egasulla-87434 Reviews

The White Lotus (2021–2025)

Who are these people?

[1/10 · 9 February 2024]

Perhaps because I am not rich I don't have much contact with these kind of people, and I couldn't care less about their issues. So I watched a few episodes in a near catatonic state, not caring whether they live or die, until I gave up.

Yes the acting is good, but then again, I can't enjoy it if the characters mean nothing to me.

Ok, this is not completely true; the spoiled, self centered teenage girl whose name I haven't retained openly disgusted me. So I actively rooted for her to be eaten by a shark. Alas, looks like the resort doesn't have any. As an alternative, she could have been arrested when her chemicals bag was found. An unfortunate oversight by the script writers.

Black Mirror: USS Callister (2017) Season 4, Episode 1

Worst Black Mirror episode?

[2/10 · 2 October 2023]

If there's one thing that summarizes Black Mirror is brilliant writing and sharply defined plots. But not this one.

SPOILERS COMING: At the end, all we see is the digital recreations of the characters in the game. But what happens to them in real life? If Daly dies (he's a loner trapped inside his apartment and since his customized game no longer exists, he probably won't wake up), what happens to the company? And when the police breaks into his place (after some time his office partners, who know nothing about "his" game, will inquire) and find him dead, they'll investigate... and find Nannette's fingerprints everywhere.

Additionally, the good and bad characters are pretty debatable. Online Daly is a monster. But in real life he is mistreated by everyone. Isn't he a bit justified in his online cruelty?

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018)

Big mistake

[3/10 · 8 March 2023]

The beauty of the Black Mirror episodes is in part in the concise writing and the inescapable ending, often predictable, yet powerful and cleanly resolved.

So why did their creators chose the exact opposite approach to this movie?

As a dad, I bought "choose your own adventure" books for my then young children. They were ok for preteens, and balanced a majority of clean happy endings with a couple bad ones. But the adults watching this are slightly more demanding... or at least should be.

In all honesty I have no idea how many endings does Bandersnatch have, because I just lost interest. After a while I just let the TV pick the defaults, but when it entered a loop I reluctantly took back control. Still, the key problem was I couldn't care less whether the kid was crazy or not, whether he finished the game or not or who his dad really was.

And the very basic requirement for a good movie is to get the viewer involved in the fate of the characters. One Bandersnatch fails to comply with.

Ben (1972)

Worse than I thought

[2/10 · 13 November 2021]

When Ben opened in the US, I was living in my native Argentina where the movie wasn't shown. Only recently, after hearing the title song in a Michael Jackson compilation, I decided to watch it, and it was free on YouTube. I didn't have high expectations, I assumed it would be just another bad horror flick.

I was wrong on two counts; it's not bad, it's terrible. And it's not even a horror film.

At most it may be revolting if you are repelled by rats. But scary it isn't. I get it was done decades before CGI, but the "attacks" are as harmless as they get. The director didn't have the skills of Spielberg, who made his shark scary by filming from the viewpoint of the animal; just one scene seen from a rat's eyes would have been far scarier than the many scenes showing a horde of rats wriggling on the floor.

The kid is actually the best actor. The adults are beyond stilted, the kind of acting you see in long running soap operas when all the decent actors moved on to better things.

The early 70s were not a high point in Hollywood. Save for The Godfather saga and a few more, most movies of the age are really bad. And this one is a prime example.