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Greenland Migration is not better than the first one but its still pretty decent if you got time to kill and do not mind watching Gerard Butler spend 90 minutes running from lightning bolts, lava and every other natural disaster the planet can throw at him. The whole thing picks up like five or six years after the first movie ended where the Garity family had to escape the bunker in Greenland because supplies are running out and the planet is still a complete mess with earthquakes, volcanoes, huge ass tsunamis and these crazy lightning strikes happening everywhere and after a big earthquake that probably totally destroy the bunker they were in, had to get out considering the amount of radiation and the chaos that was to escape along with the rest of the people in the bunker who turn wild, they decide to head across Europe looking for a new place to live which sounds easy enough until you remember the whole world is still falling apart around them and people are dying left and right from radiation sickness and the rest of the world that turn survivor mode. What I liked about Migration is the same thing I liked about the first one, it does not feel like one of those brainless action movies were things just blow up for two hours and you do not care about anybody on screen, you actually give a damn about this family trying to survive and there is real tension between them about how to stay alive when nobody knows what the hell they are doing, the kid is now like 15 or 16 instead of being 10 years old so he is acting out and doing stupid teenager shit which causes problems because his parents are trying to keep him alive while also dealing with all these disasters trying to kill them every five minutes, I do have to agree there are moments where things are just too convenient although keep always in mind this is not a Nolan level type of movie.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14850054/
• Platform: PRIME VIDEO

Rottentomatoes Rating Source The special effects look pretty solid most of the time showing how destroyed everything is, with these big wide shots of one person standing in a wasteland with chaos happening everywhere around them, altho there was one scene where they had to cross this canyon and it looked fake AF, you could tell it was all green screen and it took me out of it for a minute but everything else looked good enough, luckily they didnt spend that much time on this particular area. My biggest issue with this movie is how clean everyone looks at the end of the movie, like these people just went through absolute hell for weeks maybe even months traveling across a destroyed continent and Gerard Butler comes out looking like he just stepped out of the shower consider then even went through a fkn war zone literally in the trenches, also how most people die because a human shot them, I would prefer if more people die from the natural disasters which makes zero sense and really bothered me because come on if you are going to make a post apocalyptic movie at least make people look like they been through some actual shit. The ending also felt rushed and kind of anticlimactic to me, they finally reach this crater that everybody has been talking about the whole movie and I wanted more closure or at least a bigger payoff after everything they went through but it just kind of stops and thats it, like the movie ran out of money or something and they had to wrap it up real quick.

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Source What works in Migrations favor is the pacing because the whole thing is only about an hour and 30 minutes so it never drags or feels boring, they also kept moving the hole time and never stop in the same place for over a night, you care about what happens to the family even tho some of there decisions are pretty dumb, the disasters look brutal when people get taken out by the elements and you feel bad for them, but yeah the first movie was definitely better because it had more focus on how society collapses and people turn on each other when everything goes to hell instead of just being a road trip movie with some explosions and earthquakes thrown in, on this movie people are already settle in, when they got to London you could tell how society was still standing, a bit savage but still there were merchants, people selling food so the story never shows the emptiness of the surface after the explosions. Gerard Butler is doing his usual thing here where he plays the tough dad who will do anything to protect his family and he does a good job with it even tho the script does not give him much to work with, Morena Baccarin who plays his wife Allison seems a little off in this one like her performance feels weird and I could not figure out if it was the writing or just her acting choices but something felt strange about her character at time feels like she was not as worry as John for the future she was more like wing it and see whats the outcome, the kid who plays their son Nathan is fine I guess but he aged like three extra years somehow because the math does not add up from the first movie to this one but it really didnt bother me that much, this is not a very efficient movie at keeping the facts straight so keep that in consideration.

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Source One thing that really bugged me about the whole movie is how these people still have provisions after five years in a bunker that was only stocked for two years, like where are they getting food and water and medicine from, Nathan was loaded in medicine, are they still manufacturing weapons and insulin and all this other stuff because the movie never explains it and just expects you to go along with it. Also there is this scene where they meet this old lady in London who is taking care of people in a nursing home and she has wine and food and a car with gas in it and I was just sitting there thinking how the fuck does she have all this stuff five years after the world ended, specially when they constantly keep saying the more they move into Europe the more dangerous is, it makes no sense at all but the movie does not care and just keeps moving forward. They also run into this French guy later on who has solar panels and a car battery powering his whole house and he is taking care of his wife who has radiation sickness and I guess that part made more sense but still the logistics of how people are surviving in this world do not add up and it kept distracting me from the actual story.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #greenland, #migration, #sequel, #disaster, #apocalyptic, #survival, #gerard, #butler, #family, #bunker, #earthquakes, #radiation, #europe, #crater, #volcanoes, #tsunami, #effects, #action, #entertaining, #rushed, #ending, #movie, #review, #streaming, #theaters

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Drops of God Season 2 Episode 1 got release a few days ago, I know this is a small drama a lot of ppl either dont know about or just dont care but I do enjoy it for some reason, like the first season wrapped everything up pretty nicely with Camille and Issai finally finding some peace after that intense wine competition and now here we are getting another letter from dead daddy Alexander Leger because apparently one season of his mind games was not enough for anyone involved. The episode is trying to do this whole artistic pivot thing going from the high energy wine battles we got used to in season 1 to this slow burn mystery vibe and Im still thinking if thats a smart move or just the writers not knowing what else to do with these characters outside of there fathers shadow because honestly this is the type of thing that remains as a mini series. The free diving scenes in Okinawa look absolutely gorgeous no doubt about it, all that blue water and silence showing us how empty Issai feels inside even though he won the estate or at least half of it witch should have been enough but clearly was not, but damn it takes forever to get anywhere with the actual story and at some point you start wondering if they are just padding the runtime with pretty shots of bubbles and water. The whole unlabeled bottle mystery is interesting on paper because it flips the script on Camille and Issai completely, she cannot taste anything from this perfect wine while he suddenly gets these crazy visions of floating in the ocean witch is the complete opposite of season 1 where she was the natural and he was the robot with facts and data about soil types and vineyards. That role reversal could have been cool to watch play out but then Camille goes and pours the rest of this priceless wine down the sink like a damn child throwing a tantrum because she did not get her magical vision moment, I get that she is trying to reject her fathers control from beyond the grave but come on that bottle could be the key to everything and you just trash it because your annoyed at a dead man who cannot even respond anymore.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6867482/
• Platform: AppleTV+

