Reviews

Well, I came into this with low expectations, waiting for it to be another generic, Roman Empire exploitation series, like the majority that I've seen (Rome excluded-that was a masterpiece).

Suffice to say I was wrong! I binged watched the whole 3 seasons, and I honestly would love more of this. A mix of Roman Empire, Celts, druids, philosophical and theological sub themes which are not dull at the least, battles, magic, cults and many other goodies, shot in some gorgeous locations, with very descent sets & costumes and high level acting by all involved . Really all the cast is magnificent, I couldn't pick a favorite. All this is presented with humor, gore, multiple twists and turns and in a very refreshing style, the likes of which is rare nowadays. Most of all, it is a series which isn't afraid to go over the top in some instances, but this did not bother me, if anything it made me like it more.

It goes without saying that it is not a 100% historically accurate series- and it doesn't claim to be. Instead, it is great fun, very engaging and clever, and over the top- ideal for binge watching!

I have just finished my One Piece Marathon, and I just had to write a review! I am a One Piece (the Anime) fan, albeit not a hardcore one, just someone who has watched various episodes from various seasons, but I don't follow it fanatically.

This Netflix series is fantastic! It is very entertaining, true to the spirit of the anime (and I suppose to the manga), with various little details which are instantly recognizable by someone who has watched the anime. The locations are great, and the CGI not overwhelming, at all.

What stands out for me are the characters and their actors.... They are all exceptional! Iñaki Godoy is AMAZING as Luffy, so loveable and energetic, and he captures the kind hearted, innocent but not naive persona of Luffy. His energy was contagious, and I caught myself having a huge smile on my face, without realizing it , every time he was happy on the screen. It was such a pleasure watching him, and I could not think of anyone better than him in the role.

The rest of the cast is stellar too, both in their physical similarity to their characters and in their acting. They all manage to convey their characters' traits without seemingly trying!

All in all, a series which can be watched by both fans and no fans, and it will deliver! I was sad when it ended, and I cannot wait for the next season! I hope Netflix continues this series in the same spirit, with the same enthusiasm and respect to the manga and anime!

I started watching with low expectations, especially after reading a couple of reviews in here. I gave it a shot, and sure enough from the second episode in, I was hooked.

Granted, it is not the second coming, but it is a smart, well acted mystery story, with many twists and turns. I have to admit, the final revelation, caught me off guard, because I was expecting many things, but not this.

By the way, for the people who rant because this is tagged as comedy, and they didn't laugh while watching, please keep in mind that this is not a slapstick comedy. This is a dark comedy-mystery, with a lot of social undertones.

I binged watched the whole thing on a lazy Saturday, and I, personally, am thrilled that there will be a new season. Underrated little gem- give it a try!

I had been looking forward to this series since it was announced, and I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. Suffice to say I binged watched it in 2 days.

The story caters, of course , to the modern audience, but it is not smothered by political correctness as most current shows are (which is a blessing). It is interesting, dark, and a blend of old and new, all wrapped in a fun Burton-esque way.

The lead actress is fantastic, she really captures the personality of Wednesday, she even nails the dead, cold but intense stare. But kudos should be given to the rest of the cast, because they do a great job as well,I loved Gwendoline Christie as the Head Mistress, she really plays ambiguous characters very well. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzman are perfect in their roles, and the actress who portrays Enid (Emma Myers) nails the character.

Of course there are mistakes and inconsistencies (a rainy day suddenly becoming extra sunny, with no evidence of the previous rain at all, etc), but all in all, those mistakes don't negatively affect the quality of the series.

I really don't understand the viewers who compare it to the movies, and expect it to be the same. It can't be. It's been 30 years since the Addams Family movies, the world has changed, we are supposed to be moving forward and keeping up with the times. Please stop comparing old and new, "Wednesday" isn't a remake, it's a brand new series based on one of the characters, not the Addams Family as a whole. This series, pays a great homage to the original Addams Family, but it is firmly set in the present- as it should be.

Old and new can be equally worth your time, each one for its own merits.

8/10 from me, with the potential to go higher for the next season(s).

I had mixed feelings going into this anime, because of the bitter taste Cyberpunk 2077 had left me with. I liked the game, I was fortunate enough to be able to play the game, but I couldn't help but feel cheated , because the game I played, was not the one I had been promised for 8 years, and definitely not the one I thought I would play.

