Reviews

Now don't get me wrong, all the production aspects were amazing. Great actors, great sets, great cinematography, all that was amazing.

What I found particularly frustrating was the long drawn own scenes, or 'sub-plot' parts of it. After watching the first few episodes, I found myself fast forwarding some parts to be no less knowledgeable about what was going on, and that can't be a positive.

Don't get me wrong the series as a whole Is really compelling and disturbing. And I like the fact that Donny as a character is surprisingly as unsympathetic as the stalker, which i didn't expect. But this whole series could have been 2 episodes shorter easily. There would have been a way for it to have filled those episodes by explaining some of the threadbare plots, but it didn't, so that aspect was pretty disappointing.

This docu series is a bit of a mixed bag and I'm not sure where it was trying to place it's focus. Pdf ring conviction? Unreliable testimony? Police malpractice? People getting away with it? I mean it's all over the place.

The beginning is solid. There are the accusations, the people involved, the web is built...sort of. You never learn really how everyone is connected at all, so they're all floating 'monsters', but the children's testimonies are horrific and it's terrible. Enough said.

At some point in this series a seed of doubt is planted. There is something not quite right going on. The main mother seems to have some form of Munchausens, in whatever form that takes shape in this situation of her feeding off attention.

Then this docu series decends into inchoerent chaos. Suddenly there are more people accused, more kids never actually introduced. More horrific crimes, more accusations. It's actually impossible to clarify what's true and what's not. People confessed, people proclaimed innocence. People got convicted.

And pause.

Now would be the time to sober up in this series, and try to sort the wheat from the chaff of everything that came before. Nope. It diverts it's course from the actual crimes commited to the people who were wrongly convicted. It's bizarre.

You would assume that it would focus on the childrens testimonials. Were they 100% genuine? What actually happened and what did the police/caregivers do to influence the implication of potentially innocent people? Nope, nothing.

One thing you never learn, is how much was true and how much actually happened, and how it ended up the way it did. It's actually heartbreaking. Because clearly something happened, but it was put on the back burner for this.

I absolutely love Ricky Gervais. I find him hilarious and he makes amazing programs and stand up. But this didn't feel like stand up. It felt more like a funny Ted Talk if you know what I mean? And if it was marketed in that vein I probably would have rated it higher. But it was marketed as stand-up and on that description I have to rate it lower.

Don't get me wrong. It was enjoyable and it was funny, but compared to previous shows I definitely didn't belly laugh, or even laugh out loud, which was a bit disappointing because he's had me in tears in the past. I did smile the whole way through and chuckle, and overall agreed with his whole premise. So it's worth watching.

I think because there was such a heavy focus on divisive social commentary, although amusing and very on point, it would be better for it to be 'an evening with' or 'a talk with' sort of thing, rather than an out and out stand up show. But I appreciate it's difficult to address such a topic as a main premise and run with it and it be hilarious constantly. I think perhaps, in my worthless opinion, that it would have worked better not being so hyper focused?

I'm not sure if I'd recommend it overall. Not for newcomers to Ricky certainly. But I did enjoy it.

I want to preface this review that I absolutely believe she's done it. Given the evidence and timeline there is almost no doubt that she's guilty.

And it's a really nicely made true crime film. The timeline is well worked out. Her life and motives are clearly known, and the family members clearly want the full story told. And it's frequently awful to watch. Just normal ignorance, lack of oversight and questional methods by coroners allowed her to continue.

Again I think she did it. But I felt a little uncomfortable that the only 'other side of the story', was some hack lawyer? Perhaps everyone who knows her turned on her. Fair enough. But the counter argument could have been narrated or at least laid out for balance. She hasn't been convicted yet, and even tho she seems completely guilty, it's til proven innocent, so it seems a bit of a hit piece. It kind of takes away from it's integrity.

This could have been a great YA fantasy movie! The actual bare bones of the idea is fantastic, but the delivery was really disappointing.

