Movie Review: The Guest (2014)

Thriller is one of those genres of movies that I absolutely love. Sure, I can like any movie from any genre really if the movie is good in itself, but if you think overall genres then thriller is one of my personal favorites. It keeps me on edge the entire time without falling over to the horror genre. I am not a big horror fan, but I have respect for those who are. But back to thrillers… they are (often) great. You guys may remember that I have (several times) mentioned how “Drive” is one of my favorite movies of all time. That is what I would call a stylish thriller. So then I started hearing some buzz about a new movie called “The Guest” which apparently was a stylish thriller. So my interest was at its highest peak. So finally I got the chance to check it out… and give you guys my thoughts on it!

Sirs and ma’ams… “The Guest”.

The Peterson family lives a quiet little life. Then one day a man named David (Dan Stevens) knocks on their door and says he served in the military with their son who died in action. So they invite him in to talk about it and they let him stay there for a while. And he seems like he is a great person by helping out at their home and going to the son Luke’s (Brendan Meyer) to get a little involved with the bullies. He also goes with the daughter Anna (Maika Monroe) to a party to get a little integrated with her friends. But soon they start noticing there is something odd about him. And from that point on we got one of the most interesting stories from a movie within recent years. Not only is the premise pretty cool, but how the story develops throughout is just awesome. I don’t really know what more to say about the story without giving away spoilers. It’s great.

The characters are all really interesting in one way or another. All characters feel very human and realistic and never feels off, all of them except one… David. He is probably one of the most interesting and unique characters in recent years. He seems like this all round decent guy who you just want to become best friends with and then you see some of the things that happen in this movie and you might want to back off. And all of it is portrayed so damn well by Dan Stevens. I have not seen him in anything else and was therefore happily surprised with how great his performance was. He had a lot of range and you could notice he really enjoyed playing this character. To be honest I couldn’t find any bad performance in this movie at all. But that shouldn’t be too surprising really hen you have supporting actors like Leland Orser, Joel David Moore and Lance Reddick. Overall the character and performances were great.

Remember when I mentioned “Drive” before? Well that wasn’t just to mention a great movie… it had a small purpose. And what I mean by that is that the soundtrack to “The Guest” is very similar to the one in “Drive”. Very synth-y and techno-y. And while I’m not a big fan of music with that type of sound I really liked the music they used in the movie. Mostly because it fit the stylish and dark tone of the movie but also because it reminds me of “Drive” in the style and feeling of it… and I find that cool. I liked the music in the movie and it fit perfectly.

This movie is incredibly well-directed. It looks great and is very stylish in how it is directed. The action in the movie is also really well done. For one you can actually see it and it isn’t obstructed by shaky-cam. It is also simple yet really intense. There are also quite a few moments in the movie that are supenseful beyond belief. I mean, without spoiling anything, I sat and watched the third act of this movie and really felt on edge. The hair on my arm was standing up and I got goosebumps, that is how suspenseful it was. The sound design was also pretty cool. There is a thing they did where the music sounded like it was added in editing but was always there because of a character listening to it. Here is an example: There is a scene where Maika Monroe has headphones on, but you hear the music as it was edited in, but when she takes the headphones off you heard the music vaguely coming from the headphones. I just thought that was a pretty cool detail.

Did people receive this movie well? Hell yeah they did! It has a 91% postitive rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 76/100. And finally on imdb.com it has 6.8/10.

“The Guest” got a great story, a great lead performance by Dan Stevens with some great supporting actors, a cool soundtrack, great direction, great action and it was one of the most suspenseful movies in recent years. So now I will hand out my final score. And my final score for “The Guest” is a 9,84/10. And that of course means it gets the one and only… “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”

Review of “The Guest” is now finished.

Be careful who you let in…

Why I have not made a “Best of 2014” list yet

Hello my friends! As you may have gotten from the title is that I am going to explain why I haven’t made a “Best movies of 2014” list. And here you get the reasoning:

I think the main thing that affects me is the budget. I don’t have a real job. I am a high school student and not an adult who gets a monthly salary. And since my parents aren’t the richest of people they can’t pay me anytime I say I want money.
Going back to the whole thing about me being a high school student, that adds something that puts a little pressure on me. I do not always have the time to go see every movie in theatres. I got homework, I got essays, I got all kinds of shit to do. Hell, i am lucky that I managed to squeeze in 4 visits to the movie theater this year, that is my personal best.

