Reviews

Southland is a good police series that portrays in a quite realistic way how everyday's activities and problems unfold for Los Angeles policemen. Each episode takes on a different situation or event: the murder of a Hollywood star, the rape of a young girl, a simple dispute between neighbors, etc. Therefore all kind of crimes, with all their aspects, are dealt with and analyzed in-depth. Besides the action, that's quite good, thanks to well-made car chasing and camera zoom- ins, the lives of single policemen can be seen. Each one has to deal with his/her problems (drugs, divorce, past life regrets, etc.), which makes the plot interesting and nicely integrated with the more police work part. A particular feature of the series is that policemen are almost always simultaneously riding their cars, patrolling the city, waiting to respond for emergency calls. This, along with the good camera work, gives it a realistic cut to it.

I watched "Prisoners of War" because I had already watched the American TV series, "Homeland", which had taken inspiration from it. The first season lacks of action as it's all focused on the POWs (Prisoners of war) release and their return to family life. Therefore it's more psychological an introspective rather than gripping and suspenseful. However the first season sets the grounds for an amusing second one, where an entangled plot is little by little built up and than unraveled at the end. At a certain stage it's hard to tell who's siding with who and the curiosity of the spectator is more and more stronger. From the beginning to the end I wasn't enthusiastic about the setting, the middle east, probably because it's always associated with tough life and war. I also found surprising the outgoing personality of Israeli people that's depicted in this series.

"Happy Valley" is a well developed drama, set in a calm town in Yorkshire and with convincing and with, sometimes, bizarre characters. In fact, an apparently uneventful location, turns out to be a perilous place for its inhabitants as a kidnapping and several killings occur. Suspense and drama created by these events are intertwined with the personal lives of characters: past strongly comes back to the present and the only way to get through is to confront it. The main character, Sgt Cawood, is a generous but, at the same time, tough policewoman, when needed. Yet sometimes her manners toward criminals seem unrealistic and even silly. Likewise the relationship with her sister. I also found the character of the accountant of the Nevison Corporation kind of goofy, and the physical features of the actor contributed to make this feeling even stronger. However, generally speaking, it's a good series as it catches the attention of the public and each episode the curiosity about the ending grows stronger.

I was told this was a great TV series so I started watching it. To be honest the first couple of episodes weren't catchy as I thought, probably because I wasn't used to watching more than an hour episodes, but afterwards, little by little, interest built up and I got really into it. The setting is simply great: Oxford in the 50s is just the right place to set a murder mystery series because of the College and Church buildings that convey a feeling of untold. The actors fit well their role and especially Shaun Evans is the right person to act as the young Morse for his looks of a smart and good guy, who's often referred to as "Oxford material". The classical music, which is the favorite by Morse, well suits the environment and the plot to which adds more drama. The screenplay is well developed and for the length and the number of crimes in each episode, it reminded me of "The Midsomer Murders"

I picked this TV Series because I'm a big fan of "Nordic Noirs" as "The Killing" and "The Bridge". Certainly, Unit One is a little dated compared to the aforementioned series, but I wouldn't mind the end of the 90s setting as I have good memories of that period, so I actually enjoy going back to people dressing in a certain way,different hairdos, different cars etc. However, the first series was OK, with episodes having a plain story-line, with often unexpected murderers, some irony and the opportunity, through the show, for each character to define his/her own personality. The second series instead was very disappointing as story-lines were weak, outstandingly banal and with a predictable ending and murderer. The only things that blew my mind were the recurring themes of strong passion and love, both in some murder episodes and in some relationships between characters. From Danes I wouldn't have expected such big sentimental involvement that, to my standards, I would have thought more present in the Mediterranean or Latin America personalities. A character that made me smile was IP who's a keen policeman and, at the same time, an ingenuous and overly indulgent person as he's always betrayed by his wife who often runs off with his boss. No matter this he keeps on forgiving her.

I've never read the novel by Pasternak on which the movie is based but I had a certain interest in Russian novelist after reading Dostoevskij and so I started watching this movie. I wasn't at all bored even though it was a long and sometimes slow-paced movie, as I expected it to be, because it was compelling for the various themes it encompassed as love, war, politics as a big classic should do. The actors, from Omar Sharif to Julie Christie, are all intense and convincing in their roles. The various settings are also adapt to describe the first decades of of revolutionary Russia in its different faces: the luxurious houses of the decaying nobles that will be taken over by the Communist State, the slums were the poor experience a hard life, the limitless and desert Russian moor, that could be at the same time peaceful in the summer and fatal during the long Russian winters.

