salispahic Reviews

Joe Pickett (2021–2023)

Awful

[1/10 · 12 August 2023]

This is the dumbest TV I've seen recently. Rating of 7.7 tells me that there are many people here on IMDB, who have a horrible taste in TV. My social media was flooded with adverts for Joe Pickett, so I decided to give it a chance. I did not watch the first series until a few days ago and I can tell you, I did not miss much. I stopped watching it at about episode five, since everything, and I mean everything was known back then. If you did not know everything about the first series by the episode five, you are very gullible. The worst part of series one, flashbacks. Get the heck out of here with those flashbacks. So, I decided after the first series to try the second, thinking they have learned from the series one, might be a better show. No, now he and his wife, and kids and everyone else is having flashbacks. Stop it! If you need to stretch already thin story over how many episodes, the answer is not flashbacks, the answer is writing a better story. And CGI, holly poop. It was as if somebody sat with the PowerPoint and did CGI. Kids today do better CGI for their tiktok videos than Joe Pickett had. Horrible.

If you want to watch this garbage, don't. Nobody will give you your time back.

Mystery Road: Origin (2022– )

Absolutely the best TV to come out of Australia

[10/10 · 5 July 2022]

First, the camera work is amazing. I will not mention any scenes that I find amazing, because I do not want to spoil the feeling, but... this series is worthy for just that.

Acting is really good. I really believed the actor was a young Swan.

Directing is probably the best part. I loved the Killing (first series) and the True Detective (first series) and this Mystery Road: Origin is there, right there with these two. Really good.

Screenplay is probably the weakest part, but it is still fairly good.

The Orville (2017–2022)

It used to be funny

[2/10 · 26 June 2022]

Now it is just startrek copy. What once was quite good joke is now taking themselves seriously. Really unnecessary. I am up to third episode and there was one, literally one joke.

Pistol (2022)

it is really bad

[1/10 · 11 June 2022]

Like really, really, really bad. I like the $ex Pistols, i like the culture, I like all of that and this is garbage, pure and simple. If you want to see something interesting, watch the documentary Punk, produced by Iggy Pop. Watch Filth and Fury, watch anything but this. It is that bad.

Ms. Marvel (2022)

It is a kids show

[8/10 · 11 June 2022]

I am giving it eight not because I liked it 8, but because I think it is 8 children show. If you are a grownup and you watch this show, you are a weirdo. It is not made for grownups, so, leave, you weirdo.

Time of the Gypsies (1988)

Amazing film from a horrible human

[10/10 · 2 April 2022]

Emir Kusturica is a fallible human, you probably would not want to have a cup of coffee with him. That being said, he is one of the best movie makers, if not the best movie maker out there. His movies are on the next level. Dom za vesanje, or badly interpreted westernised name "Time of the Gypsies" was one that put him on the map.

I dislike the name "Time of the Gypsies". It is just stupid. They should have just translated the original name, which would be something like "The House for Hanging". Once you see the movie, you will understand what I mean.

This movie could be seen as a template for the rest of Kusturica's work. Some scenes from this movie you will see in his other movies. Some untrained actors who appear in this movie appeared later in his other work. Some actors from this movie were too old later in his career, so he hired their children, and so on, and so on. If you want to know where is Kusturica coming from, this is the movie you must watch.

Cowboy Bebop (2021)

Casting could have been better

[9/10 · 15 January 2022]

People expect the same thing from Cowboy Bebop anime and Cowboy Bebop live series, and that is silly. Those are two different mediums and they should be treated differently. If you have seen the anime, and you expect the anime, you will be disappointed. It is not an anime, it is SciFi, and a really good SciFi at that. The only bad-ish thing is casting. It could have been better, but it is still good. Watch it.

Santa Inc. (2021)

So Not Funny

[1/10 · 13 January 2022]

Sarah Silverman is in my opinion one of the best comedians of today. She is so funny, Seth, not so much, but he is funny as well. That is why I am so disappointed with Santa Inc. Why did Sarah and Seth get involved in this dumpsterfire? It is so not funny to watch, it could not have been funny to read, but they joined the worst show streaming right now. Why? I mean, the idea to make the Office style show about Santa sounds kind of funny, but realisation, not funny. Everything is off and it just does not hit the mark, ever. Even jokes that had potential, were not delivered well enough to be funny. I hope Sarah and Seth find a different, funny, vehicle for themselves. I would love that.

The Original Kings of Comedy (2000)

It almost killed me

[10/10 · 10 January 2022]

I watched this movie in cinema, and I almost died, because I was laughing so much I could not inhale. Since then I got it on vhs, dvd and soft copy from iTunes. A must see for any comedy fan. And Spike Lee did a reasonable job.

