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Reviews
The Final Year (2017)
Superb inside look at Obama's last year
Interesting approach, doesn't challenge but let's them talk and follows.
Samantha Powell, empathetic, humble, Africa, kids, nanny,
Clash with Russian ambassador
Ben Rhodes, smart, hard-working, doesn't love the media.
2016
Puff piece?
Very foreign focused
Syria, ineffective
Obama man who feels the weight of military action with no credible plan
Ben Rhodes not another foreign war.
Frustration of getting politicians to candidly open up
Well shot, well edited, natural feel.
Red line
Soft power diplomacy
Blindness trump dismissed over and over.
Speech writing
3 different views with Obama philosophy.
Climate.
Substance.
Intelligent, compassionate, empathetic
Look at WhiteHouse how many people working there.
Liberal viewpoint. Leads to Clinton's election a forgone conclusion leading to a 37 women ambassadors to UN and Madrline A
Break glass ceiling!
The Kiss of the Vampire (1963)
Hammer Vampire film
On the postive side the film has some lovely cinematography, the music is good, some good casting and acting, excellent costumes and a story that while never very complex is at least enjoyable and keeps you engaged. It doesn't obbess too much with vampire lore but it does deliver some sense of danger and mystery. It does have a kind of safety net to it too, you know nothing too shocking will happen. If I had a criticism it's that it does at time feel very much like a 1960s movie, rather than feeling timeless. As a fan of horror though it's a fun addition to add to your library. There's something still very classic and British to it too.
The Gorgon (1964)
A bit dull
I seem to be in a minority here but I didn't enjoy this film very much. It seemed a bit of a slog, there's no real chemistry to the love triangle, it seemed too stiff and for a lot of the movie nothing is really happening.
I recently watched Kiss of A Vampire and despite there being no Lee or Cushing its just a much better film.
In this movie it all just moves very slowly, the way it tries to bring a Greek myth into 20th century Germany doesn't really work, it all just feels a bit stale, I also didn't find the design of the Gorgon itself very well done. The early part of the film also seems to require a fair bit of lengthy exposition. Only Lee really brings something to this film, his character at any rate works for me.
Pan (2015)
A really mess
A really awfully written and executed movie that just makes no real sense to me. It's yet another attempt at an origin story for a main character that nobody asked for. Peter it turns out is a WWII orphan, I thought it was usually set in Edwardian Times, can he timetravel too?
Anyway after some clunky exposition and some serious overacting a great big action set piece gets underway involving a dog fight at night time which WWII simply couldn't do. Some of the effects are really not well done either. Peter never once appears remotely confused or overwhelmed by anything that happens, we get all the tired tropes, a Han Solo knock off, an evil dictator, a chosen one who happens to also be an orphan, things make little logical sense either, a huge number of slaves spend their time mining to support the wealth of the evil villain, but who's doing all the farming I'd like to know. Other problems include Peter tge main character doesn't get to do very much, the script is not fun or clever and any violence is very much toned down. All in all it's a real mess. You are better off with the much more faithful and well acted 2003 film.
American Siege (2021)
"My blood is in these trees"
I actually thought this movie was worse than Cosmic Sin, the production values were much better in Cosmic Sin and at least there was a bit of a scifi element, this felt pretty amateurish to me.
This film just felt so cheap, I don't know if it was just a combination of it nearly all being handheld and the acting, the hostage bit turning into a group therapy session wasn't well handled, we get no backstory to the Bruce Willis character either really, not that he really has a character and the script felt contrived, how is there a drug factory the size of an Amazon warehouse behind the door of a small house? What was the point of the sniper character?
If the doctor knew all along what happened to the sister why doesn't he call the FBI?
The shot of the blood on the cotton was a nice moment at the end, but maybe I was just relieved it wasn't a handheld shot.
In one word, painful.
