Parasite (2019)

Parasite

Starring: Kang-Ho Song, Sun-kyun Lee, Yeo-jeong Jo and Woo-sik Choi
Director: Boon Joon Ho
IMDb rate: 8,6
My rate: 9

It's been released for awhile by now, and originally I posted this review in Dutch for my work. However, to keep this site alive I thought it might be time to translate it and show you my thoughts on Parasite. 

About Parasite: 
The movie tells the story of two Korean families: the poor Kim-family and the rich Park-family. The Kim's live at the bottom of the hill in a small, dirty house that regularly floods with rain. The Park family, on the other hand, lives at the top of the hill in a gigantic luxury villa. By coincidence, teenage son Kim Ki-woo gets a chance to tutor the daughter of the Parks. The luxurious life of the Park is very attractive to the Kims and Kim Ki-woo thinks of a plan to help his father, mother and sister also find jobs at the Parks. By means of lies and manipulation, the Kims, like a parasite, manage to penetrate the life of the Park family.

Parasite is the winner of some prestigious awards. It is the first Korean film to win the Golden Palm. The film has also won four Oscars, including best film of the year.

Like Boon Joon Ho's previous films, Parasite is filled with socio-political critiques of the torn class society. It gives a penetrating look at the differences between higher and lower classes and how these differences drive people to dispair to work themselves up to a higher class. The difference in height between the homes of both families is therefore no coincidence but instead represents a strong symbolic contrast between the economic inequality between the two families. While the way the Kims infiltrate the house of the Parks feels like a comic event, the film quickly turns into a grim tragedy in the second half.

The character are realistic and do not become stereotypes. For example, the poor people aren't being overly romanticized. Are they good people? No. Are they bad people? Also no. They are simply flawed human beings trying to survive. The Park also are not demonized as a wealthy high bourgeoisie. They are neat and seemingly likeable people. This ensures that Parasite has no bad guys and the characters remain in a morally gray area.

Parasite is an unpredictable mix of satire, black comedy and tragedy. It is a visual masterpiece and an absolute must-see for this year.

The Babadook (2014)

 The Babadook

IMDB rate: 6,9

Genre: Drama

Starring: Essie Davis, Daniel Henshall

A few weeks ago I read an article about a very well known horror movie director (shamefully, I can't remember who it was, but trust me if I tell you he is well known), who thought The Babadook was one of the scariest movies he had ever seen. Coming from this director I thought it was definitely something worth checking out. I had no idea what The Babadook was about, but the poster looked promising. 

What The Babadook is about:

Amelia who lost her husband in a car crash on the way to the give birth to Samuel, their only kid, struggles to cope with her fate as a single mom. Samuel's constant fear of monsters and his violent reaction to overcome the fear doesn't help her cause either which makes her friends distance themselves. When things can not get any worse, they read a strange book in their house that talks about the 'Babadook' monster that hides in the dark areas of their house. Even Amelia seems to feel the effect of Babadook and desperately tries to destroy the book, but in vain! The nightmarish experiences the two encounter form the rest of the story.

I wouldn't necessarily say that The Babadook is a very scary movie, there are no jump scares at all and every time something does tend to happen, it doesn't exactly reach that scary point. I would more say that The Babadook is a psychological horror movie. It's a very sad movie. I think it's a bit comparable with We Need To Talk About Kevin, only I thought this movie was more exciting.

Unlike other horror movies this one isn't infested with fear and terror of the unknown creature, there's also a human element in it; that of a mother who is on the edge of losing her mind after losing her husband, dealing with her somewhat crazy son and with this unknown creature called The Babadook. 

I also want to add that I admire the actress Essie Davis tons for this movie, she did an amazing acting job. Her depression, anxiety, fear and slowly shifting madness are all very well shown. You can't help but feel incredibly sorry for the poor woman. Daniel Henshall plays her son, not really sure what to think of him to be honest. At some moments I thought he was good, but at times I also thought that he wasn't very good. Sometimes when he was mad or sad, it was almost as if he was smiling. A bit of an annoying character as well, very loud and asking for attention all the time. 

Small spoiler alert!

I must admit that when I finished watching it I wasn't exactly sure what to think of the ending. It just didn't feel right. I don't have much imagination, so I searched IMDB for some explanations. I found tons of interesting explanations, the most interesting one being that Amelia is the one who wrote the book, this is because she already told that she wrote children's books and when she arrived at the police station her hands were black. The Babadook stands for all the problems she and her son have, and they have to conquer them together, or die together. The Babadook eventually living in peace in their basement could mean that they learned to live with their past.

With this being said, I think it's clear that this movie shouldn't be viewed as just another horror movie of a family that gets haunted by a creature. I did watch it like that and that will make the ending look stupid and unsatisfying, while in reality it's something to think about. I would say it's a bit comparable with The Orphanage. 

When I first watched this movie I must admit that I did not like it a whole lot, mostly because of the ending. I started looking around for more information about the movie and it gave me a whole new perspective of the movie which made me like it a whole lot more. Great acting and incredibly terrifying pictures in The Babadook-book.

My rate: 7,5/10

Dead Within (2014)

Dead Within

IMDB rate: 3,9

Genre: Zombie, Drama

Starring: Dean Chekvala, Amy Cale Peterson

My review of Dead Within will not be very long, the movie wasn't very interesting and actually nothing really happens. I think it's safe to say that this movie made me feel dead within. Really, you might think I'm exaggerating, but in this movie absolutely nothing happens. 

