Bloody hard watch hitting all the grace notes - just perfect. What's next, team? A world without Morse or Morse-adjacent is not worth living! Scene after scene providing the Morse equivalent of fanservice - restraint, words unsaid, love unrequited, duty pursued, self-sacrifice uppermost at all times. Then a quiet departure for each of the characters in turn as the new, harder era of policing hinted at throughout the 9-season run rolls in like the inexorable tide. Body count suitably improbable, as always, and plenty of red herrings to keep you guessing. Poetic and lyrical conclusion with a little homage to Thaw as we depart these civilised, golden-stoned shores forever...?
Reviews
7 Reviews
Dark Phoenix
(2019)
Better than critics saying...
8 June 2019
Darker in tone than your average Marvel/X-Men outing, which is perhaps what has led to critics slamming it (disappointed expectations) - but actually a very enjoyable, rather beautiful film. More of a "Logan" vibe.
Cracker soundtrack from Zimmer, nice performances all round, particularly from a revelatory Sophie Turner, who's actually got some acting chops, it transpires.
Jessica Chastain also very good as an emotionless alien.
7.5/10, but gone for Swedish rounding as there are clearly some sheeple out there doing the 1 thing.
Seek out and enjoy.
Ricos.
Cracker soundtrack from Zimmer, nice performances all round, particularly from a revelatory Sophie Turner, who's actually got some acting chops, it transpires.
Jessica Chastain also very good as an emotionless alien.
7.5/10, but gone for Swedish rounding as there are clearly some sheeple out there doing the 1 thing.
Seek out and enjoy.
Ricos.
The Corporation
(2003)
Good stuff...
29 May 2006
Well-researched, only slightly biased, informative and 'important' documentary about the fundamental flaw with corporate business and its rather too mordant grasp (some might say 'blight'!) upon all our lives, and upon global power nowadays.
Some come out of this looking distinctly grubby, whereas some, surprisingly, come out shining.
Far from leaving you in despair, however, it'll appeal to the optimist in you.
All the contributors you'd wish to hear from (top execs from Shell, Goodyear, born again exec from some carpet company, as well as Friedman, Chomsky et al.), married with the usual culled background footage.
Seek out and enjoy, then get active...
;0) Ricos. (9/10)
Some come out of this looking distinctly grubby, whereas some, surprisingly, come out shining.
Far from leaving you in despair, however, it'll appeal to the optimist in you.
All the contributors you'd wish to hear from (top execs from Shell, Goodyear, born again exec from some carpet company, as well as Friedman, Chomsky et al.), married with the usual culled background footage.
Seek out and enjoy, then get active...
;0) Ricos. (9/10)
Withnail & I
(1987)
Perennial Favourite
16 April 2005
Pretty superfluous to add to the praise of Withnail & I. If Oscars mattered particularly and, further, went to those deserving, surely Richard Griffiths (Uncle Monty) would receive one for his high camp, yet credible and deeply touching turn. That's the key - it's all too credible, 'cos we've done it. As an essay on the final shedding of a strange inverted innocence for the corruption of 'normal' life with its compromises, self-discipline and grind, unsurpassed, I believe. Likewise for its appreciation of the deep platonic love that can spring up between young men in the trenches of poverty and booze. Everything pitch perfect from the herniating slapstick to the pathos, from the soundtrack to the props, from the rain to the booze and all the way from Withnail... to I. 10/10.
State and Main
(2000)
Teeth Extracted
7 April 2005
That's not entirely fair. My wife, mother-in-law and I tried to sit and watch this (having enjoyed Glengarry Glen Ross) last night on DVD. Somehow it wasn't quite right. The mother-in-law left the theatre swearing after twenty minutes, the wife got up to 'squeeze a blackhead' after fifty, with a cheery 'don't worry about pausing it!', and I endured to the end. A comedy without enough laughs (unless you're a movie insider, perhaps), a drama without sufficient tension or empathy generating characters, and a love story without passion or credibility. You'd be pleased with this if you'd presented it as a college project - you'd probably even get a good mark. But as a commercial product? Nah. Shame too, since it has a great cast who make a grand effort, but the whole thing comes off as believing it's cleverer than it is. Like having teeth extracted? Maybe not - I had one or two chuckles and did complete it unlike my co-viewers. Perhaps more like having a filling or two under local anaesthetic... 5/10
The English Patient
(1996)
Flabby editing, lovely cinematography...
16 March 2005
The caption says it all. Decent adaptation of a well-received book; this is one which could have done with a little ruthlessness when transferring it to film, however. Almost seems to be in love with itself - a little too convinced of its own splendour and profundity. Rafe gives a reprise of his slightly psycho grumpy sod. Kristin Scott Thomas is delicious but a little too modern, perhaps. The excellent and battling Juliette Binoche miscast (at age 32) as a teenager growing up fast in war. The movie wavers between an apparent desire for on-the-mark period realism and sudden clanging bits of contemporary dialogue and delivery. Lusciously filmed and staged, however. All in all more of a 6.5, but something wasn't quite hitting the note for me, so I rounded down for the statisticians...
Million Dollar Baby
(2004)
Million Dollar Booby
6 March 2005
Disappointed.
I invariably enjoy Clint Eastwood, rate Hilary Swank, and relish anything with Morgan Freeman in it.
Don't get me wrong, however - there's nothing really wrong with this movie, simply that we've seen it all before. Now I come to write about it, you know what taste it leaves me with? That of a Sunday afternoon made-for-TV movie - decent production values, distinctly pedestrian script enthusiastically delivered in amateurish fashion (I know - shocking, considering the cast, but perhaps the tight filming schedule had something to do with it), and a hackneyed, seen-it-all-before plot.
Let me try and draw on the positives: Morgan Freeman - sterling performance under trying circumstances... erm... that's about it, actually. Just too many problems with poorly drawn stereotypes and insufficiently developed, confusing subplots.
Did it move me? Crumbs, no! Oscar-winner? Hmmmm...
Still, there y'go. 6/10
I invariably enjoy Clint Eastwood, rate Hilary Swank, and relish anything with Morgan Freeman in it.
Don't get me wrong, however - there's nothing really wrong with this movie, simply that we've seen it all before. Now I come to write about it, you know what taste it leaves me with? That of a Sunday afternoon made-for-TV movie - decent production values, distinctly pedestrian script enthusiastically delivered in amateurish fashion (I know - shocking, considering the cast, but perhaps the tight filming schedule had something to do with it), and a hackneyed, seen-it-all-before plot.
Let me try and draw on the positives: Morgan Freeman - sterling performance under trying circumstances... erm... that's about it, actually. Just too many problems with poorly drawn stereotypes and insufficiently developed, confusing subplots.
Did it move me? Crumbs, no! Oscar-winner? Hmmmm...
Still, there y'go. 6/10
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