RIK-22

IMDb member since June 2000
    Lifetime Total
    150+
    IMDb Member
    23 years

Reviews

Oppenheimer
(2023)

Toilet water
I will start by confessing that I have disliked nearly everything Nolan has done. He is a charlatan of a filmmaker. He has "The Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome". He likes to think he makes clever, deep, and challenging films, but they are in fact, shallow and generally average.

I like the topics he takes on, but his execution is clumsy to say the least; It would seem massive plot holes don't seem to bother his fans.

Oppenheimer isn't one of his Sci-Fi fancies though, so I thought maybe he might have found another genre to deliver on. Unfortunately, without the Sci-Fi angle to fall back on, its 3-hour drivel bore fest.

What was the point of this film. Oppenheimer as a character, isn't particularly interesting, he doesn't have any amazing life journey. He basically Project Managed the creation of a bomb. Seriously 3 hours to tell that story. When I say that, I mean, not even tell the bloody story. Flip flop with timelines, lots of quick cuts, tons of boring chats. Throw in some B&W footage, that seems trendy, why not.

The Shadow Makers (aka Fat Man and Little Boy) did a pretty decent job of showing the real story. This was just a jumbled mess of a filmmaker desperately trying to look clever and failing miserably.

Cillian Murphy was very good I have to say, but I can't give this toilet water anything more than a 1/10.

EDIT: Spelling.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
(2023)

Silly, unbalanced and over long
In all these mainstream action movies, you need to get the right balance between Action, Comedy, Character Vulnerabilities, Story, Pacing & Tension.

You strike the right mix of these, and you get a great movie. A tiny few get it bang-on, and few more get it close enough.

Unfortunately, most get it wrong, some get it very wrong. Marvel has moved into always getting it very wrong now.

GOTG v1, was heavier on the comedy, but it still got the balance about right, which made it an entertaining and successful movie.

I didn't care for v2 and v3 was the same. The comedy was poor, forced, and inappropriate in terms of balance. The action was basically silly. Once you realise there is nothing at stake, no one is going to die, there is nothing to really care about.

The green girl, whom didn't really have any superpowers, as far as I can tell, is invincible and now a great fighter. How can she be beaten up, thrown around, breaking every bone in her body, just stand-up and get on with things like nothing has happened.

The girl with the mind control, is now also fighting, and winning, how is that possible.

Groot can re-grow in minutes to full size.

The big chap gets shot in the chest and back, looks dead, a few minutes later up and walking around.

The pacing of the movie was bad, long boring parts and the shameless emotional manipulation of the story, totally over-the-top and overdone.

A mass dance off at the end, seriously?

Who is giving this a 10/10, I mean come-on, you might like it more than me, but it isn't a 10/10 movie is it.

Poker Face
(2023)

Gets very old very quickly
I seem continually baffled by high ratings on this site, for Movies and TV Show that no one can rate that highly. This show is a one-trick pony that get very boring, very quickly.

First of all, most murder shows are a "who dunnit" for a reason, it makes it interesting!

If you already know who and how its done, where is the interest? They should at least let you discover "the how", see Sherlock Holmes.

I enjoyed the first episode then saw the formula for the 2nd and then exactly the same for the 3rd, now can't be bothered anymore.

Btw, why hasn't she used this skill before to make money.

123.

Val
(2021)

Self-indulgent and boring
This got deleted with no reason so re-posting.

I am a bit baffled by the positive reviews here.

Home movies are only interesting to the people that are in them. Most of them here are tedious and uninteresting. There isn't really any interesting material on show.

Val comes across as a childish person, his stupid pathetic clownish antics all the time, are just annoying and not clever or charming in any way.

What is with famous people and money, he claims he has none, after all the big budget movies he has made over the years, how did you spend 20m? This is not covered in any way.

Why did you get divorced, what happened, this is not really covered?

Did he have any other relationships, after Joanne, if not, why not? No more kids?

What is the other side of the story, what do his fellow actors and directors think of him? Is he disliked? What does Joanne think of him?

His cancer situation, was this down to lifestyle, smoking perhaps, did he try and stop, was this the cause?

None of these questioned are answered, you just get a self-indulgent view on how is misunderstood and wants to be a real actor, but in the end, you don't get any real insight into the man, in front of the camera, he doesn't really ever show himself, he just acts like a clown.

Why anyone thought this would be interesting, I don't know? Self-indulgent and boring.

Dark
(2017)

Collapses under the weight of ambition.
Warning lots of spoilers.

I have watched the whole 3 series now, at the beginning it seemed like a great mystery to follow, but by the 3rd season was getting so over-the-top and repetitive, it really fell apart.

