mecong-378-292701 Reviews

Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty: What Is and What Should Never Be (2023) Season 2, Episode 7

Best episode of the whole series

[9/10 · 15 February 2024]

And a worthy end to an overall interesting production. Especially when you are an eighties kid and remember this rivalry, the Lakers and Magic in particular very well.

For me the whole series had far too little basketball and too much family stuff, but this episode was what I was waiting for - similar to the Larry Bird episode earlier. I would have loved to see more games against other teams and meet some of the other all time greats like Malone, Hakeem, Erving, Thomas or even rookie of the year Michael Jordan.

I would not have minded a 3rd season. Pity they decided to make the cut at the end of this season.

Archie (2023)

Ms Cannons story

[2/10 · 16 December 2023]

This film has hardly anything to do with Cary Grant and it's all about the strong, young Dyan Cannon and her revenge on Mr Grant. Mr. Isaacs is good, the rest is rather mediocre. Episode 1 was ok, because Ms Cannon was not in it. The rest sounds to me like my auntie complaining about her husband. It can clearly be seen the way Ms Cannon portrayed Mr Grant's mother.

This is the third biopic based on a book by an ex wife, and they all seem to be the same. Vengeful, biased to the extreme (I can't believe that Ms Cannon was always the victim here for example), and never really exploring the character the biopic is all about, but the reaction and judgements of a disgruntled former partner.

The Exorcist: Believer (2023)

The most important ingredient is missing:

[3/10 · 11 November 2023]

Bill Friedkin. The Exorcist was not only a legendary horror movie but also a brilliantly directed one. Think about the first 20 minutes alone, how masterfully the scene is being set. I still remember those two nuns with their clothes moving in the wind. This what they did not understand here unfortunately. It could have been something special, with ,uch more focus on Burstyn's and Blair's characters, but once again its not. Blair for example could have become a nun herself, without knowing why. And Burstyn could have been more ambiguous in how to handle this situation. What they really tried to do here was making the topic more accessible for millennials, and they failed. Ok, and Bill Patty's script of course is missing as well...so two ingredients.

The Patient (2022)

Pseudo Psycho babble by two overrated actors.

[1/10 · 26 November 2022]

Boring, too long, and not fascinating in any way. This seems to be the modern way of making movies - its not a TV series, its a dissected movie - of this kind. Lazy, no depth, and two actors who cannot carry this weight. Carrell is not convincing at being either, a therapist or a jew. And the serial killer portrayal of a young, disturbed man with his cowardice mother - well, there was so much missing. At times his face looked like a can of tuna - no matter what taste, they all look the same. If you want to see good movies of this kind, go and check out French productions of the late 60ies to 70ies.

Criminal Minds: Somebody's Watching (2006) Season 1, Episode 18

One could only guess here...

[2/10 · 19 September 2021]

How Johnny Depp fell for Amber, probably the same way she eats Dr. Reid alive here in the pool. Her acting skills are as low as usual though, a really boring character. The highlight being, when she follows Reid into a room, knowing there is a killer on the loose in the house, looking for her. She looks like she is walking into a shoe shop really.

1 extra star for Gubler, who does his job ok, and for Wynnick.

Into the Woods (2014)

Try but missed

[2/10 · 19 September 2021]

Overrated actors - except for Mr. Depp - in an overblown attempt on a musical on screen, but missing all the charme and charisma of its predecessors.

Homeland: Chalk Two Down (2020) Season 8, Episode 5

Honor our soldiers!!

[1/10 · 11 September 2021]

The way our soldiers, the army, the Rangers are presented here, is disgusting! People gave their lives on the battlefield to be portrayed like this? Shame on you!!! We are talking the President here. Everyone of us would give everything to protect the Commander in Chief. QRF ONE HOUR!!! Away? Disintegrate the body of our Commander with still one man standing? Those Taliban half out in the open like on a shooting range? The guys have no grenades at hand? Rangers? Not one good shot? No machine gun in the whole squad when they clearly had one before in the river bed? No attempt at flanking the Taliban? They all huddle in the line of fire? Coming out of cover while reloading? Not using the Helicopter as cover or the weapons onboard the Heli? A Hollywood disgrace-once again. Our folks deserve better! All I am saying.

And I can't stand Danes anymore. She is so far out of her league, acting-wise, and no-one like her would even come close to a position similar to the one she has in this series. NEVER! Lives depend on her silly emotions. No way! And always the same expression, the one face of crazy (she seems to only have one technique for her eyes and eyebrows!) and a quivering chin. But that's ok, I keep jumping over it, but the soldiers - that's not fair.

White Collar (2009–2014)

Gets old too quick...

