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Reviews
Tangle (2009)
Not for everyone
I have read the incredibly bad reviews and don't understand them. One possible explanation is that they are from people associated with bland soaps like Neighbours and Home & Away.
Another more likely explanation is that we all have different tastes.
This is dark and gritty. I thought the acting was excellent and the storylines imaginative. The dialogue was well written and again I don't understand the negative reviews.
The name is perfect - what a tangled mess it becomes. I loved Justine Clark's character and her secret.
There are dark undertones that run through this series and Ben Mendelssohn plays his reprehensible character brilliantly. The teenage and child actors are excellent.
Don't listen to the negative reviews - make up your own mind.
Midway (2019)
I got excited until...
I was looking at the local cinema offerings and saw "Midway". I have read books and have of course seen the original movie and started getting excited. I said to the wife "We're going to the movies".
I thought I would check out the trailer so set it to high resolution and cranked the sound. Press play and the trailer started. Then I saw "From the Director of Independence Day", splashed across the screen as if they were almost proud of it.
I still remember seeing the trailers for that film, and going off to see it feeling very excited.
Independence Day is definitely the worst large-budget film I have ever seen.
I will definitely be waiting for Midway to become available on some service where I don't have to leave the house, and can go back to re-arranging my sock drawer if required.
First Man (2018)
It's a good thing I'm not a director
Having read "First Man", the Armstrong biography, I was looking forward to the movie immensely. I personally found it bizarre that it started with Karen already gravely ill. There was no emotional attachment at all. There was no mention of Armstrong's fascination with flight, no mention of joining the navy in order to attend Purdue, leading to his near-fatal Korean war flight experience with the missing wingtip.
If I was directing I would have started with his childhood fascination with flight, his scrimping and saving to pay for flying lessons, the fact that he obtained his pilot's licence before his car licence and then I would have built an emotional attachment with Janet and Karen.
During the lunar descent, when the very dramatic 1202 and 1201 programme alarms occurred, I would have built the dramatic tension instead of drowning out all the drama with loud music. I would have built the drama with the 30 seconds of fuel remaining and showed the relief at Mission Control when the Eagle touched down safely.
I would have showed the discussions concerning crew positions in the lunar module, resulting in Commander Armstrong exiting prior to Buzz and thereby becoming the first to put his boots on the lunar surface. I would have showed the aftermath of reaching his childhood dream, where he was required (along with Buzz and Mike) to tour the world ceaselessly, spotlighted in the limelight and hating every minute of it.
It's a good thing I'm not a director because that's probably what everyone expected, whereas this film is a very different treatment. Some great visual effects and good acting and I liked the way Apollo 1 was handled - it was very respectful. However, I felt the film missed a lot of what made Neil tick - it was hard to engage.
Gold (2014)
Unable to comment but definitely NO SPOILER
I have only rated it awful because I am unable to review this movie, and to me that is awful. It is completely unavailable in Australia. No cinema release, no streaming service. I have even contacted the Irish distribution company and they are unable to assist with getting it on DVD.
Pity, because it sounds like our type of movie :(
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Back on track after the Prometheus disaster
Following my bitter disappointment with the terrible screenplay and caricatured characters in Prometheus (the concept of which I thought was great, execution terrible), Alien Covenant delivered. Although suffering from the mandatory "I'll just walk off into another area by myself despite the obvious stupidity of it" which seems to occur in every horror movie, the screenplay was good, acting was good and the characters had a bit more depth.
Visually spectacular, with a more intellectual story-line than I was expecting (reference Ozymandias and Wagner's Das Rheingold), I left the cinema feeling that my $100 was well spent (took the family). I had gone in with low expectations but a secret hope that Ridley Scott would address the obvious flaws present in Prometheus, and he did. I will definitely be buying this on Blu-ray and giving it a run at home.