pfne

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Reviews

Damsel
(2024)

Why she talking like that?
I don't know who was thinking what when they cast The Angela Bassett, but they got it wrong when they asked her to do an accent. It's just so strangely off and weird, like she's trying to do an English person's idea of an American Doing a Royal Family Accent. It's distracting. Not quite from the Dick Van Dyke School Of Accents, but it's not good.

Luckily she's not in that much of the movie, the first 30 minutes or so.

And that's when the film starts btw. You could fast forward the first 30 minutes, watch it on 4x speed and get a perfect idea of what's going on.

The rest of the film gets progressively more predictable and clichéd from there.

If I had to sum up this whole movie in a couple lines, I'd go with: "That's a tough situation, gonna be hard for her to get out of that one" "Actually super easy, barely an inconvenience" "Oh really?"

But I don't wish to spoiler anything.

The cgi is meh.

The green screening is, meh the story is, meh the action is ok in parts.

A dull, mediocre and predictable movie that looks ok at times.

Avatar: The Last Airbender
(2024)

However much they spent on the effects....
....they should have spent more on casting.

I mean, auditions, they probably aren't cheap, but it's better than just casting people because they look a certain way. THE ACTING IS AWFUL. Ok you can kind of forgive the kids.. they're particularly bad but they're kids.. but the adults aren't much better either.

When adults or kids are giving long exposition dumps and the camera cuts back and forth and here and there and the dialogue changes volume and tempo, yeah, that's too hide the awful performances. If the actors were capable of actually acting, they could leave the camera rolling and have longer takes of matched up dialogue.

But .. anywho.

The CGI is shoddy, there's YouTube channels producing better CGI on a fraction of the budget.

The greenscreening is awful, particularly in the first episode with a boat, it looks like something from a 90s kids show.

Is it worth a watch? Meh. Not really.

The cartoon exists, it may be older, but it is absolutely leagues ahead of this.

Cringe, bad effects, awful acting from the people cast because they look like the cartoon counter parts.

Inside Greggs: 24/7
(2023)

Grace Dent Long Form Greggs Advert Number 2
After making Gregg's: What's Really In It?

Grace Dent returns with yet another very enthusiastic advert for Greggs, the purveyors of cheap food that is the choice of your local thug, chav and banker.

Over the two episodes, Grace does her best to appear enthusiastic and keen to show us behind the scenes of Greggs and how their products are made.

It won't shock anyone to know tha they're mass produced in a factory, frozen, shopped to shops and baked before being sold to single mums to force feed their kids pink 60% Meat sausage rolls.

I don't know what Grace earns by promoting Gregg's in such a fashion, but as she says herself, she has eaten at some of the best restaurants in the world, the fact she then gushes about cheap mass produced tat should surely make any one question whether she should really be a food writer at all.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
(2023)

Cliche, predictable story but nice animation that'll entertain the kids.
It's neither shockingly awful, not particularly good and that's the biggest issue. It's just meh.

So you get the typical cliche we see in a lot of films... Someone wants to know the truth, others hide the truth, which makes the someone even more determined... In this case, a young chicken wants to know what happens off the island that she loves on.

If her parents say her down and told her the truth, the film wouldn't happen.. so they ban her and don't tell her anything which makes her determined to leave the island.

The voices are... Odd.. A lot of the original film voices return but they recast Ginger. They said it's because the original actor is too old but the new voice actress is just 4 years younger than her, so that makes no sense. Bella Ramsay is fine as the typical Uppity Teenager stereotype character, neither awful nor fantastic.

On the whole, comparing it with the first, it falls flat with odd voice casting and a clichéd and predictable story. Kids will enjoy it, I'm sure of that, and fans of the original will like it for nostalgic reasons, as a film judged by it's own attributes, it's all just simply... Meh... 5/10 I don't regret watching, but I'll never watch it again.

Last Man Standing
(2011)

Mike Baxter - Horrible Gaslighting Abuser... BUT:
The show itself is made up of quick 23 minute episodes. It's basically nonsense that can be binged without too much serious thought or put on in the back ground whilst doing other things.

