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No...seriously...that wasn't a rhetorical question...what was that show?! I must confess that I only managed to put myself through three episodes of this atrocity before I could endure no more and gave up. It has been a while since I have seen anything this bafflingly bad, a big mess, a disjointed cacophony passing as content. Imbued and drenched with all the modern day ideological tropes and virtue signaling, bereft of anything resembling creativity or originality... and more importantly quality.

I honestly don't care about the video games. I have no personal attachment to this IP, was only marginally familiar with the lore, so I approached this show as a newbie with no prior expectations. Therefore, I am only looking at this as a series, which I had hoped would be at least entertaining, containing a good story and interesting characters. None of that available here. Quite the opposite.

A waste of time and brain cells. I'd like to say more but I feel my IQ dropping when I spend ANY time thinking or talking about "Fallout".

"Monsters: Dark Continent" (2014) was an all around fairly solid and well made movie that could have been a worthwhile sequel to "Monsters" (2010), but was a letdown in the end, because of a shoddy storyline that came apart and characters whose presence turned out to be nothing more than window dressing and filling up screen space.

One other thing that became quite apparent was the absence of Gareth Edwards at the helm of this movie. This time around he gets an executive producer credit.

At the time of its release I couldn't quite appreciate how good "Monsters" was and what it represented in terms of a cinematic achievement due to the limitations and constraints (budgetary and otherwise) under which it was executed. I truly believe that Gareth Edwards is an extremely talented director who hasn't yet achieved his full potential, despite solid outings like "Godzilla" (2014) and the masterpiece that was "Rogue One" (2016).

Without malice, the same cannot be said of Tom Green the director of "Monsters Dark Continent". A movie with potential that never quite managed to find its own cinematic voice and narrative. It is not an awful or terrible movie, neither is necessarily the direction or casting. But as mentioned earlier, a definite letdown given the underlying possibilities that existed for this movie to be a legit, solid piece of moviemaking.

Too bad because I think that the world Gareth Edwards created is ripe for further exploration. I believe that a limited series aka miniseries on one of the streamers with the proper budget and resources, set in this world, hopefully directed by Gareth Edwards, would be a very interesting proposition indeed.

"Oppenheimer" is a movie whose ambition exceeds its grasp. An epic undertaking that fails to deliver. A cinematic journey which is meant to be profound and profoundly engaging on an intellectual and emotional level, that falters and feels flat for the duration. Which brings up the next point. The movie's length.

There is no reason that this film should have clocked-in at over three hours. It definitely needed to be more streamlined and concise, something that Christopher Nolan isn't particularly good at, which means that on many ocassions he tends to meander and lose focus and direction. "Oppenheimer" could have easily told the story in a 2 hours 20 minutes to 2 hours 40 minutes timeframe. Movies like "The Imitation Game" and "Bridge Of Spies" did so quite successfully.

While Nolan doesn't seem to be a fan of the television format, I would say, at least for me, that "Oppenheimer" would have worked better as a three or four part miniseries ("John Adams" comes to mind) than a movie.

I have never been a Christopher Nolan sycophant or fanboy, but I do appreciate him and his dedication to moviemaking, which for him is clearly an art form and he treats it as such. Which is admirable and praiseworthy especially since he is not wrong in doing so. His effort to always push the cinematic boundaries in clever, imaginative and intelligent ways are to be admired as is his dedication to cinema. No doubt.

It's just that oftentimes he is too clever for his own good and all too often he gets lost in the weeds...where audiences can't or won't always follow, as is for me the case with "Oppenheimer". A movie still has to be entertaining and engaging. Therefore, sometimes "simpler is better" could work more efficiently and satisfactorily even for a director of Nolan's pedigree.

Well reviews are being deleted once again, just like this one. This is the fourth time I have posted this one. Hmmm...I guess no negative reviews of this particular show are tolerated...I wonder why?

"The Boys" was a show that started out solid, with soo much potential... but became an unwatchable mess. The cause, the people involved with the series and their self-hatred, nihilism and desire to use this show as a platform for their own ideological impulses.

