Kajohns49 Reviews

The Alienist (2018–2020)

Enjoyed both seasons

[7/10 · 11 August 2020]

I actually liked the second storyline more than the first. I think that having the characters fleshed out in the first season enabled more time to the story as well as the deepening relationships between the characters. If you like detective shows and period pieces you cannot go wrong with this series. Actually, my only gripe is the whispery way the main characters speak. I don't remember that from the first season and it is an annoying affectation. If it were just one character, fine. But all three main characters speak in a breathless hush. Yes, you can hear their lines but what is the point? Vocal cords are not new discoveries so I am not sure what the actors/directors were going for. Just a pet peeve because otherwise I would recommend the show.

Fatal Affair (2020)

Just Bad

[3/10 · 18 July 2020]

I made it to the halfway point before I thought, "Is this as bad as I think it is?", and came here to check out the rating and reviews. The trailer made me think this would be pretty decent, and starring two of my favorites, Epps and Long. Unfortunately the script/story was written by a couple of 14 year olds who have no idea what a long term relationship nor friendship entails. I can buy that Epps is nuts and that his obsession with Long's character spans decades, weird but ok. I do not for one minute believe that a wife, married for 20 years, would be so afraid of her husbands reaction to what amounts to a indiscretion that she would not come clean once she realizes how dangerous the Epps character is. It is almost like she is more afraid of her husband than her stalker. As far as her grown ass woman friend taking David's (Epps) side? Nope. No way. Girls may act like that, intelligent woman presumably know their friends well enough that they don't take an unknown man's word over their long time friends. On the plus side, these are beautiful people with beautiful clothes, cars and a beach house that is absolutely gorgeous. The views of the California coastline and San Francisco cityscape are delightful. Too bad the script reads like a 14 year olds diary imagining adult life. I will finish it, most likely, but just to get more glimpses of the beach house. A feeble reason to watch a movie, but it is the best reason I can come up with for finishing this.

The Vast of Night (2019)

Umm... no

[2/10 · 13 July 2020]

As many others suggested this entire film could have been a 30 minute radio show. Even then I would have found it boring and over stylized. The dialogue was simply annoying, trying to create a world that never existed. These kids kept talking and talking, mostly saying nothing at all, in a feeble attempt to create a small town 1950s period piece. It was not simply boring, it was annoying. Nothing happened and it took too long for that nothing to happen.

The Old Guard (2020)

Good, Could Be Better

[7/10 · 12 July 2020]

You know something went off the rails when a side story grips your attention and makes you wish you had watched that movie instead. I get that this is trying to cover the origin story of these characters but it is too bad that instead of telling us in story form we couldn't see the history for ourselves. Imagine if, in Captain America- The First Avenger, the movie started with Steve Rodgers as Capt. A and we only learned how he became Capt. A through dialogue and some snippets of flashbacks. That's what we get here. It may be that the budget was blown with Ms. Theron's paycheck and the action set pieces, both of which were money well spent, but these characters have fantastic historical backstories and it was a shame to see them given such short shrift. My hope is that there will be a sequel or two that will rectify that. I have to assume that the woman spending eternity drowning (and her built up anger) will be featured, as well. Frankly that is the scene I just can't shake, and it had nothing to do with the plot of this movie. This was good, it could have been fantastic. It gets a 7 from me, 6 seems too low, 6.5 is better so I rounded up.

Hanna (2019–2021)

1 versus 2

[6/10 · 9 July 2020]

I enjoyed season 1. It had an adult story line, lots of action, great scenery, enough teen angst with the episodes featuring Sophie and her friends. Season 1 always seemed to be building towards something. Each episode, for the most part, moved the story along. Season 2 felt like the writers went to a focus group comprised of 15-20 year olds, got one or two ideas and employed them OVER AND OVER for the first six episodes. The season started off well enough, back in the forest, avoiding drones and stealing weapons. I was hoping the story would arc off into finding Clara's mother, discovering who the new evil agency was and perhaps freeing the other girls or fighting them, Instead there were 6 episodes that repeated "does she want to stay or go?" I do not exaggerate. I am on episode 7 now and I am pretty sure the Marissa character has been betrayed 3 times by Hanna or Clara. That was the action. For drama, the girls who just a few days ago were automatons, are now acting like a clique from any CW teen drama or an MTV series in their very own mansion. There is some exploration of sexuality and some stolen booze. Fake backgrounds have been supplied and the girls are instructed to adopt these as their own. If nothing else this group could have gone the LaFemme Nikita route for action and story, not to mention a change of scenery. Finally in episode 7, Hanna and another girl are sent out on a mission. I feel like season one ended with so many possibilities that season 2 ignored. I wondered if the budget for the second season had been cut, or maybe once the payment for the English mansion had been made there was nothing left over for the telling if a story. I will finish this series but I simply cannot imagine there will be a season 3. Not unless they tighten up the writing into a story people over 20 want to watch.

