sashairk Reviews

Resident Alien (2021– )

Season 3... Oh boy! What's happened?!

[3/10 · 4 March 2024]

We used to love this show. It was funny, silly, but very funny and entertaining. Alan Tudyk was a real genius playing the alien stranded on Earth.

But then came the third season. Oh, no! What's wrong with you guys?! How can you kill such funny show and turn it into slow, boring, stupid spectacle? Actually, in the previous seasons the humor was also somewhat silly, but it was funny and pleasant to watch. Now it really became an insult to our intelligence. We watched first two episodes, chuckling occasionally and trying not to fall asleep. In the middle of the third episode I saw that my wife is falling asleep and said, 'Enough! I cannot take it anymore.' It's really shame. Alan Tudyk is a great actor, but even he cannot save the show with a poor script.

Maestro (2023)

Great film making and acting, but... .something was missing

[7/10 · 4 January 2024]

Leonard Bernstein was one of the best conductors in the world and famous American composer and Bradley Cooper, who also wrote a script and directed the film, did a great job portraying him. Still, he could have shown more of his great talent. Instead, he concentrated on his bi-sexualism and family quarrels.

Also, his strong connection to his Judaism and to Israel where he often performed was totally missing. Well, considering the anti-Israeli views of Bradley Cooper I'm somewhat not surprised about it. While I totally don't care about personal views of actors he, on his part should not project his personal views to the film. As a result, his Leonard Bernstein, despite his good acting, turned out to be two dimensional: a difficult person, gay, bi-sexual who also happened to be a good conductor and composer.

Carey Mulligan was also wonderful. I will forever remember her from the difficult to watch but nevertheless powerful film Never Let Me Go. I was shaken to the depth of my soul and still getting goose bumps remembering her acting and especially her eyes expression from that film. She is a great actress, indeed.

As for the film making itself, I liked the idea to shot first part of the film in black and white, as the older history, and then switching to color showing more recent history. This method is not new, but it was a good idea to apply it there.

In summary, the film could be much better if Bradley Cooper, as a script writer, could put his personal views aside and show Bernstein's biography in more complete form, without complete ignoring some parts of it and also more concentrated on his great talent (he once directed the orchestra just by the mimics of his face).

The Pope's Exorcist (2023)

Excellent work of Russell Crow

[8/10 · 11 May 2023]

While I'm not a big fan of horror movies, Russell Crowe was brilliant here in the role of an exorcising monk, Father Gabriel Amorth. It was a real pleasure to watch him acting in that role, a great difference from his usual characters that he used to play.

Unlike the 'classic' Exorcist movie this movie has the message that the Gates of Hell were actually opened by the Inquisition with its multiple tortures and murders. So it was sort of 'mea culpa' for that dark period of the Catholic Church.

Therefore, this film should not be viewed as a regular scary flick whose only purpose is just to entertain the viewers by watching just another scary stuff. I definitely recommend it even to those who usually stay away from this kind of genre.

That Dirty Black Bag (2022– )

Miserable attempt to create good spaghetti western

[2/10 · 2 May 2022]

I love old spaghetti westerns, and not only with the legendary Clint Eastwood, but also with a fine Italian actor Terence Hill. To those who gave this miserable attempt for a western high grades I'd suggest to watch these classic spaghetti westerns to see how it should be done.

Anyway, when I learned that a new spaghetti western is being made I was very anxious to watch it, having high expectation. From the very beginning I realized that it was supposed to be a tribute to the Clint's westerns: low voice, low sitting hat, only the sound from a musical watch was missing. In short, the beginning was good. And it could be a good western: actors were talented and attractive, camerawork nice, nice nature views. Alas, the script was terrible. Consisting of separate pieces that lead to nowhere. There was not much logic in there, too. I was patiently watching this to the last episode, hoping for some nice climactic ending. It did not happen, but ending it suddenly.

There was a lot of violence and even some witchcraft. Why in the world they needed to insert witchcraft in the western? Honestly, I fail to comprehend how people can invest so much money in good actors and camerawork without noticing that the script really sucks? Oh, well. I'm sure some people will like it and even give me angry negative votes. I don't mind.

