chris_wales Reviews

Kin (2021– )

Weak

[3/10 · 8 May 2024]

I really thought I might enjoy this, ut looked very compelling on paper.

However, the plot - and sub plots - are just plain stupid, they are mostly completely prepostorous in fact. The power structure outlined here does just not convince on any level.

And as a a drama/thriller, it's like watching paint dry. I mean, REALLY watching that paint dry. Right to the absolute end of its dryness.

There is OK acting, completely daft plot trajectories, OK cinematography, terrible pacing, awkward pauses, extremely awkward dialogue. It just doesn't convince

Sorry.

There is no way that this coud be considered for example as an Irish 'Sopranos'.

Bulworth (1998)

This would have been satire, once upon a time

[3/10 · 21 January 2024]

This would have been an excellent satire, once upon a time.

Sharp and clever, but back in in 1998/9 maybe.

The political world commencing 2016 has made political satire - in effect - redundant.

It is now - early 2024 - impossible to satirize American politics. American politics satirizes itself, without any assistance from my goodself or anyone else.

So ths movie is redundant. It tries hard, and maybe puts up a show of some kind for the initial 2/3rds. But it quickly spins down that famous holywood final 1/3rd denoument/climax/ hole. And it just doesn't work. Hats off to Beatty for another vanity project that didn't quite work.

Witness Number 3 (2022)

Good acting can't save this

[2/10 · 27 July 2023]

Good acting - credit to all the actors, totally convincing - but it cannot save this rather silly, badly written and badly plotted bit of lightweight nonsense.

You might just - possibly - be able to suspend disbelief in the early stages, but if you get to the tortuously long 'panic room' scene, you will be scratching your head in disbelief at the nonsense which unfolds.

There are so many plot holes that you could drive at least one bus through - single or double decker - it is kind of an insult to your intelligence, frankly.

It's stretched out, padded out, a bit silly. Personally, I wouldn't bother.

White Noise (I) (2022)

I wanted to like this but...

[2/10 · 26 July 2023]

I'm a huge fan of Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwin.

Adam Driver too, (though he should have hung up the phone when they asked him to do Gucci..!) I also admire - though I probably don't actually like - Don Delillo's work.

So this should have been a real treat, off-the-wall, punchy, challenging with underlying satire etc.

I watched it twice. Hate to report, but it's a mess.

It starts well enough, love the early pace and the quick humour.

It looks great too!

But it loses its way very quickly, has no idea where it's going. The cast start to look ever more puzzled and confused.

Don't give up on Noah Baumbach if this is your only watch. He's made some excellent movies.

Oppenheimer (I) (2023)

Dull. So dull.

[2/10 · 23 July 2023]

Christopher Nolan seems incapable of telling a simple story - and this is in effect a very, very simple story.

His best films, Inception, Memento, use all kinds of time/dimension warping shenanigans to produce what are finally superb and engrossing movies.

But give him a simple story, linear, regular-time-based - and he is completely lost.

So here we have 3 hours of episodic, soap-opera style vignettes, one after another after another until it thankfully finishes.

There is no forward momentum, no character development, just some good acting (as you would expect) and some OK cameos, Tom Conti as Einstein being the notable laugh out loud exception. (The cinema was full to capacity when I watched this film, and I have never heard so much sniggering.) But in the end it's just dull! So so dull.

C minus.

The Diplomat (II) (2023– )

Great show. Appalling cliffhanger.

[9/10 · 1 May 2023]

I loved the pace of this series, it gives lots of time to explore the nooks and crannies of the plot, develop personalities and relationships etc. The series plays the long game, and rightly so, there is nothing here that is rushed or artificial, unlike - say - West Wing.

Sharp scripts, complex, believable characters, and a pertinent contemporary political commentary, bang up to date (2023).

Great and completely engaging performances throughout too. Faultless in fact.

But the outrageously cynical cliffhanger end of the final episode of S1 when there may well never be an S2 gives me serious pause in my otherwsie complete admiration. Shame and so disappointing. This seemed like sucha cheap trick...

Death Alley (2021)

Possibly the worst western ever made

[1/10 · 5 November 2021]

Take the glowing 8/10, 9/10 and 10/10 reviews with a pinch of salt. I have a feeling I know where they came from.

This movie is dross, pure and simple. Avoid at all costs.

Phantom Thread (2017)

Slow and deliberate, beautifully crafted. But maybe not for everyone.

