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Red Sparrow (2018)
A magnificent 'Old School' thriller
This film is a throwback to the days of realism. No sound stages, green screen or cgi, Red Sparrow relies on good old-fashioned acting. Jennifer Lawrence plays the former ballerina Dominika Egorova whose on-stage accident(?) leaves her and her sick mother at the mercies of the State and her creepy Uncle. Threatened with the loss of her status, apartment and medical assistance for her mother, Dominika is persuaded by her Uncle, in return for security, to play 'Escort' to a man who is then murdered in front of her whilst he is raping her.
Dominika is then given a choice, as there can be no witnesses, she must become an agent of the State or be eliminated. Reluctantly she joins the Sparrow School but during the torture and humiliation she is put through (her body has been nourished by the State and so it belongs to them) , she maintains enough of her sanity to use her body and her intelligence to exact revenge on the man who put her in this nasty situation.
Eschewing the tired and worn tropes of recent 'espionage thrillers' Red Sparrow has no high-octane car chases, unrealistic kickass fight scenes or implausible stunts. Instead, what you get is a 'grounded in reality' adventure where the heroine feels pain and is tortured both physically and mentally.
Jennifer Lawrence is fast maturing as an actress and in this film, we see her at her best.
Much has been made of the so-called similarities between this film and the upcoming Marvel imitation, Black Widow (which probably wouldn't have happened if not for this film). This comparison is woefully laughable as Black Widow, like all its predecessors, will be a cartoonish film with no real peril whereas Red Sparrow leaves you with a sense that Dominika suffers real pain. In fact comparing 'Red Sparrow' to a possible 'Black Widow' is like comparing The Maltese Falcon to Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Red Sparrow is a magnificent film.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015)
Spectacular end to the franchise
At the end of 'Mockingjay Pt I' Katniss was lying in a hospital bed having almost been murdered by her 'boyfriend', Peeta after he suffered a psychotic episode due to being tortured with 'Trackerjacker' venom whilst being held by the Pschopath President Snow in the capitol of Panem. 'Mockingjay Pt II' opens with Katniss, unable to speak, preparing to help the rebels storm the capitol and break Snow's stranglehold on the Districts. The story is told briskly, with a good sense of tension building as they advance on District 2, the only thing standing in the way of the Capitol itself. After being shot in an ambush outside of District 2, Katniss finds herself being sidelined by Coin, the President of the rebels, forcing her to smuggle herself on a medical plane to get near to the Capitol, thereby giving herself the opportunity to fulfil her promise to kill Snow. Along with a small band of fighters and her 'Propaganda Film Team' Katniss negotiates several ugly and ingenious traps set in the Capitol by the Games makers. Her fight is further complicated by Coin's decision to send Peeta to join them, the reason for which she surmises is Coin's attempt to dispose of her. Now that the Mockingjay has propelled the troops to the gates of the Capitol itself, she has become a threat which Coin feels she has to eliminate. In the final fight for the palace, her sister Prim is killed in an explosion and she herself seriously burned. Back in the rebel base, Katniss gets proof that it is Coin's doing and that Gale may have had a hand in it. Mad with grief, she says goodbye to Gale and decides to deal with Coin herself. Under the pretext of killing Snow, in a public execution, Katniss shoots an arrow past his ear which instead kills Coin; after which she attempts to commit suicide but is stopped by Peeta, who has finally thrown off the effects of the venom.
Katniss, having been pardoned for the killing of Snow, returns to her home in the Victor's Village where she finally allows her emotions out in a heart-rending scene with Prim's cat. The final scene is of her, some years in the future, reunited with a cured Peeta, cradling a baby whilst a toddler plays nearby.
