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Ghost Whisperer (2005)
She can't
The idea of this show is actually nice and interesting and especially at these times I love to watch old shows from end of the 90' and early 2000s. Sadly Jennifer Love Hewitt just can't act. I really can't get over her and am not able to watch the show for its content because she really is so bad at acting. Also it annoys the heck out of me if the leads have super difficult hairdos in their everyday life, those you need to spend at least 5 hours at a good hair salon or need a private hairdresser every morning. It's so obviously overdone with her hair it just annoys me, I can't help it. Also after having at least watched 6 episodes, the plot repeats quite obviously and it has tons of holes too.
I'd go back watching 'Buffy', or 'Gilmore Gilrs' instead, they are kind of no-brainers and fantastic reality escpae and have ood actors and stories.
The Walking Dead: Some Guy (2017)
Ridiculous
shooting, shooting, (with endless and endless rounds of amu, no reloading needed, obviously they have 2 million shots mags in zombieland), pathetic empty speeches again, more shooting, time frame mistakes on end with the ridiculous king lying on the ground and the walkers never reaching him while he must be dead 10 times already actually, another car chase scene, again with shooting, Rick driving and getting the full load from in front but not even his windshield breaks of course, (oh, and after it should be at least years now since the apocalypse, me wonders where they still all got the fuel from? Are there zombie gas stations we haven't seen yet?), and finally, the totally unrealistic tiger shows up again out of nowhere, and gets unrealistically eaten by the walkers, which would not have happened with a real, still strong tiger. Oh, and Maggy, who was supposed to be preg still doesn't even have a bump, after it feels like 2 years have passed since Glen died? To sum this up: TWD, one of the greatest shows in the first seasons, has turned into a braindead, as in absolutely nonsensical and stupid, show which only people with absolutely no brain can still find good.
Man's Best Friend (1993)
the worst
This was on TV last night and I gave it a shot when I read Lance Henkrisen is a lead. Boy was I wrong to do so. This must have been one of the most stupid movies I have ever seen. What annoyed me the most was the totally incorrect show of dog behaviour, and no, I don't mean when that dog turned mutated bad, I mean before. The female lead acts outrageously stupid as well, keeping a really big dog she saw attacking her boyfriend and like it was nothing, naively giving it to be taken for a walk to a 6 year-old small boy. Great idea. This boy though and his friend are real ahoes and get the dog to chase and kill and eat a poor cat in the worst ever monster swallowing scene in film history. Oh yeah, and when mutant dog turns crazy he just kill for the sake of it, and no, not only the bad guys, also the postman who was just there at the wrong time.
It all ends with muti-dog being killed, his evil experimenting professor being electrocuted in another surreal stupid scene where another baby dog pulls the electrocuting trigger. Next scene, some months later, the female collie mutant dog impregnated has babies, they all look like collies but aha, there is one which looks like a Rottweiler mix. Yeah, that is not how genetics work in procreation.
Terrible story line, terrible special effects, the producers had absolutely no clue about dog behaviour whatsoever, and these kind of stupid movies do absolutely nothing for the already and wrongly bad reputation of wonderful breeds like the Rottweiler for example. So yeah, total trash, couldn't loathe it more.
The Walking Dead: The First Day of the Rest of Your Life (2017)
laughable
I didn't watch the second part of season seven, I just read the bad reviews every other week. I simply couldn't stand this dumb Negan talking the audience to death with the ever same annoying phrases and the plot holes getting wider and wider. That said, I did watch this seasons finale and well, it was worse than I had expected. I didn't watch the past seven episodes and what do I get? Negan bending his body back an forth, smiling moronically and bringing exactly those same few phrases again? ("Looooook at thiiiiis"... " Wooooow" "Daaaaaamn") Are the writers serious?
And the plot was a joke. Rick, formerly (very formerly unfortunately) known as very wise Mr. "Don't trust anybody" and "never let your guard down ever" - he trusts Negan's lapdog, who killed some of his people before and tortured Daryl? The same Rick who mercilessly killed that guy back in the church who once betrayed him? The same Rick who killed a man by ripping the guy's throat to shreds with his teeth? Rick's behaviour is simply unlogical from a psychological point of view, from where he came from, where he was already and where he logically would be now. Rick later standing on that roof with the betraying garbage woman holding a weapon to him from afar, and instead of just kicking our pushing it out of her hand when the shooting everywhere starts and she is unfocused he starts talking to her like "you don't have to do this.. bla bla?" and let's her shoot him? WTF? And who did this horrible music when the fighting started? TWD had great music back then, so what was that? Now for the funny parts in plus/minus points:
- that tiger, badly animated? Tigers don't constantly hiss and growl. They are silent hunters naturally, otherwise they wouldn't catch anything ever.Did the producers ever make the effort to take a real tiger's behaviour as paragon for this animated one? I guess not. Tigers also don't constantly shake their ears. And tigers don't know whom exactly to attack if you let them loose in a battlefield full of people of two parties mixed in the field. So this tiger attack was total nonsense for at least 10 reasons.