Obviously, Time Travel is a very difficult subject to pull off, and this does a decent job at times, its certainly very ambitious with the number of connections and paths, but ultimately there are too many flaws/questions about the show that aren't resolved by the story.

I am sure you have all seen the show, by the time you are reading this, but just in case, this is one of those shows where everyone talks in riddles and existential scenarios. At no point does anyone, go well "this is what is a happening, so maybe avoid this". Its not like they worry too much about interfering in the timeline. Lots of people meeting themselves or relatives at various points and giving advice, very cryptic advice, which could easily be misunderstood, I may add.

As others have rightly mentioned, too much of everything, too many episodes, too many characters, too many timelines. In the end it can't keep up with itself, let alone the viewer. Even with the complexity, there's lots of filler, and pointless camera shots, showing nothing. A stare here, another person on a bike, lots of rain. A few subplots that go nowhere.

For a show to really work you need to see why they are doing what they are doing, see their plan or logic, but this completely leaves that process out.

In the first season, a few people seem to be involved in TT, by series everyone was jumping back and forth all over the place, for no valid reason. The massive suspension of belief that no one recognises their own family, children at different ages or even previous events, is not believable.

Why knowingly create these incest loops? Why did Mikkel kill himself, never really explained? Why did Hanna go back in time to save Ulrich, then decide, nah, I'll have a baby with someone from the past, whilst I am here. Why, when you must know they might be related. What about the impact on your life? Why does Adam settle in the past?

Very few of the characters seem to ever work, eat, shop or doing anything other than Time Travel and sleeping with their relatives.

In the end, it simply doesn't hang together as a coherent narrative, but worse it loses the viewer, due to not making it interesting enough, or having some kind of main clear objective to overcome that we can all root for.

Nope
(2022)

Genuinely one of the worst films ever made.
Simple start to this review, this is film is complete rubbish. Here's why:

Terrible pacing.

Showing people doing nothing with no purpose, not moving the plot forwards or developing the story or characters is boring, simple as that. The whole first 40 mins could be removed, and no one would notice.

Terrible characters.

Spending time with Em, would be like spending the weekend using a pair of cheese graters as headphones. What an annoying character she was. The male chap, a man that looked like a constipated person on suicide watch, who had listened to too many Morrissey records. He was about as interesting as listening to an 8-hour insurance seminar.

The Plot.

The main characters motivation is to get some money, well, so why spend a fortune on camera equipment? Does anyone believe a photo of an alien craft (as they thought it was) would make money, there are plenty on the internet.

Lack of logic/Believability.

For some reason this creature for the most part hides in a cloud and picks off a couple of horses, not to raise any suspicion. By the end of the film, it is zooming around in clear daylight, not giving a jot about being seen.

Don't Knows (you must imagine the "don't know" is said in a sarcastic drawn-out way).

How did it get there, how long has it been there, can it reproduce.... Don't know.

It only affects electrical devices as it flies over them, okay so film it from a far, with a zoom lens, problem solved, why don't they do this? Don't know.

At one point it turns into a cross between a camp lampshade and a tissue paper exhibition, why, for what reason.... Don't know.

It decides to throw up/relieve itself on a small house in the middle of nowhere, why... Don't know.

It doesn't attack people if they don't look at it, wouldn't that make it very easy to deal with then? Why did it attack the man with the silver helmet then.... Don't know.

Why would Jupe have a "show" to meet the aliens, how did he know about them, why didn't he mention it to anyone, didn't he think about the potential danger.... Don't know.

Why does the creature hang around the place with the least amount of its food source.... Don't know.

I could go on an on. What is shocking, are the arrogant pretentious reviews, "you didn't get it". I go to see a movie to be entertained/surprised/moved/informed. I don't go to see a movie to be boring, silly, and empty, but is really meant to be symbolic/allegorical/existential, so therefore I should review it as brilliant, even if it sends most people to sleep.

We can all pretend any poor film was meant to be mean this that and the other, it was badly made crap, stop trying to make excuses.

What's next, Plan 9 From Outer Space, was genius representing the struggle of communism against the West.

Star Trek: Discovery
(2017)

Feelings..oh..oh..feelings
Warning Spoilers

I really liked series 1&2, it still had about 20% woke crap, but the 80% of good story, conflict, action, science and intrigue kept the show interesting.

Series 3 was a disaster, a meandering mess that had no interesting thread at all, this series went full Woke jacket, dull boring characters only getting in the show, as they are diverse, apparently being an interesting character, adding something or being a good actor is irrelevant, just be diverse and you're in the show.

Series 4, up to now, is marginally better than 3, but come on enough with the cringey, rolling eyes, feelings discussions every 5 minutes. No one cares, it's not interesting, its boring. Let's make this clear, most people don't care if you are gay, black, trans, whatever, so stop making every show, movies or advert, a reference to gender, identity and race issues. It's been done to death, move on, no one likes being dictated too all day and having this stuff rammed down our throats. It's about entertainment, escapism, not politics. As for the computer with a feeling's crises, I mean seriously, could you make this show any camper and more pathetic.

I will say the special effects and set design have been excellent across the whole show. Just please grow up and make the show interesting and stick to science-fiction, this is not a study into diversity and their feelings, stop with the crying all the time.

The Matrix Resurrections
(2021)

Rushed clumsy b-movie
Warning Spoilers.

First part of the movie, tried to be some kind of self-ironic introspective on the state of movies and even made a direct reference to a Matrix sequel. Now the problem with that kind of commentary is that you effectively break the 4th wall or ruin any idea that this isn't just a movie.

The film then stumbles towards some kind of plot about the new matrix and Neo/Trinity but fails miserably.

The ending is a bore fest of mindless dark action (I mean filmed in the dark) with no tension or point.

Did they have a budget of 10m and a timeline of a week to make this film, it certainly looks like it.

The original Matrix, in my opinion, is the best film ever made. It has perfect pacing, actions, beautifully realised, cool conversations, properly filmed and choreographed action scenes and even manages a philosophical theme, with all that going on. There is tension, people may and do die, there is a purpose to what they want to achieve. It had a serious tone. It established a set of rules, which is crucial to this type of movie. It was an against-the-odds film.

In this, the fights are meaningless, badly filmed, just thrown in for no reason. Neo now just has a super-power and that's it. There is no tension, no one dies, nothing is really at stake, the FX are terrible. When Neo realises, he has Kung Fu abilities again, he has zero reaction, nothing.

Did anyone believe the Japanese train was real? The casting is awful, did anyone care about any of the characters and their terrible acting. It looked rushed, cheap, and amateurish.

The mocking of the original film and it dialog was sacrilege and childish. Showing actual film footage and claiming it was game footage, really?

I suspect the comment at the beginning of the movie, about having to make a sequel, was genuine, so they made the worse film they could.

Dune
(2021)

All style and no substance
I am surprised this is even categorized as being a movie. Presumably a movie has to have some kind or story or plot, which this didn't.

It looks like an experiment in beautiful visuals, slow motions, and atmospheric music with more facial close-ups than LOTR 3, I was waiting to hear "my precious" at one point.

Too much repetition of dream sequences and amazing long shots and great special FX, but under that, nothing, no great drama, no action, no real story of any kind.

Why do movies make multiple antagonists look the bloody same? I am seeing battles going on and I have no idea who is who. Loads of different parties just sort of thrown together and fight with knives for some bizarre reason, who are mostly in suits and look like each other. What exactly is the point of the buzzy thing they turn on; it doesn't seem to actually do anything.

Did I mention a space faring set of nations, use knives and hand to hand combat? I will again.

The reason historically soldiers wore different colours was to avoid friendly fire. It would have been nice to know which side was which.

So, you little bomb that can destroy buildings and ships, you have a portable laser that can cut through anything. Why didn't you just use those in combat to wipe people out, no, much safer to fight hand to hand with knives (got it in a 3rd time).

Beautiful and technically well-made film, just like Blade Runner 2, but empty, boring, silly, and dull. Very disappointing.

The Wire
(2002)

Not for me.
I don't really see the appeal of this show. Its well made and professional, but its bloody boring.

I managed to get through the first 2 episodes of season 1, but then lost interest and starting doing something else. It already felt like I wasted time doing that, so going to give this a miss.

Seems to be liked by many, but not for me, too dull. Not really interested in the total waste of time that is drug enforcement.

You Belong to Me
(2021)

Ridiculous
So, let us get this straight, to get away with murder and fool the police, you just say I am her brother. No need to investigate any further or find our who the next of kin is, for the girl, just assume it's a random man who claims so.

Why would the board of psychiatrists take notice of the same anonymous person contacting them?

Is it easy to escape a mental hospital?

I won't go on, silly boring film.

Seaspiracy
(2021)

Be Careful what you believe
On face value this would seem a vital documentary, warning the world about the destroying it through over-fishing.

However, Kip Andersen has his name attached to this project, so you need to put on some heavy sceptical spectacles, when watching anything he is involved with.

If anyone has seen "What the Health", you will see a pattern:

  • He always pushes an aggressive Vegan message.


