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Schmigadoon! (2021)
Enjoyable
Normally I struggle to come up with a short header if I leave a review but with this i really don't know how to describe it.
Im not a massive musical fan so I think im missing a lot of jokes in terms of story - I don't think they make the "i just fell in love, now I fell out of love, now I'm back in love" on a really fake background stuff remotely accessible to people who aren't genre nerds but that's fine by me if it isn't aimed at me. I enjoyed it a lot more once I stopped trying to understand what it was going for.
I am vaguely aware of the cast being SNL regulars although that never really made it to my side of the pond so I recognise the faces but don't attach them to anything which helps? But Keenan seems either over scripted or very bad at improv, and the latter seems unlikely with his background. So I think he has way too much dialogue and even the stammering sounds like it was typed up. If he does sketch comedy/ improv then he should get to use that skill set because I can't think of a time he was on screen and not constantly talking.
Overall - (long review sorry, but I wanted to be fair as there seem to be 1* reviews from people who hate musicals) as someone with little understanding of musicals and musical theatre, I will come back and rewatch this when I need some nice comfy tv, like if I'm hungover or haven't slept. I think people with a better understanding of musical in-jokes will appreciate it more, but I liked it just fine once I switched off the part of my brain that was trying to recognise references.
Anna (2021)
Acting and score, 10/10
The young actors give fantastic performances across the board. I did chuckle at the review that mentioned the boy who got his ear bitten off reacting like "oh I have no ear now" because that is spot on, BUT, the young actor showed plenty of range apart from that, so in this case I'll happily accept the explanation that "some kids respond to trauma by showing no emotion" which is a very overused excuse in other programmes/ films but valid here.
The sexualisation really is too much - I can see it working in a novel and I have no problem with kids having a sexuality but I'm fairly sure you can express that on camera without slow-panning across actual pubescent children arses and what my Mum would call "cossie lines"
Phrases like "the male lens" can often be hard to define but I would point to this as a modern example - young girl is punished and humiliated in her family home? Got to pan down to that bright blue arse, so we can all feel her anger and defiance and also pre-pubescent thigh gap.
Bums aside, the main actress is exceptionally good but I think she has got some recognition already so I want to highlight how much I enjoyed young Anna's understated performance (just checked and both her and baby Astor's credits list just one name? But it would be very unusual not to substitute a pair of twins and baby Astor's face screams "twins" to me. I could be wrong though)
Anyway I thought young Anna was played very well. I could feel the frustration coming off her at how perceived injustice was considered brattiness, and in the scene where her dad dies she barely moves but her eyes are acting more than a lot of adult actors.
I gave this 8/10 because the young actors deserve a 10 and the music is gorgeous, but at least one adult on set is enjoying it for the wrong reasons.
City of Ember (2008)
I enjoyed it, but probably wouldn't go back for more
I hadn't realised this was based on a novel and after Googling it, I understand why this movie was so speedy and disjointed - I assume they're jumping from plot point to plot point? Which is fair enough when you're turning an obscure YA novel into a film.
The only thing I really took issue with was the music. I haven't rewatched it (but I probably will at some point just to watch Saoirse Ronin being adorable as a messenger and reminding me of my whiteboard cleaning days) but the music really needs to chill out.
There's no build up in the score.
Archive 81 (2022)
I really enjoyed this but it is BLOATED
This is such an odd series: it uses a lot of overdone cliches. I mean VERY overdone cliches, to the point it made me laugh out loud at times. But it is so well shot and weirdly sincere, and the score is great which can always make or break something for me.
I really like the male lead and I'm interested enough to go and watch the other stuff he has been in. He does quite a bit of what my filmy friend would dismissively call "jaw acting" but I found it really effective. The female lead does a fine job too but it didn't stand out as much to me. Some of the background actors were so excessively ominous it was funny, but that's what I mean about them overdoing the cliches to the point it feels deliberate.
Then they have the strange young girl who was born in the building but she's a cheerful bouncy mixed race teen (I always groan when they introduce the traumatised kid, but young actor Ariana Neal was excellent and seems very talented)
It's either a cult classic or makes very little sense. Maybe both?
Adventure Beast (2021)
Worth watching
Each episode has a loose plot in a different part of the world and focuses on a particular trait in nature. The plot acts as a showcase for various nature facts. As an ecology dork, I had fun trying to guess what he was going to say, and learned along the way.
