charles-limcw Reviews

Village (2023)

A Worthy Watch

[7/10 · 1 June 2024]

This is definitely a far superior film from director Michihito Fujii compared to his later one, Parades (both currently on Netflix).

I watched Parades first, and found it contrived and empty, filled with common uninteresting cliches, with annoyingly patronising music that attempts to force the viewers emotions.

The Village, on the other hand, has properly developed characters, and more scenes that allow viewers to meaningfully breathe and imbibe them without shoving it down their throats with contrived dialogue and cliched demeaning musical scores, although there were still some - but at a more tolerable level.

For instance, the scene in Parades with the 'spirits' parading/walking around was laughably bad; while the scene in The Village with people silently parading with Noi masks on were impactfully done.

I am bemused how the same director could deliver films with such a contrast with the earlier one mature and nicely understated, while the later one amateurish and contrived.

Acting in The Village was also evenly good with both minor and major characters, whereas the acting abilities in Parades were very uneven amongst the actors.

Obviously I'd recommend The Village but not Parades.

Breathe (I) (2017)

Vapid, Insipid, Uninspired, Don't Ring True

[4/10 · 31 May 2024]

Have a soft spot for such 'based on real life' movies, but unfortunately this one is yet another that's merely routine 'paint-by-the-numbers' affair.

The nice cinematography can't make up for the insipid and far from inspired script and direction. Like many, I did expect more from Serkis given his many innovative take on unusual roles as an actor.

Acting is competent and okay, though Garfield ridiculously looked coiffed, clean shaven, slim and healthy, simply fresh and bright as a daisy and just out for a nice jog for someone who's supposed to have been bedridden for months. And yes also speaks as clear as day with every consonant and vowel nicely in place - for someone who breathes with a tube and has for months lost the ability to speak? Just no.

The close involvement of the real-life couple's son is probably a significant damper on the whole affair - possibly by trying to (understandably) preserve the 'grace and perfection' of his parents, they ended up being more plastic screen mannequins mouthing simplistic cliches, rather than being believably troubled and inspired characters who speak authentically.

I do think Serkis does have it in him, but for this one he's barely skimming the surface and just didn't, possibly didn't dare, dig deeper into his talent and inspiration.

And for some strange reason, Serkis, despite being a seemingly precise actor, lets himself be rather careless even with obvious 'details' that should have been taken of, but were not.

Serkis - for your next directorial outing do just jump in and swim with all the creative and inspired might you do have, and stop toe-dipping along the waterline again.

Unfrosted (2024)

Cameo-Filled Dingus That Could Have Fizz-Popped But Not Quite

[6/10 · 30 May 2024]

It's not half-bad and I'd have to say nice try at some absurdist satire though not quite getting there.

The fundamental issue it seems is that the folks involved can't seem to differentiate between 'good' satire and what's just plain pointless slapstick and unfortunately more seems to be slanted towards the latter.

Cameos can be good fun if they fit into the scheme of things, but quite often in Unfrosted unnecessary and mediocre scenes are included to fit in the cameos.

The good thing is those involved appear to have a good time doing it, and an average attempt was made to wring some humour out of 60s paraphernalia.

It's something I didn't mind seeing as some mindless enjoyment but wouldn't feel I'd have missed out if I didn't.

Bodkin (2024– )

3 Episodes Max Would Have Made This Much Much Better

[5/10 · 13 May 2024]

Started off rather well, though with key characters either too whiny or just unlikeable, it wasn't a roaring start in any way.

It sails on fine enough and then by episode three one sighs knowingly that this is the sort of over-extended series that throw you too too many red herrings, many unnecessary and time-eating scenes that go nowhere.

And oh yes, we need to cater to the crazy woke folks with a totally unnecessary lesbian setup which of course again goes nowhere and fits nowhere in the plot structure (or over- structure).

And then comes the last episode -well, let's throw in every cliche, every kitchen sink, tap, and plumbing too. Yup. Carnival, Explosions, Ghost sheeted villains, and oh yes make all the baddies die at a go and leave all the innocents miraculously unblemished.

Wait wait. Make the whiny one do a stupid 'brave' act and let everyone forget the dire financial situation he's in which btw the over-stretched behemoth of a 'series' took pains and pains to set up.

Wait wait. Let's make the hardened one atone her past with a cringy visit to her old nunnery.

Wait wait. Let's top it all with a cherry-cringe, and make the overly meek one become the laughably over-brave and assertive lioness she's now become. Huh? 😂😂😂

Seems like no one can make a tightly well-written nicely shortened with little trimmings series anymore. Sigh.

