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paulgwilliams
Reviews
Allelujah (2022)
Rubbish
Having read that the film Allelujah was about a small Yorkshire hospital and was a tribute to the health service in the face of Covid, I went to see it with eager anticipation. What a shock to sit through one of the worst films I've ever seen! The tribute to the health service lasted all of two minutes at the very end of the film. From the beginning the film presented a caricature of hospital care, of older patients, of staff, of family members and even of the Department of Health. The plot was either sickly or ludicrous. A complete waste of an afternoon! Why on earth a collection of well-known skilled British actors ageed to take part in such rubbish is a complete mystery.
Murder by the Sea (2018)
Awful background noise
This interesting programme is ruined by the background noise throughout. Using music or sound to create atmosphere or illustrate a theme is often useful, but this programme just supplies annoying noise, an awful jangling of non-musical sounds. The only reason I can guess for it is that the producers prescribe to a nonsensical notion that noise forces the brain to concentrate more on the programme and thus avoids the viewer's attention wandering. What it does for me is to make it so annoying that I am tempted to switch off. Who on earth is responsible for this dreadful attack on viewers' senses?
The Children Act (2017)
Watchable, well acted, weak plot
As was said in the film, it would be automatic under the Children Act for a judge to permit a hospital to give a person under 18 a blood transfusion to save their life, even if they and their parents refuse. It is therefore highly unlikely that a judge would visit a patient, as she does to Adam in this film. This makes the whole setting for portraying the judge's actions and emotions, which are the meat of the film, very weak. The theme of her relationship with her husband seems just an add-on to pad out the story. The film could have explored real issues concerning religious beliefs that prohibit blood transfusions, but that would require Adam's parents to be the focus of the film, not the judge. Their reactions, practical and emotional, to the judge's decision, the challenge to their beliefs as Jehovah's Witnesses, their relationship with each other and with their son before and after, and their allegiance to their fellow believers at the Kingdom Hall. could all have been explored in an interesting and informative way. But this opportunity is completely lost in the film, which concentrates bizarrely on the relationship between the judge and Adam. The acting is good and the film holds the viewer's attention, but the plot is very weak and unbelievable. A great opportunity for a good film about how ordinary people react to moral dilemmas has been lost.
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017)
Animation was a lazy way to make this film
The technology of animation has advanced so far that film makers sometimes seem to take this genre as the easy way to make a film, especially for children. My grandchildren were bored by this film, and I regarded it as a wasted opportunity to portray the much-loved Captain Underpants stories on film. It was hard to believe in the authenticity of the children, and the adult characters were stereotyped caricatures. How much better it could have been with real child actors and real people acting the adult roles. For example, the humour of the Professor P character, and of the two headmasters, could have been much more effectively brought to life by real actors. The children too would have been much more believable as real people. In my view, the film would have been much more successful, and much more entertaining to watch, if it had been made as a real film rather than an animation. I think the commissioners and producers of the film have just taken the easy route of assigning the task to animation teams instead of going to the trouble of recruiting and directing real actors. What a pity! The character of Captain Underpants and his adventures could have made really great children's cinema, but this effort is feeble and disappointing.
Inferno (2016)
Utter drivel
Utter drivel from beginning to end! Dan Brown is a good writer. Millions of people have enjoyed the adventures described in his books. But his plots are ludicrous. When they are translated into actions by real people, as in the films of the books, the result is laughable. I can't understand how the actors in this film can have kept a straight face while they delivered the ridiculous lines. My hunch is that they all had a good laugh after each scene was filmed. None of the actors seems to have their heart in the film. Even Tom Hanks gives a wooden and unconvincing performance. A large sum of money must have been spent shooting this film, recouped no doubt by the hype of publicity surrounding it. But the result is absolute unbelievable rubbish. I've given it a score of 2 rather than 1 simply because I didn't actually fall asleep during it!
Hail, Caesar! (2016)
Rubbish
I was amazed to find that this film was by the Coen brothers and starred George Clooney. It must be designed to appeal to a particular type of humour - nostalgic American with a fondness for underplayed slapstick. It's not for British audiences! At the showing I went to several people walked out before the end, and there was no laughter at any point. The plot is over-complicated, and much of the acting is stilted and poor - possibly deliberately though this is difficult to discern. Some scenes seem to have no purpose in relation to the storyline - a real hotchpotch of distractions. There is even a religious theme which instead of being funny may well give offence. Sorry, it's not worthy of the Coens or Clooney. Give it a miss.
Me Before You (2016)
Sets back perceptions of disability by decades
This film, and presumably the book on which it is based, commits a triple whammy. First, it portrays disabled people as miserable. Second it perpetuates the idea that they need rescuing by a vivacious non- disabled youngster. Third it presents disabled people as still so miserable, despite being 'rescued', that they have to go to Switzerland to be euthanased. Prince Harry must be tearing his hair out after all his efforts with the Invicta Games to portray disabled people positively. The film is nothing more than propaganda for the really dangerous Swiss death machine Dignitas. It is ghastly and should be banned.
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
Awful
Apart from the ludicrous plot, boring sequences, etc. that other reviewers have castigated, I don't believe that even Americans speak with every tenth word the f**** word. No one speaks or behaves towards others like this. It's totally unnecessary and really offensive to many people, including me. I think it's done merely to appear 'modern' or 'realistic'. In the context of the total lack of realism in the film itself the language is purposeless and self-indulgent. Unfortunately, many films these days seem to be following the same trend. About the only film I've seen recently without the f**** word is Exodus - the one film in which you feel it might be justified! Surely the actors, writers, producers and directors of films don't speak like this to their family, friends and colleagues in real life. Lord help us if they do! Anyway, it just adds to the awfulness of this particular film.
Noah (2014)
Awful
Computer graphics have taken over a large part of the cinema industry. As with (in my view) the Harry Potter films, a ludicrous plot is presented as entertainment through excessive use of computer-generated visuals. In Noah even these graphics are ludicrous. They begin with the appearance of creatures supposed to be 'fallen angels' who have been turned to stone but can still walk and talk. They seem to have grown too many arms - no doubt handy when they come to build the ark! Later on we see the whole population of the world killed by these creatures in combination with the flood we are expecting. Apart from Noah and his family, one person survives and manages to easily make a hole in the side of the ark and break in. Meanwhile all the birds, snakes and animals that have flocked into the ark have been put to sleep by some incense invented by Noah's wife. I have never watched anything so ludicrous in the whole of my cinema-going experience. Why the likes of Russell Crowe, Anthony Hopkins and Emma Watson ever agreed to take part is a complete mystery.
The Oxford Murders (2008)
The worst film I've ever seen.
This must be the worst film ever! I've never seen such drivel in my whole career of film-going. The plot is totally unbelievable as are the characters. There is no suspense. Some events are totally incredible, like accessing books in a bookshop that is closed, where the required books miraculously come to hand on the same shelf! The account of the philosophy of Wittgenstein is garbled and inaccurate. The guessing of sequences of images is laughable. The ending is totally crass. I could go on! At one point I thought the whole film was meant to be a comedy and that we were supposed to laugh. But I fear it is meant to be taken as a thriller. How on earth John Hurt agreed to act in such awful rubbish is inconceivable!