  • He implies there is some business conspiracy to hide the truth.


  • He tries to pretend people will not engage with him, when, he is pushy, rude, and often picks on people, who are not responsible.


  • Very one-sided with the argument, no balance at all.


  • Uses images of animal's slaughter.


  • Economical with the facts.


Obviously, Kip was not the main character here, but you can see his usual style and pattern throughout this documentary. I hope Ali Tabrizi did a more balanced job; I have not had the time to investigate if all of his claims are true. I did check some and clearly many are false and exaggerated, so please investigate a bit further when you watch anything from Kip.

Always worrying when people make documentaries that clearly have an agenda and use shock tactics and emotional manipulation get a reaction from people.

Be sceptical and check out what is really true, before assuming it's an accurate documentary.

The Serpent
(2021)

Massive missed oppurtunity
Massive, missed opportunity to tell an amazing story, overall, not truthful enough and dissatisfying.

I will start straight off with the huge problems with series:
  • Constant timeline jumps, stop it, just stop it, it was Avant guard once to mess around with storytelling, but this takes it to a new level of pure annoyance and adds nothing. Just make it a linear story, it would have worked so much better.


  • Tell the truth. When you read the real story, this leaves way too much out and leaves a lot of meaningless boring stuff in. It did not cover his love of gambling and womanising, or that his first wife was part of his initial crimes and continued to support him for most of his life. The French couple helped a few people escape, not just one.


  • Overly dramatic, ok, I know you need to make series, but do not overdo it so much it becomes a ridiculous and borderline painful. The scenes, where Charles, just is always behind someone or next to them at key secretive moments, is not believable. Nadine, visiting the apartment, really? Dominique leaving at the airport.


  • No fleshing out of Charles. I still cannot say I really know anything about him or understood him in any way. They did not get under his skin and show us the real man. He certainly did not seem engaging or charming.


  • Over long, there is not enough material for an 8-hour movie, should have been 4 to 6 episodes at most.


  • Pacing, as mentioned above, some episode's really drag and could have been removed all together and then others seem rushed.


  • Casting, ok, did not bother me as much as some, but why not have Dutch and Belgian actors (who normally will both speak Dutch together) play their countrymen.


They should have done an accurate, linear story, from his early years to today and not do the ridiculous time jumping. They should have stuck to the facts and not tried to make other character more sympathetic than they were. They probably should have got the language situation right; French speakers do not switch to English mid-sentence for no reason. Flemish and Dutch people would not speak English together and a Dutch person would not speak English to another Dutchman.

Such a shame, as this is an amazing story and in the right hand would have been gold dust, unfortunately this seems a massive miss.

Wonder Woman 1984
(2020)

One the worst mainstream films ever made.
Everything is wrong in this film; it comes across as some amateur dramatics first attempt at a play. You would think they must have run out of money or changed director multiple times to end up with this mess.

The editing is terrible, scene's just pop-up and end uncomfortably with no real flow or sense.

There is scene at the beginning of the film where Wig is holding some papers she dropped and, on every cut, the papers move to a different place. I can understand some continuity errors, but to have about 4 in one 2-minute scene is amazing.

You have this bizarre plane scene, which stretches believability like a giant snapped elastic band.
  • How can he fly a modern plane?
  • Why is it ready and fuelled up?
  • Why are people working at night in an airport tower when this is not an operating airport?
  • Why would making a plane invisible, make it invisible to radar?
  • Why doesn't Diane use her new "make things invisible" power more often?
  • How can a small fighter fly from America to the Egypt?
  • Why does a plane hover at 1 mile per hour in a sea of fireworks?
  • How did they land and get out of the plane?
  • How did they get out of Egypt?


Now these are the problems with just one scene!

On top of this, the CGI is terrible, the acting is awful, and the plot is stupid.

There are scenes of chaos at the beginning of the movie, when nothing really has happened, why? Is this just bad editing?

Oh yeah and Wonder Woman can now fly. Which is strange as this is set before Justice League or Superman V Batman, where she cannot.

I looked at some of the critic reviews here and I actual wonder (see what I did there) if they saw the movie. How can anyone think the movie can get a remotely positive review. Its like buying a car with 2 wheels and no doors and saying the car is not that bad.

There are some review here giving a rating higher than 5! (some even 10, which must be a studio connection).

1/10 is too generous.

Room 2806: The Accusation
(2020)

Interesting
I find so many of the comments here very disappointing.

DSK, might be unlikeable, a womaniser, someone who likes sex, but for some reason that means he must be condemned. No, its his personal life and his morals.

