Reviews

Another LGBT offering that seems to divide viewers from either thinking it was amazing or it was awful. Personally I thought it was disappointing. Other reviewers have already summed up most of what I thought was wrong with it. It just doesn't seem to work. Two guys both in unhappy relationships, have a toxic affair, one leaves his partner the other goes back to his then regrets the affair ending.

Unfortunately neither Warren, John or Richard do enough to make the viewer either warm to them or feel any sympathy for them leaving Mark as the only sympathetic character caught up in the whole mess.

One of the few likeable characters (aside from Pink) was Henry and to be honest he would have been a much better love interest either to have the affair with or to be the post affair resolution to Mark's story.

Having just re-watched this to give it a second chance I have to say I still hate it!

It could have been amazing and there were some great scenes, sadly these wasn't enough of them and the characters were not rounded out much beyond the stereotypical. The whole thing just seemed to suffer from a lack of thought and planning, not helped by having a seemingly bi-polar main character who one minute is shy, quiet and nervous then suddenly possesses the biggest pair of balls knows to man in how he stands up to people.

The film sets out to portray the Caribbean as region occupied mainly by bigots who use religion to rabble rouse a culture of hate and fear to drive home their homophobic message. This is fair enough, but if that is the case, why make the movie at all if you are going to kill off the main character just as the ending is pointing towards something brighter and more hopeful. I would have given it 5 or 6 out of 10 were it not for that one moment. It just made the rest of the movie completely pointless.

I really don't understand why so many gay movies have to end with either a death, tragedy or the main protagonists going their separate ways. I know that not every LGBT movie can end on a positive, I totally get that but what I don't get is why so few do? What is the problem that gay film makers have that every once in a while they can't give the viewer a reason to be happy and to give them that positive ending. Are they incapable? It's got to be good for the mental health in a world where being gay can sometimes be hard enough.

Instead we are repeatedly subjected to this!

I am really torn with this film. I gave it 5 stars because at times I felt like it deserved more and at other times I felt like it deserved less.

If I step aside from the factual inaccuracies and review it as a story, I particularly enjoyed the earlier parts depicting the bleak and harsh conditions facing the young recruits and how they progressed through the tough military training. And in some respects that made up for the lack of a specific storyline. For the last 15 minutes however, the lack of a storyline was plainly evident and the ending felt rushed.

On the other hand the gay romance element was virtually none existent. Its long been an annoyance of mine that supposed "gay themed" movies never do enough to explore that angle and often end either on a negative or leave the viewer thinking "what?"

My actual words when the movie ended were "is that it?"

I understand that the setting made it difficult to fully explore much of a romantic angle but if that's the case then why bother with it in the first place? If you are going to make a gay movie then make one. Don't just throw out some half arsed attempt which once again leaves the viewer feeling confused or robbed. It's becoming very repetitive and boring quite frankly.

To sum it up in two words "disappointing" and "lacking"

According to the Plot Summary:

"Two popular teen boys, best friends since childhood, discover their lives, families, and girlfriends dramatically upended after an unexpected incident occurs on the night of a 17th birthday party"

It was on this basis that I purchased this movie. Fully expecting a story revolving around some form of Gay romance. I feel having watched the movie this is misleading to say the least.

I can see a lot of reviewers love this movie but I have to say I'm torn. Probably because what I was expecting and what I got were two different things. And on the same token everything I liked about the film was countered by something I hated.

I was really hoping that the story would focus more on the relationship between the two male friends Franky and Ballas (why the hell the writer thought this name was a good idea is beyond me - I'm not the first person to say I found it incredibly distracting). I found that it was anything but that as after the "incident" they shared very little screen time together other than to argue and fight, while Franky pursues some sort of relationship/friendship with Ballas's sister who carries her own emotional baggage, while also trying to re-connect with his estranged father who left Franky's mom to have a relationship with another man, and sharing a few scenes which provide nothing more than attempted comic relief as he helps/gets help from his wannabe transgender friend Mouse who is so stereotypical its actually quite offensive and not in the least bit amusing.

The positive notes are certainly in the performances. I really thought the cast did a commendable job for the most part and another thing the film did was accurately portray what an incredibly blurred and confusing line "sexuality" is among young people today. Hardly surprising when Facebook offers something like 71 gender choices. We've certainly come a long way from the days when the question of "Sex?" on any questionnaire was usually answered with "Yes Please".

Well today I am identifying as someone who is annoyed and somewhat let down by a film which could have offered so much more. Its become a common gripe of mine that film makers who make movies which lean towards the LGBT+ audience can never seem to give them a conclusive ending except when it ends on a negative (which it often does), instead going for either the usual cop out of the "you decide" open ending which resolves nothing (like this film does) or hinting at a happy ending but never quite going far enough to conclusively say "Yes, its love, they end up together".

I don't know where they seem to get the preconceived notion that's what the audience want to see. I for one certainly don't. I can't think of how long it is since a gay themed movie actually delivered a happy conclusive ending. John Wayne rode off into the sunset many times during his long and distinguished career. Is that option really too much to ask for?

Again I struggle to understand the gulf in the opinions of the reviews for this movie. It seems people who have watched it either love it or hate it with very little middle ground.

Ok so here is the story. Five British soldiers stationed in Afghanistan (It actually looks more like some woods and abandoned buildings somewhere in England) battle supernatural forces on the last night of the Afghan war.

As soon as I saw the opening few shots and realised it was a handheld/found footage movie my heart sank. I can understand why film makers do it. Its cheap to produce, but rarely are these types of films done well and this was just another example of that. Of film makers too wrapped up in their idea to remember that the primary objective of a movie is to entertain its audience. This one fails on several levels.

The shots are messy and its hard to follow what's going on, the dialogue is average at best and the film feels incredibly slow. I would have to credit the actors who do their best to breathe life into the dull repetitive script. The performances are half decent although Sally Day's incessant shrieking towards the end of the movie had me reaching for the remote. All I kept picking up from the dialogue was something about being double crossed over the money and something about something being out there (by this point I was only half paying attention).

In short its a very poor effort and it comes across as another example of clueless film makers trying to make their mark by being edgy and alternative, while trying to fill diversity quotas.

I was compelled to write this review as I completely disagree with the negativity the other reviewer gave to this pleasant little movie.

Friends Matthias and Frederick go home after school one day and spend their time doing what some teenage boys do, watching videos on YouTube. It soon becomes clear that there is a certain tension between them which both boys seem to be struggling to find a way to deal with, perhaps through fear of rejection.

Having been in their situation myself, in less enlightened times, I thought it was handled very realistically as they both struggled to express their true feelings while awkwardly trying to find a way to discover the feelings of the other person. As was mentioned in the previous review, the girl on the internet thing is something I might actually have done and once again it seemed to serve as a way for one of the boys to gauge a reaction from his friend while going back to the "safety" of not admitting your true feelings for fear of rejection.

I really don't want to say too much more as I don't want to give away what happens (which is hard considering the film is only 8 minutes long), but I thought this was a nicely made and well acted little movie with both boys portraying the sense of wanting and awkwardness very well. I also feel that after many years of having to endure gay themed movies that all seem to end in either death or break up, its actually quite refreshing to see film makers at least trying to give viewers something more positive in recent years.

Judge for yourselves but I would certainly say this film is worth a viewing.