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richard-baggaley
Reviews
Damsel (2024)
Not a bad film but not a great one either.
So the story is OK but there is little background to it. I felt rushed into "well here we are".
There is no valid or real reason (other than political correctness) that the white King (Ray Winston) and his two white daughters are complimented vy Angela Basset as mother (step mother admittadly) but Angela seems to be there to tick a inclusivity box and sadly is wasted in the role.
CGI is OK, the design of the dragon is OK but not attractive at all.
My biggest gripe is the casting and "acting" of Millie Bobby Brown. She is miscast here plain and simple. Her English accent is Irritation, Spotty and of such a sound that its what an English accent sounds like from an American actor emulating a description of upper class English. Its TERRIBLE. She is wooden in this role...I mean solid. The tree she landed on in the pit was less stiff and board like. She oozes arrogance whilst supposedly the good, kind daughter of an empoverished father/King. Due to this her whole role feels phoned in. I honestly have ZERO idea why people rave over her as she is at best an average actor.
8verall...its worth a watch if you want some escapism for a while, but don't expect miracles.
Underwater (2020)
In a sea over averageness this had its tentacled head above the crowd.
Ok. First thing. I AM NOT a fan or even remotely interested in Kristen Stewart's catalogue of works. I am however a fan of creepy, isolation based "horror" and a HUGE lover of Lovecraftian horror.
This started off well with nice character growth of a pretty unlikable strong female lead (No I am not offended or frightened of them...Aliens is one of my all time favourites and Sigourney Weaver is a god-like leading, strong lady) Its just a bit obvious at the moment.
The story was creepy without being too obvious to the uninitiated into Eldritch horror, the feeling of isolation and desperation to survive was great and the end reveal was enough to gets its point over, but not too much to spoil the effect in my opinion.
I was expecting VERY little from what I had read and seen about this movie but I really liked it. Well worth watching.
Monster Hunter (2020)
Other than the title... Nothing to do with the game.
OK... Its not a terrible movie.
It's got some interesting creatures and their effects are pretty good. My gripe with the action scenes is the constant cutting of the scenes. No one sequence is more than a few seconds.
The REAL weekness of the movie is its pacing. It spends 1/3 of the movie setting the scene. Next half is showing Alice mk2's relationship with the native hunter grow and them defeating a spider and sand monster. The remainder throws at whirlwind pace, what happened to her and others, where they are and amazingly a gang lead by Ron Perlman go to do battle with a dragon that gets sucked back to our world... ALL of this happens in 20 minutes. So from slow paced to "hurry and get it over". It also hints at a sequel (or 6) and i suspect Mr Anderson is filling his wife's diary with sequel plans for the next decade or so.
Lovecraft Country (2020)
Good start but faded fast.
Ok. the first episode is great. Very lovecraftian and filled me with hope. It faded fast though. Second episode on and it turns into a Buffy the vampire-esque (with gore and bad language) fantasy about magic with intermittent racism and murder.
It was watchable right up until the end when the magic spell cast to safe the main protagonists life prevented ALL white people in the world from casting magic again.
IT HAS NOTHING to do with Lovecraft save his name in the title and a place that sounds similar to Arkham. I am a big Lovecraft fan and was hugely let down by this fact.
Look, we all know racism happens (it shouldnt) and we all know that in America it was worse than anywhere else (still is) but what we dont need is tit for tat racism. For the whites to be targeted solely by this last spell and the racist speech from Latitia about ALL white folk are prevented...blah, blah, blah. I switched it off. I probably wont go back.
No I am not an offended white person trying to change history (I found the attack in the 20s episode shocking to think people did that to other human beings). I am a fan of Lovecraft horror that feels let down buy a show baring his name that's more about racial politics.
The Mandalorian (2019)
Disney. Look what you have made here, it's magnificent!
How can the dreadful last 3 movies be from the same studio as this?
The Mandalorian is EVERYTHING I dreamed a Star wars series would be.
Likeable, interesting and deep characters. Plots and smaller stories that get you hooked and keep you there. Great acting and special effects. THIS US HOW ITS DONE!
PLEASE, PLEASE Don't mess with the formula and keep this going.
Altered Carbon (2018)
Echoing so many others...Series 2 isnt the same show as series 1.
Echoing SO many others on here. I am glad its not just me that struggled to like series 2 at all. I understand Joel Kinneman didnt want to return for series 2 but there is such little carry over from series one.
All the building work series one did to put in place an in depth back story of interest and intrigue is lost on series 2. Fight scenes are laughable compared to series 1. The characters are VERY 2 dimensional (including Kovacs) who sadly isnt a patch on Joel Kinnemans Kovacs who was instantly believable and likeable. The ONLY saving grace of series 2 is Poe who is back. Sadly all the other characters you have invested in are RD? Or out of the picture for a few hundred years.