Paynebyname Reviews

Climate: The Movie (The Cold Truth) (2023)

Such an important documentary

[9/10 · 27 March 2024]

I know you all have lots of demands for your time but this really is an excellent film all about the Green scam.

I'm always looking for concise and precise documentaries on subjects that I can say to people 'if you watch one documentary on a subject, then watch this' and this one is that.

It uses amazing data to showcase the lunacy and then has a brace of bona fide scientific experts dismantling the clearly fake agenda behind this tiresome charade.

It's very well produced and really hits all of the key points from the vested interests to the politics to the corruption.

Please for the love of this planet and your fredoms, give this a watch and provide your mind with an alternative opinion to consider.

The Creator (2023)

Good world building and impressive visuals but a contrived third act

[5/10 · 2 October 2023]

So the film has some nice visuals and some good performances but it felt really contrived in places and particularly the third act.

It's like they thought of scenes but couldn't master the basics to get there. You can spend all the money on the flash stuff but when characters act irrationally or don't follow logic it really pulls you out of the film.

A good example would be when the US Army attacks one of the Ai bases. The sweeping shots have established that the local area is a series of hilly lush islands yet these huge tanks suddenly materialise as if they've rolled off a large flat plain.

I mean in the mission in the first act the Ai police turn up quickly and offer some stiff resistance to the team. Yet later on the West can land huge tanks with impunity as if they control the area.

And in the battle the running bombs approach the Ai forces. It's clear that in the middle of the battle this would be bad but there is seemingly no recognition of this and they let the first bomb just run into the camp.

Even the second one they let approach with tokenistic small arms fire until the Child steps up. No panic to let the audience know that the Ai recognise the danger. No thoughts about trying to block the path of the attack. For seemingly advanced intelligence they act incredibly dumb because the plot needs them to.

And as for the ending it just felt so false. I mean Washington allows himself to be separated from the girl but the West inexplicably puts them back together because seemingly the West can't knock her out with an EMP.

And then they commandeer a space ship which again the West just allow to dock with NOMAD. Is there no defence capabiliity on this trillion dollar craft that in one minute is within the atmosphere and the next in low orbit.

The kid does it's thing but what does it actually do because Joshua plants a bomb (on a missile that by all intents should have fired when the ship came back online) and the bomb manages to blow up NOMAD.

I mean great performances from Alfie but the method of getting to that point was so incredibly convenient and came about due to the West's imbecility rather than the heroes ingenuity that it made it all fall pretty hollow and empty.

Granted it wasn't as bad as a lot of the dross that Hollywood produces but it's like they can't even afford someone to read the script or finished film and say 'hang on a minute this feels flat or lazy or unrealistically contrived'.

Another disappointment but I'm sure the gullible masses will lap it up because it had some cool explosions and a pretense of hard sci fi.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

It's okay but nothing more

[5/10 · 17 July 2023]

*MILD SPOILERS*

First off I have to say that I love Tom Cruise and his films. I've defended the guy even when it wasn't fashionable and The Last Samurai is in my top 3 favourite films. Maverick was epic and I respect his commitment to his craft but having seen MI: Dead Reckoning I do have to say that it was just okay.

I totally appreciate that the film wasn't woke and there wasn't any messaging being thrust down our throat though maybe Pom fighting evenly with Tom is a bit of a stretch. And so for that reason I do understand that it is important that the film does well at the Box Office to show Hollywood the way forward.

But with that in mind, let's not get too carried away because it still suffers from some real problems. The sense of peril for any of the characters has all but vanished because we've seen what the characters are capable of and we remember the other films.

I mean did the bomb in the airport really have any tension behind it at all? We know the franchise. We know they won't detonate a bomb in an airport in the first act. So it seems false and treating the audience as if they have never seen an MI film before.

And having an audience that knows the characters leads to other problems. Having seen Tom and Ilsa kick the literal crap out of room loads of guys before, having her run away when presented with the unnecessarily dramatic scene in Venice seems really forced.

Let's be honest, no one really presents a credible physical threat to those two (because of what they've shown us in the other films) and hence to have them split up and run away just feels really pointless or rather clearly foreshadowing a lazily constructed and unsurprising moment of apparent drama. Why would you do that? Why would Ethan shout run when they could fight their way out of the situation with ease?

And likewise the makers really do need to pay attention to the marketing that they do for these films. When they splash memorable images of Tom and Hayley in the train everywhere pre launch, it kills any tension in the second act of who might die. It's patently obvious who will die because you've previously shown me who is on the train at the end.

Similar to this is the never ending fixation with the need for amazing stunts. The bike jump is impressive but is it REALLY that more impressive than the Bond ski jump at the beginning of TSWLM which was nearly 50 years ago? And in turn it can't just have been me that felt like they thought of the stunt first and then crammed in a kinda pointless scene to facilitate it? An obvious stunt for stunt's sake is not conducive to building tension. I might as well watch the X Games for that.

