Author Archives: tldrmoviereviews

Movie Review – Coffee & Kareem

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TL;DR – When you can make a running tally of bad paedophile jokes and that is not the biggest problem with your film then you have some real problems.    

Score – 1.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Coffee & Kareem. Image Credit: Netflix.

Review –

Have you ever watched a film that is filled with talented people with an interesting concept, but it fails on almost every level. Well if you haven’t, I have the film for you, which shows you that you need to pick a tone when you start rather than trying to find one in production.  

So to set the scene, Officer James Coffee (Ed Helms) is going through life, and not succeeding bar the fact that he is dating Vanessa Manning (Taraji P. Henson). Well in one day Vanessa’s son Kareem (Terrence Little Gardenhigh) found out they were sleeping together and he became the laughing stock of the police force when Orlando Johnson (RonReaco Lee) escapes from the back of his police cruiser. To get back at Coffee, Kareem sets it up so Coffee would take him to a friend’s place but instead it was to a place so he could get a beat down. Well, it all fell apart and now Kareem and Coffee are on the run.

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TV Review – Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Admiral Peralta

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TL;DR – A fun family story but they may have picked the wrong story to focus on

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Admiral Peralta. Image Credit: NBC.

Review –

When you have a long-running show, changing up the dynamic can keep it fresh or be its downfall. This usually takes the form of the key relationship in the show, but not only did Brooklyn Nine-Nine let Amy (Melissa Fumero) and Jake’s (Andy Samberg) relationship develop naturally they have let it go through all the phases of life.

So to set the scene, at the weekly briefing Amy and Jake have an important announcement to make, they’re having a baby, which everyone already knew about. But with the thoughts of the coming bundle of joy come to the foreground, Jake starts thinking of the past and what his father Rodger (Bradley Whitford) refers to as the ‘Peralta Curse’ that is the terrible relationships that fathers have with their sons. Well there is only one way to fix that and that is to reunite a father with his son and that goes about as well as you expect. Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole so you better believe that there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Movie Review – Altered Carbon: Resleeved

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TL;DR – It’s fine, nothing amazing but not a complete mess.    

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Altered Carbon: Resleeved. Image Credit: Netflix.

Review –

I’ve been quite enjoying the jaunts into the world of Altered Carbon as of late. A world of switching bodies and switching cast members. A world of excesses and a world of death that is only real death half the time. I’ve watched both seasons, so when I heard there was an animated movie, well I had to give it a watch and well … it’s fine.

So after the events of the Second Season (I think, but I’m not entirely sure), we open on the planet Latimer. Here a young girl Holly (Brittany Cox/ Ayaka Asai) is running from her life through the upper streets as air cars and large holograms walk around her. She is being chased by two thugs, who are trying to catch her. Running into a club she is almost at a needle casting facility when a ninja slaughters the two thugs and turns on her. Things are bad but then Takeshi (Ray Chase/ Tatsuhisa Suzuki) arrives to save the day. Teaming up with local CTAC operator Gina (Elizabeth Maxwell/ Rina Satô) they get Holly to the safety of the Yakuza or as it turns out maybe into significantly more danger than she was before.

Now, this is an interesting film, in that we are usually a bit cagier about spoilers with films, but then it is also hard to talk about this film without getting into spoilers for both past seasons and a big reveal in this film. So with that in mind, there will be some big [SPOILERS] around character points going forward but not for the ending.

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Movie Review – Sol Levante

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TL;DR – An interesting vignette, but more focusing on the style than the substance   
   
Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Awards –

Nominated: Creative Animation

Sol Levante. Image Credit: Netflix.

Review –

I mentioned earlier this week with Familiar Strangers, that it was the shortest film that I had ever reviewed for the sight, well not three days later we are going to beat that record with Sol Levante. An animated short made in 4K HD that I don’t think anyone in the world is going to see at 4K at least not for the foreseeable future.

This is an interesting film to review because there is not a whole lot to it, but then it also feels like there is a bit more to it than first appears. There is not a story, bar a young woman fighting I want to say demons across a shifting landscape. There are quite a few of these set-piece moments that the fit into the three minutes run time that hint at things. It is a film that fits into the sort of nexus of fantasy, science fiction, and spiritual genres and is steeped in symbolism if nothing else.  

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Movie Review – Alive

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TL;DR – A short film that explores the important bond between people    

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Alive. Image Credit: Distribution with Glasses.

Review –

When it comes to films, if it can get to that core emotional note and thus resonate on that deep level, well that will always hit that much harder for me as a viewer. This is because if the emotions work, then so much more of the film will flow from there. Today we explore a short film that knows this and focuses in on it as the core of the film.  