I think one of the main issues is that its trying to create too much conflict in too many areas, which results in you never being emotionally invested in any of them and it all falls flat and 'meh'.

So you're introduced to a family conflict with the female lead, a conflict over a dead parent, an additional conflict with her new family members, a conflict with the ensemble characters, and another conflict with family members within that ensemble, and another with the antagonist. See what I mean? What are you supposed to care about?? The beginning drags unnecessarily with the initial couple of concepts (which are never properly resolved) and then thrown into the next ones with no emotional investment.

I don't like being down on young actors normally, but in this instance none of their performances were strong enough to overcome a bad and bloated script, and the main character was actually pretty unlikeable. Rude, curt, with bizarre emotional outbursts, it doesnt make any sense why everyone seems to love her.

I was left with the impression that there was a large amount of fat to trim from this film. It didnt need 80% of the supposed conflict, it just needed one - the main characters guilt, thats it. And it would have had a much more powerful effect than the ocean of crap ruining it.

I found it a shame because the fantasy and dream walking aspect would have been much more fun to lean into more and explore. I finished it really disappointed.

I was probably about 15 years old when Jill Dando was murdered. I was certainly familiar with her name, and i remember the murder - but i dont remember enough to have formed an opinion on anything.

This must be one of the worst true crime documentaries i've ever seen! Every aspect of every avenue was not explored. There was no detail about anything! Just nothing. All you got was surface level theories repeated to exhaustion.

I'm not sure if i was supposed to take sides by the end, but the whole thing was so vague i just thought 'obviously no one give a crap'. Except some gangster who says he 'knows' but cant possibly say...sure man, just take the paycheck.

Total waste of time.

I dont think anyone is expecting this to be a cinematic masterpiece, its a Hallmark style romcom. But it could have been far far better with some minor adjustments.

Nearly everyone in this is overacting. Like its so over the top its ridiculous! The only convincing actress in this is Lizzie, who actually saves this whole movie from falling into a pit of ridicule. The worst offender is the female lead, she is just AWFUL, just...my god what were they thinking?? You could shove a fence post in the ground and have the guy fall in love with it, and it would be more believable than this girl...jeez. And also, not the actresses fault, but shes always there with her chest out, with flawless make up, including lipstick and jewellery (despite barely sleeping) and not a speck of dirt on her (despite her apparently being hands on)?? Come on movie....throw me a line here!

There are a few genuinely smile moments, exclusively to Lizzie, who is the only decent cast member, which is evident immediately.

So many small tweaks could have made this much better. The actors which were sub par, the shooting - which is very HD - was good for scenery shots but made everything hyper realistic like a nature documentary and made the bad acting stand out more. The awkward and unnatural script. The unrealistic makeup and costume. Like if they'd dialled down every aspect of this and spent more time on the script and actors it would be 10 times better.

This was an effort to watch.

I'll start by saying i'm a big fan of Wes Anderson. Life Aquatic and Grand Budapest are probably among some of my favourite films.

This short film is done in very much the same style as the majority of his other movies; the muted colour palette, symmetry and diorama-feel to the sets etc. Its a part of his Roald Dahl series for Netflix that also includes The Rat Catcher, The Swan and Poison (i'm not sure there's going to be more but this is what has been released thus far). All films draw from the same small cast of Dev Patel, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Richard Ayoade, Rupert Friend and Benedict Cumberbatch.

Its really brilliantly done, with the characters moving through dynamic sets so it almost feels like the film is sort of a pop up book. And of course the stories are great (its Roald Dahl..). The delivery is as you would listening to an audiobook, with the sprinkling of 'I said' or 'he said' done as an aside depending on the characters perspective, but also with a cadence that you would have if you were reading a book yourself. The speed you'd read at - faster than you'd naturally speak and more monotone. Quite a clever little touch.

The cast is fantastic of course, everyone just delivers in this story and the others. And its nice they were able to inject little moments of humour here and there so subtly and well timed.

All in all a really lovely, excellently made little series of films.