I know all of this might sound like a bad excuse, but those are really my reasons why I haven’t done a list yet. But I think I can get it out sometime during spring 2015. Thank you for your patience and support of my blog, you guys rock!

See ya!

2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,500 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 25 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Movie Review: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005)

Christmas movies doesn’t always have to revolve around chistmas in a direct way. All the movie have to do is be set around christmas time and maybe mention the damn thing once or twice. We also have christmas movies that take it in an entirely different direction than you regular “feelgood everybody is happy yay” scenario. Like for example how I talked about “Bad Santa” recently. That movie was a lot different than you typical christmas movie formula. Or how about “The Nightmare Before Christmas” which doesn’t truly use the christmas stuff until at least 20-30 minutes in. I am going off track a little bit here… sorry. But what if you took the two themes of being set around christmas time but have it barely be mentioned and having a different type of story/formula and combined? Well that is what we are taking a look at today!

My friends, I give you… “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang”!

This story is kind of odd, but I’ll try my best to sum it up. You have three people; A thief posing as an actor (Robert Downey Jr.), a private detective (Val Kilmer) and a struggling actress (Michelle Monaghan) who over the course of about 5 days (around christmas time) get involved in a complex murder mystery. And that is really all I can say about the story without giving away too much. I can however say that the story was really entertaining to see how it unfolded. Not only to see how the intriguing mystery worked but also because some of the things that happen are a little bizzarre and often really hilarious. The story was really well-paced and even a bit intriguing and I found that really awesome.

The characters are some of the best characters I have been witness to in any movie ever. Not only are they well performed, but they also have some really awesome writing to them. One thing about the characters I have to mention is the chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer… it is some of the best chemistry I have seen between a pair of characters in anything. The dialogue they have is hilarious and you can see that they liked working off of each other. And for the love of god, I knew Val Kilmer was a really good actor after seeing him in “Tombstone” and “Heat”… but here he truly stole the show. He just rocked the scene and just became my favorite character out of all the really great characters this movie has to offer.

The original score by John Ottmas was pretty cool. There was a lot of stuff that worked for a crime movie. You know, these noir-esque tracks with a really smooth and stealthy (in lack of better words) tracks. And a lot of the soundtrack in general was sort of smooth Jazz which is a type of music I really enjoy listening to. The other tracks (licensed tracks) in the soundtrack were also pretty good and fit the scenes they were used in. Come to think of it, all of the music in the movie fit the scenes it was used in and just felt right. It helped set the mood of the scenes perfectly.

Looking at how this movie looks and how it was directed I was very surprised to learn that this was the first movie for director Shane Black. Sure he had worked on movies such as “Lethal Weapon” before, but only as a screenwriter. In other words, this movie was very well-directed. It was also one of the most well-written movies I have ever seen. The dialogue between the characters in this movie was not only really well-written but also really fucking hilarious. I seriously burst out laughing several times throughout the movie. I am gonna finish off this segment by giving you a bit of the dialogue from the movie. Just one small part… enjoy!

“If you looked up idiot in the dictionary, you know what you would find?”
“A picture of me??
“No, the definition of idiot which you fucking are!”

This movie was pretty well-received by critics and audience members alike. On Rotten Tomatoes it got an 85% rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it got a score of 72/100. It looks liked Roger Ebert thought the movie was “eh” and gave it 2,5/4 stars. And finally on imdb.com it got a 7,7/10.

This movie got hilarious dialogue, an intriguing story, great characters and performances, good music and some of the best comedy in any movie ever. So now I can give it my final score. Now… my final score for “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” is a 9,80/10 which of course gives it the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”

Review of “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” is done.

I don’t know about you, but I wish I would have seen this movie last christmas.

Movie Review: The Nighmare Before Christmas (1993)

I love it when you have a certain type of movie and then give it a sort of unique twist. Kind of like how “Bad Santa” I reviewed the other day was a christmas movie that was a dark comedy that didn’t always make you feel good. The movies that stick out like that are the ones that people are going to remember after watching it. And if we are sticking to the theme of christmas for a while I have to mention how many christmas movies are the same. So seeing a christmas movie that is a bit different is really refreshing. And today we are taking a look at such a movie. A movie from when I was young(er).

Jacks and Sallys… “The Nightmare Before Christmas”.

