maxim-delaet Reviews

Elite (2018–2024)

Worst Show of the Decade

[1/10 · 23 July 2023]

Yes, this is the most ridiculous show I've ever laid eyes on.

I very rarely rate a 1/10, because this means the show is a masterpiece of failures, and that should be a uniqueness on its own. I don't rate 1/10 to have impact on the average score of the show either and I try not to be biased. It's not the first time I give this rating, but without doubt this was the worst show I have ever seen.

I'm a young (hetero) male and I can honestly say that all actresses in the show are hot and some of the sex scenes are convincingly sexy, but that's all the positive I can share from my viewing experience.

As many have said before, this show is all about the sex and not about the story. Therefor, to some extend, it feels weird to talk about the story in a review.

Anyhow, regarding the story, it's poor, repeating and has no interesting content. It's completely unrealistic. Even though it's supposed to be a typical boring soap (realistic and somewhat natural), it's not. It also feels like none of the actors know what to do in this show, they're not aware about the narrative, because there doesn't seem to be one, so they have to focus on the relationship goals and that's that. That's what we're stuck with...

I'm pretty sure that no one who watched it will be able to give you a summary of the story, or meaning, or anything valuable (other than 'hot sex') to convince you to watch it. So I'm telling you, don't...

The Vampire Diaries (2009–2017)

Cheap, Poor & Baseless

[1/10 · 23 July 2023]

Being forced to watch this at home with my girlfriend, I feel the obligation to leave a review for the more educated TV enthousiasts.

In short, this is just another very poor soap opera. This one managed to combine the bad script with equally bad screen play and acting.

The only topics of interest throughout the whole series are the 'sex' and 'romance'. Like all typical poor quality soap operas, this one also suffers from poor directing and as a result you get thousands of separate very short scenes with no cohesion or natural flow between them. None of the characters in this show act even remotely human or natural, so there is no way to relate to them, especially the main characters.

The sex and romance are so overpowering in this show that they completely dictate all actions performed by any of these characters. Sometimes to the extend that we have our main characters deeply concerned and borderline depressed in one scene and making out in the very next one (this already proofs all points made earlier). Nothing that happens in this show seems to have consequences on what follows afterwards. The only meaningful actions that have impact on the show as a whole are those repeated in the 10 second recaps... Even those are not really leading to any story development in the end.

Unless you're just into kids making out, I don't see any reason to suffer through watching this. If you're into vampires, this show is still one of your worst options to tap into.

Fun fact (Mini spoiler): You'll notice that about 90% of the storyline is the continuous repetition of a scene where the main character runs away from her lover vampire followed by the next one where they're talking or making out. This happens completely out of the blue with no content in between and happens multiple times in every episode of the show. Too silly to be true, but yet it is.

Squid Game (2021– )

Heavily overrated but fun to watch

[6/10 · 16 June 2022]

Definitely fun to watch and outperforms any other type of -don't use your brain- TV Shows they make these days. Especially compared to those popular Spanish TV Shows that are rated 8/10, but are not worth a single star. Then again, by default, you have high expectations for Korean cinematography and low expectations for Spanish cinematography.

I would recommend this show to many of my friends as I know there is a gigantic audience for this type of story. It's often fun to watch if you don't start thinking ahead. I might even argue for the average teenagers these days this might be one of the best options out there.

Acting is good, almost surprisingly good.

By far the worst of this TV show is that I was able to figure out almost every tiny detail when I was only mid-way. For the bigger part, it's very easy to predict. The ending was a bit harder to predict ahead of time, but still nothing out of the ordinary.

12 Angry Men (1957)

Bearly a move, but surely one of the best!

[9/10 · 18 July 2020]

I think it doesn't make sense to go though all the psychological aspects of the movie, as I am sure 99% of you critics have already done that. Sure, I will read through them with pleasure.

Frankly, there isn't really a single thing about this movie that I didn't like. The fact that the real deed and the so called facts, can hardly ever be known, and are never revealed to the audience, makes it even better. The only fact is that there are no facts, only suspicions...

