, no one, and went nowhere. It didn't even seem to finish, as it left the storylines of two of the three main characters completely unresolved. This movie was a complete disaster. If it wasn't for the solid casting, this movie would've ranked a two out of 10.
Movies such as this always amaze me, b/c at some point, a good number of people had to be in agreement that millions of dollars would be better spent on this, rather, than say, I dunno, feeding the homeless? Fighting human trafficking? Promoting the cause of education? Really, any worthwhile cause would've been a better investment than this crap. Adam Sandler is the Donald Trump of the movie business. He makes movies in which he gives all his friends and family jobs. How do you base your entire career around that?
This was actually a pretty solid film. Being from America, I didn't necessarily understand all the regional dialect, but I got the gist of it, and it didn't detract from the story. Mostly, it was in the beginning of the film, and as the film wore on, it became clearer what was being discussed.
This film really is about brotherhood, both in a familial sense and in a community sense. It tells the story of Danny, a hardline enforcer for a New Zealand gang, and how he progressed from his difficult childhood to become the sergeant-at-arms of his crew. The film delves into his relationships w/ his brother Liam, as well as the president of his gang, Moses, who he grew up w/ in a detention center. The film did a strong job of showing how loyalties to one family can often muddy the waters in regard to loyalties to another family.
This was a truly phenomenal effort in all aspects of filmmaking. Anya Taylor-Joy was simply mesmerizing in her role as young woman battling both her inner demons and her otherworldly talent for a game that, at certain points in her life, seemed dead set on destroying her. This is one of those rare, remarkable shows that comes along every once in a while that leaves you feeling satisfied, yet wishing there was more.
This was not good at all. It was slow and boring, and due to this, I found it difficult to follow, b/c I had such little interest in watching it. Btw, did they blow their entire casting budget on Scarlett Johansson? In and of itself, she's usually a good choice, but for this material, it made literally no sense, since the character she played had zero emotional reaction to anything. They literally could have hired anyone to play this role, and it wouldn't have affected the film in one way or another.
I was incredibly disappointed by this film. I thought that it would be an effort to show children the cruelty of bullfighting, but instead, they attempted to tell a story of non-conformance to societal norms in a poorly chosen setting. In addition, the best relationship of the film between Nina and Ferdinand was scrap-heaped early on, so the inane and boring story of Ferdinand returning to his roots could be told. The voice actors were also poorly miscast, which didn't help matters. The only other thing I learned from this film is that Kate McKinnon is as annoying and unfunny in cartoon form as she is in live-action.
W/ the very first words of the film spoken/sung by the actors, I knew that this was going to be practically unwatchable. The first song is horrible. It's not even a song. It's just normal speech being sung. It's terrible. The fact that James "Defender of the Most Useless Family in the World (the Kardashians)" Corden is narrating and has an acting role really grinds my gears, as well. I can't, for the life of me, imagine these A-list actors wanting to be a part of this mess of a film. I couldn't even make it through the first abomination of a song, before I turned this off.
The casting for this was bad enough, but add in the mouth-breathing dialogue, and it's astonishing that it took five so-called screenwriters to put this garbage on a waste of good paper. The premise alone made this venture pointless; Middle-Eastern terrorists show up at a beachside vacation spot, and begin indiscriminately shooting people? This may be the single dumbest premise I've ever seen in a major motion picture. This was made-for-broadcast-television bad. Actually, in fact, it was worse than that.
This is literally one of the worst films I've ever had the displeasure to watch. In fact, it was practically unwatchable. The cinematography and direction were awful, the script appears to have been written by someone who doesn't speak English, b/c no one in the world speaks the way these characters spoke in this film, the acting was downright terrible (Kyle MacLachlan is not a good actor, and Dennis Hopper is about as menacing as a declawed kitten), the story is ungodly boring, and the special effects, such that they were, look like a fourth grader's attempt at becoming involved in filmmaking. If I live to be 1000-years-old, I will never understand people's affection for David Lynch.
I would never purposely watch a movie directed by that talentless hack, Michael Bay. And, I had no idea that he'd directed this monstrosity. A few minutes in, I thought to myself, "These jump-cuts are like a goddamn music video. This director sucks!" Of course, I then proceeded to look it up, and sure enough, it's that absolute turd of a director, Michael Bay. I waited another 10 minutes or so, and this neverending car chase was still going on, and I finally turned it off at the 16-minute mark.
Bay's claim to fame was that MTV recognized his work as a music video director. M-fucking-TV. M-16 and Pregnant-TV. Being assigned praise from MTV is a sure sign that you are fucking terrible at what you do. My only question is, what is Ryan Reynolds doing slumming in this cesspool?
This is one of those films that's very good for what it is. I found much of it quite amusing, which gave this film a different feel than similar entries in the genre.
This is how we should still be treating (neo-)Nazis.
After having just finished the two "Dune" films before watching this, and having seen a few other Denis Villeneuve films, I think that it's safe to say that he's quite poor at telling stories, especially those belong to other people. His ability to convolute a story is unmatched. I can't recall being more confused than when watching his films. I think that it's an injustice to the actors and the source material. This was a great idea for a story, but his telling of it left a lot to be desired.
It's a well-made film, but I'm not now, nor have I ever been, a fan of white savior stories. No matter how you slice it, white, fascistic oppression is still white, fascistic oppression.
I got the feeling that there was so much to this story in the books than was explained here, as it didn't relate well to the screen. I was confused throughout this film. It wasn't bad, but I also felt that it wasn't nearly as good as others had made it out to be. Instead of trying to wrangle extra dollars, I wish that they would've made this into a longer epic and explained in greater detail the cultural aspects of these oppressed people and what it was everyone's intentions truly were.
In this series of "Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet..." films, this was not one of their best, but it was still a better-than-average film that showed why this formula was so popular for them.
I really enjoyed this film. I thought that the cast did an exceptional job, and it was a sweet story full of heart and hope for a brighter future.
I was so disappointed by this. I really, really wanted to like it, but I never really understood what was going on. The mother-daughter story would've been of great interest to me, but it felt like they took an incredibly roundabout approach to dealing with that relationship. I'm not really sure what the rest of this was, if it all was in order to tell that story.
This wasn't at all what I was expecting, but it was a tremendous film w/ a tremendous cast. Neither the story nor the story outlay were unique, but they were well-done. This was a strong drama.
