Reviews

The documentary starts slow and not having read the film's description, I was expecting a different plot with a focus on Trump's politics so I was surprised and thought to quit.

It became apparent to me later that it was chronicling Trump Organization's war against an old woman, her son and their neighbors whose land they aim to devour. Anthony Baxter pursues Trump and his company to have this wrong corrected but it leads to no change.

Trump is Trump and there are so many people like him who would not keep their promises or strongarm others. This is why we have governments and laws yet we do not see any support from the local Scottish government other than sending their police forces to scare the people defending their land rights as well as to arrest the filmmakers.

To me it's shame on the local government for letting the Trumps "hunt" these families via various abuses.

Note: I can't fathom how come Molly's family not file a lawsuit against the gov and the Trump golf course for the unclean water they drank for years. Does Scotland lack prosecutors?

I dislike series that aim to capture audience thru polemics and one popular way to do this is to make the cast do stupid things that noone would do in real life.

How realistic should a production be and still be entertainment? Depends on the genre, noone expects a superhero film to be realistic but a proper science fiction has to have a high level of realism or at the very least a solid core concept.

Alas, here we have gross stupidity, a crew is sent to a ruined lunar station where there were mass casualties and all died. They are to retrieve some delicate substance in a small container but the space agency does not give them even the basic info so they do not know the core of their mission.

But why do we have this stupidity? The answer is business, the producers target and aim to capture a low-culture audience (aka masses) who lack a refined mind. They need actors who would do stupid things on screen but with a character show so audiences associate themselves with these characters or behaviors and not with the science.

My low-culture comment is not an insult but only the identification of a social glass ceiling. Low culture is not about freedom or the empowerment of working class or even equality of opportunity but the opposite because it leads to human husbandry.

Low culture is often immediate and visceral so there is a limited value to it and it certainly colors the world when high culture can be sterile however when it comes in the form of a production that claims to be science fiction when it is not, this is an insult to Aldous Huxley, Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov and others.

They literally realized Neil Postman's above titled book as a drama. It also has some Idiocracy in it.

Basically our social system fails to create a highly probable solution to an extinction level event because we are stupidified by lack of critical thinking skills which then turns the political system into a rich people's toy. There is the pop culture and commercialization of everything - I guess even our deaths could be monetized from an amusement perspective - as well as political disinformation machines.

The constructive skills of humankind such as engineering, medicine and art are no longer king. We have so much, so why bother to build new things/systems with effort when you can manipulate with the power of populism? Politics does not care about added value and in fact neither does business which just needs lemmings like users so eventually the concept of a citizen turns into a consumer and thus the idiotic decay starts...

I give the film 7/10 plus 1/10 as a service to humanity so the total is ... 7, 1, 4, 10 oh it's 8/10.

FYI, I read a career comparison between the US and China where US/UK youth aim to be Youtubers and the Chinese, scientists. So, I'm hoping China or some other country will save us because this Amusing Ourselves to Death trend is real.

A big cheers/respect to the late Neil Postman.

Our family liked the first three Home Alone films as well as Dennis the Menace. Our kids watched them many times with pleasure but this is far worse than any of the above.

The script is so poorly written. The characters do not feel authentic at all. It is simply painful to watch.

Why 2/10? I guess there's some utility to it... one can be made to watch it as a punishment for example. Or learn how not to write a script.

"In the new era, thought itself will be transmitted by radio." Marconi

They did not mention Marconi so far (episode 5) or other visionaries such as Aldous Huxley, William Mitchell or William Gibson.

This show is interesting but one dimensional where they discuss the potential technology leaving aside social, political, psychological and even biological aspects of life. Things are also presented in a pop style where scientists and artists make multiple brief comments and often complement the basic narrative spoken by L. Fishburne. There is no effort to delve deep into any topic.

What put me off was there was not one biologist or a psychologist/psychiatrist on the show. Possibly these people would strongly object to many themes promoted on the show. But if you will argue that we shall exceed our biology then at least bring one biologist aboard and let her/him speak.

Our lives are not only biological but are shaped by scarcity and by real and potential conflicts. We often want everything but are limited by economic/physical scarcity or social rules yet Year Million does not go into such topics. I am pleased to meet some of the speakers for they were smart and witty but overall this show was not an intellectual success.

