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Reviews
Fallout (2024)
Silly and tedious.
I have never played the game, and so come to it with no expectations, but reviewing this as a stand-alone show I am quite unimpressed. The story is a pretty run of the mill post nuclear apocalypse yarn about feral humans trapped on the surface and privileged people dwelling in underground bunkers until things go wrong and they are forced to interact.
The storyline is silly, some of the scenes comedic for no discernible reason, the pacing is dreadfully slow and the characters unengaging. Two episodes in I simply find myself uninterested in continuing to be bored by this.
Perhaps, were I an aficionado of the game, I would enjoy it more and be looking forward to future storylines but I'm not, so I can't, and the production does not have enough going for it to make me continue with it.
Ender's Game (2013)
Poor adaptation of the book
The book was very edgy. A murderer plucked out of obscurity and brought to battle-school. Who kills and maims, rebels but complies with the overall mission, and finally succeeds in saving the human species. The film pulls in lots of these features but not all and not well enough. It was watchable but not great. That the simulations are not simulations, that the battles involve human deaths is not made enough of. This was key to the story.
The 'little doctor' was a torpedo, not a ship, and was in multiple ships in the book so it was more dispersed and that was what made the final solution of "set it off in your ship" (which Wiggin couldn't say but we later found out Bean told the crews) so powerful.
Big problems: The kid was terrible. I really don't want to be nasty to child actors but he was terrible.
And really. You need a Maori character so you get Ben Kingsley? Really?
Foundation (2021)
Misconstrued, misconceived and monotonous.
While the title and the names of the characters are the same, the entire flow of the story-line has been altered as well as many of the basic premises of the plot. Instead of a great rolling tale of the flows of an empires fall and the rise of a great technological future civilization we have a tawdry palace intrigue at one end of the galaxy and tribal savagery at the other. Both strands are confusing, poorly plotted and very dull. 4.2 episodes in and I am done with this. I will waste no more time on it.
Incredibly disappointing as I had high hopes for this series. It's a shame the writers, directors and producers didn't bother to read the book before setting out upon this endeavour.
The Many Saints of Newark (2021)
Two pointless hours of incoherent nonsense
There is little or no plot here. It wastes actors of substance from start to finish. It does not achieve any of the goals which we expected from the hype and the trailers. Everyone involved should be embarrassed.
Yes, Prime Minister (2013)
Revolting travesty
The original show, Yes (Prime) Minister, was a subtle, clever, and extraordinarily funny set of series which caught the attention of a nation and entertained them all. This reboot is a screaming farce with terrible writing and direction, and quite extraordinarily hammed-up acting. The story lines are repetitive (one joke is used three times), poorly researched and presented, and ultimately quite repulsive. I loathed this show, am sorry I watched it, and am glad it was not renewed.
The Magnificent Seven (2016)
A mediocre western trying to score off a masterpiece
The cast is excellent, the film could have been an ok western but they decided instead to try and make it a remake of a masterpiece. This was the worst plan, resulting in a film which , inevitably, is contrasted unfavourably with the original.
Don't bother with this waste of screen time, watch the original.
Another Life (2019)
Writers...get some writers
Synopsis: A group of emotionally stunted adult-toddlers who have got too much sugar and just can't calm down have somehow been recruited for the most important mission to space in human history. They sprint from disaster to disaster as the episodes drag by, each problem created due to their own sheer incompetence and failure to understand the most basic of protocols.
Review: It's a real disappointment to watch decent actors trying so hard to make such dreadful writing work but this just isn't worth the struggle. The SFX are quite good.