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Reviews
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
Is This the Cutting Room Floor Pieces Stitched Back Together?
What an absolute pile of woke lefty brainwashing garbage! Utter pants!! In bad movie terms, this generations 'Battlefield Earth'. This is one of the very few movies I'd wished I'd not gone to see, I've seen some doozies but this wins, easily! Very disappointing. I think they didn't bother hiring scriptwriters but rather ad-libbed (badly) throughout the entire movie. Like the movie, I feel like I've been stitched up!
Moon Knight (2022)
What the......??
When I figure put what this series is supposed to be all about I'll write a proper review. If you're into serious adaptation of Marvel Comics content this will probably not be to your liking. Whatever mushrooms the director was on when he was creating this should be banned! I watched the whole six episodes and I still haven't figured out the story, the plot or anything apart from a bunch of mismatched characters doing.....well, I haven't figured that either!
O well.....onto the next adaptation in some hope, ever since Disney bought the entire film industry outright, these Marvel adaptation have gone downhill fast. Just like Disney, they couldn't create original, interesting content if they tried, they just take other people genius, throw endless quantities of money at and ruin it, big style!
The Northman (2022)
ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz!
I was really looking forward to this, couldn't go see it for weeks then got to go last night. What a disappointment! The promo slogan 'A Modern Day Gladiator' is an absolute misdirection, don't know which movie the promotion team had watched but it certainly wasn't the theatrical version....must have been another movie altogether. This was skull mushing boredom from start to finish. I can't put any spoilers in.....there was nothing to spoil. All way through I was waiting for the story to begin, the 'entertainment factor' to kick in.....it never did. Save your money, watch Vikings!
All the Old Knives (2022)
Silence
You know when they say 'if you can't say something good about a movie, keep quiet', well, I'm keeping quiet. I watched half an hour & had to switch off.
The Batman (2022)
Wow!
Throw all your other Batman BluRays in the trash, when this comes out buy it, it's the best rendition of the character yet. Dark, gritty, bleak.....just how Batman should be. Enough said!
Vikings: Valhalla (2022)
Oh Well.....More PC Woke Junk
This is 'Vikings' without the blood, grit, rawness and interesting characters of the original. I took me three episodes to finally make out who was who from who, everyone looks the same, no significant differences bar names and no stand alone characters or performers. Disappointing and average but most annoying it's another example of the PC woke brigade ruining everything they touch..... Jarl Haakon wasn't a peace loving, community building black woman queen, HE was a white ruthless, diabolical Scandinavian warlord King who didn't die bravely in battle but was cornered into a pig pen and slaughtered as a coward, in shame and screaming for his life.
Minamata (2020)
Very, Very Good!
We live in a world where few, apart from us oldies, remember a time before computers took over the world and ruined it. In like manner not many remember the time before computers, digital, green screens, superheroes in fake metal suits or rubber long-johns started to ruin the art and craft of movie making, replacing it with......well, junk dressed up as entertainment.
Few actors can pull off portraying real historic people with skill, sensitivity and genuine thoughtfulness, Depp has pulled this role off superbly as he has others when given the opportunity. I could have sat through another hour of it easily as the story covers a four year event and much could be added to give it increased depth. However, what is seen is good, very good, excellent cinematography, excellent pace, excellent sensitivity around a long forgotten historic event.
No Time to Die (2021)
Bond......Who?
If you're a Bond fan, like we are, don't waste your time or money on this instalment. The writers clearly didn't take inspiration from classic Bond history, the Fleming books or the idea of Bond, they probably sat watching way too many sloppy girly movies. Daniel Craig looked like he was going to make a fantastic Bond but after Casino Royale everything went downhill fast and never recovered.
Penny Dreadful (2014)
Brilliant......Until......
Don't know what it is about modern dramatic horror writers, there's a great beginning, lots of great detail, lots of great plot build up, excellent character development, good solid cliff hangers, all working their way up what could be a fantastic finale......and then comes an incredibly swift, nonsensical, out of the blue, totally out of character ending in the last episode that wrecks the whole story. Just like as if the writers all resigned, the money had ran out and whoever took over hadn't watched anything that had come before and subsequently didn't have a clue how to finish.....so just whipped up a bonkers, incomprehensible ending to get out from under the beached whale they'd been left with. The writers of Lost, Prison Break, Dexter all did the same.....what gives?
