paul-2148 Reviews

Outer Range (2022– )

Season one is an 8. Season two is a 1

[5/10 · 17 May 2024]

There is a lot of talking. Endless boring talking. Season one had a lot of action and a great deal of mystery. The only mystery about season two is why it took so long to make, and after all this time why did they bother? The answer seems to be that though nothing happens in this season, there might be a season three where real plot lines might develop. But based on how long it took for this season, who is going to care about this stupid show in 2026?

The bottom line is that the only character we care about is Josh Brolin's character, but we spend most of the time on characters that are boring and unlikeable.

Unfrosted (2024)

Wholesome and funny. Reminds me of Mel Brooks movies.

[8/10 · 8 May 2024]

Seinfeld said that he doesn't mind the bad reviews because he didn't make this movie for them. He must have made it for me because I found this movie funny, charming, wholesome, and completely enjoyable. It reminds me of Mel Brooks movies and the movie, Airplane. Jokes keep flying at you at a rapid pace. No everything lands but that's OK. It's silly and silly is good.

I liked the cinematography and the production design too. I don't think this movie is for cynical adults. I think he made this movie for families to watch together. After the success of Baby Reindeer, a wholesome movie like this is a happy surprise.

Miller's Girl (2024)

Adolescent garbage.

[1/10 · 28 April 2024]

I started reading about this movie a year ago. It has been getting a lot of press, and I think mostly because the two stars are both great actors and it's implausible that they decided to make this film. It's a first time writer-director and she is in way over her head. Freeman is a great English actor but his southern accent comes and goes. I think I was 30 minutes into the film before I realized he was supposed to be southern. Jenna was so brilliant in Wendy, but now I am wondering if she can play a character that is a real person. There seems to be a pandemic of student teacher relationships in America currently, and it's worth exploring, but this script is juvenile. It's one of the worst scripts of the year. It is also not sexy at all. It seems like a high school girl tried to write a sexy play who has never been in love.

Also the two do absolutely nothing to hide an inappropriate relationship. Freeman's teacher would have lost his wife and career if found out, but they appear in public like they are lovers.

I just felt cheated after looking forwards to this film for several months.

Until September (1984)

Karen can't save this.

[3/10 · 21 April 2024]

I love Karen Allen. I'm not sure why she did this film. Lhermitte is awful. He gives a paper thin, soulless performance. It's unfathomable, that her character would fall for a shallow, married man with two kids and already one mistress on the side. His character says that he doesn't love his wife, but he obviously did at one time. So, he is just a character that maybe doesn't know how to love. I understand that he is French, and he is playing a stereotypical French douche bag, who can't be satisfied by one woman. That's sort of my point though. Why would an American farm girl fall for an adulterous bore of a man?

I'm very protective of Karen. Lol.

Maestro (2023)

A film about a bad marriage not a composer.

[2/10 · 21 December 2023]

Once I got over the disappointment that this film is not about composing or even conducting, but about an extremely unlikeable man and his wife, I was more disappointed by the fact that this couple is dreadful, and they have zero chemistry together. Maybe that's the point. Their marriage seems to be an act that they play out together, because Bernstein is too much of a coward to live openly as a gay man. They don't feel like real people with real emotions. Bernstein in a letter wrote once that he was in an imaginary marriage, and it's painful to watch at times. He comes across as a selfish bore of a man. He doesn't seem like a man capable of composing music at all. His soul seems dark and his heart empty.

So, I have to wonder why Cooper made this film at all other than for the hope of winning an Oscar for best actor. It's was a real struggle to get through this film.

Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain (2023)

Funniest thing I've seen in a long time.

[10/10 · 21 November 2023]

These guys crack me up. They say comedy is about timing, and whatever they are doing just hits my funny bone. The writing is silly but at times very clever. There is a scene where the 3 guys go to the foggy mountain park, and a girl on the staff falls instantly in love with one of the smaller nerdy guys. Later she try's to tell her coworker about him but she doesn't recall him. She says " you know, the male model and his bodyguards. " it's a hilarious line because her crush is on just a plain looking nerd. This sums up there humor well. Clever lines, that you never see coming, and the timing of the actors in these scenes is spot on.

I thought comedy was dead until I became aware of these guys. Conan O'Brien has a part in this and he's hysterical and apparently a huge fan of the 3 lads. Makes sense to me. I am too.

