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The Reckoning (2023)
No accountability
Why did this thing need to be a 4-part series? Could have been a 90' feature film. The title is extremely misleading. The only reckoning we see at the end is that his grave stone was removed and destroyed.
Given this low life is dead his enablers need to be held accountable and face justice with no mercy. These are the arch criminals that went to Epstein's Island; think Howard Weinstein who ruined many a peoples lives because he was another predator.
In a 4-part series you'd think something would have been gleaned as to why he became this sinister vile monster. Aside from his mother having misgivings about her son that he is evil nothing was examined as to why he was so evil from a childhood perspective.
Yeah the crimes he committed are examined to be sure but again this thing fails on many levels. The enablers must come to justice NOW!
The Continental (2023)
LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION
I understand why they went to Hungary BUDGET. But if this series becomes full blown full time it must be made in nyc and the way things are in that town I am sure they can negotiate a good deal.
Like another reviewer said so, why is Winston speaking with an American accent? That is really stupid! At least Charon has been kept consistent.
It does use a lot of high profile music, like i.e., episode 2 Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine" and it takes a long winded draw out of it. Not sure that moving forward that will be such a good idea.
Cool to see Mel Gibson back in action esp in a Series! The original Mad Max!
This iteration of the JW universe will radically improve once it's green lit for a full series if they move it to nyc which is its original birth location.
Hackers (1995)
comedy
I had seen this after-thought when it first came out and was a ho-hum reaction by myself and the friends I saw it with.
Seeing it again now I can finally say this is a bad attempt at comedy. IMDb says it's "crime, drama, romance," when in fact it is simply a comedy and a bad one at that.
Where to begin?
Lorraine Bracco must've regretted making this thing and pairing her up with Fisher Stevens was absolutely ludicrous. Seeing God's gift on earth angelina jolie, looks like she was playing herself as usual so no stretch there to be a harpy from hell.
Like some other reviewers have said so already the soundtrack is what stands out here better rather than this pathetic attempt to be relevant. Thankfully Matrix came along and set the bar.
I like what some other reviewer also said, you watch this when you have gotten high and there you can really laugh at, to use one of the characters lines: "Universally Stupid" story the hapless characters like the Secret Service man with the awful suspenders made him look like a clown. But Wendell Pierce went on to play a real cool character in the "Jack Ryan" series.
Like when I first saw it this thing is still an after-thought if you have nothing else better to do on a Sunday afternoon, go to the beach! FURGHERBOUTIT this crap!
No Hard Feelings (2023)
Gratuitous Nudity
The premise of this thing is the deflowerment of a billionaire's soy boy by JLaw. The subplot which is a nobler venture is how these billionaire types undermine the people who live on the East End of Long Island. They displace families that have been there for generations because they have made it very expensive for them to afford their homes any more.
The ploy is the billionaire's parents hire JLaw from an ad in the local media to help their virgin son become a man. The objective is for this to happen during the summer before he heads off to his freshman year at princeton university in the fall. Their reward will be to give her a car she needs in order to work as an uber driver.
What ensues is more or less a comedy of error as JLaw tries to seduce and fails many times to get this boy to engage her.
What would have been a good romcom, but never anywhere near the Cary Grant type, is the gratuitous nudity that takes place on the beach at night. JLaw persuades the boy to skinny dip with her in the ocean. Some nefarious teenagers who happened to be by thought would be fun to steal their clothes.
What happens next is desperation by JLaw who not only stars in it but she is also one of the producers. WHY? Why was it necessary to have her completely naked as she fought the idiots who tried to steal their clothes? She has fallen from grace way down from her Katniss Everdeen that's for sure!
Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986)
Orpheus Descending
Had seen this when it first came out and saw it today just to revisit the go-go 80s again.
Elizabeth works for an art gallery when SoHo was still a cool place to see ground breaking art work, before the onset of crass commercialism.
Elizabeth is in search of love because she is divorced and like Orpheus descends, but only to discover the vacuousness of high finance and intrigue.
John is an arbitrage broker who plies his trade on Wall Street and on a chance visit to a flea market by Canal Street downtown spots beautiful Elizabeth who wanted to buy a vintage scarf, but too expensive for her pocket. He surprises and buys it for her.
