macduwell Reviews

Brand New Cherry Flavor (2021)

all visuals no substance

[5/10 · 8 May 2023]

What a disappointment that ended up to be.

Sometimes you watch a series and you keep thinking, mate, it could be a nice 1.5-2h movie, but there is not enough substance to feel a season. And you just want to cut all the pointless schlock, only needed to stretch the runtime.

After episode two this is this show. You get introduced to the characters and plot stops moving, and there is basically no ending. Sure, some weird stuff happens - some of it looks novel and nice, some of it looks goofy, but there is no progression in it. One could've film like 100 episodes in the same way - it still wouldn't move a plot an inch.

It is kind of even ironic that this is a series is about a short-film that, so to speak, can't get a director. And this series' substance is only worth a short-film, and it feels like it didn't have a director too.

Inside Job (2021–2022)

RIP

[8/10 · 21 March 2023]

It was one of the better shows out there. While being an absurdist comedy it also managed to pull off interesting nuanced characters with reasonable and satisfactory character arcs. One may say it had a few rough edges in the beginning, but it was shaping up better and better as it went on.

Idk what's Netflix execs are on to cancel it. They are dumping an infinite amount of generic garbage nobody will ever remember, but the one of a few actually creative things they decide to cancel.

Anyway, hats off before Shion Takeuchi and the team for creating it. Looking forward for their future projects.

House of the Dragon (2022– )

plot armor

[6/10 · 25 October 2022]

I guess, this show should be very glad to have Rings of power as the main competitor. Comparing to that steaming pile, it indeed looks very good.

But judging by its own merits it is pretty meh, and on par with the final season of GoT. It is poorly thought out and lacks in details. No punishment for the stupidity.

Lead characters has insane plot armour. I'll give a couple of minor examples, that don't spoil the plot. Daemon wears open helmet on the jousting tourney - at the very list his face should be severely scarred by the lance splinters - nope, not a scratch. Rhaenyra - like a 40kg girl - gets attacked by a wild boar for like 30 seconds - half of her bones should be broken - nah, she is fine. And so on.

At the same time background characters are killed with no reasons or consequences at all. The same tourney is a good example - the participants should be very wealthy high profile knights, sons of the most powerful houses of the realm. Like 5 of them got killed, and nobody even mentioned it. And there are more examples of such pointless deaths, that only serve to entertain the audience. Member how GoT brutally killed the leading characters? - look we can do it too, right? Yeah, well, not really.

Most of the characters are lame. There are a number of exceptions to that: Otto Hightower and king Viserys did good. And the guy with the injured leg is the highlight of the show, and actually felt like the only true GoT character. The moment, when he talks to Alicent, and his words are absolutely innocent, but imply the worst - is likely the best scene of the series. At the same time Rhaenyra is absolutely unbearable and annoying. Her dumb erratic actions is the main reason of all the troubles. Daemon is not much better.

In the end it felt like a chore, and I don't think I'm coming back for the future seasons. All of this characters kind of deserve to die horribly, and I don't care.

Hellraiser (2022)

another forgettable reboot

[4/10 · 8 October 2022]

This movie has a terrible script. All characters are dumb, none of their actions make sense. Cenobite rules are incoherent to the point it is not rules any more, just a plot devices. At many occasions you would roll your eyes and ask: wait, you could do that? And it is not entertainingly bad, it is boring two hours long bad.

I don't get, why backstory of this movie is not the main plot. How much interesting would it be to see intelligent and wealthy man seeking knowledge about the cenobites and getting conned in the end. It was such an obvious way to establish renewed setting of a reboot.

But here we get a junkie dumb protagonist. At no point she has any idea of what is going on. Things just happen to her. And she kind of could've stopped any moment, which makes it especially painful to watch.

Visuals are average. Cenobites look very sterile, just folks in a plastic jackets. I'd like a lot more raw and visceral look. CGI varies from average to bad.

So in the end it is just another forgettable reboot, with no redeeming features, just praying on the memories of the original movie.

Sleeper (1973)

Rather dull physical comedy

[5/10 · 11 August 2022]

After watching this movie, I can't even recall why I decided to watch it in the first place. It is mostly generic unimaginative physical comedy. I definitely prefer textual comedy, but I appreciate creative stunts a lot. And there was zero of those. Two men are slipping on a giant banana peel for 30 seconds straight. What a blast. No, not at all. And all stunts are like this, very dull to begin with and very stretched.

There were couple of funny textual jokes, but those 10 minutes are not even close to redeem the chore of the rest of the movie.

The Black Phone (2021)

Not great, not terrible

[6/10 · 29 July 2022]

At the moment of this review the movie has a 7.0 score. It is definitely too much, but I can see it as a solid 6. There is just nothing exceptional about this movie: it is fine most of the time, it also gets sloppy some other times.

Performances were fine, children were not annoying.

Writing was all over the place. If you like to think what would be the reasonable thing to do, you would question lots of things here. Also there are two major arcs: boy's and girl's. And the second one doesn't really get any conclusion. Though it had couple of funny moments, it could've been trimmed.