Cosmic Sin (2021)
Unoriginal scifi action Zombie affair
I like a good scifi film, but thus leans way to much into the action for me probably. The opening closely resembles Bladerunner while forgetting that film was actually very character driven, with interesting villains. Here we just get a rogue bunch of hero types, the cynic, the one with everything to prove, we spend forever inside a boring base with it quickly turning into an alien Zombie movie, a bit of residence evil thrown in probably, even the sound design for the alien ls sounded familiar. The effects are okay though one greenscreen sequence in space is very funny. The alien planet meanwhile looks suspiciously like earth, its just shot in a wood. This isn't a 1 star movie, it's something you can watch but don't build your evening round it. It's hard to know who this is meant to appeal too, it's too adult for kids but not serious or graphic enough to be properly adult.
The Eagle (2011)
Better than I'd expect led
I went into this movie with low expectations and actually had a better time than I thought I would. The American accents bothered me to start with and I found the characters, acting, plotting and pacing all off for the first 30 minutes. There was something just very small scale and cheap about it with some bizarre ideas about roman infantry tactics too and chariots. The story really gets going though when the two men, roman and slave set off on an epic journey north of the wall to recover the lost eagle. It has some fun imagining the Brits, there living conditions and culture. The use of language is good too not just doing everything in English. The films sequences have a feel of Realism and plausibility, our hero is not a Superman but often gets injured as we see very early on. The cinematography is gorgeous too as we go out into the wilderness. There's no trace either of pandering or trying to modernise the story which I appreciated. The roman lives by roman values and the slave has hos own different way of seeing things. It's the relationship between the two men over the movie which really makes it work for me. There's some genuine emotion, mystery and beauty to thr movie I didn't expect, the fight choreography is decent and there's a sense of Realism too, with stunts and action filmed in camera.
All in all quite impressive.
Dolittle (2020)
A career killer.....
This film is an absolute career killer, not since Around the World in 80 days (2004) or The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018) have I been quite so embarrassed for the cast. The film starts with an awkward animated intro before we switch to live action and are immediately introduced to the badly animated animals and the awkward line delivery which hits you right away like a slap to the face. The cast surely have some talent but we're they tricked into this? Instantly the whimsical musical score is annoying. The boy is dressed more like the 1950s than the 1850s in shorts, a jumper and a shirt, in a period movie you can usually at least praise the costumes.....the plot makes little logical sense, why aren't more people surprised the animals behave like people? The boys acting is sadly not great, his lines are flat but he kind of over acts with his face....he'll get there I'm sure. The girl is much better displaying real confidence and authority. Right away you notice how obvious the ADR is too, the dialogue neither sounds natural or syncs very well. The dialogue does not sound remotely like the 19th century either with lines like
"Okay boss what's our next move?"
"Is that thing up to code?"
"We are doing this! Okay we are not doing this....."
"Don't worry I got this."
Other lines of dialogue are just horribly written.
"You may be able to speak my language but that does not make you worthy of the fruit."
The film unforgivable just how no heart either, at least give me some convincing emotion.
The film has so many logical flaws in it, why is the poacher boy with a working class family sound so posh, why don't they seem at all bothered when he disappears presumably for months, why are they plotting to kill the Queen to take her thrown? In reality the Prince of Wales would automatically become king. One special effect shot in particular of the boy on the giraffe is so bad I roared with laughter. The action scenes are just weightless CGI padding, the plot is us banal, Charlie Sheen is in full panto mode chewing every bit of scenery there is. The film is just an absolute disaster, with the exception of one good performance, but even the most interesting character is not even taken on the adventure.....so many bad choices made.
Jane Got a Gun (2015)
Slow and predictable
A pretty forgetable western movie on the whole, there's nothing really new here and I really don't think the genera will be revived like this. The film is pretty slow, with a small cast, I would say there's some moments of tension, the costumes and art design are solid. It still felt like quite a small scale movie though, the villains unfortunately are just not interesting and the way it all wraps up was just very very predictable. There's also a love Triangle going on which again resolves itself exactly how you might expect. It's not a bad film but probably one that you can go ahead and skip.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)
Paradoy level bad....