I wouldn't call it hilarious but when I laughed it was a proper snort that caught me by surprise.
The animation on the humans seems a bit.. off, especially Bonnie. But I can't put my finger on why so I didn't think it was fair to dock any points for that. The animation of the animals is much better, so I would guess they used animators more skilled at movement than facial expressions. The effect can be a bit off putting but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
It's not like anything else around at the moment - it reminds me a bit of the Wild Thornberries from the 90s.
Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
Far better than the trailer
I wasn't bothered with the trailer - it didn't look like anything special despite the obvious excellent animation.
Having watched it, I wouldn't say it would be worth premier access on Disney+ for me personally, but I'm on quite a tight budget. If you got the chance to see it at the cinema, I'm sure it was well worth it.
But the trailers I saw didn't really show the degree of world building they'd bother doing, and I nearly left it for a night when I was very bored/ a bit drunk.
Having watched it, I'm sad they didn't get a cinematic release here in the UK, because it would definitely have worked wonders for me on the big screen. As it was, refreshing a couple of times because of my slow laptop, it felt far too long, but it feels unfair to judge them on that. I would have paid to watch it twice at the cinema, but I don't think the enormous world they tried to show works for the small screen that well. So it doesn't hold up to rewatches as well as it otherwise might.
My only real quibble is with the character development as Rayas big issue is with trust. It's also a big plot point but, while it's never shown, she is presumably happy sleeping near people she refuses to take food from. At least do the cliche of "I keep the first watch" or acknowledge that in this quite grounded film, "it's not poison because I just ate it and didn't die immediately" doesn't mean you haven't been poisoned. And if you think someone might hurt you, don't let them steer the ship without keeping an eye on them.
I can see it working better as a series so they can allow for slower character development. I got the feeling scenes might have been cut.
Checked to add: From the reviews here I'm getting the impression that the racial diversity was an issue? It has a fair few 1* reviews which is ridiculous because even if you didn't enjoy it or thought it was too formulaic that isn't a 1/10 problem especially considering the animation quality.
Years and Years (2019)
Sometimes thought provoking but mostly just oversimplifies existing issues
A lot of them seem to hinge on the "slippery slope" idea, especially the transhuman bit.
So a troubled teen has spent too much time on the internet and now thinks she was born in the wrong body and her parents have always been fine with trans people but *gasp* instead of being transgender she actually means she should be an AI.
The reviews on this speak for themselves "where does it end?" etc
Really surprised at Russell T Davies, to be honest
Day of the Dead: Bloodline (2017)
Embarrassingly bad
This started off so much like a parody that I watched the whole thing waiting for the twist.
The only positive thing I can say is that the actors did the best with what they were given, especially the lead. She seems like a decent actress but the dialogue and framing was so horrible that none of the actors stood a chance
Some Girls (2012)
Easy watching
I stumbled across this while scouring Prime Video after accidentally letting my subscription roll into another month, and I'm glad I did.
I was surprised to find it compared to the inbetweeners everywhere because even though I enjoyed both shows I never really made any connection between the vibe of each show.
They all do a great job for young inexperienced actors although the girl playing Amber hams it up a bit too much for my taste (which could have been a deliberate choice from the director)
When I finished I thought they could have fleshed out the other 3 a bit more, but as it's mostly done from Vivas perspective, it's all coming through the lens of a 16 year old girl.
It was also nice to see girls sticking together in tv show rather than the endless power-struggle that makes up most on-screen all-female friendship groups.
And actually, what impressed me the most as the former London schoolgirl who got practically eaten alive by the other students, I had zero anxiety or resentment watching it. Saz and Holli would've publicly screamed at me for bumping into them - and when I was watching Skins or the inbetweeners or anything else along the same lines, some part of me was always aware of this whereas watching Some Girls I forgot and was along for the ride. This, despite the (very funny) humour being a bit predictable, is pretty impressive!
The only negatives I can really think of is that some of the girls' accents sound a bit forced, like they've been told to exaggerate? And funnily enough I thought all the adult acting was weaker than the kids. Also (not really a spoiler) while Viva and the girls are obviously going to have a naive perspective on it, there should have been a clear "that's not ok" point about Jamie's potential history in one way or another.
It's not a laugh riot but I'm definitely going to watch it again because 3 seasons flew by
Christmas in the Clouds (2001)
Surprisingly enjoyable, I gave It a 9/10 being generous
I like watching rubbish Christmas movies so I watched this on the Sony Movies channel in September expecting it to be a hilariously bad and cheap (and sickly) Christmas movie that someone could only enjoy alongside a lot of mulled wine.
