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The Old Man (2022)
In a Word: "NOPE!"
I want to know what show all the great reviews watched--it could NOT have been this.
What a waste of Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow.
First let's watch a 75-year old (apparent "Super") man in hand-to-hand combat with not one, but two 30- year olds, and win. But then it gets bad.
Each ensuing episode is more and more jam-packed full of "deep" and endless windy backstory and meaningless dialogue, replete with flashbacks that'll have you in a deep nap.
You snap out of it and wonder, "What on EARTH am I WATCHING?!"
Episode 5, they're full-on out of ideas, you realize you've been chumped, but to make up for it, there's absolutely no payoff at the end of show 7 either!
It would have been more interesting if the editor had just inserted scene-long "PLOT MISSING" banners everywhere.
This thing is tragically BRUTAL.
The Power of the Dog (2021)
You Have GOT to Be KIDDING! Stop it!
Quit the gushing about this thing, will you PLEASE? Just STOP.
Shortest, simplest way to put this is: IT'S DREADFUL.
Crashing bore; 2 hours we'll never get back.
Ripper Street (2012)
Without Fanfare, Consummately the Best Show Ever Made
Hollywood Grump, Jr. here again, hating most everything since 1978.......but yep.....say it with me......JUST NOT THIS!!
Let's start by looking at the awards and nominations this show has garnered. Best costumes, best makeup, best set design, best writing, best editing, best directing, best music....my lord, and, after seeing every scrumptious episode.....HOW COULD IT NOT WIN??
I've seen some pedestrian jive in my day, and once in a while have been fortunate to work on a couple of actual dandies, but first and foremost, I am in here as a fan.
There are some great, great shows in Netflix, as we have come to discover: Broadchurch, Bodyguard, and my all-time fave, Sherlock---which I know, I touted as the best ever. It is truly excellent. If I had to rate the two together, Sherlock versus Ripper Street, I would have to give Ripper Street the edge due to its length: 37 hours of gripping feature-quality television. I have never seen anything as consummately, completely and impressively as well done as Ripper Street. There just is not a better show than this, all the way around.
Let's start with Dominik Sherrer score, which itself is fantastic. I hardly noticed it, and I ALWAYS notice it. That also means the picture is engrossing and is doing its job sweeping you away. The score sounds live, is done by the pound - nigh end to end - and just a pro's pro of a job. The entire crew fits that category, P.S., as these guys are all complete pros who know how to construct a show.
The photography and the editing, my god, phenomenal. The sets, the makeup, the look and feel of Whitechapel and Leman Street are deep and nuanced. The adjunct and even cameo characters are fascinating and give first-rate performances.
But the main characters, you just have to fall in love with and grip what they are gripped with: hating what they do, but unable to not do it - and that is clean up the place, the dumpster fire that is Whitechapel, London, circa late 1800s, early 1900s. It is of the ilk of the American West or Chicago - minus all the guns - and, but for the fact the place is crawling with Brits it is very much the same world.
The use of the extreme close shot, and that's your face taking up 90% of an 85-inch 4k, Super HD TV, you know - the shot nobody in Hollywood would ever allow themselves to be seen in because you're inside of their pores and their egos couldn't handle it? Yes, that, and it is clinically administered by the director of photography and the show's directors in this series, and masterfully cut by the crew of editors they employ. Everyone who ever endeavors to direct, shoot or cut a show should watch this and use it as a master class in effectiveness.
Edmund Reid, as played phenomenally by Matthew McFayden, lives in this extreme closeup. He whispers most of his lines, and the same goes for his scene counterparts. This is a subtle and brilliantly stunning tactic in that everything he says (and they say with him) in this state carries the heft of the entire show. Exposed during those long but never arduous moments are Reid's innards, his inside-makeup, indeed, his soul. Every main character is reduced to tears with gripping scenes that just reek of their bleak reality: "my life is just sh** but I must be here in it".
The gruff but eternally alone sergeant sidekick and lovelorn Bennet Drake is wonderful, as is the American cowboy pathologist who solves most of the murders himself, are deftly played by Jerome Flynn and Adam Rothenberg, respectively. These cats have got some serious acting chops and should be seen everywhere in everything they ever do from here on.
All of the dialogue is gorgeously written in the pre-19th century parlance that is almost poetic in nature. It is sumptuously beautiful and always poignant. There are no wasted parts or leftovers or throwaway lines. The writers of this show give a clinic on how to carry your audience on your back for the full length of the pitch.
Once, my wife and I just had to binge three of these consecutively. Two times, we did two back-to-backs. But the last two seasons, we did about one or two a week to stretch it out as a special treat which we did not want to end.
I bow to each and every member of this magnificent cast and crew and thank all of you for taking us out of the horrific reality that selfish, ignorant people here in America have wrought upon their neighbors here in 2020. And we are grateful for you clever, brilliantly artistic Brits, indeed.
Celebrate yourselves, please, Ripper Street creators, writers, cast and crew, as we are!
THANK YOU!!
