With all that is currently going on in the USA, hugely worrying political polarisation, racial tension, the proliferation of guns and poor mental health, I thought I might be in for a thought provoking and fascinating film. Boy was I wrong. This was effectively a very drab one and three quarter hour episode of The Walking Dead, without the zombies! The actors were uninspiring and poorly cast, the script was absolutely dreadful, character development predictable and the story, well, it was painful and boring. The gratuitous violence was ill thought out with little context or real explanation. Very disappointing and a title which is utterly disingenuous.
Reviews
26 Reviews
Masters of the Air
(2024)
Okay start, very decent middle, woeful ending.
2 February 2024
Warning: Spoilers
I was desperate for this to be great and after an okay start I found it gradually improved and some of the episodes were excellent. I think the casting was poor and Austin " look at me I'm gorgeous" Butler with his perfect hair and smouldering looks was simply dreadful. The scenes in England did not capture the tense nature of flight crews waiting to be called up and the relationships were painfully played out. The final episode went full tilt Hollywood with oh so predictable happy endings. The scene in the camp where the guards strafed the unarmed prisoners before being overrun by the noble Americans who basically let them off after seeing their colleagues and friends murdered was pathetic, and we all know what would really have happened. It didn't have the grit or honesty of Band of Brothers and was sadly all a bit of an insult to your intelligence. Some of the flying and aerial battle scenes were outstanding, sadly the rest simply didn't live up to that and it concentrated on a few handsome rather soulless chaps rather than making you feel part of the crew.
Lord of Misrule
(2023)
Nothing new but nicely put together.
1 February 2024
Tuppence Middleton Ralph Innes.
This film joins a raft of folklore horror films over the years. To be fair though it was pretty well put together and I liked the pace. You don't always have to have action, beautiful actors, gratuitous violence and cgi..this is just an honest and decent sinister film. Special mentions to Tuppence Middleton who I thought was outstanding and very plausible as the vicar. Ralph Innes played his part very well too. People giving this 9 or 10 of 10 are way off the mark, as are those clowns giving it 1s and 2s. It's a decent effort in a saturated market, and while I likely wouldn't watch it a second time I did enjoy it.
This film joins a raft of folklore horror films over the years. To be fair though it was pretty well put together and I liked the pace. You don't always have to have action, beautiful actors, gratuitous violence and cgi..this is just an honest and decent sinister film. Special mentions to Tuppence Middleton who I thought was outstanding and very plausible as the vicar. Ralph Innes played his part very well too. People giving this 9 or 10 of 10 are way off the mark, as are those clowns giving it 1s and 2s. It's a decent effort in a saturated market, and while I likely wouldn't watch it a second time I did enjoy it.
Doom Patrol
(2019–2023)
Off the wall but very drawn out.
13 December 2023
This show has its moments but you have to trawl through an interminable amount of dross to encounter those moments. If it were to shorten each episode by 15 minutes it might not have felt such a slog through some of the banal nonsense you have to sit through. The characters were fine with some reasonable performances from the actors but they were also often very irritating. The amount of bad language to me felt gratuitous and unnecessary, resulting in a lack of impact when it should have had some. It was pretty whacky and off the wall, but sometimes to the point were it was simply nonsense. All in all I thought the show was good at times but predominantly just too silly.
The Mill
(2023)
Thinking man's film.
16 October 2023
I'd no prior knowledge of this film but I was blown away by the concept and delivery. Its full of metaphors, but I love how they work. The way it's shot is dark and depressing and for a lot of people who struggle unless there's a load of mindless violence or gore it probably isn't going to be your thing. If however, you have a brain, then I would suggest some of what it is trying to convey should give you serious food for thought. It's like an outstanding movie length episode of Black Mirror and I came away feeling I'd seen a movie that had actually stimulated my curiosity and desire to question the point of our being. Excellent!
Insidious Inferno
(2023)
A bit of a throwback.
16 October 2023
This film is quite slow and laborious in parts but what they have done is create a genuinely uncomfortable feeling about the whole thing. I find it very disappointing to see reviewers giving this a 10 out of 10, it is certainly not a film so amazing it could not be improved and those people giving it such a score are either on the pay roll or just a bit dumb. It really had a feel of 70s and 80s horror films and feels influenced by the likes of Dario Argento, which is certainly not a bad thing. If you want something creepy I'd recommend this, if you want fast paced action and special effects you may find it's not really your thing.
Warhorse One
(2023)
An insult to ones intelligence.
9 August 2023
An American one man army takes out laughable numbers of Afghan fighters on their own patch. Rambo was acceptable in the 80s but surely people have grown up and expect slightly more accurate and feasible films than this ridiculous nonsense. Yes, I'm well aware it's not real but at the same time it is an embarrassment for America as the rest of the world looks on at how they perceive themselves with abject horror. The acting was pretty poor, but mainly because the script and the premise were terrible. If American soldiers were this good they would not have had such poor results in recent theatres of war. A horrible film and I worry for anyone giving this anything higher than a 6.
Insidious: The Red Door
(2023)
More "insipidness" than "insidious".
3 August 2023
It was all just far too predictable and a little bit boring. It plagiarised some ideas from a number of horrors and some of the supporting cast were frankly a bit excruciating. Contained the painful frat party which is always a dreadful part of almost any film to get through, and again, this was full of predictable and painful stereotypes. It simply brought nothing new to a franchise which started out phenomenally but now is clearly being used as a means to generate cash from it's fans. The script was so poor in places I actually winced. It's time to pull out some real surprises for a change not the yawn worthy ones we've seen a hundred times over. Very poor effort.
