It was great seeing that Chloe's family is also dysfunctional, and Lucifer also feeling like he could relate to the victim's son's feelings.
The best part was Maze and Trixie's scenes together... now that is a friendship I really want to happen :D Also Linda and Maze :D
The movie starts very promising: great soundtrack, a what seems to be nice idea for a plot & cool dialogs. But bad SFX, mediocre actors and a rather boring story make this a vampire flick something to forget...
Totally in love with Maeve <3
Interesting to see the parallels illustrated: Charles vs Diana post-divorce; Diana vs Camilla in the press; Diana vs Dodi and their fathers; Diana with the kids vs Charles (“I’ll just dump them with the nanny”, which is absolutely not accurate: the Emir of Qatar was coming to see the Queen, as Head of State, not Charles. So many liberties taken about the 50th birthday party: the press are not “invited” to these things, Charles did not make a speech, and Margaret was not there. And the scenes of Charles trying to manage Camilla’s “relaunch” in the public eye are ridiculous. Finally, why is the Queen again given such a dour portrayal? Overall, a decent episode, very well directed.
[6.8/10] I want to cut The Crown some slack here. If it followed Queen Elizabeth’s life long enough, it was either going to have to recast or start using an array of prosthetics and old age make-ups. Either option comes with significant drawbacks. I love Olivia Colman in everything from Broadchurch to The Favourite. I’m a fan of Helena Bonham Carter’s work with Tim Burton and beyond. I...vaguely remember Tobias Menzies from Game of Thrones. Regardless, the creative team made the right call here.
And yet, it is undeniably jarring to go from the performers who’ve embodied Elizabeth, Philip, and their coterie for twenty episodes and move onto an almost entirely new cast. The production is the same. The sets are the same. The writer is the same. But there is an undeniable disconnect from episode 20 to episode 21.
It’s understandable, and well within the realm of willing suspension of disbelief. “Olding” cheekily makes reference to it with the Queen selecting a new portrait for stamps and currency that acknowledges the change. But it’s also hard to adjust on an emotional level to the fact that we’re only a few months along the timeline, but Claire Foy and Matt Smith are gone, and there's some veritable strangers wearing their clothes and living in their home. It will take some time to acclimate.
The Crown does its best to accommodate us. A surprising return from John Lithgow as a dying Winston Churchill provides connective tissue between one period of the show and the next. Colman’s Queen arrives to give her mentor one closing benediction, and a kiss on the forehead that mirrors the one he gave her upon his last departure. The icon’s death helps seal that we are at the end of one era and the beginning of another.
And, it must be said, Bonham Carter is the perfect casting to take the baton from Vanessa Kirby as Margaret. Beyond the physical resemblance between the two actors, Bonham Carter has made a career out of embodying the same chaotic, rebellious, off-beat energy that ran through Margaret’s veins in her performances as the Queen’s sister. Time will tell the tale, but at the jump, the casting directors nailed that one.
The problem is that, even if you can forgive the necessary but friction-filled transition of the cast, the writing here is below the series’ usual standards. Big picture, there's an interesting theme at play. The Queen is not a neophyte anymore. She listens to her husband, to her high society gossip mongers, and suspects that her new prime minister, Harold Wilson, must be a KGB spy. She’s confident in her political and social instincts after years on the job.
Only now, she discovers via her spymaster, that it is instead the art surveyor in residence at Buckingham Palace whom Elizabeth has been geeking out with, who has been doing dirty work for the Russians. The high society fops she’s been rubbing elbows with having been leading her astray, and the unlikely, comparatively salt of the earth economist she looked upon with skepticism is, unexpectedly, more on her wavelength.
There's something there! The changing of the tides isn’t just symbolized by Churchill’s passing, but by the arrival of the first Labour Party PM the Queen has ever had. Beyond her individual political affiliations, she’s only ever had Tory PMs, and in Winston’s wake, there's a certain comfort to that. Having that discomfort lead you astray, challenging your preconceived notions and forcing you to reevaluate your immediate reactions and maybe your broader prejudices is a good tack to follow with Elizabeth. It sets the season on a good thematic course as season three launches.