The Girl from Oslo (2021– )

Deceptive leftist presentation that distorts the true situation in Israel

[1/10 · 24 April 2022]

I did not like The Girl from Oslo because of its left slant and deceptive presentation of the situation in Israel, namely: 1) There are no private para-military groups in Israel that can freely enter and exit Sinai and do whatever they wish without any coordination with the government 2) Israel never bombs Gaza just to make a statement, only as a response to the rocket attacks that were never mentioned 3) Hamas shown in the film as a serious military organization and not a terrorist organization that controls Gaza and has a goal to destroy Israel by conducting terrorist attacks on Israel's territory and sending hundreds of missiles with the purpose of killing civilians there.

I respect the opinion of others, including the leftists that want to show something from their point of you. However, I resent lying in order to make this point.

Tabula Rasa (2017)

Very smartly written, brilliant thriller.

[10/10 · 18 October 2021]

While I have watched many good thrillers I dare to say that this is one of the best, if not THE BEST, I ever seen.

It is sad that it's indicated that this is a horror movie which might prevent those who dislike horror movies from enjoying this gem. There's nothing supernatural in it, although the script often plays with you by making you think that there is. It's just a mental game of a sick woman who lost her memory after having a serious car accident.

It develops slowly, you just need to be patient with it then at the end it really blows up in your face. After watching many thrillers me and my wife are often able to guess who's the real culprit there. Not this time. It really made our jaws to drop at the end. OK, I won't say anything else. Just be patient and enjoy this gem.

Hit & Run (2021)

A rather pathetic attempt to create a good thriller

[4/10 · 7 September 2021]

I like Lior Raz as an actor and enjoyed him in Fauda. So I was looking forward to see him in this show. The beginning was good, but the conclusion was very disappointing.

The show portraits both CIA and Mossad as a bunch of blood-thirsty killers. Actually, the Mossad looks even worse then the CIA. The script is often get plain silly. Seriously, top officers of Mossad meet at the café to discuss important national secrets, so that the CIA agent can sneak up on them to get the important information, while murdering a Mossad agent in the process. And when they decide to retaliate who can blame them?

The character played by Lior Raz also kills the CIA agent when he comes to snoop up in his home. Then someone places a bomb on his door. The script does not explain who did it and why in the world they had to do it, except for the cheap effect.

The script also does not explain why the Mossad (or CIA) had to kill Segev's wife who was absolutely not involved, and kidnap his daughter, unless for the purpose of finishing the show with a cliffhanger and leaving the room for the next season (that I absolutely have no intention to watch).

As already mentioned, Lior Raz is a good actor, but he should stick to acting and not to writing scripts. He always uses his left-winged slant in his writing by clearly disliking both Mossad and CIA. He also made a thinly disguised dig at Trump by mentioning that the POTUS's son-in-law betrayed his country to the foreign power.

All in all, I had a great expectations from watching this show and was totally disappointed, especially after watching the great French spy serial The Bureau.

Dark (2017–2020)

Good German taking on time travel

[8/10 · 24 January 2021]

Being a science fiction fan I love to read time travel stories. The best of these that I really liked have to do with human an emotional impact issues. The Dandelion Girl by Robert F. Young is one of such fine examples. So what I liked about this serial is first-class acting and well developed characters and the impact the time travel, including the time travel paradox causes them. Occasionally I got confused with the characters' names and to whom they belong. For a serious viewer I would even suggest to take notes of the names and their relations to characters and their families. The story begins as a police thriller having to do with missed boys followed by finding grotesque mutilated bodies. But these things can happen in any police thriller. Then a time travel plot is introduced in such a masterful way that I, as a viewer, was surprised and confused as the characters in the show. I still cannot give this show the maximum score because at times it becomes very convoluted with long dialogues. There are also some unresolved holes in the plot that left me disappointed. However, the conclusion of the serial was done very nicely, so I cannot subtract more then two points for the maximum score. All in all, a very nice effort by the German filmmakers.

