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Apocalypse Now (1979)
Utterly shocking
I watched this recently, having avoided all such war films for many years. It is a mind-bending film in many ways. Technically it is astonishing, with amazing scenes happening in rapid succession, using hundreds of actors and extras, and horrible violent events taking place everywhere you look. They had the use of many helicopters, ground vehicles and boats and made use of the wonderful scenery. Then there is the action, which is very disturbing from the start. Men are suffering breakdowns, injuries and committing desperately awful acts of killing. There is drinking and drug-taking all the time. The commanders all seem to be insane. Even the ones that do appear to be functioning issue ridiculous orders with a straight face. Life has become more or less worthless. I read a lot about the Vietnam war at the time, and this film really brings home the desperation and insanity of conducting a war against a people thousands of miles away. The main thing I got from it though, is how depraved and disgusting men are.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Unpleasant and unbelievable
Perhaps the director was trying to create an atmosphere by making it all look the same all the way through. Then it occurred to the people in charge that it was very dull, so they added some pointless and revolting sex scenes. The acting was awful - the level of mumbling was so irritating. Re-running the dialogue did not help much. It seemed to me that they wanted to make a modern version of the original Greek story, but completely lost the plot in a lot of turgid and boring scenes of the characters' lives, without any sense of magic, or the intervention of supernatural gods. Some of the scenes were just padding. A wonderful opportunity missed.
Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder (2023)
Done better many times before
Perhaps the creative team were looking to expand into the horror genre, having run out of ideas many years ago. This was a cross between Event Horizon and every film I have ever seen about space vampires. The technology included some sort of plumbing test piece for apprentices, rusty disused rooms, a filing cabinet and a lot of dialogue that sounded like they were at an audition. It was hard to hear and I gave up half way through. If this amazing and huge spaceship was built by saurian aliens, like the dead one outside, why does it look inside like every run down factory in the UK? Why would it be made of stuff that rusts? If the doctor can sort out the controls, why not look at recordings of its journey? I think the BBC have fallen back onto special effects because they have no idea what drama is.
The Deep Blue Sea (2011)
Deeply annoying
This is a story that is about stirring up emotions, desire and passion in a post-war setting of destruction and shock. So much money spent on sets and equipment of the time, which is impressive, but then they get the clothing, make-up, cleanliness, lighting and accents wrong. The directing was uneven, with Tom Hiddlestone having to shout and yell and storm out of rooms all the way through. Unbelieveable scenes in the outside locations, where there was so much singing in tune and camaraderie, with everybody else listening, and the pub was lit with LED lights. Almost everybody smoked at that time and yet there was no blue haze to be seen in the pub or the underground station. The scene with the mother was invented and pointless. The children playing around the bomb-damaged houses were far too clean and well-dressed. Most adults then had bad teeth and worse hair, but these could all afford futuristic dentistry and top London coiffeurs. All of these things detract from the dramatic aims of the film, as did the inappropriate music over the long pan shots of the area. If you can get past all of this, then the acting was very good, but the script and the plot was overheated to the point of just plain annoying. A waste of an opportunity to do it right.
Elmer Gantry (1960)
Stunning and memorable
I first saw this film in my late teens and have watched it many times since. Burt Lancaster is incandescent on the screen, playing a deeply flawed but commanding character to perfection. I knew nothing about American revivalists and their strange mobile big top shows, but the more I learn about this the better the film becomes. Its portrayal of the poor and deprived people and how they are so desperate to be "saved" they would give all they had is so gripping. The way Elmer manipulates all those church and civic leaders, all the money men and every woman he meets is mesmerising. From a technical point of view, the sound and staging is grat, and the timing andn style of the actors shows their huge talents. As a hard of hearing person, I could also hear every word, something nobody since the 1960s seems able to reproduce. This film made a permanent impression on me, being so good and so revealing about the revivalism business. A must-see for anyone who wants to know how these con artists live in the public eye, but at the same time conceal every kind of vice.