Hell, it even ties into the meta elements of the recasting. Baked into the story is the notion of giving new people a chance, even if they’re not what we’re used to, because they might surprise us with how much they’re on our wavelength. If the Queen herself is willing to expand her horizons and find common cause with a comparatively common man, who are we to turn up our noses at some new performers?
The problem is that even if the story is good, the nuts and bolts writing isn’t great. All of the scenes involving the spy mystery seem overblown and melodramatic, rather than elegant and/or naturalistic. This show’s never shied away from high drama before, but whether it’s breaking in a new cast or embarking on a new storytelling cycle, the delivery feels miscalibrated here.
More to the point, the episode’s dialogue is strewn with tortured, blunt metaphors. When Anthony Blunt, the double agent art historian, is giving his big speech before his arrest, he gives an on-the-nose oratory about truth that stings the ears. The Queen’s speech at his art event after the revelation comes down about palimpsests and the like, and double-identities in portraitures leads to painfully obvious coded exchanges with the appropriately-named Blunt expressing her distaste. And her closing exchange with Prime Minister Wilson about how numbers don’t mislead, but rather what-you-see-is-what-you-get, just like the man himself, could hardly be more ham-handed if the PM was wearing bacon-wrapped mittens.
Sure, there's some juice to Philip trying to threaten the turncoat to watch his back, only for the seemingly soft-spoken art dork to turn the threat around and intimate that he’ll expose Philip’s shenanigans with the Russian-entangled osteopath from last season, another piece of connective tissue. But the whole presentation of it feels a step down from the intimate, lived-in vibe The Crown managed to hone over its first two seasons.
With any luck, season 3 will find its sea legs again. Season 2 was already a bit of a step down from season 1, despite some major high points. You can tell that the show has already eclipsed its original premise. Reloading is a way to freshen things up a bit, but also a chance for things to go awry in a whole new way. The Crown has earned the leeway to figure itself out anew, but fresh cast or not, this isn’t the most confident start to the new era.
Really wanted to enjoy this, found it very boring
I feel like I am gaining more of an appreciation for this movie as James Cameron does genuinely care about this event and the last 30 minutes of this film is cinematic history in my opinion. Also, I understand why they needed the romance as it helps to introduce you to the real people who were in this event and though I find the romance very boring I find it unharmful and it does help to make the movie more emotionally impactful if you don't know much about the event.
But this film is way too long for what it is and it wastes so much time with the love story, I have to say visually it is still amazing and though I class it as one of James Camerons worst films it would be classed as a lot of directors best films. For sure give it a watch but I feel like you should research the event a little before you do, also watch the documentary that James Cameron did on this event on Disney+ / National Geographic.
I am not saying I don't like this episode but my feeling is that the whole plot with the government conspiracy is a tad too heavy. This show usually sets a lighter tone. It doesn't really fit.
This episode stands out in a positive way.
I am not a huge fan of the psychic stuff but the unique approach and perspective made me connect with the victim in this episode like in no other before. It creates a lot of emotional moments.
Confusing plot - it doesn't seem to have consistency to what it wants to achieve. The ending seems supposed to be a cliffhanger but didn't leave viewers with anything to be wondering for. Some scenes are wasted with talks that gives neither character development nor plot progression. The acting and visuals were good, though it doesn't save the movie from its flaws.
oh wow. didnt even realize this is the last episode until it was over. im going to slowly crumble until the next season starts, and hope to god it doesnt get cancelled
this season was a huge improvement in that they now have a better plot, and liv tyler is a fantastic addition. im quite sad fallon is dead. even though he was trash, i liked his character. now i suppose the main villain is blayne
and boy am i glad that quigly is in bedlam. i doubt she'll get out, and im guessing from how much we saw of her main harlot, she's gonna be the one dealing in her place with blayne and his men.
cant wait.
7.2/10. A perfectly fun Kill Bill homage (which is itself a pastiche -- we're through the looking glass here people). I remember some controversy about the gang dressing up in Asian garb for the "training" scenes, but I think it's in the spirit of kung fu movies the show is imitating here. Like I said the last time we did one of these, I'm pretty tired of the slap bet business, and frankly I think it should have been a one hit wonder, or at least something brought out to punctuate an episode like it was with Barney's one-man show than building entire episode around it.