-all the betraying garbage people positioned exactly perfectly behind the Alexandrians so they can point their guns at them?
-Negan babbling on and on while the fight is still on, so long until the tiger has arrived instead of just doing what he announced ten times
-Negan being shot at from about 50 people with probably 5000 bullets, yet he has not a dent or a scratch when he leaves, his trousers are clean and his jacket is unharmed
-zombie Sasha attacking Neegan and again he doesn't even have a scratch on his face even when being surprised by the attack on thrown to the ground backwards
-that very bad hair dye job they did on Negan. Where does he get the black dye from constantly in a years long post apocalyptic world
-the way too long flashbacks of Sasha with Abraham. Their relationship was, well, very short, and I didn't buy it fully so it just was too much. And no flashback seeing her beloved brother instead? What have made way more sense to me.
-Obviously a build-up over 15 long, boring episodes and then a 5 minutes finale with a fight that had all those terrible plot holes.
For the few pluses:
+I still like the characters of Morgan and Carol. I didn't like that the writers obviously just left Carol in that hut for the whole season being whiny, there was so much power in her character back in earlier seasons, her transformation from an anxious, beaten woman to a total warrior, totally centered and focused to this wimpy thing now. Morgan is a great character too, and the actor is absolutely fab still. His behaviour and development was the only one I could actually see as logical. The plus for me is that they both are not dead yet. That's it with the pluses already.
If I remember how positively taken I was back in season 1 or 2, it was such a great show really, it blew me away back then. Characters like Hershel, also Rick back then, Shane,etc. it was really well written and psychologically thought through. Now this? It's the opposite, it's a shame. I don't care for most of the characters anymore, they annoy me, or even seem ridiculous in some scenes now. they should have stopped the show at least two seasons ago, or should have done a hell lot of a better writing and story developing. What they deliver now is just sad.
And just one more thing: I looked into here before this episode had aired and still there were about 290 9 out of 10 or even 10 out of 10 votes for this episode. Who does this? That actually fakes the true result of how people who watched it voted for it. If it has a pre-vote of 9.8 before it aired I have to wonder whose votes it is. Substracting those 290 superpositive fake votes from the real ones would make the current voting result lower (and more accurate) than it is - probably the episode would be at 6.8 and not 8.0.
Air Force One (1997)
laughable at best
This is from 1997 and I just now got the chance to see this on TV by accident.
Wow, what utter tosh! I don't even know where to begin. Harrison Ford as president with Ninja skills, Glenn Close with ridiculous peroxide hair trying to sound serious? Nah, my favourite thing is that it - of course - is the evil, evil Russians who capture the president's plane, I mean, who ever else, right? We all know that Russia is oh so evil (and I mean really EVERYbody there, no exception) as the media constantly tells us. And of course the baddie's name is even Iwan - played by Gary Oldmn, who is as Russian as I am a nuclear scientist.
So yeah, hail to the good old prejudice and please US movie makers, make another one with evil Russians, I just can't get enough Oo
Vikings: The Reckoning (2017)
partly good, partly annoying
Well, finally the last episode of this very long season of Vikings. All in all I have to say that the second half of this season started to annoy me for several reasons now.
As for characters: I really loved Lagertha since the first episode, but in this season's half it seems the writers didn't know what to do with her character. She looked way too fancy clothes-wise, (and what's that GoT-throne with the pointy ends?) ran around with that owl, probably to make her look cool but without explanation (which made is look a little ridiculous to me), she had this thing with Astrid, where nobody knows why she is there and what it's all about and she made some really non-Lagertha move by storming and attacking her own Kattegat, slaughtering her own people for 10 minutes, only to blow some horn then to stop the attack and stupidly say "enough, these are my people" - what?? She was not seen as an enemy in Kattegat, she could simply have walked into the great hall, and simply kill Aslaugh. So what the heck happened to the formerly great script-writing and character we had? Another thing that is really annoying me now is that the women in the show do not age! The men age, Ragnar, Floki, Björn, (who must by now be in his late 20s or even 30s) but Lagtertha still looks like 28? Why? Her character should look end 40 at least, same goes for Helga, Torvi etc? Worst is Judith, she looking like the young spring touching 22, while her "husband" King Ecbert is a doter. So please, writers, for women to be seen as strong, beautiful and paragons, they don't need to be ridiculously forever young!
