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Monster Family 2 (2021)
Lazy and unfunny
If the first Monster Family was an underwhelming less than the sum of its parts, this surpasses it comfortably. Monster Family 2 appears to have been made by people with no understanding of children. The animation is second rate and the visual jokes simply not funny, nor do they add to the plot. The script is lazy at best and plagiarised at worst. Clearly made for international distribution to undemanding TV Networks looking to fill their schedules, the voice acting is poor in the extreme. Surprising, really, when considering some of the names involved. It is obvious that for some of the better known actors it represented a quick payday when the work could be squeezed in between other, more high-profile engagements. As for some of the lesser known performers with large parts, well lets just say they are not remotely up to it and spare their blushes by not naming them. If you want top notch animations both great for kids and adults, stick to Pixar or Sony.
The Boys (2019)
Dick van Dyke's off the hook
Don't get me wrong, I really like this show. I have watched every episode of the first two series and will continue to do so when the third season launches later this year.
So, first the good. Great premise - bunch of superheroes ('soops') grown lazy, complacent and corrupt, policing a version of contemporary America. 'The Boys' of the title are a group of ill-matched vigilantes who seek to expose and generally fight back against the crimes and casual violence wrought by the superheroes.
'The Boys' are led by Billy Butcher played as a screen dominating tough guy by Karl Urban. And yet...and yet...time to address the elephant in the room. It's his accent.
What it is that Mr Urban is essaying here is anybody's guess. I actually watched the first two episodes of season one convinced his character was meant to be Australian. Thereafter, his vocal contortions have taken in South Africa, Zimbabwe, south east London (occasionally) and some notional mid-Atlantic zone normally associated with cheesy radio jocks.
To compound what is a heinous crime against English dialects, the sloppy scriptwriters have even made gross errors with (UK) English vernacular. For example: 'lost your bottle' used in context of the plot to mean losing one's temper actually means losing the courage to do something. Losing your temper would be referred to as 'losing your rag'.
So, Karl Urban is the new holder of the worst 'British accent' in a TV series or film, finally taking away that particular accolade/ stigma from Dick van Dyke in 'Mary Poppins'
Echo in the Canyon (2018)
A badly flawed vanity project
For any music aficionado of any age, the story of Laurel Canyon and its famous residents in the mid-sixties should be fascinating. Even those of us who vaguely remember those far off days will still find a coherent retelling, featuring as many of the remaining alive participants, a compelling watch.
Well, we have to wait a little longer.
'Echo in the Canyon' is a complete mess of a documentary, well, to be honest, an ill-judged vanity piece masquerading as documentary to be accurate. Presented by Jakob Dylan, Bob's son, this is a rambling journey combining potentially interesting, but unfocused, interviews with some of the main Laurel Canyon protagonists with shots of Jakob rehearsing and performing with a band of B-listers (and Fiona Apple who surely deserves better) as they prepare for and perform a concert of covers from the era.
The film is overrun by footage from the concert suggesting the entire enterprise is one big advert designed to kick-start J. Dylan's faltering career.
These must be some of the most boring rock concert extracts ever filmed! And Dylan's treatment of the Goffin King classic 'Goin' Back' and Neil Young's 'Expecting To Fly', verges on the criminal!
As for the documentary part, any coherent telling of a factual story needs some well-planned structure. You won't find it here. Dylan's lack of journalistic ability means that some potentially riveting musical and nostalgic insights are untapped.
Verdict: Worth watching just to see the stars on show, but fast forward the rehearsal and concert bits!
A longer version of this review appears on undercoverofthewrite.
Hell on the Border (2019)
A primary school project gone wrong
This truly is amateur hour. Clearly there is a story worth telling and, at times, you feel there is a good film struggling to get out but it is totally prevented from doing so by the sheer incompetence of most everyone involved. I thought the presence of the great Ron Perlman might be a guarantee of some level of quality, but he just phones his performance in - long distance!
You know you're in trouble when you spot a really bad edit in the first five minutes, then in the first shoot out there is some truly risible edits as the director tries to recreate the tension of a Sergio Leone gun fight - but fails so miserably! By this time the film is starting to look like it was a primary school project that just went wrong. And, let's face it, I should have guessed from the title...it's just pants. I was allowing myself to be led by my nostalgia for that truly great western series - 'Hell on Wheels'. Obviously the producers were looking to try and cash in on a spurious connection.
