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Cypher (2021)
So bad it's hilarious. Must see.
From the scenario, to the dialogues, the acting, the settings... everything is so bad, that if they put a little more effort into it, you would believe it was a parody.
The beauty of it, is that it's not a parody, but a show that is trying to push all the right buttons for this genre, without noticing it is drowning in cliché after cliché. Like a show that was made by a bunch of high school students who had the money to bring their vision to life.
The moment he meets the female lead, after she crashed his car, and he wakes up in her living room, she is wearing nothing but a shirt. Throughout the show she is always wearing miniskirts, all times of the day, indoor and out.
He visits his hacker friend. He has a hipster beard and... also wears a woollen bonnet, black sunglasses and a robe in his dark mancave. With his multiple computer screens showing flashy UI animations to convince the viewer "this guy knows computers".
There is also a scene where the doctor who was questioned by the feds gets killed by the bad guys in some wasteland. Followed by the obligatory slowmotion "bad guys walk away towards the camera" shot.
This show has it all. People wearing sunglasses in the dark, the babe wearing skirts barely long enough not to reveal her private parts, the crooked FBI agent that has you go "hey, he must be a crooked FBI agent!" the moment you first see him, lines like "you had one job and one job only".
If you want a good laugh, this comes highly recommended.
Treadstone (2019)
Better than reviews/scores suggest
I would rate this 7.5 while it currently sits at 6.9 stars. I think it is better than a bunch of other series that get rated higher. It is better than Shooter, better than Jack Ryan, better than Reacher. Not that those are bad, just that i rate this higher. It's obviously less humorous than some other spin-off series though, less light hearted, but it's well made and offers some more background to the Bourne universe.
Basically there are multiple current day storylines, of different agents that "wake up" and there is one past storyline from 1973, that binds them together, or at least shows how it all started.
Smurfs: The Lost Village (2017)
Pleasantly surprised
The movie currently sits at 6 stars, and while i understand how that happened, it doesn't do it justice. Obviously this isn't Pixar quality, but I found this more enjoyable than the Despicable Me movies and spin offs, for instance. Less convoluted, clearly structured, and i got some good chuckles out of it. It's an adventure movie at heart, where 4 friends set out to search for the lost village in a race to beat their arch nemesis who obviously has different intentions.
A lot of the Gargamel jokes are predictable and sometimes lame, but in a strange way they actually work.
The movie and animation are a lot more dynamic than the original animation series. Not that that's surprising, but it makes the movie enjoyable to a larger audience. It's a perfect family flick, only kids in their puberty might dismiss this by default due to it being "Smurfs".
If i were able to give it a 7.5, i would, but considering i find the overall score too low, i'd rather give it an 8 than a 7. This score should be interpreted in light of it's genre. For what it is, an animated movie that can be enjoyed by all ages, it does a good job and as such should come recommended.
Maid (2021)
Important subject, not perfectly told.
Ultimately, i enjoyed "Maid". The message is too important to dismiss and Alexandra's journey is interesting regardless of the show's shortcomings.
But there are shortcomings. Alex is portrayed as an intelligent young woman, both by the actor as by the story. She already has struggled to finally find a job while refusing help from people in her path and yet the story seems to find it fitting to have her think it's a good idea to invite a stranger over to a fancy house where she is cleaning, pretending it is here house, while drinking expensive wine and wearing clothes from the woman who owns the house. As unexpected as winter being cold, the woman comes home early. Who could possibly have seen that coming. This is just one example, but with Alex being a smart young woman who is very aware of the fragile state she is in, this irks me tremendously as a viewer. I'm sure something like this would fit perfectly in a soap opera or lighthearted comedy, but it seems strangely out of place in a story about a smart young woman who has recently come to realize how fragile her situation is, and how difficult and important it is to break free, out of the negative spiral that has been sucking her in.
There's not a lot of nuance in the character's emotions. If she is depressed, it's not really showing, not until one of the later episode's where her depression is actually being translated graphically, by Alex lying at the bottom of a deep hole in the dirt. A metaphor of her mental state.
Throughout the show, Alex does not or hardly show any signs of insecurity in her emotions or behavior. If you would pick random scenes out of the show, you would not think the woman being portrayed is in any emotional, financial of physical jeopardy at all. She usually seems in control of the situation, while she actually isn't. You would think the story is about a young, smart and strong woman, who knows what she wants and has a clear view on what she has to do to get there. Only in the most obvious situations is there a sign of insecurity and a desperateness which are clearly present, considering her choices.
As a viewer, who has actually witnessed a very similar situation in real life from up close, that of a young mother being abused emotionally and physically by her partner - the father of her child - who gave up her chance of an education, i feel that Alex's emotional state on screen and her actions throughout the story, don't always match. Often not feeling genuine.
Again, i still enjoyed the show and was interested to see what would come next. But while the subject deserves all the attention, the show itself is far from perfect. I'll give it a 7.
