Reviews

On a deserted back road in Australia an English widow literally bumps into and teams up with an ex-police inspector whilst investigating her late husbands death in the middle nowhere. She has a few clues gleaned from his phone which set them on their travels through the outback solving a series of mini mysteries, if you can call them that, involving an assortment of potty characters, ex-loves and the now obligatory diversity storyline. Along the way we get the odd glimpse of what should be the main storyline: why was her husband in Australia in the first place and why did he end up dead in the middle of nowhere?

Bryan Brown and Greta Scacchi are both excellent actors but not in this little excursion. They play the eponymous characters, Joan and Jack, like a pair of cardboard cut-outs with no chemistry whatsoever between them despite the storyline hinting at a developing relationship with each successive episode. Then there are the supporting characters in each episode who are in an entirely different league. Made up of every ridiculous archetypal Aussie personality that the scriptwriters could stuff in, they are often way over the top. The actors portraying them, apart from the odd few better known names, appear to have been plucked off the street so dire is the acting as they spout poor dialogue with all the expression of a Gerry Anderson puppet. And I'll not mention the irritating lesbian daughter, yawn!

To make up for the less than mediocre plot, poor character development and sketchy acting we are treated to long scenes of the outback; from long straight roads traversing miles of flat red earth linking quirky townships to lush green forests with secret waterfalls to rolling waves breaking on pristine beaches. In fact, a good percentage of each episode plays like a holiday company travelogue advertising "Visit Beautiful Australia". All very pretty but unnecessary to the plot.

The only good thing that can be said for this series is that it is a take your brain out of gear, easy watch with no gratuitous sex or violence. You can indeed watch it with your granny!

After watching several well produced and entertaining shows made in New Zealand I started watching One Lane Bridge with high expectations. The first series started with promise, a murder, a new cop in town and several hints about the supernatural mystery of the titular bridge waiting to be solved to be solved. However, what we get is a show which can't quite make up its mind whether it's a cop show, a drama about a man coming to terms with his ethnic birthright or a soap opera. For this we have to endure watching our protagonist lurch from one scene of meaningless angst to another as he discovers and denies his "gift"; which takes a whole six episodes for him to discover. Whilst all this is going on he meanders through the vast scenery of New Zealand attempting to solve the aforementioned murder in a way the makes the Keystone Cops look efficient. By mid way through the first series I was beginning to think "did he really do/say that" with each new contrived mistake he makes. In between all the navel gazing of our gifted cop we are treated to the wheeling and dealing of the town locals who, along with the local police, are portrayed as greedy, conniving, self interested, sexist, racist and homophobic. The denouement, when it comes is so predictable I had guessed it by the end of episode 2. Nevertheless I proceeded on to series 2 in the hopes that it could only improve now our protagonist had recognised his gift for what it was. But oh no, he was still in denial. How many times do we have to watch this man watching his ghosts before the plot moves on. Series 2 is much of the same thing; murder, angst, a lot of pretty scenery and the conniving locals; cooking up a storm over a construction project and water rights this time; which have nothing to do with the main plot. Again, the denouement becomes obvious fairly early on. I got so bored with it I skip watched just to see if I was right. And, just for completeness I skip watched series 3. More fool me. Supposedly taking place only a short while after later the big construction project which was in full swing at the end of series 2 has completely disappeared as have all the inhabitants, who have, supposedly, been there for 5 generations. There is, however, a new construction project; which gives a brief nod to the former construction plans by showing a model of the new bridge promised in the previous series; and a town full of new characters; who have also lived there for 5 generations! There is no reference to any of the former inhabitants who were supposedly the mainstay of the town. I wonder if the actors got fed up of being in such drivel and moved on to pastures new. Series 3 also sees the race agenda becoming more prominent. The murder solving stuff has now become secondary to the main plot which once again, centres around our protagonist manages to eke out 5 more episodes of angst before finally accepting his fate. A promising premise for a show which ultimately descended into a mire of nonentity. Thank goodness for the fast forward button.

