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patz-42601
Reviews
The Morning Show (2019)
Great start. Now tighten it up!
Reminded me a bit of Scandal until that went OTT. Good, sardonic scrip. Good intriguing story. A bunch of very good actors. For me, I'd like to see them let the strong script carry the show along more. A little more aloofness and impassivity. Make the twists a bit more surprising and shocking. The public personas contrasting more with the private characters. I guess that's down to the director.
What Happened to Monday (2017)
Good but Annoying
Like most SF you need to accept a slightly contrived situation. It's then an intriguing story with good screenplay and acting but badly directed. A lot of good scenes badly put together, jumping between drama, caper, thriller and action. And, ultimately a bit pointless. Which is annoying as it could have been put together so much better. Maybe seven characters were too much to cope with in the time available and it would have been better fleshed out into TV series?
Sugar & Spice (2001)
Some Good Laughs Here.
The start of the movie nearly had me switching it off as it looked like a typical, painted-by-numbers high school comedy. I'm glad I didn't. After 10 minutes, the scene had been set in a rather laborious manner, then it really got going.
Lots of good jokes. A mix of wit, parody, satire and just plain daft. Much funnier than "Bridesmaids." I'd put it at about two times funnier than a typical Scary Movie.
The cheerleaders and their plan being totally bonkers, instead of just silly, helped.
A few jokes fell flat for me but then there were so many jokes that it didn't really matter. None were worked to death as happens in some gross-out movies.
A couple of wince-worthy non-PC lines didn't spoil the fun for me. Not surprising for 2001.
No great acting skills or implants needed as the dialogue and scenarios kept the whole thing careering along.
I'm guessing that the few non-PC bits have caused the critics to curb their enthusiasm.
Insurgent (2015)
I Don't Think You Will Agree With the Low Ratings
It was exciting and had a coherent plot. The acting and CGI were good. The characters were constant in their roles. As with any futuristic drama, you have to suspend your belief and ignore a few plot holes but there was nothing silly or insulting to my intelligence. I knocked off 2 stars for the uninspired mood music and the rather quiet dialogue. I thought that it was slightly better than the previous movie as the factions weren't overly exaggerated but rather accepted and simply part of the story.
In my opinion, the low ratings are strange. There are not a lot of other movies today that I feel have a good story and are well presented and acted. And exciting!
Luchshe, chem lyudi (2018)
A bit of a mess ...
Not a bad story but they made a bit of a mess of it. The dialogue was pretty inane and badly delivered. It really seemed to be dubbed by robots. And acted and directed by them. The very slow pace accentuated the flaws. EDIT: I came back to this and watched it with subtitles. The original dialogue was better delivered than the dubbing. And the pace hotted up as the plot stopped dwelling on the family and concentrated on the plot. So, I gave it more stars. So, persevere and use subtitles!
Snowpiercer (2013)
Horrible
It took me a while to calm down after watching this film. I felt that I really had to do something pleasing as an antidote. OK its like watching paint dry but imagine that the paint is a horrid colour and it smells horrible and it's not really paint anyhow and it slowly dawns on you that it will never dry. You have just subjected yourself to a long, unpleasant experience and you only have yourself to blame because you only read the metacritics reviews. Pointless, ridiculous, badly done and so BORING.
Keeping Faith (2017)
So slow!
In intriguing drama but so slow! Infuriatingly, I watched it on IPlayer because the BBC won't do subtitles for AppleTV and iPlayer is horrible for fast forwarding. So I had to watch all the poignant (draggy?) bits and even the musical interludes (yes, it has musical interludes!) I'd advise you not to watch it unless you can easily fast forward or you have a LOT more patience than me. Sorry for the actors, they did their bit well but whoever edited it really let them down. Irritating!
Durante la tormenta (2018)
I really enjoyed watching this!
I thought that it was an intriguing story and well put together and well acted. I did have a few "hmm ...?" thoughts afterwards but these didn't bother me while I was watching. I have knocked off points for the English dubbing, the actor playing the husband and a few too many atmospherics. I'm glad that I ignored some reviews and took a chance on it.
The Girl in the Book (2015)
A Lolita Story for Our Times?
The story of Alice parallels that of Lolita. A young girl groomed by a much older man. This time we see the story through her eyes and her awakening is much more tragic. The naive callousness of the adults of that time in their blind ignorance of her psychological wounds is a contrast to the more enlightened attitudes of this "me-too" age.
Lolita seemed to shrug off her experiences, at least in the eyes of her groomer who felt rather sorry for himself. Alice hovers on the edge of tragedy but will execute a rather delicious punishment.
State of Play (2009)
Exciting but an anticlimactic ending
One of those films that you enjoy until it turns out to be a red herring.
MAJOR SPOILERS
A security company is being investigated by a congress man so they hire a spy to appraise them of his plans.
He finds out and has her killed, perhaps unintentionally.
A newspaper team discover, and expose, that he was involved in her murder. End.
The cast spend most of the film looking for a sensational story which does not exist.