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Reviews
The Haunting of Pendle Hill (2022)
At least it's a good title, shame about the film.
There's only one person to blame for this awful film, and that's producer/director/writer/editor Richard John Taylor. There are occasionally very nice pieces of photography here, and the incidental music is quite good, but that's about all that can be said in it's favour. It isn't enough, though, to raise the film above the level of 'dire'.
It's always difficult to discern whether a badly portrayed character is the result of bad acting or bad directing. Personally, I didn't find most of the acting as bad as others seem to. The fact that the characters don't connect with the audience is down to the downbeat pace and lethargic energy level of the movie, not to mention the amateurish script. This is solely the fault of the director/writer. On the subject of the script, the ending is a complete non sequitur with everything that has gone before it - even in the previous 30 seconds! But such is the lack of engagement with the story (which is just a 30 minute short, stretched out with nothing to fill the extra time), I could barely manage a shrug and a 'meh'.
I haven't seen any of Taylor's other films, but judging from their 2-3 star ratings and the list of producers, I get the impression that they (and this) are nothing more than vanity projects from someone who fancies himself a filmmaker but has no talent in the field. He should stick to being a restaurateur(!!!?), he may have more success.
Ripper's Revenge (2023)
Surprisingly good
I went into this with no expectations whatsoever. Well that's not exactly true. I really expected it to be another 'churn 'em out, never mind the quality just get the money in', waste of resources with no artistic or even commercial merit. I was quite wrong.
First thing to say is that this isn't a Jack the ripper story, nor is it a morally dubious slasher movie. It's more of a whodunnit, thriller type story set against the background of the Whitechapel murders. Anyone looking for a gory horror is going to be very disappointed. As for the storyline, there are so many twists in the second half of the film a comparison with 'Double Indemnity' is quite fair. A couple of times I found myself thinking "Yes! I knew it, it was obvious....er...oh! I didn't expect that...".
The design, costumes, make-up, dialogue and photography are generally good, evoking real life in 1880s London, but the errors are intensely jarring - the use of what looks like a farm building to represent an East End warehouse, the sight of Portcullis House in the views of Parliament, and no woman would ever be seen on the streets dressed like the prostitutes here without being arrested. A lot of things can be forgiven when the filmmakers have a very tight budget, but the film is really let down by these. The biggest flaw, though is the music. It's far too intrusive. When the audience pays more attention to the music than to the drama, you know it's wrong.
All those criticisms aside, I still really enjoyed the film, and it's worth another viewing.
Nosorih (2021)
Sympathy For The Devil?
In my opinion this is quite a remarkable piece of storytelling. Dark, brutal - very, very brutal - but never quite bleak. You see the humanity that is - or, at least was - in the central character and you hope he can find some kind of salvation. Will he find redemption, or sink deeper into the quagmire of his life. Or will justice catch up with him? No spoilers...
This is the kind of film I usually hate. They often portray a fantasy criminal world, with a 'good guy' who lives happily ever after, or portray the the criminals as the dregs of society and you don't care what happens to them. This movie manages to be completely different and keeps you interested right to the end.
I'm glad I liked this film. Sentsov became something of a hero to me after his imprisonment (even though I'm too old to have heroes and he would hate to be a hero to anyone). He's a man of intelligence, integrity and courage, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of his work.
Adrift in Soho (2019)
Read the book instead
Confession : This film lost me within the first two minutes due to my own personal dislike of highly stylised imagery in movies. Still, I wanted to like it and tried to give it a fair chance. It IS set in 50s Soho, after all - a place I know well, although long after its 50s & 60s heyday - and it purports to be something of a philosophical exploration of the intellectual and cultural scene there at the time. Surely there would be something there to win me over?
Nope. Firstly, the outdoor scenes look like... well... anywhere but Soho. Secondly, it fails almost completely to evoke the 1950s. There's no attempt to conjure up the atmosphere of time or place. Thirdly, erm... who are the characters again? Thirty minutes in and we barely know who they are or if we're supposed to like/hate/admire them, or even just find their dialogue interesting. It would be unfair to put that down to bad acting - it's more a result of bad writing and directing. The director knows what he's trying to create, but completely fails to communicate it to the audience.
Thirty five minutes in, and I'm reduced to fast-forwarding just to get the ordeal over with. I'm not familiar with the novel - it's probably vastly more interesting than this, and one day I might give it a try. If you've read it then you may get more out of the film than I was able to, but for anyone coming to it 'cold' then it's just uninteresting, self-indulgent, inept drivel.
The Outer Limits: Controlled Experiment (1964)
Don't take it seriously and it's fun
Having waited nearly 40 years to watch The Outer Limits again, I'm sorry to say I've been distinctly unimpressed and really disappointed with most of the first season. Good sci-fi is at least a good adventure story, and great sci-fi - like all great literature & drama - makes us question ourselves, either as individuals or as a society. Although it does sometimes make one think, most of the time TOL barely rises above the level of 50s sci-fi b-movies. This episode isn't any better, but in my own opinion (feel free to disagree with me - I won't be offended!) it's far more enjoyable because it's tongue is firmly in it's cheek.
