harril-586-26745

IMDb member since January 2013
    Lifetime Total
    50+
    IMDb Member
    11 years

Reviews

Midsomer Murders
(1997)

Hammy but good
I've just started bingeing this show and I'm up to season 6. The stories and main characters are quite engaging with humorous insights into quirky village life. I'm astounded at the varied murderous antics of such gentle, colloquial folk but it's fun getting to know Barnaby & his family as well as the inspector's slightly goofy side-kick, Troy. Compared to other more realistic British crime shows like Vera and Broadchurch the show's production values don't call for heavy emotional involvement from the viewer, which is fine for this light Agatha Christie type fiction. One hilariously repeated 'faux pas' I've noticed is the blinking or face twitching of actors while portraying corpses. I really enjoy spotting these moments.

Dune: Part Two
(2024)

Almost Great!
Dune author Frank Herbert created a stunningly visual world which is well captured in this movie: the worms, the evil Baron, Muadib, the Fremen, etc. With so much high quality CGI used to bring the story to life, I was disappointed at the Lo-fi computer crowds effect during Feyd-Rautha's 18th birthday bash. Maybe this black & white segment was supposed to acclimatise viewers to the cheap visuals. Also at this point the narrative slowed down from fast paced excitement to almost boring but picked up again when we returned to the Freman world. The acting was generally excellent except for some characters like the Emperor, his daughter, Feyd & Beast which were never quite believeable. Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya and Javier Bardem gave big heart to their roles with JB acting like a modern Anthony Quinn. Music and sound effects were big and loud but the mix occasionally rendered lead characters' dialogue inaudible.

The Neighborhood
(2018)

Black & white racism sans comedy
How do shows like this get refinanced with more and more seasons to come? All the gags fall flat - acting is OTT cartoon style - the plots are unrealistic and plain goofy - and so many of the characters of both races possess truly slappable faces. I watched up to ep 5 of Season 1 before skipping to Season 6 thinking: Hey, it must've improved in the aforementioned departments. But NO!!! This turkey still chugs along with more stupid dialogue from superficial, heartless characters bearing no resemblance to actual humans. The Neighbouthood ticks all boxes in mediocre writing, directing...and talent.

What's Love Got to Do with It?
(2022)

Kissing Scene Fail!
This had moments of warm cheesy sentiment but also some bad acting episodes. Emma Thompson obviously needed a firmer hand from the director for her OTT almost slappable antics. Prior to this movie I've never seen her so hammy. Like all romcoms the ending is predictable but every character including the good looking leads somehow failed to evoke empathy - except maybe the mixed marriage couple who had to breed before being forgiven by the family. Oops...spoiler alert!! What a shame Lily couldn't settle for the good ole reliable vet, eh? The climatic kiss up the treehouse was extremely lame, awkward and lacked spontaneity. Maybe they ran out of budget to do much needed retakes.

Justified: City Primeval
(2023)

Justified Crap!
Okay, the daughter was a badly-written creation but not the fault of the actor who was clearly directed to be pathologically selfish, and take no interest in her Dad's job or any other of earth's inhabitants. The crazed, unruffled killer was another far-fetched character who spends a lot of time wandering around in his underpants when he's not murdering people. But the worst and totally unbelievably bad acting came from the clunky sex scene between Givens and the lady lawyer who showed no chemistry whatsoever during their supposed hot desire for each other. The shots of them in their underwear might explain why their lust bit the dust. Whoever is responsible for this debacle of a show can feel Justifiably ashamed of such a lousy effort.

Firefly Lane
(2021)

The Tully show
This show looks like a watered down version of Beaches. When you have extremely attractive stars like Katherine Heigl and Jon Ecker to ogle, the supporting players need to be damned good actors to hold interest. Sadly, when the focus shifts away from these 2 the acting from most of the remaining cast is below average and uninteresting. Young Tully & young Kate as portrayed by Ali Scovbye & Roan Curtis are the exceptions - both are very engaging. Judging from the storyline the Kate character is supposed to be as attractive as Tully but apart from her great bod, her self-centred nature and boring personality make her hard to like. Johnny the Aussie has some ok moments as does Carol the talk show queen but I'm struggling to move past ep 6.

