Cate Moon

I'm glad I stuck with this. Because, like many of the one-star reviewers, I almost stopped watching. That said, the prolonged sex scenes were unnecessarily. I don't believe for a moment that a mother mourning her son would write fictional pornographic scenes involving her beloved child. It's totally out of character. SPOILERS COMING... The twist at the end redeems the series, somewhat. But given what really happened to Catherine, those pornographic scenes (I don't mean the rape scenes) seem not only unnecessary, but cruel. The telling of the mother's novel could have been done in a way that didn't play to men's fantasies. Shame, because this might have been a 5-star series for me. The acting is fabulous. Both Cate Blanchett and Leslie Manville are stellar actresses and Kevin Kline is giving the performance of his life. But for the reasons stated above, this is only 3-stars.

Silly and lazy writing. I watched a few (too many) episodes before my rolling eyes were threatening to fall out of my head. To start: Guy knows he’s being followed by an assassin, but rather than employe evasive moves, he phones a few people and leaves a message for his girlfriend, all the while walking in an exposed area. One assassin is having (graphic) sex with a guy he picked up at a bar, gets a call from a colleague who is about to fight off two assassins, manages to get to her in less than a minute (in London traffic). One assassin enters another assassin’s posh home and they flight violently (smashing things) in the kitchen but fail to wake the husband and kids sleeping upstairs. An assassin is fighting off half a dozen other assassins, and rather than telling his boyfriend to hide in a closet, he has him close his eyes and hold onto him as he shoots his way out of their apartment whilst walking down a fire escape. In a flashback, a girl applies for a job as a translator and is hired to be an assassin based upon the fact that she didn’t go to college. Three assassins put a bomb on a metal door in order to blow it open, but stand beside the door doing nothing to protect themselves (oh, one assassin holds an ear closed.) Oddly, none of them are hurt. All together too many assassins doing stupid things. It’s hard to sympathize with any of them, as they are only doing this for money and not for single noble cause whatsoever. Makes them all totally unlikable people.

Great film. Story of a boy and his mother trying to find each other in the midst of war. Excellent cast, and well crafted.

I think they were trying to be a Wes Anderson film, but failed.

2-stars for the cat (who didn't even get a credit!). Very silly plot. Terminally ill woman is caught in an alien invasion and her #1 priority is to get a slice of pizza at her favorite pizza parlor in Harlem. Doesn't matter that there are gazillions of good pizza parlors between where she is and there (this is NYC, folks!). Doesn't matter that she's risking the life of her cat, or of a stranger she meets along the way (who somehow never manages to lose his tie, no matter how many aliens chase him). Doesn't matter that there are thousands of man-eating aliens along the path. Or that she'll have to wade through a subway tunnel full of sewage water. No, she's got to have that pizza. Even though, duh, it's gonna be cold by the time she gets there. The end (spoiler alert) is silly too: The woman decides to let Tie-Guy escape with the cat, and just end her life. So instead of simply jumping from a tall building, she lets an alien eat her? No one is going to do that!

True, the plot is a little far fetched, but not unlike most fairytales. Reminiscent of Les Les Misérables. The film is a gem, really well done, especially when it comes to the main actors, the setting, and the warm-hearted story of a father and daughter’s love. Highly recommend.

After all the great reviews, I decided to try a couple of episodes. There was just too much screaming. I was getting a headache. It also doesn't help that the editing is so frantic. Plus, this is a comedy? A series about a guy grieving the suicide of his twin brother? How did this win Emmys in the comedy category?

The costumes and setting is gorgeous. But, for me, it is too smutty in some places (but that's what the fast forward button is for). My biggest disappointment was with the character of Mariko. I was excited to see that she was a Christian, but then when she slips into bed with Blackthorne? Honestly, I couldn't get her attraction to that guy. And how on earth does he act like a raving maniac and get away with it?

Very shallow characters, especially Owen, a 30-something guy who has a boring job and hasn’t read Great Expectations and who hates travel but comes to Morocco anyway to accompany his girlfriend who he doesn’t seem to like. The guy is a total drip. His girlfriend gets a two-book deal with Random House and he’s too self-absorbed to celebrate with her. Then there’s Katherine, a late-50s novelist who just wants to be alone, but who comes to a gathering knowing that it will be a social event for fellow writers. There’s zero chemistry between the two characters. The setting is great, but that’s about it. Too many stupid plot points. Like when Katherine, desperate to be alone, books a four-hour drive (because the driver “doesn’t speak a word of English”), but finds herself seated next to Owen in the jeep and doesn’t get out of the car. And how is it that Katherine has so many clothes considering that her luggage was lost? Where did the green negligee come from?! Skip this one.