If I had to make one criticism, which i'm a little loath to do...Is that the style of the delivery of the story, while very clever, does sort of lose its charm a little about half way through. I think i would have personally preferred this to have been set up at the beginning and slowly relaxed as the story progresses, as what normally happens when reading, as characters take on more personality in our minds narrator.

Now i should explain that i started watching this on Amazon Prime. I watch an awful lot of true crime and this was presented under the genre of 'documentary', so i went in fully expecting a genuine film.

So, in terms of presenting itself as an actual documentary, this film actually is incredibly convincing at the beginning. It does everything other true crime docs do, interviews, location shots, footage etc.

For the majority of the film I NEVER considered it to be fake. The only thing I will say is I started to think that it was very poorly made. When it came to evidence, police involvement, investigation...that perhaps it was low budget and done by amateurs.

The ending is what gives it away entirely. No spoilers, but a real docu never shows anything too 'obvious' lets say. And that is what ruins it. They went too 'horror' and made it clear it was fake. They should have just stuck with the ambiguity...

I started by absolutely loving this spin off. I watched the first couple of episodes and rated it a 9. I thought the casting of Charlotte was inspired and was just top-notch.

The problem started for me as the series progressed. It felt like it was dragging..you know when you've got a great idea for a series but not quite enough material? A classic motif of not enough material is rehashing a previous episode by retelling it from another perspective. I was wondering when the story was going to progress, and they did it! It was like a 90s Star Trek episode.

Overall it felt very disjointed going from 'cool and heartless' current Charlotte to 'passionate, loving' young charlotte. With no real bridge to explain the difference, other than someone having to actually verbalise that shes obsessed with him. Which is literally the laziest deux machina of story telling.

Its enjoyable to watch but doesnt capture the magic of the first series.

I was going to give this six stars but settled on a seven because this 'potentially' could be a real game changer, and I felt, after the last Unknown: segment of 'lost pyramid' sort of marred my opinion of this series of documentaries I should be fair.

So, this instalment involves a group of archaeologists and palaeontologists investigating a series of rather inaccessible caves in South Africa, where they have discovered a human ancestor 'Homo Naledi' burial site from 250,000 years ago.

Now, I'm obsessed with ancient history of all kinds so, like the last instalment, I was not going to miss, good or not.

Thankfully this documentary is far more in depth, far more fact based and far more interesting then their 'lost pyramid' episode. I wont ruin any of it for people who have not seen it, but its a really nicely put together, informative and interesting film, with some very effective artists impression animation to try and visualise these people and their possible movements and motivations.

Where this documentary falls short is it quite romanticised at times. This maybe down to the team who produced it. It makes a lot of assumptions and claims with, while possible, no evidence. And could have been made more credible by making far more likely claims like (slight spoiler), instead of attributing leaving a grave good as leaving a favourite object of a loved one, they attribute it solely as meditation on an afterlife. They also try to define a grave as definitively a burial and not funeral caching.

However, these are some really fascinating discoveries. It seems unlikely this was anything but intentional and does really combat the idea of 'stupid caveman' and you dont need a huge brain to care for your loved ones. We see the product of loss in many other animals today so why we dont give out own ancestors enough credit never made sense to me.

I really enjoyed this documentary. The cinematography is great, and although some of the interviews are slightly gushy, its really worth a watch. But take some of it with a pinch of salt.

I absolutely love anything to do with ancient Egypt. Anytime a new documentary comes out I'm on it like a fly on $hit. So as soon as this came out I settled down for an hour and a half of informative archaeology.

That is not what I got.

Now, I will preface this review with the fact I'm not a great fan of Hawass. His ego and inability to work with international archaeology teams is pretty well known. But he is an expert, so I didn't go into this expecting to get particularly annoyed at all.

So it starts off okay, he's looking for a lost pyramid and his colleague/student is doing a dig in another location. All good. Now I wont go into the whole synopsis of this film, I'll just convey what I took away from it.