American Born Chinese
(2023)

Entertaining blend of fantasy & reality
The acting is excellent. I found all of the characters quite engaging, except the lead guy Ben Wang who plays an extremely selfish unlikeable kid.

Michelle Yeoh brings her regal, serene presence to the adventures and is well matched with Jimmy Iiu as Wei-Chen and Daniel Wu as the Monkey King. The tv comedy sitcom segments feature a crummy role for Ke Huy Quan, but he somehow managed to evoke sympathy for his accident-prone-stupid character. Jin Wang's non Asian friends come across as a fairly bland, one dimensional bunch of happy American kids who don't seem nearly as real as the Chinese gods.

West Side Story
(2021)

A Mild Version
Reviews often talk about a lack of chemistry between lead characters. Any version of a Romeo & Juliet story has to convince the viewer that these lead characters truly love each other whilst their families hate one another with deep intensity. In Zeffirelli's version these 2 criteria are met convincingly and also in the 1961 version of West Side Story to a lesser degree. On-screen chemistry must mean good acting since Natalie Wood disliked her co-star Richard Beymer but both managed to act like they were in love. The same can't be said about Rachel Ziegler & Ansel Elgort who can't seem to muster the chops to show real passion for each other. The new sequencing of the songs often weakened the excitement of the plot: I Feel Pretty - straight after climactic fight/murder scene and Crazy Boy - during Tony's lame attempt to take Riff's gun are a couple of examples. The Jets and Sharks didn't get each other in this version. In the older one their mutual loathing was fierce & obvious. In spite of the high standard of Tony, Maria & Anita's vocals this production is bland and unmemorable.

The Messenger
(2023)

A goofy tale
This story is a bit hard to swallow and I'm bailing 2/3 through episode 3. Too few of the characters have any depth or believability and the over-acting is becoming more annoying as the show goes on. It's hard to empathise with the lead actor William McKenna or his boring friends but somehow the actor playing the old lady who dances on the porch at least brought a spark of reality to her scenes. How the messages come to Ed or the backstories of his alcoholic father's demise, his Mom's bitterness, his friend's mental illness, are things which I don't care about due to the poor writing, directing and performances.

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Blow Dry
(2001)

Great actors in cheap production
The reality of the 'hair competition' was undermined by the cutaways to extras enthusing in a balcony who were obviously not actually present during many of the staged events. This lack of actual buzz during the numerous hair expo scenes made these events look flat and unexciting. The cast did their best with this difficult tale of family intrigues involving characters who were mainly unloveable. I found quite a few of them, (just like that phoney staging in the town hall) didn't quite ring true. Great British accents from the foreign actors: Josh Hartnell, Heidi Klum and Rachel Griffiths helped bring some authenticity to this far-fetched tale.

1923
(2022)

A Great Turd!
This show is an absolute dud. It started off quite well with engaging characters in fairly intense situations but by about episode 5 the bad acting and crummy script made it too tedious to continue watching. 3 major gripes: actors mumbling, almost necessitating subtitles on - villains too evil to be believable - and extremely disappointing performances from 'name' actors. Whoever directed it shows a great lack of taste in showing OTT violence and allowing the cast to overact to cartoonish standards. Who in hell is the great white hunter and what is the relevance of his adventures to the family?

The boring love story between him and his English girlfriend would barely qualify as an adequate hallmark adventure. The three stars are for the nice scenery.

Les combattantes
(2022)

Great French WW1 soapie.!
This show makes for compelling viewing thanks to extraordinary acting, beautiful scenery & sets with overall high production standards.

Even though the villains (most of the male characters) are often too evil to be real, the actors are so good at making us hate them that they somehow seemed quite believable though disgusting. The 4 female leads are very good-looking, appealing women caught up in such dire situations that it was easy to empathise with them, hoping one day they'd eventually find joy. Music soundtrack was good - always helping the story reach emotional highs. Compared to most of the tripe dished up as must-see-entertainment this one was GOLD!

