Reviews

So what do we have here - supposedly a famous book, alas I haven't read it, either way the film should be able to stand on its own legs which I can't see t doing.

Lots of money was spent in endless CGI shots but again there was no emotion - I watched it in disbelief, asking myself what for.

I like Robert Downey but after watching this production a bit less. Acting all in all is somehow middle of the road but partially just bad. Mr Downey unfortunately fits right in here, his sin is that he is just boring. I see him trying to pull of some 'amazing' acting stunts - like what's with the endless impersonation of numerous characters, one worse than the other. He's no Marlon Brando and shouldn't try to be one. Besides that he's also credited as 'executive producer'. It seems nowadays everybody is one! One has no idea if he actually fulfilled this job there (probably not) or, as usual, the 'production' put an exec producer crown on his head just because....we'll never find out why and how that came about, I guess we better don't want to know anyway.

Regarding directing: To me it looks like the director tried hard to be 'original' - to what purpose though stays unclear to me.

Regarding camera, lighting, design, sound etc; all crew involved are obviously good tradesmen but is that enough?

Resume: HBO tried to pull off producing a TV 'prestige' show but failed miserably. They attempted to marry Apocalypse Now with MASH.

I made it through all of the first half hour, but knowing it'd be going on for almost 2 more hours I threw in the towel. It's artsy alright alas it doesn't make any sense respectively it's really really boring. Oscar for best actress...? Really?

As others before me mentioned the real poor thing is the audience who are bravely enduring this movie.

William Dafoe is a weird version of Frankenstein and Emma Stone, well, she really should find better material. The Oscar staue really is a mystery. I can't figure out what the Academy members were so excited about. I can't imagine how such a movie will make it's money back....?

Main points are: the VoiceOver is utterly boring, just cutting all that out would make for a better movie. What the directors ides was is anybody's guess, whatever it was it failed. Trying to copy one of Jean-Pierre Melville's films isn't enough. The other main issue is the utterly uncharismatic lead actor - the whole time I thought he might make a good AC repair person. Utter blandness. And I don't think it's the actors fault, no that goes straight to the director. Can it. E more boring?

That cinematography, sets, supporting actors etc are on a professionall level isn't enough to save this train wreck. Well, if it would only be a train wreck, alas there's no energy for that. This is a train that never moves.

Season 1 seems to have an interesting premise. It's a slow development which I tend to like. There is good acting (season 1), there is interesting camera work and editing and, for a change there is interesting and poignant music. All of that unfortunately slips away in season 2.

As so often, so very often shows start setting up an an interesting premise but then have no idea where it's going to lead and how to end it. Actually so many stories don't end at all, they just stop. Like this one, the whole thing goes nowhere. I don't necessarily ask for all end to be neatly tied up but ending a show with no point at all is a bit weak...all it leaves one with is emptiness.

Couldn't be any worse, no, really. What happened to Netflix? It actually started by making an immense movie catalog available, it established a library where one could search for hard to find films. Well, that was then. When they started to get into the 'content' business, becoming themselves a 'studio', it was - looking back - the beginning of the end. And this production 'Hollywood' shows that off in all it's glory. So much pretension and do-gooding of all then roles involved is hard to swallow. And let's not mention the humungous amount of historical twisted facts and misrepresentation - it's a 'tv-show' after all, no, but let's care about the almost cynical 'sentimental' and stupid portrayal of anything that resembles reality. Total schlock.

Just as an aside, the terrible acting fits seamlessly in, camera work too, so slick, there is no life left. Writing...? I can see the writers hanging out coming up with ever stupider lines, congratulating each other.

Let's just say, it couldn't be a ny worse, but Netflix done it.

French big budget 'state' production, lots of money alas terrible script, mediocre on the nose directing, insanely bad and schmaltzy score and very ok acting. Of course actors can be the best I the world but with bad writing there's not much one could do. Add to that a 'professional' director, but alas one that lacks originality then this is what one gets.

The music score: why does one have to plaster any and every scene with overwhelming orchestral (symphonic !) noise? How I see it, the director, a bit aware of his own shortcomings hopes to save himself by putting the whole thing under a thick blanket of 'romantic and oh so touching' music. It makes it worse in my view.

As one can see, money isn't everything.

And as we should know, it all starts with a bad and uninteresting and utterly predictable script. Done a hundred times and usually done a hundred times better. Then comes directing - again, boring, overly wordy and repetitive and sometimes just weird. What's with the sometimes color and then suddenly black and white thing? Psychological hints of something? Just a whole lot of pretension. The two main persons supposedly had a lovingly (mon amour, mon amour, mon amour) relationship going on?