So I got into this anime with low expectations. I am glad I've been proven wrong.

This anime is almost everything the game should have been, but wasn't.

Striking animation and visuals : check. Compelling story and interesting characters: check. Riveting on-theme music: check. Fast paced and entertaining: check. True to the Cyberpunk sub-genre: check.

It takes place in Nightcity, as envisioned by Mike Pondsmith and CDPR , only without the bugs and crashes hehe. People who have played the game, will undoubtedly recognize many of Nightcity's neighborhoods, streets, bars etc, which is a plus, because regardless of the status of the game, Nightcity was very striking, and in the anime, it is even better.

It is a very well made, entertaining anime, and the best part is that you don't have to be a Cyberpunk fan to enjoy it, I believe it can be enjoyed by everyone, because it is so well made. A solid 8/10 from me.

It was a descent, direct continuation of the 1st season, but it could have been better. Besides the well executed action sequences, the core story is just not that good. Before watching it, based on the ratings and reviews, I was foolishly expecting the Anime equivalent to "Train to Busan" in terms of story/suspense, just with demons instead of zombies, but I was sorely disappointed. The animation was top notch, as expected, as was the voice acting, but the story was nothing we haven't seen done better in a million other anime. Also, it relied a little too much on sentimentality for my tastes. The series did it as well, but it was well spaced in 26 episodes, while here it is condensed in 2 hours and it gets a bit much. It's well worth two hours of your time, especially if you are a fan of the series like me, but you shouldn't go expecting a masterpiece. I think that the pandemic helped this movie becoming so popular, in a normal season it definitely wouldn't have surpassed "Spirited Away" in ticket sales. Now, that WAS a real masterpiece.

This is one of the (rare) occasions in which I don't agree with IMDb ratings. This movie should have been rated much-much higher. This is why I decided to write a review about it- not a common thing for me. It's one of these movies that you either love or hate, but I think that everyone who has seen it, must agree that aesthetically it reaches perfection. Ultra high tech, sleek, perfectly shot, kind of futuristic environments, with each scene being so beautifully framed, it's almost surreal. At certain points I just wished I could jump right into the screen and into the movie, because what I saw, was where I would like to spend the rest of my life! The story is not confusing, if you pay attention to it, which I admit, is a hard thing to do, when your attention is always drawn to the gorgeous imagery. I think most people who didn't like the film, blame the lack of significant action, but I do not consider this to be an action film per se..It is a cerebral film, a riddle within a riddle, a dive into the subconscious. Soo-hyun Kim delivers an amazing performance, I cannot praise him enough. The rest of the cast do their roles justice as well, Sung-min Lee in particular, is especially sinister. All in all, the Koreans never seize to amaze me, they have raised the bar of film making so high, I doubt that any other country will surpass them in the near future. I've been watching Korean movies for years, and these guys shine brightly, while the others fade into oblivion... Hollywood? Please...Hollywood has been dead and buried for years now. All Hollywood does these days, is recycle the same scenarios, wrapped with the current (politically correct) trends each time, or make action hero movies for adolescents. They have stopped creating Art sometime in the '80s... If you are looking for a mystery film wrapped in futuristic led light, with amazing performances, then this is the film for you. If, on the other hand, what you seek is non stop action, then you might want to challenge yourself with this movie- it's worth the watch. Just keep an open mind (and eyes) and experience it...

In all the film remakes I have watched, I've tried to keep an open mind, and think of the remake as a completely irrelevant movie from the original. This tactic certainly paid off in Suspiria (2018). I belong among the very few-judging from the reviews here- that thoroughly enjoyed it. It helped that I am not the greatest fan of the original- I found it loud, chaotic and overwhelming-and not in a good way. Certainly I recognize its genius, but it is not a movie I can look forward to watching often. So, is the remake better? No. Is it worse? No. It is just different. Where the original choked you (and shocked you) with the loud, sinister music and the garish colors, the remake, with its bland palette ,the gloomy Berlin atmosphere and the almost constant rain or snow, is like a creeping terror, lurking just outside of your view, until it strikes. I liked this new atmosphere better. And, feel free to bash me for this, but I liked the new story better too. It didn't make much sense, but then neither did the original story. It all boils down to a matter of preference, whether you like this movie or not. people who prefer Argento's brilliant, but sometimes over-extravagant style, will probably not like the remake. People like me, who like a more subdued, quiet style will probably like it. As I said in the beginning, if you manage to regard it as a completely different story, the movie stands very well on its own. A quick final note: the atmosphere, clothing, behaviors etc. were spot on for the '70s- I was glad watching people smoke freely in a dance class no less! Nowadays, they would probably end up in jail for this. The acting, while being solid, is nothing exceptional, except of course of Mrs. Swindon, who continues to amaze me in every role. She was very-very good. Overall, I am glad I watched it, and I will certainly watch it again. Please give it a try.

