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derek-eynon
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Death and Nightingales (2018)
Engaging drama for the most part
...with some good performances, and some excellent scenery and photography, but (and this may be a spoiler) it lacks an ending. This is a pet hate of mine. If you can't think of an ending, don't film the thing. I am assuming there is no season 2, as it is based on a stand alone novel.
Lost in Space (2018)
A very successful reboot
I used to love the original series as a kid, and I have to say at age 60 I love this version. It's far darker than the original series, and of course the budget is incomparable. It looks fantastic and is intelligently written.
The robot is stunning.
The alien planet looks uncommony Earth like however. Like British Columbia, in fact.
My Feral Heart (2016)
8/10 and it COULD so easily have had a 10 - which I have never awarded
It just needed one tiny thing more.: an ending.
In the cases of movies like No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood I would argue that IF YOU CAN'T THINK OF AN ENDING DONT BOTHER MAKING THE MOVIE.
I would not, however argue this in the case of My Feral Heart, because the world is a better place for it.
It is moving but never sentimental and highlights the good that there is in people, when they're not being bad.
I don't know what to say about lead Steven Brandon, 'outstanding' seems inadequate for such a talent. Everyone is excellent in it, and if this movie gets half the attention it deserves all concerned should have long and stellar careers.
Small Town Crime (2017)
Superb crime drama
Compelling , impeccably acted film noir complete with hard drinking gumshoe,
grizzled ex cops, hookers pimps and righteous retribution.
Absolutely excellent.
Marcella (2016)
Compelling but flawed
And many ends left loose. For example we are led to believe that Marcella's ex husband had staged or exaggerated her "episodes" - and yet in the last ep or two she is still suffering from them, even though he is nowhere to be seen.
Why on earth does she back away from suicide and yet disfigure herself? How on earth did the wound close with no medical intervention and whilst living rough?
Much quality, but much meandering in the writing.
The Hurricane Heist (2018)
Fantastic
As in "imaginative or fanciful; remote from reality" and/or "extraordinarily good or attractive"
This is a Sky Cinema Original Production, one of a very few.
It is a rip roaring rollercoaster with hurricanes, and heists, as you may expect,
a few twists... a twist-er (sorry) and it's UTTERLY UTTERLY RIDICULOUS and fanciful and far fetched in the extreme and I loved it.
Requiem (2018)
Atmospheric yet incomprehensible
It reminded me in some ways of The Owl Service http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338632/ with scraps of music subsituted for the patterns on the crockery. A supernatural drama with a high body count.
Fine perfomances throughout, esp the under used Richar Harrington (Hinterland aka y Gwyll) and great locations.
If you have ever scratched your head at movies like 2001 a Space Odyessy or Event Horizon, you FEEL it and yet don't understrand it to the extent you could explain it to someone else, then I'm with you.
I didn't find the ending satisfactory, unless it is to accommodate a season 2.
Unusual and worth watching but don't expect to understand it.
Howards End (2017)
Dull in the extreme
In a whole one hour episode virtually nothing happens, various vacuous letters are exchanged, and that is about it.
The locations are superb, and a very good cast, but the whole thing is utterly, utterly vapid.
Uninspired, colourless, uninteresting, feeble, flat, dead, dull, boring, tedious, tired, unexciting, uninspiring, unimaginative, lifeless, zest-less and spiritless
Ni le ciel ni la terre (2015)
One hour 40 minutes of my life I will never get back
To be fair the movie has TREMENDOUS atmosphere, and the acting is very believable both from the French Troops cast, and the Taliban.
The story, however, is incoherent in the extreme, to the point of nonsensical.
A bit like (Kubrick) The Shining , or Event Horizon, the print as delivered makes no sense. Possibly bad editing, or just a bad screenplay.
Stonehenge Apocalypse (2010)
Peter Wingfield is excellent in this "interesting" movie
I wouldn't in all good conscience give it more than a 4 out of 10, because in many ways it is awful, though it's probably better than Apocalypse Pompeii (starring Pete's Highlander cast-mate Adrian Paul).
Peter acts with quiet dignity and is very believable in his role.
With a decent budget this might have been a Da Vinci Code, mind you that was awful as well. Watch if you have 110 mins to spare in your life.
Riviera (2017)
Outstanding
One of the best mini series I have seen for a long time. It steps outside of the usual crime drama format that dominates UK and US. Excellent performances from most of the cast and, what you THOUGHT was going to be the big twist, ISN'T. I don't regard that as a spoiler. I would hope for a season 2.
Critical (2015)
Whats the story, very gory?
The show LOOKS great and is for the most part compelling, and well acted. I have loved Lennie James in his other work, but in this I find him a touch over the top. He seems to be saying his lines in a very DRAMATIC way , whereas the character of Glenn repeatedly tells us this is his speciality (critical injuries). Most of the other cast maintain a calm dignified and professional tone in the presence of some immensely bloody trauma, and the obligatory internal hemorrhage. It would open the show out a little if we saw how the patients had suffered these accidents, and the paramedics work, etc. Don't watch while you're having your dinner, by the way.
The Sweeney (2012)
Get your trousers on you're nicked
(For U.S. readers, title is Regan quote from TV series, re used in movie) I am the hugest fan of the TV Series, I must have seen every episode 20 times. I watch anything Thaw is in and anything Waterman is in, well almost. This movie is a re imagining in very much the same way as the Miami Vice movie was. It's big loud brutal and fast. Yes the plot is a little complicated, but it's British, we do that. Winstone as Regan is perhaps less flawed than Thaw's depiction, and George Carter is NOT George Carter, to be fair, they only used the name. Overall I thought it was excellent, the chase scenes and shoot outs are essential cinema viewing.
