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Detektiven från Beledweyne (2023)
Not just crime investigation
Evaluated as a crime series the Detective from Beledweyne is very light. The time the series spends on social commentary and comedy should however not be ignored. Good acting from at least the two main characters also add to the enjoyiment. A nice modern feel to the script is never wrong either. The storyline moves on at a suitable pace from beginning to end in nice logical fashion.
Together these ingredients come together to a surprisingly enjoyable four hours of watching the six pieces of season one. The end of season one clearly indicate a season two is planned, which I will definitely watch.
Tidsresenären (2021)
Ahead of his time
Tidsresenaren is an excellent 60 min piece about Henrik Wahlforss. I had never heard of this person before watching this documentary, but he was a swedish/finnish industrial designer/politician. He tried starting a green wave around 1970 at least 20 years before everyone else. It is almost scary to see how this unknown person was 10-20 years ahead of most people on areas as different as voice control of computers, wheelchairs and energy from windmills.
Whalforss achieved little success, as most people so far ahead of their time. He died in 2015 after ten years of serious illness. He was never a rich man but always had a loving family around him. His whole life was spent to try to get his ideas on the agenda.
Due to his lack of success, documentation of Wahlforss' life is a bit sketchy. This documentary does an excellent job with what little information there is. The 60 mins are spent rediscovering this remarkable person with the help of his surviving family, friends and some papers and video recordings.
Gotti: Godfather and Son (2018)
Great, but watch out
Gotti: Godfather and Son is an excellent series. In 4 episodes of about 45 mins each one gets to follow the story of New York Mafia boss John Gotti and his son John jr, told by the Gotti family. The insights to mafia life in New York around year 1990 are unique, informative and entertaining.
While enjoying this series one should however not for a second forget that these are all bad guys painting a picture of themselves that is as glorious and positive as can be done. They caused tragedy, suffering and harm to thousands of people, and this is real life, not some story based on a fairy tale.
Das Spiel (2020)
A cool 15 mins
The Game is a short documentary that closely follows top referee Fedayi San as he referees a top level Swiss league game. Football games you can see a lot of anywhere, but this referee angle of the game is totally different.
I generally like fresh ways of looking at things, and this clearly qualifies. In addition any football addict will like this as it is 100% football content. The only fault I can find is the documentary is much too short at only 15 mins.
Sommerkrieg (2019)
Political summercamp
Sommerkrieg, or Summerwar in English, is an excellent documentary. It is in the present present and is about a camp in Ukraine for young Azov (right wing) nationalists.
The story centers around two 12 year old kids. The essence is life at summer camp, but Summerwar also contains deeper insights. Political nationalism and treatment of kids both by parents and camp instructors play big roles. The subjects involved are difficult but the makers of the documentary have balanced it well.
Summerwar is both educational and entertaining, and watchable for anyone at any age.
Nowhere to Hide (2016)
As good as it gets
Nowhere to Hide shows snippets from ordinary life from about 2010 to 2016 in the town of Jalawl some 100 km north east of Baghdad, Iraq. As the war in the area develops we get to see how it affects a family of six, mom, dad and four small kids. Mostly it's dad in the family, Nori Sharif. Doing the recording. The years recorded includes the time when ISIS took control over Jalawl.
The war scenes are occasionally quite brutal, but not hideous, and give a good feel of what I suspect war really is like. The feeling of authenticity is better in Nowhere to Hide than in any other of the 20 or so documentaries I have seen on the recent wars in the middle east.
The authenticity is the selling point for Nowhere to Hide, and is there anything mattering more? Everyone needs to realize how awful war is for the civilian population. See this one!
Ambulance/Gaza (2016)
War up close
Ambulance/Gaza gives a view up close of the effects of bombing. The viewer gets to follow an ambulance driving around Gaza during the war there in 2014. Picking up people after Israeli bombings is most of the plot. Buildings in ruins and badly injured, dead and desperate people are shown over and over.
The pictures are brutal, but also a realistic description of war, without taking side. A solid documentary of how gruesome war is, without taking sides.