But now for this episode: yes, the deaths of Helga and also of King Ecbert were touching,(although also Helga's character acted out of character for the past episodes. What made Helga wonderful was her soft, empathetic and intuitive character, and now she suddenly kidnapped a strange girl and doesn't see what she's doing to her?) but this episode, as well as most of the last episodes was way too much of the brothers stooge fighting all the time. Björn only has this one angry face in every shot (why?) and his character, which was way more multifaceted over all the seasons before, seems pretty angry, dumb and one-dimensional now. What did he do in this second half of the season? Looking angry, screaming at his brothers, having intercourse with his his mother's girlfriend, and being nasty to his wife, giving a darn (again) about his children. Not happy with that. And also funny how he goes on and on about being the "son of Ragnar" trying to make a point about how important parents/children things are, and he himself couldn't care less about his own children (he didn't even care about the death of his first daughter actually)
As for the end of this episode: I'm meanwhile just annoyed of Ivar, yeah, he's oh so crazy and all that, but it makes the Vikings look pretty dumb if everyone just watches him killing Sigurd and no reaction really? And I'm of different opinion to the other reviewer here: I understand quite well why Sigurd treated Ivar the way he did, because he understood from a very young age what a psychotic mental case he was. And, truly, his mother neglected him and favoured this disturbed kid, so why shouldn't he be angry? And also about all the brothers, the sons of Ragnar: their characters are so flat? Ragnar himself was a great character because he has different sides, bad sides as well as soft and likable ones. But what is to like about any of the brothers really?
There is a really annoying and stupid tendency in several TV shows (see TWD - Negan e.g.) that total nutcase murderer characters get ever more screen time because the more simple part of the audience simply wants to see crazy lunatics in the screen and even idolize them. If this happens to this formerly great and sophisticated (in the way of demanding intelligence of the viewer) show, I will be off next season, I'm so having enough of this lunatic porn that gets hyped ever more and for really questionable reasons. It's nothing else than what public torture was in the real middle ages, speaking the the lowest of human nature. And don't get me wrong, this show is brutal and rightly so because it shows the culture and way of the Vikings and they definitely were brutal people.But this Ivar idolize focus is a different thing, and I'm sure the writers know that very well! I also wasn't happy about that last scene with that bishop, and the actor who was chosen for it? Sorry, how unfitting could it be? And what kind of story line is this supposed to introduce in such clumsy and cheap matter, showing a sex scene (oh how shocking! - not!) with people nobody knows or cares about? That is the teaser for next season? That's not a good sign!
So please, for the next season, get back to that fantastic writing and scripts you had before, (and good casting!), get back to solid story lines and character development, and please, let the women age as they would. Don't feed the stupid Hollywood idea of "only young, hyper-perfect women are impressive" - it's the opposite! A partly white haired Lagertha with some lines on her face is way more impressive and believable than this way too fancy dressed, owl carrying blah you are showing now.
Vikings: All His Angels (2016)
Fantastic and sad
Ragnar Lothbrok is dead. Of course this day was coming but what an end he had. No, Ragnar was not only a likable character, he had bad sides for sure. In his life he was selfish, partly cruel and ego-driven at some points, and then, of course he was all that because you don't become a leader and king with just being nice and friendly, humans don't work like that, they didn't back then, they still don't today. But Ragnar has gone through a metamorphosis, he questioned everything, especially his faith and in the end came to the result that he doubts the existence of the gods, or any god. He came to understand he wronged people and he apologized to those who deserved and needed it.
It was hard to watch him being tortured by King Aille, and yet it was impressive to see how he would not back down until the very end, no words of apology, and with his final speech, that he hisses and snarls out of his cage, covered in his own blood, he went down like a true Viking.
As I said, I was always impressed by Ragnar, but always aware that he had bad sides, very realistically shown, and that it would have felt wrong for me to just praise him without having those bad sides in mind. Yet, when I saw him die now in this way, and before, him remembering the important things in his life, then seeing Gyda, his daughter, the purest and most innocent soul he brought into life, I started crying. I didn't expect that. His character matured in the end, not without a last mischievous action against Ecbert, who will wake to a surprise when the sons of Ragnar will come for him. I was sad to see Ragnar die now, and deeply impressed how he went out. A fantastic episode, outstanding acting from both Travis Fimmel and Linus Roche, and a death that will be remembered as well as the rest of the legacy of Ragnar Lothbrok.
Ray Donovan: Federal Boobie Inspector (2016)
Yes, great!
I was really laughing out loud after reading one specific review about the show. There seem to be some people who start watching a show, hating it and everything about it, still watching 4 full seasons of that very show only to then even take the time and energy to post one-star reviews about almost every single episode of a show they hate so much. I could speculate about the psychological issues behind such weird behaviour, but I won't..so, about this episode: I thought it was great, for several reasons.It was quite realistic for me that the trouble with the Armenian mob wasn't just over after what happened. Also that those killed weren't the real head of the organisation. Ray is having real trouble finding a way to bring this threatening situation to an end now. I also like the storyline with Abby actually. I don't have any idea why, no matter which show it is were there is an impressive male lead, that the wives of those characters always get so much hatred? this episode as well as many others show that the character of Abby just wants one thing: she wants to be with her husband, emotionally close. That was very difficult in the past time for reasons that lay mostly with him. She still tried, took in emotional blows and his steady cheating. There was one point when she felt like she had to get out of the situation and pay him back - understandably. And everyone now hates her? A weird phenomenon for me. She isn't perfect, - who is? - but Ray is far from perfect for sure and that is what makes it seem real to me.
Ray Donovan (2013)
this one needs brains
I saw that many reviews here state this would be boring and slow, or that the characters are cliché and unreal.