I found this series completely by accident when I got a free three month trial subscription to AppleTV+; which is generally too wokey for me. However, by the time the title credits rolled I was already hooked. The plot revolves around a bunch of misfit spies relegated to Slough House; where incompetent spies are sent to end their days ; for various cock-ups and transgressions. All the characters were well cast but for me there were a few stand out performances. Jack Lowden plays the young ambitious newcomer, River, sent there after being set up, bumbling around trying to prove he's as good a spy as his dad but continually messing it up. Saskia Reeves as the alcoholic administrator who is smarter than she appears is in excellent form whilst Christopher Chung plays the obnoxious tech guy so well I actually wanted to slap him and Freddie Fox looks like he is really enjoying playing his character like a James Bond arch villain. Then there is Gary Oldman's ageing spy, Jackson Lamb, who seeped onto our screens with a fart. His character seems like a run down, seedy, uncouth version of his portrayal of George Smiley, who leads his little group of misfits through two seasons of great spy capers where they prove that they are smarter than we are led to believe, beating MI5 to the punch every time. It was good to see British humour throughout rather than the brash humourless stuff we often have to endure. Well done to all the production team for a well written, well crafted show. I really hope there are more seasons to come.

Hopefully this was only a limited series since it was terrible, looked like it had been made with a low budget and was way too long at 6 episodes.

I began watching as it looked like it was going to be a good sci-fi/horror series with a good, although, as with everything these days, tick box cast. However it was nothing of the sort. Despite the bad script; everyone shouting at each other; it began with one character reading "The Kraken Wakes" as a hint of things to come. However it never came close to the promised horror which never materialised as the whole thing rapidly deteriorated into yet more greenwashing climate change drivel. As for action, all we got were scenes of people getting angry and pushing buttons; a lot of filler with the cast running around what looked like an old 1970's Dr Who set constructed from several containers joined together with scaffolding; long shots of the North Sea and too long hippy dippy scenes of CGI bubbles floating around (looking not unlike the spore drive in Star Trek Discovery) and trying to communicate with the enraptured character whose body they have taken over. The series finally limps to its obvious; to me at least; depressingly apocalyptic conclusion.

I watch TV to be entertained not to be hit over the head repeatedly with the "we are destroying our planet" hammer, which killed any interest I might have had in it's thinly veiled message. I watch documentaries for that.

Tokyo Vice is supposedly based on several actual cases the writer reported as a journalist but none of them are covered in any depth and appear to have been inserted into the plot merely to give the impression of authenticity. The first 7 episodes deserve 9 stars for the production, plot and character development, music and cinematography. The final episode however only deserves 1 star and made watching the previous 8 or so hours a complete waste of time. Although I was unsure at first I was hooked by the end of the first episode. The characters had depth and were developed throughout the subsequent episodes, but in the end it was all meaningless since the final episode reduced them all to mindless stereotypes and jibbering idiots.

I particularly liked watching Sato's struggle between his good and bad sides play out as his character developed and would have preferred to see a more intelligent conclusion that just having a previously slighted comrade stab him in the street. The main female character fares no better, I know people do get scammed in real life, but after having the intelligence to steal a large amount of money from her church and squirrel away enough of her earnings to buy her own club how, in the final episode, did she not see the scam from a mile off? I know I did! Or was that just a contrived plot ploy to bring her to the point where she takes out a loan, becoming indebted to the "not bad" crime lord?

The police storyline is also initially developed well, they are both highly competent cops trying to do a difficult job in difficult times, but in such a way that you know one of them is bad, but which one? Again the final episode reduces them both to being complete idiots as the collude to bring down the "bad" crime lord, both unable to see they are being played by him and placing themselves at his mercy.

And as for the character of the journalist, well all I can say is; what a shallow, arrogant and self serving p***k he was! There was no real character development as he bounced from one failure to another, looking completely baffled and putting friends, colleagues and perfect strangers in harms way in pursuit of his agenda; being the only Western correspondent for a Japanese newspaper; but how do you develop a non-entity? Let's face it, the majority of folk would never have heard of the real Jake Adelstein if it wasn't for this series. I know I wouldn't.

Finally, the first episode shows the reporter and the cop in a meeting with the "bad" crime lord before flashing back to how they arrived at this point. But we never actually get back there so what was the point of that scene?