It follows the same predictable pattern of what modern entertainment has become these days. Ideology passing as entertainment, underpinned by some socio-political, supposedly progressive babble that seems to be all the rage in Hollyweird nowadays.

The baddies are also as cliched as they are predictable and boring and exactly who you'd expect from a ideologically infused production of this kind.

This has become such a predictable pattern, that there is no longer any anger, frustration or ranting to be done...not even sadness or resignation. Only apathy.. Summary: An interesting beginning followed by a rapid decline...

This show so far has been an unbalanced mess. It doesn't know what it wants to be and it is all over the place. The wokee-woke undertones, which seem to come to the forefront more and more often, surely don't help matters. The show is trying to be epic, but oftentimes it falters in that. The two separate timelines while interesting as a storytelling concept, fail in the execution and end up being a drag.

With the exception of Wyatt and Kurt Russell, the rest of the cast ranges from mediocre to awful. Especially Kiersey Clemons as May (whose character is entirely superfluous and completely useless in the series), Anna Sawai as Cate Randa and Ren Watabe as Kentaro Randa, are just awful (the actors and the characters), boring, annoying and just complete turn-offs. The special effects as well are soo uneven, they range from good to just really amateurish and unpolished looking.

Somewhere underneath this mess lurks a show that might have been decent and interesting or (gasp) even good, but it is buried under soo much garbage that it ends up being dragged down to the lowest level. I don't think that there's too much hope for this series to redeem itself. Lets remember that this is Apple TV Plus after all! Personally, I don't care enough to stick around and find out...

When I reached the forty minute mark of the first episode of "The Continental", the prequel/spin-off miniseries set in the same universe as the "John Wick" movies...I suddenly realized I had better things to do with my life than sit through this painfully boring waste of time. I could boil water, do laundry, clean the house, go grocery shopping or even watch paint dry. All of those activities would have been more interesting and entertaining than sitting through one more minute of this awful show.

The cinematography is garbage which in turn makes the show look ugly with a sickly feel about it...and that despite the fact that the setting of this programme is the 1970s... some of it in New York. If you can make 1970s New York look worse than it did in reality...well that is some kind of an achievement... though not a positive one.

The soundtrack is wholly uninspired and all over the place. The direction and pacing are shoddy. The cast is completely unremarkable, bland and forgettable. I hoped that having added Mel Gibson into the mix would have lent some weight and credibility. But he is completely wasted here. The only thing Gibson reminds me of is the fact that he was in a very similarly themed, way better and more entertaining movie called "Payback" (1999). Now, as far as I can see "Payback" seems to have had somekind of influence on the "John Wick" franchise and even "The Continental"... right down to the hotel in question.

The action scenes are nothing new and if you've seen the Wick movies...well there's not going to be anything else for you here. Same if you've seen "Extraction" (1+2), "Atomic Blonde" or "Mr. Nobody" , all of them better than anything "The Continental" has to offer.

Personally, I loved the first "John Wick" movie. Foolishly I went to see the second one.. and it just confirmed for me that I wasn't interested in this franchise or anything that followed. I have no wish or desire to further watch "The Continental" or anything else affiliated with the Wick franchise.

"Renfield" is a B-level movie elevated by Nicholas Hoult's earnest performance and Nicolas Cage's scenery-chewing and deliciously malevolent interpretation of Dracula. There is plenty of dark humour, splatter-gore and action to make this a fairly solid and entertaining movie.

Then...there's Nora Loom aka Awkwafina...in what has to be one of the worst and most uninspired casting choices (though with her there is no other option). Her grating, annoying and painful, yes painful, on-screen presence sinks this movie. Her character is useless and pointless. No talent, no chemistry, not funny and really no reason for her to be in it. It feels like she was tacked-on to the movie for whatever reason...which is what exactly?! Because I have no idea. This role could and should have gone to someone else with a sliver of a personality and more importantly talent.

I ended up seeing the movie and while not re-inventing the wheel, as I've mentioned in the title of this review, it doesn't have to. I found "65" to be a pretty entertaining movie, making most of its budget, cast and locations. The budget is blessedly not $450 million dollars or whatever Hollywood keeps spending on its tired, empty and dying blockbusters.

