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Reviews
Little Boy Blue (2017)
Exceeded Expectations
We rarely give 10's, but we were so blown away by this series that we truly feel that it is merited in this instance.
What really sets Little Boy Blue apart is it's refusal to follow the formulaic over dramatised tear jerker style which is prevalent in this type of 'true story' telling.
And this is where it really grabs you and punches you in the gut. The emotion is so genuine that even hardened old cynics such as me and the wife had tears in our eyes at several points.
Having lived and worked the Midlands in inner city environment, the characters and settings were all too familiar, and totally convincing.
Great acting all round, with a special mention to the superb Steven Graham, who led us to this series after an outstanding performance in Save Me (check it out).
Manhunt (2017)
MANHUNT: this series is based on a fake version of a true story ....
Why oh why ...
... why take a fascinating story and turn it into a tedious soap opera?
A little bit of research into what really took place quickly reveals how the complex and intriguing events surrounding the hunt for the Unabomber have been falsified into a simplistic Disneyesque crowd pleaser.
Wasn't the original story interesting enough?
An insult to the discerning viewer, as well as any of the people involved in the original incident.
Oh, and some pretty shabby acting too!
The Equalizer 2 (2018)
Denzel 5 + everything else 1 = 6
It's impossible not to compare this to the original, but it took me a while to realise where the dissatisfaction lay.
The original gave us a homogenous storyline with a set of vile, repulsive baddies that we all wanted to die painfully under the skilled hands of Mr. Washington.
This second iteration, tries to portray Washington as a kind of superman revenging victims around the world (although, as is always the case with American films, these foreign connections always lead back to the 'centre of the universe' a.k.a America).
However, rather than reinforcing his character these side plots only served to water down the already rather insipid main story.
This time the 'baddies' were little different to the 'hero', they'd merely taking a different path. And the 'victim' (played by the great Melissa Leo) appears so briefly and that we really don't have time to care that much about avenging her death.
Hence I found myself not particularly rooting for the 'good guy', or wishing the 'baddies' an unpleasant demise, but remained rather indifferent to the whole affair.
La Mante (2017)
Could have been much better
Not an easy series to rate as it has some very good moments which, in the long run, are let down by some poor writing.
The acting is mostly strong, although for most of the series it's hard to find anyone to actually like due to the difficult nature of the characters.
Probably the weakest aspect of the show is the shoddy, incompetent police work, which is frustrating to watch if you enjoy great police/detective shows.
There are also a few moments that leave you thinking "well that was pretty stupid!", or "why on earth would they do that".
If you can overlook the flaws then it's worth a watch.
Daredevil (2015)
Childish Yet Gruesome!
I probably would have enjoyed this as a 10 year old boy, or at least the grizzly action which, admittedly, is rather well done.
The drawn out dialogues would have bored me senseless.
As an adult, I initially found the slow pace and lengthy dialogues unusually intriguing for the comic book genre. But these quickly began to seem out of place when set against the sheer stupidity and improbability of the repetitive plot.
The quality of the acting ranges from average (the main protagonists) to downright bad.
Notable bad are the two useless sidekicks Foggy and Karen. Their existence in this series, other than for a bit of infantile comic relief, is a mystery to me.
By episode 6 , in fact, I felt embarrassed and slightly nauseous every time they made an appearance.
In fact, it was episode 6, the lengthy saga of the immortal Russian, that signalled the end for us. If you're curious, watch it and see for yourself. But be armed with a massive dose of 'suspension of disbelief'.
Why only 2 stars? Well I might have given it a 3 or 4, but I wanted to compensate for the ridiculously exaggerated current rating of 8.7.
I seriously question the sanity, or integrity of those who've give this drivel 10/10 stars ....... unless, of course, they're all 10 year old boys who enjoy lengthy meaningless dialogues!
Broadchurch (2013)
Embarrassingly Bad
We cringed our way through roughly 20 minutes of the first episode of this overly melodramatic drivel before pulling the plug.
I really have to question what kind of rubbish people watch in order to believe that this series deserves such a high rating.
Our benchmark comes from series such as Bosch, The Bridge, Engrenage, and Forbrydelsen. Another league entirely.
Gave it a 1 to try and balance the stupidly high rating. The current 8.5 is an insult to truly good series such as those named above.
Ghost in the Shell (2017)
Seen Without Preconceptions ...
... which in my opinion is the best way to see a film.
Ignore the negative reviews from those who either wanted this film to be something else or were simply too lazy to follow it.
Good vs Evil ... Technology vs The Human Spirit, there's nothing new in these themes, and there doesn't need to be. The theme of Ghost In The Shell is a universal one, and it was executed with great eloquence.
The Key Elements:
* Interesting, well portrayed characters
* Great visuals
* Very well choreographed action scenes
* Humour (I think many negative reviewers missed this)
* Good, but unobtrusive soundtrack
* A moving human element that doesn't become self-indulgent
I shall definitely watch this film again ... and won't be at all surprised if it eventually becomes a cult classic.
Happy viewing :-)
Everest (2015)
A Great Hollywood Movie Disaster
No, that's not an error of syntax, 'Movie Disaster' is an entirely fitting epithet for the two hours of bland clichéd drivel that I just subjected myself to.
Synopsis:
A group of wealthy, entitled, and in some cases entirely unfit people need to bolster their fragile egos.
In order to do this, they travel to a third world country to climb to the top of the world biggest rock because ... 'reasons'.
