The stories were interesting, if not disturbing, the cinematography could've definitely used quite a bit of work. The extreme close-ups, the shots of highlighted text from documents, while people were speaking, it makes it difficult to watch, and follow, at certain points. My rating was based on the content, which was solid, but the framing of it could've been much better.
This may be the finest series finale I've ever seen in all my years. It was such a fitting ending for all involved, as they held a funeral for Old Man Fixico. It was a community affair attended by everyone, and as Willie Jack had been under Fixico's tutelage, she spoke in his honor. She noted her growth and spoke of how no matter what everyone decided to do w/ their lives, the reservation would always be their home, a part of them and they of each other. What she spoke of really mirrored the show and its premature ending. She stated that "He was my good friend, and we were just really starting to get to know each other, and I'm happy for my time with him. Boa, I know I didn't get to spend enough time with you. But mvto for everything that you taught me." And who among us didn't have these sentiments when viewing this final episode. When Willie Jack was done speaking, she picked up a handful of dirt and spread it over Fixico's casket, as if metaphorically spreading the dirt on the casket of this series.
Over the course of the series, Willie Jack's growth was remarkable. She started as a kid w/ a smart mouth and grew into a caretaker of the community. She was the one member of the Rez Dogs who kept them together, through thick and thin, and helped show them realize just how precious their time together truly was. It's something that goes by in the blink of an eye, and you can lose it w/out ever realizing that it's gone. We never know the last time we'll someone, so it's important to remain as connected as possible, and that's what this show was about, the connective tissues that held this community together, and it was beautiful to watch it play out over the course of three seasons. I'll always be grateful for my time w/ Elora Danan, Willie Jack, Bear, Cheese, and the rest of the village community. From the bottom of my heart, mvto, Reservation Dogs.
This was an incredible portrait of what it means to be a displaced person. I greatly appreciated the fact that two-thirds of the film focused on the journey from a war-torn Syria to safe refuge in Germany. The inbetween trek was heartbreaking and frightening, and real-life sisters Manal and Nathalie Issa did an amazing job of portraying the harrowing journey. At its core, this was a story of the indomitable nature of the human spirit and our will to overcome all odds and obstacles. Displaced peoples will go through unimaginable travails in order to find a new, safe life for themselves and their families, and it's not anything to be taken lightly or dismissed.
While medaling in the Olympics would've been great, it would always pale in comparison to what the Mardini sisters chose to do w/ their lives. They're both champions of human rights, helping displaced peoples find their way safely to new lives. They are both to be commended for their choices.
For a number of years, I've supported an agency that assists widows and orphans in Syria. Their own government has waged an illegal war on the people of that country, and NuDay Syria has helped provide necessary services to displaced families. In addition to providing goods and services, they also teach the women a sustainable skill, so they can make money to support their family. It's really an amazing organization, and they're backed by the UN. If you're able, I highly suggest supporting them and those they help.
I'm still not sure what to make of this mini-series. I love the Maya Lopez/Echo character, an Indigenous woman who is deaf with a disability, that cross-representation is so, so awesome for a number of greatly underrepresented communities. Yet, this story felt incomplete. It seemed as if they had created a much richer story, and possibly filmed quite a bit of it, then cut it out for some reason. That this was only five episodes was one indication and that the final three episodes all decreased in length, w/ the final episode coming in at less than 30 minutes, was another. Also, much of the first episode seemed to be taken from the Hawkeye mini-series.
Usually, when a mini-series ends w/ an episode that's significantly shorter than the rest of the series, it's not a good indication, as it often feels like leftovers from the main story; not so much an epilogue as that the filmmakers didn't really flesh out the story completely, and that was what they were left w/. This series felt less like that, b/c the storyline continuity seemed off throughout, and as noted, episodes got shorter and shorter. It just really left a sense that so much was left behind during the editing process. It really seemed that there had to be more to this story in order to make it fuller and more robust. I had a difficult time understanding how this might of occurred, since Sydney Freedland, of Reservation Dogs fame directed four of the five episodes, and she was more than capable of bringing home a stellar series. It seemed as if Marvel's hand in this might've taken the ship off-course.
