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Challengers (2024)
Only works for fans of Zendaya
28 April 2024
Forget Match Point, even Paul Bettany's Wimbledon is better. If you are not a fan of Zendaya, I would never reccomend this "movie" to anyone. It lacks absolutely everything but occasional beautiful scenery.

I remember Zendaya since Shake It Up and although she is a smart and lovely woman with indeniable star quality, her acting has never been convincing. She always positions herself perfectly for the shot, has the needed movement or expression, but it is always with more connection for the camera than with the character (even in Euphoria). I also never found her use of her voice adequate, it is usually one note. It sort of works here because Tashi is a character as flat as a pancake.

The two other leads are no better and it is an already very far fetched idea that they would attract the attention of anyone, let alone of someone like the Tashi character.

And if this was a movie to attract tennis fans... well it won't. None of the tree leads looks like they have ever played sport. Any sport, any kind, not professionally, just any at all. In school, in the backstreet with friends. The director is either very incapable of his job or hasn't either. They hired Brad Gilbert to consult and help. Ok, but he helps with the wrong aspects. In the end of the day a general viewer would not care if the serve technique is correct, or if the movement and speed is accurate. But he would care about the absolute lack of any engagement with the game. No passion, no desire, no will, no care. Even Ivan Lendl has visibly shown more connection to the game and he was infamous for cool attitude. Or Andre Agassi or Nick Kyrgios who have stated many times they hated tennis. These actors look and act like they are trying not to trip, not to make a wrong move and not like playing for anything (not just the tenmis aspects of the movie). And from this there is no loud enough music to make you care about their game or desires.

The music is terrible allthrough, loud and without having any connection with the supposed story. The overly in your face "metaphors" are just tiring at this point. Filmmakers might wanna try some new and fresh approach to get the point across. And the overuse of slow motion... it just makes the movie even less.

In a time where we care about sparing resources, resources for movies like this shouldn't even be be considered to be spent.
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Back to Black (2024)
Good if a rather cowerdly film
16 April 2024
Amy Whinehouse was a rather personal celebrity for me since my teen years. I was never much of music fan, or celebrity follower but as everyone there were a couple famous people who had a huge impact on me. I cried when I heard about her death as if she was someone I was close to. Her You know I am no Good to this day makes my blood crawl. I was at her concert in Serbia (I am from Bulgaria so we often went there for such events). It was one of the worst experiences in my life. The crowd was angry and booing at her as if they were robbed or sth, as if some right of theirs have been taken. I don't know when the public decided that singers, actors, athletes owe them sth. I was also angry but at the organizers. I could never forgive them for letting her on stage when she should have been receiving help, I could never forgive them for abusing a human being in such way. I had nightmares for weeks of the image of her in this utterly destructed and vulnerable state. When I read the news about her death I even felt the irrational guilt that I was at fault for her tragedy, I and other fans who were only taking from her.

And I think this is the hugest flaw os the movie, it pulls the break on really going into the depth of a human tragedy. It fails to show why this young woman became so important and loved by so many who listened to her music, what made her stand out.

Instead it shifts focus from music to personal, back and forth, sometimes making the narrative a bit disjointed. Her music was really something. For years she would have just the same repertoire and still it felt more than enough. There was never the need for her to release album after album to stay relevant or influencial in the music industry. Still if the movie used a bit less of the music parts, and developed the others better, the movie would have had a better storytelling.

The actress is doing a great job portraying the rawness and authencity of Whinehouse even if her looks are more polished, her acting isn't. If she had a more developed screenplay it would have been a performance of the ranks of many memorable biopics.

Overall it is a good but maybe forgettable film about someone who in the eyes of many is forever unforgettable.
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9-1-1: Capsized (2024)
Season 7, Episode 3
I did give it an honest try, but these just aren't the same characters
29 March 2024
I did give this new season a try. I wasn't expecting much because of the last couple of seasons and the network switch and it was still a letdown.

The show has never been shy of being cheesy or implausable but it still managed to write it with enough heart to be enjoyable most of the time and not flat out cringe. This season premiere writing is all over the place, most of the characters are unrecognisable and not in the good way. They haven't evolved or different as a natural result of human ability to change, they are like same names, same faces but completely different personality. Even the actors don't look invested in their characters anymore.

