etiennestories Reviews

Wake Up, Leonard (2022)

Pointless movie and a waste of time

[1/10 · 16 February 2024]

This was a pointless movie about a pointless man who went around doing pointless things, having pointless fantasies, and saying pointless things.

Absolutely none of it made sense, and I still do not know why we didn't turn the streaming off after the first ten minutes.

Leonard was a man who was clearly too lazy to shave, and during most of the film, his hair was a mess.

He talked like a valley girl, which was like, annoying.

I read somewhere that the movie was unscripted, and that, at least, is understandable.

Don't waste your time on this bit of nonsense. Surely you have better things to do.

Captain Buffalo (2018)

Amateurish and total waste of time

[2/10 · 3 January 2024]

My partner and I watched this film because the blurb indicated that it was a gay movie, but as it turned out, the blurb was misleading.

There was a bit of homophobia at the end, but it occupied only a tiny portion of the 104 or so minutes of the film.

The scenes were done on a bare-bones set, which is fine. One of the best production of the opera Carmen that I've seen, was when a traveling company came through our city and performed. The singing was first class, and the sets consisted of a bunch of wooden boxes. The mezzo-soprano who sang the title role was a dead ringer for a young Vivian Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara.

Back to the movie. The acting was less than great, and we paused the playback several times to discuss whether we should continue watching it. Unfortunately, we kept slogging through it, wondering all the while why we bothered.

Makeup (2023)

Boring, pointless, and a total waste of time

[1/10 · 27 September 2023]

This movie starts out dragging, and never even manages to work its way up to a crawl.

The characters have no personalities to speak off, and never seem to find one. I seriously question the validity of the very few rave reviews on this site.

Sacha is a timid sort, and would never have walked up and stood beside a table containing several men being addressed by another man, even though he was acquainted with one of them. It was totally out of character.

As for Dan, he's not very convincing either as a broker or a burlesque so-called artist.

For that matter why would anyone want to go to a show where men dressed up in makeup, skirts, and with bare chests. That's not what I understand burlesque to be all about.

La compagnia del cigno (2019– )

Good series

[8/10 · 25 May 2023]

This is a well-written series, and executed quite nicely, with a couple of exceptions.

The characters have an unfortunate tendency to burst into song at times, and frankly, it doesn't work. The impromptuly staged singing is distracting, the actors aren't very good singers, and ... well, it simply isn't needed. These little outbursts detract from an otherwise well-written story.

Somehow, the storyline manages to proceed without slipping into and becoming a soap opera, although it comes close at times.

We (my partner and I) do appreciate the fact that things are not dragged out needlessly, and both tragedies and triumphs move along quickly to resolution.

Regarding Billy (2005 Video)

Beautiful movie, flawlessly executed

[9/10 · 23 December 2022]

You couldn't ask for a better and more rewarding love story. And they did it without any nudity, without any sex, and without any vulgarity.

The characters could have been fleshed out a bit more, but that's only because we wanted to see more of them and learn more about them. It worked, but we (my partner and I) wanted more.

The characters represent the 90% of the gay community that isn't visible in our society. The overwhelming majority who live lives just like everyone else, the only difference being in their sexual proclivities. Unfortunately, the 90%s aren't very highly thought of by the 10% who are highly, and often offensively visible.

Mystery Road (2018– )

Season one was quite satisfying

[8/10 · 29 September 2022]

We've really enjoyed watching season one of this series. It was refreshingly different, both in setting and execution.

I especially liked the female cop.

Whoever mixed the sound for this series out to be taken out and shot. The background noise/music was ten times too loud, and detracted from whatever else was going on at the time.

The several 'red herrings' introduced into things kept us guessing right up until the end.

One thing: I've read a great deal of stories set in Australia. I've actually visited there, and been to Alice Springs and Ayres Rock. Somehow, they should find a way to work explanations of local slang into the story.

I know what 'ute' means, but many people won't. And the practice of calling young female relatives 'bub' definitely needed a bit of clarity.

Brotherly Lies (2022)

A boring film about boring people

[1/10 · 25 September 2022]

We somehow managed to watch this film to its boring and predictable end, but only just barely.

A bunch of men, most of whom are too lazy to shave, spend a day or so spouting boring, soapopera-esque lines. In the end we just wished they'd all shut the heck up and either go home or jump off the roof. One of them has his fiancee with him for some unknown reason.