[3/10 · 9 September 2021]

Nice premise, love the actors, but the rest...FBI agent manhandled by his wife? "Go upstairs now!" How old is he? 12?

This overarching plot with Kate...oh my...and two seasons...or more? That could have been done much better. A pity really. The idea was good, but you need smarter scripts (The Thomas Crown Affair) to make such a premise work. Cliché after cliché time after time. Every episode some sexy damsel in distress, the white (gay) knight and his strange sidekick, rescued by some FBI out of the hat solution. I really liked some twists, the humor, but all in all its more daytime soap while washing the dishes than a genuine TV Show.

Homeland (2011–2020)

Claire Danes

[1/10 · 9 September 2021]

Is the worst actress I have seen in a long time. And here I thought nobody will ever beat JP Kennedy as Nora West-Allen! S1 great, S2 good to ok, the rest - repeat, repeat and again repeat. Her chin...her eyes...her crying...in season 5 she cried 10,7% of ALL airtime! Really? When she avoids eye contact, its always to the left. Her quivering chin deserves a star on the walk of fame. And her eyes would make Marty Feldman jealous. No nuances, nothing. No change. She stays the same for the whole time, for 8 Seasons. Come on...I thought you kept taking your meds girl?

And people here praise her like the second coming.

Saul...same...boring like hell. He still looks like the doctor from Chicago Hope. And so on....

Season 1 and 2 were great to good (Damien!). The rest is just a Claire Danes' acting class. And the writing...well, does anybody really believe a person with her traits would become a station chief for the Agency anywhere in the world? And when she becomes one, the first thing she does, is, she hops into bed with a young Pakistani boy? She opens the door in Islamabad in her underwear? Come on...

I could go on and on but much has been said here already. Point is, this whole thing is so overrated it makes me sick. And Claire Danes - look at all her previous movies and roles were she played mentally challenged people - and they all look like Carrie - so boring, I just wanted to say that.

And if you compare this - face to face - to Rupert's character Quinn in Season 6, then she should hand over all her awards to him right away. But she is a bit better in Season 6 as well. Maybe because of him? We'll never know.

And coming from Berlin, I thought S5 to be interesting - mostly thanks to Miranda Otto, and Rupert Friend of course, but there are so many errors, it shows how bad this whole thing is/was researched. From language to locations to culture. Its all plain wrong.

And on one last note, its time we see a series from the other point of view. A bit like what Strike Back tried to do in Season 1 (after that it also became a f##k fest). Or maybe The Spy with SB Cohen.

Normally 5-6 out of 10 but Claire Danes is a clear 1 (or 0 for that matter).

American Horror Story (2011– )

Overrated

[3/10 · 3 September 2021]

Seasons 1-3 - 2 is good, 1 is ok and 3 reminds me of a female version of Riverdale.

Binged watched S1-3 and have to say, J. Lange is so overrated in the comments here. Her acting throughout three seasons is always more or less the same character. The elderly vamp, brutal and manipulating, and a little in distress at times. Ok S2 as a standalone would have been good for her, but braced by 1 and 3 it looks as if she can only play one character.

Instead I loved the versatility of Lily Rabe, her many different faces, emotions, characters, she was great. You always felt she brings something different, something special or characteristic to her characters. A different smile, a significant gesture, her posture, many little things the others missed out on.

Paulson also rather repetitive (her "surprised" face with this weird smile...), same as Farmiga (the dreaming teenager), Peters (the haunted and misunderstood boy) and Conroy (the supervisor of everything). If you binge watch S1-3, it becomes very obvious, how limited the range of these guys truly is.

Out of this three, Season 2 was the best I'd say. The writing was ok, I loved Thredson, Pepper, Grace, and of course Dr. Arden! There were true moments of distress in there, and Sister Jude was played well by Lange. Except for the strange opening with the Maroon 5 guy, who felt so out of place, and the overuse of sexuality without any plot driving reason other than to create cheap thrills, the writing was not bad. Conroy as the angel of death had her moments and even Peters was ok at times. Only it seems that he has not more than three expressions - shocked, sad or hurt, and angry.

All in all, a very overrated series, but its possible, that if you watch this once a week, it might work. But watching all those episodes in a row, it becomes rather boring. Especially Lange I have to say. You could switch hundred of scenes between Constance, Jude, and Fiona, and it would not have made much of a difference. The same situations, same mannerisms, same everything, even her drinking and her sexuality. Boring. But Sister Jude was her best performance here - especially her last scene.

C.B. Strike (2017– )

Brilliant

[9/10 · 24 August 2021]

The pace, storytelling, characters, soundtrack (The Verve!!) - love it. Definitely worth watching and best together with your significant other.

