Reviews

F'n FANTASTIC. The only thing that I hate about this show is that they only have 6 episodes. They come in two half hour shows so you only get 3 weeks of the show. How could they do this to me? The main character is a loving father to an 8 y/o daughter who is divorced from his wife. His job is collecting money for loan sharks and the occasional murder. He is the most unlikely of characters to play this role which I think makes it all the better. I hope I don't have to wait for another year to see more of this show.

...the point of the movie was to show you how these guys were just ordinary Americans living their life. There is nothing in their early lives that separated them from everyone else. I was hoping for something more and I nearly walked out of the movie theater at one point. . I think that there should have been more about the actual terrorist in the movie as to where he came from, what turned him and how he was able to get the AK-47 as well as 300 rounds of ammunition if that was known. There are some scenes where there are cut backs to the building up of the eventual confrontation on the train but there should have been more of it to add to the suspense. The final 15 minutes though are worth the price of admission. If the ending is correct the only thing that saved the people on that train was that the gun misfired. Had it not none of those people on that train would have been alive. Hats off to Clint Eastwood for using the real life heroes in this movie. That takes some cajones.

I was surprised to see that this drama had Jason Bateman as a lead because I always had seen him in comedies in which he excelled, i.e., Arrested Development, which , IMHO should never have been taken off the air. That being said I watched the first episode just to see if it could grab my interest. The next thing I knew I had binge watched the whole season. Explosive almost out of the gate and, like a good book that I could not put down, this series was something I could not stop watching. Now I regret that I did because I have to wait till next year to see what happens next. I turned several friends on to this series and all of them loved it and cannot wait for next season as well. Jason if you read this get ready to get your Golden Globe and Emmy.

GREAT DRAMA. The story is about male/female FBI Agents who are investigating a rash of serial killings in some rural communities. They go to a local police station where survivors of a recent killing are there waiting to be interviewed by the Agents. The Chief of the Police Department and two other police officers as well as a dispatcher are there to greet them. As the interviews go on we see through a series flash backs what actually happened at this one scene of an attack where most of the members of a family are brutally murdered along with a police officer and another male. One police officer, a young girl (the surviving member of the family) and a woman are the only witnesses left alive. By the end of the movie all of them, with the exception of the little girl, are killed along with the three other police officers and the dispatcher aforementioned. It is a WHODUNIT that fooled my wife and myself in the end. The plot twist at the end threw both of us for a loop. I highly recommend this movie.

Spoiler ALERT!!!!! I have to disagree with the naysayers who have rated this movie poorly based on why the killers bothered to interview and eventually kill the witnesses to the killings...IT'S BECAUSE THEY COULD!!! They knew that no one else was coming because they had killed the real FBI agents and they wanted to have, in their minds, a little fun, and they did just that. That was the whole premise and the naysayers failed to get it. You have to look at it through the serial killers eyes, they had all the power and they knew it and they were going to enjoy their time with that power.

This is a great series about a Middle Eastern country much like most of them are, the handing down of power from father to son. An American Doctor who fled his homeland and has been living in the USA for 20 years decides to go back to his for his nephew's wedding. As much as I want to see a Season 2 of this series I don't think it's going to happen. The previews of this show that were displayed on "FARGO" hooked me right away. The only other show (besides FARGO) that enticed me so much was "RUBICON". That was a great show that possibly was too realistic for some people. Likewise, I think this series is too realistic for some people (the politically correct crowd) and this series will end up in the dust bin much like "RUBICON".

