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Expert Pro Photographer, Cartoonist and Painter, Computer Tech Journalist, Tenor Sax Player and musician, 3D FX Consultant, Industrial Designer, Permanent Student in Philosophy, WWII Scale Modeler and Goof.
Reviews
Masters of the Air (2024)
What went wrong with this series?
First of all each Episode is lasting about 44 minutes but more than 2 minutes are spent with some intrusive titles (a suggestive collection of shots that will also spoils the future views) that pops in breaking the narrative of the episode. If you find this already annoying like SPAM you will also get about 8 minutes (!) in the end to present you with some more spoilers for the next part and the endless credits.
To me this is already pointing to some very poor choices in the editing room.
Then we should also consider the original book from which they extracted the lack luster script: I have not read this particular book (although I am extensively well read on all WWII Military History) but I'm sure it misses the emotional human factor that was so much relevant in the previous two series. Besides the vocal testimonies from the E-Co / 506th / 101AB veterans for the Band Of Brothers as well as some good memoir and books, for the Pacific we had top notch source material with such books as Helmet for my Pillow and With the Old Breed. Then we also have the script here that is possibly lacking inspiration and falls into some trivial writings that make me suspect these characters are real ones and not just a product of creative invention. Besides their names who are them? It doesn't really matter as they disappear in the cold blue sky and nobody cares.
Please watch Twelve O'Clock High if you really want to know more about these people and their sacrifices!
I'm not sure they can fix this mess by re-editing the whole series, if they have filmed much more materials.
As it is I find it a big disservice to that Greatest Generation and a travesty of real History.
Touch (2012)
Wasteful
The premise of first season was not that bad and engaging: leaving out the subplot of the ridicule big bad organization that wanted to exploit the autistic geniuses, each episode has a satisfactory solution for the case by following the numbers.
Then came the misterious second character who had similar gifts and the numbers are only given to solve this single narrative line, with a crescendo of murders and violence.
Instead of pursuing new and exciting cases for each episode they have instead chosen the easiest banal thriller plot with corrupt organizations, brainless cardboard villain and helpess protagonists.
Too many killings and nothing else leave me quite disappointed. A wasted opportunity.
Law & Order: Organized Crime (2021)
Stabler comeback was a huge disappointment
I was expecting Stabler as an Interpol chief or an UC FBI Special Agent fighting the mafias of the World and instead I find a mere detective forcefully enrolled by a dumb sergeant in a dumber squad.
Hopefully the single ludicrous case will not be solved until the end of a season, and this is another aspect of the format I was not expecting or eager to see.
A very poor script that is another betrayal of the original concept behind the Law & Order francise. This series is a dud.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999)
'Listen to me'
I liked this series when there was a real actors' cast working with some believable scripts, but from the moment Benson became the main character, both as a victim and a law enforcement sanctimonious operator know it all, the acting of everyone involved got so over the top to be either ludicrous or most annoying.
Victims, Perpetrators, Attorneys, Police Officers have all became hollow cardboard characters I find no sympathy for, but instead they are all hateful thanks to the mindless scripts.
Unjust And Misplaced - Sanctimony Viral Underscore should be the title from season 13th on...
Ye Wen: Zong shi jue xing (2021)
Shameless disgrace
Those responsible for this ignoble movie should at least be fined for defaming the Yip Man legend.
They did not even try to tell something new and even less original: they just patched up a few episodes from the previous fine films with some unbelievable ludicrous evil characters with the gullible heroes they were just dumb enough to conceive.
Strike Back (2010)
Uneven production but ultimately good
The first season was very good especially thanks to an excellent cast and a fine script.
The following four seasons somehow established a few likeable characters with some gratuitous naked bodies sex scenes to spice up some plot holes in the scripts. The action scenes are well choreographed and tactically believable.
The sixth season is utterly forgettable with some very dumb new characters narratives, amateurish unrealistic action scenes, and overall poor locations that will brake any suspension of disbelief. The only redeeming factor is the appearance in a couple of episodes of the former team, but just in cameos.
Unexpectedly the last two seasons have some believable plots, the locations are fine, the characters gain some depth and start to move in the action scenes in more effective tactical manners: a notable improvement without the need of too many nude sex scenes.