Still, it was a fun entree into seeing Marshall go all Enter the Dragon. There was a lot of physical humor here, between the rapid-fire slaps and the slapping tree and the slow motion (poorly green screened) slaps. There was also a lot of the usual slap-related word play. It was fairly enjoyable, even if it's more of the broad humor and empty calories the show seems to have given into at this point. It was nice to have the angle that Barney had become inoculated against the fear of the slap, and then the kung fu story restored his anxiety, only for them to treat it very matter of factly afterward.
The Boys II Men appearance was pretty superfluous, but there's a bit of a pointless guest star-palooza going on this season anyway. This all makes me sound pretty down on an episode that I mostly enjoyed. It was basically cotton candy -- perfectly nice but pretty empty after the fact.
8.3/10. First things first, I am still amazed at how well they introduce The Mother. There was such potential for disaster in writing a character who needs to be perfect for Ted but also feel like a real and distinct person. Grand kudos are owed to the writers' room and Miloti for what they pulled off. Pairing her up with Lily was an ingenious move, both to show how The Mother would fit in with the group with how quickly the two of them bond (albeit a little conveniently) and to show how she and Ted are well-matched via Lily's complaints about him (the "Mrs. Tedwina Slowsby" gag had me in stitches). Miloti and Hannigan have a great rapport and it pays dividends for The Mother's first outing as an actual character.
Barney and Robin thinking they might be related was mostly fluff, but it was entertaining fluff! I like the continuity of Barney rooting for the bad guy (his comment about King Joffrey of GoT having parents who were related and nevertheless growing up to become a "fair and just ruler" was a big laugh) and the reveal that their shared cousin Mitch was adopted after his biological parents were eaten by wolves, and the couple's ensuing relief, was a nice dark gag resolution to the whole ordeal.
In a storyline that was pure fluff, Marshall also attempts to tell his mom how to delete a facebook photo over the phone, so as not to reveal to Lily that he accepted a position as a judge. Most of the humor was pretty mild, with "old people don't know how to use technology" and "baby miraculously solves problems" leading to cute but pretty unadventurous jokes. That said, there were some mild stakes to the storyline which kept things humming, and Lily not wanting to look at the picture despite the alert because of Judy's "emotional blackmail" was a nice touch.
I'm less enamored with Ted as the real "wild card" at the wedding. I forgot how late in the game HIMYM introduces the whole locket thing, and I've already said my piece on the love triangle angle of the whole thing. Still, I like the meta-sweetness of Ted giving Robin a picture of the gang when they first started hanging out (hey! that's the picture from the show's title screen!) which works in-universe as a fakeout for the locket and out-of-universe as a nod to this being the show's final season.
Overall, a nice way to kick of the last year of episodes of the show and set a number of the season's major storylines in motion.
Very sweet and finely made. Interviews with great musicians. Wish we'd heard from James Murphy. Otherwise, a stellar document.
8.1/10. A surprisingly good episode. Having people we mentally would put in "the pit" is one of those classic HIMYM concepts that starts out with lots of great comedic potential, but then leads to, as Ted puts it, a moment of "emotional clarity." Marshall jinxing Barney is one of those goofy friend group bits that the show does so well. And the laughs were mostly there too.
Ted going after an architecture professor who decried his skills as an architect to brag about his building, and realizing that he needs to move on and that the best revenge is living well was a nice little story for him, that showed some nice growth for the character. Similarly, Marshall and Lily running into an old college acquaintance (in a nice mini-Buffy reunion with Seth Green!) is mostly for laughs, but Green plays it well and the whole twist on "The Pit" is nice. Heck, even though I still pretty well hate Robin's arc at this point, her harshness to Patrice is at least mediated by Robin not firing her and Patrice comforting her.
As typical at this stage, a lot of it is still pretty broad, but I like the theme of the episode -- letting yourself out of "the pit," and moving on, and the show explored it in a nicely comedic way for the most part. Good stuff!
Lynch is just great here
John Malcovich totally ruins this movie for me with his terrible acting.
I totes like Dalia and whatever. :D
A watchable film with a mix of cheesy, bad, good, with a few laughs, and some heartwarming moments. I've got to say this is the best so far from his contract with Netflix. I liked the amount of well known cast they used that have been in most of Adam's films.