But the worst thing of all is the music, the constant and utterly dreadful incidental music. Except it's not that incidental, it pretty much drowns everything else out. Why film and TV makers feel that it is necessary to have music all the way through beats me. Trying to guide us what to think and, truth be known, to cover up some ropey plots and dialogue. This was about as bad as it gets. Whoever was responsible (and I really can't be bothered to look up the name) should meet the fate of many of the main characters adverseries...but with better editing! Avoid - you'll never get that 1 hour 50 minutes of your life back.
Uncut Gems (2019)
Emperor's New Clothes
Like so many before me, I wanted to see this movie because of all I had read about the Safdie brothers and their unique style. And the trailer seemed OK and, remembering 'Spanglish' (2004), I know Adam Sandler can be more than the sum of his comedy parts when getting stuck into a meatier, more dramatic role. What a shame then that my decision making proved to be as flawed as Sandler's character in this film - or even Adam Sandler himself in agreeing to do it. 'Uncut Gems' is a mess of half-realised characters who shout a lot, swear even more and whose first reaction to any situation is to resort to violence. So where does this go so wrong - not enough room here but for a start, shouting is no substitute for acting and, most pertinently, the plot needs to have some foundation in plausibility. This is where the whole pack of cards comes tumbling down. The incident that effectively initiates the action is something the Sandler character does that is so mind-numbingly stupid not even donkey with learning difficulties would do it. Let alone someone who is supposed to be a bit of a sharp operator in New York underground betting circles. After that, the plot, and film, becomes a nightmarish mess of unfulfilled and unfulfillable situations. At least 'Uncut Gems' is well-named, hence the one star, since an uncut gem is just a piece of dirty earth...you see where I'm going with that!
Designated Survivor (2016)
A Guilty Pleasure
After an explosion kills the President of the USA and every other senior political figure, a low level cabinet minister, the 'designated survivor', is suddenly elevated to the highest office in the land.
Despite a strangely one-paced performance from the normally much more animated Keifer Sutherland as Thomas Kirkland, the 'designated survivor' who becomes president, this is an enjoyable premise played out entertainingly for the most part.
The relationships between the main characters are the most interesting element and are generally convincing and well-acted by the supporting cast. And despite Sutherland's relentless decent-guy-doing-the-right-thing performance (just count how many times he purrs "the American people"), he does kind of hold it all together.
The problems come when the show tries to delve into political - even conspiracy - thriller territory. The plots become unconvincing and full of holes and huge jumps. Operations that, in reality, would take weeks or months to set up, and would require hundreds of secret service personnel, are sorted in a matter of minutes.
And therein lies the central flaw of the series. It panders too readily to the demands of an audience with a short attention span and advertisers with an eye on quick gains. Everything has to be resolved in double quick time. As a result, it falls between too many stools. It flits from scene to scene and storyline to storyline too rapidly to be a 'West Wing'; the security and conspiracy elements are tacked on so unconvincingly that it cannot stand comparison with 'Homeland' and the scriptwriting is too cliched and unrealistic to be measured against 'House of Cards'.
Essentially, this is like old fashioned US TV series from the sixties and seventies where each episode is a short - even trite - morality play where everyone is prepared to sacrifice everything for the good of, in this case, 'the American people'.
It could stick in the throat - but somehow it doesn't. It's a guilty pleasure for when you want to watch without engaging too much brain.
Mr. Mercedes (2017)
A smooth ride that picks up speed through the gears
Based on a Stephen King novel, this slow-burn thriller maps out in gritty, yet often poetic detail the frustrations and difficulty of identifying and capturing that modern phenomenon - the psychopathic serial killer.
The central character is retired detective Bill Hodges who is still haunted by the one big case he never solved. We see what this was in a gruesome prologue at the start. Not for the faint of heart, a young man drives a stolen Mercedes at a queue of jobseekers outside a jobs fair killing sixteen including a child. The psychopath responsible was dubbed 'Mr Mercedes' by the media at the time and eluded capture.