Also I am not exactly sure what changes were made but score for these three episodes was terrible, overly loud, overly melodramatic and weird. Same with camerawork, it gives a bit of the typical soap opera feel - "look, this is a dramatic scene", "here is time to laugh" - to it, which sadly just enhances the subpar writing. I'd rather rewatch first couple of seasons.
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9-1-1: Rock the Boat (2024)
Season 7, Episode 2
Weird writing
22 March 2024
Warning: Spoilers
It is like two episodes of two diferent shows mingled together with no connection whatsoever. What was the point of Hen's story? Just there to go nowhere, the switching from the ship to LA was weirdly paced. What if the episode started with Hen being worried about the missing cruise and from there she makes questionable judgement call? It easily goes both ways - was she concentrated enough to make the best decision and despite being worried she is still professional enough. You have an organic build to a conflict and you actually have connection with all parts of the episode. Now it was just the 100th times she'd say how she is judged differently. Where is Hen from first season? She was a great strong character whose actions spoke for her. Slowly they made it as if she thinks can never make a mistake.

The writing on the cruise part of the story was also so-so. The emotional scene between Bobby and Athena is great because of what they say and how they act, but when put into the context of not-a-real-danger danger, it feels cheap.

I will watch it next week, but this season seems off to me. The long close ups to the faces of the actors, the score, the overall feel... it is just weird.
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9-1-1: Abandon Ships (2024)
Season 7, Episode 1
Meh...
15 March 2024
For all its flaws I loved first season. Second and third seasons had their ups and downs, but were generally enjoyable. From there on... well I stayed from habbit, and because I liked most characters. The show went bad the moment it decided to become a soap opera, and sadly with this opening, it looks like it continues to be so.

I dislike throwaway characters, ones that instead of being real characters serve only for either plot devices, gimini crickets, fillers, etc. But the story has no need of them. Eddie is such character, and has been one since his wife died. Outside of his son and Buck, for 6 seasons he has zero connection to either other character, his solo stories are forced here and there but with no real connection to any plot. And from the looks of it, he still doesn't. Chris has way more personality and involvement than him. Athena's son had. Even Hen's kid. And they have had way less screentime. Yes Eddie is an eye candy, I am not blind, and he is fan favourite but mostly he is just useless from purely writing perspective.

Not sure how the season will continue but so far - meh.
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Law & Order: The Secret Sharers (1991)
Season 1, Episode 18
12 people knew he was guilty and freed him anyway, hypocracy at its highest
9 March 2024
Warning: Spoilers
No wonder human societies went and keep going downhill, hypocracy will always be our downfall. Economy, ecology, constitution, moral, even religion, we read them as it pleases us. We have set rules that should favour the society we live in, then start bending them as we wish. If rules no longer work, challenge them, do not excuse the breaking of them.

Screenplay was unusually weak this episode, the lack of real exploration of the 'moral' vs. Legal issue presented was a huge miss. A judge who would allow the emotional manipulation and not overthrow the verdict (it was shown in other cases) is just useless. Revenge cannot be a justification for murder. Self defence is already a shady zone.
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Law & Order: On the Ledge (2024)
Season 23, Episode 6
Blah, blah, blah, no one is accountable for anything
4 March 2024
Warning: Spoilers
The usial weak and hypocritical writing still continues this seasons. Is there anything that is not excused by 'insanity' these last seasons?!?

No one is accountable for their actions, there is always the usual mental defect that excuses someone's actions. But here is the thing, if you DO have mental defect that makes you danger to the society it is your responsibility to get treatment and measures to not be a threat to others. It does not give you excuse to go into a public place with plenty of people, with a loaded gun, and shoot someone. You may feel for someone for going through hell, but this doesn't mean he can put others through hell.
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House M.D.: Ignorance Is Bliss (2009)
Season 6, Episode 8
For people seeking realism, it is painfully realistic actually
19 November 2023
It is one of the better written episodes from the latter seasons. The usual House-Cuddy stuff has been beaten to death already but yet they keep going with the same old. The break up between Chase and Cameron was too forced but at least quick.

