r-lythgoe's Reviews

Daredevil (2003)

7/10

19 September 2014

Warning: Spoilers

Daredevil is a superhero movie that gets a lot of hate from fans, with a lot of them deeming it to be one of the worst superhero movies. Sorry, but I don't really understand the hate. I can DEFINITELY understand the hate towards the ABYSMAL spin-off Elektra, released a couple years after this in 2005, but this I just don't really get.

There's no denying the movie has some flaws: The Kingpin is pretty much wasted as a villain for most of it despite the great performance by Michael Clarke Duncan (RIP), Jon Favreau is downright INSUFFERABLE as Matt's friend and partner (I can't even remember his name), a lot of the movie feels shortened and there is a massive plot hole as to how the police found out Fisk was the Kingpin.

(Most of these flaws are actually fixed anyway on the Director's cut, which I agree is much superior to the actual film. So you should DEFINITELY buy the director's cut. Just saying) However, I think this is a highly underrated movie. Ben Affleck is an actor who seems to get a lot of hate, but I quite like him as an actor. Sure, he's appeared in abominable films like Pearl Harbor and Armageddon, but I think he's a good actor and an even better director as he's recently proved. He does a good job in this film as Matt Murdock/Daredevil and manages to make the character seem very believable on screen. He also has great chemistry with Jennifer Garner(who is decent as Elektra), which you would expect since they are kind of....married now. I've already mentioned how good MCD was, but Colin Farrell is also terrific as Bullseye and he pretty much owns every scene he is in.

On to the actual plot, I thought it managed to adapt Daredevil's character very well, it was very enjoyable, it had a great moral behind it and most of the action scenes were pretty well filmed. I also enjoyed the bleak and dark feel of the film. It was a very refreshing change from other superhero movies. I also love the music in this film, especially the credits song "Won't Back Down" and "Wake Me Up Inside".

Overall, a decent and underrated superhero movie which I always enjoy watching.

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The Thick of It (2005–2012)

10/10

Amazing and hilarious satire

5 September 2014

The Thick Of It is a sitcom which has been hurt by many issues, such as the loss of main character Hugh Abbot after Season 2, the splitting up of Seasons and the changes in format....

But NONE of these issues matter because The Thick Of It is just so bloody good. It is a hilarious satire of British politicians and what goes on with them behind the scenes, and is almost completely accurate with it's similarities to, and even predictions of, real-life political scandals. It's mostly driven by dialogue, and the dialogue (most of which is profanity) is terrific, especially when coming from the hilarious, cold and fierce character of Malcolm Tucker, played to perfection by the brilliant Peter Capaldi (who you may know now from Doctor Who). The Series has been so good and popular it has even inspired a spin-off film, In The Loop, which received critical acclaim from critics.

Overall, The Thick Of It is a classic sitcom and one of the best sitcoms to come out of the UK. Brilliant! 10/10

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Blackadder (1982–1983)

6/10

The beginning of a legend........which hasn't exactly started yet

5 September 2014

Let's face it. Blackadder is one of the best sitcoms ever put on television, with consistently excellent and brilliantly funny scripts all the way through........well, from Seasons 2-4 at least.

The first Season of Blackadder, simply titled "The Black Adder", focusing on some sort of secret history where Henry Tudor was never king until later and he re-wrote history to eliminate his predecessor Richard IV (played by the legend that is Brian Blessed) from the history books, is generally regarded as the weakest season, and it is easy to see why. The show was a lot sillier back in this season, and the character of Edmund (the "Black Adder") is pretty much a snivelling, unlikable toad rather than the witty character we would see in later seasons.

That said, despite the first seasons many faults, it was still entertaining, so I guess that allows me to give it at least a 6/10. But the show hasn't yet reached its classic status until Season 2.

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Family Guy (1999– )

8/10

Shouldn't have come back

5 September 2014

When Family Guy first debuted back in 1999, it was absolutely brilliant, and for three seasons was consistently excellent, with some of my personal favourite episodes being "Chitty Chitty Death Bang", "Da Boom", "Holy Crap", "Road To Rhode Island", "There's Something About Paulie", "Road To Europe" and "Ready Willing And Disabled".