Instead, I ended up genuinely enjoying it. This is why I've given it a 9/10 when I usually judge movies a bit more harshly.
It's cute and feel-good but without getting annoying, the obligatory wide-eyed child actors weren't too over the top or annoying and were pretty good actors. The music wasn't alternating between royalty free Muzak and Greensleeves like other movies on that particular channel and the inclusion of indigenous people made it feel like it was more than a cynical cash grab. Although being a Brit I can't comment on their presentation of native american culture, maybe it was hella offensive.
The jokes were fairly predictable but it was very enjoyable and deserves a better rating than 6.4.
No good for a drunken night of watching bad christmassy movies though - I got way too invested and I wasn't the only one.
I'd let kids watch this, maybe I'd even encourage it as it felt more genuine and "heart warming" than films that got a lot more attention because they had celebs in them.
Also - no reindeer! so hooray for not giving money to professional reindeer handlers. Because the ones that make a living out of that tend to compromise on welfare.
Z Nation (2014)
Bit disjointed but enjoyable
This is an entertaining show that I think was poorly executed. First off, I love a "spoof" with its own plot. This show has its comedic moments (I didn't personally find them particularly funny but that's my sense of humour, whatever) and it also manages to have an overarching plot. However my issue is with the way it switches between comedy, drama and horror. It's like there were 2-5 writers working on different scripts and they all just got mashed together at the end which leaves a very jarring product, I was looking for a blend rather than "block of horror then block of comedy then block of horror then block of drama" There was no cohesion as far as I was concerned at all.
Milly, Molly (2008)
This show is ADORABLE
I was accidentally subjected to this by the daughter of a friend, and now if I'm channel-swapping late at night I usually end up watching it in favour of the rest Freeview has to offer. The animation is deceptively smooth, the main characters are both likable but different and with a good sense of continuity, the lessons are mostly in line with what I would want my (nonexistent) offspring to learn. The bumbling adults provide the most amusement to me, as with most kids TV. My only tiny issue is something that I wouldn't normally bother complaining about, except this programme goes out of its way to preach animal care over and over again. And yeah, good for them but a) if your teachers beloved pet dies PLEASE do not instantly buy it a replacement pet that looks exactly the same unless you hate her b) if you love birds but hate cats do not buy your small child a cat and then whine and bitch about how it chases your birds c) if said cat climbs on the furniture, do not stick said cat outside because seriously did you not know what a cat was d) Spay and neuter, but I stuck this down the bottom, because I didn't want to sound preachy. But if you HATE CATS AND LOVE BIRDS maybe you shoulda thought of that you utter klipspringer
12 in a Box (2007)
Bad-good..ish
I feel like I would've approached this film more fairly if I hadn't bought the UK version with Miranda Hart's beaming face plastered all over it. She appears in person for maybe... 6 minutes? And then there's another 10 minutes of screaming off screen that was probably done from abroad because she suddenly got famous and goddamn this film wanted its sixpenn'th.
So putting aside Miranda Hart's performance (like... she clearly knew she had money on the way right?..? I have never seen a professional comedian give so few shits) Who are we rooting for here?
Sex pest who literally cackles with delight on finding that the two slender girls are involved (who's "gayer", the women in a relationship or the man engaged to a woman but bad at secretly carrying bodies up stairs? The latter, apparently!)
Wife of Bastard who rolls her eyes but never follows through on her valid argument that the money would all be hers either way?
Barry from Eastenders?! No Seriously Barry from Eastenders. Okay I've run out of jokes I'm done.
A Merry Little Christmas (2006)
Bad.... but bordering on good-bad?
Strap yourself in, nobody - I think this is going to be a long one.
Let me start by saying, the only other review of this movie (which cracked me up by the way so thanks for that mysterious stranger) commented on how it was the only review for the movie. That might be because this film has AT LEAST THREE titles. I bought a DVD in the 99p store under the name "The Town that Cancelled Christmas" - when I got it home and googled it to see if it was suitable for bad-movie- nights I found it was called "The Town that Banned Christmas"... and now lo and behold I find it on IMDb under the name "A Merry Little Christmas" (which makes sense because that phrase is featured in the film - and I'm guessing they were pressured to change it because there was an actual film that wanted to use that much more profitable name). Now, loser I may be, but even I draw the line at spending the evening scouring IMDb looking for alternate titles for the same goddamn film so this is just speculation. But I'm thinking this film may have different reviews scattered over between 3 and 13 different titles.
