nicolas314 Reviews

Language Lessons (2021)

A real gem

[10/10 · 3 December 2021]

This film is a true delight. True character development at its best, so close to real life that I now feel like I know these people intimately. Yes there is something voyeuristic about attending their conversations, but after two years of Zoom calls in lockdown I don't think that's gonna be an issue for anyone living today.

It is not a comedy but I found myself laughing hard at times. The writing is stellar, the story unveils like a real-life one, making it completely and ultimately relatable. I completely fell in love with sweet Cariño and her marvelous smiles, felt all the painful moments depicted in that story, ending up with tears of joy and a fast-beating heart. Finally someone in Hollywood understood that cinema is not just about teenagers with super-powers, but about making those 90 minutes an important moment of your life. This movie will stay with me for a long time. Thanks to you Mark and Natalie!

Calls (2017–2020)

First season great, don't bother with the other two

[5/10 · 21 March 2021]

This is a podcast with some random images added to make it on TV. Not sure the idea is good, would have definitely been better as sound-only. I really enjoyed the first season: good, original, well performed, and full of surprises. Seasons 2 and 3 are trying to add a bit of visual information but miserably fail. The acting in those two last seasons is not so good, the story is just complete nonsense, the ending is a shipwreck. Stick to season 1 if you don't want to be disappointed.

Ragnarok (2020–2023)

Teenager series

[2/10 · 7 February 2021]

Here is an ambitious series aiming at reviving old Norse gods and creatures in a modern-day story, but falls flat on its back almost from the start. Here we have 3,000-years old beings who are immortal. What do they do all day? Mingle in a teenager school, of course! Similar to vampire stories where 200-year old vampires decide to go back to school and fall in love with 16-year old girls. Mind you, being so old did not make them any smarter. Poor decisions all along, a very limited script, and CGI at the level of a bad Netflix series. I really wanted to like them: the actors are all really good, the Norvegian landscapes are magically beautiful, but the story is so dumb it is impossible not to laugh out loud every minute. Surely Netflix can hire decent writers and let them do a better job than this?

What Happened to Monday (2017)

Awful, lost two hours of my life

[1/10 · 25 August 2017]

This is hands down one of the worst movies I have ever watched. Photography is rather good and this is the only positive point I could find. Everything else is just a disaster. The score is so badly mixed that dialogues are mostly inaudible, but given how useless they are this is a blessing. Characters who are made of very thin paper, a plot that could fit on a postage stamp but with more holes than Swiss cheese. Poor actors have been given brainless lines that do not let them deliver any acting whatsoever, but this is mitigated by the fact that half of the movie is dedicated to pure action with a lot of gratuitous gore scenes.

I am left wondering why somebody would decide to spend so much money on creating a movie featuring A-class actors, and just slap the most inane script ever written. Life is too short to spend two hours in front of this. I will never get back these two hours of my life but it is not too late for you, reader. Go do anything else instead.