Dan Horvat – Google

Took my kid to see the Legos because I got free tickets, and got the worst movie I ever saw, in 40+ years. This is a pathetic coming-of-age story that glorifies his rather normal upbringing, mimicking the tales that did it right and that actually had a purpose. As if he's been through war as a child. I almost vomited in the first 20 minutes, then walked out. The man had an obsession with Neptune and he thinks it must have had something to do with him being a brilliant musician. He watched Carl Sagan so that makes him smart. But he's not that brilliant. Almost every black musician I've heard of is more of an artist than Pharrell. All he gave the world is that sickening tune ''Happy''. Just to name one example, I respect Andre 3000, who I guess fits the same niche as Pharrell, music-wise, but is for real, unlike this guy who's just tooting his own horn. I guess Pharrell is a shrewd business person and a good producer. Turns out, he's at his best writing music for cartoons. And now he got his own cartoon because he has the money to pay for it. No artistic justification for this movie. Well done Pharrell. I'll go listen to some real musicians now and go watch a Lego movie that's actually fun. 0/5 stars.

I guess you have to be a bit high to enjoy this rugged impressionism that has a deeper meaning. Fortunately, I was. I must first confess I'm in love with Gaga / Harleen / Harley, and she broke my heart. I didn't think Arthur Fleck would be in for another tragedy and I thought he'll grow to become a leader of an uprising. He certainly had a chance to but left that car for Harley. No third movie. I don't like musicals at all and am not at all fond of singing in this movie either. But I guess it adds to the lunacy that would otherwise be difficult to depict. I see this as a love tragedy between a woman who wanted to make someone a larger man, and a man who failed to meet expectations. Isn't that a common one? Don't we all paint our faces with the roles we want to fulfill? Think about that. I kind of like it that everyone is giving this movie a bad review. Let the next Netflix movie get a 99% rating, enjoy the hype everyone, I'll savour Folie a Deux for myself quietly. This dark rugged Shakespearean tragedy with face paint is a masterpiece, and a synergy of arts.

As a 43-year-old man who saw the original Predator as a kid, I loved this movie. It's obvious why one would give it a low rating, but these people are stuck-ups who forgot how to have fun. A decorated soldier gets four insane buddies as his "unit" and a female evolutionary biologist joins them - and she's not out of sync with the dudes, which is brilliant. It's not her first time being next to such lunatics. Or, just guys. The interplay between all of them, and sniper's wife too, is just brilliant. That's how real people look like and act like, they don't take themselves as seriously as the action heroes we know. Schwarzenegger would look ridiculous in comparison. I love how the sniper's kid has autism yet the dad just treats him normally. Loves him, supports him, tells him the truth, doesn't ask anything of him, is just there and lets him be. Admires him for what he is. Wow. That's a superhero. The only reason why I didn't give it five stars is that the movie lets go of the interplay between five lunatics after a really good start in the bus. After that, McKenna suddenly becomes an undisputed leader. I'm not buying that. The main villain is a bit strange too. How did the dude get rich, with smarts? Not plausible. If he was pictured as a rap star, maybe a parody of Jay-Z, perhaps with a caricature of Beyonce by his side, now that would be plausible, funny, and prophetic. Oh and there's Yvonne Stakhovsky. Yes. Me likes. Could have been an even better movie but I like it a lot like this too. Anyway, if you want to know if this is a good movie, ask a 12-year-old. Mine loves it. We had a good time and a few good laughs.

I understand the restraint, but this came to a halt around episode 5. Or was it 4. Then it's snail pace and no real events. Where other dramatizations turn up the drama, this one deescalates things to a boring halt. It's as if Game of Thrones had Starks and Lannisters kiss and make up. At one point, Shogun starts traveling at the pace of... real life. I was so thrilled about this show early on, and then I got disappointed the same way Toranaga's vassals were. This is, sadly, a tale of a shogun candidate who refused to fight. Reminds me of that war movie about a guy who didn't want to shoot a rifle that I never watched. We wanted glorious battles. Some Sun Tzu wisdom. Samurais, glory, honour. But Toranaga says no, you don't need any of that, restrain yourself. This is a talk show. Since Toranaga surrendered, we see how does a coward's life unfold. After watching it, I'd rather die in battle myself than rewatch the show. Why is Mariko so important anyway? She's just a Macguyver. No power, no influence, no anything. But the show works if we believe she's important. Why is Anjin important? He was only important back when he had a secret to tell - that the Portuguese had a secret contract to divide Japan. Once that was in the open - and no one believed him! - he loses importance. His other importance, the guns, we only see on the training ground. Such a waste. Could have been the best show ever.