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010)

A delightful French answer to Indiana Jones.

[10/10 · 13 January 2021]

I don't know how I missed this delightful film when it was released ten years ago. I found it by a pure chance and spent a nice evening watching it. It has a right combination of comedy, adventure and some action. Well, Luc Besson has to put some action in his movies. I realize this film is not for everybody, but those who liked Indiana Jones movies might enjoy it. I liked the grotesque humor, costumes, and of course the beautiful Louise Bourgoin in the title role. By the movie's ending there was a hint that the sequels would follow. Alas, it seems that it won't happen. Too bad...

Kingdom (2019)

Good idea spoiled by the main character's acting

[6/10 · 10 January 2021]

I love historical movies, including the films about the history, either real or fictional, of the Asian countries. And so I had high expectations of spending a nice evening by watching another Asian historical movie. Alas, my expectations were ruined by the totally annoying acting, or should I say - over-acting, of the main character. His grotesque bulging eyes, yells and totally stupid demeanor, either caused by the script or his own 'contribution' to it made it so irritating that me and my wife could not watch it for more than first 20 minutes.

Frikjent (2015–2016)

The second season should not been made

[7/10 · 8 January 2021]

I thoroughly enjoyed the first season. Good camerawork, beautiful scenery, excellent acting, good script with sudden twist at the end. And then, as it often happens with sequels somebody obviously decided, "The first season was very well accepted. Let's ride on it's success and make the sequel."

It was clear, at the beginning of the second season that the script was 'forced' at the ending of the previous season. It was much more predictable with big loops in it, although I still was enjoying the beautiful views. The ending was disappointing. I was considering giving 9 or even all 10 to the first season, but now cannot give it more than 7. What a shame...

To the Lake (I) (2019–2022)

Excellent Russian pandemic thriller

[10/10 · 25 December 2020]

Russians can make very good movies. Unfortunately, in America it is not always appreciated because many people are not used to watch movies with subtitles. For these people I can say: please make an effort, learn to watch and read at the same time, this movie, along with many other Russian (or foreign, for that matter) movies is worth it.

Well written scenario, good acting, exciting action. It should be mentioned, though, that it is not just another mindless action movie. Rather, it also give a study of the human nature, how people respond to the global catastrophe like the one shown there. Unfortunately, not everyone responds in the best manner, some people show their evil nature to the point of prevalent banditism, robbery and even Nazi-style mass murder. But there are also nice people ready to help and some of them also learn, in the hard way, how to overcome their selfishness and become helping and sharing.

All in all, a very good mini-serial, with quite unexpected ending. Just don't expect it to be a happy ending, unlike corny happy endings in many Hollywood flicks.

Parallel (II) (2018)

Fantastic technology in the hands of greedy losers

[7/10 · 22 December 2020]

I liked the premises of this film. Being an avid sci-fi fan I'm always fascinated at the idea of parallel universes and thus I had pretty high expectations of it. Alas, it turned out to be not so much sci-fi, but a character study of what would happen if a piece of fantastic technology falls in the hands of greedy losers. And, as expected, the results were catastrophic, mostly for them, although the they also managed to cause some damage to certain inhabitants of the parallel worlds.

Overall, the movie is done pretty good. But I cannot force myself to give it more than 7 stars because I was really disgusted to watch these miserable characters poking around with this wonderful discovery while being driven by their greed, stealing money, art ideas and finally even kidnapping somebody from the other world. Even though I'm going to mark this review as containing spoilers I stop here, to leave to viewers to get the whole picture. It's worth watching, but not more than one time.

Honest Thief (2020)

Honest thief or honest idiot?

[2/10 · 19 December 2020]

Liam Neeson is a very fine actor and I enjoyed most of his previous movies. What really puzzles me, though, how come such fine actor like him could agree to play in the movie with such idiotic script?

