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stanleyjeans
Reviews
Untold (2021)
Manti Te'o is a very gracious person
There are many takeaways from this documentary, for me its how deceitful people can be, how trusting people can be, how ruthless the media can be and how there are good people in this world.
Manti Te'o and his family illustrate the good people in this world, without his strength of character and unwithering support from his family he could have easily had a very different outcome. What he went through was unjust and I got so angry for him watching this documentary.
I'm from outside the USA so didn't know of him or much to do with NFL, I was desperately hoping for a happy end for Manti but have been left with an overall seething disappointment his perpetrator didn't face any real consequences for their actions.
Ronaiah was treated with far too much empathy than they deserved, the damage they inflicted both emotionally and financially were huge and I was hoping the documentary ended with them being sued for loss of earnings or at least some sort of retribution, but no.
Programme kept me engaged and interested throughout, highlights what how vicious our media can be and how a person with untreated mental health issues can reign terror over kind hearted peoples lives.
I've learnt to be a manti in todays world and not a Ronaiah.
Don't Look Up (2021)
Maybe the comet isn't so bad after watching this
Dire
I'm not even sure what I've watched, was it supposed to be satirical, a comedy ? I really don't know.
For goodness sake even Maryl Streep was terrible in it.
Are the 10* reviews from Americans laughing at a satirical portrait of their government ? I'm European and I didnt find it funny at all, after the last president of the USA I found it representative of big parts of the USA.
Hours of my life I'm not getting back, I would even put Cats the musical film above this.
Pieces of Her (2022)
Sometimes a good sometimes a sh**t
First couple of episodes were ok then the "why would they do that" start, I even annoyed myself saying repeatedly.
None of the characters are likeable, story dragged and could have been condensed down.
I found it quite obvious it wasn't filmed in America as it was written, when actors which currently appear in neighbours popped up I knew it must be Australia;I don't know why they didn't change it to be an Australian set series rather than struggling to make it American.
Have to mention the terrible casting of the younger characters, the main female character looked nothing like her younger counter part which totally took away from the story. Also why use a different actor for older Nick, just made it confusing .
Last episode was disappointing.
Clickbait (2021)
Takes a nose dive from Episode 6ish
It's nice to get into a series on netflix, first episode was the taster and thumbs up was given so off we went on this 8 episode extravaganza.
Firstly the sister Pia....
She was annoying, I can't decide if she was meant to be so annoying or her acting was just bad but either way I guessed it would be worth it, well after watching it all I can say it wasn't.
Without giving anything away I can say that approx 10 minutes into the ending I had lost all interest and was being made to feel I was the fool for investing too much time in the series.
The ending is terrible.
Way to many WHAT moments,so many things that just don't make sense, people just wouldn't act like that.
Just to be pedantic the continuity in this series is off, to sound like a complete nerd (im proud to be one) there were several gaffs (pias car, Sophie wearing glorious gold earrings 1 minute then gone the next then ooh back in again).
I also thought the boys especially the eldest were too old to be their children and I also got the vibe they were newly weds but 🤷♀️
Ginny & Georgia (2021)
Intelligence isn't always Ginnys strong point.
Georgia's character was my favorite for sure, I found myself routing for her alot through this series whereas Ginny I found quite hard work. Whether this is the desired response im not too sure but the way Ginnys character ended up was quite polarising.
Alot of the details in the plot if you put too much thought into didn't make sense but some series aren't meant to be examined too much or you suck the fun out of it.
I did find however Ginny for such an intelligent girl who you would have thought would have picked up some street smarts living with a mother such as Georgia was daft as a post. I won't go into specifics as to spoil the plot but she didn't think through consequences of alot of her actions. She was rude, immature and self righteous it made me loose compassion for her. I really didn't like her at the end.
I am hoping for a season 2, always wanted to finish the series.
Traces (2019)
Ending was more a whimper than a scream
How do I feel after watching this ? It was ok, I don't feel robbed but it wasn't brilliant.
The casting I felt was off, some actors were quite strong (the detective, professor and Martin Compston) whilst I found the main character's acting a little less believable, also her age i found an issue (quite young to date Martin Compton character) but I guess that's more a script issue!
Things were oversimplified, for example her scientific role (here i know I'm being picky as I've worked as a scientist for many years but there were SO many flaws in this part. The least relevant one being she never seemed to be flippin work !!).
I really liked the detective I felt his character had some warmth, I liked the fact there were woman in high positions featured (some reviewers mentioning "woke" producers 🙄 ).The story kept me watching until the end but for me it ended with more a fizzle.
I couldn't ever sympathise with the main character as she made so many bad life choices and she was immature, I was never really invested in who killed her mum because I wasn't invested in her. Being slightly immature myself why did she seem to run everywhere at some points? Her relationship i found uncomfortable with the older man, instead of thinking he was a nice guy I was wondering why a nearly 40 year old was with a 20 year old.
Overall it was an ok pandemic lockdown watch, quite good that it was 40 mins per episode too.
Fifty Shades Darker (2017)
Dornan & Johnson must be regretting this
My overwhelming emotion upon watching fifty shades darker is embarrassment, embarrassment for the two leading actors being involved in this car crash of a film (or should i say helicopter crash). I can only imagine having to come back and star in and promote such bile for a second time must be even more painful than the first film. I genuinely think Dornan looks embarrassed throughout the film,making it uncomfortable to watch. The image of him inserting the kinky balls of steel (no pun, he actually did) will haunt him for his entire career i am sure Johnson too.
The sound track is great and cinematography was good. At one point my mind wandered on how nice the glass was within the office Ana worked at and it was at this point i considered making my run for it out of the cinema, never a good sign that you are thinking of the decor whilst watching a so called erotic film.
The sex scenes were really quite tepid,i am sure Mr Grey kept his trousers on for the majority of them ; Most exciting part was wondering if he was going to get his manhood trapped in the zipper of his trousers.......
Instead of thinking how steamy it all was i referred back to my constant thought that Mr Dornan must had had written into his contract nudity below the belt must be kept to a minimum, it's a shame Dakota Johnson didn't have the same as her boobies we on show quite a lot, seemed unfair !
To be fair to the actors the story is so threadbare that going for a haircut was quite a major scene in the film; There were times within the film that were funny but i'm not sure of they were intentionally written to be; It was quite a cringe feast throughout.
Both the main characters have been miscast, Christian Grey needed to be played by a far more sterner, bigger actor than the likable boy next door Dornan, and Ana's character screamed for someone more ..well sexier.
I haven't seen Dakota in any other film but i've watched The Fall in which i consider Jamie Dornan to be amazingly brilliant, i don't see how he can flip flop between being so good and so bad; I guess it's down to the script?
It's a shame that Fifty shades has been singled out for stardom as there are far better books to draw such saucy screen plays from which actually have a story to them, stories that the actors might actually have some good dialogue to work with.