Reviews

I have revisited this after many years, remembering kind of liking it but kind of not, and I can see why.

Muriel (Toni Collette) is a social outcast - bullied, unpopular, overweight, poor dress sense, unemployed, and desperate to get married as a means of escape. To her, marriage, or more specifically, the wedding, is the be all and end all. Muriel has low self esteem, not helped by an overbearing, cruel father and depressed mother. Muriel is also a compulsive liar.

It's easy to sympathise with Muriel to a point. Her mother has enabled the learned helplessness in all the kids, her father has bullied them all, and her failures have been publicly highlighted and mocked by him, along with her hapless siblings, all equally disappointing to him. He is a corrupt, self congratulating and slimy politician, carrying out a blatant affair right in front of them all.

But Muriel makes the worst possible choices, over and over again, to try to solve her problems. Instead of sticking at any job, she quits. Instead of walking away from her bullying non-friends who have viciously cast her out, she follows them to an island holiday, stealing her parent's life savings to do it, and taking advantage of her mentally ill mother's vulnerability and naïveté by encouraging her to write her blank cheques. She dumps her one and only friend after she's confined to a wheelchair to enter into a Green Card marriage with a South African swimmer for money (but more for the wedding). She heartbreakingly snubs her mother at that wedding. She lies all the time.

It's hard to like Muriel. Muriel is a selfish self centred and unsympathetic character, whose lies just trip off her tongue to everyone she meets. Even when her mother commits suicide, after a series of events not unconnected to Muriel's own actions, she cries not for her mother, but for herself.

When her father is left picking up the pieces (and to be fair he does deserve a fair amount of comeuppance), she leaves them all to it and rides off into the sunset with her friend, who bafflingly forgives her despite no apology.

So yes, I can see why it stuck in my craw all those years ago. There are some wonderful moments - the Waterloo routine with the cat fight in the background, and the wonderful bean bag date scene. However, the darkness around Muriel as heroine is hard to overlook and even by the end she hasn't fully redeemed herself in my eyes.

Having just got to the end of season 4, which was a painfully drawn out dull experience, I felt compelled to review.

As most agree, Season 1 and mostly 2 had real originality and premise. It all went hideously wrong in Season 3 to the point that by Season 4 I had forgotten much of what happened in 3, which was a blessed relief. I know it lost my interest, and descended into farce.

But Season 4...wow. It's as if the writers are trying to milk every last drop of believability out of the plot. It's a total insult to the viewer.

It starts off kind of intriguing, with kids getting dramatically killed in gruesome circumstances, and Max being targeted. The famous Kate Bush scene was good. It then goes wildly off.

So Hopper is trapped in a Russian prison kept alive for absolutely no good reason. Tortured, kept on a chain gang. None of it makes a shred of sense. He breaks his own ankles to escape after somehow managing to get a coded message to Joyce to come and find him with ransom money which she miraculously does and makes it to the remote prison despite being drugged, captured, etc in the most ridiculous set of circumstances. Every last one of these people would be dead. It just wouldn't get to where it did. And Hopper just runs on those broken ankles like a superhero.

The kids are split into two really annoying teams who take an age to get anywhere or do anything. No one has any sense of urgency when it matters. While Max is trying to lure Vecna into her mind, Steve, Robyn and Nancy walk painfully slowly into the house to try to kill him, despite knowing every second Max is open to this monster he can kill her, not to mention Dustin and Eddie are in peril keeping bats at bay. Eddie dies (of course - some lesser character has to) because everyone just takes too long over everything. Why did Eddie decide to cut that escape rope? I get that he was buying time (not that any of the other team members seemed to use it), but why get rid of his escape?

Max feeling guilty over letting Billy die? He was a monster and only just did the right thing at the last minute to save the kids in the mall. There was literally nothing Max could have done to save him at that moment or any other. Trying to make this her personal "demon" for Vecna to latch onto was nonsense.

Eleven seems more focused on looking angry for long periods, looking upset for long periods, crying and being useless, than actually doing anything useful. Long meaningless shots of her face looking...intense. She cries. A lot. Her powers going and coming back through a long pointless memory dive exercise makes no sense other than to tell the audience about Henry.

Will is consistently pathetic and cries all the time. That's his whole persona here. He's not grown since season 1. He's scared, anxious, unable to communicate, and serves no purpose whatsoever other than to tell the others how important they are.

The writers seems to have also forgotten some important points from earlier seasons. The upside down was always meant to be toxic and the longer you are exposed to it the worse it is for you. Remember Barb? But here the characters can go in and out of it freely for long periods with no consequences to their health.

The villain Vecna appears to have no purpose at all. No vision other than to be evil and kill. There's no light and dark in his character (despite his sympathetic start as 001) and there appears no redemption arc possible. He's just plain bad now, but using teens insecurities to create gates to the world is ridiculous.

Drawing out scenes into impossibly long arduous slogs seems to be the running theme here. When Eleven is tied to to wall, Vecna is about to kill Max, and Mike is telling Eleven he loves her to make her fight harder, that whole speech is going on after Vecna has already started to do his mind thing on Max. All the other victims are done in seconds but because Max is a main character it has to take that much longer to allow Eleven to break free. It's just cliched and insulting.