John could easily be a mask wearing guest at an eyes-wide-shut party esp because of his penchant to blindfold Elizabeth while at times treats her with grace but other times like a prostitute. Like when he brought a Hispanic woman to interact with Elizabeth at the Chelsea Hotel for a possible ménage-a-trois.
Elizabeth discovers solace for her soul through Fansworth whose muted paintings is a spot-on peek into the callousness and soul sucking world of not only arbitrage but the urban landscape.
On a visit to see Fansworth she marvels at his simplicity who like deKooning lives in the Hamptons away from the city. Has the phone off the hook and when she asks him if he'll come to his opening in 3-weeks, he quips: "When I am hungry I eat, when I am tired I sleep."
Both Basinger & Rourke scorch up the screen with the sexual tension that jumps off into the audience. Especially a scene where Elizabeth strips and then goes to the roof top with just a jacket and then drops it down as we glare at her magnificent backside and whispers to him to spank her heart-shaped derrière!
John opens up to Elizabeth a little too late when he tells her towards the end he is from Chicago and the youngest of
6-brothers who is now taking care of his parents. By then the damaged he has caused in his relationship with Elizabeth is irreversible after the escapades he puts her through: crawling to get money he dropped; engaging with a prostitute; going to live intercourse show in sleazy Times Square et al.
Funny thing towards the end even though Elizabeth has shut the door behind when she left his apartment, he says: "Would you please come back by the time I count to fifty"? Think of this movie then as a preamble to "Fifty Shades of Grey."
Arbitrage later on gave way to the hedge-fund posse, think of the pedophile jeffrey epstein and the like.
As was the case with Miami Vice from that time this film also has some very hip soundtrack to go with some of the scenes. Especially the Eurythmics "The City Never Sleeps" when Elizabeth plays with herself.
Although there's not a whole lot of dialog in this film the atmospheric cinematography and chemistry between Basinger & Rourke more than make up for that!
Last Night (2010)
Falls Flat
This project had some nice A-listers participating in it. Even had Griffin Dunne in it who calls to mind his "After Hours" 1985 film whose character has a crazy night experience in SoHo, where "Last Night" is filmed mostly as well.
The subject matter set out to be explored were hot adult topics like: fidelity; infidelity; jealousy; lost loves; new loves. Things that go crazy in a night when doubt enters the picture. A very existentialist topic vs faith.
The actors did their job well but where everything goes south is the writing is what fails us. Seems to had lost the plot along the way when after Michael & Joanna first attend a work party and Joanna spies a beauty that she immediately thought: "oh-oh he works with her. He is probably hooked on her."
A Lost love bumps into Joanna by design in the AM when Michael had gone to Philadelphia for work with the beauty and some other colleague.
From there the filmmakers juxtapose the 2 couples who are in midstream of testing the waters of fidelity and love. Maybe Joanna finally had closure with her lost love Alex, but her bitter tears in the end betray her love still for him.
Like I said the writing is that makes this fall flat and the end also falls flat the reconciliation between Michael and Joanna fell fleeting and perhaps they'll divorce down the pike in no time.
The Billion Dollar Code (2021)
Caveat Emptor ALWAYS!
Given what we have come to know about silicon valley and especially g00gle and their duplicitous practices and interference within our democracy as well as the world over it all makes sense that they have always been a predator and have stolen other peoples' ideas, or as Naughty by Nature would have said it OPP!!!!!!!!
This is highly recommended instance of a cautionary tale of not always knowing who's the wolf in sheep's hide. In this case it would be this brian anderson weasel that ripped off these German pioneers that created g00gle earth now known as g00gle maps. In addition to that I iwould say eric schmidt, sergey brin & larry page should be held accountable for being thieves!
If we don't have accountability for these kind of predatory and duplicitous practices woe unto us.
Silicon valley once was a place of promise for a better world only to descend into a Dantean hell with no hope of redemption because everything there is about greed!!!!!!!
Manhattan (2014)
Military Industrial Complex
One of the things I love to watch is historical fiction because it becomes a learning experience as you go through a series that undertakes the heavy lifting subject of history.