The Changeling (2023– )

I was excited to watch this series, but it's like watching paint dry

[1/10 · 9 September 2023]

I have no problem watching the backstories of characters. Also, I don't necessarily hate a film narration, but the problem is that this series thinks it's far more investing than it is. When a whole episode is spent on men asking women out on dates, and there is narration accompanying such mundane activities, it make it very hard for the viewer to stay engaged. Then when the men finally get there dates, they are the most boring dates in history. All along, the viewer is being forced to endure this, but why?

Sometimes books are best adapted as films, not a series. Often when a book is adapted into a series, the writers struggle to find enough content to fill each episode, and that seems like what is going on here. Maybe it gets better eventually, but who has the time.

In songwriting, they used to say you need to grab the listener in the first 10 seconds or he may change the dial. In scriptwriting, they used to say that every scene needs to move the plot along. I have no idea what the plot of this series is, and there isn't a single interesting character in the opening episode. Perhaps I aught to have more patience. I don't know. Maybe the writers should have worked harder at attracting viewers.

Black Mirror (2011– )

Season 6 is dull and uninspired.

[1/10 · 18 June 2023]

Like good science fiction does, Black Mirror showed us a view of our future. A future of great technological advancement, but with diminished purpose and meaning. Right out of the gate, BM was brilliant and daring. It might have been the first television show that warned us of the dangers of modern technology.

The problem is now, that the technology that BM predicted has basically come true and passed BM by. So season 6 really has nothing new to say, and what's more the stories it tells are pretty boring. I was not thrilled with season 5. I felt the showing was getting too cute, and that it had lost its edge. So 4 years later, season 6 finally arrived, and it's just not good at all. I was so curious, that I immediately watched episodes from season 1-2, and yes our memory is correct, the show used to be brilliant and innovative. Season 6 feels like the CW has tried to do a copy of Black Mirror.

My only hope is that in the last 4 years, Booker has written some film scripts or has another show in the works, because BM seems like it is over.

Swallow (I) (2019)

Insufferable nothingness.

[1/10 · 17 June 2023]

If I was to write that this film is an abortion, you might think I was being hyperbolic about my review of it. That is not the case at all. This film is about a pregnant, depressed housewife who starts to swallow dangerous objects. It's a condition called Pica, we learn from the film. We don't know why she behaves this way, but it's clear that she has no instinct to protect her unborn child. In fact, it becomes obvious that she doesn't want to have her baby and she probably shouldn't because she be crazy.

In a sudden twist at the end, she leaves her wealthy husband and in-laws behind and begins a life on the street. She meets her father who she never knew by invading his sons birthday party where she can't decide what to drink.

The films ends with her aborting her baby in a public restroom. The camera frames her face and she smiles and looks happy for the first time in the film.

I'm no rocket scientist, but it seems to me the message of this film is: abortion=happiness.

The Crowded Room (2023)

...like watching a single magic trick that you learned for 5 hours.

[5/10 · 12 June 2023]

From the Title and the opening credits which tells you what book this is based on, you understand exactly what's going on. The fact that the characters don't interact with anyone but Danny is a clue too. So why am I forced to sit through 4+ hours of this before the "reveal". It's like watching David Blaine do street magic after you have learned how each of his illusions are done. It's no longer impressive, and you can spot the tells from a mile away.

You have a great cast and one helluva story. So, why treat the audience like idiots? Once I have seen The Sixth Sense, I don't need to watch it everyday for 2 weeks.

Platonic (2023– )

Stop making Seth Rogan movies

[2/10 · 5 June 2023]

I love Rose Byrne. In my mind she can do no wrong. She is great at both comedy and drama. Therefore, it saddens me to see her paired with Seth Rogan, who has a very limited range as an actor. He made a splash 20 years ago as a slacker, pot-head character with a heart of gold. 20 years on, he is still playing the same character, and now it's just sad and sort of pathetic. He is even less believable as a potential love interest. He appears to me to be asexual. Every time he is supposed to play a love interest he comes across as more of a platonic friend than a sexual being capable of romancing a women into bed.

This movie is saved by Byrne, but it's not enough. There are very few laughs here, and laughing and mugging for the camera does not guarantee that the viewers will be laughing along. I can think of 20 comedic actors that could have saved this movie, but for some reason producers keep casting Rogan in romantic comedies. It's not working and based on how few reviews there are on this page, it is an indication that the public has stooped watching him.

High Desert (2023)

I'm embarrassed for every actor in this train wreck.

[1/10 · 19 May 2023]

This is unwatchable. It's a cringe train wreck. I don't mean to be mean, but Patricia A 's performance is disturbing. She has gained so much weight that she can't deliver her lines without heavy breathing. I feel like every actor in this show just got out of rehab.