Source The mystery itself turns into this fetch quest where Issai is running around talking to lawyers and auctioneers and old Spanish families and some lady with dementia in Marseilles, it feels like a video game side mission more than the intense wine drama we signed up for when we watched season 1 and the pacing just drags when it should be picking up speed and getting us excited about whats coming next for these two. Issai almost drowning twice in one episode to get clues is getting old real fast too like yeah we get it he is desperate and depressed and looking for meaning in his life after he literally told Camille she took everything from him but are we really going to watch him black out underwater every week for a whole season because that sounds exhausting, I thought the free diving stuff was beautiful and worked as a metaphor for his internal darkness but doing it over and over again just makes it feel repetitive instead of meaningful. The best part is when Camille finally shows up at the hospital after Issai nearly kills himself diving into a cave at 17 meters deep witch is insane without proper training but he said he have done like 40 before and pass out trying to do 50 so why pass out with a weak as 17m dive, but she is doing her sister stuff and she agrees to join the hunt not because she cares about the wine or her fathers games but because she does not want her brother to die chasing ghosts that might not even exist in the real world. That actually felt like real character growth for her and set up this buddy cop dynamic that could be interesting if they do not screw it up by making them fight every episode over stupid things, the chemistry between these two actors is still fantastic and probably the main reason to keep watching this thing even when the plot feels like its spinning its wheels trying to justify another season of content when the first one had such a satisfying ending for everyone involved except maybe the dead guy. Overall this premiere looks expensive as hell and the acting is solid especially the chemistry between Camille and Issai witch is what actually makes the story worth watching, but it feels like the show is trying to be two diferent things at once and those two vibes are fighting each other hard for control of the steering wheel.

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Source The opening with Issai doing free diving in Okinawa is visually stunning but also confusing as hell because your not really sure what your watching at first, hes just sinking into this dark blue water trying to reach 50 meters on a single breath witch seems completely insane and dangerous for someone who is not a profesional diver with years of training under his belt. The show spends what feels like 10 minutes just watching him sink into the darkness and almost black out from lack of oxygen, its supposed to represent his internal emptiness and depression after winning the competition but losing his sense of purpose in life but honestly it just felt like the director wanted to show off how good there underwater camera work was. When Issai finally tastes the unlabeled wine later in the episode he gets this vision of the Sea of Tranquility witch is aparently the part of the moon where the Apollo astronauts landed back in the day, but its also just him floating in this calm ocean under moonlight and you cannot really tell if its the actual moon or just some weird coral or jellyfish being lit in a strange way by the underwater lights. The vision thing is interesting because in season 1 Camille was the one who got all the visions and memories from tasting wine while Issai was just a walking encyclopedia of facts and data, but now the roles are completely reversed like an UNO card and shes the one left in the dark tasting nothing while he gets transported to this beautiful peaceful place that he desperately needs in his life right now. The problem is Camille does not understand his vision and basically dismisses it as nonsense instead of taking him seriously and asking more questions about what he saw and why it matters to him so much, she treats him like a child who needs protecting instead of a partner who deserves respect and thats going to cause problems between them as the season goes on and they try to work together on this quest there father left behind.

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Source The actual detective work part of the episode is where things really start to drag and lose momentum, how the fuck is he in so many different places in such a short amount of time, the episodes really didnt take in consideration the aspect of time, Issai talks to Talian the lawyer who points him to an auctioneer in Paris named Lecatra who then points to the Lopez family in Spain who finally point to this old widow named Audrey in Marseilles who has dementia and can barely remember her own husbands name let alone details about a wine bottle he bought 30 years ago on some trip. Its just breadcrumbs leading to more breadcrumbs and none of it feels urgent or exciting and he just gets to this dead end and though why not going diving the thing that almost killed me. Issai just keeps moving from place to place asking the same questions over and over again to people who dont have real answers for him witch gets boring fast compared to the high stakes blind tasting competitions from last season. The Spanish winemakers scene was kind of cool because it showed us a new location and they had a perfect opportunity to introduce a bit of more mystery but they just ditch it when the Spanish winemaker said immediately he didnt know anything about the two bottles without label, I mean nothing like a dead end, that make it felt rushed and underdeveloped like they didnt have time to really explore the culture or add some sauce to the mistery before moving on to the next clue in the chain. The whole episode feels like its setting up Issai as this self destructive character who will risk everything including his own life to find meaning and purpose again, but it also feels like the show is going to repeat this same beat over and over again every episode and that sounds like the perfect path to disaster if they dont switch things up soon and give us some actual progress on the mystery instead of just near death experiences.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #dropsofgod , #dropsofgodseason2 , #appletv , #appletvplus , #winetv , #wineseries , #camille , #issei , #alexandreleger , #winetasting , #blindtasting , #winelover , #inheritance , #legacy , #siblings , #winecollection , #biodynamic , #sustainability , #climatechange , #wineculture , #mystery , #quest , #winemaking , #sommelier , #emmywinner

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This is a cross post of @gwajnberg/the-outsider-a-good-stephen by @gwajnberg.

My review about The Outsider

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Christy was one of those biopics that sounds intense from what I saw on the trailer aside that I saw her beginnings when I was little, my father was huge boxing fan and I was not really into it back then but still watch fights here and there. Biopics are not easy to make at all and this one delivers in some spots but leaves you feeling like somethings missing by the end, specially for a movie running 2 hours and 15 minutes long which feels like forever when you realize how much they rush through. Sydney Sweeney does solid work transforming into Christy Martin and you can tell she put in effort to disappear into the role with the weight gain and everything but I feel like the movie skips over some parts of the story and instead of a proper biopic looks more like a domestic abuse story to be honest. The domestic abuse situation with her husband Jim played by Ben Foster feels rushed and not fully explained, like we see him being controlling and abusive but the movie never really digs into how someone as strong and smart as Christy got trapped in that situation for so damn long or why she kept going back, at least that how I see it, sometimes I find that not only biopics are hard to make but even hard to enjoy unless you really know the complete story and if so Im sure viewers end up disappointed when part of the story is skipped, for a movie this long you would think they could spend more time showing us how that relationship turned so toxic instead of just telling us at the end that she did not even know how to buy groceries or tie her shoes. That detail caught me way off guard because nothing in the movie made it seem like he was controlling her to that extreme level where she could not function without him, it felt like they threw that in there just to make us understand how bad things were but it comes too late in the story to really matter at all. The whole closeted lesbian angle is there throughout the entire thing and her mother is absolutely trash for how she treats her daughter, more concerned about rumors than her own kids safety which was infuriating to watch especially when Christy tries to open up about anything and her mom basically tells her to shut up and deal with it because the church might hear about it, what a POS mother ngl.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32323252/
• Platform: PLATFORM

