dmynd Reviews

The English (2022)

Gritty, real

[8/10 · 1 December 2022]

Gritty. More like how tough the frontier was. Well acted. Fascinating characters. Philosophy wrapped in adventure. Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer have terrific chemistry. They made the story more than just another western. Beautiful scenery and wide open spaces come to life. Stephen Rea turns in his usual understated performance of a man who has seen too much.

The portrayal of the Native Americans was accurate and pleasing to witness.

Some might say it was slow, but it was well paced and suited to the tenure, and the mood. The time put in to watch it was well worth it. I came away quite satisfied.

The Defeated (2020)

When to reload?

[7/10 · 30 August 2021]

Episode 8. Gun fight with two cops and two "bad guys". Female cop had a military.45 which holds 8 rounds. She shots far more without reloading. Oh, the male cop told an army M P to give the weapon to her. First, he had no authority to do so, and second, a soldier would not give up his weapon.

Silence (I) (2016)

Tedious, repetitious

[2/10 · 8 January 2017]

This could have been done in half the time. Way too much self reflecting and breast beating by Garfield's character. We got the point in the first hour -- he was having problems with faith. Yet how can any of us have any sympathy for someone going into another culture and act as if that venerable country with its own long established beliefs needs to be given someone else's. Hypocrisy at it height -- at one point one Jesuit says to the other essentially "why are they treating us like this?", ignoring the fact that their own religion was doing the same and worse to anyone who did not follow their beliefs. At one point my wife turned to me, and began to chuckle as she saw I was staring at the ceiling. I was counting ceiling squares. I would have left, but was with friends, who did not like it either, but they always stay through films. I love movies, and have seen some bad ones, but this is way up on that list.

Phoenix (II) (2014)

Plot holes

[6/10 · 16 August 2015]

While the performances were quite good, and the story overall was engaging enough for me to want to see it through to the end, there were holes. This is a woman whose face, we are told, is dramatically different, and whose husband does not recognize her. Yet, a person who had only seen her perhaps a couple of times in the past, at least more than a year before, recognizes her, and calls her by name. Also, how did her friend have the housekeeper in her employment from March to November 1945 if the friend was also Jewish? I think these spoiled the experience for me, as I was pondering them rather than being able to focus on the story. There were gaps in the back stories that needed to be filled. Some movies are too long. This one was short enough that a few more minutes to explain some of the problem areas mentioned above could have been resolved, and made this a better film.