Here's in short what's going on:

Six months after the outbreak, a man and woman have survived by isolating themselves in a remote cabin. Starved for resources, they must confront the horrors that threaten them from outside and from within.

Sounds pretty interesting right? Well, it wasn't. First of all because you actually don't notice a thing for this starving for resources. They still have water (!), batteries for normal light and candles. They perhaps don't eat shit-loads of food, but they don't have to skip a meal either. They even have a bottle of wine now and then. The guy goes out every now and then to search houses nearby to search for more food and stuff, unfortunately we don't get to see a thing of his adventures, because this movie mainly focuses on the 'demons' inside the cabin.

This movie is listed everywhere as a zombie movie, but fact is that we only got to see one zombie, who's only a child. The other two zombies we get to see are in a flashback, which isn't very interesting to be honest. Oh, there's even a small flash of the dog being a zombie. You can actually just see that the dog is just wearing some color or something that must look as if you can see his bones and stuff, and instead of more scary this dog becomes more adorable because of it. A bit of a fail if you ask me. In the movie The Returned we didn't get to see a zombie either, but that movie was just strong on a whole different level. This movie just tries a bit too hard to be interesting, which it just isn't.

Dead Within is an extremely boring movie, instead of zombies we get to see a woman going crazy because she's being isolated for too long. And actually, it's quite a bitchy move because that guy is only protecting her by keeping her inside, and she's just going plain crazy on him. The entire movie you were hoping for more action, because at first you have no idea what the movie will go to eventually. I thought they would starve slowly or something, or got chased away from their safe place, but nope, the bitch was just going crazy. The female character really is a selfish unthankful bitch. 

Dead Within is 91 minutes of plain boredom. It's not horror, it's not interesting, it's just nothing. This movie could've been somewhat interesting if there was a twist at the ending where it would appear that the guy was lying to her for six months and that the world would've been normal again, and he would just kept her locked in or something. That would've made it just a tiny bit more interesting. I absolutely don't recommend watching Dead Within, unless you like being bored for 91 minutes :). 

My rate: 2/10

Short Review: After the Dark (2013)

After the Dark

IMDB rate: 5,7

Genre: Fantasy, Drama

I'm sorry, but I just have to write a short review (or rant) about After the Dark. This has to be the most ridiculous and boring movie of 2013. After the Dark, or The Philosophers as it's also called, is about a group of students who follow the class of Philosophy and in this class their teacher gives them the task to think of possible ways to best survive an apocalypse. 

Of course, in this task their options are limited, each students gets their own life with a few limitations. They have to lock themselves up for an entire year (hypothetically) in a bunker where only ten people can survive because of oxygen limitations. They have to think who of these students are the smartest or have the best chance to reproduce/rebuild when they are released after this year. 

Now, I'm sorry to say this but this movie is utter shit. This class of students is really just philosophizing about the things I just mentioned and that's it. So everything they think is just hypothetically speaking, and will never happen. We get to see three different scenario's of these pretend apocalypses and every scenario is just bullshit. Their way of thinking is really stupid, and especially their third scenario is awfully stupid. No they don't want to rebuild the world, they just want to be happy. This has to be the most selfish group of people in movie history. They have hypothetical sex and hypothetical relationship  discussions because one of them is hypothetically gay. You have to bear in mind that they discuss all of these scenario's in class. 

Now, the special effects don't even look that bad. I would even go that far to see that they looked good, but all of that is just wasted with the biggest bullshit story ever made. The acting doesn't make things better because they're just a bunch of terrible actors. But well, what can you expect when Bonnie Wright, a.k.a. the only thing I disliked about the Harry Potter movies, has a role in it.

If one of these apocalypse scenario's actually happened the movie would've been a lot better. The story could be about their life in the bunker or about the life they have when rebuilding stuff, but not this make-believe nonsense. 

Review: The Returned (2013)

The Returned

IMDB rate: 5,9

Genre: Zombie, Drama

I think that The Returned would be best described with it's not your typical zombie movie. The movie is indeed about zombies, but well, we only saw one active zombie the entire movie and the very little other ones that we saw were all in a flashback. 

Storyline taken from IMDB:

In a world where a deadly zombie virus has infected mankind, a single cure has been found. The cure, a treatment called the "Return Protein" which stays the effects of the virus in it's host. With injections every 36 hours, the "Returned" are able to live as though they were never bit, despite the virus still coursing through their veins. When it is discovered that the protein stock is running low, chaos hits the streets. 

Basically, everyone who once was changing into a zombie was given a second chance by this "Return Protein", meaning the world is pretty much normal, besides the fact that their past is messed up. 

In this movie you hardly notice that it's a movie about zombies, you know that the movie is about them, but without seeing them the movie feels a lot different. The few zombies that are being shown is not to make this movie scary or tensive, they're mostly being shown to describe the happenings of the past or to show the emotions of the characters to the viewers. 

The movie haves a few bloody scenes, but they're definitely not the main point of this movie. 

You would think that the people in this movie would be happy that people have the opportunity to live a reasonably normal life, because I'm quite sure that every person has lost at least on relative to the zombie outbreak. That's definitely not the case. There are protesters everywhere that want to get rid of the Returned, because they think they're ticking time bombs.

In a way this is true, because they do need to get their medicine in time if they don't want to change back. But still, many of these protesters have family who are still alive because of this protein, so they really shouldn't complain. 