The biggest flaw of the show is Mike Baxter, played by Tim Allen, he spends a lot of episodes insulting people, manipulating people, gaslighting his wife and borderline emotionally abusing everyone around him to get his own way. Tim Allen played Tim Taylor, who could also be a sexist pig headed idiot, but he was more innocently affable and sincere, he was just a bit dim and clumsy, Mike Baxter is purposeful with his abhorrence.

This type of character would have been at home I the 80s with other sexist male characters, these days though, this archetype should be consigned to the past. As should the stereotypical Lefty Snowflake Weak Man - Ryan.

Overall, I'm glad I watched it, there were funny moments and some heartwarming moments. But it relies too much on stereotypes, ditzy blonde, unmanly vegans, gruff misanthrope old man, sarcastic teen girl.

I won't watch it again.

Tribunal Justice
(2023)

Obviously biased and often emotional eruptions for trailer bait
Take the episode where a man fixes plumbing and uses a credit card given him by the 'plaintiff'

The 'judges' barely.let the man speak. They wouldn't allow him to give his side. They saw the elderly.woman, listened to her feeble meanderings and toom it as gospel. Eventually Dimango, who keeps referring to the woman as elderly.even though she's likely as old, she labels the man who did the work as a scammer and a criminal. This was after Acker had a random emotional eruption and banged her gavel because the man was trying to put his side of the story across.

Many episodes are decided on who the plaintiff is and not what the facts of the case are. It's totally biased, totally unfair and, in reality, is Nepotism the TV show with Judge Judy giving her son a TV show of his own, even though he's just an arrogant know it all that enjoys yelling at people from a position of authority handed to him by birth and not merit.

The Little Things
(2021)

Give us a film about Deke...
Film is dull dull dull.

It's meant to be a taught serial killer thriller with Denzel Washington and Rami Malek playing cops and Leto playing the suspect.

It's shot in the darkness and the story plods from one dull bit to the next dull bit. Then it ends in a dull and very predictable way. I think they were aiming for this to be a 'Se7en' type movie but it falls so short it's barely a 'Fi7e'

Now, the best bit, it was definitely Denzels Deke character. He had a back story that we see small snippets of. A great detective that has fallen by the wayside after a heart attack and divorce etc. This character, I'd have loved the film to be about him and the backstory we don't see enough of. They should have made this film about that story.

Also. Leto. Terrible.

Who Is Erin Carter?
(2023)

Much better than you'd imagine..
Do you like crime shows that are dark? Gritty? Set at night? Loads of rainy scenes? Some guy putting on his sunglasses as he drops a one liner and a song by The Who starts to play?

Well, this isn't that.

This is sunny and bright and set in the day in Barcelona. There's a little bit of family drama thrown in and a lot of a ruin scenes likes fight and carcases and shootings.

So the plot.

Young mum with a past, and amazing jeans..., moves her and her child to Barcelona to escape 'Something or someone'

A few years pass and a chance occurence in supermarket begins to unravel her settled life and reveals secrets from her past that shows that she may not be who she appears...

And who she is isn't a super spy, or highly trained military specialist...

It's a very entertaining and enjoyable show. The action is fine and believable. The ending is satisfying and wraps it all up well. The lead is fantastic, as are all the supports.

Worth watching.

Justified: City Primeval
(2023)

This show is not Justified...
It's a poor and often amateurish spinoff.

The daughters acting is appalling, distracting and ridiculous and her non blinking wide eyed nonsense is draining the energy right out of this show, it is so bad it almost made me switch off.

Now I don't blame the actress AT ALL, but whomever told her she could act, whomever gave her the role, whomever put her in that position is the one to blame.

The filming seems to be on digital cheap consumer cameras. It looks cheap, like a soap opera. Especially the interrogation scenes in episode 3.

The special effects are also terrible.

But all that being said, I'm a fan of the original Justified and of Raylan the character. Olyphant plays him to perfection and I don't know how much is character and how much is Olyphant.

The story is stupid.

The villain is a cartoon character protected only by plot armour.

But it's cheesy and cheap and nonsense but it's enjoyable enough besides the amateurish filming, acting and villain.

Cunk on Earth
(2022)

I don't get it
It's supposedly hilarious and very clever etc.

But I don't get it.

The basic premise is a parody of a documentary. The presenter is not intelligent and she asks the highly educated and clever people stupid question.