A very dramatic documentary that demonstrates how diluted forms of slavery continued until this day.

The director chose to employ an easy-to-follow format by making multiple narrators make one or two sentences each and whereas this makes the documentary fluent, it reduces its drama. However, it is still very striking and you may have a tough time sleeping after watching it.

Strongly recommended and even contains a very dramatic "I can't breathe" footage from the past.

I was deeply touched by this "human side of things" type of documentary and fail to understand the intensely (-) reviews because this was no scientific coverage of viruses. "Pandemic" does not claim to be a strictly scientific documentary.

It shows people who are on the frontline of a pandemic, whose job is to foresee, prevent and treat and we get to meet them personally.

It also shows cultures; parts of the inner USA that fail to pass a vaccine legislation? Even the Africans attacking the WHO Ebola fighting team get educated by a pastor but these people are stuck in middle ages, defying basic science and Pasteur. Nowhere in the world such people have a public voice except the US. It was also so dramatic to explain that China was, is and will be the originator of outbreaks.

To me it was a pleasure watching this series and meeting the people.

I appreciate watching a film that aims to eliminate/reduce corruption. However, the reasoning of this film is flawed, incomplete and unfortunately makes a mess of the concepts through a populist approach.

The concept of a limited liability entity is the fundamental cornerstone of our economic system and most corporate (as in commercial) entities are rooted upon this concept. The problem is not onshore or offshore entities but governmental supervision. If bankers, accountants, lawyers, auditors and back-office staff are required to detect and report fraud then they would, it is simple. If Panama or X Island(s) engage in fraud then this requires international sanctions. If they keep their taxes low or do not report to CRS, it is their right to do so.

As offshore structuring is under attack, the laundromat is no longer a favored device. Things are now going for the worse and we are now witnessing the rise of the more dangerous "oligark model" where a small group of business people are safekeeping the wealth of political leaders and unlike offshore accounts that just try to be hidden, the oligark model is aggressive in terms of actively safekeeping itself publicly through manipulation of the media & elections. Does Streep and Sodenberg understand how dark things are becoming? No, for them this is a childish fairytale not because they are incompetant but that's just their limited vision and experience.

It is rather funny when they put Meryl Streep in the church but fail to explain that the church itself often pays no taxes and I remember reading an article about how Vatican, despite being a religious entity incorporated as a sovereign state, used extremely complex structures to hide off its enormous wealth.

One thing this film says accurately is that the US is the number one tax haven in the world. But this has little to do with DL but with the deeply rooted cultural traditions that a person's property is their property and is not to be messed (taxed) with.

I understand people have high expectations and wish this film to do some good. I am sorry to say but that's just wishful thinking.

A creative and funny start keeps repeating itself and swiftly loses its attraction. It's like repeatedly making the same joke over and over and over and ...

The so-called reverse role-playing may aim to reduce sexism but instead belittles femininity (played by the male actors) since "women" are reduced to playthings. The film totally bypasses the concept of motherhood and limits femininity, played by the the male actor, to waxed legs and mini shorts/skirts.

As a male, I can count so many reasons as to why I think women are superior to men but who will listen? Stereotyped feminists? This film made me see that feminism is based upon an (incorrect) inferiority complex.

The Great Hack does a marvelous thing (with its probably low-budget) and exposes how customized online data is turned into "weapons-grade communication tools" and then used to target segments of population for various political purposes.

You might question the term "weapons-grade communication tools" but the way these tools are used is so harmful that the word weapon is the perfect choice. Dividing societies, inciting hatred, assassinating personas, creating unbranded attacks and disseminating them all across a nation or globe with the pinpoint precision provided by Facebook is hardly called PR or marketing. Here we see how Facebook let Cambridge Analytica use its immense data with almost zero oversight. It's practically a "buy my clients' data and I do not care what you do" type of totally unregulated environment that and reminds me of the illegitimate, dark web store "silk road" I read about some years ago.

It is likely that Trump campaign was won by CA's support but the danger is not X or Y candidate. We are essentially talking about the repeated monetization cycle of personal data by any company but the trick is, it is fake news that grab attention because these we can not read about these in the regulated media. Since you could not publish a fake ad (in a newspaper) which said "Candidate X is a killer/rapist" then unregulated Facebook environment is your perfect medium to disseminate your message. Facebook and others are literally undermining our societies by selling data to companies that monetize them by creating fake news and conflict.

