horst69

It's entertaining enough, with an interesting premise, a very decent cast, and a storyline that had potential.

However, it's also drawn out needlessly - as is customary for Netflix productions - and the plot has lots of those infamous holes - the filming and editing never does justice to what could have been done with the story.

In the end the show is restricted by its budget, which leads to more events being mentioned than actually being presented to the viewer; the story also fails to be coherent.

Since it's binge-able with a FFWD button, and I enjoyed the characters, but it's also not re-watachable, I think a 3/10 is a generous rating.

How bad can fight scenes be?

It depends - they can be poorly done, or they can be poorly implemented into the movie.

In this case, it's a bit of the former, and all of the latter.

More specifically - the fight scenes have a few seconds of brilliance here and there, but in general they are mediocre, repetitive, and drawn out to the point of becoming boring halfway through each of those scenes.

Filming and editing are equally uninspired, only doing the basic task of capturing stereotypical action choreography and worn out effects.

Even worse, the action gets in the way of what little story there is; this film has moments when a coherent and convincing tale is showing through - like there's an actual movie, desperately trying to get out.

But to no avail; inevitably yet another endless tedious action scene will have you reach for the forward key.

Many missed opportunities, like the brilliant idea of that one 'unique' hitman, which then was so poorly executed.

Action movies, fight scenes, they've been mastered ages ago; of course by many of the better martial arts movies from the East, or Western films like Kill Bill.

What they have in common is a sense for proportion, balance, timing and rhythm - this flick only piles one cheap thrill on top of another, and another, and so on to the point of exhaustion.

It's unfortunate the creators chose to completely abandon the recipe of the first two John Wick movies, which were very decent.

On a positive note: John Wick 3 was even worse re. All of the above; but a heavy dose of confirmation bias might have made the creators of this sequel ignore its predecessors' obvious shortcomings.

Not going anywhere at all, actually.

What we have here is a dolled up sitcom with outdoor shots.

It's also slow, or rather glacial, in telling a story that's not worth telling.

The lead actress - who appears to either have a few vocal fans or a generous social media budget - couldn't carry one moment of a scene, much less an entire TV show.

The entire effort appears to revolve around the main character.

Which - apart from the lack of skills of the actress hired for the job - is nothing but a pretentious has-been without a credible personality.

What little of a story there is, it's - well, it's written and executed sitcom style; thoroughly sanitized 'humor' combined with clichéd characters and situations.

At no point is this production involving or convincing, or even entertaining on a basic level.

Do you know those war movies that were filmed in a landfill, on a shoestring budget?

If you like war movies as much as I do, you watch all of them given a chance, and you understand what I mean.

This film is one of those.

Filming, editing, special effects, the writing, the small scale odf it all, it all screams - cheap.

The soundtrack deserves special mentioning - it's so pretentious and off, its the proverbial lipstick on a pig.

The story is meager and meaningless, clearly catering to a an equally meaningless sentiment that was uttered a few years ago, and even less relevant or fact based than it was bach then.

The acting - of which there is little worth mentioning - is mainly done by the lead, with some support by the other guy.

As for the director, he was involved in the making a few very good movies 10+ years ago.

Not sure what he's been doing since then, apart from resting on his laurels and selling his name.

This is not a good movie even for those who love the genre.

It's just some dudes in camo, running around in a landfill.

Since the beginning of human civilization, one question has been asked over and over again - who the hell signed off on this?

The story could not be more generic, the writing must have been done by a child, the intellectual quality of the entire setup is inferior even to a civil war reenactment.

It's a corny fairy tale with more than just a hint of pulpy fantasy novel; the story telling feels rushed, incoherent, forced, just incompetent.

To appear relevant and in a desperate attempt to add depth or meaning, contemporary virtue signalling is generously being applied, adding insult to injury.

Filming and editing is competent enough, if also generic in the way how any recent TV shows feature pretty much the same look.

Cast and characters are instantly forgettable.

It does make you wonder if screenwriting truely is a lost art - and who the hell signed off on this.

The interviews are ruining an otherwise decent approach.

It's unfortunate that this documentary, like many others, is using staged interviews to add superficial depth.

Those interviews are disruptive, their content anecdotal at best, but mainly utterly meaningless.

Tell the story, report what's happended, but spare us the fake personal touch.

It's unfortunate how self-declared documentary creators can't refrain from going for a cheap sympathy vote.