Yes the film was fun but like John Wick, when there is too much action and the main character has despatched bad guys with ease for the last 90 minutes, seeing them do it for another 30 minutes is just wallpaper.

While the film was okay, the acting was good, the music was great and some of the action was kinda cool, it did feel generic, a little lazy and a little 'going through the motions'.

What I really fear, and I saw this with the glowing praise of Wick 4 and Extraction 2, is that we become like the Left and just because a film is 'on our side' (i.e. Isn't woke) that we give it a free pass when it is, well a little bit boring.

PS Can we also acknowledge with sadness that the thing that made Hayley Atwell so hot (you all know what it is) has been lost with the push/pressure to make her lose weight.

Yellowstone (2018– )

Embarrassingly wooden, cliched and lame.

[2/10 · 24 January 2023]

I like Taylor Sheridan. I own Hell or High Water and Wind River and think they are great films. I saw Yellowstone and went ahead and purchased the first season on the basis of him and the glowing reviews.

My god it is just so bad. It's so wooden, the characters are unlikeable and terribly cliched. The patriarchal minimal talking dad, the lawyer son, the tearaway Daddy's girl.

Everything is painted with such a broad sloppy brush that Bob Ross would be embarrassed.

Random events happen to generate tension, the endless whining from the Native Americans becomes intolerable and the attempts at drama are laughable and cringe inducing.

Case in point is the unlikeable daughter. Portayed to be this wild neurotic alcoholic hate filled individual but when the plot needs it she can be this fearless businesswoman and 'do anything' fixer.

Really? Can you be a respected business woman living in a bottle? Do you need to, I don't know, knuckle down and do a bit of work occasionally. Oh no, not in this world. The writer needed a certain character and just fashioned it without any thought behind the construction of that character.

One minute parading naked in a horse bath because she's so self absorbedly crazy and 'bad ass' and black of heart but literally a few hours later laughing in the golden hour as she watches people try to lasso a training prop.

I guess earlier she needed to be wild but right now she needs to be at ease as the Montana evening breeze ruffles her hair. It's all so contrived and idiotic.

No single character in the show is likeable (which I guess is one kind of writing achievement) yet all expect to be venerated for being so cowboy or so Indian or so proud or so female.

It really is just a pretensious bloated mess. It's got all the product placement tie ins. The big hats and big trucks but ultimately it is a huge shiny belt buckle holding up a pair of $1 dollar jeans.

Jung_E (2023)

It's slow, the pacing is terrible but the last 20 mins make it very special

[6/10 · 24 January 2023]

This one is tricky to review. It's starts good with a really impressive action scene that you realise is a simulation. Okay, we're good with that.

Then there is some painfully forced attempts at humour and the movie slows down to an almost glacial crawl. There doesn't seem much point to it and staying awake proved really hard replete with stops for tea & biscuits in the hope that it might pick up.

And in the end it did pick up and the efforts of the daughter to free her mother are really great. There is tension and hence the action scenes (which are mesmerisingly good) are really well done.

Hell the final 20 minutes is Blomkamp D9 level of good and I've rewatched the final act a number of times now. The SFX are incredible on Jung_E and I don't know who they modelled the face on but it literally is one that I can't take my eyes off of. The face is exquisite and the inventiveness and crunching visceralness (is that even a word) of the fights is so good.

Where the films ends is actually where you want it to start. I mean this could be the robot/cyborg that you wanted Alita to be. But unfortunately the preceeding hour or so is just a hard slog.

Don't get me wrong. I understand that you have to set character and do some world building but if they had introduced the daughter's plans earlier and hence revealed the peril of her scheming, the film would have had more pace.

So as it is the film showed promise and moments of genuine brilliance but it got bogged down for the majority of the run time. I would recommend it but bring some Red Bull and snacks!

Arcane (2021– )

A truly amazing nourishing and resonating series.

[9/10 · 4 January 2022]

Okay here comes my super passionate pitch for this amazing show.

The mix of 2D and 3D is quite beautifully done and if you have an eye for the vivid or colourful or thought provoking, you would really appreciate the style and look of the show.

There are themes of France and Paris in the ambience no doubt from the animation studio that is based in Paris.

Next we have the story and setting which is adult in nature. Not from a point of sex and violence but in regards to the issues that it tackles. Ones of duality in the difference between the two classes and cities along with themes of abandonment, loss and family. It's far from kiddie-fied and handles some pretty deep and thought provoking subjects.

Next the characters are rich and compelling with separate motivations and agendas that service their development and how they deal with the issues that they face.

Finally we have the music within the show which is a great blend of contemporary that can appeal to both the young and older parts of your personality.

The first season is made up of 9 episodes, each about 40 mins long and effectively released as three separate acts. .

It feels fresh, diverse (but not preachy) and nourishing.

Just give the first three episodes a go and if you aren't moved by the powerful end of the third episode and the amazing song over the credits then at least you will be aware what the fuss is all about.

Watching it really resonated with both of us and the music and story has lingered to the point where we will watch it again in a few weeks' time. It's really special and I think if you give it a go, it might surprise you at how involving it is.

