lh22344

Danny Dyer is often criticised.

I'm not exactly sure what the basis is for this. His career has had its ups and downs granted, with brilliant performances in films like "Human Traffic" and "Severance", where he played a happy-go-lucky party types in which he didn't take himself too seriously to others like the Abysmal "Basement" more recently, which was more a bad film choice in my opinion rather than a bad performance. Nobody could have made that film look good. He had a string of good performances in films like "The Business" and "The football factory" (although i didn't like the latter due to the presentation of the subject matter).

So for me at least the criticism seems unwarranted from a professional film actor perspective. I think some of his television work was perhaps a mistake (I'm thinking of Danny Dyers Hardest Men or whatever it was called) but you can hardly make ill of his acting work based on that. I think after that series he maybe started to take himself a bit too seriously,or wanted to present himself as tougher or something but this could also just have been an attempt to break away from being typecast as those kind of cockney underworld/party characters he is best known for.

I am pleased to say that Danny Dyer gave a very good performance in this film. Considering I haven't seen much of him in the media recently apart from his role in Eastenders, which is not a show i follow, he pulled off playing the lead character in this dark and gritty thriller very well. He had a presence i wouldn't have normally associated with Danny Dyer and I think he could make a go of these kind of roles in future.

I went into this expecting more or less what it was: A revenge film set in London starring Danny Dyer. I was however pleasantly surprised by both how good the story was and the performances of the cast. I mean it's a revenge film so the basic formula is something you will be familiar with but it could so easily have come off as tired or dated. The film managed to avoid many of the clichés or predictable twists I was expecting that would have made it tedious.

There were enough political and bureaucratic goings on to make the situation believable without it descending into big shootouts. In a lesser film the Spec Ops commanders etc would have sent out their own teams leading to ridiculous engagements in public spaces. Here we have them presented as secretive and menacing without the need for some insecure show of force. Their power is still present here but it's delivered though their characterisations and performances rather than though explicit demonstrations of power.

There were elements introduced that usually lead to the same ending formula but refreshingly this film did not go down that road for once: As an example, following the all to overly used revenge film formula, the introduction of a love interest means that at the end of the film the bad guys will capture him/her and make the protagonist come get them or trade for them or at some point the protagonist will be captured and himself tortured only to escape leading to the big finale shootout where he kills them all. I was pleased that this film avoided these clichés, very bluntly in places which works out to be rather unforgiving for Danny Dyers character. It felt like this film gave the audience some credit and held onto its integrity by not throwing things like overblown action sequences or forced jeopardy into the mix.

The torture/interrogation scenes are dark without being gratuitous. Much of the violence is implied or committed off screen (though there are some grizzly moments you get to see) but was both well acted and original enough to be satisfying to the viewer. Again Danny Dyer carried himself with a degree of authenticity that was compelling to watch here. Cold and confident when getting on with the business of revenge but with enough humanity underneath the special forces side of his character for the audience to connect with his plight. His action sequences were also very good the fight choreography was well executed, very sharp and again very satisfying.

There was a distinct political/moral undertone to the film that I'm not sure I agree with but then I don't live in London or another major city where crime is at these kinds of levels and where the inability of police forces to be effective due to stringent regulation is quite so apparent. The subtext, whether you agree with it or disagree does not detract from the enjoyment of the film however.

the rest of the cast were also well placed and gave good performances. There was one exchange between the parents early on that felt a little unnatural from a dialogue point of view. Like unnecessary forced exposition but with that aside there was very little clunky exposition throughout the rest of the film.

While the closing scene didn't sit quite right with me in the context of the film it did leave things open for a sequel, which i would see. I think this film was an enjoyable experience I was not expecting (or at least not to the degree that it was) and showed that Danny Dyer gives a good performance in darker, more serious films than his previous outings would maybe have people believe. It also marks what I hope is the start of a more considered approach to project choices by Danny Dyer.

It's not going to win any Oscars or have essays written about its layers/meaning but it will entertain you for the full running time and perhaps even leave you excited about a sequel yet to come. I recommend it.