I was curious to watch True Detective because it was the direct rival of Breaking Bad for many nominees in the last Grammy Awards. It's certainly a different genre as True Detective is more a mystery story and it has definitely less humor than the series with Bryan Cranston. However, the first 4 or 5 episodes of the series definitely lack pace and suspense since the plot is more introspective and it focuses on the dialogs between the two main characters, masterfully played by Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, and on their personalities. In my opinion the spectator gets really into the show in the last 2 or 3 episodes, when the plot gets more mysterious and interesting. Two more features I liked about this series are: the opening soundtrack and the way the South is depicted, with its characters and its landscapes.

I was curious to watch this movie because I had seen many other Fellini's works but not this one. I was also told that was one of his best and so I was even more intrigued. I must say that I was surprised by how melancholic and sad it is. It reminded me of a Neo-Realistic movie for its scenes set in the city suburbs amongst people who struggle to carry on in every day life. Of course, other Fellini's movie had also these kinds of setting, but the Italian director paints his portrait of provincial Italy with more sad and crude hues, helped also by Gelsomina's melancholic recurring trumpet music theme, written by the great Nino Rota. However you can still see the Fellinesque style in "La Strada", for example in the irony in the scenes of the argument between Zampanò and the crazy guy. The circus certainly is another typical Fellini subject, present in many of his works. Overall a good movie but definitely not one of his best.

When I started watching this movie I thought "Well, the director is Garrone and the movie is set in Naples, so it must be a copy of Gomorrah or something like that". Instead I was surprised of how Garrone nicely brought up another aspect of Naples and its inhabitants. The setting is a poor neighborhood in the Italian port city and the main character is Luciano, a fishmonger and father of two children. His daily life is ordinary and uneventful and he struggles to earn money through his first job and his second one which consists in cheating people by selling them some cleaning devices. Everything could change when he has the opportunity to participate to the Big Brother rehearsals where he can exploit his qualities as entertainer. His certainty of making it to the show is so strong that he becomes paranoid about people of the Big Brother casting staff spying on him to see if he's really a character as he claims to be in everyday life. He does many crazy things like selling his fishmonger activity and doling out his personal belongings to poor people in order to impress the alleged casting personnel following him. His mental condition soon worsens and develops into craziness which of course affects inevitably his family life. What I liked best about this movie is how Garrone underlines how miserable everyday life can be and how everyone is in search of the big opportunity to get out of misery. This however can lead to ruining personal and family life. I also appreciated how the director shows how some feelings and actions can be so evidently false as that of Luciano of being overly generous with poor people only for personal purposes. One last thing I would like to mark is Garrone's style of shooting, which was quite like that of Gomorrah, that's very simple and with seemingly amateur close shootings. Compared to Gomorrah however I would say that he wanted to give a more dreamy touch and also something Fellinesque: in one scene Luciano comes back home from the Big Brother rehearsal in Rome and, in the beautifully lit neighborhood, he's welcomed by his neighbors as a hero. In the next scene the neighborhood is showed in daytime during its normal daily activity, presenting all its simplicity and misery. Therefore an evident contrast is shown between dream and reality.

I was a little skeptical about this TV Series at the beginning because I regarded it as slow and old fashioned. Instead it proved to be surprisingly good exactly for its pace, not as fast as the modern ones, but still enjoyable and for its dresses and settings, which well reproduced the period of the first decades of the 20th century. And the latter is the suitable set for great actors as David Suchet who delivers an outstanding and truthful performance as Poirot, managing to define the character through his physical peculiarities, as the penguin-like walk, and his typical ways of saying like "making the little grey cells work". Besides the main character other interesting personalities come up as Poirot's secretary, Miss Lemon, the partner Capt. Hastings and CI Japp. The plots are nicely developed and unpredictable, but there was no doubt on that since they're based on Agatha Christie's novels. A special mention for two episodes in particular "Evil Under the Sun", which has a beautiful setting on a Devonshire island and a classic as "Murder on the Orient Express", which has an almost mystic touch and it also shows a unusually fragile Poirot, asking God for help.

