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GypsyNomad
Reviews
Beulraek (2017)
Watchable but not a true Korean Drama
So a few background things first: I have seen a few Netflix original shows and the ones I've liked have been canceled while the ones that I didn't care for have gone on for several series. The original movies I've seen, have been terrible or not truly Netflix only like they've claimed. The summaries for Korean dramas are never what the show is really about. Most (MOST) Korean dramas start out great and then stall for a bit and then pick up in the last few episodes (usually with the 16 episode ones).
So with those things in mind, I watched Black. It was interesting and entertaining during the first episode but nothing I really had to watch. Then there was a twist that was fantastic! and it left me wanting to see what that was about. I thought wrong but the truth was better.
They did a lot of things right in this drama but I found it hard to finish it quickly and I would get bored more often than normal during a K drama. They hit all the boxes but it was missing the heart, the stuff that really made it Korean and watchable even when boring.
It was just... ok. It either should have cut some parts that I won't say here or ramped it up even more.
The ending just confused the heck out of me. Not what they were trying to get across but some of the details. I mean, there was a Christmas tree and red blankets and presents and snow but they kept talking about Halloween. Then I saw a few jack o'lanterns hanging about and I was just scratching my head. The dialogue didn't help matters much either. It just confused me and the ending felt very rushed and just didn't make any sense. Even what happened made very little sense and seemed unrealistic in this fantasy world. It didn't make sense IN story...
It was a nice attempt but it was missing the heart of it. Decent acting all around and fun twists but somewhat boring and had a lot of loose strings that had been tied up then flayed apart later on and never wrapped it up again.
This is not one that I would recommend watching if you're new to K dramas. "Fantastic" and "Mirror of a Witch" or whatever they renamed it as on Netflix were better but there are other ones that are less heavy that are great too. My favorite is "Oh My Ghost(ess)".
A Dog's Purpose (2017)
Best movie I've seen in a really long time
Let me start by saying that I very rarely cry at movies and this one had me teary-eyed quite a few times. It also had me laughing for over an hour. I also cringed and didn't want to watch at times, thinking I knew what was coming and then... it didn't or at least it made me think it didn't, depending on the time. It was a surprising movie in many ways and it was so sweet and fast moving and not overly too sentimental. Any TRUE animal person will love it because it hits all the right notes at the right time and anyone who knows what this movie is about will realize that there are sad moments and pain in life and will recognize all the funny ones or incredibly moving ones. So even though it dealt with something some say is not reality (Hindus would argue with you) the situations in the movie was extremely realistic.
As for the rumors of animal abuse. The scene that is described in other reviews is BS, you can tell the dog is jumping from a much lower height and that he's jumping in front of a green-screen and then later when he's in the water... most dogs LOVE water. The owner/trainer probably just let him off his leash and he was in the water before anyone could say anything. They probably also had a ton of crew members there to ensure nothing happened to the dog or the girl. There's another scene where you can tell that it's a training arm pad underneath the shirt like they do in real life or in movies to protect the human and the dog. No one would be able to get away with animal abuse anymore on set and it's obvious here that there HASN'T BEEN ANY. Those who want to boycott this movie, grow up and get educated about dogs and how they handle them on set, they're treated better than the humans are and their trainers, agents and owners would not let any harm come to their animal out of love and/or desire to keep using the animal in the future for more movies. If you hurt the dog in anyway, you can't have it in another movie as it might take too long to recover.
If you go to this movie expecting Bond, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, 24, Jason Borne, etc type of action, you'll be disappointed. If you go for a nice story, you'll walk away happy you saw it. It really is the best movie I've seen in such a long time.
