Change Your Image
tzaeru
Reviews
Justified (2010)
Cliché after cliché to the point where I don't know if it's satire or not
The show largely compromises of over-used clichés after clichés of crime-drama-comedy. You've your very average, pun-tossing bad-ass cop who makes a point of only drawing his gun to kill - an idea which in most sane places would have you stripped from your rank. You've your awkward shooting scenes where, apparently, assault weapon rounds are blocked by simple car doors. You've Nazi rednecks with the uniform, glistening white teeth of the top-paid TV actors portraying them.
The dialogue on the show is terrible and reminds me of a style used in late 1800s and early 1900s literature, where a given person explains a piece of his life story in a 10 sentence monologue, after which there's a pause, and another character responds something largely irrelevant for another 10 sentences, after which there's a pause. Rinse and repeat.
Overall, the show is a mess of poorly written dialogue, implausible characters and silly action scenes. I can only recommend it for people who feel confident about being able to take it all with a fair bit of humor. Unfortunately, the show seems to take itself a little too seriously to be considered satire as which most of it could better be understood.
The Strain (2014)
Scriptwriting failure that spirals downhill very fast
Sometimes, there's a very subtle line between character actions and dialogue that succeeds in representing real human beings and character actions and dialogue that leaves us with a taste of utter disbelief and dumb-foundedness. This is particularly true in sci-fi, since characters are not only reacting to stimuli we've all had a chance to relate to, but they are also reacting to the alien, to which we can only guess upon the accurate and believable reaction.
Here, that line isn't subtle. It has been hacked to pieces and moved out ten thousand kilometers to the ocean of screen writing absurdness. I can not write this without spoilers, since I can't figure out equivalent stupidity to describe upon you. Think of this: An angry, passive-aggressive (and sometimes actively aggressive) dad bashes in and hacks off the head of your new stepdad. You're 8 years old. Would your reaction be total meltdown into crying and panic or.. "Oh. Okay. Was he a vampire? Oo. Okay. (Literally never heard of this vampire thing before, but I'll accept this just the same. It's okay)" Yes, this actually happens.
The show is riddled with ridiculous characters. Everyone seems hugely aggressive towards each other, friend or not. The characters are constantly jabbing at each other about anything imaginable. When creating the characters, I can imagine the writing team going through a list of "Ten most overused caricatures in fiction" and picking them all. You've your work-focused scientist dad who ignores his family. You've your stepdad who tries too hard to be an awesome dad and comes out as kind of a dick thanks to that. You've an old man who at first seems senile, but is actually the most knowledgeable character of them all. You've your Mexican gangster dude, who actually has quite high moral standards. You've a 20-something year old thrashy-looking chick, who wears too much make-up, has a London accent and is, apparently, a hacking genius capable of, literally, shutting down the whole Internet and cell phone networks.
The show and its characterization steer not only to the unbelievable, but also to the annoying. Majority of time, if it wasn't bad enough to be kind of funny, it'd be just plain painful to watch.
In the defense of the show, I must admit that the first few episodes were somewhat interesting and did manage to hook my curiosity enough to continue watching for a while. If you have the capability to ignore the hundreds of plot holes, ridiculous characters, poor dialogue and predictable personalities and plot movement, and can take the show with a lot of humor, the first half of the first season might just be worth it. Maybe watch the rest of the 1st season if you're curious enough, but you better be prepared for some extreme stupidity.
Chain Reaction (2006)
With nice gore and witty drama, this can be wholeheartedly recommended to anyone with general dislike of blockbuster storytelling!
I feel that there is a general atmosphere of misunderstandance(sic) surrounding this beautiful film. And indeed - is it so tempting to merely write it off as a yet another substandard, mindless gore-fest, but we'd be turning a blind eye to the inner core of what forms and holds this movie at line and above the rest. What this piece of art truly is, is a complex and nuanced critique of whole modern Hollywood storytelling.
Allow me to elaborate: While on one hand we've this fairly standard -- although well made -- merry-splatter-go-a-round, brilliance can be found from every crack and seam of the non-consistent takes; Brilliance oozes from every plot inconsistency and unexplained twist and poorly chosen phrasing for dialogue, for it allows the viewer to really focus on what is important. That importance is in characters and character interaction.
Instead of being treated the fairly standard "actor did an emotion, lets now explain why that emotion is important and what led to it!" and "this character is like this, now lets explain why he did something that does not 100% fit the off-movie stereotype!", we're given a rather witty collection of complex, inter-character dynamics. We see a character give a promise; It gets us to wonder, given the personality of this character, if his off-beat honor will disallow him from breaking it, or if his more.. evil.. side gets the best of him. Whichever way the answer is, I can guarantee that it showcases not only the brutality of the real world, but the ultimate emptiness and meaninglessness of human action. At the same time, the movie shows how human personalities and human ideals indeed have more sides to them than what is made apparent by modern easy-to-swallow -- and very shallow -- storytelling.
We see stereotypes that go all the way into caricatures, but at the same time there are surprises and depth molded into their stories. The stereotype is there merely to create the contrast. There are touches of true human life that we can all relate to. This movie is not self-explanatory. It does not make comprehension easy on you. But at the same time, it and its characters feel natural and true. Not artificial and plastic. For that -- and its experimentation and braveness -- I give it 9/10.
Still not recommended if you diss gore/splatter/horror and/or love Hollywood/lack a sense of humor.
The Eagle (2011)
The leftover scraps of quasi-historical action movies
I picked up the movie without much knowledge of what it was going to be like; One of those, "hey, this looks like a fun historical action movie"-moments - my weak spots! Firstly, the movie opened up like pretty much any other movie in the genre. You get a new commander for a fort, some of the characters are introduced, so forth and so forth.
After the first 10 minutes or so, I was already getting a bad feel about the film. The camera work was uninspired and somehow, all the scenes and the backdrops managed to seem more plastic than in the cheapest B-action movies from three decades back. The work of the actors seemed similarly uninspired and emotionless; I can't subscribe to the prowess of any of the main actors involved, knowing little of their other work, but what certainly couldn't help, were the utterly stereotypical and detailless character layouts; You've your typical Romans going on about how great Rome is, and your typical honor-bound "barbarians" going on about how honorable they are and so forth.. And so forth..
Also, the movie seems to introduce a lot of characters who appear as if they are going to have some kind of a subplot or an interesting twist to them; Well, this hardly happens.
All in all, everything in the movie was off. The props seem plastic. The camera-work is boring and messy. The characters are uninspired, which leads to the actors seem uninspired. The plot is streamlined and a bore. The battle-scenes are short and lack any tension or even good gore to make up for the poor screenplay.
I can't honestly suggest the movie to anyone, no matter how huge a historical action movie fan one was.