I had good expectations for "Italy in a Day" because I had watched other Gabriele Salvatores movies and I liked them. Unfortunately it was a delusion. The idea of creating a collage of various amateurs' footage about their daily life was interesting and challenging but at the same time tricky. Salvatores created a predictable picture of Italy, in which its current problems are brought up as unemployment, distrust in politics, hardship of everyday life due to the economic crisis. Everything is of course sweetened by poetic sentences said by the people filming their selves, videos on new born babies and lovers kissing and hugging each other. As a result the director seems to simplify Italy's life to love and sweet moments while many different things are going on. Probably the title "Italy in a Day" was a little too assuming and it made me think it could convey an important message or give a truthful insight of Italy, while it manages only to give a superficial portrait of the country and its inhabitants.

Rules of Engagement stands out among the many sit-coms because it has a pleasant sense of humor that's simple and direct. The various characters with their features and their personalities mingle in with each other pretty nicely and the result is an amusing show to watch. The friends that meet every day at the diner, talking about their lives and their daily problems, reminds me a lot of "Seinfeld" and I think that the intention of the creator was to take that as a reference. My favorite character is Jeff, played by the hilarious Patrick Warburton, who always manages to have that serious expression and way of doing even in the most ridiculous situations.

If I could I would have given 11 out of 10 since this TV series is so well made that few others series could have been as much entertaining as this one. As a matter of fact Breaking Bad has everything: irony, especially in the first two series the relationship and the situations between Jessie and Walter are amusing, besides some particular characters as Hank and Saul Goodman; the plot is very well developed and compelling since the beginning and in the 4th and 5th series there's a continuous climax and the story line takes an unexpected turn; the characters are psychologically studied in depth through their change from the 1st to the last season; the actors are all great, but Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul deserve a special mention.

I love "Scrubs" since I first saw it. The setting, the characters and how they interact with each other, the sense of humor,how each episode has some lesson to teach about life. My favorite character is Dr. Cox, for his jokes, his strong personality, his general attitude towards life and people in general and for his relationship with JD. However, I must say that after 5 series I got a little bored of listening to the same kind of jokes and of the same situations repeating themselves over and over as, for example, the hostile way Dr. Cox treats the new interns. Therefore, great job of the screen players for the originality of the series but, at the same time, disappointment for the lack of innovation throughout its development.

Mesrine is a great movie about the life of a criminal, Mesrine, who's perfectly interpreted by Vincent Cassel, with his first steps as a simple bank robber to move gradually to a more sophisticated criminal. Thanks to Cassel the personality of the character comes out quite strongly, showing his violence, his ambition and also his great passion for women. Since he's chased by a rival gang he's forced to go to Canada to start a new life. He finds a new girlfriend (Cecile De France) with whom he commits some bank robberies and for which goes to jail. However he manages to escape and go back to France where he finds the situation changed. Probably it won't become a cult movie as big as some other legendary gangster movies like Scarface or The Godfather, but it will surely occupy an important position in its genre.

I was very disappointed by this TV Series because I thought it would only recall "The Bridge" and not copy it in the smallest details. The idea of having a joint operation between the French and British police forces to solve a double murder with the corpses left in the Eurotunnel, just as the Danish and Swedish ones for the bridge, was an interesting idea. But for those like me, who had already seen "The Bridge", there was no suspense because you knew ahead of time who was going to die and why. However "The Bridge" has a better setting, I would say creepier, suitable for a chase to a serial killer. Plus, the actors deliver a better performance especially for their ironic interpretation.

I must say that when I first approached this TV series I was kind of skeptic. I thought that it would be based on the predictable jokes on retired cops and on aged people in general. I was quite surprised to see instead that the jokes are funny and work well thanks to the 4 main characters, each one with a defined personality. Besides this the plots are well made and the murderer is never obvious. Plus,the stories are credible and are not exaggeratedly far from reality. An interesting feature of the "New Tricks" is that each character has some dramatic event or problem left behind that arises now and then in the story, which contributes to give more definition to the personality and it also represents a constant present during the entire series. To wrap it up I would say unexpectedly original.

