Change Your Image
dansaunders_904
Reviews
Jack Whitehall: Settle Down (2024)
Not all bad, just not for me.
Never been a huge fan of Jack Whitehall but thought I would give this a go.
He is a better actor than he is a comedian - his comedy is very run of the mill and "safe". I just prefer something a little more risqué or challenging.
The material is okay, I mostly just find his delivery irritating - he has always spoken in a very posh accent, but now appears to be doubling down on the "camp", which is really grating and high-pitched.
He is better suited to panel shows where he has other comedians to bounce off of - a full stand-up show of just him is a bit much.
If you're already a fan you will probably love this. Is you aren't a fan and hoping this special will change your mind, don't waste your time.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2024)
What is the point?
I do not understand. I have made it through the first 4 episodes, really wanting to like it, but I just don't.
The two main characters are both decently likable but have no romantic chemistry whatsoever so its really hard to take them seriously as a couple.
Both characters allude to having pasts in the industry, but both act like they have no idea what they are doing when on "missions".
The plots of each episode so far are all extremely basic and mostly very predictable.
I just don't really understand what the point is of using an existing IP to tell such a bland story that brings nothing new to the table?
Overall I'd say its neither good nor bad, just very, very bland. Its watchable and has some good music and interesting shots, hence giving it a somewhat passable score, but I would not waste my time watching any more of this blandness.
Mae Martin: SAP (2023)
Not as good as I had hoped
I have been a big fan of Mae's for a long time now, having first seen them on Russel Howards Good News years ago (back when they did comedy songs with a guitar), I was also lucky enough to see them live in Brighton just before the pandemic.
I am not sure why, perhaps the editing or pacing, or just the material itself, but this just didn't hit the mark as much as usual. It felt slightly awkward, subdued and stunted. By no means a bad comedy special, but never reaches the heights of their previous material in my opinion.
Raises a few giggles and had me smiling throughout, but never really laughing out loud.
If your are a fan of Mae's its obviously worth checking out, just don't expect too much!
The Last of Us (2023)
Brilliant. But not quite perfect for long-time fans.
I feel I should probably preface this review by stating that TLOU is one of my favourite games of all time, so certain parts of my review may be slightly biased.
Overall this series is close to perfection in terms of recreating the look and feel of The Last of Us game. The sets, costumes and locations look like they have been ripped right from the game and put on-screen. Dialogue and scenes have been recreated with so much love and attention to detail it is genuinely amazing at times. The original music from the game is also utilised well, although in my opinion not nearly enough.
Pedro Pascal is almost flawless in his interpretation of Joel, he is a phenomenal actor. I took a little while to warm to Bella Ramsey as Ellie, although this may just be as I have held the character so close to heart for so many years. By the end of the series I would say that she had won me over, although she never felt 100% "Ellie" to me, more like an alternate version, whereas I totally bought Pedro as Joel by the end of the series.
I do feel that the season could have done with being a few episodes longer, as important parts of the game have been left out in a lot of places. I have seen a lot of people complaining that there wasn't enough action, which I somewhat agree with. The creators have said that they wanted to focus more on the human experience, not just the violence, but I can't help but feel the complete lack of a threat from the infected throughout most of the series will make most people get a little bored! Ellie's character growth throughout the game, as well as her and Joel's trust-building, was shown a lot through combat situations, so this wouldn't have just been "mindless action", it would have served a purpose. Having shown Joel actually engage in combat would have made his character feel as dangerous as he should have. This series mainly hints at it right up until the last couple of episodes.
I also think the short run-time of the series hurt the overall feeling of this being an epic, cross country journey that took the best part of a year. I watched it with someone who had never played the game and when asked, she assumed the whole story took place over a couple of months. Also, although I enjoyed the Bill & Frank episode, I think taking an entire hour to focus on two characters who have very little relevance to the actual plot was a very strange choice and just meant they had even more to cram into the remaining episodes.
Lastly, no-one got killed by a brick. One of my favourite things to do in the game! A crying shame!
M3GAN (2022)
If Nickelodeon made horror movies.
This is the most cliched "horror" move I have ever seen. You can guess the entire plot by looking at the poster.
The worst part of this movie is that at no point is it even remotely shocking or gory - if anything its more amusing than scary. The death scenes and kills lack any sort of shock value and are held back by the rating.
I was already not enjoying the film when M3EGAN started doing a utterly cringeworthy tiktok dance for absolutely no reason and at this point I mentally checked out.
It basically felt like a horror movie for kids. I would be more entertained (and scared) reading a Goosebumps book.
Plane (2023)
Okay.... What was the point?
Watched this at the cinema yesterday....
This is a passable if mostly forgettable movie - I spent most of it assuming that it must have been based off of a true-story due to the lack of real character development or plot.