One thing that I really wanted to see more of was the relationship between Maya and Bonnie. They played it up as if they were sisters forcibly removed from one another's lives, but they barely utilized Bonnie. She seemed more like a set piece used to move the story forward, and that was through no fault on the behalf of Devery Jacobs, who's a tremendous, young actor. I will say that Alaqua Cox did a tremendous job as Maya Lopez/Echo. For someone w/out a lot of acting credits to their name, she really held her own well, and she did herself proud as a representative of the Indigenous, deaf, and disabled communities. I also greatly appreciated the message that strong, intelligent, capable women could accomplish anything together. I really hope that her character is used to better effect in the new Daredevil series.
Devery Jacobs really gave it everything in this episode. You can see from her performance that's an incredibly well-skilled actor.
This started off well enough, but it ended on a sour note. It's never a good sign, when the final episode of a mini-series is roughly 10 minutes shorter than each of the other episodes. It gives a feeling of watching the leftovers. One thing that I didn't really understand was the jumbled timeline. Griselda Blanco's life story was interesting enough w/out them having to change so many details, and keep in actual events but in an alternate order. It didn't make much sense, and it certainly didn't add anything to the story. If anything, the story that they concocted was more of a rendition of Scarface than anything else. I wish that I knew why they had done this, especially when there were plenty of action involved in her real-life story. I will say that one thing I didn't care for about this series was how they made her a sympathetic figure. She wasn't, and to make her and her family victims was disingenuous and dishonest. Other than that, it was well-acted, but it just didn't flow well.
Just as I thought that this mini-series was making an upward turn, it came crashing back to Earth. This episode did little-to-nothing to move the story forward, and w/ only six episodes in the entire series, that's not something that could be afforded. This episode spent nearly an hour hammering home a singular point that really didn't do much for the overall entirety of the storyline. The time would've been better spent covering a range of plotlines.
This was phenomenal. There was such great care taken in the attention to detail that it made so many scenes really stand out for how well fleshed out they were. The acting was superb! There were so many wonderful performances, there were too many to list, but Michelle Dockery and Merritt Weaver were exceptional. I'm not a big fan of the western genre, but this was so far above and beyond a simple western tale. This is one of the best mini-series I can ever recall having watched.
The attention to detail is really what makes this mini-series so compelling.
This was a solid film, and Ms. Luss did quite a competent job in the lead role. I found the story to be engaging and entertaining, and while there were parts of the story that I questioned, overall, it was an enjoyable film.
At its core, this film was rotten. The dialogue was insulting awful, the characters ridiculous, and the storyline was as dumb as it was improbable. Not only this, but it was written by three men, who clearly have a distaste and disregard for women, as the two women in this film are disregarded caricatures of human beings. To give you an idea of the type of dialogue, a culmination of one scene is, "New York, thank you for the magic," unsurprisingly spoken by a woman character. Oh, the direction is terrible, too.
I scored this a 7/10, b/c it was an interesting idea for a film, but ultimately, it fell a bit short for me. The writer/director was seemingly making a commentary on today's society and how we disseminate, ingest, then regurgitate information into misinformation and disinformation. It showed how much of what we speak on is ignorant, ill-informed, and flat out wrong, yet that doesn't stop the message from being progressed. The film showed the point at which the information originates, then the various levels of groups that pass it along, some more educated than others, yet many lacking in basic critical thinking skills. It's a disheartening message, often made worse by those directly involved in it and their responses to outward stimuli. It was an original idea, so it was worth the watch, not to mention the fact that an ensemble cast did a really nice job.
