What a performance by Bella Ramsey! She has been amazing from episode one but, this episode she delivered everything!!
Ladies and gentlemen, Kieran Culkin, the 2023 Emmy winner.
This episode literally felt like a PARODY.... That is not a good thing
This is so bland and inessential, they might’ve as well put it directly on Disney Plus. Why are we investing 300 million dollars in an action/adventure flick starring an 80 year old grandpa? Look I have a lot of respect for Harrison Ford, but everything that’s wrong with this movie is connected to the larger issue of him and the franchise being way past their expiration date, so this never should’ve been greenlit in the first place. Nothing is offensively bad here, but it’s more a case of wrong decisions piling onto each other.
I understand Lucasfilm’s decision to hire a director who just delivered two crowdpleasers in a row, both of which were acclaimed by normies and snobs alike. Mangold understands what makes the world and character work, but he doesn’t get the soul. Right from the opening scene, the movie looks drab, underlit and generic. There’s almost no imagination to the set pieces, and some of the more impressive stuntwork is undone by poor effects work. Take the Tuctuc chase. Ford’s stunt double puts in the work for the wide shots, but when you cut to a close-up of characters in front of a green screen, you’re not exactly selling the sequence. It’s not going to stick on my brain, it’s too unremarkable. Again, what’s the point of making an Indiana Jones movie if there’s no viscera or imagination to the action?
Then there’s the story, which is also very by the numbers and low on risk. It feels like wheel spinning, which in theory could be fine (the Bond franchise got away with that for decades) but there’s nothing to hold my interest. Some of the new mechanics introduced during the third act I found to be underwhelming, and this is coming from someone who didn’t mind the inclusion of aliens in the last film. All of the new characters are boring and underdeveloped (especially the villain), despite the actors putting in decent performances. It’s quite funny how this suffers from the same problem as Furious 7, where villains will show up on the same location as our heroes despite there being no story reason for it. Occasionally there’s a brief fun interaction, or a fun set, or a good visual idea (like the final shot, for example), but that’s not enough to fill its bloated runtime.
4/10
wendy's storyline was totally disposable
It’s honestly starting to feel like the seventh season of GoT.
Yes, the action is bigger and better than the previous season, but any of the fantastic writing with a mystical/mysterious/philosophical edge, that was present in the first season, has vanished.
It’s still good, of course, but this straight forward human vs robot continuation isn’t I was hoping for.
Like an NFT of a classic musical: it was technically well-made and looked really good but I got no emotion from it.
Every moment of Steve and Dustin is pure gold !
I too would spend 10 billion dollars just to piss off someone I hate.
Excuse me, WTF was that ?
Secrets of Dumbledore improves on its weaker predessesor with a more nuanced Grindlewald performance from Mads Mikklesen, as well as a more focused narrative. There are some interesting set pieces here, as well as some surprisingly funny moments and some creative uses of magic that will entertain fans of the series. Unfortunately, it still suffers the faults of a directionless series that should never have extended beyond a single movie. Characters are left woefully undeveloped and plot developments from previous movies are brushed aside, although perhaps for the better. While it is a passable movie, it is unfortunately much too small a step in the right direction for a doomed series.
Another Bond pastiche from Matthew Vaughn, and once again it’s worse than the last one. Here we have what is basically another Kingsman film, but this time it’s made for the wine moms who had found their new favorite film with The Lost City. The plot is quite bonkers, it's so dense and the amount of schlocky plot twists indicate that Vaughn’s at least somewhat aware of how tasteless it all is. Sometimes you can still find traces of the cleverness you’d expect from him, but generally it favours being loud and cringe. I understand that he’s targeting a different demographic here than with Kingsman, but the end result is so tame and commercial that it feels more like typical streaming filler (Red Notice, Ghosted). Some of the acting is atrocious. Obviously Rockwell puts in the best work, but it doesn’t make up for the stiff performances by Cavill, Howard and Lipa (though she gets a pass for being Dua Lipa). The directing is also noticeably a step down compared to Vaughn’s previous stuff. It doesn’t feel like he put much heart and soul in this, because besides some good stuntwork it looks like shit. There’s just so much plastic sheen (artificial bright lighting, tacky CGI, unnatural compositions and camera movement) that it becomes incredibly ugly to look at. You could pass that off as ‘well it’s meant to be cartoonish’, but I’m not going to make that leap when there’s this little artistry to it. Vaughn needs to stop making these, the whole thing feels predictable and played out.
