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tristandawson
Reviews
Still Standing (2023)
What a great summary of Aussie pinball history
Clearly put together huge swathes of passion for the silverball - Brad Gilbertson has done a fantastic job showcasing the modern rebirth of Pinball and Arcades across Australia along with enough detailed history & emotion to supercharge some passion to keep it ticking forward for the next generation.
I absolutely loved the breakdown and exposure of what it means to own, run, repair and enjoy and Aussie Arcade. This documentary adds a layer of depth & emotion that I won't forget each time I visit one of the many pinball parlours around our country. Everyone who attends an arcade should watch out for the absolute legends showcased in this flick & give them a huge high five.
Australia serving as the smaller and mostly unknown cousin to Americas pinball prowess over the decades wouldn't have been possible without the mammoths efforts put in by these blokes, their wives, children and communities behind them. Thanks to you all, and keep flippin.
The 355 (2022)
I laughed my freckle off
Freckle Films. The 355.. What a bummer.. Get your head out of your freckle.. I laughed my bum off at the absurdity.
Pros:
Good acting from the main cast
Original enough story
Some really great camera shots
Fancy & engaging action sequences
Lack of repetitiveness
Lack of sexuality was refreshing
Cons:
I laughed at the dumb. A lot.
Languages without subtitles - tha heck??
IT terminology is laughable
Classic female "need to save the world' trope
Who or what the 355? You never really told us!
Unrealistic character decisions
The 355 requires you to know at least 5 languages to watch it: German, Spanish, Chinese, French and of course English. Because there was ZERO subtitles we had no idea what was happening for large portions of the movie. I have no idea why this choice was made, but it makes the movie virtually unwatchable, as you've no idea where the story is progressing.
Then there's the cybersecurity. My goodness. It's like the producers looked up the words 'cyber' and 'IT' and 'Security' on Wikipedia and grabbed all the fancy terms, stuck them in a hat and pulled them out to make sentences. Absolutely hilarious & completely false. But completely stupid. Producers, please do your research next time :)
Then there's the standard trope of 'girl power' and the world needing to 'change' to sign off the movie. Ugh. Next. What a horribly undermining statement at the end of an otherwise female action movie. Yes women need to have the same opportunities as men, but leave politics out of my escapism please.
And who is this mystical 355? It's only mentioned once in the dying moments of the film for about 10 seconds. And the point? Im honestly not sure. It's like they finished filling the last action sets and thought, heck! We better explain the title of the movie!
The acting from main characters was decent though. And the filming and set pieces were great. We enjoyed the well done action shots, but the story itself was very difficult to follow due to a lack of subtitles.
You simply can't overcome bad writing and bad research (90% of the IT terms in this movie are fiction) with a couple of good camera angles unfortunately.
At least the name of the studio matches the quality of the final product. Freckle films, you made a poo film. Please learn form your mistakes for the next one, I look forward to it.
Mortal Engines (2018)
Should have been a multi-part series
Enjoyed this a bundle! Some really great graphics and such a rich amount of possibilities for the backstory!
The movie itself was great, but I can't help but notice that most of the characters had little to no backstory, and that's a real shame. When characters leave or die, you don't feel much for them.
They could have developed this over 3-5 movies MUCH better, and this is where the movie suffers.
It's great for what it is, but could have been so much more. A multi-movie-arc remake perhaps??
Station 19: When It Rains, It Pours! (2019)
That car flip tho..
I mean the episode was fine, but the unrealistic events in this show are getting grating.. Somehow a blown tyre can launch a car into the air, doing both a flip and a barrel roll..
#eyeroll
Doctor Who: Orphan 55 (2020)
A good ep plagued by politics
This season started REALLY well, I loved the first two episodes. And this ep continued some of the great trends - cool original (ish) story, awesome scary monster concept. But that ending.. I don't need a politically biased eco warrior speech in my SciFi unless I'm watching Captain Planet... #SaveThePlanet
Doctor Who: Spyfall: Part One (2020)
What a massive improvement
This was a legit awesome episode.
Decent acting, multiple locations, great ending, a brilliant twist and the all important epic & elusive villain.
Not much to dislike - if the season continues like this, we'll be in for a ripper.
Batwoman: Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Two (2019)
Crud
This episode was filled with rubbish. The storyline was all over the shop. Acting was quite average. Ep 1 of the crossover was great, but this is rubbish. Vance Batwoman please and put your creative abilities to work on something that's not total crap
Beyond Skyline (2017)
Horrid
I'm a sci-fi nerd. Love aliens, comics and timely whimey things. This is not that. It's rubbish.
This movie is bad. Cringe worthy bad. Not even B-grade, and in a bad way.
It's not funny
There's lots of bad acting
Has really stupid story development
Next to no explanation of how or why things are happening the way they are
Bad story execution
Okay CG
Zero character development. Like zero.
Decent story ideas
Crud & generic sound effects
Some of the story concepts are actually pretty cool - but there's only so much lipstick you can put on a pig...
2/10
And it only gets the 2 because it has decent story concepts.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Great monsters, lame humans
The monsters, CG, actions and screentime of the monsters was truely awesome.
Unfortunately the family (mostly) and other human cast, make constant stupid decisions and kind of assume the viewer is dumb, and this aspect really lets the movie down. The human storyline is both meh and predictable at far too many points.
Monsters 9/10
Humans 2/10
Overall 7/10
Supergirl: Fallout (2018)
The worst Supergirl episode yet
This episode has all the horrible Hollywoodisms in it.
Every single technical statement in this episode is wrong & blatantly lazy. Lots of stupid character decisions & character development is not even skin deep.
It's just terrible, zero effort was put into making this episode treat the viewer as an intellectual, and little effort to even make it coherent.
I can deal with the politics, although I think it has next to no place in fiction.
This is by far the weakest show in the ArrowVerse, and I tolerate it, but perhaps not for much longer. This drivel is just not worth it.