Hanna: Mother (2019) Season 1, Episode 6

Memory loss

[5/10 · 8 July 2020]

Yes, memory loss on the part of Sophie. Does she remember a few episodes ago when they were returning from holiday and Hanna went Jason Bourne on those guys in the train station? Not a word about something so incredibly unbelievable and frightening? And what about the bad guys not checking out the stations CCTV to put Hanna with Sophie and track her that way. I actually had to check and make sure I wasn't mixing up the movie with the series. Maybe the gap in the episodes is playing with me but I've lost interest with so many plot holes.

Warrior Nun (2020–2022)

They had to go there...

[6/10 · 5 July 2020]

I was actually liking this. There were some glitches when it came to Ava's choices/responses to her sudden circumstances but overall, OK. Ugh, then she said she was hungry. As soon as she said those words I thought, uh oh, please, please don't go there. Of course they did. The next scene shows her eating as if she had never been around humans before. Here she is, minutes from notating that she had just been saved by a "cute guy", sitting across from said guy, stuffing so much food into her mouth that it is falling out. (Sometimes you just wish you could tap the director on the shoulder and ask him what he was going for in the scene.) Anyway, it was a stupid choice, not enough to make me quit watching, but I hope these kinds of mistakes are kept to a minimum.

The Loudest Voice (2019)

Great!

[9/10 · 29 June 2020]

This series is SO good that if you go to the low starred reviews here, the reviewers are still writing glowing reviews, the are just basing their star ratings on their political bias. So giving a two star rating then saying, "It's worth watching" and "Russell Crowe deserves an Emmy" well then, you know you've got a winner on your hands!

Humans (2015–2018)

Season One

[6/10 · 26 May 2020]

Although the cast and most production qualities are good this series suffers from a sub standard story line. In the first season almost every device used to move the story along is created by a character abruptly changing their beliefs and motivations. Don't get me wrong, I think change is good and well crafted character arcs are vital to any drama. The problem here is that there is scarcely ever enough of an impetus for characters to do complete 180s in their seemingly deeply held truisms. This applies to the DS Drummond and his partner DI Karen Voss, William Hurt's Dr. M, his synth Vera, Niska, Joe Hawkins and to a lesser degree the entire Hawkins family except Sophie. All of these characters seem to abruptly change their minds for apparently no other reason than to drive the story. As I said I have only watched the first season and will continue on to season 2. I hope that now the characters are established the story will move ahead more organically and with less bogus manipulations.

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (2020)

Very, very GOOD!!

[8/10 · 6 May 2020]

I have not watched the original so have no opinion on how this stacks up but I can tell you that this is very watchable TV. The reviewers here remind me of people who have "read the book" and the movie is not the book so they pan the movie. What a ridiculous way to judge a TV show. The story, dialogue, acting and production values are top notch. Admittedly I have only seen the 2 episodes released but am eagerly awaiting more. Ignore the reviews that 1) have political points to make and 2) that want this show to be the original. You will not be disappointed.

Extraction (2020)

Excellent Action

[8/10 · 25 April 2020]

If you are a westerner or not from India or Bangladesh then disregard the one star reviews who are upset that; this movie shows locations in a bad light, cars are wrong, uniforms are dirty, accents are off, etc. The movie itself is a very, very good action movie. If you enjoy the John Wick franchise you will like this. Purely immersive entertainment to chomp on popcorn while watching and forget the troubles of the times. I didn't think of the coronavirus once while viewing! I was a bit disappointed that this looked like a one off movie until I focused on the background of the last scene. Yay!

The Expanse (2015–2022)

Season 4

[9/10 · 15 December 2019]

When I heard that SyFy was cancelling the series after 3 seasons I was very surprised. Since the beginning this show has had an excellent story, interesting world building, a great cast and good production values. I thought it was one of the better series on TV, not just science fiction but including all genres. I was gratified to find out that Amazon picked this up and was eagerly awaiting its release. Well, I just finished season 4 and am pleased to announce that the high quality series has returned! My only regret is that for some reason I thought this season was 13 episodes instead of 10 and I wasn't willing for this to be over. I have never read the book(s?) this is based on so that has nothing to do with my review. I will only say that to anyone discovering this series for the first time I envy you! When I saw S4 E10 I got a little sad that it was over. Season 5 looks like it will be fantastic as well!