Finally. Ok. Cinematography was good. Fullstop.

Baby Reindeer (2024)

7 Episodes of a One-Trick Pony? Gimmick Runs Very Dry Indeed

[5/10 · 7 May 2024]

If this was condensed into a tightly written 90 min movie where the protagonist don't make one ridiculous decision after another, it would have worked very well.

But here we have 7 episodes of repeated ridiculous decisions that's not funny, not revealing in any way, just another cringy boring stupidity, one after another.

Also, after two episodes of repeated Gadd's close-up tortured demeanour, that gimmick wears out very thin too.

So what's left? Nothing very much at all. It's a one dish meal, and once that's delivered, there's only ho-hum repetitive small talk to this 7 episode nothing evening.

Gadd - give this one-trick pony a break and let it go trotter off into the field of creativity a good long while before even thinking of saddling it up again. 😴

Creating a Universe: The Making of Rebel Moon (2024)

So Much Meticulous Efforts Adding Up to So Little

[4/10 · 1 May 2024]

Feel bad for all the many people involved (except for the top honchos including Snyder and his adoring coterie) expending so much dedication and effort on all the huge and minute technical details only to be screwed over by ridiculously bad plotting and silly amateurish dialogues - a way sub-par screenplay in other words.

There was also a segment on the significant effort of actually growing wheat and then scheduling to shoot when it was ready for harvesting - BUT did it even mean anything at all to the final movie?? NO! NONE! Zilch!!

Did NOBODY have the good sense (am sure some did and were duly fired) to tell Snyder at least three key things (apart from many others):

1). He's a terribly BAD and terribly TACKY writer!! Don't do it! You have the money. PAY FOR PROPER WRITERS!!

2) LESS can indeed be MORE - eg. Having so many characters, no matter how unique they are, nor how well the special effects folks make each of them look, can actually bland-out a movie instead of making it more compelling. They take up too much time and crowd-out too many scenes and the whole movie becomes a parade of forgettable costume jewellery - none is actually compelling because there is no room for proper character development, and evtually none sticks.

3) A giant space craft building civilisation stealing grains from cart riding, scythe sweeping village farmers is a very very STUPID laughable plot - and a key plot point at that!!

If they can build giant space ships they will have efficient technology to produce food.

Even IF they have to steal grains for no good reason whatsoever, they would have the wisdom and means to enslave the strangely dumb and inexplicably backward farmers and provide them the technology to farm efficiently to produce more and faster and not use slow low yield 10th century earth methods.

This whole enterprise is yet another example of how money power and hubris can overcome common good sense to force-manufacture with huge effort something totally stupid and 'unusable'.

Snyder's coterie of yes-men and yes-women are as much to blame.

At least I hope all the dedicated (but choosingly and probably choicelessly 'blind') underlings and vendors were well paid for their valiant but near-pointless efforts as far as the final movie outcome is concerned. The huge abundance of negative reviews says it all.

This embarrassment is totally on Snyder and no other higher hierarchies as there were in his other movies.

That said, I do enjoy quite a number of Snyder's other movies - good enough to ignore the plot and scripting shortcomings. But Rebel Moon - just a big fat obvious mistake that should never have been allowed to happen.

Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver (2024)

Tacky Overblown Poorly Scripted Space Opera Wannabe

[4/10 · 1 May 2024]

The opening narration itself is such a badly written jumble of incomprehensible nonsense, and with a voice narrator (I believe it's Anthony Hopkins) who's all wrong for it. Then the huge orange-y cheap looking "REBEL MOON" titling appeared - and that unfortunately well-characterise the next two hours.

If Snyder was trying hard for "style-over-substance" - there was neither.

'Dramatic' scenes ruined by bad plotting, tacky characterization, way over-bloated music and music-video-type scene setting.

Eg - the 'heroine' talking bout having murdered a child while naked in bed and then kiss kiss after? Really? Would be okay if it was a vile villain recalling it, but the heroine of your entire movie - just NO. And yes, throw in bad dialogue per the norm here to bring it down further.

Acting is uneven throughout - some actors were okay others were just not up to it, and throwing them in the same scenes just jars badly.

The plot if streamlined and skilfully trimmed could have worked fine, but not in its current frizz and hazy dazzle everywhere.

And cut out rubbishy things like 'grains' being the prize to fight over - beings with technology to build giant spacecrafts can easily have means to produce 'grains' without having to steal it from 'farmers'. And why even 'grains'? Huh?