"Generation War" is a 3 part dramatization of 5 young Germans friends and their experiences in World War II from 1941-1945 in German with English subtitles. Of the 5 there are three men and two women. Two of the men are German soldiers as well as brothers (one a lieutenant and the other a private) and the other male is a Jew whose family has a tailor shop. Of the two women one is on her way to being a nurse on the Russian Front while the other woman becomes a semi-famous singer. The acting was first rate and the scenery and battle sequences were fairly realistic (never being in a war I can only guess). The trials and tribulations that each one of them has to endure is the plot behind the series. I was fairly pleased that for once not all Germans were portrayed as fanatical Nazis. They are patriotic and feel, at the beginning, that the war in the Soviet Union is a just one. Slowly that patriotic fervor starts to fade away as the German advance is halted at the gates of Moscow, then the capitulation of Stalingrad as well as the failed attempt at Kursk. That is it in a nutshell and I do not want to give away too much of the story. I did find one thing very interesting; whenever the "Fuhrer" is named there is an "F" a blank space then, "hrer" the "u" is never there. All in all it is a great mini-series and well worth watching. I was somewhat taken aback by some of the reviews I had read online particularly from people in Poland who complained that there was not enough about the concentration camps, etc., etc. Some people will never be happy with the fact that World War II and all its atrocities took place and that failure to mention that 6 million Jews perished is reason enough to pan it. There are depictions of atrocities being carried out by German soldiers as well as one of the main characters (the Jewish tailor) being sent to one of the camps and his experience on the train there as well as innocent civilians being executed by German/Nazi soldiers. War is war. It is mankind at its worst. However, criticizing the series just because the major part of it did not depict all of the 6 million Jews getting gassed is not a good reason to not to see the series. Uri Avnery's (an Israelireview of "Their Mothers, Their Fathers" appeared 1 March 2014 in avnery-news.co.il. Avnery himself fled from Germany to Palestine in 1933. Concerning the film's not showing Nazi death camps, Avnery writes "The Holocaust is not the center of events, but it is there all the time, not as a separate event but woven into the fabric of reality." He describes the progression of two of the protagonists: "Death is all around them, they see horrible war crimes, they are commanded to shoot prisoners, they see Jewish children butchered. In the beginning they still dare to protest feebly, then they keep their doubts to themselves, then they take part in the crimes as a matter of course." He propounds a theory of the individual in totalitarian circumstances: "It is this element of the situation that is difficult for many people to grasp. A citizen under a criminal totalitarian regime becomes a child. Propaganda becomes for him reality, the only reality he knows. It is more effective than even the terror." He sees the Jews of Israel and the Germans as two still traumatized peoples. "That's why the film is so important, not only for the Germans, but for every people, including our own."

I watched the show last night and I was begging for more. The killing and murders at times seem over the top. However, that being said, I loved it. It is much like the movie "Fargo" and then again it is not. People are getting killed from the get-go. I know it is only the first episode but based on that I would rank it up there with "Breaking Bad" as one of my favorite shows. I hope the Drama and tension keep building. Billy Bob Thornton is a sociopath and Martin Freeman (from the Hobbitt) is fantastic as the hapless character whom much of the first episode orbits around. Great TV. A big thank you to FX. I cannot wait for the next episode.

I came across this show while looking through the available programs on HULU. The show is hysterical. My only complaint is that as a 1/2 hour show you do not get the in depth character development and interaction that is needed. The show is about the Moody family getting together every Christmas. The cast barely skim over what has happened over the last year since last X-mas. There is/isn't a relationship that develops between one of the Moody sons and his cousin's girlfriend. There interaction is sparse at best and is basically the whole premise of the show. I love the show, I hope they keep it going but it needs that extra 1/2 hour to allow the characters to develop.

I was really looking forward to seeing this movie. I have to agree with one of the other members, "...as bad as a movie can be...", exactly. The acting was sub-par and the dialogue, which very little existed, was mostly monotone and single word phrases. I am not going to get into the political aspects of the movie or who was right and who was wrong in the Bosinian Conflict. Absent politics and absent whose fault it was this movie was a complete WASTE. Jolie should stick to acting in the crappy movies she stars in and forget about directing. I only watched the movie in its entirety because I was hoping it would get better and not only did it not get better it got worse. Maybe I did not pick up on the obvious but was the bar scene, at the beginning of the movie, the first time two main characters first meet? And if so are we to take from that that he will risk his live to save her when the conflict is in full gear? Not believable. When she says her final words to him "...I'm sorry..." does that mean she was in on the bombing? And for all the rave reviews out there please, Get out more.

I first read the book, "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" a couple of years ago. I watched the movie,the original Swedish Version with English subtitles, shortly thereafter. I was mesmerized by Rapace's character portrayal of Lizbeth Salander. Once I read that there was going to be an American version I was rather circumspect once I found out that Rooney Mara was going to play the part. Now after watching the USA version of the movie last night I have to say that not only did Miss Mara live up to the role but she exceeded my expectations. Both versions were fantastic but I liked the USA version better. I can only hope that Ms. Mara will play the part again in the sequel. There were some parts of the movie that dragged a little bit in the beginning but all in all I loved it.