A good message at its heart, this is not necessarily a great film but it is campy fun.
She sets the whole village on fire, BYE BETCHES!
Yes, I enjoyed this movie >.> the plot seemed like something that would be in a dream of mine.
1950s. Couture. Femme fatale. Revenge. Australia.
I should have done my research beforehand, since I was oblivious for the most part. However, and despite the fact that Fassbender's character really got on my nerves, the movie is fulfilled with great dialogue scenes.
Honestly, it got way more interesting by the end, I just wish the first part had that same kind of excitement. Finally, I believe this was the first time I've seen Seth Rogen into an heavier performance and I must say that I'm astonished by it. Very well done. All of them really.
It took me three times to finally read the first book. I could not get into it. The movie in comparison was meh. The actors have no chemistry at all. Sounds like they were reading the script word for word instead of going with the flow and making the dialogue believable. Jamie's accent is too strong in the flick. I never envisioned Christian Grey with having one, but everyone envisions stories differently.
An interesting premise, that while weak in areas, is an overall enjoyable romp.
Season 1 had a bit of an issue with a lack of confidence in the vision and their ability to tell a story in a continuous fashion. It used Aaron Mahnkhe as the Narrator, who told bits of side history alongside the main story. In the second season, this was dropped, partly because of a stronger direction in the main story being told, but it did lose a bit of the charm, especially the additional context Mahnkhe was ale to provide.
The first season felt like an exploration of why we tell stories, and how there is a common motif linking otherwise disparate stories (they tickle the same fears), while the second season is just a straight retelling of spooky or creepy stories from the past.
One of those movies I don't mind watching when it's on TV. I like the story and the relationship Melanie has with everyone in her hometown.
[7.6/10] In some ways, “Homer vs. Lisa and the Eighth Commandment” is one of The Simpsons’’s most dated episodes. Its main plot centers on stealing cable through adjusting the hook-up between your T.V. set and the bundle of wires that connects it to the outside world. For one thing, it rests on a schism between over-the-air television and “pay T.V.” that doesn't really exist in the same way given the multitude of entertainment options and avenues. The very idea of “getting cable” is a bit outmoded given the variety of ways people consume T.V., movies, and other entertainment. And the simple notion of a shady guy making it all happen through a few misplaced wires is downright quaint.
But in others, the episode is timeless. While the sources and methods of obtaining premium content have varied considerably since 1991, when it originally aired, we live in an age of an increasing number of cord-cutters and cord-shavers and others tired of subsisting on traditional entertainment offerings. And while rewiring one’s cable box has gone the way of fixing the tracking on your VCR, piracy, illegal streams, and bootleg DVDs are still the province of average joes galled by pricey packages and an increasing number of walled gardens.
And even more universal is the moral dilemma at the core of “Homer vs. Lisa and the Eighth Commandment.” The episode is anchored around the biblical admonition “Thou Shalt Not Steal.” And whether that means swiping a graven idol from a shop in ancient Sinai, using an illegal cable hook-up in the Springfield of the 1990s, or running a shady bitcoin scam today, the ethical conundrums of what constitutes theft, immorality, and upstanding principles in the life of the nuclear family are just as compelling and applicable.
What’s funny is that when the episode aired, America’s moral guardians were wringing their hands about The Simpsons as a bad influence, and yet, Homer’s part of this episode reads almost like a Chick tract. Homer is the instigator of the cable-stealing (recreating North by Northwest to get it), and at first, everything’s good. He’s thoroughly seduced by his drug of choice, glued to the T.V. set 24/7, and everything from being able to entertain his family to being the toast of the town for hosting the big prize fight suggests a big win for the lovable oaf.
But then things start to crumble. The normally immovable object of television’s affections grows disillusioned and disinterested even with cable television’s cavalcade of offerings. He starts to grow increasingly panicked about everyone from his boss to his bartender finding out the various ways he’s bent or broken the rules over the years. And after a well-done sequence where he imagines a fanciful, if more secular-than-divine punishment for his ill deeds, has a change of heart, and desperate to escape his guilt and paranoia, he begrudgingly becomes a pioneering cord-cutter once more.
