Reviews

The suspense build-up throughout this film is gripping,and Jonathan French's portrayal of the man with no memories is brilliant but aside from that the movie as a whole fells just blands. The premise itself is kind of non-sense, but the writing makes it look dumber than it is. The main character has his IQ in the negative zone, especially French's Isaac who keeps making the dumbest decision throughout the movie.

The movie as a whole doesn't have any shocking factor as it's rather predictable and the ending was something anyone could've seen a mile away. The title is rather apt and fitting because while it is interesting, it is also full of flaws. 6/10, would only recommend if one has no other movie to watch.

Started watching this without much expectation as horror movies as of late have just been disappointing. But surprisingly pleased by this one. It's was definitely a hilling experience. They nailed the atmosphere for this. It's one of the creepiest movie of recent times. The expectation of what'd happen next was also gripping, the nailed the mystery as well. The acting was also really good and the two leads sold the performance of two tortured siblings very well.

The biggest problem with the movie as a whole was the lack of proper exposition. Why was the entity haunting them? What was it? Where it came from? Nothing gets answered and the movie just ends on a cliffhanger of sorts without giving you any proper closure. The story could've been fleshed out definitely. Had the potential to become the best Horror movie of the past few years and these problems left it short of perfection.

Either way, definitely a good horror movie and would recommend to Horror fans without hesitation but as a caveat I'd warn that do not expect top notch narrative.

I'm absolutely disgusted at the way the writing is being handled this season. Everything's condensed so it feels rushed, non-sensical and out of character. Don't get me wrong, "When a Targeryen is born, God flips a coin" and this "Mad Queen Dany" narrative is something I did believe could happen at one point or the other but the way it was handled was absolutely horrifying and ridiculously unfair to her character.

Dany in S5-S7 showed some vast improvement and development in her character to make compromises for the better good. She made compromises with the masters back in Essos to keep the peace there, she listened to Tyrion for a more "diplomatic" way to handle the matters there. In S7, she even showed significant maturity by the fact that she was willing to look past the hatred she had for the Lannisters and the Starks (yet not forget it) just so she could risk her army numbers to preserve the life of the innocents in Westeros. After all that it MAKES NO SENSE that she'd go on a rampage and kill thousands of innocents in the final moments of the penultimate episode of the series right after she had more or less won the war and the Iron Throne. This episode completely ignores every bit of character development she had in the past seasons.

"She lost her dragon, her most trusted confidante, her advisors were scheming behind her backs, so she went mad" - This reasoning is also half baked and makes very little sense considering she was sold and then BETRAYED by the brother she worshipped, lost her unborn child, her husband back in the first season. Did she go mad then? No. She didn't even show a figment of this supposed Madness back then.

Forget Dany. What the hell was the point of inclusion of Euron's character when she did nothing on the show? From the moment he came on the show, his character did nothing. I mean NOTHING. The Iron Fleet in this episode was destroyed a matter of seconds. Chalking up to the fact that his character was redundant and just there to hog screen time. To end it, he wasn't even an entertaining character to watch!

Let me summaries some horrid writing moments in this episode: 1. How the heck did Rhaegal die? When Drogon was able to destroy the Golden Company and the whole of Iron Fleet in a manner of seconds??? It MAKES NO SENSE.Not to mention he topped it off by burning the whole of King's Landing SOLO! 2. If they really wanted a "Mad Queen Dany" why the heck did she not burn everything back when she arrived in Westeros? She had THREE DRAGONS back then. She would've easily won the war then by how they showed the strength of Drogon in this episode. 3. What was the point of whole Jaime's character development when they eventually made him snivel back to his sister?? What was the point of whole Jaime-Brienne relationship?

S8 has so far been mediocre, but the horrendous writing in Episode 5 easily surpasses everything bad the S8 has seen so far. For now it's all about glorying Arya and Jon Snow. No other character matters, only those two.

On the upside, if one's able to overlook the atrocious writing the episode was the most visually stunning episode of the show so far. The special effects was incredible, the cinematography and the acting everything was top tier.