In as much as I had initially thought this was going to be the case with Manhattan it turns out it seems to be more of an examination of the wide military industrial complex, the intrigues it creates the arch criminal villains it has given rise to. Think esp Vannevar Bush probably one of the biggest criminals the 20th century has created esp because of his family's legacy. The Bbush family makes a Gotti & Capone look like altar boys at Easter or Christmas.
Funny thing in season 2 we get to see the progeny of the pontificating sanctimonious Meryl Streep's daughter, who appropriately enough plays a communist; just like her elitist mommy.
WOKENESS factor: was there a black physicist at Los Alamos in 1945?
Another funny thing Oppenheimer character makes cameo appearances. I mean he kind of was the brain child but OK like I said this is a project that examines the advent of the sinister intelligence agencies and forever wars.
Outer Range (2022)
Chronos & Time
Elements of Picnic at Hanging Rock combined with
Quantum Mechanics make up the content of this Western. It laid a cool premise to examine this obtuse matter but as the story marched on it deteriorated to its h0llyw00dstan curse: wokeness.
But unlike Picnic yeah people disappeared there here people re-appear and then there are incidents in Range where mountain disappears and re appear.
I guess the hole in the ground is Time?
If you're Iooking for a roller coaster ride well this is not the ride for you because it is a slow burner.
When Royal jumped into the time wormhole it was 1886 when he came out it was 1969.
It's not a Western as much as it is a Tall Tale about Chronos and Time so just because the setting is the west doesn't mean it cannot take place in any other setting whether urban; suburban; another world another country another time.
But given this is Josh Brolin and one of the elite representative of h0llyw00dstan the vitriolic scorpion sting against America did make its appearance in an ugly billboard:
"America tells you that the only things worth knowing are those that can be known. America is wrong."
Now this harkens back to an ancient expression by Socrates who once said: "The unexamined life is not worth living."
So in this case we have vitriol against USA and a Western titan called Socrates the Ancient Greek philosopher who albeit suffered an ugly death.
White Girl (2016)
Free Will hits a Wall
The thing that some of the reviewers forgot to mention is that this was written and directed by a woman.
There's always the talk about showing from a woman's POV and so here we go. All in all does not really paint this young woman in good light that's for sure.
She is a young jezebel that wreaks havoc whenever she goes and never really pays the price.
At the end of this diatribe for a movie we see her in School as though nothing really happened no responsibility for what chaos and destruction she caused in a lot of people's lives.
Unencumbered free will that runs at full force until it hits a wall.
Desk Set (1957)
Corfu is a Greek Island!
There's a certain tragic irony about this film. I had seen it many years ago and decided to check it out again. At one point the EMMERAC which precedes the more sinister HAL 9000, is asked about Corfu and Tracy did not pronounce the word correctly (HAL 9000 talks about the human error factor in 2001: A Space Odyssey) and Emmerac spews out what she was given. Then the dashingly beautiful Dina Merril marches in to save the day to give the answer:
"The island of Corfu is off the coast of Albania near the mouth of the Adriatic." Giving the impression it is an Albanian island when it is not!
Why did this happen?
In 1957 Greece did not exist?
This is beyond bizarre since Kerkyra as it is known in Greek has been a Greek island for centuries!
Doing a little research here take a look what we know about Kerkyra:
"Thucydides also reports that Korkyra was one of the three great naval powers of fifth century BC Greece, along with Athens and Corinth."
Like I said a tragic irony all around. The doyennes of research the ladies in Desk Set got it more wrong than EMMERAC who was never given the correct info to begin with!
But OK it's hollywood, you gotta lower your expectations for the truth.
Tulsa King (2022)
Yooooooooooo Adrian
I love this new series produced by the Yellowstone team. Dwight "cinque telle" is a reformed ex-felon who has been relocated by the fellas to Tulsa OK to find new green pastures as ny just ain't what it used to be.
At the outset before I looked it up I thought this was an-hour show but then a 2nd look saw that it's 40' ok. Why you may see episodes as little 31' which is annoying because we want to see more. Anyway along the way our intrepid gangster picks up an ATF agent for a roll in the hay with whom he becomes friends; he shakes down a cannabis shop for "protection" money and picks up a hapless young guy to become his limo driver. A funny episode is where he laments philosophically with his posse since he was away on a 25-year stint for not ratting out the fellas, and he talks about the wokeness afoot. In this case why the pronouns.
