Tag Archives: thriller

(tv series) ‘Hunters’ season two way better than the first one!

I was surprised when Hunters season two came out because I thought it was a one off series back in 2020. I watched first one during corona lockdown and it was not a prime time of my personal life due to some other issues, so it remained in my memory as good, with good twist in the end. But, there it is! Second season, eight episodes and final season as poster above says. This one starts as first left us, with our characters, a group of Jewish Nazi hunters in 1979, dispersed around the world, some still hunting Nazis, some doing other jobs, some holding grudges due to events in the first season. But, one thing gets them back and joins them with another group of Jewish hunters, the hunt for ultimate Nazi, hunt for Adolf Hitler who still lives in South America with his beloved Eva Braun and plots how to come back and conquer the world. This one was created by David Weil(‘Invasion’, ‘Solos’) and has a stellar line-up with every character being so greatly written and done, from main man Jonah(Logan Lerman -‘Fury’) across Al Pacino who appears again in parallel story which prequels happenings in first season, to Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kate Mulvany, Lena Olin, Josh Radnor of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ sitcom, and of course Udo Kier as Adolf himself being grumpy insane old dictator, on the surface not having much reality based thoughts anymore and Judd Hirsch as Simon Wiesenthal. Since Jordan Peele is executive producer it was bound to have some interesting and a bit different parts. So, I love the hommage to ‘The Sound Of Music’, I think it was in episode two, and also the penultimate episode is I think something weirdest and also most beautiful that I have seen lately. Dialogues are great, there are plenty action scenes and deaths of dear characters, ending provides tiny window for third season, but I would like it to end here, this being final season as they announced.

10/10

(serija) Your Honor S01 – Dokle seže roditeljska ljubav?

Bryan Cranston se vratio starim stazama slave, odnosno tv seriji, nakon što je nekoliko godina izbivao s malih ekrana, otkako je završio legendarnu ulogu u Breaking Bad(kojeg btw još nisam pogledao, mea culpa). Frend mi je pričao za ovu serije još prošle godine uvjeravajući me da moram pogledati i da će mi biti odlična. E sad, nisam baš ziher je li toliko odlična kao što me on uvjeravao, a da je solidna, to je istina.

Dakle, ova serija je zapravo remake izraelske serije Kvodo koju nisam ni gledao ni čuo za nju do sada. Bryan Cranston glumi cijenjenog suca Michaela Desiata u post Katrina New Orleansu, udovca čiji život je sređen, nosi se s gubitkom, redovito trči i cijenjen je u pravničkim krugovima. No, život se zakomplicira kada se najmanje nadaš. Michaelov sin Adam na godišnjicu majčine pogibije odlazi na mjesto gdje je ubijena, no u vožnji mu pada inhalator. Sudbina je htjela da u vožnji naleti na motor kojeg je vozio drugi 17 godišnjak. U nastupu panike, vozač motora umire na trotoaru, a Adam bježi s mjesta nesreće. Nevolja je u tome da je vozač motora sin najmoćnijeg gangstera Jimmy Baxtera koji se zaklinje pronaći počinitelja iako tata Desiato zataška i štiti sina od posljedica…no može li ga zaštiti od savjesti? Zakotrlja se niz događaja koji će dovesti do poetskog no neočekivanog kraja.

Ono što je dobro u ovoj seriji su odlično napisani likovi, dobra ideja i glumačka postava kao i neprestano moralno pitanje dokle ide ljubav, a kada počinje kriminal odnosno kada se gangster pretvara u poštenog čovjeka, a kada uzoran i pošten čovjek postaje gangster i zakoni prestaju biti okvir za postupanje. Cranston je odličan i iz lika kojeg sam poštovao i zavolio u prvih nekoliko epizoda se uspješno do kraja desete zadnje epizode transformira u nešto vrijedno prijezira, odnosno počinjem ga hejtati kao lika. Dok, Jimmy Baxtera, nemilosrdnog gangstera počinjem shvaćati i simpatizirati. Problem ove serije je prvih nekoliko epizoda brzog tempa, no kao da kasnije tempo pada i do zadnje dvije tri i raspleta postane ne momente dosadno, filler epizoda i previše rastegnuto i kao da su autori otišli previše u širinu pokušavajući obuhvatiti više tema od glavne priče. No, eto, kraj je opravdao taj prazan hod i serija je zapravo kvalitetna krimi priča. Ako volite ovakve teme baš će super leći.

(movie review) Death on the Nile (2022) is a total utter failure!

I watched Kenneth Branagh´s rendition of Orient Express Agatha Christie classic couple of years ago and I must admit, although the movie had stellar line-up and promising to be a nice enjoyable experience, I felt disappointed and the movie was absolutely nothing to remember. Nice to see, but you forget it instantly after watching it.

Now, I was surprised how Branagh directed a ‘sequel’ which is loose word, having a new story, only incorporating character of legendary detective Hercule Poirot again and being a rendition of another great novel and I still remember the tv movie with awesome Peter Ustinov in the role of Poirot. He is still for me the best Poirot, although David Suchet played him decently in tv series. So, I was surprised how low can you go with this one. Starting with action in WWI? WTF? Explaining why Poirot wears his pride mustache?! The story moves from the mud drenched trenches to Egypt, where our hero enjoys his boat cruise along with newly wedded couple of rich heiress and her husband. Then murders start to happen and it is up to Poirot to discover and bring murderer to justice. Hmmm. The story is far from the novel and if you are into that novel, you will be angry for all the changes made in this movie. Also, line-up is again stellar, but only Gal Gadot was up to the task and I felt sorry and I was into her character and could relate to her somehow. Kenneth Branagh as Poirot just doesn´t fit to me, he somehow has no chemistry with character, somehow just becomes a parody of himself.

There is absolutely no tension in two thirds of the movie and it is just too long with to much slow parts when you await for the first murder to happen and that things somehow start evolving into crime story. I understand that they somehow tried to build up relations between key characters but that just did not work for me. The ending was somehow predictable and although they imagined it as kinda twist it was not really a surprise.

Conclusion: Just poor and it did not work for me.

Tension/Story: 3/10

Acting: 5/10 (Gal Gadot)