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Reviews
The Walking Dead: Splinter (2021)
Making the best of a bad hand.
A good character building episode for Princess that gives us a bit more context for why she acts the way she does instead of just alluding to vague mental health issues and moving on.
The main complaint people appear to have with this episode is that it doesn't advance the overall plot. However, this should not be a surprise to anyone since this is one of the six episodes made during Covid lockdown restrictions, meaning a more in-depth, multi-character episode was untenable.
Whilst it may not be the interrogation episode fans wanted, I believe the writers took a sensible approach in deciding to use the unexpected restrictions as a means to allow Paola Lázaro to flex her acting mucles and show us what makes the latest addition to this ever expanding cast tick. A task that she tackles admirably without ever descending into a charicature, which is no mean feat considering her manic-pixie get-up.
Having watched since season one, I am confident that at least some of the reveals from this episode will also end up paying off in some quieter, inter-personal moments next season.
So, although some viewers may feel robbed of a tense, drama-filled interrogation episode (as if we haven't already had enough variations of those over the past ten seasons) this is a decent character study that continued to lay the foundations for whatever the TV version of this new group is going to be.
The Ninth Passenger (2018)
Not Good. Not Fun. Not Worth Your Time.
My wife picked this up on a whim as the cover and premise seemed goofy enough to be entertaining in a mindless way. Unfortunately, even at the massivley discounted price, this was still not worth the price we paid both monetarily & spiritually.
The characters are not likeable, or hateable, or much of anything really.
The story is weak & derivative and relies on a lot of familiar sounding explanations for character actions that rely far too heavily on terribly stilted dialogue. Due to this, the pacing ends up all over the place.
To top it all off, the effects look like a high-school project that ran out of time. The most egregious example being put on full display with a couple of close-ups of the monster's rubber face, which isn't dressed with cheap gore, or even water, to try & give any impression of a living being rather than the clear man in a cheap costume that it so very clearly is.
Unfortunately, the current U. K. DVD release also outright lies in its presentation and marketing for this abysmal movie. The cover art explicitly depicts the tentacles of a large monster curling up around the boat, as if to drag it under the waves. As you most likely inferred from the previous paragraph, the monster itself is human sized, and has no tentacles. Most of the alleged action also takes place on an island and within its shallows. So if you were expecting to see some cool boat destruction stunts you're going to be very dissapointed.
Last and, most definitely, least, the current DVD art also displays what appears to be a cheap, alien halloween mask looming in the background. Sad to say, there are neither aliens nor halloween costumes in this film.
Please, be kind to yourself & avoid this film.