Reviews

Firstly if critics had read the book maybe the reviews for this film would not have been as scathing. However at over 2 hrs this is not the 3 hr version that Ben Affleck was hyping up even before filming began. If he would have given us the 3 hr version then this would have been his magnum opus!

That said, the film is still very solid and 90% faithful which is a brilliant book written by Dennis Lehane who also wrote Mystic River.

I read the book after seeing the film and was very surprised how faithful this film was to the source material. The beginning of the book has Joe Coughlin's feet cemented in stone ready to be thrown in the sea (this was not in the film, as this is also the climax of the book and the film's climax is different)

The prison sequence in the book after Joe's arrest after the bank robbery takes up about 3 chapters in the book. This is where he meets the Italian Mob Boss (In the film he meets him when he gets out of jail). In the film after his arrest his prison time is explained in voice over. And then there is sequence in the book when he helps the cubans seize weapons form a cargo ship. Besides this and the ending where the shootout in the book takes place outside, in the film it takes in the hotel the rest of the film is very faithful to the book. Even the dialogue in the film is taken straight from the words from the book. The car chase after the bank robbery literally is exactly how it is explained in the book so to are scenes with The KKK leader at the cafe. That scene plays out exactly how it is described in the book.

So even though it is a flawed film I do believe that the Director's Cut would have had at least another 15 mins of the extended prison sequence from the book. However, this remains an underrated crime film!

This film truly did set the standard for other actors to follow in musical biopics. This film is a showcase for Sissy Spacek's incredible performance as Loretta Lynn. To ask an actress of any talent to play a real life person from the age of 13 to 40 is difficult for the most talented performer. But when you consider that Sissy Spacek was 30 at the time she pulls this off amazingly as if she is literally aging though the years as her image and hairstyles change not to mention that she absolutely nails the vocals of Loretta Lynn that she sang. No miming here!

The brilliant writing of how Loretta Lynn had a poverty upbringing to her marriage, to going around the country trying to get DJ's to play her music, to the Grand Ole Opry, her friendship with Patsy Cline, how stardom and being overworked led to exhaustion and collapse on stage is all brilliantly recreated. It also doesn't shy away from the fact that she was also struck by her husband who would display a short temper!!

So many biopics only have a wikipedia type storyline where the actor just sings the songs and full picture of their life is largely ignored like in Respect, Bohemian Rhapsody or the truly awful I Wanna Dance with Somebody.

This film truly did set the standard with musical biopics. Easily one of the best along with Amadeus and What's Love Got To Do With It!

Never have I seen a movie that critics drool over that I feel asleep in watching not once but twice. Poor acting and utterly unrealistic. This was one of the most boring courtroom films that I have ever had the displeasure to watch. How this could win the golden globe for best foreign language film over Godzilla: Minus One tells you everything about these old fart award voters. It is also no surprise that Mark Kermode lauded this film comparing it to Hitchcock's work. One minute the film is in English then it changes to French. I found the pacing boring and the ending stupid. The women who is on trial is acquitted without any explanation of who killed her husband. Just another French film that thinks it's clever but just comes off as annoying as it tries to have an ending open to interpretation.

All testimony and pointless resolution that resolves nothing. Was it murder, suicide or mischance. Not even the director knows. Utter rubbish. 2 and half hours with no resolution. The film is like reading a book with the last 5 chapters missing.

For 4 seasons this show was on par with Boardwalk Empire, but unlike that show Peaky Blinders is completely undone by a terrible final season that has no focus and wastes potential storylines and resolutions that had been set up in previous seasons.

Now the general consensus is that Season 4 of this show is the best as this had a great storyline involving the mafia and really hit it's stride at this moment in the show.

Season 5 then set up a duel between Tommy and Michael and introduced Oswald Mosely as a menacing villain for this to continue into the final season and yet after a 3 year wait Steven Knight decided to go all Game of Thrones on us.

The final Season of this show is so unfocused and became so unrecognisable from previous seasons as Steven Knight decided to juggle sub plots that were either boring or just destroy loved characters. In some cases both at the same time.

