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Reviews
One Day (2024)
Beautifully romantic. I loved it.
I was gripped straight away. The writing, characters, casting, direction and acting are all superb - and the pace is just right. And I actually liked the fact that episodes were short as it made me hungry for the next one.
There were also several moments and scenes that I felt were cinematic genius. Moments where you knew how one character was feeling without any words being spoken. Very clever.
The sense of 'longing' reminded me of Past Lives a little - which is no bad thing.
Ambika Mod deserves a special mention. I can't remember the last time I watched someone act so naturally and convincingly. I can see her going on to be a huge star - she's clearly extremely talented and was perfectly cast.
I'd love to say more but don't want to spoil it. Just watch it. If you have a heart, you'll love it too. Well, nearly all of it.
Im Westen nichts Neues (2022)
Amazing. I was left quite speechless.
It's always difficult to recommend a movie that's so hard to watch - so horrific - but I really do recommend that everyone watches this. It's a brutally realistic portrayal of life at the coal-face of war but is also engaging and has characters that you do care about (which I thought was very clever considering the mayhem going on around them). There is little humour in this film (as you would expect) but I felt it really did focus quite a bit on human impact (good and bad). This is not a Hollywood-style movie. It doesn't glamourise any aspect of 'The Great War'. It shows the utter futility, the degradation and the inhuman conditions and behaviour forced upon so many young men - who had no choice.
This is a truly excellent film.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: The Eye (2022)
Dull as dishwater.
I'm so shocked at just how dull this series is. But this episode was the worst yet. I don't honestly know what they were thinking. I can only hope that this is scene-setting that's been terribly drawn-out to fill up space. But I'm not far off giving up completely.
There are just no characters that you can easily engage with. I don't care about any of them - and that doesn't make for enjoyable watching.
I loved the movies but the series is a massive disappointment so far. I just hope they haven't made the next series yet so they can change the director or screenplay writer.
Having just started watching House of the Dragon I'm obviously comparing the two. HOTD is way better in just about every way. I'm eager to watch the next episode whereas with RoP I'm over it already. Can't see me watching the next series unless it gets rave reviews.
My Daughter's Killer (2022)
An amazing story of courage and duty.
I can't understand why everyone hasn't rated this 10/10. It's an amazing story of one man's compulsion to get justice - through decades. It is harrowing and touching in equal measure - I certainly found the ending emotional.
The story demonstrates the disregard for fellow human beings that still exists everywhere - not just related to the crime itself but through the justice and political systems and processes.
But it also shows that dogged determination can win through. Many people would have given up. He did not.
Everyone should watch it. You may not 'enjoy' it but I think you'll be moved.
The Northman (2022)
Disappointing
I had high hopes. The trailers drew me in. But this was a padded out re-hash of a very familiar story. Sadly there wasn't much of a story at all once it's become obvious what's going to happen. There just wasn't anything new here and they really dragged it out in a way that leaves you unengaged with the characters. A real shame - I wanted to like it but wouldn't really recommend it.
Mother! (2017)
Hated it
Just a god-awful film. Don't bother. Someone pretending to make a profound statement through film bla bla. It is utter dross and extremely annoying. No real story. Corny acting.
Reacher (2022)
Not great.
I had high hopes when I saw the casting. Had to be better than Tom Cruise's debacle. However, I was left cold. This is dumbed-down 80's-style TV detective country. I really enjoyed the books but had to give this up after 4 episodes. It's just too trashy and light. The script isn't great. The characters aren't engaging. There's not enough action. It's too slow. Halve the number of episodes and it'd work better - otherwise it's just padded out with dullness.
First Man (2018)
Dull. Very dull.
It amazes me that the director could turn such an amazing event into something so dreadfully dull. I mean - I like a slow-burner - but this doesn't ignite at all (ironic).
It could not possibly have been any duller. Maybe Mr Armstrong was a quiet, uninteresting man but, if so, maybe don't make a film about him. The sad thing is that there were some moments that could have been exciting - but it was so poorly directed that it wasn't clear what was going on or what the peril might be.
Not great I'm afraid.
The Kid (2019)
A really good slow-burner
I'm quite surprised by some of the poor reviews and the overall average rating. I really liked it. I thought the story stacked up and that the acting and production was very good. Overall a very good modern western.
Last Night in Soho (2021)
Way overrated.
Style over substance. A pretty dire script, dodgy story and corny acting doesn't make for a good night's viewing in my opinion. I genuinely don't see what all the hype is about. How can't anyone find this a good film??
The Many Saints of Newark (2021)
A poor attempt
Poor. Messy. Lazy. This is a badly written attempt at a prequel that delivers very little apart from pastiche and cliché. There's hardly any story. I was very, very disappointed.
Promising Young Woman (2020)
Poor - in my humble opinion.
This film is not what some people think it is. Believe me. I thought it was awful and a massive disappointment. Not a horror. Not a thriller. Not a revenge movie. Not a comedy. Hammy acting. Ridiculous story. Terrible ending. What more could you want!?
However - each to their own and if you did enjoy it then that's great. It's one of the beautiful things about art. You get to choose whether you like something or not.
Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
Still poor
It might be better than the original cut but this is still pretty poor in comparison to 90% of the Marvel movies and all of the Dark Knights. Story not great. Characters not great. Not a patch on Superman Returns - in fact I think that was last decent DC movie, wasn't it? DC need to up their game and come up with some better stories with some characters that viewers engage with.
Watchmen (2019)
Wanted to like it. Didn't.
Watchmen was my fave comic book movie. But although I tried and tried to enjoy this series I just didn't. I thought the story was too complex to really be able to enjoy and it didn't have the same comic book feel as the movie. The acting was good (apart from Jeremy Irons accent) but that really was where the positives stopped for me. Sorry - but not for me.