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Made On a Dare

[5/10 · 29 December 2021]

I bet, wherever this movie was made, every day all day you could hear "hold my beer".

Peter Parker is smart, he is going to MIT, you cannot make him that stupid!

Hold my beer!

Dr. Strange is the most powerful magic creature in the universe, he can obviously defeat Spider-Man in his own realm!

Hold my beer!

Peter Parker cannot love more people who tried to kill him numerous times more than his aunt, his only mother he ever knew!

Hold my beer!

Wait for it to pop on a streaming service.

The Matrix Resurrections (I) (2021)

When Menu Says Masterpiece

[2/10 · 26 December 2021]

But you get a pile of garbage with extra large side of stupid. This movie is not worth watching. It should have been not even straight to DVD, but straight to VHS. Nobody should see this movie, nobody.

Keanu Reeves, Carrie Ann Moss, Jonathan Groff were great. Acting was really good, except Pryanka Chopra, who was the worst in the ensemble. What fails this movie is the story. So many stolen ideas, plot holes, clichés.... Why was this movie even made? Garbage. I am rating this movie two stars for the acting, but even the great bunch of great actors could not save this dumpster fire of a movie. So not worth your time, anyone's time.

Redemption Day (2021)

Bad film, simple

[3/10 · 29 August 2021]

I cannot understand that people would pay to make this sort of movie. Technically the film is good. Great camera work. Director picked a lot from Sicario, but did not pick the most important things, why is something happening in Sicario. I remember watching Sicario for the first time and those beautiful long shots, convoys on the streets, it was beautiful. This movie has lot of those as well, but they are there for no reason. They are beautiful, but serve no purpose. Don't watch it.

Nobody (I) (2021)

Almost Good

[4/10 · 8 July 2021]

This is a mix of Falling Down and John Wick, but it is not as deep as the Falling Down, nor is it as sleek as John Wick and towards the end it just spirals into stupidity.

Stealth (2005)

Awful

[1/10 · 6 January 2012]

I've heard a lot of bad things about this movie, so I did not watch it until now. I decided to watch it, because there was nothing else on TV. I am now writing this review with my TV off. Movie still have about hour and forty minutes to go. Stealth is the worst movie ever. I would rather have my head kicked in, then watch this movie. I would rather watch whatever, honestly,there is nothing worse than this movie. Nothing!

Horror, and actors are not that bad. I mean, there must be a law against this sort of movie. We need some reverse SOPA, to protect us from movies like this. Pain, pain, pain.

Office Tigers (2006)

From business POV

[4/10 · 14 November 2010]

I had to see the Office Tigers as a part of my MBA course, so I was watching it more as a student of management, than as a film goer, so this review might be from that angle.

Film starts as a story of a successful company, bus soon it turns into something completely different. The issue is that it looks like director made a wrong turn, which got her a better movie than expected. During the whole movie, those wrong turns are present, as if director tried to hide the problems, go there and then quick retreat. Almost as if the editor made a decision to save the film, to turn it from a promotional material for OT, into an insight.

I feel as if the director missed the opportunity. The problem that I have registered as a business person is that the quality of work produced is appalling, due to the fact that the employees are working 18 hours shifts for a prolonged period of time. You know, when you call a help desk and a person in Bombay answers the phone, it is quite possible they did not go home for a couple of days. You have a feeling the person on the other side is stupid and you get angry, and you know what, they are stupid. Sleep deprivation will cause symptoms people whose cognitive functions are not affected by the lack of sleep will call stupid. This was not shown in the film. You have to actually start thinking outside the film to get this. As if director wanted to show how their customers do not understand enough of OT problems and the editor tried to get the real message across, but without the director seeing it.

The film is trying to show how much time OT spends on continuous improvement of the employees through the on the job training. They have actually a full time trainer on the premises, but then you need to go online and to check that their attrition rate of more than 30% is on par with western call centers staffed by students and temps, and that only fast food industry has worse attrition rate than that. I am working for a call centre company and I know what 30% attrition rate does to a company. You have to employ recruiters, whose salaries are multiple times higher than those of our agents to hire agents, then you have to train agents and then huge number of them will drop out as soon as possible, causing a "toilet paper effect" (when you get one leaf out and all other leafs start moving and repositioning themselves to get out faster) This was not shown at all.

If you are a business person, watch this movie and try to get into the business side of things, it is an eye opener. As for the movie itself, it is below average, but I will have to check other films edited by Jake Roberts

Kod amidze Idriza (2004)

If I said ...