My final thoughts, what started off as an excellent series was let down at the end with bad directing, bad dialogue, bad acting and a host of ridiculous loose ends which should have been tied up in a much more intelligent fashion. If there is a second season count me out.

I am a big fan of all things sci-fi, whether it is the novels and stories by the likes of Isaac Asimov, Philip K Dick, Ray Bradbury and even Harry Harrison or movies by George Pal or Ridley Scott, but this is not in their league and at 20 episodes the series is way to long. An interesting idea plot wise, big corporation in a universe; "Alphaverse"; dying from over pollution has developed a link to a series of parallel universes in order to plunder their resources. Predictably things go awry after an explosion affecting all three connected universes. The first universe has a decidedly Blade Runner feel, filmed with a green filter and mostly in the dark and rain. Keeping to the Blade Runner theme the big corporation is run from a shiny, palatial office at the top of a tower by a cross between Rachael, the replicant and Cruella De Vil whilst the hero tries his best to be Deckard; even when hurled into another universe; but spends too much time miserably contemplating his navel or chasing his tail for hours on end and getting nowhere fast. Even the cop in this universe looks and behaves like he was drafted in from Blade Runner. The second universe; supposedly ours as it is set in Cape Town; is where most of the action takes place. It has more of a gritty realism with what feels like hours of our protagonist running around seedy backstreets and echoing warehouses either chasing or being chased before ending up in long drawn out fight scenes. This is where he also meets the conspiracy theorist destined to follow him around aimlessly and who, when the protagonist disappears for weeks on end, never wonders if he's OK. This "Betaverse" is also where our antihero, the seemingly psychotic son of the corporation founder spends an inordinate amount of time in unnecessary sexual activity in his nightclub when not dousing himself in water and travelling between all universes at will. The third "Gammaverse" is shot in warm oranges and blues and looks more like an advert for an exotic holiday. From this paradise we get a pointless female "terrorist" hurled into Betaverse as a result of her part in the explosion. She spends most of the series looking confused whilst running away, being captured and brainwashed by some weird group, running away, killing random people and running away until she finally gets to go home in the final episode. Several episodes could have been binned completely as they are obviously a filler episodes adding little to the plot. The final episode was just plain silly, with a lot of poor acting and editing as our protagonists lurched into Matrix territory, in what I presume is yet another universe, to spend eternity hooked into the system controlling the links they have opened up between the other three. If the producers had cut out the hours of navel searching, interminable sex scenes, the long drawn out chase and fight scenes and the unnecessary filler episodes this series could have been half the length. I do have to confess that I only made it to the end by resorting to the fast forward button quite a few times as the episodes trundled on.

I wasn't expecting much from this movie but my grandson wanted to watch it. Yes, it is a story we've seen umpteen times, something big is going to destroy the earth but no one will listen, so it is up to disparate group of characters to try and prevent the disaster, usually succeeding, against all the odds, by the skin of their teeth. And yes, we are treated to the predictable CGI scenes of the earth falling apart whilst their families battle their way to a safe haven. And yes we get the schmaltzy reunion scenes at the end. However, this movie was unexpectedly enjoyable with a bit of a twist, the moon ain't what we think it is, which made the latter part of the movie feel like Douglas Adam's Hitchhikers Guide meets George Lucas's Death Star with a bit of alien (or is it?) AI out to exterminate all life forms in its path thrown in for good measure. Two of the main characters, the astronauts, are cookie cutter with predictable back stories but are bearable to watch despite the mediocre acting. However, the archetypal fat, nerdy guy; with his mad theories which no one believes but turn out to be true; turns out to be quite endearing and by far the best of the three, the only one, in fact, that you really care about what happens to him, especially at the end of the movie. The supporting stories and characters are predictable, the rebellious teen turned hero, the ex partners; who really should have stayed the course since they really do love them; the cutesy kids and pets and the blundering military intent on nuking everything it doesn't understand. What I did find refreshing; although I might be missing something allegorical here; was that I didn't feel I was being force fed some woke agenda peddling deep and meaningful messages about diversity and climate change. With average to poor acting and copy, cut and paste dialogue this is not a movie to be taken seriously, it isn't going to win any big awards, so switch your brain into neutral and enjoy it as nothing more than an entertaining sci-fi fantasy adventure.

