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Some great show you're watching there Vultural!

Keep up the good work 🥰

[Vultural]

A Shop For Killers - 2024 - S Korea

A Shop For Killers - 2024 - 6/10
AKA - Sarinjaui Syopingmol  // 킬러들의 쇼핑몰

 
Is it just me, or did she leave the lens cover on the scope?
Jian’s highly protective uncle was a mercenary, now a dealer.
He made enemies, and, straight off, dozens come a’callin.
Repetitive shootouts grow boringly repetitive.
The adults and their stories hold your interest, while the teenagers complain or boast.
Sniper Seong-Jo is the best thing going, musing aloud, thoughts wandering like loose balloons.
Intentionally or unintentionally, he is funny throughout.
Series sorta quits, leaving doors open for S02 of this Disney “aimed-at-children” K-drana.

[Vultural]

The Au Pair - 2025 - UK

The Au Pair - 2025 - 5/10

 
Fashion designer Zoe and husband Dr. Chris hire an au pair for their too-old-to-need-one kids.
The French arrival, smiles on the surface, malice beneath, launches quiet sabotage from the onset.
Wily Sandrine holds your interest, wondering what drives her, and who or what she will destroy next.
To my annoyance and frustration, the narrative pivots midway into family angst.
This becomes a completely different story, and I start barking at characters with short term memories.
My suspicion is the writing room boxed itself into a corner, then shrugged.

[Vultural]

Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp - 1970 - USA

Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp - 1970 - 5/10

 
So, late at night, past 2:00 AM, you’re so hammered you cannot fall asleep or pass out.
Switch on late night TV, endless river of mindless dreck.
You jump channels until you reach a nightclub where a chimpanzee band is performing.
Until you realize this hopping joint is a meeting place for spies.
Good agents APE versus baddies CHUMP.
Beyond weird, Lance Link could only have emerged at the tail end of the 60’s.
My brain eventually seized, as I wondered: they play instruments, drive cars, ride motorcycles.
Someone trained them?  Why aren’t they in politics?

[Vultural]

We All Lie - 2024 - China

We All Lie - 2024 - 6/10
AKA - Hun Yin Gong Lue // 婚姻攻略

 
Top drama writer Su Li and actor husband Shuheng have a picture perfect marriage.
Except he is romping the sheets with Yingying, an earthier, more carnal oriented female.
Of course, the wronged wife finds out and quickly plots revenge, financial and career wise.
Whereupon the adulterous pair work to get even.
C-drama of deception, vengeance, and scheming bounces along for awhile.
Until the narrative loses momentum and a mushy sidetrack enters.
Then, all downhill into soap opera weeping and flowers.
I suspect the Chinese morality police took the punch bowl away.

[Vultural]

Crá - 2024 - Ireland

Crá - 2024 - 7/10

 
Mom had vanished a decade earlier.
Some thought foul play, others that she fled.
The husband was a monster and the business plunging into bankruptcy.
Until, rising from the bog, the corpse rises, showing signs of murder.
Theories increase as quickly as suspects.
Slow boil Irish thriller, set in bleak, lonely boglands.
Unsavory souls, hustlers and buried histories.
Forced village camaraderie masks bleak existence.

[Vultural]

Mussolini: Son Of The Century - 2024 - Italy

Mussolini: Son Of The Century - 2024 - 8/10

 
Dazzling series of Il Duce’s rise from Fascist fringe to taking control of Parliament.
Plot encapsulated = The self-serving usurps democracy.
Luca Marinelli is utterly mesmerizing: funny, honest, brutal, manipulative, fearful.
This moves at a furious pace, compressing events and overlapping images.  Lavish production values.
Sex, violence, profanity, blasphemy, along with the treachery that accompanies politicians,
Bristling dialogue will thrill or terrify.  “Fascism is the rule of force.  It is the will of a few imposed on the will of many.  It’s the law of the stronger.  It’s hatred, it’s mass excitement, it’s anger.  It’s contempt for weakness and doubt.  And whoever gets in the way …”
The rare beast that is frightening and nervous laughter.
For whatever reason, not yet airing in the USofA.

