Reviews

The movie "Hijacked" is one of the worst movies ever made. It really is in competition with watching paint on stucco dry on a cloudy day. Bad script, mediocre acting, and HORRIBLE directing. Forget about any set design, I doubt the person that approved the airplane internal set, has ever even been to an airport much less ridden on an airplane. Having a gun fight in the belly of a plane at an altitude over 20,000 feet, was so absurd; that action was almost more absurd than the warehouse sized cargo area. So many bullets fired, and none hit the fuselage? If the film makers were to hire children to be advisors from a local primary school, the film might have been more believable.

Seeing that airplane interior hallway so wide with rooms on both sides, and pictures on the wall hung by wire, and a glass vase on a table at the end of the hall, all make it clear the set designer and director didn't have a clue about an airplane's dimensions, or that an airplane involves motion. Maybe it was supposed to be a T. A. R. D. I. S., bigger on the inside than the outside?

If you are not high on drugs, don't bother with this garbage. I hope the producers went bankrupt on this disaster of a film, pretending to be staged on a real airplane.

Don't waste your time on this, unless you and your friends are stoned and want to view/call-out, this excuse for a film, like a MST3000 parody.

The mere opening of the 1967 series, gave one a story of a Cold War Agent who resigns, and is then gassed and collected, and put in the Village. Those that ran the village wanted to know why he resigned, and Number 6 wanted his freedom. We the viewer were given a foundation on which the plots were built.

Jump ahead 42 years, and the plot, like a note written in pencil, and washed in the pockets of wore pants, barely resembles anything from the original hit series.

We struggle trying to find a reason for the village's existence, we struggle to decipher Number 6's actions, we struggle to want to keep watching! There are lots of little nibbly bits to keep us snacking, on what should have been a visual and intellectual feast. More of the plot paints and polishes Number 2's megalomaniac delusions of grandeur. We really never get to feel part of the village, the absurdity of the daily life mechanisms, the lifestyles of the new Villager doesn't work.

Now I'll click my heels together and say there's no place like Portmeirion.

At first glance one might just say Brazil is a surreal look at "1984" while on hallucinogenics. I would go much further, to say it was a comical anti-utopia, maybe even an homage to East Germany's failed technology production: 2 inch computer monitors all replete with large magnify glasses, with mechanical keyboard interfaces. Season and simmer with Soviet era paranoia. The hysterical Sam Lowry daydreams of flying high above it all, to the rescue of his angel in the clouds, Jill Layton, whose offense was to seek answers for her neighbor, who's good husband was collected in the night in error by Information Retrieval (torture department); she was an embarrassment to the system by reminding them they got it wrong, and a good man was deleted.

In the gray walled offices of the government, one is hermetically sealed off from the terrorist bombs in the restaurants and shopping centers, frequented by the obliviously wealthy. Sam doesn't want to accept a promotion to Information Retrieval, but sees it as a way to reach Jill. But Sam isn't right for the position and in the end he learns: you really can't fight the system. Heating, ventilation, air conditioning and plumbing is a nightmare of it's own. Much scenic beauty were facades, complete with cheerful paranoid platitudes, and vacation adverts of worlds they will never see. I recommend this film for anyone who enjoyed reading 1984, and visited the old DDR while on vacation.

Delicatessen from delikat essen, or fine food. Each character is comically unique, each with history and their own qualities and complexities. How would you like to eat French escargot everyday, maybe with a side of frog legs? See the guy in the basement. Then there is quirky Aurore who tempts fate a la Rube Goldberg. How convenient for a butcher to own a post-apocalyptic apartment house: when ever somebody checks out, he has more meat for those that stay. His beautiful daughter Julie purloins the heart of Louison, the maintenance man, and former monkey-less clown, which provides a romantic thread in this most dark and wet artistic quilt. And the whimsical synchronicity, you must see for yourself.

While cannibals fear the threat of underground vegan troglodytes, the basement tenant devolves. There is so much happening in "Delicatessen" it is a fine course-to-course meal for the most fastidious of cinematic dilettante. All the actors and actresses gave perfect performances, I highly recommend seeing it, on the big screen (35mm film) if possible.

You would think a guy that is an excellent surgeon would not go from top of the field to gate crashing with the most pitiful excuse of a brother is a short while. One character is a doctor that is brilliant, caring, extremely skilled at saving lives, and the other is his brother that treats women like teenage objects. In one night the brilliant doctor goes from gate crashing a party, to being plowed into being concierge doctor to rich and vacuous hypochondriacs. The show is littered with mindless young women, who have been given cars that are worth more than their minds. A good doctor, drowning in the Hamptons in superficial disingenuousness, makes not a show worth watching.