The Tomorrow War (2021)

Started interesting and then took a slow dive into banality

[4/10 · 2 July 2021]

So the film started off okay with an interesting premise and a solid dad/daughter angle.

The first action scene was good even though there were some holes with the 'endless bullet/no need to reload' magazines and the idea of novice members of the public still in work trouser suits handling weaponary with zero training.

But then it was like the writers and director got bored or lazy. They had this whole narrative of how Chris had to save his daughter in the future even though it was obvious that he didn't have to save her in her future but rather change the future.

Likewise when the males are attacking the base to retrieve the Queen, Chris was suggesting they kill the Queen and his daughter says 'we can't waste the formula'. Who needs a formula? She's chained up just put a bullet in her!

And then the silly scene at the end that just had to be connected to global warming - yawn - was idiotic. Why go to the efforts to inject the chemical into the monsters if you can just blow the ship up.

The film had the same kind of vibe and production values as Greenland with Gerard Butler and desperately wanted to be Live. Die. Repeat but it so wasn't.

In the end that early possibility was squandered away in a series of tedious and uninvolving pretty looking but hollow scenes.

Disappointing.

Oxygen (2021)

Solid, clever and entertaining

[8/10 · 20 May 2021]

Tuned into this blind having had my interest tweaked by a concept similar to that of Ryan Reynold's Buried.

Oxygen was clever, thought provoking and well constructed. The acting was good, the music atmospheric and it kept me engaged. It used effects when it needed to and never felt on the cheap. Characters acted sensibly and there were no points where I was like "oh come on!"

Although the film was written by a woman, directed by a woman and starring a woman, there was no preaching agenda. No woke politics, no feeling of being re-educated. Just a well told story that left a satisfying resonance.

I'd rate this a 7.5 and cannot understand some of the idiotically low reviews.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021)

An embarrassing woke filled mess

[3/10 · 27 April 2021]

Having to post this again because it seems IMDB doesn't like negative reviews for this series. Sounds a lot like RT deleting bad reviews doesn't it?

It's hard to collect together how astonishingly bad this is. I could only make it through two episodes and that was all I needed to see how utterly lame it was.

The script and writing is so bad, it's like it is written in crayon by a committee of PC executives. They could have saved the money from the empty and tension free opening action scene and actually invested it in the script.

All of the lines are so exposition heavy and so blatantly telegraphed that it is written in a way that people don't actually talk. And the wokeism, it is never ending and delivered with the subtlety of a Mjolnir hammer strike.

Right off the bat, Sam is giving a speech where he has to say '"in honour of the women and men". That isn't how you say it, just as you wouldn't say "good evening Gentlemen and Ladies". It's so obvious what they are trying to do and it jars because it's reminding you that literally every single line of dialogue has been passed through the PC filter.

The wokeness continues when Sam and Buck visit a predominantly black neighbourhood but then the cops turn up and Sam is hassled for ID and asked whether he is bothering Bucky. It is literally so transparent what they are trying to say and comment on, that they might as well be holding up massive que cards.

So they've wheeled out some handy new super serum and given it to a bunch of Portland Antifa who wants to break down authority and be given free stuff.

If you remember, the serum is meant to magnify what is inside the person making someone strong even stronger or evil even more evil. But of course, it apparently also has the ability to make the weediest girl way stronger than anyone else. Because, you know, woman and all that.

The action scenes have no consequences. People get hurt or die depending on whether the writer wants them to rather than the 'rules' of the world they have created. A super soldier stamps on a guy's face that would pop anyone's head and seemingly he's fine. Are non-serum people now equally robust or only when the tiresomely woke writer decides.

But the contradictions and hypocrisy pervade the whole show. I mean, apparently Chris Evans was upset at Johnny killing someone. Seemingly Chris' Cap had no problems kicking those Hydra guys out of the plane in The First Avenger. Are those deaths okay?

But what am I saying. The world has moved on now. White guys are bad and need to be detoxified. Oh and guys are bad and they need to be detoxified as well. Hence Bucky seemingly becomes the butt of literally every single joke.

In the end you just feel that Marvel are single handily trying to destroy what they spent so long crafting. I mean everyone that they killed off in Infinity War to shock the audience into the seriousness of the situation is coming back thanks to, you know, the multiverse and stuff.

So if you try to watch Infinity War again, you realise it's pointless because everything that happens in it is negated, overlooked, ignored or turned into idiots in Endgame. To that extent, Endgame made Infinity War unwatchable.

But at least it couldn't affect the superb Winter Soldier and Civil War. At least they couldn't be corrupted could they? Of course they can. Just like how the moronic last Star Wars trilogy managed to reach back to corrupt and negate Vader's sacrifice in ROTJ, so this idiotic series manages to tarnish those two films as you see what cretinous, virtuous and banal characters they have turned those characters into.

