Change Your Image
wcd-19926
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Moonfall (2022)
A romp of a film
If you liked the First Men in the Moon then you'll like this. It's a science fiction film not a science documentary. If you want a docudrama then watch the BBC series Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets. That's when the BBC produced world class TV. Moonfall is a film where you can pick holes, pretty deep holes in the science as it happens, but if you want a bit of escapism for just over 2 hours then I'd give it a watch. After all it's just entertainment.
All or Nothing: Arsenal (2022)
Great documentary about Arsenal but...
To see behind the scenes is always fascinating and although I've always thought highly of Arteta as a footballer I was so pleased to see how he is as a manager and a family man. To see that Saka is not just a talented football player, but at the end of the day a young man with all that entails makes me sympathise with what happened in the penalty shootout (I blame Southgate). However I was shocked to see that no mention was made of the fact that racists attacks following his unsuccessful penalty almost all came from outside the UK and it was only a handful of idiots in England who were identified. English football is a meritocracy and only the best can play for the top teams. Consequently the best of the best play in the English Premier League wherever they were born. As a result players in Arsenal are from everywhere and are loved by all supporters. By the way contrary to what the documentary implied most Arsenal supporters are white so it's surprising that most supporters interviewed and featured were not white!? Anyway I still think it's a superb documentary even though it's a bit misleading. Still it is the CURRENT YEAR.
S.O.Z: Soldados o Zombies (2021)
Solid action Zombie film
It's low budget but that's not a criticism as the effects are normally what inflates the cost of production. But the old-fashioned non-CGI effects here are very good. Oddly it seems today the series just want to entertain and the series does that very well. The scripts are well done and add a bit of dry humour. For example a guy hands a gun to a Mexican woman and asks her if she knows how to use it. She shows him that as a Mexican of course she knows how to use it. The cartel has only one black member who has the nickname Swede. Well we all know the way Sweden is today. It's good to see that the child actor, who plays Lucas (Nery Arredondo), is excellent and often appears to be the smartest person in the story without it being cringe. Overall it's derivative but it uses elements taken from films and other TV series well. Hope there's a series 2 since the standard of films and TV is woefully bad.
Pieces of Her (2022)
What was this all about?
Apart from the obvious necessity to cast white men in all the evil parts but this made sure all the good guys were non-white. OK I note the virtue signalling but the casting of main characters as they aged was really weird. It appears that not only did they age but from young adult to older adult Nick went from 5' 7" to 6' 4" and Jane/Laura grew from 5' 2" to 5' 8". And here I though people got shorter as they aged. I point this out because apart from making it a tad confusing it also mirrored the plot which was a bit unbelievable and basically crazy. I forced myself to watch all episodes but it was a wast of time. I couldn't see the point to the whole series.
Old (2021)
Great idea, terrible implementation
Great idea butchered by hopeless writing and average direction. I've never seen a film where a bunch of very good actors and actresses could appear to be hopeless. Bad acting? I'd rather use the old saying "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear". I wanted to stop watching this after about 30 minutes but decided I'd watch it until the end just to make sure that I was done with M. Night Shyamalan as a writer and director. By the way how he could have the front to think he's such an icon of the cinema to have a cameo in his films is beyond me. The only positive thing I can say is that he's not preaching to the audience about any ideology he may support. It's just a straight forward horror film, even if it's a badly written and poorly directed example of the genre.
Fracture (2007)
Superb film
A film that has a fantastic script/story with outstanding acting by a talented cast. Ah the good old days when great films showcased the craft by making entertaining products without pandering to the latest ideology.
Don't Look Up (2021)
Good comedy but spoilt by politics
Great critique of politicians and how they use scientists they can manipulate to avoid doing the right thing. Climate change is the classic example of this. A check of how many scientists have had funding removed for trying to debate the issue and present data that disputes the "consensus" and you'd see how many, including NASA, are towing the line. So as a piece of fluff and nonsense it was great and the actors did a fine job but the "hidden" message was pathetic.
The Green Knight (2021)
Cultural Appropriation?
Why is it cultural appropriation only goes in one direction? I know that the modern consensus was summed up by the writer Steven Moffat in an interview where he stated "We've kind of got to tell a lie. We'll go back into history and there will be black people where, historically, there wouldn't have been, and we won't dwell on that. We'll say, 'To hell with it, this is the imaginary, better version of the world. By believing in it, we'll summon it forth'." What about the majority of people who don't subscribe to this view because they want figures set in a historical setting, even if it's a work of fiction, to be factually correct. Otherwise create your own work set in a completely fictional world. One could argue that if Moffat is correct wouldn't it have been OK to do a remake of Kurosawa's the Seven Samurai and set it in feudal Japan but insert the cast of Sturges film the Magnificent Seven? I think not. So why is it OK to cast Dev Patel and others in an Arthurian legend set somewhere in the late 5th and early 6th centuries of the history of Britain?
Another Life (2019)
Decent story but suffered from "diversity and inclusion"
The story was started pretty good then ended up bonkers by the end of series 2. A search for super advanced extra-terrestrials who appeared to want to make first contact. Sadly this became a search to defeat race of extra-terrestrials that befriend various alien races only to kill them all. Why? Because those aliens are so inferior and disgusting they don't deserve to exist. As the super advanced aliens in question could destroy a whole planet it makes you wonder why they'd bother befriending inferior species. Anyway almost at the end of the second series we sort of find out the murdering aliens were in fact were created as artificial entities to do the bidding of their creators. By who we never find out because there's no series 3. Still I'm not sure if I could have lasted through another series.
The cast appear to have been selected largely to ensure every group that complains about "lack of diversity and inclusion" was catered for. So we had gays, lesbians, a gender fluid character, a bisexual character, threesomes were covered for no apparent reason and as many actors of different ethnicity they could find. Consequently the acting ability of the different cast members was variable to say the least. Overall not as bad as some of the tosh masquerading as entertainment but it could have been so much better.
Boss Level (2020)
Good action SciFi film
An unoriginal time-loop film which is saved by a decent, funny script that incorporated plenty of bloody action and Frank Grillo as the hero. A role he fills admirably. Well worth a watch especially if the current excess of preachy, badly written, poorly acted and often completely unbelievable stuff that produced today isn't to your taste.
Chaos Walking (2021)
Bit bonkers but I still watched it!
I've loved SciFi films for over 50 years and I've watched the classics and some pot-boilers so it's safe to say I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to storylines. BUT when it's declared that all women and girls have been killed and this is a logical reason for the lack of female colonist and you're given this information in the initial section of the film you have a strong indication that it's going to be an uphill struggle for the rest of the film. Having said this if you then accept that it's no big deal that the male colonists have sentenced themselves to a slow but certain extinction it's not too bad.
Tyrel (2018)
25 minutes was more than enough
After 25 minutes of watching this truly awful film I gave up. The Hollywood movie industry goes through cycles. For a while we get loads of horror movies then SciFi takes centre stage, then action movies, etc.
First Reformed (2017)
Climate Change! Really???
There's a load of money to be made publicising climate change but I doubt the producers of this ill-informed nonsense will make much. The only fact Ernest Toller gave during this dreadful movie was that 97% of scientists agree that humans are the cause of global warming. However if Schrader had done even a quick Google search would have found that the 97% figure is 100% wrong. So much for the writing!