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Source Sydney Sweeney really does transform here and its probably one of her best performances since Euphoria where she actually had to act and not just look pretty for the camera, she gains weight for the role and looks completely different from what we normally see in tight clothe although I dont complain about her in tight jeans. You can see her working hard to bring this character to life from the beginning when Christy is just a coal miners daughter from West Virginia trying to find her thing in boxing, she goes from this young girl at a strong man contest in 1989 to fighting on national television for Don King and the whole journey is interesting to watch even when the script does not give her enough to work with or explain things properly. The boxing scenes are done pretty well and you feel the impact of the punches, they do not shy away from showing how brutal the sport can be and how much damage these women take in the ring which I thought was a good choice because it makes you understand why Christy was so important to womens boxing back in the day, she paved the way for people like other female boxers even though the movie does not really focus much on her later career fights. Ben Foster is absolutely unrecognizable as Jim Martin and he nails the creepy abusive husband role in a way that made me a bit uncomfortable every time hes on screen like you already know you want someone to beat him up badly, I did not even realize it was him at first until I looked it up after because he put on weight and looks completely different with the makeup and everything, from the moment you meet this guy you instantly hate him and theres not one single moment where you think maybe hes not that bad or maybe he really does care about Christy at all. He always knew exactly what he was after, like getting her that meeting with Don King and training her to become a champion but its all about control and keeping her dependent on him for everything including her career and her money and even her identity, the dude is a complete asshole from start to finish and you just want someone to punch him in the face for two hours straight.

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Source The movie builds Christys story starting in 1989 when she wins her first fight and catches the attention of people who think she might have something special, she meets Jim Martin who becomes her trainer and eventually her husband even though she does not seem into him at all because shes actually into women which becomes a huge part of the story. The relationship with Jim starts off weird and gets worse over time as the movie goes on, he controls what she eats and how she looks and who she talks to and what she says in interviews and it becomes this suffocating thing where Christy cannot breath without his permission, its like watching someone slowly drown and nobody is throwing them a life preserver. Theres this constant threat of violence hanging over her head because Jim keeps telling her that if she ever leaves him he will kill her; literally, and he says it multiple times throughout the movie so you know its not just an empty threat and sure enough when she finally tries to leave him for real he stabs her like multiple times and shoots her and somehow she survives which is the craziest part of the whole story, what a mf badass bitch, not even men take all that and then carry themself to the hospital, I was like damn literally "Ill be back...", I did not see that coming at all even though he kept threatening to do it the whole time. The mother Joyce played by Merritt Wever just the same as terrible as Jim in her own way, she runs the household while Christys dad and brother work in the coal mines and she has this weird traditional mindset where she thinks Christy just needs to find a good man and stop all this boxing nonsense and definitely stop hanging around with women who might be lesbians because what will the church people think. When Christy tries to talk to her mom about the abuse shes dealing with from Jim, Joyce basically sides with Jim and acts like Christys making it all up or exaggerating things and even threatens to tell Jim about the conversation which is just insane behavior from a mother who should be protecting her daughter instead of throwing her under the bus like that, you just want to reach through the screen and shake some sense into this woman, still we human never stop to come up with impressive ways to screw things up.

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Source Jess Gabor shows up as Rosie who is Christys girlfriend and the whole storyline with her brings this intensity to the movie that makes you understand why Christy falls for her, she was great in the role. Katy OBrian plays Lisa Holewyne who is Christys boxing rival and eventually becomes her wife in real life after all this goes down, I actually wanted way more of both these characters in this movie because they were good and you can see the chemistry there. The whole lesbian thing is handled in a way that shows how much Christy has to hide her true self from everyone including her family and the boxing community and even the media, she goes on press tours and actually slams other female fighters for being lesbians while she was hiding the same thing about herself which is kind of sad but also shows how much pressure she was under to maintain this straight image that Jim wanted her to project to the world. Don King shows up played by Chad Coleman and hes got some good moments where he puts Jim in his place and makes it clear that Christy is the real star not her husband, but even Don is not really a good guy in this he just sees Christy as a way to make money off womens boxing which was a new thing at the time and he wanted to cash in. The movie focuses more on the domestic abuse situation than the actual boxing career which makes sense for the story they are trying to tell but it does leave you wanting to see more of her actual fights and what made her such a big deal in the sport, would have been nice to see how that all connected together instead of just showing us bits and pieces and moving on to the next thing.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #christy, #sydneysweeney, #benfoster, #biopic, #boxing, #christymartin, #domesticabuse, #survival, #lesbian, #closeted, #jimmartin, #toxic, #relationship, #donking, #katieobrien, #merittweaver, #abuse, #fighter, #womensboxing, #violence, #westvirginia, #transformation, #oscar, #performance, #review

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Alright so I just wrapped up Steal (2026), last episode on my way home and I got to be real with you, this show had me feeling all kinds of frustration at times, its all up and downs, it starts out with so much damn potential but somehow manages to completely lose itself by the halfway point, Sophie Turner and Archie Madekwe do their best to make this thing work even at the end she tried, the whole series feels like its trying way too hard to be clever when really its just messy and boring by the end of it, now dont think its completely boring because even when its on the floor it still throwing some punches, sucks because the setup actually sounded interesting when I first heard about it. You got this pension fund robbery where billions of dollars are getting stolen from regular working people who are just trying to retire someday, two office workers get stuck right in the middle, forced to help these criminals pull off the heist of there lifes, that could have been a really cool tense story about morals and survival but instead we get six episodes that four of them drag like crazy, characters who I stopped caring about halfway through because none of them felt real or interesting enough to give a damn about at all. The silent scenes are cool at first, they create this weird uncomfortable vibe but after a while it just feels like filling up space without actually adding anything useful to the story, by episode four I almost did not even finish it, witch is saying alot because I usually power through shows even when they get bad. You got to love Sophie Turner character Zara who felt real even trying to fight back at the end, not giving a sht anymore, everyone else either annoyed me or just were gone for whole chunks of the show without any explanation at all, the big twist at the end was okay I guess, I did not see it coming but I also did not really care by that point, the pacing killed all my excitement way before we got there, even with all that urgent music trying to make me feel something I was not feeling, Prime Video clearly spent some money on this thing, it looks solid, good visuals can not save a story that does not know what it wants to be or where it wants to go though, it just kept twisting itself into knots trying to look smart when really it was just confusing and kinda dull.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32499731/
• Platform: PRIME VIDEO

Source The first episode actually starts pretty strong witch got my hopes up for what was coming next, we meet Zara Dunn who works at this investment company called Lochmill Capital, she seems like your average office worker dealing with average office problems, nosebleeds and boring meetings, until a group of armed thieves swarm the place and take everyone hostage during a busy trading day, the tension is real right from the start. Zara brings in this intern named Myrtle Clark right before everything goes to hell, showing her around the office, introducing her to Luke who also works in the trade processing department, then boom these criminals show up with guns and force everyone to freeze up and hand over there phones, witch escalates fast. The leader tells Zara and Luke to stand up because they can use the trading system, he makes Luke load a flash drive onto his computer with six trade accounts worth over four billion pounds, witch is when you realize these thieves are not here for petty cash, they want to steal peoples retirement money, billions from regular people trying to retire. Luke is freaking out the entire time while Zara stays calm and collected, makes you wonder if maybe she knows more about wth is going on, the robbers force them to sign off on these trades and send them to a custodian bank, the whole sequence feels urgent and scary because you can see how terrified everyone is, they are organized and efficient, they know exactly what they are doing witch makes them feel dangerous. At the end of the episode one of the employees manages to alert someone in a nearby building about the hostage situation, police show up, DCI Rhys and his team secure the area and start questioning everyone who had direct contact with the thieves, pretty standard procedure.