Araghe Sard (2018)
OK the legal situaion is bad for Iran's women, but is that new?
Araghe Sard aka Permission is a 90 minutes movie about womens situation in Iran. It is obvious and well known to everyone that women are oppressed in Iran. The situation is so bad that if a husband denies his wife permission to leave the country the Iranian government works with the husband to see the wife stays in Iran.
This legal point is excellent and is well presented in this movie. That takes about ten minutes. After those ten minutes the whole movie stagnates into nothing. There are so many ways this movie could have gone on with bigger drama. I fear the only reason the plot disappears into nothing after ten minutes is an attempt to please Iranian government censorship.
Is the very bad iranian policy really worth a 90 minutes movie in itself? Perhaps it is for people who think women are well treated in Iran. For the rest of us, I don't know. Despite its excellent political goal this all gets a bit too thin for my taste.
Hjertestart (2017)
Limited
The intro to this movie says "After his wife's death, offshore oil worker Kjetil is having a hard time relating to his adopted son Daniel. In an act of desperation, he brings Daniel along to Colombia". Sadly that sums up everything that happens in this 100 minute movie. It is a good premise for a movie, but after a while it gets a bit dull and one dimensional. Right at the end there is a hint of some development, but alas it isn't developed nor confirmed. Which is just aswell as it is a rather stupid, old fashioned event. In the end one is only put out of ones misery of uneventfulness by the closing credits.
You need to be quite desperate to kill 100 minutes to want to see this movie.
Paratiisi (2020)
A rarity, contemporary crime
Paratiisi is fun to watch. It is something as rare as a crimer series that feels contemporary. It is a trilingual series (Spanish, English, Finnish) with a lot of border crossing cooperation and people. The actors actually feel like normal people. Some will like that, others will not. Most of the series takes place in southern Spain, in the interplay between expat community and police in the city of Fuengirola.
The actual story is a rather unoriginal murder plot taking many turns. Not all the turns feel reaslitic and the end is not the best. The police investigators are far from superstars, even less than glamorous. There is also some added, seemingly redundant, storyline concerning dementia. Still the overall impression is Paratiisi is a solid 8x45 min piece crime series fitting well with the modern world.
Medan vi lever (2016)
Toned down and entertaining
Medan vi lever (While We Live) is about how to handle cultural differences between Europe and Africa, specifically Gambia and Sweden. Unlike most work on the matter it is not one sided and not hard hitting. Instead we get a quick glimpse into how several people of all ages and backgrounds try to handle cultural differences without going into high drama or clichees. Although the movie can drag on a bit now and then, a bit like real life, it all somehow works it's way into the end of a movie. The viewer is left with a feeeling that yes, this is mostly like it could happen in normal life. A pleasant 90 minutes for reflection on the modern world of globalization.
Sayonara, Elverum (2015)
Band shocked by popularity
Sayonara Elverum is a fun, short, 30 minutes long, documentary. The band Team Me was mostly a gang of kids who love music and liked coming together to play locally in the small town of Eleverum in Norway's countryside. Through the strange backdoors of the internet they become popular on the other side of the world, in Japan. A concert in Tokyo shocks the band as they fill a decent size hall. We get to see reactions from both fans and the band which are quite original compared to what one usually sees in the music industry.
In total Sayonara Elverum ends up being a refreshing view on the modern music scene.
Unseen Enemy (2017)
Pointless pandering in human tragedy
By now you know this documentary is about virus outbreaks, pandemics. It's only about recent pandemics. It also tells you that these serious pandemics are serious, caused by viruses. Serious pandemics all start in wild animals and then move to humans causing suffering and misery. Watch this documentary if you doubt that, as that fact is repeated over and over and over. Between these endless stories of human suffering there are some medicians saying they do their best but that its not easy. Then there is nothing more, amazingly.
Unseen Enemy lasts 1 hour and 38 mins but can be summed up in 15 seconds. Unless you want to watch endless human suffering and helpless medical doctors, spare yourself from watching this. You can still realize pandemics are serious.