Dialogue is so so alarmingly amateurish - given that this project would have the budget to hire at least average writers, it's perplexing. Perhaps Snyder did the dreadful deed himself - if so, DON'T ever again!!

A must watch for those interested in "What an Expensive Bad Space Opera Looks and Sounds Like".

Parasyte: The Grey (2024– )

Destroyed By So Many Ridiculous Plot Points

[4/10 · 13 April 2024]

What a total waste!

This short series HAD potential but was utterly trashed by horrendous writing.

Flow of events ridiculously nonsensical. Inconsistencies are glaringly everywhere. The whole thing is just an idiotic mess.

Characters both human and parasytes make obvious illogical moves or non-moves over and over just to drag out more nonsense. Dialogue is poorly constructed and silly.

The main nonsense apart from so many others is there is no solid reason (except for a weak stupid excuse that has no basis whatsoever) why the half-parasyte need or want to aid humans other than the director wanting to force in without any rhyme or reason a 'sympathetic' character - which is just laughable.

The narrative keep pushing the fact that the parasytes ultimate aim is to survive. And they could all survive half-human or not. Why the meaningless conflict with that half-human???

The two Japanese movies some years ago were much much superior to this junk plotting.

Ilo Ilo (2013)

For DICK STEEL "A Nutshell Review"

[8/10 · 3 April 2024]

An ImDb contributor nicknamed Dick Steel has for nine years (2004 to 2013) posted hundreds and hundreds of carefully written lengthy reviews with very generous scoring, 'his' final one being for Ilo Ilo (which you can find here).

I do not know why his reviews suddenly stopped here Sep 2013 when there were like one a day on average for nine years.

While I personally find 'his' ratings overly generous, I appreciate the very consistent dedication and effort 'he' put into writing each of the hundreds and hundreds of meticulous reviews.

It's been 11 years since 'he' suddenly stopped, Just want to pay a little tribute to this prolific generous contributor wherever 'he' is.

TQ & all the best!

The Parades (2024)

Veer Towards Contrived Farce Rather Than Poignancy

[5/10 · 3 April 2024]

The concept had potential but the execution of it just doesn't work, and the movie we see unfortunately just becomes more and more of a contrived farce rather than achieve any sense of considered poignancy that was probably the intention.

It would have worked much much better if the characters were just alive and looking for their loved ones and deliverance rather than dead souls that ludicrously had to eat, smoke, drink, check into rooms, sleep on beds, ride motorbikes and hitch rides in vans to get around.... oh wait ... aren't those things live people do??

Making them dead doesn't add anything at all other than just another ridiculous pointless gimmick.

And zero reason of any sort - because there was conceivably none, other than just another nonsensical contrivance - that these vehicle riding souls can only 'parade' around silently once a month to seek out their loved ones ... and yes now they have to walk in droves ... why? Just silly nonsense which also has next to nothing to do with the movie's content despite being entitled "The Parades".

The subpar stony faced 'acting' by some of the actors didn't help any, coupled with bland meandering overly melodramatic scripting that doesn't work.

Characters also bafflingly change in their nature and motivation which actually caused them to lose identity and depth, and viewers soon care less and less about them.

There are also too many sub-plots none of which are naturally captivating enough ... resulting in an obvious paint-by-numbers amateurish attempt.

Throw in too constant patronising mellow muzak to 'guide' viewers how they should feel at oh so melodramatic moments is just off-putting yucky.

A try of sorts, but no, just immature and poorly executed. The writer and director seem to be more caught up with gimmicky ideas and melodramatic effects that they neither have the skills nor resources to execute properly, rather than making a compelling movie that viewers can immerse themselves in.

Sen Benim HerSeyimsin (2016)

Would have Worked If Not for the Slapstick Nonsense

[4/10 · 12 March 2024]

Too bad. Could have been a nice little dad-daughter touching comedy but it's badly ruined by the ridiculous nonsense the amateurish director chose to throw in.

The main actor could have been likeable if not for the ugly wig ugly dumpy lothario persona the viewers are supposed to buy.

The beginning though cliched was still a nice touch, until of course the slapstick garbage comes in.

As it is, it's a bland nothing. Really too bad the director was such an amateurish disaster.

As it is, it's a bland nothing. Really too bad the director was such an amateurish disaster.

As it is, it's a bland nothing. Really too bad the director was such an amateurish disaster.

The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon (2023)

Another Laughably Bad and Silly Gangster Movie

[3/10 · 2 March 2024]

The pig, snake and pigeon are meant to represent ignorance, aversion and attachment, sometimes also referred to as the "three poisons".