Well, first off, this show does not spell out every single action for you, it expects you to be emotionally intelligent enough to understand many things in the plot without feeding it to you word by word. It is a fantastic show, especially for those non-spoken, highly emotional things, but you simply have to have the brains to get that.
Secondly, the characters are not unreal, oh no. Maybe not everyone can live in a villa in Hollywood, true, but as for the rest? Like it or not but 90% of families are that f+++d up actually in one way or another, only picket fences on the outside and I love the fact how they transport this in that show totally in your face. I actually think people get quite uncomfortable witnessing this, and in one form or another, even if in a way more harmless form, they know it from their own family life experiences how messed up families can be. I personally think it's brilliant how this show transports the conflicts and relationships between the family members, how important father-children relationships are, not only when you are a child but also, or even more, when you are an adult. Observed in a perfect way from a psychological point of view.
Third, it also shows very realistically (and again very uncomfortably) how dramatic the lifelong consequences can be for victims of sexual child abuse. And how different (depending on the resilience one individually has or doesn't have) victims are able to cope with it and in what ways.
And last, I have to grin a bit, about some comments here from guys stating how a guy almost 50 can wear tight pants like Ray Donovan. Jealous much? - you'd have all reason to be, so you are forgiven ;)
Ray Donovan: Walk This Way (2014)
Brilliant observing of a totally dysfunctional family
This was one of the best Ray Donovan episodes yet. The writer(s) have brilliantly caught in how unsolved conflicts build up between members of this family, how anger and hurt grow in combination with selfishness and narcissism and now finally the bomb explodes on a forced birthday party for 14-year old Conner. Anybody who comes from a only half-dysfunctional family background will probably find this extraordinarily good. This episode shows why the word family doesn't necessarily mean your blood -related family really is what your family is supposed to be. And what happens over and over again if you don't find the strength to sever ties with such people, family or not. Brilliantly observed by the writers, brilliantly played by the actors, and yes let's be honest, it is a bit unfair that Liev Schreiber doesn't only look and sound good, he can even dance.;)
The Walking Dead: Swear (2016)
OK, I'm done...
first off, this episode had some kind of foreboding if you want. I wrote reviews for the past few episodes, already saying that "Service" was dreadful for many reasons. So, when I looked into the trailer for "Swear" and saw Tara I thought uhmm... I don't know if I want to see this, and guess what? The first time since TWD is on air, I forgot to watch it. I was busy with other stuff and only on Monday I realised I missed it - and I didn't care actually. Not a good sign. About this episode: that was the last one I watched now. I was almost angry two weeks ago when "Service" aired because this started to either bore me to death writing-wise or insult my intelligence with the ever more obvious logic and psychological super fails. Last week was even more boring, and now this? Honestly, I don't care about Tara, I never did. I normally would never point out anybody's weight but in this case, a zombie apocalypse show with the story line giving that the characters have to live on nearly no food, and if any then nothing nutritious most of the time, it is rather ridiculous that Tara looks like she has gained 15 pounds. That annoyed me already, but this whole story line with those Amazons and the huge logic gaps coming with it? No sorry, that is it now. I missed the air date this week like the first time ever since 2010. When I watched this episode I was angry and then even started laughing at some points because it got entirely stupid. So, I really loved TWD, I actually loved everything until the end of season 5. Season 6 wasn't that good anymore but this now? Total fail, milking it and insulting the fans intelligence. Thanks for 5 really extraordinarily great seasons with great acting, great character development, intense moments, even tears at some point. But it'S time to say goodbye now, so goodbye TWD.
The Walking Dead: Service (2016)
just annoying
reading the other few reviews here, this episode seems to cause quite a different reaction in other people compared to how I experienced it.
Yes, Rick is broken, I got that part but seriously, I'm not convinced this would really happen like it did in that episode. Although it was more than horrible what Rick and the others had to witness with Negan it doesn't really make sense to me that after that they get back to Alexandria, have all their weapons still there, then wait for Negan to show up (and of course he would show up only with 10-20 men) and yet no one get the idea to just position snipers all around Alexandria, wait until he comes knocking and then shot him and the few that accompany him. Even if Rick was too much in shock still to react somebody else could have had that idea and just be done with Negan. Would he be gone and the news would go back to his camp, his followers wouldn't try to attack Alexandria without their psychologically important leader. So no, I just don't buy this episode from a psychological point of view. Also I am getting tired of the ever same faces and tone of Negan and the rather bad writing too. (letting him say " looook at thiiiiis!" five times in one episode is almost irritating and makes the character seem unreal to me for example)
And this episode just completely failed to impress me, I wasn't scared of Negan, I didn't find it to be tense, I was just annoyed having to see this being dragged way too much with the Negan intimidating Rick, Rick looking broken, Negan saying yet another predictable phrase in a predictable tone, and yet, while Rick is so broken, Carl of all people dares to be the cool kid again, raising a gun and having a really weak line like "you just don't know yet how strong we really are".(although he also witnessed those horrible killings of Glenn and Abraham and he is still just a kid but hey, of course he takes it way easier than the grown-ups - no way and totally unbelievable for me) So, it starts feeling like the writers really seem to have had problems with a logical plot and instead filled episodes with way too long sequences of Negan rambling and babbling on and on with the ever same annoying tone and phrases. So, no, I didn't find this tense it just annoyed the heck out of me.