Teen romances have to be crowbarred into the plot in places where not even the most hormonal rampant teens would be thinking about stuff like that. We're trying to save the world and about to die gruesomely? Oh but why haven't you paid enough attention to me when I like you?

And how did they all get back from Russia/Upside down? Those minor details just weren't worth explaining even though both scenarios were actually perilously difficult (dodgy helicopter, bats, etc). No, they just made it out fine, don't even ask.

What started as a fun concept with some great pop culture references has ended up as pure nonsense with no regard for the viewer. I had it on on the background by the last interminable episode because I was that bored. I shan't be bothering with any further instalments.

I loved the first Sing, having put off watching it for a long time as I didn't think it looked like my thing. I was so pleasantly surprised by how touching and well done it was, I was looking forward to this.

This just surpassed the first. The Moon Theatre Crew are back, minus Mike the mouse (eaten by bears? Realised he was an unsavoury bully whose character didn't have any redemption in the first movie? Who knows..?).

This time they're in a Vegas-like big city, putting on the show of a lifetime they're literally making up as they go along, and it's glorious. Once again Moon is blagging his way into business and figuring out the details later.

As with the first, the soundtrack is brilliant, the colours vibrant, the set pieces exhilarating, and there are plenty of belly laughs.

Highlights were Johnny's song/dance and of course Bono as Clay Calloway, a rock legend turned recluse overcoming his depression following the loss of his wife and stepping into the spotlight once more. Something about the unabashed joy of the sequences, which never tried too hard to pull on the heart strings by turning saccharine, managed to bring a lump to my throat on many occasion.

Meena the shy elephant finds her voice in a big way (and love too), Ash (Scarlet Johansson) is once more a revelation, and Rosita is as loveable as ever. All the gang have grown but never veered from their earlier characters. Without Mike, there is no one to dislike among them, and the big boss villain (a wolf, naturally) played by the wonderful Bobby Canavale, is pure mafia.

It was all rather life affirming somehow. In a Covid world where we all been a bit Clay Calloway over the last 2 years, this is quite the feel good movie we all need to bring us back out into the world.

Go and see it. Enjoy the songs, the dancing, the fun of it. It really is rather wonderful.

I watched this with no prior knowledge of the plot. I had heard rumours but not enough, so each cameo was a genuine surprise for me. Even with that element, I was left dejected.

Why? Well, first of all it made no sense. It seemed a ridiculously contrived way of bringing back old villains and actors just for the nostalgia and fan nods without any real premise. It makes no sense that the all powerful all knowing Dr Strange would risk the stability of the universe to get a few kids into college. He knows far too much about actions and consequences to fall into that trap.

And Peter's ridiculous idea to save the villains he doesn't know, who belong in another universe, and who have done despicable things to his own alter egos, using what...some science stuff that just happens to be in Happy's apartment? We never know quite how he builds these "cures", we just get blinded by movie science talk enough to understand that it's "science". Just like Peter trapping Dr Strange in the Mirror Dimension by using "math". It's like those old 80s movies where a computer whiz taps random things into a computer and it can do amazing things! How? We don't know, just shut up and eat your popcorn!

The dialogue fell oddly flat too. I'm a Marvel fan and I enjoy the witty banter, one liners and emotional moments but this fell way short for me. The jokes weren't funny. The interplay between characters felt written by a kid trying to emulate Marvel wit. I just didn't feel it. The 3 Peters answering to Ned calling their name was just rubbish. It simply wasn't funny.

And the sentimentality felt forced and false. They all cried so many times. Soaring music over the top. Tears and hugs and therapy. It descended into pathetic, and I didn't want to see good characters being pathetic. I get the angst and pain in previous movies but this was pointless and Peter literally destroyed everything including his last remaining family member over nothing. At least the other Peters' regrets were real. This was borne out of pure nonsensical decision making. He wanted to kill The Green Goblin. Why? He was only there because of Peter making ridiculous choices and Aunt May only died because she was as stupid and misguided as Peter. He was just doing what villains do given half a chance - a chance Peter gave him for no logical reason.

The fact he saved them in the end was irrelevant and actually did a massive disservice to the previous movies. It devalues what those other Peters did and went through. You may as well cure them too by stopping them getting bitten by spiders in the first place if you're going to be that kind hearted and change history.

Would those villains really want to go back to their universe a changed person anyway? They were flawed, broken and destroyed everything they loved. Now they get to go back all "fixed"...to what? A broken destroyed world they ruined to no doubt face justice for it. Great, thanks Peter! I think their glorious deaths would have been better. Or are the other Spidermen supposed to smooth it all over when they return?

And last but not least, the whole "forget everyone knows who Spider-Man is" thing is just crazy. As if Dr Strange hasn't learned enough from trying to do it the first time. Why forget Peter Parker completely? Why not just forget that Peter Parker is Spider-Man so he keeps his friends etc? So there was Happy at Aunt May's grave not knowing this was her nephew? That makes no sense at all. What happened at the Statue of Liberty then? What did MJ and Ned remember?

