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Reviews
Knights of the Damned (2017)
Pretty awful
Anyone who can independently fund, produce and release a film using a small budget deserves huge respect. Especially given the fact they have so little talent at their disposal.
I saw the 2.5 rating but I weighed that up against the idea of potentially seeing some "hot" amazon warriors fighting dragons. Who wouldn't like that?
Unfortunately those amazon warriors were about as convincing as the UK's current response to the Covid pandemic. I would urge people to avoid this film and frankly I've been too generous with my rating.
Why is it bad? Awful, awful sound, criminal acting, terrible script, painful and at times childlike direction and a meandering storyline that is just banal at best. Give it a miss and definitely under no circumstances pay to watch this.
Cursed (2020)
Major flaws yet watchable.
When an ambitious series like this is produced you have to watch it realising a few caveats - such as historicity (it is fantasy) and to a certain extent realism of actions, thought and narrative.
However and this is a big "however" this particular journey into a fantasy world suffers from some serious problems which I will elaborate upon further, later in my review. But I would rather mention it's positive aspects first and why I gave it a reasonable, 6 out of 10. For example this is bubblegum TV it can be watched with little effort if you dispense any notion of realism. The ensemble cast has some pedigree and occasionally this talent is self evident. Unfortunately a number of performances are perfunctory at best, Arthur and Nimue in my opinion, pretty weak casting and delivered well below what I would expect.
The show has a good pace and the story moves along keeping my interest just enough, yet I almost gave this series a truly terrible score out of ten.
Aside from the weak acting of some of the central characters there is some quite ridiculous make up and costume design. The Fey, the collective heroes of the story look like an after thought, in a post GOT World their appearance looks incredibly childish.
I like Merlin's character and I'm a huge fan of Gustaf Skarsgaard but I get the impression even he is tired of this kind of quirky portrayal nevertheless it is still one of the better acting performances. Unfortunately the direction is similarity tired and lacking in skill with moments of hilariously bad CGI thrown in for good measure such as a particular bad scene in the first episode.
I'm also very bored of this forced diversity it smacks of laziness and an actual consideration to potential world building and character ethnicity. I don't mind if Arthur is black but explain this in the story line please, just saying it's a fantasy story is not good enough. Would you expect a character like Shaka Zulu to be portrayed by a white Englishman? No.
All round this show is ill conceived, badly directed, badly cast and in part badly acted. Netflix seem to have a history of promising so much more but not delivering even after the budgets have by any standards exceeded what their rivals can employ (with the exception of Amazon or HBO). But if you intend to watch this don't expect a great show or don't expect to be challenged, it's the kind of show you watch when there's no alternatives.
William Kelly's War (2014)
Shocking for it's lack of reality
In relation to the films production values I have no problem at all with this film. What is really quite terrifying is how this film for the at least the first section specifically portrays WWI as a big jape and a "larf". Even the scenes where there is armed conflict, death and trench squalor this has seemingly been glossed up and presented like a boy scouts adventure.
To compound this watch out for the ridiculous metaphors such as the two soldiers preparing a meal of minced meat in the hospital tent and then later on another Aussie describing the war as a, "meat factory". Metaphors for the stupid should be the tag line here.
Those scenes which are supposed to present, "the horrors" of war are extremely tame. If you also throw in some amateurish acting especially from the cousin of the main protagonist then you have got yourself a one star film. Terrible.
Wyrmwood (2014)
Brilliant and inventive....
What can I say? Possibly the best low budget Zombie movie I have seen since Romero's cult classics and I have seen a lot of Zombie flicks you could say I am obsessed. The point is the genre was beginning to look incredibly generic with so many Zombie films just travelling down the same old worn road but here is a film that offers a few "new" twists that I expect bigger budget films and TV franchises will unashamedly steal in the future. As far as the acting goes I must say it matched the zany and fast paced direction with some excellent comedic performances from Benny in particular. I must also not neglect to mention the mesmerising character, "Brook" played by Bianca Bradley who shines in every scene as the incredibly sexy female lead.
You must watch this if you are a Zombie fan. Brilliant.
Rampage (2009)
A true horror movie...
I watch a lot of horror titles mostly because I like the B movie element that exists within this genre without ever really being genuinely creeped out or scared. Rampage however is a true horror movie in that it portrays an event that is all too familiar to anyone who watches the news in the so called, "civilized" west. From Hungerford(Uk)to the many tragedies meted out every year in America this film delivers an almost all too real truth and it does so in a mesmerizing and highly unpalatable manner. This is not a criticism either, a film of this nature needs to be visceral and needs to lack sense or at least rationality that the "normal" person can comprehend. Uwe Boll has his critics and lets be honest rightly so but this is a film which I didn't expect to like or appreciate. As you are probably sensing from my tone in this review the reverse was true - or at least I was fully engaged throughout but I am not completely sure I can like a movie which is almost too real. Violence in films is so often glorified and romanticized (Uwe Boll himself is surely guilty of this)but after watching Rampage I think the director has certainly realigned the balance between what is acceptable violence for narrative purposes and what is purely gratuitous. Overall Rampage is a well constructed, well acted film that is highly effective in delivering a horror movie that is more horrifying than the vast majority of movies out there - mainly because it skillfully portrays an "unpalatable truth".
10,000 BC (2008)
Underrated and totally worth watching
This film to my mind has a remarkably poor overall rating - suspend your logic whilst watching and just enjoy the quality effects and the excellent locations. This is not Citizen Kane but when compared to other caveman flicks this has to be the best out there. The narrative is pretty simplistic and the acting is basic at best but the overall prehistoric environment that the producers have created is certainly engaging which provides both good action sequences and science fiction/fantasy moments. I would recommend any one interested in the fantasy genre to give this a glance but not to expect too much in relation to character development or intelligent plot lines. The other aspect of this film which I enjoyed was it's nod to antediluvian theories and how ancient civilizations possessed technologies we can no longer harness. Overall this is a film I would watch again and would recommend fantasy fans to give it a go especially if you don't mind occasionally having to endure a scene that is both bemusing and over the top. But by definition that is fantasy isn't it?