[Vultural]

Murder On The Inca Trail - 2024 - Germany

Murder On The Inca Trail - 2024 - 6/10
AKA - Mord auf dem Inka-Pfad
 

 
Ah, to be young, in love, travel the world.
Since they are in love, the married couple shun guided expeditions, and are attacked.
Ursula dies of her injuries, husband Jona tells elaborate, slippery stories.
Aside from the Andes scenery, Jona is a key, if maddening reason to watch.
He is extraordinarily elusive, lying, denying, forgetting, a bold-faced deceiver.
Based on a true murder, I did wonder if Munich actually spent for those police airfares.
By the end, I thought of how different European laws (France - Germany) differ from States.

[Vultural]

Reilly, Ace Of Spies - 1983 - UK

Reilly, Ace Of Spies - 1983 - 7/10

 
Before Ian Fleming envisioned 007, there was the actual, British agent extraordinaire.
Sam Neill shot to fame as the womanizing, double-dealing, articulate agent.
Most of the timeline runs from 1904–1924.  Arms deals, wars, espionage, sabotage.
Adversaries include Basil Zaharoff (the Merchant of Death), Felix Dzerzhinsky and Stalin,
Excellent production values, especially for television of this period.
At 12 episodes, this also breathes a bit.
Based on a real individual, exploits dodgy, yet stands with the finest spy films.

[Vultural]

All This I Will Give To You - 2024 - France

All This I Will Give To You - 2024 - 7/10
AKA - Tout cela je te le donnerai

 
Aymeric is brother number two to die under mysterious circumstances.
Which means the final survivor, Joffrey, inherits the estate and vineyard.
Not so fast!  Aymeric’s will leaves everything to his husband, Manuel.
Manuel doesn’t necessarily want the estate, let alone deal with the nest of vipers that inhabit the manor.
Nonetheless, he does suspect the death was suspicious.
A retired gendarme, who hates the entitled family, launches a stealth investigation.
From here, the mystery twists and coils, with seedy revelations.

[Vultural]

We’re All Gonna Die - 2022 - Canada

We’re All Gonna Die - 2022 - 6/10

 
Yes, one way or another.  All men are mortal.
Host Baruchel angsts over mass events: pandemic, nuclear war, global warming, alien invasion.
He is a Chicken Little ninny, overdramatizing constantly as if he were unboxing for his mommy.
The idea of mass annihilation has already been covered more thoroughly and less foolishly in How To Survive The End Of The World (2013), minus the pity party indulged in here.
Should this get rebooted – again – please let Philomena Cunk have a bash at it.

Edited August 3, 2025 by Vultural

[Vultural]

Hanging Mirrors - 2025 - China

Hanging Mirrors - 2025 - 7/10
AKA - Xuan Jing // 悬镜

 
The first body was found by accident.
Make that body parts.  Incomplete, missing the torso.
This ignites the old guy (Simon Yam) who toils in records, recalling an unsolved case.
He teams with the younger lead, mixing styles of procedural and classic mythology.
More killings follow, none are random.  Ancient practice is being followed.
Bodies placed according to Yin and Yang.
 

 
Nasty thriller that delves into archeology, history, tomb robbing, dismemberment.
Misses great-ness as producers short-changed the final two minutes (hoping for Season 2).
If intrigued, go into this stone cold.   Synopses in both IMDB and DramaList contain spoilers.

Edited 20 hours ago by Vultural

[Vultural]

The Third Man - 1959 - USA

The Third Man - 1959 - 6/10
 

 
Note the release date.  This is not the cynical Noir set in Vienna.
This is a reboot, with Michael Rennie playing a more urbane, genteel EX–criminal.
At half an hour, each episode hustles along as Lime aids a damsel, an old colleague, or friendly government.
This Lime is actually a throwback to the gentleman detectives of the 1930’s.
Routine mysteries, though supposedly set in exotic locales.
Passable time-waster late at night when you want to kill 30 minutes.

