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daralad
Reviews
Alice & Jack (2023)
Tripe
I felt compelled to write this review to counter some of the other reviews which I suspect were written by people with vested interests.
One review felt blessed to be in gleeson and riseborough's presence for a few hours..... I don't think so, the acting is clunky and insincere, the story is wooden and daft, and these people talk about relationships as if they understand them completely having watched other people have them. I've never met people like this in real life which is probably because there aren't people like this in real life.
There is an element of the Before sunrise/sunset films about it, but those romances have more sincerity and a genuine flow to them. This story consistently jumps forward in a way that implies that vast chunks of these people's lives are meaningless. The way characters are described within the programme are completely at odds with how they come across. Even leaving a bad review is giving this series more attention than it deserves.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
Disappointing
I loved into the spiderverse, it had great animation, great characters, great plot development and great music. There is simply no way across the spiderverse is better. By the end of this it felt like they were dragging it out and I had lost interest quite some time previously. The animation is good but sometimes less is more, and there was less differentiation between the styles, I don't think bill sienkiewicz was involved in this one. I remember my emotions building in the first one, peaking when what's up danger kicked in in the soundtrack, but this got into some schlocky emotional teen drama territory that made me yawn. I also felt it was a bit cynical to split it in two, I'm sure the full story could have been told in one movie which would have upped the quality of the animation too. Then there was the sense of universal danger overload that this and other stories revert to to ramp up the drama; whether a universe or every parallel universe and it's uncle is at stake, who cares, trying to make it bigger than before doesn't increase drama, that comes from character and plot development, yeah, like it did in the first one. It needed more jokes too, nowhere near as funny as the last time.
Inside Man (2022)
Nonsense masquerading as clever
Let's ignore the plot holes, let's ignore the daft willingness to murder, let's ignore the easy access visiting system for prisoners on death row. Actually, let's not! This is one of the most contrived wannabe clever plots I've seen in quite some time. Moffat can write some good stuff, like the blink episode of Doctor who, but let's be honest parts of sherlock were a bit liberal with the logic too. That such a mediocre thriller ended open ended was a bit too cocksure too, the assumption that it warranted a second series was a tad grating, and I for one will look forward to not watching the sequel. Hopefully no one will kill me for writing this negative review, although, according to the logic of this programme, anyone is capable of it.
The Sandman (2022)
Pretentious Claptrap
So where to start? This is badly acted with no real nuances that surreal characters should have. It's also badly realised in a kind of ooh its surreal but not particularly interesting kind of way. But this shouldn't be too much of a surprise as it's from Neil gaiman whose greatest claim to fame has to be living off the scraps from Alan Moore's table for so long.
So sandman is this dream dude who gets his powers taken away then tries to get them back while all the while being moody because he's a dream guy you see and all dreams guys are moody, mysterious and.. yada yada.
There was potential for this to be more intetesting but, hey I wasn't a fan of the comic either.
That said if you like breathy vocals masquerading as moodiness and sub standard fantasy horror then this will be right up your street.
Stranger Things (2016)
Series 4 schlock
Wow the ending had to be the most drawn out, over sentimental, obvious ending I have ever seen. Shame they didn't stop it after they ran out of ideas, which was probably at the end of series 2 if not series 1.
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Boring and aimless
I watched this recently and it is long and slow. The attitude to women is neanderthal, the music is scmaltzy and over sentimental and James Woods seems to be a dreadful actor.
It probably doesn't help that this movie will inevitably be compared to once upon a time in the west and the good the bad and the ugly, two of the best films ever made, but if feels like this was from a different director. It tries to be sentimental but the times it flashes back to are elaborate boring pieces unlike the clips from his other films that imply better times rather than painstakingly depicting them. Let's be honest the section with the kids is too long and too bugsy malonish. Disappointing.
The Green Knight (2021)
When ambiguous just means meaningless
A truly awful film. I knew I should have turned off after the first half hour. I'm not sure what most of the events meant because the director didn't bother getting them to make sense. So much of this movie was huh? And.... it....... was........ far......... too............ slow.
Color Out of Space (2019)
So bad it's good?
This film will be filed along with nic cage's wickerman as one of those films that was so bad it should never have been made.
The story rebounds back and forth as doom approaches and the characters show varying levels of interest in this.
The horror of the film is similarly inconsistent, is it the strange colour (which is purple by the way)? The odd supporting characters? The bug? The monsters? Nic cage's OTT acting? Or perhaps the insectoid creature that is joely Richardson and her son fused together licking milk from a plate? I don't know. But I do know that I would advise joely Richardson to ditch any project in future when she reads the part of the script that entails similar milk licking scenarios.
I did laugh at how awful it was so that was enjoyable. I'm not sure if editing made this film better or worse but it would have been great to see a movie capturing the lovecraftian eerieness for which he is famed as opposed to this over exposed directionless purple potato salad movie.