Most of what they said to each other was totally cliched, and in the end, meaningless.

Not one character was interesting in the least. One or two of them might, repeat might, have cleaned up well, had they tried, but I doubt it.

A total waste of time.

Summer of 85 (2020)

Charming movie; well done

[8/10 · 13 June 2022]

This was a great little film and didn't leave much to be desired. The characters were reasonably well developed, although it would be nice to have been given a bit more about their backgrounds, especially that of David.

It was also surprisingly faithful to the book.

Well done.

Dream Boat (2017)

The Dialogue Felt Scripted

[1/10 · 17 April 2022]

I was not impressed with this film. Everything in it seemed forced and fake. And the dialogue was scripted. I find it hard to believe that five men from different countries all talked like valley girls. Their speech was peppered with the word 'like'. "I felt, I don't know, like, etc".

What a waste of time.

It did have lots of nearly naked bodies, most of whom were not worth a second glance.

Jack Reacher (2012)

Not bad, but Tom Cruise wasn't a good choice for the lead

[7/10 · 22 February 2022]

I'm a fan of the Reacher novels, and have read all of them more than once. This adaptation works fairly well, even it if does deviate somewhat from the book.

Unfortunately, Tom Cruise at 5'7" isn't big enough to be believable as the 6'5" Reacher. More importantly, Cruise was pushing 50 when the film was made, and Reacher is in his thirties. Reacher appears with his shirt off, and although, Cruise is in fairly good shape for his age, fifty-year-old skin doesn't look like thirtysomething skin. It was embarrassing to see Cruise in that scene.

Bare (II) (2020)

Pointless and boring

[1/10 · 13 February 2022]

If you watched this dreary film expecting to see eleven naked men with interesting bodies, you would be deeply disappointed. Yes, there is nudity, but our (my partner's and mine) reaction was: who cares. The majority of the men were scruffy and obviously too lazy to shave. For the most part, they did not have the bodies one would expect for a dancer to have. In point of absolute fact, they looked better with their clothes on, and that's not saying much.

And as for the dancing, forget it. The best you could call it was performance art, and that's using the term loosely.

Dinah East (1970)

Very well done film

[7/10 · 3 February 2022]

This movie was extremely well done. The story is told using a great many flashbacks. I don't usually like flashbacks, but in this film they are well done, and more to the point, they work.

Recommended.

Moffie (2019)

Well done film

[8/10 · 1 February 2022]

This movie gets a top rating for its accurate depiction of the brutality of boot camp, and for its depiction of how gays were treated during apartheid.

The ending was a bit ambiguous, and the flashback to The main character's childhood experience at a pool was totally unnecessary.

Some of the mechanics of the film were skewed. Captions in English kept us up with the dialogue, but the rest of the captions (descriptions, and other languages) where superimposed on the main captions making both impossible to read.

Mighty Trains (2016– )

Good train show, poorly groomed host

[5/10 · 19 January 2022]

I love to watch train shows, especially when they're more about the actual trains than the places they visit, and this show does not disappoint in that respect.

Too bad about the host. I don't expect the hosts of programs to be young and attractive, but I do expect them to be clean cut and properly groomed. That means no facial piercings, no visible tattoos, and no facial hair. This host either thinks that scruff is "in" or he is too lazy to shave. Which is a shame.

In addition, the season 4 show about the "reunification express" in Vietnam some totally unnecessary, and far left anti-American sentiment about the Vietnam war. Have we gotten so low as a society that we're politicizing travel programs? Shame on the producers.

The Metropolitan Opera HD Live: Bizet: Carmen (2010) Season 4, Episode 6

Absolutely superb production in every respect.

[10/10 · 19 January 2022]

I have seen a lot of production of Carmen over the past five decades, including those featuring singers who were thought to be "the" Carmens of their eras. None of them could come close to equaling the quality of this performance.

Elina Garanca had the character of Carmen absolutely nailed. She wasn't performing a role, she became Carmen, and the seduction scene near the end of Act one was as good as it could possibly get.

