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Two Graves (2018)
Gave it a 5 b'c I watched it & it wasn't the worst I've seen.
I'm a huge fan of UK crime dramas, thrillers etc. Guy Ritchie is one of my top directors. I'm used to this gritty, almost black & white feel to everything but the worst thing about this movie was Katie Jarvis! I couldn't stand her accent, (was that cockney?), her attitude or even looking at her! All the way thru the movie I kept wishing for someone to just shoot her! And I love all UK accents, including cockney but hers was like taking sandpaper to an open cut!
I had to laugh at one of the reviews here which stated how excellent Cicely Tyson's acting was, as Margaret! LOL! I don't know if it was a typo or if they really thot she was in this movie! The only ones who I did like & who i wanted to live, were the old security guy, who was actually doing his job & then trying to help Finn & Finn himself. They both acted well & came off as likeable humans. As for the rest of the cast there was no distinction between good (cops) & bad (criminals). If the big mob guy, Tommy, was borrowing money from DI Clark, then she had to have been a dirty cop, as well as Det. Ford.
As for Barry, it was basically his fault George was killed! He was too busy screwing the hooker to be bothered with George's calls for help so of course I don't like him! Teddy? Well, he was an idiot. Why he didn't just grab the gun from Zoe after he shot her up I'll never know. Instead he let's her stagger after him, firing wildly. It was just luck she never hit him. And how many bullets were in that gun anyway???
Margaret, sure she was driven by grief & not knowing what happened to her son but to trust a junkie tramp? She went too far with cutting Finn's finger off but she kind of redeemed herself by trying to help him in the end. I kind of wanted her to get away but she was too slow.
I did like the way everyone ended up dead in the end & since they were, I was even ok with Barry & the hooker ending up with a lot of the money........or did they???
Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators: Outrageous Fortune (2019)
What the heck?!?!
What did I just watch?? Frank & Luella aren't the brightest pair of P. I.s but in this episode they were downright stupid! Maybe I'm too used to watching other cop or detective shows, I don't know. This pair is not attentive, inquizitive or forceful but they are gullible.
They can be on the right track but when they question their suspects they seem to believe whatever they are told. They don't fully interrogate, they just accept what they're told without question. A private eye isn't going to get very far like that!
The scene where they were staking out the ransom drop was basically laughable, altho I wasn't laughing, I was expressing my frustration to the TV! They were not paying any attention at all! Luella was looking thru her binoculars in the beginning, she did watch Sebastian drop the money bag in to the garbage but after that I guess it wasn't important. Fifty people could've came along & retrieved that bag & she & Frank would've been none the wiser! They were too busy looking at pictures of the missing dog on a tablet! To make matters worse they didn't even notice the police sirens getting closer & closer & then the park behind them filling up with police cars! Still not noticing even as all the cops were getting out of their vehicles, shouting & slamming car doors! Luella & Frank just sat there, in the car, not even looking in the rear view mirror!! This was farcical! And they call themselves P. I.s?? They didn't even park the car facing the drop point!
Even DI Marlowe had ridiculous lines. After finding out it was Frank & Luella who had put the bag in the garbage & it contained money, she admonishes them for not reporting it. Report it?! There's no law they had to report it, it's a dognapping case! It's not their fault someone called to report a suspicious package & the cops brought their bomb robot out. Marlowe saying she should charge them for wasting police time was a ludicrous line! No comedy here. The rest of the show seemed to go downhill from there.
After the trainer found the note from the kidnappers stuck on the bushes they all gathered to see if it really was Tim buried there. With only the vet viewing the dog & Mr. Gonzalo over acting that he couldn't look, told me that the two of them must be in it together. When the funeral guys, Baxter & helper, wrapped the dog to take it away & it showed the paw, I could tell that it probably wasn't Tim b'c the paw looked different. Frank noticed too but said nothing. Also, the way that Baxter said the dog would get the 'very best treatment money could buy' suggested to me he was involved in the dognapping too. When Frank asked if the vet could do a post-mortem, Gonzalo cut right in saying there will be no post-mortem! So many hints thru out the show pointing to who did it but still Frank & Luella had no clue.
When they do start to figure it out they search the rescue center for Tim. Luella finds one of the dogs toys in an empty kennel & when she asks why is it there, the vet gives a reason, which is false & very easy to check but the two PI's just accept her answer, again. Since this is almost at the episodes end, I'll stop critizing it now. I sure hope they gain some brain cells in the next episode or else they'll need to re-classify this as a comedy series & actually write in some comedy.