When you boil it down, he was accused of two crimes, please note, accused. The maid was not credible at all. She seemed so false with her fake crying and I am sorry to be base, but you can't rape someone via a BJ. The other party, by definition must have gone along with it, unless it was at gun point or similar. She was clearly a liar and took money.

The other woman didn't merit investigation by the police, so you only get her view on the subject.

The hooker at the end, was paid and agreed to do whatever she did, so you can't imply a crime, the documentary just tried to imply wrong-doing.

You might not like his actions or his personality or his arrogance, but it doesn't mean his is guilty in this instance.

The documentary started well, by being very balanced, but then lost it, by taking a side, without creditable evidence.

Lawrence of Arabia
(1962)

Made no sense.
This came out on a 4k Blu Ray, so thought I would give this classic a chance, I never saw it before, so did not know what to expect.

Obviously, this film is of a certain age and so I adjusted my expectations for that.

The film is literally split into 2 parts, with an intermission in the middle.

The first part of the film is quite slow and boring, lots of wondering the desert with some beautiful camera shots and epic scenes, so still okay to watch.

However, the second half of the film makes no sense at all, it just jumps from place to place. The acting or rather the massive over-acting from Peter O'Toole is terrible. There are lots of weird close-ups of Lawrence, looking sweaty and constipated, no idea what this is trying to convey. One minute he is supporting the British, mumbling some meaningless drivel then seconds later is supporting the Arabs, again, not making any sense with his lines, then he is having doubts about everything.

The whole flow of the film breaks down, there are jumps to scenes with no reason, making it almost impossible to work out what is going on and why. The Arab contingent for some unknown reason are now totally dependent on Lawrence, which is not explained or rational, based on the scene's I was watching. Lawrence who was always a bit flaky, now goes full camp drama-queen, which would not inspire anyone, however the supporters view him as a messiah. The film then suddenly ends, with no real meaning or pathos, just ends.

I can only assume the film makers overstretched themselves and either could not get the script together or the money or just had enough, as the last hour of the film goes nowhere and does not seem to make any sense.

Tenet
(2020)

Nolans best movie by far, but still a mixed bag
I will start by saying I dislike most Nolan movies, but conversely, I love the ideas behind most of his films. All his projects try to be clever (with the emphasis on try) yet fall very short. They also suffer from being a bit soulless and empty, clinical, if you will. There are usually a bucket of plot holes and for some reason the start of his movies are pretty boring.

Both Inception and the awful Interstellar were examples of this.

I will also add, I genuinely admire his technical ability as a filmmaker and I want to like his films, the ambitious subject matters he addresses are right up my street.

Tenet is the first Nolan film, I have liked. It is the first film where I have not found myself rolling my eyes in shock about how bad the features were. I got interested in this and wanted to see every part of it and to try to understand it (which is a big ask). I have generally found his previous stuff, dumb, yet trying to be clever.

Now this is very far from a 10/10 movie, but I do think it is the best thing Nolan has done (most of his other films are below 4/10 for me). The problems are:
  • Some smart arses (liars, let us be honest) say it is understandable. To be frank, it is extraordinarily complicated and hard to get your head around. I would not say it is impossible, but you would need lots of diagrams and re-watches to really get it.
  • Mumbling dialog, what is with Nolan and his sound issues. I would like to hear what the actors are saying.
  • The beginning of the film needed a re-write, far too drawn out, largely needless scenes at the start that could have been much more effective, if trimmed down.
  • Standard paradox stuff, obviously by killing the Kenneth at the start, many other events would not have occurred that resulted in other actions.
  • Motivations, it was very hard to know why people were doing what they were doing, what was the big battle scene at the end, who was fighting whom, there did not seem to be anyone other than two teams there. They blew up an empty building for some reason. What was the benefit of the time pincer operation at the end?
  • Couldn't they have just gone back in time and killed Kenneth themselves rather than the convoluted, unnecessary use of the wife. Just blow him up and his boat some time in the past.
  • The driving scene did not make much sense, why would the forward car effectively follow the reversing car (if you get what I am saying). The reversing car chased the forward driving car, as we learnt, if you are in the reverse-universe, you appear to be going backwards, yet both cars are in sync.


However, the reverse/forwards scenes were amazing, it must have taken a huge effort to get those right. I did follow the plot right up to the end, it did retain my interest, the first Nolan film to do so.

I will give it a 6, maybe generous, but I did find it interesting.

Jurassic Park
(1993)

Has not aged well.
I saw this at the cinema when it first came out and was largely disappointed, I do not take well to Spielberg's sloppy telegraphed manipulation. I find it annoying after a while.