A pretty good scene was when a few of these protesters broke into the hospital and killed off every person on the 'Returned' section. They also took all the records of all the Returned persons in that city meaning they knew who was infected. The main character did indeed get involved with one of these bad persons but what I liked specifically about this scene was that we didn't have to watch their entire fight, no we watch it from the moment his girlfriend walked in, two seconds before he manages to kill the intruder. 

The acting is really good. I didn't know any of these actors, but I was quite impressed with them. Kris Holden-Ried plays Alex, who is one of the Returned. His girlfriend Kate is played by Emily Hampshire, she works in the 'Returned section' of the hospital. 

If you're expecting a gory zombie movie then you will be greatly disappointed. I think the movie needs to be approached with an open mind, because even though it could be classified as a zombie movie, you hardly notice anything of the zombie aspect. I do think this is a good movie though, I really had fun watching it because it was very different from what I'm used to. The ending was slightly disappointing, I don't really get what made the director decide to make an ending like this because it would've been much better if it was different. 

My personal rate: 7,5/10

Review: Monsters (2010)

Monsters

IMDB rate: 6,4

Genre: Science-Fiction, Drama

First of all, Monsters is definitely not a horror movie. So this review probably won't be very long. I'm not quite sure what I expected from this movie, but I think I at least expected a tiny bit more action. Monsters is more a drama/thriller movie that just contains a few creatures.

Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life form began to appear and half of Mexico was quarantined as an INFECTED ZONE. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain "the creatures"... Our story begins when a US journalist agrees to escort a shaken tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border.

The first half of the movie isn't very interesting, it's more about the growing relationship of the journalist and the girl, and their private life problems. It was very slow and not too interesting, I really was waiting for a bit action. So when they finally go to the infected zone, I was expecting quite a bit from it.  Unfortunately, besides a short monster invasion, nothing happened. This 'short' monster invasion might sound interesting, but really it wasn't. You see nothing of what happens, all you know is that suddenly almost everyone is dead. 

In the entire movie you see almost nothing of the creatures, besides that they have tentacles. This can go two ways; it might keep it interesting of what it is what attacks them, or it just becomes boring because for all we know it's a kitten with tentacles. At first I thought it was interesting to keep the monsters a secret, but after a while it became a bit too obvious 'camera-avoiding'. 

It was only until the last scene that we saw the creatures pretty clear, and I think they were having sex (tentacle sex, very japan like), so it was a bit awkward. 

The creatures reminded me a bit of the War of the Worlds creatures, combined with one of the huge monsters from The Mist. 

What's most interesting about this movie were the images. The movie is filmed amazingly, really beautiful images. It was a bit indie like, I think. There was a bit of a brown filter over the movie, which made it look a bit 'artsy'. The movie itself wasn't much special, but it was shot very beautifully. The creatures were hardly seen, so that was a huge budget saving. 

I'm not really sure what to say about this movie. Part of me liked the difference compared with other monster movies. It's a calm movie, in a messed up world. Perhaps it's a good difference that this movie isn't hollywood action filled? I'm not sure. Part of me hoped for a bit action in this movie, since the setting was amazing. The story is good too, and I think that an action movie could have worked good with this concept as well. 

I think this movie might be entertaining if you're not expecting too much from it. It's really just a drama movie that just happens to contain a few alien creatures. It's a very slow movie and there's not a whole lot going on, so I'm very sure that not everyone will like it. I liked the concept of the movie, and especially the amazing images, but the movie itself was slow and a bit of a disappointment. 

My personal rate: 6/10

Review: Breaking Bad [Season 1-5]

Breaking Bad

Season 1-5

IMDB rate: 9,6

Genre: Drama, Thriller, TV Show

Of course, I had to participate in this Breaking Bad madness. I've heard so many good things about it, so I couldn't leave behind and I needed to watch it. Excuse this non-horror related review, it will be a short one.

First of all, I want to make clear that I think that I don't think that it's a bad TV show. But I must also admit that I didn't like it as much as everyone else seems to do. The acting is good, and the entire story is good, but I never felt an urge to continue watching. You know what urge I'm describing right? For example, at the moment I'll have to wait another week for a Game of Thrones episode, but after watching each episode I have the urge to continue watching, even though the episodes haven't been released yet.
I never felt that way with Breaking Bad, unfortunately. I did watch every season, and sure it has it's great episodes, but I just don't think that it's a TV show suitable for me.

A good thing about this TV show is that it didn't continue forever on, such as with Lost. It knew when it should end and how it must end. It stopped on it's highest point just like it should be with every TV show. Also, the ending wasn't disappointing, I think it was right the way it was.

Bryan Cranston, the actor behind Walter White aka Heisenberg is an amazing actor. He portrayed Walter White amazingly, the insecure side and the more badass side.

The main thing that kept me from focusing on this show was the pace, it was a bit too slow for me. I know that many important things happened but it was a bit annoying at times. Also, the things happening were slightly predictable, Walter and Jesse having their arguments, almost getting busted, Walter and his wife arguing, it was just pretty much the same in a lot of episodes.

However it isn't my number 1 show, I did enjoy watching it most of the time.

My personal rate: 8/10

Review: House M.D. [Season 1-8]

House M.D.

IMDB rate: 8,9

Genre: Drama

So, here’s a short review of House M.D. Absolutely not horror related, but when I didn’t have any internet in January I watched a lot of TV shows, with House being one of them. It wouldn’t be very useful if I couldn’t write about it, so excuse this small not horror related review.