Had the ending lived up to the quality of the rest I would have given this a 8 or a 9 but the last half of the last season was very dissapointing.
The Green Knight (2021)
What Have I Just Watched?
I've read the Iliad, I've read Beowulf, I've read many a Classic....understood them & enjoyed them, my imagination is not lacking in getting my head round a story, but still I had to ask whilst watching this, "What the hell am I watching?" This is like a story telling jigsaw puzzle with all the narrative pieces missing, so it's more loose collection of set pieces stitched together with no story to make them make sense. If I'd paid good money to see this at the cinema, I'd not be well pleased! It's the story from an epic poem ruined!
It's like a Picasso & many other forms of modern art, so abstract that if you need the artists description/notes when you're looking at it to tell you what it is or what its all about, it's failed miserably.
Ford v Ferrari (2019)
Real Movie Making!
Best movie I've seen in a long time, great acting, great story, great effects, great realism......give me this over all the current green screen super hero garbage any day.
Sum1 (2017)
What?
This looked like it might be a good movie, despite the low reviews. I risked it, I wished I hadn't. The best part went to the Rat and he excelled. Everyone else shouldn't have bothered turning up. Whatever the story was it had no beginning, no middle, no ending and no explanation of what the heck is going on. I really should take greater care with what I pick to watch.
The Suicide Squad (2021)
PANTS!
I was looking forward to seeing this after reading some of the reviews. I don't know what the reviewers who gave this 8-10s were watching but it was a totally different movie to the one I just watched. This was total PANTS! Nowhere near as good as the first version. I hope all these huge Hollywood stars felt proud of their work, pocketed the money & ran as the finished product after they'd left the set was totally unworthy of their talent. Clearly the cutting room floor got all the best bits, as what remained was not worth the entrance fee. These huge Hollywood 'green screen' dominant starfests are getting worse!
If you value great movie making, don't waste your time on this!
The Kominsky Method (2018)
Classic!
This show is fantastic. I'm not American so maybes some of the 'in jokes' pass me by but nonetheless this is simple, character acting at its best, it looked like they weren't acting at all. No digital effects, no green screens (I think) no high wire gymnastics by anyone, anywhere, which makes for very simple, pleasant and funny viewing experience. I'm well glad I watched it and look forward to more!
Interstellar (2014)
Pass the Mushrooms.....
I don't know what all the fuss was about with this movie, perhaps it started put as a great idea but it's a great shame by the time it rolled off the 'movie making' shop floor it was a bit on the desperate side. Slow, flat, boring, potentially a great story destroyed by over intellectualism. By half an hour in it was, pass the popcorn.....or should I say mushrooms.....certainly the director was chomping some when he was making this!
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
Too Much Money.....
We waited in dubious anticipation for this movie, not so much because it was a follow on from the original but because the reviews were so bad that we thought, "Surely it can't be that bad?" We discovered the reviews were right, this is an appalling follow up. Surely with all the money and 'talent' attached to these things they could find some great writers, scriptwriters and a better director from somewhere? The storyline and script on this were disastrous, I'd say non-existent but had that been the case any decent actors could have pulled something out of the bag without a script and hammed it up with better results.
We waited for this in vain, and in hope but in the end wasted two+ hours, these superhero movies are becoming so predictable, so flat and boring, it's incredible so much money can be wasted on them!
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
At Last
This franchise have succeeded in putting me off superheroe movies big style, they started well and sank swiftly into mindless, thoughtless drivell (give me DC comics anyday) BUT this one was a breath of fresh air, very funny, great storyline, well plotted out....I've watched it several times and still enjoy it.
Destroyer (2018)
What No Rubber Suits or Flying Superpowers?
What a breath of fresh air. A powerful movie, great acting, good characters, rugged storytelling & no rubber suits, superpowers, digital wizadry with green screens....unless they used this stuff to make Kidman look so rough? Good old school movie making!
The War of the Worlds (2019)
Flick Straight Past....