Black Snow
(2022)

A not bad story.
Hats on to the genius who created the annoying smashing drums motif throughout the first couple of episodes. Hopefully his/her music career in movies begins and ends here. Travis Fimmel brings star quality to a character quite unworthy of his talent. The only other actors not bringing a 'now I'm reading a script' performance are Brooke Satchwell, Anthony J Sharpe and Gulliver McGrath. This whodunnit show was definitely watchable but I found it necessary to suspend belief at the crummy acting so I could eventually find out who the murderer was. Unlike other series in this genre there were never any cliffhangers compelling the viewer to want more.... but hey I stuck with it till the end because of Cormack's intensely interesting back story.

Everything Everywhere All at Once
(2022)

Mind boggling!
This movie is not for everyone. Those viewers conditioned to accepting the usual fodder of simple plots with black & white cardboard cutout characters could be stretching their tiny peas towards potential brain aneurisms. But the imagination shown by the creators is simply astounding. Not since Ken Russell or Quentin Tarentino has there been such a unique, quirky universe as this one created by Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert. Is it a dream? - a hallucination? Maybe, but it's a philosophical roller coaster - with an extremely emotional conclusion! Every actor in it delivers their best performances. With the extraordinary Michelle Yeoh at the helm this movie offers a more spectacular ride than what Disney or the blockbuster franchises could ever hope to create.

Amsterdam
(2022)

A beautifully wrapped turd!
With great lighting, sets and actors I was open to full immersion into this movie. Unfortunately the first bit of dialogue made me wonder: is this supposed to be real or fantasy? The posing sincerity performed with pro histrionics by most of the cast should earn them special awards considering the drivel they were forced to speak. The list of abominations shown here are too numerous to cover but badly staged unfunny comedic moments, hallmark voice-overs, non-empathic characters, and unbelievable situations are just a few. Margot Robbie, Christian Bale & John David Washington show zero chemistry/interest with each other which indicates that on some level they understood they were part of a huge star-studded turkey.

Year of the Dragon
(1985)

Unknown Masterpiece
Mickey Rourke, as other fans have commented was definitely 'the boss' of Hollywood. His standard of acting has never been bettered. So it was a shame for us movie fans that he found life's pursuits outside of acting more interesting than what he was really great at. This movie is an example of the intense believability he showed in all of his characters which always evokes deep empathy. The only not-quite-right factor here is they've tried to age his 30 something face into a grey-haired person married to a middle-aged woman who looks old enough to be his mom. Asian actors Ariane and John Lone are also excellent in their roles - sadly, nothing in their consequent careers allowed them to show their talents as well as here. The old nun (Fabia Drake) from 'A Room With a View' stands out as well. This is a well produced/directed example of damned fine entertainment!

The Noel Diary
(2022)

Waste of talent
I was interested to see this after seeing Justin Hartley in This Is Us. The premise of this story is kind of banal: a successful novelist heads home to sort out his deceased Mom's estate and reconnects with a Dad that he hated, finds his true love and learns forgiveness, ensuring a truly joyous Christmas ending. JH's commitment to playing the author here is good and at a much deeper level than what his fellow actors can produce. Apart from the neighbour's boyfriend (James Remar?) these characters are simply not believable people. Hopefully, his agent finds him a project worthy of his talent in the future.

Paycheck
(2003)

Better sci-fi/adventure than 2022 garbage
CGI effects, sound and OTT graphic violence has come a long way since this vintage, almost 20yr old movie. But all I can say in response to the negative reviews posted (mainly from the olden days) is that this is way more intelligent and exciting than the big ole blockbusters of modern times... if only you guys had known what crap was to come in the future! I honestly find that I have to put my stupid hat on to appreciate the new sci-fi adventures. Ben Affleck & Uma Thurman are great in their roles with good chemistry going on between them, but the bad guys - Aaron Eckhart & Colm Feore along with the FBI team are a bit one dimensional. Paul Giamatti as usual stands out above this lot in a small role, but somehow manages to be the most believable. This was really great fun to watch.