However, others seemed to like the movie, so gave it another go on DVD and never found it great but did come to enjoy the ride. I thought I would see what my daughter would think of the film, so bought the 4k trilogy. First, do not bother with the 4k version, the transfer and upscaling are very poor, one of the worst 4k transfers I have seen. Anyway, on to the movie, my daughter lost interest by the time the helicopter landed on the island. I had forgotten how slowly this film builds, dare I say, too slowly. Most people will lose interest by the time you see the first dinosaur.

The plot is standard fare, nothing particularly sophisticated, just a mechanism to throw in some thrills and scares. I would have liked the subplot with the other company trying to get the embryos, might be a good plot device if allowed to go further.

Contrary to many of the reviews here, the FX have not aged well. The non-CGI models other than the T-Rex are poor and do not look real at all. I can excuse that though, as being a pioneering film at the time, with the advance of modern FX will always make older films look poor.

Some parts of the film are downright silly and do ruin the film to some degree. The Velociraptors at times cannot catch a slow limping boy, but at other times can go quite fast. How does a car fall from a high bridge through a gap in the electric fence, but this is where the T-Rex just came from, did it jump up? Can a T-Rex levitate? Some poor continuity errors as well, the egg hatches, and there is a robot arm in view, which then vanishes in the next cut.

The ending is terrible, in my opinion, the Velociraptors have the family cornered and yet linger slowly, to give the opportunity for a obviously very quiet T-Rex to tip-toe in, which no one noticed, to come and save the day. It was Just too far-fetched to overlook.

The kids are very annoying at times, I mean get bloody down off the fence, for crying out loud. How annoying was that boy! As for the girl, knowing Unix (a mainframe OS at the time, highly unlikely) and then just using a mouse on an Apple computer to click on a box, really?

The worst thing, however, is Spielberg's direction, constantly over-doing the facial reaction scene's, once is more than enough, do not keep doing it, it becomes frustrating. It is meant to build tension, but it lacks subtlety and feels clumsy and drawn-out.

In the end, the film just reminded me of my initial impressions when I first saw it at the cinema. Just too simplistic and manipulative. I suspect I am in the minority, but that is not going to change my view.

Mission: Impossible III
(2006)

Mission Ridiculous
Warning spoilers a plenty.

I know I am late to the party, but just got around to watching this. The film starts so badly, a terrible, cheesy Hollywood version of a romance and a party. Everyone is smiley, pretty, and happy. The problem with this scene, is that its so false and unbelievable, it really puts you off the film, right from the start.

For some unknown reason, no one else works in the IMF, the only option they ever have is to get Ethan Hunt out of retirement every-so-often. Is there really no one else around? Anyway, I can forgive the poor move-the-plot-onward reason here. Queue action scene, lots of explosions, strangely huge explosions from very small devices, which are smaller than grenades, ok I am being picky here. Anyway, for some bizarre reason the chasing helicopter follows the other between some spinning wind turbines and gets destroyed. The pilot must have been kicking himself, realising afterwards that a helicopter can fly upwards and over things.

There is the escape scene on the bridge, where no air cover turns up and no one follows the helicopter to arrest the villain.

Action sequence then in China, where Ethan kindly murders some Chinese guards, whilst trying illegally to break into a building.

The end sequence takes unbelievability to a new level. The twist (which was ridiculously obvious from the beginning) is revealed in a clumsy way, shock surprise Hunt escapes by beating up a man whilst handcuffed to a chair. He then goes to another building which has almost no one guarding it, has a silly fight and helps his wife escape. For some reason his boss, knowing Ethan has escaped, ignores all the gun fire and chaos, so strolls into main scene with his gun down and the rabbit's foot, to be shot by Ethan's wife. No need to be cautious, of course, or even point your gun, best just to wander in the room, what is the worst that can happen.

I will ignore the death/resurrection for now, however moments later Ethan and his wife take a leisurely stroll through Shanghai. I don't know about you, but if I had just been kidnapped, tied up, taken to China, found out my husband is a secret agent and I murdered two men, I might be tweak confused, upset, anxious and angry perhaps, suffering from shock and PTSD, maybe. Nope not this gal, lets go for walk and have a friendly chat.

Queue, cheesy out-of-place end scene where the boss is now happy with Hunts actions, even though he went rogue (for the 100th time by the way) and then everyone starts clapping him and his wife. All the traumatic events have magically been forgotten!

Okay, I know its an action movie and you have to stretch realism to a degree, but once you go so far and the completely unrealistic reactions of his wife takes away any believability. As a result, you do not really care about anyone and the action become a bit meaningless and tiresome.

Hoffman gives a great performance as the villain, should have seen a lot more of him.