Marvel's ability to destroy itself really is a sight to behold. In Endgame they had to mock one of Caps famous lines by poking fun at something delivered with genuine sincerity at the end of Civil War. At the time, I questioned how people who really love Cap could treat his character with such contempt.

This show perfectly highlights the attitude that is eating away at Marvel. Like a model who succumbs to a 'little bit' of plastic surgery, they just can't stop tinkering, trying to make it better, trying to make it more relevant, more woke. And what they end up with is this hideous bloated embarrassment of a show that is a million miles away from the simple wholesomeness that they started with.

I said after Endgame, and the other two incredibly lame releases of that year, that the death knell was out for the MCU. This proves how quickly that death spiral is gaining momentum.

Love and Monsters (2020)

Fun and enjoyable. 7.5

[8/10 · 16 April 2021]

What a wonderfully entertaining and fun film this is. Great writing, likeable characters, solid world building and no agenda apart from that of hope and a spirit of adventure.

How refreshing to come across a well crafted gem like this. Reminds me a lot of How to Train Your Dragon in the mannerisms of the lead and the overall messaging.

Light hearted and very enjoyable.

Jeruzalem (2015)

An enjoyable little gem.

[7/10 · 28 March 2021]

Are you always looking for a nice little film to accidentally stumble on?

You know the type. Something that wasn't hugely pushed, that doesn't contain big names or had a huge budget but has some interesting ideas. Something that isn't so large a film that it has to follow a formula but isn't so small that it is filmed in just one building? Then this is for you.

It's filmed through Smart Glasses, which gets over the found footage reason and means we don't have to contend with the endless 'will you just switch the camera off' lines. It sets up some relatable characters and gives you a chance to understand them and their location before flipping that upside down.

I myself really liked it. If you enjoy Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity: Marked ones or other found footage, I think you might as well. It does well in generating a feeling of dread and I like the cleverness of it being set in a holy city with a sense of a long history. I appreciate the makers ambition in having it be a much grander 'event' and for finding the cash to give you that genuine feeling of it encompassing a far bigger situation.

You'd expect a film with this rating to be a shoestring production, where the camera shots are way too closely filmed, the characters can't act and the script is written in crayon. This is not that film and I thoroughly recommend it for a being a little different, being well made and for keeping me entertained. I rate it a 6.2.

Peninsula (2020)

Unfair criticisms

[7/10 · 28 March 2021]

I'd rate this film a 6.7 but it doesn't give me that option but it certainly isn't a 6.

Okay, I'll agree that it isn't in the same league as the original film but it has an interesting concept (that of the Korean Peninsula just being left alone), some interesting ideas, some applaudable character actions and a bevy of exciting set pieces and hence it really doesn't deserve to be lumped together with those cheap awful horrors that you'd find that you'd find at this kind of rating.

Yes, I agree that some of the driving scenes aren't the best looking CGI but the characters are likeable, you can see what is happening and it's very entertaining.

Does it have a flavour of Mad Max: Fury Road - yes it does and while that film had amazing sequences and music, it also had a ridiculous story and a tiresomely woke agenda rammed down your throat.

Does it have a flavour of Fast n Furious - yes it does because it has cars driven as weapons but those films had cars parachuted onto roads, driven between three skyscrapers (yes that was three) and a huge safe dragged through a Brazilian city. Ridiculous maybe but certainly entertaining.

So whilst, it doesn't have the depth of Train to Busan and doesn't come close to the perfection of Kingdom, it is certainly just as entertaining, if not more so, than the empty fluff that is World War Z.

If you like a zombie film, want to be entertained, appreciate a little creative thought and can overlook that it hasn't had millions thrown at it to swap out the CGI for live action, then jump onboard and try to ignore the pretensious chin rubbers who can't move beyond this being a different film than it's namesake.

Space Sweepers (2021)

Solid enjoyable entertainment

[7/10 · 21 February 2021]

I've got a lot of time for South Korean cinema and TV. The series Kingdom is still one of the very best series I've ever seen, so I read the reviews and jumped on board.

It's a little confusing at the beginning and almost a little zany but it is trying to cram in the characters and establish a fully realised world setting.

The characters are good, the young girl is impossibly cute without descending into nauseating territory and there are some nice themes about family etc.

Whilst it is set in a devasted future, there isn't too much 'humans are bad for destroying the planet' although there is a character echoing someone from today who is seemingly happy to play god under the guise of 'saving us from ourselves'.

I really enjoyed this, the music, the special effects and the story. Yes, it has a flavour of GOTG but what space piratey/motley crew doesn't?

I only feel bad that this didn't get a chance to smash it at the Korean box office as it certainly deserved to.

The Expanse: Nemesis Games (2021) Season 5, Episode 10

One can't review Season 5 in one go, so it will have to go here.

[5/10 · 4 February 2021]

So disappointing, what happened to the show? It's like it was written and produced by two separate groups of people.

For the first half we had the grand, solar system spanning schemes and plots that had consequences on everyone. Marco pulls off a dramatic attack and forms some impressive alliances to put the Belters firmly in charge. All epic so far and then the show just ground to a halt.