2.5/10
Technically marvelous but I felt nothing watching this. No thrills, no suspense, nada.
Best episode of the show. One of the best episodes of television, period.
"... my appearance is designed to be familiar and put you at ease." I cried.
The episode is one hour long and only 10 minutes or less are about the actual case...
I don't care about Jodie Foster's daughter, Navarro's sister, Hank's romance scam, the newbie's family problems, the creepy lonely lady.
I feel that I'm watching an Alaskan soap opera.
The frozen scientists premise was impressive at the begining, but now it's kind of lost. And they added the Annie storyline and mixed the 2 cases together. I doubt that we'll find out what happened in either case
This is the first R&M episode that did nothing for me. The humor felt tired and most of the jokes didn't land.
Not sure if it's just worse than it used to be, or it's just not as fresh to me as it was in seasons 1-2.
(I'm running out of praising superlatives)
Strange finale. Loved the Homelander appearance, and I didn't see that twist coming at the end. But I feel like this season has just been all over the place. Pacing is really strange, character relationships and development is quite rushed which makes certain moments feel very forced and unearned. I've enjoyed the season and I'm excited for season 2, but this is definitely not nearly on the level of The Boys.
They have a really big budget in that school !
A movie that never justifies its existence.
I have a lot of respect for what John Favreau did with The Jungle Book.
He managed to do something that every remake should aim for, but usually fails to do: improve upon its original.
This, however, is the exact same movie.
There was zero effort put into improving things, or even do anything different, for that matter.
And to some degree, I get it: the original is almost sacred to some people, and they’ll act autistically if you change too much.
There’s also an upside to that, which some critics don’t pick up on: if a story works in 1994, it still works in 2019.
But you could at the very least try some different shot compositions, or different music cues, or anything to not make this movie completely creatively hollow.
Yes, it looks just like a Discovery documentary.
At the same time, the realism strips the expressiveness of the animals away, so those things cancel each other out.
There’s just no reason to watch this over the original.
5.5/10
No idea what's going on, sue me for being dumb.
And once again the freshly baked, first-time captain is the American Hero saving the day and awing the world against the bad, evil Kriegsmarine, which, as we all know, only consisted of sadistic Nazis howling over radio like a delirious drunken man while engaging the enemy. Straight historic facts.
And obviously the captain has a soft spot for the coloured cook Cleveland, who tragically parishes in an attack. Except the fact that the navy didn't allow coloured people on their ships until 1948 while this cheap propaganda piece is set in 1942. Except the Kriegsmarine was known to be the least Nazified service in the German war machine.
Why the directors/writers of cheesy sh*t like this always try to rewrite history, I don't know.
Seriously, watch "Das Boot" or "The Enemy Below". Don't waste your time with this garbage.
[8.6/10] The opening of “Slip” is a little more direct than episodes of Better Call Saul tend to be, as it fills in some gaps Jimmy’s backstory and perspective. When pressed by Marco about Jimmy’s parents’ shop, about how they worked hard and everyone liked them, Jimmy admits it’s true, but questions the value of it. He declares that it got them nowhere, and characterizes his own dad as a sucker.
Jimmy’s philosophy becomes a little clearer, snapping into place with the flashback to his youth. His dad was someone who refused to bend the rules, who wouldn’t take even so much as a valuable coin for himself, who wouldn’t sell cigarettes to the kids from the local religious school to make ends meet, and in Jimmy’s eyes, that got him nothing. It’s a little too tidy and pat, but Jimmy sums it up nicely -- Papa McGill wasn’t willing to “do what he had to do,” and Jimmy definitely is.
That’s the thrust of “Slip,” which is as much an ensemble piece as any episode of Better Call Saul so far. Jimmy, Mike, Chuck, Kim, and Nacho are willing to go the extra mile, to do the difficult thing, not because they want to, but because they believe it needs to be done. It’s what unites those disparate individuals and their different challenges here. Each of them strains a little more, goes a little farther, in the name of biting the bullet and doing what needs doing.