Supposedly the experts are in on the joke. I don't know if that's true, that'd be expecting professionals to make themselves look incredibly unprofessional and a complete waste of their time.

But I say all this from my point of view. I simply don't get it, I don't find it funny at all, it's very cringe at times and i suppose some people find that to be comedy, it's just Ali G mixed with Horrible Histories.. but I'd rather just watch Horrible Histories.

Wasteland
(2012)

Too much extra focus on unnecessary elements.
It's an almost 2 hour movie that could have been trimmed down to an 90 minute crime caper but they kept a lot of fat in the bones.

Without going into spoiler territory it's a fairly simple take. Boy goes to prison, he was set up by the local 'hard man', gets out of prison, reconnects with friends and a girl, plans revenge on the man that sent him to prison.

What follows is a story of the plan of a heist of a club to steal money... Or is it.

Top many scenes play too long and don't add anything to the actual film. You could fast forward to the final 30-40 minutes and watch from there and you'd enjoy it all the more for not sitting through the over English dialogue, the 'romance' sections, the lads and the Bants.. etc.

Judy Justice: Go Fund Me Memorial Dispute and Passed Out Behind the Wheel
(2023)
Episode 99, Season 2

Jessica Crane - Should Be Ashamed..
A family lose a member, in this case a man has drowned.

The mum has lost a son.

The drowned persons friends set up a GoFundMe to raise money in the memory of the drowned man.

Somehow the GoFundMe is in the name of Jessica Crane, the drowned man's sister.

It raises a great deal money... The Sister keeps it all.

The sister clears out the drowned man's property, keeps it all.

The sister takes the drowned man's truck, tries to keep it hidden from the loan company.

Jessica Crane decides the remainder of the GoFundMe should be used to find her kids education, that's not what people donated to the GoFundMe for.

Greed is destroying this family.

Unseen
(2023)

A solid and interesting crime thriller
This was added to Netflix in the UK recently so I binged watched it one rainy evening.

I don't know anything about South Africa and I had no idea what this show would be about beyond the blurb written in the Netflix page.

What I found was quite an interesting and different kind of revenge / crime thriller.

Imagine, for a second, that John Wick or Nobody had been a cleaner and instead of finding the people that killed their dog or stole their kids bracelets they were looking for their partner and taking in the underworld of South Africa to do it... And that's about it in a nutshell.

An unassuming maid goes about trying to find her husband, who took the fall for a murder he didn't commit, and the murderer of her child.

Very much worth a watch. The main actress is outstanding and really brings life into the part.

Quantum Leap
(2022)

Quantum Leap (2022) - AKA Defiling a classic
There is nothing redeeming here.

The music isn't as good, original was iconic.

The writing isn't as good, the original seasons had really great morals and stories.

The rules aren't as good or followed, leaping with lifetime etc.

The acting from the vast majority isn't as good, with a couple stand outs as being just plain terrible.

(MAP should stick to social media where dullards just label themselves and need no talent)

An overall waste of a sequel to a programme that didn't need a sequel. Should have left the classic in tainted by this cheaply made, clichéd and boring prime time cookie cutter sci-fi nonsense.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
(1997)

17Yo me watching in1997 would score it 10/10..
43 year old me rewatching in 2023 would score it much lower... But nostalgia.

Things have changed in the sphere of television and media etc since Buffy first aired.

Watching it now, I can see the shoddy acting, the dodgy special effects, the over the top nonsensical parts of the show. There's a 27 year old playing a teenager..

I can ignore the shortcomings that modern eyes see and enjoy it for the slice of 90s guff that it is. It's still a great show and it improves, slightly, over time. But it's so far removed from the types of show we get now, with high budgets and long form story telling etc that Buffy, unfortunately, really seems archaic.

Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast
(2014)

An absolutely fantastic finale of a fantastic series.
Over the last few nights I've sat and watched all of the Tinkerbell movies, I love them all in their own way.

The Neverbeast though stands out as an astounding film. The animation is fabulous, the characterisation is fantastic. The story is fantastic. The NeverBeast is fantastic.

It's an.absolute shame that the Fairies series finished, they're great family films that are a joy to watch every time I see them.