Law & Order: Vicious Cycle (2022)
So sick of Defence Lawyers
I get so tired of all the smarmy defence lawyers that have appeared on behalf of all the criminals. I know they're all entitled to a defence but when we know they're guilty it's so frustrating to see them quash this & dismiss that. 90% of the time they always succeed in getting crucial evidence thrown out. Sometimes yes, it's due to over zealous cops but lately I've been left with the feeling that the judicial system is totally screwed up.
I really miss ADA Cutter. I havent liked Nolan Price from day one. There's been so many times, where the defence has been eating up witnesses & we don't hear many objections from this so called brilliant Price. There's also been numerous times he could've redirected, to clean up a mess the defence has made of a witness testimony but he just sits there, looking like an out of place "garden gnome". (Sorry, I've read that description of Nolan quite a few times, from different reviewers & it's so true, so I borrowed it.)
Like in this episode, defence attorney Vega was objecting left & right throughout the entire trial, even during Price's opening! She was about the boldest, ballsiest, gung-ho, annoying lawyer I've ever seen but if I was ever accused I'd sure want her defending me! She found a good argument for putting ADA Maroun on her witness list & when she had her on the stand she was relentless. Ok, we heard a couple objections from Price but when defence was finished with Maroun I really expected Price to redirect. He could've easily asked the right questions to undo Vega's smear job. He could've totally cleared up why the previous witness was now able to communicate & he also could've got it explained how Maroun was transferred & that case was given to another attorney. The jury is human, they would've understood that. I actually shouted at the tv when Price didn't redirect. I couldn't believe it. But he's done that before, not redirected when he could've cleared something up.
Price does have one thing in common with Cutter though, he always swears to McCoy that he can win the case. He's exceptionally arrogant when he says he can win them even after all his evidence is dismissed! Too much over confidence if you ask me & he's going to fall on his face one of these times. But remember when McCoy was prosecuting cases? He told Adam & Arthur, both, the same things. And, McCoy & Cutter, were just as stubborn, bull headed, & cocky as Price. Maybe it's a requisite of the job.
Something else I've been wanting to point out for a long time, is when the cops are going over CCTV footage & the frame comes up with the suspect in it, someone, usually the Lt., will say, "Stop!" & the tech stops. How is it always on the exact frame that they want?? Video on computers do not work so precise, along with the tech being able to stop at the exact moment someone else commands. And why do they always have the same line, 'what about CCTV?' We know they're going to look for some & if there are working cameras, footage will be viewed.
I get tired of a lot of things they are still telling us, the viewers with an IQ of 50, at least that's how the writers make us feel. We're not stupid, so I wish the writers would stop with their boring, mundane lines. Episode after episode after episode is like that. Mr. Wolf, after23 years, we know!!
The Commando (2022)
Bad Awful Fake
This looked good but I think that was all in the trailer. This movie sucked so bad. What the hell happened to Mickey Rourke?! Is that really his face? Also looks like he had been eating cheesecakes the entire time he was in prison. Michael Jai White looked old & slow, his wife looked as if she was suffering from some awful disease & as far as I can remember, she wasn't even listed in the cast here. The daughter who found the money was a lying sneaky brat & why the older daughter never told her parents about the money didn't even go with her character. Telling her sister it was 'someone's' money seemed to suggest she knew bad things could occur. I guess they were in the movie just to give the degenerate Scotsman a focus. The entire cast didn't seem like they wanted to be there. It was all dull & flat. Throwing in a corrupt sheriff just made me want to turn it off then. I get so sick of law enforcement being the bad guys. I actually did turn it off before the crew broke in the house. I wouldn't have been able to stand watching once the drugged up Scotsman was inside.
Terrible acting, over used plot, dull filming, senseless screen writing, useless characters & when they write in needless killing for the sake of killing you lose my respect immediately.
Take my advice, give this a wide pass.
Law & Order: Driven (2008)
One of the best
I love it when these episodes get deep & twisty! This one concerning an age old problem, racsim and gentrification. We'll keep having these problems until a great change happens and it helps by having these stories to watch. They get us all thinking, about what happened, what could have happened, what should have happened and what would we ourselves do in the same situation. The lawyers all handled it best they could and it was a good decision to try them both at the same time. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know what could've happened had they tried them separately. Both defendants were wrong. The father should never have shot his gun and the mother should never have armed the boys and drove them to take care of the matter! There's a lot of better ways to teach your children to stand up for themselves against bullies. It is a huge problem all over and I just hope there's not a lot of parents handling bullying like this mother. You can tell there were underlying factors in her decision, her previous actions about people in her neighborhood showed how she was. The father also was already upset about numerous things and his anger blinded him. It would have been so easy for him to yell, run out to his son, most likely scaring the boy closest to them, gaining enough time to get his son safely away from them. But that's the thing, people don't often think before they act. If we could stop and see all the outcomes flash by before acting.....yeah right, fantasy world! The poor innocent girl made this tragedy all the worse. The actors played their roles well and the jury made the best and surprising verdict. There may be hope after all.