Overall a very poor film, even worse than MI:2, in my opinion.

The Trayvon Hoax: Unmasking the Witness Fraud that Divided America
(2019)

Mixed Bag
First of all, huge well done to Gilbert to bringing these new allegations into the public domain. However, I am baffled that this hasn't come up before and if true, how poor was the investigation from both the Police and the defence team.

Having watched lots of wrongful conviction stuff on Netflix, I am starting to think that the American justice system is probably the worst in the developed world. The prosecutors just seem to decide someone is guilty and then fix the facts around that. Whether they are culpable seems largely irrelevant.

However, there were problems with this documentary, for it to be more credible he should have got some views/opinions from others involved in the case, giving them an opportunity to react to these new revelations. I don't understand why he didn't set up a real interview with Diamond to see what she would really say; show her the texts and ask her to confirm she was the real girlfriend.

Why didn't any of the prosecution or police offer an opinion on what happened. On the face of it, how did the Police not do the most basic of investigatory work to find out who lived at the original address? How about actually calling the number and seeing who answered? How about finding witness who knew who the "real" girlfriend was? The phone records clearly contradict the statements from Rachel Jeantel, why was this brought out in court?

Are the police now investigating Rachel, the mother for perjury? Are the police not investigating the prosecution for inventing a false witness?

As I mentioned well done for putting in the effort to bring these new allegations to light, but as a documentary it really needed more counter view. I am not into American politics, but I didn't really see the need to push the Democratic / Liberal media angle. Fox News is clearly very right wing, so you can't say that all media is left wing.

Westworld
(2016)

Probably Season 3 is the worst TV show ever made
I think that this season/series is one of the worst TV shows ever made. Especially when you consider the money and talent involved.

It probably has the most plot holes and illogical story of any series before. We jump from pointless scene to meaningless scene all the time, with no reason at all. There's a fight, then there's another fight, repeat.

What was the point of the expensive scene with the Germans in Italy (no idea why, when Italy was on their side, by the way), which was just a simulation? Hang on a sec, if you can have that sophisticated a VR simulation, why do you need a Robot theme park at all?

Delores escaped as Hale, not herself, but Hale is able to create Delores as herself, the Japanese guy, the cowboy chap, the bodyguard, yet in Episode 3 it starts with Delores creating Hale, as Delores, but Hale was the one that escaped in Season 2, so shouldn't this be the other way around? Where did the other Hale go then?

The first scene with the German chap, some sort of revenge for a battered wife, why would Delores care, she is someone who kills humans with gay abandon most of the time.

Why is Maeve upset when the brain/ball is crushed? Delores, a cowgirl, was able to make 5 copies of herself, why wouldn't you do the same with him?

Disproportionate power and abilities. Delores, a cowgirl, can now drive, run a corporation, shoot like the terminator and seem invincible, yet Stubbs, who is a robot, seems to be almost dead at the slightest encounter, not to mention he bleeds and drinks? "I am going to bleed out" he says, and he is bandaged up, he's a robot!

Why do the humans just run at the robots, opening themselves up to be shot? Why with lots of body armour on, is Delores able to shoot them dead with consummate ease? Why don't they send the big robot or other robots or drones, to kill Delores?

How many boring fights are we going to get between Delores (or copy of) and Maeve?

Why does the helicopter, military robot have the aiming ability of Stevie Wonder? Why does a very dangerous EMP not have some kind of security feature, password, etc?

Why would you need to program humans to kill people when you have Robots! In Episode 6 they corner Hale, "cease fire, cease fire, he wants her alive", why? Just a few minutes later they blow her up with her family, what has changed?

In Episode 7 they cut of the head of the Japanese chap, which is effectively Delores, so why do they still need Delores as the "key"? What happened to this head by the way?

How on earth did Hale survive the explosion and fire? How is she now working in Helos, she was just found out and hunted down by that coporation.

In the end the Ed Harris, says I thought you could fix yourself, really, when did this start, what was the point of all the technicians in the first series then? Why can't Stubbs fix himself?

Maeve re-enacting the okey-cokey with her motivations, I am on your side, um, actually no I am not, oh yes, I am again.

When the French chap says kill them, for some reason, they wrestle with Aaron for about 10 minutes before waiting for Maeve to switch sides again, which was beyond predicable and she then kills them all.

I am not sure what happened to the Nolan sisters, they used to have a few catchy tunes, but now they make movies and TV shows, they are very well made in terms of technical ability, but nearly all of them are soulless and have terrible plots, they also nearly always try to be too clever and fail.