The use of this lofty title is ridiculously laughable given the amateurish scripting and rubbishy plotting.

Had some hope this would be a good gangster action-drama. But within 10 minutes it's clear it's just another stupid showy nonsense filled with tonnes of senseless loopholes.

Even the 'dramatic' scenes are common and tacky, no better than cheap tv soap.

Watch this if you want to see guys 'realistically' bashing up one another just for the sake of it mixed in with doses of tacky badly written melodrama.

If you, like me, expect a tight well-written gangster action drama, then steer clear of this showy violent nothing puke.

The Creator (2023)

Visually Strong, Acting Ok, Everything Else Garbage

[4/10 · 12 February 2024]

Always wondered why this movie did so badly at the box office. Within 20 mins in the answer becomes blatantly clear.

Many other reviewers have pointed out its laughably numerous and gross problems with its downright bad and stupid plotting, scripting, dialogue, scene setups, shameless stereotyping, constant screwups with old-tech/new-tech anomalies (jumping senselessly from one to the other).

It didn't go bad progressively - when it rots it really not only rots but do so in exponential leaps and bounds. When you think it can't be anymore worse it up it's own crap ante! 🤣🤣

What a foolish director-producer pairing to put in such good effort on the visuals to end up with such a pile of movie t**d!!

Unless you are curious like me or a visual effect enthusiast, else give this a total miss.

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Too Much Gangsta, Too Little Osage

[6/10 · 7 February 2024]

Scorsese just cannot overcome his roots in double-crossing gangster movies and here he delivers one more instead of a movie dealing with the historical situation and context of Indian Osage.

Too many elements of this overly long movie come directly from The Irishmen, Gangs of New York, Good Fellas, The Departed, etc. So much so that the significance of the Osage historical context is mainly buried and surfaces ornamentally only in the guise of the superficiality of Indian costumes and Indian looking characters.

After 3.5 hours, little is known of the Osage Indians, nor all of the many characters, as they only come on as stereotyped villains, buffoons, grubby hands, depressed victims, good lawmen, bad lawmen, etc. It is a movie filled with carefully thought out camera shots, gunshots, scenic scenes, characters talking vacuously in their stereotypical character patois and mannerisms - most of the white men of the gangsterish flavour, most of the Indians of typical Indian flavour and no one seems to have a real solid human identity that one can get immersed with.

I feel like I've just watched another long winded unoriginal gangster movie which merely BTW has Osage historical context as a backdrop.

Just doesn't cut it to be a movie of any significance despite its purported historical importance and good cinematography ... it will probably be remembered more for its unnecessary length rather than anything else.

Old Fox (2023)

Should Have Been Taiwan's Oscar 2024 Entry

[8/10 · 7 February 2024]

Such a good movie yet Taiwan stupidly and perplexingly selected the entertaining but much common and much much inferior "Marry My Dead Body" (Netflix) for its Oscar entry which of course meant Taiwan was thrown out of even a nomination. How foolish!

Old Fox is a well-acted, nicely scripted drama that skilfully navigates the difficult pass between sappy melodrama and hard realism, filled with characters that are endearing, believable and relatable.

Just one essential criticism -> the last few minutes with the adult son was not only totally unnecessary, it caused the movie to veer distastefully into sappy mundanity leaving a sickly aftertaste of what could have been otherwise a pristine sparkly imprint. It's a lingering mark of doubt the director may have had in the strength of the movie that preceded, to want to add in such an amateurish appendage that could only - and did - diminish what had been built.

For some inexplicable reason, Old Fox seems to have fallen into a grey zone in the audience market despite it being a significantly better offering than 80% of what's out there.

For instance, mine is the first audience review on IMDb eventhough it's been out for a while, and I was only one of two audience in the theatre.

Go watch it. HIGHLY recommended!

Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

Good BUT Much Tighter Plotting Would Have Brought It To Great

[7/10 · 6 February 2024]

This is fundamentally a well-acted expository on human relationships and not a whodunnit like some might expect.

Near the ending I was very very afraid that there would be a ridiculous 'revealing twist' that would wreck the entire enterprise, but thankfully there isn't one.

A few key tighter plottings that would have made this a much much gripping and believable watch would include:

1) a narrative that significantly includes the POV of the prosecutor and his character's motivation beyond the obvious. As it is, he is just a 2-D bland dislikable mouthpiece - this voids the movie off a substantial relevant and meaningful dimension.

