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stly999
Reviews
A Very British Scandal (2021)
We still put up with this!!!
It is not possible to watch this (with excellent acting from Claire Foy and Paul Bettany) and not wonder why we still have people like this controlling our country. We allow ourselves to be ruled by the upper classes in the House of Lords and still submit to a Monarchy. This series shows the pointlessness of them all. It is the fault of the British electorate for voting in Tory governments as most Tory MPs come from the same class and have no reason to give power back to ordinary people. They will keep us as subjects and slaves.
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Full of absurdity ... BUT
If only the viewer can accept the absurdities (except perhaps a big one at the end) then it is (just) possible to enjoy this film. The enjoyment comes from the acting and the storyline (MINUS the absurdities).
MotherFatherSon (2019)
GREAT: CAST+ACTING+PLOT
Don't get the scores of 1 ... maybe they saw only the first few minutes. It improves as it goes along and is always impressive for the acting, of Gere especially. If people had waited before condemning, this would have an overall score nearer 8. It is rare to have so many quality actors in one series. The rating of 6.4 almost put me off as I rarely watch anything below a 7 - but I am glad I gave it a try and wish others had done so.
Cuckoo (2012)
1st series the best
This is how it goes:
Series 1 Great (9/10)
Series 2 (BIG change of cast) Not so great but I got used to the new cast members (7/10)
Series 3 and 4 ... Like series 2 - some funny episodes but I still miss actors from series 1 (7/10, 7/10)
Series 5 (Another big change of a cast member) Just really never worked for me.(5/10)
Midsomer Murders: Blood on the Saddle (2010)
Terrible error!
Barnaby and his assistant interview Mary Moran about her dog killed by a local man. Shortly afterwards, Mary Morgan finds an injured man.... Barnaby and assistant arrive... and he tells Mary Morgan who he is .... just after interviewing her earlier!!! How did that one get past everyone???
Then there is the Helter-Skelter: Closed by a gunman using a false "closed, danger" sign ... so where was the person supervising the Helter- Skelter (there HAD to be someone)? Then the gunman leaves by sliding down the slide and was not seen by anyone??? Not seen arriving either!!!
The Bad Education Movie (2015)
RUBBISH British 'COMEDY'
Waste of the ticket money. Stay home and watch the TV instead. The opening sequence based in Amsterdam at Anne Frank's house was in very poor taste (would have scored it 3 otherwise) and I have no idea why the writers wanted to try to make funny something so serious and tragic for the child concerned. The usual boring old-fashioned type British 'comedy' where a few well known faces are included (waste of Harry Enfield's talent)to encourage people to come and see it. Reminded me at times of a poor version of what was at the time a good film 'To Sir With Love'(helped along immensely by Lulu singing the theme tune). Too many stereotypes (Battleaxe woman, fat kid, tough pupil who knows it all and done it all or perhaps has not, teacher who fluctuates from gross behaviour to soppiness). Just rubbish.
The Harry Hill Movie (2013)
Oh dear!
A waste of the talented actors in this (e.g. Walters, Broadbent) and of the time taken to watch it.
I always check IMDb ratings before seeing a film and will not see any below about 6. The Harry Hill Movie did not have a score so I took the risk.
I am a great Harry Hill fan and think TV Burp is brilliant and that You've Been Framed is at its best now he narrates it. Also I have seen him live 3 times.
But this film is dire, dreadful, amateurish and not particularly funny most of the time.
Probably the worst film I have seen this year and perhaps for a long time (I did not see Keith Lemon's movie but have heard about it!).
Harry Hill should stick to what he does best, which is short sketches. And btw, Keith Lemon is brilliant on TV in Celebrity Juice and the bar sketch featuring 'Malcolm' was genius. So maybe most gifted British comedians should stick to TV.
Prisoners (2013)
Too many flaws to be a great film.
I enjoyed the film, but noticed too many implausible situations: 1. Holly's house was searched by the police (before it was known she was the kidnapper) but it was not noticed that the photo of her missing husband showed him wearing the same pendant recently discovered on a murdered child killer. They notice these things in most TV detective shows! 2. The rescued girls did not mention the pit, but they must have been conscious there at times (or surely would have died if dropped in that distance if unconscious) and would have recounted that horrific experience. Thus the police would have gone there to search for the pit, especially when Keller was missing. 3. It seems improbable that the first rescued girl would not have mentioned that they did go into the RV and, perhaps also, that a woman was involved at some point (I am sure she would not always have been disguised enough or said so little that it was not detectable); these clues would have sent the police to Holly's/Alex's house for a very detailed search. 4. Keller went to Holly's house fully suspecting she was the kidnapper; he had a gun but chose to keep his back to Holly for an overly long period (in fact, until she had the chance to produce her own gun!). A sensible person would have gone there with his gun out (he was already in plenty of trouble over the beating of Alex so this would have been a criminal risk he was willing to take). 5. Detective Loki drove at high speed with a bullet wound to the head to get Anna to hospital asap and narrowly missed several accidents (apart from the fact he may have fallen unconscious) and may have killed Anna and himself; he could have phoned the hospital and met an ambulance part way! 6. The derelict house owned by Keller would have been mentioned to the police at an earlier stage; anyway, the impression given was that the police accepted quite readily that Alex must have run away (and also later Keller), both cases in spite of this being a kidnapping case! Little serious effort went into finding these two missing persons.
