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Forst (2024)
I don't really know what was going on but I liked it!
This is a Polish drama about an a police officer using unconventional methods to track down a serial killer. I believe it is based on a best-selling book? I really enjoyed it although I had no idea what was going on really.
Wiktor Forst has been sent packing from the police in Krakow due to some misdemeanour and is back in the back of beyond, in the mountains, in his home town's local force, when a particularly gruesome serial killer goes on a killing spree. The victims are connected, but how?...
At every new location a caption appeared on screen to tell us how far above sea level it was. Perhaps because I'm only 19 metres above sea level, I didn't quite understand why I needed to know this or what difference it makes. In any event, It was quite high up.
At a couple of points I got James Bond vibes. In one episode they visit the mountain top hideaway/nightclub of an eye-patch wearing evil genuis (or something) which was very George Lazenby 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'. Forst also sits in a shower with a love interest, which is rather Daniel Craig in 'Casino Royale'.
At other times Forst reminded me of 'Kev' from Ricky Gervais' show 'Derek', particularly when he was making luurve to his numerous lady friends (not all at once of course) in a caravan! Honestly I am quite concerned Forst will have a sexually transmitted disease because there didn't seem to be much of a gap between the ladies, some may even have been the same day.
Yes Forst is a bit of a ladies man. The whole time I was watching it I was thinking he reminded me of someone and I think I have concluded it is Roose Bolton from GoT or maybe Jason Isaac's. Anyway I wouldn't kick him out of bed, unless he took me back to his caravan.
I guessed who the killer was immediately on seeing them but it didn't detract from the enjoyment.
I thought Forst had some fab music in the soundtrack which really helped the atmosphere.
Overall great fun, I'm confused but I'd watch another series.
Vita & Virginia (2018)
Boring pretentious nonsense
I found this utterly boring and pretentious. It is all looks and no substance. Perhaps that is how we would find the Bloomsbury set if we went to one of their little soirées. What is billed as a story about a romance has very little of romance in it. Vita and Virginia are unlikeable protagonists. Possibly the worst part is the god awful accent of Virginia. It is the most unnatural sounding Received Pronunciation, it doesn't sound believable coming out of the actress' mouth. It is so fake it really took me out of the film even before it dawned on me, how dire the film was. It appears the actress is not British and I really think if non Britons cannot do credible accents, they should not be portraying real historical figures.
Into the Deep (2020)
Evil in Plain Sight
I was broadly familiar with this murder, having been aware of it at the time it occurred. I wasn't aware of this documentary but someone mentioned it was on Netflix and worth watching, so I did.
Its an amazing coincidence (or not? - when did he know he would commit a crime, was he leaving easter eggs for the audience - it is weird) that there was a film crew in tow following Madsen right up until the day of the murder.
It was good in the sense that it showed how creepy Madsen was, hiding in plain sight, basically telling people what he was and what he was going to do, and no one noticed. It also showed the impact of his crime on all his interns and collaborators, who had recognised he was eccentric but had trust in him in terms of delivery of their project.
I understand that some of the people in the film were not happy about the final product and some voices and faces may have been changed using AI. I am really confused about that, the woman whose face is supposedly different just looks like she has a soft filter on, so I am not sure if her face is completely different or that slight blurriness is the effect. I'd actually be half tempted to google her to find out what she looks like to understand the nature of the special effect they have used, which probably defeats the object of them altering her appearance.
What was lacking was information about Kim Wall, there was barely anything, not even really proper photos, she is the victim, I would like to know a bit more about her. Also we never saw what the inside of the submarine was like.
Also, though some might not agree, for completion, I would like to know what they think happened on that submarine, a timeline of events, but there was nothing. He clearly just planned to get any female on there and kill them, and he basically told the girl who may have been his intended victim, that he had a plan, I would like to know, what happened. Did he drug her to incapacitate her? I don't know and when it comes to keeping safe from evil, it is useful to understand their methods. The actual event was not much of a feature of this documentary, it was just before and then briefly after and some reporting of the court case.
I feel like this documentary prompts more questions than it answers for a viewer who broadly knew of the murder but doesn't know all the details.
The Next 365 Days (2022)
So Nacho 🍑
I think it would be fair to assume that if you are watching this film, which is the 3rd in a series, you already know what you are getting and you aren't watching it for the exceptional storytelling or Oscar worthy acting.
This film is comprised of smut, views of Italy, and good looking men and sometimes that is what you want to watch, and if so this film hits the spot.
It is quite explicit for mainstream tv although I have noticed Italian tv dramas are much more explicit than British or American shows, so perhaps it is my cultural prudishness that made me surprised to see it. Anyway Nacho's peachy bottom was a very nice sight.