The big rock isn't that cool with they idea of having silly little people clambering all over it and leaving their s##t everywhere, so with the help of his friends snow, wind, and ice decides to show them whose boss.
Surprisingly ... big rock wins!
In Short:
Insipid dialogue.
Stereotypical Hollywoodian characters.
Zero character development.
Obligatory nausea inducing soppy bits.
Total lack of info about why certain key failures happened (read the books).
... and why should we give a damn about these idiots anyway?
Save your time and watch something decent, such as Touching The Void.
Chicago P.D. (2014)
Not Recommended For Anyone With A Brain
We managed 2 episodes of Season 1. The second episode we only watched to see if it was as bad as the first.
It was worse!
The childish, predictable plot, coupled with some really awful acting made us cringe with embarrassment.
IMDb's score of 8.2 confirms what I've always suspected: the ratings are rigged.
My advice: Don't waste your precious life watching this moronic drivel.
Sucker Punch (2011)
"If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything"
Fortunately for me, I watched this film with absolutely zero expectations.
I missed all the original hype, and it was purely by 'chance' that a piece of music that I'd heard on youtube led me to Sucker Punch.
I fell in love with this film from the very beginning. I let myself be carried along on a wonderful visual and musical journey, a fantasy within a fantasy laced with layers of meaning that need not be analysed ... simply absorbed.
Sucker Punch is a work of Art that will surely become a cult classic once the haters have finished tearing it apart and gone away to find other films that give them what they want without 'sucker punching' their linear minds.
It's an unfortunate human trait that people feel the need to deride and destroy that which they don't understand. They can't simply say "I don't get it", or "it isn't for me". Somehow they feel threatened ... they feel that they should 'get it', and if they don't 'get it' it must be inherently bad.
And it's not as if there's much to 'get'. The film won't reveal 'the meaning of life' to you, although it might just reinforce the 'meaning' of your life. I guess that some people are looking so hard for deeper meaning that they miss the simple and obvious.
If you've never seen Sucker Punch, please give it a try, and as you watch it, simply let it play out before you without trying to analyse. And if it really doesn't hold any great 'meaning' for you ... so what? ... you've just been treated to a beautifully filmed fantasy with some of the coolest fight choreography/dancing you'll ever see!
"If you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything." (Scott Glenn, Sucker Punch)
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
People Who Gave This Movie More Than 5/10
... are either ...
1. getting bribed by the producers 2. friends or relatives of the producers 3. incredibly gullible and without any real points of reference as to what constitutes a good movie.
The current IMDb of 8.1 is a huge insult to every great film out there.
SPOILER: This film, with it's flat lifeless acting, non-plot, and terrible childish 'humour' will SPOIL YOUR BRAIN CELLS.
DO NOT WATCH ... YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
P.S. this is a gratuitous line of text to enable me to reach the IMDb required 10 lines....... oh dear, looks like I need to add a few more gratuitous words because I still haven't driveled on enough.
.... are we there yet?
okay ... we're done here!
Strike Back (2010)
If I'd only watched season one I may have given this a 7 .....
..... but unfortunately I persisted!
Season 2 was on the whole quite entertaining, largely due to the interaction between the two leading actors. But it soon became obvious that the script writers had exhausted their imaginations on season 1.
The gratuitous soft porn introduced in season 2 just added to the dumbed down feel of the series, and instead of being erotic ... was just childishly voyeuristic.
I still enjoyed watching the two leads working together tactically, however, and the fact that I'd read that they'd been trained by spec ops personnel added a bit to the credibility factor.
However, by season 3 the last vestiges of believability had been abandoned in favour of a ridiculous charade reminiscent of some adolescent video game.
Sadly, what had started out as a potentially great series rapidly degenerated into a bad comedy based around silly battles between the two brain dead incompetent 'spec ops' characters and infinite waves of zombie like enemies just begging to be mowed down.
N.B for 'enemies' read 'villainous foreigners' hell bent on ruling the world and destroying good ole' 'democracy' with their 'dastardly plans'.
RIP Strike Back
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)
Once again America saves America ... whoops, I mean Planet Earth!
I don't have much to add to the bad reviews that other IMDb users have contributed, as it's pretty much all been said before: great CGI, terrible script, dreadful talentless botox lipped lead female ... etc.
However, I'd like to make one little observation, and it's not specific to this film in particular, although Transformers 3 is a classic example.
My observation is this: America is NOT The World!
Yes, I know that this may come as a shock to many people whose global knowledge is gleaned from Michael Bay Films, in which SAVING PLANET EARTH equates to SAVING America.
I know it's confusing that in a film about a so called global attack all of the action takes place in one part of one American city.
Also ... did any of you know that there are other military forces in existence apart from the US Army, US Air Force and the famous US Navy SEALS? Yes it's true ... look it up on the internet!
So, my real bone of contention with Bay is not the spectacular drivel that he produces, but his reinforcement of the America-centric vision that is ultimately pretty insulting to any non-American with a brain.
Game of Thrones (2011)
Don't Trust the Stars
They say you should never judge a book by its cover. Likewise, you should never judge a film or TV series by its IMDb rating. There's not much that I can add to the criticisms that have been leveled at this pretentious, humorless and vacuous twaddle, especially as I only just managed to get to the end of the first episode. But from what I've read, nothing much changes, and I've certainly got far better, if lower rated, shows and films to spend my time watching. I'm sure that if I was about 13 years old again I'd love it, but it's a total mystery to me why it has so many 'adult' fans. I guess a lot of people just lead boring everyday lives and need to escape into this kind of childish fantasy.