Reviews

A really enjoyable and at times moving actioner, with a good heart and enough social commentary to elevate it above the ordinary.

First time director (and kudos to him, this is a brilliant debut film) and star Dev Patel shows here that he is a director to watch and a bonified movies star. The boy has chops. Here he plays Monkey Man, an underground street fighter just striving to make a living in the slums of India but with a burning desire for vengeance. As the film progresses we are slowly introduced to both the target(s) of his vengeance and the reasons he is crippled by it.

You've seen this all before in a hundred films of its type but this has enough style and substance to it to stand out from the rest. The fights scenes (especially as the film progresses and our protagonist improves) are dynamic and kinetic, the camera never stops moving. But there are enough quiet, still, thoughtful moments here to raise this film above the usual chaff. The flashback scenes are filled with warmth and beauty and show a real eye as a director. The film uses music exceptionally well to add both gravitas and levity to scenes where needed.

With influences from western cinema, Indian cinema and especially 90s East Asian action flicks this film has enough pace and action for the fight movie fans but also enough of a story and heart for the general movie goer. You'll be rooting for our eponymous Monkey Man to get his vengeance. As I said a really excellent directorial debut from an already established young, proper movie star. The future really looks bright for Mr Patel.

On seeing the IMDb rating I have to say I was a little confused. This is by no means a 5 star (IMDb rating) film. Ok so maybe it's not an 8 per se either but definitely not as low as 5. Then on reading the reviews I got a bit more of a picture on why the scores were maybe so low. I think it's because I have not seen the trailer. I went into this completely blind (other than dystopian near future and Kano) and enjoyed it immensely.

This isn't the urban dystopian thriller that maybe some expected. Instead it does what all good sci-fi does. Uses it's future setting as a platform to comment on some contemporary issues. The issues here being dispossession, disenfranchisement, capitalism, social disparity, gentrification and what all these things do to the people who live in poorer areas.

The story is a quiet one about a boy who loses his mother and is set adrift in the world. A world here which doesn't seem to have the social or community parachute that a boy in this situation needs. This is obviously a world that mirrors exactly where our own is going. Social support structures giving way to corporate greed and corporate needs. It's also a story about what this sort of environment does to men who grow up in these poorer environments.

It may be a bit slow paced and mediative for some people but I found that the pace let the story breathe. There's time to get to know the characters and their motivations. It's believable world building (of a future we're almost at) on an obvious low budget is commendable. Ably directed and phographed. And the acting from all involved is excellent, especially Kano and young Bannerman.

All in all I found it an enjoyable watch with a pertinent message about where continued capitalist growth will lead to greater disparity, and thus hostility, in our world. While also delivering a quiet and powerful story of a boy trying to find some connection in the world.

I'm not gonna talk about the film itself much. Personally I loved it and it's a wonderful bookend to West's previous film X. Whether he had it in mind to form a sort of diptich between the two films I don't know but Pearl not only managed to be a great film.in it's own right but also manages to elevate X from its mere slasher foundation.

The main reason I'm writing this is to talk about Mia Goth. This is a scintillating performance. She absolutely vibrates on the screen. It's funny but she reminds me of Nicolas Cage. She give everything here, it's such and honest, open and committed performance. Just watch her sililoquay to Mitzy and the climax of the film. It's a staggering 5-10 mins. She manages to be vulnerable, childlike, longing, whimsical and above all menacing all at the same time. The camera never leaves her and it's all the better for it. West must have been holding his breath filming it. It's solid gold.

I'll stop there as I'm borderline simping here. Yes, I realise this film may not be everyone's cup of tea. Some will find it slow and maybe a little boring. Others though who will give it a chance (and please watch X first as they are undoy6a pair) will see a daring film made by a directir willing to take big risks and an actor who trusts the director to help make them shine. Goth just gets better and better.

I think I pretty much summed up my view on the new Gareth Edwards film succinctly in the review title. I wanted the reviews I'd read to be a bit on the snooty side and just be plain wrong about this film. I've been a fan of Edwards since his debut feature Monsters. His ability to create alternate and new onscreen worlds is almost unmatched in the current sci-fi landscape. And here he is incredibly successful again. The world of the creator feels like a very real near future. The world is immersive and tangible, and absolutely gorgeous to behold. It's an absolute wonder (and a lesson to other film makers on budgeting) that he can make something so real and beautiful for a mere $80m. Every red cent of it is up on screen. Cinematography as usual is also atmospheric and gorgeous. From a visual and production standpoint this movie is a flat out 10.