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Source Episode two is where things start falling apart for me but still ok because you would though they need to slow things down after such a banger opening, but the pacing just completely dies and never recovers, Zara got the five million pounds in her crypto wallet after the heist, she transfers it to an external cold wallet, yeah now days heist tv series been done around cold wallets, the show makes it seem like the money is physically inside this little device, witch is not how that works but lets leave the details aside. She runs around her apartment trying to figure out where to hide it, first behind the refrigerator then under the floorboard at her moms house in some old memory box, the whole sequence drags on forever, creates this subplot about her trying to keep the money hidden from the police but it takes way too long to get anywhere. Luke also got paid but he is panicking, wants to confess to the cops because he can not handle the guilt but you get something is off, something didnt go to plan. Zara tells him to shut up and not say anything or they will both go to prison for helping the thieves, Luke keeps freaking out and almost ruins everything multiple times witch gets old real fast, you can only watch someone panic for so long before you stop caring. DCI Rhys starts investigating the heist, he is dealing with his own problems because he owes one hundred thousand pounds to some dangerous people, needs to find the money quick, this subplot with Rhys and his debt could have been interesting but it never really goes anywhere, just feels like filler to stretch out the runtime. The episode also introduces this whole cryptocurrency thing where the stolen money gets transferred using Bitcoin, a lot of talk about cold wallets and blockchain addresses but none of it feels accurate or realistic, you could tell they were just throwing around buzzwords without really understanding how any of it works, Zara has to hide the device to protect the money but that is not how crypto works at all, the money is on the blockchain and the device is just a tool to access it, all the drama about hiding the device feels pointless but I get it they afraid someone might hack it or once they find it then take it for investigation and accuse her.

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The middle episodes three and four are where I almost gave up on the show entirely, nothing happens and the characters just keep making stupid decissions over and over again because if there is a constant variable on this series is Zara taking the worst desicions you could imagine and done get me started with Luke who gets kidnapped by the thieves because he is too shaky and confess to Zara he is going to the police over the fkn phone and then call DCI Rhys to snitch. Zara shows up just in time to see him getting dragged away witch was some of the tense moments of the series, how it just keeps kicking and dont want to die yet. I never really care about Luke during the series because you could tell he is a lier and snitch. Flashbacks show us that Zara and others within her department were resentful towards Lochmill executives who were profiting from there work, here is where apparently Luke got approached by some people offering one hundred thousand pounds to help with the robbery on a Call of Duty session, sounds made up but if they know who you are I wouldnt find it impossible, Zara joined in after getting denied a promotion she deserved, so now we know she was in on it from the beginning, witch explains her calm behavior during the heist. What I enjoy the most about the series is how they really build up Zara character going from her apparently knowing nothing about the heist on episode one and just saving that girl when offering herself and even saving Luke's weak ass when he was in shock because he never though they were stealing 4 BILLION DOLLARS in pensions. We also get to know Zara way way more from her mom, how she had basically thrown her life away until that point and how the entire office thought she was the biggest looser of the entire floor trying to cope at partying every weekend. The show also introduces this character named Milo who apparently orchestrated the whole heist, has twenty million pounds hidden away but we barely see him until the very end so he didnt matter to the core of the story that is Zara, his character feels like an afterthought, there is also this financial investigator named Darren Yoshida who is supposed to be helping the police but is a bit dodgy and almost look like he didnt want to help at all.

The final two episodes try to wrap everything up but it all feels rushed and unsatisfying, there is a big shootout at the Lochmill office where Morgan is hunting down Zara and Luke, yup long story go watch the series but this all happen after she offers him Milos instead of hers witch has twenty million on it, they go to Milos place and force him to give up his safe and wallet, he tries to escape using pepper spray and gets stabbed in the chest, pretty brutal and he was the risk manager come on, peper spray vs man with a knife and guns. Luke tries to call the police but Rhys shows up and finds Luke out cold because he does not know what is happening, the other thieves realize Morgan is gone and head to Lochmill triggering a massive shooting and surprisingly no cops no nothing with automatic guns just blasting the place. Morgan starts taking down the other criminals while Zara creates distractions, Rhys gets shot during the battle but him and Zara manage to slip away, Zara goes back for the cold wallet and runs into Morgan but she tasers him repeatedly until he passes out witch felt anticlimactic, Morgan was supposed to be this dangerous villain but he gets taken down so easily, although this scene took so long I was actually rooting for Zara just because she was the underdog here, even took a few punches to the face and was still standing. After everything settles the media reports that Milo orchestrated the robbery and committed suicide out of guilt, stolen funds implicated thirty two high profile figures, the four billion pounds got returned to Lochmill, but then Rhys figure out that Darren Yoshida was the real mastermind who moved the funds to expose corruption in offshore tax havens, he kept ten million for himself as leverage to change the world or some shit, like that much money would change anything. Zara and Rhys confront him but they just let him go witch makes no sense, Rhys should have called the police and wait there or record him confessing something like that, this people ran out of creativity for sure, he literaly helped steal four billion dollars and got people killed, then Zara reveals she kept Milos twenty million dollar cold wallet for herself, this entire episode was such a back and forward of who is getting any money out of this without going to jail. Then magically Zara decides to walk away from Lochmill entirely to start something new, that ending is supposed to feel satisfying but it just feels hollow, Zara never faced any real consequences for her actions or did anything extraordinary to keep Milo cold wallet, she just put all in read and hope it landed on red by leaving the cold wallet behind on a stash and hope she could pack it up next day when she leaves the office. The show tries to paint her as this complex person who was forced into a bad situation but really she is just selfish, screwed over a bunch of innocent people then got away with it, by the end I did not care what happened to her or anyone else, the show never gave me a reason to care for any of these characters, they were all assholes making dumb choices, I gave this series a 6.5 / 10 and I hope it ends here because I dont see how they can do a Season 2 out of this story, just dont.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #steal, #prime, #video, #review, #recap, #sophie, #turner, #heist, #thriller, #cryptocurrency, #bitcoin, #lochmill, #zara, #luke, #robbery, #pension, #disappointment, #boring, #twist, #pacing, #rating, #series, #drama, #crime, #2026