It's quite hard to put into words what a complete mess of movie this is. The editing is frenzied to the point of commical, the story is simply bizarre and it has no sense of the romance or lyrical quality of the Arthur romances. The movie fails in almost all aspects, the casting to start with is very bad, I struggle to think of anyone who is cast well, gives an interesting performance. Jude Law is one dimensional as the nasty king, Eric Bana is pretty bland, Charlie Hunnam has the same smug look the whole movie, David Beckham is even in it, two GOT actors are chucked in, the actress playing the Mage looks like she'd rather be anywhere than in the movie. There's essentially no character development either, the nasty king remains the nasty king, Arthur remains the sure-footed rebel who commands respect. There's no Merlin in this, no Guinvere, no Lancelot, they couldn't even get that aspect right.
The movie more or less transforms him into a Superhero too, it's so clear this is influenced by the marvel movies, the sword is really a superweapon though and that's it, he's pretty much invulnerable throughout the second half of the film. There's so many utterly bizarre aspects too, when is this set, why are there vikings hanging out, what is up with the modern costumes and haircuts, why is the giant colloseum now in London not Rome? Also why do the cgi snakes and eagles look so bad? Why are parts of it so headspinningly stupid? What was the point of the tower? The music is also incredibly annoying and dreary, at times I was aghast at how bad this was turning out. Why is there a Chinese martial arts gym in the middle of Dark Age Britain too? Why is the cast so wonderfully diverse? These questions never get answered......
This is hands down the worst version of King Arthur I've ever laid my eyes on by some considerable difference. It almost feels like a paradoy it's that poor.
Space Chimps 2: Zartog Strikes Back (2010)
Lazy and bland.
2 stars is probably about right for this movie. While not offensively bad it did nonetheless feel lazy and without purpose. After some annoying voice-over the film opens with some stuff happening on earth. Some of the worst snf most awkward humour includes 3 scientists who start break dancing, the animation is passable but also not great. The main problem is the movie doesn't really have any actual stakes or interesting ideas or message. It just seems to have been made just to make it. Another gripe I have is how much time our main character spends talking when alone in a room, who's he talking to after all? There's barely a plot or story, just a small number of things happen. All in all very poor.
The Lost Weekend (1945)
Tough and uncompromising tale of alcoholism
A brutally tough and unflinching story of alcoholism, the characters are worn out with life's cares and cynical, it has a realistic and hardness to it you don't often find in a 1940s film. The cast all deserve strong praise for their performances. The script is very compelling and there's not 1 scene that feels unnecessary or too long. This is one of my top movies of the 1940s sticking with you long after you've finished it. The film I thought provides a very compelling descent for our protagonist over two retched days. He's the kind of character you want to strangle for all his actions yet you still somehow will him to overcome his addiction, reminding yourself he is a sick man. While not an anti alcohol movie necessarily it sure makes you question it.
Robin Hood (2010)
Weirdly dull and slow
Quite a misfire film I'm afraid. The main characters are pretty lifeless and feel stale, especially Robin and Marian. I wasn't a fan of the cinematography and the constantly zooming in on various characters. The accent is a bit all over the place, at one point we go irish. There's too many scenes as well of everyone agreeing how great Robin is, like we need to be told he's the hero.
Mark Strong yet again plays a villain, though at least while he's on screen the plot at least moves forward. Nottingham is represented by a few huts, the Sherrif of Nottingham is completely forgettable, we get some nasty French baddies, some funny arrow effects, the side characters are really underdeveloped and interchangeable. The love story is really sterile with no passion. I also had trouble understanding one character. The film is so Ernest it's almost funny when for about an hour nothing is happening. It all wraps up with a very unconvincing ending. It's just amazing how filmmakers keep getting this wrong.