I watched the first 15 minutes and I have no idea what is happening. Is this a comedy or a drama? I have no idea. The story is convoluted I'm not sure who all these characters are, or how they are related. The writing is horrible. The dialogue is sophomoric. It's seems like the director was on acid while filming this. Characters are thrown into scenes without any setup or explanation.

I feel like watching True Romance, but I'm afraid I may cry.

Babylon (I) (2022)

This isn't a movie. It's visual torture.

[2/10 · 22 February 2023]

I don't understand why this film was made. I think it's supposed to be a comedy, but there is nothing funny about this. This makes Spielberg's 1941 look like Lawrence of Arabia. Ironically it's a film about the excess of old Hollywood, but this film itself is drugged out excess. It has to go down as one of the worst movies ever made. Every scene made me dizzy with so many characters crammed in to the frame, and shot with cameras that move chaotically it made me nauseous. There is zero plot. There is zero character development. During a time of severe economic hardship, this film feels like a crime. So much money and so much talent went into this. It feels like it's purposefully insulting the audience.

You People (2023)

Poor Eddie Murphy

[3/10 · 28 January 2023]

I watched this because I saw that Eddie Murphy and David Duchovny were in a comedy together. Eddie is fun to watch in this because he has created a likable, funny and believable character. It made me realize how much I miss seeing him in films. I have thought that Duchovny was always an underrated comedic actor. I find him to be very funny.

Jonah Hill isn't funny. He plays a fat loser. He is not very bright, but he somehow manages to get a beautiful, intelligent black woman to fall in love with him. It's preposterous. He is not likable in this film in any way. He co-wrote the script, and it's not good. It's not good at all. Even the jokes that are funny, don't really land because they are delivered awkwardly, and they seem out of place. More like jokes at Friars' Roast instead of a film.

Literally Hill gives the worst performance in the film. I think the casting is good otherwise.

I sure do miss Edie in a good comedy. This isn't one of those.

Shrinking (2023– )

The lovable loser character is tired and cringe.

[3/10 · 27 January 2023]

First impressions are important. Jason Segel's character is unlikeable. He thinks he is cute and funny but he's not. He's quirky and makes silly faces. He is over 40 and he still drinks and does drugs until 3 am. He is supposed to be a lovable loser, but we don't love him. Everyone treats him with kid gloves, while he becomes a cliche of self pity.

While I'm trying to watch this episode and struggling through horrible dialogue, I start thinking what a great show this could have been if it was centered on Harrison Ford's Character. A show about a psychiatrist who no longer cares about his patients because he has been sitting in the chair too long. He should retire but he can't because his career defines who he is. That could have been a great foundation for a charming comedy.

I'm done with quirky.

The Black Phone (2021)

Nearly a Perfect Thriller

[9/10 · 13 August 2022]

I was expecting another ho hum horror film but this is a masterful thriller in the Hitchcock and Stephen King tradition. My heart is still beating fast from the thrills. The cast is great, especially Madeleine McGraw who gives the best performance of any actress this year. It's really the direction that shines. Joe Hill is in a new class as a stellar director of edgy thrillers with a heart.

Black Bird (2022)

Egerton is in over his head, but the rest of the cast is great.

[4/10 · 8 July 2022]

Liotta and Kinear are great. Egerton seems lost in this role. There's never a scene where I don't see his effort at acting. Hauser who plays the serial killer, is terrific. His performance is haunting and complex.

It's an interesting story but the main character is the least interesting thing about it.

The Terminal List (2022– )

Hello Darkness My Old Friend

[7/10 · 4 July 2022]

I would have given this a higher score but my eyes literally are sore from straining to watch this. The battle scenes are shot in the dark. OK. But nearly every scene is void of a lighting director. When Pratt's character is plotting his revenge in elaborate strategy rooms, there is no overhead lighting. When the villain is meeting with his team in an enormous room with ceiling to floor windows it's somehow always nearly pitch black. Even the journalist who escapes death and retreats to a bus station bathroom, there is no lighting above the sinks.

I was watching one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies yesterday and a lot of those scenes are shot in low lighting, but there are always torches and lambs to light the faces of the characters. Not in this. There is literally no contrast in many of these shots. A character dressed in grey against a grey wall on a grey day is just not pleasing to the eye.

Aside from that it's an unapologeticly violent thriller with good performances. I just wish I could see what's going on.

