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st_stoimenov
Reviews
Chris Rock: Selective Outrage (2023)
flaccid, flatulent, derivative
I'm not interested in Chris Rock's political positions or half-baked social commentary. And as of yesterday, I'm not interested in his "comedy" as well.
I'm not familiar with his previous work, but if one has to base one's conclusions about his comedic talent on this special alone, I would argue that the comedy Chris Rock does is a sub-standard virtue signaling grot. Chris Rock may be possesses some rudimentary proclivity for comedy, but hardly a talent. His mind lacks the penetrative power that would allow his comedy to form the edge to cut through the layers of BS and propaganda.
Many previous reviewers pointed the fact that Chris Rock's execution lacks a focus, and although I do agree with that assessment, I think that its main shortcomings stem from the debilitating lack of depth.
The Spanish Princess (2019)
The way Hollywood keeps crapping on the English history truly riles me up.
Is there a significant figure in the British -- and most of all in English -- military, political or cultural history those creepy cretins in California hadn't had desecrated? And denigrated. And belittled... It gets truly annoying, but most of all -- it's starting to get personal for me. Not being a native Brit, notwithstanding.
Watters' World (2015)
Being far from the "Tucker Carlson Tonight's" insight notwithstanding
Mr. Watters is doing his very best to constantly add different forms of quality and value to the content he's producing. Arguing that Jesse Watters hadn't had significantly grown professionally since the show's early days would be a blatant lie. His monologues, for example, have gotten way more punishing and penetrating than the unnavigable mish-mash they used to be some time ago. The manner of selecting and interviewing the guests has had improved visibly, especially in terms of the interpersonal dynamic Jesse always manages to establish -- a true achievement considering this short format of only three/four minutes per guest.
But the MOST important -- and most recognizable due to the stark contrast with nearly every other anchor, and with CNN's especially -- characteristic of Jesse Watters is that he does not hide like an intellectual coward behind the very principles he otherwise claims he stands for.
Also, he seems to be very aware of the epistemic responsibility he shoulders. He accepts the burden of being accountable -- and amenable -- for each and every perspective, belief, and moral imperative he advocates for.
When hundreds of thousands, if not even millions, of one's compatriots trust one's evaluations and interpretations, it must be rather easy for a TV personality to forget the most basic journalistic truth that a commentator's popularity's invariably founded on the ephemeral notion of that commentator's usefulness as a tribune and a lightening rod.
Ma Belle, My Beauty (2021)
La France profonde...
That is a phrase that denotes the existence of deep, and profoundly "French" aspects of the culture of French provincial towns and of French village life, which withstand the "dominant ideologies" and the "state approved narratives" of multiculturalism (i.e. Anti-identitarianism) and progressivism (i.e. Anti-traditionalism).
"La France profonde" -- not unlike the rest of France -- is irreparably poisoned and on its death bed. For decades now the spirit of Frenchness itself is being deformed by the relentless intravenous infusion of vile and particularly malignant cultural pathogens.
Let the French ethnic body's decaying corpse serves us all other Europeans as a reminder and a warning what awaits us if we allow it.
This is what I took from this movie... Sadness for a once glorious country's utter downfall.
Killers of the Cosmos (2021)
It must be rather painful to be THAT uninspired
Why, oh-why, you CRETINS are always so eager to encase everything in such a disparate and an out-right degrading package, regardless of the content -- or the subject -- that is being parceled up. You really need to learn how to control your pleonexia, stop employing this awful perfunctory sensationalism as if it is the genie that grants wishes and can sell virtually anything.
Locked In (2021)
Obviously, they are getting extremely good at producing the kind of piffle...
...that makes you crave eating your gun, which usually means that somewhere out there a market for this hogwash has to exist. I mean, there HAS TO! Right? Otherwise, who would finance such an uninspired production?
I mean, are they laundering money? The people who pay for this heap of trash to be produced, that is. They must be. Or, maybe, for them it is a form of philanthropy? Something of the kind of "let's help out those incompetent actors, inept writers and substandard directors. They have families too!" Yes, that must be it!
