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rosco55
Reviews
Napoleon (2023)
Pas de Coeur
This looked good, but right from the start I felt uneasy, until I realised it was basically a montage, and a little bit of talking, with a fella dressed as the great French military man but not really inhabiting the character. So the heart of the movie was missing. As good as the writing and realisation was on 'Gladiator', this was not. So many say if it isn't on the page it isn't on the stage, well this one isn't on the page, a load of waffle. As great as Mr. Phoenix was in Joker he is ordinary here. A rush of blood from he and Ridley Scott thought this a good idea; it wasn't. I suggest searching out Désirée, if only for Marlon Brando as a more entertainingly strange core, albeit surrounded by a marzipan of a movie. Even the 2002 French mini series seems much more authentic, especially if you can find the French version, having been done in both English and French. Miscast is definitely correct applied to the lead. Josephine should not have been a more interesting character but Vanessa Kirby did inhabit her and and gave it some truth. The fog of the mistake had me coming out having gained nought. So I am going to go back to 1954 to let Marlon entertain me with his dance.
Succession (2018)
Resumption?
A proper drama, deep full and wide in its scope.
A great cast speaking interesting words with an ebb and flow of the contemporary world.
If based on a known family, sure...why not, but enough colour and movement to keep it interesting.
I had to take a break after season 2, as it was hard to like anybody on screen.
Jerry was probably the less despicable.
I did start to get very tired of the stuttering and spluttering of the children, especially Roman, it was like the way they built the characters as they got deeper into it, they talked themselves into a corner and couldn't 'act' their way out. Given enough rope they hung 'emselves.
It ended at the right time for me because of that.
The ending was ham fisted, it could have been better if they took a couple of feature length episodes to wind up, but the stuttering would have driven me crazy, as more and more of the leads started to do it. A script as a guide with improv filling? Not sure.
It made me go back to The Newsroom, to watch another great cast, with excellent words and stories and hardly any stuttering.
Still Succession, a serious contemporary drama that delivers.
I'd watch a sequel series 'Resumption' as long as there is less spluttering and stuttering.
Ghosted (2023)
B Movie C Script
It becomes obvious with these streaming companies that they need original content to keep the profile up, and when they spend the money on productions like this, they green light it way too soon. All participants make it look as if it may work, but quick turn over equals shallow uncooked story. So many holes, ridiculous dialogue, some one should count how many times the word 'Passcode' is said in this silly story. I don't think I can watch it again to do that. It is tongue in cheek, but it needed less tongue and more cheek. Maybe if if Adrien Brody's character danced through his scenes the dialogue wouldn't have fallen so flat. I understand they can't tell when they are making it that it is going to smell bad once put together, and so many actors have said if it's on the page it has a good chance of working, this can't have looked good on the page. There's no hurry, we can wait for better stuff, take your time...think it through. Please, Don't do this again.
Babylon (2022)
Rubbish
Don't waste your time. Time better used sitting outside and watching nature.
My 3 Stars are for the elephant, lizard and the snake. The actors were paid well for their 'work', let's just leave it at that. Whiplash was trite and shallow, La La Land was an empty shallow cartoon, Babylon is a just a mess, less than shallow. Some suggest a backhanded homage, more like a smelly fromage, cos Everything sounds better in French; I mean really. Read and believe the reviews that can this disaster, and so much out of focus camera work, and not in a good way. It feels as if he was trying to emulate Baz and Quentin, but this guy doesn't have the sparkle or the character. After all the stuff they filmed, he couldn't even find the end, what a joke. I wasn't going to see it based on my feelings about this director, but we got free tickets. Sure, go see it if you get free tickets, but take a book.
Ted Lasso: Headspace (2021)
Dramedy?
The spirit they established in the first series is there, but like a second album from a band that had a good amount of time to write the songs for the first album, but too much touring and less time to write for the second album, that lack of time and thought is showing especially in this episode. Mellow drama, when it appears in a very smart, funny, comedy like this, has a fast food feel to it, little prep and no nutrition. If the psychological exposure of the characters was funny, maybe it would feel better, but to me it feels forced and unnecessary. I'll perceiver because when this show works, it's as good as it gets.
The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
A picture tells a thousand words
I saw the movie Mogambo and was surprised at how natural Ava Gardner was in it. I got her autobiography (just her words transcribed from tape with little editing and flow) and thought I might find an interesting person in there. The Barefoot Contessa came on TV with me just at her chapter in the book on the movie. Little or no info about the production, which gives scant insight into how she felt, some but not enough to make it interesting. Mostly her struggles with the men in her life and drinking. Contessa is a silly tapestry of episodes with a central character of Maria Vargas (Gardner) beginning well, but becoming more and more ridiculous. You get the feeling the Joseph L. Mankiewicz picked up fragments of this from his life in Hollywood and beyond (there are references to a Howard Hughes type) and part of Rita Hayworth's real story,but where ever it sprang from it doesn't hold together well and none of the characters are that believable because of the tenuous thread. You can see Humphrey Bogart trying very hard and Ava Gardner is a knockout to look at and begins well as the Spanish girl dancer with humble beginnings, but then she just comes across as a stunningly beautiful vacuous idol that is determined to make mistake after mistake. I didn't mind the shared narration at all but a modern audience would not be able to deal with all those words, especially the heavy handed long winded explanations near the end. Could have done much of that with a few well held head shots of people thinking, as in the opening of the movie with intriguing shots of an audience watching a never seen Maria dance. Anyway, it looks good. Some great locations and great old cars.
Spider-Man 3 (2007)
That's Entertainment?
It's too much and it's not enough. Too much fried food? Too much manipulated vision without a reasonable tale to tell. I had the comics as a kid and understand that corny as they were the collective stories added to something, but for a large expensive and expansive movie there really should be more (or is it less) thought put into these undertakings. Corny can get by if there is a good balance of real drama and humor, but this is another bloated entertainment where the characters have slipped through the cracks between the technology. The public may think they've been entertained, and some of them will be, but for most; at least they can say they've seen it. I'd skip straight to No.5 and let Elmore Leonard write it and give the budget for No.4 to charity.
Assassination Tango (2002)
Let Him Dance
I hadn't seen Robert Duvall in anything worthwhile for some time and needed to see him ply his trade. The fact that he wrote and directed this was a bonus for me remembering The Apostle as a solid performance for him under his own gaze and like a singer/songwriter, he knows how to say his own words. This, even if a somewhat gentler flow (the violence notwithstanding), was no different. Considering the amount of land fill being created as entertainment around the world if Robert Duvall made one of these a year, which isn't likely, I'd order the tickets in advance. If you like Robert in anything you'll love him in this.