Reviews

I like Michael Sheen and I admire his passion for his country and all things Welsh. So I expected better than this really because what we have here is an interesting concept which never really gets off the ground. On a personal level this has all 3 things I find most irritating: flashbacks, people having visions and the sort of deep, meaningful emotion laden conversations few of us ever really have, so I was probably destined to have issues with it.

There is clearly a political agenda going on which is not subtle at all and becomes more irritating the clunkier it gets. It's very much a "Luvvies" view of the world which, speaking as a working class person, always offends me with its patronising stereotypes and assumptions. The bit with the boat is laughable - clearly we're supposed to be thinking about the channel crossings here.

However, the notion that a revolution starts in Port Talbot, Wales is locked down and the Welsh Catcher is deployed is entertaining albeit more than a little implausible.

I think what lets this down more than anything is the characters, which are mainly quite unlikeable, and to be honest I didn't care what happened to any of them. I didn't particularly rate any of the performances and I didn't really find the characters believable either.

So I wouldn't recommend it but if there's nothing else on telly I suppose it passes the time.

This could have been much better. The basic plot was interesting, Crowe is perfect in this role so no issues with his performance. A bit more realism would have been helpful - surely the police would be a bit more proactive in this situation?

However the biggest flaw in this film is the lead female character - not particularly the actress as she did okay with what she had but the character! Spectacularly stupid decision-making made it really difficult to root for the woman. To be honest I couldn't have cared less if Crowe had finished her off before the police finally showed up. Really no-one would be that dumb.

It's not a terrible film, it kept my interest all the way through, although much of it was spent with me yelling 'lose the phone' or 'ditch the darned car' and Crowe is very believable. Its just a bit ... frustrating!

I don't mind a bit of weirdness in films but this was too much weirdness for me. The first hour is OK but it gets complicated after that. By the time we got to the play in the forest, his mother's house and the genitals in the attic I admit I was losing patience. The film is too long so what starts as quirkiness begins to tip over into "trying too hard to be edgy and different". It could comfortably lose at least half an hour.

It's not awful, it is funny in parts, but there is no real plot line here. It starts off with one but that gets sort of lost - in the forest really because that's where I lost the plot! What saves it from the dustbin is Joaquin Phoenix who is just such a good actor. He brings such vulnerability to the role - despite all the craziness I really cared about Beau and what happened to him. He has such an expressive face - the ending was a fabulous piece of acting.

So I wouldn't recommend the film but I would.watch Phoenix in anything and the six stars are really for him!

.. this series is a lot of fun. It is of course more than a little tongue in cheek but I guess that's lost on some people. It takes a few episodes to get into it but just relax, suspend disbelief and go with it.

The main character is a little annoying at times but her lack of common sense decision-making is needed to keep the story going. I thought Harper was cute in an angsty teen way and I really liked the Penelope and Olivia characters - they brought a comic touch to it. The storyline and fight scenes were ludicrous but enjoyable and no dafter than most action films.

It's left open for series 2 and I will definitely take a look. I recommend this series though - it's unrealistic but very entertaining.

It started off quite promising. The teens were all great characters, funny and engaging. It made me feel quite nostalgic for my misspent youth at times, although these teens are basically good boys and girls.

Storyline was OK at first. Not original or particularly believable but it was deliciously spooky at times. For as long as Rochelle was in it the story held my interest so I guess up until around episode 3 - maybe 4? After that it turned into a sort of weird extended Scooby Doo episode with shiny-eyed, earnest teens running round dodging death and disaster to solve the Red Rose mystery. The ending was predictably lame and implausible but to be fair its supposed to be a horror (although a pretty tame one in the end).

I suspect I am way too old for this. I'm sure teens will like it and I probably would have too when I was a teen but for grown-ups it's too long, too twee in parts and sometimes just too silly. I've scored it 5 stars as I liked the first few episodes and also the music is good.

I liked the first series. It could have been shorter but generally it moved at a good pace and kept my interest. I liked the way it played with the idea that none of us are all bad or all good and until it revealed the truth of what happened I couldn't make up my mind whether he did or didn't. I don't know if this was intentional but the fact that she was pretty annoying and not particularly likeable added to that uncertainty. So despite some criticism it's generally a thumbs up for series 1.

