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james-seaford
Reviews
All the Light We Cannot See (2023)
Failed the authenticity test in important areas
A novel adaptation that follows the lives of two main characters, Marie-Laure, a blind French girl, and Werner, a German soldier, during World War II. Their paths converge in the besieged city of Saint-Malo, exploring themes of resilience, humanity, and the unseen connections that bind us in times of war and adversity.
THE GOOD: Pinpoint accuracy in terms of sets and locations. Cinematography captures the mood and destruction of that period with perfection. It's worth the watch purely for these aspects if you're at all interested in this period or WW2 genre.
THE BAD: Hugh Laurie is cast. That's not a bad thing at all. The problem is that he's under-utilised and shares the same fate of Mark Hamel in the most recent Star Wars movie instalments: an old traumatised warrior who is unwilling to engage and who's potential is muffled by poor script and story choices.
THE UGLY: The acting was universally under-whelming. Ruffalo, who plays the father of the central female character, actually sounds like he is taking the Mickey with his terrible English accent. Confused? Well, we have French characters being portrayed by British and American actors who all speak with English accents. The Germans also speak English but with 'Jaarman' accents. The lead, Aria Mia Loberti, does an admirable job; however, she has strong sub-continent features incongruent with the French girl she portrays and it screams a bit too much of amBrigerton-esque race twisting. A simple throw-away line might have addressed this in the series but it doesn't and all we have to go by is her Italian-looking father in Ruffalo. Authenticity-wise, it kills the series in many ways.
Together Together (2021)
Lovely beginning, middle, but unfinished end
This was a movie about two lonely people intertwined by a surrogate pregnancy. Ed Helms is a single guy who just never found the right one and decides to start a family by himself via a surrogate. The surrogate is a gentle soul played by Patti Harrison. The two form an unlikely bond during the pregnancy, and this move is essential about how their bond Is formed during the three trimesters.
Patti Harrison's performance as the surrogate was a stand out. She played superbly a slightly introspective women longing for love and by the end of the movie you're completely batting for her. Unfortunately, Ed Helms character, the dad, was smothered by the film's attempt to make his bond with Harrison as PC and as inoffensive as possible due to their respective age difference; the movie makes it absolutely clear that this was not going to be a weird Woody Allen rom com. Unfortunately, it makes Helm's character seem like an amorphous concubine void of basic human desire or emotion. Harrison is given more permission to set the terms of her bond with Helms, while Helms plods along without any agency over this relationship: he just takes whatever he gets.
This makes the movie fall flat. Ultimately, you want to know what happens to Harrison's character. You want to see some character development in Helms that never really occurs. The ending seems to drop off a cliff and you're left wondering what was the whole point?
Hidden Strike (2023)
Another China-Hollywood Collab Stinker
This is another movie paid for in Chinese money and lacks depth in almost every department: the story line is boring and illogical, the two main actors - Cena and Chan - have no chemistry, the worst actors are inevitably those required to be in it due to monetary obligations. These Hollywood-China collaborations should stop.
In one of the early scenes Chan's character is driving a bus of works through a desert with explosions and danger at every turn, yet not a minute after this scary situation unfolds, he is having a 'deep and meaningful' with his daughter. I'd have soiled myself. Extremely fake and superficial.
Ambush (2023)
Clearly no military advisor
I lasted 10 minutes and 32 seconds. There were so many military inaccuracies the movie became irredeemable in the opening act.
Scream-prone SF commander is tasked with retrieving a highly sensitive document that has been retrieved by SF soldiers. He arrives at an outpost that is commanded by an Engineer corps Corporal who is called sir by his men. SF commander screams said Corporal out for no particular reason.
An SF sniper team - what is left of them - enters the outpost and delivers the sensitive document to the SF commander. A dumb Engineer soldier accidentally discharges his weapon.
Our screamy SF commander then drops the sensitive document in the mud in order to scream-out the petrified soldier. That was all the ridiculous script writing I could bear.
The cast actually seemed pretty good. Clearly there was no military advisor on set.
The Little Mermaid (2023)
Went in with no expectations- came out thoroughly impressed
I took my three young boys to see the Little Mermaid. None of us had seen the original. I was immediately struck by how Halle Bailey owned the role of Ariel: her voice and presence were mesmerising. In fact, the casting was really on point with the notable voice performances of Awkwafina as Scuttle, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian, and Mary McCartney as the tempestuous Ursula. The special effects were amazing and I was spellbound by how they employed them in the singing choreographies, as well as the little things, like floating Ariel's hair. Four boys left that movie theatre feeling the magic of Disney and of course the first thing we did when we got home was play the 1989 original. It followed true to story but the 2023 Little Mermaid improved on it in almost every aspect.
Outlander (2014)
50 Shades of Tartan
This has massive potential. The concept is fascinating. I know so little of this history of Scotland and really enjoyed the snippets that revealed quite an extraordinary past. But it was often a passing line or a backdrop to the main subplot that is essentially '50 Shades of Tartan'. I actually enjoyed Outlander the most when the heroine wasn't in the scene. Nothing against the actress, who does an admiral job, but the heroine was often so affected by matters of the heart that I'd doubt she'd even notice the DeLorean come crashing into frame at 88 miles per hour with Doc Brown urgently telling her to 'get in.' I dare say our poor heroine would not even notice. Time travel is such a fascinating subject, but when you make it a backdrop to what is ostensibly a Mills and Boon love story, you're likely to end up with haggis in your coffee.
Sons of Liberty (2015)
Couldn't get past first 20 minutes
Actually, it was the first five minutes, but I persevered. I guess I had an expectation that there would be some actual history in it. This is like that Japanese Restaurant where no Japanese would set foot in the place, much less work there. Not an authentic experience. Characters are all one-dimensional, lead actor is putting on a rather strong American actor for the period (which is very odd because the actor is British). The dialogue is even odder, and reminds me of something you would find in Buffy the Vampire rather than a TV series on a subject matter Americans all take rather seriously - when done right, the results are amazing i.e. John Adams. Use a long stick to avoid this hazard.
The Pacific (2010)
the entertainment factor
So I've read lots of historic opines and comparative literary reviews from BoB to the autobiographical accounts to which this series was based. Yeah, great, but at the end of the day this series was created to entertain first and foremost - it is simply naive to think that this was done for ANY other reason: the series cost Speilburg 151 million pounds to make and investors usually demand a return on investment.
All up I thought it was entertaining, but not overly so. I thought that the half-hearted delving into the soldiers' lives took away from the real entertainment, that being war and the formation of character, or loss thereof, in consequence. In the end, it took from three different book from a script that attempted to make it into something concise. Unfortunately, I found it rather discursive and patchy. Nice try however.