The Walking Dead: The Day Will Come When You Won't Be (2016)
I'm just not sure...
I actually thought I'd write a review about this episode the evening I watched it. But then I thought I'd wait some days and see what are the aftermaths in my mood and perception of this. So, as probably everybody with at least a spark of empathy in them, I found this episode really shocking in the way of how very graphic it was filmed. I know that it was all pretty gory in the comic books and I also knew that chances were that it would be Glenn who would get killed. But still, I thought it was very crass the way it was now shown in this episode and after some days I have to say that I'm not sure if it was really necessary to show it in that gory detail. For me personally, as a huge fan of TWD since season 1, it left me with a feeling of such unease that I now feel like I don't want to go to the TWD universe again. I never had that feeling before, although there were other very gripping and emotionally hard episodes, but there just was a difference for me.
I do wonder if it had to be a complete episode showing Negan torturing the group endlessly with his talking and threatening and I do wonder was it necessary to show the scene with Glenn to such length, wouldn't it have been enough showing him with that eye popping out (which was just awful already) and saying his last words to Maggy, and was it really necessary for the story or making clear how serious the situation with Negan is, to show his twitching body on the ground, already without his head? I think it was not necessary to be honest, and it was just for the sake of really shocking the audience and the feeling I have now after some days it, that this makes me angry, because this show (yet) never had to go to such cheap means (and I think it doesn't need to!).
Another thing coming with this episode and showing it in such detail is that through this it kind of loses a bit of what I really loved about the show, which was always the thought of "what would I do in certain situations and why?". "how would I change or not, and why?" That gave it a real and very intelligent touch and going into such unnecessary gore starts to take this away and replaces it with the sheer element of visual shock. I don't like that, at all. Coming with this is another thing I really don't like. Many longtime fans of TWD liked the show for those "intelligent" reasons I just listed, and because it was more than just a stupid zombieshow for the sake of gore. Now, as seen in several comments on the net, there are really weird people tuning into this, almost turned on by this gory shocking stuff, writing things like "Team Negan", or "I hope Negan stays long enough to really torture the survivors much more" etc. These are people without any empathy, obviously enjoying snuff, and people who say such things not even realising what they are saying are just bloody scary for many reasons in my opinion, so no, I don't like what kind of new "fans" this kind of perverted gore draws in. As a factual critical thing about this episode I also have to say that some things might work in the comic books but not in the TV show. I personally thought it was totally and absolutely unrealistic that Carl was like totally cool, just shaking a little with rage but otherwise, and after having seen two close people beat to a bloody pulp, he talks to Negan like a pro, calm and almost easy-going, - all that while all other adults are whether crying and whimpering (yes, that is realistic) or like Rick, his own father, totally losing it in the end. Yet, "cool" Carl is just there taking it like nothing really happened. Sorry, totally unrealistic in that situation, an not believable at all. As I said, I know in the books he is kind of described like that and thus becoming kind of a "favourite" to Negan, but still, this psychologically didn't work for me in the TV episode. I also didn't like the many flashbacks Rick had on that van, and using that again to show yet another sequence of gory possible baseball bat-deaths. And I don't like this flashback idea in general, it annoyed me alredy in season 6, when this unbearable Jessie character died and Rick had flashbacks of her while he only kissed her once and barely knew her.
That said, I'll give this only a 4/10 because the more days pass, the less I like the feeling I have about this. I will look into the next few episodes,and I hope TWD will return to its former, intelligent and believable ways without having to use the means of unnecessary gore just for the sake of it.
Outlander: By the Pricking of My Thumbs (2015)
not the best episode for sure
I actually didn't like this episode very much. I can't remember right now how exactly things were in the books, but while watching this episode, some things really didn't add up for me. First question for me, when only judging the TV episode: why does Claire consider Geillis a friend? I mean, at all? Since she has met her the first time, the woman has "lunatic" written all over her face, she openly shows that she doesn't care for anything but her own well-being, and she said some rather nasty things to Claire already. That said, Claire really drove me crazy with her stupidity here. After Jamie spanks the living daylight out of her shortly before because she didn't do what he told her to, and she promised to do what he says in important matters from now on - what is the next thing she does? After Jamie tells her in a very urgent voice to stay the hell away from Geillis as he smells already that she will get in trouble for poisoning her late husband, Claire gets a small note, meant to be written by Geillis and telling her to come as quick as possible, and the next thing Claire does is she goes to Geillis' place in an instant? How dumb is she? Why doesn't she listen to what Jamie said - again?