It has pretty good production values and an ideal runtime for this type of movie. It isn't a remake, reboot, sequel or prequel. That is definitely a bonus. Plus, I liked the setting and timing of the movie. Interesting concept. Not perfect by any means. However I saw it has pretty low scores and negative reviews and I am not sure any of it is deserved. But that's just me.

No agenda, no politics, no box-checking, no DEI, no ESG ratings or scores to maintain in this one. Just good, old-fashioned, wall-to-wall action. Making the most of it's budget, cast and locations, "Extraction" is a relentlessly paced, crazily filmed and directed movie that is a lot of fun to watch. Which is what movies such as this are meant to be, entertaining. No fuss, no muss just pure enjoyment.

Chris Hemsworth's, Tyler Rake...if there ever was a name for an action franchise character this is it. After all those annoying, anemic and frankly insulting "Thor" movies, Hemsworth finally gets the chance to use his physicality to the max. It is clear that he had a helluva time doing it. While he is the focal point of this movie, the rest of the cast are no slouches either. All actors are clearly committed to their roles and the movie itself.

The action scenes are the heart and soul of "Extraction". Deservedly so. They are really breathtaking in their set-up, their sheer audacity, inventiveness and execution.

It has been quite a while since I had this much fun, just sitting back, switching my brain off and watching a thoroughly entertaining movie!

Though there have been over the past couple of years movies and series of this kind, like "Extraction", they are still rather the exception and not the norm. While this movie is not perfect, I'd rather take something like "Extraction" over almost anything being churned out by modern day Hollywood..

No agenda, no politics, no box-checking, no DEI, no ESG ratings or scores to maintain in this one. Just good, old-fashioned, wall-to-wall action. Making the most of it's budget, cast and locations, "Extraction 2" just like it's predecessor, is a relentlessly paced, crazily filmed and directed movie that is a lot of fun to watch. Which is what movies such as this are meant to be, entertaining. No fuss, no muss just pure enjoyment.

The second movie expands on the first and is, in my opinion, better in some aspects than the first one. It does have a few scenes where we, as audiences, get to breathe a bit, the story is expanded and the background of the characters is filled out some more. Especially Chris Hemsworth's, Tyler Rake...if there ever was a name for an action franchise character this is it. After all those annoying, anemic and frankly insulting "Thor" movies, Hemsworth finally gets the chance to use his physicality to the max. It is clear that he had a helluva time doing it. While he is the focal point of these movies, the rest of the cast are no slouches either. All actors are clearly committed to their roles and the movie.

The action scenes are the heart and soul of these movies. Deservedly so. They are really breathtaking in their set-up, their sheer audacity, inventiveness and execution.

It has been quite a while since I had this much fun, just sitting back, switching my brain off and watching a thoroughly entertaining movie!

As per the title of this series, "Star Wars: The Bad Batch"...well you would expect a show to focus on the Bad Batch, the elite clone commandos who made their names and claim to fame during the Clone Wars. You'd expect to follow this tightly knit group of warriors on their adventures, trying to survive in the aftermath of the fall of the Galactic Republic and the rise of the Empire. In theory and on paper the period immediately following the end of the Clone Wars is ripe for exploration and a very interesting setting.

Of course this being Disney Star Wars, this is not what you get. Same goes for most, if not all of the Filoni stamped SW products. The whole bait and switch trope has gotten soo stale and boring, but it is almost expected from Lucasfilm in 2023 under the still-somehow leadership of Kathleen Kennedy (that alone says all you need to know).

Omega, a character no one asked for or wanted, suddenly takes center stage and the Bad Batch take a back seat and become secondary characters in their own series. As a result the quality of the show suffers noticeably.

On par per course of these days we are living through, the show is beset with all the modern entertainment political correctness and the rest of the creative blight that follows. Just to underscore this, one of the complaints against the series, that garnered attention, was the fact that the colour grading of the characters, especially the Bad Batch, was too light i.e. Too white. As if that was the main issue hampering the quality of the series. Never mind the whole nonsense about Dee Bradley Baker, a white actor, voicing all the clones...oh no the inhumanity, the outrage!!! Forget the fact that he has been voicing characters in "Star Wars" animated series for years with no issues..until now...

What you are left with is yet another show where the main characters have to babysit...yeah I"m looking at you too "The Mandalorian"! "The Bad Batch" is better than that awful "Star Wars: Resistance" and the anemic "Star Wars: Rebels", but definitely not as good as "The Clone Wars". Also, for the record, Omega is nowhere as good or strong a character as Ahsoka was, who I am aware was not warmly received at the start either. Omega is just plain annoying and a turn-off. On the very thin plus side, they decided to go with "The Clone Wars" style of animation...so that is something I guess!

An average to below average series, that had (perhaps still does) the potential to be better. Which would be quite something these days when it comes to "Star Wars.

From the trailers this movie looked quite promising. A level above the now expected, yearly, Liam Neeson action movie. Something which has become a kind of tradition since about 2009 when the original "Taken" came out. This is a blessing and a curse. I loved the first "Taken" (uncut version) and "A Walk Amongst The Tombstones", and enjoyed "Unknown", "The Grey" and "Run All Night". The rest of Neeson's movies in this genre have ranged between just mediocre to barely ok.

At the outset, keeping in mind the quite solid cast and director Martin Campbell (who also directed "Casino Royale" the only James Bond movie I ever actually enjoyed), "Memory" seemed to be one of the more solid productions starring Neeson. By all rights it should have been. Instead what ended on the screen was a muddled, badly paced and thoroughly pedestrian movie. The action was sluggish, the storyline was quite bland and the acting was all over the place.

This flick seemed about as confused as Liam Neeson's character and his early onset of Alzheimer's...

As a side note I also wanted to add that I found Monica Bellucci's, well her character's demise, quite disturbing and perhaps even unnecessarily violent. However it was so lazily added, poorly executed and clearly expected, that it bordered on the comical. I just think that a better scene, worthy of such an actress could have been created. I swear people in the industry must have it out for her or dislike her, because many movies I've seen her in, like "Malena" and "Irréversible" (that one is painful, cringe/vomit inducing to sit through") for example, she has these prolonged, painfully humiliating and violent scenes involving her characters. I am not squeamish when it comes to the depiction of violence in different mediums by any stretch of the imagination and I despise and abhor censorship, but once in a while... there's such a thing as too much...

Once upon a time Dave Filoni was looked upon as one of the last worthwhile creative people left at Lucasfilm after George Lucas sold the "Star Wars" franchise and his namesake studio to Disney, which turned out to be a colossal mistake. Likewise once John Favreau got involved with Lucasfilm, the nascent "Favreau-Filoni Verse" (some just call it the Filoniverse) was enthusiastically greeted by the few remaining fans hoping for a reversal of the damage done to "Star Wars" over the previous decade, one last ditch attempt to save George's legacy, one that was quickly dwindling and dissapearing. But after many fumbles, foibles, capitulations, the shine wore off the Filoniverse and many came to see the output from these two usually competent creators as nothing but padding, filler meant to desperately rectify the destruction wrought by the Sequel Trilogy and those behind it, as well as the leadership up top.

It is in this new light that "Tales Of The Jedi" comes to us, those few still trying desperately to hang around in the vain hope that the ship will be righted...though that is getting harder and harder to see with each passing day...as justifications become harder and scarcer. "Tales Of The Jedi" is a collection of six, short, animated stories, thankfully in the style of "The Clone Wars" and "The Bad Batch", meant to give more context to the backgrounds of both Count Dooku and Ahsoka Tano. They fill in some gaps and add some new information in order to streamline the narrative. In a way they cover one's descent and fall to the Dark Side, and another's finding and embarking on her own path towards her fulfilling her own destiny.

Personally, I liked the stories having to do with Count Dooku more if for no other reason as I didn't know that much about the character, especially the time stretch before he went full Sith. It was also neat to have Liam Neeson voice Qui-Gon Jin (who remains one of my favourite SW characters). Look for other guest "voice" appearances. The Ahsoka stories were alright at most, clearly meant to prep her character for the upcoming live-action series. Some of the new information inserts are sure to cause some contradictions, changes and continuity issues to New (Disney) Canon...but this being Lucasfilm in 2022, that doesn't seem to bother anyone at all or be important in any way.

