So I’ve been a bit lax with my Amazon Prime reviewing. Oops.
I am going to maybe split it into two posts depending how the words pour forth.
The past couple of weeks I’ve had rather a lot of bones to pick with Amazon. They
did a massive update on all Sony and some Samsung products that basically made
the whole service go kaput for three days. We are kind of in a limbo of waiting for the day our 2011 “Smart” t.v.
no longer makes the cut – Amazon recently became incompatible with rather a lot
of devices which I’m sure is a joy for lots of people who forked out for the
service. As it is we have occasional content errors and a rather clunky system
on the Sony t.v. to navigate, so we are resigned that we will probably need to
buy a blu ray dvd which can host the app in the near future. (I know a lot of
people use their gaming devices but we are not gamers). Wow all this tech
speak (not!) is exhausting!
And then this month they went and removed Scandal, Greys
Anatomy, Alias (which I was on the fourth season of -Grr!), Criminal Minds which
I was hoping to watch, and many of their U.S. comedies, of which they have a
severe dearth to begin with. It does particularly annoy me when they take off
long running shows which people are trying to work their way through. Although
they also have a weird habit of putting stuff back on – in just over a year
they’ve removed and put back on and removed the aforementioned Scandal and Grey’s.
It’s quite annoying as a consumer.
Anyway enough grumbling, sorry! Onto the breach…erm, the
couch!
T.V.:
Red Oaks (Amazon Originals): Do you like John Hughes films? Do
you like the 80’s? Do you like coming of age tales? Did you enjoy the film Submarine?
(um scratch that, I wasn’t crazy about it, but the British lead in this was the
young teen in that, and he is very good
here). Then you might like this! It’s a retro Caddyshack style comedy (well less old fashioned and
sexist, mostly) about a young college student who gets a job as a tennis coach at his town’s
upscale country club. There’s even a girl who looks like Ally Sheedy. With tongue firmly
in cheek it relishes the glorious tackiness that was the 80’s in a very
affectionate way. Very binge-able half hour show that feels familiar, maybe too
familiar at times, but is good fun nonetheless.
The Man in the High Castle (also an Amazon Original): Based on a dystopian sci fi
novel by Philip K.Dick and brought to Amazon by producer Ridley Scott, this show
is set in 1962, only it’s an unrecognizable world where the Allied Forces lost
WWII when Japan got the atomic bomb
first. It’s pretty scary stuff. Rufus Sewell is an American Nazi commander
(certain swathes of U.S. citizens seem to have become out and out Nazis, I did
find this element slightly confusing. Like at what point during the war did
this happen?). The East coast is occupied German territory, the West
(California anyway) is Japanese ruled and occupied. The Japan/Germany alliance
is an uneasy one, which an underground resistance is trying to help exploit and
weaken. The Midwest is a sort of Neutral zone, but still dangerous.
Juliana Crain is a young woman living in San Francisco who
has embraced Japanese culture in her love of Akido, but she becomes drawn into
the resistance because of a family tragedy. Her artist boyfriend Frank is also
affected by this in harrowing and upsetting ways at the hands of Japanese
interrogators. There are films made by a “Man in the High Castle” circulated by
the underground resistance which I won't spoil but which the Germans and Japanese are trying very hard to stop. A new American S.S. recruit, Joe, is sent to stop Juliana from delivering
one in the Neutral zone, only various things go not to plan on both sides and
the two become unlikely friends who also make googly eyes at each other (I
apologize if this is tmi but this is basically what sets the rest of the show in
motion). It’s very atmospheric and tense drama – if a tiny bit slow moving at
times. The premise is so intriguingly terrifying that it does much of the work
for the show. Definitely worth a watch.
Films:
Map to the Stars: Julianne Moore is everything in this. It’s
honestly not a great film, a sort of Bret Easton Ellis lite skewering of Hollywood
with added weird family gothic drama. Jon Cusack is wasted, or just bad in it,
I can’t decide. Mia Wakisowaka (Sp? omg
you know who I mean?!) hasn’t convinced me she can act yet and this melodramatic
bleak story isn’t really the place to try. But worth a watch for Julianne Moore
playing a washed up narcissistic actress like the supreme goddess she is. And
Carrie Fisher has a small cameo with her French bulldog, Gary, so you know, not
a total write off!
Nightcrawler: Hmm. Jake Gyllenhaal is unquestionably
watchable and creepy and interesting in this. It’s about an aimless drifter who
makes money stealing scrap metal, who accidentally stumbles on what seems the
perfect job for him: Crime scene stalker/photographer. He is willing to break
the law/bend rules of decency to get the best footage, which quickly makes him
a success. Renee Russo hires him for her local news broadcast and it escalates...sort of. I felt like this film was building to something it never quite managed. It was darkly creepy to watch though (if you enjoy that sort of thing!).
Gravity: I really, really like Sandra Bullock. I presume
that is why this movie did so well, because most people really like Sandra
Bullock? And the dazzling space special effects which are admittedly lost on the
small screen. It’s not that it’s not watchable (though I spent most of the time
going “No, don’t do that! Agh!”), it just feels sort of like it could have been
an episode Star Trek or something. I am admittedly not the target audience for
this film, but then again I enjoyed Moon which is a similar sort of lone person
in space type drama – it had a bit more to it though. Gravity just felt sort of…lightweight.
(sorry! ;-)
Tbc….
The only one i'm familiar with is the man in the high castle, which my husband started watching when we both caught a head cold so i wasn't in the mood for a serious have to pay attention show, then it seemed interesting but i was already out of the loop and didn't want to annoy him with questions so i only barely watched.
ReplyDeleteI lost interest in it for a couple of episodes but it got me back, it is definitely one of those "I must concentrate!" shows ;-0
DeleteI have no desire to see Gravity. I don't know why. It annoys me when movies are made and people are all "it has to be on the big screen" - well then clearly it is carried by effects and not story, yo. And the idea of Sandra Bullock as an astronaut is hilarious. I'm sorry, but it's almost as ridiculous as when Nicole Kidman was cast as a nuclear physicist.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was pretty meh on the small screen. Her character is a doctor who trains to get to go to space (um I could have mentioned that in my synopsis!), so she's not really an astronaut, so of course everything goes wrong. It does work on a basic level so I don't want to poo poo it totally, I just wasn't blown away by it the way it was hyped up to be so amazeballs ;-)
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