2) the key argument by the two protagonists over 'time' remains unrealistic and not substantive enough to truly flesh out their relationship's blight

3) the 'murder weapon' which is a truly important element of the prosecutor's murder premise is simply brushed off as 'not found' - given the physical 'crime' scene, it is simply not believable and more plotting effort should be placed on this - as it is, the prosecutor again just comes across as conveniently a loud incompetent show-offish buffoon.

4) for both the mother and son to hide things and then reveal it later was totally unconvincing as 'necessary' from their viewpoint, and is obviously just a tacky scripting device to create intrigue - instead it just creates an audience dumb down incredulity.

5) there is literally NOTHING in the narrative nor the courtroom to-and-fro that discuss why the husband, if he did commit suicide, chose a violent messy end - this makes no sense at all given his attentive concern for his son - and he damn well knew that violent end would result in a mess his son would see; further he has means to effect a less gory end if he wanted to. The entire script just remained silent on this important factor.

Still a good watch but it's a waste the plotting and scripting weren't made that much more tighter and believable to be a genuine masterpiece.

Good Grief (IV) (2023)

Good Grief - Snowflakily Common and Boring

[3/10 · 30 January 2024]

Expected lots more from Dan Levy than this self-absorbed yawningly boring stuff.

The character that he plays is one I'd voluntarily stay a million measures from - a flaky empty soul that thinks misfortune is his sole domain that he can smear everyone around him with. Ditto the 'friends' that surround him.

Do humour, Dan. You are much better at that than this pretentious echo of common nothingness.

The character that he plays is one I'd voluntarily stay a million measures from - a flaky empty soul that thinks misfortune is his sole domain that he can smear everyone around him with. Ditto the 'friends' that surround him.

Do humour, Dan. You are much better at that than this pretentious echo of common nothingness.

Bodies (2023)

From Intriguing to Cheapo Laughable Sci-fi

[4/10 · 6 January 2024]

"DO KNOW YOU ARE LAUGHED!"

The intriguing setup in Episode 1 and most of Episode 2 totally plateaus in Episode 3. By Episode 4 it's sliding into pretentious lalaland but with all the serious demeanour of the actors you could still force yourself to pretend it'll get better.

By Episode 6 till the end, the serious 'acting' just totally looks and sound like silly SNL caricatures where the actors pretend to act seriously on a totally laughably bad script and dialogue with a nonsensical plot.

I just forced myself to watch till the end of Episode 8 just for mirth and chuckles.

"DO KNOW YOU ARE LAUGHED" 😂😂😂

Maestro (I) (2023)

Should be titled "The Bernsteins"

[6/10 · 23 December 2023]

Perplexing why Cooper would call the movie Maestro then go on to do a movie all about a Leonard and a Felicia, their children his friends, his gay relationships, Felicia's dealings with this, aging and death.

Leonard Bernstein the maestro is merely incidental, shown mainly by him conducting.

This odd choice of focus inevitably made the entire movie boring and bland, to some extent saved by the good cinematography and Cooper and Mulligan playing their characters to a T.

Leonard Bernstein is ultimately known for his musicianship and that's where the audience interest primarily lies. His love life, his family, his sexuality should be at most illuminating backdrops in the movie, but unfortunately they were mainly what the movie was about. We want to know of his development and frustration in his musical endeavours but the movie offers at best a passing lip service to this.

Watching a movie called Maestro and then getting barely anything about the maestro as a maestro makes the viewer feels cheated.

The family Bernstein is really not at all that interesting a subject for a movie. Wasted opportunity.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023)

Same Mistakes as Early Man

[5/10 · 20 December 2023]

Looks like the creators didn't learn anything from the failure of Early Man (2018). A successful family animation needs to engage folks of any and all ages - the first Chicken Run did to a good extent. This one didn't. Ditto Early Man.

Audiences want to see relatable settings, characters with soul, plots that are realistically challenging (not pointlessly ridiculous). So we end up with a colourful bland bright happy island commune ... overdone, unrelatable and boring. Then we get a silly super high tech robots and gadgets filled chicken farm/factory - huh? And football matches in prehistoric Early Man? Huh?

From the short documentary on 'the making of' its immediately clear the creators and team spent a massive 99% effort on the puppeting, the sets, the lighting, the movements, the look of things - which is fine, except, where's the effort on the story, the characters, the soul of the whole thing??

The director even laughed at how fun it was to give Ms Tweedy a glam look - but hello mister - did you ask yourself what the viewers want out of a once iconic scary evil character like her? A glam up look? Really?