While the characters were pretty much all good in their own way (except Meg, who, let's face it, was an annoying brat), my favourite character was easily Stewie, who , despite being a baby, was also a homicidal evil genius obsessed with killing his own mother. BRILLIANT! Most of the side characters were hilarious as well, particularly Quagmire.

After 3 excellent seasons, however, it was cancelled. This isn't exactly a bad thing, however, as many other sitcoms have lasted a short while and have been remembered as some of the greatest sitcoms of all time, the biggest example of that being Fawlty Towers. If FG had stayed cancelled it would be remembered as one of the greatest shows of all time.

Unfortunately, it came back. BIG MISTAKE! Don't get me wrong. Season 4 was very good, with excellent episodes such as "The Cleveland-Loretta-Quagmire", "Petarded", "Peter's Got Woods", "PTV", "The Fat Guy Strangler", "The Father, The Son And The Holy Fonz" and the fantastic "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story" trilogy. However, S4 wasn't exactly as consistent as the first 3 seasons.

It was Season 5 were it really began to run out of steam, being merely an "alright" season with a very mixed quality of episodes. By this point, Seth Macfarlane had also started to change many of the good things about the show, transforming Stewie's character from an evil genius to a repressed homosexual, and making Peter more and more stupid. Despite this, there were still some good episodes such as "Peter's Two Dads" and "Meet The Quagmires". Season 6 was more or less the same. Despite containing the absolute masterpiece that was "Stewie Kills Lois/Lois Kills Stewie" (My two favourite Family Guy episodes by the way) the rest of the season was kind of meh. Season 7 was yet again underwhelming, with the only standout episodes being "I Dream Of Jesus" and "We Love You, Conrad".

Then we got to Season 8, and this is when the show started to become a giant load of horses**t. Not one SINGLE episode in Season 8 was even funny in the slightest and the show became way too vulgar and offensive, with the biggest examples being "Dial Meg For Murder", "Quagmire's Dad", the RUBBISH Star Wars parodies and "Peter-assment". Season 9 was again terrible, despite containing two very good episodes ("And Then There Were Fewer" and "Road To The North Pole". Season 10 was again the same. Despite some really good episodes like the fantastic "Back To The Pilot" and "Mr. And Mrs. Stewie", they couldn't make up for the rest of the season, which contained such travesties as "Seahorse Seashell Party" and "Screams Of Silence: The Story Of Brenda Q". And Seasons 11 and 12 were both completely terrible all the way through, with ZERO redeeming qualities. So I have made the decision to stop watching.

In conclusion, Family Guy was a once great show that, just like The Simpsons, has become a giant load of crap. But for once being a fantastic show, I'm going to give it an 8/10.

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The Simpsons: Brick Like Me (2014)

Season 25, Episode 20

8/10

Finally!

9 August 2014

Warning: Spoilers

I used to be a huge fan of The Simpsons in the 1990's. Seasons 1-8, and to some extent Season 9, pretty beats every other bit of animation ever made. However, the rot started to set in the second half of Season 9, and from Season 10 onwards the show went completely downhill. And nowadays it is pretty much just a soulless, unfunny, lazy shadow of it's former self, with only the occasional good episode every season. A bit like Family Guy (which makes me a bit worried for the upcoming crossover between the two shows).

However this very hyped up episode managed to actually live up to the hype, and is possibly one of the strongest episodes of The Simpsons since the late 90's. OK, the plot wasn't nearly as good as any of the episodes from the show's golden age from seasons 2-8, as the main characters still haven't been improved on much. However, the plot was entertaining with a good enough message behind it (that it is better to live in the real world than fantasy land).

The best thing about this however was the production values. The animation here was very impressive and managed to be nearly up to the standard of The Lego Movie. The Lego world is also very detailed, with no one being able to die or grow old or even get injured, and even having their own religion. I also managed to get a few laughs out of this episode.