Last Tango in Halifax (2012)
This Show Was Wonderful
It was super adorable for the first season, and you'll be charmed beyond your wildest dreams. Adore the first part because it truly is delightful, and I mean in a big way, and then get the heck out. Because after that, the writers apparently forget to take their Zoloft. After Grandma and Grandpa get married, ditch this train wreck unless you love bathing in British passive-aggressive exercises in self-pity and co-dependence, that is.
It becomes a horn-rimmed, bejeweled crap stew in which everyone is now irritating. You find that having to stop yourself from shouting to your TV, "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!?!" is a common occurrence.
You'll want to punch everyone, particularly Grandma. Sweet mother of crap, that sounds awful I know, but if that woman had to live in my house, I'd be looking for a high place from which to jump.
Bodyguard (2018)
Rich Madden: PHENOMENAL JOB
Hollywood Grump, Jr. here, once again, hating most everything since 1978----JUST NOT THIS!!
Good lord, Mr. Madden! This cat's got some acting chops, and I am not a G.O.T. fan.
But what a script, and what a portrayal of a British Afghan war vet with PTSD-turned British Secret Service guarding the British Homeland Security Secretary.
Richard Madden, who employs use of a mind-boggling Scottish brogue, delivers what I feel could be the performance of his career. That brogue isn't easy, even for a Brit.
But with it he takes you through the roller coaster of his mental and emotional wreckage whilst keeping control of his immediate world and job, guarding the British HHS Secretary.
Stoic, dedicated, focused, ice in his veins, the dude's a stud---yet tortured inside. You really feel for him when his family life crumbles. This show is action driven but with deep emotional undertones. It'll keep you on the edge of your Barcalounger for the duration.
I've seen people in here criticize the end, and what the whaaat? I loved it! You wind up loving and pulling for Madden, which means you are absorbed in the story - which means you are entertained. The only thing I wanted at the end was more! This, Luther and perhaps Broadchurch have to be the most gripping British Action-Thriller-Police dramas going.
Great work, all involved!
Do be well, grab ya some popcorn.....and until next time....the Hollywood Grump, Jr., thanks you for your service!
Rake (2010)
Out-Loud Laughs, Even for a Grump!
Hating everything since 1978, Hollywood Grump, Jr. here once again with good news/bad news.
The good news is that while I've seen every- thing five times, either being a fan and watching it or working on it, I've seen far more turds than gold mines.
This, however, could be the most enjoyable television fix ever.
New to Netflix and with time on our hands, (Thanks Stable Genius!), many of the great shows we have seen on Netflix are either British crime dramas or Aussie crime dramas, and both just put the US's comatose approach: 'nobody's-got any-attention-span-so-why-write-with-cogent-deftness-wit-and-complexity' completely to shame.
"Rake" is somewhat akin to "The Practice", but good.
It's also witty, whippy, edgy and outrageous with ab-straining howling laughs packed into every delicious episode. The dialogue is astonishing in its brilliance.
I've never seen any show, anywhere that was this entertaining; and I've never seen an actor like Richard Roxburgh rip and cut and slice and dice legalese and other human beings and make it hilarious in a gargantuan way. I mean, how often have you wanted to upbraid someone out loud in a restaurant for over-use of the cliche or buzzword du jour, like "Correct" instead of "okay, yeah" or "right!", or "move the needle" or "frog-boiling experiment" or "canary in a coal mine", blah blah blah...et. al as he so artfully does, and from a drunken stupor yet?
Okay, here's the bad news. This was hard for me to take, because now I'm in love with this show.
Season five...my lord....is a complete DISASTER.
All of those complimentary adjectives and adverbs you see above? Yeah, they DO NOT APPLY here in season five.
I am CRUSHED to tell you that.
This is a prime example of not knowing when the party is over and it's TIME TO LEAVE.
It's not even the same show in season five. Even The MUSIC is different. There is no PLOT and LESS LAUGHS. It's turned into a veritable cartoon of itself.
Good God, producers!!! What did you do???
The Cleaver Green walk-off, end of season four, to the New South Wales Senate building-----as a Senator--- replete in a sharp blue suit, shades, some great looking kicks, and the crane lift pan up and pull back to a soundalike of Peggy Lee's "Fever" (with "Cleaver" re-recorded as the hook), was excellent, outstanding, brilliant.
And it brought laughing tears, and it SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE GOOD BYE WE LOYAL CLEVE-ITES DESERVED!!!
If you love this show, DO NOT BOTHER WITH SEASON FIVE. Walk away lest thou STAIN THY PRISTINE MEMORY of Cleaver Greene and Company!
Sorry, The Grump is upset......
Broadchurch (2013)
David Tennant is Magnificent
Hollywood Grump Jr., here, still hating all things and people, BUT NOT THIS!
You look at this and you see Wales, and nobody or no THING that is familiar and you wonder, why am I watching this?
Here's why. David Tennant, never heard of this cat, is a phenomenal actor and what a performance he gives us in Broadchurch. Because of his incredible Scottish brogue, (he's actually English), we had to rewind some of his lines here and there, but so what, and good lord is this guy compelling.