Amos' story is quite interesting initially but then perplexing. Why the sudden rush for everyone to leave Earth and get to Lunar. Yes, the Earth has been hit with some asteroids but it wasn't an ELE. The Earth still has things going for it.

His character becomes unlikeable like when they break into the survivalist's home and as the audience we are just meant to think 'oh that guy was arse, he deserved to die'. Then they go to the big house and they are happy to treat the servants still as servants expecting to cook and feed for them.

And then, oh my god, the final supposedly exciting race for the lunar shuttle. It was completely devoid of tension. Some random bad guys that had been plucked from nowhere, no fear that characters would die, Amos firing a shotgun at distant foes. You knew Amos wasn't going to die and you knew Peaches wasn't, so it was just complete empty filler.

But the award for filler really goes to the decision to focus the entire second half on the season on Naomi. Oh my god, could they have dragged that out for any longer? Yes, okay she deserves an Emmy but the crying and the wailing and the crying and the wailing and the falling over - we get it.

Here we are meant to be enjoying these huge world changing events and we have 4/5 episodes focused on rescuing one character from one ship.

This in turn led to what has to be the most insipid and devoid of tension 'space battle' ever. The makers have spent the last 4 episodes on Naomi, was anyone really expecting her to die - of course not. We've all seen Drummer and where her allegiance is, was anyone expecting her to go through with killing Naomi and the Roci - of course not.

How did this represent entertainment to anyone who has been watching the show for all of this time? It was telegraphed to everyone what would happen. Naomi would be saved and the Roci would be saved. It was meaningless bangs and pops on screen with no feeling that anyone was in danger because we all knew what would happen.

And as for the death of Alex, Jesus that was laughably bad. It doesn't matter what happens off screen with the ACTOR that plays the character, you don't just dismiss a character at the click of a finger because of off screen behaviour. He's playing a character people and it's the character that is integral to the show.

To literally show him having a nose bleed and then an embarrassingly rushed 'these things can happen in a hard G turn' is so utterly, utterly lame.

So we had Marco's brilliant schemes reduced to a tedious inter family squabble, we had Amos aimlessly pulling in Alex's replacement and we have Avarasalla returned to exactly where she was at the beginning. Anyone feel like the whole season was just filler.

I mean everyone is back together on the Roci, apart from the banished Alex, and the whole 'red aliens that wiped out the builders' story is suddenly picked back up again in the very last minute of the show.

What have Amazon done to this show. Okay they pumped some money in but goddam if they haven't turned into another tedious soap opera with some flashy effects. Season 4 felt like a filler but I was prepared to hang with the show as I believed Amazon were finding their feet and there was some really interesting developments with Bobby and the cultural changes within Mars.

But Season 5 has revealed Amazon's hand and maybe the nature of what money can do to a show. When it is limited, the creators are conscious to use every penny and keep things tight to convey the story. But when Amazon comes along with its big dollars, they take the foot off the gas, let the money roll in and intentionally drag out something over four episodes that previously they could have done in one episode.

One of the things that used to be great about the series was how grounded it was in reality and created compelling tension. These elements have simply evaporated from the show. Naomi can now fly through space without a suit, Amos can fire a close quarter weapon at a ranged opponent, everyone is in a rush to leave planet Earth to go to new planets which have absolutely no infrastructure at all.

I mean the one armed gang boss is confident of making money in the New Worlds, he does realise that when he gets there, he'll need to scratch a living out of the dirt. There won't be any running water or electricity or governance.

It kinda says a lot that when I see the elites leaving Earth like some kind of used condom and racing to the Apple store base on Lunar, that I'm with Marco and his plans to reclaim space for the Belters.

So very disappointing and yet I guess so very predictable. It's hard for shows to keep impressing you and I guess the injection of money and the slow creep in of wokeness will lead to the drop off in quality.

The Expanse has now moved from the pinnacle of sci-fi entertainment into the realm of 'yeah, it's okay'. At least I won't have to be counting the days now until season 7.

The Expanse: Hard Vacuum (2021) Season 5, Episode 8

Getting a little tedious

[5/10 · 24 January 2021]

Yes, okay, we get it. The Expanse is the Naomi show.

After the solar system changing events of Episode 4, this and the previous episode slow down to a crawl as we focus on the trials of Saint Naomi.

Maybe I'm wrong for understanding the motives of Marko, as drastic as they are, but to see them reduced to a tiresome family squabble with Naomi wailing that Philip shouldn't be taken from her mother (seemingly okay to take from his father?) is getting a little tiresome.

I don't have a problem with female characters, just the ones where the writers are making it crystal clear that everything has to resolve around that character. Still what do I know, express dislike for one particular character and I must be a misogynist.

In the last few episodes, the show has lost it's way from the big picture to a character who gets way too much airtime and far too much exposure on the posters.

The Mandalorian: Chapter 16: The Rescue (2020) Season 2, Episode 8

Wonderful, epic, wow!