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I can already hear people saying that this series is crap, this for sure comes from viewers who were expecting another action series like HOTD but looking at this episode 2 I cannot feel like the whole thing is stuck in this weird place where it wants to be Game of Thrones so bad but it just cannot get there because the source material is too damn simple, although ITS NOT BAD, it is too small scale for what everyone was expecting from it, a very drastic turn that nobody saw comming. Episode 2 starts with Sir Arland of Penny Tree walking out after having sex with some random woman and you see his dick just hanging there for no reason other than HBO trying to be edgy which was absolutely pointless, I just hate when they do that. I get it they want to show gritty realism or whatever but come on we do not need to see Sir Arland walking out with his junk hanging around when it adds nothing to the story, at least throw in some balance because this is just gross for the sake of being gross, they could have spend that budget on better armor instead of a giant prosthetic dick that nobody asked for. The whole episode then jumps into Dunk trying to get permission from every lord he can find to enter the damn tournament and none of them remember Sir Arland which is kind of sad but also makes sense since he was just a hedge knight who never won anything, Dunk keeps going on about how Sir Arland fought at this battle and broke seven lances against Baelor Targaryen but nobody gives a shit because he was a nobody who died on the side of the road like most hedge knights do. Episode 2 made justice for Dunk towards the end and we finally meet Baelor Targaryen who seems like a decent guy for once instead of the usual insane power hungry Targaryens we are used to seeing from House of the Dragon, Baelor actually remembers Sir Arland and gives Dunk permission to compete which is probably the nicest thing any other lord has done for Dunk in the series so far, his brother Maekar shows up too and he has that younger brother syndrome going on where he is jealous of Baelor and complains about his kids not being as good as Baelors kids which is honestly pretty funny to watch.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27497448/
• Platform: HBOMAX

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Source The whole episode also has Dunk realizing that Sir Arland wasnt actually this great knight he thought he was, nobody remembers him and he never won a tournament and he died on the side of a muddy road with an infected cut on his wrist, Dunk has been telling everyone how great Sir Arland was and how he fought at Redgrass Field and served all these great houses but the reality is that he was just another hedge knight who got by doing small jobs here and there and drinking too much. At the end of the episode Dunk is sitting by the campfire eating hard salt beef which is the title of the episode and he is reflecting on whether the life of a hedge knight is even worth it, sleeping beside roads and eating shitty food and having nobody remember your name when you die, but then he also remembers that Sir Arland raised him and taught him how to be honorable even if he wasnt perfect himself so Dunk decides he is going to be a champion and make Sir Arlands legacy mean something, turns out Dunk is Sir Arland legacy. Egg is there too playing soldier and pretending to fight in battles while Dunk is having this existential crisis about his life choices, the relationship between these two characters is really well done with Egg being smart and perceptive while Dunk is kind of naive and doesnt understand how the world works and starting to realize how evil and mean it is, its the case on episode 1 when those two woman were making fun of him and he directly ask what benefit they get out of it, very naive if you ask.

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Source The Targaryens showing up at Ashford is a big deal because normally they wouldnt bother with some backwater tournament but since they dont have dragons anymore they have to do alot more PR work to keep the lords happy and remind everyone they are still in power, you see Baelor and Maekar arrive with their kids and a bunch of Kingsguard in white armor which finally looks like it should instead of the weird gold stuff they had in Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Maekars son Aerion Brightflame shows up too and he is basically Draco Malfoy mixed with Joffrey, he assumes Dunk is a stable boy and then a serving man and when Dunk tells him he is a knight Aerion just laughs at him and says knights have fallen on hard times, you can tell right away this guy is going to be a problem later on and I bet he does something stupid that causes the big conflict and puts Dunk in hot water with every other lord probably. The jousting scene has some realy nice visuals with all the different houses represented like the Brackens and Blackwoods and the Tullys making a long trip from the Riverlands and of course the Targaryens with their dragon armor, the whole sequence look pretty good to me although it still doesnt have the same impact as in House of The Dragon when Daemon fought during the first episodes, over all there was more suspense and tension, in contrary this series is more about fun and drama and less killing and conspiracy, so thats where it falls short for whe everyone is expecting although if you take it for what it is then you are going to enjoy it.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #dunk, #egg, #targaryen, #baelor, #maekar, #aerion, #ashford, #tournament, #jousting, #hedgeknight, #arland, #tanselle, #lionel, #baratheon, #kingsguard, #westeros, #armor, #sigil, #sweetfoot, #horses, #lords, #houses, #dragon, #blackfire, #medieval

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Guy Ritchie made The Covenant and this is probably one of his most different things he has done in years, this thing is straight up serious from start to finish with no jokes or tricks, just two guys trying to survive and do right by each other in a war zone that does not give a shit about either of them. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Master Sergeant John Kinley who gets saved by his interpreter Ahmed and then spends the second half risking everything to return the favor and the whole thing is built on duty and obligation more than friendship, these are not best buddies cracking jokes they barely even like each other at first but they respect what the other person is willing to do when it counts and thats what makes it work so well. The action scenes are brutal and extremely tense, this one is going to make you put a grip on that couch arm for sure, with people getting shot in the head with no warning, bombs go off and you feel that constant danger of not knowing whos friendly and who wants you dead which is exactly what war feels like, its not some polished Hollywood version where everyone looks cool while shooting its dirty and scary and you genuinely feel like anyone can die at any moment. I really enjoy the most how it shows the interpreter as not just some side character helping the Americans, he has his own reasons for doing what he does and his own family to protect and when things go sideways he puts his life on the line to drag Jake Gyllenhaal across miles of desert and mountains to safety which is insane when you think about it, then the second half flips it around and Gyllenhaal is the one fighting through bureaucracy and red tape trying to get this guy and his family out of Afghanistan before the Taliban kills them all so its like two rescue missions in one.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4873118/
• Platform: NETFLIX

Rottentomatoes Rating Source The way the movie starts is pretty damn intense, you got this whole unit doing their thing looking for weapons and home made explosive factories in Afghanistan and right away one of their guys gets blown up by a truck bomb during a routine vehicle inspection so they need a new interpreter which is where Ahmed comes in played by Dar Salim who absolutely kills it in this role, like this guy brings so much to the character without ever trying to be the hero or steal scenes from Gyllenhaal. Ahmed takes the job and says its only for money not because he wants to help America or anything like that, he has his own history with the Taliban because they killed his son so hes got his own reasons for wanting revenge on these guys and its not just about helping America its personal for him too which makes everything he does later even more impressive. The chemistry between Gyllenhaal and Ahmed starts off kinda rocky because Ahmed keeps questioning orders and trying to give advice which pisses off Kinley at first but you can tell hes doing it because he actually knows what hes talking about, theres this whole scene where Ahmed warns them about going down a certain road and Kinley does not want to listen but then Ahmed turns out to be right and it saves everyones lives. From that point on theres this mutual respect building between them even though they still do not fully trust each other yet, its not like they become best friends overnight its more like two professionals learning to work together under extreme circumstances and I really appreciate that the script did not try to force some fake brotherhood between them too early, it feels earned the right way.