Black Knight
(2023– )
It's painfully bad.
16 May 2023
Absolute garbage. Bruce Lee style one man armies beating up hoardes of bad guys single handedly in the first ten minutes made me immediately concerned about what was to come. Sure enough it didn't really get any better. Tries to be funny but it's painful. I love a lot of the Korean stuff, they've produced some outstanding series over the past few years, sadly this is not one of them. If you're incredibly easily pleased with a nonsensical plot, poor characters and a poorly crafted world go knock yourself out. For anybody in the slightest cerebral I would suggest you will find this excruciatingly bad.
Evil Dead Rise
(2023)
There's just nothing new or interesting.
12 May 2023
To start with, I love the Evil Dead franchise, even Ash vs the Evil Dead, as silly and repetitive as it became. Sadly, this franchise needs Bruce Campbell to get it over the line. Don't get me wrong, there were some really good actors in this movie, but the script and story became so predictable it was awful. The lashings of gore were what we have come to expect but there was neither humour nor horror in this weak addition to the Evil Dead family. Having it all set in the same apartment was actually pretty boring and following a promising opening scene it was just an hour and a bit of rubbish. Very disappointing.
The Watcher
(2022– )
More American brain dead nonsense.
16 November 2022
Just ridiculous. So many possibilities, so many clichés, so many hammy performances. It's time for some of these writers to realise that more often than not, less is more! The way in which the characters are manipulated is an absolute insult to one's intelligence. It could have been so much better but like American Horror Story and so many U. S dramas it simply does not know anything about the art of subtlety and spinning out a yarn without looking to shock the audience every two minutes. A real waste of some very decent acting talent, but yet again Netflix takes a punt on utter garbage then milks it to death. Set up for season 2, awful.
Sea Fever
(2019)
Am outstanding lower budget cerebral movie.
6 September 2022
I pity those who give this less than six stars as they clearly don't have the intellectual capacity or imagination to grasp what this film actually did. It was gritty and well acted, as opposed to most of that Hollywood garbage horrors we have to sit through, and there were a lot of excellent acting performances. Some genuinely nasty shocks, without going over the top and a good deal of tension. The lead actress was outstanding and there was something quite ordinary about most of the actors performances that really worked for me. I really like what they did with this film. It felt real and that only added to the fear of being at sea in a terrifying situation.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
(2022)
First and last episode for me.
21 August 2022
This is boring and most of the attempts at humour are tiresome. I found the lead character irritating and feel that this is simply another indicator that Marvel are pumping out sub standard fare as quickly as they can. For me this poorly written dross is doing possibly irreparable damage to the Marvel universe. I'd prefer to see quality over quantity and some fresh ways of interpreting characters without all the sarcastic wit and clichés. Evolve or perish.
Beautiful and enjoyable.
16 August 2022
Resident Evil
(2022)
When will they learn?
15 July 2022
Resident Evil should not be aimed at a teen audience, it just doesn't work. The franchise harks back decades and its fan base is absolutely not teen, why oh why do the people making these films and series continue to get it so wrong? This is dreadful... stroppy teens, terrible acting, everyone looks beautiful even though it's ridiculous, soundtrack is painful, Resident Evil it is not. Rubbish it is.
Boiling Point
(I) (2021)
This should have been an okay drama, however, it was absolute genius!
2 April 2022
To do this film in one take was simply incredible. Stephen Graham was brilliant, he normally is, but a special mention to the entire supporting cast, the acting was so natural and so convincing you felt you were part of it, they were all absolutely outstanding. Emotionally it was intense and I'm pretty sure that only British actors could have pulled it off, it was gritty, honest and pulled no punches. I would go so far as to say this is something of a masterpiece and rates amongst the greatest British films ever made. Genius.
All of Us Are Dead
(2022– )
Pretty good but a bit drawn out.
28 January 2022
Some of the characters were a little annoying and the romantic interests felt just a bit silly and somewhat ill fitting given it's an apocalyptic scenario. I felt it was aimed at a predominantly teen audience and that it was really quite laboured with not a great deal happening given that it was over 11 hours of TV. It could easily have been done in 8 episodes. Those criticisms aside it was otherwise reasonably entertaining.
Mother/Android
(2021)
Oh dear!
22 January 2022
So, so painfully slow, predictable, boring and old hat. Did a 12 year old write this? Nothing new and excruciatingly full of plot holes. Such a waste of acting talent... surely these actors can't be that hard up they need to take on films like this. Take a look at Korean cinema, it's leaving Hollywood way behind.
Panic
(2021)
It's just too American and false.
13 January 2022
Full of beautiful people and dreadful romantic crap. The South Koreans are doing a far better job of shows like this by being gritty and honest. It's time American producers realised we're tired of all this cheesy teen nonsense and awful ill fitting "trendy" music. It falls into the category of not for grown ups I'm afraid.
Star Trek: Discovery
(2017–2024)
Hero to zero.
11 March 2019
The first season was superb...action packed, intelligent and with surprises in abundance. Series two is simply awful. Fulfilling the needs of all of today's tiresome stereotypes and full of clichés, lazy writing and cheap thrills. Garbage. Such a shame.
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