The story of this movie is that there are several “towns” that all represent one of the several holidays of the year. You have one for easter, one for christmas but the one we are entering tonight is the one leading to “Halloween town”. And this town is basically run by “The Pumpkin King” Jack Skellington (Chris Sarandon). When Halloween is over for the year Jack goes to contemplate life he finds these doors which lead to the other towns. And since this is a christmas movie he stumbles into the Christmas door and enters “Christmas town” where he learns a lot about christmas. And after that he wants to get christmas to Halloween town… and as you may expect it doesn’t go too well. Now I think this premise is awesome and can lead to some of the most clever situations in any christmas movie ever… and I was right. This movie is funny, it’s clever, it’s heartwarming, it’s creepy and it got more personality than a lot of christmas movies these days. It is one of the most original and clever stories I have ever experienced from a movie, and that just makes me all kind of happy! The only minor flaw about this plot is that certain parts might (for some people) feel a tiny bit rushed. But since I thought the story was paced really well I have no problem with it.

The characters are really well fleshed out and interesting. Yes, some of them don’t even get names or that much dialogue, but that is okay because you still know who the hell they are. There is the wolfman, there are the vampires, there’s the creature from teh Black Lagoon. See, easy! But to be more serious the characters are varied enough that they never bother you. And the ones that get a lot of screen time are great. Such as Jack who is one of the most loveable characters ever. Sally (Cahterine O’Hara, returning for a christmas review) is his sort of love interest while also being the first one to realize the whole “Bringing Christmas to Halloween” thing is a bad idea. And the villain of the movie, Oogie Boogie (Ken Page) is pretty great. He is witty, he is cool and got the best song in the entire movie, by far. And the voice acting in the movie is really good too. I think the actors were perfectly chosen for the characters they are voicing in the movie. My two favorite voice performances are probably those of Chris Sarandon (Jack) and Ken Page (Oogie). They bring so much humanity and just overall fit. And I can safely say that the characters and voice acting in the movie are overall great.

The soundtrack for the movie just might be one of my favorite soundtracks of all time. Danny Elfman did an excellent job composing a score that really caught the overall feel of the movie. But the regular bakcground score isn’t what we want to talk about, oh no. We want to talk about the musical acts our characters take part of in the movie. They are all pretty great. I think my favorite might be the Oogie Boogie song. It is jsut so jazzy and cool and I simply love that stuff. I’ll leave a link to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw0aoVpFCDw

The animation in this movie is in my opinion fantastic. I am a huge fan of stop motion animation and the since the animation in the movie is both stop motion and really well done I think it looks great. Sure, some parts might look slightly jittery in places, but overall it looks great. I am especially surprised how they got some of those parts done because there are no signs of CGI in this movie. So yeah… animation is great.

The title may say “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” but he didn’t actually make it. Yes he was part of creation and story, but he didn’t actually direct it. The direction was actually done by Henry Selick who have done a bunch of otehr movies. Including the excellent stop motion kid-friendly horror movie “Coraline”. Just thought it could be fun to mention.

This movie as far as reception among both critics and people have been pretty great. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 94% positive rating with a “Fresh” certification. This is also one of the few and weirdest examples of a movie that has no score or review on Metacritic. Hell, it doesn’t even exist one there. Roger Ebert however got a review where he gave the movie 3,5/4 stars calling the movie

“filled with imagination that carries us into a new world”

On imdb.com the movie has a score of 8,1/10 which usually means it would be on the “Top 250 list” which this movie isn’t. The movie was also nominated for 1 Oscar in the catefory of Best visual effects.

“The Nightmare Before Christmas” is one of the most creative and original movies I have ever seen. It got a fun story, good characters/voice acting, great music, great visuals and can work for the entire family. So now I am going to hand out my final score. My final score for “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is a 9,78/10 which of course grants it the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”

“The Nightmare Before Christmas” finally has a review!

Some of you might ask me when you see this review “What’s this!?“

Movie Review: Bad Santa (2003)

We all remember christmas as a cheerful time to have fun with you family, eat a bunch of great food and of course presents. And as kids we were expecting the presents to be delivered by the one and only… SANTA CLAUS! Of course we learned that Santa didn’t exist and got a little disappointed… presents are still kinda neat though. But as a kid I thought Santa was a kind of cool thing to see. A large kind man with a fluffy beard and a bag full of awesome stuff… how could you not like the guy? Well that is a question we will get answered in the review you see here!

Boys and girls… “Bad Santa”.