For Jimmy, that means going back to his old ways. What’s interesting is that Jimmy tries to be good here. He tries to build on the success of his first ad with the owners of the music shop, and all they do is try to squeeze him. Granted, it’s Jimmy, so he’s probably inflating costs a bit, but still, the episode sets them up as jerks, and Jimmy as at the end of the rope. So hey lays out a drumstick, asks them one more time if they’re committed to not paying him what they originally agreed to, and then he intentionally takes a painful looking spill in their store to get leverage. Look out, Slippin’ Jimmy is back.
He also returns to his huckstering to get back at this community service supervisor and make a little scratch in the process. His big show of a potential lawsuit and deal with a fellow worker grow a little farfetched in terms of persuading the grumpy supervisor who eventually gives in, but the purpose of these scenes is clear. Jimmy tried doing things his parents’ way, the good way, and the only thing it got him was an empty bank account. Now, he’s back to taking the (literally) painful, less-than-savory steps that ensure he has enough money to hold up his end of the bargain with Kim.
But Kim’s willing to go the extra mile too. When Jimmy offers her the money, she obliquely hints at the idea that he might need time to regroup, that she’s willing to carry the load for the two of them for a little while. It’s not entirely clear whether she’s worried he’ll return to conning people full time and wants to alleviate the financial incentives to do so, or she’s simply concerned that whatever his assurances, unreliable Jimmy may not be able to come up with his end on a monthly basis without his legal practice. Either way, she takes on a new client, one where she already seems pretty slammed, to make sure that they’ll be able to make ends meet, with or without Jimmy’s contributions.
The Mesa Verde head honcho refers that client to her at a lunch meeting, where she just so happens to run into Howard. Howard, ever the politician, is plastically cordial, but Kim, unlike her beau, still has pangs of guilt and offers him a refund on the law school tuition he put up for her. Howard, letting the scales fall for the first time in a while, reveals that he too is working overtime, having to reassure scores of clients after the incident with Chuck gets out. Kim’s willing to take the (figuratively) painful step of handing over $14,000 dollars to assuage her conscience, and Howard is out there hustling to preserve his firm’s good name after his partner’s public breakdown.
But some good seems to have come out of it. Chuck is back with his doctor and (self-)reportedly making great progress. He may be overestimating himself a little bit, but he’s pushing through his exposure therapy and accepting that his illness is a mental not physical one. When Dr. Cruz warns him about taking it easy and not setting his expectations too high, he remains optimistic, anxious to get better.
In a tremendous sequence, without a word of exposition, “Slip” suggests that Chuck might overexert himself in this effort. He’s using the coping techniques the doctor suggested for him when standing in front of the blaring fluorescent lights of the grocery story. He lists the colors and objects he sees, taking his focus away from the pain. Director Adam Bernstein uses the tools in his toolbox to underscore the severity of what walking through the freezer case does to Chuck, the zooms, the noise, the vertigo of it all. It seems like Chuck has pushed himself too far, that he’s about to suffer another attack
But when we see Chuck later, he has the groceries and is no worse for wear. These things are difficult for him, painful for him, but he is ready and willing to push, to take that damn step, in the same of what he wants to achieve.
The same is true of Mike, who is clearly still haunted by Anita’s story from the prior episode of her husband dying in the woods without anyone ever finding the body. He digs and digs in the New Mexico desert, metal-detector in hand, until he finds where the unfortunate Good Samaritan was buried by the cartel. He calls it in anonymously, presumably in the hopes of ensuring that another family won’t have to go through the uncertainty that Anita did.
But he’s worried about leaving his own family in a state of uncertainty too. He still has his cash from his various extra-curricular activities, but he’s worried about how he could get it to his family should something happen to him. So he goes to Gus Fring, in the hopes Gus can help him launder it. It’s a scene that shows the two men’s growing mutual respect. The meaningful handshake that closes the episode (along with Gus turning down Mike’s offer of 20% to launder it) signifies the ways that their values are the same. They are both smart, decent men who get mixed up in indecent things, and they’re willing to do what it takes to make that work.
That just leaves Nacho, who has what is possibly the most difficult task of all. What I love about this series of scenes is the way they show how meticulous, how careful, how deliberate Nacho is about all of his. There is nobility in Nacho wanting to protect his father from Hector, but he is not in any way reckless about it.