Consider me a 13th angry man for just one moment. When laying down only the very superficial facts and describing the kids background as they did in the beginning, my vote would be guilty as enough evidence supports the outcome. However, it only took until the fact turned into a story for the first time, for me to change thoughts. He went out for a drink with some friends (obviously in a bad mood), then lost his knife... From this point (very early in the movie) forward, I was already convinced that any of these so called 'slums' could have taken the responsibility on himself to kill the kid's dad for putting up the irresponsible behavior that probably led to the kid himself becoming a criminal. From there on my suspicion of him not being guilty only increased with the minute, until the point where they proof the woman might have seen any kid his height (but probably with worse knife skills) stab the dad to death, where I became very convinced there is no point to convince him with such poor evidence.

Gretel & Hansel (2020)

Very possitive surprise!

[7/10 · 2 February 2020]

Most people rate this super low because they have no clue what's good, what's bad and how to properly review a movie. Their standard of a good movie and reason to view this one: "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters" is one of the biggest disasters I've ever seen. The only reason I watched this one in theater, is in fact because people who liked crappy movies like Witch Hunters were apparently hating on this one. Great reviewers actually called this movie "decent", while metacritics even tend to use the word "good" reviewing this!

And YES, this movie definitely beat all others of its kind, which isn't really a difficult accomplishment on its own. The acting, word plays, and atmosphere were good. The directing and scenery overall was decent to say the least. Somehow, it felt like the movie missed something though...

**MINOR SPOILER** There was some unused potential in the pink capped daughter slash main character of the evil fairy tale. As well as the cat that drew some attention throughout the movie, but just seems to be an ordinary cat.

Overall, it was a good, not yet great movie. Nothing Oscar worthy, but definitely something to remember!

Jason Bourne (I) (2016)

Empty useless and without meaning

[4/10 · 12 December 2019]

The movie tries to finish a beautiful franchise of Jason Bourne movies that already went through 2 endings.

Most people argue that The Bourne Legacy was too much of a drag already, and with that I don't necessarily agree. However, the reason why that movie still had some meaning and usefulness is because it made sense to see the after effects of the Bourne story gone wild (time for a clean-up), definitely since it happens straight after and only stretches a few days.

This movie however, was full of empty emotionless meaningless conversations and scenes. Combine that with all its loopholes and the lack of reason for existance, making it a complete disaster.

Also, really, there is no way that the agency would get another free shot at finding and killing Bourne after leaking the whole Treadstone + Bourne story public.

Bird Box (2018)

You lost me in the middle.

[6/10 · 26 November 2019]

First, I'm going to admit that for its genre, this was one of the more capable (and well acted) movies I've ever seen.

The beginning of the movie was magnificent. The ending was unexpected, and NOT necessarily a let down for me.

However, during the hour in between, Susanne Bier really started losing my attention, patience and good will. Not too long after Malorie entered the house, the good start easily lost its momentum while cheap and meaningless scenes took over.

The Boys (2019– )

Best in its genre!

[7/10 · 22 September 2019]

Yet not perfect.

While everyone is complementing Karl Urban for his performance in season 1, please do not forget Antony Starr's stellar performance! Even if it may seem easier at times.

It Chapter Two (2019)

A great dissapointment after a great first chapter!

[4/10 · 20 September 2019]

Okay, I get it, it's not easy to write a second chapter and make it as good as the first one when you need to change nearly every actor and stick to the original book (at a high level at least).

But the directing and execution in this movie cannot be compared to the first one. Based on that alone, I could have given this movie 2 out of 10 stars. There is no excuse for the downright ugly parts of the script and the lack of being able to make any emotional connection with the audience while the movie obviously required it.

The only aspects in which this movie shined (a little bit) is the acting which was decent (Yes! Decent, not good!) and the possitive character development, which probably came as a surprise to most reviewers.

The very ending of the movie, which I am not going to spoil in my review, had a nice little twist to it and COULD have changed my overall opinion about the movie when walking out of the theater.