The Cold Light of Day (2012)
Dire
For some reason I had the IMDb score as 8.4 before I saw this film. Whether that was correct and it slipped heavily since or my error, i don't know. But soon into the film I was saying to my partner "No way is this an 8.4 ... it has taken bits from the Bourne films (even the girl on scooter), The Italian Job ... and other films ... and it is so badly done". Well, it was a relief to see it was scored at about 5.2 .... that is more accurate. I gave it 5 and 4.8 was for Bruce Willis. The acting was poor ... the action very poor. A film character falls a great height onto stones but soon gets up and jumps on a scooter. No way; he would be a hospital case. At one point a lot of heavily armed and protected men are in a fight with two people who have no protection and are often in the open ... but the two manage to kill those who outnumber them. In fact, like some school-based movie, it is the amateurs who win in the end. Don't bother to see it. It is not good enough to merit your hard-earned cash.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)
Overall exciting but some parts ridiculous (like most movies!)
I give it 8 for the huge battle scenes with amazing special effects. Unlike most people, this is the first Transformers film I have seen (I don't get out much)and I was impressed by the action (I am easily impressed, due to not going out much). My senses were stirred, rattled and rolled. But I question why the very beautiful Rosie Huntington Whiteley (Carly) was in the film .... she added nothing except a stunning body and big lips, but managed to keep her perfect skin totally unblemished and her white clothes unmarked, in spite of the carnage she was involved in. This girl may be a model, but an actress??? Also, it is impossible at times to know who is the bad guy and the good guy (transformer-wise); they look alike. At times the scenes were a tangle of metal and you hoped that it was the good guy who won; but were not really sure. And why do advanced aliens use bullets (or similar)? Humans can destroy whole cities with one bomb; aliens could do that, or even more. Instead at times they pick off individuals as if they are still in WW1. But in spite of those niggles, still worth seeing the film. As for the choice between 2D or 3D, I saw it in 3D but wanted something to fly out at the audience and make my girlfriend jump .... I was disappointed. But, as to whether it as good in 2D I don't know .... I would have to watch it to make that judgement but now I already know the ending .... and anyway, not sure when I will next go out.
X: First Class (2011)
Pretty crap
One reviewer wrote "This movie, would be great for someone who knows absolutely nothing about the X-Men and their abilities" .... well, I knew absolutely nothing about the X-men (in fact, I thought the movie was about The Men in Black) and I thought the movie was crap. Apparently I have to write 10 lines (a bit like at school), so I have to 'flesh out' my one-word opinion. I really only wanted to say it was "crap" because that word summed it up so well .... less is more. The actors mostly seemed like a bunch of amateurs with a set of special powers dreamt up by a 7 year-old. The girl with the wings looked like someone out for a hen party. And I thought they said earlier in the film that the girl who changed into ice could not do it again because of what they did to her .... but she did it again later! I didn't really care about the people in the film, there were no real characters; it was mostly rather silly.
Blitz (2011)
Not what I expected
I see films by first checking IMDb and avoid those much below 7.0. This usually works well and mostly I am not disappointed. This film scored 7.9 so I felt very confident about it. BUT, when it started I thought I was watching an amateurish TV programme. I disagree with one reviewer; I do think the reason for the serial killings is valid (i.e. these cops had arrested this extremely deranged killer in the past and he wanted revenge). However, I cannot believe that he left no DNA evidence at any crime scene as he wore his normal clothes! It only takes a few fibres, footprints. etc. to gain some DNA. And having identified the possible killer very early on, it seems the cops then did little more until another killing took place. I would have thought that they would have watched a serial cop-killer's every move. And the dope-head PC was a joke .... totally pointless character. Also, surely the newspaper would have noted the serial numbers of the 50K, so the money in the killer's possession (which the cops returned to him without even finding out where he got it from .... have they not heard of the Inland Revenue and how they tear your house apart if you have cash you cannot account for!) would have been traced to the man he killed in the loo (another rather unbelievable character). The only good bit was the ending (for people like me who like to see evil people get their ass kicked and liquidated) .... bit like The Departed (now, that is a GOOD film).