mitch-anthony Reviews

Fool Me Once (2024)

A unthrilling weak story and mainly poor actors

[1/10 · 10 January 2024]

Having enjoyed other Harlan Coben adaptations I watched FMO. The actors overacted, over emoted and pulled faces (Maya's niece was the worst with her continual scowling). Michelle Keegan (Maya) was totally unbelievable as hardened war veteran, looking more like she'd just stepped out of a nail and beauty salon (than previously a war zone) in every scene. Everybody had a perfect huge house or flat. The suspense music was overused and irritating as there was hardly any suspense and action. The Asian copper was totally irresponsible and annoying. The plot was preposterous and as another reviewer said, as Maya killed Joe and knew that his mother was corrupt, then why all the intrigue, as Maya would have known the nanny cam video was fake and she would have behaved differently towards Joe's mother, knowing she was corrupt all along. A unthrilling weak story and mainly poor actors. 1/10.

The Creator (2023)

Superficial & Artificially Intelligent Android Sci-Fi Devoid Of Substance

[5/10 · 1 October 2023]

The Creator (a.k.a. Cliches, Stereotypes & Tropes R Us) could have been created and written by AI, as for all it's deep philosophical posturing it was superficial and skin-deep. You've probably seen mamy similar, better movies before, I certainly have (Blade Runner, Ex-Machina, Her, The Terminator etc). The first half is a snnozefest and due to the predictable plot, undynamic dialogue and the movie's dim dystopian colour palette, I struggled to stay awake. The second half was at least rousing, but I had this feeling of being duped by an exciting trailer, that offered an exciting promising premise, which as the movie run time ran down, it became increasingly obvious it wouldn't deliver. A terrific trailer and gorgeous special effects/CGI do not make a good movie, a good script does. 5/10.

The Equalizer 3 (2023)

Lazy script let Denzel and the trilogy down

[5/10 · 6 September 2023]

I love Denzel but poor scriptwriting let him down and spoilt the movie. It was a disappointing end to a overall good trilogy. You have to suspend a certain amount of belief to think that ageing and wounded ex CIA assassin McCall can single handedly defeat the Sicilian Mafia. With that in mind I embarked on Equalizer 3. Yeah he's a trained killer, but c'mon. He takes out the crime family younger brother with relative ease, faces off with the older brother and is saved by the locals who intervene with harsh words and phone video (of course real mafioso would just kill him or kidnap him, as they had the police in their pocket!). Then McCall takes the initiative to covertly infiltrate the older brothers heavily guarded mansion. How you ask? Clever hacking of the security system? No, he lets off a car alarm and enters the mansion grounds after easily overpowering ONE guard. Next scene he's actually in the building and takes a few guards out with no real resistance. Poor, poor, lazy scriptwriting and sums up lazy $$$ sequels. I'll fondly remember Eq 1 & 2 but 3 only gets a 5/10 from me.

Oppenheimer (I) (2023)

Oppenheimer bombed

[2/10 · 22 August 2023]

All the visual excitement, which is why I wanted to see Oppenheimer on the cinema big screen, was pretty much shown in the trailer. The film was far too talky. The usual polished performances, particularly from Robert Downey Junior and Cillian Murphy, but I think the story was so politically focused and not enough emphasis was given to showing the impact and fallout of the Hiroshima & Nagasaki bombings. Surprised no actual footage or reconstructions were used. Also a Japanese perspective would have added another dimension. In my opinion it ranks below Nolan's great direction, namely Interstellar, The Dark Knight and Memento. 2/10.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022)

POSSIBLY THE MOST IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR MANKIND

[9/10 · 27 July 2023]

When faced with extinction, what do we do, fight or flight? Many people choose to dismiss, ignore, fear or are ambivalent to climate change. Others are trapped by circumstances, unable to affect real change. A growing number are taking direct action, realising that this is the only way to fight back against those who are profiting, plundering and destroying the planet and all of our futures. This is a powerful story of direct action, which makes the simple point that collective action is the only way to save the planet and humanity, which is POSSIBLY THE MOST IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR MANKIND. ESSENTIAL VIEWING. 9/10.