neonblade-2

Oh my god this is bad, and not in a good way.

I love vampire films. I have a collection of them. I have an autographed copy of the late, great, Ingrid Pitt's excellent book "The Bedside Companion for Vampire Lovers" and an autographed photograph of 70s Hammer Horror queen Caroline Munro.

I watch everything from great Vampire films like "Only lovers left alive" to B-grade trash. I enjoy nearly all of them, but not this. The dialogue and acting are atrocious. The female lead looks like she's partied hard and not eaten for a month before filming commenced and sleep-walks her way through every line. There's a weird scene where the vampire (a poor Nosferatu clone) sits making weird faces. The main characters are knocked off one after another without anyone bothering to obtain a crucifix or a knob if garlic.

As a previous reviewer mentioned, there's no boobs or even a decent cleavage shot.

Any good reviews you see here for this film (a couple obviously written by one person) were either by cast, crew, or their families.

If you see this movie coming towards you, hold up a cross to it and RUN AWAY!

I finally got around to watching this two nights ago.

Missed it on the big screen due to illness, so I had to settle for Netflix.

Lots of reviews here describing it as long and boring?

So why do I intend to watch it again tomorrow night?

The fact 5hat Cate Blanchett didn't win the Best Actor Oscar for this just proves what a farce the awards are.

A lot of reviewers here describing Cate as "One of the finest actors of our time" After watching Tar I think it's time we drop the "One of" part of that description.

She is mesmerising from the first scene.

Although the "Julliard" scene gets a lot of praise, my favourite scene was the opening interview.

I'm simply awestruck by Ms Blanchett's performance.

Bravo Maestro!

Check the other reviews. The most favourable reviews for this film are written by combat vets who were in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Surprisingly good and very realistic.

Well filmed and great production values.

Battle scenes are intense, very reminiscent of Black Hawk Down.

The battle depicted was the first battle in American military history in 50 years where two Medals Of Honour were awarded.

Contrary to what some reviewers have said, this movie does not glorify war, quite the opposite.

The scene that hit me the most is near the end, a soldier talking to a psychologist. Actually made me tear up.

Highly recommended.

So many historical inaccuracies.

So many weapons inaccuracies.

So many ridiculous plot holes.

All mentioned by other reviewers here.

Somehow I actually managed to sit through all of it.

Two standouts for me in this film, because they made me laugh out loud at how stupid they were:

When they (despite carrying a limited amount of ammunition) used an entire bag of grenades to take out one machine gunner who was an easy target standing unprotected in the back of a truck.

The scene where (badly CGId) bombers were dropping their bombs and trying to avoid flak at what looked like a height of about 100 feet.

By a strange coincidence, I was just reading about the "Tube Alloys" project last night, before watching this tonight.

Something we should remember right from the outset... It's not a biographical pic!

Yes, it's hugely inaccurate historically, but it doesn't have to be an accurate historical depiction.

It's fiction, inspired by a true story.

Few seem to understand the difference.

Dane Judi Dench is excellent as always, however with little screentime.

Sophie Cookson is superb in this.

The flashback scenes to the '30s and '50s have a very authentic look about them, sets and subdued tones used very effectively.

The premise that her treasonous acts are justified by her ideology (and subsequently proved right) seems to upset a lot of reviewers who think she really deserved to be hung for her crimes.

I don't think the final point is "See, she was right!", I think the point is to depict the rationale of someone who can commit a treasonous act but still believe they're not a traitor, but in fact a patriot.

If you find that a difficult pill to swallow then you haven't been watching the news over the last two years.

I was thinking of just writing "Richard Roxborough is an Australian national treasure" and leaving it at that, but not mentioning how good all (too many to name individually) are would be a crime even Cleaver Greene couldn't defend.

I'm late to the party and just finished ep6 of season 1, but I'm already thinking this is in my top 5 of favourite TV series I've ever watched. RR amazed me years ago with his portrayal of Roger Rogerson in the mini-series "Blue Murder" (I've met Rogerson, Richard's portrayal was perfect), he's an amazing talent.

As a side-note, nice to see Cleaver lives above the "Piccolo Bar" in King's Cross, the view from the window looks straight at where I lived across the street from it back in the 80s.

At last, a biopic that sticks to the truth.

So many times I've watched biographical films about musical artists and been appalled by the way they stray from the facts.

It's almost as if the writers and directors consider their subjects lives so boring they need to exaggerate and embellish their life stories so the narrative will be worth making a movie about.

Sadly, for the most part, this is in fact true.

However, Weird Al's meteoric rise to fame, his descent into degradation thanks to the manipulations of an evil woman (you all know who I'm talking about), his phoenix-like revitalisation of his career and tragic untimely death have become legend.

Al will always be remembered as, although not technically the greatest, most popular and successful piano-accordian player, in a specific genre, of all time.

There is no need for added dramatization here.

Weird Al's epic story is Homeric in scale.

