Reviews

This is one of those things nobody asked for but somebody has to ask to cancel. Actually, there was never a reason to exist in the first place. The original Blake Holsey High, a Jim Rapsas creation, had an average 1.3 million viewers in the U. S. and Canada every week. The first short of "Echoes" had only 6,000 viewers and the last one 1,600. But let's say something about the production itself.

Where do I begin? Let's say the cast. Mr. Rapsas, the original cast of Blake Holsey High was something that happens once in a lifetime. Emma Taylor-Isherwood, Shadia Simmons, Jeff Douglas, a dream of a cast. They had magic. Magic, Mr. Rapsas, the kind that only a person who followed the show in the 2000's could perceive. Instead, "Echoes" features in its first two shorts a couple of George Romero's school dropouts who give the misleading impression that someone's going to kill the other at any moment. Seriously, when one of them walks through the room, the floor begins to crack like it was going to break into pieces.

And what about the writing? The original show was nominated twice for an Emmy Award for best writing of a children's show episode. And now you give us things like the short #4 starring a guy who babbles the most boring summer camp sci-fi story ever, with you, Mr. Rapsas, as the interviewer who doesn't dare to show the face. Every script feels like one of those fanfiction crap stories that flood reddit, wattpad, you name it.

And the manufacturing. "Echoes" looks like a failed high school sociology project who deserves a D, for Pete's sake. What a shame, Mr. Rapsas. The best thing you can do is to wipe this thing out of the internet. There's no need to try to ruin your own work. Because not even you can ruin the memories of what you acheived from 2002-2006. Not even you. Thank God.

Apparently, good writers are scarce these days, and "Erin and Aaron" is a proof that Nickelodeon couldn't get anyone for this uninspired, lame show.

It's hard to find an intelligent line in this show composed by sketches already done before a hundred times. Instead, the show is filled with stupid situations like the little girl successfully bribing her art teacher with banned cookies to be granted with an A+ grade and other examples I prefer not to describe fully here. It's also really sad to watch Larisa Oleynik reciting dull dialogues and I can't understand why some so called writers find funny to include a boy with crutches just to mock at him.

As to Ava Ro, I can see she's got some talent for comedy and can sing a little, that's why it would be better for her to quit this nonsense and pursue some really worthy projects (see Olivia Rodrigo, she starred in a terrible Disney show and now she's got three Grammy Awards). The rest of the cast is like... nothing to see here (Sorry, Larisa).

Finally, I strongly advise you to skip this show. Nickelodeon won't give your 25 minutes per episode back and you should spend that time watching a real comedy instead.

It's not common to find a light movie getting so polarized opinions. 50% in RT, 50% here in ImdB, 4.9/10 in Filmaffinity. I really wanted to give it more than 5/10 but I have to agree with the average, for some reasons I would like to explain.

The movie have just a remarkable 9-minute sequence, the karaoke joint. The revelation of PCA academy as being unlicensed and the "Time of our lives" duet are funny. But in the rest of this is 101-min long mess there are flaws and not very funny things. Zoey being trapped with Chase inside a full automatic car and claiming not knowing how to open the door, when all she has to do is call the owner, that is nonsense. The truth about the fake Zoey's boyfriend in the last scene is unnecessary portrayed. And those feminist references sprinkled here and there in the movie are not funny at all.

As to the cast, it was good to see Mark and Stacey characters practically unchanged, but Quinn should have preserved her black hair at least. Sad thing Lola doesn't appear even when Victoria Justice should accept any role considering the little success she's having in the business.

In summary, this movie is a product of the inexperience, as much in writing as in directing, but has some moments that hardcore Zoey fans will appreciate. But I'm not one of them.

One actress is not enough to save a movie even if she plays the main character. This happens all the time and this remake is proof of it. The weakest thing in this version, of course, is the CGI characters. I thought the worst thing ever seen in these remakes was the dog from 2019's Lady and the Tramp, but this Flounder is outrageous. It's the Jar Jar Binks of Disney's remakes. And this Sebastian looks odd and graceless. Three years and Disney couldn't do any better? Are you serious? In overall, the underwater scenes are not what I expected to see and, as some critic says, "recreated with Windows 10 screensaver graphics".