The patient story was actually quite better than expected given the type of patient they chose. And the line was painfully true "then you are not intelligent enough". The absolute unbearable loneliness of having to moderate yourself all the time so to have normal human relationships is either something you know or you don't. The whole patient-House conversation was beautifully written.
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Fan-service, tear-jerker plus long awaited "surprises" = good but not as good as it should be
28 April 2019
Warning: Spoilers
I'm sorry, if the title sounds a little bit harsh but having invested so much emotional energy in those characters over the last decade, the movie really felt like a big letdown for me. And although I would never tell someone who loves a movie, whichever it may be, that he shouldn't, the 10 rating simply cannot be real. Yes, everyone has his own opinion, so here is mine - most of the screenplay felt like taken from the comments under the HISHE and SinemaSins or similar channels videos. Like they have put in lines, scenes and characteristics solely to try to please fans, regardless whether it fits the inner logic of the narrative. Couple of scenes, although I liked them, felt like taken point by point from Pixar - we know that you care about our characters, we know how to make you cry for them. Sometimes it comes of as a great conclusion, or most of the time as a beautiful scene, but in the end it is just a filler scene for a farewell for a character. Of course not all of them. The whole time travelling thing - it has two flaws. Firstly, time travelling stories are always full of plotholes. They simply cannot not have them. Even if they put rules by which they would go, it still will leave a lot of continuity and logical errors. And because they are so many, I really am trying to skip over them. But I find the second flaw even worse - what will be their excuse now to not use this tactic every time there is a big bad that does damage? Will it be as lame as the explanation for the absence of Capitan Marvel? Or why couldn't Strange at least try to reverse time on Tony's damaged hand/body? At least to show it is not an option. And talking of Strange, when he announced the extremely low positive outcomes in Infinity War, it already put the expectations quite high. So the way it all played out felt quite disappointing to me. I am sorry but it really made no sense in the context they created. Say if it was necessary for Tony to have a daughter, who will somehow inspire the idea of time-travelling then maybe, maybe I could understand the whole let-him-win-is-the-way-to-defeat-Thanos. Now it somehow feels pointless, it just gave Tony some years of happiness before the end. Also I am sorry but there was absolutely no point in exactly Him, not Hulk or Thor, who hypothetically have a better chance of survival, to be the one to snap in the end. It felt just like a cheap way to kill him. If he had programmed somehow the new "gauntlet" to not be able to be used by anyone else... which by the way leads me to an ever bigger question - I get that Tony is the universe genius, but if it was so easy to make a gauntlet, why was it so hard for Thanos to get one? They could have still sacrificed Tony but in a better and more logical way. And I don't even want to start with Cap - I like that he wielded Thor's hammer because not only was it cool, but it was the way he wouldn't be dead after the first slap on the head from Thanos. But before that... c'mon he is a super hero, but not that powerful. I didn't like the choreography of the last battle. Heroes seemed to be missing from a certain fight without a reason to. It was really stupid that once all the vanished heroes returned, none of them tried to disarm the spaceship. There is no excuse for not having Gamora and Nebula (who I don't know how is still alive) fight their father. Same goes for Hulk, who was totally wasted second movie in a row. BUT I SIMPLY LOVED SCARLET WHICH!! Her scene was everything the last battle should have been. It was perfect and I was wishing for a similar with Hulk and Thor, and the two daughters, and maybe Strange. Because I am sorry, I love the rest of the heroes, but none of them should stand that big chance against Thanos (Lightning Cap excluded, and Captain Marvel, because she is basically missing). Wow... I actually am surprised by how long my rant went, and the worst is - there is so much more of it. I know, in reality it doesn't really matter, and I am fully aware that no movie can please anyone. But this franchise was one I really cared for, and that is why I was disappointed. It is not a bad movie, but it wasn't a very good one either. And it is a bad conclusion of a saga that I really liked. And it is about whether they killed off or didn't kill off someone, it's the way they did it. (Btw, if it is soul-for-a-soul with the soul stone, when Cap returns it, no matter how, which soul does he get back? Just wondering...) It could have, should have and deserved to have been better.
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