This series started off OK. Then by season 3 it took a nose dive, like a kamikaze diving from the stratosphere. The writing and direction got so bad that the characters repeatedly don't let a person finish what they have to say, before rambling on with assumptions. A sign of poor behavior, not any kind of decent lawyer. The character of Rachel can't stand up to her ex (married) boyfriend, who is the model of an HR violation poster, even if it puts her current relation on the line. The only continually stellar performance was Donna, who displayed grace, poise and honorable bad-ass; but the show still felt like a kamikaze diving from the stratosphere. By the middle of the 4th season it went from interesting series to being a frustrating waste of time; I was almost waiting for Jessica to give Rudolph Giuliani a corner office and crate of wine.

I started watching "Freak Show", unsure what to expect. Wow! Alex Lawther's portrayal of Billy Bloom was consummate; a faultless display being fabulous on his own terms. The very painful challenges Billy faced in a culturally constrained high school, reached extremes when he was beaten into a coma. Yet, once out of hospital he soared to a level of flamboyant fabulosity, which was accepted by almost all, except for the most egocentric, narcissists. Cultural revolution this was not, being after Billy gave the most elegant, and accepting speech, his classmates voted for the narcissistic religitard, demonstrating that old behaviors are not so easily changed. Those whose minds were not open enough to be accepting others that are different, more fabulous, miss out on the greatness the world around them has to offer in diversity.

In the end Billy won on his own terms: he did make the case for the acceptance of others, even if their differences aren't always understood at first.

This is a great movie that should not be missed.

What started out as a well made series, begs the question: why take what could be a two hour film and drag it out over 7 and a half hours? Dakota Fanning was stellar, as was Daniel Brühl; the setting was captivating, but by the time I began watching series two, the deal breaker was the most morally bankrupt and corrupt character of Chief Thomas Byrnes. If this was a 2 or 3 hour affair I might have stomached it. However, to begin a second series of epic length, and still have that character, Thomas Byrnes, alive and not behind bars, was too frustrating to allow myself to watch further, or give this production a high grade. I just couldn't sentence my life to hour after hour of frustration! If that one character got his comeuppance I might have continued to view the second series all the way through. Series 1 was worthy of a 8 or 9 start rating, a 10 if it was 3 hours or less, where series 2 would merit a 2 star rating.

If you start watching for a good police procedural drama, you will be let down. The lead copper is a murderer. 27 years earlier a murder investigation got shut down before any results. I think shows like this are a disservice to the good men and women serving the mean streets. Just say no, turn off the tele, and turn on the radio.

What started out as a cute drama, ended up as collection of incompetence. Personal dramas of inexperienced nurses that aren't even qualified to be candy-stripers, drowns out professional doctors. And don't get me started on the non-stop sexual harassment dished out buy the sad excuse of a radiologist; and lack of management to promote any code of ethics. If you have never worked in a hospital, or needed to be treated in one, you might find it a cute little drama, otherwise it is frustrating to see a healthcare facility with such a lack of professionalism.

Formulaic crime drama, actually it was good, would have been great, if it weren't the lack of ethical standards in a police organization. Even chip shops would fear sexual harassment publicity if they let the unprofessional behaviors continue in their place. Two good detectives that can't manage their personal lives. How can a detective and mother not learn the meaning "NO". Why couldn't a detective and mother with young kids spot obsessive stalker in her own life? The other one lets an obsessive, possessive traffic cop, push his way into her life and go so far as to start rumors at her job that he is going to marry her. Were they too stupid to not take it up with their superior, and they get an order of protection? It started off interesting, but British TV like American TV, think that it you add a pathetic lack of emotional intelligence and inferiority to characters in a crime drama, that it passes for entertaining, when it actually spoils the plot. One might have expected more from Sally Wainwright.

What started out as an exceptional TV police drama, went down hill by season 4. The character of senior Sargent Lawson screwing the help was a big let down. Stella a damn good cop is a coke monkey by season 4. Cops showing up for work with more emotional baggage than many psych patients is a sad turn for what was a great team... Shannon was too bottled up after her attack...to where it interfered with her abilities. What happens when writers go sour, they just keep putting emotional hardships in the way of effective character. It started out as one of the best cop dramas, then is hit the dirt like a Boeing plan made in the Carolinas.