I have wanted to see this film for a long time, not only because of the high praise it received, but mainly because it touched a very sensitive subject. That of poverty and petty crime in Japan- but it really could have been anywhere in the world. At least that is what I thought. In truth, the poverty and the petty crime are just the setting, in order for the main underlying message to come to the surface.

This is a touching movie about human relations, about a dysfunctional group of mainly non related people, who, by chance and/or choice come together at a certain point in life and try to make ends meet, while bonding as a real family would. The bottom line? Sometimes, the family you choose is better than your biological family, even if you do shady things collectively in order to survive. Perhaps, because you do shady things, the bonds strengthen.

All the characters, while on a first glance dubious and opportunistic, quickly became very sympathetic and I could honestly feel the connection they cultivated, the love that they had for each other, even if they didn't admit it openly. The cast shone in their respective roles- especially the Mother, Father and the Boy. There are some extremely poignant scenes- the one with the fireworks comes to mind immediately- scenes that blatantly show that even if they are situated at the very bottom of society, they can still be happy and optimistic.

It is a very realistic movie, very well directed and acted and it gave me a different perspective of things I take for granted in life. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Honestly, "Dark" is one of the most perplexing series I have had the privilege to watch. It demands your attention from the very first episode, and it doesn't let go. I just finished watching Season 2 and I can hardly wait for Season 3 next year.

I see some people compare it to "The OA" or , more commonly to "Stranger Things" but while all 3 shows are centered around time/dimension hopping, I think that "Dark" is the most mature and "scientifically" believable of them. It can certainly be a mindf&%k at times, trying to unravel the knot of every specific time continuity, but it is worth it.

I recommend that you sit and watch it with a clear and open mind- believe me, you will not regret it.

Blade Runner is one of these movies that you will either love or hate - no middle ground. The feelings it evokes are so strong, that at times it is almost overwhelming to watch. Based on the rather well known novel by Philip K. Dick "Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep?", it borrows from the futuristic, dystopian universe of the novel but, being a movie, it surpasses it and becomes something greater, something more profound, something that no movie has been able to top since. It is no coincidence that all the futuristic movies/series since then, have borrowed very heavily from Blade Runner in aesthetics, environments, music and so on. The irony is that even today, with all the CGI available, BR instead of being outdated, still shines to the point you would think it was filmed last year not almost 40 yrs ago. Even if Ridley Scott didn't make any other movie before or after BR, I would still regard him as one of the best directors ever, just for this film. The blending of the cinematography, music, acting and script give us the definitive cyberpunk movie, which is deeply philosophical in its core, and where most dystopian films try and fail to deliver, BR is successful and ominous at the same time. The soundtrack by the great Vangelis Papathanasiou is nothing short of a masterpiece- there are times that I think Vangelis might not even be a human, but an advanced alien in disguise because the music he writes is just otherwordly. Combine his music with the visuals created by Scott and his team, and you get a pretty detailed picture of what the future is very likely to look like- foggy and dirty, acidic and ultra high tech, familiar and strange at the same time. It is a world where nothing is as it seems, the humans act like replicants and the replicants like humans. The lines are blurred and upon a second viewing, you literally don't know who to root for. I will stop here- there are so many things to praise about this film that it is impossible to do so here. If you haven't watched it, please do so. No matter whether you love or hate it, it will be a once in a lifetime experience, guaranteed.

