jayaline Lin

The main characters are completely unlikeable bottom-feeding reality show producers. They manipulate people and destroy lives ... And no kidding, it is done so incredibly cheaply, literally they go to contestants and whisper gossip in their ears which ends up causing hurt and destroying lives. Yet nothing ever comes back on them, they never pay ... This is unrefined lowest common denominator trash. The writing is unbelievably poor. The plot pieces (eg when a character is manipulated so badly they kill themselves) don't even get connected to any future scene, so if you watch this series you will simply get a lot of crappy unresolved plot lines, leaving you unsatisfied ... The most shit show writing ever. Avoid.

A well made farce about machiavellian step siblings and the people they manipulate. There is character growth. For example one character starts without a conscience and slowly develops warmth and conscience. Another character starts out naive, and wises up as the movie goes on. Selma Blair's physical comedy is outstanding as she bumbles and trips over and falls etc. with perfect comedic timing. I did not know she was that good, and for me that was the highlight of the movie. There is plenty of cheekiness and innuendo. The pace is good with no gaps or boring sections where you are waiting for things to happen.

Arterton is good. Contrary to some plot summaries, the movie is about a self absorbed woman who runs away in pursuit of her own happiness abandoning her children. Without spoiling too much, a child crying, having to take the kids with her while going shopping, is all too much for this woman so she runs away to seek fun. A good adventure story for teenagers who romanticise the notion of being irresponsible and playing truant, or running away from home, As an adult moviegoer, maybe watch it as a portrait of a parent who discovers that being an adult involves responsibility, and wishes they could turn back the clock to being a teenager again with “not a care in the world” and that’s their excuse for putting the thrusters on full, blowing out of there and the children are left standing in the wake. At one point, there is a thin scene of the father having come back from work, asking her to attend to the kids. This is part of the “it’s too much” theme, as the kids cried when he was working, and now they are needy again, so understandably [According to the movie narrative] she leaves and abandons them. It’s a very thin reason for abandoning children. And this adds to the picture of her character. I didn’t see the end. I presume she finds some young good looking fellow and has some fun, it was enough for me to see how selfishness can leave a broken home and damaged children. Summary: Well made. Holds your interest. A little bit gritty, but not for moviegoers who might get upset watching children suffer from this kind of indirect abuse.

Catherine Zeta-Jones is brilliant in the role of the fierce, hot blooded, passionate Elena, daughter of the older Zorro but she doesn't know it. Antonio Banderas is perfect as the hot blooded new Zorro. He's reckless, in contrast to the more calm and strategic old Zorro (Anthony Hopkins). Brilliant writing, great to have a contrast between the two Zorros. Finally the passion between Zeta Jones and Banderas feels real. "Zorro was here, I fought him and he left. He left!", "D'you recognize him?", "No, but he was young and vigorous. He was very vigorous father". Haha, a wonderful passionate and sometimes funny movie.

This bond film was different. Brilliantly made and with great tension and emotion. Slow paced which suits a good spy drama, but that might put some people off who like the usual fast paced Bond films. It's a great film for cinephiles. But for those who like to see the same thing every time, it would feel like somebody replaced their white bread which they had for 50 years with wholemeal, haha, "maaa, there's strange bits in mah white bread", lol :)