However, it's everything else that pretty much let's it's down. Washington is pretty much awful in almost everything I've seen him in and it's no different here. He's a very wooden, non-engaging actor who brings pretty much nothing to the party. Everyone else is fine. Watanabe is solid, any Janney is wonderfully scene chewing (she always plays a great baddie), young Boyles is a revelation (with the little she has to work with) and I expect to see her in a lot more. The story is fine, if a little well trodden. We've been here before with many other films, but the general plotting, narrative and script itself are all absolutely awful. No real use going into detail but this is where the disappointing failure part comes in. The film is really let down here and there's no amount of high class production or visual flair that can save a terrible script.

To sum up: gorgeous looking, incredibly well produced sci-fi bauble with a terrible script, mediocre acting and by the numbers story. Someone please write Edwards a great sci-fi script and let him loose, there's so many really good films in this guy. This one however is mediocre at best .

You'll have to have your wits about you and your brain fully switched on watching Oppenheimer as it could easily get away from a nonattentive viewer. This is intelligent filmmaking which shows it's audience great respect. It fires dialogue packed with information at a relentless pace and jumps to very different times in Oppenheimer's life continuously through it's 3 hour runtime. There are visual clues to guide the viewer through these times but again you'll have to get to grips with these quite quickly. This relentlessness helps to express the urgency with which the US attacked it's chase for the atomic bomb before Germany could do the same. An absolute career best performance from (the consistenly brilliant) Cillian Murphy anchors the film. This is a nailed on Oscar performance. In fact the whole cast are fantastic (apart maybe for the sometimes overwrought Emily Blunt performance). RDJ is also particularly brilliant in a return to proper acting after his decade or so of calling it in. The screenplay is dense and layered (I'd say it was a thick as a Bible), cinematography is quite stark and spare for the most part but imbued with rich, lucious colour in moments (especially scenes with Florence Pugh), the score is beautiful at times but mostly anxious and oppressive, adding to the relentless pacing. The 3 hour runtime flies by. All in all I found it an intense, taxing but highly rewarding watch. This is film making at it finest. A really great watch.

Full disclosure I'm only halfway through season 2 but I honestly can't see the quality of this show diminishing so if best just review it now.

Where the hell has Scott Ryan been? He's an absolute revelation here. What a fantastically funny, charming, charismatic, melancholic, brutish, menacing, violent and above all subtle performance from the guy. He's an absolute natural.

This show is brilliantly written too. It's essentially about nothing really but, as with all our lives, that daily nothing contains everything. Love, family, worries, anxieties, guilt, sex, violence, regret and above all laugh out loud comedy.

The only other show I've seen over the last few years that's surprised by just how good it is is Severance, but then again that got so much publicity that it was still a little bit expected. This however came out of nowhere for me and it's all the more surprising.

So if you want something that contains a little bit of everything wrapped up in 25 minute tastsy little morcels, then I could not recommend this highly enough. It's rockin.

To be honest I'm a little speechless after that. Up there with the absolute best first seasons of any show I've seen. Everything about the show screams prestige TV. The writing, acting, direction (especially Stiller's episodes), photography, music and production design are all top notch. But really any show lives and dies by weather it allows us as an audience to really care for and root for the characters. And by god I defy anyone not to be drawn in emotionally by the struggles of our little Lumon family. This show has so much to say about humanity, how we lives our lives, how we value ourselves, how we allow outside agents control us and coerce us into lives of debt, servitude and conformity, how religion and indoctrination shapes us, how we are pitted against each other in our daily fight for survival. It's at once a spectacular piece TV that tackles big questions but it's also a wonderfully intimate little study of its characters. I absolutely loved it and cannot recommend it highly enough. The final episode almost had me holding my breath for it's full runtime. I can't honestly remember being this invested with a story (written or in screen) for a very, very long time. Wonderful stuff, roll on season 2. It can't come soon enough.

What a wonderful surprise. I knew nothing of this before going in and it's a surprising little delight. At once a throwback to romantic, melodramatic westerns of the 50s and 60s and thoroughly modern in its scripting and structure. It's wonderfully photographed and directed. But above all so well acted. Everyone onscreen delivers their best but this is undoubtedly the Blunt and Spencer show. Their on-screen chemistry is wonderful. They are serious and playful and wry and gorgeously romantic. A really great screen pairing.

If you want to watch something that you've probably not seen before, that'll surprise you, make you laugh (a lot) and maybe even cry (a little) then give this a chance. Its really is unlike almost anything else I've seen before. As I said, a surprising little gem.

