Reviews

This season has been dabbling in mediocrity since the second episode. A terrible ending like this was fitting. The only thing the whole show had going for it was the location that they used. Great idea but just a women centric plot and storyline while making all the men seem like idiots.

The supernatural elements to the show were a cheap gimmick but I found those more believable than having a group of janitors show up with rifles and turn into the expendables. Not to mention that Clark was totally lame and was a letdown when they found him.

The corpsiscle and on location film in Iceland were really cool ideas that should've made for a great season. Hopefully they can get Palazzo back on board.

Where to start? The directing of this show from the lines the actors deliver to the editing to the cinematography, this all seems like 3rd rate TV quality. How can anyone tell me this episodes duel between Vader and Kenobi was good? It was almost as bad as the one from New Hope. It was embarrassing. And could they make Obi-Wan be anymore pathetic? Yea he's been disconnected for a bit from the force but come on.

And the push for diversity is ruining this show. There were more women in the room at the inquisitor base than men. Sorry but women in general just do not want to be warriors or military. A very small % go that route but this show lives in a make believe woke world where women are just as eager to go fight. Yeah sure.

Introducing Richie Aprile into the series was one of the best ideas they ever had. He immediately asserts himself as the protagonist for Tony and I really liked the way the character is portrayed. Instead of the glamorous suits and style of the mafiosos in Goodfellas and Godfather we get Aprile who is little hell in a hand basket with no regard to looking the part, he is just an old school gangster as he professes.

Along with Richie's introduction there's a scene where Carmela explodes on Janice in a way we've never seen the former do so previously. A powerful moment for Carmela and one of my favorite of the entire series. For all her flawed logic, Carmela at her roots is a protective mother and finally we she how she can be as vicious as Tony when push comes to shove.

Plus we get a scene with the crew out to dinner and those are always great. Melfi embarrasses herself running into Tony after too much wine and Paulie tells the best joke in the series.

The pacing for this episode was great. The episode felt like a small movie in and of it self. You could've killed off Richie at the end of this one and it still would've been better than how they did off with Dickie Moltisanti.

This movie was pretty meh. It would've been a lot better if all the time they spent on Harold was deleted and used for scenes with Tony and Dickie as well as actually building up real tension between Junior and Dickie.

There is absolutely no point in Harold's character or adding in Frank Lucas. Seems like some mandates were made by studio executives to add some prominent African American characters. This movie was supposed to be fan service for the show but adding in racial strife and taking away time from mafioso characters in a two hour movie doesn't make sense.

Furthermore there's no way that they're going to let Harold live after the drive-by he pulled, regardless of Dickie. Not a chance in the Sopranos universe.

Major plot points felt forced and rushed: no bonding between Tony and Dickie, no buildup for Josefina sleeping with Harold, no tension between Junior and Dickie to justify a hit, no reason for Dickie to attack another made guy he just ate with.

Lastly Dickie's and Josefina's tragic final day together was way too reminiscent of Noodles and Deborah's ill fated date from Once Upon a Time in America. Come on Mr. Chase, you're better than that.

The Magic of Star Wars

The Mandalorian had done an excellent job trying to capture the magic of the original trilogy. I would say after the season and perhaps series finale is that they have now captured the mood that Star Wars created 40 years ago and that the prequels and sequels could not.

The final scene of the episode is one that will have SW fans talking about for years to come. The emotional pull of seeing young Luke Skywalker again, Din and Grogu's final goodbye, the benevolence and playfulness of R2D2 and seeing the child gravitate to him and finally seeing the look on Luke's face as he sees Yoda while holding Grogu was a mix of so many emotions it has me spinning still.

The respect that Mr. Favreau and Mr. Filoni have for this franchise is felt deeply by the viewer and never moreso by the way they handled Luke's cameo. Those gentlemen knew exactly the emotional kick seeing an icon like Luke Skywalker would be and the moment was handled to perfection. That was truely a special moment for all SW fans. My 9 year old daughter and I were both in tears at the end albeit for different reasons. It's a moment in TV that I'll never forget.

Great episode, one of the best if not the best of the series.

It hit all the obligatory boxes that make for a good episode: action, developing the series plot, humor, Star Wars Easter eggs, hapless imperials wearing cool armor, baby yoda being cute.