Frequency (2016)
It's being deleted from my roster
***SPOILERS**** I loved the movie, so I'm probably a bit biased, though truly I don't think so. I really wanted to like this TV series but I hate it. Having seen the movie multiple times with no less enjoyment each subsequent time, this show is just a tired old ripoff. A. They all basically have the same name except the main character and her beau. B. It's the same time frame. It didn't have to be the same story, I can think of a million of different ways they could have done something different and would have been a show worth watching. This wasn't one of those times when I watched a movie and said "This would make a great series". There have been movies where I felt that they didn't have nearly enough time to go into everything even with sequels and there have been shows that I've said that could have been contained into a single season or a movie and that would have been so much better. The changes they've made for this show is pretty lame. They've taken away everything I've loved from the movie. 1. The loving relationship between his mother and father, that was such a strong marriage and the fact that it was torn apart in 2 different ways would be hard on the son and mess him up pretty badly. He had to get over so many personal hang-ups. 2. They changed the dad's job from firefighter to cop. The whole enjoyment of the movie rested on the fact that his dad was a firefighter and had no business investigating crimes, especially at that time, especially because he was not connected to the crimes at all in any way. 3. Gordo. He was a funny kid and a fun friend when he was older but in the show he's just kind of there and I think that he becomes her husband with the change. Also, wasn't he the one that was interested in rocket-men and astronauts in the movie? 4. The fact that John became a cop was amusing to everyone because they'd have preferred him to be a firefighter when his dad was still alive. 5. Frank in the show apparently now dies from an accident rather than something he can personally change, ie, his smoking habits. The movie was perfect the way it was. *If it had been another family effected by the Nightingale murders, that would have been an unique twist, because that would change everything for the original crew too, especially if a cop was chasing him down too and possibly stopping the criminal before Frank/John could, saving more women. *If she was the granddaughter/great-granddaughter. *If it had been a completely different story in a different city and mystery to solve. It holds no interest for me if they're just going to rehash the movie but worse. *If it had been the criminal's family communicating with each other, not necessarily his daughter warning him but his cousin's daughter talking to her mom. It could change a lot and not effect the original. Bottom line: give us a new mystery, give us a new story. FYI, dad being innocent? Not a surprise, at all. There was nothing about this that even remotely surprised me or interested me to watch the next episode which is just a shame because I was looking forward to what they might do.
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (2013)
Not worth the hour
This spin-off/concurrent story is like a badly written sequel in the hands of a genius' idiot younger sibling. Or at least a masterpiece giving sequel rights from its big name studio and giving it to elementary students to do with it what it pleased without giving them a real viewing of the original, only pieces and telling them they can't use any of it anyway. Let me start by saying that the first season, minus the season finale of the original Once Upon A Time was brilliant and I absolutely hated the second season, so much that I stopped watching it except random fast-forwards to see if it could have possibly have regained its original momentum, it hadn't. I have absolutely no interest in season season 3. Now back to my analogy, the original is like a mature work where there was thought put into it and could have very well been AMAZING and was for all of the first season. Then the writers seemed to go out back and smoked something that fried the braincells that had the outline and they were scrambling to come up with something to give the audience. This spin-off was immature and there were so many plot holes in addition to the crisis the original was facing. Which reminds me of that whack-a-mole game, or the movie Holes. Or... they can go on. Anyway there were vague references to the original but only two characters that were sort of in it. One a lot more, the other only like one episode. Which I get and nods to somethings that happened. Timeline and characters aside though, it really didn't jive with the original in anyway. This isn't a spoiler unless you're blind, but the Red Queen isn't even the same person and if the time-line is to be believed then Regina's mom is the Red Queen long before this and long after this, so the blond woman they have playing her is pointless. Besides, (and this is a spoiler for the other show), they killed her off last season so she's looking for a job. And could reprise her role for this. The rest of it, the acting, the casting, the accents, it's just nails on a chalkboard for me. At the very least they could have had ugly actor/actresses that could really act or really attractive actors/actresses that couldn't act at all. This middle stuff is nauseating. It's dodgy, patchy thrown together quickly material that's riding on the back of the original and since one's failing, the other is too.
Here's the important thing, the only reason why I bothered to watch this was because the original first season was great and they lost their way somewhere. I WAS hoping that it would be a sort of reboot, an apology to the audience for going so far off the deep end and drowning rather than making it from France to England through the English Channel. A way to sort of make a nod towards the original but say clearly that they aren't that and they're not going to interact at all with it either. That this is more Alice in Wonderland weekly than Once Upon a Time. They didn't do that, and in fact they only made it worse. I wanted to see what happened to Wonderland with Alice of course, but mostly how the world falls apart once the Queen is dead or who would come in to try and take over without some of the star characters like the Mad Hatter and the Queen. Instead they replaced the Queen and try to make it a parallel story that goes back and forth between worlds when from the moment the Knave comes to find Alice they're messing with continuity since he wasn't supposed to be able to leave and that the world was never changing but clearly there was a huge storm that they dealt with too. There were so many opportunities they could have seized upon but made some really bad moves. I'm not going to watch this anymore. They had a chance and they blew it.