Andor
(2022)

A waste of space
In spite of bits of good acting and some excitement in each segment I'm finding every episode ultimately builds up to a big fat nothing! There is a weird consistency in lack of character development or plot advancement after 9 episodes. I'm watching this 9th instalment hoping for the best but feeling it'll probably disappoint just like the others. Why am I still watching? Because Diego Luna's character is strangely worth watching as well as Fiona Shaw's - unfortunately she seems to have been kicked to the curb which leaves quite a few over-actors in the cast who I guess are supposed to have us enthralled. I'll most likely bail after this.

House of the Dragon
(2022)

R.I.P. GOT
Of course expectations are incredibly high regarding any prequel, sequel or movie related to Game of Thrones. House of the Dragon falls way below par by any fan's standards. After experiencing the luxury of great actors with charisma plus superbly written characters placed in highly dramatic situations (Game of Thrones) this show clearly has none of that. The leads are dull and the groups of folk wearing fake looking white wigs gives the production a boring mono chrome vibe. Also, the pointed violence and sex scenes add more meaninglessness to this crass, market-motivated debacle. This is absolute poo and I'm giving up at 3/4 way through episode 1.

Loot
(2022)

Office from hell!
This show is peopled by quite hideous personalities spearheaded by Maya Rudolph, impersonating an ugly rich woman. Why have the creators of this debacle given her a look (bad haircut/frocks/makeup) which works against her nice, well-meaning character? The office staff range from dumb & dumber to the goofy, the anally retentive and the ridiculously way-over-paid. I loved Maya's SNL work, Bridesmaids, etc and I'm waiting for the producers to let her shine before season end but sadly am beginning to lose all hope.

Persuasion
(2022)

Another multi-racial soapie
Apparently, Henry Golding is the go-to-guy for playing any Asian character in modern movies. But I wonder why are there are no Indian or Sri Lankan actors in this unrealistic, silly, Brigerton-like story? The heroine played by Dakota Johnson is definitely the prettiest and most likeable character, especially compared to her not-so-pretty, nasty sisters. Yet somehow none of this is believable. Consequently, whether people are crying or laughing on the screen it's hard to feel any empathy for their 'emotional' predicaments. This movie has lovely scenery, lighting and faces but has no heart.

The Offer
(2022)

Great story - odd casting
Without Miles Teller's acting giving this series some genuine believeability I wouldn't have been able to stay interested. The back story of making The Godfather is very interesting, even at times exciting. Unfortunately the fake accents/portrayals of Al Pacino(Anthony Ippolito), Frank Sinatra(Frank John Hughes), Joe Colombo(Giovanni Ribisi), Juno Temple and so many others in the show exposed some really bad acting - casting - directing making it the exact antithesis of its subject. Fortunately, Coppola's masterpiece still holds up as an example of great cinematic art.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
(2022)

Worst Pilot ever!
This first episode introduces a motley bunch of uninteresting, bland characters that hardly manage to excite interest in following them throughout an entire series. The captain is suffering from some vaguely explained PTSD but is persuaded to come out of hippie retirement to command the Enterprise sans beard and sporting a flamboyant, grey bouffant. Mr Spock inexplicably leaves his Vulcan bride to join this lame starship patrol. We see him and his colleagues disguise themselves as natives with blue freckles & prominent foreheads to convince the locals not to use the 'Bomb.' This is as enthusiastic as I can be about what I had the extreme misfortune to view.

Elvis
(2022)

Less Baz more Elvis
This is a tragic story of a great singer. For me the raw emotion came finally when the real Elvis sat at the piano and sang. The musical score was often annoying with over the top re-imaginings of his classics. Are You Lonesome Tonight and I Can't Help Falling in Love didn't need stupidly 'sadder' string harmonies to make them sound sad since Elvis had already created 100% masterpieces. The noisy-ass score with massively over produced sound seemed more suited to The Greatest Showman than this movie. The acting was of a high standard particularly from Tom Hanks (so evil) and Austin Butler (lost boy).

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