tandrasmiklos Reviews

Extinction (2018)

Very cerebral take, that still misses the bigger picture

[5/10 · 13 June 2021]

I get what the makers of this movies were trying to do, and can speculate to their philosophy in writing the story, however in my opinion their over-the-top fundamentally anti-humanistic beliefs are why they fail to convince most of their audience. Well the kids are annoying too, but I think the plot has deeper issues.

First of all, the viewpoint of the makers suggests that of a posthumanist. This generally means that they doubt the goodness and/or self-rightousness of humans, and think our imperfection makes us less than worthy of what we have. That is the reason they try to flip the script on it's head to try to put the machines as the good guys, and humans as the bad guys. By the way, this "flipping on the head" is visually demonstrated as the main character realizes that he is a machine. This change of viewpoint is all done in an effort to show us our own hypocrisy, and also the supposed relativity of morality. To make it believeable, this is orchestrated in a way where synths seem more human than humans that invade from Mars. Of course the attempt is to make us feel empathetic towards the machines, and wary towards the invaders.

If we analyse the moral undertone of the story further, we find that indeed, initially the humans were in the wrong to try to exterminate the machines 50 years ago. After all, they were starting to become self determinant, so the morally good choice would have been to raise their rights up. On the other hand, the reaction of the machines was considered self defense according to the story, so it was not considered harshly. This is also a passable point, morally speaking. However, the foundation is shaky, which is where the whole thing doesn't seem convincing. And fair enough, it is an alternate timeline, but if the viewer doesn't believe it, it won't work.

Where the whole tale is unbelieveable is the initial choice to employ synthetic AI as workforce. Even Asimov wrote stories warning us of such cases, and each story's conclusion was that if we invented true AI, we couldn't employ them like manual labor. And frankly, it would make no sense to do so, especially using synths. But even morally, we would already be aware of the pitfalls, because we had stories like these since around the 1950s. So from the standpoint of a viewer today, the whole hypothetical storyline seems like something we are already over discussing. If we made AI, we'd basically have to treat them on an equal level, and there's little room to subjugate such beings.

But knowing this, all the story does is trying to push feelings and ideas into our heads in a patronizing and manipulative way. One thing is for sure, it doesn't add to the conversation.

Sex Education (2019–2023)

An okay series, but major inconsistencies in story

[6/10 · 1 February 2019]

Overall, I found this series entertaining. The characters are great, acting is quite good despite the young actors. I found the music pleasing. The pictures were quite well done, even if it could be described as boring at places.

The negative side is the over the top politicization of a teen drama, and it's unrealistic effects on the story. Just to point out the most glaring for me: at the end of the season, there is no way the main character would rather have gone for Ola instead of Maeve. Maeve's character gave a clear indication of attraction, and the main character is clearly attracted to her as well (she should be his first pick). Even despite his inferiority complex, it just seems outside of character for Otis to just move on with an other relationship, when his whole thing was trying to get close to her. The asking for sex from a random girl was believeable compared to this. This is underlined by Oti's supposedly mature speech (again, very unbelieveable from a teen with first love) at the end of the school dance about letting people who can't reciprocitate our feelings go. Sure, people do that, but not in a few weeks. And Ola wasn't shown to be such a strong love interest to make Otis forget about Maeve either. I understand that writers would want something different than happy end to make things interesting, but this is just a ruined orgasm.

Succession (2018–2023)

Relatabe for all social classes

[5/10 · 7 August 2018]

This is a quite well written and acted drama series, detailing the intricacies of the lives of "modern nobility". The setting here is very similar to an other TV series with similar premise: Dallas. Which means there is little new that can be shown regarding the theme. However, the interesting part of the series is the relationship of an all powerful father figure with his children and how they relate to everyone around them. We get to slowly see the children's characters be shown to us, and also how they try to change the status quo, where their father is the wielder of all the power, and they have to dance to his wishes. However, the series has a flaw: it's limited scope. The things that makes it work is the same thing that is it's downfall. It's that the father figure can't lose, and he can't die, because it would cause the collapse of the center what's interesting in the first place. Killing or incapacitating Logan Roy seemingly would stop the whole world that was created. Because of this reason, by episode 10, we see Logan Roy being saved by deux ex machina and being ruthless several times. Which means, the overarching message becomes: If you are just lucky and manipulative enough, you can be king. This should be mended very soon, because if Logan escapes too many ends, it will become repetitive, and frankly, incredibly boring. Obviously, for a successor which can elevate this plot to a notable degree, one of the children would have to look at their moral compass. One of them has to realize the nature of what they are doing, and that their father has become and incredibly corrupt person. One of them has to find out who their father really was, and really is, and then naturally become someone who can rise above him. Then, a bigger plot has to develop with the new leader: on one hand, he or she has to realize the nature of media and unlimited resources as the corruption to contend against, all the while being assaulted on all sides. An honorable mention has to be the great music that has been complied for the series, which very much contribue to the tone of the end product.