Foodfight! (2012)
Poorly made and confusing
This is a hard movie to really rate, so little effort seems to have gone into it, the production values are awful, the script made no sense to me. The opening is instantly annoying and loud, the animation bland and the characters mouths don't really match what they say. I don't really rate the cast and the premise of the movie is really dull, there's also too many characters. The puns ate quite terrible, Dog-ective. There's some strange spoofs and homages and references, too many characters including one called cheseal the weasle. At least it's short, about 90 minutes, there's no real quality here but nor is it a giant disappointment either. All in all just very poorly done and confusing, not much more to say. I don't even think kids will like this.
Robin Hood (2018)
"I'm Rob..."
A really horrible attempt to update to sort of modernise the Robin Hood story. The dialogue is risable, the action sequences just endless and it even manages to become confusingly messy towards the end. Right from the off things feel wrong with some awfull anachronisms in the costumes, meanwhile Nottingham has been made to look like Kingslanding. Robin is then "drafted" to a warzone where rocks and wood explode and the combat more resembles Saving Private Ryan with the soliders trying to capture a machine gun post for all intents and purposes. We then get some equally bad slow mo Matrix rip off action.
We then move back to the UK where we have a dark snowy environment, extras in what look like dressing gowns, a strange mixture of accents, a Bizarrely diverse population for medieval England, a not so subtle anti war cynical outlook about war just making rich men richer etc. Our hero much like Batman or zorro decides to be aristocrat and establishment man by day, vigilante by night. Gone though I'd any sense of Realism or the real emotional pain Bruce Wayne lived with.
The dialogue and action become increasingly cheesy and corny, the training unbelievable predictable plus nonsensical, why are they both wearing modern jumpers?
For me the only interesting character is the Friar. We move on to a party scene where I roared with laughter at the Haircuts and costumes, the film now trying to copy Bladerunner. The sheriff is such a dull character, his henchmen evil worse. The dark leather jackets everyone starts wearing just look terribly out of place. The longer it runs the more the Superhero element takes over, the action becomes increasingly weightless, plot holes spoil every scene, I even started getting confused so nonsensical dud the plot become, Marian's boyfriend has the most unclear confusing character in the movie, how does one character magically escape being tied up, why isn't Rob arrested after showing his face? Instead though we are just bombarded with gravity defying action, a group of heroes who can't be hurt, some bad effects and endless exposition from anyone who isn't Rob. The soliders are all just faceless goons, nothing clever or original happens. The forest is replaced throughout with a dull urban setting. The film also has a real Adolescent quality to it, not in a good way, the Hood is taken to literally mean a hoody and the end music is the worst yet.
All in all a disaster, no wonder this bombed.
To Leslie (2022)
Uncompromising tale of addiction...
A tough watch but worthwhile. The movie does a difficult job on getting you to go along on a journey with a character who is really not likeable and shows some very cruel emotional manipulation at times. The issues of addiction are addressed very honestly and it largely avoids cheap and easy solutions to the problems different characters have. The acting is all really good, the music, the editing and costumes and makeup. It's a small cast, a lower budget movie but one with some interesting ideas. I still prefer the Lost Weekend for a film about alcoholism but this is also very good. The third act is where it may feel slightly contrived but overall its a solid film, not fun at all but quite powerful and well told.
Sharpe: Sharpe's Waterloo (1997)
A disappointing conclusion...
I was really disappointed sadly with this finale. On the one hand it wants to give us an accurate potrayel of the details of the Waterloo battle, at the same time it wishes to complete Sharpe's story, but his character development is long over by this point, he doesn't grow or change at all in this story. The series is not really big budget enough to potray the actual battle unlike the 1970s movie, it instead focuses largely on the farm house in the middle of the battlefield. The actor who plays Wellington I'm afraid always seemed to me miscast and never natural or convincing, like he was trying too hard, and unfortunately he has quite a lot of screen time. The dialogue becomes very strained and noticeably different to the rest of the series too. It lacks a really fun villain, Sharpe's quest v Jane is not really that interesting actually, and so we are left sort of stranded. Sharpe also does very little over the course of the episode, you could take him out of it and all the events would still have happened anyway. He mostly just goes around muttering threats and scowling.....
