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Reviews
True Blood (2008)
Thumbs up from me!
I am a latecomer to this show but I have just finished watching the first series.... and loved it! I had never heard of the author before now but I must read those books - clearly they came before the Twilight series & provided Stephanie Meyer with some inspiration. It seems that the accents are a real sore spot with a lot of reviewers & the fact that they are taking stereotypes to the hilt - but that's part of its comedy value. I sat down with a very open mind, but maybe because I knew zero about it or the books helped me form the opinion I have...the start definitely goes on a bit so it needs a couple or three episodes to get properly into it, I found. And some of the characters are just great! Vampire Bill does not have the smouldering good looks of Edward Cullen and sadly, he bores me but I do like the way he says 'Sookie'(sounds more like 'Sucky'!). Lafayette makes it for me, completely effeminate on one turn & hard as nails on the other, when he needs to be. Jason Stackhouse, the hapless dimwit driven purely by his hormones & with quite some body on him, just cracks me up - *so* stereotypical but I'm sure it's completely tongue in cheek & not meant to offend. I don't know that actor but I think he is brilliant! And if there is a 'sexy' vampire, it would have to be Eric - he has quite a presence. I recommend to watch with an open mind - it's a Twilight on Viagra yes, but does not pretend to take itself so seriously. 'Light Entertainment' - definitely & enjoyably so.
Worried About the Boy (2010)
'One dimensional but great drag'
The above quote from George about what the result is 'when straight men write about poofs'... true! It is camped up to the nines which was a bit unnecessary I thought. Douglas Booth is very pretty - great lips - and I thought he did well for a 17 year old & with a questionable script. The Marilyn portrayal was a bit dodgy, nowhere near similar in looks & far too nicey nicey but the Malcolm McClaren was very believable. Soundtrack great - make-up great. I definitely think they should have gone the whole hog & made the programme longer - the ending was just an odd place to stop, covering nothing of Culture Club's reign... a vision of a smacked up George circa '86 with little insight as to why; the antics on their world tours were worthy of inclusion if you ask me. Great just to stick on for a bit of background telly but do read 'Take it like a Man' if you haven't already.
The Fourth Kind (2009)
Watchable
I have never been abducted myself, but there are enough case studies out there to warrant there being a little bit of truth in the fact that some people have. I'm not overly keen on the whole clichéd 'nasty metal probe that makes a nasty noise' thing though, I think that was exhausted by the X Files & I also happen to think that the E.T's technology would be slightly better. At first the real footage seems a little believable but becomes ever more outrageous - however I did, like most probably, jump a bit during the Exorcist-style levitating scene! I don't much like weird voices (or eyes) in films.... And if the 'real' footage cutting in isn't enough to convince, we have the dialogue of a 'real' interview with the not-real Dr. Tyler alongside (actually overlapping at some points which was rather annoying). She looks like a classic case of fruit cake so that dented her credibility from the off, sadly. Added to that, none of the actors gave much of a stand up performance.... So it was watchable but could have been better; I thought it was a good touch to throw in the bit about owls but there were too many annoying bits overall.
Little Ashes (2008)
Big Turkey
I can't help but be slightly worried about anyone that professes this to be the Best Movie Ever, it was really quite bad! I've marked it 2/10 purely for Beltran's performance but the rest... well, the accents made me wince & the acting was really quite wooden and awkward for the most part. As good an actor as Pattinson is, this was a disastrous bit of casting - I thought he actually looked a bit embarrassed at times.... I do believe this would have been a lot better if the whole cast & dialogue was Spanish with some subtitles for us; the story itself is an interesting one and it would have been much more believable - and much less distracting - if that were the case.
How to Be (2008)
How To Be Quite Dull
Oh dear! I'm all for Brit films and a good dose of Brit humour, me being British & all, but this film was pretty dire. I really wanted to like it as I think Rob Pattinson is quite a talented chap but it was a bit of a non-starter for me. I agree with a couple of reviewers here - many people are so hung up on Pattinson that they would award 10 stars for any project he did. I think he did as best he could with the character but it really wasn't too much of a test of his acting abilities; I expect he found it much more challenging to be forced to wear those hideous, polyester trousers throughout the whole of the shoot. He did quite well at acting like a freakish loser but Johnny White takes the prize for doing it the best!