Overall, it doesn't really matter, there was nothing in the movie that makes it worth watching a second time. Luckily enough we atill have the first one...

Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)

Good, yet not Great.

[7/10 · 17 September 2019]

That is what I've come to expect from 90% of the Marvel movies. Some are Bad, and very few lean towards being Great.

However childish the movie may feel for some, the story was perfectly fine which is not common for action movies including some of the post 2005 Marvel movies... And even if it doesn't feel very special, unique or whatever you expected it to be, you cannot deny that the directing work was decent to say the least!

Most of all, my 8 out of 10 is earned by the acting in this movie.

P.S.: If you are rating this movie a 1/10 you're simply having issues with it being different from what you were expecting and cannot accept that not every movie is a Stark movie. But I tell you, to be a good reviewer is to see the beauty in differences.

Gone Girl (2014)

Masterpiece with loopholes!

[8/10 · 3 August 2019]

There are so many good things about this movie that I will not be able to list all of them. How they played with public opinion and media is great. The acting was through the roof. BUT unfortunately the story is not without loopholes.

SPOILER ALERT! The ending sucks because it doesn't fit reality at all. A police detective will never let a murderer walk free if the evidence is out there. She makes some attempts to unravel everything for the FBI crowd during the hospital scene and then out of nowhere gives up at the end of the movie.

That is why the movie is not in the 10/10 ball park, but it is nevertheless a damn good one. But seriously, a dude was knowingly murdered in cold blood and they let her get away with that?

PS: I still rate this movie 9/10 because everything else was done tremendously well.

The Lion King (2019)

Lacks emotion.

[6/10 · 21 July 2019]

One of the few issues in the original was that not enough time was spent on the emotional death scene and the mourning. This movie may be longer, but it does not get rid of those problems and adds a new one. It relies even more than any other movie on the voices of the actors to suck the audience in the story and it came short in that respect for every actor except Rogan and Eichner.

Moana (I) (2016)

Easy to enjoy with a 1h47m smile!

[7/10 · 13 July 2019]

Well written story, but nothing out of the ordinary. The only addition I would have liked is something in the storyline that we have never seen before. However, we did get somewhat of a nice plot twist near the end. This movie is not only one of the better Disney movies ever released, it also packs humour with it that beats most comedy movies.

Chernobyl (2019)

Well done, but not the masterpiece that many consider it to be

[8/10 · 12 July 2019]

This is probably one of the best TV Shows from the past decade, but the tension never builds up far enough to reach its true potential. On the other hand, I really respect that Craig stuck to the facts during the whole series. This obviously makes it more difficult to provide the audience with that "WOW" feeling that one could get when watching a show like GoT. On the other hand it magnifies the horror of the show, fealing real and authentic, and quit frankly like it could have happened yesterday.

It is most definitely the best TV Show I have ever watched that's based on a true story!

The Hunger Games (2012)

Good story, Good acting, But way too rushed.

[8/10 · 11 February 2019]

I can write a whole book about this movie (no pun intended), but I will keep it short.

The book obviously deserves all the love it gets, setting an incredible storyline.

The movie is definitely not the worst filming a book can enjoy, but makes a big mistake when it starts rushing to the wonderful dramatic events that the book already created for it. The acting was definitely alright, and this is indeed one of the movies where J Lawrence won my respect!

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Arguably one of the best animation movies ever made.

[8/10 · 29 January 2019]

One could say that it is easier to make less faults in an animated movie, but I disagree. For some reason not many animated movies have catched my interests as much as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse did.

They definitely took some big risks with the type of humour used in this movie, but knowing how well the Deadpool movies played out, this was a risk worth taking.

The movie also gave some kind of sin city feeling which I really liked.

If they managed to give us more screentime and backstory on the rather interesting villains in the movie, it might have been a 10/10. However, this was something I missed in movie with a shorter duration than most movies in its genre.

I think this is a well deserved 9/10 and probably the only movie that achieve just that over the last 2 years.