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Reviews
Passing (2021)
Promising start, not fullfilled.
Promising start, but by the halfway point it turns into something of a snoozefest!
Why oh why was it shot in black & white, as if this somehow turns it into a piece of art!
Also why shot in a narrow, old TV style 1.37:1 aspect ratio, why not shoot all film in 16:9 wide-screen and take full advantage of the screen space avaliable.
Behind Her Eyes: Behind Her Eyes (2021)
Stupid Ending
I was quite enjoying this series for the first few episodes, then it starts to get silly. But the finale is completely stupid and ruins the whole series.
Minari (2020)
Overrated
An OK film, but in my opinion not at all worthy of all the nominations and awards received. Watchable, but slow moving to the extent of boredom. The most significant event happening near the end, but no further story development, so anti-climactic.
The Syndicate (2012)
Series 4 total trash!
Series 1 & 2 entertaining & worth watching; series 3 not so much. Series 4 absolute rubbish; 1st episode looked potentially promising, but subsequently the storyline is totally unrealistic script infantile!
Uncut Gems (2019)
Could not Tolerate the score for more than 10 minutes!
It is rare if not unprecedented for me to abandon a film so quickly, but really I just could not tolerate the appalling almost continuous "music", which is overpowers the content and is a total distraction from the underlying drama. I was tempted to give it longer, to see how the story developed, but came to the conclusion that any director who could choose such a score, could not be relied on to make a quality movie!
Gravity (2013)
Brilliant Effects & production, otherwise disappointing.
For the special effects and production I would award 10/10, and it is worthy of an Oscar nomination for that alone, if there is such a category. However, the script is pitiful, the dialog for the most part banal, and even for someone with a basic high school knowledge of physics, the technical feasibility is way, way off in far too many areas to list. OK it's a movie and we can expect a degree of artistic license with the science, but really this is so way off that the whole movie loses credibility. No complaints about the acting, given the script they had to work with, but I don't see anything especially worthy of nominations or awards for these performances. So, 10/10 for the effects, 4/10 for the everything else, 6/10 overall, but worth watching just for the zero gravity effects.
Fruitvale Station (2013)
Tragic story, but disappointing execution as a movie
A tragic story of another unjustified killing of an unarmed and innocent black man, by a US police officer. But as a movie, it is very poorly executed. The first hour builds the character of the victim of the killing - but it is slow moving and boring after 20 minutes. We get the picture, this guy is no angel, has done some prison time, but underneath is a decent family man, and not in any way a violent criminal. The incident itself is covered in the space of 10 minutes or less, then in the remaining 15 minutes or so, we see the victim in the ER/OR, his ultimate death, funeral and the family reaction, and a peaceful demonstration outside Fruitvale station. But what is totally missing are the subsequent events, which are an essential part of the story; the protests which followed over several days, and the trial of the police officer - all this is covered in 60 seconds or so, with a few lines of text on the screen. This was a missed opportunity, and a "cheap" way to end the movie; this 60 seconds or text, could have been so much better have been replaced with another 30 minutes of hard- hitting drama.
Lincoln (2012)
Tedious and boring
With Stephen Spielberg directing, multiple nominations for Golden Globes, Oscars and BAFTAs, and a very high IMDb rating, I had high expectations for this film. Without doubt the actors performed well, but for a non- American, with a less than comprehensive knowledge of the history of the period, it was tedious, dull and boring. It is essentially a drama of politics, with endless political dialogue. The reputed greatness of Lincoln the statesman, certainly did not come across. Not having read reviews before watching I was expecting some kind of biopic spanning Lincoln's lifetime, but what we are presented with is a few months of his life and a lot of detailed political maneuvering!
Taken (2008)
Entertaining and Enjoyable
Overall, an entertaining film and definitely worth watching, Liam Neeson, as always is excellent. In the nature of the story, the rest of the cast are somewhat incidental, although all demonstrate passable performances. The story is fundamentally good, if largely predictable, and holds the viewers'attention, however the plausibility in some of the details is questionable to say the least. During the course of the film, Neeson's character single-handedly eliminates at least two dozen of the bad guys, incurring barely a scratch in the process, and all his shots apparently on target, while hundreds of rounds are fired at him from the other side, all of which are miraculously off-target! Difficult to say more without giving it away - but enjoyable nonetheless.
Syriana (2005)
Far too Confusing!
It is a rare event indeed for me to leave a movie before the end - its only happened maybe 4 or 5 times in over 30 years. Syriana was one of those times, and I left after about 70 minutes, just after a very unpleasant torture scene. The film started out somewhat confusing, but that is not uncommon in the action/thriller genre. I stuck with it thinking the plot would gradually develop, and all the threads would come together; well I waited and waited and it just got more and more confusing, so after an hour or so, I was still not really sure what it was all about.
As far as being an Oscar nomination for best screenplay - thats amazing - the screenplay is the foundation of a movie, on which everything else is built, so its hard to see how this could have been viewed as being in the top 4 or 5 scripts of 2005. Given that George Clooney has the script as a given to work with, his performance was adequate, but hardly exceptional, or particularly worthy of an award. More to the point, Clooney won his Oscar in the category of Best Supporting Actor - though as far I could work out his was the leading role, with Matt Damon in the supporting role. All in all, this was the worst Hollywood movies I have seen in the last couple of years.