Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (5000)

Content

Eamon T.Hennedy (4 KP) rated The Mindy Project - Season 1 in TV

Jun 21, 2019 (Updated Jun 21, 2019)

The first season of Mindy Kaling's comedy drama, along with its second, is probably one of the best romantic comedies to come from American network television in a while. In fact, the one that is equal to it is New Girl and they were both on Fox at the same time and shared the same night in the UK where they aired on E4.

In a time when adult flavoured romantic comedies are dying at the box office and are finding a home on streaming services such as Netflix, it's good to see that there is a conventional home for themand right from its opening episode, The Mindy Project is all about someone who has watched too many romantic comedies and wants their life to be one.

There are many references throughout to the works of Nora Ephron and Garry Marshall, and with Kaling on writing and lead acting duties, the series work wonders. Even better, it's filled with an ensemble cast that works brilliantly. The series will have a rotating cast throughout its six season on the air, but it says something that at this stage that Ike Barinholtz is a scene stealer from the point he shows up.

The cast does rotate around the place until it settles down in season two, the most notable high profile member of the first season being Anna Camp who disappears halfway through, while Amanda Setton's character Shauna also disappears without a mention.

It would be nothing without Kaling who holds it together brilliantly. The first two seasons are a lighter concoction compared to where the series will go post-season two, not to mention its move to Hulu, but with rom-com successes like Crazy Rich Asians being all too rare nowadays, it's good to know a series with charm, sophistication, and not afraid of the odd fart joke every now and then could find a home on a mainstream network, even if it was for three seasons.

Kudos

LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Finding Dory (2016) in Movies

Apr 19, 2020

Finding Dory (2016)

2016 | Animation

8.0

(91 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Finding Dory taught me this - Pixar are a company who can sell you the same film twice, and then annoyingly get away with it by making said film pretty damn good.

There is no denying that during the first 15 minutes, all I could think about was how everything unfolding was strikingly similar to Finding Nemo, almost as if they were making little effort to hide the fact.
By the time the opening act is over, and the main plot is set in motion, I was successfully drawn in and had forgotten my initial reservations.

The main factor in this is the great cast of characters. This time around, Dory takes centre stage, on a journey to find her parents after years of being separated. The film flits between the main narrative, and (ridiculously adorable) flashbacks to when Dory was a child. We get to see a fair number of new characters, most notably Hank, a suitably grumpy octopus whose irritable personality works great alongside the oblivious nature of Dory. The two of them provide a steady stream of humour. Also Bailey, a beluga whale has a running gag that never once gets old. It's all very well crafted and genuinely funny.
Of course, Nemo and Marlin return from the first film, and although they have a big part to play, Finding Dory resists the urge to turn the narrative too much much towards them, something that would have been easy to do considering the success of Finding Nemo.
There's also a fantastic voice cast attached, including Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Ed O'Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell, Diane Keaton, Idris Elba, Eugene Levy (absolute legend), Dominic West, Bill Hader - even Sigourney Weaver appears, in one of my favourite running jokes of the film.

The animation is predictably stunning, managing to appeal to both younger and older audiences, and the narrative easily weaves between witty humour, and emotional gut punches - this is Pixar after all.

Finding Dory is a sequel that can stand proudly by it's terrific predecessor.