Jack Ryan: Orinoco (2019) Season 2, Episode 3

Oh, c'mon!

[4/10 · 6 November 2019]

Who wears white pants to a night raid on an enemy encampment in a jungle? The same person who can do so and keep them clean! I could excuse the radios and Uber screwing up but the white pants? Never!

Tall Girl (2019)

Awful

[1/10 · 29 September 2019]

I was going to say that this movie is pretty bad, but it isn't, it is much worse, approaching downright awful. Part of the reason is that the theme of this movie had so many possibilities but the way they were handled was surface level stupid. Very disappointing. Also, are libraries now organizing their books by color now? The first scene is a tell for the entire movie; Style over substance.

The Darkest Minds (2018)

Very Bad, So Very Bad

[1/10 · 30 August 2019]

First off, I did not read the book, I have no connection to this movie or any competing movies, I am not in the target audience but I have enjoyed other movies made from YA books (both the Hunger Games and Twilight series-HG I'd rate 7, Twi a 6 to 6.5, just so you know where I'm coming from.) Not having read the book I don't know if the problem with the story was in the original work or the screenplay but it was awful. Truly bad. The end product feels like a couple of 13 year old girls mined their imaginations, building on one another's narratives until they either figured they had enough, got bored or realized that the whole thing was just too silly to continue. The story was incredibly uneven. When the characters main goal is achieved it is given less time than the an unimportant story arc. There were too many groups so none got the time needed to create any reason for the viewer to care. Side stories were introduced and dispensed with and served no purpose in movie the story forward. I don't think I'm giving anything up here to say that this story deals with children. I kept wondering what happens when children age? Are new children born? Why was one of the groups made up of people who would have been under 18 when the "event" happened? Why don't they have powers? Where did these powers come from? All things that the collaboration of 13 year olds at a sleepover forgot to include in their movie. The acting, for the most part, was acceptable. I'm pretty sure that given a better script I would look more kindly on the performances given. There were a few exceptions that had me cringing, you'll know it when you see it. The production values were nothing that a college student couldn't come up with. There was one scene that semi-impressed but for a movie based on special powers there was a distinct lack of special effects. I stopped and restarted this movie five or six times. I almost quit watching but I decided I wanted to write this review and I didn't want to write a review for a movie unless I completed it. So, I disliked this movie so much I had to finish it! I am genuinely perplexed at the 7 thru 10 ratings this movie has gotten. In a database that has Pulp Fiction and The Godfather I & II at 8.1 to 8.7 just who is giving this time waster anything above a 5??

Deep State (2018–2019)

Extremely average

[5/10 · 17 August 2019]

When espionage films and series do it right they are entertaining and engrossing. There have been so many that have succeeded that when you see one that stumbles repeatedly it actually seems worse than it would be otherwise. Season 2 of Deep State feels like it took 4 episodes of a decent story and used filler, fluff and repetition to arrive at 8. There are countless times that the three "heros" escape only to be recaptured during the season. (For as many times as this happens you would think that the characters would have a different Plan B than just running out the back door.) I do mean countless, I lost track between four and five times and I hadn't even gotten to the halfway point. The pacing was off as well. Throw away scenes were as long as important parts that moved the show along. Also, in this digital age, why was every clue found in a stack of papers? I got the feeling that the writers couldn't come up with a clever way to access computerized records so they just gave up. A high note, most of the production values were good, whether in Mali or D.C. Frankly, that along with the lead actors are the only reason I stuck with this series to the end. You could probably jump from episode four to eight and still know what was going on. Also, I do wish writers would realize that while it may be important to hinge character motives on love for family, it is not necessary to include the actual children-unless they have the next Natalie Portman lined up. Sell us on the adults' dedication to their children, I only need to believe that, I don't need to love the kids as well. (And most likely they will just be an amateurish annoyance.) Overall, I would say this series falls about midway between the best and worst of what is available. I don't recommend it for binge watching though, the repeated scenes really stand out without taking breaks.

Dark (2017–2020)

Really good...