Cloak & Dagger (2018–2019)

Not bad, quite exciting

[5/10 · 9 June 2018]

I liked the cinematography and the music, they help with the overly emotional plotline. Everyone here is downtrodden, barely keeping it together. It's interesting to see how Cloak's family tried to do better after the death of their son, however Dagger's mom couldn't deal with her sorrow and they fell apart. Yes, there is a certain political aspect to this show, however at least it's not blatantly genderist like Impulse. I feel this one is much more about how you deal with pain and tragedies than Impulse, where they try to write everything into dialog. Here, there's much less dialog, and the actors play decently enough for us to get how they feel. The decrease in dialog makes this series a whole lot less cheezy than other superhero series like Flash, Green Arrow or Smallvile. Marvel thankfully doesn't push this in most of their series, which saves us from a lot of secondary shame. I also like the possibility the two types of mind reading gives to the plot: this was we still get to know what the characters wish for or fear, without bad dialog. On the other hand, I see how this could be seen as overly emotional, politically driven, and a bit flat storyline. I like the characters from the comics, so I'm probably more attached to them than avarage. Finally, I gave it 6 starts, but I feel like imdb ratings are over the top in most cases. My 6 is other people's 8.

This is my star rating system: 1 star: I wouldn't even let my dog watch this 2 star: I forbid my mom from watching 3 star: I let my mom watch this, but I would never watch it 4 star: I might watch it if I don't fear my depression at that particular time 5 star : Avarage flick, good to watch once to spend time, but not that exciting 6 star: Actually makes me feel things for one reason or the other, better than avarage, but has several mistakes, but I only recommend for fans of genre 7 star: Despite it's mistakes, I'd recommend this to people 8 star: Highly recommended to watch, contains deeper meaning 9 star: Must watch, get watching! 10 star: Timeless masterpiece, if you haven't watched it you have 3 hours to make ammends.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

The best Marvel movie after Deadpool

[6/10 · 26 April 2018]

I consider Deadpool the best Marvel movie because it ironically exposes us to the fact that we enjoy watching fictional characters jump around, say stupid heroic lines and save people. It gives us the phylosophical questions: "Why can't we enjoy our current reality?" or "Is our reality/story more real than Deadpool's?" I think it is pretty obvious, we use these stories to create a non-religious (for most people lol, shoutout to geeks:) mythology. Altough nowadays Marvel movies have come closer to not taking things seriously, there's still some overly serious attitude involved in "saving" the world. Of course, the best part about this one is that it's underlying question is serious, and the dialog always tries to joke, just like in the comics, just like Deadpool. And the meaning behind this movie's story? It's probably the dilemma of the Christ and the anti-Christ. Thanos's motivation for destroying half the living population in the universe is purely economical: he wants the living to prosper, he deems a universe wide Holocaust necessary. All this, after gaining the highest power known in the universe, which means theoretically he could have found other solutions to his dilemma, but for some reason he seems to be set on being a lunatic. And here comes our dilemma: why is he so sure that killing people is the only solution? Which is never explained. On the hero side, they don't really get why Thanos is doing what he is doing either, and they don't really get to participate in a philosophical debate about the topic. The action is relentless, and the visuals are decent, so it works as the blockbuster they promoted it to be. I gave it 7/10 because the most important character's motivations (Thanos) remained only briefly explored. The cheesy lines remained low, but that's because they kept romantic lines to the minimum, otherwise it would have been really bad (why can't anyone write a normal romantic dialogue? adults should have adult dialogues, not be like Vision, who is an AI and rambles like a teenager). I particularly liked the ending, despite the fact that we know this is not the true ending to the story.