This might just be the weakest episode since the video game kidnapping a few season earlier and overall one of the worst. I usually love SVU episodes and their take on tort but the agenda pushing goes too far in this one.

It's incredulous how much propaganda this episode aims to spread. It basically involves a mother having sex with a man claiming to be Director of Admission in a big shot university only for the man to turn out to be a con artist. What bothered me the most throughout this episode was how SVU detectives (Benson really though) decides that not being truthful about yourself before havin sex is "rape". Like the judge said in the show, Barba and Benson don't want to be law holders, they wanna law makers. And due to Benson's incredible short sightedness (anyone with common sense would've known that the case was a no-go and they would not get any conviction on it from the get go) led a family to ruins when a tragedy occurs at the end of the episode. Every time Benson does something stupid, it makes me wish she'd learn through her mistakes (for e.g the episode where a group of kids falsely accuses their vocal teacher of raping them which turns out to be false). but rarely does she show redeeming factors.

Nonetheless, other characters does show some sense of objectiveness as Rollins questions to Carisi if it really was a rape. So I'd guess they were trying to aim for provocation and achieved it. 2/10 If you want an enjoyable TV I'd recommend you to skip this one even if you love SVU because it's just not enjoyable, it's SVU at its worst.

A befitting premiere for the new season. The focus on the central characters was a warm welcome. Even though the episode lacked major events, it moved the story and that kept it an interesting watch.

The tension between Jon & Sansa was evident since the last season and it's more highlighted in the episode as Lord Baelish is still on his objective to turn them against each other. It'd be good to see how Sansa, who has become one of the most developed character in the series going from a spoilt noble lass to a smart full grown woman, develops throughout the course of the series. Jon seems to be going the way of the Stark on the other end a la Ned/Rob Stark.

Cersei might be on the verge of madness but it's captivating to watch. She has lost everything and is now fighting just for the sake of fighting. It's especially evident during her interaction with Jaime in this episode. Her spiral into madness is nigh.

Besides the politics, the lore is also expanded upon a little as the Brotherhood Without Banners discuss the existence and purpose of the Lord of Light. The eponymous Castle doesn't appear until the end but it's a befitting way to the end the episode.

9/10

Arrival might be the best work by Denis Villenueve (Sicario, Incendies, Prisoners) and the smartest piece of sci-fi since Alfonso Cuaron's 2013 film Gravity. Based on a short story "Story of My Life" by Ted Chiang, the film's an introspective piece of work which'll not only get the viewers talking about it but will also get their emotions reeling. It's so unlike any sci-fi movie ever done before as it sheds the weight of war and thrill and focuses purely on inability to communicate properly with the extraterrestrial and one's perception.

Unlike some of the previous works by Villenueve, Arrival reflects on the better side of humanity by interplaying the relationships between the two species. Yet it's still full of mystery and marvel as the intentions are truly left unclear until the end. The flashes of scenes is brilliantly edited in the present context of the movie, and makes the screenplay very emotive and reflective. It compounds views on what one's actions can lead to. The smartest decision by Villenueve might be the trade off between heavy reliance on special effects and focus on emotions and perception. This not only propels the message behind the screenplay, but the subtle effects also complements the ambiance.

The cinematography is simply beautiful. And if the movie does not get an Academy award nomination (or a win) for it, I shall forever resent them. It's beautifully done and features references to classics like 2001: The Space Odyssey and the Day the Earth Stood Still. The score only aims to complement the movie more. The art direction is greatly done as well, as the empty vast space inside the supposed shuttle only goes on to elevate the mystery of the movie even more.

But the true hero of the movie's not the brilliant screenplay nor the cinematography but it's Amy Adams. The movie quintessentially work on the basis of her performance. Adams sheds her usual demeanor for a very subdued performance here and it simply works wonder. Playing a linguist tasked with deciphering the ambiguous language from scratch while fighting her own fears. She's phenomenal here, her body language, her countenance, it only makes the movie more compelling than it already is. I would go so far as to exclaim it the best performance she has given since Doubt.