[9/10 · 19 December 2020]

SPOILERS

I have really enjoyed this series both in the writing, the character development, the music and the special effects.

I watched the final episode this evening and really enjoyed the episode. I liked how it gave me satisfying action and a solid story so that I wasn't waiting for some big thing at the end.

I appreciated how tough and likeable the female characters were. They weren't great because they were women and I had to like them because they were women. I liked them because they were fleshed out likeable characters.

SPOILERS

However, I can't really discuss without talking about the last 10 minutes.

What a great exercise in set up this was because when the X Wing rolled up, I just thought this must be the new republic turning up given that we had seen them in some other episodes.

But then I saw the hooded figure and remembered the calling to the Jedi, I felt my heartbeat begin to quicken.

It couldn't be surely? After the way the KK trilogy denigrated and dismissed him, surely they wouldn't give his character the redemption that so many of us wanted.

As my hand begin to creep up over my face, my voice started to croak 'oh my god, is that Luke?'

I saw the figure despatch the first wave of troopers, I saw the green lightsabre and then I saw the gloved hand.

I was surprised at how emotional I suddenly became. I wasn't crying but my eyes felt like they were filling up as the childhood heroic Luke that I remembered, not the bitter one that KK wanted me to accept, strode back proudly onto the screen.

The feeling that a character so wronged by a board of disinterested and disrespectful woke executives could be given a moment to shine like the star he so clearly was to so many, was genuinely moving.

It reminded me of the 30 seconds of pure proper scary Vader that we got at the end of Rogue One.

It's hard to create genuine wow moments and I guess they have to be rare otherwise they wouldn't have the power.

Infnity War had them when Cap stepped out of the shadow and Thor arrived in Wakanda but Endgame couldn't recreate them (well not for me).

This truly was an epic moment up there with the Razorback scene at the end of The Expanse Season 3 Episode 1 or the death scene in the snow in Kingdom Season 2 Episode 3.

However this managed to add the further emotional weight of reaching back over 35 years to a beloved hero who had been so poorly treated by a new breed of detached film makers.

What a moment, what a feeling, what a redemption.

Thank you to Jon F And Dave F for working up to this moment of pure joy and sincere correction for a character so horribly mistreated.

Thoroughly entertaining.

Of Mice and Men (1992)

Just a really poor film

[3/10 · 24 November 2020]

SPOILERS

For many years, there was something about this film that I wasn't sure about. I don't know if it was a trailer or a review but I'd always steered clear of it but after a solid recommendation, I gave it a go.

I should have trusted my gut, for it is an uncomfortable and unlikeable film. I've seen and enjoyed many films about people with mental health problems - Rain Man, Forrest Gump, Peanut Butter Falcon etc - but these all have something endearing and likeable about the characters. Yes, they've been dealt an unfair hand but they usually have some humanity within them that as an audience member you can relate to. That was not present in this film.

None of the characters are likeable. Lenny is unhinged, weird and dangerous. It's patently obvious from the beginning that he isn't a 'gentle giant' or a benign character. You don't feel compassion for him or his fate, you just feel fear and unease because you can sense what he is capable of.

And this isn't me being uncharitable as it is clearly a choice by the actor and director that whenever he sees a woman, Lenny start looking sheepish and grabbing his crotch area, exhibiting the kind of mannerisms that makes it patently obvious that there is an underlying sexual angle to his behaviour.

For this reason, the lack of compassion also extends to George. I'm sorry but knowing what Lenny is capable of means that George is responsible and culpable for Lenny's actions. Lenny is clearly a ticking time bomb and hence you have to charge a duty of care to the guy who knowingly leaves a time bomb unattended.

In Rain Man, Raymond slightly changes but it is Charlie that completely changes. There is character growth and Charlie grows because he learns to protect and love his brother. Although Raymond can be draining, his idiosyncrasies are endearing and Charlie gets something back from his developing relationship with Raymond.

Likewise in Peanut Butter Falcon, Shia's character doesn't know it but he is looking for someone to look after to replace how his brother looked after him. There is shared affection and each character gets something back from the other and in turn develops because of their connection to each other.

This doesn't exist in Of Mice and Men. George doesn't change, Lenny doesn't change and neither brings joy to the other person. Lenny isn't an anchor that despite the extra hardship still makes George happy, he is simply a dangerous volatile individual.

Likewise George isn't a protector. When Lenny is getting beaten up by the Ranch owner's son, George doesn't step in to break up the fight or start fighting himself, he actually eggs on Lenny. He knows that Lenny cannot control his emotions, his temper or his strength yet he grandstands over a situation that everyone can see is going to end badly.

And then finally with the frustrated wife, it seems that there is almost some kind of victim blaming going on. Yes, she was lonely and frustrated and would be all manner of bad news to any guy in that situation but come on, she didn't deserve to die. She goes from potentially flirting with Lenny to getting her neck snapped in another situation whose outcome was clear to see.