Very evenly paced and well directed, this film never lets up. It is a terrific, emotional end to what is the best film franchise I have ever seen.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014)
Understandibly slow
Having read the reviews that 'Mockingjay Pt1' has received till now I am forced to wonder, did anybody seriously expect anything of worth to happen in this film? It is only the first third of the book and nothing ever happens in the first third. We start as Katniss is being airlifted to District 13 where she is cajoled into becoming 'The Mockingjay' the symbol of the resistance. To do this she appears in a very bad mocked up propaganda video which fails to inspire and only gets it together when she witnesses the Capitol firebombing a hospital at which point she screams the immortal lines 'If we burn, you burn' at President Snow. The film then follows the path leading up to, we presume, the invasion of Capitol by the resistance. The film itself isn't too bad and Jennifer Lawrence, as always, gives an intense performance and while she is on the screen, the viewer is totally captivated. I am looking forward to the second half which is sure to be action packed. My only gripe is not with this movie but with the decision by Hollywood that every third book has to be split into two parts. It didn't work with 'Twilight', it didn't work with 'The Deathly Hallows', and it probably won't work with 'Mockingjay' but greed and the wish to bleed cinema goers of every last buck will probably ensure that they keep on doing it.
The Devil You Know (2013)
Dreadfuly abysmal
I was warned not to watch this film by several sources but, as it is the first movie with a credited appearance by Jennifer Lawrence, I ignored them and gave it a go. To be fair, in the hands of another director, this might not have been too bad. Filmed around 2005 but not released till 2013 (which should tell you a lot) the story involves a fading actress, Kathryn Vale, played by Lena Olin, who has decided to try for a comeback. Living in her shadow is her daughter, Zoe Hughes (Rosamund Pike) who is trying to get her first big break but at the same time is living in her mother's shadow. Casting a dark light over all the proceedings is the fact that Kathryn is still suspected of murdering her husband, Zoe's step-father, many years ago. A fact that her current partner Dean Winters (Jake Kelly) and her P/A Molly Price (Edie Fontaine) keep bringing to her attention due to a series of accusing cards that arrive in the mail or on her pillow. Cue a lot of jealous recriminations between mother and daughter as they try to upstage each other and you have the basis for a solid if not very imaginative plot. Unfortunately this is where the movie goes belly up in a big way. We eventually find out that Kathryn DID murder her husband during a flashback where you see him making moves on the teenage Zoe (Played by Jennifer Lawrence) and that she and Dean were responsible for the notes. The Direction is horrible, the script laughable and the dialogue very bland. The chemistry between all the leads is practically non-existent and somewhere along the line Pike and Olin forgot how to act. To cap it all, some very drastic cutting left the running time at a little over 68 minutes. The result is an in-cohesive mess, very tediously plotted with little or no charm. Even the soundtrack is boring. I can't recommend this to anyone, not even die hard Jennifer Lawrence fans as her appearance is limited to a very brief appearance of her, admittedly looking stunning in a pair of shorts and tights,pouting seductively at her step-father. It really isn't worth the bother.
The Big Bang Theory (2007)
The Best Comedy Ever!
I had never heard if this show till four years ago and only watched it because I heard that Summer Glau was appearing as herself in one episode. Having watched it three times I decided to buy the first series and watch it from the beginning. I was hooked from the first joke. The idea of four nerds (and one hot girl) appealed to me as I was a glasses wearer at school and my favourite subjects were physics and maths. Although my i.q. is nowhere near as high as Leonard's, I identified with him because of his aspirations to 'get the girl' something I could never do at his age. The story of Dr. Leonard Hofstadter and Dr. Sheldon Cooper along with their friends Dr. Raj Koothrappali and Mr. Howard Walowitz and their attempts to fit in with the streetwise Penny is hilarious from the outset. With a raft of running gags ranging from Sheldon's OCPD (Knock Knock Knock Penny) Raj's selective mutism, being unable to talk to women without alcohol (till the 8th series) Leonard's lactose intolerance and Howard's lack of a doctorate ('Howard, you know a lot of Doctors) and quirky side characters like Stuart Bloom, the comic book store owner, Barry Kripky and Mrs Wolowitz, this series is a serious contender for the funniest program of all time. It certainly is my choice.