In the movie he plays a bank robber with 100 percent of successful robberies, that is, no one could catch him or figure out who he is. Then he meets a woman, fells in love and decides to 'go straight.' Very noble, indeed. But here the stupid, or rather, idiotic part starts: instead of returning the money he robbed or at least giving it to charity while sending an anonymous letter promising that he won't ever do it again, he decides to turn himself in. He realizes that he will have to do time, probably a lot of time in the jail while he's not a 'spring chicken' that is, at his age every year counts. So instead of spending each and every year that remained in his life with the woman he loves, while returning the money and 'doing time' as any other normal person in his position would do, that is, getting involved in the community, doing charity work, etc., he just turns himself in while hoping that the government would appreciate his noble gesture and gives him a reduced sentence. So he comes across two greedy FBI agents who after probably realizing what idiot they are dealing with decide to take his money and kill him. And here the typical action starts. Naturally for this kind of movie, after lot of car chasing and shooting the bad guys are killed or arrested and the 'good' FBI agent receives the stolen money and, as a nice gesture, allows him to hug his girlfriend for the last time before taking him in. Oh, boy.. Sure, the viewers should be educated that it is not good to rob banks and there's a price to pay for that, but here the political correctness goes overboard.

I really felt sorry for poor Liam in such a stupid role and also felt myself robbed for almost two hours of my time by watching this garbage.

The Tree of Life (2011)

Oh please, not another pseudo-spiritual movie...

[1/10 · 15 November 2020]

I wonder how come such fine actors like Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain ended up in such a pseudo-spiritual garbage. My guess would be they were doing a favor to a friend to help him make this movie a success by adding their names to it. Alas, it did not help.. Have to admit, the pictures of stars, space, galaxies, nature were very good and could make a nice illustration to the proper documentary. As for the movie itself - it looked like an extended church service where a pastor was seriously 'high'. Mind you, I love good spiritual movies, with good message and script. But this movie fails to be the one...

The Vast of Night (2019)

A poor tribute to the Twilight Zone

[2/10 · 15 November 2020]

The movie makes a desperate attempt to look and sound like the period Twilight Zone episodes. Have to admit, here they make a good job with pointless wordy dialogues and proper period word choices. But beyond that there was nothing of the Twilight Zone or Outer Limits. Each episode of the original TZ or UL was either based on excellent script or even based on a good sci-fi story. This movie totally lacks of it. The story is bland, with nothing beyond the old theme of UFO' sightings or abductions. I was waiting for some interesting development, but nothing has come. One and half hour of my time was wasted.

Private Lives (2020)

Another Korean soap opera...

[3/10 · 1 November 2020]

I love Korean cinema and some TV shows. Their directing, acting, production is usually top notch. So I started to watch this show hoping to discover another masterpiece. Alas, I stopped watching it after half an hour, because it was plainly boring and acting was pretty bad. It really looked like a soap opera than a thriller. Then I discovered plenty of fake reviews (by people who wrote only one review). 'Nough said...

Fargo (2014–2024)

A great show killed by bad script and political correctness

[10/10 · 7 October 2020]

Like many other reviewers I used to like the first three seasons of this show. The fourth season, to my big disappointment, is completely out of place. No more smart scripts, dark humor, engrossing story. Instead, fake history, poor acting and slow story that seems to be written by one of the 'commissars' of the current political trend. If this is the direction that the Hollywood is taking I'm switching to European serials. As for this show, with a heavy heart I changed my previous grade of 10 to 2.

Money Heist (2017–2021)

A sad example how sequels driven by greed can destroy a great show

[5/10 · 29 September 2020]

I loved the first two seasons of this show: a great cast, smart script, good production. It really could not be better than that and I, usually not so 'generous' with my grading gave them a solid '10'. And then the disaster stroke: obviously the producers of this show, dazzled by the success of the first seasons decided to push for the sequel, with catastrophic results. Well, should they invested more money and hired more talented script writer, given the excellent cast, they might have produce a decent sequel that could even match the first two seasons. Alas, it did not happen. The third season was not so successful carbon copy of the first two seasons, while the rest of the seasons degraded to a pure soap opera. As a result, with a heavy heart I had to downgrade my score from 10 to 5. What a shame!