I came out of the theatre disappointed. It wasn't like MJ said. I actually expected not to be disappointed, which made it worse.

I was looking forward to seeing Loki again after Endgame but what I got was not Loki. There were so many issues with this, I'll list what springs to mind;

1. Whilst Tom Hiddleston was great as ever, this version of Loki was odd. His powers were mostly gone. He was nowhere near as clever as he normally is, being several steps behind instead of ahead as you'd expect. Instead of manipulating he is manipulated. It's all wrong. He cries!

2. Female Loki has no wit, charm, charisma or draw. I see no reason why Loki would be attracted.

3. The TVA is filled with humans only. In a vast universe (multiverse!) there should have been all manner of species there. Same goes for the void where pruned variants go. Why were there not more escaped variants if this is where all variants get sent?

4. The One who Remains just happens to be human. And American to boot.

5. The idea that he oversees everything that ever is, was and will be is just ridiculous and a daft stretch.

6. The whole premise devalues the other Marvel movies which is disappointing. Makes all those heroes mere pawns in a game.

7. Why did Richard E Grant have to wear the most ridiculous cheap costume ever? Was it meant to be funny?

8. Why only variants of Lokis?

9. Why was an entire ship pruned?

I could go on. The pace was odd, slow at times then way too fast at others. So many unanswered questions. Shame. I don't think I'll bother with season 2. Loki was a snivelling wreck by the end of 1. He would need to seriously get his act together for me to bother.

I hated this first time around but rewatched recently to see if my opinion had changed.

I love Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. I'm a huge fan of Pretty Woman and Four Weddings - 2 of my favourite films. Putting them together like this fell short.

Aside from the ridiculous fairy tale plot of them meeting in the first place, the chemistry between them just wasn't there. Ever.

The only reason for William to even care about Anna was her beauty and being star struck. He knew who she was but there was no indication he was an admirer of her or her work previously. She was rude, closed and standoffish from the start. She seems to revel in his awkwardness whilst shutting him down with one word answers. Then leaving his flat culminates in an inexplicable kiss.

She then proceeds to lead him on and dump him when already in a relationship, sleep with him then treat him appallingly. Throughout she's either rude, monosyllabic or openly hostile.

The only time she shows any emotion is when she's wallowing in self pity over media stories about her - she's totally self obsessed. Yet she states later that "fame isn't real" when she's apparently "just a girl"...oh really? That's not what she was saying when she was regretting the whole affair with him because of her image.

I see no reason for her to love him either. He's wet, unsuccessful, they have nothing in common, there are no real moments of connection on any level. So again, it boils down to looks. Are they both that shallow? She could have anyone she wanted. What made him different? If there was something, the film makers forgot to share that with the audience.

When he turns her down due to having his heart broken too often (and reasonable fear she'd do it again) it was actually the only part of the film that made any sense. I cheered for him then for finally not being such a drip. Sadly he reneges and they get together, so he can live in her shadow forever more and not need to worry about that failing bookshop business.

His friends advised him badly. I guess being famous and beautiful excuse all bad behaviour.

I have been revisiting the Paranormal Activity franchise lately and they are still as scary, years later. At least, 1, 2 and 3 are. This...less so. 1 and 3 still stand out as the best, with 2 a little weak, but at least this follows on from the events of 2, and gives a good opportunity to find out what happened next. After all, there would have been a huge manhunt all over the US for Katie and Hunter once that footage was viewed after all the murders - police would have known she killed Micah, then her sister and brother in law, and kidnapped her baby nephew Hunter.

Yet somehow here they are, 5 years later, she undisguised in any way, and living a normal surburban life with an adopted son. An adopted son who turns out not to be Hunter but another boy the same age, "Robbie". Hunter appears to have been adopted by the family across the street. How, we don't know. Who Robbie is, we never find out.

So, setting all that aside, the premise is ok. 15 year old Alex is creeped out by the kid Robbie across the street and starts hearing noises. She enlists the help of her boyfriend Ben, and they start recording using laptops. Things start happening on camera, creepy kid gets creepier. Parents don't listen. All standard.

Yet as the incidents escalate, and things get creepier, somehow the recorded footage is forgotten about. Alex and Ben don't seem to ever watch it. Alex is levitated from her bed, Wyatt is dragged into the bath, chairs move, a bike wheels itself, a knife flies around. None of this is watched. They were all over the slight shadows here and there, but once something really indisputable happens, they stop checking.

It serves to irritate, as does the incessant refusal of parents to listen either to their kids, or each other. No one is that closed, especially given the real distress of family members. Alex is terrified yet dismissed as crazy. Her own mother gives her sleeping tablets rather than investigate why she's up all night. When the parents are killed it's a relief to be honest.

It relies on jump scares but totally fails to explain or develop any of the plot. Why is Katie still possessed? Who is a Robbie? How did Hunter become Wyatt and up in another family? Who are the coven? What about the virgin sacrifice? Was it made in the form of Alex? It all ends without a shred of explanation. Who is the demon and what does he want?

Lazy story telling, and missed opportunities.