haresmaggot Reviews

National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)

Oh boy, what a stinker

[2/10 · 20 February 2008]

What is this cast doing in this film? There must be some absolutely stonking smaller budget films coming out nursed by the cast, because that's the only way I can see the great actors in this film agreeing to this piece of crap.

Now, in my time, I've read quite a lot of pseudo-revisionist history. And while the first National Treasure was plausible to the fringes of freaky history, riding a Da Vinci Code wave, this stretched my ability to suspend my disbelief to breaking point. Gone are the "you're going to do what?!" chortling surprises of the first film, which wasn't a fab film in itself. Now even a wide-eyed rube like myself sat there saying "this is ludicrous" and I'm glad I got to see it on my cinema pass, because if I'd paid full whack I would be disappointed.

I know, I know, you're asking why did you go and see it in the first place? Well I'd heard bad reviews about it and couldn't believe it would be this bad. I was wrong.

Primeval (2007–2011)

ITV's answer to the Who phenomenon

[7/10 · 10 February 2007]

Okay, so the dinosaurs are a little hokey, but I really enjoyed the first episode of Primeval. The fact of the matter, you've got to look at it from the perspective that it's a UK-based fantasy series - so you've got to make sure you've taken a huge dollop of irony with the hole thing. I mean Torchwood is set in Cardiff - and making it look like a dynamic city took some hefty salt pinching on the viewer's behalf. So the Forest of Dean being the site of a portal to the past where dinosaurs can hide is really a walk in the park. So,getting past the dinosaur that moved like a Doberman - and the flying dinosaur that seem to have been taking cute lessons from my cat, the cast were interesting. Only Ben Murray and Hannah Spearitt were actors that I immediately recognised. I kind of knew Douglas Henshall's name. But the stand out actor of the first series was James Murray as Stephen Hardy. The tracker and hunter, with a penchant for playing chicken with huge carnivorous dinosaurs, is a good looking bloke. I reckon that he out-charisma-ed everyone off the screen. Ultimately, I laughed my socks off at the machismo, but that didn't stop me enjoying it.