I've rated it 9 stars. I would have given it a 10 if Cecil B. Demille had still been around to direct it.

I've heard veterans of the Vietnam war rave about how accurate this film is.

This movie makes a very compelling anti-war statement without insulting your intelligence by spoonfeeding it to you.

I'm amused by the reviews here complaining that the battle scene locations look nothing like Vietnamese jungle, especially the reviewer who complained it was obviously ordered, planted, rows of trees.

The battle was fought in a rubber plantation, NOT the jungle.

If you've going to review movies at least pay attention to them.

Yes, I could write a five page review of this film.

The first paragraph would be me raving about how stellar the cast is, how beautifully filmed this is, and what a great director Guillermo Del Toro is.

The rest of my review would be all about how good Cate Blanchett is in this film.

She is simply riveting in any scene she appears in.

Australia has produced many amazing actors (and Toni Collette is one of them), but, IMHO, Cate might just be the finest actor to ever come out of Australia.

Do I sound like a gushing fan?

Well I guess I am.

If you're looking for a CGI-heavy horror-fest, this isn't it.

What you do get is a haunting, beautifully filmed story with some outstanding performances, that deliberately leaves a big question unanswered.

Amaia Aberasturi totally bewitched me. Her performance is a beautiful mixture of innocence and sensuality.

The other girls are amazing also, their characters fluctuating between seemingly wicked lasciviousness and wrongly-accused innocence.

I found this dichotomy to be the soul of this film.

Àlex Brendemühl is superb as the inquisitor.

He plays a man who is part of the evil that was the inquisition, and yet somehow evokes sympathy for his character, who at heart is a seeker of truth and clearly harbours doubts about the task he performs.

I loved the depiction of the Sabbath.

Despite what you read in other reviews here, I particularly liked the ending and it's openness to interpretation.

Did they fall? Did they fly?

Were they Brujas it not?

I love that this film leaves those questions open, I think it's what makes this film so good.

Yeah, it's not Bram Stoker's Dracula or Only lovers left alive, but I did enjoy it.

Acting was good, had plenty of humour.

Nicely shot, lots of pastel colours and neon.

I get the impression that Director Adam Randall is a fan of Brian De Palma, and he does that look quite well.

Sexy, as all good vampire films should be.

Lightweight? Yeah, a little, but fun!

A nice addition to my collection of the genre.

Had so several friends rave about this when it came out, do out of curiosity I watched it.

The law of attraction.

The concept has been around since cave-dwelling days and this film (and subsequent book) add absolutely nothing new except to dress it up to smell like a pyramid scam for narcissists.

Reminds me a lot of a certain "guru" who built up a huge cult following worldwide before he died, whose teachings were 90% plagiarised Buddhist writings mixed with the "doctrine of prosperity".

Same deal. Old stuff, repackaged, dished out as something new for a gullible audience.

Well worth the watch!

Hadn't watched this before, and I love Hammer horror.

No Christopher Lee, no Ingrid Pitt (my queen!) and no Caroline Munro, so I wasn't expecting it to be as good as later Hammer vampire classics.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Great sets, some great acting, some novel ideas and very well filmed.

The film departs from Vampire canon in places, but never too far.

The Vampire ball sequence is excellent and I especially liked the piano scene early on in the film.

The ending (no spoilers) took me by surprise.

I'm amused reading the other reviews here saying this film may have influenced later films Eyes Wide Shut and The Fearless Vampire Killers, but not the obvious one that I suspect this film greatly inspired.

A young, just-married couple on a lonely country road.

Their car breaks down.

They're offered assistance by the master of the creepy-looking local castle.

They're just in time for a masked ball, with the castle full of dancing party-goers.

It isn't all bad, is it Janet?

I live in Pripyat and I counted a dozen inaccuracies on my right hand alone.

But oh God it's bad.

Chloe Grace Moretz is a great actor, but she couldn't save this.

Ten minutes into this I'd shaken my head and said "nope!" so many times I was worried I'd injure my neck badly if I sat through the whole movie.

I don't mind suspending my disbelief to enjoy a film, but this one expects you to hang your disbelief by the neck until it's dead.

I'm referring here to the climbing outside the plane while it's in flight scenes of course.

Speaking of being outside the plane, a B17 in flight is an awesome sight.

We never see that. Even dogfight scenes are shot from a point of view within the aircraft.

I know that airworthy B17s are hard to find, but there's some well done CGI work by Weta in this film so why they didn't do some external shots is a mystery. It would have made the film visually far more interesting.

Early in the film almost an hour goes by filmed entirely within the ball turret.

A lot of people have criticised this, but I think they get away with it.

Unfortunately the mysoginistic dialogue during most of that becomes tedious very quickly and is dragged on for far too long and is very badly written.

Apparently the script was extensively re-written. I'd hate to think how bad the original was, because the finished work is dreadful.

This film has plot holes a plenty, right from the odd disappearing ground crew on the runway at the start.

