Halo (TV Series 2 Seasons)

Needed more battles and less intrigue.

In this future based off a popular game franchise, genetically engineered super soldiers are humanity's only hope against the evil alien races. No, it's not Warhammer 40k - this is Halo with protagonist "Master Chief" played by Pablo Schrieber.

Over the course of two seasons there are some cool fight scenes with a decent body count but, in a prime example of shooting themselves in the foot, the story also focuses on... random people who have nothing to do with the franchise? What?

Yeah, feels like the woke got to this one which is why it only lasted two seasons. That and/or they needed better writers. While I still enjoyed it, I can understand why it got canned.

Den of Thieves

Cops and robbers for action fanatics.

At it's core, this is a heist movie focusing on heavy violence as Merrimen's (Pable Schrieber) thieves go up against Nick's (Gerard Butler) bad boy sheriffs. After the initial action packed intro the story dials back a lot though, with flash backs and back stories aplenty which drag the pace down somewhat. Most of these could probably have been cut from the film altogether which would result in a cleaner and shorter story.

The perfect tool for thieving.

Anyway, the acting is passable, the heist itself is pretty good and there are some surprising plot twists but are they enough to save that mire in the middle? Eh... kind of. I'll only recommend this one for action fans, and only as a "there's nothing else to watch" flick. Den of Thieves steals 2.5 Chinese takeaways out of 5, and I wouldn't watch it again.