Now let me explain what is the problem with Ursula. In an animated feature you can exaggerate the expressions any way you like but you can't do that in live action. This is not Melissa McCarthy's fault, of course, but I don't lend ears to those who praise her performance with biased reasonings. And the changes in the final scene were simply the last straw but I won't spoil anything here. Seriously, I couldn't believe it when I watched it.

In summary, the movie doesn't work because Halle Bailey is surrounded by things that don't work. And that's not Halle's fault, it's all Disney's fault.

Maybe somebody will say this was made for kids, but for me this version is for all ages so I will give my opinion. I'll start by saying that this is not a full "reimagining" as some critics states, the reimagining actually begins at minute 50 and ends at minute 90, the rest is almost a page by page copy of the 1953 movie. And overall, this version falls short.

The main problem is some people in the cast. The main character, for example. I really would have wanted to like this boy but everytime this kid shows up I get the impression that something's missing and I'm not talking about the reddish hair. I don't know how the casting was made but it's pretty obvious that this boy wasn't born to be arrogant, bossy or vivacious. In other words, he wasn't born to be Peter Pan. More than that, when you place Peter and Wendy together and the one who steals the scene is Wendy you know something's not working with Peter. The result of that is a complete lack of chemistry. In the case of Jude Law, maybe the problem is the characterization, he looks too old because of the plot, and if the plot demands that, then we have another problem with the movie.

Leaving aside the kids that probably have not experienced another version and will like to see people flying in this short Disney live action movie (93 minutes only, the rest is swallowed by the usual endless credits), I cannot consider this remake one of the best. The most interesting things to see are beyond half of the movie and that's a long wait for anybody.

Screen Rant published an article featuring this headline: "Bella Ramsey proves the Ellie casting backlash wrong". These people are nuts. Their reliability went down the drain with one line. Anyone with a Netflix account have surely watched her in The Worst Witch and that's what worried me at first: Miss Ramsey shows no convincing facial or body expressions at all. Not a good vocal performance either. A real actress who has no resemblance with the original Ellie would compensate that by creating "her own" Ellie, by putting her acting talent to make us forget that fact. Well, we have three episodes already on the go and she's still The Worst Witch but foul-mouthed. Who is responsible for this miscasting, I don't care, who's the blindfolded critic from Screen Rant, I don't know, but the only certain thing is that Bella Ramsey is a burden, a mistake too late to correct, and HBO can't accept this evident screwup.

The show is not bad but not a marvel either. The real problem is this show doesn't have enough to be a widespread audience favorite. For latin people it works but numbers are out there: it's not as well accepted as Disney wanted. The show doesn't pay in viewers. The decision to cancel the show after just one season is the result of this. Bob Iger is a man whose main priority in life is to make things profitable, and if the cost of anything is not justified, he makes the necessary adjustments without thinking twice.

As to the performances, Scarlett Estevez is fine as Ultra Violet but the others are not remarkable. Actually, the best thing miss Estevez could do is to return to Lucifer, if renewed.

Actually, I watched this to see Bella Ramsey making comedy before HBO premieres its brutal The Last of Us adaptation and this is what I have to say about her performance.

It's difficult for an actress to add something new working with an elementary plot ( the girl bound to marry the repulsive old man and her fight to get rid of him), but things get worse if this plot cuts off parts of the book that were necessary to make a turn (the old man's son subplot is completely ripped off). Plus, woke elements in this environment look pretty ridiculous (a black noble woman in the 13th century England? Are you serious?). Finally, as the ending is not what the novel describes, the effort by miss Ramsey is wasted and the whole result a bit disappointing for those who have read the book.

The movie is not as funny despite some people's reviews trying to convince us otherwise. It's unmemorable, deprived of spark, and miss Ramsey, portraying an exaggerated version of Catherine, can't do anything to provide a helping hand to this production.

I would have liked this show had worked because Ruby Rose Turner has some talents for comedy, but there's nothing to rescue here. The writing is so bad it makes Dog with a Blog look like an Emmy winner. It's also sad to watch Olivia Sanabia in this disaster after finishing Just Add Magic, an excellent show. And that girl Delaware, c'mon, is unbearable. It deserves a 1/10 but I give this a 2 just for Olivia, not even for Ruby.

