DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE (2025)

Thomas was one of the best characters not only on Downton Abbey but maybe in the history of British TV series. He was an antagonist, from being a coward during the war to scheming against pretty much everyone in the downstairs working servant chambers... The fact he was homosexual, on the show itself, simply added to his perplexed nature... gave him a more human quality but hardly enough humanity to where he wasn't desperate and edgy, and enigmatic, interesting... 

But in the last of three movies, having already hooked up with a famous actor, here he merely gives knowing expressions of being the secret servant who is really an equal lover... deleting any significant edge the character once had... In different ways, the same could be said of everyone in the cast... by this third movie, which centers around the meager plot of royals having dinner at the titular castle, no one really means anything, and that ranges from the upstairs and the downstairs... 

None of the characters are even part of the ironical nature of the haves and have-nots since, being so beloved, their dreams came true upon the first motion picture so audiences can see them given a happy ending, from being contentedly married to becoming famous scriptwriters... So there is no tension or drama. The only b-story involves real life dramatist Noel Coward giving the same "one day we'll have rights" expression while supposedly basing his own future famous works on the characters here... Who aren't even worthy or intriguing enough to make their own movie entertaining... a series that should have ended either on TV or one farewell movie. Three is two too many. Rating: *1/2

AKA CHARLIE SHEEN (2025)

It's pretty amazing that you have a man with a live-changing disease, who was fired from a dream job getting 2M dollars per situation-comedy episode, who did every drug in the book and actually made drugs seem cool to kids on the internet... 

With all that, the director of AKA CHARLIE SHEEN seems intent on capturing Sheen's smug, cat-that-ate-the-canary grin about all the things that lead to one person's complete and utter downfall: Has it been long enough since the famous (or infamous) 2011 "Winning" breakdown that this all all really cool now? That's surprising given the whole MeToo Movement (backed by Netflix from the start) that made this kind of lionizing glimpse into womanizing and women-beating so... not popular... But other than the fact that the writer/director seems like an adoring fanboy not only interviewing Charlie Sheen but celebrating his actions, you have a subject that's interesting enough to merit a pretty interesting documentary... That's sporadically effective also despite how many unnecessary filler distractions are spliced throughout almost every word Sheen speaks about his roller-coaster life... The famous indie MY DINNER WITH ANDRE had a far less interesting subject taking about things at a restaurant table with very few edits... So of all people, Charlie "I've Done Everything Under the Sun" Sheen didn't need every syllable spoken to be orchestrated/backed by some kind of pop culture snippet, ranging from Charlie's own films (including Super 8 from childhood) to various old commercials... Also, the interviews weren't as good as they could have been, including Sheen's first ex-wife, who pretends she was reluctant to be interviewed, and that without her input the doc wouldn't be as interesting... The only truly interesting person here is Sheen himself, who had had the world hypnotized on cheap smoky-roomed online videos during his meltdown, and yet, this sycophantic (and sometimes downright intrusive) director didn't seem to have the faith that Sheen himself could carry his own vehicle...  But since Netflix only makes personal-propaganda pieces disguised as documentaries, in the end, no matter who's being covered, you can't delve any deeper than personal promotion. Rates: **1/2