The overall quality of "Tales Of The Jedi" is not catastrophic and the project is not an abject failure but instead it is a barely passing "meh", which is where "Star Wars" finds itself this day and age. I guess that qualifies as something these days...

This is a fairly well made, directed and cast show. Beautiful locations and cinematography add to the pluses of "Outer Range" as well. It has an interesting premise, as well as story, and pretty solid characters. The issue is that while the series starts strong...it just kind of dissipates and falls off along the way as it progresses, to the point that it gets hard to stay interested in it and where it is going and the motivation to keep seeing it

At points in this series, I had to push myself to return and start watching the show again. It starts dragging quite seriously after Episode 2 and it just seemed to meander all over the place, as if the show runners/producers and writers seemed uncertain how and where to proceed to. The bad news is that it doesn't really get going again until (later in) Episode 7 and Episode 8 (Season Finale).

On par per course, this being 2022, there are some smatterings of wokeness, empty virtue signalling and other post-modern garbage of the kind that has penetrated and infested pop culture and entertainment at all levels. The good news is that it all this rubbish is present in small quantities, not enough to derail the series. The weakness of the show lies, as I said previously, in the lack of narrative coherence and a loss of focus.

Yes "Outer Range" deserves a second season (quite a lot of room to improve on the first one...hopefully) but no, honestly, I won't necessarily jump to immediately see it. It is more one of those, "I'll eventually get around to watch it" type of deals, at least for me. ***EDIT***At the time of this review (October 8, 2022) the show was renewed for a second season.

"Dark" is probably one of the more original TV series to come out in the past decade or so, and that is saying something. Especially coming from Netflix. It has a fairly unique narrative language and striking visual style. It is also an all around well made show.

A show like "Dark" is also proof positive that you don't need a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars per season to make quality programming. Inventiveness and creative vision can go a long way. That is not to say that "Dark" looks cheap or down scaled. It manages to retain a cinematic look and scope, with truly beautiful cinematography and a haunting soundtrack.

I must confess, that I am not as big a fan as some. "Dark" is not wholly original to me and I have seen other series deal with similar set-ups and themes with different levels success and quality. The cast is solid and it didn't feel that anyone in particular was lagging or out of place. However it seemed at times that there are a tad too many characters. Some of them and their story arches, especially some of the secondary ones, could have been excluded without affecting the overall cohesiveness of the series.

While "Dark" is set up as one large puzzle with many moving pieces, smartly demanding from it's audiences to pay attention and follow along, at times it seems too clever for it's own good. It appears on some occasions to be needlessly elaborate and layered, less as a storytelling exercise and more because of the whim of the writers/creators that they could do it.

The show does pull its puzzle structure off quite successfully. Yet there was no need to be overly complex or intricate. It did feel like overkill sometimes. Still an entertaining watch and time definitely well spent on this one.

What do August 5, 7, 12 and 14, 2022 have in common? Those are the dates of the previous reviews for this show which IMDb saw fit to delete for whatever reason! I say for whatever reason because no one has bothered to contact me or explain why this is happening. I'm guessing that I am not the only one this has happened to.

If you are reading this, then this is now the fifth version of my review of this series...Since it appears that critical reviews of particular movies or series are no longer welcomed on this site (it happened to me with "Obi-Wan Kenobi" as well where about four versions of my review were deleted.).

Again, for what reason..your guess is as good as mine. I guess, "fall in line or else" seems to be the strong hint that is being pushed. Sad to see all this censorship and what it has done to this website which I had been previously using for now closing on two decades with no issues.

In so far as the show at hand, "The Sandman", once upon a time I used to very much enjoy Neil Gaiman and his work, that is before he compromised his own artistic vision and creativity, bending over backwards in order to fit today's officially approved discourse and narrative.

Whatever the reason (insert here), the results haven't been pretty. Case in point "The Sandman".