The Space Between Us (2017)
Romantic SF gone wrong
The Space Between is a US movie made in 2017. It is romantic SF about the first Mars-Earth couple and their desire to meet up. Apart from some 10 mins of good to actually great Mars scenes the movie is crap. The ensuing love story at times is so bad it's almost unwatchable. And it's two hours of crap! The science is all wrong too. Some good Mars scenes can't rescue this wreck. Unless you want to test your patience, stay away.
Putin: A Russian Spy Story (2020)
Decent Putin primer
Putin: A Russian Spy Story is a decent documentary on Vladimir Putin's political life from about 1995 to 2018.
Two hours of watching this three episode documentary gives the viewer a chance to follow Putin's reasonably well documented rise to power and what he does with that power. A clear UK focus shines through as events affecting UK get more attention than objectively deserved. This also leads to a few Russian opposition figures getting more coverage than natural in a documentary on Putin.
There are many interviews with friends and foes of Putin. A fair amount of old pictures and interviews of Putin himself have been dug up. There is also a tiny bit of analysis from independent Russia experts
The documentary is still not dated as of 2021. Despite the odd flaw it gives the insight into Vladimir Putin and his political ideas and abilities needed for the common person somewhat into poliitcs. Putin: A Russian Spy Story is an OK way to spend two hours if you are interested in modern Russia and don't know the details about Vladimir Putin.
Madam Secretary: Leaving the Station (2019)
Good series, disappointing end.
Madam Secretary has been an excellent TV series. Acting never was all the great but the writers were very up to date and to the point. One could always see the current US political agenda reflected in the series. That is not the case with the this final episode. It ends up being a boring waste of reunions and peeks into lovelives of too many people all remote to the series.
The series strength has always been focus on politics. The final episode doesn't do that and suffers from it. A minor, sudden attempt at making law of a long standing political issue comes out of nowhere and goes nowhere. Thats the political content of the final episode. Acting is no better than usual for this series so we end up with a disappointing final episode. It's only strength is it at least collects many threads left open from earlier.
Veep: Veep (2019)
At least it's a real end.
The final epsidoe of Veep is solid work. Loose threads are gathered, the fates of all involved are resolved and its funny at times. The episode feels a bit rushed but that goes for the whole final season. Lots of anecdotes connect events in this episodes to earlier Veep episodes but you have to be a fan with a good memory to catch them. Refreshingly current writing so typical throughout all episodes of the final season is toned down. Focus instead seems to be on finality and tying it all together.
Dreyfus does a good acting job and among the other actors nobody stands out as worthless. It's not really a very funny episode but it serves its purpose. This series is now history. It's been fun!
Beoning (2018)
Utter crap
Beoning, or Burning, is a totally worthless triangle drama with mystic overtones. The story hardly develops at all so the viewer is left in boredom for the 2.5 hours the movie lasts. All that is left is three Korean young adults living ordinary lives in Korea of 2018. When the odd strange event happens, like once every 45 minutes, its just too little too late. Then the movie settles back in for another long period of absolutely nothing.
How people can spend time and money making this total nothing of a movie is impossible to understand. An even bigger mystery to ponder to at least have something to do while watching Burning is how anyone could ever like this rubbish of emptyness. Somehow this movie is getting good to very good reviews. Are that many critics corrupt? Nobody with a shred of integrity can possibly say they like this movie.
In the sad event you have to watch Burning, bring your own entertainment!
Zama (2017)
Worse than worthless
Zama starts off badly about a judge serving the Spanish king a few hundred years ago in some colonial land in probably South America. The judge never gets promoted or moved to a more attractive post. We got to follow his life, especially his bitterness about being stuck in a place he doesnt like much. Then the movie suddenly degenerates into a feast of unexplained mystical idiocy making no sense.
While the start is bad the second half is torture to watch. In the end one has suffered through 85 minutes of nonsense for no gain. Stay away!
The Search for a New Earth (2017)
Good up to date on humanity colonizing other planets
The Search for a new earth is a documentary focusing on how humanity can colonize a planet around the star closest to the sun.