Chloe's character, who looks like she might be an undercover SOE agent on a secret mission, turns out to be fleeing domestic violence.

She turns out to be a WAAF officer with lots of hours flying "unarmed aircraft, single handed".

Despite this, she turns out to be an absolute expert ball-turret gunner and very skillful martial artist.

Oh yeah, that final fight scene with the creature (who's presence is never really explained). Seriously? It's got talons that can tear through steel but can't use them in a fight?

Let's not forget the soundtrack.

The overbearing, synth-based stuff was just annoying and really didn't suit the look of tone of the film.

Cheaper than doing the score with an orchestra I suppose though.

My favourite part of this movie was the archival WWII footage during the end credits.

I'll keep this short.

Some reviews here claim this is the finest work ever produced for TV in Australia.

They're probably right.

The entire cast is excellent.

I met Rogerson a couple of times back in the early eighties.

As another reviewer said here, Richard Roxborough IS Roger Rogerson.

His portrayal is uncanny.

Tony Martin is superb in this.

The attention to detail in this series is astounding. This was really brought home to me by a detail in one scene which could only have been known by paying a lot of attention to minor details while reading the actual police reports on the events surrounding Warren Lanfranchi's murder.

This series deserves to become a cult classic.

Saw this pop up on Netflix.

Gary Oldman? Watching!

I'm a huge fan of Mr Oldman, but his (minor) role here felt like he phoned it in.

There's people reviewing this here saying Amy Adams should get an Oscar for it, but her performance in this seemed very forced, probably due to the terrible script.

Every thing about this film seemed borrowed from previous films (Rear window, Gaslight, Girl on the Train, and a touch of Columbus Circle). Very predictable. I knew who the villain was and how they'd meet their demise by about 20 minutes into it.

The Ethan character just seemed like they plagiarised Edward Norton's excellent Aaron character from Primal Fear.

This film apparently went through a lot of re-editing and it shows. It feels very disjointed.

Amy Adams' "apology" scene was cringe-worthy. Likewise the scene where she first meets Julienne Moore's character and gets drunk with her. It felt very forced and unnatural.

Could have been great. It wasn't.

A great cast. Mostly wasted.

This was a cut above anything else I've watched in ages, on every level.

If you like your vampires "sparkling", don't bother watching this. If you're looking for a blood-spatter fest, don't bother watching this. This is the most intelligent vampire film I've ever seen. It's beautifully filmed, with stellar performances by all players. Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton (she can bite me any time she likes) are great in this. John Hurt is superb as an old scoundrel. The soundtrack is one of the best ever. This film captures the pointless ennui of the curse of immortality. This is, for me, a movie that captures the essence of it's subject, but the subject isn't vampirism. It's subject is the repetitious banality of addiction. This is a personal thing for me. I'm a recovering addicts for over 19 years. I can watch "Train spotting", "Spun", "Requiem for a dream" or any of the scores of other films that focus on addiction and relate to them a lot. This film however, just nails it. I find it almost painfully triggering, even after 19 years of being clean, and yet, I can't help but return to it for a rewatch, time and again. As my review title says, one of my favourite films, but I'm pretty old, my name is Adam and I like to collect guitars, so I could be a little biased.

This was my 18 yr old's pick to see on his birthday today. So glad he picked this. Took 5 of his teenage friends who live on a diet of Marvel universe and Sci-fi films. They were captivated from start to finish. Eric Bana, an amazing talent, puts in a nicely understated performance. The rest of the cast are great. As another reviewer said, there is a subtle homage to Picnic at Hanging Rock in this film and it has that same haunting quality. The harsh, dry landscape is also one of the stars of this film. Some nice plot twists and red herrings, the dark subject matter nicely balanced with a dry, very Australian humour.

If you liked Janis before, you'll love her after watching this. If you don't think she's the greatest singer in blues rock history, this might just convince you. Some amazing footage that I hadn't seen before. This really gets to the heart of who she was and what made her so very special. Made me weep, a lot.

This is a series I'd rewatch several times. The scene where Agent Tench's wife confronts him over leaving evidence lying around in their house is, in my humble opinion, quite possibly the best scene I have ever watched in a TV series. Ever.

Perfect end to one of my favourite series. Watched 6 seasons wondering when that inevitable scene in the carpark would happen. Possibly my favourite scene ever in a TV series

It's 2020 and I've finally watched this film. What a masterpiece. The cinematography is a masterclass in the art, the acting superb, enhanced by a beautiful soundtrack. Devastatingly bleak, shocking, sad and uplifting. Schindler's farewell to the workers at the end is one of the most moving scenes I've seen on screen.

Yeah, not historically accurate, but thoroughly enjoyable. Lots of plotting and intrigue. Not a sex-and-violence-just-for-the-sake-of-being-shocking splatterfest. Interesting characters. Beautiful location shooting in Czech castles. Nicely shot. Gets better the more episodes you get into it. Disappointing they're not renewing this.