No-one would believe that in the last years of the BBC, that screenwriters, dramatists and production buyers would get together to create what is probably the worst adaptation of a classic as this. Destroyed to the point of unwatchability by 'woke' brainwashing and on top of that the addition of a completely unnecessary injection of undramatic soap opera pulp, with the divorce, adultery and family breakup, mother and child thrown out into the cold wild world angle, like, where did that come from? PLEASE....HANG ME NOW?
I would completely agree with all reviews before mine that put this in the '1 bracket', no higher. I will not write an essay, it's unecessary as others have covered the main and finer points of this, let's say, most true to form BBC (let's destroy a good story with Politically Correct bilgewater) production.
My advice.....skip right past it on catch-up and certainly don't go out and buy it when they chuck it out on DVD....you'll regret it.
Ad Astra (2019)
Zzzzzzzzzz!
It was easy enough to figure out what this movie was all about......but for us it was still one of those movies you walk out of and say "What was that all about?" Perhaps the current movie culture has dumbed us to so called 'intelligent' movies but my wife and I walked out of this one thinking that we had been sat there watching paint dry. So perhaps when we've managed to figure out whether this movie was worth the time and money to see it, I may add more to this revue.
Hellboy (2019)
A Good Film Spoilt By a Bad Script
I was really looking forward to this movie after waste of celluloid which was the second installment of the franchise. I enjoyed the grittiness of this rendition and the fact that though Hellboy has a sarcatsic streak a mile wide the movie wasn't played for laughs, which to me was certainly a bonus. The biggest downside and the biggest turnoff for me was the fowl language, it spoilt what could have been a really good movie, it simply is not necessary and is an unwanted addition which 'almost' made me walk out well before the end. I endured though because there are very few movies I've walked out of. If a second installment is made, I will watch the reviews closely as I will not go to have my ears abused in such a manner again.
Knightfall (2017)
Sit Back Remove Brain & Enjoy
As regards historical accuracy, TOTALLY USELESS, this series will not teach you anything at all about the events it portrays. If however you want an entertaining, good medieval yarn.....dig in, it's certainly above average. Don't let the history buffs put you off with their drivel, there's never been a historically accurate 'entertainment industry' portrayal of anything, if it was such, it probably wouldn't be entertaining.
Halloween (2018)
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
I've been watching great horror movies since before I was born, well, before I was born I guess I could only hear the noise from the TV.....anyway quite a long time. After having seen the original years ago and all the others which this recent addition is supposed to completely ignore I have to say that I was totally underwhelmed, this lived up to its predicessor only in so much as I was underwhelmed by that too. This had so much potential not just with the technical advances since then but also with the enhanced qualities of production value, sadly for me it lived up to neither and in what can normally be assured to be the worst part of these movies due to bad scripting, bad screenwriting, bad tension building etc, the ending could have been a lot better, clearly there was an attempt to make this an open ended ploy to make it possible for another follow up but it could have been a lot better I think. Yes, the acting was pretty good, can't really blame actors but I can say honestly and with no malice, I was unimpressed.
The Predator (2018)
Why O Why?
This is one of those movies that you can either take your brain out, pop it into a pickle jar to keep awhile and simply enjoy what's going on or keep your brain where it is and be oversensitive, over analytical, over critical and ruin the experience for yourself and everyone else. I much preferred to do the former and simply enjoy it but could not for the following reasons; Too much bad langauge, to much bad langauge in front of children on screen and the encouragement of children on screen to use such bad langauge it turn, which in turn clearly sets a very poor example for viewers of any age. If this can be classed as a spoiler then so be it.
I, Frankenstein (2014)
When the Search for Originality Fails
Although all of the characters in these monster movies are fictional, when stories are reinterpreted too far from their original story lines they tend to fail. Frankenstien, in the main, was originally concieved as an idea which wrestled with the struggle between the scientific endeavour and the natural order or things, not a story of the battle between demons and angels (gargoyles in this instance). The spiritual element of the minsters quest only touched the original story due to the prominent religious world view of the times. In my view this movies failed and is rated so because it stretches the concept held in our minds beyond it's original narative.