A Serial Killer's Guide to Life
(2019)

Ok, mildly interesting, but the "twist" is completely illogical
Simply film, quite okay, mildly interesting as mentioned. Certainly the area of self help guru's (who seem to know everything, yet still need to make money telling everyone else their secrets) should be made fun of.

This doesn't quite hit that mark.

Warning Spoilers.

So obviously you find out that the girl in the end, invented the Val character and essentially it was her all along. The problem with that premise is that Val is referenced by other characters. They make sandwiches for "each of you". The camping site guy says "ah there's two more". Conversations refer to two people often, therefore how does the duo actually being one person, really work. Well it doesn't unfortunately and seems a cheap gimmick thrown in at the end.

Overall okay, nothing wow, but nicely filmed.

Jojo Rabbit
(2019)

Unfunny childish boring mess
This review is based on just over half way through the film, as I walked out before seeing the rest.

I am completely baffled how anyone could give this mess anything above 5, let alone 10! I mean a 10 means the film is perfect and has company like The Godfather, The Matrix or Leon? Is this film on a par with those movies? clearly, absolutely not!

I assumed the 10/10 reviews were just bot generated and many look like they are, but some seem genuine. By the way IMDB, you really need to do something about this, way too many terrible films get a 10/10, especially modern releases.

Right from the off of this crap fest, the childish, camp, stupid attempts at humour fail completely. The film is boring, nothing interesting happens and who cares what a child thinks about Hitler and the war. The acting is awful, the script and story are poor, why would anyone praise this film. It was pretty much universally panned, quite rightly, by the critics. Its not even accidentally funny.

Nothing more to add other than this is rubbish.

Game of Thrones: The Iron Throne
(2019)
Episode 6, Season 8

Plot holes and quite boring
Overall this episode really had nothing in it, yet was dragged over 90 mins or whatever the duration was. Too many shots of nothing happening, just reflection or walking. If you want to cram things into 6 episode, then fill them full of interest not nothing.

Plot holes

  • Where did all the Unsullied and Dothraky come from, they were all killed or close to all dead, when fighting the white walkers.
  • Minor one, but no one actually saw John Snow kill Dany and the body was flown away, how did anyone know he did something wrong. How was he arrested, wouldn't he be killed immediately in anger?
  • Where's all John's men, weren't they around for the battle?
  • Where's the white horse gone? It seemed to be important in episode 5 to carry Arya. In this episode its gone without a mention.
  • Why are the Wildlings hanging around Castle Black?
  • Why is the wall that was destroyed by the zombie dragon, now back in place?
  • Without the unsullied, why does John need to do anything or go anywhere? They are a minor force and can't really do anything.
  • Is it technically possible for John Snow to smile?


Of course it was always going to be difficult to please everyone, but to make such a poor effort, with so much time and resources, is unforgivable.

Avengers: Endgame
(2019)

Shallow, dull, boring, unemotional, rubbish
Warning spoilers a plenty.

I thought it was utter rubbish, complete drivel. Nearly everything was off and wrong about this bore-fest.

Almost nothing happened. It was so boring. Virtually the entire first 90 minutes could have been trimmed to about 15 mins.

Pacing was terrible, it lost all momentum at times and was tedious. The feel of the film, was all over the place, jumping from very dumb childish comedy to attempted serious drama and then to social commentary. It didn't natural have a core or flow to the film.

So many stupid, misplaced scenes, such as the "girl power" nonsense, so contrived.

Massive plot holes. I know Time Travel is a very difficult subject to tackle, but this made little sense. Either you cannot change the past or you can? This sometimes does and other times doesn't. If you steal the Stones then try to put them back. In theory they haven't been stolen, as you can't change the past, therefore, how can you put them back? How on earth did Captain America manage to put the Stones back and Thor's hammer and presumably the Green girl? They erased Thanos and the Robot girl in same timeline as well and that didn't effect anything?

Apparently you can't kill a baby Thanos, but you can kill a slightly younger adult version of Thanos when he comes to the future that is okay.

How did Capt A, put the Stones back at the exact time they left, without interfering with the original operation to retrieve them or changing the past anyway.

The cringe worthy comedy was awful. There was a serious tone to Avengers, but this just turned into a cheap gag reel. Thors (a god) getting fat. Hulk getting fans.

Corny cheap false scenes with Tony and his daughter, with the terrible music playing at the same time, like some cheap matinee from the 50's.

Overall there was no feeling or emotion, the funeral scene was false and contrived.

Pepper Potts is now Iron Woman?

Spider-man goes back to school, after 5 years away? Really?

I saw it with my teenage Daughter, she thought it was crap and we heard most people around us saying the same thing.

A real stinker this one. 0/10.

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