Here's also why. Wales is gorgeous. And so is the photography, and they hold on long, gorgeous panoramic shots with scoring that at least in parts is also truly gorgeous.
And this small, coastal English community, normally pastoral, placid and peaceful, is turned upside down - and the two principals here, Detective Chief Inspector Alec Hardy (Tennant) and Detective Sargent Ellie Miller are charged with FIXING IT.
The entire cast does a magnificent job here; it's so un-Hollywood-like and boy do they ever deliver realistic, compelling performances. There are many plot lines I won't talk about here, but if you've not seen this, stick with it, you will not be sorry.
In my only critical note, the composer seems to have found one, what we used to call giveaway-danger boom-boom cues, and does get heavy handed with it. At one point, every scene in one of the episodes is finished with it.
I would love to see more of this show, but as we are new to Netflix I know we are late to this party.
Thank you to everyone involved, production and post production crews, writers, directors, producers and actors for helping Mr. and Mrs. Hollywood Grump Jr. to escape the tragic, every day world we now live in!
Outlander (2014)
Gorgeous, Refreshing, RIVETING
Nobody else is doing this, I know that much.
Not having read any of the books, I am not going to nitpick a gorgeous production apart due to how close it is or is not to them. These brilliant people are making a truly epic show here, and I've seen a few over the last 60 or so years, 35 as an editor. I am a fan, first, as I was when I worked.
Hollywood tends to re-make things and rehash old ideas and not too many things come across as fresh or get your attention and keep it. To me, Outlander is and does all those things.
Time travelling back and forth between eras, the costumes, the artistic hand-built sets and this cast of thousands, all of it is ultra-impressive in its creation. It cannot be easy trying to make weather-unfriendly Scotland appear as Georgia, North Carolina or Virginia, (where we now live, relocated from So Cal), but they pull it off and in eye-popping fashion.
Producers Matthew and Stephanie (and apologies if I've gotten their names wrong) explain in great detail in the "making of" clips at show's end much of this, and it is fascinating.
The acting is phenomenal. I've never heard of Sam Heughan, but seeing this I'm wondering how he is not the latest flavor of the day/ leading chap in every action film there is. Not just great looking, he is a phenomenal thespian. If you've not been reduced to tears by one of his many, gripping scenes of suffering, both physically and emotionally, you haven't seen enough of this yet.
The leading lady, Catriona Balfa, is a fine actor as well, and presents great contrast with the seemingly omniscient and powerful Jamie Fraser.
The entirety of the support cast is as well, and they all provide us with rich, deep performances wrought with emotion.
On a slightly critical note - If I were king for a day, I'd cut down the arduously long sex scenes a bit, and I'm no prude. Less might be more here to imagine. We tend to fast forward through much of it after the beginning.
Big ups for the usage of the marvelous, creative talent of the Cherokee and Mohawk First Nation ladies and gentlemen and the beautiful job they do in original native dress).
With regard to the gorgeous score, Bear McCreary paints a stunning, scenic palate as well as he does the emotionally-wrought performances. I truly appreciate this facet of the show. Thank you to all of the production crew, the staff, the writers, the producers and directors, and wonderful actors, the post production folks, music and sound, both, for allowing my wife and I to disappear from our outside world and into yours.
Sherlock (2010)
SHERLOCK: We have a WINNNAAAHHHHH!
Snobby, grumpy former editor here, still hating all things and people. Nothing ever new, or fresh, or smart, or clever......or....wait...
....'CEPT THIS!!
(Seriously, coming at you as a FAN, which I have always been even when I was working!)
I even worked on a few episodes of the US "Elementary" series, and absolutely loved loved loved it. Johnny Lee Miller was phenomenal, and how do you not love Lucy Liu? It was a great show, and I still catch a late Sunday night rerun here and there and can't stop watching it.
But dare I say.....ok.....I DO DARE SAY....THIS SHERLOCK IS BETTER!!
If I may piggy-back for a momenTITO, Dave Film Lover's 10-spot review is 10-spots RIGHT ON. And on board with ALL POINTS!
It's clever, it's funny, it's interesting, it's sharp, it's witty, it's cunning, IT'S SNAPPY and with all the Guy Ritchie camera effects tricks too!
My God, how on EARTH did they keep Benedict Cumberbatch for as long as they did??
SO GLAD, though! Cuz, you looked outside recently??
Yeah, from where I sit, our useless idiot president's lit the WORLD ON FIRE on his way out!!
So guess who NEEDS TO ESCAPE NOW???
That's right, DADDY!!!!
LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS SHOW, every whit of it, and the show's creators look like an absolute HOOT to work for during the "making of" bits at the end of episodes. Man, this would be a job that PAID YOU if you were that fortunate, huh??
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU GENII PRODUCTION PEOPLE, CREW, EDITORS, MUSIC PEOPLE, SOUND PEOPLE, AND WONDERFUL, GIFTED ACTORS FOR MAKING THE BEST SHOW THE HOLLYWOOD GRUMP, JR. HERE HAS EVER SEEN!!