Reviews

Ok, I've seen many good movies and tv shows where the main character was totally unlikable. That was always balanced by interesting and likable side characters. After watching the entire first season of Avenue 5, I can honestly say that this show has zero likable characters. There's absolutely nobody you'd like to see being saved from the ship.

By the seventh episode I realized that I hadn't even smiled yet, which was weird because this is a comedy. The so-called jokes are plain to see, but yet they're totally unfunny. No character has any traits that would make me laugh at the situations or the dialogue. The jokes are mainly about feces or insults. Basil Fawlty of Fawlty Towers was a master of insults and he was unbelievably funny. There is no Basil Fawlty in this show.

And just because you can curse on an HBO show, doesn't mean that you should. The constant obscene language adds nothing to the dialogue and makes it feel extremely childish. Hugh Laurie and Josh Gad are usually people I enjoy watching, but this I never want to see again. The other actors are not even worth mentioning.

If you're looking for a smart, clever comedy, steer clear of this one.

The Disney live action remakes of their classic animated movies tend to either follow the original movie shot for shot (which is basically completely pointless), like The lion king or Beauty and the Beast, or steer too far from the original (like Maleficent, and to some extent Dumbo). Mulan however manages to be both true to the original and make itself a movie of it's own. Look, nobody needs to see Mulan done exactly like it was before (just see that movie instead, it's a great one). This new version does not need to have musical numbers or Eddie Murphy's fast talk. What it needs is to stand on it's own - and it does exactly that. Yifei Liu is a fantastic Mulan and Jason Scott Lee as Böri Khan is just as menacing as Shan Yu in the animation. Forget the negative whiners, nobody's childhood has been ruined over this movie. In fact it just may have made somebody's childhood a little bit better instead.

I've never been a big fan of historical "costume dramas" as they tend to bore me. But to my surprise, Emma. is absolutely breathtaking. The entire cast is fantastic, but this is a perfect showcase for Anya Taylor-Joy's beauty, elegance, charisma and talent. Even though her character Emma Woodhouse is not perhaps the most likable character ever, Taylor-Joy's exquisite performance makes this movie by far the best historical drama I've ever seen. There are, surprisingly, quite a lot of funny scenes - Bill Nighy is a welcome addition to the cast. Why can't all costume dramas be as good as this one?

The live action remake of Disney's Aladdin stands pretty well on it's own. Being a half an hour longer it features new scenes and ditches some old ones. Definitely not as revamped as the Dumbo remake, but still very entertaining. Naomi Scott is perfect (as Jasmine). Will Smith plays the Genie and it is hard not to compare his performance to the phenomenal voicework of Robin Williams and especially Vesa-Matti Loiri, who did an outstanding regional job. But surprisingly, after the initial "this is not the Genie" reaction Smith grows on you. They have seriously dialed down the manic personality of the original Genie, and since Smith's Genie works best when he's calmed down, there would have been room to strip even more of his hyper active traits. And, even the song Friend like me could have been left out completely. Of the songs the best ones this time are Prince Ali by Will Smith and new song Speechless by Naomi Scott, who's character Jasmine takes a stronger position in this movie. Jafar the villain is the only character that fails to impress me. I can't really pinpoint exactly why, but I suspect it has to do with how menacing he was in the original, whereas this Jafar you really aren't that afraid of. He should be darker, bigger, more threatening to work better. 2019's Aladdin is a cultural mess, but a beautiful one at that.

The original Jurassic Park from 1993 is propably my favorite movie ever. I'm still excited to see more movies in the franchise and I thought Jurassic World was pretty good. What I don't like about Fallen kingdom is the fact that my inner boy and dinosaur fan gets disappointed when the movie is basically about human beings mistreating gorgeous animals. The Lost World: Jurassic Park had the same problem. People shooting dinosaurs and pulling out their teeth violently is not a nice thing to see. I know they're not real animals but it hurts to see the mighty T-Rex sedated and in a small cage. Simple mayhem and survival action is what made Jurassic Park 3 and Jurassic World much better movies than this. On a positive note, it's always a pleasure to see Jeff Goldblum back. It's not a horrible movie at all, just not an especially good Jurassic movie. I hope the third Jurassic World movie will once again be about the dinosaurs being back on top.

A beautiful movie altogether. The characters and the city of Paris look fantastic. The story is somewhat predictable, yes, but that does not take away from the charm of the film. I was also very surprised by how accurately the scene in which Felicie's eyes tear up was animated. Not tears falling down the cheeks but the actual redness of the eyes as they fill up with tears is moving. Another great thing about the movie is it is clearly and completely Felicie's story. There are many side characters but they compliment to the story of Felicie. It would have been a bad decision to add a side story for Viktor or anybody else. Now the focus is on the main character all the time - a brave and excellent decision. On the negatives, the outside action scene at the end is pointless and a bit embarrassing (gladly it's a short one) and the casting of the voices of Felicie and Viktor is not great. I actually preferred the version that was dubbed into my own language. But aside from that, I enjoyed the movie and wanted to spend more time with the characters.