And what makes this episode even worse for me is the lack in logic. In the end we find out that it was not Geillis but Loaghaire who has sent the note to Claire to lure her into a trap together with Geillis. Fine plot idea that, only that I'd bet my house that in the 18th century, the granddaughter of the castle's female chambermaid and cook (Mrs. Fitzgibbons) certainly didn't visit a school, so she certainly couldn't even write her own name, let alone that kind of note written in the most beautiful and delicate letters. She also wouldn't know anyone of higher stand who could have written the note for her, and even if, she couldn't have done that as then someone else would have known about her foul plan. So I think this was the first episode where there was a real lack of logic and simply a historical inaccuracy as the "simple" folk in the castles simply couldn't write back then.
Outlander: The Gathering (2014)
not bad but...
well, I have read the books about 15 years ago and prior to watching the first season of this I re-read the first book again. Let me first say they didn't do terrible with the TV show, but I also think they didn't do really good. I do have a problem with some details, like, why is Jamie clean shaven most of the time, even when they are out in the wild for days?
And as for this episode in particular, I really have trouble seeing the chosen actor playing Dougal McKenzie. Sorry, but the books clearly stated a rather dark man, especially described with "long russet hair". In this episode we have this scene where Dougal, himself rather drunk, first rescues Claire from other drunken Highlanders trying to assault her. Then Dougal himself makes an attempt on Claire, and in the book this scene is very intense because he lets go of her and tells her she should run off before she has to pay a higher price. This scene was intense in the books because it left the tension of both characters until Claire left the scene, and it showed that Dougal could have done something he decided he wouldn't do, and it in the book it showed Claire that she indeed is at the very mercy of these men.
So why on earth did the writers of the TV show decide to change that scene in yet another unrealistic superhero-scene for Claire, when, unnecessarily, she takes up some wooden stool and beats someone like Dougal McKenzie unconscious? What was that about? Why? It left him look like an idiot. A tall Highlander, experienced in close combat in any situation, and because he is a little drunk he easily gets beaten over the head by a small, petite woman? No way.
It's the same by the way with the actor who plays Murtagh. Good actor, no question, but absolutely not the Murtagh described in the books. The book character is rather old, small, slim and wiry, not a rather tall, strong, goodlooking guy like the actor they chose. Why?
So,sorry, but I just can't get my head around why they picked a bald actor for playing Dougal and, quite often in the TV show now, why they changed certain scenes unnecessarily like here.
The X Files: Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster (2016)
Ah, no!
As many others I was really enjoying the mere thought of the X-Files coming back to the screen. And oh man, what a let down! This was by far the worst new episode. It was pure very bad slapstick, not at all funny. It has nothing to do what so ever with the original series which topic was serious stuff, paranormal phenomena but all embedded in believable characters, with real lives and real trouble. There was a seriousness to it back then that made it totally believable.
This now is the opposite, pseudo-funny, really bad dialogue, overdoing the mimics almost painfully, partly completely nonsensical, bored conversation, and the characters just aren't the same people as back then. No, not like they have changed over time it is simply not the same characters. I'll stick with the wonderful original. This has nothing to do with it unfortunately.
The Walking Dead: The Next World (2016)
Hmmmm...
I have to admit I expected more of this episode. I see to a certain point that one or two laughs every now and then aren't a bad thing, but it was a bit too much for my taste this time. And the way Rick and Daryl act was quite illogic to me. Rick with all his history, with knowing how people are these days, - and just after having seen another human, his late love interests son, shooting out his own sons eye - the very same Rick is now as naive as he was in the beginning of the show - whereas it was understandable back then due to his lack of knowledge and experience.
This guy Jesus cheats them out of the supply truck like two schoolboys, they follow him on foot, catch him again, get the truck back, he cheats them again, this time resulting in the loss of the truck with all the supplies and then they - take this same guy with them to Alexandria??? Like, WHY? Why would somebody like Rick do something so stupid after being jerked by that guy twice in a row? Because he sees things different now, has hope for everything again? I didn't get the part why he would have had that immense change of feelings? I see that he was impressed that in the end everybody in Alexandria fought together against the hordes of walkers, but that is it? Sorry, I don't buy it. To get out of an emotionally dark place doesn't mean you simply forget all you went through? Not convincing for me.
For the rest of the episode: I'm sorry to admit it but I don't care much for Spencer. I also don't care much for Enid. What about the main characters? Where was Carol? Glenn? Maggie's pregnancy? Anything? I don't mind the idea of Rick and Michone together, I actually thought a long time ago they would be a good match after what they've been through together and their level of trust in each other. But to put this in the end of the episode just to being interrupted completely naked like fools, again, by Jesus, who again managed to free himself from being tied up like a parcel? Nah. I really hope this gets better soon!
The Walking Dead: Here's Not Here (2015)
Long story short: Morgan will never learn that lesson!
This episode was good in the way that it explains perfectly the totally irrational behavior of Morgan in Alexandria. Saving one killer while endangering and even attacking his own, good people instead of defending them.
