Reviews

The series started out well enough. Good story, good acting. I never read the book but I'm guessing it was pretty good. The trouble with the series here is Robert Downey Jr. Ruins it. He's a decent actor but he's just not talented enough to carry 4 parts. All his characters look the same, and act the same. It's hard to watch. The 'light tense music' and sound effects at times are misplaced and bad. The seriousness of a terrible war is lost on this almost comedic take of the writers and directors. It comes across as watered down somehow. Almost like a daytime soap opera. Too many flashbacks gets a little tiring and a little old. Just not a well made series. It's a shame they ruined a good story.

It's a shame. Decent acting and actors. Trouble is the writing. The series starts out well enough with a strong story but the writers make most of the lead characters unlikable eventually. Lying about having cancer...cheating on you partners....taking advantage of people....etc. Then at the end of season one, they accidentally kill someone (lets say it was an accident) and instead of facing up to it- they bury the body and hide it. Then they show no remorse or feel any guilt. The writers really made the characters shallow and unlikable. They want us to believe that "good people do bad things" which may be true but when good people do bad things they have remorse and try to make it right. There are no decent lead characters in this show to want to watch. Who would want to watch it except other shallow people.

Goes down hill fast at the end of e1. Hospital scene- no one working the hospital except the attendant doing the mri. And who gets an MRI done at night? Nobody. No one hears gunshots in the hospital either? Maybe they are in the basement? I don't know. Stupid. Oh and they are going to come clean up the murder scene at the hospital without 20 people seeing it before anybody gets there. Insane writing. A highly sophisticated person broke into his house- steals the murder weapon? Yeah- that is going to happen in real life. NCIS is not very good if they can't find any evidence of what went on in the hospital. No gun shot holes in the walls even? Pretty good cover up considering this age of - what do the call them- Oh yeah- security camera's EVERYWHERE. I'm done after one and half episodes.

You can't kill 15 people in a hotel and make it look like one victim did it. It would be on world news for a month. You can't go on a random killing spree leaving dead bodies everywhere without some eye witness or camera catching you or your vehicle somewhere. It's funny the hotel lobby was so crowed you could not walk, but the room hallways and elevators are empty? Makes no sense. It's pure fantasy. The level of violence in this movie is really not needed, because they started with a a good plot about the found comic book. It just a sick person putting there sick imagination up on the big screen and think decent people will enjoy it like they do. It's just a sad reflection of our sick society that it got any kind of rating on imdb above a 1.

It feels like I'm a 4th at the table. I could see this being my family. The acting is first rate. The story is a good one. The atmosphere at the restaurant could have been more to my taste but I can't have everything. The film quality and sound seemed a little off to me like it was made for tv or something but not terrible. It is pretty entertaining listening to the go on like it was my mother and siblings. Maybe it's just me but I enjoyed it. I guess if you are looking for an action flick this is not it. But there is a lot of verbal sparing and emotional banter going on. It has humor also. It has typical family dysfunction after all, who has a perfect family. Even so, you can feel the love. I thought it was top rate entertainment for mature adults.

A good series. Better than most. Couple of things didn't sit right with me. First, Emma going over the balcony to try to escape Phil. I can't see any sane person doing that. Second, five people having semen on a headboard is insane. What kind of kinky sex are the writers of this series imagine was going on in that bed? I doubt you would find semen on anybody's headboard. Third, Why are the construction builders the only ones at fault? Isn't there some kind of government inspector or construction governmental oversight responsible for making sure buildings are safe? Where was the fire inspectors? Not very realistic to go after the builders first for doing it on the cheap and make no mention of code enforcement to make sure they don't. Other than that, I thought it was good. Well made, good acting, good cast. Sex scenes were unnecessary but it seems you have to have two or three in all series and movies now a days. Season 2? What happed to Emma and Daniel? Did they get fired? They were dropped completely after the court trial of Daniels father which was also unreal- and by that- I mean unrealistic and fantasy. Terrible writing for season 2. I'm done.

