Reviews

What makes William Shakespeare's tragedy's work are the bits of humor and levity that let the audience off every once in a while. One of the important things that makes modern narrative movie making work is having a or some sympathetic characters. Even if they are dark, evil, or somehow negative.

Unfortunately this incarnation of the THOTFOU failed to do either of these successfully. It was literally painstaking to watch this show up until the last 3 episodes which made a late attempt.

If you look at what's made Flannigan's shows successful, it's that understanding that one can rejoice in something. By the time any of these elements appear here, I really didn't care about any of the characters. I like dark, but not w/o a ying to the Yang.

There are enough elements true to Flannigan's talent that make this worth watching, but there isn't any part of me that desires to watch this again. Unlike his first 3 Netflix series. Midnight Club fell a little short for me as well, but it still retained enough for me to not be disappointed to the degree I was with this.

I sense Flannigan locked himself into a repetitive strategy and idea that you'll discover makes the show predictable and honestly dull. An example being how each episode thru 7 ends. It gave off cheap slasher film vibes. I sensed it trying to channel classics like Ghost Story but it felt more like a Final Destination movie at times.

Why still a 6 rating? The performances, the usual great cinematography, and once again honestly the effort. I've seen a lot worse fails in the horror genre. This was just very disappointing coming from a filmmaker at the top of my list as one if not the best of the best contemporaries.

I gave this a 6. If it had ended w/o one of the most confused tones and worst series finales ever, maybe a 7. Really the last 2 seasons almost brought this down to a 5 for me. Sadly it's a show that was just fine and tried too hard to be edgy and provocative at the end. It was too late. It's series finale the last 2-3 episodes together felt completely forced and truly as if though they said F-U to their loyal audience, as the ratings prove. I don't dig predictable Hollywood endings, but if you've built something more conventional you can't suddenly change a CW show into Pulp Fiction overnight.

I thought with the same team from Hell or Highwater they were going to knock it out of the park. Instead it looked like someone took a good film and took out all the parts that made it make sense out of it. It was like a mediocre 80's movie where a million bullets fly but none hit the good guy. Everything conveniently falls into place to make the outcome possible and then even then the ending is terrible and makes no sense! What in the Hell and highwater!!

Sadly, once again the only good version of this story was the very first one. Only saw it because it was free, but I guess the time I wasted watching it wasn't so. What else can you say but, no redeeming value. In any kind of way. Sad that money was spent to make this.

I don't like just bash things so I'll start with the positive. The acting in particular Alan Ritchson's is not bad. One of the best character actors ever Bruce McGill has a nice little role in it too. Unfortunately the actors are given cheesy dialogue and the show has a very amateurish feel. From the editing to the direction it just feels like a low budget film from the 80s. The story kind of just rambles on and on. One almost forgets the protagonists point. I kind of have to finish it now though. On Episode 5. I think this might be geared toward Chuck Norris, Texas Walker fans. It's not that bad but just a step above at times.

The first 2 acts were pretty solid. A beautifully shot film. Unfortunately the 3rd act and payoff is oddly both predictable and muddled and the motivations and choices of certain characters make little sense. I haven't researched the production of this film, although I do know it's supposedly a remake of an old film. It felt as if the script and ending were still being worked out as it was being shot. This didn't help since the story is slow moving to begin with. If the ending had more of an impact it may have been Oscar nominated best picture material. But it's obvious to me this nomination is based purely on the people involved. If you we're hoping for something as good as "The Shape of Water", I think you'll be disappointed too. Worth watching, however, if you love great cinematography. The performances are also good as you'd expect, despite the lost story-line and plot.

There is an obvious reason the media and critics do not care for this movie. Because they're part of what is being parodied here. Yes it is farcical. Yes it makes cartoons out of its characters. Why? Because it's pretty damn accurate. Our leaders are cartoonish and our media and entertainers are narcissistically distracted about real life and pressing issues. That's all McKay is doing here and like Dr. Strangelove and Warren Beatty's Bullworth, Wag the dog etc. It succeeds. The performances are pitch perfect and like some great movies of the past that are bashed by critics but praised in time and become cult cinema, my opinion is this will be one. The trend continues on a "rotten tomatoes" and here on "IMDB" where the majority of audiences are more objective than the so called critics!

