anthonyduffy Reviews

Resident Evil (2022)

Resident evil fans will hate this. A waste of funding

[2/10 · 18 July 2022]

I could only manage to suffer through 2 episodes. Considering the rich source material from the games, big budget and SFX how it went completely off reservation is beyond me. It completely ignored the source material and bumbles around its own irrelevant universe. It just borrows the name and very little else. Some shockingly bad over acting and a weird teenage soap opera. The production value and SFX are actually quite good. Too bad everything else is a major fail. Please stop butchering the Resident Evil franchise.

Love, Death & Robots: In Vaulted Halls Entombed (2022) Season 3, Episode 8

Love Death + Robots does good mil-scifi

[9/10 · 5 June 2022]

My only problem with this is that I'd love a series of it. The animation was breathtaking. The air of menace was incredible, unashamedly Lovecraftian. Love death and robots just keep on pumping out excellent military Sci-Fi. We love it. Clichéd or not. It's what works. The snobs will give out about a formula. But they work.

Peacemaker (2022– )

Darkly comic that doesn't take itself seriously

[9/10 · 24 April 2022]

I was incredibly impressed. This is up there with "the boys" for an effective flipping of the superhero genre. Excellent action scenes. Suitably adult and gore filled but also strangely tender and deep at times in between childish fart jokes delivered with perfect timing.

Peninsula (2020)

An insult to the first film

[3/10 · 21 February 2022]

Childish, disjointed an affront to the name of the series. Terrible CGI, worse plot, over the top action sequences that are nearly comical. Incredibly disappointing considering how good the first one was. Avoid.

Stillwater (2021)

Dull, slow and unnecessarily long

[5/10 · 15 January 2022]

I kept waiting for this to pick up and gain some momentum but it just never got into gear. The pacing was tedious and the storyline never draws you in. In short it's boring. The relationship between Bill and Maya was the only endearing factor. Matt Damon is the only saving grace. His character (Bill) is a dour emotionless, salt of the earth working class type. Matt Damon does a good job of portraying this stereotypical working man. My biggest peeve is that an overly disproportionate amount of time is spent building the background and details of the case just for it to breezed over and the outcome to be slammed in the final few minutes.

Kin (2021– )

Charlie Cox & Ciaran hinds save a dull drama

[7/10 · 3 November 2021]

Charlie Cox needs to be credited for an excellent Dublin accent! I'm also glad to see that Aidan Gillen has remembered how to speak like an Irishman again. But apart from a few good individual performances an attempt at gritty and dangerous. It's dull, joyless and slow. It's a shame the big cast couldn't pull it out of the fire. Meant to give this a 6 but can't change my score ! We'll say the 7 is purely for Charlie Cox pulling off the accent.

Army of the Dead (2021)

Light-hearted simple zombie smasher

[7/10 · 23 May 2021]

I'm not sure why some reviewers were expecting gritty meaningful action. This is more zombie land than 28-days later. Enjoy it for what it is, well paced and directed action scenes. Although there are a lot of unanswered questions left unresolved by the end of the film. It also makes the usual zombie film mistakes, inconsistent zombie return times, inconsistent speeds and strengths etc.

Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (2021)

I feel robbed. Save your precious time.

[2/10 · 2 March 2021]

I can't believe they dragged out episodes of nonsense. You may have gotten a 40 min semi interesting tragic story out of this. But what you get is a tedious, repetitive and annoying drawn out mess. Consistently repeating the same points then in the last episode dropping a bombshell that renders the rest of the series and interview irellevant. Avoid.

The Old Guard (2020)

Entertaining, would have been a better series

[7/10 · 2 August 2020]

Easy viewing, great fight choreography and action scenes. The plot was simply and predictably executed but remained entertaining throughout. Great individual performances but would of been better as a series to allow for some proper character development.

Snowpiercer (2020–2024)

Terrible monotone acting, hollow characters

[2/10 · 1 August 2020]

Couldn't get past the first 40 mins. Horrific acting, cheesey, over produced nonsense. I do not know what the hype is. Jennifer Connelly is literally the only person who does not seem to auditioning for a Mexican soap opera.

Green Room (2015)

Am I missing something?

[3/10 · 21 January 2020]

I've heard people rave about this film and seen the high reviews. I'm not sure what I missed... I'd assumed there'd be something beneath the surface that would add substance to a gorey B-Movie, but I just don't see it. Patrick Stewart as a Neo Nazi is the only reason I won't rate it lower. Sub par slasher with delusions of grandeur. Nowhere near the cultish status it strives for.

Knives Out (2019)

Slick, witty, fast paced and hilarious

[9/10 · 12 January 2020]

I didn't know much about the film before going in bar it was a whodunit with Daniel Craig and a dodgey Southern accent. But wow! I felt glued to the screen for the entirety it nailed the classic whodunit tropes with finesse. Craig and Ana de Armas played the roles brilliantly with perfectly timed laugh out loud moments of comedy to break up the whirlwind unravelling. Fantastic to see something creative and with a bit of solid writing behind it in this world of gender flipping and reboots. Highly recommended.

The Witcher (2019– )

Convoluted timeline but Cavill slays

[5/10 · 29 December 2019]

So I'm a witcher fanboy, I've played the games and read the books. I was prepared to be disappointed. I wanted to rate this lower but I couldn't. However, the biggest downfall is the how ridiculously badly the timeline is portrayed. The series jumps backwards decades with no discernable difference to the previous scene, particularly in the first few episodes with Jen. The battle with Nilfgaard in Cintra is used as the basis for the current timeline. After that things get confusing for anyone who's not familiar with the witcher universe as it hops back and forth. I don't know why they just didn't run with a linear timeline and when they needed to flash back indicate this with a different shade or use a "10 years ago" text. Besides that the action scenes are excellent, stunning fight choreography that perfectly captures how lethal Geralt is meant to be. I also thought his use of signs is done brilliantly. What is missing from the series is more Geralt action scenes.. as for a series called the witcher he's not in it much!

The Cured (2017)

Should have hired a military advisors

[7/10 · 3 May 2019]

The premise of the film was interesting, similar to that of "in the flesh" for genre fans. Well executed on one level but the small details let it down. The tension is well developed with some excellent performances by the lead characters. But the cheesey performances by extras really ham it up. A particular bugbear of mine is the actions of and deportment of the military forces. Very B movie at best, mismatched uniforms, weapons etc etc

Black Summer (2019–2021)

Combines the worse parts of the zombie genre

[4/10 · 18 April 2019]

Terrible. Every classic zombie trope, thrown together with cheesey acting and nonsensical decision making. The dialog is painful, the editing and merging of the timelines was an interesting concept at first but gets old very quickly. Inconsistent zombie attributes, bizzare scenarios and reactions (EP 6 wtf).