Rhapsody in Blue (1945)
'S Awful...
...Not George Gershwin, not His Compositions, not His Songs.
The awful thing is this absurd film with totally preposterous characters that should show us the drama of Gershwin sentimental life and motivations: they are completely invented.
I suspect the director of this film has no real knowledge or passion for music, or maybe it's just lack of skill by the writers to convey the creative dimension of a Great Artist as such.
I would have preferred an even imperfect execution and interpretations but an honest script to let us enter His world and transport us into the depth of His musical mind.
Instead it has become a boring fictional bio painted flat on the screen.
This was again as in those years they used to transpose in movies the lives of any great Artists: all these bio-pictures should be perfect candidates for a remake by some talented and passionate modern director!
Till the Clouds Roll By (1946)
In hindsight
You may very well say that after listening to the great music wrote by Jerome Kern as interpreted by many of the Great and Glorious Jazz musicians of old and present eras, it is really painful to watch this film as it actually destroys all those wonderful tunes.
The fake bio is already a useless device and most annoyingly it has that horrible (compared to Kern's compositions) and invasive badly arranged soundtrack.
Alas, this kind of films about the then popular American music, mainly from Broadway's shows and generally identified as the Tin Pan Alley productions I find truly disappointing: they should really remake them all and they should come out as they did with De-Lovely, true to the real persons and inspired by their Art.
In that movie, you may not like so much the singers or their interpretations, but the music is uniquely coming from Porter and the atmosphere of the movie as well as the narrative is never interrupted by a silly soundtrack or an absurd subplots.
Jerome Kern wrote such great songs that in this film are just condensed in a shameful five minutes medley in the end, and instead you have to watch the completely invented story of Sally and her father, all with accompanying violins, for a good 2/3 of the movie: very annoying.
Please remake this movie and get inspired and use Kern's songs and music only! And let it be an Artistic event.
This review essentially should apply to all those pseudo-bios of that era about all those authors, from Porter (luckily that had been already done), Gershwin, Rodgers & Harts...
12 O'Clock High (1964)
Nothing like the motion picture
I came to know about the series only recently, after I saw again the superlative Gregory Peck in the excellent film that gave its title to this: I can understand a bit of nostalgia that caused the reviewers here to be mainly enthusiastic about it, but I cannot condone the indulgence.
Of course this may be a ground breaking tv series for the specific time in which it was produced and broadcasted but to me it looks quite childish anyway, especially considering it try to emulate and IMO miserably fails a very realistic portrait of men at war in the flaming sky of WWII already masterly given in the movie.
The script in each episode actually reminds me of the War Picture Library comic books published in Britain I was reading when I was a kid: we have the same format with 4 chapters and the same stories of pure fantasy although there the drawings were made by some great artists often enhancing the readings with precise historical details both with uniforms, weapons, aircraft, tanks etc.
On this small screen we get some very pretentious actors and two-dimensional characters with laughable historical pretense of accuracy: we only see now and then some original WWII footage of aerial combat intermingled with other improbable characters' development that should drive the episode to a conclusion that it's never really giving satisfaction.
The music theme from the film: I find it unbearable and to some extent offensive they inserted that music as if to suggest an emotional connection to the superb original that here has no place to be.
The movie excelled in the story telling, the protagonist was very skillfully depicting the complexity of a human being in a position of leadership during a war and on deadly missions: here in the first season we see a mono thematic cartoon-ish character probably because the actor had no skill or sufficient material to even suggest a hint of emotion below that carapace. I actually prefer the protagonist of the following two season unlike the majority who commented here: to me he appears to show some human reactions.
My advise is to lose no time watching this unworthy mess and watch the movie instead, a 100 times better.
Catch-22 (2019)
A mindless production
The book is above all about the characters so that I was expecting a brilliant script for a whole series dedicating at least a chapter to each of them, just like in the novel.
The reading of the Heller's novel was so much fun because if you were not able to grasp what was really going on because the telling wasn't following any linear time (and this is also a clever device to let the reader forming the idea about the chaos of war and combat) at least you were hooked to the story of each of the guys, following them to the next chapter and crossroad when another one was met to keep the story going.