Speaking of funny, I wonder if comedic elements were intentional. There were a number of moments ridiculous enough to fill like a joke.

I guess, people liked the overall theme of innocent youth standing up against violent oppressive parents.

Severance (2022– )

1000 lines

[6/10 · 8 June 2022]

It is a fine series, but it has all the downsides, that make series an inferior genre comparing to movies. The premise is rather intriguing, the actors are decent. But it is relatively easy to pitch an intriguing set up. A way harder challenge is to come up with resolutions to all of the set ups. Even now this show has way too many plot lines and questions. What happened to Petey, wtf is goat guy doing, wtf is macro data team doing, who is hospital women, what happened to Mark's wife, and so on, and so on. I really doubt that authors will ever come up with all the answers. And I am absolutely sure, that I will forget 80% of this stuff, when season 2 is out.

Guns Akimbo (2019)

it was fun

[6/10 · 16 April 2022]

I liked the part Samara Weaving was playing. Kind of a decent mad op character. Her story is a bit generic, but appearance and acting is on point.

Overall the movie is just fun and fast enough. It is rather cheap, at times effects looks bad, but nothing annoying.

The worse part is the last like one minute. It was a completely out of place sloppy sequel-bait. I wonder if the studio made them do it.

Psycho Goreman (2020)

just dull

[4/10 · 16 April 2022]

It is just dull. The movie has a couple of decent moments here and there: some effects, few jokes. But those good moments are just okay, not outstanding. And everything besides that just falls flat. It tries to be different, but I'll completely forget about it in a week.

Malignant (I) (2021)

It was good but not in a way it was inteded

[7/10 · 18 December 2021]

I dont know if it is intentional, but this movie is good in a way Evil dead is good. It is not scary, besides, maybe, the very beginning. But it is funny.

I absolutely love the character of Michole White. That "b*tch please" attitude was absolutely what such ridiculous movie needed.

Plot is formulaic and predictable, but it had enough flavour to it. Just give it some time to move forward from generic slasher.

Resume: good film to watch drunk.

Overlord (2018)

Private Snowflake

[5/10 · 26 June 2021]

Movie was quite annoying: characters and actions are written badly. Do not watch it, you'll forget it anyway.

About characters: Mr. Boyce, our main hero, is so special, that he could not even kill a mouse. Despite that he was sent to ww2, where he continues to try to save everyone, even when it is straightforward stupid and suicidal. Not a relatable protagonist for me.

Ford was fine - the only reasonable man in the movie. Not too much of a character though, just an ordinary seasoned tough guy.

Chloe, supposedly, was taking care for a zombie aunt for some time. Why zombie-aunt did not attack her? How Chloe was taking care of her? What Chloe was thinking about that? Could've been an interesting character, but ended up to be just a cute girl with annoying little brother.

Actions: Overall most of the actions are annoying and/or formulaic.

Private Snowflake sees his comrade superior surrounded and wants to rescue him by rushing on a dozen of nazis. But he is stopped by a tough guy.

Private Photographer is sent to bring down nazi-chief, supposedly heavily beaten with a knuckles. Nazi-chief tricks him faking unconcious, then disarms and kills him.

Private Sniper tries to save an annoying kid and is shot on the way back.

And so on. Most of this scenes do not develope characters, because they are too formulaic to be taken seriously, they do not forward plot eigher. Just waste time. Btw speaking of unnececary formulaic scenes. Private Photographer is ressurected by a zombie-serum, then he goes mad and attacks his comrades. Why? This scene kind of contradicts to how serum works in other scenes. Nazi-chief seems to act willingly after injection, Ford too.

The Great (2020–2023)

Not the Favourite

[5/10 · 20 July 2020]

Comparing to the Favourite the main weakness of the Great is characters and lack of conflict. Stone and Weisz played two great characters: they were smart, cunning, able to plan for more than an hour ahead. And here we have the complete opposite. Even the characters that are treated like smart by the plot are absolutely incompetent and can't foresee obvious consequences of their actions. Luckily the story knows that its main character is pretentious and incompetent. Catherine fails again and again all by herself without anybody really opposing her actions. Which is funny and was the reason I didn't drop the series. But here comes the second problem - there is no real conflict. Accidentally there are few minor encounters here and there, but with no major consequences. Peter is just an overgrown child. Elizabeth does not really do anything and just leaves on the verge of the coup. Archie seems to be the main opposition, but his actions are limited to "I'll throw a bird in your room to fake a providence and get caught right after". So the only actual enemy that opposes Catherine is her enability to plan her actions. Which is not really interesting and does not make characters relatable. So after all this series is just a sitcom about modern day topics in a rich decoration. It is very naive. It could give few good laughs. It gets better after a few series, when you realise that the plot realises that Catherine is a great failure. I expect it will get worse in the second season because Catherine will probably get the throne and probably will be treated as a great and wise leader, which she is not.