The Woods (2020)

A good attempt to make a thriller unfortunately marred by implausible plot

[7/10 · 15 August 2020]

I did not read the book, so I don't know whether the implausible plot was designed by the original author or by studio executives. Without delving into details and revealing the 'spoilers' I can only say that I had high expectations at the beginning that turned into disappointment at the end. Many things in the plot including the final ending just do not make sense. However, those who like to watch thrillers without thinking too much about the plot might enjoy this serial.

Rising (2020– )

Made for kids TV show

[4/10 · 9 May 2020]

The subject of building the state of Israel is a serious one and I had high expectations when I started to watching this show. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that this show is a made for kids, with only young teenage actors, naive and something really pathetic script, and poor acting. However, I won't discount it as an educational tool designed to be shown to young children.

The Victim (2019)

Brilliant show

[10/10 · 26 May 2019]

Brilliantly designed show: it keeps leading the viewer from one typical and 'supposed' ending to another, only making a sharp turn to another 'expected' ending and eventually turns to the jaw-dropping finale.

Bokeh (I) (2017)

An unsuccessful attempt to follow the footsteps of a good movie

[2/10 · 24 March 2017]

Yes, this movie sort of plagiarizes, of at least tries to create sometimes similar, alas, unsuccessfully, to the pretty good work from New Zealand from 1985 called the Quiet Earth. But unlike the Quiet Earth that has characters, the reason which explains why all the humanity suddenly disappeared, save for a very few, and a rather impressive climax, this movie is just boring. At the beginning I thought that it's a remake of the old film, with better special effects and perhaps even better script, but was very disappointed to the hollowness of this venture. I give it two stars instead of one for a good camera work.

Yesterday Was a Lie (2009)

An amateurish pseudo-intellectual garbage

[1/10 · 7 September 2015]

Oh boy, oh boy! I should have been more careful when choosing what movie to watch. Truth to be said, I 'fell' for some excellent reviews of this film, and only 'post-factum' while trying to understand why I disliked it so much I discovered that all the people who on the Message Board who wrote rapturous messages of how great that film was wrote only one post each throughout all their membership 'carrier' at the IMDb and, besides, there's a suspiciously large amount of '10' votes which is very rare even for Oscar-awarded masterpieces that even though usually have the majority of good votes spread in the 8 to 10 range, but almost never only '10s'. Which inevitably lead me to the conclusion that most of the good votes for that film were fake.

I believe that any film-maker should have enough self-respect rather than ask from his friends, colleagues, etc. and even voting by himself under different user names for the movie that he himself considers to be bad, otherwise, why should he bother to making such charade?

Me and my wife were expecting some 'brainy' movie with interesting ideas, since we both love science fiction and interesting non- standard approach. That's why we also love David Lynch. It seems to me that the film maker tried to emulate David Lynch, but failed miserably, since despite good camera work the script was pretty amateurish and convoluted. Even two attractive lead actresses could not save the film, even though, as some consolation for the wasted time, it was pleasant to watch them. Some of the background music was clearly 'borrowed' from Pink Floyd's Shine on You Crazy Diamond.

This being said, I want to wish James Kerwin success in his future endeavors. He haven't done any serious work so far so any beginning is not easy. Along with that I have just one request: please, no more fake reviews, OK? Have some self-respect, man!

Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage (2014)

Bad and amateurish

[1/10 · 11 December 2014]

When I see many 1- and 2-star reviews along with 5-star reviews my conclusion is that the movie is really bad and the 5-star reviews are written by the friends, family members and the people who made it.

I could force myself to watch only first 20 minutes of this 'masterpiece.' The animation is primitive like in the school movie, the acting is bad. I was surprised to learn, actually, that this is a US- made film. It looked more like some poorly made Bollywood flick, although they can make pretty good films there. I just wonder how such a fine actor like Patrick Stewart could lend his voice to such a trash. Well, money talks, I guess.

Don't waste your time on this one unless you want to see how a really bad B-movie looks like.