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Source The middle section of the movie is where everything goes to hell, the unit goes on a raid to one of this improvise explosive factory and they capture the location and find all this explosives and videos of them torturing people so you know these are not good guys at all, they set charges to blow everything up and start getting out but then they get ambushed on the way and it turns into a full on firefight with Taliban reinforcements showing up from everywhere. The whole team gets wiped out except for Gyllenhaal and Ahmed and they barely escape but Gyllenhaal gets badly wounded and cannot walk so Ahmed has to make a choice and instead of running away to save himself he decides to drag and carry on a wagon this American Sergeant across miles and miles of mountain terrain to get him back to base which is absolutely insane when you think about the logistics of that. Ahmed is pulling him through deserts and over rocks with Taliban patrols hunting them the whole time, he has to hide Gyllenhaal in a truck at checkpoints and almost gets caught multiple times but he never gives up or leaves him behind even though it would be way easier to just disappear, this whole sequence is like pure tension and survival and its shot really well with minimal dialogue because Gyllenhaals is just pass out most of the time so its all on Ahmeds face and body language to carry the emotion. Once they finally make it back to base the movie jumps forward and Gyllenhaal wakes up in a hospital back in America and the first thing he asks about is Ahmed and where he is, turns out Ahmed became wanted by the Taliban for saving an American soldier and now he got a price on his head so hes in hiding with his family.

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Source Gyllenhaal tries to get visas for Ahmed and his family through the proper channels but he runs into nothing but bureaucratic bullshit and people putting him on hold for hours, theres this whole section of him making phone calls and getting transferred around and waiting for paperwork that never comes and you can see him getting more and more frustrated because he knows Ahmed is running out of time, he even refinances his house to get money together to hire private contractors to help with the extraction. His wife played by Emily Beecham is supportive but also scared because she already mourned him once when they thought he was dead and now hes about to go back into a warzone again, this guy is insane, but she understands they owe Ahmed everything so she lets him go and tells him he better come back alive which is such a good dope scene between them, the performance from both actors in that moment is really solid even though she does not have a ton of screen time in the movie overall. Gyllenhaal gets back into Afghanistan and tracks down Ahmed who is hiding with his family, Ahmed has been waiting for the visas and feels betrayed that the US government abandoned him after everything he did, so Gyllenhaal has to convince him to leave and they load up in a truck and head towards an extraction point. The private contractor played by Antony Starr helps coordinate everything and arranges for air support from an AC 130 gunship and Apache helicopters, meanwhile the Taliban figures out where they are and starts chasing them through the desert in a massive convoy.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #covenant, #gyllenhaal, #ritchie, #afghanistan, #war, #interpreter, #taliban, #rescue, #action, #thriller, #military, #duty, #survival, #desert, #revenge, #soldier, #ahmed, #brotherhood, #sacrifice, #intense, #realistic, #brutal, #extraction, #debt, #honor

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I just rewatched The Strangers from 2008 in advance of Chapter 3 and it got me thinking about why this movie still has something different after all these years, its not perfect, most people hate it but I think its a good watch, probably I wont rewatch in many months but if find myself going through channels I will stop at it. You got this couple Kristen and James already dealing with their own relationship mess and then three random psychos show up just because they felt like it which is probably the scariest part of the whole damn thing. The simplicity is what makes it work so well, there is no demon possession, no curse from some ancient witch, no zombie outbreak, just three people in creepy masks who decided to ruin your life because you happened to be home that night and I cannot think of anything more terrifying than that straight up randomness. What really gets me about this movie is how Bryan Bertino built the whole thing around real life fear, the Manson murders mixed with break ins from his own childhood, you can feel that personal touch in every scene especially when Dollface knocks on the door at four in the morning asking for someone who does not exist. The atmosphere is damn near perfect with Liv Tyler walking around that house while the Man in the Mask just stands there in the background watching her and she has no clue, that scene alone makes the whole movie worth it because it is dead silent and your heart is racing the entire time, as I mention the movie is not perfect and drags a bit even gets messy with all the running back and forth, and yeah some decisions these characters make are dumb as hell, but when a horror movie nails the tension like this one does and keeps you uncomfortable for most of the time I can forgive some of the stupid choices people make when they are scared out of their minds, plus you need to remember this was made on a nine million dollar budget which is insane when you see how good it looks compared to movies that cost way more.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482606/
• Platform: PRIME VIDEO

Rottentomatoes Rating Source Bryan Bertino really knew what he was doing when he made this whole thing feel so stripped down and realistic, some of the best horror movies are made on those tiniest budgets when the director actually understands atmosphere instead of relying on expensive CGI bullshit and jump scares every five seconds like most modern horror does now. The movie opens telling you its inspired by true events and then you see two boys on bikes finding a busted pickup truck and a house with the door wide open, blood smeared on the walls everywhere, one of the boys calls 911 saying he does not know where he is or what street they are on and you already know things went to complete shit for whoever was in there. Then we get into the actual story with Scott Speedman playing James Hoyt and Liv Tyler playing Kristen McKay, they are coming back from a wedding reception and things are tense between them, her makeup is running down her face and you can tell they have been arguing about something serious, we find out that he proposed to her at the wedding and she said no which is awkward as hell now they are stuck at his family vacation home in the middle of nowhere trying to figure out what to do next. The way Bertino sets up the isolation is perfect, you see them driving through these empty roads with nothing but darkness around them and when they get to the house it feels like they are a hundred miles from anyone who could help them, there is no cell phone service out there just a landline and a whole lot of woods surrounding the property. The relationship tension between Kristen and James actually makes the home invasion stuff way more effective because they are already in this vulnerable state where they cannot even talk to each other properly without it getting weird, so when the knocking starts it just adds even more stress on top of what they are already dealing with, James even leaves to go buy Kristen some cigarettes because he is trying to be nice and make things less awkward between them and that is when all hell breaks loose for real.