It renders the series unwatchable from a viewing perspective, and dubious in terms of credibility.

Stick to facts, relevant commentary, and relevant interviews where necessary, ideally contemporary.

That's what I thought when I started watching this show.

I liked the cast, the premise, the way it was set up.

I thought wrong.

It took me a couple of years to get as far as watching it - because many of the reviews sounded so bad.

And in most cases, the negative reviews are the ones to read, as they usually are the honest ones.

Unless it's a fan cult thing; comments such as it's not like the book written by some obsure SciFi hack, that star wars character should not have a haircut different from what it was in the original garbage filmed in the 80s; in that case most reviews are nonsense.

But I digress.

I was intruiged initially, only to realize a few episodes in that the story wasn't going anywhere.

Just like this posting, it struggled to meet it's minimum character limit, and apart from that produced nothing but aimless and meaningless filler material.

It's a tease, promising to deliver, but as usual you get less the longer you stick with it.

Avoid.

... which are any and all films and TV shows of that insufferable genre of fan-fiction flicks .

It's not terrible; but like all those star-wars/-trek and similar productions, they were based on movies or shows that were mediocre when they were current, and the concepts have aged even less well than the now unwatchable originals .

The Mandalorion had many entertaining episodes, and baby yoda was amusing for a while when he was still naughty , certainly a lot better than disgustingly cringy old yoda .

But marketing and those fanboys hyped him to death eventually .

In the end it's not rewatchable , hence below 4/10 ; the screenplay can't keep up with the admittedly decent filming, editing, casting and related departments .

The poor writing/story telling, directing , an incompetent creative department in general, and you get your typical star wars tv dinner package .

He can't act, he isn't funny, and he's a caricature of a black movie character from the 90s .

You know, being stupid, making funny faces, flailing his arms, big grins - just when we thought Samuel Jackson, Denzel Washington and others had gotten us rid of that century old portrayal of black people as silly jesters .

Eddy Murphy was like that, but at least he had his stand-up comedy to somewhat balance his carreer , and it was different times in a way .

It's also a bad movie for other reasons, like poor screenwriting, mediocre camera work and editing, and a budget as meagre as the competence of its creators .

Coherent storytelling and a convincing cast , it's not the norm anymore, so well done there .

The movie runs out of budget eventually, which especially shows in a rushed 2nd half , which should have had its scenes set up in a more elaborate way .

That and many of the characters could have used some extra effort to establish them properly - which requires extra shots and/or scenes, hence costs a lot of money .

The funds wasted on the unnecessary sub(sob) story about the daughter might have been better used towards that .

But what is in the movie, it's been done very well , given the budget constraints , so I think a positive 5/10 rating is well deserved , in comparison with all the best movies ever made .

I'm adding another point simply for the creators not cheaping out on the execution of what they got to work with .

Their approach combined with a more appropriate budget could have made this film a really great action movie .

Boring .

Not the story; as unoriginal and meager as it was, and the same thing having been told countless times before, it could still have served as the base of a well told film .

The topic is somewhat interesting after all .

However, the screenplay, directing , editing , and the efforts of whoever else is involved in the creative part these days , it was inadequate at best.

Is it the decline of competent screen writing in recent years, is it the production houses butting in, is it celebrity actors assuming producer roles they don't have any skills for ?

No scene, no dialogue was credible, neither was any of the characters - card bord cutouts in a paint by numbers play .

Pitt was the most convincing one - which isn't saying much apart from his ability to not get buried by even the poorest of scripts .

Robbie would have been ok to watch, hadn't she been completely miscast for the era, and not been playing a stereotypical 21st century brat taken from one of her other films .

Neither her haggard physique nor her demeanour were fitting the role, even the hair looked out of place .

I only mention her at all as some critics called it a 'Margot Robbie movie' . One needs to be more than a noisy caricature of former roles to get there - it's a bad Brad Pitt movie .

It's a film that desperately trys to be opulent, historical - even epic; edgy - even outrageous , but is none of that by any standard .

Instead it's an excruciatingly long lesson on the value of competent screen writing and creative direction - or lack thereof .

Taylor Sheridan - is he now an elephant in the room ?

As in - was he there, was he not, does he need to be acknowledged ?

Any movie and TV show depends on a team of people, to make the project a great, decent, or poor effort .

There is not ever just one person making all the difference, or even be the most significant contributor .

A great movie is created by a group of highly competent and creative people, which are assembled by an equaly competent group of directors, producers, casting agents, etc. .