Looking at the bad reviews I kinda get it. This is a Marvel show that dares to do something different and, like, god forbid. The same happened with WandaVision. The poor little fanboys just couldn't get their heads around the fact that you can go off formula, use a woman as the central character and still make something entertaining (the really funny thing is the show makers we're a step ahead of the obvious reaction and basically wrote the show around this notion). And this show is extremely entertaining. It's well written, well paced, funny and has some great performances. Standout though are Tim Roth (playing a reformed Blonsky) and the absolutely wonderful (and criminally under used) Tatiana Maslany as the titular She-Hulk. It's such a refreshing take on the superhero genre that, let's be honest, has gotten a little stale over the last few years. Marvels other shows, where they played it straight (F&TWS and Hawkeye), we're a bit dull and derivative. Whereas the shows where they took a bit I'd a chance (WandaVision, Loki and this) have all been a delight for different reasons. We need more variety within the genre or it will just stagnate. I'm glad that Marvel decided to make these. Long may it continue.

I watched just all of S1, so I reckon that should be enough to judge whether I rate a show or not. I mainly started watching this because of Anthony Starr's turn as Homelander in the fantastic The Boys. In that he is absolutely wonderfully subtle and nuanced in a role that a lesser actor could have bludgeoned or made one dimensional. To my disappointment he's absolutely wasted here.

This is what I like to call lowest common denominator TV. Bit of a story, bit of TNA, bit of action, not much on surprise or even novelty. You've seen this all before in every straight to video 80s and 90s actioner It's story and character arcs are written in huge broad strokes. There is no subtlety here at all. The script is pretty shoddy and acting either wooden or scene chewing.

Don't get me wrong, I can see it's attraction to those who want to switch the brain off and kick back and watch something that's not too taxing. It's probably a great "guilty pleasure" for a lot of people. But as far as quality TV goes this isn't it. Feels like I'm just wasting my time watching this as it's giving me nothing, especially when theres so much better TV out there.

I've found most of Love, Death & Robots to be a little hit and miss (mostly miss, if I'm honest) but I keep watching hoping there will be something that comes along that will pique my interest, plus the episodes are short so I tend to use them to fill time while I'm waiting for something else to begin. There have been one or two ok episodes this season but this one blew me away. It is absolutely stunning.

Just about perfect piece of short film making. Not a word is uttered throughout its 15 minute runtime yet it is a really concise piece of storytelling. A mix of contemporary dance, scintillating soundtrack, staccato editing and gloriously lush imagery. I thought this was absolutely gorgeous. A really immersive piece of film making. Glorious.

Why, oh why do they keep doing this to us. Create thought provoking, character driven sci-fi starring the impeccable JK Simmons and then just go and cancel it. First Counterpart now this. Surely there's an audience for these kinds of shows.

This is one of my favourite new shows I have watched in some time. The writing and acting are particularly good (but then again what else do you expect from acting powerhouses like Simmons and Spacek) but what I particularly appreciated is the pacing. Unlike other modern sci-fi there is very little exposition here. There are no long periods of characters explaining convoluted histories and plot points. The story is allowed to develope organically through the interaction of the characters. This allows the characters and story to properly develope over the full season and it's much the better for it.

Overall I really liked this (also the beautiful scoring deserves a mention) show and I'm very sad to learn that it is not being renewed. I was looking forward to where the characters journeys would lead them. After Amazon's committment to a show like Man in the High Castle 8 honestly thought they'd go the long haul with this one. It's a pity as it's very good. Still though even though there are many threads left unwoven it's well worth a watch as a stand alone season, even just for Simmons and Spacek. Fans of old fashioned sci-fi novels will appreciate this one.

You can see where Amazon have trimmed the production budget. The story and plotting are fine but the writing, directing, casting and acting are all amateur hour. It's fine like, a just below decent PI show now but it's not a patch on the original series. Bit of a pity but not really unexpected. Think I'll be saying goodbye to Harry, when he was good he was very good, this is not that though.

I'm a huge fan of anything wobbly wobbly timey wimey. If like me you've liked/loved the likes of Primer, Predestination, BttF, Dark, Time Crimes, Twelve or 12 Monkeys etc then I think you'll like this.

It's well scripted, acted, photographed, feels like a quality made product, and (most importantly for a TT show) it's plotted well. No real annoying loopholes or paradoxes. Perhaps it's the new take on TT that allows for this and it's the better for it. I personally can't wait for the second season if it's as good as the first one. Definitely added to my yearly rotation of shows. Hopefully enough people ignore the inexplicable bad reviews and watch it so Sky renew the series. Well worth a look.

I've always had a love/dislike relationship with Ozark. When it's good it's bloody brilliant but when its bad it really jumps the shark. The finale is a case in point. Right up until the final 5 minutes it's a well paced riveting piece of TV. Then in the last five minutes they completely disrespect their viewers by making three characters act completely against everytying that made their character their character. It's a shocking pity as (almost) everything that went before is now soured by the awful ending. Kinda gutted I gotta say.

...but then again so is the book and its main character. As everyone knows Jack Reacher is such a fantastical character that he couldn't possibly live in the real world. The creators have realised this too and decided that they wouldn't bother with changing the tone of the books and to keep it set it in its fantasy world, and to their credit that's what makes this work.