E1 Nice police work. The husband of the dead wife is not a suspect but 5 teenage restaurant workers with no known motives are? How does that make sense? Dad can't have a girlfriend? How mature of Nancy. Ned Nickerson has history with victim and yet the police don't know about it? (even if he was a minor) Ghost noises and ghosts moving tables talking through mediums? Maybe the ghost did do it or Nancy has Schizophrenia. E2. Nancy sees police suspect pin up board at police station at the entrance where anybody can see it? Really? Seeing ghosts again? Nancy needs medication. Nice security system at the morgue. Morgue transport helps strangers change tires? She also fixes the engine? Ridiculous. Grandma buried her valuables in a trunk in the back yard? Insanity must run in the family I guess. E3 Everybody in town puts a bucket of water on their porch? Maybe there is lead in the water supply. Ned- moms social worker- dad his lawyer- and daughter is his girl friend? The main witness brings him books in jail? Stupid. Coffee pot busts for no reason and spear falls? More ridiculous writing. I thought I heard something in my lawyers house so I go up stairs to investigate-then I see a ghost? Must be the lead in the town water supply. Tiffiney haunted by ghosts too? I'm telling you it's lead in the water. The whole town's insane. Nice brick work in the wall- what did they use? Sand? "must have been the wind" in the closet. How does an adult get visitation to see a minor serving time for man slaughter? Light fixture falls from ceiling? Who could manufacture such a trap? Childish. Diamond ring from murdered victim? Oh, I'll just leave that laying around so anyone can find it. Ok- I guess that's enough. You get the idea. I never read the books but I take it they were for young adults or children. Well, they made this series the same. Childish. Still, pretty good acting and directing. Well made. Not bad so far just not for me. I'm sure the target audience will enjoy this.

If you like lifetime movies or hallmark hall of fame movies you might like this. It's a naive view of reality. For example, mashlands are not as tame as the suburbs. They are inhabited with some dangers and hardships. To mention a few, mosquitoes, snakes, and other insects. Maybe an alligator. Then you have weather. It get cold in the winter. Does this child have heat? Do people know how hard it is to live without electric, running water? I seen a wood stove in the movie but no one cutting wood? Where does the money come from again for gas, tools, food, clothing? All they do is have one long summer vacation in this movie. Does the child even own a gun? I know i'm nit picking but these are only examples. I could go on about the courtroom, the police, social services, etc. A real fantasy.

I'd say over all it's about a 4 or 5 but I gave it a 1 because of it being over rated. Season1- terrible-Matthew McConaughey is insane and talks BS throughout the series. It's a pain to listen to him. Woody Harrelson talks sense but he's pretty much a jerk. Neither one is a good person. Unrealistic and bad police work............. Season 2- a little better. Still mostly bad major characters except one- Rachel McAdams A lot of unrealistic plot holes and bad police work. Pretty unrealistic mob plots and comic book shoot out scenes. Pretty childish writing overall. ..........Season 3- prob the best of the series from a writing standpoint. But they jump around from 3 time frames It doesn't flow well. So much so that it gets a lot confusing at times and hard to keep up with. Still it's the best of the 3 by far. Some better writing and plot twists although it's really not very good police work to not get where they were going until the last 2 episodes. They really misnamed the show in it's entirety as TRUE detective as there is not much about the first 3 seasons that is representative of real detective work- or even reality for that matter. Season 2 is best of the first 3 IMO but not great. .............. Season 4 is prob better than all the other because of the stellar acting. Here is the bad- too much unnecessary sex. (Hollywood perversion) Too much horror movie startle and scare (sudden surprise scares) which add nothing to the plot. Too much scary music borders on corny. Childish scary sounds like big metal doors slamming and such like. Way too much music that is out of place and inappropriate. We don't need a song every 5 mins-literally. (your taste in music might not be mine-bad writing) Plot is a little stale-good cop/ bad coop co workers, good cop/ bad cop boss, cop has troubled child/sister, Good cop master/ good cop trainee grasshopper. Oh- and the corruption is at the top levels of politics. It's all been done. Too much unexplained voodoo mysticism (people seeing ghosts, monsters, and visions). A one eyed bear walking around? Somebody shoot the damned thing and put it- and me- out of our misery. Feels like the writers just fill in the in-between main plot with soap opera stories and little spooks. A lot of the spooky stuff is never explained. It's just makes no sense. Makes no sense for Hank to get killed, basically kills himself, for what? To be chief of police? Silly writing to have him die the way he did. Makes no sense. And oh yeah, you are underground with plenty of wood for fuel- BUILD A BIGGER FIRE. Lots of mental illness going around is all I can think of. Still overall s4 its not terrible, and prob the best of the first 4 (stellar acting). Maybe a 5 on it's own. Great acting and actors can't make up for terrible writers.

