rsivan Reviews

Doom Patrol: Puppet Patrol (2019) Season 1, Episode 3

Bad sound synchronization

[4/10 · 8 November 2023]

This episode on Max has the sound out of sync with the image by as much as 2-3 seconds behind!

Otherwise the episode is quite enjoyable as many others in the series...

I wish the producers or distributors would take the time to re-edit the episode with the sound correctly synchronized with the image.

Needless to say this is poor quality control on the production or distribution, and very frustrating for us the viewers.

(For a minute I thought my amazon fire-cube streaming device was having a technical problem, but it turns out the problem only happens on this show and on this particular episode.)

West Side Story (2021)

No Spanish captions

[7/10 · 4 March 2022]

This is mostly a bilingual English-Spanish movie, but if you watch with closed captions, most of the Spanish dialogue is not captioned, instead showing "speaking Spanish". Very frustrating.

The Good Fight: And the Détente Had an End... (2021) Season 5, Episode 8

Bad season

[5/10 · 13 August 2021]

This season is getting worse and worse. Can't figure out how is it funny to have a car towed by a non official institution. Just not funny, not substantial, not interesting.

The Simpsons: Uncut Femmes (2021) Season 32, Episode 17

One of the best episodes of the season

[9/10 · 5 April 2021]

The plot and the music mixed magnificently, a real heist.

The Dig (2021)

Beautiful story - just one hour too long

[6/10 · 7 February 2021]

Loved the movie but had to fast forward too many times for my taste. There just isn't enough material for a full length production.

The Good Liar (2019)

Too many subplots

[6/10 · 14 June 2020]

The writer seemed to have some good ideas: a con man, a stolen personality, a nazi past, a romantic angle, a mysterious grandchild, a mysterious neighbor, another nazi plot, my goodness, if they only stayed focus on one good plot!!!

The Scapegoat (2012)

Subtitles out of sync

[7/10 · 12 March 2020]

I enjoyed the movie, it's an interesting plot, well directed and well acted. Unfortunately the closed captions, on which I depend, were many seconds ahead of the scenes they belong to (I watched it on Amazon Prime video).

Saturday Night Live: Adam Driver/Halsey (2020) Season 45, Episode 11

One of my favorite hows, but not this episode

[4/10 · 26 January 2020]

Funny opening part, but pretty low after that. What happened?

Black Mirror: Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too (2019) Season 5, Episode 3

Are those bad reviews for real?

[8/10 · 15 June 2019]

The episode is one of the best in this already great series. What's motivating this noisy group of haters? Why all those one stars? Is this episode not worth a 5 or a 6 in those haters eyes?

Easy Virtue (2008)

Greatly underrated

[9/10 · 3 October 2009]

Funny and witty dialog, hilarious (classical Noel Coward) plot, great casting, superb cinematography and music, not a single second of this movie is wasted without a breathtaking take, great dialog, funny wit or just a funny scene.

Jessica Biel's acting and her character are memorable. Colin Firth feels a bit young for the role but his acting is superb. Kristin Scott Thomas has always been one of my favorite actresses and she seems to be just made for the role (with a lot of make up to make her look older, she's too sexy for the role otherwise).

(I don't know why this movie gets a less than enthusiastic rating here.)

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Only Human (2004)

If you are in the mood to laugh, this movie could be explosive

[8/10 · 3 February 2007]

This is a light but well scripted comedy about a dysfunctional Jewish family in Spain, being visited by a daughter from out of town and by her Palestinian fiancé. The fiancé's name is Rafi and he is at first believed by the family to be Israeli (he was indeed born in Jerusalem).

I can particularly relate to this movie because as I am: (1) South American born. (2) Was raised Jewish and (3) Lived many years in Israel. In short I can relate to this hilarious comedy from many different personal angles. The movie is really funny even as it tangentially touches dramatic issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a dysfunctional family, an overzealous luggage search for Rafi which is clearly what many Muslims are experiencing at airports, religious matters, family dramas and much more. You have to be able to look at the world with a bit of salt and pepper to really enjoy a scene such as the family asking him in which Intifada Rafi fought (he did not lie, he just did not mention he fought for the other side:) ). I found that scene hilarious. I hope you can loosen up and enjoy!

Family Law (2006)

Quite disappointing

[6/10 · 2 November 2006]

I found the film quite disappointing. I felt the film lacks focus and intensity and the script is quite flat, almost a soap opera. The film is described (and accordingly so named) as the struggle of Ariel Perlman (Daniel Hendler) a Law professor addressed as 'Doctor Perlman', to realize his own identity from his father, 'Doctor Perlman', an established, sharp Buenos Aires lawyer. Unfortunately the movie has no real focus on this, nor on other aspects of Ariel's life (we see a bit about his role as a teacher, a bit about his family life as husband and father, a bit about his social life, and a bit about his relationship to his father, but no strong story or drama links all this together).

In particular I am not too excited to see this movie as the Argentinean candidate for the Foreign Language Oscar nominations for 2006, as I think it will not compete well with high quality submissions such as 'Water'.