Reviews

Utter garbage. There is so much to say but I can't bare to waste anymore time on this rubbish. However, I felt it necessary to comment on Mark Ruffalo. After his awful attempt at a British accent in All The Light We Cannot See, I had hoped never to see (or hear) him attempt it again. Sadly at least two directors and numerous producers thought he could do it and so here he is again ruining every scene he's in. I used to like Ruffalo but I will be avoiding any film he's in now as this film has exposed his weakness as an actor. Stone is good, as is Dafoe, but the film is, for the most, part a string of nasty and tacky sex scenes.

This rubbish must have been improvised. There's no other accounting for such a dreadful script. The acting is just as bad - particularly the main character, Tomas. Does he have a speech impediment or is he acting like he has a speech impediment? Either way his mumbling is unbearable to listen to - and at times impossible to decipher. Finally, the directing. Also as bad as the script. At one point there is a long scene between the two main characters where the camera is facing the back of Tomas's head. For the entire scene. You can't see the other character at all. Just the back of Tomas's head the entire time the two of them are talking. I assume this has to be a directorial choice rather than a cinematography mistake, though why for the life of me I cannot imagine. There really needs to be an option to give no stars on IMBD.

Oh dear. I was so looking forward to this - even though I have not read the book. But what a disappointment. The problem, for the most part, is the clichéd script and some appalling casting. The Germans are fairly well cast. Well, for the most part they actually ARE German and sound authentic. Even Brit Ed Skrein is excellent as a German officer. But the French all being cast by Brits speaking in an English accent is a disaster. Even worse is the normally excellent Mark Ruffalo as Papa, an American playing a French man speaking in a (terrible) English accent. Did the makers even ask Jean Dujardin if he wanted to play Papa?? If the Brits/Americans had at least attempted a French accent it wouldn't have been so distracting. I'm giving it 4 stars mainly for the story and the the lead German actor. But I wish I'd read the book instead!

For those that have read (and loved) the book, you can relax; the film is very faithful to the book and the two leads have fantastic chemistry. All of the key scenes between the leads are in this adaption. However, a couple of subplots have been cut; most notably Alex's fling from high school does not appear and the entire subplot regarding the candidate running against the president is entirely cut. The latter is a good choice but the former I think leaves us lacking a little bit about Alex's backstory. They've created an ex of Alex's instead that's not in the book as the driving force behind the email scandal. I thought that actually worked well. The film is it at its best when the romance takes off. Unfortunately the first 15 minutes of the film, where they two leads are sparring, does not work as well. I think it's because they've tried to cram 100 or more pages of the book into a short space of time. The end also feels a little rushed, even anti climactic. But overall there are some terrific moments in the film and it was great to see so many pages from the book come to life in the film.

This is a load of religious mumbo jumbo. There are absolutely no surprises anywhere in this movie - not even at the end. After being bored for most of the film I at least hoped there would be a pay off worth waiting for but sadly not. The acting at least is good which goes some way to help pass the time but there is little - in fact nothing - else to save it. Oh it's fairly short I guess. That's something else in its favour. I did consider giving up after 30 mins but as it was short I decided to stick with it. I really wished I hadn't bothered as it's still 90 minutes I could have spent poking needles in my eyes instead.

A bit too dark for me. I thought Pattinson was actually ok though. Better than I expected. A bit too much brooding but I believed he was Bruce/The Batman. Sadly I didn't like much of anyone else. Paul Dano was trying way too hard and to have him locked in a cell for the last 30 minutes was anti climactic. Oh, and as for 30 minutes? Well, it was 30 minutes too long. Far too many slow (and brooding) scenes stunted the action and consequently I found myself occasionally switching off. I certainly wasn't enthralled. That said, the score, which switched between the Darth Vader theme tune and a Bond movie romantic moments, was both fascinating and distracting at the same time...

This was great re imagining of the Pinocchio stories, incorporating much from the original text whilst updating the story to 1930's Germany as the Nazi movement started to emerge.

The voice over work is tremendous, particularly that of the actors playing Pinocchio and Giuseppe. Ewan McGregor is just Ewan McGregor unfortunately. I didn't get a sense of character (Cricket) whatsoever.

There are many great visuals and some funny moments but unfortunately the songs are out of place. Not only are they just plain bad, they jar as the film is dark and more likely to appeal to an older audience but the songs are juvenile and aimed at a much younger audience. That said, I did like the gag of Cricket (Ewan) several times trying to start a song but getting cut off. He finally gets his moment in the credits. All told, definitely worth a watch.

I would love to have rated this higher but Harry Styles almost ruined it. I loved the book and this was a pretty faithful adaption. Some parts were exactly as written in the book. However, there was no back story to how Tom and Marion 1st met and the character of Toms sister and brutish husband are virtually cut. But at nearly two hours the film is long enough. The acting, bar Styles, is tremendous. I feel bad that there are so many talented young actors in this country who could have done the role of Tom justice. Sadly the producers decided to go with a famous name and someone who - granted - looked the part. Unfortunately this resulted in a lack of chemistry between the main characters and some terribly stilted and wooded sounding dialogue. Shame. This could have been a great film.

