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Reviews
Silo (2023)
A good series with a major flaw
I'm going to contain a spoiler warning despite marking this review as containing spoilers. So be warned
I haven't read the book this is based on but just from watching the series it's easy to sus out what's going on. For all that to make sense I'll just give you a brief plot summary based on episode 1
Some people live in a post apocalyptic silo which is buried underground to escape what has earth become, a toxic wasteland. As one of the characters put it the basic rules can be boiled down to if you request to go out of the silo you can but you cannot return and the camera put on the outside shows the silo's residents what becomes of the people who decide to leave. Most of them die after a minute or two on the surface. One woman (the sheriff's wife) suspects the camera is altering what it shows to the residents and decides to go up. And she tells her husband if she's wrong she'll wave goodbye to the camera but if she's right she'll clean the camera and try to show them what's really out there. So she puts on a suit and goes out and cleans the camera signaling that what they've been seeing was altered and the environment was not as desolate as it is depicted in the camera feed. But after cleaning the camera and walking like two steps she collapses and dies
Assuming you're a person of Average intelligence it's not that hard to form a suspicion of what's happening. If she's all covered and breathing her own supply of oxygen it's easy to know that her oxygen supply , which lets not forget was supplied by the silo people whom she was leaving, might be compromised. As if to hammer this point home the sheriff goes out and when he sees a lush green environment and realizes his wife was right he starts to loose consciousness. In a last ditch effort he takes of the mask but he dies nonetheless.
The beauty of a series like this is that letting you think you've figured out the key only to show you that that's not it. This show continues as if that hasn't crossed anyone's mind. Why? Just why? I'm sure if that's how the silo people managing to poison them and make it look like they died because of contamination from the outside environment the book must have done a nice job of hiding that fact.(again I haven't read the book) unless your suspicions are debunked and proven to be false you'll quickly start to loose interest and become the guy shouting in the horror movie at the cinema telling people 'do not to go in there' . But the other aspects of the series are so good I'm willing to give it one or two episodes to prove me wrong and keep me wondering what'll happen next. If not I'm out. Seems like the writer's kneecaped the series before even it gets rolling making it a DOA.
I'll make sure to update if anything changes but otherwise I'll leave this up. Other than this hamartia it seems alright. The world building and pacing is nice. I really wish I'd love this show but I think they missed the mark on this one by 'we showed you from the start' in the form of a bad Easter egg of sorts. Because the risk you take in those kinds of details is that if it's a thinly veiled solution which breaks.the fulcrum of the story the audience wouldn't be interested in the rest of the series once they figure it out. It makes me wonder if they didn't have a test audience see this before getting released or they were at a point where they couldn't afford to go back and change the whole thing at that point even if the audiences point it out right away. Please stop gambling the survival of the show for an inside show. Christ on a bike is that such a hard thing to ask?
The Big Door Prize (2023)
A Heartfelt drama about a small town
It's always when a series is brilliant or atrocious that I feel compelled to write a Review so that people know what they're getting in to. In this case it's the former and what a delight this has been.
Plot: The story revolves around a mysterious machine called Morpho that appears in a small town that can 'reveal your potential' and how it affects the residents lives.
The writing in this felt phenomenal and delves deeper into the characters lives to show you why they make the decisions they make instead of labeling them bad guy and good guy. And just like in real life people aren't 100% evil or good. Good people do and say bad things and bad people do good things. It's just life.
A Series like this that just show you the everyday drama of other people's lives might sound dull and I think that's why they added the 'magical' element to it. And this kind tv needs a stronger writing since it deals with mostly mundane stuff and the writers have to make the dialogue palatable and interesting to the audience so as to keep them hooked. Well I'm hooked . The human element, when paired with a good story, and time to breathe through multiple episodes is quite an interesting watch. Between this and Ted lasso I must say I Love what apple has been doing lately.
Eat the Rich: The GameStop Saga (2022)
Not for knowing what happened, but for mild entertainment
I have no horse in this race but I was active on the wsb and superstonk subreddits to know they didn't present the whole thing. First off I just hate when documentaries and movies like the big short assume that people would lose interest if they explained things like shorting, margin calls or any other things that are central to the story. I don't want a chef or Margot Robbie or some distraction to be fed the critical information that I need for understanding the documentary. Secondly the interviews in this 'documentary' in particular makes Liam Neeson's action scenes look like a one take cinematic masterpiece. They are so chopped up they are the equivalent of a ransom note. Like let the guy speak for a minute would you? Third even though I can't definitively say this documentary is biased to the one side, it sure seemed like they omitted or brushed past lots of relevant details especially surrounding Robinhood and the big banks. I don't know if they interviewed some people to represent the day traders and redditors and they chose the guy who would be a clear opposite in contrast to the Wall Street guys or what but I cringed watching that interview and thought this guy must be hired or the video highly edited.
I don't live in the US and have never participated in anything resembling a stock market and I could clearly see this needed a lot of input before airing. Don't watch this to know about the GameStop saga. The best thing about this documentary is that if you suffer from insomnia this really helps you get some good nap right infront of your tv. It also creates a conducive environment to just leave it on and have sex with your partner. In some ways this documentary is one step backward for documentary film making but one giant leap in therapy.
Brad's Status (2017)
You should watch this at home
I saw this movie yesterday and it really got me thinking about myself. I've seen that it didn't do well at the box office as it shouldn't. Movies like this are not the reason you go to the cinema. You go to the cinema because you want to be entertained and forget the life you already have and watch other men do something that you physically can't or God forbid you're afraid to do. This movie, however, has a different approach. It reflects on who we are as a person. Most of us had high hopes when we get out of college but that hope gets a little dimmer everyday as we learn that not everybody gets to be a hero. So we end up resenting ourselves for not being who we wanted to be. But as life constantly shape and reshapes us we have to change our plans accordingly. As the movie truly dictates there's nothing worse than all your friends moving up in life with you being stuck at the same dead end job. I like how he said he felt "physical" pain. But in the end it tries to tell us subtly that even those friends have their own problems that are much bigger than what we have. This is the point where I'd like to digress and state that not everybody that makes money have problems. We all have problems of different variety and they are all problems. Even though it ends abruptly leaving the audience to their ideas to finish the story, ultimately it tries to teach us that being content what we have is the greatest favour we can do ourselves instead of resenting ourselves and the world. But that doesn't mean we should strive for something better, it just means to be happy with what we've got until the next better thing happens.
About Time (2013)
Timeless classic
This movie is the type of movie that'll stick with you for a very long time. Does it have flaws? Yes as any time traveling movie it does but there are so much more good things in this movie you won't question it. It's casting is 0erfect Tim,the father, sister, uncle, mary everyone did their job perfectly the story is somewhat slow paced and that gives the movie the meaning. Even if it's fantasy it really depicts how you cope with life and everything that comes with it. The soundtracks were perfect. not one but all of them. Domnhall did a great job portraying Tim and a nod to Rachel too for what she'd done. It's not always that you come across a movie that hits you right in the feels. It has got drama, comedy, tragedy and I think that's what makes it appetizing. I haven't been more impressed by a movie like this in my entire life and I don't think I'll ever be again. This is one of those movies that are so good you don't even want to go back to reality. I guess that's why they call them fantasy huh?
The Dark Tower (2017)
Good cast bad cast
I've never read the books but I saw the trailer and I went to see the movie. So this review is about a movie I just saw without reading the books treated as just another movie. It's not a bad movie, well at least for someone who hasn't read the books. But the kid,Jake, is kind of annoying that brings the whole movie rating down. Plus all the action sequences that you see on the trailer that was all the actions you get in the movie.