And once Curly's wife has been killed, what are the audience meant to feel? I don't feel sorry for Lenny because it wasn't an accident. She struggled to escape, he could feel her panic, we saw the anger on his face and whether overtly intentional or not, he crushed her. He knew what he was doing during the tussle and he knew what he had done when he ran off. It wasn't an accident, he didn't swing round a ladder and knock her off a fence - he killed her with his own hands.

Likewise I don't feel sorry for George. He effectively left a loaded shotgun in a nursery full of children and walked away to play hoops. Given Lenny's possible diminished responsibility, George's hands have the blood of the woman on them.

And hence by the time they get to the river bed, I don't feel sympathy for Lenny or for George. Lenny gets an escape via the bullet to the head but what about George's penance for the death of an innocent woman?

I have to say that this really belongs in that category of films that everyone tells you is great and a real classic and it truly isn't. Is it the fault of Gary Sinise or is the book just like this, either way it isn't special or a classic and if anything is a really, clumsily told and unsympathetically written tale. Lenny isn't the Gentle Giant that the write up would have you believe but a dangerous man-child that would generate nightmares rather than sympathy in most normal people. I have to say that Frank Darabont/Stephen King did far better with what is obviously an homage to Of Mice & Men with The Green Mile, than Steinbeck ever did. Very poor and wildly over-rated.

Nothing But the Truth (I) (2008)

Bland, unlikeable and a truly idiotic ending

[4/10 · 17 November 2020]

SPOILERS

This has some impressive reviews and a stellar cast, so I jumped right on in for what is described as an 'edge of the seat' political thriller. Really, it wasn't.

It's hard in this current political climate to not look at anyone in the Govt, Media or Law professions with anything but suspicion and cynicism and so while watching you are trying to assess who the film makers are routing for.

The main characters are really unlikeable. Everyone is jostling to be seen to be tough and independent and David Schwimmer is along to play the cucked simp that he so easily plays.

But the ending, oh my lord, is so completely ridiculous that it is laugh out loudable. We are meant to believe that Kate's character is so principled, so filled with integrity that she would go to jail to protect her source.

She sacrifices her family, her son and indirectly leads to the killing of Vera's character. At the same time, you can understand the Govt's desire to find out the source given that this mole could be compromising other spies and national security. I mean, isn't finding this type of mole or list the stuff of Bond or Mission Impossible films?

And the person she is defending is Vera's pre-teen daughter. How utterly and completely idiotic. It's clear that the mole is unwitting in what they did, it's obvious that the leak is contained and doesn't represent a security threat beyond the irresponsibility of a mother talking work infront of her child, yet this is why Kate has gone to prison.

What a complete tool. I'm not surprised that they couldn't show the moment when Kate's character revealed the source as everyone would just start laughing. Really, you went to prison for a source that the Feds could have dismissed as non-dangerous in less than 5 minutes?

I cannot fathom how so many actors of such calibre didn't read the script and say 'hey guys, this ending is beyond stupid' but seemingly they must be cut from the same moron cloth that the people who would vote this silly film a 6 or above are.

Wildly over-rated and utterly stupid.

The Plot Against the President (2020)

Superb documentary offering concise summation of Democrat corruption

[9/10 · 27 October 2020]

This is a very well produced documentary featuring interviews from all the major players in the disgustingly corrupt attempt to oust the duly elected President of the United States.

It goes through the whole episode in a linear, easy to follow narrative that lays out, time after time, how deceitful the Dems were and how complicit the Media was in pushing this steaming pile of BS.

Well worth checking out.

The Mandalorian (2019– )

Thank god, there is still gold to be mined in the Star Wars universe

[8/10 · 20 October 2020]

I confess that I'd been very sceptical of watching this series. Whilst I had faith in Jon Favreau and have appreciated his talent since his breakout Swingers, I did not have faith in the direction that Lucasfilm was going.

The Force Awakens had plenty of nostalgia but it wasn't delivered with any heart. The writing was flat, the action had no weight and everyone moved through the story like marionettes on strings. If that was empty, then The Last Jedi was just a train wreck of a film. Jumbled, incoherent and utterly disrespectful of the source material. Rogue One had a few highlights but there was a creative rot at the core of Lucasfilm.

Throw any old crap on the screen, drop a few evocative tunes and an emotional trailer and Lucasfilm could hoodwink another gaggle of fans happy to part with their cash for a plethora of disappointment.

Into this sea of banality and profit motivated extortion, strode The Mandalorian and what a breath of fresh air it truly was. Solid writing, fascinating characters, throwbacks to the Star Wars canon but without the blatant 'winking at the audience' exhibitionism. It feels like it is set in an organic post ROTJ world replete with dirty looking Stormtroopers and salvaged weapons and systems from the much loved trilogy.

Unlike Rian Johnson's desecration of Luke's character, here were writers that actually respected the world that had been built and weren't seeking to change it but live within it.

