TV Show Review - The Watcher (Mini Series)

Season: Mini Series
Genre: Thriller/ Horror/ Mystery
Number of episodes: 7
Year: 2022
Starring: Naomi Watts, Bobby Cannavale, Jennifer Coolidge, Christopher McDonald, Mia Farrow, Noma Dumezweni, Margo Martindale, Richard Kind, Luke David Blumm, Isabel Gravitt

Description: A married couple (Bobby Cannavale, Naomi Watts) moving into their dream home is being threatened by terrifying letters from a stalker, signed “The Watcher”.  

Review: Halloween is just around the corner and Netflix know damn well how to get you ready for that. Just in: “The Watcher”. A series, based on true events, about a married coupe and their two kids who buy their dream house.

Nora and Dean Brannock can’t believe how lucky they are, moving away from the big city, into to this beautiful house. Until they start receiving ominous letters, signed by someone killing themselves “The Watcher”. With that, the Brannocks’ neighbors are very strange and there seems to be a hidden history about the house.

The show started off super strong. The first two episode were really creepy, terrifying at times, where you just want to double check if you have locked every door and window in your house. The tension doesn’t stay consistent, but the mystery does.

Like the couple, you are constantly trying to figure out who is writing those letters and why this person keeps such close tabs on the Brannocks. It is loosely based on true events, which makes the thought of everything even scarier.

The ending might leave you a bit unsatisfied, but it makes sense, since that’s what really happened. A series easy to binge, perfect for Halloween.

100 Movie Challenge 2016 - # 72: New York Stories

Director: Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola
Genre: Drama/ Comedy
Runtime: 124 minutes
Year: 1989
Starring: Nick Nolte, Rosanne Arquette, Steve Buscemi, Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Larry David, Mike Starr, Chris Elliot, Adrien Brody, Kirsten Dunst, Talia Shire

Description: A middle-aged artist (Nick Nolte) obsessed with his pretty young assistant (Rosanna Arquette), a precocious 12 year old living in a hotel, and a neurotic lawyer (Woody Allen) with a possessive mother make up three Gotham tales.

Review: I always like movies with multiple storylines, so I was excited to finally see this. Well, that was a disappointment.
The first story, “Life Lesson”, is about a middle-aged painted who has an obsession with his young assistant. It stars Nick Nolte and Rosanna Arquette. This story was very boring, nothing interesting really happened. And although I love the song Shade of Pale by Procol Harum, there is such an overuse of this song that I didn’t want to hear it anymore after this segment. This story was directed by Martin Scorsese.
The second story, “Life Without Zoë”, follows young girl Zoë. She is a schoolgirl who lives in a luxury hotel. She helps return to an Arab princess a valuable piece of jewelry that the princess had given to Zoë’s father. This story felt so childish and silly. I couldn’t believe that this was directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
The final story, “Oedipus Wreck”, is about lawyer Sheldon. He has trouble with his overly critical mother Sadie. During a magic show, Sadie disappears. At first furious, Sheldon eventually realizes that it better that way. This story was actually fun. I loved Woody Allen in it and he also directed it. It was funny and actually kept me watching. They saved the best for last.
Overall “New York Stories” was really disappointing. That last story saved the movie.

Rating: 2/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2016 - # 7: Be Kind Rewind

Director: Michel Gondry

Genre: Comedy

Runtime: 98 minutes

Year: 2008

Starring: Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover, Mia Farrow, Melonie Diaz, Sigourney Weaver

Description: Two bumbling store clerks (Jack Black, Mos Def) inadvertently erase the footage from all of the tapes in their video rental store. In order to keep the business running, they re-shoot every film in the store with their own camera, with a budget of zero dollars.

Review: ‘Be Kind, Rewind’, today’s kids don’t even know what that means anymore. The time before movies appeared on shiny discs but were sold on big, black rectangle VHS tapes. And when the person before you didn’t rewind the film, it was very frustrating. The store in “Be Kind Rewind” only sells VHS tapes and off course that’s hopelessly old fashioned. But this is a fun film for people with big imaginations.

Jack Black plays Jerry and believes the factory next door brainwashes people. When he unsuccessfully tries to sabotage it, he gets magnetized. This causes for every VHS tape to erase in the store that his friend Mike works at. Mike is responsible for the store after his boss left in order to save the store. One of their regular costumers really wants to see “Ghostbusters” on video, not DVD. Jerry and Mike decide to recreate the film themselves and it’s such a success that many other movies follow.

It’s very clear that director Michel Gondry had loads of fun making “Be Kind Rewind”. The cheap ways to recreate expensive special effects of some of our favorite movies. Those are the most fun parts of the film, when they are shooting the movies. Sometimes hilarious. And for someone who is creative herself, I can appreciate the creativity behind it all.

Jack Black is very typical Jack Black, Melonie Diaz doesn’t really get much to do and Mos Def is okay. So don’t see this for the acting. This film was made with love and enthusiasm and is very enjoyable.

Rating: 3/ 5