[10/10 · 21 January 2020]

Disappointed to read the negative reviews on IMDB, but I do understand them to an extent I think. I tried watching this late at night when I was tired and I couldn't engage with it at all. Gave up and then watched it instead bright-eyed at 9 in the morning and was completely captivated from start to finish. So you do need a particular mindset to get the most out of this extraordinary film. It's slow and deliberate, a highly focussed examination of a three-way power struggle. The tension is of the slow-build variety, there are very few fireworks. A very subtle and compelling piece of film-making. If this really is Daniel Day-Lewis' final film, it's a gem. He is superb, and I suspect the part was written with him in mind, possibly with one eye on The Age of Innocence. He inhabits the role completely. All the acting is in fact top notch. Lesley Manville's performance as the icy sister is superb, chills you to the bone, but with such depth too. Vicky Krieps plays the complex role of Alma just right, with a just-right mix of strength and vulnerability, elegance and clumsiness, each conveyed with great power and subtlety. A quick mention of the cinematography too - simply exquisite. And also some excellent music from Jonny Greenwood. Paul Thomas Anderson has never made a bad film. This one is right up there with his best. I recommend it massively.

Tubby Hayes: A Man in a Hurry (2015)

It's OK

[5/10 · 8 May 2019]

It's OK - but for a modern documentary, maybe a bit pedestrian. Definitely worth a look for the footage of the great man himself, But the 'talking heads' stuff is very BBC docu, circa 1995. Didn't really do it for me.

After Life (2019–2022)

Sharp and dark, rapdly turns into apalling sentimentaity

[4/10 · 9 March 2019]

Starts really well. So a challenging - dangerous even - comedy/commentary with genuine depth and really good ,subtle performances sets us off.. But Oh dear Oh dear. Without a second's hesitation, Ricky plummets into a sludge of sentimental feel-good junk that made my toes curl. Laying aside the questionable morals and ethics on display here (they are worthy of separate scrutiny) in purely dramatic terms this is dreadful beyond words. Empty, silly, unambitious. What a chance wasted!! I truly believe that if this had been made for British TV, it would have packed a harder punch. But this is diluted, feel-good dross. Sentimentality trowelled on so thick in the last two episodes that I seriously wondered if Ricky was 'having a laugh'? Maybe get Stephen Merchant back onboard? Or curtail the compromises? Because this all about compromise, Just a thought.

Hereditary (2018)

Genuinely unsettling

[8/10 · 28 February 2019]

This is a brilliantly crafted movie with outstanding performances. Horror is not my genre at all, and I don't scare easily, but this was a very tense and unsettling experience. Also, the soundtrack is quite extraordinary, so much so that I hung on for the credits at the end to see who the composer might be... The great Colin Stetson. Of course - I should have known! Loved it.

BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Great story, very average movie

[3/10 · 26 February 2019]

I struggle with 'based on a true story' movies generally. The plot embellishments and/or complete inventions tend to discredit them for me to a lesser or greater degree. This movie plods along, OK performances, pedestrian story-telling, badly paced. I think the assumption was probably that the bizarre nature of the central plot would be enough to carry the film and wow us, the audience. It goes without saying that the message is vitally important. But the film doesn't do the subject matter justice, and just doesn't work very well. Not wowed at all.

Tully (2018)

Perfect. By the way, it's not a feel-goodfamily comedy..!

[9/10 · 25 October 2018]

A beautifully realised film. Great performances throughout - how do small children get to act so convincingly by the way? Amazing. This is a dark film about post-natal depression/psychosis. The clues to its real meaning are scattered if you look for them - even in the songs chosen for the soundtrack. I'm really surprised to read negative reviews from people apparently expecting a heart-warming family comedy full of chaos and fun and challenge, but with a feel good ending. Wrong movie folks. This is dark and tense, multi-dimensional, disturbing. It will stay with me for a very long time.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Half a great movie?

[6/10 · 23 July 2018]

Strong performances can't save this movie, which is excellent for the first hour then nosedives rapidly. There's a definite farce element in the second half of the film and this may be deliberate, but it didn't work for me. And this main text of Forgiveness etc just doesn't sit well. The final chumminess between Hayes and Dixon for example was particularly toe-curling for me .And the black woman who is imprisoned simply to punish/leverage Hayes? Shes' very forgiving too. As is the guy who was beaten and thrown out of a window. His secretary/assistant didn't seem to mind being punched in the face either. Just a bit of silly plot really. Shame, could have been really great.