If we are honest with ourselves the series faltered in its final couple of episodes.
Sharpe: Sharpe's Gold (1995)
Sharpe's chicken....
Certainly one of the most bizarre and weaker of the entries into the series. In the face of it the episode has all the right ingredients, a daring mission, a beautiful young lady, an arrogant officer type for Sharpe to clash with, a nasty villain, the lovely backdrops and that swashbuckling sense of adventure and escapism. All of these elements aren't very well handled though, lots of stuff makes little sense. A group of deserters for instance encounter another armed group and decide the best thing to do is lower their guns which of course leads to their capture. Sharpe doesn't really get any interesting moments where he must make tough choices or use his gile to uncover the treachery at work. Some elements are really badly handled, the villains and their motives are completely off the wall, Sharpe at times is not all that likeable in this one I'm afraid and it lacks a lot of the humour and bravado from the chosen men we all love.
2012 (2009)
Lazy, inept and preposterous
This has to be one of the dumbest, cliched and tiresome Roland Emmerich disaster movies I've ever watched. The film goes out of its way to pander to Russia, China, India no doubt hoping to sell itself overseas too. Some of the effects at times look like a video game and for long stretches it's 100% CGI with some greenscreen so bad you can see the lines around the actors. The dialogue is horribly cliched "you work for me now...." The film somehow manages to include every landmark possible in the disaster from Mount Everest to the Effile tower. The film makes zero sense at times, why does a tiny unguarded fence protect a top secret research base? Its full of ancient mumbo jumbo prophecy, very forced exposition and lazy cliches like the female partners of rich billionaires all own tiny little dogs and like plastic surgery of course. I burst out laughing several times at how some of the effects were and tge apparent sincerity of these scenes. We witness worldwide obliteration but barely see a single actual death and there's no real sense whatsoever or actual loss or grieving. There is a cartoonish quality to some of it, compared to old 1970s disaster movies which had real sets and real stunts and amazing acting. Some scenes are unintentionally funny like the president being saluted loudly by a female fire fighter or asking about a missing person. Every disaster cliche happens. Towards the last hour things get increasingly illogical, details make no sense, a terrible uncomfortable love story emerges from the two most boring characters in the film.
All in all it's bad.
Planet Earth (2006)
It still holds up.
The original planet earth series from 2006 holds up extremely well and remains in my view one of the finest tv series ever produced. It ranks right up there with Michael Woods' In Search of the Dark Ages and the 1964 BBC WWI series. Shot in HD the series had finally solved the problem of a shaky camera shooting from the air, we now get some beautiful smooth establishing shots in a time long before commercial drones were available. The series includes episodes on the oceans, fresh water, deserts, mountains and jungles. The majority of shots remain tripod shots and some of the footage and animal behaviour captured is very interesting. The series has a sort of majestic quality to it but is also packed with content and facts too. I highly recommend getting hold of this on blu ray.
Ukraine: Enemy in the Woods (2024)
Front line horrors from Ukraine
A seriously impressive documentary film from the Ukraine Russian war focusing on a group of soliders. This reminded me a bit of the Ross Kemp in Afghanistan series using lots of body cam footage to show you the soliders perspective of tge fighting. It avoids interviews with generals and MPs and instead focuses squarely on the soliders. The beautiful forests provide a haunting backdrop to all the killing while soliders in WWI style bunkers launch drones to seek out and destroy their enemies. Feelings approaching hate seem to be all we really see towards the other side, only the Medic at the end seems open to the idea she can see the other side differently. Captured prisoners seem to reveal their motive in joining the invasion comes down to money. No mercy is shown during the fighting and it's very brutal and raw to watch. Of course no TV programme or film can ever show you the true feelings of adrenalin and fear from war but this is a very good production. One or two small objections I have are some of the use of music seemed to me unnecessary, also despite being told it was all filmed on body cams by soliders are the start it's clearly not, the cinematography is far too good in some of the sequences. It's not until the end credits you see actually most of the production team actually seem to have been British. At least though it doesn't have a narrator like Ross Kemp doing voiceover for it but does try to allow it to speak for itself.