Not so much a 'whodunit' as a 'how will they get him', we know from early on that Mr Mercedes is Brady Hartsfield, a young computer repairman working for a local electronics store and still living with his mother in a relationship that pushes the boundaries of unhealthy. Hartsfield is played by Harry Treadaway with wide-eyed insouciance that veers between brooding malevolence and butter-wouldn't-melt innocence.
Brendon Gleeson is the detective, Hodges, and starts by displaying the classic clichés of a retired TV cop, drinking too much, letting himself go and on the verge of ill-health and still obsessed with his failure to apprehend 'Mr Mercedes', much to the chagrin of his former partner. However, everything changes when Mr Mercedes comes back into his life. It seems that Hartsfield is almost peeved not to have been caught and thus be denied his fifteen minutes of fame, so hacks his way into Hodges computer to taunt the former detective back into his own sick game.
What follows is a compelling, character-led drama that slips seamlessly between thriller, horror and family soap opera as we have the sense we are in the presence of very real people dealing with real life issues.
Mr Mercedes looks at the consequences of a tragedy from the points of view of everyone affected - including the perpetrator - and shows how hard catching random psychopaths really is. It also fits the real-life truism that serial killers are never suspected by the people in their lives...'he always kept himself to himself, but would never hurt a fly...'.
As the ten-part series progresses, we develop real knowledge of and, in some cases, affection for the well-rounded characters. And, as the pace quickens, events take ever more shocking turns. King seems to have fun obliquely referencing Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho', and one sequence in this story arc gives the lie to all those many scenes you've seen in a million movies and TV shows where someone closes the eyes of a dead body. When someone attempts it in this series, the eyes just pop open again. It's a real 'did I just see that?!!' moment.
Brendon Gleeson is in top form as the grizzled detective, Bill Hodges, and the symbolism in the opening credits (his giant tortoise and penchant for vinyl records, even the theme song 'It's not too late') tell us that this is someone steeped in the old ways who will plod along until he gets his man. His Irish heritage is explained early on so that he can use his natural Irish brogue rather than dilute his charm with a fake American accent.
There is much to admire in this series and a follow-up has already been commissioned.
Check out reviews and so much more at undercoverofthewrite.wordpress.com
Shades of Blue (2016)
Every cop is a criminal...
The premise of dirty cops isn't new to television drama, but to place them at the centre of the show and ask the audience to like them...well that's a risk. However, when you have Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta leading the cast list, their charisma and presence allied to strong writing gets you on their side. And when you have Liotta - so renowned for his portrayals of psychopathic gangsters - playing a policeman you have the right to raise an eyebrow or two. Liotta a cop? Surely some mistake. Not in terms of casting it isn't, because 'Shades of Blue' is a white knuckle ride of a moral debate. Do cops need to be like the criminals they seek in order to be able to catch them? Or does the fact that they spend their time nosing round in the darker side of human interaction cause them to become morally corrupt? As Mick Jagger sang in the iconic Rolling Stones song 'Sympathy for the Devil', 'every cop is a criminal...'.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. 'Shades...' stars Lopez as Harlee Santos, a New York cop and single mother working as part of a team of detectives led by the amoral Matt Wozniak (Liotta). She tries to combine her frenetic, dubious and occasionally violent working life with the role of bringing up a teenage daughter alone and the financial and personal hardship that sometimes comes with parenthood.
Each episode brings with it a crime procedural storyline while there is a plot arc running through about Wozniak's team and their casual blurring of the line between the right and wrong side of the law. Their activities have caught the attention of the FBI's anti-corruption unit and Harlee is forced to work with them as a 'rat'. Much of the tension throughout the first series centres on Harlee's moral dilemma over her duplicity, which is given greater credence as the story of how she came to work with Wozniak is told. Her back story is skilfully handled and realistically shot with Lopez looking believably younger in the flashback sequences.