This lost pyramid, is supposed to belong to a Pharoah called Huni. Perhaps we will learn a bit about him or that time period? Maybe we will learn how this period fits into global civilisations? I hope we get a bit of context as to why his pyramid is missing?! No, you get nothing. Because this search for a pyramid has absolutely nothing to do with the find, and everything to do with Hawass. As far as this documentary is concerned, this is more about having Egyptians make a 'great' find under his tutelage than anything else.

And there is nothing wrong with having pride in your nations history and wanting to make your own discoveries, of course. But you don't shrug other experts off because they happened to come from overseas.

So there is a fair amount of time spent on the 'evil' foreigner that arranged digs and 'stole' all these artifacts. He seems to conveniently forget that the 'evil' foreigners were the ones funding these incredibly expensive digs, and the terms with the Egyptian government at the time was that any spoils would be shared between them as reimbursement. But lets just ignore that, shall we?

So, he ends up with 2, rather extraordinary finds, unrelated to the main dig. Pin that in your mind.

His colleague has a far more interesting dig, unearthing a tomb with amazing artifacts - one unlike any other. Now pin that also.

Now, you would be correct in assuming these amazing artifacts, their discovery, their conservation, their meaning and significance, would take up the main bulk of this documentary right? Nope. You get a couple of scenes of onsite, and lab, conservation, and that is it. Literally, you barely see anything. I was wondering if we would actually see anything at all! You do get a small glimpse at the end, in the form of the previous 'Egyptians made a find' motif. Some of the discoveries you only see when they pull them out of the sand, and never again!

I came away from this feeling like it was a big missed opportunity. That somewhere, down the line, it stopped being a documentary about a missing pyramid and tombs, and morphed into a ego driven vanity project...and that's a shame. Because the finds were truly fascinating. I would have much rather had learned about the finds then listen to Hawass and his protégé wax lyrical about how amazing they are.

If you're looking for historical accuracy and faithful depictions this is not for you. Even if just a modicum of truth departs from the main characters bothers you I would suggest you stay away.

This is a ridiculous romp into a fantastical fiction, and it knows it. I love sumptuous period dramas and this delivers, but with a hilarious, sexy and outrageous story line. It's completely bonkers. But it works.

Hardliners will hate it naturally. But simply put, it has taken a real event then just ran with it into fiction. It's funny, raunchy, not afraid of laughing at itself, all while being brilliantly acted and believable.

If you don't have a rod up your a$$ you will love it.

I was looking for a follow on from the main US series so tried this one.

I dont mind saying I started hating it in the first 5 min of watching it. I cant say exactly what I didnt like, it just didn't feel right. But I kept on. By the end of the first episode I thawed out. By the end of the second I was in tears.

If you're an English speaker, give this version a chance, its as good as its US counterpart. Perhaps it was a case of cultural divide, people in Brasil not being what I expected, the way they talked to each other felt sort of alien. This is as heartfelt as the original and deserves a watch.

I actually made the effort to go to the cinema to see this one. Firstly because I love Nicholas Hoult, and secondly because Nicolas Cage has such a talent to make bad and good movies in one breath that I couldn't resist!

I actually really enjoyed this one. Nicolas Cage's Dracula is as over the top you'd hope for, and Nicholas Hoult plays the 'everyman' stuck in a bad situation to provide the grounding rod in his midst.

The B movie gore is fun and entertaining without overplaying it. Hoults performance as the now remorseful 'familiar' is excellent, and Cages Dracula is fantastically bonkers.

The only downside in my opinion is Awkwafina. She's thankfully a bit more subdued, but could have been better cast with a non 'comedy' actor, or at least one who doesnt have such a cemented status. She has a more serious role, but her known personality kind of ruins it and takes you out of the movie.

This isnt a movie that will win awards. I dont think 'comedy horrors that pay homage to old gore B movies' has a category at the moment. But it's fantastically fun and provides a good deal of laughs. I really enjoyed it.