The Revenant (I) (2015)

Brilliant first 30 minutes, then go and grab a pizza somewhere...

[2/10 · 26 February 2018]

Spoilers! Lots of them! The first half hour or so of this is totally rivetting, especially on the big screen. The skirmish/battle scene is one of the best I've ever seen, genuinely terrifying, with the confusion and terror being perfectly rendered on the screen. And of course the bear attack, real edge of the seat stuff. The do yourself a favour and go home - you've had good value for you money, and if you stay you're about to waste two hours of your life. What's wrong? It's just silly basically. The ironically-named Mr Glass (he's indestructable, hence the irony) is so badly injured by the bear he can only move his eyes. Then he can just barely crawl through the woods. Then suddenly he's walking with the aid of a branch. Then he survives a near-freezing river experience without a sign of hypothermia. Then he's jumping on a horse's back. I can't do that and I'm really fit, no bear-mauling damage at all! Next he has a magic musket. Muskets fire one shot. Then they have to be reloaded. But Mr Glass has acquired the world's first self-loading musket, because it seems able to fire at will, without requiring powder, shot, etc. He rides of a cliff into the top of a tree then subsequently falls to the ground. No damage, obviously. Mr Indestructable! Then he climbs into the stomach of his dead horse to keep warm, the stomach I presume being around 6 feet or so in length. Gee that was a big horse! Finally arrives at the fort, almost immediately goes back out to find his arch enemy Tom Grumpy Hardy. With one person accompanying him. Why? Why not 20 men? Next he props his shot dead pal on a horse (as a decoy) by putting a branch down the chap's jacket. Why doesn't the dead man simply fall of sideways, or slump off forwards or backwards? No idea. It's magic! I really wanted to like this movie, I like Leonardo di Caprio and also Tom Hardy, and the cinematography is good. But this is just daft, silly, an insult to one's intelligence. It's not a fantasy film after all.

Fargo (2014–2024)

Endless padding and filler.

[2/10 · 23 January 2018]

I've watched series 1 and 2 - that's as far as I go with Fargo. Life is too short. Basically the format is the same in : what might have been a passable 1 and a half to 2 hour movie is padded out mercilessly and expanded into as series of 10 episodes. It's like watching paint dry. Can I have my life back please? There is no point to any of it that I can fathom. The attempts at profundity come across as pretentious and trite. The stories are frankly just daft. And I can't believe the ratings are so high, that is really depressing.

Wonder Woman (2017)

A travesty.

[2/10 · 10 December 2017]

This film is an abomination. Terrible script, clunky dialogue, stupid plot, frankly weird imagination by whoever concocted it. Who on earth and in what studio could have bought this idea?: er, let's take an iconic female super hero steeped in irony, pazazz, style and gender-subtext and plant her in a grey blood stained doom-laden first world war trench scenario where people are getting their arms and legs blown off, that is if they manage to survive the gas poisoning of course. How many grams must have been consumed at the studio planning sessions to come up with this drivel? My guess? Many. First principle here: make sure there can be one or more (preferably 3 or 4 or 5) sequels to the movie. And prequels of course. This is by far the most important thing. Dollars in abundance. Next, add 95% CGI. CGI cor! and wow! - how impressive. Is the year actually 2003 and I've over-slept? Dull dull dull. Look at our software, Clever innit? Next, recreate 'Indiana Jones...' but with a female lead. And in WW1 trenches!! With gas... Brilliant idea!!! Next: it's OK to slaughter literally hundreds of German soldiers, because obviously they were all nasty evil baddies and the Allies were all goody goody freedom fighters. (Er, sorry, but in reality the slaughtered - slaughtered by the film's 'heroes' - German soldiers would actually have been conscripts just like the Allied soldiers were. Doing what they were told). I really hope this movie does not become a history lesson/synopsis/precis to anyone, anywhere. Read some history books, quick. And, finally, to have the audacity to try to trowel on to this mess of a film some kind of humanitarian anti-war message??!! The final insult to one's intelligence in a long series of insults to one's intelligence. Seriously? Let's bring world peace by killing everybody who isn't in our team?? Ye gods. Ye Gods.... Words fail me. Next Superhero movie: Batman in Vietnam. Can't wait.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)

Incoherent, unintertesting, not for me

[2/10 · 10 December 2017]

Everybody has their own taste and this isn't mine. Maybe if I was 12 years old I'd love it, but I'm not. It's dull, silly, uninteresting - and there's something about that's not altogether wholesome. Can't quite put this into words, but it's just a little bit creepy. Left me feeling a tad uncomfortable. I quite like the genre but this I found boring, dull, how many more lines do I have to type in to this review of mine? A few more by the looks of it - and hey! - I was just trying to be succinct and economical. One-line review? Don't bother. One of the IMDb reviewers indicated this was a life-changing experience for them. I dread to think what their life was like before this trivial movie changed it....