Ritchson is well cast and grows into the role after a bit of a wooden start in the first few episodes. Goodwin as Finlay and Fitzgerald as Roscoe ably assist, as do just about all the rest of the cast. The production team did a great job and some of the sets felt like they were picked straight out of my head. It's ridiculous and ludicrous but it also moves along at a clip and is wholly entertaining throughout. It's a pretty decent first season and will only improve as it goes on I think. Well worth a look if you don't want something too serious and just want to be entertained. It's a good watch.

I'll just say off the bat that I knew virtually nothing about the plot going into this film, so about an hour or so in I was a little underwhelmed with what I'd seen thus far. The story was engaging enough but I was a little "that's it?" up to that point. Then the repeating structure kicks in and we see the same events told from two separate other character's perspectives and the film suddenly becomes incredibly intriguing. Damon and Affleck are both fine in their roles but it's Driver and Comer who really shine here. Their nuanced, slightly different performances at the center of each others "truths" are what really drive the last 90 mins of the film and elevate it to a much higher level. All in all its a very good film, stick with it after it's slow start and you will be rewarded.

For me Into the Spiderverse shone as the best Spiderman film because of its huge heart. This gets really, really close. Everyone involved play absolute blinders. There are moments where you'll have the hugest grin on your face and moments where you have a huge lump in your throat. Absolutely played to the legacy of Spiderman on film but also doesn't just do so for fan services. I loved it.

Nice mix of space opera and family drama. All the actors are great and it's pretty tightly written, even has a few lovely little clever surprises (like the subtitled scene in the cave episode). Mixes the episodic and serialised styles of sci-fi shows pretty seamlessly too, so you get a nice adventure/danger of the week interspersed through a longer narrative. It's actually taken me a bit by surprise that I like it so much as I avoided watching it for some reason. Well done Netflix, this is a good one. Looking forward to the concluding season.

This is a lovely, sweet, funny and occasionally fecking heartbreaking show. It makes me laugh and tear up in equal measure. The young cast are all natural, funny and believable (you completely buy into them being a tight knit crew), and the weekly cameos from more well known actors are all perfectly played. This is a show that you'll benefit from watching an episode at a time maybe once a week. It's not really to be binged. It's slow and thoughtful and the individual character driven nature of each episode really lends itself to getting to know the people and their little world. A really unique little show that I expect will continue to make me laugh and cry in equal measure. It's a little gem to be savoured. Recommended.

I dont usually subscribe to the "you didn't like it because you didn't get it" school of thought but on reading the bad reviews I think this really maybe the case in this instance. There are many instances in this story that show what we all know in our heart, that we would do almost anything for family that we'd never think of doing for others. The one major instance in this episode ties the whole story together and gives the it a real poignancy. I know quite well my mum would do the same for me without hesitation. Mums eh. Brilliant writing and brilliant acting from all involved. I think it's my favourite episode so far from this really brilliant show.

Overly long, dull, badly scripted and acted, character motivations all over the place, convoluted (but not complex), dour, humourless, and even the action was tired. I went to see this with two extremely avid Bond fans and one of them actually fell asleep. This is the first Bond film I've ever seen in the cinema, I won't be wasting my time and money on another. Avoid.

Well on the plus side I did watch it all. It had enough going for it that I wanted to see where it finally went. Is the payoff enough? Probably not for most people but for those it's aimed at then the journey itself, I expect, is enough.

I've always loved a bit of weirdness and this has weirdness in spades but a lot of it seems a little forced. Weirdness for weirdness sake. The show makers obviously love a bit of the two great David's but at least with Lynch and Cronenberg you always feel like, well at least to them, that the weirdness directly related to something the filmmakers are trying to say. Here though I'm not sure this is the case. It feels like the show makers have watched a bit too much of the two greats and instead of being influenced by them have instead just decided to copy them. What I guess I'm trying to say is that with David and David there was always a truth, a sincerity to what they are doing, like they are being fully honest with themselves and showing us who the TRULY are. Here it feels like an affectation, a pretention. I just didn't buy it as genuine.

It was entertaining, had enough to keep me interested and was refreshing in that at least it was a bit different to everything else I've seen lately. But it just didn't always come across to me a genuine. Watch away if you like weird but be prepared to, maybe, come away feeling a little bit cheated.

Straight off the bat I hate musicals and have seen very few biopics that I've liked. I think the film format just doesn't suit either very well. Usually the musical interludes break up the momentum and the emotional impact of the storytelling and how the hell are you supposed to decant a full life into 2 hours. But I found this the exception on both counts. It's a great musical and a surprisingly open, honest and brave biopic. The cast are all excellent with an absolute belter of a performance from Taran Edgerton. I can't really recoommend this enough.