I was in my early teens for most of the 90s so what i knew about Pamela Anderson was very limited. I had seen her on Baywatch and i only have vague memories of tabloid and magazines articles after the release of the sex tape. And to be honest i have no memory of her beyond that. I suppose my view of her was dictated by those very surface level things and i formed my opinion of her on them, not necessarily fully negative but definitely had 'air head bimbo' connotations.

I'm really glad I watched this documentary. By the end i felt a little bad, even though i was young at the time, to have such a prejudiced image of her as i did in my mind.

What you discover is a very intelligent, very kind and very misunderstood woman. A person that went through some very personal traumatic experiences and funnelled those into trying to make something of herself. Until someone else took that away from her.

This documentary is a very honest, sometimes shocking, sometimes infuriating, and sometimes heartbreaking portrait of a person i dont think anyone has seen before. You see Pamela barefaced and forthcoming, owning her mis-steps and trying to explain her thinking. And when its brought back to the present, her trying to find herself again.

I've just re-read what i've written and it does sound a bit corny. I suppose expressing what you take away from it might be, but the documentary is not. Its not perfect by any means but it is so personal and enjoyable, its definitely taking the time to watch.

My headline pretty much sums it up.

Its a shame because these family's deserve to have their stories told respectfully. This doesn't do that. I'm not sure what they were thinking but the pseudo dramatic narration and the god awful music that keeps interrupting the story line every 5 minutes makes this almost unbearable to watch.

Its like listening to a child tell a story to then be interrupted by music for no reason, and that music to be totally inappropriate for the setting. In one episode the music said something along the lines of 'I'd rather die' or 'let me die' something like that...wow.

I'm assuming the writers/editors thought they were doing something new and innovative. They didn't.

My teenage son and I have developed a tradition of watching Nicholas Cage movies, preferably bad ones, when he's off sick from school.

This movie did not disappoint.

I mean it is absolutely terrible. And we could not stop laughing.

The main character looks like he's recently been lobotomised and just stares moronically during everyone else's dialogue. Think Jean Claude Van-Damme if you ordered him from Wish. I thought it was a bold move to NOT cast the only recognisable name as the lead, that name being Mr Cage, but it turns out they really just are that stupid.

Don't worry tho because Nicholas Cage delivers with such classic mid-fight quips as: 'That's my favourite chair, I thought you'd find it comfortable' and 'I make hats out of newspapers'...ground breaking. He does have an incredible talent of being left behind at a location by the group of warriors, only to be at the place they're arriving at later. Don't think about that too much, it will never be explained.

The rest of the cast were just a group of walking stereotypes, which was just perfect! The wise, stoic Asian man who will definitely die 'honourably' at some point. The black man who is afraid of everything and cracks jokes that never land. The female warrior who you better not underestimate, she could break you like a twig sunshine. I mean you really couldn't want more in a bad movie.

I'm sure there is a plot in there somewhere. I think I asked my son about 5 times 'what on earth is happening??' to be met with a reflection of my bemused face. Still now, I cant figure it out... Maybe its because it sets up a vague pretence then doesn't move forward. The 'protagonist' (if you could bring yourself to envision that) has amnesia that for some reason just doesn't improve at any point until the end. There is zero arc...zero.

The CGI is something to behold. Imagine the quality of late 90's kids TV CGI. It was dreadful. My favourite part was when they revealed the alien's face. I was in tears by that point, a mixture of laughter and desperation.

This movie has no redeeming features. The acting, the camerawork, the costumes, the dialogue, the plot if there is one, nothing can save this absolute masterclass in how to not make a film.

And because of all this, we loved it and have been quoting it ever since. Recommend.

I had skimmed over the 'trailer' for this on Netflix and wasn't 100% sold on it to be honest. I'm not a massive action fan. But thought I'd give it a go and was surprised - I really enjoyed it!

I mean is the premise is a bit far-fetched? Absolutely Would literally any of this happen in real life? No, no it would not.

But you kinda just have to suspend your disbelief and go with it (in the same vein as Designated Survivor) because it really is fun.