This film is in my opinion a wasted opportunity.

The setup and first half are truly remarkably good. The tone during the 'abduction' and the everything inside the government facility the characters are presented as being confined in has a really dark and suspenseful atmosphere. I was genuinely excited and intrigued to learn more about what was going on and what the characters were suffering from or what was causing their physical problems... Is it some kind of radiation poisoning or an alien disease? Are they dying or somehow not even themselves anymore?? What was going on 'outside'? had there been some kind of invasion or mass infection? It is eluded to several times that they would not be safe out there.. These are the kind of questions you will be asking during the first half...

Then the movie just became another 'teenagers get super powers' affair and though i watched until the (at this point) predictable and tired end 'twist' I basically lost interest due to the sudden revelation of what kind of film this was going to be.

The writers just abandon the suspenseful and dark tone that the film was building nicely and in doing so also leave many events unanswered (the 'cow chamber' being an example as well as the sudden panic and crazy noises heard during the 'subject escape' scene..) Questions asked after the main characters get outside are also never really explained like the nature of the people they meet and what they are doing there. Even the motivation of the Antagonist or what the point of this whole thing is is never explained. Was the whole reason they were taken to integrate them with the robotic parts? were they being tested or something? Was there a larger plan at work?.I guess We will never know..

Finally you get a token action sequence that seemed to be included just to show off a few basic CG effects. This really doesn't fit with the tone of the previous acts of the movie and i was really disappointed by the time this came. There is an exchange between the main character and the main Antagonist that concludes with the question "did you find what you were looking for?", a question that answers nothing because we don't know anything about anybodies motivations..

The closing scene really REALLY ruined the film for me in part because it was a lazy twist that really doesn't go anywhere. I mean what can the main character do from here and what are the Antagonists ACTUAL intentions for the main characters? And also the choice of music for that finale was absolutely inappropriate for what was going on. even in the kind of film it had become at that point. It feels like the film makers just decided "Throw in some Dubstep, that's what all the kids like these days right?".

The more i think about this film the more I feel it was a bit of a mess caused by trying to juggle too many genres while still trying to appeal to a teenage audience.

Like i said the first half was remarkably good I'm really only giving the stars here because that setup and mysterious second act were exceptionally well done. Its just a shame it fell into the action based teen superhero territory by the end and failed to answer any of its own questions along the way.

OK so this films synopsis had me intrigued. I am a huge fan of realistic spaceflight films and of spaceflight/astronomy/astrophysics in general. I have recently seen 'Astronaut: The Last Push' which has a similar synopsis to this, i.e a man stranded alone in a damaged spacecraft trying to stay sane. If you have not seen that film I highly recommend seeing that instead of this as the central idea is more or less the same but that film has none of the glaring poorly researched problems that plague 'Love'.

So anyway before we begin a word on gravity and the lack of it. Gravity at the altitude of the ISS is actually 90 percent the strength it is at the earths surface. The effect of weightlessness (or micro-gravity to give it its technical name) is due to objects orbiting a celestial body travelling fast enough to remain in a constant state of free-fall. I.e they are falling to earth but travelling laterally (sideways) fast enough that the earth (being near spherical) falls away at the same rate. And they remain in that free-fall due to there being near no atmospheric drag at those altitudes until they perform a retrograde (slowing down) burn to reduce their speed below orbital velocity. Why is this important? We will get to that shortly.

So what were my biggest problems with this film?

1. There would be no perceivable gravity on board the Space Station. The protagonist would float around as would any objects not secured in some way. From the moment we are introduced to this situation I was like "hmmm he's sitting down(pointless in space)therefore there is gravity... OK well I'm sure they will explain this with a simple 'oh yeah good thing we invented the 'whatever'' line of dialogue".. Nope. Never gets an explanation. And even I, who having a massive interest in the field makes me particularly picky about these details, could have accepted an artificial gravity explanation (it is the future after all) taking up all of one line of dialogue, but no.