Somewhere in there Sheridan managed to be involved in some great projects, and even get top spots in the credits .

Trouble is : He also got the headlines for complete and utter duds in his short carreer : amongst others, Those who wish me dead , 1883 , and now this .

1923 is part reenactment, part stage play , part retirement home for a couple of formerly decent actors .

Two things it is not - Yellowstone , or even close to other any production in that league .

It makes you wonder if young Taylor's talent is limited to being a pretty face, a desire to push his name to the forefront, standing on the backs of the people more brilliant than he can ever dream to be .

And while this review should not be about one pretend 'creator' - there is not much to talk about the actual TV show .

Wooden stage play-like perfomances, predictable, stereotypical; unimaginative writing, lazy filming and editing, story - what story ?

1883 was even worse - I'll give it that .

Yellowstone - despite it's loss of focus in S05 - is towering above both of them .

Lowercase and 'a' thing .

And no, the cast isn't good, it is terrible .

It's mostly the writing ; the screenplay was painting by numbers, using finger paint .

The story fits on the proverbial napkin ; it never even tried to be coherent, and it wasn't .

Not one scene, one interaction was credible ; no stereotypical , beaten to death scene was left behind - and being executed more poorly than ever .

The better actors are from the B-list bottom drawer, and they gave it their worst performance .

Wooden over-acting without cause; granted, the script and assumably the direction gave them nothing to work with .

Adding insult to injury was of course taking a couple things from The Thing, and randomly throwing it into that dumpster .

I think it's pretty decent; it just isn't a good movie .

Especially in the genre of war movies, and because the same story has been done before in a better way , it is not a film that stands out .

There's the screenwriting, which is unoriginal - and that's being kind .

The characters are hard to tell apart, despite an adequate effort by the actors . Again, an issue wit the script, and also the directing and production departement .

The film doesn't compare well to any of the great or even very good war movies .

To just name a few made in the past 3 decades or so; this film is not even close in quality to Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down, Das Boot(!), and some more .

Interestingly, all of the above have aged very well ; this take on ' Im Westen Nichts Neues' will never be anything but a style exercise, from the era when sreenwriting took a break .

Camera and editing are competent, if a bit unimaginative; again a sign of mediocre skills in the now 'other' 'creative' departements - directing and production .

Here's hope there are some competent sreenwriters left, that producers go back to raising funds and paying bills and not all 50 of them being in the credits .

And that there might one day some directors with the spine and vision of a Copolla , Tarantio, or Kurosawa .

The original movie wasn't very original , but it was entertaining and a decent enough film .

Not great by any standard, it didn't age well either, but pretty good for the time .

This movie is not only not original, it is stereotypical to a degree usually reserved for Christmas specials .

Every scene filmed and edited, every line uttered, every sentiment expressed feels like canned laughter .

While the first movie was at least good fun back then, this one isn't even trying ; it seems like the makers just randomly cobbled together the most commonly used themes of straight-to-stream action flicks of the past decade or so, and put a big shiny TOP GUN label on it .

Have your fast forward button ready when watching this, you will need it .

Snoop Dog can't act .

I thought I'll lead with that, must be a crowd pleaser .

No really, he can't act, it hurts to watch him try to do more than a brief cameo .

More importantly, the screen writers can't write screenplays , which makes this movie a pretty bad one .

Apart from that, the cast is ok with that one exception, filming and editing are decent too , but without a decent script there is no movie .

It's almost like Netflix was involved, or someone also responsible for that dumpster fire John Wick III ....

What else ? ... Oh yeah, maybe the tacky stereotypical family drama should be left to stereotypical family dramas, it was very annoying .

Cool truck though .

For an actor, it must be one of the easiest gigs to do an Elvis impersonation .

There have been countless versions of it, many in great movies done by competent actors .

I don't know if the young guy playing Elvis has no prior acting experience, or if he just isn't good at it .

Either way , he failed miserably - even Elvis could have done an Elvis, and he was a terrible actor .

Apart from that, the movie never goes beyond randomly put together anecdotes, is at no times convincing, and doesn't know how to tell a story .

Regardless of the topic, this film is a disaster .

Not a single thing makes it worth watching, it's just too poorly done in every respect, in every department .

The movie is not only technically inept, it never is involving .

And that is already too many words and too much time spend commenting on this amateur drivel .

Yes, the story is spam in a can, yes, the screenplay is a random succession of derivative garbage .