The movie's not without its flaws though, running at a length of about 120 minutes the screenplay can get lax by the end. Whitaker, who's a wonderful actor is entirely wasted here as his character falls behind the scene for a big length of the time. Renner fails to contribute anything to the movie as well and could've been easily swapped out by anyone and it wouldn't matter.

Anyway, the movie's an intellectual piece of work, which will not only work your emotions but also get you thinking, carried by a brilliant performance by Adams and marvelous technical work, Arrival's a must watch for not just sci-fi fans but any moviegoer. 9/10

Based on the eponymous novel by John Patrick Shanley, "Doubt" is a powerful piece of work which takes full advantage of its ensembles' abilities. The movie deals with themes like doubt, conformity, and morality, and it does it ever so strongly. Packed with emotions, the movie is entirely character driven. Set in the 1960s, the film centres around Sister Aloysius (played by Streep), a strong, bold, intimidating principal of a local parish in the Bronx and Father Flynn (played by Hoffman) a jolly and amicable priest of the same parish.

When Sister Aloysius doubts the priest might have had made inappropriate advances on a black kid, she starts taking a strong stance against him and goes to large extent to make him resign from the parish. "In the pursuit of wrongdoing, one steps away from God" she says to one of the other nun Sister James (played by Adams) while trying to prove the Father's wrongdoing, whilst he defends himself without hesitation. The film progresses through dialogues rather than events, due to this there is doubt that the film is not everyone's cup of tea. While the screenplay is not perfect by itself, it does its thematic topics a lot of justice and is executed with such brilliance, you can't help but be riveted through the entirety of the film. The final scene with Adams and Streep does much for the film as it aptly wraps up the movie with ambiguity and "doubt".

But what sets apart this movie from the bunch is its actors. Streep plays the stoic nun very well, yet she delivers a touch of vulnerability which elevates the role to magnificence. But she's not without competition here, as Hoffman portrays the jovial priest with equal brilliance. There is a tête-à-tête between the two characters in the second half of the movie, the scene while simple is very gripping and ruthless due to the acting capabilities of the two leads I could not help but compare it as a showdown between the two acting giants. The movie also makes a smart use of Adams' doe eyed exterior as she plays the naive nun as if the role was made for her. Davis also appears as the mother of the troubled black kid, and while her role is short it leaves a strong imprint.

As a caveat, the movie's not technically perfect and there is some narrative redundancy it'll still be one of the best acted movie of 2008. 9/10

This was an interesting episode. A rich upper west side girl is in a relationship with a poor boy, who is in a gang. And his gangmates gang rape her while forcing him to watch the assault. The episode touches topics like orgasm during rape, and the naivety of young people in love, it's almost whimsical.

Avery Capshaw (played by Fiona Robert) is ganged raped in front of her boyfriend and experiences multiple orgasms during the period. She feels guilty about the orgasms as she never experienced it with her boyfriend. The boyfriend, Manny Montero (played by Juan Castano) is angry at her for climaxing during the brutal act and refuses to testify against the rapists even though they held a gun to his head and forced him to watch the act. The whole episode is a back and forth of trying to get both the witnesses to testify against the perps, who are too smug for their own good. The final swing which fortified the case gave me great satisfaction.

While the case itself is interesting, the Detectives' personal lives are untouched here except for implicit overtones in Rollins' interactions with the victim. Olivia got some news about Amaro in the last episode near the end and the news is lost in script here with no mention of it. Benson takes her Sergeant plea at the start of the episode, which is a nice touch. Sadly, this season the main cast is down to only 5 characters, although that could be a positive thing as well since a smaller cast means a greater scope of development for each of them.

Anyway, interesting case, nice nuance in character interactions, it's an entertaining episode. Is it "wow"? No, yet it's still good enough. 8/10

If you think the last episode was great, this one is even better.