There aren't really a great deal of twists and turns along the way, they land the plane, they realise the island isn't safe, they find a way to get off the island. It could not be a more simplistic story. Even the problems they do face are all solved very easily, most of the time within the same scene in which they are introduced.
Some fairly good action sequences littered in here and there but nothing spectacular.
Was okay for a throwaway action movie but little to nothing to make this a stand-out movie.
Felt a little harsh to give it too low a score as it is my no means a bad movie, just has literally nothing going for it to elevate it beyond just being passable.
That '90s Show (2023)
Almost feels like a parody.
I loved the original TV series but even when watching that again it feels very aged. Bate-and-switch humour and laugh tracks feel like antiques at this point - that's why I cannot understand why they kept literally the exact same formula for this reboot. It's set 20 years later, it's being made over 20 years later... why does it still feel like the exact same show, just worse?
Extremely bland characters with no chemistry, rehashed, cliched storylines... I can't really work out who this show was made for. New audiences will find the format and humour old fashioned, viewers of the old show will just see it as a bland remake with less interesting/likeable characters.
It's impressive how close to the original Foreman house the set looks (which I assume they would have had to rebuild for the new show), but even this hasn't been updated to look "90s". Nothing about the show feels very 90s, from the clothes and sets, even down to how the young cast talk and act. It's basically Gen Z kids in a vaguely 90s setting, dressed more like it's the 80s.
The only thing which raised a mild smile from me was cameos from the old cast members, but even this was bitter sweet as they just remind you of how good the show used to be, any time they show up you know that soon they will be gone again and you will be once again left with the boring new cast.
Complete misfire and an odd choice to even bother, with no obvious creative vision or anything new to bring to the table.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022)
Its not "review-bombing" - it's just terrible.
I have watched all 3 of the first episodes and I genuinely tried to like it, I really did!
I thought there was some slight promise after the first episode - I hated the way they handled the Hulk, how She-Hulk got her powers and the fact that she was IMMEDIATELY able to control them flawlessly, I obviously hated the speech about her being better at controlling her anger than Bruce because she receives unwanted compliments occasionally. On the plus side, I thought that the CGI wasn't initially as bad as people were saying, I thought the show at least had a fun vibe and could have potential. Unfortunately the following two episodes just double down on all the negative parts and forgot to be fun in any way.
The pacing is all over the place, the CGI seems to get worse the longer the show goes on, the script sounds like it was written by a teenager and the main character is completely unlikable.
All the side characters are completely one-dimensional and uninteresting - especially her infinitely annoying best friend Nikki, who seems to have literally no personality attributes other than worshipping Jen like she is some flawless goddess.
I don't know why or how this happened, but every single male character on the show - without exception - is either corrupt, misogynist, evil, or at best just completely incapable. I don't think I have seen a single male character speak a single line without a female character either rolling their eyes or making fun of them in response. Because the only way to have strong female characters is to make all the men useless, sexist morons apparently? It is honestly the laziest, most transparent and pandering writing imaginable.
I am done with Disney Plus I think - they are definitely going for quantity over quality at this point and it is really starting to show.
Ms. Marvel (2022)
Ms.Cliché
I feel like this series is more aimed at a younger audience, with its colourful visual style and music choices, but I think most people will just find it irritating and very poorly handled.
The main actress is clearly doing her best with the part, but her character is poorly written and all over the place tonally.
The conflict with her parents is so cliched and underdeveloped it is laughable - it could also have been solved in seconds by her just explaining that she wasn't even going to a party, nor was she dressing inappropriately. Like the entire conflict of the whole first episode could have been solved with a 30 second conversation.
Kamala's best friend - the stereotypical "tech-guy" - is also completely uninteresting and is clearly there to be a boring love interest and create unrealistic gadgets going forward. Why would a 14 year want to build their own version of what is an essentially an Alexa? Then give it to his best friend's dad for literally no reason? Ohhhh to move the plot forward. Right.
I think it was a huge gamble to make the main character obsessed with easily the least popular MCU character and it has hugely backfired. Why would a teenager in this universe's favourite hero be someone who has only been seen once, took down a spaceship, then got punched out of the battlefield? You can't get behind her love for Captain Marvel, as it makes no sense.
They appear to be changing the origin of Kamala's powers to be from an old bracelet she happens to find in an attic for some reason? Why?! It's so cheap, horrendously written and needless. An obvious choice to link her powers with her families culture, rather than staying true to the source material or being in any way interesting.
It is honestly just weird choice after cliché after weird choice after cliché. I have tried to be fair with my rating, purely as I enjoyed some of the visual style and the animations showing Kamala's thought processes. But aside from this, everything was laughably bad.