Scrubs (2001)
Unique Comedy
A comedy about a hospital? Oh well I have seen the Doctor At Large series and thought I knew what to expect: Was I wrong. This programme is not totally a comedy and it lacks the one irritant on most sit-coms; a laughter track. That is what makes this show stand out from all the others. The characters are funny but also serious in that they have 'real' lives and problems and, all too often, tragedy. I mean, people die in this program! The main characters, J.D. (Zach Braff), Elliot (Sarah Chalke) and Christopher Turk (Donald Faison) are all very funny and apart from that, Elliot is so hot you may burn just looking at her. Doctor Cox, their mentor, is acerbic and sarcastic to a fault but underneath it really cares about the interns in his charge. The hospital boss, Dr Kelso, is the exact opposite, measuring everything in terms of money but he, too, has a tragic side and deep down despairs when the system lets down the patients in his charge. Other characters such as Jordan, Carla and the creepy Janitor combine to make this show the success it is. Watch the day to day growth from intern to Doctor and you will learn to love (or hate) the various characters. One thing is for sure; you will never look at a hospital the same way again.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
A disappointing end to a disappointing series.
I didn't know whether to review this film as a fantasy film or a book film adaptation, it wasn't easy. As an adaptation it failed on all levels. The basic outline of the third part of the book was there but all the content had been changed. Characters who weren't mentioned in the book (Legolas, Frodo, Radagast) characters who weren't even in the Middle Earth mythology (Alfrid, Tauriel) scenes that weren't in the book (Galadriel, Saruman and Elrond Freeing Gandalf and Radagast)I could go on. The stupid love story between an Elf and a Dwarf. The conflict between just about everyone. (Thranduil was a proud elf but this film made him out to be an all time bastard. He and Bard joined forces willingly not grudgingly and no Elf King would banish someone just for having feelings.) Thorin accusing his kin of betraying him. It was as if Jackson had taken a two minute pop song and made a full blown symphony out of it. So, to the fantasy film aspect. What a let down. The cgi (and there was far too much of it) was slapdash and not at all convincing. The battle scenes looked like fan fiction copies of the Two Towers battles, the final confrontation of Thorin and Azog was predictable, the worm things were preposterous and of course we have the daft sliding down rooftops, mudslides and whatever ludicrous ninja moves Jackson could throw at us. Also, for two people who weren't even in the book, there was an awful lot of Tauriel and Legolas. The most annoying character, however, was Alfrid. What was Jackson thinking, did he think we wanted a Jar Jar Binks? There is no doubt that Jackson did a marvellous job with the Lord Of The Rings but he should hang his head in shame for this mess, it's an insult to every true Tolkien fan.
Divergent (2014)
Poor cousin
This film could have been awesome if it wasn't so incomprehensibly silly. Obviously based on the Hunger Games (factions, teenagers fighting) this film takes all the good aspects of that film and copies them very badly. The heroine, Tris is totally unbelievable. Unlike Katniss I couldn't see her winning a game of tiddlywinks let alone a knife fight. The evil government is a one dimensional stereotype that seems to exist in all this type of film and the inevitable romance between her and Four(??) might as well have been announced in the opening, it was so obvious. I will admit that the book is a thousand times more interesting than this drivel and the main reason it fails is because unlike Maze Runner, which has solid characters, and Hunger games, which has the brilliant Jennifer Lawrence, Divergent is just a mass of clichés and bland performances. Do yourself a favour and give this a miss.
The Maze Runner (2014)
Cube meets Lord of the Flies
I actually enjoyed this movie. I was expecting a tedious boring book to film carve up like Divergent and instead got a well paced adventure with some pretty solid characters. OK, the story isn't totally original; kids put in a primitive setting left to survive or die is straight out of Lord of the Flies and the shifting maze is just like Cube but it kept up the pace and suspense just enough to hold my interest. I have just one question that maybe they didn't explain properly; what was the point of the runners? They couldn't escape through the maze, they had to return by nightfall but they got nothing out of it because their supplies came up from the pit so why run through it at all? Apart from that it wasn't a bad movie. Unlike Divergent(which was full of one dimensional pretty things) I am anticipating the sequel.