Willie T. Stokes (Billy Bob Thornton) is a drunken, miserable con man. Every year around christmas he acts as mall Santa. But when everyone has left on christmas eve, he and his partner in crime Marcus (Tony Cox) turns off the alram systems and starts raiding the place. In this movie the main operation is in Florida where the mall is run by Bob Chipeska (John Ritter, R.I.P) and a man named Gin (Bernie Mac, R.I.P). But the entire situation gets a bit more complicated when Willie befriends a little kid (Brett Kelly). Yeah, I think you might understand what might happen. But the movie is still very unconventional with the story being pretty original in a way. “Bad Santa” is by no means a family film and should never be mistaken as such. This movie in it’s story aspect is very dark and very offensive (for a christmas comedy). And that is kind of why I like it because of how dark and weird it can get sometimes. I get that this type of story might not appeal to everyone, but I liked it.

The characters are pretty rounded and well-written. They are given enough to do that they never feel underused or overused. They were all given an appropriate amount of space and good dialogue that they became pretty enjoyable to watch. I would also have to say that the movie got some pretty good performances given the fact that it is a comedy. Most comedies have passable performances, but I would say that “Bad Santa” got some performances I could genuinely call good. Like Billy Bob Thornton, I thought he was great as this drunken mess who also happens to one of the most despicable human beings I have ever witnessed in anything ever… at first. Tony Cox was also pretty good in his role. Overall the characters and acting was above the standards of most comedies.

The soundtrack is something to just Marvel at. You know why? Because it’s made up of practically every fucking christmas song you have heard a thousand fucking times! I’m sorry, just getting a bit mad. Not only because I’ve heard these before a lot but also because I would love to hear some original tunes from this movie. I would also have loved it if they didn’t re-use so many of the same songs in several different scenes. I know it might sound a little bit picky, but I like variety in my music.

One funny thing to note is that while this movie is directed by Terry Zwigoff, it is also co-produced by the Coen Brothers. And when I saw that in the opening credits I had it in the back of my mind the entire movie and I noticed a few of the sort of Coen-isms throughout. Delightfully dark comedy, interesting characters and just the overall feel of the movie. The camera work? It was nothing special. The movie looked pretty good visually, nothing special to it.

This movie was overall received pretty well by critics and audience members alike. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 78% positive rating with a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 70/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 3,5/4 stars. And finally on imdb.com we find the movie with a score of 7,1/10.

“Bad Santa” is the very definition of bittersweet. It isn’t the most uplifting movie ever and it isn’t the most depressing thing ever. It is something that’ll give you a bit of both. It also got great comedy, good performances, good writing, a “good” soundtrack and just feels pretty cool. So now if Santa could just give me my fucking final score already! HNNNNGGG… There, got it! My final score for “Bad Santa” is an 8,67/10. While it is a bit from perfect, I would still say it’s worth buying.

Review of “Bad Santa” has been let out of the bag.

Not you typical christmas story, that’s for damn sure. Another thing that is for sure is that soon Santa Claus will be coming to Town.

Series Review: Breaking Bad (2008 – 2013)

As a fan of both television and drama movies, a drama show should fit me perfectly right? Well that is kind of true… if the show is any good that is. So then there was this show people called “The Greatest thing on television”. It got me curious on what “The Greatest thing on television” would be like. so then I decided to start checking it out. So what did I think of it after finishing it? Did I like it? Did I hate it? Let’s find out!

Ladies and gentlemen… “Breaking Bad”.

So what is this show about? Well it is about chemistry teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston) who lives a quiet life with his wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) and his son Walter Jr. (RJ Mitte) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Unfortunately one day he gets told by a doctor that he got lung cancer. So after he afterwards runs into his former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) he decides to partner up with Jesse to start cooking meth. Both to keep his family going strong after he passes away (from the cancer). The most interesting thing about the meth that Walter and Jesse cooks is that it is the purest meth ever created. How pure you ask? Well about 99,1% pure (holy shit). Now of course there is more to it than that, but I am not one to spoil stuff for the ones who have not seen stuff yet. Let me just say that intensity intensifies. You will get great little stories within the seasons. And not only is the premise of the show great, the execution is really great too. Oh yeah, another kind of great aspect of the story (not spoiler, don’t worry) is that Walter is cooking crystal without any member of his family knowing it, which is kind of ironic since his brother-in-law Hank (Dean Norris) is part of the D.E.A. The evolution of the story is great and just really well done.

