Reviews

Sugar is a new LA noir private detective show that works both as a hommage to the genre and a self serious meta parody with all the cliches imaginable. After 2 episodes it's difficult to tell where it will go but I like it for the moment.

Colin Farrell is great as usual and succeeds in giving gravitas to a character that for the moment is paper thin. We feel he has a past and relationships and traumas and an inner life.

I reserve the right to revise my note according to the evolution of the next episodes. Many shows started great and collapsed very fast (the Apple TV+ Godzilla show for example). Let's wait and see.

I loved the first one, this one does not disappoint even if it is not entirely perfect. Visually stunning, the section on the Harkonnen planet was a masterpiece. We got great performances from most actors, Bardem and Butler in particular - the guy is the next big star without a doubt -, but Chalame was very good also. He really pulled it off. You believe he is a great messianic leader.

The weak link is Zendaya with her annoying face that seems able to have only one expression. She is not bad but not on the same level.

Also the ending seems rushed.

But overall a great movie, and one of the best of the last years, not very difficult yes, the quality from Hollywood has declined.

A Murder at the End of the World shares a basic premise with the Rian Johnson movie - a tech billionaire invites a group of friends to a luxury secluded location including a misfit detective and a murder occurs.

But that stops here. Contrary to the pretentious, overrated, and incredibly stupid Johnson movie - and the fact that it acknowledges its own stupidity does not make it better -, this series is good, well written, captivating and interesting and goes beyond the ridiculous theme of "rich people are bad" that Hollywood millionaires like so much for some reason.

Add the beautiful cinematography and location, and you have a winner. I did not watch the OA so have no preconceptions about the showrunners. I like it.

I like The Boys even if the nihilism of this series is sometimes too much for me. I had high hopes for Gen V and the first 2-3 episodes were satisfying and more or less what I expected. And then things went downhill pretty fast. In fact they went nowhere.

It could have been some kind of "Wednesday" in the Boys universe but in the end it was a pointless preview of season 4 of The Boys.

The last episodes were particularly awful, the writing, directing, plot - were all bad. The finale episode was really bad, characters shift motivations in the middle of the episode, behave opposite to their personalities, all to serve a plot that does not make a lot of sense. And the cameos in the end were just ridiculous and killed completely any personality the series could have.

The biggest mistake was probably killing off the guy with the most presence and charisma in the first episode (Arnold's son). The others were ok, including the main character. She is not very good looking so it's difficult to understand why everybody in the show looks at her like she is beautiful (a trend I remarked in many modern series), but she does a relatively good job and has presence. The others are just ok as I said.

Season one is slow, nothing almost happens, but there is anyway some mystery and an ok story.

Season 2 starts with a speech from the leader of the world army, an African woman, because of course the USA that spends half of the world military budget would let a leader from a 3rd world country in charge.

Then we are in Japan were aliens attacks civilians that flee and only a girl fights them and kills them by the dozens with just a few molotov cocktails. So they destroy at the beginning any sense that the aliens are dangerous, and they are winning only because only one young girl is fighting back. This does not make sense and has all the signs of bad writing, so no thanks. There are dozens of better shows and no need to waste time with this one.

I know this is a movie and not reality but this did buggers me: bat mitzva is a ceremony for 12 years old girls. They are not teenagers. They are usually still kids on the verge of being teenagers but not yet. My daughters and all their friends are 11-12 years old and they look like 11-12 years old girls and not like 14-15 like in the movie. And they have very different interests and obsession and certainly not boys. Not one of them ever had a boyfriend (other than in a kid way, with no physical contact beyond taking hands) and none of them is interested in dating a boy yet. They don't even talk about that. They are in a completely different universe.

I know it will change very soon and very fast but a bat mitzva is not the context that fits the story.

Apparently the people who gave high grades to this series are the Rebels show fans, a cartoon almost nobody watched. And I am very happy for them. But if you are not one of those, there is nothing for you there.

