Reviews

I saw the previews and expected a lot. I saw that there were some major actors in this and again, expected a lot. I have read some reviews that it was a lot like M. Night Shyamalan's works. But after watching, I felt it was more like The Happening with Mark Wahlberg. There were moments like it felt it was going somewhere. But, alas, at some point, it started feeling preachy. You know what I mean. People are bad (for the most part), greedy, vain, sexist, racist, and worse. And the environmental preachiness, for goodness sake. We get it , we understand: humans are destroying this planet out of....whatever. I agree, most of us agree. Most of the characters are just BAD people. I liked Mahershala Ali's character, Farrah Mackenzie's character, and Ethan Hawke's character (a little). But the rest were, as I said, bad. The writing was probably as good as it could be, within limitations. Some of the interactions between characters were just...weird. I felt like I wasted two hours, for the most part. And, of course, there will be people who love this film. They are wrong.

I anticipated this series....and it wasn't bad. The subject was timely and the writing was pretty good. The acting was.....above average. I really like Simon Pegg, pretty much everything he does. I liked the relative newcomer, Hannah Khalique-Brown. She was pretty good. I assume the plot was based on, for the most part, Russia's attempts to interfere with America's and England's elections and their plan to create strife and chaos across the board. The series was pretty on the mark as far as facts and illustrating the current state of world affairs. I did like the way they showed Saara's way of navigating coding. I didn't find it off-putting like some, I rather enjoyed it. A good effort, but there were some rather clumsy and predictable characters and situations. But, watch it.....it's worth the time.

There were moments when this film delivered, but they were few and far between. I still like Craig as Bond, or retired ex 007, now unretired not 007, then 007, then...what? This whole movie felt forced, felt weirdly contrived to introduce a new 007, then not 007. Zero chemistry between Craig and the new not James Bond 007.

Just a very contrived weird Bond film.

I was interested in watching this after watching Inventing Anna and The Tindler Swindler. Watching this "presentation" was perplexing. This woman seemed likable but the entire show was about the abuse she suffered and her being too trusting and gullible. Seriously? Strangis is a bad man. A thief, a swindler, and a liar. But the Vanity Fair writer was a huge fan of Melngailis, make no mistake. And her employees seemed to excuse most of her actions. There was some criticism, but it was all watered down in favor of this woman's discussing her abusive ex-husband. This was not supposed to be a documentary, I get that. But offer some facts and place some blame, real blame on the thieves, both of them.

I anticipated a tight, well produced series here. I must say I loved the actual production and the acting was very good, particularly Richard Madden, Keeley Hawes, and Ash Tandon. The downfall to me was the writing. The story itself was really good, as were the various plotlines. I was disappointed with the emphasis/believability of all the political infighting of the security services. It felt forced and just too much. I was also disappointed with the writing when it came to the characters, Rayburn especially, when they doubted David's reliability and sincerity I know that he didn't tell them everything, but to waver from trusting him after thwarting a train attack and an attempted assassination of the Home Secretary to believing, apparently, that he was involved in various terrorist attacks was way too over the top. Seriously. I understand that there might have been some mistrust of David, but it wasn't written particularly well. It felt very forced. The lack of continuity and thoughtfulness was just weird. That being said, I still enjoyed it, but would have preferred.....better writing.