2. OK lets let it go that they sent him up alone. I mean, its an old rickety station and you don't want to risk to many lives. Sure lets let that go.. But my problem is that he has no method of returning to earth. What? Who the hell came up with this mission plan? He was going to a station they DON'T EVEN KNOW IS IN A HABITABLE CONDITION with no way of returning but to be collected by another mission??? This is awful awful researching on the part of the filmmakers. It literally makes no sense. Again could have been explained as maybe his return capsule being damaged but no. No explanation..

3. He's finally had enough and decides he wants to cut himself loose and fall back to earth... How exactly? Cutting the cord between him and the station will just leave him orbiting with the station forever. As i said above while travelling at orbital velocity and in the absence atmospheric drag he cannot simply 'fall back to earth'. He would need some kind of propulsion to fall below orbital velocity. This is most important because A TRAINED ASTRONAUT WOULD KNOW THIS!!! Again I cannot stress enough the lack of research that went into this film.

Obviously my review is biased at least in part by my knowledge of spaceflight and orbital mechanics but these are pretty basic things to research with 5 minutes on google. I'm actually letting an awful lot go (the 'fire' that he never puts out etc).

Personally even the 'meant to be stunning' ending was just awful. An absolute rip off of 2001 leads to the kind of CGI animation ending you might expect to see in a Nikelodeon ad break link..

I know some people found something to take away from this film and good on them, taste is not objective so I won't argue against whatever they found of value here but in my honest opinion this was an awful, awful film that simple steals a bunch of stuff from better films and puts it together without even the most basic of research.. Definitely Avoid.

*Contains what may be considered spoilers*

Zero Dark Thirty... Well I hated The Hurt Locker so didn't have great hopes for this one and my expectations were not misplaced.

My problem with this film wasn't, as many others have stated, that the film was boring or that the characters were plain. The action sequences were rather good especially the raid scene at the end, the scenes where they were chasing the courier were tense and interesting, and some of the intelligence work by SUPPORTING CHARACTERS was also pretty engaging. My main problem was that the main character and the performance of the leading actress were inherently unrealistic and dis-likable. Several instances of her behaviour seemed to me to be entirely inappropriate for her professional role and in the real world would probably have seen her dismissed or at least reprimanded.

I'm sure the standards of professionalism required to work in the intelligence services is very high and that one requires a stable and professional personality to hold such a position. The use of belligerent and unnecessary profanity like "I'm the motherf**ker that found this place" during a formal meeting with a very high ranking senior or childishly writing the number of days that nothing has happened each day on your bosses window like a sulking two year old just do not ring true for me and left me really just detesting the main character. Her general attitude and sense of entitlement even when there was little or no real evidence (the '100 percent' scene being a perfect example of arrogance) was never once even cautioned by her superiors... Perhaps this was part of the films determination to portray every other agent or official involved as a bumbling idiot. I'm talking about things like taking a single detainee's word that someone they were looking for was dead with no supporting evidence besides his word, or allowing a known terrorist to just drive into a military base without any checks on their vehicle, not even asking them to dismount at a safe distance resulting in several stupid agents and sensible but outspoken military personnel being killed...

Everything not featuring 'Maya' was pretty good. The Seal Team stuff was engaging, I had no problems with the torture scenes or the (reputedly) pro American stance of the film. Why should that be a factor? Of course its a pro American film given the subject matter.. I'm not an American and have no strong feelings either way about the Foreign policies of the United States but I understand the significance of these events to Americans and to the last decade of global politics. Asking a film about this subject to not celebrate a countries victory against someone who committed an atrocity would be like asking to make a film about the fall of Hitler that didn't celebrate the victory of the Allies..

In closing I would just like to say that the final scene where Maya shed tears just seemed weird given how dis-likable she was throughout the film. Were we supposed to connect to her? Because I literally felt no sympathy or connection to her at all and as a result that final scene seemed forced and unnecessary.

My advice would be if you want to see a GREAT film about this kind of intelligence work go check out Body Of Lies... That film really puts this to shame..