The reason the final season does not work is because:

Why set up Mosely as the potential Season 6 villiain from Season 5 only to waste and side line him for Jack Nelson who was neither menacing nor cunning.

Why have Tommy go on a wild goose chase with Esme who tells him about a stupid gypsy curse that takes up an entire episode only to have Tommy kill the gypsy who created the curse after his Daughter dies. What is the point of Esme in this season. She left the family after her husband died in season 4 just to return for this stupid episode.

Why was the subplot about about Tommy daughter even exist. We spend no time with Tommy or his Daughter prior to this only for her to get ill, be fine and the get ill again and then die which had no emotional impact what so ever and then to have Tommy's Wife cry for the next 3 episodes continuously.

Why did Arthur go all the way to Liverpool to meet Hayden Stagg only for him to cry like a baby when he belittled him and then Arthur just leave and not even conclude what he was in Liverpool to do in the first. I mean FFS!! Is Steven Knight purposefully trying to piss people off!! And then for Tommy to do what Arthur was supposed to do in the meeting 2 episodes later.

Why did we have the promise of a duel between Tommy and Michael only for Michael to be in prison all season and have only 2 scenes when he is was visited by his wife and then come out of prison at the end of episode 5 only to have Tommy despatch of him so quickly. There was no build up except when Michael went back to the pub and wait for the explosion but it was so obvious that the bomb had been switched to the other car.

What the hell was with all the music this final season. The show had always had music but it was overused with terrible music that was just a noise.

Why have Laura McKee, the IRA Captain tell Tommy that she killed Polly and have her do nothing until the final episode just to have her killed off quickly without any conflict, just anti climatic.

The ending was terrible. It resolves nothing and has a 1, 2 combo of complete convenience. First Tommy who should have shot himself in the head hears the voice of his dead Daughter at that exact moment in time, then she tells him to keep the fire going and you must live as she tells him he's not sick. And then Tommy comes across a newspaper that just happens to have photo on it of Mosely's wedding with the doctor next to him and realises that this was all set up about his illness. That's just lazy writing and cries desperation to give the audience a twist.

Why introduce The Billy Boys in Season 5 and then just drop then completely in the final season.

Now, some of these questions may be answered in the film but that is just a cop out. When you look at the greatest shows of all time, their legacy is secured by whether a final season and in particular the finale can stick the landing. This was the case with Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, The Wire, The Shield, The Americans.

This final season should have come out all guns blazing like Gomorrah or Boardwalk Empire. It should have been all out war between the Peaky Blinders and the Billy Boys and resolved the Oswald Mosely storyline started in season 5. Steve Knight really dropped the ball with a terrible season finale in a utterly unfocused and disappointing finale season.

Having not read the books and going into this series with no actual indication of how characters die or where they end up, the series is just amazing with amazing performances, incredible writing and just so many great episodes to re-watch. Not to mention the amazing world building and jaw dropping CGI and action sequences.

Firstly, I loved the entire series including 'yes' season 8 and I'll tell why the fan babies who have no jobs need to get a grip: 1. The soundtrack is incredible 2. The visuals and battles in season 8 were just off the charts 3. As the show overtook the books this season was unpredictable as no-one knew how this was going to end.

4. Dany's end was always foreshadowed so when I hear about when she flipped a switch to mad queen, this was always the intention. We just got there too quickly. But the destruction of King's Landing was one of the most jaw dropping scenes in the entire show.

5. Theon's redemption arc was brilliantly handled so when people cry about how the show destroyed 8 years of character development need to look at Theon's redemption arc as they are too busy crying of Jamie Lannister's arc.

6. The Cleganebowl Pit fight between The Hound and The Mountain in one final brawl was the most personal fight in the entire series and the most satisfying scene in the final season.

7. All storylines were wrapped up and the wheel was broken which is what Dany said she was going to do way back in season 6.