Great Canal Journeys (2014– )

Fascinating series well worth watching

[10/10 · 14 November 2021]

Having been a long time fan of Prunella Scales, I approached this series with interest. She was great as the long suffering Sybil Fawlty, and better still as Miss Mapp in the miniseries Mapp and Lucia.

Seeing her with her husband of many decades traveling down canals was a great treat. I was amazed that the couple found so many unusual and out of the ordinary places to visit.

The Long Call (2021)

Finally, a gay British detective story

[8/10 · 1 November 2021]

Given the BBC's well known mania for diversity, we've been wondering when they would get around to producing a gay detective show, and this one seems to be worth waiting for. The episodes we've watched were well done, and contain the usual number of red herrings to mislead us.

The two men make an interesting couple although one could wish that Jonathan wasn't too lazy to shave. We get tired of seeing scruff everywhere we look, these days.

Strike Back (2010–2020)

Episodes 1 through 10 were great. Afterward, less so.

[8/10 · 28 October 2021]

We (my partner and I) really liked the first 10 episodes. There was more than enough action to satisfy anybody, and the plots were at least halfway decent. Sadly, they always seemed to somehow telegraph who the bad guy among the good guys were.

What we did NOT like was the lack of total male nudity. There was more than enough female frontal nudity to satisfy anyone, and there were more than a few butt shots of both sexes, but speaking as an ass man, the two main male leads were not especially blessed in that department. On the other hand male frontal nudity was conspicuous by its absence, which seems more than a bit hypocritical, considering the extreme amount of female nudity involved.

Surely some of the female audience and all of the gay male audience would have appreciated that the cameras go lower than them men's waists.

Penelope Keith's Hidden Villages: Sussex and Kent (2015) Season 2, Episode 4

Good series problematic soundtrack

[8/10 · 17 July 2021]

Ms Keith's tour of villages is truly wonderful, but there is a huge problem with the soundtrack in the episodes of season 2. Whenever she is up close and personal, her voice comes through loud and clear; but when she's narrating while traveling or otherwise, the music is three times as loud as her voice, and if it wasn't for closed captions the viewer wouldn't be able to understand a thing.

The Nest (2016– )

Pointless and stupid

[1/10 · 4 March 2021]

Don't waste your time on this film unless you want to watch scenes of weird people dancing (or doing something) to funky music. The storyline about a young man searching for his brother goes nowhere, as does his search. The film was a total waste of time.

Footloose in Oxford and York (2020)

Good travel show, but sometimes a bit too silly

[8/10 · 1 March 2021]

The hosts of this travel show generally do a good job with their presentations, and this show was no exception. However, once in a while they went off the deep end. In their discussions about York and its history they got a bit carried away with themselves when talking about the alleged "ghosts" that inhabit that city. When hosts get that silly, I tend to drop out.

I watched the closing credits carefully, looking for musicians' names. The main theme that played incessantly during their visit to Oxford was borrowed almost note for note from Eric Satie's famous Gymnopedies, but he wasn't given credit for it.

The Acrobat (2019)

Pointless, senseless and useless

[1/10 · 5 February 2021]

The 2 hours and 14 minutes were cut to 2 hours and 6 minutes in the version we wasted time on. BORING. The movie opens with 20 minutes of watching cranes at a construction site and goes downhill from there. The alleged sex scenes were badly cut.

Redwoods (2009)

Heartwarming film, extremely well done

[8/10 · 1 February 2021]

I usually get mad when the characters in a film do not live happily ever after, but I will make an exception for this film, because the romance was so well done. The filmmaker left a great deal unsaid, but that also worked in the film's favor.

At the end you could even see that Everett and his partner had come to terms with their relationship.

The Haunting (1999)

Not Recommended

[3/10 · 1 November 2020]

The pace of this film was slow, and it wasn't really scary. The overall effect was kind of stupid and boring. If you want a much better film to watch on Halloween, check out "The Changeling" staring George C. Scott. "The Changeling" was superbly done, and fulfills its promise as a suspenseful and scary movie.

Kink Crusaders (2011)

Disappointing

[2/10 · 25 September 2020]

My partner and I watched this film thinking we would see a bunch of real-life macho men running around in leather outfits. Instead, what we saw was a bunch of queens, some of whom were really nellie queens, conducting what appeared to be an imitation of the Miss America Pageant. We were saddened to see that gay men could sink so low in their quest for attention.