But the crescendo of the episode is when Mando takes out the last TIE fighter. After clearing the final bad guy Mr. Weathers cues the series theme music while showing Mando's ship though the binoculars as all the heroes rejoice. As cinematic moment as you'll find in TV. Absolute brilliance. As a fan of film, art and star wars if that moment didn't give you goose bumps or cause a fist pump then I'm not sure what you're watching.

I never thought a Star Wars movie would make me miss the Phantom Menace but this one just did some how. This is one of the worst movies that I've ever paid to go watch. I'm a lifelong Star Wars fan and while I didn't think the new trilogy held up to the original one I certainly enjoyed the first two films and was looking forward to this one as well.

This movie is a complete mess. There are so many ridiculous things that this film does that just walks all over canon from the past films, including the last one, that it's disappointing events in this scrap pile will become Star Wars canon. The prequel's took some liberties with Jedi abilities but I didn't think it went too far at all. This movie just makes the Jedi seem like a whole other type of character than what Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader were. Suddenly those that are force sensitive can know heal each other, meet and fight through some type of force portal and transfer force power.

The ending had zero climax to it. Just because the riders decided to add 1 million star destroyers and 1 million alliance ships doesn't make the scene any more exciting than the one in Return of the Jedi. It just look like a giant video game. a star destroyer was actually a really cool thing in the original Star Wars and now there's so many of them that there's nothing special anymore. The problem is they didn't come up with anything cooler than a star destroyer so we're still stuck with those but now they're a dime a dozen like a track home. Also the new emperor's throne looks like a rip off of the iron throne in that little known HBO series that just finished....

Killing off Chewbacca and bring him back two seconds later and having an emotional goodbye with C-3PO all the while he comes back to his regular self 10 minutes later it's not a way to get the audience on edge. The movie relies on nostaliga and cheap tricks to get people involved but those are fleeting moments that don't work.

This movie is a total cash grab and opportunity to sell more toys. There were so many cool things that could've done with the new trilogy and they didn't do so bad in the first two but this is just the complete opposite of sticking a landing.

Can we start a gofundme to buy back the Star Wars franchise from Disney?

There were a lot of problems with this film but I'll list what stood out to me 2 weeks later: the facial anti aging CGI was a disaster, no one looked under 50. The editing was poor in the 2nd half and/or non existent. There was no score, only a soundtrack. Anytime Deniro sat down or stood up it was pained and he looked 80. The relationship building between Deniro and Pesci's characters and Deniro and Pacino was horribly executed all the while they're supposed to be these close friends. The pacing was horrendous. There was no point to Paquin's role as the moral daughter since Deniro's character didn't care, 10 minutes could've been cut out of the movie without her. The Anastasia murder could've used some pre exposition, no one under 70 was alive for that event and had no idea that this was such a significant hit. And to further my last point it's hard to relate to Hoffa's time for people not alive during the era. I'm 40 and still am not sure what a teamster is. Other films do a much better job of educating the audience to historical figures they aren't necessarily familiar with, especially with 3.5 hours to work with.

What makes this all the more disappointing is that Mr. Scorsese just wrote a beautiful piece on the decline of film as an art medium due to big corps controlling most of the content. His argument is compromised now after putting out such a slow and bad film. Show the Irishman to a 20 y/o and I can assure you they'll be begging for a comic book movie afterwards.

All masters of their profession eventually lose their touch as Father Time always wins and unfortunately I believe the time has come for Mr. Scorsese as he is showing his age in this film through the slow pacing, insistence to use his aged, trusted muses (Deniro and Pesci) instead of younger actors and his over indulgence in what made his movies great to begin with. It's almost as if Mr. Scorsese knows this is his last film and he said to hell with the editing room and common sense, he was going to ride into the sunset making the film he's always wanted. It's exactly what he did and unfortunately it's a ride I regret taking.

On a technical level Dunkirk is one of the most impressive movies ever made but the ridiculous lack of dialogue makes the movie very unbelievable. Similar to "Thin Red Line" in this truly is an art house film unabashedly demonstrating both Malick's and Nolan's auteur, both of them say to hell with actually depicting a realistic war movie.

The editing, cinematography and score all make the movie very intense but as a viewer I couldn't buy the fact that the characters are being fired on in incredibly tense situations and no one is yelling or cursing. I've never witnessed a silent street brawl and I imagine people being dive bombed and fired at during ww2 are going to be yelling more so than someone being punched. The first scene sets the tone and had me skeptical from the getgo.