She is some kind of intellectual, a radio journalist who always says exactly what a 'radio journalist' is supposed to say - predictable and pretentious empty words again - and, out of prison since 9 years seems to have lived off this woman, no job or anything - and now starts working (we never find out what he's supposedly doing), well, he begins to work, what a coincidence with an ex of his wife or girlfriend - we don't know that either and from then on everything breaks down, confusion left and right.

Underscored is the whole thing in the first part mostly with schmaltzy music and in the second with some darkish drones that should alert the audience that. Not all is fine and dandy in the house.

Acting-wise, obviously the main actors are seasoned pros, they do what they do or were told to do - it's tiring to watch them.

I rather watch for the hundredth time 'Who's a fraud of Virginia Woolf'.

What about telling us who we're actually seeing and watching and listening to - maybe a few inserts here and there, really can't be too difficult. That's is a big let-down and does Tom Jobim no good and makes it strictly a project for ultra-aficionados, which Im pretty much am and still I'm having a hard time to figure out who is who. Just being lazy?

Now, besides this major annoyance of course it's great to see so many snips of mostly live footage which otherwise would have to be collected very time-consumingly on YouTube ! Too much work and so badly executed.

Bring out a second edition and do better.

Practically all 'lead' roles are the usual cliché. Seen often enough before. The script itself also is a tired rehash. Acting is mediocre - no wonder with that script. And additionally, cinematography is terrible - not only that everything is drained of any color, why is that, the images are so dark one has a hard time to figure out what's actually happening. Not to forget there are some weird issues with sound, our lead actress sounds like her microphone is buried deep inside/under her clothes.

With some more originality and (way) better writing, especially dialog it could be a much more worthwhile production.

Disappointing and forgettable. The usual setup, like Friends but this time in London and peeps work in the 'Industry'. Actually they don't work, they pretend to work - one wonders what they hell they really do!

Besides of course doing drugs and having sex with 'friends' or colleagues nobody knows why, at least the people involved.

It really is a very simplistic show, the workplace is a static set filled with computer screens that never change. The 'people' themselves mosly pretend to be some British ivy tower graduates and that's it.

And what is with all the sex inside the restrooms - ughh! Supposed to be cool?

Major PR blurb slash fake reality show - and that's about it! Most all the reviews here on IMDB seem to be 10 out of 10 stars...really?

Nothing against Kanyé or whoever - it's all still just bling, it's all just a bunch of hot air. Which In the end is totally forgettable.

Like the 'reviews' here on IMDB which were obviously written by Kanye's PR department, they're so so empty and repetitive.

Also: Lyrics.....what lyrics? I guess nobody listens to them anyway - it's always the same 'words' the 'N' word, the shiet, the hood etc. Etc. Etc. That are standing out to drive the point that he/she/whoever is so damn cool.

It's really sad that (mostly) the black population see themselves as being part of this fake bling culture.

They're in the end the one's getting sold out, getting sold a 'dream' that isn't a dream at all. Isn't it fitting that Kanye ended up - at least for a bit - in this silly Kardashian reality show! At least they don't pretend to be something else then a pre-scripted reality show.

It's so rare to find a super well done intelligent TV show - a pleasure. It is somewhat a 'film' about making of a film - alas those are the best anyway. Although very different than Truffaut's Day For Night, I do see some similarities, not in the story per se, just in the reflections of what a film director lives through. Highly recommended.

Yes, it leans quite a bit on 'Run Lola Run' - sprinkled with some early Hitchcock but that's nothing bad. It's well done, well shot and well acted. Voila, watch and enjoy!

Terrible on every level, essentially a kind of a video game for juveniles. Chris Pratt who I worked once with on set is a nice guy, no question. To get into these kind of projects and even postering as executive producer he went way down on a slippery slope. Nothing more to be said.

So we have a bunch (not really that many for such a humongous ranch?) doing not much all day besides stupid stuff. Like calling 911 out in wilderness while having their own helicopter standing by ;-) Endless stupidity.

It's a soapy soup of nonsense.

I guess there are to many cooks in this kitchen with everybody adding his/her favorite ingredient into 'Tokyo' making the outcome unbelievable and somewhat cheesy. Japanese folks speaking English to our lead - not in your dreams. They're not able too and if they try nobody would understand them anyway, besides why would they ;-) Our 'hero' applies for a job at a provincial news paper and is terribly surprised how such a paper is run? He wouldn't be a bit informed what he applied for? This is the typical TV-show nonsense / fairytales producers and writers feel obliged to come up with.

Audio and sound design are though sub-par, background walla-walla in bars, cafes, or the newspaper office sound pretty fake.