The Lost City (2022)

An unwatchable mess

[2/10 · 13 May 2022]

I like Bullock and Pitt, of course. The Harry Potter kid is good too, but Tatum is annoying. This seems to be a ripoff of Romancing the Stone, but what that film had was romantic chemistry and humor. This has neither. They should have made RTS with Pitt and Bullock.

The writing is hack. The whole thing is a mess. I was bored out of my mind and I had to fast forward through most of it.

WeCrashed (2022)

The documentary was very good. This is not.

[1/10 · 20 March 2022]

All I know about WeWork I learned from the documentary. What I learned was that the "CEO" was just another conman, but he fancied himself more of a cult leader. It's a story very similar to Dropout, the story about the Theranos creator, who likewise raised millions in VC money without having a viable product or service. They are both modern day snake oil salesman. It's fitting that these story's are becoming common in our modern culture, where teenage girls can become millionaires overnight by dancing provocatively on TikTok.

For some reason, the producers decided to make a series from this story, but by focusing on the love story. The documentary gave any indication that there was a love story, instead it showed a man and a woman who partnered on a way to scam millions from gullible investors. The producers seem to have admiration for these two, and considering that they got away with it (they made millions and are still running their scams) and maybe that is admirable if you are a criminal. What is interesting is they combined two of the oldest cons in history. There have been countless cult leaders, gurus, mediums, and new age authors that have managed to many millions from selling hope, and of course, there have been pyramid schemes and unscrupulous get rich quick conman that have manipulated investors from the beginning of time.

We should not celebrate people like this we should lock them up.

Peacemaker (2022– )

Very funny and interesting series that is ruined by juvenile wokeness

[4/10 · 18 February 2022]

I didn't mind a black, obese, lesbian character as it checked 3 woke boxes, and I figured that maybe that would be all the wokeness Gunn needed so he could get on with telling a good story. Aliens trying to take over a planet seemed like a throw back to a time before everything became political, and it was good clean fun all along.

However, in episode 7 the head of the aliens explains to PeaceMaker that they decided to not take over the earth after all because Trump thinks global warming is a hoax. Politics aside, this is so moronic of a plot twist that I turned off my tv in disgust. The idea that an alien species doesn't research the sustainability of a planet before invading it makes these aliens is as stupid as the citizens of a country not recognizing that a government is trying to control a nation through endless fear and paranoia.

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Mundane and boring.

[4/10 · 5 February 2022]

I have always liked del Torros's films, and Pan's Labyrinth is a masterpiece. So when he has a new film coming out I am always excited to see it. However, this film is probably the most disappointing of his career. With a great cast and a great idea for a film, this was highly anticipated, but unfortunately it's a dud of a film. There is this tension that something remarkable is going to happen, some brilliant plot twist or reveal, but it plays out like a film we have seen a hundred times before. It's instantly forgettable. We know what's going to happen well in advance. There are no surprises or mysteries that are typically ingredients in a Del Toro film. Without the great cinematography and production design this feels like a made for TV movie.

Behind Her Eyes (2021)

Worst series I've ever watched.

[1/10 · 15 January 2022]

The writers have set up the story as a mystery that will be revealed at some point. That mystery is what keeps you watching through amazingly stupid and boring dialogue. There is no plot. There are unnecessary characters that add nothing to the story. The expectation is that there will be plot twists and a surprise ending, but it never comes so you are left feeling swindled and conned. The plot twist is that there isn't a plot twist. This series is absolute garbage. Horrible writing and acting.

Goliath (2016–2021)

This was one of my favorite shows but this season is awful

[3/10 · 27 September 2021]

WTF is this season about? It's dreadful. I can't watch it. I Tried 3 times.

Midnight Mass (2021)

The Island of Old looking young people

[9/10 · 25 September 2021]

When we first see the island, it is apparent that there is some sort of paint shortage. Every house is suffering from tired peeling paint. Boats are faded and the paint has worn thin to the wood. The islanders themselves are made up of two classes of people, the healthy normal people and the diseased. The disease itself is unknown but it renders young people with all the ailments of advanced age - Premature graying hair and some sort of skin condition that gives the appearance of elderly people. It's harrowing to watch young men and women move and talk like 30 year olds, yet with the appearance of people in their 80's. These people, like the houses themselves, seem to be faded and peeling away.

I am only on the first episode but I can't wait to discover what is behind the spread of the disease and who is behind the paint monopoly that keeps the island looking so shabby and without protection allowing the wood to rot in the stormy weather.