And he does so at the behest of an earnest voice encouraging him to save his soul. One of the unique things about “Homer vs. Lisa and the Eighth Commandment” is that, in contrast to some of the other “versus” episodes in The Simpsons catalogue, there’s not really much antagonism between the two title characters in this one. It’s more that Homer is on the highway to hell, and Lisa is the Jiminy Cricket on his shoulder, calmly but firmly encouraging to be a more moral man, but in a way founded more on childlike protest than direct confrontation.
There is, as was even more potent in the show’s early seasons, some subtle social commentary in that. There’s something well-observed about the way the show presents Lisa’s position in relation to the adults in her life. She’s taught that the Ten Commandments are absolute hard and fast rules, where the punishment for violations is eternal damnation. Her parents seem to care enough about these core precepts to take her to church, but then they do things like steal cable, or sample a pair of grapes without paying for them. Sure, the latter at least may seem too minimal, but if it’s a biblical stricture, and the risk is going to hell, why wouldn’t you be extraordinarily wary of even the slightest misstep?
Lisa, then, is the conduit for the show pointing out that however much folks believe in the basic moral principles behind the Ten Commandments, people’s devotion and belief only runs so deep, otherwise we’d all be acting like Lisa. There’s an innocence and willingness to take things at face value in childhood, and as usual, The Simpsons points out how, in American society at least, the way that people bend the rules suggests they don’t always practice what they preach.
As is typical for the show in its early going, the humor derived from that idea is softer. Lisa shouting at the supermarket, Homer freaking out about office supplies he swiped from work, and Marge being excited to make her own band-aids is all pretty mild, but its rooted in wry observations about how we compartmentalize our religious tenets rather than let them interfere with our daily lives. The bulk of the straighter comedy is picked up more by a cavalcade of wide-ranging cable T.V. spoofs, and with Bart up to his traditional hellraiser tricks. But as usual, early season Simpsons is content to pull humor from the shape of whatever situation its deposited its characters in rather than setups and punchlines.
For the most part though, the show gives us morality tale. There’s a goofus and gallant routine between Homer and Lisa, the simple oaf lured by the glow of the television, contrasted with the principled young woman worried for her mortal soul. It wasn’t the first time that Lisa led her father to be his best self, and it wouldn’t be the last. But there’s still something unique about this one, where Lisa is still definitively a kid, Homer is less idiotic and more easily seduced than usual, and when the pair’s trajectories crash into one another, Lisa brings her father to the side of the angels.
The specifics of the story may be rooted in the particulars of 1990, but the ideas at the core of this one -- bent and broken morality, the situational malleability of religious beliefs for most people, and the way good influences in our lives can remind us of our better selves -- are timeless.
8.6/10. Oh man, I just love it when Adventure Time gets straight up weird like this. The idea of Treetrunks, who comes off like a sweet old lady, but who is (a.) kind of cattily angry with and opposed to Princess Bubblegum on principle and (b.) this strangely sort of sexual being, having alien babies is so delightfully out there. In particular, the sequence where she goes to the alien cloud land or whatever, and everyone talks slowly, and there's little green elephants with alien faces, is definitely the kind of strange set of scenes that will make you briefly wonder if someone spiked your drink.
Still, beyond the creative art and stylistic choices, it's just a neat little headscratcher of a story with some good comedy thrown in for good measure. Treetrunks running into Starchy (who's still, apparently, a conspiracy nut) and a collection of supposed alien abductees (including the hilarious Booshi) and trying to turn it into a militant group is, again, weird, but hilarious stuff. (And little throw ins like the banana guard trying to save P-Bubs from being abducted and dropping to the ground when he fails, or Starchy's secret passageway taking them right back where they started were great.)
But overall, this episode comes down to a story about Princess Bubblegum and Treetrunks. As strange as the conflict is, AT sets it up well, with Treetrunks wanting to protect her children, and P-Bubs wanting to protect hers too in a way. For Princess Bubblegum, annihilation with this band of idiot candy people seems perilously possible, so colonizing other planets is a way to ensure the candy life force doesn't go out. The fact that they understand each other in those terms, and that Treetrunks helps PB after PB realizes the damage her goo-buds were doing, gives an oddly emotional undercurrent to everything. The exchange about not liking each other, but still being able to respect each other is, amid the abject weirdness, a very mature sentiment.
