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terryarnottau
Reviews
Sweet Sunshine (2020)
Appalling acting but good music.
To say the acting was "bad" would be generous and admittedly, some were far worse than others. The leads weren't toooooo bad other than terrible lip-sync, but others, well, I can't believe they actually left those scenes in and didn't just cut them. Like when sunshine's boss fires her, that was utterly laughable. The music was good though, and saved the movie from being a total write-off. The one thing I am surprised by is.... Did people REALLY not realise that he died at the end? I mean, one moment he is lying on his death-bed "fighting for his life" and the next, he's up and walking fine. Sunshine asks him where his oxygen tube is and he says "I don't need it anymore"? He SAYS...... the person who has had BOTH his vocal cords removed, who can no longer speak SAYS he doesn't need the oxygen anymore? Hello? That is his ghost/spirit...... He died.
A New York Christmas Wedding (2020)
Original and totally unexpected.
I was trawling through Hallmark style christmas/romance flix on Netflix and clicked this expecting the usual, but wow, did we get more than we expected.
This is NOT your usual cookie-cutter rom-com.
It's a thoroughly unique and beautifully crafted piece that is both wonderful to watch AND thought provoking, without using a sledgehammer.
I would say that I want to find more movies like this, except there aren't any.
That's a big part of what makes it so good.
As long as you have an open mind about love and accept that love-is-love, then I highly recommend taking the time to watch this wonderful movie.
You won't be disappointed.
I know I wasn't.
Escape 2120 (2020)
If you're not into thinking, give it a miss.
OK, I'll start by saying the acting isn't great, or the props, or the cinematography.
The male and female leads are pretty decent while the rest of the cast are admittedly, pretty bad.
Clearly the props, what there are of them, are NOT where the budget went and consist mainly of a few very simple and identical costumes, some fruit and a bunch of tents.
So why 6/10? Why not 1 if it's so bad?
Well, because it's not actually THAT bad.
In spite of all the complaints, if you make allowances for the fact it's an independent, no-budget, almost student-grade production, it's actually a pretty good, if simple, story.
On one condition......
You have to be able to think.
You don't get everything spelled out for you.
Maybe the book had all the details and explanations, but the movie doesn't.
You need to think it through, and when you do, you realise the premise is actually pretty well realised and you find yourself filling in the gaps with your own theories and ideas.
This isn't a big-budget Hollywood SFX overloaded time travel movie, it is a simple rendering of a more logical concept of time travel.
There are no flux-capacitors or warp-cores or killer robots. Just a simple box (or foil bag) that suspends the contents till the field is turned off.
If you accept this movie for what it is, a representation of a different concept of time travel, and enjoy being given the freedom to fill in the blanks for yourself, then it's actually a really good way to spent an hour and a half.
The War of the Worlds (2019)
The only flaw is the name.
I'm reading the reviews and I am shocked. Are people really that shallow that they can not see what great work this is?
I admit, the BBC made one fatal flaw, they called it The War Of The Worlds so people expected a remake, which is what has caused all the hate.
They should have given it a different, derivitive title, like, Beyond war of the worlds, or the day after war of the world's, that way it would be clear, THIS IS NOT A REMAKE, it is is a parallel story.
This, as it says in the credits is BASED on the HG Wells book, it is NOT the book.
This is a story about a couple living through that scenario, showing the after-effects and the human cost of the invasion.
Why would you want them to simply remake the original? Spielberg/Cruise tried that and look at the rubbish that turned out to be.
This is far better than that.
Everyone knows, or should know, the story of war of the worlds, it does not need to be remade and this compliments the original instead of simply, brainlessly copying it and adding 2018 grade CGI.
This is NOT a Hollywood action movie, it is a BBC drama, and a damn good one at that.
I enjoyed it from start to finish, but if you can't handle watching a movie that is not simply two hours of special effects, explosions & gratuitous violence, then don't watch it, because that's not what this is about.
If you want a well written, well constructed, well shot, well acted and true-to-life depiction of what it would have been like to live through HG's story, then I highly recommend it.
Ibiza (2018)
It had its moments
What can I say, it's a movie to glamorise alcohol, drug use and irresponsibil behaviour. All told, there was about 10-15 minutes of good movie, interspersed by utter rubbish, and in the end, the lead characters irresponsible actions are rewarded by a totally unrealistic "massive contract" with an international distributed of, you guessed it, alcohol.
Maybe the film was sponsored by the alcohol industry to try to sell "get wasted, it will make you successful. " instead of the reality, "get wasted, it will throw away your entire career. "
Maximum Ride (2016)
Maximum Ride - Minimum enjoyment.
So I see many people saying they have loved the books and are disappointed with the movie, well, I never even heard of the books and found this title on Netflix, read the brief and though 'sounds good'. What a waste..... Simply terrible effects, and I don't mean cheap. They look fully photo-realistic, just whoever the animator/modeler/rigger is that did this work needs to go back to school and relearn their supposed trade. Camera work that truly sucks. Editing that sucks. Directing that sucks. Action sequences (fight scenes) that look more like martial arts students doing a kata, or a tai-chi class. It looks like they simply filmed the actors practicing the moves and cut them together rather than a live 'action' sequence. And Mr director, the overuse of slow-mo throughout the movie doesn't disguise it. The acting sucked......, except it didn't!...., hang on, what? I thought it did, but it actually didn't. Watching the movie was painful, but when I went back and played individual shots, the acting was good or even great, but when it was cut together, the editor left huge gaps between characters dialogue that make it sound like a high school play, by kids who have never had an acting class in their lives. The dialogue was so stilted, and, unrealistic, in it's, speed, and, progression. If you have ever heard Adam West (original TV Batman) having a conversation with himself, or Nicholas Cage doing his impression of him in Kick-Ass, and you will get the picture. Even William Shatner's famously stilted Captain Kirk was more fluid than this. The screenplay did nothing to build living, breathing characters, and the story was so full of holes most of the time the audience is left asking themselves 'huh, what, why, that makes no sense'. The ONLY, and I mean ONLY saving grace that stopped me turning it off 15 minutes in, was Ellie Marie Evans. Maybe those who made this movie thought her looks would be enough to carry it at the box office, but Stunning as she is, even she couldn't pull off that miracle.