A few years ago I started watching House M.D., and I believe that I watched until halfway season 7 back then. House is a great show but after watching it awhile it can become a bit boring and mainly very predictable. There’s always the same stuff going on, House and his boss Cuddy arguing, his team having a few personal problems and House and Wilson aren’t friends anymore for one or two episodes. Besides the cast stuff there’s also the problem with the episode itself being predictable. For example, we see two people doing something, one of them needs to cough which is supposed to make you think that that personal will become the one being sick, but then, plot twist! It’s the other one that starts bleeding from his ears, eyes or whatever. Now, this might be a small plot twist when you just started watching House M.D., but after awhile… it isn’t very surprising anymore. Especially season 7 was good with these stupid plot twists.

And then there is the case where the doctor and the patient are talking, but halfway in a sentence of explaining things, the patient suddenly gets a seizure or doesn’t feel his arms anymore. Again, it becomes very noticable after awhile, and when it is noticable, it will become bothering after some time.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the show. But House isn't a show that you can watch the entire day. For example, The Walking Dead I kept watching until I was at the last episode in two or three days, but with House it would become very boring. It's fun to watch a few episodes at a time, but not every season after each other.

What I love most about House is the cast, even though there were some changes over the years, the main cast always stayed. 

It really is a good bunch of actors, with the most important one being Hugh Laurie of course. What's funny is that he is in fact an Englishman but has a American accent for this TV show. Hearing him speak normally is rather strange if you can imagine. His character is what the show is about and I couldn't imagine someone being better at it. He really is an incredible actor.

Something that bothers me with a lot of TV series are the finales of it. A lot of times things happening in the finale are confusing, unsatisfying or weird. This isn't the case with House M.D. The ending was satisfying and actually pretty amazing. A lot of old cast members returned for a small part, so this was very cool. But what's most important is that House's ending was a real ending. His career stopped and all for an amazing cause. The ending was absolutely not what I expected, but damn it was incredibly good.

My favorite episode was probably 'Broken' (season 6, episode 1), just because it was something entirely different from the usual House episodes. I think it's often that the episodes that don't necessarily play inside the hospital are the best ones. Episodes seen from another perspective are interesting as well. The last episode (Everybody Dies, season 8, episode 22) was probably one of my favorites as well. It's a huge sacrifice that House made for his friend, something you definitely didn't expect from him.

My least favorite season is the eight one, even though it does contain one of my favorite episodes. I just hated Dr. Chi Park (played by Charlyne Yi), she was a terrible actress and her character was just boring. Same as Dr. Jessica Adams (played by Odette Annable), she was just another pretty face to replace Thirteen/Remy Hadley (played by Olivia Wilde). I mean I like Odette Annable as an actress, there was absolutely nothing wrong with her acting. It was just that her character wasn't of much use in the show besides being the pretty face.

I loved the TV show House M.D. But I must say that it isn't a show that anyone will enjoy. Many episodes are alike and very predictable. What I love about this show are the different episodes, because when there's a good episode, it really is an amazing episode. It's worth watching if you're into drama TV shows. And don't worry, it's nothing like Grey's Anatomy or something like that.

My personal rate: 8,5/10

Review: Lost [Season 6]

Lost

Season 6

IMDB rate: 8,5

Genre: Drama, TV Show, Mystery

THE VERY LAST SPOILERS OF LOST

Finally, the last season! And boy, am I glad that it's finally over. It's such a shame what the creators did to this show. The first season was brilliant, the second was good too, the third was not too bad and the fourth was acceptable. Everything after 3 is basically unnecessary and just created for a bit of money. 

Season 5 was weird with all the time traveling, but well, season 6 is, if possible, even weirder. They started with showing the same plane, with everybody in it. But after a bit of turbulence, the plane did not crash! Well, what's happening this time, you're wondering. In season 6 they decided to start showing "Flash-sideways", this means that they start showing things of 'how it COULD have been if the plane didn't crash'. Well, one way to fill up a season. 

I think they were getting pretty uninspired at this point, because after one or two episodes we see Jack coming home from the airport and stuff, but then suddenly, he has a son! 

The thing is, Jack does not have a son. I find it very interesting that he was able to get a 14 (?) year old son in those few minutes since the turbulence. Oh, and in the end of this season he is being told that he does not have a son, and Jack just accepts this immediately. Yet everybody sees this kid named David. 

This is not all, every character gets their flash-sideways, and each one of them has a story that doesn't fit with their previous stories. This is very weird it self, but in the very ending of this season all the stories come together and they all meet and when they touch each other they get "flash-backs to their times on the island". But, this is when the plane never crashed? How could these flash-backs even happen?

There's a reason for that too! Well, basically they are all dead, and none of everything in the flash-sideways ever happened. VERY FUCKING USEFUL, why did I just watch 17 episodes of things that were not even real?! 

In the last episode of season 6, The End, the island is breaking apart because of John Locke (remember, he was dead, but also wasn't, but also is) and then he gets killed again, Jack is saving everybody (again) and everyone still alive (Frank Lapidus, Kate, Sawyer, Claire, Miles and Richard) is getting in the plane to home. This was a very happy ending and it looked okay, until the moment that I described before this happened (the part where everyone died). So, did the plane crash again? Well, we don't know this. Because the last thing we see is Jack dying, what happened with Hurley, Desmond or anyone in the plane is never revealed.  (Or if you want to feel miserable, you can think that everyone did indeed die).

Well, like I mentioned in my previous review, there was this Jacob story on this season. Jacob is some guardian of the island or something and he gives tasks to everybody. But then he dies and he needs to find a new guardian. Very uninteresting. 