The Man in the High Castle: No Masters but Ourselves (2019) Season 4, Episode 7

Why?

[3/10 · 15 August 2021]

Why have African American roles/actors to speak this "black american english"? This hood language let's say. I have many AA friends and none of them speaks like that. None of them is using this kind of phrasing or intonation, they all speak "normal" american english. And in the context of this series, wouldn't they rather talk like MLK Jr? Or like Malcolm X? Like in the sixties?

And talking about language, the German in this episode is just horrible. And also why would they use German phrases anyway? Does anybody truly believe, that 16 years after the war, the Reich would not have changed the language to German all around? The whole bureaucracy alone would have done that, and believe me, if the Reich loved one thing, it's their Prussian bureaucracy.

The Man in the High Castle: Sabra (2018) Season 3, Episode 4

Lazy boring writing.

[2/10 · 12 August 2021]

It starts with using a Soviet tank for a German, besides having millions of German tanks at their hands in the USA. Nuts.

Juliana turns into a maneater, after being almost celibate before. And especially with Joe. Makes total sense. Who now has become Himmler's lovechild from the Lebensborn collection when in reality being his father's son, he would either be dead or in a monkeyhouse.

The ever existing gay storyline has to come in, with DJ just recently coming out. Boring! There is no reason for it at all.

I could go on, but the writing gets worse and worse. And now it's the worst.

Mindhunter (2017–2019)

Zodiac Series

[8/10 · 6 August 2021]

Has this been canceled now or not? Some say yes, some say no.

After watching so much nonsense during Covid, the highlight being Olivia Coleman being the Queen and Helena B. Carter Margaret (Netflix in one second here simply destroyed another great series, they more and more turn into SyFy (DARK MATTER!!)), I wonder why always these masterpieces do end up on the Chopping Block, while on the other end, money is wasted for nonsense like War of the Worlds or Altered Carbon Season 2, and other nonsense.

If it's all about cost, why don't you make a series about watching a fly die (long live Don Rickles!) - one eyeball would make such a series "profitable".

I am not sure what we can do, but somehow we, the viewers, need to have more influence about what these guys do. So annoying. In the end we will all end up watching reruns of old shows. I mean it is just a product, a service, and I pay for it, and i have no say in what the product should be like, look like, feel like? That's not right.

And especially when they suddenly cancel a show, I invested time in, without any conclusion, any explanation, nothing! It's like reading a book and the last chapter has just been omitted. In business terms, this makes no sense, or does it? These transactions are very one sided. Then they should warn their viewers, that they are not sure, how long it will last, or at least end it in a way like Quarry tried to (not perfect, but, HEY, they did try).

The Crown: Olding (2019) Season 3, Episode 1

Dreadful - it reminds one of Star Wars.....

[1/10 · 4 August 2021]

So dreadful. I can only agree with the many opinions in regards to the cast. Coleman (female police officer through and through), Menzies (the always anti-hero), and Bonham-Carter (the forever Tim Burton fantasy cast) are nothing against the charm and the chemistry Foy, Smith, and Kirby had. All the other continuing roles are miscast as well. They had a perfect cast, an ok show, and threw it all away.

Nobody (I) (2021)

Best entertainment in a long time

[9/10 · 31 July 2021]

When I saw the titles running, and next to Bob Odenkirk there were Michael Ironside and Christopher Lloyd, I knew this will be good - and good it was!

Entertainment pure and some good laughs, the old fashioned way. And a great soundtrack. And the best use of You'll never walk alone other than Anfield Road.

Its humor for all of us old farts and for some of the younger ones as well I guess! Definitely a movie for 50ies up and ex SF guys.

Well done.

Dark Matter (2015–2017)

The powers that are...how stupid can you be?

[10/10 · 20 July 2021]

After watching 4 episodes of the worst TV show I have seen in decades, War of the Worlds, the french-uk version with the poor Gabriel Byrne, I keep asking myself, how can such crap find a budget for 3 seaons (!) and a masterpiece like Dark Matter gets canceled?

That is really not fair!

I WANT DARK MATTER BACK!

War of the Worlds: Episode #1.4 (2019) Season 1, Episode 4

uninspried

[1/10 · 20 July 2021]

Wanna be Anne Hathaway has of course a love affair with the Sudanese refugee, who earlier tried to take her hostage. Sure thing. And one person here, must be one of the writing staff, calls this a well written thriller....

According to him/her I am full of bile when I call this tedious piece of nonsense what it is - crap. A first year film school student could analyse this script and find more holes in it than craters on the moon. And Episode 4 is just bad. And what is even sadder - from now on it really goes downhill.

