nherhaikb

IMDb member since November 2020
    Lifetime Total
    10+
    IMDb Member
    3 years, 5 months

Reviews

Invasion
(2021)

Incredibly tedious
I had high hopes for this. I'd read that it's a slow burn and I have no problem with that. But, it was just so boring. There are loads of very very slow backstories going on with unlikeable irritating people. It's so slow. Huge number of unnecessary drawn out scenes right through. There was a brief moment when it got pretty exciting in episode six, but that didn't last long. Another criticism I have is that it's all very dark. I was really straining my eyes to see what was going on for a lot of the time. I could hear bangs and crashes and alien sounds but I could merely see anything! I was determined to see it out and I've just finished season 1, which has been a real slog. I won't be bothering with season two. It would need more action (at least SOME action), fewer irritating kids, and frustratingly slow unnecessary drawn out scenes with slow atmospheric music playing and nothing actually happening for 10 minutes at a time.

From
(2022)

Too many episodes, as usual.
It started off really well. We were hooked in the first 5 minutes. The first few episodes were interesting and there was enough horror going on to keep us watching. And, the horror was nice and gory and pretty scary too. But, we'd had enough by mid way through episode 5. Just nothing was happening and hadn't done really since episode 3. Were we're getting all the back stories of characters that weren't really interesting. Not needed. We decided to stop watching at that point. It'd really lost its way. This programme should have been 4 or 5 episodes. Why do they always do this?

Why have I got to have at least 600 characters in this review? I've finished talking now but it won't allow me to post my review with fewer than 600 characters. Let's hope this has done it?

Day of the Dead
(2021)

I lasted literally two minutes with this dross.
I'm a huge fan of the original film. I love zombie stuff. But this... OMG it's awful. We start with two young white men acting like they're on a lads night out, with zombies all around them. Then they get into trouble and guess what? A car comes round the corner, rams the zombies and one of the men looks surprised and as a woman leans out the car window, he shouts "mom?" At that point a black woman leans out the passenger window. So in the first two minutes we've got two stupid 20 year old men with a matriarchal mother who has a black counterpart who'll look after them.

That's literally all I could take, so read other reviews for more information on the plot, if there is one.

Keep Breathing
(2022)

Far too many flashbacks
The first episode was pretty good and peaked my interest. But, half way through the second episode I'd had enough. There were far, far too many flashbacks that detracted from the urgency of her situation. Watching her try to dive to the crashed plane was genuinely interesting, for about 30 seconds until we had another flashback to her seemingly tedious relationship with some bloke we didn't know. Couple of minutes of that and we're back to the dive, for another 30 seconds till the next flashback. This pattern went on till I just completely lost interest and turned it off.

Prizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher
(2022)

I only managed 45 minutes
I'm not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't this. It completely failed to grab me. The main character was unbelievable. Good looking, immaculate hair and teeth in 1800. The two fights I saw were plain boring. Very disappointed. I knocked it off after 45 minutes.

The Brink
(2020)

Very realistic I reckon
I reckon this is pretty much exactly as a post apocalyptic England would be. There's no heroics. Weapons used are things like broom handles with kitchen knives tied to them. Very few guns. Nasty people very believable. The fights were real scuffles, not Hollywood fist or sword fights. Good storyline. Good acting (for the most part).

All in all a very good film on an obviously very low budget.

Black Summer
(2019)

Started slow, ending slow
Most of the first season looks like it was filmed on the same industrial estate and got a bit repetitive and boring. That said, it did pick up eventually. The middle was good in parts. The last two episodes of season two were so slow that I found myself tinkering on Twitter, listening to tedious conversations in the background. The ending was a terrible letdown that left me thinking "is that the end? Is there another episode?

But, when we got action scenes, they were excellent. Also the zombies don't just go down easily. They really take some finishing off. And they run, they don't lumber along.

Good characters, all very believable. Worth a watch but difficult to "box" because overlong conversations become tedious and you'll find yourself thinking "come on, let's see some zombies".

You Don't Know Me
(2021)

Ridiculous ending
Right up until the last few minutes I'd have given this 9 or 10 stars. Excellent story, twists and turns, well acted. However, it has the stupidest ending I can remember since I wrote "I woke up and it'd all been a dream" when I was a primary school kid. Absolutely stupid.

The Harder They Fall
(2021)

Painful to sit through
Awful, just awful. Its a western, a long western, a very long western, a very, very long western.... Where not a lot happens. Honestly, that about sums it up.

Le chant du loup
(2019)

Unpredictable and very good
I found it very unpredictable right up to the very end. Really enjoyed it. The characters were all week played too. If you enjoyed Hunt for Red October or K19 you'll love this.

Comment je suis devenu super-héros
(2020)

Too cliched for me
"Meet your new partner" says the police chief. Oh look, it's the person you've just had a run in with in the first 5 minutes of the film. Oh come on. We've seen that one a hundred times already. So it didn't start well. Great idea and unusual plot but just didn't do it for me. Powers weren't up to much. In fact, I think that was it. The powers were really unimpressive. The only saving grace for me was Monte Carlo. Likeable character with the best powers. I suppose it's worth a watch if there's nothing else on. Think "The Boys" but about 20% as good.