The SVU comes across an underage girl (played by Steffanie Scott), who's apparently raped in a strip club by a VIP. The owner of the club, Perry (played by Palminteri) refuses to give up the patron. Barba suspects court officials to be involved in the cover-up when the victim is arraigned in New Jersey for fraud and grand larceny as the judge denies bail. The victims gets transferred to a juvenile facility with history of unorthodox treatment of juveniles, and Rollins digs up info that directly links facility to Jersey ADA. To say this case was a tough one is putting it lightly. SVU then recruits the help of feds, in this case in the form of Connie Rubirosa (played by Alana De La Garza) who is now working with the feds as their prosecutor (she was one of the ADAs previously on Law & Order). As it seems the friendly feds have been looking at the owner for some time as well. When the judge ends up dead, the case begins to unfold.

There's some palpable tension in the squad room at the same time. Amaro's still living with Benson & Cassidy and is not very happy with his desk job and wants to get out more. Olivia's finding out that being the head of a squad isn't as easy Cragen made it look. Rollins having a hard time as she gone back to her old "habit" which causes her to lose punctuality much to the chagrin of Barbra, Amaro and Olivia. Amaro suspects this, and talks to Fin about it who tells him to focus on himself. To put it simply, the detectives all have been affected by the events of the past few episodes and it has put a lot of strain in their working relationship. By the end of the episode, Benson gets some unexpected news about Amaro. It is nice to see Rubirosa back, this time on SVU. Although I did intensely bemoan that Cutter wasn't the prosecutor in this case as I'd have preferred to see the tension between those two.

This is one episode that SVU fans should not miss. There's drama, there's lots of tension, there's "law" and there's "order". 9/10

Continuation of Her Surrender, and unfortunately not the last episode of the arc either. This is another extreme farce which shows flaws in the writing.

Where to start? Lewis decides his defence attorney is not competent enough to defend him, so he preaches the sixth. What follows next is just propagative preposterousness as he openly harasses Benson during trial. Let's start with the judge, what an incompetent daft nincompoop he was. No judge in right mind would allow such cross examining of victim cum defendant in such manner. Any sane judge would hold him in contempt for such actions.

Secondly, this episode makes courtroom look like a hall for pasquinade. Like aforementioned the judge fails to act like a judge. Even Barbra fails as a prosecutor here as he fails to cross examine the witnesses properly. Lewis argues about his injuries at the hand of Benson, making argument that he was already subdued and she used excessive force. Barbra could've argued that Benson is not a doctor but a detective and she could not make distinction between injuries.

Lastly, whatever happened to the first degree rape and first degree murder charges against Lewis for the atrocities he hailed on the parents of his last attorney. The trial is only about first degree murder of the officer, attempted rape, kidnapping and assault of Benson. Like what happened to those two crimes? The attorney's mother was a strong witness for what happened to herself and her husband, Olivia was another witness, not to mention they had all the evidences needed to indict him. These two charges, alongwith the kidnapping and assault of a police officer charges could've kept him behind bars for life, but no. The writers heeded those two crimes as irrelevant. Another huge flaw in this episode.

The only positive thing I can say about this episode was that Schreiber as Lewis is one psychopath/murderer/serial rapist from this series whom I will not forget. I attribute that to his extreme luck in having unavailable witnesses, and the distinction of his crimes. Mariska was also very strong in this episode. Whilst everyone complains about the show turning into the "Olivia Benson show", I warmly enjoy episodes which focuses on the squad members, alas the lack of focus on Fin is rather frustrating but I digress. The continuation of tension between Amaro and Rollins is also a nice touch.

5/10

As the series progresses, one has to question if someone is developing into a good "television detective" or not. Rollins seems to bring out that thought in my mind more frequently than not.

This is another Rollins focused episode, so of course it has to be another bad decision fiasco. It brings up her gambling problem introduced two seasons earlier. Now she's in GA, and through common "acquaintance" she meets the alleged victim of the episode who tells her she has been raped. The case becomes more convoluted as the episode progresses, hence I won't go into details about it. She's also seen sleeping with her sponsor.