The Power of the Dog (2021)
Beautiful Scenery
Stunning locations and a lot of thought went into the style and props. There were plenty of amazing big country type scenes with cattle, horses men and women trotting along behind. Pianos featured a lot in this film - player models in the bar and a baby grand brought to the ranch for Kirsten Dunst to play. Phil is tiresome and mean-minded and looks so unlike his alleged brother I though this might be a film about secret infidelity in the parents' marriage. No such luck - however we do get to see Benedict Cumberbatch naked and covering himself in mud. Otherwise, nothing of any interest happens at all.
Couples Therapy (2019)
Horrifyingly bad
I had to check several times to believe this is a real therapist with real patients. She is weird and offputting, and the couples are weird and childishly demanding. It looks scripted and sounds like a nightmare. Why would anybody on Earth consent to go to this woman and actually be filmed talking about how they cannot cope with basic living? Bizarre, like watching a play with badly-designed robots grinding out their lines. The couples already seem to know what the rules of seeing a therapist are and join in with gusto, though nothing she does in return seems to be of much value. The only effect this program might have is to put people off seeking "professional" therapy for their problems.
Annika (2021)
Barrel-scraping
How does such dross get produced on our screens? It must cost a great deal of money, which could have been used to make some really good, thoughtful new drama. Instead a series of ridiculous events occur, some scruffy and vacant people wander about doing something, and Annika breaks the fourth wall. The locations are wonderful and I have no doubt all the actors have a good CV, but what was this meant to portray? It fails on police procedure, character, motivation and likelihood of events. Why are there so many actors in it that have no local accent, and why does Annika herself sound like Nichola Walker in everything else she has done? A series of tropes and mumming, with a lot of bad diction.
Magpie Murders (2022)
Contrived and ridiculous
Bizarre, pointless snoozefest. The parts set in the 1950s are full of anachronistic mistakes, the characters are weird and the story makes no sense at all, even with all the flashbacks.
Film makers need to have deaths from a high fall explained to them. If you fall off a tower, you fall straight down and land in a messy heap, not laid out flat on your back several yards away with barely a scratch. If you want authenticity in your 1950s drama, ask someone who was there. Everything looked different then, due to older types of dyeing of fabrics, much lower hygiene standards, poor dentistry, very weak and orange light bulbs, much less noise everywhere, much more physical differences between people, poor housing and much more class-ridden social rigidity. If you want to film this author's work, Foyle's War was much better, though still rather anachronistic. Otherwise, please keep it to yourself.
Proxima (2019)
Tiresome and pointless
I fell asleep and missed a whole hour of it. When I woke up it was just the same. A mother frets over the emotional problems caused to her and her daughter's relationship by going on a space mission for a year. The spaceship was a rocket, so no new technology there. The men she encounters are dismissive and undermining. She is less than ideal at her work and then takes an enormous risk which could have damaged the mission. If this was supposed to show support for women in the space service, something is very wrong here. It is patently not a sci-fi film, as nothing remotely new or even startling happens, and all the equipment they use is standard now. We see nothing after the blast-off. A very earthbound and wordy film that does nothing for women.
Shillingbury Tales: The Shillingbury Blowers (1980)
Gentle comedy but the same old problem with the music.....
As a musician, I did enjoy some of this film but had to avert my eyes and ears during the scenes with the band. Robin Nedwell is a watchable actor but has no clue about conducting, and was awful at it. It was also obvious that the sound track for the band was made by professional standard musicians who were simply messing about. Unfortunately so many film productions spend their budget on location, costumes, transport etc., but then they just use some session musicians or recordings which are completely wrong for the players as portrayed. This is a glaring error - like perhaps using the wrong type of car for a racing film or a diesel train for a story about a steam one. The shots of Robin Nedwell conducting could have been edited to make it look like he could count. So it could have been much more enjoyable with a bit of planning.
Karen Pirie (2022)
Good ideas but unintelligible
Some of the worst mumbling on telly of late. Dark interiors, dialogue very quiet, badly articulated and covered by layers of sound that make it impossible. I could not make out large chunks of it, despite altering the setting on my tv to enhance the voices. Earlier today I watched some tv from the 1940s, and heard every single word. Why can't anyone get this right today?