I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. I am not a devout Jason Statham fan as he tends to be typecast as the typical English East End "brawn before brains" gangster type but sometimes that is just what I need. It is a simple heist/revenge movie with loads of action. Right from the start we, the audience, know that Statham's character is more than it seems. There is the usual cross and double cross amongst the fairly textbook bad guys, whose characters do a fair job of moving the plot along between the Statham action scenes.

Not a prize winning movie but good for the genre and highly watchable if you want to switch off your brain and while away a couple of hours with some uncomplicated action.

What has happened to entertainment for entertainments sake these days? I am sick and tired of having to trawl through movies, like Don't Look Up, that are trying to "educate" me about society, climate, race, religion or any other of the ticky box mores movies and TV programmes have to include these days. If I want to learn about these things I will watch a factual programme or do my own research which would probably be more accurate thank you. When I watch a movie I want entertaining, pure and simple. Don't Look Up was neither entertaining nor educational.

My advice about this movie? Give it a miss. I started watching it based on the excellent cast and an intriguing summary. I know what it was trying to be but what a boring, woke disaster of a disaster movie. I managed to watch about 45 minutes before skip watching the rest. Trying to be satirical but completely missing the point of satire, as Hollywood / Netflixwood / Amazonwood / Applewood (or should that be Appletree) always do. Satire should be subtle, cutting and to the point. This movie was neither. The plot meandered between trying to be a disaster movie on the one hand, "there's a comet heading our way and we're all going to die!" and a stark look at corporate greed "ooooh there's a comet heading our way, how can we monetise it?" and the mindless social media led society of today "oooooh there's a comet coming our way, selfie time!" It never quite hits the mark in either case and takes far too long to not make it's point.

Despite a bevy of supposedly A List actors who should have been convincing in their roles we were treated to mediocre performances at best as each one tried too hard to portray their character, each appearing to be based on several well known people all rolled into one grotesque caricature; the cross breed Tim Cook/Mark Zuckerberg/Elon Musk was one of the most cringeworthy things I have ever seen in a movie. And before all the fans out there shriek "but that that's the point", no, he was so gratingly irritating he was completely unwatchable so I skipped past most of his scenes, therefore, no point was made. In fact most of the characters were way over the top which I found neither funny nor satirical but more tragic slapstick. Tragic in that I felt really embarrassed for the actors having to put their name to this over long, overblown, missing the mark, moralising piece of rubbish.

Don't movie makers out there think folks might actually appreciate a little pure escapism and feel-goodness without all the snowflake preaching as we head into the sequel of the real life disaster movie we have been living through for the past two years?

Arthurian legends, chivalrous knights, wizards and fey. I can't get enough of these tales so when I saw The Green Knight advertised on Amazon Prime it was a no brainer. How I wish I'd read the viewer reviews first. Not the official critics reviews who all seem to pile on their sycophantic praise for the film, from style to content and production to cast and crew. What version of the film were they watching? Not the same one as me, that's for sure. I started watching with high hopes but after suffering through the first hour of non-action waiting for something to happen I skip-watched the rest in ten minutes flat to find that nothing does happen. We are treated to long drawn out scenes of Gawain on horseback, plodding his way across a desolate landscape, in less than hospitable weather, interspersed with bits of "oh look, something might be happening" moments which were slow, filmed in semi darkness making it difficult to see any activity, if any, on screen at all and, quite frankly, boring. Is this what the critics meant by sumptuous and artful? Throughout the film we are supposed to see Gawain's resolve tested but all I took away from it was that Gawain seemed a little simple, gullible and somewhat stupid rather than a young knight testing his mettle. To top it off we were treated some extremely loud and intrusive incidental music making it difficult to hear what little dialogue there was. Which was probably a blessing in disguise as the very "let's tick the WOKE box" cast were all spouting their lines in some very dodgy accents which sounded like a cross between Irish, German, and South London. This is not a film I would recommend to my worst enemy let alone family and friends. It is a waste of two+ hours and I am thankful I didn't have to pay to watch it.