The casting and the acting is good - no one is sticking out to me like a sore thumb. And although there are a lot of violent scenes, it's injected with some comedy in the form of the protagonist's slightly cocky smart-assery, which honestly lifts this program above some other similar shows.

Is it without fault? No. I mean it feels a bit rushed at the beginning. You kinda hit the ground running with the story line without any set up at all really. But its better than dragging it out into a snooze-fest I suppose. The ex-girlfriend character I find irritating (Mother Theresa type) and remarkably idiotic when it comes to rational decision making later on in the series (no spoilers), that part of the storyline felt like an idea they tagged in for the sake of it.

However, if you're on the fence about watching it, definitely give it a go. Personally, I'm really hoping it gets picked up for another season, knowing how notorious Netflix are for cancelling!

I loved Knives Out so was looking forward to this sequel.

As a stand-alone movie its a lot of fun and enjoyable to watch, but comparing it to the original movie it doesn't hold up as well.

The whole tone of this movie is different. The acting is a bit over the top, the characters are all pushing the limits of believability, its very colourful and dramatic. Which is all fine, no problem, its nice to have a vibrant backdrop to a who-dunnit for a change!

There were a couple of issues with this movie in my opinion. Firstly the pacing was all over the place. It began pretty slow, picked up and then just wrapped it up at lightening speed! Secondly it did the one thing I absolutely HATE in a who-dunnit, which is include information during the reveal that was not deducible from the viewers position, ruining the whole point of the movie (for me). The fun of a who-dunnit is trying to work it out yourself as the story progresses. You could only do that up to a point with this movie, which took away some of the enjoyment of the 'OMG, now it all makes sense, what a good twist..' moment you normally get. However the ending was still satisfying.

But regardless, apart from the rather slow beginning, it did keep my attention, I did enjoy it and would watch it again. Hoping they make more.

Now I never expected this to be some kind of masterpiece, of course not. But I used to love the movies, corny-ness n all, because they were funny and essentially heart felt. I've watched the first two episodes that are available so far and honestly it's shockingly bad. Where the movies traded off the corny-ness with sometimes blatant slapstick and sometimes tongue in cheek humour, this was just almost painful to watch. All the humour is forced, they've shoehorned cringe worthy music into it, and just made it generally heartless. And to say some of the acting is wooden does a disservice to trees. I will continue to watch and hope it redeems itself, but so far it's really disappointing.

I did enjoy this movie. Everyone put in strong performances and there was some good tense scenes.

I think the problem was that the movie really focused on Jessica Chastains character too heavily. She has a heart condition, yes we get it, stop overplaying it because that's not the point of this story. Yes, it's about how she helped the police but so much time was taken up with her, the actual crimes were sort of rushed over. There was no time taken to be in the mind of the killer whatsoever, no insight into his mindset, reasoning or conflict, so the 'drama' kind of fell flat. Everything he did previously was glossed over in a single scene, there was no 'his perspective' moments so it felt really one dimensional.

Not that it's a bad movie. It's worth watching. Just felt like it could have been done a lot better.

I started watching this series with a fair amount of scepticism. I'm not generally a fan of Marvels watered-down spin off series that always feels a bit anticlimactic and slightly pointless.

However! I did start by liking the aesthetic of this series, it looked good, it was geared towards younger audiences with the styling whilst still keeping the Marvel film look. But by the end of the first episode I was already rolling my eyes. I thought it was great to have a young muslim girl represented in superhero movies, and it hit on some great points, but then it quickly deteriorated into every single minority represented series. Everyone in her family became a caricature of their faith. Just like every black cast movie seems to make their colour their entire personality.

I'm a white woman and even i sighed at how lazy this representation is. Her brother has literally nothing else about him except his religion ffs! I gave up after the 4th episode. There were opportunities to confront awkward questions of problems with any faith, but everything was so on the nose it just felt like box ticking.

It starts out well. But then descends rapidly into the many numerous hearsay stories, speculations with nothing material coming from it. Worth it if you don't know the case, waste of time if you do.