Show Me a Hero (2015)

Very much like sitting through a very long Council meeting

[5/10 · 23 November 2015]

It's well acted. It's honest (worthy perhaps is a better word). It's also very literal, not much in the way of drama, the pace is (understandably) slow and steady, local politics mixed with soap opera. The motivation of the characters isn't really made clear and they aren't really developed very much. I didn't feel like I got to know anybody by the end of the series. I'm sure it's true to the book etc, but as I said it's literal, a bit clunky, somewhat dull. There are important wider issues illustrated here of course, and I was generally glad I watched it. The IMDb minimum of ten lines makes for an extraordinarily long review in my opinion. I think they should reduce it to - say -7 or possibly 8 - lines at some point in the near future.

Ill Manors (2012)

Carry on Gangsterin'

[3/10 · 31 December 2012]

Starts off as a kind of soap-with-gangsters thing: for UK readers, think BBC's Eastenders meets HBO's The Wire. Preposterous storyline twists and coincidences soon turn it into the usual depressingly bad British movie fare. Predictably we have a whole array of gangsters with hearts of gold, prostitutes with hearts of gold, drug dealers with - guess what? - hearts of gold etc. Bad people can be good people given half a chance you know. If they haven't killed or sold you first of course. I very much doubt that this film was intended as comedy, but it certainly came across that way to this viewer. A strong cast try their very best, but it's to no avail.

Archipelago (2010)

Barbed. Sly. Profound. Beautiful.

[7/10 · 18 June 2012]

I loved this film. It is an absolute deadpan satire, dry, wry and very sly. And it made me laugh out loud, which is quite unusual... I don't know how much of the dialogue is improvised, but it is spot-on.

The performances are stunning and the lighting, camera-work and composition are beautiful. I love the way the camera keeps its distance for so much of film before moving in close. You could turn the sound off and just watch this film for the pleasure of the visuals alone.

One reviewer mentioned Tarkovsky; comparisons are odious I know, but I just have to add that it reminded me of Antonioni – and for me it doesn't get any better than that.

I'm surprised how many reviewers seem to miss the point of this film completely. For me, it was like those old Magic Eye pictures: you could of course look at it and not really see anything, but change your focus a little and this amazing hidden gem appears.

It's not all subtle sarcastic send-up either, I think the picture has a real heart, and it's all the more moving when it is eventually revealed.

Great moments? There are tons. Here are three: The Cook carefully wrapping up her knives, as much like a surgeon as a chef, dissection over perhaps, or time to stop the stabbing. The role of the Cook is excellent: the witness to it all, the presence of the director/writer perhaps. The hand puppet round the door is a brilliant scene, loaded, as is so much of this film. Christopher's lines to Edward who is looking at his painting, a quick look at the Blues, a statement of intent from the writer, a great bit of improv? It finishes: "I quite like that blue: Joyous". Cut. Superb.

It is a real shame a film of this quality is rated 5-point-something. It's a great piece of work and it deserves proper recognition.

If you hated this film I would urge you to watch it again; if you haven't seen it you really should.

The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)

Preposterous plot, nice cinematography

[3/10 · 9 November 2010]

Am I going senile? I simply can't believe the reviews, awards and ratings that have been festooned on this movie.

The plot: based purely on the fact that somebody looks somewhat shifty in an old photo, a murder suspect is identified. Er, OK you've lost me already. Where would we find this murder suspect? Why not pop along to the football stadium, we're sure to spot him in a crowd of only 20,000 or so. There he is! Quick!

Now we have him in custody, let's get a confession out of him, we have 6 minutes. Done deal! Next!

The relationships between the protagonists are frankly juvenile. The film is an insult to one's intelligence and if it had been made in USA starring - say - Bruce Willis, it would have been pure B list fodder.

It's too long as well, and the music made me want to eat my own fingers. Nice cinematography though.