This film was lacking. First off, it was too slapstick and unserious. I realize that it was a Disney film, but they really went overboard w/ it. Second, it would've been served better had the film been about 30 minutes shorter. It really dragged at the end. Third, there was no need for Jesse Plemons character, and they should've chosen a better male lead than Dwayne Johnson. Had they written a better script and found a better male lead, they could've done something along the lines of The African Queen. Of course, it never would've measured up to that film, but it could've been done in the same vein. Unfortunately, they went in too many ridiculous directions, and the story couldn't support it.
For its time in history, it's an all right watch. However, the treatment of women was well-antiquated, as they diminished the ability of women and thought nothing of men who beat women and children, as if it were so commonplace, it was not a concern.
There really wasn't much to this story, and I felt that had a lot to do w/ the script and the way this story was filmed. I found the cinematography to be quite odd. There were a number of scenes, where they had long, open shots from a distance, and it felt strange. I also felt that they didn't really delve deep into this family's wrestling background, only scratching the surface of what they were well known for. That would've been OK had they delved deep into the familial dysfunction that led to the tragedy that struck this family's children. Any way you slice it, it was not a great effort from the filmmakers, and this was reflected in the final product.
The first season was solid, although the Billy Russo character wasn't very engaging, and they overdid it w/ the government involvement. The second season was a mess. The storyline was convoluted and uninteresting, and the choice to bring back Russo was a bad one. He was all right as a single-season antagonist, but he just wasn't enough of a well-evolved, compelling character to bring him back as a villain for a second season. And, his involvement w/ that doctor was ludicrous and served no purpose in driving the storyline forward. Additionally, the second season antagonist, the Christo-fascist mutt they brought on was boring, and midway through the season, they confused the plot w/ a senator and his family as additional antagonists. The entire season was a victim of poor storyline, poor characters, and a lack of a definitive direction for Frank Castle to go.
Hey, let's let the child molester go, b/c he didn't do anything too awful!
These shows are so formulaic and so poorly written. All you need to know about this episode is that the Punisher is being hunted by the Irish mob. They corner him, when he's taken one of their soldiers hostage. Four guys surround him, guns pointed, and Castle kills all four, plus the hostage. The next moment, the head of the mob enters w/ three other, armed soldiers. The head of the mob is unarmed and wants to tell Castle how he's surrounded. Uh, he just killed four guys that surrounded him plus the hostage. Why wouldn't he gun you down right now?!? The writing defies logic. It's painful to watch..
The writing for this show is so bad. This intro to the Punisher makes him appear weak and indecisive. There's no discernable difference between him and the dozens of faceless, nameless bikers across this four episode arc. They did a terrible job introducing him, and furthermore, the acting on this show makes it nearly unwatchable. Elden Henson was a poor actor as child, and he never got any better. Having him as a bit player is one thing, but having him as a co-star, where he's required to carry scenes is unacceptable, b/c he's incapable of doing so. Watching him act opposite Rosario Dawson was just painful, b/c he's so far out of his league opposite her. I don't find Charlie Cox to be anything special, either. He's an all right actor, but he doesn't command the presence necessary to hold this role. I also find his moralizing incredibly disingenuous and irritating.
What this episode boiled down to was, Frank Castle, the Punisher, had Matt Murdock (Daredevil) chained up on a rooftop, and he'd duct taped a gun onto his hand, so he had a choice: He could either shoot Frank, as Frank was killing one of Murdock's clients who also tied up. Murdock chose not to shoot him, instead shooting the chain to break free. He didn't shoot Frank, b/c he spent the entire episode moralizing about how it was wrong to kill anyone. Yet, moments later, after escaping, he came across a number of angry bikers. The gun is still duct taped to his hand, and he pulls the trigger, but there are no more rounds in the gun. So, the moral of the story was, it's all right to waste an episode going on about how it's bad to kill criminals, but when given a chance, it's all right to do so? The story made zero sense, and it was a giant waste of time.