And again, as weird as it is for Treetrunks to say goodbye to her Alien husband, only to then introduce him to her pig husband, it's also a little sweet. That's what this show is, a ton of on the surface weirdness, with a core of real feeling and surprisingly complex interpersonal relationships. It amazes me still.
This is quite the calm film that's much more about humanity, rather than anything else.
I put this film off for some time due to the fact that I'm allergic to vampire flicks. Hence, I did something wrong.
This is, mainly, a Jim Jarmusch film. If you haven't seen his stuff, do. This is a great addition to his little canon.
Swinton and Hiddleston play two vampires, 3000 and 500 years old, respectively, who live in our current day. This does not mean they'll start sprouting a lot of awe-inspiring Shakespearian words, and their history is surprisingly left to its own devices, i.e. letting the viewer think rather than have everything served on a platter.
You get to do a lot of thinking on your own in this film. Not that you have to. The film flows and drowses through time, radially, even from the very first scenes.
It's more an experience than a film. The music's great. It's almost existential, this one.
7.7/10. I'll admit, the Jeanette thing didn't really do it for me. There were some amusing bits to it (Ted and Marshall reprising their Departed impression when learning that she's a cop, the Boba Fett getup, and Marshall and Barney's denial of her being there), and I appreciated the resolution that "crazy" is a two way street, but it just didn't capture me for whatever reason.
That said, I really liked the B-story with Robin and Lily. Again, I'm a total sucker for the story in the past (or in this case present) recontextualized in the future, a well which this show goes to with some frequency, and the continual time jumps forward, which continue to add to Robin's story of not wanting to hold Marvin, all the way up to the reveal that the stranger who helped her out wasn't some kindly old lady, but rather, Mike Tyson, was a perfect instance of gradually building ridiculous that kept paying off. Plus, I like the emotional throughline of Robin coming to terms with holding a baby as in character with her reticence about children in general.
Not a perfect episode by any means, but some fun non-linear storytelling and a lot of fun clever humor to boot. We're on a nice little run in the eighth season here.
Ah man, HIMYM, how many times have you pulled some big moment out of your ass at the end of the episode and saved yourself from the absolute doldrums. This one was headed for "meh" or worse in my book, but you put together a well-edited montage, hint toward the grand finale, and throw in some "Funeral" by Band of Horses, and I am a complete sucker. That ending, replete with Klaus's trite but sweet speech about an overwhelming feeling for someone, is nice, but doesn't cover up the flaws of the rest of the episode enough to make it good.
Where to begin? Well, Ted wanting Victoria to leave a note is in character, and a nice consolation to him being an accomplice to someone else being left at the altar even knowing how much that hurts someone else. There's even some laughs as he's coaching Victoria on how to write it. But most of the sneaking around goes pretty broad, especially the East German bridesmaid guard, and the conflict is something of a dud. Klaus is funnier than I remembered (his not being sure what German words Ted knew or didn't know was a nice bit), especially considering I remembered thinking he was kind of annoying, but for the most part this was a wacky caper dropped into something a little more serious and heartfelt and the tonal clash didn't mesh well.
The shtick that Marshal and Lily were so exhausted from child-rearing that they couldn't understand what anyone was saying and were basically zombies was too broad as well. We're getting to some pretty hacky humor about parenting here, without any of the show's clever insights.
But the worst is the Robin and Barney stuff rearing its ugly head again. Even if you buy them having this strong attraction to one another, which I don't, the contrived plot twist of Robin suddenly having yet another boyfriend who you just provides another convenient obstacle, and Barney not having told Quinn that they used to date and it being this huge thing, screams of romantic drama for the sake of romantic drama. We know where this is heading (even if the opening gives us some reason to doubt), but it's just not believable, or at least not sold well enough, that Barney and Robin are carrying torches for one another, and that storage locker full of mementos from the time they were dating is trying too hard to make up for what the show can't sell in the way it writes the two characters to try to make them make sense together and convey that they have actual feelings for one another. If anything, the show is actually being like Ted here -- offering big gestures rather than actual substance. Sometimes, like the big moments in the end of episode montage set to affecting indie rock, that gets you pretty far, but it's a bandaid, not a cure. Let's hope it's not as much of a trudge to the finale as I remember.
