jerome-stampe Reviews

The Handmaid's Tale (2017–2025)

How television can ruin a good story

[7/10 · 22 July 2019]

While season 1 of the Handmaid's Tale was excellent and season 2 still quite good, season 3 has unfortunately lost all of its appeal. And if I had to translate this appreciation in ratings, I would certainly give 9 stars to season 1, 8 to season 2 but only 5 stars to season 3.

Spoiler alert!

The episodes in season 3 have become slow and even boring at times. But what mostly disturbs me is the lack of consistence in some key characters like Commander Lawrence whose motivations are difficult to assess: as a founding father of Gilead, why does he help these girls? Why does Aunt Lydia's character seem suddenly to show more compassion, only to return to her initial cruelty? Why do the handmaids in Washington have their mouths sealed with ring piercings but not in New York?

While the end of season 2 and the trailer for season 3 were preparing us for a more confrontational plot, all seems to be back to square 1.

I am not entirely surprised by this loss in quality, we have seen it too often on television: take a good book/story, turn it into a great TV show for season 1, leave the scriptwriters create the sequels following the network's instructions: let's milk this plot as much as we can, even if it means dropping the show in some seasons because it will have become so bad no one will want to watch it. This is what unfortunately is happening with the Handmaids' Tale I am afraid.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Not bad but not good either

[6/10 · 18 December 2016]

I did not know what to expect when I went to see Rogue One. I heard fairly good reviews, notably that this new movie was better than the Episodes I, II and III but that's not hard considering how lame those were. While Rogue One turned out to be not too disappointing, it really lacked originality: you still see stormtroopers walking around all Imperial premises (to kill time I presume), the rebel base sees plenty of activity with ground crew running around the X-wing fighters although there is no battle to prepare for (yet), the characters go from planet to planet at the rate of an organized tour, all of which have a different climate/atmosphere, etc. Another thing which also disturbed me was the amount of new uniforms, spacecraft, all of which will not appear in Episode IV which follows directly Rogue One.

On the positive side, the movie starts without the traditional scrolling text, John Williams' music is not too present although you hear at times themes which were written for the original trilogy (saddly Michael Giacchino's new score goes unnoticed). The story is simple and straight-forward, unlike the prequels which had too much blah-blah and subplots without much to care for. I also like how a few short scenes manage to tie this episode to A New Hope (although they could have been slightly longer and ultimately leave the impression they were rushed in for transition purposes).

To summarize, Rogue One is not a bad movie but it lacks true originality to make it a memorable Star Wars franchise film.

The Revenant (I) (2015)

Disturbingly violent and quite lengthy at times

[5/10 · 22 May 2016]

After all the hype around The Revenant, I was expecting a much more exciting movie. I was quickly quite disappointed. The story often felt lengthy not to say boring; I found the violence in the movie quite shocking too. I assume it was meant to add drama but ultimately, I am not sure what it achieved other than disturbing people for the sake of it. The story line was not original and the dreams Glass has did not change anything and fell short of adding an additional dimension to the plot/character. The photography saved the movie although it felt on quite a few occasions that I was watching some YouTube channel filmed with a Go Pro with the characters up-close and the perspective completely distorted. I would not recommend The Revenant, even on a rainy afternoon.

Special Forces (2011)

A pleasant surprise

[7/10 · 9 November 2012]

While 'Forces Spéciales' has some shortcomings, I have to say I enjoyed watching it. Sure the team doesn't always look up to the task, a few actors may not be too convincing either (although most are) and one may wonder about the tactics used in the film.

What I liked about this movie was that the crew and cast went to Tajikistan to shoot the Afghanistan and Pakistan scenes which makes the whole story more realistic – American productions would usually settle for Morocco or Jordania but the scenery is not quite the same. Another quality in 'Forces Spéciales' is the storyline which is kept simple, there is not subplot or complicated background: A French reporter is kidnapped by the Talibans, a team of team of soldiers is sent to rescue her. Also, languages have not been unified into English, something Hollywood still has problems with regularly.

'Forces Spéciales' might not be the best action movie ever (I am not sure this is what it's supposed to be anyways) but it has nothing to be ashamed of in comparison to 'Act of Valor' which was a big disappointment for me.