[Vultural]

Gannibal - 2022 - Japan

Gannibal - 2022 - 6/10
AKA - Gan'nibaru / /ガンニバル

Officer Agawa is transferred to sleepy village of Kuge.
He carries a history and superiors hope the tranquil mountain area will sort him.
The previous village officer had disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
As far as peace and calm, the area is a festering web.
Inhabitants live in fear of the Goto family, amidst whispers of cannibalism.
 

 
Officer Agawa is a piece of work, however, and not one to back down.
Series (7ep) explores the dark side, is punctuated with explosive violence.
Ends on a cliffhanger, although S02 has finished airing.

Edited 20 hours ago by Vultural

[Vultural]

Gannibal: S02 - 2025 - Japan

Gannibal: S02 - 2025 - 7/10
AKA - Gan'nibaru 2 / /ガンニバル

All the tension that had been mounting throughout S01 boils over and explodes here.
This is a wildly violent season, with multiple gun battles.
And bloodletting, a tremendous spillage.
 

 
This season showcases the backstory of the Goto family, and their acquired attitude.
Youthful Gin Goto, in particular, as the beautiful, sex-driven female – with a grudge.
The family has a history of dealing with Kuge Village, with the police, a lot of police.
Officer Agawa, however, booted out of Tokyo, is a borderline psychopath.
Japanese exploitation fans, this is manna.

[Vultural]

Spiral - 2005 - France

Spiral - 2005 - 6/10
AKA - Engrenages
 

 
A female corpse is found in a junkyard, body mutilated beyond recognition.
Gendarmes and a magistrate try to determine who she was, why she was murdered.
That is the overall arc.  There is also a baby killing, smuggling, corrupt cop, the usual.
Mix of procedural and soap opera, meaning characters’ mini dramas.
Highly absorbing if you like getting lost in characters.
Me?  I couldn’t’ care less and won’t return for additional seasons.

[Vultural]

A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story - 2025 - UK

A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story - 2025 - 6/10
 

 
The outcome is foregone.  Straight off, we see Ruth pull out the gun and shoot the man down.
Narrative swings from backstory to courtroom preliminaries.
Still, the gun.  Witnesses.  Four shots.
Sure, she had her reasons, powerful ones.
Long have I remarked that it’s a miracle women haven’t murdered us all.
Compelling period drama, although those touches fade with incarceration.

[Vultural]

Scandal Eve - 2025 - Japan

Scandal Eve - 2025 - 7/10
AKA - スキャンダルイブ
 

 
Rafale is a small talent agency.  So when their major star is exposed in a tabloid, it damages.
An old incident, of him drinking / sleeping with an underage female.
Readers were shocked!  She was 19 (age of consent in Japan is 13, so please).
Turns out there was collusion between a mega-agency and the scandal sheet.
Brief J-dorama of the small upstart trying to survive opposition by the colossus.
Well written, fiercely acted, some sharp turns.
Problems for viewers may be the tabloid or print angle.
In most of the world, those are passé.
Readers, by and large, grow more extinct daily.

[Vultural]

Becoming Karl Lagerfeld - 2024 - France

Becoming Karl Lagerfeld - 2024 - 7/10
 

 
Mini-series on the iconic fashion designer, set mostly around the 1970’s.
During his tenure as artistic director of Chloé.
The industry aspect of this is compelling – if one is into this world (I married a fashionista, there is no escape).
His previous relationship with Yves Saint Laurent, conflicts between haute couture and prêt-à-porter.
Much of the series regards his relationship with Jacques de Bascher, French aristo and dilettante.
Bascher suffers low self esteem, substance abuse, limited talent, pettiness.
Nevertheless, for many, I imagine the relationship may be more riveting than fabric.
Essential for those who know and wear brands.