Black Panther (2018)

Avarage action, scrambled up politics

[4/10 · 5 March 2018]

This is okay as an action flick, but it is a really bad political statement. Wakanda is essentialy a city state living in welfare chauvinism, locking away their space grade technology to only benefit a select few. This is all the while Africa lives in the mud, and they basicaly don't care about the rest of the world. It is in fact a movie where the supposed good guys (Black Panther and co.) are in fact authocratic money hoarders, and the supposed bad guys who want to share this endless wealth are the good guys - but even they would restrict it to "people of african descent" because they are black nazis, or to their buddies to do "secret ops". No one talks about sharing their tech with the whole world based on merit to make the world a better place with it. Stopping african and world hunger and draught? Stopping war? Stopping energy hunger? Stopping climate change? Taking Earth to the space age? Colonizing the galaxy ? Wakanda doesn't care! They just don't want to share! The funniest part is that this is a movie that is supposed to "empower" black people... by basically making them look like Republicans in contemporary US! Biggest joke ever. Don't you know? There's no climate change!

Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)

Better than the last one, but still dazed & confused

[4/10 · 14 December 2017]

So this movie was (as the millions of dollars spent on it would suggest) a visualy pleasing one. There were some good jokes and some moments where I was excited. But. I'd say both the Force Awakens and The Last Jedi are sad attempts to bring back the magic of the original series, and their writers and directors don't seem to understand which part exactly is the one that contains it. So they collect all the ingredients and blend it all together and make a hamburger out of it for the consumer society. Star Wars wasn't really ment to be a blockbuster movie for merchandise sales. Honestly, it's a bedtime tale for geeks who wish to connect with the world. The magic was never in the Millenium Falcon, the Deathstar, the props or the tools used. The magic was in the story that told tales of good and evil and the wisdom of knowing what they are. It had characters you could relate to and cheer for. Tragedies that ment something because you understood the nature of those it happened to. It was never grandiose, that was just a wallpaper in the background. It was always small, and personal. Like when you only had a bucket and a broomstick but in your head you were a knight in shining armour.

I'd say even the prolouge series was better than the new series so far- for one reason only: it had a good story and knew where it was going and better characters and actors. All together it was a decent flick though, around 2 points better than your avarage movie (hence 7 points), definitely your first pick if you want to see a blockbuster before christmas. Finaly, here's my rating for all episodes.

Episode 1 - 7 points Episode 2 - 7,5 points Episode 3 - 8 points

Episode 4 - 8 points Episode 5 - 9 points Episode 6 - 8,5 points

Episode 7 - 6 points Episode 8 - 7 points

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)

Nice wrapping, no substance

[5/10 · 10 December 2017]

To be exact this movie is around the 6,5-6,9 depending on if you view it as part of a series (then lower rating due to story) or a standalone flick (then a bit higher).

As part of a series and as a standalone it's strengths are the special effects, grandiose delivery, music and star wars feeling from nostalgic elements. The negative in the positive is that even the nostalgic elements feel calculated instead of natural.

It's weaknesses are the lack of creative story making, bad acting which is too funny at times, and lack of star wars lore consistency.

Also it felt like a feminist manifesto with the main character all the way. She can do everything, better, stronger, without training from sheer being better. It's all her, and don't you dare doubt she can do it. I would just like to remind everyone even Anakin Skywalker (choosen one and whatnot) was not proficient in lightsaber wielding and the force without practice. Even if we just project the moral of what we saw, the message should not be that you can do everything better than others without practice. It should be that if you practice long and hard enough you can achieve anything (whether boy or girl).

Basicaly it feels like they wanted to make a really "star warsy" movie that introduces young audiences to the themes and reminds old viewers what happened in ep 4 without actually working on a strong story. They just mixed up the details a bit and made it a next episode. I call them fillers in series, guessing ep 8 will contain the real story.

ps.: honestly though, you'd think making the death star 2 times and getting it destroyed by a meager force would have taught the empire something, but these space Nazis never learn. i guess no one had a better idea as to what menace should be stopped.

The Good Doctor (2017–2024)

The first episode was a good beginning

[5/10 · 1 October 2017]

You could say this show is not realistic enough, it's science (which I don't know, heard from others) is pseudo sciency, but it didn't feel like this show wants to be about how it really is like to be a doctor. You can never make an exciting show about the mundane reality of such an occupation. The reason for the abundance of such shows is the obvious human drama that takes place at a fraction of a second in these places, and the rest is just waiting, and administrating, and discussing, and preparing. Doctors generally don't see their occupation as thrilling as it's shown of these shows - because the shows only show the drama. But you couldn't say that a lot of the most acclaimed hospital dramas are about biology. It's about human relationships, and truths unspoken behind the mask that people wear every day. The drama how a human life can fleet away, where death comes knocking, when we live in a world that tries to forget that it exists. Tragedies have become so hidden from our lives that we need to watch it on the television to remind us it exists. Or, it comes so close to home we can not ignore it.