Yet another thoroughly underwhelming Netflix production, consistently boring and fully decrepit. Ten episodes of nothingness masquerading as deeply meaningful and spiritually enriching. A watered down and bland creation bearing all the checkmarks of todayness turned on blast.

The sad part is, that "The Sandman"" could and should have been a standout amidst all the mediocrity and dreariness of the creatively bankrupt current entertainment. Especially given the richness of the source material. As it stands, it is an expensive waste of time.

This movie is all hype and no delivery. All style and no substance. One of the most predictable movies I've seen in a while. The fact that you can see most of what is coming next from a mile a way kills any suspense, tension or scares. Poorly directed, written, cast and acted.

I am not a big fan or connoisseur of horror movies, but even from my limited repertoire of those I did see, this one ranks amongst the worst. This movie had me unintentionally laughing at times when perhaps I shouldn't have to scenes that weren't meant to elicit that reaction.

If you are looking for some raunchy horror movie, then look elsewhere. This one ain't it...

This is the type of entertainment that used to get made on a fairly regular basis yesteryear. Not anymore. Shows like this one are far and few between these days. A show which doesn't preach, insult or attack it's audiences or tries to force-feed a specific message of anykind. It is a series that is unabashedly entertaining, interesting and a pleasure to watch start to finish. The themes and ideas of this show are woven into the storyline and plot points as well as the journey of the characters. No empty virtue signalling or moral grand-standing here.

"The Terminal List" is an edge of your seat mystery-spy-action-thriller with a healthy dose of revenge seeking thrown in there, one that while not necessarily breaking any new ground (there are other similarly-themed series and movies of varying levels of quality) still manages to feel fresh and put it's own spin on the genre.

The show is not necessarily an easy watch and is at times grim and darkly-themed. But that is part and parcel of the story and the different paths the characters have to undertake. Which is also what makes for such compelling viewing.

Some may point to perhaps the overly long run of the episodes. I personally, do not mind that one bit. The series is eight episodes long...and you actually get your money's worth. I am sick and tired of these series that are only six to eight episodes, where individual episodes sometimes a have a forty minutes or less runtime...looking at you Disney Plus! Besides, this is actually a positive, because it allows the show to breathe, the story to unfold properly and the characters to actually develop in a meaningful way.

In addition, perhaps most importantly, this a very solid, well made, cast, acted, written and directed series. I am aware that it is based on the books by James Carr (I'm assuming this series will get more seasons), which I have not read. It speaks to the effectiveness of the series, that it draws those like myself, who have not read the source material, to this world and characters. Of special mention is the pilot/ first episode, directed by Antoine Fuqua himself, who puts on a clinic on how to properly start a show and set the tone. Chris Pratt is no doubt a standout here but by no means the only one. Taylor Kitsch, Constance Wu, JD Pardo, Riley Keough, Jane Tripplehorn, Jay Courtney are all good in their respective roles, as are others not mentioned here. The cinematography, action sequences, the music also nicely round off the whole deal.

"The Terminal List" is an example of talented people in front and behind the camera, working on a project they care about and are invested in.

Have you ever tried to swallow a spoonful of ash? Have you had to listen to Britney Spears screeching "Hit Me Baby One More Time" on a continuous 24 hour loop while tied to a chair? Well if you did none of those things imagine how awful it would be! That is what trying to get through watching "The Batman" felt like. An eternity.

A movie that tries soo hard to be edgy and emo...it drips and then drowns in its own pretentious arrogance. It pretends to be a detective story, dangerously close to plagiarizing David Fincher's masterful masterpiece "Seven". But it never amounts to a fraction of that much, much better movie.

"The Batman" is a bloviated and overly stretched cinematic canvas, crumbling under it's own mediocrity. At the hands of Bad Reboot alumni Matt Reeves, it is imbibed with the same creative dead zone which underscores any and all projects with that imprint, or works of people who have been associated in anyway with it.

Michael Giacchino's score, one of the few highlights, is completely wasted here on an inferior product. So is the unrecognizable Collin Ferrell and his performance as the Penguin and Andy Serkis as Alfred. Zoë Kravitz barely registers as Catwoman. Jeffrey Wright as race-swapped commissioner Gordon is alright at most. Incel-inspired (wrongly so) Riddler (Paul Dano) is over the top angsty and pathetic and that is not a compliment.