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Source The knocking is what kicks everything off and its such a simple concept but executed so damn well, Dollface shows up at like four in the morning asking if Tamara is there and James says no you got the wrong house, she just stares at him through the door without saying anything and walks away which is already creepy as fuck because why is someone knocking on your door at that hour in the middle of nowhere asking for someone who clearly does not live there. James does not think much of it at first, just some random person who got lost or confused but we know better and later when he leaves Dollface comes back asking the same exact question, is Tamara here, Kristen says you already came by here earlier and Dollface just says are you sure in this voice that makes your skin crawl, its so simple but so effective. The way the strangers operate is so methodical and patient throughout the entire movie, they are not in any rush to do anything they just keep showing up at random times messing with Kristen and James, moving stuff around the house, turning on the fireplace, standing in corners watching them without making a single sound, there is this one scene where the Man in the Mask is just standing behind Kristen in the hallway completely out of focus while she is walking around and its one of the most effective horror moments of the movie, aside from it been a very basic scene with no music, no jump scare, just this dude standing there in plain sight and she has no idea he is right behind her, its incredible how horror movies can turn simple stuff this traumatic, the whole movie is filled with moments like that where the strangers are always one step ahead because they have been in and around the house multiple times without anyone noticing. They took Kristen and James phone, they smashed their car, they wrote stuff on the windows, they are playing this sick psychological game where they have all the power and the victims have absolutely none, its torture but not the physical kind its all mental and that makes it way scarier than any gore could ever be.

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Source Liv Tyler does a great job playing Kristen as this terrified woman who is trying to stay calm but is clearly falling apart with every minute, every noise makes her jump, every shadow looks like it could be one of the strangers, she keeps begging James to believe her that someone is in the house even though he keeps saying nobody is there because he did not see them yet. Scott Speedman is solid as James, this guy who is already emotionally wrecked from getting rejected and now he has to deal with masked psychos trying to kill them, he does not want to believe Kristen at first because it sounds crazy but eventually he realizes she is right and by then its almost too late to do anything about it. The friend Mike shows up to pick up Kristen and he walks into the house not knowing what the hell is going on, James hears someone walking around in the dark and thinks its one of the strangers so he shoots Mike right in the face with a shotgun which is brutal and realistic because in that situation you would probably do the same damn thing if you thought your life was in danger and you had no idea who was in your house. That moment changes everything because now James and Kristen have to live with the fact that they just killed their friend even if it was an accident, and the strangers are still out there waiting for them like nothing even happened, the masks the strangers wear are simple but so effective at being creepy. Dollface has this creepy doll mask with dead eyes, Pin Up Girl has this weird vintage looking mask and the Man in the Mask just has a burlap sack over his head with cut out eye holes, they look like something out of a nightmare and the fact that we never see their real faces makes them even scarier because they could literally be anyone walking down the street, when Kristen finally gets the chance to ask why are you doing this to us Dollface just says because you were home which is the most chilling line in the whole movie because there is no motive, no revenge plot, no deeper meaning at all, they are just doing it because they can and because Kristen and James had the bad luck of being there that night instead of somewhere else.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #strangers, #horror, #2008, #masks, #home, #invasion, #bertino, #tyler, #speedman, #tension, #psychological, #scary, #realistic, #atmosphere, #dollface, #baghead, #isolation, #simple, #terrifying, #knocking, #revenge, #burn, #murder, #methodical, #unsettling

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Yesterday I FINALLY sat down and watched The Rip 2026, this new cop thriller with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck playing Miami detectives who find 20 million bucks in cash at some random stash house and man I got to say there is a solid idea buried in here but the execution just does not deliver, its takes too long and it becomes a one trick movie. Joe Carnahan has made some decent action stuff in the past but this one feels like he got stuck trying to figure out what kind of movie he wanted to make and ended up with something that drags for way too long before getting to the good parts, the whole setup with these two Boston boys as Miami cops sounds cool and it started pedal to the metal ngl with the killing of the squad captain and then the fight with the FED agent, turn out Affleck character brother in the movie but the problem is you spend over an hour just watching them sit around in this one location just building tension but not making you care about anyone, also what was that weak ass "shooting" , nobody die and Lolo took a hit like it was nothing because they never specified it was just a graze shot. The movie tries to do this mystery thing where you are supposed to figure out who the dirty cop is but it feels so basic with all these obvious clues like Damon telling everyone different dollar amounts just to catch whoever is working with the cartel, the action scenes that do happen are fine I guess because Carnahan knows how to shoot a shootout but when I say ok its just that, the chase sequence was cool too but there are only two of those in the whole movie and the rest is just talking and trying to create suspense that never really lands for me.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32642706/
• Platform: NETFLIX

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Seen Damon and Affleck, and not feeling like Miami cops at all, they just feel like two dudes who got transplanted into Florida without any real connection to the place or the vibe and honestly after watching the entire thing I kept asking myself why make them Miami cops in the first place, usually when its Miami you expect the beach, fast boats, gators. The movie starts with the murder of their captain Jackie and then Lieutenant Dane Dumar played by Damon and Detective JD Bines who is Affleck get this crime stopper tip about a house that might have some cash in it although no amount mention, so they grab a dog and head over there with the crew to check it out and thats when they find 20 milion dollars in the attic hidden away with nobody claiming it. The owner of the house says she didnt even know it was up there because it was her grandmothers place and grandma is dead so the house is in probate, now with no one asking for the money back all the trust between these cops starts to fall apart real quick because everyone is thinking about what they could do with that kind of cash. This is where the movie actually works for a bit because director Joe Carnahan knows how to create tense scenes with long pauses and that synth music playing in the background that makes your heart beat faster, there are moments where Damon and Affleck are just staring at each other in the middle of the street not saying anything and the camera is not moving at all so you just sit there waiting for someone to pull a gun or throw a punch and those scenes genuinely made me nervous about what was going to happen next.

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Source The cast is actualy pretty solid with some recognizable faces showing up throughout the movie, you got Sasha Calle who played Supergirl in that Flash movie as the woman who owns the house where they find the money and she does a good job playing someone who claims she dont know anything but also knows enough to warn everyone that they better get out before people start dying. Teyana Taylor shows up as one of the cops and I liked her performance but she wasnt used nearly enough in the movie which is a shame because she brought something interesting to her scenes, then you got Scott Adkins playing Afflecks brother which was great casting because when he was in the shadows he actually looked like he could be related to Ben and the funny part is that he usually does action roles but in this movie he just gets his ass beat by Affleck in the first scene and then dissapear for almost the entire movie literally. The real stars are obviously Damon and Affleck and you can tell these guys have been acting together for so long that they know each others rhythm, I enjoyed watching them slowly turn against each other as the movie goes on and the way it leads to nobody being able to trust anybody at least for a certain point felt earned because of all the little seeds of distrust they planted early on like how Affleck got passed over for promotion or how Damon has had some personal problems that might push him to desperate measures or how Affleck was sleeping with their dead captain and all this stuff adds up to make you question everyone motives.