They should have saved this money and instead continued Dark Matter! That would have been something.

War of the Worlds (2019– )

3 seasons?

[1/10 · 20 July 2021]

Sci-Fi masterpieces like Dark Matter or Firefly get canceled and this crap runs for 3 seasons? That is an insult.

Shining Through (1992)

I was working on this one...

[3/10 · 7 July 2021]

Yeah, we had a little post-production house in Berlin, called ForFilm. Because we were the first, and only post-production house in Germany featuring Acmade and Moviola equipment, we got the movie. On a side note, the first fax we ever received in our office, fax was very new then you know, was the ok from CentFox. You cannot imagine how it feels, when the first thing you see coming out of the fax machine is the famous logo. I was shaking, and my business partner Klaus Zimmermann and I got drunk that night!

So I came to meet the one and only Craig McKay. One of the greatest editors I have ever met - and I have met many - who taught me the way of transition and scene drama. I learned more from Craig in those 8 months working together than anywhere else. And David Seltzer, who also wrote The Omen, was an inspiration as well.

Oh my, there are so many stories that I could tell, like how I ran over MD, he was standing right behind me, and I did not see him, he is not very tall you see. So when I turned I bumped into him and he fell. I almost got fired for that, but because I belonged to ForFilm, he couldn't. MD, what a guy really. He wanted a goddamn Pullman 600 Mercedes as his car. So we had to look everywhere to find one. When we found one, and we brought it back to Berlin, he did not accept it, because it was dark blue and not black. Well, that's him.

Another memory is when I watched the shooting of Hitler's parade. In Potsdam 1990, the wall had just come down and this part of Potsdam still looked like 1939. All we had to do was to take off the TV antennas, and there we were. All the extras, hundreds and hundreds of them, 1930ies police on horses, Hitler youth, the roar of the engine of his original car, the flags and the hysteria of the people going bonkers when seeing Hitler, you could really feel it. Still gives me goosebumps. It felt like the devil had come alive.

Or one afternoon with Melanie Griffith, I walked with her while she was crying. Don Johnson just called to tell her that Stefano Casiraghi had died. She is actually a very kind person.

Unfortunately, the movie is not good. But the memories are very strong and I won't miss them.

Infinite (2021)

Hollywood milking the Chinese cow

[1/10 · 6 July 2021]

A vehicle for Chinese audiences who it seems Hollywood believes to be dumb enough to like this nonsense. Marky Mark looks less interested as during his CK shots. And the script is real garbage.

The Kid Detective (2020)

A solid 6

[6/10 · 1 May 2021]

Some reviews here are a bit too glorified, and it might be a 8 or 9 compared to all this other nonsense which gets released these days. But I think its a good 6.

Project Blue Book (2019–2020)

Please help to get season 3

[10/10 · 7 July 2020]

One of the best shows I have seen in years. The storyline, the acting, cinematography, costumes, prod design - its great. And now, that we entered into the age of President Kennedy, who being a Senator starts to get involved in Project Blue Book, this show has been cancelled. KENNEDY - an X-Files like show during the Kennedy era would be just incredible! Especially given the arch over the last two seasons and how much development already has been done. So please sign the petition to get a 3 season being picked up by some network, maybe Netflix or I believe it would be much better at Apple or Amazon Prime. Or HBO. Just google Save 'Project Blue Book' The TV Series - its on change.org. We want to reach 25,000 and now stand at 17,000. Please help save one of the best shows on TV especially given the potential of the Kennedy infused next two Seasons. Thanks.

The Enemy Within (2019)

Rip off of The Mentalist

[2/10 · 4 July 2020]

Came here after I binged watched Condor and comparing, both series this one cannot stand up at all. Writing is a bit lazy and rather predictable. Its like a spy series light I'd say. Also the protagonist, Elizabeth, is another almost "all" knowing individual The Mentalist style. So its rather boring. And the opening line, 100,000 spies in the US, not only fuels the already high level of paranoia in the US, but also fails to mention the fact that probably several 100,000 US spies are active globally.

The Mandalorian (2019– )

What an amazing return to the roots of Star Wars

[10/10 · 4 January 2020]

All you millennials out there - Star Wars began its long run in 1977 - and The Mandalorian returns to that ancient time - for you that is. The writing is in the style of those days, as well as the storytelling. There is a storyarch which takes time to develop - its similar to those ancient papery things called books which told novels or tales. Its just beautiful. And Episode 8 for all true Star Wars fans had soo much to offer - the darksaber guys! - amazing. So I hope for once Disney will keep this show as it is now and wont develop it into something more appealing to the big spender online demographic. And telling Apollo Creed its a "creed" - loved it.