As showcased in the episode "Deadly Ambition" of the fourteenth season, Rollins has the tendency to let her feelings get in the way of her perspective, this episode is not any better. She not only loses her sight as a detective but her muddled perspective also puts some strain in her relationship with the other detectives mostly Pino's Amaro. From the inception of their characters, I've been seeing similar patterns. While Amaro's very empathetic, he clearly has a better instinct as a cop as his "gut" feeling has helped in solving major cases previously, whereas Rollins' the exact opposite. She has shown to be a good detective, but she also lets her bias gets in the way of her work (Deadly Ambition, Double Strands). By the end of the episode, her own short sightedness results in some unfortunate effect on her (which is gonna seed some bad consequences for her in the future).

The episode also introduces Thomas Sadoski as Nate Davis, Rollins' bed mate and GA sponsor, who is also in AA. Ironically (or maybe intentionally), he also owns a bar. Interesting character, although I'd have liked to see more of him in future episodes, but I know he won't make any major appearances besides one more episode (I'm up to date with he current season, and am just viewing older seasons due to syndication).

The investigation is rather short as the episode is more "Order" focused. Barbra is still as ruthless as ever, but alas I miss both Cabot and Novak, whatever happened to them. The final testimony which cuts reasonable doubts is rather messily done in this episode and seemed perspective-dependent (in other words circumstantial). Nia Vardalos also makes a return as Minnona Efron, who brings up rather eccentric arguments. Anyway, an interesting episode with significant development made for Giddish's Rollins, which is gonna pave the way her character will walk in future episodes. 8/10

This was definitely the most maddening episode of the season. The episode centred a case regarding child abuse by a gay singing coach. Any one with perception and sense can see that man is clearly being framed from the beginning, but somehow the SVU detectives (with the exception of Rollins) set their mind that he committed the felonies even when there were no concrete evidence to show that he did it.

The episode goes beyond border to prove that Benson can be a prejudicial narrow minded goat (I'm sorry that I don't feel sorry to say this) and to make the children and teens look "innocent" even when they are Satan's spawn (ironically, the episode left me with the opposite feeling than intended by the episode). As shown by the fact that Benson decides to make the case public regardless of the consequences just because she "thinks" the man molested those children. It might've been because of the development she had this season, but it does not excuse her actions in any way. Besides that the ending was preposterous as there are no repercussions against the culprits for making false claims. Barbra says they "won't testify" against each other hence they can't be charged, which is ridiculous since they filed a false report (and confessed to such) which is a misdemeanor (and they had the criminal intent or mens rea for such) with upto 6 months or more jail time (not to mention fines). Besides that, they were liable to civil suit for ruining the defendant's reputation as well.

Years of watching SVU should've made me immune to such trivial burst of anger, but I guess it didn't as by the end of this I was livid. You'd think Benson would not jump to quick conclusion after 15 years with the SVU (especially after the Omar Pena fiasco some seasons earlier), but she exactly does that. Not a good sign of character development. 4/10

The episode opens up with the SVU squad enjoying a nice off-day. Then Rollin's fine day is ruined when she catches a guy compliant of at least a misdemeanor, although she has a much more troubling "gut" feeling about him. Then the case starts blowing up slowly.

The perp in this guy is not only shrewd but also has an extreme case of good luck. As it's revealed that he has been charged with multiple counts of sexual assault and murder previously, but each time his indictment has been unsuccessful because either the victims were too "traumatised" to testify or the witnesses were too "unreliable". And even in this case, the DNA evidences were appropriately "mishandled" by the lab techs. The man probably could've won millions playing lotteries, but I digress. Not to mention he had left no paper trail prior to now as his name was spelt incorrectly during each of those cases, and he has burnt his fingerprints off as a forensic countermeasure.