Another thing with Jacob is the Man-in-Black, a.k.a. Jacob's brother a.k.a. "The Monster". Yes, the monster was/is a person. He became this monster because he went in a cave that gave light. But when Desmond went to the cave the broke down the island and when Jack went in the cave he saved the island because he held his hand underwater. This is a very weird cave as you can imagine. Anyway, this monster also has the ability to get in a body of a deceased person, so he becomes them. 

And this is how the John Locke (dead/not dead) story is explained! It was the monster all this time! And now John Locke is killing everyone on the island, being the cloud he is, and someone needs to stop him. 

Again, a black cloud does not seem very threatening. 

So, about Lost in general. I think that the idea is very good and interesting. Survivors of a plane crash are on a mysterious deserted island. What I would have liked to see more was the helplessness of them. They never looked starved or anything, and looking to Hurley, they never were starved. Sure, the other season there was plenty of food, but the first not. Still, I forgive them. Finding other survivors is a good twist and a good point to expand on. But everything else was just so useless. It was almost as if it had nothing to do with these survivors of the plane crash anymore. They never looked deserted, they were always busy with other problems, stupid problems. And then this "monster", they could have created King Kong, Dinosaurs, Godzilla or name it, and they come up with a fake looking black cloud with some thunder in it. I'm sorry but that's just hilarious.

I'm glad that I've finished watching everything. Six season were quite a lot and it seems even longer when half of it sucks. I would love to watch season 1 till 3 again when I feel like it, but I doubt I will ever see season 4 till 6 again. Maybe to understand things better, I don't know. It will take some time though.
Please, just stop watching after season 3.

My personal rate: 5/10
Lost overall: 7,5/10

Review: Lost [Season 5]

Lost

Season 5

IMDB rate: 8,5

Genre: Drama, TV Show, Mystery

Expect a lot of spoilers!

Time for season 5! I think that season 5 and 6 were the least interesting seasons, they were weird, un-logical and very random. I actually just finished watching season 6, so I've finally finished watching everything. I think I'll write a huge review about season six because I feel like many things were too weird, too random, too many things left unexplained and mainly, a lot of weird useless stuff happened, so enough to talk about! But, until that moment we can still talk about season 5, another season with enough weirdness to talk about.

So, at the ending of season 4, Ben moved the island so Widmore couldn't find the island. As a result of that, the island skipped through time. Yes, you read that right, a time-traveling island!

So the first bothering thing is, why does Widmore wants to find this island? And what if he finds it? Well, he wants to kill Ben (who doesn't?), and... that's it. I don't think it was ever completely explained why he wanted to kill Ben. Anyway, I don't care a whole lot about Ben, I think he's an annoying character and I don't get why nobody killed him yet.

The main thing about season 5 is, like I already said, a time traveling island. Well, how does that work? I have no idea. Ben flipped a switch and suddenly the island moved and it travels through time. If you move the island to let's say 1975, it's impossible that the island moved more than a few centimeters in all those years. So the whole connection of time traveling and moving the island is completely weird to me. So, when the time traveling begins we see all those people going through a lot of years, 1975, 1977, 2004, a long time after 2004 and a long time before 1975. We see a young Benjamin Linus, Rousseau arriving to the island, Rousseau going crazy, a young Widmore etc.

It's all a bit too much and a bit too overdone. At one point you completely forget what Lost was about, some travelers that had an accident and got on this island, it's almost nowhere to be found anymore with all this nonsense going on.

Well, Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sun and Sayid did return to America at one point, so in their case it is still about rescuing, but even when they're in America they decide they want to return, "because that's their purpose". This is all being shown in flash-forwards at first and after a while it's getting a bit weird and confusing because at one point this flash-forward becomes the present, so they suddenly skip three years in their present story.

Oh, and John Locke also died this season, but actually he didn't, but also he did. Another confusing story that's explained in season 6. This also has something to do with that guy Jacob and well, I have no idea anymore what is what and who is who, it's very confusing to be honest.

What I dislike most about time-traveling themes is the fact that things never fit. So basically, they lived in the present, went back to 1977 and changed things. This changing must give some sort of aftereffect to the present. But it can also be as if the things happened in 1977 already happened back then, then there is the present, and then it's 1977 again. Which means that the things in 1977 actually did happen back then and can't have an aftereffect anymore to the present. To me it's just one blurry cycle, which can't ever be right, I think.

There are also a few new characters in this season, but to be honest, I'm just getting tired of discussing all these useless characters. At one point I thought that Ilana was important to the story, but then she suddenly blows up in season 6 so well, not very useful. She had something to do with this guy Jacob, the protector of the island, but I will discuss that in my next review since there's a lot revolving around him in the next season. Richard also gets a bigger role and surprise, surprise! This guy can't age. How fucking original.

I'm not going to discuss the episodes that I liked or did not liked because it's very simple, they basically all sucked. It was more the fact that I wanted to finished every Lost season that I watched everything, but it was definitely not because of the good story. The only episodes that I liked were The Incident part 1 and 2, that's about it.

Honestly, I don't get why they continued making this show. Even when you want to keep continuing making this show just keep it simple. I really liked the first two seasons, the third one wasn't bad either and the fourth one was decent. But after season 4? Terrible, uncreative and very uninspired.