And yes, it's not an adventure movie, which the franchise is kown for and did well , or anything else really .

The direction , the editing, it's all over the place, at no point creating a coherent picture .

But what really pushes this thing over the edge, it's the little girl .

Not just is her character annoying and poorly implemented, and the acting of the girl actress subpar - she has the most annoying, the most pretentious British accent to ever soil the screen .

And I happen to really like British accents - not this one .

But yes, in general the movie is pretty bad , too .

Between the corny drama, the incompetent social commetary, the lack of coherent story telling, the cheap CGI void of choreography - it's hard to pick a favourite .

Maybe it's the humour, the entertainment , the hilarity - something MacFarlane used to be known for .

It isn't there .

It's just another pretentiously serious piece of TV that can't be taken seriously, and even worse - it can't be enjoyed .

Much like Cage during his carrer, this movie is trying hard to stay on the right side of mediocre .

And like Cage in the second half of his carrer, it fails in a spectacular fashion .

For old time's sake I wanted to like it, Cage wasn't always a poor casting choice - but you couldn't make a movie more unintentionally wooden and uninspired if Cage himself was involved in the production ... wait ....

One extra star above the minimum, for Cage's convincing portrayal of an actor who literally couldn't act if he had a gun to his head .

... from past mistakes .

But they never do ... It must be some kind of entertainment industry momentum, I guess .

Season 2 was a letdown, lacking the story telling of the first season, the humor, the joy of watching it .

This first episode of season 3 is a a complete no-show - no pun intended .

Cheap CGI filler material, coupled with even more shallow writing and characters than S02, even more lazy and soppy drama ; classic Scifi - even more - reduced to a mere backdrop for ... what exactly ?

Well, it's a paycheck, that's the long and short of it .

Roland Emmerich, that used to mean mindless entertainment on a high level .

Yes, it was a little heavy on the schmaltz at times, but that was usually more than made up for with an overall great production, screenplay, cast, etc. .

Not this time .

The cast, to get this out of the way, could have been worse .

Competent to a degree , but without much to work with, and picked to represent some sort of stereotypical mismatch .

Poor effort still .

Our hero however, it must be the screenplay, the story, the writing, the script - the people who didn't read it but signed off on it for the producer credits and the paycheck .

The dialogues - don't get me started . You need much better actors and direction to make that garbage work, and it'd still be a challenge .

What on earth was all that ?

No pun intended .

Seriously, how can a movie be such a disjointed mess of randomly thrown together scenes ?

How can one not be able to maintain even a semblance of coherent story telling, when the story is simple to the point of being non-existent ?

On top of all that, the CGI and FX was lowest bidder quality, filming lame, editing ... - left to some intern, it seems .

When you look at the claimed budget, it's not hard to figure out where the money went - a director who phoned it in, a cast who did the same, 'producers' who can barely produce after Taco Tuesday in their daddy's mansion bathroom .

Murder on the Orient Express it was not .

That was an enjoyable movie, not great, but entertaining and well written and excecuted . And of course an excellent cast .

This debacle was none of that ; a disjointed screenplay, a cast not worth remembering - an adaption of the novel you certainly do not want to remember .

Cringy , forced stereotypical dialogue and characters , poor camera work, editing, and cheap green screen recording for most of the film .

To add insult to injury, a diversity cast was forced into the movie, in such a hamfisted fashion, and with such unlikable characters , that ironically it will most likely have the opposite of the desired effect .

Avoid - it's boring at best, annoying in many places .

For goodness' sake, will all the fanboys of a silly game please be quiet !

Isn't it enough having to deal with the hordes of shills one gets with every TV show and movie these days ?

I played the game some, back in the day; it is fine, but just another video game .

It has no deeper meaning, it's just another shooter with a superficial storyline , like all of them are .

A game is also not a movie or even a TV show - completely different mediae , completely different way of consumption .

As for the TV show , it's poorly written, has a terrible cast, the story itsself is generic and boring, dialogues and characters are cringeworthy .

It also blatantly copies other SciFi shows, none of them brilliant either, and they don't even have a silly baby yoda gimmick .

And yes, the CGI stinks too ; and yes, there is a teenage lead act that is a diversity hire ; but she's mainly insufferable due to being a teenager, a terrible actress, and having to serve shoddy lines .

So this TV show is bad, but not because it isn't true to some mediocre book or game .

It's because the makers if this thing are not competent .