The movie wasn't that far from the written pages but had to cut some memorable characters because of the constraint of time: in a series they had so much time they should have profited immensely by just building up on each of them: in our times we have seen some great examples both in movies and TV series with multiple characters' story lines crisscrossing and weavering into a surprising design that we come to realize only at the end, and we enjoy the ride on such marvelous story telling style that leaves us enriched and amazed.
Not to speak of the complete lack of the satirical vein: it is not coming through at all.
If the production values (cinematography, location, costumes, sets, actors, CGI) are ok if not excellent, the scripting was uninspired, poor and mindless: ultimately this faulty script brings the complete failure to the whole effort.
The Warfighters (2016)
Debriefing
This is an excellent and honest series that collects direct witnesses to military operations undertaken by highly trained professionals. Skilfully edited with the original footage of the actions we see and hear from the veterans their experiences. What transpires by their words and emotions no matter how determined and trained you are, the toll of destruction and deaths in the chaos of battle still remains high even to such Elite Operators. It's again the ancient tale of the struggle of the human Spirit to attain Justice and Righteousness while questioning the means to do it, and the sacrifices of the individuals who take this burden onto themselves.
Dov'è Mario? (2016)
Not just Jekyll & Hide de_no_antri
I've just seen a couple of episodes and as always I find Guzzanti's work hilarious with ingenious bright spots. I won't enter into details as I watched it without knowing anything beforehand and I had a pleasant surprise: as usual the character here are very up-to-date and for the most part could be appreciated by a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of Italy and its sociopolitical realities, but again being a satire you can enjoy it as a universal idiom though I'm not sure how well it may translate in other languages. Well directed and with a bunch of excellent supporting actors Corrado Guzzanti shines in his doubled appearances and I had some good lough and food for some thoughts too.
Le quattro giornate di Napoli (1962)
Touching, historical masterpiece
Every time I watch this movie I'm deeply moved by the many true to life characters you see depicted on the backdrop scenario of the struggle Napoli's citizens suffered to get rid of the Nazis' invasion and occupation.
Many of the characters are not fictitious: the child Gennaro Capuozzo was awarded the Gold Medal for Military Valor.
The cast is exceptional with many great actors and the minor ones act in a perfect way too. Even with the technical limitations of this movie, I find it engrossing and very close to the world famous Italian neorealism masterpieces such as Paisà and Roma Città Aperta.
I highly recommend it.
Battlefield (1995)
Such a bore
First I should say I'm a whole time WWII buffs, I've seen most of documentaries and films on the subject, played tactical and strategic war games (both on computers and tabletops); I have read a huge collection of books and I'm an expert modeler on this historical age subject and studied in detail weapons, uniforms, organizations etc.
I had a chance to see this whole series and admittedly it deals with tactics and weaponry, but i.e. the images associated to the spoken text are quite often repetitive and even altogether wrong, belonging to other battles or weapons.
The music is such a soporific electronic noise it can surely help you loose patience upon the relentless repetitions of images and text...
It shows a very poor scripting and researches relative to the actual images of the battles they try to describe in depth; some few interesting and revealing information may be found even by the experts and historians, but to get them you have to go through a large amount of to say the least "boring editing".
Great idea, but badly accomplished: even the 3d animated titles belong to the prehistoric age of CG and look like a less than professional and low budget production.
I suggest you spare your time and stay away from it: look for some better documented and above all realized series and there are many.
Bird (1988)
Anthropology
Charlie 'Yardbird' Parker is one of the greatest musicians. Let go any mind's definition, throwing away any labels still stuck to the surface of it. If you read any of the Kerouac's novels you'll have a glimpse of who this man really was: defined by his music ONLY, the rest is just another juggler's show, everything is ALL RIGHT! And now that this lesson is somehow categorized they call it Jazz or as they were then calling it with scorn, BeBop (since for the majority of the musicians or public, that mass of notes were just popping out without any sense or structure), but his music is perhaps purely a flow in time, a burst of creative energy, lines of poetry declared without restraint, truly a-no-ther space where you can feel stories and maybe meet unfamiliar characters, see uncharted places through different eyes, taste another flavor of an unknown birth: just listen. Then it comes this movie: directed with love, great acting, beautiful cinematography, excellent sound work, honest script storyline; still I cannot see the Bird fly!
