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maxgallow
Reviews
Pyongyang s'amuse (2019)
It's not a documentary it's a travel ad
The director paints North Korea in strangely positive broad brush strokes. It's about the most non-documentary documentary possible. He barely touches on the serious issues facing North Korea, but rather,focuses on the most mundane social norms and daily activities of North Koreans. Which I guess is his point. He proposes that North Korea is becoming prosperous, their grocery stores are well-stocked, and their bars and nightlife is just like the rest of Asia. This attempt mostly fails by showing a practically empty and dreary piano bar. He films almost none of rural North Korea where life is very different than in Pyongyang. Somehow he makes images of marching children seem innocuous and normal. He doesn't mention that the reason people are gathering in the City Square in subzero weather to watch a sitcom on the giant TV is not because it is a social time- but because they don't have TVs in their homes. It feels more like propaganda than a documentary. So I guess if you want an hour and a half of very strange images of North Korea and A narrator who extols the "New" version of North Korea this is for you.
Hoarders: Patricia (2019)
Donna was pretty grim
I know what it is like to have a recovering addict as a sibling. I understand the frustration, anger, disappointment completely. I never felt the need to be mean. Jenny seems to be trying really hard. My brother took his own life due to addiction. Try to be kind. You never know if the words you say are going to be your last.
The Tesla Files (2018)
A Tesla reality show- not a documentary
Overly scripted and overly dramatic. it's a sensationalized account of who Tesla was and a super basic explanation of some of his inventions. From the first episode they are promoting a conspiracy theory that there are 20 missing trunks of teslas notes that the US government stole and archived. This may or may not be true, but because this "documentary" lacks any credibility we will never know. The narrator constantly asks the viewer " might this be the result of...?" All the while attempting to guide the viewer to a conspiracy conclusion. It's a shallow treatment of a deep subject. Tesla was many many things - a genius was only one of them. Many of his inventions work and many do not, and some have never been tested. I thought this was going to be an actual documentary not a scripted conversation between "experts" (who were annoyingly all white males) They have a biographer, an astrophysicist, a "investigative journalist", a research assistant, and a couple of other tesla experts Who have clearly scripted conversations between themselves. like as they are driving to Colorado, The research assistant asks "so what are we looking for here?" As if this was never explained to him previously. Rightfully cancelled.
100 Humans (2020)
Great idea. Awful presentation!
The three presenters/hosts are a total snooze. The dialogue is terrible, the banter is contrived, and they all appeared to be reading off of a Teleprompter. The Redhead is the best of the three but that's not saying much. I should've really really enjoyed the show, but I did not because I got tired of watching The hosts. Could've been a truly awesome show- even with the obvious flaws in the experiments, it was very interesting to watch until the hosts started talking. I would have liked to see more diversity with the hosts in age and backgrounds. Instead, it felt like I was watching a 20 something sitcom cast talk about their plagiarized high school research papers.
Watchmen (2019)
So Disappointed- damn!
The action was good, the acting was good. The cinematography was good. Loved her outfit. Why did I hate it? Well it jumped all over in time, with little explanation of the alt universe. The background was unclear. Characters were one dimensional and I was not invested enough to care. I did not like the pacing. Excruciatingly slow at times and super fast at others. So fast information came at you like rapid auto fire. The music was absolutely AWFUL! Mismatched to the scenes and actually jarringly distracting. Lastly, there is already lots of ugly hatred in the world. I can watch it on you tube. I watch comic book inspired shows because they are over the top fantasies with over the top bad guys and an escape. When I want to watch an uncomfortable treatise on hatred - I watch the news. For the record, I am a left centrist, and cannot stand trump. So don't go there. And what's up with the SQUID??!!
Salvation (2017)
If this is our best - we deserve to die!
So even though an asteroid is going to hit in 6 months, the main characters are driven by petty back stabbing jealous motives. It is so absurd. The dialogue is equivalent to soap opera foolishness. I certainly hope this is not how the smartest and brightest would act if we had 6 months to save the world. If so, we deserve to die.
The Lottery (2014)
So-so
Formulaic bad guy. Big plot holes. OK acting. Big secretive government oversees the last children but yet doesn't provide financial support for the last remaining parents. The government agency that is supposed to insure these children's well-being is in fact hostile towards the Parents for no reason. Not very original. There was very little that was actually original in the script. The science is also really badly done. Like no one even checked on possible reasons this could happen to make it plausible The bad guy was almost a caricature. The lead actress is about 20 years too young to play a believable scientist. Everyone on her team is under 30. Not gonna watch episode 3.