Nolan says this isn't a war film but that won't stop the ridiculous comparisons to the other great war movies in the film pantheon. I feel this movie was Nolan indulging himself going the silent film route while all the while knowing the studio was going to market this film into relevancy. The high emotional point of the film when English civilians sail to Dunkirk to rescue her majesty's army fell flat since there was no emotional connection to any character in the movie.

A good war flick builds on a camaraderie amongst the characters, this is an important part of any military unit or high intense team sports; in professional sports teams with good chemistry are generally successful for the long term. Dunkirk is a story of escape and retreat but even with that premise some dialogue between the characters to build relationships and depth would've helped. "Platoon" effectively demonstrated how devastating a lack of camaraderie is to a military unit, summarizing the issues of the overall US campaign in the Vietnam war through the microcosm of an army platoon on an academy award winning level. For the sake of capricious artistry and box office success Nolan forebears any dialogue and expected foul language during dire situations making this film conveniently rated PG-13.

Despite my complaints I was entertained throughout "Dunkirk" and I appreciate the lack of irrelevant love story awkwardly interjected into so many current action movies. But the lack of dialogue between characters is a major flaw and it has to be noted. The critics will have you believe this a best picture nominee but the movie is not sound. Strong movie yes, but lacking a critical component which is the human element in war films that preceded it like "Saving Private Ryan" and " Das Boot".

What a load of garbage. This movie tries so hard to be stylish and cool that the director forgot how to get anything from his actors. TI should have his prison sentence extended for laying down such a lame performance. There are so many bad things about this flick it's hard to think of a place to start. In movies that revolve around the bad guys you root for them to get away but in this one I was angry they all didn't get what they deserved.

Chris Brown. He's a loser in real life and his acting chops match his intellect. His role isn't that big but the few lines he has are just abysmal. The chase scene at the end is so stupid, no need to jump over every single object that gets in his way. He brings absolutely nothing to the movie.

TI: Chris Brown is really bad but at least he doesn't talk much. TI on the other hand probably has the most lines in the movie. He is a terrible actor and I hope this is the last we see of him for a while. He seems like a moron in the movie and I don't see how someone like that could pull of a sophisticated robbery. I think they made him wear a suit in order for him to look like a "professional" crook but we all know his character in the movie is more suited for jacking car stereos and holding up 7-11's.

Hayden Christensen: Anakin is just not a good actor. All his lines sounds forced and you have to wonder if he even rehearsed before the takes. Bad acting aside the guy is so skinny it's in no way believable when he fights those 5 sleezeballs at once and comes out on top. I don't think he could knock out a 10 year with those stick figure arms. Terrible casting

Zoe Saldana: Nice eye candy but what point did she serve in this flick? Are we supposed to feel bad for her when he ends up dead at the end? Boo Hoo, she abandoned her BF once he went to jail only to fall for his friend who happens to be a club owner. The only good thing TI does in this movie is exact revenge on whatever her character name was.

Idris Elba: A great actor who is totally miscast. He's the brains of the crew and also got it all figured out. Compared to Caan in "Thief" and Deniro in "Heat" this guy is nothing. If you're going to make a caper movie and have one of the protagonist modeled after Neil McCauley then he'd better deliver but I saw nothing that made me feel this guy was a master criminal.

Matt Dillon: Another weak link. The stereotypical troubled cop just like Pacino in "Heat" except that Pacino is an academy award winning actor and Dillon is well, Matt Dillon. A complete mail in performance by someone who used to be a decent actor.

Did I mention how bad the cop uniforms were? Maybe they didn't have much of a budget but you can at least get somewhat authentic costumes. I mean, the cops I saw on halloween looked more legit than the ones in this movie. The LAPD cars are black and white w/no writing on them. Were they that lacking in funding they couldn't paint one cop car to look real? TI's traffic cop was even worse. I wouldn't even stop if that guy was directing traffic.

Using "sacrifice" to end the movie was the last straw. The use of this song for "Insider" was brilliant and moving. The use of it in "Takers" almost made me throw up. How many things can the director borrow from Michael Mann? Maybe the 16 year olds this movie was made for don't remember "the insider" but I do and this was a disgrace to have "takers" use this track.

And if the script, directing, music and costumes weren't bad enough it's rated pg-13 so there's conveniently no blood. Go rent "The Town" if you want to see a current heist movie.