So for everyone complaining about Jon's imprisonment and Dany's mad Queen turn and Bran as King need to get a grip as DB Weiss and David Benioff did have information from George R. R. Martin of how he intends to end the book series and they are murmurs that Bran does indeed become King.

Never has a film's title been so misleading. This should have been called The Year of Taking Photos. Great journalist movies alays get to the heart and consequences of the story that is being covered whether it is The Pentagon Papers in 'The Post' or Watergate in 'All The President's Men' but crucially the film that you will compare this to is Oliver Stone's Masterpiece Salvador that showed 2 jouranlists documenting the El Salvador Civil War and the audience are given an upfront view of the atrocities. That is what I thought I was getting with this film but the movie takes so long to get going you realise that you have been watching the movie for an hour and nothing has happened.

The film shows absolutely no mass killings during the 1965-66 period that it is depicting or the aftermath and crucially nothing from the politically point of view. During this period nearly 1 million people were killed. Why then do we get Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver 's boring love story that neither felt believable or relevant. It fells like it belonged in another film.

A massive disappointment!

After revisiting season 8 after the awful ending of 'Dexter: New Blood' this finale now seems to fit Dexter's character. The Dexter we knew would be riddled with guilt and abandon his son and girlfriend to save his own skin or he would have been caught.

From the code that Harry taught him, he would have saved his own skin to fake his death and assume a new identity.

I want to remember my Dexter as living in hiding under another identity and evading capture. I will take this closure any day over him being killed by his son from the absolute abomination that was 'New Blood'

This finale will be revisited and looked in a completely new light now!!

Where do I start with this one. We were told that this would right the wrongs of the season 8 finale. Michael C. Hall told us that the ending was great and that Clyde Phillips said it was the best thing he had ever written. To hype this up and to make true Dexter fans believe that this was going to fix everything and restore the shows legacy to have an ending like this is actually worse than season 8. That season ending was good in theory that Dexter faked his death and consumed a new identity, it was just the execution that was bad. Here however, this ending is just plain bad and dumb!!

There is no way that Angela would have tied Dexter to the Bay Harbor Butcher killings from a couple of Google searches and evidence conveniently falling into her lap when you consider that Dexer had evading capture for years and wasn't caught by alot more clever detectives. Sorry but I'm not buying into this!!

Dexter escaping jail and then asking his son to meet him in the woods and for the writers to have his son kill him is the worse ending they could have come up with considering all of the killers that Dexter had caught and killed in previous seasons especially The Ice Truck Killer and The Trinity Killer. If you are telling me that this is the way one of the greatest anti-heroes of TV goes out then sorry but I'm not buying it!!

Dexter stopped being great after the excellence of the first 4 seasons. The original plan was to have Dexter caught and put to death by lethal injection and Dexter seeing all the people he had killed. This would have been the ending we the true fans of Dexter deserved but Showtime wanted to turn Dexter into someone who would always evaded capture and give the show stupid and more unrealistic storylines like Deb having feelings for Dexter, kill rooms being set up in a hotel, recycling the same storylines from previous seasons and having Dexter act completely out of character.

What a complete waste of time. Seasons 1 to 4 were brilliant and they should have stopped there when the show peaked with The Trinity Killer that had one of the best season finales ever. How can you mess up an ending not once but twice. This is the stain that will be forever left with the Dexter legacy. I cannot put into words how much this finale has angered me.

Thanks for nothing Showtime!!

How in the world do you botch the ending twice. All the wrongs from season 8 could have been fixed but they have failed to stick the landing for a second time. How is that even possible.

Character decisions make no sense, Dexter does things that are totally out of character just to have him killed by his son. Harrison is not even a killer. It's like the writers got together with Showtime and said 'let's give the audience the middle finger and give them an ending worse than season 8' At least Season 8 had Dexter faking his death with an open ended continuation.

Clyde Phillips stated that this ending would stick the landing and that it was the best thing he has ever written.

Dexter should have ended with the original idea with Dexter being caught and killed by lethal injection in a season 5 that was different than the one we got. I never thought in a million years this would be this bad. I am absolutely fuming that this was the ending they chose!