David-O-Brien Reviews

Killer Bitch (2010)

Don't waste 90 minutes of your life on this

[1/10 · 7 August 2010]

This is like someone going around with a cine camera filming famous London lowlifes, porn stars and Z-list actors. The plot is non-existent. The "famous" rape scene is absolutely ridiculous. To rape someone, you have to have removed their underwear first! I wouldn't mind if the gore was realistic. It is actually laughable in the extreme. Don't insult your intelligence by sitting through this. Cass Pennant is not a professional actor and he gives the "best of a bad lot" performance of anyone in the film. I am assuming this film had a budget of around 50p. That's what it looks like to me. You'd do better yourself on YouTube !

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009)

Dreadful

[1/10 · 21 May 2010]

This film is truly awful. Werner Herzog had some cheek giving the film the 'Bad Lieutenant' title without consultation with Abel Ferrara. It's a very different film to Ferrara's very dark movie. In fact it contains a lot of humour - not a lot of it funny nor interesting. Cage's performance resembles that of his character in an earlier film 'Vampire's Kiss', where he plays the delusional Peter Loew, who thinks he is a vampire. Much mirth was gained from this premise. However, his character in Bad Lieutenant is not half as amusing. The film doesn't really know what it wants to be - black comedy or dark thriller. The scene involving the alligator and the lizards is ridiculous, and adds nothing to the film whatsoever. All in all, a poor film. I would have expected the director of 'Nosferatu' and 'Fitzcarraldo' to create a better film than this

The Tiger's Tail (2006)

A complete dog of a film

[1/10 · 2 July 2008]

John Boorman is a mystery to me. He is responsible for great Irish films such as 'The General', fabulous fantasy 'Excalibur', wartime drama 'Hope & Glory' and the masterpiece 'Deliverance'. And then there is this piece of junk....I cannot countenance how he came to produce this...Brendan Gleeson plays Liam O'Leary, a successful businessman. He starts seeing his double at various locations. He is unhappily married to Kim Cattrall and has a son who has Communist views. His son is played by his biological son Briain. Kim Cattrall's Irish accent wasn't too bad I suppose. It's a pity her wooden acting was the same as usual. On the evidence of Gleeson Jnr's acting here, he has a big career ahead of him...stacking shelves. To cut a long story short, the doppelganger succeeds in infiltrating his life and takes over from him, successfully convincing his wife and son that the real Liam is in fact a fake. There are a few ridiculous ideas in this film - Kim Cattrall can't tell her husband apart from his twin brother, her son cannot spot the difference either except that his father is 'acting strangely'. The last straw is when we are expected to accept that Sinead Cusask (age 60) is Brendan Gleeson's mother (age 52). At this point, I found the whole thing such a ridiculous film and so disrespectful of the viewer that I wanted to switch off. However, I endured to the end and it got no better. The main reason I watched it in the first place was because if was filmed in Ireland very close to where I work and I wanted to see those locations on screen. They looked very nice indeed - it's a pity that the dog of a script and the outrageous plot weren't up to scratch.

Once Were Warriors (1994)

Great film about New Zealand trying to reconcile past and present

[9/10 · 25 April 2007]

I absolutely love this film. Despite the shocking violence and the disturbing rape scene, this film has a dignity and a spirit that transcends it all. The film is mostly about how far the Maoris have come from their ancestry, proud warriors with a great tradition and sense of family to the story of Jake The Muss, the beer swilling Maori suburbanite who beats up his wife and drinks beer all the time. At it's core , this film has a great heart and spirit. It is cathartic to watch. The acting is excellent and the performances wonderful all around. Now, why oh why, did they make a sequel ? It wasn't a patch on this film whatsoever....

The Evil Dead (1981)

Had dated badly but scared me silly as a teenager

[6/10 · 25 April 2007]

When Evil Dead came out first I was only a teen. A friend of mine got a copy of the film on bootleg and we watched it in his house when his parents were out. Back in its day it was considered a video nasty and pretty tough going. At the time, I found it terrifying - especially the bit where the demon is locked in the cellar. I got to watch the film again recently and I thought that it had dated badly. The special effects look very wooden nowadays. However, it is a landmark film and one of the first of the zombie genre. It will always hold a place in cinema history. Sam Raimi is to be applauded for making such a successful film for such a small amount of money. The sequels were rubbish and turned the franchise into a comedy show. I would love if someone competent were to do a remake of this film. Sam Raimi himself would be ideal....