Of course then there's the piece de resistance, Robert Pattinson. All you have to do is say his name to conjure just how bad, bored and disengaged he comes across throughout this interminable movie. He has two looks: passing a kidney stone or constipated. This is the first constipated version of Batman I've seen and I've seen them all.

This being a "post-modern" piece of entertainment, it has to have some smattering of intersectionality, empty virtue signalling, fake activism and other such meaningless and insincere messaging.

Wasted time. Wasted brain cells. Somewhere under this whole mountain of cinematic contrivance there might have been an interesting and even good movie. But it got lost along the long, long way.

I have been on this site for nearly two decades and in all that time I have never seen soo many reviews deleted as I have now. This is now the FIFTH version of my review for "Obi-Wan Kenobi". (I have the receipts for the previous three versions that were deleted). My reviews on May 28, May 31, June 8 and June 10 were all deleted. I cannot understand for the life of me why this is being done. So people cannot disagree anymore or express their opinions if they didn't like what they've seen?! The reviews were deleted with no explanation, no forewarning or anykind of indication.

I pay for the stuff I watch, so I have the right as a customer to review that content and express my opinion if I so choose. Provided that there are no threats of violence expressed or implied, no extremely foul language used or clear personal attacks, then everything else should be fair game. If not what is the point of a website like this.?!

Maybe IMDb should rethink this censorious approach, lest this becomes entirely how they operate. Sad to see how things have turned. This used to be a good platform for all things entertainment, movies and series etc.

In so far as "Obi Wan Kenobi" I only barely made it through the first two episodes. I couldn't suffer through more than that. It is one of the worst series I have seen recently. It is creatively bankrupt, lacking any originality or quality. Badly directed, written, cast and produced. It looks cheap, stilted, sterile and fake. This being the times we live in, it is also choke full of the usual woke suspects and approved narratives. Empty virtue signalling, forced diversity and all of the sharades which undercut soo much of our entertainment and pop culture these days. Where did that high budget go? What did they spend the money on... catering?

"Obi-Wan Kenobi" is an unwatchable wasteland. It is also a sad reminder of how far "Star Wars" and Lucasfilm have fallen under the current leadership and Disney's ownership over the past decade. The franchise is irretrievably damaged and past any saving. Miracles do happen...but in this case it is very doubtful.

The premise of the movie (titled "Black Crab" in English) is interesting, but the execution of the story is shoddy and subpar as is the rest of the movie. Noomi Rapace is the highlight here and some of the visuals. The rest is just bad. Despite decent production values and some action scenes, the movie just feels amateurishly made, moving back and forth between annoying and infuriating or deadly serious and just plain goofy.

While two thirds of the movie go one way, not very convincingly so but at least consistently, the last third just throws everything on it's head and basically shoves it down the crapshute.

In the end this is nothing more than a perhaps overly fanciful made for TV, or in this case streaming, movie, the kind that some years ago would have been a direct-to-DVD release.

Late to the party on this one, but given the low to no interest in watching this movie, this is when I was able to find the discount bin price for renting/streaming it and actually seeing it.

The good news is that "Dune" (2021) isn't as bad as "Blade Runner 2049" a movie turd I thoroughly detest and still consider akin to cinematic sacrilege. A movie which signalled that Denis Villeneuve's career, usually a competent and even skilled director, was on the skids. His best movie to date, for me anyways, remains "Sicario". Let's just say that "Dune", in my opinion, doesn't do him any favours either.

Is "Dune" a really awful or thoroughly bad movie? No. Is it completely boring? No. But that is where the positives end. I found "Dune" to be an average to below average film at best. One of those flicks that you watch once because you have nothing better to do and have almost three hours to spare in an afternoon or evening, when the weather outside is bad or your plans for the day fell through for whatever reason.

There is nothing remarkable in "Dune", for me anyways. The directing, writing, special effects, visuals, sets, score, costuming, were all...very forgettable. Which is something that transfers over to the cast as well. Was someone particularly annoying or especially terrible in their role? No. They were all just uniformly bland, mechanically delivering their lines and emoting as they were expected to. For the same reason no one's screen presence or performance stands out either.

