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sergius1970
Reviews
Wonka (2023)
NOT ROALD DAHL
Not bad I guess, but a tad conceited on the part of the scriptwriters. They may think they can write like Roald Dahl but they're wrong. To do so you actually have to be Roald Dahl.
Charlie & The Chocolate Factory is rich in satire. In this film Wonka there's none, nor any ironically funny characters like Veruca Salt, Mike TeeVee etc. The method acting is also rather annoying in that it's hardly appropriate for what is essentially a kids' fairy story
This film is well designed and well acted, but not exactly original (I've see all the plot elements elsewhere.)
Still, it's recommended as light and fluffy fun if you're in a tolerant frame of mind, but I can't think of a funny line.
Paranoid (2016)
Reasonably good fun
Why are women in police procedurals always thin?
This was actually a very good premise; industrial espionage and corruption, this stuff really does happen.
The difficulty is that Paranoid was sometimes overwritten, sometimes oversimplified in all the wrong places.
Did we really need all the Bridget Jones stuff with Indira Varma who was otherwise supposed to be the tough female cop? (I found myself fast forwarding through those bits.)
And we could also have done without all that Freudian, oedipus complex padding with Dino Fetscher and his mum, especially as far from being the tough police officer, he came across like he'd wandered out of Hollyoaks (and mum came across like a standard red herring in maternal form from an Agatha Christie melodrama.)
There was even a touch of moral polemic, which could have been interesting, but came across here as a bit one-sided and contrived. There are a number of different implications from this story, social, political and ethical which could have been if the author wanted to flesh it out, while leaving out the romantic stuff.
Lesley Sharp and Robert Glennister were by far the most interesting characters, and the fast paced later episodes sure kept me watching till the end.
Would be worth a remake with a better scriptwriter like Jed Mercurio, that is more of the gritty realism of his Line of Duty scripts, and less soap opera.
Recommended, if you're in a tolerant mood, and want a Sunday afternoon thriller while eating popcorn.
Reacher (2022)
Sicko
Not a bad storyline, but marred not by screen violence, but by screen sadism. This is reminiscent of slasher films of the 1970s ( a very violent period in history anyway) and is something in screen drama I thought we'd seen the back of.
The Tom Cruise films had all the same gripping storylines, but told rather more sophisticatedly and tastefully.
Did we really need to hear about people's genitals being hacked off, and at the beginning of ep5 see the bodies of people thus mutilated?
Pass the puke bag.
King's Faith (2013)
Pointless
This was potentially a good if unoriginal storyline; ex-jailbird trying to break with his past, and (I think) a particularly Christian dilemma; a conflict of loyalties. If this last was the purpose it wasn't clear.
The script and characters are simplistic, and I can't see what the writers were trying to say from either a Christian perspective or any. We learn nothing about the Christian Faith or what Faith actually means.
Wilson's easy on the eye, but slow to be of any interest. He was also surprisingly well-groomed, articulate and able for an alleged jailbird.
Most tragically of all the scriptwriters managed to make Wilson's gang buddies look rather more interesting than the two-dimensional churchgoers.
These are not particularly talented scriptwriters and -without questioning their faith - one wonders how much understanding they really have about their own religion. A missed opportunity
It does however raise the question; why are contemporary Christian movies so bland?
The Legend of the Tamworth Two (2004)
Fun
This little treat makes a little go a long way. Beautiful shots of the downland landscape filmed in sepia colours. If you're an animal lover you'll love this, and the pesky porkers aren't the only eye candy.
Hurricane Bianca (2016)
Fun and worth a look
If you're in a tolerant state of mind, this movie is fun, fluffy and white.
Annihilation (2018)
passionless
Initially interesting but passionless movie which did not hold my attention in the end.
The characters were all colourless, unattractive and uninteresting. I suspect that the scriptwriters were so concerned to avoid gender stereotyping with the all-female leads that the characters ended up with no personality at all. Cannot be compared with the characters of Ellen Ripley and other women in the 'Alien' movies
Take-Out (2000)
sophisticated
Great to see an intelligent gay-themed movie NOT all about sex. Wish there were more LGBT films like this. Great, brooding atmosphere, tension, nuanced performances from some first-rate actors, lots of teen angst intelligently and realistically portrayed.
Subtle, and offering different interpretations, like all the best art. Well done!
Wolf Creek (2005)
why the critics don't like this movie
Oscar Wilde remarked that the nineteenth century's dislike of realism was the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in the mirror. This may be said of some reviewers' views of Wolf Creek. Yes it's gory and repulsive and probably shouldn't have been made. But as its content was nothing more and indeed rather less than a lot of cinematic sadism from Hollywood, it made me realise something about American cinema.
There were distinct resemblances for example with Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Yet when Hollywood does gore, it is always -just slightly, sometimes considerably- affected. This implies a liking for it. In other words, Hollywwod, as it is about everything else, is rather sentimental about sadism. It has an affection for it.
What was different about Wolf Creek was that there was no sense of enjoyment on the part of its producers. They really did tell violence and depravity as it really is, something unheard of in Hollywood. No wonder Americans didn't like it. Roger Ebert says this film crosses a line. Quite.
If cinema reflects society, then this implies that Australia is a slightly less uncivilised place than the United States of America. Why does that not surprise me?
Shank (2009)
not brilliant
This was so boring and predictable I couldn't get through it. Nor, dare I say it, was it very responsible(is the idea of film-makers being responsible so very shocking? Probably yes.)
90 minutes of young muscle-boys who beat people up to a groovy hip hop backing track is hardly going to dissuade impressionable youngsters. One is reminded of the Heroin Screws You Up campaign of the early 80s which actually managed to increase drug consumption by presenting dope-takers in all too glamorous a light.
And why bother with such a predictable storyline anyway? All the the makers of this sort of poverty-porn are interested in really is that age-old middle-class lovey fantasy of rough working class boys shagging each other. Why not just make a porno? And I'm not impressed either that the director is 'just 21'. For a child to be capable of making this cack is the most depressing thing about it.
One of the leads appeared to be some sort of art history lecturer- in that repsect at least, the scriptwriters do actually know what they're talking about;
It's so dreadfully authentic daaahlings...