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True Detective: Night Country: Part 6 (2024)
What a letdown
After a middling but not awful series, everything completely unravels over the course of the final, and worst, episode. Whole plotlines are left by the wayside, new elements are added in which then go nowhere, and even more heavy-handed references and direct callbacks to the first seasons are ham-fisted jammed in for no good reason, other than to cement the fact this show is riding the coat tails of far superior writing.
The fact that it ended with the lie of the mining company being vindicated, and Danvers covering for the woman who tried to have her assassinated, sums up the nonsensical disjointed writing of this terrible television series. I genuinely do not believe any critic who has given this a four or five star review was being honest. Awful - don't waste your time.
True Detective: Night Country: Part 1 (2024)
Not great, not terrible
I went into this with high hopes, having just rewatched the first series. I really enjoyed the supernatural/paranormal themes of season one, and I think Jodie Foster is a tremendous actress, so I was very excited for this new episode, and instead I'm disappointed. The production values look cheap (the CGI reindeer herd was laughable), they're going far too hard on the supernatural elements instead of letting it fester in our minds, and way too much screen time is spent on characters who aren't the detectives. The scriptwriting is very lacklustre as well, I haven't seen seasons two and three but this comes nowhere near the genius that was series one - it feels like a Netflix Original mid-budget ripoff that's cancelled after one season. I don't think I'll bother with the rest.
EDIT: Rewatched and bumped my review up to a 6, it still has some pretty big flaws but is much better the second time round.
Accused (2023)
Nonsensical waste of time
I'm staggered by how bad this film was, the initial premise was interesting even if it's been done before (felt very much like Hated In The Nation from Black Mirror), but it had potential as it began. Instead the protagonist was an absolute moron, making idiotic mistakes over and over again, and the two men hunting him were up there with Predator for how good they were at stalking. How did they get in the house, silently kill the dog, and then teleport back outside again? Why are the kind of men to turn up to lynch someone also SAS level at stealth and reconnaissance? How did a film portraying an innocent victim of a social media mob make me despise him so much that I actually wanted him to die because of all his idiotic choices? The answer to all is bad writing - don't waste your time.
Seoulyeok (2016)
Don't Waste Your Time
A completely unnecessary prequel to the far superior live action 2016 film Train To Busan, Seoul Station manages to avoid all the things that made that film good, and adds in all the tired horror cliches that we've seen a million times before. Over and over again irritating, unlikeable and unsympathetic characters made stupid decisions and unforced errors, time and time again, to the point where not only did I not care for our supposed protagonists, but I was actively hoping they'd meet their ends. I also didn't like the animation style but that's subjective to fair.
Do not bother wasting your time with this completely unnecessary film.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
Despite My Reservations I Loved It
Ever since I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark with my dad while sick off school I have been in love with the original Indiana Jones trilogy. Everything about the character is sublime, from his charisma, to his intelligence, to his sense of integrity (which Temple of Doom does such a good job in showing him attain), to the fact he chan use a whip - how cool is cracking a whip btw?
Like many who had grown up loving the series, I found Kingdom of the Crystal Skull a bit of a let down when I watched it as a teenager, excited to see an Indiana Jones film in the cinema for the first time, but found the second half fairly lacking and left underwhelmed.
For the above reasons, and also because I'm maybe the only person in the world who didn't find Fleabag, starring and written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, our co-star, funny, I had fairly big reservations going in to this film, especially given how some of the early reviews described it. All I can say now is that my fears were totally unfounded, and I'm genuinely unsure what some of the reviewers were talking about when they said Indy was "cowering in the corner" while PWB did the job for him.
The opening scene is excellent and feels like something straight out of the original 80s trilogy, and although the deep faking does enter uncanny valley at times, it's high enough quality that it really doesn't take you out of the film.
Jumping forward to 1969, we see a sad and alcoholic Dr Jones at his retirement, where he re-unites with PWB, his god daughter and the daughter of Toby Jones's character from the opening flashback scene. The adventure goes from there and ticks all the boxes you want from an Indiana Jones film, although I will say it occasionally feels like a film trying to be an Indiana Jones movie, rather than the real McCoy, but this is only in spots.
Mads Mikkelsen is excellent and surprisingly funny as the villain, who has a very interesting and original motive for wanting the McGuffin, PWB is less annoying than I expected her to be, and in the parts where she's annoying I think she's supposed to be, she's certainly written as a very flawed character that possesses somewhat of a moral compass rather than the Mary Sue I was expecting.
My final mention, of course, goes to Harrison Ford, who absolutely smashes his performance as the titular hero into the stratosphere and beyond. There is not a second of screentime with him present where he isn't giving us an acting masterclass and a genuinely powerful and emotional performance.
In all, the film is solidly clear of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and only a little way behind the original trilogy in terms of quality. There is one aspect to the ending that I have some qualms with but it wasn't a dealbreaker, although it is the reason why I'm giving this film an 8 rather than a 9.
To conclude: this film is well worth the watch, not quite as good as the 80s 3 (but how could it be) yet still far better than some reviews made me worried. 7.75/10.
The Last of Us: Left Behind (2023)
Most lacklustre episode so far
Not bad by any means but the episode felt like filler, I don't recall the same story in the game feeling like it was bogging the story down, possibly because it was intercut with other things happening. We've already had a flashback romance episode this series, and it was done much better, so Left Behind suffers from the comparison and will be left behind (lol) on rewatches for me.
There was a nice touch in giving a bit of justification as to why FEDRA are the way they are, and pushback against the idea that the Fireflies are noble freedom fighters and nothing else, but really the episode added absolutely nothing narratively and isn't worth watching. I would stress it is not actively bad, the acting is all fine, it's well shot, it just isn't particularly compelling. On to the next one!