The Voice (2011)
Mixed Feelings
I want to like this show but there are aspects that I really don't, especially during the first few weeks. I wouldn't mind all the talking and personal stories IF they didn't skip artists. Unlike Idol, I believe since I never actually ever watched that show, they don't show people with absolutely no talent or don't go for it. I'm fine with them skipping artists that don't make it, I'm also OK with them showing those artists that got invited for a chance but didn't make it. I'm not OK with them showing nothing of the artists that DID make it to show ones that didn't, but even that doesn't bother me as much as them skipping the artists so they can tell us the sob story of a few and all the recapping that just wastes time!
Anna san no omame (2006)
A little unsure
I didn't watch it all the way through, but I intend to in the future. It is a promising start, it looks funny. It's not about the pretty girl. It's not about the hapless, ugly girl who knows it and is best friends with the pretty girl. It's about the hapless, ugly girl who is best friends with the pretty girl, and thinks everyone is in love with her (the ugly girl). However I don't think she is all that ugly. She's not gorgeous, but the way people react to her, its like she's the last person they'd think was pretty. I have a feeling the characters in the show, if they had more dimensions to them, would think she's prettier if she wasn't so arrogant.
My favorite scene in what I've seen so far, is in the first part of the first episode. It is a really minor detail, and I was half watching it, when I noticed this, and had to watch it again just to be sure: In the restaurant where you meet some of the characters for the first time, there is a shot that has 2 guys sitting off from the focus of the shot. In the forefront however is a girl wearing a business suit and a pink shirt. She is drinking from a cup and turns to fix her hair. Where she turns to, there is a reflection of her actions. However, she gets up to leave and the reflection of the girl stays. It is not a mirror and it is not the same girl. They had two girls with the same outfit, drinking out of the same cup with straw and the same hair style, drink at the same time and turn to face each other, without talking, to fix their own hair as if in a mirror image. I loved it. It is those kinds of things that will bring me back to watch more. (I've given a lot of foreign movies a shot and sometimes they're amazing, and sometimes not, and I have to watch a little to know which is which.)
The only negative I've found thus far, besides the weird shooting at other times, when they're focused on the main character, it seems out of focus, is the translation that I've discovered. It's not dubbed, its subbed, and the phrasing is a little awkward sometimes. I watch a lot of subbed and I've seen people do a lot better job on it. That's the only negative, and that is on a case by case basis.
Cassandra's Dream (2007)
A little Extra
In the trivia section its the only UK movie that doesn't feature any Americans by woody Allen, and I have to add, that Match Point, Scoop both also contain Scarlett Johanson. So in essence, it's the only Woody Allen Movie he's filmed in the UK that doesn't have Scarlett Johanson. On a different side note, this movie is reference in Vicky Cristina Barcelona review and funnily enough, it's a movie by Woody Allen, and guess what? It has Scarlett Johanson in it too! The only difference is, that its filmed in Barcelona. I don't really know why this has to be ten lines, so I'm basically just filling up the remaining two spaces or so, but I like Scarlett Johanson, I just think its funny that Woody Allen is doing to Scarlett like he's done other favorite actors in the past, you know those old eighties ones that nobody watches? I only liked Scoop so far and maybe that one with Alan Alda... I don't think I care so much for Woody.
Heroes (2006)
Just a though
The way this show is set up is kind of like Lost.
I mean I kind of like Lost but it's not my favorite show in the world. However the way it's set up is interesting because it deals with past, present and future all within one episode and it has you asking more questions without really getting any answers. I do think however that the latest episode when Hiro comes from the future to talk to Peter about something very important is going to answer a few things at least. I would like the answers to some of the more basic questions. For example, are these chapters to a section and when is the next section going to be? Would that be the next season or will there be two in each season? I do wish this show will continue. I guess I'm a bit of a goof when it comes to supernatural TV shows. This one is amazing, up there with an older TV show that was canceled way too early, Strange Luck. This show has eye candy but they do an amazing job at acting so it's not too much eye candy.