In a nutshell: In the beginning, Morgan survived with his son, but due to his weakness of not being able to shot his already dead wife after Rick left, this very dead wife later kills his son. That was Morgan's fault. But instead of getting the message he gets insane, "clearing" things up all the time (that was one great episode by the way - "Clear"), and although pitying himself he is, again, too weak to just end it and kill himself. Back then, Rick offers him to come with the group, but Morgan declines - another mistake. In this episode now we see what happened after Rick left him back then, Morgan turns full speed killer, also killing humans that wouldn't hurt him, he just kills anything. Then he meets this big guy in the cabin in the woods with his goat - a guy who doesn't really have an idea about how awful the world is because he lives in his hermetic little place trying to make goat cheese.
So, this guy some days back learned Aikido, and after being a victim of a really evil person that killed his family, and after torturing that person to death later, he then, in his hermetic, lonesome little place decides to do the "peace and love is the solution" -number, probably just as a means to not go insane himself. Now, Morgan comes along, batsh*tcrazy, and this big guy decides to wrap his idea of peace onto Morgan, giving him the message that "all life is precious" - even the lives of evil people. (which is kind of funny saying that _after_ he slowly killed the killer of his family himself): Funny is also that another message of this guy to Morgan is that "it's all about connecting with people" - coming from a guy preaching this while living totally alone in a cabin in the wood for ages.
Anyways, Morgan first rejects that message, then soaks it up like a religiously dried sponge and then goes to Alexandria putting this idea, which worked out great in that little lonesome cabin for that other guy and which thus was easy to say, into a totally different context, and logically, in his attempt to "not kill anybody", he later attacks Carol, and with his behavior of wanting to repeat that pseudo-healing number, he keeps an attacker in a basement who later can escape and with this endangering many people in Alexandria. So, again, instead of being able to transfer the information he got to the current, very different situation, Morgan, fails again and is probably responsible for the deaths of good people for his idiotic attempt to "safe the psycho-killer". How short-sighted is he not to understand that "not killing anybody" doesn't only mean not killing anybody personally but also being responsible and killing people secondhand? So well, the message simply is: Morgan is just weak and will never learn until the bitter end.
The X Files: Syzygy (1996)
one of my favourites
This episode means a lot to me personally. I remember when this aired here in 1996, I was a 17 year old girl, a little insecure and a huge fan of the series already. I had some kind of "trauma", because my birthday, which is shortly after Christmas was often forgotten by many people.
Apart from this episode being written fantastically funny and I found (and still find) it very exciting I was really flabbergasted when in the show they said that this very special important star constellation was on January 12th, 1979. As this is my birthday I remember feeling like I was even part of the show. And it felt like my birthday was something special after all. So, still a nice memory and still one of my favourite episodes!
The Walking Dead: Clear (2013)
One of the best episodes!
There were definitely a few episodes of "the walking dead" that were kind of haunting and sticking in your mind for a while, making you think. But for me, this is the one that got stuck permanently and really hit me emotionally. As several other reviewers said, Lennie James is just awesome. His acting is that intense that he manages to stop you breathing just being on screen, talking. The conversations Rick and Morgan have are intense, drastic and although Morgan kind of lost his mind on the way, he speaks many truths nonetheless. But what got me most is the discrepancy you can see and feel, - Rick, Carl and Michonne in the car, the lonely guy outside, screaming his lungs out for them to stop, to take him in, and twice - they don't. Helping is not an option anymore. Seeing Rick getting emotionally back to hi roots, his hometown, and Morgan, who saved him long ago, and seeing rick suddenly remembering his humanity, wanting to help, to save Morgan - but he can't. And then the last scene, humanity gone again, reality hitting you like a club - the three of them going back in the car, an seeing what's left of that hitchhiker from the beginning of the episode, only entrails. And then, even the car going back and just taking this persons backpack and supplies, emotionless. That's how the world is there, no excuses. And the humane shadow of yester-yesterday, - gone. Brilliant acting, brilliant writing, haunting!
Breaking Bad: Dead Freight (2012)
Yes, a very good episode...
..and I'll give it a 10 out o 10, but probably for different reasons than most reviewers here do. Is this show amazing? Yes it is. Is Bryan Cranston fabulous in his role? absolutely. But what shocks me a little is that so few other people seem to really grip what is going on meanwhile plot-wise. People say that they were "happy" when the train robbery succeeded. Did it succeed? People are just thrilled and most are even still fans of Walter? I mean, really? This show has the right title, he is breaking very bad for sure. He is not at all the same person meanwhile. He is only obsessed with himself, it's only about his Uber-ego and all this hatred he collected since he himSELF decided to get out of Gray Matter many years ago. He is blaming everybody and everything but himself for his whining,for his own decisions time and again, never taking any responsibilities. He is torturing his own wife psychologically and enjoying it meanwhile. He lost the last lack of empathy he had when he poisoned that little boy a while ago. He is only lying, manipulating and he is killing people (or letting them get killed) while whistling a sunny tune the next moment. Do people who think this show is great really still think at that point that Walter is any kind of cool hero? Because that is what actually makes that show and Cranston so great - you go from being on his side and empathetic to actually hating him, being so full of himself and not caring about anything else, not even his family, the thing he once, a long time ago started all this for. I had a pulse of 200 when they shot that little boy in the desert. He was a little nice boy collecting spiders and waving hello. And Walter doesn't even bat an eyelash, he is cold as ice meanwhile. So, no, it wasn't "cool" the train robbery worked, because it actually didn't, a little boy was shot. And all of this senselessly because Walter manipulated and forced people to start this business once again and only for his ego. No, this is not cool this makes my blood boil and that is why that show is fantastic. People who just think "oh cool Walter, he's the man" You know what? they just didn't get it, yo?