[10/10 · 18 December 2009]

How to describe this movie without writing "it is a wonderful movie" million times is a heavy task. Namik Kabil, one of more active screenwriters in the Balkan wrote a fantastic screenplay about a normal life in a shadow of a lingering death, which was converted into the fantastic movie by promising director Pjer Zalica and a fantastic crew of actors and tech. IndieWIRE had it right when they said this was one of the best 15 undistributed movies in the 2004. In my opinion it was the best movie in 2004, much better than LOTR:Return of the King, who cleaned up Oscars for that year, and far, far better than Les Invasions Barbares, which won the best foreign film Oscar.

If I said this film is about Fuke (Senad Basic) visiting his elderly uncle and aunt Idriz (Mustafa Nadarevic) and Sabira (Semka Sokolovic Bertok), to fix their broken water-heater, you would think this must be the most boring movie ever, but it is far from it. It is as dreamy as early Italian new wave, but with the fragrance of Iranian films all brought together in this fantastic movie about feelings, and not action. The movie will make you think about the feelings projected without a word said. This is not sex-filled-bomb-blasted-car-chasing kind of film. This is a film about the rhythm of the life. It allows you to float into the steady current of their quiet lives and be touched by the love they have for each other. Wonderful movie, one of the best I have seen in my life.

Go West (2005)

Worth watching

[7/10 · 1 December 2009]

Somebody smart once said something to the effect if there is a need for a prologue, than director did not do his job correctly. I cannot agree more. Unfortunately Go West spends first two and a half minutes on prologue, boring prologue to be precise. Completely unnecessary. From there on, the movie spends more time on unnecessary details, more voice from the off, more explanations of unnecessary details, watering down the film I am sure would mean a lot if done as it should.

It must have been hard to come up with the idea of two homosexuals running away from the Sarajevo, because Sarajevo was never eager on homosexuals. I have spent there more than half of my life and I have met only two openly gay man. Compare that to my current place of living where I know at least a dozen openly gay man. Attacking homophobia in Sarajevo is very dangerous and brave undertaking, and for that I need to congratulate Ahmed Imamovic and Enver Puska. That was brave. Unfortunately brave writers and directors do not equal a great movie. However, this one is a good movie, a bit clumsy in some areas, but overall quite watchable.

If you expect something like Queer as Folk, than you will be disappointed. No sex scenes to that level. I guess because actors and the rest of the crew were quite scared for touching the topic. Well, that would be all but Tarik Filipovic, one of two main actors, who played homosexual in another Bosnian movie, dark comedy "Dobro Ustimani Mrtvaci". I guess the fact he lives in Zagreb, Croatia gives him more freedom to take on roles that bring hate mail and death threats that could eventuate into something awful if he was living near those who wrote them.

Watching this movie will annoy you. Sometimes the characters do not act as sane people would, and everything is a bit stretched, but this movie has other good points and is important maybe not as a great movie, but as a first movie that tackles homosexual love in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Nafaka (2006)

Horror for film goers

[1/10 · 1 December 2009]

Nafaka is a horrible movie. It was horrible when I was watching it for the first time, and it is still horrible, years after I've seen it for the first time. I wanted to add the comment (to start commenting on movies from Balkan region), but then I have seen good reviews and I was wandering maybe my first opinion was wrong, so as I am writing this, I am watching Nafaka DVD (yes I have it) in the same window. My opinion and memory was correct. It is still as horrible as the first time.

Film is trying to show the state Sarajevo was in during the war. It is trying too hard, using all available clichés we have seen in all the movies that tried too hard. From cheese love stories, to Bosnian-Mexican standoffs, to friends on two sides, PTSD affected soldiers, corrupt UN personnel, to whatever. I know some experts will state that human brain likes clichés because it is easy for it to follow the line, because we can recognize the pattern and get ready for where it is taking us. But sometimes you just overdo it and it makes you want to throw up.

While watching this movie for the second time, I was wandering who would give the money for this movie. The screen play could not read good and make movie this bad. Then I remembered, this movie was made by Jasmin Durakovic, who was the director of FTV, a public broadcasting corporation, main producer of the movie, which he wrote and directed. So there you have it. This movie was made thanks to conflict of interest and that explains a lot.

Out of 10 stars I cannot give it one, but I have to. Not even the great cast could save this movie. This, almost exactly the same cast was the pivotal point in the "Kod Amidze Idriza", voted to be one of ten best undistributed movies in the US by Indiewire for 2005, or in "Dobro Ustimani Mrtvaci" one of funniest movies I have seen it the last couple of years. This movie does not deliver at all. It basically fails on all points, of story, of directorship, everything. I actually had to turn it off, because it was too awful to watch again.

Every movie needs to fill the void in us. That is how great movies work. They find the common missing piece of a puzzle in all of us, and then fill it for those 120 minutes we spend watching. I was wandering which piece of puzzle that I am missing this movie was trying to fill and I have no idea.