tonydun Reviews

Black Souls (2014)

Obscure

[4/10 · 18 May 2022]

An opaque film. A whole lot of relationships are simply not explained. No context for why people do what they do, apart from a couple of significant actions towards the end. Some interesting glimpses into cultural themes but if you don't get something, the film isn't going to explain it. At times it plodded and I found it frustrating.

Selma (2014)

Enjoyable film depicting a regrettable part of US history

[6/10 · 6 April 2022]

Many of the reviews here seem to be reviewing MLK and his movement rather than the actual film.

As a non-American I found this an interesting piece about which I had no knowledge. It certainly had an impact on me.

The film however seemed to be aimed at a US audience with a certain amount of presumed background knowledge. Also there were times I wished it had sub-titles because I could not make out what was being said. This didn't help in fully appreciating the story. Nonetheless, a fascinating look at past events.

Downton Abbey (2019)

Well made but ultimately boring

[6/10 · 11 October 2021]

I hadn't seen any of the TV series and to be fair, had expected the dialogue to be snappier and wittier than it is. Perhaps that is on me.

About half-way through I thought the movie was perhaps, a piss-take, showing the audience a picture of shallow upper-class twits. But as it went on I changed my mind and felt we were being asked to identify with these people. I felt the movie dragged on far too long with uninteresting storylines and in the end, boring. Extremely well shot, well costumed, well acted though.

The Five (2016)

Good albeit way too drawn-out

[7/10 · 5 October 2021]

Quite a good show and got better as it went on. My criticisms would be that it should be 6 or 7 episodes, it is way too drawn out. Lots of prolonged conversations and scenes that would benefit from some tighter editing. In fact I fast forwarded 15 or 30 seconds quite a lot and I missed nothing. Also the main character Mark is a real pain and I admit to hoping he might get shot or something. Lots of silly police procedural stuff also but most shows seem to have that so I wouldn't mark it down for that.

Yellowstone (2018– )

Dynasty with big hats

[3/10 · 25 September 2021]

Avoid. A soap opera with problematic themes. Annoyingly, it also indulges in the mythology of the 'real' people are people on the land and are somehow better than their urban/city counterparts. The worst part however is that it is just uninteresting.

The Defeated (2020)

Waay too long

[6/10 · 21 April 2021]

Great setting, the first 2 episodes were interesting. However the whole thing was so drawn out and too much time spent on an uninteresting relationship that was developing between the main character and a married woman that added little overall to the story. If the series had been cut down by at least 2 episodes it would have been much better. I nearly stopped after episode 6 because it was dragging so much. I had the show recorded, so I started fast forwarding through certain parts and it didn't seem to matter much.

The Head (2020– )

Crazies in the snow

[4/10 · 25 September 2020]

I only got a couple of episodes in and I had to stop. The plot was heavily reliant on heavily flawed people acting badly. When you realise how intensely people are scrutinised and analysed before being sent to Antarctica, this just seemed so unlikely it seemed a tad ridiculous to me. If you're happy to suspend your critical faculties and roll with it, you might enjoy it but I couldn't.

The American West (2016)

Interesting recounting of stories we've all heard about

[5/10 · 12 May 2020]

I found this interesting but overly long as it tends to string things out and repeat itself a bit. As a non-American i found the history interesting although I see other reviewers cast doubt on the accuracy of the series. I wondered why they used actors to explain history but I guess they were trying to appeal to a wide audience. But I doubt that actors who've been in Westerns have some sort of special insight. I was interested in the Native American aspects but towards the end the narrator stated "in a span of just 25 years, America has gone from a country divided by war, to a nation united by land". Are Native Americans not American then? This statement came just after explaining how Native Americans were ruthlessly hunted off that land. I found this extremely jarring.

Tin Star: My Love Is Vengeance (2017) Season 1, Episode 10

Not really there.

[25 July 2018]

I tried really hard to like this. The only reason I hung in there for as long as I did was because of Tim Roth. This series had a good start and developed some interesting plot lines. But as the series went on they just got a bit out of hand. The bald Oil company exec was a cartoon bad-guy character. And the pace towards the end really slowed down and plodded a bit. In the end just disappointing. A shame, because as a series, it had promise.