For a story to stay great you need great characters… boom! You got ’em! Walter White is a guy who starts out sort of nerdy and just… guy-ish and just declines to sort of becoming an anti-hero. Not only because of the meth cooking, but for other other reasons too. And Bryan Cranston aces the character so well. The guy gives honestly one of the best performances in any TV-show ever… period. Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman, the “not-as-smart-as-Walt” guy. The guy driven more by emotions and such things rather than Walt who tries to meticulously plan everything. But I need to be honest, Aaron Paul might be my favorite actor in the series. For one, I never expected him to give this type of grade-A performance. The guy really showed everyone that he is a fucking great actor. Then of course you have the supporting cast, like Skyler who is a bit of bitch, probably my least favorite character. Not hating her, but still… least favorite. Walt Jr. I am pretty neutral about considering he doesn’t do as much as most of the other characters. Hank is great as he at first is mostly sort of comic-relief, but by the end of it he has developed so much as a character that he was just great. But by god, my favorite(ish) character just might be the one of Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk). The guy is a shady lawyer. Like Jesse put it; “We don’t need a criminal LAWYER, we need a CRIMINAL lawyer”. The guy is just great. Snf I think the reason I love him so much is because he is, throughout the entire series, THE comic-relief character. He reminds me of Sam Rockwell in a lot of ways, but that story is for another day. And one final thing about the characters… even though most characters here are really grey on the moral scale, this show still got some great villains… no joke. These are some of the best villains I have seen in anything ever. They are just fucking amazing.

The music in this show… oh my god, the music! The few licensed tracks in the show were songs I did like already and that really fit when they were used. But of course that’s not important, because you are here to hear about my thoughts on the original score by Dave Porter… his score is one of the best original scores I have ever heard. My god it does so much right! In the paarts where the show wants you to feel excited and thrilled, the score captures that perfectly. If it wants to be haunting and get under your skin, it does that. The score is nothing short of perfect and I just love it so much. I am probably picking it up some time in the future.

What can I say in the “General Stuff” segment? Oh yeah, the cinematography is fucking amazing! It looks beautiful and never ceased to keep me interested. Because there were a few moments (no spoilers) that weren’t too interesting to me early on in the show, but I was kept interested thanks to the excellent cinematography. And the writing, both in dialogue and story is just great in every sense of the word. There are a few pieces of dialogue in this show that really got me thinking and really sounded awesome. The suspense in this show was also great, it never felt dull or forced, it was real! It might also be fun to mention that the creator, Vince Gilligan actually started out as a writer for “The X-Files”.

What do people think of this show? Well of don’t already know that then you’ve been hiding under a rock since since 2008… or even earlier. People love this show. And on most sites it is difficult to find a good score to use as reference since most sites rank by season and not the entirety of the series. But I can give you the links. Here is Rotten Tomatoes who certified every season as “Fresh”. The show also exists on Metacritic if you want to use that as refrence. Now I can finally use a score as reference… thank you imdb.com! It got a score of 9,5/10 on imdb.

“Breaking Bad” got a great story, superb acting and characters, a perfect soundtrack, excellent cinematography, great dialogue and one of the best finales of any TV-show I have ever seen. So now I want to hand out my final score. So, my final score for “Breaking Bad” is a 9,90/10 which as you may have guessed gives it… the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”

Review of “Breaking Bad” is now done.

Let’s cook!

Movie Review: Home Alone (1990)

And the christmas reviews are continuing today with one of my childhood favorites, maybe it is one of yours as well, I don’t know. But will it hold up? Let’s find out!

Boys and girls… “Home Alone”

Kevin McCallister (Macauley Culkin) is not too happy with his incredibly dysfunctional family. They are all under huge stress because they will be going to Paris. Problem is that when they go to Paris they realize something… they forgot Kevin. So now he has to take care of himself while also trying to stop two burglars (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) who want to steal all his and his family’s shit. You also have a side-plot going on where Kevin’s mom (Catherine O’Hara) is trying to get back home to Kevin. This story is very entertaining in premise and execution. Yes, a lot of it is very unrealistic and often makes little to no sense, but it still got a lot of comedic and charming moments to keep it going well.

Do you expect Oscar-worthy performances from this movie then you are sorely mistaken, my friend. The acting is average, but it doesn’t need to be more than that. I suppose the best performances in the movie might come from Roberts Blossom and Catherine O’Hara, but they are still nothing too special. And a lot of the characters in writing and style are just plain out assholes… I am not sugarcoating it, they are assholes. I guess that is part of the story and therefore works, but it just bugs me because I am a generally nice guy. But overall, characters and acting works.

I don’t really have to say what I think about the music because it should be obvious since it was composed by none other than the legendary John Williams. Yes, I love the music in the movie and there is nothing more to it. John Williams’ music is always great.