This drama is set in the northeast Italian province, a location the director Mazzacurati usually used as a background for his movies. It's the story of a young and attractive elementary school teacher Mara, who is relocated to a little town in the north of Italy. The initial plot is predictable since it carries out with the reactions of a small community to the arrival of the new teacher. In particular some characters stand out as the young Giovanni, who has a big passion for journalism and who starts out by writing small articles for a local newspaper; the rich entrepreneur who is at the center of the social life of the town; the Tunisian mechanic Hassan; who has a love story with Mara. The picture of the Italian provincial life is quite realistic but what really surprised me in a positive way was the unexpected noir turn the movie takes at the end and for which the movie deserves to be watched.

What I liked about this movie is that it's based on a true story, set in California in 1928. The tragic and gruesome details of the killings committed by the murderer are so unbelievable that someone would think it was only a fiction story. The behavior of the L.A. Police towards Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie), the mother of the missing child, also resemble something you would find more in fiction than in reality but, according to the facts, it really took place at the beginning of the 20th century. The plot and the characters manage to deliver a truly gripping movie, in which the spectator can't be indifferent and wants Police Officer Jones and the Director of the Psychiatric Clinic punished for their ruthless conduct.

This series has a good rating on IMDb but I still can't understand why. For sure "Top of the Lake" is far from being a thriller since it lacks suspense and action scenes that such a genre should have. I would say that this TV series is more focused on women and their problems: relationship with men and with family, their role in society etc. What should be the core of the plot, the disappearing of a 13 year old girl,who got prematurely pregnant, and the killing of a real estate agent, are constantly present in the various episodes but have a secondary role, in opposition to the above mentioned themes. Another flaw of this TV series is the excessive feminist point of view: men are shown as mean and cynical and women as poor defenseless creatures. The only thing that could be saved is the setting that's just outstanding and that could have been a good one for a thriller.

I was looking forward to watch this TV series since I had already seen the original one, a British production in which Ian Richardson is simply gorgeous. Kevin Spacey plays flawlessly the cynical politician Frank Underwood, who's the chief whip at the congress but aims at higher places. Through his various tricks and games he manages to gain more power and respect in order to achieve a higher rank. Honestly I can't think of any other actor who could have played this role better than him. His sneer and his look always gives you the impression he's already thought the next move to beat his political rival.Plus, his dialog with the spectator as he speaks to the camera (taken from the original), add more to the personality of the character. However I liked the British production better, shot in the first 90s, because it has a more dramatic streak and the character of the British Prime Minister Francis Urqart is even more diabolical than the American main character. The author of the British series says that he was inspired by some Shakespeare masterpieces as Macbeth, and this can be easily seen.

I watched this movie more than ten years ago and liked it a lot and just last week I had the chance to watch it again on TV. I thought I'd start watching it a little and then turn it off, but it was too gripping to leave it so I watched it all the way through. It's the story of two Franciscan monks, one of whom masterly played by Sean Connery, who happen to be in an abbey where mysterious killings of monks are taking place. William of Baskerville (Connery) and his pupil Adso (Slater)try to find out the truth not without difficulties, due to the opposition of the hosts monks. The cruel inquisition, led by Bernando Gui (Abraham) also investigates the mysterious killings. The plot is very well developed and there is a good pace of the story. The setting is just perfect to describe the creepy and dull atmosphere of the medieval abbey. The physical features of the monster-looking monks (see Salvatore played by Ron Pearlman) contribute, along with the darkness of the photography, to a fearsome atmosphere. The references to real history characters, described by a reliable medieval scholar like Umberto Eco, adds something more to it.

"Braquo" is an entertaining and gripping Police TV Series. It is the story of a group of Parisian cops who deal with tough criminals with controversial methods. They often can be confused with criminals for their way of dealing with delicate situations, and they don't hesitate to kill people who can harm them physically or who can damage their status as Policemen. The main characters, the cops Eddy, Roxane, Theo and Walter, who are big friends, get in trouble very easily because of their borderline styles of life (Theo is a cocaine addict, Walter a restless gambler), and they always finish dragging the others in their own problems. They also always have to fight against their superiors who want to kick them out of the Police force. I watched both series and I can say that the second one is much more interesting because it has a quick pace and a very complex plot that involves former military men, ministers and ruthless criminals. The adjective I would use to describe this series is "tough" since there are many brutal scenes. A flaw or, If you want, a bizarre feature of the series is some unrealistic scenes: the police headquarters looks like a damp garage and the group of the 4 cops have a kind of bar inside the police station. However I think "Braquo" is a well done series even if I like "Engrenages" better.