Series 2 is just dire. Far too long, the storyline goes from a bit silly to ridiculous and takes off in random and unnecessary directions. Clearly the writers found themselves with a whole lot of episodes and nothing to put in them. There's a lot of filler here - exactly what was the point in all that stuff about her father? The new characters that suddenly appear that clearly didn't do the deed. I mean - who even cared about them? The nonsense about the bloke in Edinburgh - just tedious. Vanessa is even more annoying this time round and the police descend into caricature.

I recommend watching the first series and just skip to the final episode of series 2. I promise you won't miss anything.

So I'll start with the positives. It's an interesting idea with potential. A couple of the actors gave quite decent performances. Pretty location. That's it really to be honest.

Now for the negatives (a much longer list!). The worst aspect of this is the script which is really dire. The acting is mostly poor but to be fair they didn't have much to work with. The ending becomes increasingly predictable as the film goes on. Characters are mainly unlikeable. I really wanted them all dead to be honest. It's far too long and not much really happens to move the plot forward. It's dull in bits and plain stupid in other bits.

It's an opportunity wasted because a decent script and better direction could have made a decent movie out of this. I recommend avoiding where possible!

Almost perfect! Had it ended at Series 2 it would have got a perfect 10 but Series 3 was weak, Series 4 was desperately trying to find an ending.

The star of this is definitely, without question, Jodie Comer. She is ridiculously good as the beautiful, stylish, psychotic assassin. She has such an expressive face - able to switch effortlessly from anger to sadness to humour. She is simply a fabulous actress. I didn't like the way they messed with her character but I suppose the temptation to show a more vulnerable side was too much for the writers. No-one else could have played Villanelle - she totally owned that role.

Fiona Shaw was also great - and Sandra Oh was good. I loved Carolyn but found Eve a tad annoying as a character but the actress did a good job with it.

Unlike most I don't have a problem with the ending. It was never going to be happy, they were never going to disappear into the sunset together. It was just a question of how and when it would happen.

I'll remember this show for its dark humour, its style, its originality, the music, the locations, and some great acting. It just went on too long but all good things come to an end.

I was a very latecomer to Game of Thrones and watched seasons 1 - 7 in the three weeks before season 8 started. The advantage of that was that everything was fresh in my mind. However, that also proved a disadvantage in that I clearly remembered stuff that didn't quite work out the way it was suggested in the earlier episodes. Another disadvantage of this cramming was being able to see quite clearly that season 8 was very rushed - clearly the writers were in a tearing hurry to get this tied up, and that's a real shame because what was sacrificed was proper plot development. The very thing that made the first few seasons so good was the time and care taken to develop characters fully. Much as I enjoyed it season 8 was not nearly as satisfying as it could have been because so much was skipped over.

Despite the above I'm not one of those who hated the conclusion. Yes there was stuff in the final episode that didn't make much sense. Wouldn't Grey Worm have just killed Jon Snow (and probably Tyrion too) on the spot for murdering his queen? The wall, all but destroyed by a zombie dragon and white walkers in an earlier episode is miraculously returned to its pristine self in the blink of an eye. The Game of Thrones is finally won by the spookily annoying Bran, but there again he had to have some purpose in season 8 and really, apart from Sansa, there were no other serious contenders. Jon had descended into being a spineless sap, only redeeming himself slightly by putting an end to the nutty Daenerys. Both Jon and Daenerys' characters suffered badly I thought through the rush to bring the story to a conclusion. Their relationship was never believable anyway because not enough time was spent on developing it, but also Daenerys' morphing into the mad queen seemed to happen in an instant.

But there were also some great moments in the final episode. I loved the scene where Drogon emerges from the snow and ash to inspect Jon. Brienne writing Jamie's epitaph in the book was a poignant moment and of course Tyrion weeping for his dead siblings demonstrated yet again what a fine actor Peter Dinklage is. I could see at least 3 spin-offs emerging from the final episode. The travels of Arya, the reign of Sansa, Queen of the North and the continuiing story of Jon Snow and the Wildlings.

All good things come to an end unfortunately and, despite the shortcomings of the final season I still give Game of Thrones a 10 because it's been truly epic. I loved it and will miss it terribly but I suspect we haven't really seen the last of it.