Oh, boy, this review is overdue by 25 years or so...I remember watching "Das Boot" as a miniseries on TV, back in the beginning of the 80s. My father, a war movie buff, permitted me to watch it with him, even though I was about 8yrs old then- not exactly a suitable series for a young girl - or boy for that matter. Coming from a country which was on the Allied side in WWII, I believe this has to be the first and only film that made us not only cheer for the Germans (up to then our mortal enemies), but also portrayed the Germans as normal people and not as stupid, cardboard villains (a stupid cliche that continues to this day in most WWII films). It's true I didn't have the experience to understand or appreciate everything, but, two things stood out and I remembered them for many years to come. The intense, claustrophobic atmosphere was the first, and Jurgen Prochnow's magnetic blue eyes was the second. These blue eyes haunted me for many years, until finally in my teens, I rediscovered the film and watched it again and again, while at the same time I tried to learn as many things that I could about naval warfare in WWII, in order to have a context which would help me appreciate the story better. And what a story it is...Every soldier in every war goes through hell in various different ways, but I cannot think of a worse fate than slowly suffocating in the bottom of the ocean, inside an iron coffin, while being bombed from above. "Das Boot" manages to perfectly portray the terror, the angst, the despair, the triumph, the boredom- the incredible range of emotions which every submariner- most of them young boys in their teens - went through in the course of 1 mission. The foggy, smelly, cramped confines of the submarine become the canvas on which the increasingly pale, skeletal and exhausted sailors are being painted- and no matter how much we root for them (and we DO root for them), we can't help but feel the dread that is bound to follow. We cheer with the crew, we laugh and cry and despair with them, and finally for them. All the aspects of this movie are spectacular. The direction, acting, photography, sets etc. are all top notch. I would like to give special kudos to the soundtrack, which has been my second favorite OST of all times after the Blade Runner one. This movie doesn't glorify war- quite the opposite. I guarantee that after watching this movie, you will want to watch it again and again because it reaches in a deep place inside the human psyche and never lets go. For me, it is one of the very few life-changing movies I have had the privilege to watch. If I could give it more than 10/10, I would.

It is not often that I post a review here-mostly I just vote and don't bother with reviewing. For this series, I had to write something. It touched me in ways no other depiction of true events ever has. Maybe because I come from Southern Europe, and my country was one of the unlucky ones to receive the deadly radioactive clouds-I was 12 at the time and I remember it as if it was yesterday. It was the first time we realized the perils of radiation- my generation is far removed from WWII, so we had no idea of what a nuclear plant accident meant in practice. Nor what a core meltdown really was. And, back then in the "stone ages" with no Internet, no cell phones and the infamous USSR " lock down and deny everything" policy, the info we, the general populace, were getting were scarce and false most of the times. This series depicts all that and so much more in a phenomenal way. The script, the actors, the locations,the atmosphere, the music, the photography, the make-up- they all contribute to a unique experience. In some scenes I swear I could almost smell the burned graphite. In other scenes the music blended so well with the scene that I didn't know if what I was listening was the soundtrack or the sound of the radiation monitoring devices. The acting is subtle-never over the top- but extremely powerful. All the cast deliver their lines flawlessly but you can understand much more from their facial expressions and body language- the desperation, anger, realization, horror, acceptance and defiance are all expressed in a very human, very heart breaking way. The chemistry between the 3 main protagonists is palpable. First suspicious , cautious and antagonistic of each other, and gradually, in the face of the enormity of the tragedy steadfast allies and even friends. These dynamics are not stated, but us as the audience see them unfold before our eyes by the exceptional trio of Harris - Skarsgard and Watson. The scenes that made me break in tears were the ones with the animals- no need to elaborate here, if you have seen it you know what I am talking about. It is so often that we focus on the human tragedy that we forget the fate of our animal friends- this series did not forget that (and I thank the creators for this), and as a result, this whole episode was devastating for me to watch, but I am glad I watched it. There is so much more I could say to praise this series, but I will stop here. I urge everyone to watch it and please remember that these events DID truly happen, many in a much worse way than depicted. Also, please remember that the end of this nightmare, for many-many people in Europe and the former USSR countries, has not been written yet.

OK , so being a huge sci-fi fan, I binged watched this show in a day. The Pros: Interesting premise, amazing visuals, a plot line that will literally keep you guessing right until the end, adequately developed characters with some of whom you sympathize, despite everything you learn about them in the process (some of them are also eye-candy, which never hurts either hehe). The Cons: some glaring science errors, a few inconsistencies in the plot, and some things that just aren't justified but have been written in for the plot to move forward. My final verdict: It is an enjoyable enough show, a must for any sci-fi buff like me, if one is willing to overlook the inconsistencies. The acting is solid from all the cast and the visual and plot blend of Blade Runner/Event Horizon/Alien never fails to deliver. A fine way to spend a few hours, I am certainly looking forward to a continuation of the series.