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turkishjade
Reviews
Naked and Afraid: Foreign Exchange (2020)
Your enjoyment depends on how you consume foreign media.
The episodes I've seen have been overdubbed, rather than shown in the original voices with subtitles. The "acting" quality of the voice-over is ok, but it really takes the tension out of the show. It's a bizarre choice, considering that the American version of the show has subtitles up every time the contestants whisper.
If they rebroadcast with original voices and subtitles, this will probably be a 7 out of 10
Haunt (2019)
Haven't seen something this good with Eli's name on it in quite some time....
I don't review many films, but this one was really exceptional. Solid special effects, great acting, and NO plot holes. Reminded me (ever so slightly) of The Collection, especially the ending. I hope Eli Roth throws more money behind projects like this.
Great fun.
Arrow (2012)
Above average action series with numerous flaws
I'll preface this review by stating that for all of it's warts, there is real potential here. The action is top notch. The male lead is charismatic, nuanced, athletic and completely believable in his role. The "weekly villains" are sufficiently evil, well connected and staffed with just enough bad guys to make the hero's journey to save his "Gotham" tough and interesting.
The big problem is that the writers expended all of their subtlety on the main character and made every single supporting character one-note. The little sister is never allowed to be anything other than bratty. The ex-girlfriend is never allowed to be anything other than self-righteous. The detective considers everyone with money an enemy of the people. The best friend is never allowed to be anything other than a smug troublemaker. And all of them are placed in situations where they only serve to harass the main character and ultimately I can't wait for their tedious scenes to be over, which is a shame since they seem to be capable actors.
I can't help but wonder if context is the issue here. After all, this is a show written for the CW and the demographic is mainly teen girls. For sure, at times, this feels more like a teen drama than action series.
You have to wonder how much better this could have been if it had been written for the SyFy network.
WebSiteStory (2010)
They made it difficult to get through what appeared to be a fairly decent story.... (minor spoiler)
I found it difficult to get through this film ( and in fact, tapped out at the 45 minute mark ) because the main character was such an unbelievable shrew that I couldn't stomach it.
The protagonist/shrew in this story is Laura, a girl who comes from a fairly wealthy family who run a production company at a local theater.... and that's where the main problem comes in:
SPOILER FOLLOWS ---------------
Five minutes in, we already discover that she is the type of girl who hangs out overnight with her friends and rather than let her parents know that she is OK and not dead, instead just shows up the next day expecting them to be okay with it.
It's after this latest incident that in the midst of yelling at her mother, she finds out that her mother isn't her biological mother. Rather than find out the circumstances behind it, she just flips and decides to get drunk and put herself in risky situation after risky situation.
Instead of doing this alone, she proceeds to drag her friend with her and fairly early in the story we find that her actions have dire consequences for her closest friend. The rest of the story is her trying to get vengeance for her friend.
And this is where the writers lost me. Not only is the main character unlikeable and childish, but her friend's death is a direct consequence of HER actions. In the half of the film I was able to get through, she didn't once take responsibility for guilting and dragging her friend into peril.
I honestly found myself wishing she had died instead. This story would have been UNBELIEVABLY better had that been the case. In it's current state, this story is irrevocably broken.
Legion (2010)
The last 30 minutes undo the previous 70 minutes worth of good will.
I wanted to like this film, the only problem is it has very large shoes to fill. The two films that come to mind, obviously, are "Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight" with Billy Zane (rated a 6.6/10 here) which tackled the whole "end of the world/standoff in diner/lone hero fighting alongside the little guys against a legion of bad guys" thing 10 times better and "The Prophecy" with Christopher Walken (also rated a 6.6/10 here) which tackled the whole "good angel versus bad angel/showdown on earth" thing 10 times better. Both came out in 1995 and while they didn't have the special effects that this one had, they had a cohesive story, GREAT acting and believable characters.
The internet is going to crucify this film, so I'm just going to break it down simply: The first hour or so is pretty good, and if it had stopped at the 70 minute mark, it could come close to the 6.x rating it's getting now. The last 30 minutes is a rushed, hatchet job that will make you regret seeing this film.
Also, SHAME on the editors of the film trailer for spoiling the two best scenes of the film (the old lady "reveal" and the ice cream man "reveal".) I hate when you do this. You stole all of the impact those scenes had and lowered my rating by a point.
Don't pay to see this film, rent "The Prophecy" and "Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight" instead.