davidanderson-45295 Reviews

Postcards from London (2018)

was this based on a stage-play? Interesting after 20"

[8/10 · 16 August 2018]

The cinematography is very much like watching a play transposed to cinema, the set (small) scenes and lighting just seems like someone has taken a moderately successful stage-play and done a somewhat lazy transposition to the screen. I appreciate that budgets might have been small, but producing for the stage vs cinema is a very different thing.

don't get me wrong, I like the slightly surreal aspects (the parent's dining table) but the execution didn't quite make it, it's just a too too literal translation of the set-design and the lighting-design onto screen which just doesn't work.

I don't want to be harsh, because there are precious few interesting indie movies out there but its not 'grand budapest hotel' or 'gods own country'

a solid 6, but with a different producer / designer / director then it could have been better. can't really fault the actors at all.

I've continued watching, after the 1st 'chapter', it does move into other directions!

Dimension 404 (2017)

Tries hard and fails

[3/10 · 20 April 2017]

Oh dear, this tries so hard to be "Black Mirror" but completely fails - the acting is adequate, but the script and plotting is poor. Watch the 1st two episodes and you'll see.

It completely lacks any new twists or insights and falls back on clichés. I don't know if they were deliberately aiming for a YA audience but I do fee they've dumbed it down way too much. E1 was fairly obvious early on (not that that's necessarily a problem) but failed to develop it in interesting ways. E2 was just 'old dude' vs 'teen angst' - hey ho.

Falling Skies (2011–2015)

I tried to like it really

[1/10 · 12 March 2017]

My capacity for sci-fi is unlimited and my judgment is placed on hold if it's a genre series, but 'falling skies' was a tremendous disappointment. It's mawkish, sentimental, and worse - just dull in parts.

The aliens are poorly conceived and executed. They have inter-stellar capability but their robots clomp about loudly and use rotating guns in the style of either the 1920s Tommy guns or the 1980s robocop.

One plot line was that it was important to hide the heat from their engines, but what about the people who radiate and also they drove along roads lights blaring from their cars/trucks, etc. If a sufficiently advanced alien race could visit and have demonstrable anti-gravity, then they probably know how to scan the electromagnetic spectrum.

The mawkish "family" moments were too frequent, the music too dreary, the narrative too USA-centric. A particularly egregious moment was when the aliens were seen to be "praying/worshiping" the rising sun and there was middle-eastern chant/music playing.

As ever, guns and weapons are the answers. Sub rate stuff. If you want some good sci-fi there are better options out there.

Stunned that it went on for so many seasons.