The Blues (2003)
What do you want for nothing: rubber Bisquits?
Not all the documentaries are on the same depth level, but generally speaking is one of the best series on any subject, in the whole... Some are excellent movies, and above all I place the piece by Wim Wenders: I quite believe the man is really a better documentarist than a 'movie' director; I mean, watching his film on blues, using actors and cinematography at the highest level, you forget about documentary, and just feel like you're watching ages lost films (just to contradict my first statement about this director: but I'm also thinking about the excellent Tokyo Ga from the same man!). Besides he is the one who is most successful, in my opinion, in communicating the great love he feels for this music and for the 'heroes' involved: well, he is also the most experienced director on this kind of subject, after his other great 'film' Buena Vista Social Club. In general the other documentaries are quite informative and well made too, but I also sense a kind of 'lack of a styling signature' from such otherwise GREAT directors (Eastwood and Scorsese above all); given that, surely it's worth seeing and hearing this whole piece of work.
Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns (2001)
Essential and accurate, even if somehow lacking
This is quite a great work of Love for a True Lover of Music: don't miss it! I would have given it a vote of 10 just for the beautiful effort made by the authors, and for the great commentaries included (Marsalis is just GREAT), but for the disappointing contents and lack of technical expertise in making the DVDs: e.g. where the heck is the 'Title' button on my DVD remote to call the tune details when they come on screen? I tried all possible buttons and NO result... I would have liked more special contents with whole tunes, even just audio, and an illustrated biography for the main musician mentioned... I also kind of regret they spent a lot of time (for me it was a bit too much) dealing with the beginning of Jazz: I'm a lover of modern music, so even if I deeply appreciate the New Orleans, the Chicago and the Kansas City styles, as a musician I like to play BeBop onward, even if based on such standards coming from the Blues or dancing tunes, and I would have liked more materials dealing with the '50/'60/'70. As an after thought I also agree with some other comments about spending too much time on some (still GREAT) musicians, leaving out many who surely deserve the spot light: it surely would have been useful to the authors to just read the 'Real Book' used by all musicians to play jazz standards, and discover some great works by i.e. Clifford Brown, Bud Powell, Wes Montgomery, Bill Evans, just to mention a few of the Greats of the past...
Greendale (2003)
Can you judge Michelangelo from his sketch book?
Just to answer to those who presume Mr. Shaky of self indulgence and amateurish egocentricity! Being what his name brings, you cannot expect a Kubrick movie! Are you in the latest technology to produce the highest quality in sound or images? Forget this 'movie': it's the revenge of the rascals! For those worried about giving him more money, so he will eventually produce MORE of this, stay still! Some praise this movie as a brilliant opera from a genius, who's fighting for the rights of Mother Earth to survive the naughty and idiotic children: humanity. Anyway, maybe because I watched it on my birthday (it was a present I made to myself), I enjoyed it as an intimate 'over the shoulder' look at a private family diary: and after all it's just this! A family story with a turn: we are ALL family, on this Mother/Father planet...
Please note: I cannot give it a vote; maybe there should be a 'Not Valuable' sort of option to place on this kind of works.
Band of Brothers (2001)
I add a comment here, but it's actually a goof of the Italian version
I'M WRITING ABOUT THE EPISODES SO HERE ARE ONLY SPOILERS: I HOPE THE PRODUCERS ARE IN THE KNOW ABOUT THE MASSACRE OF THE BAND OF BROTHERS THEY MADE ON THE Italian BROADCAST BY MEDIASET!