It does seem all the people involved in this - many very competent in their area of specialty - was more focused on putting out their best on producing their area of specialty than making an animated movie that truly relates to the audience.

For instance so much technical deal and effort was made of Tweedy walking down glass steps - if the story and plotting was better it wouldn't have mattered if she was walking down milk carton cutouts with average lighting and a less smooth gait.

Do please spend more thought and effort on plotting and characters and audience impact, and less on the visual razzle dazzle.

Sex Education (2019–2023)

Series That Made Sex Silly and Boring

[7/10 · 28 November 2023]

As many has pointed out, S1 was good, and S2 mostly good and then the absurdities rammed into S3, and S4 just let the s**t splatter everywhere.

Well, the same desperation for crude attention affects writers of many initially successful series. They run out of gold and start to throw in nonsensical glitter and fool's gold thinking viewers are blind to their rubbish.

The endless silly sex scenes in every episode just makes sex a common childish bore. Characters start to behave illogically, out of character and lose their arcs in lalaland. Pointless conundrums are chucked in just to fill up time which the writers no longer know how to meaningfully utilise.

Just another shame of a good start flushed down the proverbial s**thole. Yawn.

The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D (2005)

Campy Fun

[6/10 · 6 November 2023]

Why the hate? This is just out right campy fun ... yes even for adults with any sense of silly humour left.

And it's just laughably weirdly scary to see a mini-me version of Taylor Lautner who has one of those faces that don't change much from young to adult. Ditto the scary mini-me of Kirsten Dunst in Interview with a Vampire.

The plot is senseless but rather sweetly inventive, the graphics campy fun, the acting is exaggerated children cute/annoying.

I bet many of those who thrashed this would secretly enjoy parts of it - unless they are just brainless goons of the Gestapo.

Importantly one gets the feeling the folks involved in the making of this did enjoy themselves making it.

And yes the kids to get to learn something good.

Don't be a prude - just watch it.

Frasier (2023– )

Views Like a Mediocre Stage Play

[4/10 · 22 October 2023]

This shockingly poor re-boot just wanna send you running back to the very charming witty original.

The script is just boring-bad; the new characters are unlikeable and visibly trying way too hard too loud for laughs without any real chemistry with Frasier - including the one playing his son, Freddy.

Freddy is the one character that this re-boot need to absolutely nail in both casting and scripting in order to play off father Frasier - and it absolutely failed in every aspect.

It's not remotely funny; in fact it's kinda sad to see Kelsey Grammer trying hard to hold the whole thing together for everybody when it's simply just not working.

The annoying laugh track just adds to the desperation.

Frasier himself is a much different character (due to the poor scripting) this time, and one feels we are watching Kelsey Grammer playing another character rather than an older Frasier.

Apart from the characters names, nothing about this re-boot is near the essence and brilliance of the Frasier of yore. Just another mediocre stage play 😔

Father Stu (2022)

Just Doesn't Work

[4/10 · 14 October 2023]

For such movies to work it is absolutely essential that the main character believably goes through the change for believable reasons, especially when it's based on a real life person. Here, it's just the same old boorish character mouthing words in different costumes. Just laughable.

Despite his attempts, Mark Wahlberg is a total miscast. He just comes across as an unlikeable flip flopping petulant motor-mouth and his 'conversion' is outright contrived and lacks any meaningful motivation. The actress that played the woman that led him to go to church was not only a miscast but a self-conscious poor actress who has no chemistry whatsoever with Mark's character. Their scenes together are just good examples of embarrassingly bad acting jobs.

Add to that, other priests are just portrayed as typical fools who seem to just conveniently cave in to motormouth Stu.

Dialogues and scenes are clunky and cliche ridden. Not funny, not dramatic, not inspiring. Just bad school play stuff.

Only saving grace is Mel Gibson's believable performance as the red-neck dad ... if only his lines were better written.

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

Silly Common Twists Destroyed The Movie

[5/10 · 12 October 2023]

The movie was excellent for 1hr 40 mins and then the utterly cheap rubbishy childish twists come in at the end that totally destroyed all the good work put in by the actors and production team.

Whoever wrote the idiotic piece of garbage ending ought to be prosecuted for outright stupidity.

The 5 rating is for the wonderful acting and passable dialogue. The plotting is a total MINUS 10.

No wonder right at the end the director had the gall to ask viewers not to reveal the ending to others - otherwise no one else would bother to see this junk.

Huge waste - could have been a true classic if the last 10 mins was deleted and a proper ending inserted.