Premonition (I) (2007)

Some nice touches but some things were not done well

[4/10 · 30 March 2007]

I went to see 'Premonition' with one thought. I don't trust Sandra Bullock to make a good film. She has been in a lot of turkeys. She doesn't seem to know a good script from a bad one. In the case of this film, her performance was quite good - better than some of her frothier annoying comedies (wouldn't be hard) Anyway, I thought this film was an adequate thriller but with a few ridiculous assumptions. Eh, why was everyone trying to stop Bullock from seeing her dead husband in the casket ? Why did her days become jumbled up ? Was Dr Roth good or bad ? I dunno. When the closing credits went up I felt that I hadn't been fully entertained. Sure, there were some good moments, especially the closing crash scene but overall, I would have preferred a proper horror film with some special effects instead. Bullock should try and get herself into a Japanese horror remake. It might give her career a bigger boost than this middle-of-the-roader.

Best (2000)

Absolute rubbish

[1/10 · 26 March 2007]

This is dreadful. Jon Lynch is not handsome enough to play the part of George Best. We see nothing of the wit of the real character - merely a paranoid alcoholic. This film doesn't capture the soul of George Best at all. I am sure even ardent fans of Man United (which I am not) will find this film appalling. It's time to do a newer version now that the real George has passed away. With regard to other characters in the film, Linus Roache does a passable Denis Law, Ian Bannen is convincing as Matt Busby and Jerome Flynn is a good enough Bobby Charlton. One thing I found laughable though was that the same actor played the barman and Tommy Docherty - once with a wig, the other time without. Did they not have enough money to pay two actors ?

Notes on a Scandal (2006)

Excellent and intense adult drama

[10/10 · 7 March 2007]

I enjoyed this film from start to finish. The first thing I noticed was the excellent screenplay by Patrick Marber. He used to write for the Alan Partridge show on British television. The acting performances are outstanding all round especially the always-reliable Cate Blanchett and the brilliant Judi Dench. Bill Nighy is also excellent as the husband of Blanchett's character. This is a very moving film that has loneliness as its central theme and also the lengths that people will go to when they are lonely. There are no villains in this. Every character elicits some degree of sympathy for their plight. This is in no small way down to the excellent screenplay and the performances of the main characters. To mention any of the plot would be to give the story away. I think it is best if you know very little about this film and go in to enjoy it in the movies. It has some real twists and turns in it, believe me. It's British film making at it's very best. Overall, I feel that Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett were hard done by on Oscar night - especially Dench. I saw Helen Mirren's performance as The Queen and it was far inferior to Judi Dench's performance here.

The Passion of the Christ (2004)

Beautiful cinematography. Graphic violence

[10/10 · 26 February 2007]

I can't say that I 'loved' this film. It is impossible to love a film containing so much torture and violence. However, I love Jesus Christ and I love what this film represents. Hopefully this film converted a lot of people to Christianity. I believe most of what I saw in this film. This is the tenet of what I believe. I have seen it several times now. I cannot stop thinking about this film. It is very emotional and moving. Be warned, if you haven't seen this film and are squeamish, it can be unbearable in places. It is extremely hard to watch. I have to say, I thought the cinematography was stunning through out. It looked like a Carravagio painting in places.

The Last King of Scotland (2006)

Good but could have been so much better

[7/10 · 22 February 2007]

I really enjoyed Forest Whittaker's performance in this film. He achieved just the right balance between charmer and maniac. Whittaker has always been an extremely competent actor but he has never been centre stage till now apart from the film 'Ghost Dog'. He is ideal to play the part of Amin given his physical stature and his air of menace. James McAvoy gives a great performance as well. His character goes from happiness to crisis over the course of the film and it is a very polished performance.

I have to criticise one aspect of the film. The atrocities carried out by the Amin regime were abominable but they are only touched upon in the film. I would have preferred the director to show more of how Amin brought the country to rack and ruin with his brutality. It would have been a 10 out of 10 film if it had of done this as well.

The Return (2005)

A bore from start to finish

[1/10 · 22 February 2007]

I am amazed with some of the reviews of this film. The only place that seems to tell the truth is RottenTomatoes.com. This film is awful. The plot is extremely lazy. It is not scary either. People out there who think that because it stars Sarah Michelle Geller it is somehow like The Grudge should forget about it. This film is more like Dark Water, except it is even more predictable and slow moving than it. I was extremely disappointed with this film. It didn't scare me nor interest me either. Let's face it , this type of plot has been flogged to death at this stage e.g. the dead trying to contact the living - Dragonfly, What Lies Beneath, Ghost Story, Dark Water, Darkness, The Changeling etc.etc. It seems to me that the only ones writing original horror films nowadays are the Japanese and the Koreans. The films that are coming out of Hollywood, like this, are cynical exercises in money making without a shred of respect for the viewer. They're just being churned out