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Reviews
Fearless (2017)
Good story. Awful Direction!
Great story but almost unwatchable due to the awful directing.
Each scene is jerky camera movements and mostly hidden behind objects, sometimes just bits of furniture or stuff like kettles or half behind a wall or bit of window frame or whatever. Sometimes it's overlooking someone's shoulder.
I honestly don't see the point here. There are many great TV series that don't use this nonsense jerky wobble camera work. It spoils the viewing and makes it look like the cameraman prefers hiding behind things like some sort of weird voyeurist. Terrible. Directors like this need to study better camera work!
Reyka (2021)
I gave it 3 stars - and that was generous!
My main problem with this is that the main actor Kim Engelbrecht cannot act to save her life. She is totally unconvincing in her roles as an abuse victim and her role as a detective. She seems to feel it necessary to cry at every opportunity, often unnecessarily, as if this makes her a better actor. No it's unconvincing, and honestly cringeworthy. She cries 3 / 4 times in every episode. Why?!
Her relationship with her abuser is pathetic which goes against the tough cop she tries hard to portray. She speaks ridiculously fast, again unnecessary as if she's trying to pass off as an intelligent fast thinker. She alone spoils the entire series. Watch something else, preferably something without her in it.
Bullets (2018)
Brings a whole new meaning to the word 'boring'
Starts off well but starts to drag and eventually slows to a snails pace.
However, the main problem I have with this is the 'problems at home' which is not only a distraction but tiresome, boring and quite frankly, unnecessary. The private lives of the characters slow the plot just when it needs to be intense and distract from the investigation, which, in any case, also drags like in a reactive rather than proactive way.
There are far better Finnish crime dramas around. Unfortunately this one is one to avoid unless you really want 10 episodes of something that could have been done better in 5.
The Power of the Dog (2021)
Gives a whole new meaning to the word 'boring'
I only gave this 3/10 for the scenery otherwise it would have been 1/10.
Starts slow, does nothing, then some more nothing, then comes to a full stop.
There is little or no tension, no anticipation of anything exciting going to happen, good or bad, just one long meaningless borefest of complete trivial banal nonsense.
When I saw the credits and saw Cumberbatch was in it I was genuinely looking forward to it as he is often in great movies. He played the part well but not enough to rescue this 2+ hour long rubbish. I hate to use that word but yeah, that's the perfect description.
If you have a few hours to waste then fine, otherwise do something else.
The Haunting of Hill House (2018)
Waste of potential
This is about 5% horror and 95% soap opera / family drama. If you're looking for a horror series it's not this. Every episode is weaker and more boring with the story being more centred on the family and their relationships to each other rather than any actual horror theme. Pretty soon you'll be wondering why you bothered with this 'horror' series at all. A wasted opportunity to make a decent horror.
Also the constant switching back and forth between the past and present is a little jarring. There's little warning when it happens and can be disorientating and confusing.
Waste of time and potential.
The Commander: Blackdog (2005)
Terrible Camera work
The overall plot is good but my main problem with this is the awful wobbly camera work. It's like the camera was given to some student and told to have a go. It's all over the place, quite often focusing on areas that are irrelevant to what's going on, such as someone's glasses or the back of someone's head, etc. Quite often the camera is behind half a wall as if someone is hiding. Ridiculous. Really quite amateurish and off-putting.
The Commander herself seems to walk around with a gormless grin on her face as if she can't believe she got the role. She doesn't look convincing at all. Helen Mirren was far better in Prime Suspect.
Vikings (2013)
Great first few series - then becomes a mediocre soap opera!
First three seasons were great - excellent directing, great cinematography, convincing acting, powerful storyline, beautiful backdrops, but then...
...after the death of Ragnar it went downhill fast. Series four is a mish-mash of odd subplots and, unlike the first 3 series, not internally consistent. It's almost as if (gasp) the writer(s) has run out of ideas! Series five is worse - you may as well have your finger close to the remote control fast-forward button - such as Floki's attempt to build a pseudo-religious community! What the heck was that all about. Ridiculous nonsense, further cementing the idea that the writer just wanted to pad the story a bit more with nonsense because he'd run out of ideas.
Recurring themes from season 4 onwards:
1. Who is sleeping with who
2. Who is plotting against who
3. Who is betraying who
4. Who wants revenge on who
...ad nauseam. It's ridiculous and predictable.
As many other reviewers have said here - don't waste your time after the death of Ragnar. It's rubbish and only made to make keep the lucrative money train going...
4 Blocks (2017)
Intense crime thriller
Don't have any criticisms about this except one: the sound quality in series 3 is atrocious, shocking. They employed an amateur instead of a professional. It's a good thing the series has subtitles as you wouldn't be able to hear what they are saying in most of the scenes.
Greyzone (2018)
An incompetent police / security service that is always one step behind.
Bizarre that this has had any reviews scoring above 5 stars! Were people not actually watching the show?
As has been mentioned by other reviewers on here there are so many plot holes it's becomes cringeworthy to watch. This has got to be lazy writing. The security services seem to be either totally incompetent or paralysed with uncertainty as to the best course of action. Odd, when you consider the level of threat posed - a bomb possibly about to destroy an entire city and kill thousands. If this is how security and intelligence services work then it's surprising they have any success.
Hopefully, the next series will be better, but this first series was pointless watching.
Cike Nie Yin Niang (2015)
There's slow and then there's...
I love martial arts movies. Always have. And there are some great ones out there: Hero, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, House of Flying Daggers etc The Assassin can not in any way be classed as a great movie - only because of the ridiculous slow pace. There's slow, and then there's this. It's cringeworthy how slow it is in places. I even, on occasion, counted the number of seconds when nothing happens and it came to 5-10 seconds, when nothing, literally nothing happens. The viewer is left frustrated. I can understand that a slow pace is common in 'arthouse' movies, but even then there is usually something happening even if there is no dialogue. Frustrating, pointless, and an empty experience. Watch something else...