The most interesting thing about this series is the fact that it gives a viewpoint on the world that few humans have. Similarly to House, the main character's strength in the first episode thrives on the fact that knowledge of social interactions can make us dishonest, and we don't even notice it anymore. The main character is not like House however, in the fact that he's inexperienced, and interacts with the world with childlike honesty, instead of the sharp knife of cynicism. He still sheds light to the lies people tell themselves and others, and still hurts them by being overly honest, but it is not on purpose. This main character has no stake in hospital politics, human dominance, acting strong or any of the social bullshit we live in. He just wants to heal people, period. Oh and make a "lot of money" so he can buy a TV.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)

A gang leader for king, or the king is a gang leader?

[6/10 · 4 September 2017]

Well this was one interesting take on the nature of leadership and it's relationship with good and evil. Don't be fooled with the setting of the story, this is still good old Guy Richie telling stories about gangsters, corruption and the mob's inner workings. Our dearest Arthur here is not some goody two shoes, he's a PIMP. He protects his bitches, and defends his interests. The fact of the matter is, he's almost as bad as they come, except for his uncle, who is evil incarnate, sacrificing everything for power. So yes, through the mob, Guy is telling us about who he thinks should rule: not the one who stabs his people in the back, but the one who helps them pimp their rides. In the end, Arthur decides being the biggest PIMP in England is still better than letting his uncle obliterate everything. Because then, who will protect the interests of the small businesses (brothels) ??!

Anyway. Enjoyable movie, fun to watch. Dialouges are very good as always. Would have loved to see the fight scenes with less camera cutting and more detail, but it was good enough. If you have some free time and want a light movie night with good action, pop it in. Cheers, mate!

Baby Driver (2017)

When they want to make a cult movie

[5/10 · 2 September 2017]

You can't make a cult movie just because you want to. Or can you. Well, for some reason this movies is just overvalued to be one - but at the same time it's actual value is a really meager average. I guess you could call it an anti-cult movie. Or a mainstream cult? WTF

This movie gives you really bad bad people who are good deep down. When they act crazy you can feel that the actors are just acting. They are not half as bad as they try to act as. Doc seems like he forces Baby to do the job but we never actually see much force. Bats seems bats crazy but keeps leaving huge blind spots to get killed. And although Buddy seems good he wants to get revenge for his love in the end.

This movie just plays on stereotypes, bringing in cool narratives from our lives to give something familiar and reinforce our beliefs. The "strong silent type" kid that is a "genius" driver. An old stereotype (western hero) mixed with a new one - myth of the genius . The narrative that "love redeems us" or that "love gives meaning". The characters seem to be chasing money, but when Baby finds "true love" (again, a stereotypical narrative) suddenly opposition disappears - except for Buddy that wants to get revenge for his love. Even the "Bonnie and Clyde" love is a narrative.

It's like this movie has no story just a bunch of cool narratives glued together for a barely coherent movie. Not to mention as a result, the dialogues are really bad, in my mother language's translation at least, haven't watched in English yet. Not sure if it's better in English, but I don't look forward to watching this again.

Shameless (2011–2021)

Barely above average

[4/10 · 18 August 2017]

So. We have an interesting setting with the alcoholic father, and 6 kids fending for themselves as a low class family in modern America. This would all be well, except the inherent drama is being taken light of. This picture is still too glamorous for a family like this. Like right off, in the first episode the oldest girl in the family meets a prince charming who will be perfect in every way? Do you really want to sell us the same romantic bullshit we have been force fed since romanticism?

In reality 9 out of 10 guys would have left her after getting some sex. Where's the drama in solving her problems right away with some sugary romance? She just finds the perfect guy off the bat? Where are the parts that make up these people's lives for the most of it? THe despair, the sadness, the boring monotony of manual labour that is like a mud, the more you try to get out, the quicker it takes over you? This sugarcoated version of real life makes me sick to the core.

APB (2017)

Exciting first episode

[4/10 · 7 February 2017]

Wow, can't remember the time I was so excited by a first episode of any series. The tech approach contrasts nicely with the run down, underfunded reality of Chicago police. The central aspect of the show, the new police app is a great idea, people are really attached to their phones nowadays and this could be of interest to real police as well. Even without too much extra tech it can be implemented to police work in large urban areas. Although the rest of the gadgets are a bit over the top and hard to implement, they give a cool feeling to policing. Catching bad guys and serving justice is after all the wet dream of a lot of citizens, not to mention a high tech police. Sure the whole show is a bit over the top, but it only adds to the fun and is not unseen from other shows. Although the idea may not be completely original, but it builds nicely from motifs of the real word and other cop and tech related cinema.