Hope Stallone is around for a while since this could be a fun series together with the supporting cast. Enjoy the ride!
Shantaram (2022)
Can Sisyphus Find Redemption?
Lin Ford is a character of a dubious past when he lived his life in Australia. Committing crimes and along the way the inadvertent murder of a man. Does some time in jail but then escapes. He figures time to move on with his life and one of his shady character friends and criminal associate gets him a Kiwi passport and new identity.
He lands in shady Bombay India where he meets the underworld there. He has a Sisyphean battle in an effort to start with clean slate only to repeatedly find himself with similar shady characters in Bombay, as when he lived in Melbourne.
I have not read the book but based on some the other readers' reviews it seems this series is faithful to the writer's vision. Beautiful settings, color and cinematography is just the bonus on this well made series.
A place that seems to possibly offer him redemption is the slum he now lives in called Sagar Wada. There had befriended a hustler called Prabhu early on in the series and due to an unfortunate incident a fire takes place in the slum where he eventually steps in to become the slum's medic although the people there call him affectionately "doctor."
I think this series shows a lot of promise and outstanding cast should make this an enriching experience.
The Peripheral (2022)
Tron meets the Matrix
Now this series is something worthwhile watching I love the premise: a brother & sister with certain special skills engage in what one of the characters from the future calls into a world of quantum tunneling.
Their mother is sick with some terminal illness and mostly bed-ridden. So Flynne & Burton scrap up ways to earn a buck playing games and the like. However the characters from the future offer them mad cash to pull certain stunts only for Flynne in her brother's body in the game, find themselves on the receiving end of a hit from criminals from the future.
Along the way Wilf, man from the future in order to convince Flynne he is indeed from the future offers a cure for her mother who unbeknownst to her didn't know she was going to die. But Wilf offers her the medicine which allows their mother to completely recover and lead a healthy life again. At least as of episode 2.
Meanwhile Burton seems to have been in an elite military platoon himself who seems to have moved on but maintained contacts with the men he bonded with. Which comes in handy when assassins show up to murder him and his family except they were ready and dispensed with the killers themselves using military grade high power rifles.
This seems to be a promising series for the subject matter topics they seem to be addressing and what some of the modern technocrats are seeking for the future of the world: to live in virtual reality and what one of the antagonists called engage in quantum tunneling.
Gangs of London (2020)
Don't believe the hype
A lot of reviews here seem to be off their rocker. This is an ultra-violent and blood & mayhem series. If carnage & massacre is your thing well this is it. But then when one looks up what this is based on and yeah it's a video game!
The only character we want to root for is Elliot Finch who seems to have become the cabal's designated hitman thrown in with corrupt MI6 types.
One of Elliot's lamentations in the 2nd Series is that he negotiates with Singer to return with his Dad back to Jamaica and begin a new life. Of course that is cut short at the airport when both his Dad & Singer are murdered at the orders of psychopath Sean Wallace.
Elliot is about the only character that has any sense of humanity. The rest of the characters are cabal players like Koda for example who suffers a heinous death mostly because he was a monster himself.
I give it a 4 mostly because it's made in London the cast in general is good but this type of blood & mayhem content is too blood curdling. I just found myself fast forwarding when the Clockwork Orange ultra-violence kicks in.
House of Cards (2013)
Season 6 should not have been
So the shadow of frank underwood/kevin spacey looms so large that it carries
through this short swan song season.
Where to begin with this mess of a season that seems to be an apology for
frank underwood with feminazi undertones.
For openers did claire underwood get pregnant through some immaculate
conception?
If this season was going to be independent of frank underwood his "untimely
death" would have been dealt with in episode 1 and then proceed with the
Arkham Asylum democrat agenda that this show is known for. Well the body
count does add up as per the Clinton tradition where anyone who gets in
their way is murdered.
On the upside there's a delicious dance sequence between Robin Wright and
Diane Lane that is worth suffering this season for................
2010 (1984)
Debacle
I wanted to see this after all these years again b/c of Helen Mirren.
