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Reviews
No Time to Die (2021)
Should/Could have been so much better
Like so many big budget action films these days, a promising and engaging beginning falls away under the onslaught of well-worn cliche so that by the end the film the viewer cares not which characters live or die.
Tenet (2020)
Nonsense
What awful nonsense. Nolan has been known to sail close to the wind at times with silly sci-fi premises underpinning his plots e.g. Inception and Interstellar, but up to now these excesses are largely forgiven such is the quality of his direction. However, his propensity for such silliness reaches its nadir here (using time travel to avert WWIII: huge yawn) and swamps any potentially redeeming features of the film.
Joker (2019)
Superb
No other comic book film adaptation comes close, Joker is utterly riveting and deeply affecting with Joaquin Phoenix giving a performance for the ages.
Sorry We Missed You (2019)
All too familiar
Same old, same old from Loach; we no longer need to join any dots even: anything else by Loach is infinitely better than this tired re-working of all-too-familiar themes.
Little Women (2019)
Do not believe the hype!
A great story is unhinged by some incredulous dialogue and acting, with Emma Watson in particular looking lost; standout Saorise Ronan, head and shoulders above the rest of the cast, is, however, unable to keep the film afloat on her own.
Fantastic Fungi (2019)
Overly sentimental
As someone already interested in the subject matter, it was disappointing that the film eventually eschews this, giving way to an overwrought, sentimental one man's journey to redemption, which is not what I signed up for.
Raised by Wolves (2020)
Promising start but falters thereafter
Like much poor sci-fi, the big scale ideas quickly become run-of-the-mill conflicts between opposing groups/people. As the show progresses, the quality of the script deteriorates and with it our emotional investment in any of the characters; the final conclusion coming as a bizarre, almost laughable end to the series with no rationale given for the ending (which has shades of some of the less satisfying aspects of the Promethean films, which is the only Ridley Scott influence I can detect).
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
seriously overrated
'Letters from Iwo Jima' is a tired and predictable attempt at a war movie from a Japanese perspective. It looks and feels small scale and underwhelming. The actors struggle with the one-dimensional script - everything is so black and white, a recurring theme in Eastwood's films. It's difficult to believe the script was written by a Japanese writer: it feels like it has been churned out by a believer in all things stereotypically Japanese. There's no real sense of the scale of the conflict either and no discussion of why parties on all sides (including Japanese civilians also hiding in the caves - not shown in the film) feared and dehumanised the other side. The Japanese suicides (again, civilians were left out in the film: many took their own lives rather than be captured) was due as much to a substantiated belief that they would be executed once captured anyway than to the notion of dying with honour intact. The silly ending to the film only highlights this lack of realism, trying to neatly package something both Japanese and American audiences can feel comfortable taking home when what is actually required is a deeper and less settling discussion of the roots of why, particularly in the east, there is still distrust of Japan and Japanese culture due the atrocities its army committed leading up to and during WW2.
300 (2006)
Silly and derivative
If you manage to forget the score and plentiful golden wheat fields - both lifted from 'Gladiator' - plus the array of strange fighting creatures 'inspired' by 'Lord of the Rings', you may find enough in this film to keep you occupied. I managed to watch it all but by halfway through, couldn't really care less about Leonidas and his men, such was the overkill on the heroic speeches and shouts of 'Spartans!' as well as hyperbolic statements on Sparta's great history. I realize the film is based on a graphic novel but some of these graphic novel adaptations ('Sin City' included) need more than fancy CGI to engage audiences at any meaningful level.
The Truth About Love (2005)
Poor example of the British rom-com
Yet another British romantic comedy which audiences all over the world seem to have a ravenous appetite for. This feeble effort is an unintentional parody of the genre - all the classic clichéd scenes are here from ridiculously elaborate misunderstandings to running after departing trains to declare one's love. The characters are one-dimensional caricatures save for Love-Hewitt who manages to bring some cohesion to the film. Things threaten to spiral out of control in the plausibility department as the film progresses; our good-natured suspension of belief finally comes crashing down during the preposterous ending. If you're looking for a Bridget Jones, Notting Hill kind of experience you won't find it here.
Joan of Arc (1999)
a feeble effort all round
Besson's weakest film by a mile, a totally unconvincing portrayal of Joan's life and France at that time. The plot struggles to develop as you feel the film going round in circles. It's a mixed bag of mystical nonsense, ineptly performed political machinations and gratuitous gore. If you're hoping for battle scenes reminiscent of Braveheart forget it. Besson attempts to tell a grand scale story with unsatisfying small scale scenes, there is little tension after the opening. And the beautiful cinematography and taught direction so typical of his previous films is in little evidence here. Milla, as Joan, is hopelessly out of her depth as she squeaks her battle cries to the army in her command (she was mildly irritating in Besson's Fifth Element, she's a royal pain in the neck in this). Perhaps the only intriguing episode in the film is the arrival of her 'conscience' played by Hoffman - a kind of quasi zen buddhist master mirroring her selfishness. Indeed this would have been all the more intriguing if the script had made more out of the aura and holiness around Joan in her attempt to deliver Jesus' message to the English in a fervently catholic France