The conversations between Karen and her police colleagues were largely unrealistic. The procedure may be right but the way the characters relate to each other is weird. To establish the characters and their relationships, writers either have to have some explanatory scenes or a voice over at the beginning, or they have to have the characters speak lines that contain those ideas, and that is almost always clunky and ruins the train of thought. Karen herself needs subtitles to be followed.
McDonald & Dodds (2020)
Just watch the scenery
.......because the writing is terrible and the acting is worse. I lived in the beautiful city of Bath for some years and it still looks lovely. If you turn down the extraneous noise of cardboard characters making noises a bit like speaking English (Mummerset, and bad Mummerset at that) it could be quite pleasant as background in the room. Otherwise it is an uninteresting pantomime aimed at 11 year-olds.
Murder in Provence (2022)
What on earth?
Absolutely beautiful scenery, great photography, great sets and costumes. Utterly incomprehensible rubbish plot. I watched it twice and still have no idea why any of the characters did what they did or why anyone decided to film such a bad script. A good play has believable characters and actions that make sense in context. Somebody forgot to do that.
Knives Out (2019)
Another film with no writer and no sense
All of the tired old tropes, not one bit of originality. Daniel Craig looked and sounded like a clown, which is quite amazing as he is so much better than that. All the rest of it just loud and pointless - unbelievable characters, worse dialogue, and the police made to look incompetent, which is how the genre started. Nobody could be that bad and still be able to carry a badge. I fell asleep twice and it was still dragging on.
There are quite a few reviews that complain about this film having a "leftie" message, which amuses us Europeans, as the US is so right-wing that anyone who even mentions the disadvantaged gets labelled as soft or a loony. But seriously, folks, how could this tripe get a rating of 9? They must be on the company payroll.
Trigger Point (2022)
Strangely muted
The same bugbear as usual unfortunately - an enormous amount of money spent on this series, but you still cannot hear all the dialogue, people mutter without moving their lips. Very frustrating to anyone with even a slight hearing impairment. This can easily be fixed, but tv production companies seem to be unable to understand how to record spoken sound properly. I watched a 1950s film on tv earlier and could every word clear as a bell. Just fix it!
Vigil (2021)
Good ideas, badly executed, and a twee ending
I wonder how much this production cost - whatever salary they paid to the set designer, the wardrobe people and the script writers was too much. These things take an enormous budget, yet make amateur mistakes. If you set a drama aboard a nuclear submarine on active service, then you get the details of dress, conduct and operating systems right. It costs exactly the same to get them wrong, but it completely unsettles the whole thing if the situation is unbelievable. Some commenters have said that these things do not matter as it is a drama, but I disagree strongly. If you cannot believe the way the characters act, you might as well give up. Right from the beginning, the way the police officer was allowed to wander in and out of the control room was odd, the way the officers and crew reacted was odd, the sense that nobody was in control was strong. Then came all the tropes you get in bad dramas. Police ignoring procedures, senior naval officers giving away classified information to people not even in the Navy, secret children, plots and subplots that made no sense etc., etc.. The last episode contained the worst trope of all - the submarine was going down to the limit of its depth and the crew was getting tensed up. I must have seen this a thousand times. The knife murder by the traitor looked completely posed. How many knife murders stop stabbing long enough for the victim to say something heroic? And the ending - well, it was all about being able to say I love you, which apparently makes all the rest of it worth while. This could have been a cracking drama in the right hands, but it was given to a director and production team who had no clue how to make it even vaguely scary.
Father Brown: The Paradise of Thieves (2015)
Very average locked room murder
GK Chesterton's original was a wonderful story, full of passion and style, about the political and social situation in Italy and the solving of a bank mystery while Father Brown was on holiday with a friend. What I saw tonight was a boring case about a murder in a bank in England, with bad dialogue, yet more anachronisms and unbelievable characters. Why did they even bother? Complete tosh.
The Deceived (2020)
Ireland is wonderful....
..but the scriptwriters forgot to write credible dialogue, write a story that makes sense, or make believable characters with a purpose. A thriller needs a good set up/situation with people in it that behave like they are not just line-bashing, then a denoument that satisfies the questions raised in the scenario.
It always amazes me that film companies are willing to do all the hard work and put in all the money without actually reading the script. Complete tripe.