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I was afraid of not enjoying this film enough, considering its proximity to one of the best actors of the past century.

Boy, what a surprise.

By now there are so many beautiful, heartfelt, well written and acted, and shot, severely underrated films here that it is almost a club to be proud belonging to. No, this might not be a nine. But it is much, much more than a six.

Well done, Rebecca. You've made some magic, here.

I am a very critical viewer, these days. I will either give up on a film in a few minutes or jump ahead in grand leaps to see if there is anywhere worth rejoining the stream. Not only was I enjoying every minute of writing, acting and directing, here, I would have stayed for more.

Allegory. Is hard to do well. Especially in a cynical age of noisy, shallow plenty.

Allegory is hard to do subtly, creatively, with a gentle tale that points at the roughest reality.

This allegory is darn near perfect.

America is built on credit. Which is faith in an unseen horizon. Which is a dream. America is at its core a cliche. We are all faking it, until our children's children make it.

To allegorize America in pastel, retro-tech fantasy, populated by perfectly pitched performances whose archetypal resonance stretches back as well as forward, is a work of art and, dare I say it, genius.

The dunces have, naturally, confederated to vote.

I was thinking to myself yesterday, when the thought residue that the Oscars are taking place floated through my mind, how giddy I once was on the day. Yes, I love movies. I still do, somehow.

How many years, now, has it been that without any ill will I simply could not care to tune in? At least four, maybe a few more. But this happened gradually, by natural erosion of faith and trust. In what? Human taste? Intelligence? You pick.

I won't speak to the movie. Scroll down the reviews for that. I wonder if its rise is yet another communal rebellion against quality, driven by the fear of being the first to stop clapping in a digital auditorium with an eye in the sky.

To drop into typical internet vitriol.

This is how sitcoms are made, ladies and gents. Sure, it is colored by number. So is practically anything else we do.

The characters all stand out, and work very well off each other. The situations are genuine and simply funny. Most of the time.

There's a lot to explore, especially if you like animals.

This is a well written show and I hope it doesn't succumb to web inanity. There aren't many comedies I honestly look forward to.

The review ended just above but how should I be able to publish this unless I obey the mathematical dictates of smarter people?

I've been watching this movie for thirty five years. I'm not particularly dumb and yet, every time I watch it, I pick up on something I missed. It can be a plot point, or an emotion, or a cinematic choice. Please believe me when I say, this movie is meant to be watched more than once.

The script is incredibly sophisticated and strangely, at the same time, without any fluff. By that I mean that the transition from one scene to the next is emotionally tuned like perfectly al dente rigatoni. Truly remarkable. As a case in point, a small thing like a matchbook can tell you everything about someone.

Above all it is just a fine movie, with excellent performances and a unique, southern Cali beach ambiance that is wonderfully accentuated by the soundtrack and cinematography.

How is this a 6, and is there any hope for our species?

Dear Mr Wilkinson,

This is the most important document on the holocaust in recent years that I am aware of, and I try to keep up on the trickle that is left.

It is too easy to feel that we have seen what there is to be seen, felt what there is to be felt, and learned what there is to be learned about what is less than a generation away from being a breathless memory.

So I am very grateful for those who know remembering is a discipline akin to work. And have what is needed to maintain a steady gaze at the past, or even the gumption to unearth parts of it we have yet to look at.

A very well made and honestly intended film about how causes linger after their effects, and the vigilance we must keep.

At the time of writing, there is one review for this show. It is a somewhat incoherent rant about bribes, cameos and general displeasure. It does not reek of impartiality.

I just finished the first episode. It was very, very good and I am hard to please. The role Natasha was made for. Brody is fantastic. The mood, cinematography and writing are all top par. I've been to Laughlin and stayed at the location, so I don't reek of impartiality.

This is going to be good. Well thought out, well executed. Compare with franchised low grade plutonium by the Sherdian syndicate, this is actually good tv.

Over fifty of the actual reviews for this show are 6 and below. That's well over fifty percent, for a series trending at 8.6 with 11k marks and counting... and counting. Many of the 7 reviews are actually far from positive. I haven't read all of the 8 and over reviews, but what I have leads me to believe that the services of chatgpt have been well engaged. And for an average score this high, with this strangely elevated vote count, relative to the actual sentiments expressed by over fifty percent of real people, there is little doubt some algos have been recruited as well. Welcome to the 21st century.

If senseless violence gets your juices going. If poor plot and animal cruelty do it for ya, you're in for a treat.

This was never for the cynic. It never offered melodrama, a second act crisis or grand finale. It has always been about slowing down to the genuine emotional rhythm of the detectorist, and enjoying the story's undulation.

Those who are somehow disillusioned by the episode's so called lack of luster must have never gotten the point.

I am so thankful for spending more time in this world. I believe it is the least us hardcore fans of moderate living are owed. So, an hour and a half every three years if you please.

There is so precious little of such humble, pleasant tube time to be found. Almost like it's hidden in the ground.

There are good sci-fi flicks and then there is Sunshine. I knew its position in the hierarchy right away, being a self crowned connoisseur, and placed it on a highly curated and memory debilitated hard drive. It has taken me too long to give it its due.

What made Alien (which this film among many others borrows heavily from), was an understanding that space travel cannot be earth in a can. Everything must shift, from the psychology of the travelers to the music to the way light and sound are picked up. Sunshine is one of the few films that not only gets this, but manages to expand on it in new ways. It is particularly powerful in the psychology department, which while pushing new boundaries with respect to our fragility, beauty and more, somehow stays believable. The stellar soundtrack doesn't hurt.