If the point was to create as many unsympathetic characters as possible. Mission accomplished. If the point was to create to many story lines. One (the soldier one) completely pointless and boring and ridiculous. Mission accomplished. If the point was have the narrative and the characters completely make unrealistic, uncommon sense decisions. Mission accomplished. If the point was to have the story contain as many holes as possible. You get the drift. Why 5 stars? The production is out of this world. From the cinematographer to the locations. Truly the acting is not terrible. Very good I might say. Wasted I'd say, If ionly it wasn't wasted. All that work for a below average package.

You simply won't find a film as engaging as this in this genre today. Don't know what else to say. Maybe today's generation is to cynical to sit through the small important moments that build to an actual plot point, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say anyone who loves real filmmaking will love this movie. Performances all around, pacing, story, camera movement/ cinematography. Maybe things aren't as smooth as they are today, but this film is so much better than so many things that have come after in the genre.

I'm not religious whatsoever, but watching this version of the story made me wonder, what kind of evil piece of sh** thought this was acceptable as entertainment. I mean outside of a satanist or the devil. That seems to be the audience that this is going for. The original version of this felt somewhat like a fable. This one felt like "evil rules". Ain't it funny and cool. Just go watch a slasher film. That's about the level of meaningless this thing has added to existence!!

I'm 3 episodes in and the tortoise pacing and disjointed overuse of backstory is so painful to watch. I will finish it because this account is probably the most important. First hand from the victims friends and family, but the trend that many of these docs are taking in order to get milk more episodes is terrible. I wish a more apt documentarian had handled this. It's like listening to someone explain something that gets to the point an hour later. Yikes!

I hate to give too much away in these reviews. Especially when it's something like this that easy to give away too much about the plot line.

Simply put. You'd never expect something like this to be on CBS. It's truly exceeded any expectations and it a actually looked good in the teasers leading up to the premiere. It steals, doesn't copy from the great suspense (Hitchcock, outer limits, twilight zone, xfiles, the exorcist) and still manages to have an originality to it. It's really now the best horror/suspense show on TV.

The minute you think, "oh it's a CBS show about evil". You're going to see as it progresses, it really is all about evil and the battle against it. Your jaw will drop at how quietly they drop the hammer on a situation. Totally unexpected and totally a new classic. I hope this gets a second season!

I almost don't want to give away a thing. That is how I came across this show by chance. I got lucky. Unfortunately Amazon never promoted properly or adequately so it's remaining a hidden gem. I'll just say if you like unexpected comedy, puzzle drama, music, and great cinematography, go watch this now if you haven't yet.

Don't waste your time. If you want to see a movie where characters have to work hard to get themselves into bad situations in order to make the movie necessary, then maybe watch it.

This isn't a film I was able to start to judge until it was over, so if you're the type that wants immediate gratification or a guarantee that you're going to like something an hour into it, this probably won't be for you.

I believe the very purpose of the film was to throw a million things out there. Being a conspiracy flick, Mitchell uses the very subject of conspiracy as the main plot device(s). My issue with this is that it's not very efficient as a movie. Too many ideas with not one of them really delivering a satisfying punchline. I may have appreciated it more if one did. The main character spends too much time sitting, walking, or staring around. It's basically a version of tell and not show with too much backstory that turns out to be unimportant woven into the movie.

What I did like was that Mitchell was still able to keep me interested. His camera moves nicely and his cinematographer does his best Hitchcock impersonation which isn't bad at all, along with the music. Was hoping for more, but hopefully this is something to build on for David Robert Mitchell. 'It Follows' is a superior film to this. I just hope he has a breakthrough on his next outing. He still hasn't reached an elite status as a filmmaker in my book, but I see the potential for something great from this director!