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Source The problem is that the movie takes way to long to get to the action and when the action finally does come it feels kinda generic and underwhelming compared to what the setup promised, yes the entire plan to shake the tree and see if the rotten apple falls was very smart but still felt like they spend all this time building tension with these phone calls from some disguised voice telling them to take the money and leave before people die and you think its about to turn into one of those bottle movies like Assault on Precinct 13 where bad guys are going to attack and everyone has to defend themselves in this tight space but instead it just becomes a routine action movie with some shootouts and a car chase that are fine but nothing special. Its not until like the third part of the movie where the it rely starts to lose me because it does so many flashbacks to justify all these twists that are happening, like the movie keeps cutting back to earlier scenes to show you clues you missed and after a while it starts to feel like the writers didnt trust the audience to figure things out on their own or maybe they just didnt set things up properly in the first place. There are also way to many endings like the movie feels like it wraps up at least three or four times before it actually ends and by the time you get to the real ending you are just ready for it to be over already, plus that final ending is so corny and heavy handed with Matt Damon having these tatoos on his hands that say stuff about being the good guys and there is this whole message about how good cops exist that feels like propaganda.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #rip, #netflix, #movie, #review, #thriller, #action, #damon, #affleck, #cops, #miami, #money, #cartel, #carnahan, #detective, #betrayal, #suspense, #drama, #shootout, #crime, #cash, #corruption, #twists, #ending, #boring, #mediocre

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Immortals came out back in 2011 and somehow this thing just got lost in time even though it had everything going for it, you got Henry Cavill right before he became Superman playing this Greek hero Theseus which was perfect casting if you ask me, Mickey Rourke as the evil King Hyperion doing his whole menacing villain thing and Luke Evans playing Zeus but not the old bearded dude you see in every other Greek mythology movie. The whole cast is ridiculously stacked and the action sequences are insane to watch specially when the gods finally get involved with all that slow motion carnage and gold armor flying everywhere, its basically pure eye candy for anyone who loves visual spectacle which this movie delivers in spades, what really surprised me was how much I enjoyed this thing on a rewatch because I remembered people shitting on it when it first released and calling it a 300 ripoff but it was doing its own thing. The cinematography is beautiful too with every single shot looking like a painting full of rich colors and dramatic lighting that makes even the quieter moments feel important and meaningful, director Tarsem Singh knew exactly what he was doing with the visuals and it shows in every frame of this movie, the whole story is pretty straightforward which works in its favor because it does not get bogged down trying to be too clever. Theseus is this guy who has been training under an old man his whole life not knowing its actually Zeus in disguise and he has to fight King Hyperion who is trying to release the Titans and destroy everything because he is pissed off at the gods for not saving his family from disease years ago, the setup is simple but effective and it gives you everything you need to care about what is happening without over explaining every little detail.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1253864/
• Platform: AppleTV+

Rottentomatoes Rating Source The movie is one hour and fifty minutes so it never really felt draggy for a movie that long, it gets in there and tells its story with some spectacular action then gets out before you can get bored which I really appreciate because so many movies these days drag on for two and a half hours when they do not need to, Mickey Rourke as Hyperion is pure evil in this thing and he is amazing to watch because the dude just chews up every scene he is in with this quiet intensity that makes him terrifying. One of the most brutal moments is when Hyperion attacks Theseus village and kills his mother right in front of him and its shot in such a visceral way that you instantly want to see this bastard get what he deserves, the action in Immortals is what really sets it apart from other sword and sandal movies because Tarsem Singh uses these Matrix style fight sequences specially with the gods that are just crazy to watch, when they finally show up to fight the Titans its like watching a completely different level of combat compared to the regular humans. The production team behind this knew exactly what kind of movie they were making and they committed to it fully which is why it works so well even if some people think its all style over substance, sometimes you just want to watch gods and heroes kick ass while looking amazing and this movie gives you that experience perfectly without trying to be something its not, if you loved 300 then theres a good chance you will love Immortals too because it has that same kind of stylized violence and epic scale even though its not as well known.

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Source Henry Cavill does a solid job as Theseus even though this was before he really became a household name with Man of Steel, you can see the potential in his performance here as this young guy who does not believe in the gods until he meets one face to face and realizes everything he has been told is real, the whole Greek mythology angle gets a modern action movie treatment here which some purists might hate but I think it makes the story more accessible to regular audiences. They take the basic idea of Theseus and the Minotaur plus the Titanomachy, I didnt know this term until I star searching assuming it was a painting of all gods going at each other, the all blend together so well into one story that moves fast and keeps you entertained without getting too caught up in mythology accuracy, Freida Pinto plays the Oracle Phaedra and while her character is not super developed she does fine with what she is given, her visions of the future add an interesting element to the story even if they do not always make total sense when you think about them. Luke Evans as Zeus is probably my favorite part of the casting because instead of making him this wise old father figure they went with a younger more warrior like version who actually gets his hands dirty when shit hits the fan, the scene where the gods come down and start wrecking Titans in that golden armor is one of the coolest moments in the whole damn movie and its worth watching just for that sequence alone. John Hurt shows up as the old man training Theseus and obviously you figure out pretty quick that he is Zeus in disguise but Hurt brings this calm presence to the role that works well against Cavills more hot headed performance as the young hero learning his place in the world, the relationship between them feels genuine even though you know the old man is hiding his true identity the whole time.

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Source The visual style of Immortals is what people remember most about it and for good reason because every frame looks carefully crafted, Tarsem Singh is known for making visually stunning movies and this one is no exception with sets and costumes that look almost surreal at times, the violence is brutal and bloody when it needs to be but its also beautifully choreographed in a way that makes the fights feel like deadly dances instead of just random chaos. You can actually follow what is happening in each fight scene which is something a lot of modern action movies fail at with all their shaky cam bullshit that makes you dizzy, the score by Trevor Morris fits the epic tone perfectly and elevates the emotional moments without being too overbearing or cheesy, it knows when to be quiet and when to go big which is a tricky balance to get right in these kind of movies. The whole production design deserves credit because they built these massive sets and filled them with details that make the world feel lived in even though its clearly a fantasy version of ancient Greece, nothing looks cheap or half baked about the environments which is impressive considering the budget was only 75 million dollars, when Hyperion finally releases the Titans near the end its this massive thing of destruction that leads into the final battle. The gods versus Titans fight gives you everything you want from a climax like this and its loud and violent and over the top in all the right ways, the way they shot the gods moving at super speed while the Titans are slow and brutish creates this cool contrast that makes the action feel unique compared to other fantasy movies.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #immortals, #henrycavill, #greekmythology, #mickeyrourke, #lukeevans, #theseus, #zeus, #titans, #actionmovie, #fantasy, #tarsemsingh, #moviereview, #underrated, #2011, #epic, #gods, #hyperion, #spectacle, #cinematography, #violence, #mythology, #entertainment, #visuals, #combat, #rewatch

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