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Reviews
The Fear Index (2022)
A great story ruined
My recommendation: skip this, read the book. If you want to watch a decent Robert Harris adaptation, try "Munich: Edge of War" on Netflix instead.
Ham-fisted direction, limp dialogue, wooden acting, over the top sound track all conspire to ruin what could have been a great thriller.
Having the lead run around pointlessly, full of angst, accompanied by loud thumping music is not a substitute for dramatic tension.
For All Mankind: Rupture (2019)
Descent into the abyss of third-rate soap
Fantastic series marred by a storyline that lays on the maudlin misery thick and fast, and then lays on more of the same. You could distil this one down to five minutes for the key points that move the plot along. A real let-down.
Tenet (2020)
Don't think about it too much
Lively, well produced, with fun action sequences that mostly don't go on too long. At first glance it seems quite clever but really it just works by moving along so fast you don't have time to dwell on the gaping plot holes and inconsistencies.
Devs (2020)
Interesting, but fatally flawed
Good points: good use of real science in generating the scenario, particularly relating to the foundations of quantum mechanics. Also more philosophical areas - free will, determinism, simulation. Story-wise there are points of real tension and drama, and some nice surprises.
Bad points: some of the acting is wooden, some of the dialogue leaden, and the direction overerought - at times too much noise and action that just dilutes the real drama. Sound is particularly badly used, though that does settle down in the later episodes.
The fatal flaw though is in the denouement. Having set us up with plenty of interesting ideas and fairly rigorous adherence to the scientific underpinnings, the story ends with a facile twist that makes no sense at all.
In the Shadow of the Moon (2019)
How many time travel movies have a plot that makes sense?
The answer is very few. This isn't one.
The opening third is overwrought, hammy, cliched. It does pick up from there, better paced and a little bit of character development going on.
But, as so often in the genre, the hollywood desire for a snappy ending overrides all else. It just does not make sense. Particularly ironic seeing as there's a dialogue seen near the end that explains exactly why it doesn't make sense.
It (2017)
Not a horror, not a thriller
Should we have low expectations of child actors because they are children? In this case, if you have low expectations, they may be met. Personally I don't believe we should lower our expectations and there have been plenty of superb child performances to underline this. On the other hand, they are children, you may want to make allowances . What excuses do the director and screenwriter have?
The plot is aimless, dialogue trite. Decisions made by the characters implausible in the extreme, actions taken by the antagonist have no logic even within the context of the story. The effects are ok, and there are one or two neat little jumps but in general the whole thing lacks any real tension because of those fundamental flaws.
The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018)
Fails on the most important criterion
Lots of action, pace, lively characters, well done settings. As a comedy it fails dismally because it isn't actually funny. Not funny at all, at any point. Well, I nearly smirked at one point.
Don't go and see it, you'll only encourage them.
Bodyguard (2018)
Utterly ludicrous
The whole thing starts off slightly silly, melodramatic, ham acting, cringeworthy dialogue, and goes downhill from there. Unfortunately there was just enough intrigue and pace to keep me watching until the middle of the last episode, at which point I couldn't watch any more, I no longer cared how it ended because it was just so, so, so utterly ridiculous