This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

terrible... so disappointed.

Expected more

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

'House of Cards' is superlative. 'To Play the King' is great. The third series of the trilogy 'The Final Cut' (1995) may be the weakest of the three but is still very good.Everything that made 'House of Cards' and 'To Play the King' is here in 'The Final Cut' and work brilliantly. Unlike the previous two series however, a few parts veer on the improbable and the ending felt unsatisfying in its predictability and not having the punch or clarity of the ending of 'House of Cards' (the ending of 'To Play the King' was the weak link of that series but was more convincing than here). The previous two series are paced a little tighter too. Having said all this, the deviations from the source material again don't detract and the spirit and attention to character and mood detail are present.On the other hand, 'The Final Cut' visually looks wonderful, full of elegance and atmosphere in the design and class and style in the way it's filmed. It's also beautifully scored by Jim Parker with a very memorable main theme, and the direction lets the atmosphere and drama breathe but still never undermines the momentum.Andrew Davies once again also deserves a lot of the credit. The script has dry cynicism, sharp wit, dark bite and class, with some deservedly iconic lines that have since become part of popular culture. The nation's mood is brilliantly captured and the political elements are handled so truthfully and don't feel shoe-horned (it's actually essential here) or heavy-handed. The storytelling is mostly very absorbing, the depth and richness of the previous two series in the trilogy not lost.Ian Richardson is once again absolutely incredible in his best and most justifiably best known role, dominating the whole proceedings with ease. Diane Fletcher has a bigger role in 'The Final Cut' and again shows completely believability in a role that one doesn't see from her usually.Paul Freeman is especially good in support, which is mostly pretty solid apart from Nikolas Grace's sleaziness being more over-the-top than creepy.Overall, while the weakest of the three 'The Final Cut' still has a huge amount to enjoy, primarily Richardson. 8/10 Bethany Cox

The third in the three mini-series sees FU holding firm to achieve his goal of serving in office longer than 'she' did. A historic peace deal brokered between Turkey and Cyprus is to be his public triumph (and private windfall), although past events (recent and long since past) hold a constant threat of being revealed, while he finds himself surrounded by possible leadership challenges.This final run of episodes manages to keep the core strength of the previous episodes, and for many (myself included) this will be enough to make it work and be worth watching; however this is not to be blind to some of the issues with it. The first for me was that the entire history of FU in Cyprus seems dropped in completely inorganically. Okay I understand we join after he has always worked through the deal so perhaps these triggered the memory – but for the viewer we come to this subplot through the memories first. These are quickly followed up by the family seeking the truth (about the very thing FU is now having nightmares about) and as a result it seems like the series is rushing to introduce a plot and get it moving. Once the series gets into its stride, this works better as a backdrop while leadership challenges and political maneuvering is in the fore – which is the aspect I found more engaging.The character of FU and the to-camera addresses remain effective and engaging, but in this case too many of the supporting characters and plots are not so well done. The family seeking justice is one example, but cabinet members are not as strong and too long is spent on affairs (with a lot of nudity and humping added for what I can only presume is the satirical effect of putting the image of real politicians at it into the minds of the public). These scattered examples of things not working so well do rather limit the series as a whole, but mostly it works. The start does lack sharpness, but I was a bit surprised by some of the lack of edge at the end too – it works but some aspects of it could have been better.Despite the misgivings, and despite it not being at the level of the previous series, it is still an enjoyable end to the story.

I have loved all of the episodes of The House of Cards Trilogies from the very first to The Final Cut. I absolutely abhor the American version of the show. I wish Hollywood would stop taking BBC ideas, paint them thickly with a stupidity brush to then show on our television screens and start making original ideas of their own.I am curious if any other fans of this original series has or know where one can get sound bites from the third series? In particular, there are two I am most interested in and I believe they are in the same scene. When Jeffrey Boozer-Pitt tells FU about his behavior with a woman who was married, FU makes the following statement, "Jeffrey, Jeffrey." The second sound bite is just a moment later when Jeffrey talks about his improper share dealing with same woman, FU says, You really are utterly contemptible, aren't you" he goes on, "No background, no bottom, absolutely no informing principal but the will to survive. Just a plump little bag of squirming appetites." Harsh,perhaps, but appropriate. If anyone knows where I can get those sound bites, please let me know. I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

An absolute masterpiece in political philandering. Politics is poison. Politics is perversion. Politics is treacherous intercourse between any man and any other person, any woman and any other human with only one objective: to seize power, to retain power, to "make history" as if they could, not understanding that power is illusive and evasive, and history is not made by anything or anybody because history is and nothing else. What makes it is unknown of everybody. Big Ben here is only to dictate the time of the beginning of each episode, 9:22 a.m. The general idea is that a plain apparatchik of the conservative party manages to push aside the successor to Margaret Thatcher, the longest- serving peace time Prime Minister, who was too weak for the job, and he becomes nothing but the brute of the job who uses young women to get his inspiration, kills them as soon as they could become dangerous, and is in fact entirely manipulated by his own wife, a new Lady Macbeth who even manages to make him confront the new king and force him to abdicate. What's the best part of it is that it is thrilling to follow the actions of this apprentice sorcerer and to see how he manages any situation to his own advantage and yet is heading right into the wall because to succeed too long becomes dangerous for your own health in the British system where only the sovereign can last long because he or she is not supposed to play politics. It is thrilling because we know the only end can be his failure when the wall of success will become so hard that he will have to be eliminated for the simple survival of the political system.Yet you will learn only in the very last scene who the manipulator of it all is and what his or/and her intention is too. And it is true the series is intelligent enough and well enough done that you cannot know who that manipulator is though we see his/her black gloves at crucial moments but the episode systematically mislead you to believing it (he/she) is someone else.The series is also a very good criticism of British democracy based on the free press that is as free as a tornado in a narrow and deep gorge between two very high mountains. The press is in fact on a very short leash: make money with news and make the news if necessary to make money, like Citizen Kane used to say. Parliament is an amazing maze of corridors and staircases, a comfortable bar and a House of Commons with only one interesting session, Questions to the Prime Minister, every week or maybe more often. This Parliament is a farce in many ways, at best a circus for gladiators who have no right to kill one another but who can bruise their own and respective egos in all possible ways.It is so easy to make the public believe what you want them to believe when you can pull the strings that hold the press. And then you can always manage someone to get killed here and there, now and then, who is embarrassing or annoying the big masters.I am so glad I am not engulfed in such an ugly activity. And yet I am sorry everyday because of them because they terrorize my own life all the time with their own caprices and incompetence. After that you sure will loathe politics, or at best want to be one of the few who can control the game.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU