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darthminogue
Reviews
Why Are You Like This (2018)
I'm too old for this
Is it just me, or is every review on this page - both good and bad - written by a character from the show? I'm going to stick to Fisk, which might make this whole experience...meta.
The Handmaid's Tale (2017)
The Edible Woman
Wow. Is it ironic, or just pathetic, that even in 2017 a TV adaptation of a feminist novel still has to have a young and beautiful actress (Yvonne Strahovski, born 1982) play a character - "the Commander's Wife" - who, in the novel, has to be at least late 40's/early 50's. And the Commander, who was white-haired in the book, is played by Joseph Fiennes. I'm surprised Margaret Atwood didn't turn up on set with an uzi.
Breakfast with Scot (2007)
...it's mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
Yeesh. That's the first time I've ever sought to see the writer of a film. Because no matter how charming the acting, that script was a dog! It was like a first draft where embryos of ideas ended up in the final cut.
I hardly ever write film reviews and am only on here because it seems such a lost opportunity and I'd like to commend the cast: if any of the cast is reading this, you were terrific! The young star, Noah Bernett, was fantastic, Tom Cavanagh was a great foil, and even poor old Ben Shenkman gave it go when the script allowed (rarely).
Really, such a shame.
A Map for Saturday (2007)
An American visits the Rest of the World
This is a vaguely sweet little film does make me want to travel again. It offers precisely no insight about anything, but if you take it as a travelogue, you'll be happy with what you get.
Although the film visits exotic locales in Asia, Europe, Australia and South America, the undisputed star is the American film-maker. I guess I'm jealous of what I perceive as a uniquely American luxury of assuming everything you utter is profound; that not only should you record your thoughts, but they're worthy of a full-length film. It's not Asia or Europe that are interesting, but what this young American thinks about his experience visiting them.
Watching this, I was reminded (and, yes, the irony of writing about my own experiences isn't lost on me) of going to a concert by an 80's songstress in 2003 in Hicksville – yes, Hicksville – outside New York. I'm from Tasmania, Australia, and at the time I was living in Manchester, UK, travelling with a British girlfriend. We met a lovely group of American chaps at the concert and not one of them asked what we were doing in Hicksville watching a Cyndi Lauper concert in 2003. When they heard where we were from, one launched into a story about Sydney and another about London. My friend and I laughed about it at the time, commenting on the fact that they had no interest in us or our countries, just in their own experiences in relation to us. And that's what this whole film is like.
I do recommend watching it if you're young and about to go travelling, or thinking about it. I suspect it's already out of date with social media affording kids of all nationalities and incomes the ability to create travelogues, but if you don't know anyone who's backpacking with a blog, this does show what it's like. In fact, the entire film is just a Facebook update that a rich bloke managed to make into a motion picture.
Run Fatboy Run (2007)
Spaced is but a distant memory...
I think the most telling thing is I'm writing this before the movie has even finished. The ending is so predictable that I felt no need to actually devote myself to it fully. It's on in the background just in case something happens I really need to see, but so far that hasn't happened.
Spaced and Black Books, sitcoms starring this film's stars Simon Pegg and Dylan Moran, arrived about a decade ago now and offered something completely new to the usual fare. Both had fairly wry humour but with hearts of gold. Since then Pegg and Moran have been playing the same characters repeatedly, arriving at this tired film that offers absolutely nothing new, simply cashing in on Pegg's previous successes. Directed by an American Friend, it's almost a parody of 'real' British comedy. I can only assume the cast were handsomely rewarded; they certainly weren't in it for the art.
Spaced and Shaun of the Dead were brilliant. Hot Fuzz was okay. After seeing this, I'm not going to even bother with How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Guilty pleasure. Really, really, guilty.
You know that episode of Friends when Joey is in a play, and it seems really normal, then at the end a ladder drops from a space ship, and all his friends in the audience cover their eyes because they're so embarrassed for him? This movie is just like that. I imagine Calista Flockhart had to practise her smile in the mirror of the cinema toilet before meeting Harrison and saying "It was great, honey. No, really, the audience won't feel insulted; they'll love it. No, no, there's nothing politically suspect about watching a group of Russians getting comically thwarted by anti-communist flags, in a film set in 1957. And I'll tell you what, they don't make hats to last like they used to..." (The 5 is because, despite it all, it did keep me entertained for the duration. Just.)