This show is proof of how clueless various awards are. Completely ignored by most of the bigger award organizations, it is hard to find a better made piece of work in 2018.

If you like intelligent filmmaking with depth, great story telling and perfect performances don't waste another second not watching this show. If your not a fan of horror but you can handle scares, don't skip this show.

The Haunting of Hill House is a lesson on how to build tension, dread, and interest through plot. I don't want to give a second of this show away. Just watch it if you like good movies, you get 10 episodes to enjoy it, before you're sad that it's over.

We're going to investigate some strange phenomena. We're going take a whole 2 to 3 days to see if decades worth of reports are real. We're going to end each segment into commercial with a weak cliff hanger and a loud sound and then use another minute coming back from the break to repeat those last 30 seconds at least. That way we kill some time. Since the rest of the episode is filled with speculation over dead ends and psychics or other unproven theories we'll end the episode where we started, but pretend we're on the cusp of breaking the biggest story in the history of earth. We will do that for 6 episodes. Hopefully we'll get another season. That about sums this up. So be prepared to be let down with this weak build up to nothing.

The movie feels watered down by its brilliant ideas. It might of been better with a narration and something more in the ways of a Terrence Malik film with strong visuals and performance and maybe just a few of the ideas in this film handled more firmly as a thought piece. Instead it has more of a patched up watered down effect overall. Because the individual elements are so much better than the whole, I still had to give it a 7. It is worth a viewing.

All the performances are spot on delivering a well written story by Tamara Jenkins. I can't believe this is only one of a handful of movies she's made. Slums of Beverly Hills was a great breakthrough but she hasn't done a lot. Every performance, especially the two leads Carter and Giamatti nailed it. I hope the Academy recognizes them. My only one small complaint is the ending, would have liked it to at least give us the answer to that final scene. I like open ended, but that wasn't my favorite ending. Other than that, watch this! Netflix definitely seems to be better at the comedic dramas than their action films.

Because it's so easy to spoil this film, I'll make my review general. The pacing is too slow. I'm all for movies that take their time, but by the 4th long slow pan I was bored and done with them! The movie steels a few frights from other movies such as the exorcist, and if you haven't seen it and all the other movies this one borrows from, you might very well enjoy them. Lastly the movie does certain things without explanation. It's almost as if the filmmaker said to himself, "it'll look freaky if the son does this weird thing, or mom does this weird thing. It explains most everything, but there are some definite holes. "E" for effort but not an elite horror film, sorry. Unless once again, you've never seen one before.

Allegedly, this is supposed to be a show about ufo's and aliens. All I seem to see every week is a show that proves things are so, because "some people say", "allegedly", "many think". That's the hard data were dealing with here. Almost plays like a Fox News disinformation operation. They also like to mix in "some truth" to prove the complete speculation from the so called experts. It's that old "it must be true because no one can prove it isn't!!! Narrated by the right wing/ NRA hack and shill John B. Wells. He was even too conservative for the right wing propaganda on coast to coast AM! Makes you wonder what the point of this show really is? I recommend looking deeper when you watch this nonsense! Find a better source for your UFO info......

Need I say more. This could have been a 3 or 4 star movie if they had shown more and told less. The voice over is so overdone, I was literally laughing at times, and the only other knock would be the 5 seconds they spend on showing you the mentally challenged uncle/brother that is a centerpiece of the story. Lets just say in the words of Robert Downey Jr. He went way past full retard. I have a mentally ill aunt and I've been around her and her fellow roommates at her home my whole life. They go from 0 to 100 on the stereotypical caricature of a mentally ill person. That made me laugh too, at how ridiculous that whole part of the movie was. They even have a pin-wheel in it for good measure, you see what i mean. Oh well, if you have the patience to put up with the constant voice over telling you what your seeing then you might want to check it out, but unfortunately it's there and its hard to call this a good movie. Rob Reiner should release a cut w/o the voice over.