After watching this adaptation, based more in Cruel Intentions than in the actual novel, I'm entitled to write my own conspiracy theory about why Netflix keeps on releasing these outrageously bad flicks. Tall Girl, For Jojo and Marmaduke were not enough?

If Netflix really wants to survive, it should return to the pre-pandemic efforts to offer quality, but is doing the contrary with this adaptation. 0% in Rotten Tomatoes, for God's sake (compare that with the 94% of the original Dangerous Liaisons). The acting? Ella Pellegrini as Vanessa makes Cruel Intentions's Sarah Michelle Gellar look like Sarah Bernhardt. Overall, it's an agony to reach the end but if you're gonna criticize something you have to sacrifice yourself, and why? To tell you, people who hasn't still watch this, just skip it. It doesn't deserve a chance. Actually, I think Netflix is looking for the way of getting rid of its 9 billion debt... by filing for bankruptcy.

Honest, I was ready to enjoy this movie after looking at the cast: Pacino, Driver, Leto, Irons, Lady Gaga... What could possibly go wrong?

But the first 20 minutes were enough for me to see that something was not working. The gross edition, the careless development. I thought "this is gonna be bad" and yes, it was. Don't look at the usual ticket-seller reviews about the acting. Driver is unconvincing as Maurizio Gucci, Jared Leto's character looks like it was stripped from Cartoon Network (sorry, people at SAG but you lost credibility a long time ago), and when Lady Gaga does it better than Jared (and Jeremy) in a movie you know things are really uneven with the directing.

And as to the multiple award nominations... Please, only Gaga deserves to get some juice out of the fruit.

In summary, this is what happens when Ridley Scott pretends to be Scorsese. A weak, poorly staged and overrated movie that nobody should watch more than once. Because if somebody's to blame, is Mr. Scott. Maybe in other hands the results could have been, at least, decent.

Let behind the fantasy world of Stars Hollow from 2000 and enter this crude, 2016 self-explained revival whose existence most Gilmore Girls fans will try to deny. No more quick, witted Lorelai-Luke dialogues but sour complaints, no more graceful yet ambitious Rory but "my life is a mess" failed in life Rory. All of the other characters are now dimmed characters, with the outstanding exception of Paris and her acid tongue who didn't even appear in the last part. And that musical play, c'mon, give me break. But I'm here to talk about Rory Gilmore. It's sad to watch a disheartened Rory ranting about her miserable life, sleeping with an engaged man, cheating on her boyfriend, rejecting a job in Chilton, being fired by her lunatic but only client and being dropped by an editor after a disastrous interview, all because of something very plain to see: Rory never matured emotionally all the way to her 32th birthday. Nobody told her New York is not Stars Hollow. Nobody told her the world outside is not Hartford. The real world simply did its job: to eat her up, spit the bones and ask for the next one. Look, by contrast, to Paris: being Paris, she succeeded. The final "I'm pregnant" scene is not actually the end, is the prelude to what Rory will become if her book doesn't work: in three or four years, this new single mother will have to take the lectureship in Chilton (if there's still a vacancy) or doing a 9 to 5 in a workstation or anything, with Lorelai helping with the kid while keeping an eye in her own marriage, and no more offers, no more expectancies, no nothing waiting for the arrival of the fourth decade. But let's be optimistic for a minute: maybe the book works and who knows, she'll be signing autographs and somebody turns it into a TV series called "Gilmore Girls". Sorry, but in real life as this revival tried to picture most of the time, it won't happen. Alexis Bledel herself spoke about her dissapointment by Rory's final fate. "It was a hard thing to me to digest", she said. I'm sure is harder to anyone else. Especially the hardcore fans.

By now, almost every follower has already watched Wandavision's episode 7. Those who managed to stay awake should reach the same conclusion as me: this is game over. Actually, this epic failure was expected after last episode's nonsense and mediocrity in the sitcom part. It's very clear to me that writers don't know what to do to extend the show to complete the ten episodes. They're attached to a format that hinders the road to the final outcome. Innovation and daring are not necessarily guarantee of an accomplished product, despite the one sided reviews we can read from people who probably are there for the visual effects. From now on, it makes no difference what this mess is leading up to. Episode 7 convinced me, once and for all, to stop wasting my time in this pretentious, overqualified show. And to stop listening to those intellectual snobs claiming this is a Marvel masterpiece.