First of all the female in charge of the Italian translation evidently does not know anything about military terms, and I presume English language as well: all the series is distorted to a point the US soldiers sound (thanks to the translators) and look (thanks to the arbitrary cuts) as a bunch of idiots, in the more stereotyped way the military are considered: e.g. the plain word 'Nuts' so anti-rhetoric should have been translated in Italian as 'Balle', which is also a common use for 'words without any relation to Truth', etc. but instead it's translated as 'colcavolo' (lit: 'with cauliflower') that has 'COLCAVOLO' any useful meaning here, except introduce us to the misleading work done, I suspect with subtler intentions; afterwards, to continue with this example, in the original you can hear the voices of the filthy and heroic soldiers commenting in appreciation 'Nuts' for the General so far from rhetoric; in the Italian track you'll hear 'Viva l'America!', as if Pancho Villa is riding again on his white horse, and no s**t (I apologize for the rudeness)... There are countless cases like this, or sometimes less serious: the General comments to Maj. Winters 'so they took away your company to become Battalion XO' in Italian sounds like 'you have been assigned to THE battalion XO' a mysterious unit you'd never heard of; 'the order 'Covering Fire!' whispered by Winters to the MG crew becomes 'There is fire to extinguish!'; the discussion between Webster and Liebgott after the shooting of the presumed nazi on the alps, becomes a kind of apology 'western style': yeah, that was a nazi! The good nazi is only the dead one! etc. or something similar; no mention about the real discussion they had in the original! And we'll not speak about the dialogue, quite funny, between the British soldier dressed as a German soldier, and Hoobler trying to snatch his luger: the scene was just cut off... maybe they realized they were UNABLE to translate the slang, or quite possibly they were unable to get the meaning of any word! It's a real shame they made cuts for about TEN minutes on EACH episode, so to fit the ads in one hour show, I presume: e.g. you'll lose all the beginning of the Hagenau episode, with Webster coming back, up to the point when they are dodging mortar shells to go to the Platoon; eventually you're able to not even note the fact in the end when Webster is helped up on the truck by a friendly hand: who cares if there was a scripting, a director and an editor with a shots' list, beside the hundreds who worked hard to realize a scene and give it a meaning...? It's a pity they also cut off scene like when Toye gives a lenghty list of all the equipment before the jump: no words there had any possible meaning for them; maybe the translators were not paid in full, or possibly they were over payed, who knows? Luckily I'd saw the series already before coming to Italy, beside having read the book. If I were HBO or the Producers, I'd sue the Italian distributors... And sorry for the Lenght! But if you need more details, let me know! I'm not sure what the Italian DVD edition contains: I own only the English language one!
A Perfect Spy (1987)
Dis-illusions
Illudere (to delude) comes from Latin verb 'ludere' (to play), so you're introduced to the 'spy game' as a cruel and yet elaborate and intelligent (!) activity stemming from a complex and as it may appear absurd and vain personal history, whatever it may be; and yet I feel fascinated by the mechanism of treason and loyalty that we are presented in this narrative, the raw material of any relationship, from the personal to the social.
Many years ago when I finally finished reading the book it was a revelation!
At the beginning I was so bored if not for the surprising style of the writing (I really started to love Le Carre after that novel).
The main character is not wavering at all: he has made a choice to redeem his weakness by following the path of faith to friendship and love, or is he not?
After this novel you can have a clearer understanding of the darker version of Green's 'Our Man in Havana', LeCarre's 'The Tailor of Panama'; there you'll end up where there is no game left, there it ends either in tragedy or in a grotesque comical way, or both.
There is no Smiley here to upheld decent human qualities in 'the service', or at least there is no point to introduce him in this case. The BBC has done a superb work with these series from LeCarre's novels: the actors are excellent, as are the locations and sets; the script here is adapted in a linear way that somehow disarm the explosive narrative of the book.
Be warned though, even if someone may find the main character's end laughable in a cynical way, the after taste is bitter.
Enemy at the Gates (2001)
A wasted opportunity
I was just reading the superb book by William Craig 'Enemy At The Gates' when they announced they were shooting the movie so my expectations were really high, since there is SO MUCH material and SO MANY characters in the book that covers the Stalingrad's battle.
As in some latest historical or 'fiction-historical' productions there had been some good examples on how to make the story flow between so many characters intersecting each other, or sharing just a common place if not a common time. I should not say this is a bad movie as for the actors or the effects, but to me it lacks completely of inspiration. All the rich material from the book has been erased to give space to a kind of stereotyped single handed duel: my advise to the producers is to change the title in 'High Noon at Stalingrad'; to the viewers, please read this important and beautiful book: you'll then know what I mean!