If you say, "come on, how bad can this be" then watch to learn about organizations that specialize in providing just a little push in votes through any method and how they have been providing their divisive and illegal services to various countries of the world. Their foreign success brought them into the US (Trump campaign) and the UK (Brexit campaign.)

There is much evil here. Evil is a strong word but there is no way the word unethical can describe these things. And this evil is exposed because of some courageous whistleblowers who let their common sense and decency take back control.

Kudos to the filmmakers who take this challenge. I believe some (-) reviews are not genuine and some are naive. It is so easy to criticize but so much harder to produce something. Just think of making a film that sharply criticizes the behemoth FB, you may not even easily find a lawyer willing to be on your side let alone making the film...

Note: Speaking generally, I think the word whistleblower is a not a good choice of word because it does not signify the risks, courage and the desire to turn evil into good by its perpetrators. We need more people at any industry or organization to openly speak about the unethical or evil acts being done for the sake of money and hopefully someone will come across a better word encompassing the human side than the mechanical sounding whistleblower...

A cririmal-defense attorney who forgets to lock her door while cheating on her husband at her home is introduced as a topgun. She does lots of tough talking but the legal teachings are laughingly simple.

Her students do anything to collect evidence and for some reason everyone else, especially the prosecutors are rather stupid or inept.

This is a teen film that offers a rather low intellectual output plus lots of gay sex, indeed it may be considered a trojan horse for gay sex.

Even the gay coverage of this series is of substandard quality. I love Ferzan Ozpetek, one of the leading gay-right advocates and his films are far superior to this garbage series offering social and personal dimensions with class and elegance.

This cheap, one-dimensional and rather unintelligently gay-sex promoting HTGAWM will surely empower Trump, Bolsanaro and likes and I shall not be surprised a bit.

First season is really good but as of mid 2 things go out of control. This series is anti government, never have I seen police depicted so incompetant like hello kitties.

I do not care about its anarchic leftist message... the intricacies and overall plot is very exciting yet their master argument is insultingly weak. Am I stupid to believe that armed career criminals (studying dutifully for 5 months :-)) are the solution to capitalist system's problems and Spanish police are stupid enough to forget disconnecting electricity? But hey, this is a .... "masterpiece" :-)

Seriously I wish they could come up with something that's decent at ideological level instead of this floor mat that tries to create a 1970s style militant leftist rebellion at the age of blockchain. (Assuming the series owners are not smart capitalists collecting dumb people's money)

And the pregnant mistress who fells in love with a violent thug (as officially depicted in the beginning) and finally turns into a machine gun toting criminal, how come she not turn into a giant spider and attack the city of Madrid :-)))))))

This is a shame for Spain and leftist/anarchist ideology but it's facebook generation watching so let's give thumbs up LOL!!!

This is a great parkour film where the scenario is based upon the criticism of health industry and how poor athletic youth try to save a kid's life by burglarizing rich executives who make money legally but unethically. In the process there is fantastic parkouring.

I'm amazed that people who would watch the Ocean's series with pleasure rant about the well-intentional burglaries here. I guess stealing from a casino is cool when film stars do the stealing to live in luxury but when it is poor young men saving a life then it's a no. To me this suggests many reviewers of this film are unable to think for themselves.

What a touching film! Beautiful acting and cinematography make this a gem. Slow at times but felt like a timeless classic. Strongly recommended. The Ottoman Lieutenant deserves a 9+ score.

I'm Turkish but my family are all Orthodox Christians. So I know both worlds and find this film to be highly accurate. Believe it or not these lands support more religious tolerance than trolls claim. These people have never been here nor took any history courses. They can't even review the film but merely act to defile a work of art.

A family from the impoverished Eastern Turkey believe they will find heaven in Switzerland and they decide to illegally immigrate. They are coy and their travels are filled with hope against much hardship. The result is a beautiful film that is very touching. The film's sole focus is on the human aspect of migration of a close knit family. There are no political messages or judgements here, and in my view this simplicity empowers the drama....a family trying to survive in a complex world through migration.

The father and the son are both great actors and the film accurately represents the social environment of Eastern Turkey which often offers third world conditions as opposed to Western Turkey. This was especially true when the film was shot.