Camera-work is kinda ok, nothing special, neither good or bad.

Acting is ok-ish too but nothing to write home about. Directing? Same same again, sometimes confusing, sometimes slow, sometimes fine.

Well, I'll give it another chance and hope it might get better. Let's see!

Addendum: After watching 5 episodes my impressions didn't change besides the strong feeling that the lead actor is terribly mis-cast. Kudos to the PR department of the production to manage such a high IMDB rating - that's a joke.

At the beginning I thought it's going to be a nice slow paced road movie which it is for a while, until it becomes more and more schmaltzy and repetitive.

It's ok kinda, especially if one knows all the locations, still kitsch though.

And why is the main theme of 'The third Man' used in this film too - I can't imagine the the composer of the score wouldn't be aware of that.

So, well, get a nice bottle of French country wine and endure.

This infamous production really is one of the worst of the year 2021 - absolutely terrible. Lady Gaga was/wanted/hoped for whatever nominations...for reals?

That faky wannabe accent of hers? Pacino...? Who comes up with that..?Well - the owners of the House of Gucci who bankrolled this 'Hollywood' production, an almost 3 hours long infomercial.

Let's call it 'House of Puky' !

I enjoyed Inspector Montalbano a lot and hoped the best for 'the young Montalbano' but found it somewhat disappointing - on a number of things. The score compared to the original series is a let down, kind of typical standard fare, nothing to think twice about. Acting...quite a tendency to overact in general. Catarella...: a really bad copy of the original one.

And the writing? The young Montalbano actually comes over as an arrogant prick - as I said, somewhat disappointing.

It's a terrible uninteresting script with lame dialog, terrible acting and casting, Nicole Kidman ?????, Javier Bardem who can't decide on what accent to fake on each of his lines, silly in-between 'interviews' commenting on what-ever, boring cliche camera work ... should I mention the film score, some rubber stamp weepy, cheesy sentimental computer strings mostly.

Actors might be fine in a different movie, alas calling it 'bad casting decisions' is almost too gentle.

The main issue really is the terrible script, the film director didn't have the clout to make it better (or is typical industry hack..?), it's all so cookie cutter, boring and fake dramatizing.

Won't go I to all the falsehoods, weird fake time lines and all that comes with it.

FAIL.

Excellent writing, directing, acting, cinematography and production design AND sound which is rather rare nowadays.

As others mentioned it before, the atmosphere and aesthetic of the time are masterfully captured and portrayed. Very solid acting - great to watch and follow all characters. Even the smallest roles deliver and add greatly to the overall picture.

Highly recommended. Also, if one searches a bit one can find lots of information on the net about the history of this facility, obviously run by the CIA with the usual obscure objectives.

Commissaire Magellan is an enigma: he is kind of annoyingly sympathetic but also an utter bore and very conservative living in a French small town. Still this show survived for quite a few seasons - I guess the reason is that it avoids senseless violence and action action action scenes - which I too appreciate.

Cinematography is similar, nothing stands out, which again is good, on the other hand it's also really boring again, so it fits the show. The first few episodes have terrible lighting and a brownish tint to it - so it looks even more dated.

Acting generally is ok, nothing special again.

The stories themselves tend to be rather convoluted though. Episodes are around 90 minutes long! They should be 60 minutes though. I've got the feeling there are too many pages added just to lengthen the script.

Music: it drags along in the background not drawing much attention, except in the episode 7 ('Undercover Miss' in the US), an episode called 'La miss aux deux visages' in original where the musics composer borrows very liberally from Antonio Jobim's 'How insensitive'! Or was it a love letter to Jobim?

All in all: very pétit bourgeois !

Obviously all those stories dished out in "Alias' are total nonsense, the whole show falls under 'have a glass of wine, or two, or three'....

But, the terrible highpoint are those fake lips- seriously terrible. Why do they do that, what's so great to look like an ugly duck?

Cookie-cutter 'documentary. Essentially the typical talking-head thingy with some weird editing gimmicks thrown in to make it less obvious. Split-screen Avantgarde ;-)

Not worth the time watching.

Disappointing on so many levels - the music...? Really, 70ies british shtick? Acting...? Adam Driver just puts up his expressionless face and voila - awesomeness! So what is it, besides bad music - it's an 'opera', right - terrible singing, I read somewhere that supposedly the actors were singing live while filming, alas in your dreams only, audio sounded so stale, always close miked not matter they were singing (talking) in a closet or in the woods. Artificialness is the 'art' here - Carax made better movies.

Watch if you want to be alone with your own thoughts - that's actually a good thing.