The cast is really an all star team that comes together maybe once a decade. Probably less. They must have picked up on something special abrewing.

When I'm in the mood for something deep and visually moving, this is a good place to go.

Two and a half hours went by, and I would have watched another two.

There is, some local experts notwithstanding, no fat at all. Every scene is meaningful and, of course, wonderfully done.

Sure it's sappy. What did you expect? This guy's genius, at least a big part of it, is turning sap into gold. And this film is lots of carats. You could say this is not a film for our times. It contains zero cynicism, and requires being able to sink into a story. There is nothing wrong with cliches. Growing up is one them.

Now, the kid. Oh boy, young Spielberg. Everything rested on this young thespian's shoulders. And he Babe Ruth'd it. A preemptive Oscar to you, sir.

Thank you, Steven, for another dose of warm hearted splendor.

Luigi Lo Cascio became one of my favorite actors in La Meglio Gioventù. Man, did the first episode remind me why.

This surprised me in many ways. Stylistically it is really fresh. It is polished, certainly, but the unusual camera angles and rhythm infuse a kind of humor that doesn't detract at all from the drama or storyline.

Speaking of story. There are so many twists that the whole first episode can be considered one big one. But the transitions are handled really smoothly and the changes never feel forced. This to me indicates some really good writing.

It's not panning out to be another back handed glorification of mafia violence. Something different seems to be afoot. Can't wait to find out.

Grazie Italia!

This review is for now.

This might be the first public entertainment written by a psychopath. The episode is proof positive. Dead babies. Dead wolves. Dead horse. Absolutely senseless violence from the supposedly righteous heroes. Fundamentally, every choice a major character has, is made counter-productively. Sociopathically. Except, maybe, the young son.

I am almost certain Mr Sheridan is no crazy person. So the last few seasons must be run by someone else.

Maybe, just maybe, someone made a brave choice to turn the pro into an an-tagonist. Because it certainly seems like the Duttons have submitted to the dark side. If the foster son doesn't turn everything on its head towards the end, masterminding some grand downfall of the empire, then the writing staff should submit to a thorough psych eval.

That said, still entertaining. And the first few seasons were bloody awesome without being this bloody.

Oh gosh, I believe I just watched as perfect an hour of television as I can conjure. Just as I began to doubt certain directions the show was going in.

Nothing here is compromised. Not subtlety of story. Not honoring of Tolkien or Jackson. Not acting, character development, production finesse... And, to boot, unexpected twists that I doubt the most perceptive fan saw coming.

There's been a strange imaginary race with another fantastical show transpiring in my head. The other show has lost by a wide, wide margin.

One final compliment. The wizard, and the manner by which he was brought into focus, is just exquisite. He is more interesting than Gandalf himself. Just, bravo.

600 characters...Let's see. A question, first. What is the average age of the writing staff? There is no story to this show. It has degraded to a soap opera. The first 15 minutes of the episode are absolutely farcical, comprised of people staring at each other in a meaningless cycle. Whatever story the obviously juvenile team has managed to squeeze out of dried out creativity is regurgitated episode by episode. The misery of it leads back to another go at incest and... extreme violence in children. Someone must, at some subconscious level, know all this, so insert 5 minutes of very expensive cgi dragon stuff. Marvel and Martin have finally met.

Yes, I've read the novels and, yes, they might crown a short list of world building sci fi masterpieces. What this movie, which I've seen multiple times, succeeds in doing, is manifest the spirit of this incredibly thought out universe. It also succeeds in other respects, but I'll leave that aside.

It is interesting that the latest version, not a bad film at all, is almost a storyboard replica of the first. But all it adds is a bit of computer polish, and lacks the eerie ambiance that was so poignantly enhanced by the first's soundtrack.

Folks love hating on this. Folks be folks. Thank you, Mr Lynch.

One day aliens or a better iteration of us will discover this, and a Marvel film, then wonder what numbers used to mean.

A good rule of thumb is to watch anything and everything with Orlando or Sevillo, who's acting is so precise you can measure by how many degrees his eyes are softer at the end. Pity the Holly World that never encounters such cinema or awards its statues to more able, if strange sounding craftsmen.

Have you ever come across a crack in an asphalt road, where a flower grows against all odds, far from any other? Of course you have. This movie is that, but for a human bud. We draw lines and then spend the rest of our days doing our best to fill them. When a movie, without using any force on credulity, makes our line a bit blurry, it is all we can ask for. An actually clean mirror.

Sometimes I am so thankful for speaking some Italian. Thank you filmakers and actors for these two hours.

Kenobi does to Wars. It's a shame great ones like McGregor and Stewart are not good judges of writing. I can't imagine they need the payday that badly.

Kamil is the only genuine thing in the show. Maybe they can spin off his character for 2 or 3 seasons.

Good luck, Gen Z. The force is not with you.

TINTW.

*episode 3 addendum*

A deep symptom of our modern ails is a cultural shift from the old, as keepers of wisdom and focus of our respect, to the young. Very young, even, who are now revered and imitated even by the abandoned elderly. Is anyone surprised that the Jedi Master who bested Skywalker needs a re-education in The Way by a six year old? Poor, nervous, wayward Kenobi.

This is a pretty good film. It kept me interested and entertained even when the credibility of the plot tanked.

The acting is as good as you'd expect from the great cast.

Another instance of the hive mind under reviewing a decent action thriller.

Enjoy.

I grew up on a diet of Picard with a side of Kirk. Roddenberry can finally stop turning. Heck, if it stays this good another star is on the horizon.

*post episode 9 addendum* An unabashed Aliens / Predator homage?

9th star... Earned!

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