The acting is dire. They didn't have enough Dominico and Olga in it which is a shame as they are fun, and I don't really have any idea what was going on in the plot and am confused by the end but I am sure I will watch it again ;)
Persuasion (2022)
A travesty and can't even virtue signal properly
Persuasion is probably my favourite Jane Austen novel. The novel is a second chance at love story: Anne Elliott, a plain looking spinster of 27, whose life is really just being at the beck and call of her narcissistic family, gets a second chance at love, when the man she was advised to reject 8 years ago, comes back in to her life. Its all about hope and longing and rejection. Its lovely. It has some ridiculous characters such as Anne's family, but it is not a comedy. It is very soft and gentle.
So I had high hopes for a modern production. I liked the recent Emma film so am totally open to re-workings of Austen and not beholden to what is already out there. I went in to Persuasion with an open mind, but oh my god it is dire.
The best part was the first line and it went downhill from there. After the first line it became apparent that this film is supposed to be comedy (?). I think the producers were going for a mash-up of classic Austen films, Fleabag, Bridgerton, Dickinson and Clueless. It doesn't work. They try to mix slapstick humour, modern language, sexual innuendo and breaking the 4th wall and speaking to the audience in to this, it just does not work.
I can't articulate how bad it truly is. I would recommend watching the BBC's 1995 adaption of Persuasion to see how it really should be done and what the plot really is (I think you can get it on iTunes packaged in a Jane Austen boxset) which is beautiful and well cast.
As for the cast in this film. A lot seemed mis-cast for the roles. Dakota Johnson is passable as Anne. I think she looks too pretty for Anne, her not very 19th century lipstick was very obvious, her hair was annoying. Her accent is only passable, you can tell it is not natural and sometimes it slips. In fact it sounds a bit like Gwyneth Paltrow's fake Brit accent, which also is just not right, so maybe it is all Chris Martin's fault.
Anne's sister Mary looks about 15 and one of Mary's younger sisters in law looked about 35. Frederick Wentworth was ok but i ended googling the puppets in the Dark Crystal part way through as I thought he reminded me of one of them.
The film also tries to be diverse by having multicultural casting, which is fine, it works well in Bridgerton, but I wonder what the instructions were because i don't think I saw any South Asian faces in it and the South Asian community is the largest ethnic minority in Britain. The UK is around 87% white, 8% Asian, 3% Black, 2% Mixed Race. Henry Golding was a token Asian basically. It feels like the casting was for Americans and their idea of diversity, which is not the same as the UK, and didn't draw fairly and representatively from the community of actors in the UK.
Plan Coeur (2018)
Enjoyable Romantic Comedy
The Hook Up Plan ( or Plan Coeur as it is in France) is a French romantic comedy series which has as its premise that the female lead character Elsa's friends employ a male escort to date her. The show then follows the lives of Elsa and her two best friends Milou and Charlotte and the men in their lives.
I really enjoyed this. I only discovered the series just before Christmas 2021 so I was able to binge watch all 3 series in one go.
It's lighthearted, it did make me laugh out loud at some points and was full of images of modern Paris, a nice antidote to 'Emily in Paris'.
The male escort device didn't last long at all really and then it just became about their lives. The lead characters were perhaps the least appealing to me, my favourites were Cha Cha, Antoine, Max and Milou.
Some people have said they have used this show to improve their French. I only have high school French but I watched this in French with English subtitles and it was easy to follow. Anyone who watches it with overdubbed American accents should be shot. I don't think it improves my French but i did quickly learn a word they didn't teach me at school - Putain!
I'm looking out for more French tv like this but it is hard to find.
I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
Don't waste your time
I don't know what the point of this was. It is dire and I had to switch it off before the end. Pretentious drivel one assumes. A story going nowhere, I had no idea what was going on. Save yourself the pain and don't even bother watching it.
Love Wedding Repeat (2020)
Richard Curtis by numbers
Apparently this is based on a French film so I don't know if the French film was this poor or whether they made it worse in translation.
It seems like someone decided to mash together elements from films like 4 Weddings and A Funeral and In Time and thought that would make it a winning formula.
Female love interest is an American stuck with a load of Brits - check
Guy in a kilt - check
Dopey boring guy who still manages to attract a woman by the end of the film - check
Stuttering hero - check
Bit of time travel/ alt reality till love works out - check
Wacky/weirdo friend - check
I swear even some of the spoken lines were straight out of other films and even Fleabag's sisters boyfriend came on with a line straight out of his first appearance in Fleabag.
What it goes to show is that there is much more to a successful rom com than nicking elements from successful films. The lead has none of the charm of Hugh Grant in 4 Weddings ( or in every other film where he has played the same character!).
On the upside I was trapped at home on Coronavirus lockdown and there was nothing else to watch so it passed the time.