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, especially the soundtrack. I thought that the writers did a great job blending the singing w/ the dialogue. Granted, I don't watch many musicals, but I thought that they did this quite deftly. The cast did well together, and it was a sweet, somewhat childlike, story. I also appreciate that they didn't entirely make this a precursor of the 1971 film, and they went in a different direction to create their own tale.
I liked this better upon second watch. It's a compelling tale about how women are manipulated by narcissistic men. There were a number of strong performances throughout by Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, and Haley Bennett. Their work really made this film come together.
I'm not sure where to begin w/ this. This movie was as bad on every level that a movie could be bad. The script, the storyline, the dialogue, the music, the set design, the choreography, and the CGI were all terrible. There were two scenes involving death by meat grinder, and not a single drop of blood was spilled. The entire thing looked like it was CGI, and it wasn't good CGI. The story was inane, cartoonish, and unnecessarily complicated. I have no idea what such a fine cast was doing slumming in this crap. On the other hand, Taron Egerton is not a good actor. He has about a three-inch range, and he should not be helming this, or any, film. All of this was worthy of a four-out-of-10, but what drove it down to a one was the use of "Fox News." Any filmmaker who uses the American Nazi Party's propaganda arm in a film, where they get free advertising, shouldn't be making mainstream films. They should be making neo-Nazi propaganda for the Right.
It's not nearly as good as the first, especially the soundtrack, but overall, it's an enjoyable reminiscence of what made the first movie so great.
This was really disappointing. I love Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, and they're so good together, but this is what happened, when they Saturday Night Live writers, other than Ms. Fey, write films. This writer/director was responsible for some absolute garbage. The fact that he wasted the talents of Ms. Fey and Ms. Poehler were enough, but he also used Steve Martin, Greg Kinnear, and Maura Tierney incredibly poorly. Sigourney Weaver had an amusing role, but it was a singular joke that he kept revisiting throughout the film, and it felt beaten to death by the end. They should've let Ms. Fey write this, and everyone would've been better off.
This is easily one of my favorite comedies. The cast is great, and Amy Schumer is at the top of her game in this. Tilda Swinton and Vanessa Bayer are fantastic in their roles, and the whole film just smoothly sails based on fine, comedic performances of Ms. Schumer's supporting cast.
This was a really poorly told story. They tried to make much of it a comedy, but none of it was amusing. They also focused on inane happenings in the lives of the characters instead of what made this a truly historic moment in time. Yes, displaying how Steve Jobs neglected his daughter, Lisa, was necessary to show what a vile, subhuman mutt he actually was, but the rest of it was entirely unnecessary.
This was so poor. There was no reason, no reason at all, that this film should've been made. Jacob Lentz had zero business writing a movie . I wouldn't trust him to write an e-mail let alone a film. This should not have been labeled a comedy, as there wasn't a single funny or amusing thing that happened during the entirety of it. It was also about 30 minutes too long. This was a huge swing and a miss.
I haven't seen this film, yet, but I do question why they would put one of the most handsome men on the planet in this film w/ that haircut. There are people that will go see this film just b/c, Henry Cavill is in it, but I'm also willing to bet that some of them will have seen this movie poster and thought, "Nah, I'm good." What would compel a filmmaker to make a decision like that?
This really was a one of a kind, first of its kind, film and thus, the eight out of 10 rating. Much of the acting was barely passable, especially by Tyrin Turner, although Larenz Tate really stood out in his role and made this film what it was. Thankfully, there were qualified actors around Mr. Turner, so they held up the scenes well, for the most part.
There were two things that really dragged this film down for me. First was the fact that much of the acting was stiff and wooden. It was quite odd to see this in such a massive production. Second, and more importantly, this film displayed the oppression of women by men who completely dismissed them and their abilities. The actor they chose to portray Mulan, Liu Yifei, openly supported the oppression of the people of Hong Kong in their fight for freedom. It was a disgrace to have someone w/ fascistic beliefs be the lead in a film about fighting oppression.