A few words aside in the department of blandness for Timothy Chálamet and Zendaya (FYI she is not long enough in this movie to do any real damage). Both Chálamet and Zendaya feel, look and sound, when on screen, about as bland and unremarkable as possible. They seem more like artificial constructs of search algorithms, social media platforms, expensive PR teams and even more expensive ads, than real people, actual individuals with personality traits, quirks and behaviours that would mark them as unique or stand outs. Now, that is not something necessarily new, but it seems to become something more prevalent in this age of technology. People (in all spheres of life) are more and more resembling artificial avatars rather than flesh and blood humans. I think there are better and more talented actors outhere that could be cast in roles like these than Chálamet or Zendaya, or whatever else is flavour of the moment at a given point in time.

To note, because I didn't see this movie in a theatre some scenes, parts or aspects of it may perhaps not have felt as annoying, overwhelming or distracting as it it did for some of those who did watch it on a large screen or some specialty format. Also, going in I had a general but very superficial understanding of the "Dune" world, lore and mythology as well as a vague, cursory knowledge of the books outline (I never read or could get into Frank Herbert's original novel or the rest of the books in the saga). I also saw David Lynch's 1984 version (pure 1980s schlock) and the two SyFy miniseries done in the early 2000s (which were better in terms of content than this movie). If you are a newbie to the "Dune" universe you may feel completely lost and confused.

So there you have it. "Dune" an unremarkable, forgettable, average to below average movie, about which the best thing I can say is that I saw it. I know this is only the first part of a two or even three part adaptation...but frankly I am not sure I am interested in watching any further...

This series is a disaster and horrible in all aspects. There's no need to discuss it beyond that. It is also an embarrassing reminder of how far "Star Wars" has fallen.

It's worth noting that all of these Disney Plus "Star Wars" series lead to the awful Sequel Trilogy, which pretty much nullifies all of them and renders anything and everything in the franchise pointless.

"Hawkeye" is yet another mediocre Marvel production vomited out by Disney Plus, full of the same woke nonsense and empty virtue signalling instead of character development and an interesting storyline. Yet another dreck where the show's namesake is only a guest while playing second fiddle to yet another empty "bestest ever" avatar... Which puts it pretty much in line with all the other Disney Plus/Marvel mediocrities outhere like "WandaVision", "The Falcon And The Winter Soldier" and "Loki".

With a few notable exceptions, I stopped caring for and being interested in Marvel years ago. "Hawkeye" is yet another reminder that I'm twice as quit now as I was before. Actually come to think of it, "Hawkeye" is downright awful.

This is what "Star Wars" has come down to. Heaving a sigh of relief that it's latest output is not an outright disaster. Or a surprise hit, like "The Mandalorian" which ends up sabotaged and destroyed later on because of "reasons". Yes...this is where the franchise is at these days.

"Visions" is intended to be a kind of Marvel's "What If..." (horrible series by the way) type of deal but for "Star Wars", where in this case nine different stories are told by different animé studios, in that visual and narrative style, in what would fall at this point under the Legends banner (re-branded Expanded Universe), in other words, outside of what is currently considered canon. An interesting idea no doubt...however the execution leaves much to be desired.

While the potential is there, what you end up with instead is a messy collection of uneven and at best mediocre mini-episodes. Some are better than others for sure. "The Duel" probably being the best offering and "The Elder" hovering somewhere above the rest as well.

Frankly, given the state the franchise is currently in, leaderless, directionless, no idea what is up and what is down, one step away from another crisis, scandal, PR nightmare and whatever other controversy self-inflicted or otherwise, it is hard (if even possible) to muster any interest, let alone excitement, for any current or future projects.

So all in all, I found "Star Wars Visions" to be a mediocre collection with the exceptions I mentioned before. By the way this type of project was done before with way better results, it was called "The Animatrix".

I continue to keep my fingers crossed and hope against hope for better days ahead for "Star Wars"" but that is not saying much...and at this point it it seems highly unlikely.