Instead, he does the legwork, he takes the extra steps that will make his operation successful. He is delicate and careful as he grinds the poison into dust and fills the lookalike pills under a magnifying glass. He practices, over and over again, the act of palming the pill bottle and depositing it into a coat pocket, so that when the moment comes, it will be second nature. And he even goes so far as to climb onto the top of the restaurant that serves as Hector’s headquarters the night before, messing up the air conditioner so that Hector will have a reason to take off his jacket.
The subsequent scene where he actually makes the switch is masterful. “Slip” holds the tension of each step in the process: from the would-be fake bill, to the probing of the wrong pocket, to the pill switcheroo, to that grand moment of truth where Nacho has to make the move he rehearsed so many times and land the pill bottle into Hector’s jacket without him realizing. It’s a great outing for Michael Mando, who conveys the way that Nacho is trying to exhibit a practiced, casual calm, but inside is anxious beyond words. His deep exhale and clenched fingers in the back after it’s all done says everything.
Each of the tasks taken up by the main characters in this episode -- planting poison pills, finding a dead body, braving the height of your illness, taking on extra work, and even breaking your own back -- require something extra, more sacrifice, more pain, more difficulty. But when something important is at stake -- your livelihood, your well-being, or your family -- the major figures of Better Call Saul are the type of people who face that head on and take whatever measures the situation requires, even if that means drastically different things for each of them. Those steps are painful, tense, and even dangerous, but for better or ill, Jimmy McGill and the people in his orbit, are the people who do what they need to do.
This episode went from an 8 to a 6 during that idiotic street standoff
Ok so the acting was alright, but basically I just spent almost 2 hours of my day watching an annoying couple argue over a thank you speech and all of this in a b&w filter. I mean...
Other fictional works about time travelling: Whatever you do, please don’t interact with yourself and don’t let your past self even see you, OR TERRIBLE THINGS WILL HAPPEN.
Dark: Hey there! I’m you from 66 years into the future and these ones here are the child, the adult, and the elder selves of the baby you don’t even know you’re pregnant with!
This show is going no where and spends 20 minutes as a music video
Pieces of a Woman is an emotional drama dealing with grief, loss, womanhood, and broken familial relations. This film is a devastating and realistic portrayal of people hurting each other after a tragic loss because they don’t know how to cope with loss and pain. Such a difficult topic, so authentically realized into cinematography.
The first 30 minutes of this movie are actually perfect. The filmmaking and performances are so powerfully done, making the opening scene really engaging. Even though I knew what was coming, I was just 'glued' to the screen throughout that entire long take. Truly never seen anything like it. The audience is experiencing everything with the characters as they experience it. Unfortunately after that, things fall off a bit, the film turns to a cliché family gathering and trial. Lots of the choices work really well, but it still felt like they went a little overboard with the melodrama.
Vanessa Kirby’s performance was just flawless. Shia’s, on the other hand, felt very... well, Shia. He was good but not very memorable and not different to how he has portrayed characters in many other films. I get that the movie focuses on the female side of grief, but I don’t know why they had to include the themes of sobriety and addiction. There was a half-hearted attempt to show an addict relapsing and then Shia LaBeouf's character was pushed aside and never returns. This felt unfinished.
This is very much an actor's showcase but aside from Vanessa Kirby, other actors don’t have much to work with. Even Ellen Burstyn is misused. I wanted to see more of how a mother is not able to help her daughter during such a difficult time. I also didn't really understand the importance of Sarah Snook's character. She basically played Shiv Roy 2.0. The story would have stayed exactly the same if she had been removed. The script just doesn’t take time to explore the different characters.
Pieces of a Woman really doesn't bring anything to the table apart from the acting and directing. But it's certainly a gripping drama. Not a lot of movies portray such an intimate perspective of grief like this one.
This movie was a good watch. I don't think it was del Toro's best work, but it was good none the less.
My favorite thing about this movie was the way it was shot. The whole cinematography was amazing. The feeling of the movie was on point as well. You really felt like you were transported back in time into the 1940's.
I disliked the overall pacing of the movie. It's on the slow side, especially the 2nd act. I would have gave this movie an extra star if it wasn't for that long and slow middle part of the movie. The beginning of the movie really draws you in to this world. And the third act is when this movie really shines.
The whole cast gave really good performances. The writing was good too, nothing to cliche. Del Toro really is good at creating a unique atmosphere to his work, and this movie is no exception.
Overall this movie was good. Not great, not amazing, just good.