As a footnote, I get a kick out of McCoy in his new position. Especially when Cutter pulls stunts like he used to and now McCoy's saying things like Adam and Arthur used to! BTW, does McCoy ever smile???
The Exorcist: Believer (2023)
I never hoped for much
What can I say. I liked the story, the makeup and effects were great and I liked the actors. The 2 girls were really good...but....it was not scary....at all. It would be very difficult to top the original and I feel if you're going to attempt it, you better have a full arsenal at the ready. This had a great story but it fell flat. At almost the end, it was like, oh crap, that's it? That's all there was? How disappointing.
It was a nice touch having Ellen Burstyn reprise her role of Chris MacNeil but they didn't use her very much before she was "out". Oh, and IMDb shouldn't have her & Linda Blair as top stars in the listing. Leslie Odom Jr. Was fantastic as the single dad and I felt for him all the way thru the movie and Jennifer Nettles was really good as Catherine's mother. Most of the movie was a great build up to the exorcism but once it started it didn't take very long. And not having real priests performing the rite you'd think it would take longer. There were all those people in the room but when they were mesmerized by anything they all just stood and stared. No one continued on with the praying or anything. I'm sure that's why you need actual priests.
As for the scary part. There were a couple of good jump scares but for overall tension, fear, and dread, we've seen it all. When the original movie came out everything we saw in it was new to us and for so many, horrifyingly scary. Which is why a lot of us now are always looking for that "really scary" movie, the one thats going to be great. But we never find it b'c we are so desensitized by all the murder, mayhem, chopping, stabbing, dismembering, witches, beasts, soul stealing demons, aliens and monsters that we're accustomed to seeing these dsys. There's nothing new now, it's all been done. Which is why the writers, directors and such really have to step up their games.
Oh well, I'm glad I went to see it, how could I not, being a fan of the original and Linda Blairs cameo was nice to see.
Unknown Visitor (2019)
Stupid waste of time.
This has to be the worst film I've ever seen. I fast forwarded the second half of it bc it was so awful! Continuity? There was none! No brains either. When the woman first appeared on her porch was when she should've called the cops! Not feed her! And how many days did they leave that sandwich there?? Once they did remove it & the bottle if water, they reappeared in the next few frames! The same with the bleach bottle. It was there, then it wasn't & then it was back. Jeff was so concerned with Annie cleaning up the blood but I guess no one cared about leaving the bloody knife on the table! It was so blatantly obvious how everything came from the left side of the screen, that part of the porch which was out of view. The dead woman coming from there was too obvious! And the unseen strangler when Jeff was on the steps! Also, he now has a gun which he throws down on the steps. Why have one if you're not going to keep hold of it! Jeff trying to act drunk was laughable, as was Annie when she was crawling around the porch and trying to be hysterical. Both actors were terrible. Even the therapists phone call had no life in it or emotion. Did they just adlib or was there an actual script? I guess the door to door salesman was the comedy effort. What a joke! This film was advertised as a horror. LOL! I love horror but this was garbage. I gave it a 1 rating bc the strange woman standing motionless at the steps was creepy.
Malum (2023)
Don't Bother
Right away I was put off by the cop yelling at Rookie Loren, for no good reason. I would've told him off, job or no job. Secondly, why did they need to have someone at the now defunct cop shop? And a lone rookie at that! You'd think with so much apparently going on they would need all hands at the new station. Next, every move Loren made was stupid! I know rookies don't know everything but she seemed like she had no common sense! Why would she bring the pig inside?? Its not a dog! Certain other things were just weird. The locker. Why lock it when it's seemingly empty? The files under the locker floor, why were they there? Why keep the shotgun wrapped in a rag? It was too hard to tell if she was having visions, hallucinations or were dead people really alive? The things she saw couldn't be memories bc she never lived it. We weren't told she had psychic abilities so what was going on?? Too much was not explained to us. I was so tired of it that I fast forwarded the last 20 min. Or so. Of course it had a stupid ending as well. Dead people carting off the rookie. Save your time & watch a different movie.