Put face it dirt- stupid. One cig per day. Bull- nobody can do that. Walk barefoot in front of employee- creepy. 2 week celebration- childish. Nude painting in dining room- inappropriate. Take me to be scene-surreal and a bit creepy. Garden lunch scene- not a nice way to treat relatives- or anybody. Abnormal and strained conversation. "All hands on board to stop the aphids"- a bit mellow dramatic to say the least. The whole education process and tidbits about gardening I personally fount pretty boring. Kissing the gardener on the cheek- where did that come from? Silly. "Gacewood family" Is this a job or mental institution. Pretty absurd situations going on. Did I say boring and slow. The gardeners history as a criminal is pretty shallow and one sided. The whole movie plays like a Hallmark movie and if you don't know what I mean by that- you prob like this movie. At this point i'm done with this movie. It's absurd, unrealistic, and slow. I'm 55 mins in to a 2 hr movie. How could it possibly get better. It's all I can take.

The scenes are really strung out. Long scenes of people just looking around or cars driving. They think if you put music to it- it makes it good. Makes the whole thing go way to slow. I had to fast forward my way through the whole 6 seasons. If it weren't for fast forward it would have been unbearable. Way to many nonsense side stories that go nowhere. Could have done they whole 6 seasons in 2 easy. A lot of unrealistic things going on beside the slowness. Unrealistic gun battles, unrealistic court procedures, unrealistic phone deals, drug deals, --- you name it. Could have been so much better if they would have moved the scenes along much much -----much faster. So boring. I don't know how it got such a high rating. Terrible. I give it a 4 because of the good acting and the decent story. Just not filmed or edited very well. Over half of it should have been cut out.

Ok, why is everybody crying at the Mayors funeral? Nobody even liked him. Why is anybody even there? Makes no sense - terrible writing. Wednesday says "...for some reason I cannot fathom or indulge, you seem to like me.." Yes- why does everybody seem have to like her even when she is mean as hell to them? Makes no sense- bad writing. Wednesday "OWES" Tyler a date because...of a bad...last date? Its no quid pro quo because Tyler did nothing for Wednesday on the first date. What exactly was his quid pro quo part? It is simply objectifying of women. Bad sexist writing. Writing is pretty predictable- but other than the above--- not to bad.

This is the last episode for me. It has gone way past anything resembling reality. For example- 8 men in a residential area waiting to kill someone? Really? A pipe bomb doesn't wake up the whole town? Really? All the shooting- no body in the neighbor hood comes out except the old lady? Really? I won't even get into the actual fight in the house which is insanely comical- except to say- why did the house not burn down? I see fires but they all go out by themselves? Really? A car crashes into several parked cars and no one comes out to investigate? How many dead bodies are these guys going to leave laying around? And- how long does it take for the cops to actually get there? This is something 10 year old kids might enjoy. More in the line of Batman or Spiderman stuff. Was this made during the writers strike? Enough for me.