A visually impressive movie that has a large scope - an army is using the Great Wall as its outpost to fight the monsters. It's a fun epic with good casting and acting, and a moral subplot of mercenaries wanting to run away from battle. Casting and acting is among the best I've seen. Jing Tian as the female general is good enough to be the lead. Pedro Pascal amazing of course. But there are some really bad things that hurt the movie. The monsters come to remind the human race that greed is bad. Ok. First of all, are they evil then, or are we? If we defeat them by force, what did we prove - that we're greedy people who can prevail monsters by force? If they come every 60 years, do they just leave at some point, or do you have to defeat them every time? The infallible archer is more competent that Legolas and Katniss combined. And is also, of course, The White Savior. It's a decent movie for a young boy, 10-13, it has to be someone who doesn't ask a lot of questions and wants mindless fun, a glimpse into how ancient Chinese armies looked like, and monsters. Then it's a good movie. Too bad it missed the opportunity to actually make this an actual moral story about human greed that will stick with the boy.

Perhaps the Iron Maiden album with the best sound. At least according to my taste. Let's not forget that prior to this 2000 album, we had Virtual XI that, frankly, sucked. And The X-Factor that was good but, alas, Dickinson-less. So basically it was 8 years since the last good Maiden album, 10+ since the last great one and we were wondering if we'll ever hear good new metal music again. Think about that for a minute. Do I need to remind you of Toni Braxton, Britney Spears, J Lo, Limp Bizkit and the overall music sound of the late 90s and 2000? Coldplay, Nickelback, Creed? The movies. The movies! The entire pop culture was so awful at the time, with few bright spots. There was nothing to turn to for a tougher sound, everyone was so mushy. Including the likes of Helloween. We didn't know we'll ever have someone rescue us from that. And then Iron Maiden comes back with this. A perfect album with Dickinson in his prime, with the Blaze darkness still present in songwriting, with three guitars, with a thick powerful sound that only emphasized the Murray solos. I dislike the title track, never intentionally played it, only by accident. I also dislike The Mercenary and The Fallen Angel, and haven't bothered to listen to The Nomad for years now though it was interesting at first. Blood Brothers is the best track on the album, followed by the iconic Ghost of the Navigator and equally good epic Dream of Mirrors. Got to know how to enjoy these two. They are special pleasures of music listening if you know how to do it. The Wicker Man is arguably the best "fast" Maiden track. They usually fail miserably with the opening tracks, but this one has meat on its bones. You could say this album lacks a truly great song, such as The Clansman or Sign of the Cross, and that five filler tracks is too much, but the sound, man. It's amazing. If they performed Twinkle Twinkle with this setup it would have been amazing. Also, after this album, the good songs have dried up. All we got was For the Greater Good of God in 2006, a decent Dance of Death sound in 2003 plus The Journeyman, and numerous songs that sound really well but aren't Iron Maiden cream of the crop. This album came at the turn of the century. New decade, new century, enthusiasm, the Internet. What a turn of the century it was for us Maiden fans. Let's not forget we also had Lord of the Rings soon afterwards. My own life wasn't too good at the time but this powerful album is a bright spot. I was listening to it over and over again. And still do. Brave New World and Lord of the Rings saved the turn of the century. Otherwise all we have would have been Nickelback and American Pie. Thanks for that, lads.

Swan song for the first Dickinson era, and the end of an era. A masterful one at that. I personally dislike the stripped down sound but the songs got new life later, when a richer and more powerful sound was added. Fear of the Dark is obviously a top 5 Maiden song - or a top 5 metal song - and some more great songs are Afraid to Shoot Strangers and Wasting Love. And then you got From Here to Eternity and Be Quick or Be Dead as if that wasn't enough. And then some underrated songs I still come back to such as Weekend Warrior and Judas My Guide. I still really dislike the stripped down sound, it almost ruins the album for me, but this is still a masterpiece. I guess they have had a reason for doing it like this. Perhaps it wouldn't be as good if it had the Brave New World kind of thick sound. I prefer some other Maiden albums, I have a soft spot for Seventh Son in particular, but it's impossible to give this one anything less than 5 stars.

After four episodes, I'm giving this show 2/5, which means it's decent but does barely enough to keep me interested. I don't think it's going in the right direction. I'm a big fan of TLOU the game and was waiting for this show ever since it was announced. I couldn't be happier that it exists in the first place. I loved the first episode, it was action-packed. Ep 2 was a bit boring and the clickers are awful, not scary at all, like weak women who wear huge masks. Ep 3 is obviously a masterpiece. But I felt it gave us something other than what we were eagerly waiting for. The thrill is broken and gone. Ep 1 was action, Ep 2 slowed down, Ep 3 took a break from the storyline. Ep 4 resumed, slowly, until action appears late in the episode. My main objection here is that this is slow burn. Dramatization of events usually means that you leave the boring things out - as in waking up that day and having breakfast - and accelerate the pace so the viewer can't think of anything else. Here, there's a lot of slow burn boring stuff. I'm not totally against it. I like watching slow stuff. It's just that they haven't found a way to make it work here. It's just somehow unconnected. I know this show is new and we were waiting for it and there's the global hype before each episode. But that will die down and then we'll be able to judge this show based on what it really is. To me, it's 2/5. With hope that it will build up to 3/5 at some point.