Media Reviews

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Reviews of all Moving Pictures, the silver screen! From movies, to streaming series, to shows, to youtube series.

Only reviews! No trailers, teasers, gossip, speculation, behind the camera drama, anything meta.

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In 2002, during the initial outbreak of the Rage Virus,[a] a young boy named Jimmy Crystal flees his house in the Scottish Highlands as his family are attacked by the infected. He takes refuge in the local church with his father, a minister, but finds him praying in ecstasy, since he interprets the virus as a harbinger of the end times and the Day of Judgement. Jimmy's father bequeaths him a cross necklace and helps him to safety before submitting to the infected as they break in.

WTF.... I'm not unhappy i watched this film, but I am confused about what i just watched.

The decision to intermix period films, dream sequences, reality, and delusions throughout the entire runtime was a STRONG editorial choice. It got to the point where I didn't really trust anything I was watching.

I get the impression this is the VIBE screen writing version of world war z (the book).

Overall, I would consider this a art house experimental film kung foo hustle meets kill bill set in a pseudo medieval setting. I would recommend watching it, just for the slow motion train wreck.

As far as a zombie or survivor film goes it doesn't have much to say, spends lots of time not saying it, and just kinda fills time.

The biggest weakness is they tried to do too many things at a very shallow depth, they would have been much better off picking one theme and exploring it to make a film worth watching.

things that didn't make sense

  1. the zero-to-eleven urgency to take the mother to see a doctor based on ONE signal fire

  2. The villagers avoiding the doctor because he was burning the infected (which seems pretty damn sensible)

  3. The fucking swedish boat survivors not doing any type of suppression or bounding, they had the firepower and training, they could have setup a kill box and overlapping fields of fire and survived the first encounter. The scene was so fucking random and out of place I got whiplash

  4. zombie baby birth... why? What did it add to the story? What did they do with it? It's like checkovs gun dry fired.

  5. Jimmy.... this was some weird wish fulfillment, the absolute lunacy of it... it felt like they were setting up a comic book film at the very end. Which I could dig...

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To the Lake (Russian: Эпидемия, romanized: Epidemiya, lit. 'epidemic') is a Russian post-apocalyptic thriller television series launched on the Premier platform on 14 November 2019.[2] Its first season is based on Vongozero, a novel by Russian author Yana Vagner.[3] Netflix acquired the first season and released it internationally on 8 October 2020.

I found this while looking for zombie content, and it's fairly near. Think of a Contagion type of movie but nobody trusts each other.

Typically in these apocalypse films the characters are so terrible that you kind of want them to fail. Here, they came close, but there is enough humanity and futility lumped together that I actually care about these survivors struggles.

If you like thoughtful, dark, and a bit frustrating character studies of adversity in the context of a pandemic - this show is a worthwhile watch.

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Dead Set is a British satirical zombie horror television miniseries written and created by Charlie Brooker. The show takes place primarily on the set of a fictional series of the real television show Big Brother. The five episodes, aired over five consecutive nights, chronicle a zombie outbreak that strands the housemates and production staff inside the Big Brother House, which quickly becomes a shelter from the undead.

5 Episodes, 20 minutes each. The first episode was reasonably good with buildup and story telling.

The last 4 episodes did not impress. They didn't have much to say or do, not much time to do it in, and they stretched it.

By the last episode I disliked every main character and was relived when the show ended without a cliff-hanger.

In terms of Zombie Material, its a reasonable thing to watch, but nothing new to say, all the people die by stupidity and failure to adapt - a little frustrating. I'm not sure if it was satire, but everyone is over the top emotional flies off the handle with anger, snap decisions, hostility, and of course crying.

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Locke - 2013 (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by jet@hackertalks.com to c/media_reviews@hackertalks.com
 
 

Locke is a 2013 psychological drama road film written and directed by Steven Knight. It stars Tom Hardy in the title role (and the only on-screen character) as he drives while conducting a series of phone conversations

Wow, this was both enthralling and had lots of second hand embarrassment. A entire film from inside a car, a one man production, yet the journey is captivating.

I highly recommend this film if you enjoy thoughtful art.

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The Harrigans, a London crime family, find themselves in a battle with the Stevensons that could end syndicates and their lives. Harry Da Souza is a street-smart and formidable fixer employed by the Harrigan family to navigate and mitigate the escalating conflict threatening their empire. As tensions between the families intensify, Harry is tasked with protecting the Harrigans' interests and preventing an all-out gang war.

Tom Hardy makes this series work. It's like game of thrones levels of duplicity, the first 6 episodes are really good, the last few feel a bit forced. It's very enjoyable, especially to see Tom Hardy as a quiet fixer type.

I recommend for the crime drama aspects.

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The Pitt - 2025 (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by jet@hackertalks.com to c/media_reviews@hackertalks.com
 
 

Attending physician Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch starts a grueling shift at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital's emergency room (ER), nicknamed "the Pitt" by its staff, by welcoming four newcomers: Victoria Javadi, a third-year medical student; Dennis Whitaker, a fourth-year medical student; Dr. Trinity Santos, an intern; and Dr. Melissa "Mel" King, a second-year resident. Throughout the next fifteen hours, the students and residents learn more about their professional duties, while trying to deal with the emotional toll of patient care and the hardships of working in an overcrowded and underfunded ER, guided by Robby and the Pitt's other staff members, including charge nurse Dana Evans, second-year resident Dr. Cassie McKay, third-year resident Dr. Samira Mohan, and senior residents Dr. Heather Collins and Dr. Frank Langdon. Meanwhile, Robby struggles to cope with traumatic memories resurfacing on the fourth anniversary of his mentor's death, which happened in the Pitt during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A really intense single day in a ER, each episode is one hour, 15 hours in the day. The medical drama is there in abundance, but I found myself being invested in this huge ensemble cast in a few episodes. Some of the onscreen injuries did make me squeamish, but they are well done.

Some of the TV tropes you can see coming, but it doesn't make the show any less entertaining.

I highly recommend the Pitt, its a great show to binge. Its frenetic enough that it is NOT second screen material.