Arrow (2012–2020)

The soap opera unfolds

[3/10 · 16 April 2013]

So I'm just going to post a quick review of this series because it makes me angry how it got 8,2 points despite it's many (!) mistakes. I mean you give 8 points to a series/movie that has at least good story, is engaging for most people, and delivers some good acting.

This series's selling point is that it's about a comic book hero with great background in story and mythology, and why this series could be considered great. But the acting is so bad, I lost all my will to see what happens next. The actors play like in a soap opera, their lines feel like you are hit by a wet rug on the head. It's a mistake in writing and acting.

I suppose if you enjoyed Smallvile you might warm up to this one, but while you could still give a 6ish to that one, this only delivers 4 and a half, let's make it 5 out of empathy.

If you are a teenage/young/sex hungry girl/woman I guess you would keep watching, for the abs and stuff, but otherwise, the Force is just not with this one if you want some minimal quality.

This Is 40 (2012)

Only if you have 130 minutes free time and nothing better to do

[4/10 · 6 February 2013]

This is not a film that you are going to watch multiple times. Even for the first time, I had some difficulties. Sometimes felt like suffocating, and asking myself again and again: What is the point of this movie??

Well, one thing you are going to notice, there is no story. No character development, not really. I mean there's no real crisis, no problem to be solved, no real risk. If you have seen the First World problem memes, then you know what I'm talking about. The problems of these people are ridiculous to my Central-European eye. I mean these people are the high- end of the middle class society, and as such, whine a lot at the first sight of money problem. They got a huge ass house, two cars, an SUV and a BMW, all the trendy Apple products that exist (of which every product is overpriced), and they worry about having too much food. Then the women gets pregnant and they wonder how they are going to sustain themselves. Come on people, most of that debt could be solved by selling the two cars, then buying a used one. No, they got to sell the house. Yeah, that's what I was thinking, sell your most valuable asset instead of things you don't really need. Whatever, I could ridicule this film all day about this Richie Rich attitude. This film could be called "Shit people don't need, and are in the film for marketing"

So I managed to establish the non-existent story (which is ironic). This makes the film really hard to watch, as the whole thing is a constant line, no ups or downs. Rather, all the film is a constant middle-low, with a few laughs caused by the dialogs. I could even say that some parts were sick in the dialog, but then without that this film would be just a few everyday events played by actors.

I'm not going to list actors, directors, producers, I don't get why people do that, it's all up on IMDb, so useless to do. Like this film, it's 130 minutes of boredom with few laughs to make you keep watching. I mean even though they had famous actors, this movie sucked because of the writing.

I wouldn't watch this again. Well maybe the parts with Megan Fox, I would want her to be my escort. She's hot. She's the best thing in the film.

One for the Money (2012)

Fun film

[5/10 · 11 March 2012]

First of I just learned that this film was based on a novel, and that it's the first of like 23 stories about this woman bountyhunter. So my viewpoint is based on the film, and nothing else.

I had a lot of fun with this one. It reminded me of an other character from an entirely different novel series. There the tough girl is called Anita Blake and she is a vampire hunter. Same way she starts clumsy and comes out on top in a manly (albeit fantastic) occupation. She handles guns, she gets into rough situations. I'm a man, but it's still fun seeing a woman being tough. And similarly to Anita Blake, this girl stays a woman while being though.

All the other characters were great too, my favourite was Ranger I guess, I liked the professional attitude.

To all those who think it's a bad film because it's not like the novels: I haven't read those books, but I was entertained with this film. I may even read into those books, so I guess the film reached it's goal.

Safe House (2012)

Staying loyal to the genre

[5/10 · 11 March 2012]

Someone wrote that this movie could have been better if there was something new to the spy-like story and known twists.

And I just can't understand this "I'm so clever I know how the story's gona end" attitude towards films. You are not a great critique just because you saw it coming, and you are not clever either. Lots of other people see stuff coming in movies. If you want to prove you are smart, learn and teach mathematics, phisics, chemistry, biology, medicine and other intellectually demanding disciplines, but don't go on IMDb and don't rate a film down just 'cos you saw it comin'.

Don't misunderstand, I like twists and twirls and upside downs, just as anyone else. It's just that sometimes using the usual stuff in story and adding on other fronts can be good, and this film is like that.

What I found exciting in this film is the rookie character's development, and his interaction with the veteran played by Denzel Whasington. At the end, I felt content, it was a good film, I liked it.

And an other message to all smartass moviegoers: a good film is not smart. It's wise to the bone, because it sends a message.