[7/10 · 6 August 2019]

First off I want to say that this is an exceptionally well thought out series. It requires concentration to keep the characters and timelines straight. Not a show for those who are passive watchers. There are a few things that would have improved it for me. First, although the German to English dubbing is pretty good, I think there are nuances that cannot be adequately understood. I miss not being able to read the printed material. Yes, the "important" facts are translated but in a show such as this where you are trying to gather as much information as possible I couldn't help feel that I was missing out when I couldn't read everything there was to see on a bulletin board or on a map. Sometimes I didn't understand the actions of a character. When a policeman travels to a different time and seems to loose all his skills is it because he was never a good cop? Because it is Germany and police are different there? Or just writers using a plot device that rings false? Same thing when two characters converse and one asks the other a very important question. When the response comes it's about something from left field that doesn't begin to address the question. End of scene. Once again is this a cultural thing or bad writing? This series is better than most of what is available on TV or streaming services and I do recommend it. If it ever gets remade in the U.S. I hope they maintain the spirit of this show. A positive if it is remade would be that the characters could be a bit more diverse, hence easier to follow on the different timelines.

The Boys (2019– )

Very, very good!

[10/10 · 27 July 2019]

I enjoyed this on so many levels even before episode 5 which sealed the deal. It is entertainment, social and political commentary and satire all in one. I will be very sad when I've finished the season but will be looking forward to the next installment. Heed the warning, this is NOT for children, prudes or the squeamish. I have a feeling there will be some bad reviews coming from the magats but ignore them, this series is gold.

Legal Action (2018)

So-so TV Movie

[4/10 · 14 July 2019]

The acting is OK for the most part, nothing noteworthy and the story is nothing new. This is one of those movies that would be fine to watch for free when nothing else is on. Fans of Walker Texas Ranger/Matlock series will probably be this movies biggest fans. The production values are very shoddy. Solitary confinement right off a commercial kitchen? A prison showing a prefab temporary building and gas pumps? Camara shots of knick knacks instead of character movements? A DA office door leading directly into the courtroom? Usually, even when watching low budget movies, I don't get hung up on how the producer saved money on filming but between the locations, single camara angles, editing and overall production this movie emphasises the low, low end of the scale. I also think that if this were to be made into a series it would only survive if it managed to capture the Walker TR crowd. It would need some serious sophistication upgrades to appeal to a wider audience.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

Muddled

[4/10 · 14 July 2019]

Definitely a filler movie. Lots of exposition but not much of import happens. The special effects are very good, acting is excellent but the story is just filler until the end then its "huh?" Spoiler here: It is revealed that the baby LeStrange was swapped out for a random child (Credence) before the ship sank. Then Grindenwald tells Credence he is Dumbledore's brother how can that work according to the Dumbledore family timeline and besides that what are the odds that the LeStrange and Dumbledore baby would be on the same ship? Then the movie ends. I saw this online and actually checked that it was really over and not a glitch. Huh?

10.0 Earthquake (2014)

It is a "0", not even a "1" out of 10

[1/10 · 30 June 2019]

This is the worst movie I can ever remember seeing. Every character is annoyingly written. I actively hoped for the death of: two of the teenage boys, the hunter who had apparently never handled a firearm before, the shrill ex-wife, the newbie USGS employee that teetered and ditzied her way through this movie enough to ensure that the pretty female scientist trope is met, the first 2 guys that enter the underground part of the plant-filled with escaping gasses- without any breathing or safety equipment or even informing someone about what they were doing. The only character I cared about was the dog, and he should bite his handlers for putting him in this atrocity. If the writers had been better this may have been a 4 to 5 scored comedy. All this without saying how truly awful the plot, special effects and editing is. Avoid unless you are curious about just how bad a movie can be.

The Ottoman Lieutenant (2017)

Eh

[5/10 · 16 June 2019]

Forget about the political backdrop, it is revisionist and could be any conflict, real or imagined. The story is simply a love triangle set within a military conflict in a beautiful land. The male leads all do well and sell their characters to the audience. My problem is with the female lead. Her delivery was off. It sounded very wrong for an upper middle class woman who hails from Philadelphia in 1914. She speaks with enough of a contemporary inflection that you think "Los Angeles, CA-2015" every time she reads a line, because she is such a central figure it ruined the movie for me. I give this a 5 out of 10 for the scenery and male leads.

The Fall (I) (2013–2016)

Dramatic but not realistic

[7/10 · 7 March 2018]

By the end of season 4 I tired of the contrivance laden story line. I found myself silently yelling at the screen because, once again, the most basic police procedures/common sense had been sacrificed for dramatic effect. This has nothing to do with the pace of British drama, although it is slow in comparison to U.S. police procedurals. No, my issue was with the instances of lazy writing that really accumulated by the end of season 4. My actual rating would be season 1 and 2, ratings of 8; Season 3 and 4, ratings of 6.