Alas the severity of this case digs deeper as it's made clear he has some agenda regarding Benson as well, as the episode ends on a sinister note. So it's not far from the truth to say that this guy is a frustrating perpetrator to watch as they try to nail him for all the charges, albeit still an entertaining episode. The arc further continues to three more episodes in the next season (fifteenth). With those episodes intensifying interms of induction of frustration among the viewers. 8/10

After the great episode that was the last one - "Born Pscyhopath", I'd expected this episode to be good as well. And it was. It indeed did follow the usual crime drama formula, but what SVU does better than other procedures is that it goes deeper and somehow convolutes the plot albeit in a good way. It doesn't overbear the watchers, which makes the convoluted plot persuasive enough.

This episode showcased a rape culture in a campus (nothing new there) with multiple victims, a fraternity named "The Rape Factory" and corrupted college administrators. Although the detectives had only circumstantial and inadmissible "he said, she said". Barba nailed the questioning in front of the grand jurors. Some of the lines were quite mortifying - in one line, the school dean fended off the rape claims as "liberalism". It shocked me nonetheless. Throughout the episode it was pretty clear that more flagitious than the rape itself was the cover up afterwards by the rapists, the student body itself, and most of all the school security and the administrations. At the end of the episode, I managed to fist bump the air at the end result. Another thing which made the episode better was Rollins' rape. It was a very subtle touch that her own rape made her headstrong and motivated for this case. You could hear the vice in her voice especially at the end & she was rather smug in a satisfying way.

Good one. 8/10

Law & Order SVU is one of those crime dramas which leaves me bewildered at the end of most episodes. This was one of those. I found many flaws in this episode personally - "Legitimate Rape" is not an admissible argument for a rapist to be overruled on rape charges. It brings in a biased view into the trial, not to mention science doesn't back-up the argument. The one juror who disagreed with the verdict should've been held in contempt for the prejudice. That was the first flaw. Also there was an argument they could've gone for which could likely have created reasonable doubt in his innocence. During his questioning of the victim he said she came to him because she wanted a baby "with him", that is a speculative argument as the victim had an affair for a long time with another man and could've been countered with a line of questioning aimed at him by calling him on the stand and asking him why she came to "him" for that? When like earlier said in the episode she could've had sex with any guy, and when in fact she was already having sex with a higher ranking guy while he was just a "cameraman". I have no idea who wrote this episode, but they messed it up.

Second one was - the visitation rights should not have been given as the argument that he was acquitted of the rape charges should have more bearings "against him" on the verdict in a family court. His stalking actions should've mattered more as well. Third problem was Olivia could have prevented the flight by the victim by creating a connection with the latter because of her own background. She did not, hence the episode in the end painted the victim as a felon as well who whereupon could be charged with criminal contempt.

The 4/10 rating is because of the fact that Olivia's history was not showcased prominently, and was only hinted at the end. That was one thing the writers did right. Often the show comes off as The Olivia Benson Show, but this episode was definitely not one of those. Also Calhoun's defence had some bearing on it. Usually her defence arguments in other episodes are flimsy, in this one it was nailed right on. That had some bearing on the ratings as well.

This was one of those episodes which had me punching the wall due to the anger the characters (Amanda in this case) generated in me. Amanda's sister Kim was introduced some episodes ago and she reeked of trouble. And she proved that in this episodes when she entrapped her sister in an IA investigation which led to her eventual arrest. But do I blame her for the arrest? No. Because Rollin dug her own grave due to her reluctance to have her sister learn a hard lesson, her lack of reliance on her squad mates and very bad decision making. I certifiably screamed when she went to the IAB without a lawyer and then met her sister ignoring her lawyer's warning. At the end I would've been glad if Rollin had rotted in jail for life for her own short sightedness.

Besides the frustration. It was written well. Kim was written well as a manipulative wench, and she'll be back in future seasons. After the mess of an episode the last one was, this one actually generated interest, and was compelling. Lt. Tucker (played by Burke) after 10 episodes throughout the series, and to say the least he is still unpopular as he was back then with the SVU detectives. Anyway, good episode, but will make you mad if you are repulsed by stupidity because there's a whole lot of that in this one.