So well done for giving us an actually good episode, and if it were up to me, this would be the final episode of the show, to give it a fitting send off rather than much of the dross the show craps out these days.

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Family Guy: Seahorse Seashell Party (2011)

Season 10, Episode 2

3/10

The Nadir Of Family Guy's decline

26 July 2014

Warning: Spoilers

I am a big Family Guy fan (well, I used to be at least) but ever since Season 8 or so, the show has gone downhill. It's still funny at times, but the scripts and comedy have both been not that impressive mostly.

Even the characters have become rubbish. Peter has gone from a lovable idiot to an unlikable, childish d**k, Lois has gone from a caring, likable mother to a complete b**ch, Meg has gone from being a typical teenager to being bullied and depressed, Brian has gone from being a wise cracking alcoholic to an excuse for Seth to speak his political views and Stewie has gone from being evil to just uninteresting altogether.

This episode is easily the WORST Family Guy episode ever aired. One subplot revolves around Brian taking drugs and having hallucinations. This subplot is SO badly written, with weird, dull hallucination sequences. I have to admit, I did find the sequences where Brian hallucinated Stewie calling his name and Brian "cutting his ear off to prevent WWII" freaking hilarious, but that's about it. And it also annoyingly overshadowed Meg's rant against her family as they just kept randomly interrupting.

You'd think this episode would be good because it has Meg finally snapping against her family, right? *Sigh* Well, no. as I said above, the whole scene is ruined by none of the characters except Lois taking it seriously. And if it wasn't already ruined enough, Seth decides to push the reset button by having Meg realise that she NEEDS to be abused by them or they will fall apart because of the dysfunction. That ending ENRAGES me, because it basically says that domestic abuse is OK, because they all need SOMEONE to pick on, and there are no consequences from what they have done to her.

This gets a 3/10 because of a few funny moments. That's it.

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Doctor Who: An Unearthly Child (1963)

Season 1, Episode 1

8/10

First episode AMAZING. The rest.....does it's job well enough

22 July 2014

Review of all 4 episodes Let's start with the first episode of the greatest show ever put on television, Doctor Who, created in 1963 by Sydney Newman and produced by Verity Lambert (And make sure to check out the brilliant docudrama An Adventure In Space And Time for the story on how the series was made) Now, let's get it out of the way. The first episode of Doctor Who is a MASTERPIECE. Hands down. It flows well, it's got a great mystery surrounding Susan and the introduction to the show is pulled off with perfection. Then we go to episodes 2-4. Now, this is where it gets difficult. Episodes 2-4 are not all that great. Nothing really happens except a paper thin "capture and escape" plot along with a tiresome caveman storyline. HOWEVER, episodes 2-4, despite how paper-thin they are, do their job very well in establishing the characters and themes of the show, doing a great job in developing the character of the doctor. So, in conclusion, the first episode is masterful and while episodes 2-4 aren't all that good, they do their job well enough.

8/10

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Doctor Who: Rose (2005)

Season 1, Episode 1

6/10

Good comeback, but it overshadows story

12 May 2014

Warning: Spoilers

I would just like to say that I like this episode. Russell T Davies brought back the show very well and introduced the show to modern viewers very well. Rose is a great companion here and pretty much represents the viewer in this episode, similar to Ian and Barbara in An unearthly child, as is her reaction to the inside of the TARIDS. The doctor is also built up as a mysterious figure, again managing to grab and intrigue new viewers in who the doctor is. Now THAT is how you do a reboot. However, the actual story is not really up to much. The autons are incredibly underused, the episode suffers from unfunny, childish comedy like the burp scene, the special effects (especially trying to make Cardiff look like London) are terrible and Mickey and Jackie are dreary, one-dimensional characters. Still, this was a good return, even if the actual story wasn't up to much.