King Kong Lives (1986)
"We're primates too"
A film I really can't recommend, it's not all that well acted you feel but it's also trying to be too sincere about parts which are really quite silly. Where the comedy is attempted it's not very interesting or clever though. I found the music quite overbearing actually. The effects range from the quite good to the obviously fake. The action stuff goes on too long and there's other periods where not much is happening. The two lead performances are alright but the human characters aren't given much to do except comment on the plot. The military are potrayed as the villains in this. Quite a bit of money looks like it went into making it but the story is just not strong. It's hard to know who the movie is aimed at too, it's way too silly for adults, but kids will find all the love stuff boring too. At times it ripps off other better movies too like having the drunken red necks try and take on the monster. The ending is pretty predictable, it's a very cheesy movie and I can't really recommend it.
The Passage (1979)
Plodding WWII thriller
A solid but slow and at times surprisingly brutal WWII thriller in which a family must be smuggled out of occupied France via the mountains on the Spanish border. In pursuit is a sadistic SS officer. With the relaxaTion of censorship in the 1970s some films pushed the limits of what they could do. The flaws of the film are it has quite a rough feelz a few bits are not that well edited, the dialogue can be stiff, the cast are all getting on, at times the German accents come and go. At times the movie is unpleasant and grim, but the characters are not really well developed due to a lack of dialogue, it doesn't have that emotional core. It does drag at times too though some of the battle sequences are decently shot, the art department also did a good job. 6/10 for me.
Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992)
Abysmal
A horribly unfunny movie. Surreal, badly acted, pathetically low brow, poorly edited. There's no real plot or anything just an Overbearing mother comedy for 90 minutes of your life you'll never get back. This isn't even guilty pleasure bad, it just drags on and on. There's also some terrible romance rubbish you don't believe for a second. The film has its fair share of cliches too though that's the least of its worries. You really want to avoid this movie like the plague. It's terrible. Even the movie title seems to have been dreamt up at the very last second. I think some of the reviews are bring way too positive, this movie is insufferable.
Atomic People (2024)
Hiroshima and Nagasaki retold by the people who were there
An interesting and important film recently made available by the BBC, the film tries to put the voices of the Japanese at the centre of it rather than telling it through an allied perspective as we often get. The archive footage contrasts sharply with the modern footage. No real attempt is made to analyse how the bombings contributed to ending the war or what other options there might have been for Truman. Very little mention is made either of the appalling facist system, whatever else this was not a random act of aggrression on a humane and enlightened society which you may forget watching the film. It remains true though that it really is so often the civilians who suffer most terribly in war. The film does not really highlight either the accepted use of "strategic bombing" by all sides during WWII, might survivors of the Tokyo Firestorms have some equally compelling testimony you wonder?
The accounts and some of the photographs make for horrifying viewing, it's really in the detail of the accounts that we discover the true horror which also extends to some of the girls who survived tending to the injured or made to help with the mass cremations. The film moves us forward in time dealing with the lives of those who survived rather than with the rebuilding of the city. The lesser known part at the end tells us about the discrimination and hardship faced by these survivors often at the hands of thrir osn government and people, as well as hearing about the effects the radiation had on their chances for marriage and children. Many of these survivors seem remarkably calm and without anger you do notice, perhaps age helps to soften things..... most of the survivors were children or teenagers when the bombings took place. One account by a survivor just 3 at the time can't really be taken as a first hand account, others may struggle to recall some details now of events from so long ago.
In summary the film achieves its purpose as a haunting account of the survivors, it does not really examine though the causes of it all. No historians feature either. In using first hand eye witness testimony though, albeit with much passage of time, it does relay some powerful accounts. An anti nuclear message also is not so subtly raised at points towards the end too, with a final address to the UN.