Being a fan of Barry Morse (am I the only one left outside of Canada?) I was looking forward to seeing a typically strong performance but didn't expect to discover he had a talent for understated comedy. Even more of a surprise was the performance of Carroll O'Connor. He plays his part completely straight, but towards the end you realise that his character's comedy is equally as strong as that of Morse, possibly even more so. And then there is the wonderful Grace Lee Whitney - almost unrecognisable without her Star Fleet uniform and with an early 60s hairstyle - and Robert Fortier (known for getting drunk with Scotty in the Star Trek episode 'By Any Other Name') both deliberately hamming up their parts for comedic effect and being all the more enjoyable because of it.
Is this great drama? Absolutely not. Is it an exciting adventure? Not in the slightest. Do we get a new perspective on the human condition? Do me a favour! But do we have an hour of brilliantly performed lightweight entertainment? Yep.
Watch this without any high expectations and you'll enjoy it.
(Btw, I know there are some real TOL fans here. Sorry for being so negative about the series - I really wanted and expected to be impressed with it, but, well, it is what it is.)
Missions (2017)
Go and watch something better
Good Sci-Fi (1) is scientifically accurate, or at least plausible; (2) has an original storyline (with exceptions, eg Forbidden Planet); and (3) teaches us something about the human condition. Bad Sci-Fi (1) is scientific nonsense; (2) is derivative; and (3) has absolutely nothing to say of any consequence. This is bad Sci-Fi.
I've just binged on all 20 episodes because I had to see how it would end, not because I was engrossed in the story, but because I was intrigued as to what the writers would finally plump for. I won't bother critiquing the science, but the story is so derivative it's all been done before. Examples: the human race beginning as a Martian colony (Quatermass and the Pit); the next stage of human evolution being kick-started by alien intervention (2001, and half the Sci-Fi stories of the early 70s); portals to other planets/times (Star Trek, Stargate); murderous AI/artificial life (2001, Alien); a dying billionaire seeking to prolong his life (numerous horror movies); plus elements of Ghosts of Mars and Star Trek: The Movie thrown in for good measure. As if that wasn't bad enough, the storytelling is a mess. A typical segment consists of something dramatic happening on the ship, cut to something mysterious happening elsewhere, cut back to the dramatic event where there's a revelation completely out of the blue, which then needs a flashback to provide some background. Repeat multiple times in the space of 18 minutes and you have nothing more than an incoherent patchwork of stuff happening. And in the end what do we learn? Answer: nothing.
Sorry for the spoilers but I've just saved you 6 hours so you can go and read some Dumas or watch a couple of Truffaut films if you want French culture. On the plus side, the CGI is good!
Doctor Who: Victory of the Daleks (2010)
Not really a review, just an observation
I've waited nearly 11 years to say this because no-one I know would know what I was talking about but the New Paradigm Daleks look like they were designed by BMW. Really. Seriously. Look at the VW beetles or minis built since the 1990s and tell me they're not New Paradigm Daleks on wheels.
Just to make this a review, Ian McNeice and Bill Paterson both put in superb performances (even though McNeice carries more weight and has more hair than Churchill, he's believable and brings out Churchill's mischievous side). The story starts with a good premise - Daleks apparently being utilised in Britain's WW2 war effort. That's something ripe for development in all kinds of directions. Unfortunately, the story becomes just an excuse to introduce the BMW Daleks before descending into the ridiculous with 'Spitfires in Space'. (I guess the BBC decided against that particular spin-off. It's not as good an idea as 'Piiiigs in Spaaace' (Sarcasm)). Mark Gatiss is intelligent, so he must know the relationship between props, wings, and, erm...air. He probably wrote that intending it to be tongue-in-cheek. Unfortunately it just comes across as silly.
Despite the negatives, if you haven't seen it, give it a go. It is Dr Who after all.
Grave (2016)
Fresher's Week was never like this
Send your daughters to university and what's the worst that could happen?
Is this a horror movie? A drama? A coming of age film? I suppose it's all 3 in varying degrees. At the outset we're introduced to Justine, a naive, sweet, young girl that everyone would feel protective towards, or even fall in love with. Like all of us at that age - particularly at university - she has a bumpy road ahead of her as she grows, her naivety no match for the older, 'cooler', students (for 'cooler students' read 'bullies') including her own sister. What happens as the story progresses is that Justine doesn't just 'find herself' but discovers her real nature.
This is such an unusual story that every time you think you know what it's leading to it starts to head somewhere different, so the ending comes as a surprise. It's not a typical, hackneyed, done-a-million-times, blood-and-gore, zombies-ripping-into-human-flesh-every-two-minutes movie. Nor is it a tense shocker that will have you jumping out of your seat at every unexpected sound behind you. If that's what you're looking for, then this film isn't for you.
Still, as a drama or relationship movie with horrific elements, it's well worth a watch.
Funny Man (1994)
Self-indulgent tripe
Being very generous, this movie has its moments, but that's all they are - moments - and they don't really work that well here. In a different film, yes, but this is too much of an incoherent mess with no discernible narrative. Each scene is basically a stand-alone vignette with no purpose in the overall scheme.
The humour is something akin to 'Viz does Tales From the Dark Side' and, again, has its moments but personally I didn't find any of it funny. This is the kind of film to watch when you're in your teens or twenties with mates, after a heavy night at the pub, just for a drunken laugh. Certainly not one a serious cinephile (or humourist) should watch expecting to find anything of any interest.
According to the Trivia below, the crew were basically off their heads when they made this, and it shows. What they created was self-indulgent rubbish which would have seemed good to them at the time but has absolutely nothing for most of the rest of us, although it's probably a very good example for film students of how NOT to make a movie.