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Reviews
Il mio nome è vendetta (2022)
Take no notice of the low number reviews
If you want to watch a high action, shoot-em-up, exciting, gangster movie you're in the right place.
I feel very sorry for those people who watch movies like this & spend so much energy reviewing them as if they were judges at The Cannes film festival and totally fail to enjoy the movie for its own sake.
This is a damn good, entertaining film. The acting is excellent, the scenery (country and city) is great, and the script is more than adequate. OK! Maybe some elements are a bit far fetched but then its not a documentary - it's fiction. Sure, some of it is quite predicable (hence the 9 not 10) but still well crafted and with plenty of tension. Thank goodness for some good light entertainment.
Unlike many current films this one has a beginning, a middle and an end (well! 2 endings actually) everything is explained and there are no hanging enigmas - refreshing!
I really enjoyed it.
Keep Breathing (2022)
Do not believe the dumb poor ratings
With so much supernatural and fantasy drivel being served up lately it was great to find a show that was rooted in the real world. So many people have written lengthy, meaningful, good reviews of this show that I don't need to go into any more detail. Suffice it to say that I thought it was brilliant, well written and superbly acted. I'm only reviewing it because it deserves as many 10/10 rating as possible to compensate for the critics who couldn't see past their lack of humanity. It's totally allegorical and for me one the best was the sight of her old life being washed away down the river in the shape of her mother's letters. BTW it's got a proper ending as well. WELL DONE all who made this show.
Treason (2022)
Switched off halfway through episode 2 - unbelievably poor plot, script & concept
There's really nothing more to say; It's just drivel. Utter nonsense.
A team of "MI6" operatives go to a canal boat to apprehend a suspect and announce their arrival so plainly that she is able to climb over the side and escape in boat which is tethered to the barge whilst one of the "operatives", who is meant to be watching for her, stares vacantly into space, looking the other way. Do me a favour! Was someone paid to write this rubbish? Johnny English eat your heart out!
Wife of the head of MI6 is given a "pen" which allows her to eavesdrop on husband's (head of British Counter Intelligence) mobile phone call.
Child asks Mummy ( knowing sister has been kidnapped) " when is Ella coming home? She does know we're trying to find her, doesn't she". Then wife hides from MI6 minder while she listens to recording on "spypen" Oh! Come on! How much sillier can this get?
More I cannot take - Goodbye.
Capitani (2019)
Subtitles
You have ruined an otherwise good show: why do we not have subtitles in English (that's English English) why do we have to have Closed Caption (CC) irritating and distracting and detracts totally from the quality of the show. I cannot watch things that are dubbed but my French & German aren't good enough to follow the dialogue in "Original" so I need subtitles. However, I'm not deaf nor disabled so I don't need CC . I hate CC.
The Power of the Dog (2021)
2 Hours I'll never get back.
Oh! Well! There's a first for everything, I don't remember giving a 1/10 before, but then I don't remember watching a film this bad before. Having said that I don't remember this film now it's over - thank goodness. There is nothing TO remember; nothing happens. There isn't one character to like, not one. Every single one is dull, lifeless or just plain nasty. Even the scenery is a drag. And as for the twist in the tale at the end, it's so contrived and concealed that it had to be explained at the beginning of the film and then it's so weak and slow that I couldn't be bothered to work it out. Sorry Jane, sorry Benedict, it's a Turkey.
After Life (2019)
Reality seasoned with vicious British humour. Brilliant!
One of the best shows I have watched. My only regret is that I didn't get to watch it with my wife, who would have loved it, but she died.
Gervais's capture of someone going through that level grief and then managing to make us laugh at the same time is absolutely uncanny. Amazing dramatic skills.
I do, however, feel very sorry for those reviewers who rated this show a "1" and went on to say it was rubbish. They obviously have no soul, no heart and very little empathy with their fellow human beings. Sad!
Keep it up Ricky - I can't wait for season 3.
Finding Alice (2021)
The Best & Sharpest Piece of Satire for Years.
Firstly I must state that I binge watched all 6 episodes, in one day, on the anniversary of my wife's death 3 years ago. the trailer had led me to believe that it was just a comedic romp & I did not realise there was so much "real grief" in it so, some of it was rather too personal and difficult for me. However, I loved what they did with it.
To all those reviewers who have slated it I can only say, "where is your appreciation of satire" because, apart from the scenes of heartrending grief ( I know about that) The rest is pure satire: from the insensitive bank clerk (on the phone) who does absolutely nothing to help and finishes the conversation with the scripted (& irritating) "Is there anything else I can help you with today?" to the worldly & knowing, 16 year old daughter who suddenly finds that she can't articulate the word "sperm". The use by Alice (Keeley Hawes) of extremely coarse language, at just the right moments is superb & highlights the feelings of someone in her position.
