roy-henderson7 Reviews

Tamara Drewe (2010)

A Waste of Time and a good Cast, shame...

[2/10 · 12 September 2010]

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave this 4 stars (Friday 10th September 2010), Cosmo Landesman gave it 2 out of 5 in the Sunday Times.

I am with with Cosmo and fear some relationship between The Guardian and the film makers. This film was poorly scripted, had facile characters, a random plot and worst of all, wasn't very funny, failing to tickle the funny bone of my 16 year old and his two middle-aged parents.

I was expecting something akin to the TV version of 'Cold Comfort Farm', (also Frears?) This was not it....

Was it ironic? A comedy of manners? A satire on city types in the country? A wry commentary on how a Hardy-esquire take on the Archers might play out?

Who knows, a wasted opportunity.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Am I missing something?

[4/10 · 8 April 2008]

Watched this at home on DVD with widescreen TV - so I did miss the cinema experience.

There was much to admire, it is beautifully shot and the cast is very good. Some scenes and landscapes do remain in the memory and I enjoyed the score. However by the end it left me cold and bored. James' character wasn't there - a black hole. Did I miss it? Was this on purpose?

The interesting thing was the development of Bob's character and reactions to him, which could have merited deeper treatment - a longer end, shorter lead in. The Jesse/Hank relationship.... where did that go? The female characters were non-existent, ciphers at best.

I gave it four stars because it looked good. I was also unsure of the tone. Was it supposed to be funny? Stately? Is it deep or pretentious?

Sorry. This might be my fault but I just don't get it. Maybe I'll try again.

Torchwood (2006–2011)

Over-heated baloney

[3/10 · 3 January 2007]

I'll keep it short.

Torchwood is over-egged, overwrought and over here. Really disappointing.

I so wanted to like it. It was supposed to be more adult than its parent show. Yet Torchwwod has none of whatever it is that Dr Who has and it is the latter that is the more adult and thought-provoking whilst remaining a family programmer.

Torchwood is a waste of time, talent and electricity - as someone once said about something else. Please make it stop.

Let Captain Jack be a fun Dr Who cameo.... give the cast jobs elsewhere.

But make Torchwwod go away...

There... I feel better now.