As an after thought, it is NOT enough to use the flying past bullets' effect after 'Saving Private Ryan' to create a realistic WWII story! After reading others' comments, I remembered there had been some beautiful movies about WWII in Russia: the horrific 'Idi i smotri - Go and See' or 'Stalingrad'; the great Tarkowsky's 'Childhood of Ivan'; even the fictitious Peckinpah's 'Cross of Iron', all were much superior and effective in taking the audience to the front lines and its horrors.
The Householder (1963)
A Great Little GEM! Don't miss it!
Well, only if you have some deep psychotic Indian adventure, you'll understand the actual conflict taking place in the main character (a Shashi Kapoor at his best!), as in one of the most typical themes found in the novels of Hermann Hesse: is the spiritual life so much different from the material life? In India as elsewhere too, people left kingdoms to become beggars and realize the Truth; in time some Saints demonstrated realization of the Highest cannot be a consequence of the manner this body lives. This theme is quite complex and convoluted, but here Ivory deals with it in such a fair and light manner; you may even feel to watch a neo-realistic movie, as the environments and characters are dealt with. Tender and at the same time raw, sometime even fun in its small tragedy... Very touching is the sequence when you hear some devotees singing a beautiful sacred Bhajan in the forest to a Saint looking so much as the late Shri J. Krishnamurti, who sings a couplet from Kabir's poetry...
Magnum, P.I. (1980)
Mugnum hook
It happened I was in front of the screen watching an episode, not even from the titles... If I remember well it was a summer day, or night, some twenty years ago! when by chance I saw an episode I now recognize as a third season one; I was puzzled then since I realized I was missing something from the life's stories of these intriguing characters: it was like intruding in someone else's life, more than a pi standard TV-movie... That's it: I believe you're hooked by the believable interaction of the main characters, their likes and dislikes; some episodes are quite 'poor' and unbelievable, but never awful; other episodes are more complex and well shot; but almost always you'll have some fun with them; and finally Magnum's off screen voice is capturing your attention, and make you another close friend worth of his confidence... After so many years, one day I just missed that feeling and I discovered the two first seasons were published on DVD, so now, after watching them, I feel reassured of not being a 'stranger' in Magnum's world anymore....
Lord of War (2005)
Is this a remake...?
Well, I've appreciated this movie, but something is hitting back in the 'after-shock', and this is the reason for not so high a vote: first of all I would have preferred it filmed on a black and white film, or a mixture of B&W and Color, so as to appear more dry and 'reportage-like'; I believe that would have solved much of the past-impression I got of some kind of indulgence about 'weapons ads', video games and blood shedding... from the first title sequence onward... The second point, and this comes probably from my being Italian, I was already somehow accustomed to this subject, since I saw this kind of characters and situations in one of Alberto Sordi's movie, 'Finché c'è guerra c'è speranza (1974)'; I should also admit this is not just a carbon copy of that work, and not just because of its updates: possibly you may consider it as an homage to that movie as well, but I feel someone should have pointed it out here!
The Source: The Story of the Beats and the Beat Generation (1999)
Frames Cutting Up Through Time Endlessly: Watching TV
No comment can make them alive again: they have gone some other place, some other time... Those crazy poets, wonderful wanderers, so human and so divine, so simple and still so far from the ordinary. They are the true spirit of the first pioneers, seeking an unknown unexplored space, inside! To have a glimpse of those gone lands, to scratch the surface of those lost moments, watch this and if you find yourself asking where those Beats have gone, you will find the answer.
The cuts are clean, the time of recollection is brought by silence, between words, between the frames. Very polite, and sincere, almost an apology. The longing remains. Can you still hit the road to enlightenment? No answer is given. And them survivors can still proclaim 'I'm still burning'. Them dead are still dead, their dry mouths wording without sound. The fire has spread, from lamp to lamp, and the trip has now some clear signs along the path. This is the witness bringing testimony to their uncommon greatness. Observe it!