One of the series greatest achievements is that there is not one single character about whom one can be ambivalent. Every single character from the detestable Mother, the obnoxious Gerry, the hateful George, the delectable Charlotte, the hilarious Roger (Havers), the unspeakable Graham, to the totally shattered, dipsy, confused & grief-stricken Alice, are all totally engaging and such brilliant caricatures of people I've met in my life (I'm old).
This series does not try to make comedy out of death; what it does is to show how people use humour & satire in the midst of terrible grief, to cope with tragic situations & to keep on keeping on. I met my wife immediately after the accidental death of her first husband so, believe me, I'm very well qualified to comment on this.
I have to admit that I was disappointed that this was just series one and I would have to wait for a continuation but the way it was left, there is so much scope for a wonderful second series. I can't wait.
La valla (2020)
Why deliver one episode per week?
Could have been good but, I'll never know because I can't be bothered to wait a week for the next episode. Don't forget Mr Netflix, there are a hundred other shows competing for my attention, and I'm not going to watch a blank screen for a week waiting for the next episode of this one. What silly man thought it would be a good idea to to go "old school" and release one episode a week: what an idiot!
The Great (2020)
Do not waste your time
I watched 30 minutes of the first episode and realized this show is absolute drivel! If you want a decent version of this story, watch the Russian production of Catherine the Great..
Le Bazar de la Charité (2019)
A Great Piece of Story Telling
First of all I have to say that I have no criticism, whatsoever, of this series. I am a student of the French Language so I recommend watching it in French with sub-titles, as watching it dubbed loses more than half of the atmosphere.
This is a fictional tale set in the aftermath of a genuine event of 1897 when there was a huge and terrible fire at a charity event in Paris which claimed the lives of 125 people, most of whom were aristocratic ladies. The story revolves around the lives of three women who survived the fire: one unscathed but affected, one badly burnt and disfigured and one who is uninjured but................well! Wait and see.
The drama is set in Paris in 1897 and the producers have done a great job of capturing the atmosphere of the city and the era, the attitudes of the people and the relationships between the different sociopolitical groups. The dramatic pace of the series is well maintained and there is a certain degree of "cliffl hanger" at the end of each episode, to the extent that I will admit that I was forced to "binge" watch it.
The plot is relatively simple but with a few twists and turns in a rather "Dickensian" fashion which results in a nice classical structure of having a beginning, a middle and an end. However, it is not without some excitement and a fair amount of tension. OK! So some will say that the ending is predictable, so what! I loved it.
The "18" rating is totally unjustified and the description "strong sex" has obviously been applied by a Sunday School teacher who has yet to experience sex of any kind. There is, perhaps, a view of one or two female bottoms & one nipple. but that's all, although there is some rather tender, and carefully edited, lovemaking.
I rate this as a thoroughly entertaining piece of drama, well worth watching. It is well acted and extremely well produced with good scenery and atmosphere. Overall I was left feeling happy and glad I'd watched it.
Tijuana (2019)
Dry as a Bone - Boring
Although I don't speak Spanish (I do speak Italian) I am picking it up fast from the many superb Spanish language series that are available on Netflix. However, this was a great disappointment.
I cannot fault the acting or the production which was very professional and together these were the series redeeming features.
However, the plot, the story line and the characters leave a lot to be desired.
The plot is so slow as to be sleep inducing; the story line is so narrow that it completely fails to involve the audience and the characters are given so little depth that they remain shallow and uninteresting. In fact it took 4 episodes before I started to remember the names of the main characters.
The sub-plots are left unresolved and they are dis-connected and inconsequencial that this hardly seems to matter.
All in all I struggled to stay awake through a number of the episodes and although early on, I rewatched the scenes that I had missed , by episode 8 I gave up and just carried on knowing that I had missed nothing worth racapping.
Incidentally there is absolutely NOTHING I this series to justify an 18 rating - No violence, No sex, No nudity and No profanity (other than everyday natural Mexican/Spanish street vulgarity).
A lot of really good acting, brilliant direction and top rank production wasted on a bum plot, story line and script.
Fugitiva (2018)
Stick with it!
I'm not a reviewer and don't pretend to be but, I tell you I loved this series; I had to binge watch it. Good story, good acting, some good twists, good suspense. OK, there's some dramatic license but so what, it's a story f'Xs sake. The kids are awful, sure, but then they are meant to be: spoilt, stupid, rich brats, get over it, hate them and love the drama. The people who give this story a bum rating have lost the ability to suspend belief and enjoy a good yarn. BTW it's way better in Spanish with subtitles than it is dubbed in American, which just doesn't come off.
You have to try to get into the culture as well as the story.
On Again Off Again (2016)
1 hour 37 minutes of my life that I'll never get back.
Absolutely the worst movie I've ever watched. Stuck it out to the end just in case I was missing something: I wasn't. Totally pointless and predictable and predicated on some of the worst traits and weaknesses in the human character, dishonesty, deceit, selfishness and mental cruelty.