The aerial photography of London is breathtaking, the soundtrack atmospheric and superb.
Highly recommended.
Strike Back (2010)
James Bond style adaptation of the novel !
No resemblance to Bond, but about as true to Ryan's excellent source novel as a Bond movie. Some changes (nature of Porter's injuries, nature of Hassad's disfigurement) were probably made for budgetary reasons, others to expand the novel into a series.
The location and time frame may also have been changed because of this.
Cracking stuff and well acted, and the re write is possibly a little more plausible than the book.
Excellent for all that.
I was in the process of reading the book as the miniseries came to screen, and I was in a quandary whether to finish the book before watching episodes 1 & 2, in the event it made no difference, there was so little resemblance between the two.
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Impeccably acted drivel
It start well enough with Daniel Day-Lewis' character Daniel Plainview staking early claims to oil rights in undeveloped places, whilst extolling family values to the locals, in a curious Cornish accent.
Unravelled , I think is the best way to describe the development of the character through the movie.
At the end of the movie I felt strangely cheated, not only is plausibility stretched to breaking point, but we never see any consequences for the character's many misdeeds.
I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that the movie charts the rise and fall of the character in perhaps a similar way to Anderson's Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights. The way up, addictions, hangers on, the way down. Crash.
A very very long vehicle for an incomplete story.
Highlander: The Source (2007)
Mad Mac
Highlander The Source (No spoilers)
The story begins in "Eastern Europe" with scant explanation, the world is descending into chaos, a la HL2. This is normally denoted by fires burning in the streets, I have observed.
Feral gangs are running hither and thither, pillaging, etc, but someone, somewhere is running a bakery.
We are told of a legend of the Source, the source of the immortals' power. Duncan, we are informed, does not believe it exists.
There is a new cast of Immortals, plus the trusty Methos, and I have to say British TV Actor Thom Fell as Cardinal Giovanni is great, understated and enjoying himself, and he would have been perfect as Jacob Kell in Endgame, instead of the pantomime villain we got.
Others include Stephen Wright as Reggie Weller (supposed to be an astronomer, more like a Cockney barrow bow) who is terrible, as is Footballers' Wives Cristian Solimeno as the Guardian.
Several of the cast seem to be enjoying themselves putting silly voices on.
Thom, according to my research, does not get much film work, but I think he did a fine job, and should be up for Orlando Bloom type roles.
The group of immortals already know one another, though where from is not explained, odd as they are not in any movie, or the series.
There are some excellent fight sequences in the film, and I have to say Methos kicks some serious bottom.
Duncan's love interest Anna Teshemka (Thekla Reuten) is gorgeous, and like Thom, acquits herself with dignity.
Peter Wingfield has recently become a British TV stalwart in a year's appearances in BBC hospital drama Holby City,but for some he will forever BE Methos, and Peter is excellent in Highlander The Source, he seizes the attention in every scene, and his acting is less mannered than it once was.
One of the highlights of the movie is the soundtrack with some storming new versions of "Princes Of The Universe" and "Who Wants To Live Forever" with vocals by John Sloman (Ex of Lone Star (the Welsh one) and Uriah Heep).
The film, on DVD, billed at 86 minutes, clocks in on my machine at more like 79, and some of the latter minutes are mere clips of earlier scenes.
There is a revelation, though the film seems to terminate early, and as there is no theatrical release that I am aware of, running time should not have been an issue, in my view.
The film, of course, leaves things open for the supposed trilogy of Highlander The Source parts 2 and 3, though I don't seen how they would ever get made (there can be only one!), as they were not shot alongside part 1.
It feels almost as if the series carried on running for another 10 years, and we've somehow missed all those episodes, and now we get this. If you think of it as a long lost episode, I think HL TS fans will enjoy. Confused and perhaps interfered with, but better than nothing, for those, like me, that miss the show.
- Derek Eynon
Lost in Translation (2003)
Fading film star meets an unloved wife and nothing happens
Bill Murray is in Japan, filming a lucrative Scotch Ad. He meets a young American woman,Scarlett Johanssen. Each is unhappy with their partner, she there in Japan, his back in the USA. There is some witty and realistic dialogue. Nothing happens. They watch TV together nothing happens. Towards the end of the movie he meets another woman, in the hotel bar, and something happens. The following morning SJ comes to his room and realises there is another woman in there,she leaves, nothing happens. He is on way to airport in a limo, and he sees SJ, he jumps out and speaks to her and nothing happens. Finis. The reviews of this movie were generally excellent, which made the reality of it all the more disappointing. I like Bill, I like Scarlett, but as I may have mentioned, nothing happens.
Casino Royale (2006)
Daniel Craig resuscitates the Bond franchise with the best Bond movie since OHMSS in 1969
Daniel Craig resuscitates the Bond franchise with the best Bond movie since OHMSS in 1969
(Not that George was the best Bond, but it was one of the best films, and closest to the book)
In one scene Bond walks through a wall , not a brick wall, a stud wall, but he doesn't go round it, he just goes through it. I think this is the key to the character, a return to the hard man Bond Connery portrayed so well.
He's not without charm but he's pretty much without morals.
The film jettisons Miss Moneypenny, and John Cleese's Q - successor , R
The only gadgets are electronics (laptops, mobiles, and a paramedic tool)
The film is character and plot driven, but with spectacular set pieces, coming in at two hours twenty four, it's long, but it does not seem so.