My personal rate: 5/10

Review: Lost [Season 4]

Lost

Season 4

IMDB rate: 8,5

Genre: TV Show, Mystery, Drama

Time for season 4! Again, I'm a bit ahead of this post already because at the moment I'm halfway through season 6, which means that I'm almost finished. Season 4 is still decent, there are some new characters introduced and they are quite cool. However, I also watched season 5 and a bit of season 6 too and I can say for sure that season 5 is the most terrible one. It's really going nowhere and it just doesn't fit with the story. Season 6 is pretty weird too, but it's less weird as season 5. But anyway, we're here to discuss season 4!

In season 4 people are finally close to being rescued, but since this was already shown in the beginning of the season, we knew that this was not going to be that easy. And of course, it wasn't. 

It took this entire season for them to being rescued, and well, as you can imagine, sometimes things are getting standard and boring. But, you did read that right! They are being rescued!

But why does it not end here at season 4?

Well, of course not everyone went with them. Some stayed out if freewill, some were forced to and some were kidnapped. So, we of course needed to know what happened with them, so there you go, another season story!

Sure, I get that some people wanted to stay, but it was not very clear why the ones saved never came back to the island. Also, why lie about all the dead people? Just because some people are still alive doesn't mean that other people will find the island.

All together, season 4 was a bit unnecessary with a few aspects. For example, why could they just not simply be saved at the end of season 3? The show would have ended so much better and there wouldn't be 3 unnecessary and not-so-good seasons. The things added in season 4 were a bit lame and totally not logical, which made it much less good as the previous 3 seasons.

Of course there are new characters introduced to the show, because what else would keep it interesting?
There are 4 new main characters introduced, they are the so called rescuers. But instead of rescuing them, they seem to have a different purpose on this island - of course.

!!! SPOILERS!!!

• Miles Straume: Played by Ken Leung. At first a bit of a boring adding to the show. He seemed to be just another scumbag with some unusual story. Miles has the ability to see the last moments of someones life. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that now also some people get abilities! Everything to keep it interesting, right? Anyway, after awhile his character grew a lot and he now seems a lot nicer and more interesting.
• Daniel Faraday: Played by Jeremy Davies. Personally he is my favorite one of the new cast members. He seems to be a very confused and smart man, personally I find him adorable. He knows a lot about the island and actually helps a lot. 
• Frank Lapidus: Played by Jeff Fahey. I also like him a lot, he was supposed to be the pilot of Flight 815 but stepped out at the last moment. He knew all this time that the plane of the bottom of the ocean wasn't the real one and so he decided to check out were the real one is. He is a very likable character and seems to care a lot for everyone. 
• Charlotte Lewis: Played by Rebecca Mader. For me she was kinda useless. She went to the island to search for her home again or something. To be it was a very lame story and I think that she was only added to have 'another pretty face' on the show. 

And again, a list of good and bad episodes!

Favorites:

Episode 2: Confirmed Dead

Episode 5: The Constant

Episode 7: Ji Yeon

Episode 8: Meet Kevin Johnson

Least favorite ones:

Episode 4: Eggtown

Episode 6: The Other Woman

Episode 9: The Shape of Things to Come

Episode 11: Cabin Fever

The fourth season only has 14 episodes, that's almost half of the previous three seasons. I'm glad though that there are a lot less, because else it would probably become unbearably bad. 

In this seasons there's some stupid talking about a guy named Jacob, Locke goes crazy and we figure out who the rescuers are. All together it was not very interesting and it's very sad that they kept continuing the show this far. It's absolutely unnecessary and it gives the show a bad name.

In the previous seasons there were flashbacks of the life of each character, their story of their life before the island. In the new seasons there are flash-forwards to the moments were they are already rescued. What happens with them afterwards and how do they react on it. I don't think that this is a bad thing because it does explain a lot, but it does give away a bit of the mystery of the show - will they be rescued or not?

Personally I thought this season was a lot less interesting compared to the previous three. While I watched season 5 I almost stopped watching because it became very lame, but I did continue watching because I still was a bit curious. I don't think I will ever get the answers to the questions I have though, because there are not that many episodes left to watch.

I think that if people start watching Lost that they should stop at season 2 or 3, after season 3 things are getting weird, lame and very unoriginal. Also, there are all kinds of additions that are supposed to keep things interesting, but really are not.

My personal rate: 6,5/10

Review: Lost [Season 3]

Lost

Season 3

IMDB rate: 8,5

Genre: Mystery, TV Show, Drama

Ah, I've reached season 3! Well actually, that's a lie... At the moment I'm halfway through season 5 already, but because I was very busy with school I did not have any time to write a review about it yet. But that does not matter, because better late than never! 

Season 3 is very different from season 1 and 2, because it's mainly about 'The Others'. Some people are being held as prisoners by the others, while the rest of the group still is on the beach. There are many rescue actions in the season which causes a lot of people changing location. Main thing is that there is not one big group anymore, because they are on two different places on the island. So, a whole new story to work with. We were very curious about these others in the previous seasons but unfortunately, they were not that special in my opinion. We still don't know a whole lot more about the island and to be honest, sometimes things are only more confusing instead of clearer. 

What, or I'd rather say 'who', I found very irritating on this season was Kate. She was running between Sawyer and Jack as her lover and it became very annoying after awhile. 

I heard that many people stopped watching in this season because they were getting bored by it. I can understand that people are finding this boring and too much, because there doesn't seem to be an end to all these ideas. Personally, I still liked season 3. But now I've seen season 4 and 5, things are getting really boring. But, I still try to continue watching it!

Again, there are some new characters in this season.

!!!WARNING, SPOILERS!!!