Although the name Stephen Hawking is used a lot in marketing the documentary it's more about two young to me unknown scientists who travel the world looking at different technologies. Reviewed are what planets outside the solar system are available for colonization, how to get there and how to colonize.
Limited to 90 mins only so many technologies can be considered. Personal preference decides if some technologies left out should have been included and vice versa. The presentation is to the point and science based but held in a language understandable to most 15 year olds and up. Technology gets dated very fast in this area but the makers of this documentary have done a good job presenting new, modern ways of solving these old issues.
It has become an excellent modern documentary on space tech and planet colonization. Hurry up and watch it before the technology presented gets dated!
Salvation (2017)
A good a combo of political drama and big asteroid impact.
Salvation is a combination of drama around top level US politics and extinction of life on earth from a hit from a big asteroid. Both sides of the plot are pretty good. The political part may have been done better before but is good enough. The asteroid part is excellent and among the best of many similar movies and series. Together these two bits form an excellent total.
Among the negatives are the science getting unrealistic here and there. Still overall the realism holds up quite well. Some childish writing occasionally got through the script edits but that seems unavoidable these days. Compared to other asteroid impact productions the childishness and unscientificness is minimal.
How this series isn't more popular is beyond me. Perhaps it's the lack of star power among the actors holding it back? If I am ever going to give 10/10 for a series this one is it. It's as good as it gets in this genre.
I am already looking forward to season 2 of Salvation.
Yes, Prime Minister: The Smoke Screen (1986)
Best of the best
Yes (Prime)Minister is the best political series ever on TV. "The smoke screen" is one of its best episodes combining great writing, great acting and great political insight. It could be used as a text book example for comedy as well as political science. As political drama and/or comedy goes it just doesn't get better.
The Event (2010)
Just not good
"The Event" just isn't worth watching. The general concept is good although not original. The acting is OK. The general outline of the story works for me at least. Sadly the writing must be among the worst ever on prime time TV.
An OK story line is driven forward only by torture, violence, blackmail and lies. There is also a love story not creating a single spark but endless pathetic scenes. Finally there are pointless switches back and forth in time making things less clear and directly boring with their predictability.
Originality is totally lacking. Intelligence is not present. There is no consistency in abilities given to the respective characters. Getting through 22 episodes without a single original twist is almost an achievement by the writers.
The first few episodes really are a nightmare. Then the show at least listened to relentless criticism and got rid of the worthless time jumps. Middle episodes are therefore somewhat better. However after giving a ray of hope "The event"'s first season ends on another low. The story lines ended in season 1 are pathetic in predictability and execution. And as "The event" got cancelled after season 1 we will never know how the open story lines end.
That's just as well.
Secret State (2012)
Excellent political drama yet nobody heard of the series.
I found this series searching the web for political drama. Watching it is a very positive experience.
Filmed in 2011 or so the setting is UK in the present time. Lots of unfortunate events happen at one time. The 4 part series is about the political reaction to those events. Happenings and reactions are realistic enough to be relevant although cutting it fine on the dramatic side. Most relevant modern popular political topics are in the series, like terrorism, government surveillance, political infighting and moneys effect on politics.
Minuses are few, the biggest one being the series being way too short and compact :) Other minuses are ambiguities here and there and some minor connections between people and issues that seem a bit strange.
Acting is overall good. To me especially Gabriel Byrne playing the leading role does well.
In short this is must see if you like political drama.
A Common Man (2013)
A man purposefully places bombs in Colombo Sri Lanka
This movie actually is better than it looks. On the downside it has all the hallmarks of a B-movie. The editing is poor, the script is dull and at times laughable, filming is amateurish and the characters are superficial. Even a decent actor like Ben Kingsley cant make his role interesting.
However the movie has a very clear story line that is followed in a consistent logical fashion. A man (Ben Kingsley) places bombs around Colombo Sri Lanka and makes demands not to detonate those. The movie has a surprising end posing a deep political and practical question.
A consistent story line with few pointless disturbances, excellent ending and some deep questions about society included is more than you get in most movies these days.
All in all to me the positive outweighs the negative. If you can live with movie-technical flaws, watch this one!