(Silence of the lambs vs Rambo) Police are not this dumb. Killers are not that smart or capable. And unless you are Jason Bourne, nobody shoots that well or is that quick with explosives. You don't recruit beat cops to do murder investigations. The FBI does better Forensic Science at crime scenes. You don't go alone and under-armed to a suspects mothers house where there is a good chance the killer would visit, even if you are off the case. You get a team to go through the garbage at the land fill- not a couple of detectives. You do better investigations of the painters (suspects). So much bad police work and political friction is unrealistic to the extreme. Still, some pretty good acting. Not a bad story I guess if you are ignorant of police tactics and believe in fantasy gun play. I'd say a good movie for kids if there wasn't so much murder so- no- not a good movie for kids either. Still Shailene Woodley carries the movie but why did they have to have her character have unrelated mental problems and show so many off story scenes with her- say- swimming? Takes away from the main plot. Also hated the political/societal opinionated banter, say- from the radio host, the dinner at the lead detectives home, and the conversation at the killers mothers house between Shailene Woodley and the killer. Ignorant political opinions being debated on the big screen to me is not entertaining. One final reality check. The killer heartlessly kills I don't know how many people randomly, watches his mother kill herself apparently with no emotional impact at all on him, and then all of sudden- he has some feelings for our heroine and lets her live because they both have mental problems in common? - makes no sense. I'm done.

The making of the movie was good, all except that the story is terrible. Well, you say that is a matter of taste. No, it's a story about terrible people. Is there any body in the whole movie that is not a terrible person? Why do I want to watch a movie about horrible people, unless of course I was one. No, this movie will leave a terrible taste in your mouth because it's a movie about animals, not people. In reality, there is always a few good people around but I don't see any here. In reality, good people would have stepped forward before the disaster. I guess it's possible that the world could throw a bunch of inhuman people together on a boat in this day in age, but why would I want to watch it. Why would anybody think this movie was enjoyable? And why would anybody think it was a comedy? Sick.

I realize in 1928 there were not that many films around and the movie industry was in it's infancy but still- why call your movie Noah's Ark when it clearly is not the story of Noah. I don't know who wrote this stuff but it is clearly science fiction. Why don't people just read the Bible and make a movie pretty close to that story. No- I guess they think they can do better than the truth. Still being 1928 the movie does have some good special effects which is the only reason I give it a 3. The script ruined it for me though. Ridiculous how anybody can name a movie after a Biblical person and then go so far from the Biblical account. I guess it sells. The story is also a bit sexist (which is a sign of those times I guess). Absurd.

Why do people find this entertaining? Why would you want to watch a person slowly kill themself for an hour? And the others- watching them suffer- watching somebody they love slowly die- It's just torture. Maybe people are so demented now a days- that's what's people like- to watch people suffer. (Is there anybody in this movie not suffering?) And another thing- none of these people in this film (or the ones that made it) who are supposedly somewhat educated in religion- don't really know much about it. Also- he is a terrible teacher in my mind. If I sign up for a writing class- I don't want psychotherapy. It actually was a really good essay by the way- prob the best part of the movie. And the ending was way (and I can't emphasis this too much) - too corny. The atheist dies and goes up into the light? Really? Nothing wrong with the acting- great cast- just a horror story/script about suffering- not for me.

I liked Rolf Lassgård as Otto much better. He came off as loud and abrasive -while still being caring- much better than Tom Hanks who only came off as mean. I could believe Rolf as having a "big heart" but not Tom Hanks. He just seemed to not care. The characters in his version were not well introduced and left me not caring about them at all. The movie seemed kinda jerky like- it did not flow well, if that makes any sense. Anyway, the setting and close up on the individual characters was not ideal and was not well filmed in my mind. Watch the Swedish version and I think you would like it a lot better if you can get past the sub titles. Maybe seeing the other version ruined me to this one- I don't know. I give it a 5 only because of the great story.