• Ben Linus: Ben Linus is played by Michael Emerson, and I must say that he does an excellent job in performing his role as an asshole. Ben Linus is absolutely not a lovable character, and for some reason, everybody trusts him. Even after everything that he does, they still talk to him. Okay, I understand that they do not kill the guy immediately, but DUDE, after two or three seasons of him being an asshole, just shoot him! I was kinda annoyed by this after a while.
• Desmond Hume: I love Desmond, he became one of my favorite characters of this show. His accent is funny and the actor (Henry Ian Cusick) plays him very well. I love how his character became a bigger part of the main group.
• Juliet Burke: Another one of The Others. What an absolute cunt for being undercover for everybody. And what's even worse, she admitted that she was betraying everyone for two or three times already, and they still accept her in the group. I was very annoyed with this woman, and I still think she's an useless addition to the show.

There are also a few smaller characters, like Nikki and Paulo, but they died quite soon after we learned a bit about them. Also, we get to know a few of The Others. And of course there is Rousseau and her daughter Alex.

Here is my list of my favorite episodes and my least favorite episodes.

Favorites:

Episode 6: I Do

Episode 8: Flashes Before Your Eyes

Episode 10: Tricia Tanaka is Dead

Episode 18: D.O.C.

Episode 19: The Brig

Episode 21: Greatest Hits

Episode 22: Through the Looking Glass

Least favorite ones:

Episode 3: Further Instructions

Episode 5: The Cost of Living

Episode 9: Stranger in a Strange Land

Episode 13: The Man From Tallahassee

Episode 14: Expose 

I really liked the last episode of this season, it was a great loss for the show but it's good that it happened. It was a very touching episode and it really gave me tears in my eyes. I'm sad that he is gone but else it would be too weird that no one of the main cast would die.

I still liked season 3, even though it's a lot different from the previous two seasons. Season 3 is still fun and season 4 is bearable. But I must say that season 5 is really too far-fetched and it's getting a bit boring. Such a shame. Anyway, I hope I can continue watching the show, because I only have half of season 5 and season 6 left to watch. I'm quite curious about how they will end this show.

My personal rate: 7/10

Review: Lost [Season 2]

Lost

Season 2

IMDB rate: 8,5

Genre: Mystery, Drama, TV Show

Yup, still addicted to Lost. This time I finished season 2 and so far I still like it. At the moment I'm even halfway through season 3 and it still doesn't bore me so I guess that's a good thing. There are still 3 season left though, so there might still be a lot to come.

I still enjoyed watching the second season, mainly because there were some fresh faces. These fresh faces were also survivors of the plane crash, but they were all in the tail of the plane so they landed on the other side of the island.

The second season is definitely not as good as season one, but it's still very addicting and fun to watch.

In my last lost review I wrote a few parts about each important character, and I noticed that I missed quite a few. So here are the missing ones:

!!!WARNING, SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

• Jin & Sun Kwon: I discuss them both at the same time because they are husband and wife which means they are together a lot. At first I did not really like them, they were strangers and did not seem interested in communicating. Apparently Sun could speak English the entire time which makes her look like a scumbag to be honest. She is kinda a scumbag considering all her lying and cheating. Jin had a nasty past, but is kinda nice on the island. I disliked him a lot because he did not try to communicate with the others, but luckily he starts to open up a lot more now. I'm still not too sure of them though, I don't find their characters very interesting.
• Claire Littleton: I find her character a bit useless to be honest. She does not bring in a whole lot of interesting stories or isn't very helpful. In season 3 there are some new things revealed about her but those things were a bit stupid to be honest. It really seemed like a last minute fill-up for the show, which was kinda useless.
• Ana Lucia Cortez: One of the most irritating characters in the entire show. Selfish, stupid and annoying. I skipped a lot of her stories because she was very annoying and predictable. I'm very glad she did not survive this season.
• Libby Smith: Oh I kinda loved Libby! She was really good to Hurley and there was still a lot left to learn about her. Really sad that she died this season.
• Mr. Eko: Another scumbag, the entire season I was unsure what to think of him and I'm still not sure. I'm not sure if he died in season 2 or 3, but I was glad he did.

Well, that were 2 of the original survivors and 3 new ones. Strangely enough, none of the new survivors survived this season. That's not really bad though because else the cast would be way too big and would have way too many uninteresting people.

This season is a lot more dark en we also finally see 'the monster' for the first time. What I expected from the monsters was a King Kong or a Godzilla, but no it was even more mysterious than that: it was a dark cloud. Yes, you read that right, a frickin' dark cloud. Seriously, how do you come up with this when you can create dinosaurs, King Kongs or other awesome monsters? I still don't know much about this Dark Cloud though, so perhaps it will become awesome in some way or another.

There were 23 episodes in Season 2, again way too much to discuss them all, but I will list my favorites and my least favorite ones below, as usual.

Favorites:
Episode 1: Man of Science, Man of Faith
Episode 7: The Other 48 Days
Episode 9: What Kate Did
Episode 11: The Hunting Party
Episode 15: Maternity Leaves
Episode 17: Lockdown
Episode 22: Three Minutes
Episode 23: Live Together, Die Alone

Least favorite ones:
Episode 6: Abandoned
Episode 8: Collision
Episode 10: The 23rd Psalm
Episode 13: The Long Con
Episode 20: Two for the Road

Each season has it's ups and downs, this far I'm still liking it and of course I will continue watching it as like as I like it. There are really good moments in it and some very bad moments. Season 3 is definitely a lot less good as season 2, but it's still fun to watch. What I don't like so much of season 3 is that everyone seems to be apart. Of course that's possible, but they should combine the two groups together in one episode, instead of one episode about this group and then the next episode about the other group.
What I also don't like a whole lot is the fact that everyone is connected somehow with each other. It's a bit too obvious and predictable after awhile. But again, I'm still addicted!

