SamudraAmbara Reviews

Nova Vita (2021– )

This series is not bad, it's worse, but not worst.

[3/10 · 13 February 2022]

And there you have it.

Being occupied with making it credible throughout the process, this (of course) ficticious story (set in ultra luxurious environment) never comes to life.

* Nevertheless: One star for the writer desperately trying to do so.

This (again: of course) affects the characters' appearance. Little must the actors have presumed that their acting would turn out to be stiffer than stiff, I presume.

* Nevertheless: One star goes to the actors.

You can't knock down the production. It's decent, let go quite mediocre, handcraft.

* One star for the production and energy to make it happen at all.

And that's it! A total of ten stars minus seven for wasting my time to watch it to the end, which I always do.

Double Jeopardy (1999)

Do I need an excuse?

[10/10 · 17 April 2021]

They can't do these no cliché-cliché movies anymore. Watch the very last one of them! A straight tenner! Watch it and relate...

Anna (II) (2019)

A bad movie is a bad movie, whether...

[2/10 · 5 April 2021]

...Helen Mirren is in it or not. There are much better ways to show what women can achieve.

One Luc(ky) star for professionalism and one for the road.

Money Heist (2017–2021)

If not... A splendid story executed with superb craftmanship

[1/10 · 28 March 2021]

This was created and carefully planned with precision and dedication, skills and love for the profession, executed with superb craftmanship. I do not mean the heist, a well planned coup by itself, I mean the series. 4 seasons, don't bother about seasons 3 & 4, they are just silly follow ups. Still a clear tenner, if not... Yes, regrettably, if not. This is not how women should be portrayed and left behind at the glorious end. Watch and judge for yourself. Now a one star series, one star for excellent cinematic craftmanship.

London Has Fallen (2016)

Gosh, another one. But still...

[5/10 · 1 January 2021]

Bad story, bad dialogs, bad acting, bad quite everything, but excellent FX production. That's all. No more, no less.

Serenity (I) (2019)

A review? Are you kidding me?

[1/10 · 6 December 2020]

Forget this movie. It's not even worth a mention. No acting could possibly make something credible out of this story.

The Forest (2017)

Slow and intense drama

[10/10 · 12 November 2020]

Is it possible to combine a slow pace and an intense, tight rhythm of incidents, a variety of human expressions with sweeping landscapes and a resolution that takes you beyond expectations in another sense than the ordinary crime story (you may ask yourself, what I meant) although you will identify the villain in the plot quite easily from the very beginning or at least after a while? Yes, some ingredients may very well push me to rate this series only a five stars or six, but in lack of 15 stars to weigh up the outstanding positives, I rest on a tenner.

Very well done! Very strong story. Very good acting. Very nice images. Very intense feeling. Very aware sensibility. And a very logic logic. And last but not least: Simple, beautiful, effectively sweeping music.

The Chalet (2017–2018)

A nice little story...

[7/10 · 12 November 2020]

...very obvious, I am afraid I have to say, from about part 4 and on, only delayed by the confusion of which all these folks were and what their names were and who was with who. Also, the acting is a bit amateurish and the storyline a bit naive.

Nevertheless, recommended, very recommended, to its advantage mainly that it has elements mainstream series lack and possibly never will achieve to perform.

The Level (2016–2017)

When the obvious becomes obvious...

[6/10 · 10 November 2020]

...and patterns repeat and repeat, and the story adds a few too many flaws, even an excellently performed show like this falls down into nothingness. That's what happened here. But worth watching if you have no better thing to do.

The Queen's Gambit (2020)

Watch it!

[9/10 · 1 November 2020]

What I first expected to be a real-life story, disappointingly was just another feminist propaganda movie series based on a novel, well-played, beautifully coated, entertaining, moving but cheap. Still, all in all it deserves 8 stars. I liked it! Don't miss it! Watch it!

Shades of Blue (2016–2018)

Not as bad as it seems, but should have lesser amount of stars than five.

[3/10 · 26 October 2020]

This series seemed to verify all my prejudices about american police movies, trumpian chaotic america and other american stereotypes until I began to look at it as a tragicomedy developing towards comedy, which to me means life. Not that it is a comedy, not especially tragic either, but the acting is not what I would praise this show for but it helped me to continue after some episodes, as I was brainwashed enough to watch it until the end of season 1. Although there are some incidents wrapping up the story at the en, it leaves me asking myself, if there is some credibility in the entire story.

Some good honesty throughout the thin red line makes me forgive the quite unstructured plot - More i cannot say, and at the end, its all thanks to hardworking, mildly smiling JLo, an allrounder convincing at her best on stage with a microphone but not as an actor. If you are a good person, it needs good acting skills to look evil.

Seasons 2 and 3 not an option for me.

Away (2020)

So predictable

[3/10 · 15 September 2020]

Good acting (mostly) raises single star and one more for the messages it contains. But gosh - so american (ok, it IS american), gosh - so standard, thus predictable. The framework, the story, is simply ugly, the message behind it - ok, positive. Slowburn is not a merit. It was my wasted time and now it may be yours...

Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

Take a Magical Mistery Tour

[1/10 · 8 February 2019]

If this is a mistery, I had it all wrong - until now!

This is a low quality story which cannot be developed into anything else but a low quality movie containing low quality characters played by low quality actors trying to do their best when there simply wasn't any better script around.

One extra star for the 2 min closing credits scene.

Do something else instead. Watch an episode of Emmerdale Farm or even better, take a Magical Mistery Tour to Yorkshire.

Mortdecai (2015)

Che?

[1/10 · 23 December 2018]

This is definitely the most stupid movie I have ever seen (period).