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Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor (2013)

Season 8, Episode 0

10/10

Disappointing? You are joking

12 May 2014

Warning: Spoilers

I cannot believe so many people were disappointed with this episode. As someone who either wants to get into either writing or Critical reviews, I thought this episode was masterful. As a huge fan of Matt's seasons (except series 7 part 2) I was delighted to see all of the plot threads of series 5, 6 and 7 very well tied up. We discovered who blew up the TARDIS, who the Silence were, why everything from series 5 and 6 happened with the entire story arc also tying into Gallifrey being saved in The day of the doctor. It was also a great paradox revelation that the Silence, in attempting to stop the siege from happening, ended up causing it themselves, a very nice throwback to Day of the daleks. Matt Smith also owned the whole damn episode, giving the best performance of his entire acting career. As for plot holes in this episode, people complaining were obviously not paying enough attention. Why doesn't the doctor just evacuate all the citizens? Because Tasha was going to blow up the planet anyway, and obviously the doctor doesn't want an entire planet to be destroyed. Why doesn't the doctor just leave? Because if he leaves, they will still blow up the planet because they can't take the risk. Why were the Silence fighting alongside the doctor? Because they were priests that were still loyal to the papal mainframe. Also, it really does depress me how lots of reviewers on here are complaining about it "not being epic enough". Seriously, that's not reviewing, that's just being an idiot. As for Matt's regeneration, it was masterful. HANDS DOWN the best regeneration in the show's history. Matt's final lines were beautiful and managed to stay true to the character of the doctor. And as for his quick change into Capaldi? I loved it. I can't understand all the people who have complained about it being too fast (obviously people who have never watched classic who). One of my favourite YouTubers, Who addicts reviews, put it perfectly when they said "Can you honestly imagine Matt's face morphing into Capaldi's? Also, the quick change was brilliant it gave Capaldi's first appearance more impact". That perfectly sums up my thoughts on the regeneration. By the way, I also have to mention the death of Handles. That is a scene that makes me cry (and I almost never cry at TV) every time I watch it, thanks to a combination of brilliant writing and brilliant acting by Smith. I also found the doctor ageing to death on Trenzalore very tragic and the fact he was about to end his life facing his greatest enemies (The Daleks) was very fitting. I also thoroughly enjoyed the episode. Do I have any criticisms about the episode? Well, Tasha Lem was annoying and was a lazy re-hash of River Song and the episode was a little bit rushed. That's it. Those are the only criticisms I have. Overall, I thought this was a very fitting send-off to Smith and I thought it was even BETTER than Day of the doctor. So yes, 10/10. One of my favourite episodes.

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Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor (2013)

Season Unknown, Episode Unknown

10/10

Fitting 50th anniversary

21 April 2014

Warning: Spoilers

In my opinion, the Matt Smith era has definitely been a mixed bag. It started off very well with series 5, a very good series, but series 6 and 7 were just not very good, with not really that many good stories in those 2 series. And after the cold, soulless mess that was series 7 part 2, I was worried that Moffat might screw up the 50th. How wrong I was. The day of the doctor was an incredible, highly enjoyable and very well written 50th anniversary, with lots of references to the show's past, which thankfully didn't feel cheep and forced and actually added to the story, unlike cheap pops such as the Tegan reference in The crimson horror. This is hands down Steven Moffat's best script since A Christmas carol and possibly his best script since Blink. Also, Tom Baker's cameo actually made sense if you listen to the dialogue carefully. Brilliant writing. As for the ending with Gallifrey actually being frozen in time rather than destroyed was also very well written and didn't manage to make the RTD era seem pointless, as many people have accused Moffat of doing with this ending. My only criticism would be the Zygon sub-plot, which just seemed to fizzle out without any conclusion, but that is all that I can really criticize this special for. Apart from that, it was magnificent, and the people that were disappointed with it are obviously just Tennant and RTD fan boys who just want to hate everything that Moffat does, no matter how good it is. Also, PETER CAPALDI!!!!

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Doctor Who: The Girl in the Fireplace (2006)

Season 2, Episode 4

10/10

Best episode ever?