My personal rate: 8/10

Review: Lost [Season 1]

Lost

Season 1

IMDB rate: 8,5

Genre: Mystery, Drama, TV Show

Well, I'm quite late to this party, but I've finally started watching Lost. I bought a few seasons a while back, but I never got around watching it because I was missing season 1. Well, luckily there's season 1 on Netflix, meaning that again, I was addicted to another TV show. I've heard of Lost many times before and while it seemed kinda fun to me, I never got around watching it. It's quite funny because I remember that Lost first came to the Dutch television and it was announced that this was 'The best mini-serie of all time!', yes you read that correctly, "mini-serie". Six seasons later and it's being said that there still isn't a good answer to everything. Of course, I don't know anything about this yet and can't confirm anything since I'm only at season 2 at the moment. Perhaps I will watch Lost till the last season, but it's being said that it's quite boring after awhile, so I can't say for sure yet.
All I know is that I really enjoyed watching Lost, season 1. As I said, I am halfway through season 2 and I still enjoy watching it.
It's really a good TV show and I think that season 1 is brilliant. I do notice that season 2 is a bit less fun, but still very interesting. But I'll talk about that in the next Lost review!

I thought it would be nice to discuss the main characters and what I think about them.
!WARNING, SPOILERS AHEAD!

• Jack Shepard: Well there are always people like Jack in a TV Show. The good guys who try to save everybody. Until this moment he does not have a bad thing shown yet. While all the others appeared to be not very nice in 'their previous life', he seems to be the only one this far that doesn't have any problems. I also think that Matthew Fox is an excellent choice for his character. He is serious but also has a soft side.
• Hugo 'Hurley' Reyes: Definitely one of my favorite characters on this show. He's very sweet and big and doesn't lose an ounce on this deserted island, a very strange matter, but I really like him. He brings a bit of humor in this show with his comments on everybody. Jorge Garcia is also a good choice for Hurley, I think they would resemble each other a lot in real life.
• Sayid Jarrah: Naveen Andrews plays the guy from Iraq, Sayid. I only knew the actor Naveen Andrews from the movie Planet Terror so this role is quite different from that one. I like that he is the smart guy on this island, he doesn't search for trouble with the others and is mostly apart from the rest. I do think that his character became a bit darker in the second season because of events that happened and this 'new Sayid' is a bit less fun, but besides that, I think that his character will grow a lot. 
• James 'Sawyer' Ford: His character is a real scumbag in the first season and I disliked him a lot, but his character changed a bit in season 2 and he's a lot more likable this way. He's kinda sarcastic but that's also what makes him funny. 
• Kate Austen: I would like to learn everything about her since she's the real badass of the island. I'm in season 2 at the moment and I still don't know everything about her. I am getting a bit crazy of her running between Jack and Sawyer though, a bit too much Twilight-alike. Make a goddamn choice woman! Evangeline Lilly is a very pretty woman and I think she possesses the sweetness and the toughness that Kate also possesses. So I think she's an excellent choice for the role of Kate.
• John Locke: Not too sure what to think of him. One time he seems like a good guy and the other time he seems like the bad guy. Also, he has this weird mouth which makes him look like he's always smiling even when he's sad or at a funeral or something. I think he will eventually become a bad guy, but that are only guesses.

There are so many other people to talk about, Jin Kwon and Sun Kwon are both main characters too, but I find their characters a bit underdeveloped at the moment. They don't seem to have a lot of functions for the main story. Especially Jin is very useless. Claire Littleton is also very useless for the story I think. She's always busy with the baby and seems kinda selfish sometimes. The one time that interesting things happened with her she couldn't remember anything of it so that makes her kinda useless. I do like the character of Dominic Monaghan though, which is Charlie. Charlie is a funny guy but a bit stupid. He brings a bit of humor to Lost.

There are 25 episodes in season 1 of Lost, which are way too many to discuss them all. 

Favorites:

Episode 1: Pilot part 1

Episode 2: Pilot part 2

Episode 11: All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues

Episode 15: Homecoming

Episode 18: Numbers

Episode 23: Exodus part 1

Episode 24: Exodus part 2

Episode 25: Exodus part 3

Least favorite:

Episode 5: White Rabbit

Episode 6: House of the Rising Sun

Episode 8: Confidence Man
Episode 19: Deus Ex Machina

All together, I grew to be a big fan of Lost. I think it's an amazing TV show this far and I'm very curious about what's still coming. Obviously, I am only at season 2 yet so I can't say a lot about it yet. It is being said that Lost becomes real terrible after a few seasons, but I don't know yet. I will watch it until it becomes terribly boring but I hope I can watch it until the very last season.

I must say that it seemed to me like the last episode of Lost season 1 would be the ending, but then in the very last seconds it seems like they changed their mind. That scene could have been the ending so that it would indeed be only a Mini-serie, but that scene could have also gone in a way where they can continue the show. Apparently they choose for the second one, because there suddenly happened something in the very last seconds. I like how the show continues, but I wouldn't have mind if it had ended in the way it could have been.


I do recommend watching Lost, it's a very good show especially season 1. Very good acting and an excellent cast brought together. The storyline is interesting and fun to follow. A lot of cliffhangers make you want to watch the entire season in one day.

My personal rate: 8,5/10