Helen Mirren aside who was good in this moronic sequel is beyond belief in
how bad it was.
Where do I begin? The Casting for openers. Dr Floyd was a very serious man
in the Kubrick masterpiece. Roy Scheider is soooooo out of his range in this
one it's not even funny. He sounded more often as Buddy Russo in The French
Connection rather than a scientist who is attempting to solve the riddle of
existence. It was absolutely comical.
Then you have the soundtrack which was absolutely corny. Kubrick used
classical music to an integral effect and 2010's corny electronics was
insulting even by 1984's standards.
I started to think what came before this debacle in terms of technical
sophistication and the first thing that comes to mind Alien 5-years before
in 1979. Guess Ridley Scott wasn't available b/c if he had taken over this
project you can bet he would have made a masterpiece.
The 2-outstanding performances were from Helen Mirren who speaks fluent
Russian and Bob Balaban who had the pedigree of CE3K.
The rest of the cast and production are totally and completely forgettable.
The last thing about this debacle is it may hold a promise for someone to
answer the question of the monolith. This question was never resolved and
maybe in the hands of a master say Christopher Nolan or even Ridley Scott
could do it justice.
Now that I would like to see. But first the story. Who will write this
story?
Shooter (2016)
Woulda Coulda
This show started out with a bang only to die of with a whimper; lot of
promise but then it began to take a downward spiral after it abandoned its
original premise which was about a sniper.
The shady government agency that was operating in the shadows betrayed the
show's original premise and thus ended up losing its audience.
The premise was about a hero. The seeping toxicity that is a renown
hollywood trademark ruined what was otherwise a cool show.
Good cast but the writing betrayed the show thus why no season 4.
House of Cards (2013)
Season 6 should not have been
So the shadow of frank underwood/kevin spacey looms so large that it carries
through this short swan song season.
Where to begin with this mess of a season that seems to be an apology for
frank underwood with feminazi undertones.
For openers did claire underwood get pregnant through some immaculate
conception?
If this season was going to be independent of frank underwood his "untimely
death" would have been dealt with in episode 1 and then proceed with the
Arkham Asylum democrat agenda that this show is known for. Well the body
count does add up as per the Clinton tradition where anyone who gets in
their way is murdered.
On the upside there's a delicious dance sequence between Robin Wright and
Diane Lane that is worth suffering this season for................
Alias (2001)
Modern Emma Peel
So needed to see this show again and given the availability to binge watch
was able to do just that.
The first 3-seasons were heart stopping paced. Loved the subject matter they
engaged in but what was the running theme Milo Rambaldi and the prophet's
500-year old foresights after the 3rd season started to wear thin. This in
spite of the charismatic Jennifer Garner who with the beginning of Season 5
she decided to "kill-off" because by that time she had met Mr
Substance Abuse Ben Affleck.
I guess call it poetic justice that years later Affleck D's not only
cheated on her BUT also had a litany of other problems only for her to run
back to her steady Eddie. The Michael Vartan situation certainly leaves a
bad taste in one's mouth.
Then the on-going double and triple crosses of Sydney's mother and never
mind that insufferable Arvin Sloane are enough to make one's skin to crawl.
The first 3-seasons were stellar. If there was to be a revival in the
slightest I would probably spring board off Isabelle Vaughn since in the
finale episode of series the little girl constructed the puzzle her mother
did when she was her age.
In the new series NO MORE RIMBALDI. ENOUGH!! There are plenty of other
things to pick up on and in addition no more Arvin Sloane. Yeah he is buried
alive under the earth where as series finale suggested will be haunted by
visits from the daughter he murdered. He is indeed a sad little man.
What would the new series engage in? Daily headlines offer plenty of subject
matter!!
In addition Abrams will not need to be involved in the day-to-day I think
Garner can become Exec Producer and Abrams may throw in an idea from
time-to-time. Garner strictly behind the scenes and maybe make a cameo
appearance.
The Looming Tower (2018)
alec baldwin as a terrorist more like it
Yeah this is a well done production writing etc BUT and this is a mASSive
problem of casting alec baldwin as CIA director David Tenet. This
anti American hate machine should have been cast as one of the terrorists
THAT would have been more realistic than playing the Greek born David Tenet.