The drama is very much character led with sterling performances from all the leads with Liotta particularly outstanding and Lopez making a good fist of a conflicted cop - although her perfectly coiffured locks may be beyond the daily reach of your average New York detective in reality. The supporting cast includes a strong turn by Drea De Matteo as Detective Shirley Nazario adding to an already impressive CV after roles in 'The Sopranos', 'Joey' 'Desperate Housewives' and 'Sons of Anarchy'. In the second series Anna Gunn (Skyler White from 'Breaking Bad') joins the cast in a recurring role as a new plot arc is introduced. 'Shades of Blue' has already been commissioned for a third series.
Well written and shot, 'Shades...' offers plenty in terms of twists and turns that surprise and satisfy and never come across as contrived. It may not be to everyone's taste - especially if you like your cops squeaky clean and viewed through rose tinted glasses - but if you like pacey, gritty contemporary dramas that don't duck difficult issues, this is probably for you and it provides a perfect antidote for old-fashioned creaky offerings such as 'Blue Bloods' - but that's another story!
Check out reviews and so much more at undercoverofthewrite.wordpress.com
Sleepy Hollow (2013)
Headless horseman comes up short
I tried to like this, I really did. I sat through seven and a half episodes so I gave it every chance, but I realised that it wasn't going to get any better and, more importantly, it wasn't adding anything to my life.
When I first heard about this series I thought what's not to like? A decapitated equestrian careering through mistily atmospheric forests in 18th century upstate New York. Fantastic! Literally.
Based on, or more accurately inspired by, the 1999 film of the same name, this version adds the element of time travel bringing the hero of the piece, the marvellously monikered Ichabod Crane, to contemporary America. So I was anticipating all sorts of time space continuum swashbuckling and mystery.
Unfortunately, the series has come up short.
First, the good. It started well after some impressive trailers had promised much. Also, the effects are impressive and seamless. You really can believe there is a skilled jockey thundering through manicured semi-rural USA without benefit of his head. And, where atmospheric shots of misty forests are required they certainly are
well
misty and atmospheric. However, once you've seen one headless horseman you've kind of seen them all and, as we get to see him early on, the potential for any suspense has been lost.
But that's about as good as it gets. Whilst there is a vague story arc running through the series about the horseman being the vanguard for his three mates of the Apocalypse, each episode features a self- contained plot, normally a slightly facile murder mystery. The plotting is not particularly ingenious and certainly lacks the coherent structure and satisfying resolution of Tim Burton's film, which clearly served as the starting point for the TV series. On the upside, and unusually for US produced shows with an historic element, the use of language is well-observed for time-travelling Ichabod, who generally sounds authentically of the 18th century and does not slip into any obviously contemporary speech patterns or idioms. Also, his lack of knowledge and surprise at the many changes between his time and contemporary America provide a satirical commentary that could have been explored further.
'Sleepy Hollow' is not a star vehicle and unfortunately it shows in the performances. Tom Mison as the central character brings all the authentic 'Britishness' of a 18th century English gentleman soldier that you'd expect with a fair dash of handsome swagger, but his continual insistence on wearing his original two-hundred-year old clothing renders him rather too self-aware in his movement; all collar- up and stiff neck, his performance quickly becomes very one-paced and irksome. Nicole Berahie, who plays his 21st century sidekick simply lacks the charisma or depth to merit the part. It might have been better to cast Lyndie Greenwood, who plays Berahie's disturbed sister, in the sidekick role as she dominates the screen far more effectively in her scenes.
Finally, 'Sleepy Hollow' is one of many US series that suffers from DIMS (dreadful incidental music syndrome). This afflicts many of what I would categorise as 2nd and 3rd division shows and is characterised by continual noise – let's call it muzak – throughout the whole playing time. It's probably all created by one person with a keyboard and a computer and mostly does not comprise what we would recognise as music at all. More, it is a collection of sounds designed to tell us, the viewer what we should be experiencing at any given time
excitement, suspense, resolution, relief, romantic interlude and so on. It is over- used and shows: 1) no respect to the viewer to work out what is going for themselves and 2) a complete lack of confidence from the producers in the script. I really feel that there should be an orchestrated (see what I did there) campaign to stamp out DIMS from television.
'Sleepy Hollow' is a game attempt that falls short and remains firmly in the 2nd division of the pantheon of US TV series. However, it is now into its fourth season so, clearly, there is an audience for this kind of fantasy, which is probably just about deserved for the production values.