Mother! (2017)
Halfway through, i thought it could be salvaged.
Infortunately, it couldn't. Stopped watching 2/3rds through, and skipped through the final part. A perfect movie for pseudo intellectuals who will gladly tell you you didn't understand what it was about, or that you missed the point. But in the real world, this is just a bad movie. Insultingly so, in that it tries to disguise itself as something far beyond what it actually represents.
Altered Carbon (2018)
Season 1 = great. Season 2 = trash.
Season one was like Blade Runner as a series.
Season two was like Johnny Mnemonic as a series.
That's all you need to know. Watch season one, and then pretend season 2 never existed. I would easily pick those cheap SyFy shows like Continuum, Dark Matter etc, over season two of Altered Carbon. What a complete letdown.
Nightflyers (2018)
Recognizable - but don't trust the reviews
It's not the most original story. It borrows heavily from Solaris, 2001, Star Trek, Sunshine, Strange Days, The Abyss... But the hate it gets is pretty ROFL worthy. I didn't understand why at first, until i understood that this series replaced the ultimately forgettable (yet seemingly more popular) "The Expanse". I love Sci-Fi, but honestly, all the reviews rating this below 5, you can just disregard them. IMDB should stop letting every opiniated crybaby write a review and figure out a way to filter out the petty fanboy drivel. It also seems a lot of these people did not watch the show, like they claimed to have, since they are bringing up issues, which are actually explained in the story. But as it stands, Nightflyers is rated a lot lower than shows many times worse, such as Killjoys, Dark Matter or Continuum and other cheesefests. This show is leagues better than those, yet gets rated a lot worse.
Back to the show. The setting works, eventhough it's not original (as stated above), characters and performances are better than most sci-fi series, there is enough mystery, to keep you interested without dragging it all out (like The Expanse). There are a few things that don't make sense, but ultimately don't detract from the experience, unless you have set your bar to the standard of the absolute best shows of the past few decades. If you let those things bother you, then you can stop watching about 95% of movies and shows all together.
It's a well made show, i enjoyed watching it, but does not break any new ground. If you liked the movies/shows i mentioned earlier, and wouldn't mind a "light-synthesis" version of those (content & storywise), then you might very well enjoy this.
Timeless (2016)
This is not science fiction, it's a poor excuse to revisit and butcher historical events.
That title says it all. If you're looking for an interesting sci-fi series, look elsewhere. This is basically a bad and humorless version of what Quantum Leap did 30 years ago. Timetravel as an excuse to do "whatever". An episode facing the Nazis, an episode in the wild west, an episode in the 60's...
A bad guy runs off with a time, trying to change historical events, and the good guys chase after him through time. Every episode revolves around a new historical event. There is no logic, because you would imagine what has changed in say WWII, would also impact what happens a few episodes later (again WWII) but it doesn't. You would also imagine the bad guy starting his "history altering mission" with the earliest moment in time (because why change something, that might not happen at all when you go further back in time the next episode, to change something else). But, it turns out, this is one dumbass genius.
The fact that these are all historical events, don't do the show any favors, yet make it a complete joke. Had the series been about altering history for personal issues, things out of the everyday life of mundane people, this could work. If i recall, this is what Quantum Leap did, in fact. Events that would have no impact on history, but every episode could still offer the same amount of variety (being set in a different era) as what Timeless is chasing.
But this just doesn't work. The only reason why i gave this a shot, was because the beautiful Abigail Spencer from Suits and Rectify is starring. But after watching 6 episodes, i think i can say, this is a bad show. Maybe the writers should consider moving their talents away from television shows, and towards B-tier videogames.
The Saint (2017)
Yes, it is that bad.
Honestly, i read some of the reviews here and some people must really have low standards, or must have been getting paid to write a positive review. Acting is barely better than soap operas. I hope this never reached the theaters, because even for a TV flick, this is rather bad and if i had to pay to watch this, i'd feel scammed.
I did not know of the bad reviews before i started watching (i just saw the film pop up on Netflix and was expecting something like the Man From UNCLE etc...), and before the movie was 20 minutes underway, i had already mumbled to myself what crap it was. By minute 30, i was thinking how bad the movie would be reviewed on IMDb and i came here. I expected it to score around 3.5 (currently it's at 4.7).
The acting in the scene where the daughter is kidnapped, when she's outside calling her dad because she's angry with her (step)mom... the mom's acting in her response to the daughter was the moment i decided to write a review. The stepmom's performance, also later in the movie when she's being questioned by The Saint, really is "Joey Tribbiani" master class acting. On the bright side, it really gives people the idea that anybody can become an actor.
The story is something for a cheap video game movie adaptation straight from the late 90's. Editing (montage) is bad, script is all over the place, as if it were written by a 10 year old. Cliché upon cliché (but not in a funny way), with situations were problems are solved with naive solutions.
It's not the worst movie i've ever seen, but it certainly tries to come close. So i'll still give it a 3 out of 10. Because i'm in a good mood.