The 1st 30 minutes of this movie is almost unbearable. I'm not a fan of voice overs at the best of times but this was overkill beyond belief. Just when I was thinking I can't stand having every scene described to me in detail like I'm a complete imbecile, the voice over narrative backed off a bit and allowed the story to tell itself. Apparently the Novelist adapted her own book. Big mistake. She's clearly just lifted chunks from her Novel and used as voice over to set the scene rather than use dialogue. As I say, once the story got going and the writer didn't feel so compelled to have a voice over explain everything, the story became quite compelling. It's a pity someone didn't step in and re write at least the 1st half of the film. Could have been so much better. If you can get past the 1st 30 mins, it's worth a watch.

I'm only halfway through but this is actually a chore to watch. But I've started, so I'll finish...... You can tell that Neil Patrick Harris started - or at least became famous - in a sit com. He is acing in this like he is expecting canned laughter after every sentence. It's painful. All the gay characters are cliches. The only saving grace is Marcia Gay Harden. Her character is also a cliche but her acting lifts it to something more believable.

The 1st 15 minutes was ok but then it turned into a watered down Handmaids Tale which got progressively ludicrous with every minute. Was tempted to fast forward to the predictable ending but stuck with it. Wish I hadn't. The last 5 minutes - where this time the movie tried to turn into Argo - were utterly preposterous.

A truly horrible film with no heart and no laughs. There are not enough English of French words to adequately describe how terrible this film is. Give it a very fast French exit!

Started well but I figured out what the twist was going to be about half way through so just wanted it to hurry along after that. Acting and production were good. If you don't work out what's going on too early then you'll enjoy it more. But honestly, I don't know how you could not see the twist coming. Maybe I've seen too many films.

I don't get the high rating. Maybe I'm too old! There's nothing original about this whatsoever. It was reasonably watchable, despite some truly dreadful acting by the supporting cast. Saved by the actor playing Nick.

This is possibly the worst thing I've seen on tv without giving up half way. There are absolutely no redeeming features to this. The plot is ludicrous, the script might have been written by teenagers and (perhaps because of this) the acting from all concerned is atrocious. Tuppence, Martin & Rupert, people I've loved in other things, were embarrassingly bad. How this ever got made is the real mystery here.

When 007 is played by another character for three quarters of the movie it is no longer a Bond movie.

The section before the credits was the best part. From there it is mostly downhill apart from the sparkle Ana de Armas brings to the film for 15 minute about half way through Otherwise it's overly long and short on action sequences. The ending - apart from being ludicrous - is without any tension. Malek is dreadful as the "villain" but then he is given so little screen time - especially for such a long film. Finally I'm afraid Craig just looked too old. I've liked him as Bond but it was one film too many for him.

Bad acting from Marshall Green, Hall and in particular Kitsch ruin this. Maybe it's the script which was cliched and clunky. That certainly didn't help. It's a bit like 7even meets Colditz meets Marathon man. The international cast are good and save this to some extent.

Nothing new here. A sort of Hannibal but without the annoying music. And sadly without the great acting the Hannibal cast gave. Or CSI meets Silence of the lambs - but poorly scripted and badly acted. I managed 2 and a half episodes. Congratulations if you got further.

There is no way this got a genuine rating in the 6's. Probably the worse thing I've seen on Netflix. To be fair I only lasted 20 mins. It's a cross between a Fifty Shades and a soft version of Porn Hub. Unless you want to watch semi naked people having sex without actually downloading porn, avoid at all costs.

The problem with Halston is that almost every character is unlikeable - in particular Halston himself. Was he really that nasty and bitter all the time? I guess when someone's life is condensed into 5 hours it's going to focus on all the dramas and fights. But the result here is that you are left feeling that Halston spent his entire adult life miserable and fighting with someone or other. The only time he is portrayed as being remotely happy in the 1st four and a half hours is when he is with Liza. On that note, when a show portrays Liza M as the most sane person in the room you know you're in trouble!

This is a case of style over substance. Not that the source material isn't packed with substance, it just wasn't all tapped into in the movie. I get that this is a very complex book to turn into a movie; in the book very little is happening for much of the time. But with each chapter it gets more and more intriguing. Here, they've cut several important aspect of the book to speed things along but sadly lost much of the intrigue along the way. Consequently characters are underdeveloped and Anna's agoraphobia not explored enough. One final thing; Gary Oldman. What the actual?? I've never particularly liked him but he is atrocious in this. His performance is pure caricature and utterly laughable. Ruined every scene he was in. Fortunately he wasn't in many! If you haven't read the book give it a go. If you have you will be disappointed.

1st 30 mins are a steady 3 as it's a little slow and some of the dialogue is stilted. But the middle 30 mins gets quite interesting and becomes a steady 7. Where is this going to go you wonder? Unfortunately it goes nowhere and the last 30 mins is a ludicrous - and somewhat pointless - steady 1. So at best this is a 2. In summary; Slow to interesting to ludicrous in 90 mins.