Geez...
Pres prsty (2019)
just a slight clarification
The title of the movie is translated to English incorrectly. Or rather literally.
"Pres prsty" is an expression that exists in most Slavic languages. Its literal translation is indeed "over fingers", or maybe "between the fingers".
What it means, though, is a "botched job". It is used to signify something -- a job, an activity -- that had been poorly executed. I.e. Amateurish, sandlot, dilettante.
The Operative (2019)
UTTERLY meretricious
THE OPERATIVE heads my personal TOP 5 of utmost mediocre, uninspired and bromidic productions in the spy genre.
The three stars I'm giving are a sign of respect towards the actors who really tried. Alas, only God is able to create something out of nothing...
Year Million (2017)
in response to this...
"Sci-fi writers make their money thinking about the future and hypothesizing about how future existence might look if technologies and trends were carried to their logical conclusions."
If that estimation is even half- accurate than the show itself must be way worse than I thought.
Even the most rudimentary understanding of the nature of the social and political animal the human being is, and even the most basic social and/or political sciences literacy stipulate that this rather imbecilic habit of extrapolating today's tendencies, or at least those among them deemed as the most evident and most viral, into the distant future is undoubtedly amongst the most dull and irresponsible prognosis methods.
Deadly Class (2018)
What do you know, I actually enjoyed this!
I cannot assess whether the late-80's-America's atmosphere had been recreated authentically enough - I'm not an American - but even within the cinematic art's strict context, I think that the whole thing was pretty well done.
I especially enjoyed the soundtrack.
A large portion of the series' cast is rather young, more or less, and although it hardly can be described as a talent pool, these young actors aren't without a promise as well. Most of them obviously are at the very beginning of their respective careers and we should take that into account too when the acting is being evaluated.
Le déclin de l'empire masculin (2013)
What an imbecilic title
And by the way, the fall of WHICH exactly "male" empire? Since each and every empire was, and is, an inherently "male" one - that is envisioned, planed, executed, enlarged and protected by warriors, i.e. BY MEN!
Alien Siege (2018)
Oh. My. God.
What on earth would compel someone to actually finance such indescribable crap, is beyond me.
Siren (2018)
What do you know, not bad at all...
I like the mix of mythology, military intervention and weird science.
The lead actress, Eline Powell, is doing AN EXCELLENT work, as far as I can judge. That girl undeniably has a quality about herself and she passes with ease that rare and valuable characteristic to the character she plays. The other actors are a bit meh. That might change, for it's still too early in the show, yet I'm not holding my breath.
And only a TRULY confused mind would perceive the show's plot as having "a feminist angle". I got so vexed by this Northern European BS, feminist and transgender "angles" everywhere, it is so moronic. It's beyond moronic, it is cretinous.
Harrow (2018)
Holy Mother of God ;(
In my humble and "not-a-professional" opinion, just several years back, the Australians were able to compete with the British TV dramas' best examples out there. And now I was like "WTF I just had watched?!"
The lack of imagination in the script is out-right sinful, the acting is uninspired and substandard. The very thought that there are people who will be paid - or already had been paid most likely, and handsomely, for participating and producing this utter garbage - makes me question the very foundations of this capitalist system withing which we - as Homo Economicus - all function.
It's just... Oh, well, you should see it for yourselves. My English command's poor quality keeps me from fully expressing my disappointment at the matter.
Heal (2017)
The most underestimated breakthrough in human history
The full realization of the human psyche's degree of plasticity, together with the deepened understanding of its extraordinary malleability, adaptability and resilience;
together with
the introduction of the concept positing that by re-arranging one's mental make-up and by re-directing one's frame of mind's accent and focus, one could acquire the capability to transform, re-shape and, by doing so, drastically improve one's existential well-being - i.e. financial and social circumstances,
is among the few MOST UNDERVALUED AND UNDERRATED scientific breakthroughs in human history.\
This documentary could give you the perspective why that might be, as it did for me.