The Time Machine (2002)
Disappointing
Well, that was a waste of time. Having finally got to see the Guy Pearce version of The Time Machine I can honestly say I wish I hadn't bothered. The Rod Taylor original didn't follow the book totally but this one just seemed to throw the book in the bin. Instead of a man tired of the inevitability of war we have a 'hero' who is obsessed by his failure to save his girlfriend from dying. Having travelled into the past several times to try and save her he now decides to travel to the future where he finds the beautiful Eloi menaced by the dreadful Morlocks and that's where the similarities end. For a film that was made 42 years after its illustrious predecessor, it seems even less scientifically accurate. If the Moon had broken up lie was shown in the book, it would have exceeded Roche's limit and most probably hit the Earth with catastrophic effects. The Morloks were shown to be mindless beasts ruled by a man who wouldn't have been out of place in a Die Hard movie. Jeremy Irons should have been ashamed to appear in this film. Just how was the Uber Morlock supposed to have come into being? I won't even dwell upon the overt racism in this film but just suppose they had done it the other way? Put all that together with Pearce's totally characterless performance and this film is nothing more than a sombre mess. The only saving grace was Samantha Mumba who at least tried to inject some humanity into her role.
Ascension (2014)
Disappointing and unfinished
I reviewed this title after watching the first episode and found it unsatisfactory. Now it is finished I feel I have to add a few comments. If this had been the pilot of a series I might have found it workable but it has been touted as a 'drama in six parts' for which you can change to three parts here in England. The whole premise of the show being that a spaceship with several hundred people is 50 years into a 100 year voyage to another star system, the kicker being that they have never actually left Earth but are in some underground complex. Leaving aside the absurdities and impracticalities of the subterfuge I would like to know how we are supposed to rate this drama highly when it finished with a whole raft of unanswered cliff-hangers. Now I don't mind having some open-endedness in a film where you are left to make up your own mind about a situation but really, there were so many of them. Was it really Lorelei's ghost that appeared to Christa? If it wasn't a ghost what was it? How come it appeared to Aaron at the end of the film? What happened to Stokes once he had escaped from the Motel? Who was the woman that murdered Samantha working for? Was Aaron teleported? If so, how? Where to? What happened to the thug that was lying on top of him trying to throttle him? What was the real reason for the lie? Was Crista evolving, if so into what? Are we supposed to believe this evolution happened in a mere fifty years? If so, why did they have to create a multi-billion dollar project with hundreds of 'prisoners' to oversee it? I'm all for suspending my disbelief in the name of good science fiction but the Clifton Bridge would have trouble holding this up. If it had played out to a resolution I might be able to forgive the film makers but this travesty felt like going to the cinema and having the film break down half way through. It's a shame because it was well made but good production can't make up for sloppy writing. I can't recommend this to anyone.
Soldier (1998)
Better than expected
Kurt Russell plays a soldier who has been trained from birth to be a perfect killing machine. When he and his squad are superseded by genetically improved versions, Kurt is left for dead on a hostile 'rubbish dump' of a world where he is found by stranded settlers who help him. When the new super soldiers are sent on a training mission to the same world they are ordered to treat any humans they find as hostile, thus endangering all the colonists. This film could have been a walking cliché, it had all the ingredients; helpless families, pretty girl, even a sick (mute) kid. Add to that the writers claim that the film was a "spiritual sequel to Blade Runner" and I had to watch it if only to debunk such arrogance. To my surprise it turned out to be a well thought out, intelligently scripted, fairly well acted movie. The action scenes were not cgi'd to death and the clichés, whilst undoubtedly there, were not overplayed and one scene, where Kurt Russell shed a tear after being banished from the camp for an unnecessarily violent reaction, was genuinely moving. 'Soldier' will never win any Oscars but it's not a bad movie and I will watch it again.
