Reviews

Could have been a great format for comedy. Except its not in any way funny. Some of the beat characters from other shows but boringly inept here. The stand up is cringe-worthy and the reality-TV clips don't offer anything either. Waste of a good concept. Avoid if you like genuine humour. Such a shame as it could have been great but just didn't offer anything new or funny.

If you like good comedy it's probably better to watch stand up from performers that you know instead of watching this tripe. It swings from annoying to painful in equal measures.

A painful watch and with so much available these days, it's easy to find something more entertaining. Not interesting at all unfortunately.

A thoroughly entertaining and original movie flick. With clear undertones of the seminal 1973 classic, The Wicker Man, it seamlessly imbibes elements of drama, horror, macabre, thriller and even a bit of comedy. Not many films are produced that are both captivating and visually impressive, but Midsommar achieves this, almost flawlessly. Five friends in a normal enough set-up that soon descend into madness during a 9-day festival in Sweden. This could have been a complete cheese-fest but with outstanding acting throughout and a narrative that held the attention despite the film's possibly overly long run time, this was an undoubted success. With biblical imagery, a twisted, yet plausible, storyline and plenty of memorable but diverse-dimensional scenes to keep the viewer engrossed, this is one of those films that will stay long in the memory. Could easily have been ten out of ten but given a nine as accepted, it won't be everyone's cup of tea. But that alone does not mean it's not an amazing piece of cinema.

Before I watched this movie I wondered how you could make an entertaining film about two people floating around in space. In the middle I wondered the same thing. By the end I figured it's probably impossible. Yes there are some amazing aspects to this production, mainly the superb quality of the expanded space environment which presumably is exactly what it is like 600km from earth and the awesome views of earth. But this film won 7 Oscars. For what? OK 2 for best film featuring what it would be like to be in space for a while and best views of planet earth as seen from a spaceship. But the other 5? Your guess is as good as mine. I know the back story of Dr Stone was supposed to make us all desperately hope she got back to earth safely but honestly every time she frantically grasped onto a piece of space station I found myself hoping that she'd miss and drift off into oblivion so the credits would roll and I could go and do something more productive than watch an ageing film star faff around in the great abyss.

In many ways Once Upon a Time.... is brilliant. It is visually stunning, with some great performances, especially from Brad Pitt who is outstanding throughout, and we are treated to some marvellous customary Tarantino-gore. However it lets itself down with a plot that is more like watching half an hour of five different films and without any real understanding of why half the scenes are in the final edit. For example why have several famous 'characters' who pop up then disappear without any sense of impacting the film other than to show that Tarantino knew who the movers and shakers of the day were? Although perhaps that is the whole point and maybe the intention is to flesh out the bizarre world of those in the Hollywood-arena who seem to be as equally disjointed as this movie. Just a shame that there wasn't a bit more plot development put into Once Upon a Time..... as it has the potential to be an absolute classic. A coherent story to go along with the stylish film-making could have made this movie great. There are lots of car journeys in the film that we follow but then realise they aren't really going anywhere, which is a bit like the flow of the whole film. If you like that sort of thing and enjoy unparalled amounts of shots of people's legs, endless cigarette smoking and random narration inserts, you'll love this. If you're looking for something more, you might not. One wonders if anyone but Tarantino had pitched this movie 'idea' would the studios have even considered making it?