1899: Season 1 – TV Review

TL;DR – A dark and compelling tale full of mystery and ‘wait… what?!?!’ moments.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this series.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

The Kerberos

1899 Review

One of the shows recommended to me is Dark, and I have always meant to give it a look, but finding time to watch three seasons has been elusive. However, when I heard that the creators of Dark had a new series that hit all the same feels, well, it was time to give it a watch. Also, for some reason, Netflix defaults to the English dub of this series. Please, before you watch, make sure you change the language from English – Dubbed to English – Original.

So to set the scene, it is 1899, and in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean is the Kerberos, a large steamship taking passengers to New York City. The ship itself is light on with passengers because the Kerberos’ sister ship Prometheus disappeared on the same route a month ago with no trace. One night as all the first class passengers are eating their dinner, a young boy Krester (Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen), bursts into the dining hall saying they need help because his pregnant sister Tove (Clara Rosager) is going into shock. No one will help but Maura Franklin (Emily Beecham), who rushes to assist, even though the dreams of her being locked up and tortured in a psychiatric institution bare heavily upon her. Captain Eyk Larsen (Andreas Pietschmann) is annoyed that Maura broke the rules, but that is all put aside when the ship has a sudden communication from the Prometheus, which might not be at the bottom of the ocean as most people thought. Now from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Outside the Wire – Movie Review

TL;DR – An interesting film that attempts to integrates some complex issues, but could not make the landing stick.    

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix subscription that viewed this film.

Outside the Wire. Image Credit: Netflix.

Outside the Wire Review

I have been looking forward to an exciting action science fiction film for a long time. I do like that sort of real, sort of future, mash-up like we got in Edge of Tomorrow, but it is a hard line to get right. Well, today we get a film that walks that line into interesting, even if it clear that they don’t know a whole lot about Ukraine.

So to set the scene, it is 2036, and Eastern Europe (Ukraine) has collapsed into war with the USA controlling to the border to stop the chaos spreading. Along this border, a platoon comes under attack and Lt. Thomas Harp (Damson Idris), a drone pilot breaks with command to kill a potential target but taking out two marines as collateral. As a punishment, he is sent to the front line to meet Captain Leo (Anthony Mackie), an android military officer, to gain some perspective on war’s realities through first-hand experience.     

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Movie Review – Hail Caesar

TL;DR – Hail Caesar is an interesting film, with a lot going on, but that is much of the problem, its scattershot nature means the film lacks real substance, but it still has a lot of spectacle to make up for it.

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

Hail Caesar. Image Credit: Universal.

Review

This is an interesting film, but it is also a very flawed film and that makes it quite difficult to review, or at least score. There are some really interesting ideas at play here, and there are also some amazingly wonderful set pieces throughout which are a joy to watch. However, it is trying to do so much, that it just can’t do any of the ideas justice, so it just feels like a scattershot of a film, which is a bit a disappointment.

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