21 April 2014

Masterpiece. That is the one word that sums up The girl in the fireplace. Everyone says Blink is Steven Moffat's best story. While I adore Blink, this episode is even better. In fact, it might be the best doctor who story ever. OK, we all know that Caves of Androzani is the best doctor who story ever, but Girl in the fireplace is an extremely close second. Almost everything about this story is brilliant. It is perfectly paced and enjoyable, complex but all ends up making sense to most viewers, has terrifying villains in the clockwork androids, has a touching and realistic love story, Rose is actually bearable in the episode and it is very cleverly written. The ending of the episode where everything that has happened all ends up making sense is just brilliant. Also, this possibly David Tennant's best performance as the doctor, delivering comedic and serious lines with perfection, and he's only been the doctor for about 5 episodes. I just cannot review this episode without giving it a 10/10.

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The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

1/10

Awful, Abominable. Insulting. Waste of time.

20 April 2014

Warning: Spoilers

Wow, that was really bad. I didn't want to hate this movie because I am a huge spider man fan, but this...My God it was horrific. It seriously, seriously sucks. I don't even know where to begin. First of all the characters: First of all, the characters are annoying and crap. As much as I like Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, their characters were absolutely awful. Gwen is almost a nothing character and the writers obviously don't get her character. And don't even get me started on Peter. He is an annoying, unlikable, smug idiot who is so far from the spider man in the comics it is shocking. As for the villains: RUBBISH. Dane DeHaan and Jamie Foxx deliver good performances, but their characters are underused, worthless and hardly anything they do makes the slightest lick of sense. The friendship between Peter and Harry is also so painfully underdeveloped and just makes me not care about Harry as a character. What also annoys me is that the movie is basically just a 2 hour advertisement for the next movie. No joke. Also, while the action sequences look impressive, I don't really care, as all the action that was in the movie was all in the trailers anyway. No joke. I am honestly enraged that I paid money to see this movie, only to be met with basically a 2 hour advertisement for the next movie, which I am not going to see after this travesty by the way. Very, very rarely does a movie make me feel angry, but this one ticks all the boxes. Almost no plot, illogical plot holes, crap characters, awful CGI, boring story (Wait, was there even a story?) way too much action and a waste of good actors. But what really sealed my utter disgust and hatred for this movie was the ending. That ending might as well have been Mark Webb sticking his middle finger up to the audience, because it was basically him saying "OK, I know you have all had to sit through 2 hours of crap, so here is 2 iconic comic book scenes that we have shoved into the movie at the last minute and then resolved just as quickly to appease fan boys. Happy now?" It enrages me that Mark Webb actually had the utter gall to do that. As for the Rhino: Shoehorned into the movie for no reason other than to sell toys. That's it. That's all I'm going to say. The amazing spider man 2 is one of the worst films I have ever seen and is up there with Batman and Robin and Catwoman as one of the worst comic book movies of all time. And I say that without hyperbole. To any one who actually wants a plot in a movie, do NOT watch this. AVOID!!! Without question, avoid this movie. 1/10.

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Orphan (2009)

7/10

Very underrated movie

20 April 2014

Warning: Spoilers

I do not really understand why so many people hate this movie. I loved it. Before I start praising it, I have to go into the bad points first. First of all, the movie is very clichéd, constantly relying on cheap false scares which turn out to be nothing. Also, there was the cliché character who just doesn't believe anything the main character says even though it's true, etc. Also, the final 10 minutes of the movie were VERY reminiscent of The hand that rocks the cradle. Villain tries to seduce man, goes on murdering rampage when she gets rejected, fights with main character who kills her, etc. However, apart from those issues, this film is pretty good. The best thing about this movie is Isabelle Fuhrman's performance as Esther. I would recommend this movie just for her performance alone. She manages to be convincingly sinister and manages to act sweet and innocent very well. It's almost as if she becomes the character. Also, while this might not be the horror movie I was expected, it was a proper thriller movie with some great scenes and very good writing. The final twist was also very cleverly written and very surprising, even if it was kind of coincidental that she had both a serious medical condition and she was mentally ill at the same time. I know this movie has its flaws, but do I recommend it? Yes. It's not great, but it is a very interesting and well written story for the most part and I really enjoyed it. I give this movie 7/10.

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