As a finale to the series, the NeverBeast rounds it out in an absolutely wonderful way. I just hope that Disney bring back the Fairies and the NeverBeast one day, I hope it doesn't need a green comet to pass over head in 900 years.

Brave
(2012)

My personal favourite Pixar Movie
Okay okay okay... Yes it isn't quite as action packed as the trailers may have suggested and yes it is a bit of retread of familiar subjects where the kid is different to how the parents expect them to be and it causes friction, I this case it causes so much friction that suspicious old hag in the woods turns the mum into a bear..

I get all the critics being negative because of all that sort of stuff, I understand it on a logical and intellectual level, but my enjoyment and my heart says different.

I love the story, it's simple and touching.

I love the setting, Scottish Highlands and mystical woods.

I love the voices, they say so much with an inflection or a pronunciation here and there.

I love the humour, the king and the boys especially.

I love the bits of lore we get, ancient folktales.

I love the music and score, if any music or score ever captured the feeling of a place it's this.

Is it perfect? No. Is it unique and new? No. Do I absolutely love it and watch it several times a year? Yes and yes.

This film and Road To Eldorado, rewatchable simple tales I adore.

Keep Breathing
(2022)

The lead saves an otherwise dull show
Melissa Barrera is really ver very good in this show. If it wasn't for her, the show would suffocate.

I was really hoping that it would be a Survival drama. A single girl, stranded in the wilderness and has to survive whilst fighting hunger, thirst and solitude etc.

The scenes where they attempt this are fairly dull unfortunately, they show 'Liv' boiling water and finding berries and trying to catch fish etc. But there's no real urgency. If it wasn't for the performance of Melissa Barrera, who made it compelling and watchable, the scenes would have been incredibly pointless.

The true problems come with the cliches and pointless back story and flash backs. A me tally I'll mom, a hard working dad.. death and loss yadda yadda. Taking up run time to try and inject some emotion into the show.

They should have dumped the emotional baggage flashbacks and ramped up the survival drama elements.

Keeper of the Ashes: The Oklahoma Girl Scout Murders
(2022)

This documentary does those who died a disservice.
It preambles and wanders all over the place and includes Kristin Chenoweth for no reason other than to satiate her own need for her own attention.

The subject is horrific. It's not a case I'd ever heard of.

I feel like this documentary just drags out the details and adds I pointless repetition and nonsense to tell a fact based story.

If it was re editted, every bit of Kristin and focus on the law enforcement officers, lawyers, parents etc. It would tell a much better story, a more compact.and coherent story and it wouldn't fall into pandering to the pointless narcissism of a Z list actress that wasn't even at the camp.

YouTube search will find you a much better documentary than this nonsense.

Luther: The Fallen Sun
(2023)

Not bad, but still the weakest Luther outing.
Preposterous is a word that fits this movie quite well.

Preposterous - Serkis. From his 'acting', which is basically limited to several scenes of him gurning and a bit of him running stupidly, to his incredibly preposterous wig. He doesn't work here at all, his acting ability is so poor in comparison to Elba that it's jarring. He's not creepy or scary or threatening in the least and looks like a slimy used car salesman in a bad wig.

Preposterous - the plot. A master blackmailer, stolen directly from a Conan Doyle plot, has a huge organisation to monitor the behaviour of thousands of people and picks out ones that may be susceptible to bribery. Who funds the people's wages? Who hired them? How do they find them? Who signed the lease on the building the computers are in? Who installed all the computers? Who maintains the servers? Who wore the program that hacks thousands of devices? How many employees are needed to monitor many thousands of people? Not to mention who guards and feeds the captives?

And not one of all those many many people thought, "hang on, something's not right here... That man in the silly wig seems a bit off his rocker.."

Preposterous - the icy mansion with the death cells beneath... Really.. it's like a Bond Villain lair and makes as much sense. And how did they transport the victim from London apartment to a forgotten and snowed in Norwegian mansion?

Preposterous - prison breaks.. "It's going to be hard for Luther to break out of prison." "Actually super easy, barely inconvenience" Just call some man with a van...

No no no.