The Day of the Triffids (1981)
Faithful if a little slow
The day Of The Triffids is my all time, favourite book. I read it first as a teenager and now, forty years later, it still grips me with it's despairing yet hopeful message and the horror of the Triffids which change from being a mild nuisance to a dreadful threat overnight when humanity loses the power of sight. I hadn't seen this version till a few months back so eagerly watched it when I got hold of a copy on DVD. The pacing is a bit slow as was normal back then but the story actually remains pretty faithful to the book (which is more than I can say about the appalling Howard Keel movie). The acting is first rate; John Duttine and Emma Relph breathe believability into the roles of Bill and Josella, the direction solid and even without modern day effects, the Triffids are scary. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to see a production of 'Triffids'
Lucy (2014)
Off the wall brilliance
I was a little sceptical about watching this film as I had heard nothing good about it. Only the presence of Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman persuaded me to give it a chance. Am I glad I did. This was off the wall brilliance and one of the most original films I've seen. (Before anyone tells me there are others, I haven't seen them so can't comment) I loved the idea of Lucy being able to open her brain to encompass the world around her because of the drug seeping into her stomach. OK, the idea is preposterous and the set pieces a bit ludicrous but that didn't matter because this is science fiction and I was able to willingly suspend my disbelief, a little like Lucy suspended the bad guys in mid air. I loved the ending where she became one with the universe and met her namesake in the past. Scarlett Johansson is becoming well known for oddball films and I, for one, applaud her for it. This film will not please everyone, as is evident by some of the negative posts on here but it is a must have for my collection. Give it a try, you may be surprised.
Arrow (2012)
Spoiled by the soundtrack
I watched this show for the first time yesterday after catching the appearance of Oliver Queen in an episode of the Flash, which I like. The premise of Arrow is a lot darker than Flash, which I have no problem with but the whole experience for me was marred by the appalling sound. Whole conversations were lost because the music was louder than the dialogue. I don't know if this was a one off or if it is a trademark of the show but it put me off completely. Why do the people in control of these things think that loud music is necessary? If, like me, you have a hearing impediment, it can be hard enough picking out dialogue. When you factor in loud music it makes it almost impossible. My rating is based almost completely on that fact.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Poorly conceived sequel.
I was really looking forward to this movie when it first came out. The first Terminator was and remains an absolute classic. A sequel promised more of the same with cutting edge effects, it should have been awesome. Instead, what we got was a fuzzy, cuddly terminator sent back to protect a masculine Sarah Conner and her unbelievably bratty son from the T1000 which was the only thing worth watching in this huge disappointment. The special effects WERE brilliant, I still love the sequence when the T1000 comes up through the floor but everything else about this bloated mess was over the top. Instead of the cold killer from the first movie, Arnie is almost human; certainly more so than the miserable portrayal Linda Hamilton gave. It's easy to see where Lena Headey got her inspiration from for her awful portrayal of the character. Also, are we seriously expected to believe that the nauseating, thieving little toe-rag played so badly by Edward Furlong could possibly grow up to be the saviour of humanity? Add to that the cheesy dialogue and all the silly one liners, catchphrases and explosions and what you are left with is nothing more than a Disney style movie with Michael Bay delusions. I gave this movie four and that was for the special effects, otherwise I would have given it a 1. It's a pity IMDb don't allow us to vote turkey, because this film deserved one.
Conan the Barbarian (2011)
Better than the original
Being a great Conan fan (of the books) I have been waiting for a realistic depiction on film for years. Until recently all we had were the Arnie movies. To his credit, Arnie looked the part. Solid muscle and a physique which was the envy of most men. However his acting left a lot to be desired and the dialogue wasn't the most scintillating. Enter Jason Momoa in a film directed with enthusiasm by Marcus Nispel, narrated by the ever entertaining Morgan Freeman and starring the aforementioned Mr Mamoa whose muscles could do the acting for him but he doesn't let them. Playing the child warrior who sees his father (Ron Perlman) brutally murdered with himself forced to play an unwilling part, Conan grows to be the eponymous hero we know and love. The effects are great, the acting solid, the dialogue crisp and the love interest, involving Rachel Nichols, is understated and realistic. All in all, a great improvement on the original.