The Tomorrow War
(2021)

Live, Die, Repeat wannabe.
Spoiled for me by silly things. This isn't a spoiler but as an example, there's a time in it where a new recruit who's just gone through training, has just finished a really hard shoot out with an alien. He's shot it about 500 times with no effect. A three tour veteran turns to him, after killing it easily, and says "you have to shoot them in the neck or belly". This is common knowledge? Why weren't the new recruits told that in basic training? Just silly things like that spoiled it for me. Very, very similar in a lot of respects to Tom Cruise in Live, Die, Repeat, which is a far better film.

Westworld
(2016)

Lost its way
I don't get the high reviews for this. It started OK but round about episode 6 I was seriously losing interest. There are a few different storylines, some interesting, some boring. They all start to come together but by episode 9 of the 10 it just started to get silly. Ridiculous plot twists and far to much of things that happened, suddenly haven't happened?! For example, a character gets stabbed snd literally cut open... and then suddenly they haven't?! Eh? Lots of that sort of thing going on. Having watched the first 9 episodes I was relieved to get to the last. But, it's an hour and a half long double episode. Groan. So I started to watch it and after 15 minutes I just turned it off. It was ridiculous. Completely unbelievable stuff going on. It reminded me of "Lost". Interesting premise but just went on too long and became just stupid.

The Victim
(2019)

Just Brilliant
Just finished watching the final episode. I've not felt as emotionally drained since I last watched "it's a wonderful life". Absolutely cracking mini series that just build and builds to a fantastic climax. I'm not exaggerating here, the last episode left me in pieces!

The Terror
(2018)

Did I turn over an extra page?
I absolutely loved this mini series. Boxed it over three nights, watching the final three till well after midnight on a "work the next day" night. I just couldn't stop. The acting was superb from every single character. Atmosphere was tense and creepy. But.... I just didn't get the whole beast thing as it went on. It started as a fantastic idea but just sort of didn't work in the end. Or wasn't necessary at all. Yes it threatened the crew but not as much as the elements, starvation, illness and insanity. I didn't actually understand how it was killed in the end either. It had been burned, shot a hundred times including a direct hit from a deck cannon and that didn't seem to bother it much. Then it just sort of died after swallowing some chain?

Top Dog
(2014)

One of the better ones
I can see why this film gets bad reviews. If you just want to see two firms batter each other watch Green Street. This film actually has a good story to it. There's a plenty of violence but that's not really the point of this film. It's about the head of a football gang, who decides to use his firm to get involved in the world of gangsters. It soon becomes clear that he's out of his league and things start going really wrong for him. There's some great acting in this. The main character plays a blinder. He looks genuinely worried and scared as he realises how badly things are going wrong. The pregnant wife of his best friend is also. Think Kathy Burke. I really enjoyed it. Great ending too.

Flood
(2007)

Appalling
Robert Carlisle, his elderly father and his ex wife are standing on the Thames barrier, safe from the flood around them. Carlisle suddenly announced that they should all jump into the seething rapids below and swim to safety!!! What?!?! They do so and two of them get to safety. Dad stays and is subsequently rescued by a helicopter. The stupid pointless risky jump was bad enough but when they finally make land, the ex wife says "I should have stayed with him.... I'm going to go back"! What?! How even!? I actually turned it off just after that. Couldn't stand anymore.

News of the World
(2020)

Dull
It's sort of in the same vein as the Clint Eastwood masterpiece Unforgiven. It's got that gritty, real life west, feel to it but ultimately it's just slow and dull. There was a shootout in the rocks that gave it promise half way through, but it was downhill from there. If you like Tom you could give it a go but I wouldn't bother really.

Death to 2020
(2020)

Fantastic but a bit too silly
Absolutely loved the cleverness of it. But I thought it was let down a little bit by being just a bit silly in places. Hugh Grants professor was brilliant but just silly with confused references to GOT and Star Wars. Not necessary and a bit cringing. Some of the narration is laugh out loud. Trumps medical advisors wanting to "climb into their own souls and die". I had to rewatch that clip a few times. All in all it's a must watch piece of TV. A couple of silly bits removed it'd be a classic.

Greyhound
(2020)

Not a patch on "The Cruel Sea"
I love Tom Hanks and I love a story set at sea. Tom in Captain Phillips was a great film. This one, not so much. Far too (sorry, Americanised) Oh, we've only got one depth charge left so let's see what we can do..... guess what. Nah, if you want to watch a realistic film of how the Second World War convoys really went, watch the film The Cruel Sea. Better still, read the book.

Voces
(2020)

Scary and different
I really enjoyed this film. It was much better than I expected. Some real tension in there. It doesn't rely on cheap scare tactics (but it made me jump a good few times). Instead, it takes a different approach. The entities don't just disappear, they stay and they get nasty and dangerous! Some great plot twists too, including about the best since the sixth sense.

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