Preposterous - at the end of all the nonsense, some black cars pull up to offer Luther a job... Cause the secre intelligence agencies of England really do want to hire *checks notes* ex bent cops that break out prison, beat people up, flee to Norway and kill the head of an organisation before they get chance to interrogate the head of the organisation so they can pull it all down...

The Walking Dead
(2010)

Negan ruins the show
Up to season 7, I'd score the show a 9 easily.

But then Negan turns up.

He's wandering about and posturing like a little bully boy. At one point, he and a load of cronies are stood at a gate, they could have shot him dead, there and then, problem solved.

But they don't, they live under his tiresome and boring 1 note intimidations.

He's a man, with a bat... Not a bullet proof super hero.

It picks up a little eventually, but it never gets back to the decent levels of seasons 1-6. Negan base ball batted the show right in head. Awful character, awful story line and a god awful actor, how he got the part I will never know.

Red Rose
(2022)

Clichéd, predictable and mostly idiotic.. but entertaining enough.
We first meet a teenagers... But teenagers written by a boar dog middle age people... They've just done their exams and are celebrating on a moor near Bolton, England.

(Geography in this show is blurry at best.. but apparently these kids are within a short walking distance of a moor that's 10s of miles from Bolton)

One of them eventually downloads a mysterious app... Cause that's what teenagers do... Download apps from strangers that they didn't request. But it has to happen because plot.

The app starts asking the teenager questions and it points to the app being mysterious and ghostly and able to to contact the dead.... I think the show would have been more interesting if it'd had stick with that theme to be honest.

The actuality of it being a bunch of voyeuristic tech nerds able to orchestrate access to every secure server, every traffic camera, every CCTV camera etc etc is far less believable than the app being a link to the after life.

The climax is also dull and incredibly predictable, you can guess pretty much from about episode 3 exactly where it's going to go.. and it goes where you'd think.

But it's enjoyable nonetheless. It's absolute nonsense with a stinger in an effort to set up a season 2, but I hope they don't.. 1 is enough..

Oh, and for what it's worth, if you get a link asking you to download something, don't be an idiot and download it.

28 Days Haunted
(2022)

Confirmation Bias.... The TV Show...
Heres a similar, but better idea for a TV Show..

Take 3 teams of 3.

Each team is made up of strangers that don't know each other. Each of the 3 has a skeptic, a psychic and a tech guy.

3 buildings to 'investigate' 1 of the 3 has no history of paranormal stuff, no murders, no deaths etc.

1 has a history and is famous among paranormal investigators.

1 has a history but isn't well known and hasn't ever been investigated.

Each team is told the exact same thing. They're being sent I to a place that have had sightings and a history of violence and murder. Etc.

Then send them in for 28 days.

See what they find..

As this programme stands, it's dreadful.

My Dad the Bounty Hunter
(2023)

An excellent sci-fi adventure for Kids
Being an adult of considerable years... I thoroughly enjoyed this cartoon.

The animation is absolutely amazing at times. It looks and moves as good as a high budget movie, some of the space scenes are beautifully done. The flashbacks in a different style really add to the overall.

The voice work is all excellent and really makes the characters come alive.

The story is interesting and drives the show from point to point adequately.

The soundtrack is Outstanding.. some amazing tunes and their use is absolutely excellent.

Now.. the downsides. If I was being harsh, I could point out the predictable nature and the overused family dramas of kids not liking their dad or the kids being a bit brattish etc.

BUT I can forgive the few minor points as the rest of the show is so so good.

I really hope for second season where they can step away a little from the typical kid dramas etc and get further into the space exploration.

Highly recommended for kids that like adventurous sci-fi and recommended for adults alike.

Four Good Days
(2020)

Kunis is outstanding..
A hard subject matter, drug addiction and it's affects..

This one was shown from a slightly different perspective than a lot of other films or tv shows that cover addiction.

It focuses more on the dynamic between a mother and a daughter. There's lots of little hints to pick up on that shows the relationship they've had before the film. The alarms in the mums home, for example, installed after the addict daughter has broken in at some point before the time of the film. It makes it very realistic and makes the harder scenes all the more hard to get through.

The outstanding performance here is Kunis. She is so good in this film that i hope she pursues more of this type of work. She is so much better than just 'pretty girl' ..

Albeit, admittedly, it's hard to not hear Meg..

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