McMafia (2018)
A great show, indeed.
I just finished the sixth episode (out of eight in total), and I can argue with absolute certainty that it BY FAR is the best all-British TV series in the last three years, at least.
What's more, due to the nearly complete absence of American, Australian, etc. actors, and thus - dialects, so far a perfect and a rather pleasant British-English is spoken throughout the entire show. So for those of us, the ones who are not native English speakers, this series is a chance to be reminded how the English language ACTUALLY sounds. And I, for one, find it to be truly nice.
On a (more or less) related note, one shouldn't listen to those full-of-themselves Americans; it is NOT the British who speak with an accent. If the English language is "invented" and has evolved on the British isles among a British population then, logically, it's their descendants' today vehicle of communication represents the English in its PROPER form.
Honor Up (2018)
Meh...
This movie is all about the African side in the "African-American" indelicacy...
Requiem (2018)
BBC is either laundering money
And, as consequence, doesn't give a damn what the revenues and the feedback are going to be generated, or the people working on the "Management" floor had went completely bonkers.
I don't have other explanation to the question what cretin one has to be in order to commission such dumb series. It appears to me that the highest possible degree of incompetence and sterility are by far this TV station's main desiderata...
Whose Streets? (2017)
Not what one would have thought initially.
This documentary indeed examines a particular social and cultural phenomenon, but not the one that it claims it analyzes.
The real leitmotif here is the relatively recent advent, the zenith and the unchallengeable reign of the so-called Post-Truth Era which we're all enabling in one way or another. In that tenor, the message this movie disseminates, and even promulgates, happens to be virtually diametrically opposed and recusant to the one the author declares to be the documentary's objective.
Some of the smartest, most capable and highest paid professionals in the U.S. and the European Union work in the field of disinformation and prevarication. These are the propagandists - the PhD's in spin-doctoring. Their objective is to create such a cacophony in, what Jurgen Habernas calls, Öffentlichkeit - a public space outside of the control by the state, where individuals exchange views and knowledge.
This is what I, personally, got the strongest sense from in this movie - the cacophony, since it engenders the best possible environment for circumvention of the objective truth. Ultimately, there little doubt in my mind that it is entirely within these talented public sphere operatives' and propagandists' possibilities to render the truth largely irrelevant.
Hard Sun (2018)
So far, so good...
My hope is that if one makes the effort to look past the action (a spectacular choreography, by the way) and this genre-specific plot clichés, one's going to find a fresh and an interesting take on the age old dilemma that entertains the question whether people as a whole (as a society; as a global collective, if you wish) ought - let alone deserve - to be made aware of all the details and parameters of an impending extinction-level event.
Or, in other words - will we succumb to our most primal and atavistic impulses and instincts? Or maybe human spirituality's evolution has had finally caught up with the technological one? Are we all remaining to be simply cavemen (and "cavewomen", lets not be sexist ;) with cell phones and lap tops, or at last we've crossed over some kind of a mental - or a spiritual - threshold, thus becoming something... more? The thing is, we won't be sure which is it until we actually find ourselves on the precipice of some catastrophic, cataclysmic event. Once we had been reduced to creatures that act solely on their instincts and nothing else, then it will become clear whether the human nature has had evolved beyond that of cavemen (and cavewomen - I would hate to find this review dismissed on grounds of sexism and misogyny, hehe).
I think that the series have the real potential to gain "a must-watch" status. It all depends on whether the show's creators have dedicated more screen time and a stronger accent to the question has the humanity's mentality's evolution reached the point where we had finally become mentally fit enough to survive a global cataclysm.
If not, at least the show's entertaining, if nothing else.
Bancroft (2017)
stereotypical indeed
The characters are superficial and shallow. This whole series might have been intended as an ode for the modern professional woman, but the end result is a vaudeville at best - not very intelligent and with truly awful taste in men. The Black techy, really?