Reviews

To enjoy great movies, you have to sit through ones like these to really appreciate what makes a good one. Storyline, pacing, dialogue, cinematography and production. If only Blacklight had one of these.

To write a review of 600+ characters for a film so ordinary and unremarkable is hugely challenging, but I will get there, even if it means lots of padding like this which you are reading now.

So what are the positives from this film? Well, Liam's car was nice I guess. And there was a cute dog in it. And they definitely didn't draw out the finale, so much so that I missed it.

The feeling I had when the credits rolled were similar to when your dentist used to say "ok, all done". Relief.

I enjoyed the original Ringu a lot and so thought I'd give this a whirl. I'm sorry, but it was just one big mess from start to finish. Really difficult to follow, too many convoluted scenes and had none of the original's eerie tension.

If you've seen Ringu then pretend this never happened and give it a miss.

Watched this on Prime last night and was in fits of laughter from start to finish. Brought back so many memories from the mid-eighties including BMX bikes, breakdancing, terrible hair, terrible music and questionable values.

Couple this with some of the worst acting, editing, scriptwriting, sound recording and direction you've ever seen and you've got yourself a modern classic. 6/10.

This film left me feeling like I'm stupid - the last film to do that was Tenet.

Maybe if I took notes it may have helped, but by the end I was just plain confused on who was what and why and how.

I watched this on Prime (I think) last night and with just a 6/10 rating from here was not coming in with much hope. The initial dialogue didn't fill me with optimism either, but somehow the characters began to win me over.

The tech was believable and there were moments of genuine warmth. This is a story of friendship. The fact they were in a Volvo looking at space was almost secondary.

Yeah, I enjoyed it, and proof that good writing always eclipses (pardon the pun) million dollar CGI sequences. In fact, that would have probably ruined this film if they had them.

Ok, stumbled across this on Prime or one of the channels anyway, and had some time to kill. It did that, but the same way screensavers did on your PC back in the 90s.

The thing I couldn't get past though was the choice of Glasgow for the setting, and then completely ignoring the setting. Everyone had English accents (apart from More Than Freeman) and that alone would have had every weegie watching throwing their buckie through the screen at this point. I can only imagine the producers had one listen of the local accent and thought there was no way they could market this in the States.

Anyway, watch it if you want, I don't care.

Films that are north of two hours long are usually paced for character development, but there was so little depth in the main characters you had them figured out straight away - this piece could have been done and dusted in 90 mins and would have helped to attain the tension that was being strived for. I do like some films where the main characters are not begging for empathy throughout, but as the credits rolled my only emotive response was "Meh".

I just watched this film on a streaming service and could not believe how bad it was. Mark Wahlberg developed a character that he later went on to use to much better effect in Ted and The Other Guys, whilst Zooooey just stared a lot (she has lovely eyes and she wasn't going to waste them). She tried acting in one scene if I remember but realised it wasn't for her and she had better stick to her strengths.

It wasn't until the end that I realised I had seen this when it first came out - and had buried it deep, deep within. I'm only writing this review as a reminder that I've now seen this twice and I cannot continue to make this mistake.

As much as I enjoy having multiple directors and watching their contrasting styles (The Sopranos is a great example) - this episode made me think how much better the series would have been if Gareth Evans had full control over every episode.

It's an absolute masterpiece of action cinematography.

I've never seen anyone nail the trauma of mental illness like Tom Pelphrey did in this episode. It dragged me back (somewhat reluctantly) to my own episodes from my past. And as other people have said, it was heartbreaking.

Two really good performances in this, Penelope Wilton and Sally Hawkins, imaginative direction (and cinematography) which really took you on the journey of someone who hears voices at times, but yet.. once again , let down by poor dialogue, feeble characters and a tepid script.

In fact it felt like it turned into a modern BBC sitcom, and I can't be more damning than that. Another wasted opportunity to portray the taboo subject of living with a mental illness in the 70s and 80s.

I can only assume they shot the action sequences first, but then the COVID-19 outbreak stopped them filming any character development. Tom Hanks was Tom Hanks.

It was good, but could have been a classic if there was some consistency with the direction and writing. If all nine episodes were written and directed by Evans then I think it would have been right up there. Episode five - 10/10.

I absolutely loved the first series - it took you on a journey with meaning, the script was almost flawless.

The second series reminded me of Gordon Ramsay revisiting one of the previous restaurants in Kitchen Nightmares. Nothing had really changed (I know that was part of the point), but the humour which had delicately balanced the sadness in the first series, had degenerated into just plain crudeness. I'm not sure what the obsession with the C word was all about either - perhaps in this parallel universe it is widely accepted and tolerated with a knowing smirk.

This almost started to feel like a sit-com; all the characters had already been established and were now just treading water.

A shame and I'll be surprised if Mr Gervais agrees to write a third series. Where can it go from here? Either a Hollywood ending, his suicide, or just Groundhog Day.

When a film is "written and directed" by someone, you'd think one would understand the other. Not in this film - it was a confusing mess from start to finish peppered with cliches crow-barred into scenes. The whole movie jumped around from scene to scene as if it was using a teleportation device. Beam me up Scotty.