The usual mediocre, boring, girl boss, idiotic Disney SW. Only Andor was good - even exceptional - and also Rogue One. The rest is between garbage (the sequel trilogy) to mediocre (Solo). This is in the middle of the pack. Not as bad (for the moment) as Kenobi or the Book of Bobba Fet. Not as good as the first season of the Mandalorian.

It's just totally irrelevant and adds nothing. You can pass.

Season one is probably one of the best thriller I ever saw. Nesbitt is extraordinary and the story is gripping and also extremely intelligent. It's the worst nightmare that can happen to parents and as a father I could really identify with the protagonist. The revelation of what really happened did not disappoint, it was nothing we could imagine and in a sense almost worse.

Many people seem to prefer season two and I have really no idea why. It was very good but not as fascinating and the twist was obvious from the beginning. I have bo recollection of the third season/spin off so it probably was not very good.

Damon Lindelof is my favorite showrunners, having made 3 of the best TV shows ever, so I was waiting for this one with trepidation. This is clearly his "lightest" effort, a show that does not take himself seriously while asking profound questions.

While it was entertaining I must admit I would have preferred if it had taken itself seriously. There is a great story here, about faith, AI, what it means to be human, conspiracies, Templars etc.. You have many seasons of great materials.

The "falafel restaurant" arc is maybe the only thing that could not translate to a more grounded version. And the actor playing "Jay" was really not up to the task or maybe the character himself was wrong. We needed someone much more charismatic and impressive to convey who "Jay" is supposed to be.

But there were great moments also, in particular all that involved JQ, the actor was fantastic and bonkers.

I just feel something was missed here.

I did not think Scream could surprise me anymore, we already have seen everything and all the possible twists, even the one where one of the heroes is Ghostface.

Scream 6 succeeded only partly, with the great even fantastic opening scene that was among the best scenes of the franchise. If only the rest of the movie could have stayed at this level.

There are some good moments and great tension, the ladder scene (which makes no sense by the way, why not hold the door and wait for the police) and the subway scene (also not very coherent when we discover later who the killer(s) is(are)).

The rest is... ok. The new cast is not so much annoying as bland and can't hold a candle to the original actors. The new Sidney is not very interesting.

The fact that almost nobody behaves like real people in such a situation is to be expected in these movies but this time they really broke all logic, in particular with the police that just does not seem to really care or act like there is a serial killer on the loose.

For example, Samantha has been seeing a psychologist for 6 months, something apparently mandatory after what happened in the last movie, but... he does not know who she is and what happened to her - how is it even possible ? That makes no sense whatsoever. Many things are like that.

And what about basic due diligence about the people in your life ? How does the FBI not know who are Richie's family ? If Ghostface succeeds only because everybody is beyond stupid that cheapens everything.

I think its time for Scream to die. I have seen all the movies in the theater since 1996. I won't come for Scream 7.

Many people complain about "white people killing brown" or something, but: 1. The fact that this operation is used as a false flag by the CIA to generate a war is clearly explained in the series.

2. the moral question is open during all the series. We understand why they would do anything to rescue their wife/sister, but we are also supposed to ask ourselves if what they are doing is really justified.

2. let's remind that the people who are killed are drug dealers, kidnappers, and incredibly corrupt.

The main issue is the wife/sister. She is unlikable, I don't know if this is the actress or the writing but we really do not care about her.

In the original israeli series (that diverges vastly from this one and is also better), the girl was played by one of the most popular singer/actress of the country so you understood why they would do anything. Not here. She is not even pretty.

Get Out was a great movie but he appears more and more that it was a fluke or even a mistake, it was great not for the reasons intended by Peele. Us was just absurd and this one is mostly boring.

People says to come knowing nothing and avoiding spoilers - but there really is nothing to avoid. There is almost no story.

Supposedly the Gordy subplot is supposed to be the real meat, the key to everything and I really did not understand what it was doing since it had no direct relation to the main plot. And after reading some explanations it appeared that I in fact understood it perfectly - it adds almost nothing but the obvious commentary on Hollywood and spectacle.