As If I Am Not There (2010)
Impressive, disturbing, haunting
As someone else here already said, this is not entertainment cinema. In my opinion it's not even a film in the usual way.
Samira a young, well protected and maybe a little naive teacher from Sarajevo leaves her loving family to work in rural village. Shortly after she arrived, war starts and soldiers take her and all the other women captive. As in many wars, the younger women are picked out, locked up separately and are raped, tortured and humiliated. Men are killed, children die, Samira is in constant shock and unable to react.
The director is able to give you the feeling of being part of the movie, of nearly being part of the group of women with their fears. There is not much music and also spoken dialog is rare. This movie lives completely from the realistic atmosphere, so much that I had times I was totally frozen and could't breathe. Some scenes are nearly unbearable and I started crying without even noticing it.
Yes, we have all heard that it is common in war situations that women are raped from enemy soldiers but this movie showed me that I never gave a real thought about what that actually means. This movie transports the feeling to you one-to-one and it's really hard to stomach.
Natasha Petrovic transports her emotions directly to you, without words, mostly with her eyes and her face is really haunting you. If you dare to open yourself emotionally to her character you can feel the fear yourself.
Also the end, when Samira comes to Sweden as a refugee, pregnant from rape, all her family dead, completely alone into a country which language she can't speak made me think a lot about how many women must have felt and feel in such situations. I how and if i would cope.
This movie is important, because it shows how quickly things can change in war situations, how happy those of us must be who live in peaceful countries and how extremely important it is to keep the peace by all possible means. Absolute recommendation - if you dare!
Eastern Promises (2007)
Major flaws
I was interested in this movie because I liked Mortensen in some other movies and I thought the topic of Russian mafia could be interesting. Unfortunately, Cronenberg didn't do a good job here. He obviously did some reseach on the tattoos but for the rest of "Russian" things I doubt it. There are too many clichés, and some things simply seem totally unrealistic to me. If the naive nurse would be any kind of threat to a mafia boss I'd bet they'd just kill her, or at least send some brute to get that wanted diary in an instant. I just don't believe they'd offer her a bowl of warm soup and negotiate with her. I don't know that lot about Russian mafia but I know they are a different lot and way more dangerous and unscrupulous than in this movie. But what annoyed me most is the fact that Cronenberg didn't take any real Russian actors for the movie. Sorry, but Armin Muller-Stahl, who isn't capable of speaking English properly wasn't a good choice to play a Russian gangster boss. I'm really into the sound of different languages (and my Russian is far from perfect)and it makes me angry hearing Muller-Stahl with his terrible German accent-bad English-trying to sound whatever but not Russian. I don't believe for a second he is Semjion, he is just a German guy trying hard too act. I'd love to know why Cronenberg didn't choose at least some real Russian actors. Mortensen American, Cassel French, Muller-Stahl German, the uncle from Poland etc. etc. Why? Hiring Russian actors also would have prevented all those really silly scenes where the Russian characters are among themselves and totally illogically speak broken English mixed with whatever instead of Russian. I'd bet Russian native speakers must laugh their heads off hearing the actors in Eastern promises. Too bad, would have had potential for a good movie but not like this.
Sex and the City 2 (2010)
Awful!
Around 2000 I was quite a fan of the TV show, not a superfan, but I really liked it. Yesterday night I zapped into that movie, and I'm still angry I watched it until the end. This seriously was one of the most awful, stupid movies I ever watched. No real dialogues, a completely unrealistic non-story (what nonsense, why would a rich Sheik invite four obviously rude, crude, loud, impolite American women, middle-aged but dressed like 20 year-olds, just because some z-class action movie is launched and Samatha has somehow (how ever?) to do something with it?) And those exaggerations! Of course they get their own Maybachs, their own elevators, their own butlers bla bla. But what was most disturbing for me was the offensive and rude behaviour especially the character of Samantha showed. This was NOT funny, it was just disrespectful to let her be loud, naked and vulgar all the time, running around the streets in Abu Dhabi, screaming for sex or complaining about her hormones. And the pseudo-Danish Lawrence of Arabia-guy :D! First, this was NOT a Danish guy. They don't behave like that, and it was most unrealistic that he (of course) immediately fell for Samantha, looking like and old hag with too much make-up and making raunchy gestures. Summing it up after all that, the four women are just too old for their behaviour and it is simply embarrassing to watch. Charlotte has a hard time being a mom with a nanny and a housekeeper?? Carrie is married, has two New York luxury apartments (btw who can afford that?) and her main problem is a flat screen TV in the bedroom? Enough already! Please DON'T make another SATC movie, it is just a shame!