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Reviews
Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver (2024)
Magnificent 7 badly remade with lasers
I like Snyder sometimes...I thought 300 and Watchmen were excellent.
His output since has been very mixed. Not just in the overall finished films but scenes within films.
And the two Rebel Moon films are exactly this.
Some scenes are superb, exciting, spectacular and great to watch. Others are screamingly awful, badly shot, rotten dialogue and characters doing plain stupid things. And Snyders usual slo-motion shots are so overused that it just becomes annoying.
There are so many inconsistencies in Rebel Moon that it so often just becomes completely jarring.
For example have Space ships with powerful weapons, but those weapons are seemingly targeted (very slowly of course) by turning a pulley wheel and looking through a visor....no laser guidance or even fast motor-drives on these space ships. Oh no.
The characters are attempted to be given backgrounds and depth but they all still appear as cardboard cutouts and real stars are the special effects which as superb & spectacular of course.
It really is just The Magnificent 7 with space ships and lasers but is less involving, more shallow and just left me empty after watching it.
Shame.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Subspace Rhapsody (2023)
Well.....surprisingly very enjoyable
Of course when I heard about this episode my heart sank to the depths. I cringed and expected to cringe far more when watching it through my fingers.
However seeing the cast take it all so seriously and in their stride stopped me dead and could not help but thoroughly enjoy it. The songs are not rotten, very fun and the cast can certainly carry a tune. Especially Christina Chong who was fabulous when belting out a heartfelt tune (I could be biased as I am a little bit in love with her - don't tell the Mrs).
So, on the whole I dreaded - nay feared - watching this episode but ended up enjoying it immensley. As long as they don't make a habit out of it I am all for trying something this off-the-wall and as long as the cast go with it and it is produced as well as this.
Go on - treat yourself. Give it a watch and I'll bet you find yourself smiling in minutes.
The Witcher: Shaerrawedd (2023)
Not good enough
This is a series that had/has so much potential...in story arc, situation, characters, relationships, monsters.. everything.
And yet it seems to fail at every step.
The characters are so dull that nobody cares if they live or die, the story is stupidly vague as to be non-existent and it is cut between scene to scene with almost no connections between each one and it just stops any momentum in the story telling.
It looks so good and so expensive that it is just tragic that it can be so poor.
I feel sorry for all involved, especially the actors who give everything they can with so little to work with.
They deserve so much better.
I think this series needs a huge overhaul and new people in control of the whole thing because the people doing it now are simply not up to the job.
Another Netflix show that has so much potential and money chucked at it and yet just fails to hit any targets that should be really easy to do.
Sort it out or just stop making it. It is embarrassingly poor for all concerned.
Anna (2019)
WAY too many silly errors
Anna is by Luc Besson, who has made a few good film, namely Leon, The Fifth Element and Lucy.
However this is a mess.
I was immediately turned off in the opening sequence where a man, in Moscow, in 1985 was using a mobile phone not manufactured 'till 15 years later.
Then Anna, an ex drug addict living in poverty with a scumbag boyfriend on a laptop... again from many years later and would have cost a LOT of money...and she's using it wirelessly!!
Come on. These dreadful mistakes cannot be overlooked and I can only think that Besson didn't care too much or had such disdain for his audience that he didn't care.
The story is ok - been done to death a hundred times - but the flicking back & forth in time to reveal another twist just became frankly irritating.
And all the minor characters were far better, more interesting and better acted than the main players. Helen Mitten was great as always...but it was hardly a stretch for her. Same for Cillian Murphy who just had nothing to work with.
As for the relationship with Luke Evans character....what was the point.
This film is just dumb.
Assassination Nation (2018)
A deeply unpleasant film
Whilst decently acted and photographed I found the story to be more than a little daft and totally unbelievable in every way.
Literally every single character in the film is unpleasant in their own way and to different degrees. Even our 'heroines' are narcissistic and annoying.
I degenerated into some nonsensical gore-fest that is so rediculous that it defines any logic.
I think it is trying to make a point ....or lots of points...but they all get lost in the mayhem.
In the end I didn't give a damn about any of them and it left a bitter & unpleasant taste after watching it. Which I will never do again.
I do not recommend at all.
Mare of Easttown: Illusions (2021)
Stunner of an episode
Brilliant episode in every way. Superb. Acting, story dialogue and a shock that really got me.
Brilliant.
Mare of Easttown: Fathers (2021)
Much better episode 2
No spoilers here. But the plot thickens, the characters get far more rounde
d, the pacing far swifter and consequently the viewer is more engaged & entertained.
A very good episode all round, well directed, written and acted. Winslet is very believable .
Mare of Easttown (2021)
Not sure yet. Too slow, too miserable
We the good things are that it is well acted, well shot and has decent dialogue.
I know it is the opening episode but we have been through so many dreadful characters and their multiple problems and almost clichéd poor lives. Almost nobody has a good or happy life.
I will stick with it and expect it to get more intriguing but so far it has been a bit of a misery-fest.
Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
Rubbish but brilliant
Well you don't go to watch a film like this thinking it is going to be Citizen Kane or The Godfather.
It is exactly what I expected. Loud, stupid and great fun.
The fight scenes between monsters are impressive, fun , violent and and totally OTT...and all the better for it.
The humans are dumb, useless, speak dialogue that nobody ever says and get into implausible scenes too ridiculous to bother questioning.
Just go with it. Switch off your brain and enjoy it for what it is and don't expect more than you should.
I enjoyed it immensely.
The Irregulars (2021)
Oh it's just not good.
I've tried. I really wanted to like it but the characters just didn't come across as real or remotely believable.
The dialogue is forced, people just don't speak like this.
The story gets lost somewhere in the middle of implausible scenes and of course the bursts of contemporary music when there has been a more classical score just jars you out of any attempt to be immersed in it.
I know it is fantasy and based on the graphics novel but it just feels rushed, like it hasn't been thought through properly but given a big budget to play with.
It's a shame as it could & should be much better.
SAS: Red Notice (2021)
More like SOS for the viewers
I'm half way through this right now. My wife wants to carry on watching it until the end but I just can't.
It's awful. Terrible characters that just don't ring true in any way, rotten dialogue that just no-one would speak and a story that could have been ok in different hands but the rubbish direction makes it look like a 70's TV show like The Professionals or Avengers.
It just really isn't good at all.
The Omen (2006)
Ok remake...just pointless
It's a ok re-do of the original. The cast, the direction, photography are all fine.
I don't think the cast have the gravitas of the original and there is little to distinguish it from it either.
It just seems ultimately pointless.
Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020)
More annoying that entertaining.
I'll keep this short because this film has dappled all my energy.
This is a frantic mess of a film. The story is ludicrous and small and just involving. Most of the many characters are thoroughly annoying - and I include Robbie as Quinn whose face pulling just irritates - and the result of that is that you don't really care what happens to any of them.
The fight sequences are silly and poorly stages. I think they are supposed to amuse but the stupidity of having one crazy unarmed woman fight off several large men with guns is just stupid. The slow-mo sections don't help.
I had been told that this was much better than Suicide Squad and as that is THE worst film ever made I presumed it would be.
But it's just garish, dumb, frantic and I couldn't wait for it to end.
The Conversation (1974)
An intellectual film of its time
A great film but definitely of its time.
It has dated, it is slow and often unexciting but has great performances.
John Cazale . How I mourn him.
Outside the Wire (2021)
Not good time waster
The short version...
Too long.
Predictable.
Boring.
Too many simple factual errors - in geography and how armies work.
Dialogue banal.
Silly explanation of why build robot looking and acting human... complete with mustache.
Action sequences competent.
Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (2018)
Advertless in the UK
Having read the reviews below I'm glad I'm watching this on Sky Arts in the UK.
There are no adverts - I can't imagine how badly this would be with commercials every five minutes. It would destroy the flow and all emotion.
There are comments below also about the sound mix and I can only think this was fixed also as the version I'm watching is decent.
All on all it's a great production, well cast and presented. I think that the ensemble are particularly good.
It can't be compared to the 1970s movie (which is excellent in its own right) as it is a filming of the stage but I find it impressive.
Star Trek: Discovery: Terra Firma, Part 2 (2020)
Just not good
This is such a shame.
It has obviously had a lot of money spent on it, it can look great and the actors can be good.
Unfortunately they are given dreadful lines to speak and the direction and even the way shots and situations are set up is awful. Really amateurish.
And the overall story and structure of individual episodes is just bad - obviously written and overseen by committee rather than anyone with a vision.
It is simply expensive, good looking rubbish.
The Mandalorian: Chapter 14: The Tragedy (2020)
A solid 10
Action packed & heart rending.
I cannot wait to get this resolved. It is breaking my heart.
Star Trek: Discovery: Unification III (2020)
Whisper it....not Star Trek
I have probably watched every episode & film of every Star Trek series made and have say that this iteration of the Star Trek canon is the worst.
It just isn't Star Trek. It's a one person show with weak stories that make no sense in the scheme of things and continuously has dialogue that no-one would say.
And when they say it it has to be in a whisper, preferably with a few years to boot.
This episode is a classic of it. The story is small and has little sense, it surrounds Michael Burnham almost exclusively, the sets and shots are poorly designed, the dialogue just horrible to listen to and about 50 percent of it is in whispers. And my goodness how many years were shed?
I feel for the actors who are all good but they are in a constant struggle with the poor direction and dialogue.
This whole episode should be just a 5 minute side piece in a much better episode that goes somewhere and has far more of the Discovery crew in it.
Talking of the other crew. It has been said before by others that they have do little screen time and lines that it is hard to care for them and after 3 series you still aren't even sure of their names.
That says it all. The whole idea is just badly managed by those in charge and it is a great shame as it can look great, obviously costs a lot and gas so much potential.
And cut the woke stuff too. It is just being crammed in with no real thought which is worse than it not being there at all.