The set design and action scenes were top notch. The music with Mando's wood chime (?) tune was excellent and you really felt for the characters. Yes, baby Yoda (or whatever he is) is impossibly cute but the show itself didn't descend into idiocy or identity politics and it still packed a physical punch and an emotional connection.

It was a real pleasure to watch and enjoy the first season and I just hope that Kathleen Kennedy's spite at this being so critically successful doesn't lead to her injecting her line of woke bs into the series that will corrupt it from the core and ruin the much anticipated new series.

Debt Collectors (2020)

Thoroughly enjoyable

[7/10 · 8 September 2020]

I caught the first film a few months back and after enjoying Avengement found it another entertaining romp.

It had some good fighting, some witty lines and a really solid chemistry between the two leads. French and Sue just gelled and I loved how they got on.

Cue up the second film and although you thought they had died in the first film, it doesn't matter that they didn't because their chemistry is just as sharp.

Granted some of the other actors are woefully bad and I wish the final fight had been a hand to hand fight rather than the cheesey gun battle but ultimately I didn't mind because I really like the two characters.

I really Sue and his slower delivery but it's refreshing to see Scott playing a Brit who is a genuine tough guy. I particularly liked his line when defending our actions in the US war of independence and how we were the underdogs.

I'm sure our American brothers might not take too kindly but damn if it wasn't refreshing to hear a Brit sticking up for Britain.

Great entertainment and I'm already looking forward to the third film.

Ip Man 4: The Finale (2019)

Embarrassingly poor

[3/10 · 7 September 2020]

Wow, what a trainwreck of a film this was.

Loved the first film and really enjoyed the second and third but if you think the Nasty British contempt for Chinese culture was bad in Ip Man 2, get ready for it to be slapped on with a firetruck in this film.

America and Americans are portrayed as nothing more than one dimensional racist bigoted a**holes who seemingly hate all foreigners (though the main guys use Japanese karate).

Ip Man clenches his fists for the fights but they really should be raised above his head as the Americans are endlessly vilified for their whiteness and words like supremacy and privilige are thrown around.

Seemingly the Chinese built America out of the goodness of their hearts with no personal gain and even though they don't want to integrate with the white devils, it's the White Americans who are repeatedly shown as being evil and intolerant.

From showcasing an enjoyable martial art, this has become a whine fest for how nastily everyone treats the Chinese when they are such a fair, free and open people.

The fighting and music are good but the writing, acting and script are terrible with the agenda written so large it might as well have been in neon.

Shockingly bad and desperately woke.

Time Trap (2017)

A cracking little film

[7/10 · 4 August 2020]

So, if like me you are always looking for those little gems of films that didn't have a big release, don't have any major stars or huge budgets but offer a nugget of cleverness or thought provoking concept, then this is one of those.

Yes, the budget is limited but at least it doesn't look like it was filmed on a camcorder with the camera way too close to the actors faces, which so many ultra budget films do (why do they do that?)

This has in it a concept that even now, months later, still intrigues me and makes me mull over what a good film it was for visualising this fascinating tale.

Try to forgive it's lack of mega budget (it's on a par with the production values of an episode of The Outer Limits) but appreciate that it's heart is in the right place and embrace the imagination stirring idea that is at the very centre of it. This film really is a welcome reminder that a clever idea can transcend a modest budget into something with real resonance.

Knives Out (2019)

Just the kind of pretentious guff you'd expect from this bunch of people.

[3/10 · 4 August 2020]

I made an hour into this before the nauseating preaching, posturing and virtue signalling of this ensemble cast of self entitled sanctimonious fools became too much.

It starts okay and there are some big names but the politics is slapped on so hard and the 'right on' moralising and blatant agenda that the idiotic writer is promoting, is so present that it begins to stick in your throat.

The poor, butter wouldn't melt, hard working, undocumented (yeah that means illegal) immigrant must be saved at all costs from this gaggle of horrible and evil white individuals.

Johnson really is a talentless hack and this film is as jarring and as awful as the horrific accent that Daniel Craig woefully attempts throughout the film. It's like someone has asked him to create something that is a cross between Tom Hank's Forrest Gump and Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday.

When people talk about Hollywood looking down at unenlightened riff raff and feeling that they need to educate us all, this is the kind of vehicle that they use. You can just imagine them congratulating themselves at how clever and virtuous they are at the wrap parties.

Self absorbed trash that thinks itself really insightful but is nothing more than a clenched fist in the air. How this fool of a writer/director continues to make films is beyond me.

Pandora (2016)

Tiresome, preachy and predictable

[3/10 · 28 July 2020]

I like my fair share of South Korean films. Brotherhood, War of Arrow, Kingdom (series) and hence thought we'd give this a go.

I gotta say that it waa boring and most of the characters pretty unlikeable. The worst thing was this ever present bias that Nuclear is bad.

When we are having the tirsome cliche of inept workers and a devious lazy management that are ignoring the one honest employee, I just found myself saying 'oh give me a break'.

So we've unlikeable characters, an obvious agenda and cardboard characters deliberately set up to act badly to both drive the story and political agenda.

No thanks.