Quantico (2015)
Shock Value!
When we all go to a restaurant invariably we leave a tip based on the service and perhaps even the food that was served to us. In the case of when it was bad we may leave a note on the receipt maybe a small tip no tip and in the case of this show which really deserves a zero but since that option is not available we have to leave a 1. Think of this one as a .1c with a hole in it!
OK where does one begin with this debacle of a series? If you want to know where Isis can get new ideas of horror and terror look no further!!!
Season 1 episode 1: LET's BLOW UP the Grand Central Terminal in NYC!!! Season 2: terrorists decide to ante up their game and decapitated the 1st Lady's head! Word has it that they were supposed to film it in the United Nations and once they got word what a vile act was going to be committed they gave them a stern NO!
Had enough? If you want to see mega-diva complexes and narcissistic principals this is the show for you! Priyanka Chopra and Yasmine Al Massri. Priyanka has an assistant who holds her mirror to make sure she looks pretty and Massri reprimands actors when it's not her place to do so. Needless to say people run if they're asked to work here.
Did you say you want to see content from self-loathing liberals? This is the show for you!! Why this garbage was not canceled after the 1st episode is beyond me!
Mercifully its ratings in the toilet since this show is essentially garbage in garbage out and will be canceled BARF!
Empire State (2013)
Fooled Ya!!!!!
Here's a piece of garbage that managed to recruit the Rock; Liam Hemsworth; Paul Ben-Victor; Jerry Ferrara; Michael Rispoli; & Emma Roberts into thinking this was going to be something cool maybe like a Pulp Fiction or something. NOT!!!
Where do I begin? I mean the only reason this gets a 1 is because of these box office stars where some come from billion $ franchises. They thought hey gonna make a small independent and will be a cool one. Anyway, for openers with the budget they had WHY WOULD you go to the 3- different disparate locations like New Orleans, Toronto and Queens where they should have focused on ONLY? Continuity in this things is a mess. Oh and in a move of desperation they would use exterior subway train shots to advance the narrative as though oh we shot that in Toronto so now to fool our audience let's show them a subway train so they think it's NYC.
When Ben-Victor's character gets fired from his job and seems destitute and a Greek from the old country ISO of us seeing him listening to some rebetika he just sulks. Doesn't even play the koboloi!
Then sorry but Liam huge miscast there as a Greek guy from Queens. Yeah he has box office draw but did not pull off this role. The Rock barely used and not well taken advantage of his talents. The "Eddie" character was the worst of them all. Yeah I get what his character was about but was so poorly played by Angarano that if I was them would have cut that role off altogether.
Then Jerry Ferrara what the hell was he thinking? Absolute abomination of a flick that was going to give us some insights on the "Greek Mafia" only to end being a farce and nothing else. Or my favorite "based on a true story." Too bad a zero not available here.
The Legend of Tarzan (2016)
Heart of Darkness
What looms large here in this time in history was what prompted me to think of that disturbing masterpiece by Joseph Conrad. The exploitation of the African peoples and without getting too fascist on the political correctness delivered the message loud and clear with some comic relief by mr loudmouth himself samuel l. jackson.
Great production value and I got say this the Swede should be the one to play Batman. He has the brooding down pat whereas Ben Affleck I don't think so.
That's all I wanted to say about this and it was quite a surprise better than I had expected it to be.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
Pretender to the Throne
Sure certain familiar things are there for openers the music we all love from Harry Potter not to mention the color palette automatically puts us at ease and hearing the word Hogwarts was the icing on the cake.
Outside of that then it's all downhill. Colin Farrell seems to be making a walking appearance and you forget he is in it until he re-appears. Save for the baker and the beauty who falls for him this is a hodge-podge that doesn't know which way is up and relies too much on special effects.
Especially annoying is the "Obscurial" whose ultra-violent destruction of everything that's on its path is reminiscent of "Doomsday" in Batman vs. Superman. Another mess.
Yeah I get Johnny Depp appearing under Colin's skin but character development suffers greatly. This has been a trip down the nostalgia memory lane for one thing = $$$$.
Harry Potter was actually good mythology. Fantastic Beasts sounds like the bean counters encouraged JK Rowling to Go For It!!!!