The point is clear - Peele is pretentious and far less intelligent than he thinks he is. Exactly like another overrated director that exactly the same people seem to love: Rian Johnson. These are movies for not very intelligent people who believe that they are.

I thought Knives Out was ok even if I could not understand all the praise for it. It was really not that special or good and not very exciting.

This one is just bad. The killer is the most obvious suspect. The motivations are evident. There is no story, no mystery, no tension (maybe 5 mn in the middle). But the movie thinks it is so clever by telling us that at the moment of revelation.

Which is what sums up Rian Johnson - he thinks he is way clever than he is. And people like that because it probably makes themselves feel clever than they are because they "get it". But there is nothing to get but preachy politics (which I would have excused if the movie was good).

At least, there is no doubt that the actors were having a great time.

The movie starts so well and the first half is genuinely good but then when "the mess" begins, it becomes a very predictable, boring, pseudo clever movie that you already have seen 100 times. Paradoxically the only character that makes any sense at the end is Nicholas Hoult's one, and he is crazy.

There is a good movie buried somewhere, the basic idea is great, the actors are fantastic and the production design excellent. But they went the easy way with the plot and motivations, and I could predict more or less every broad move a kilometer ahead.

A pretentious movie that adds nothing, don;t waste your time.

The first season started well but very quickly went downhill. Season 2 is so awful that I had to stop watching. What a mess. And I am not a Star Trek fanboy offended by whatever they do not respect about this universe. I don;t even know. I never watched Next Generation but the occasional episode and did not like it. This is just bad in every respect.

I don't know what Critical Role is and I never heard of Vox Machina before finding this on Amazon but it was really excellent, funny, and intriguing. Fans of fantasy will be happy.

There are many problems in this movie, the bad guy that makes no sense, the action that borders on self parody (Bond is in the middle, not moving, 20 people shot at him, not one succeeds, and he kills them all immediately), the lack of levity and humor, and the plot, but the worst is without hesitation Lea Seydoux.

A bad actress whose only reason to get roles is that her father is one of the richest men in France, she has 0 chemistry with Craig, a slight problem when all the movie is based on their relationship. She is also not really pretty and nobody can understand why Bond would fall for her. No competition with Eva Green.

And then there is the ending. People will speak about it I guess. Let's hope this is the end for the Bond movies. We had a good time with them but it's over.

Since the logic of time travel is a subject I understand quite a bit, I really have a problem with all these movies and TV series that use the subject and fails miserably at the most basic points. It's a very complex subject and since it's impossible anyway in the real world, I guess that's to be expected but some coherency would be nice and once again - there is none at all. Nothing makes any sense and I can't take the movie seriously. It's very unusual to have fiction that deals with time travel seriously, Lost is the only one that comes to mind (not that this is the only way to do it well of course). This one is a failure.

Wow that was one of the best episode I ever saw of anything. And I don't like the superheroes genre.

This is probably the best israeli TV series ever, better than Fauda or Hatufim, on the level of The Wire. The actors are exceptional but what puts it apart is the quality of the writing and the fantastic plot that will depress you more each episode. The series is relentless and makes no concessions. The story is based on real events, mostly the "Brother Farinian" scandal of 2005 and the more recent Ruth David affair. A must watch. Can't wait for season 2.

The first season was ok and a little nonsensical. The second season, while full of incoherences and unrealistic things, is much better, more original, and at least gives us worthy opponents who are not idiots and act intelligently when confronted with our heroes. Really liked it.

J very much disliked TFA and almost hated TLJ (not for the same reasons as most people) and seeing the reviews I thought I was going to hate this one, but I must admit it was above expectations. It's two movies in one, the first part being by far the best (I know others say the opposite), it does not have any sense, Palpatine is just there for some reason, the political situation in the galaxy makes no sense, so the movie is obviously idiotic. But still much better than the two previous ones. It's funny, the action is great, Kylo and Rey are the highlight of the movie, they move a lot and the movie has a few good ideas. So this trilogy is still bad overall but it's not a total disaster.