So to set the scene, Viktoria (Eva Johansson) lives her life in a wheelchair and needs around the clock support to live her life. During the day, her assistant Ida (Madeleine Martin) was walking through the park when they run into Ida’s boyfriend Björn (Joel Ödmann). Later that day, Viktoria admits that she feels alone. So Ida sets her up with a Tinder profile to find someone.

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Movie Review – Familiar Strangers

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TL;DR – An interesting experimental film that hits that overlap between film and a technology demonstration    

Familiar Strangers. Image Credit: Murat Sayginer.

Review –

I have seen quite a few films that you could call experimental in my time but today might take the cake as one of the more weird concepts that I have ever seen. Something that at first sight is deceptively simple but then it is clear a lot of work has gone into making it come together.

Familiar Strangers might be also one of the shortest films I have reviewed, clocking into only four minutes. However, that is just the right amount of time for you to process what you are seeing on the screen. Which is row upon row of actors faces apparently rendered using deepfake technology while Air on the G String by Johann Sebastian Bach plays in the background.

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Movie Review – Maska

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TL;DR – A nice story that does tread some well-worn ground    

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene

Maska. Image Credit: Netflix.

Review –

So to set the scene, we open in on Rumi Irani (Prit Kamani) who is living in his late father’s shadow. Like all things, he is fated to take over the family business which in this case is the Café Rustom an Irani café in Mumbai. His mother Diana (Manisha Koirala) cannot wait till he can take over the café and breathe new life into it. However, one night Rumi won the Mr Firozsha Baag and in it, he discovered his dream, he wants to become an actor. Of course, it does not hurt when he discovers that at his acting lessons not only is this his passion but one of his classmates Mallika Chopra (Nikita Dutta) might be his soul mate.

One of the things I like about Maska is how is it is about breaking out of the bubbles of our life. I once heard that tradition is just peer pressure from dead people and in this film that is both a metaphorical point and also a literal one as he sees an apparition of his father Rustom (Javed Jaffrey). It is about balancing the expectations of your past with the realities of the future.

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TV Review – Star Trek: Picard – Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2 and Season 1

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TL;DR – Not every part of the final episode landed, but the promise is so much more

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Star Trek: Picard – Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

Review – It is time to come to the end and the first season of Star Trek Picard has drawn to a close, it was a show full of warmth and promise but also a hint of sadness. Like someone taking one last look at the old neighbourhood before moving one. With this in mind, I approached the final episode with a little hesitation and now I have seen it that felling was not entirely unmerited. Well then, let’s dive in and have a look at the final episode before having a look at the entire season.

So to set the scene, at the end of Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1 we were in a very perilous place with everything about to unravel. Picard (Patrick Stewart) had been taken hostage by the synths that had finally discovered the meaning behind the Zhat Vash prophecy and were using the death of one of their own as a pretence to steam straight ahead to the destruction of all organic life. On the Borg Cube, Seven (Jeri Ryan) and Elnor (Evan Evagora) chat not realising that they have an uninvited guest in the form of Narek (Harry Treadaway). But there might be one ray of hope because Agnes (Alison Pill) might not be who she says she is. Now we will be looking at the episode and the season as a whole, so there may be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Movie Review – Dragons: Rescue Riders: Hunt for the Golden Dragon

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TL;DR – A perfectly bland film    

Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Dragons: Rescue Riders: Hunt for the Golden Dragon. Image Credit: Netflix.

Review –

Without a doubt, the How to Train Your Dragon film series is one of my all-time favourites. So when I noticed something new from the universe on Netflix, I knew I had to check it out …. And well that was a thing.

So to set the scene, we open in on Waldondo (Carlos Alazraqui) a former antagonist. He is on a ship, stealing a map, when he arrives at Berk, to let people know of a problem. For you see the map leads to the golden dragon who only lays their egg once every 100 years, a dragon in a golden egg. They have to go save the egg because pirates are coming to steal the egg.

When you go into a film like this, you kind of have to reassess your level, because it is clear that this would not have the same about of money behind the production. Also, because it is a kids film it is going to be focused more on broad moments than nuance.

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TV Review – Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Dillman

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TL;DR – A fun episode from start to finish that played off each of the cast’s strengths.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Dillman. Image Credit: NBC.

Review –

As the seventh season from Brooklyn Nine-Nine draws to a close in a couple of episodes, it has been really good to see them swing for the fences each episode. This week we get an episode that is quite small in scope but it pays off years of character developments.

So to set the scene, Jake (Andy Samberg) is in Holt’s (Andre Braugher) office because now he is captain again he is on a selection committee for a new city-wide task force called STOASRCEIUEO, which no shocker, Holt helped name. Everything was going fine, okay, Jake did his application in the form of a rap, so everything was not going fine. But things got worse when the precinct exploded. It seems that someone tried to prank Jake with a glitter bomb and it backfired. But who in the precinct could have done it? Well, there is one detective that Holt trusts to solve the case, Dillman (J.K. Simmons). Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole so you better believe that there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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