Camera work and cinematography (while not bad) is nothing special. Don’t bother focusing on that. The real cream-of-the-crop stuff here is the slapstick comedy you get… it is fucking glorious. As a fan of slapstick comedy I was happy to see that it actually was really fun and entertaining in this movie.

Time to see how people responded to this! Let’s see here… ah, here we go! On Rotten Tomatoes it got a 54% positive rating. On Metacritic this movie got a score of 63/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 2,5/4 stars. And on imdb.com it got a 7,4/10. The movie was also nominated for 2 Academy Awards in teh categories of Best Original Song (Somehwere in my memory), and best original Score (John Williams).

As a huge fan of slapstick comedy, this movie gave me good entertainment. As a heartwarming christmas story, it worked. And with the great score by John Williams I am finally able to give my final score to “Home Alone”. My final score for “Home Alone” is an 8,96/10. And while it doesn’t hold up as well as it did years ago, I still think it is a great movie and worth buying!

“Home Alone” is now reviewed.

I guess it’s winter now. So just… Let it snow!

My Favorite Scenes: Terminator 2 – Encounter/Chase

Thought I forgot about this segment, did ya? Well you were wrong. Today “My Favorite Scenes” returns… in a big way. The scene today is from one of the greatest action movies ever; “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”. This is the scene where John Connor (Edward Furlong) encounters both the T-800 (Arnold) and the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) and becomes part of one of the best chase scenes in any movie ever. It is intense, it is badass and it is practical effects only. Oh yeah, that happened. I love this scene so much because of the reasons I just stated. So sit back and enjoy this amazing scene from one of my favorite movies!

 

Series Review: Black Books (2000 – 2004)

I don’t only watch movies. I do love me some good ol’ television every now and then. The only thing that has kept me from reviewing television shows on the blog is because they take longer than movies. Movies are usually two hours contained in one sitting. Shows are multiple episodes in one season or more. And therefore they take longer. So I am happy to finally be able to present my first real review of a TV-show. And it is an easy enough start considering it is a comedy.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Black Books”!

This show is about Bernard Black (Dylan Moran). The guy is a cynical, often drunk owner of a bookshop. The irony of him owning the shop is because he doesn’t want to sell anything since it means he have to order in new books. Next door there is a gift shop run by his friend Fran (Tamsin Greig). One day when Bernard’s accountant leaves him he has to find a new guy to work for him. So one day he pretty much on the spot employs Manny (Bill Bailey). And from ther on the show goes on. Now the set-up for the show is simple, that is how a comedy should be. You don’t need a dark, complex and ingenius plot like in a lot of HBO shows. But anyway, the basics are good and the small self-contained stories within the episodes are incredibly entertaining. I am not going to go through every episode one by one and explain the plots of those because not only would it break my “no spoiler” rule, but this post would become too long. But let me just say that the majority of the episodes are fucking hilarious.

The characters (like any comedy) are the things that drive the series. All of them are broken people who are nothing short of insane or weird… and that is why I love them. I am a huge fan of Dylan Moran as Bernard, the guy is jsut despicable as a human being and just gives some of the best lines in the entire series, in any show ever even. Manny is also great. I almost get the feeling he is the most normal character in the show. He is the glue that holds the planks together. Problem is though that the glue is expired… but it still kinda works. And Fran, I don’t know what to make of her. Seriously. Not saying she is a bad character, I am just saying that I can’t give a separate description for her. But all of the characters in the show are interesting in one way or another.

The music is few and far between. There isn’t that much variety in it. But with that said, the little music that is in the show is pretty good. For the most part it is a jingle which is a shortened version of the main theme/opening theme of the show. And the song is as weird and broken as the characters in the show, so I think it works. I’ll leave a link here so you can listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7MQh5Yo4RU

What is there to say here? The locations and camera work in the show are very limited and often contained within one or two areas. So it is average I suppose. Not bad, just… average. The comedy in the the show is fucking genius. that is all I can say. Oh, also it only got three seasons with six episodes in each. So it is pretty short.

How has this show been received? Well since it is a show it will not have all the same sites as I usually link. But I can give you a little. On Metacritic it has an 8,7/10. And on imdb.com it has an 8,6/10. And those were the only major sites I could check on really.

“Black Books” got a good set-up, great characters, fantastically genius comedy and is easy to just binge-watch. I am sure you will get quite a few laughs from this show. So now I will hand out my final score. “Black Books” gets my final score of 9,71/10 which grants it… the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”

“Black Books” is now reviewed.

First real TV-show review… I feel good about this.