Amazon Prime Film/TV Series Recommendations

Yeah pretty good, suffers from that annoying lack of lighting that some shows do for style. Think it would have been a lot more tense with only 6 episodes but 8 still satisfying enough.

Also found this about Hacks, a severe lack of humour in it. Stopped about there and didn't go back to it.

Paper Girls - Teaser Trailer 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-1cyNm7iAU

It will be back in a few years, zero chance they are going to stop making them, they are still hugely popular and profitable. I know the film's are of hugely variable quality.

Always interesting to see who they pick to play him. Watching Slow Horses I think Jack Lowden could be a really good shout.

Watched Birds of Prey with the Harley Quinn tag line movie, A pretty dumb flick! the compliment I can give it is it shades Justice League and Suicide Squad which were all kinds of rubbish.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays the most interesting character but it wasn't until like the last third she entered the fray and by then I'd concluded it wasn't up to much and even at that she plays a girl who was left an orphan after her family is murdered who then trains to her adult years to become a bold natured vigilante (I think I may have seen this one before like!).

The Birds of Prey are very much the supporting cast so the title of the picture is even a misfire.

The casting of Margot Robbie as Harley Q you cannot argue with if alone for all the Halloween outfits based on her potrayal but this is seriously a shocking outing for her, not all her fault of course whoever came up with those monologues/narration that was either bland or outright annoying, bloody hell!

Yeah, I loved Birds of Prey, reminded me a lot of Tank Girl - a proper over the top fun comic movie.

I didn’t expect much from it, and it was a very pleasant surprise.

if ever an service needed a redesign

bit more on it here

https://www.pocket-lint.com/tv/news/amazon/161919-amazon-prime-video-redesign-announced-details

The Senator is an excellent dramatisation of the Chappaquiddick incident.

Few people in Ireland under the age of 50 know about this incident but it ended the prospect of a second Kennedy in the White House. Ted Kennedy challenged Jimmy Carter in 1980 and, though he conceded the nomination, Kennedy's speech at the Convention was transformative. In the eyes of many Democrats, Ted Kennedy became the greatest "mighta, shoulda, coulda" of American politics, if only he hadn't missed that bridge in Chappaquiddick. If Kennedy, not Reagan, had got to the White House in the 1980s, American would have been a very different place and we mightn't have had to wait for Bill Clinton to get the Good Friday Agreement. He was also the only man who could treat Haughey like a schoolboy.

So many Irish people think they understand American politics, and especially the Kennedys, but they have very blinkered notions and a weak grasp on American history. This movie doesn't answer the key questions but it gives a wonderful flavour of that extraordinary summer of 1969. Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon the day after Chappaquiddick. Then came the Manson murders and Woodstock and the British Army in Northern Ireland and so much else.

Anyone seen The James May series - our Man in Italy yet?

Watchable?

thanks

Me and missus watched and we enjoyed it. We did enjoy the Japan one as well.

Watched House of Gucci, great cast and a fascinating story loosely based on the truth

The three Hobbit movies are now on Prime and I ploughed through them without much pleasure. Although technically impressive, these movies are not a patch on LOTR because the central quest lacks a compelling purpose to drive the narrative over eight hours of chasing and fighting. LOTR was driven by a compelling theme - to destroy the One Ring forever in the fires of Mordor which was the only sure way to prevent Sauron from dominating Middle Earth.

Why is Bilbo Baggins helping the Dwarves? They never did anything for the Hobbits and only concerned themselves with accumumlating more gold. In the novel, Bilbo is motivated by the promise of a share in the dragon's treasure but Bilbo hardly mentions this in the movies.

By disturbing the sleeping dragon, they unleash his fire and fury on the unfortunate inhabitants of Lake Town. All this mayhem just for greed? Killing the invincible dragon with a magic arrow seems a contrived McGuffin. The movies make much of the Dwarves desire to return to their native home but generations have passed an the whole venture seems misconceived especially because Thorin's role is totally confusing (rightful heir? future King? would-be tyrant? unreliable gangster?). The motives of the Elves are also ambiguous and confusing - Legolas turns into Badass and the love story between Tauriel and Kíli is never convincing.

The Hobbit could have been a fun prequel to LOTR if they treated it as a heist movie, mixing thrills with humour (Ocean's 11 in Middle Earth!). A two hour movie could focus on Bilbo's development, under Gandalf's tutelage, from a timid homebody to a resourceful, courageous and enterprising player in a daring escapade to steal the Dragon's gold. Instead, Bilbo reverts to timid homebody at the start of each movie so we watch him make this transition repeatedly.

Also irritating that these movies are said to be in UHD but I can only get HD. Why aren't all movies streamed in 4K or UHD nowadays and why is Ireland almost always limited to HD movies (except for the streamers' own productions)?