I love cheaply turned-out Christmas films. I like getting all the Christmas spirit without any of the plot or characters, it cheers me right up after a few beers! But weirdly this doesn't seem like it fits that stereotype. It seemed both tongue-in-cheek and adorably earnest at the same time, and (I think?) I enjoyed it a lot. The reason I'm not sure is that I spent a lot of time tapping my foot and checking my watch, but when I did laugh (never at the intended jokes) I full on guffawed.
There are too many things to say about this film so I'll try to keep it short(er than I would like)
1) psychologist/ pop psych writer thinks that moving into neighbourhoods and pitting people against each other using their weaknesses is scientific. Like at one point our antihero is told "that guy has to have the best Christmas every year because he was raised by a strict grandmother who didn't let him celebrate it properly" and "this twitchy guy was forced into a career as a lawyer and secretly hates it so is addicted to pills" and -(although this obviously isn't a real dilemma but seriously) DotCom from 30 Rock is there grappling with the dilemma of "winning best Christmas display or telling everyone else to shut up because his wife is heavily pregnant"........ spoilers... the psych guy thinks this is all wonderful material despite living on a street full of mentally unbalanced men (and a single woman described as an old maid) and he thinks this will be remotely transferable to the actual real world.
2) All the white people look the same except for Long-Suffering Wife, who (I think) is Ross's first wife from Friends? The blonde one? What started as cringing at the "oh heyyyyalll no" black guy turned into relief at spotting a character with a distinguishable feature (spoiler: he was black).
3) The girl next door. She is literally a girl next door. She has no personality traits except "she got a 92 in biology" despite her parents being surprised at her being the library and all of her visible time in the library involves her flirting with psychologist's kid, Name. Ugh I dunno, probably Seth or Geordie or Oxbow or something.
I gave this a 4/10, because I enjoy terrible movies and I knew what I could be getting myself into for 99p (for the American audience that's... I dunno.. $1.30 when I paid, more like $1 now.) Also part of the fun of watching terrible movies while drunk is the fun of reviewing them, which upped it from a 3/10.
If you are a bad movie specialist, however, there is farrrr too much boring personal growth nonsense with (first wife from friends) acting quite well really, and clearly getting shitty direction on top of it. So you kind of feel sorry for her because I don't know maybe this seemed like a proper film at the time she started shooting. Also shoutout to the guy with the nervousness because I could see that he was trying to act too but was probably also being given shitty directions from changing angles and while his confusion is a wonder to behold, he may have actually had some acting chops and was just too disorientated to use them spinning round to different cameras.
Also I could only identify him from the other white dark-haired actors because of his whiny voice which at first was irritating but then became something I could latch on to so I ended up very grateful to nervous guy, girl from Friends and guy from 30 rock because otherwise this would have looked like Reverse-Fight-Club.
Aaaaand I'm done.
17 Again (2009)
Really not a bad film at all
I bought this at a charity sale where dvds were 50p each or 3 for £1. This was the 3rd, so it was essentially free and I thought it might be fun to take to a wine-and-takeaway night.
This isn't a great film, and it's not a film that will stand the test of time, but it was notably hard to mock, and if 3 drunk 20- somethings can't find much to laugh at in a film like this then the good must outweigh the bad. I feel like this would be a standard film that I would never even have noticed if it wasn't for the inclusion of Efron in the post-HSM phase. I bet most HSM fans didn't even enjoy it, because it definitely seems like it wasn't aimed at them. If it wasn't for the creepy Disney movies (HSM, camp rock, they are all hilarious for all the wrong reasons) I would never have looked down on this film. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I shouldn't have. It's not a standard romcom because it managed to find a new twist on the genre, which should be lauded. And it's not just a vehicle for Efron, which is a bonus.
Maybe 7/10 is too high, maybe it's just a reaction to the fact I expected it to be truly godawful. But most dvds get watched once and then returned to the exact same stall that I got them from, and this one didn't.
Coupling (2000)
Worth Watching.. but maybe not worth rewatching?
I picked up season 2 very cheaply because I had heard good things, and after watching it and getting a few chuckles I then watched it online from season 1 so.. I guess I enjoyed it? I mean, I must have. But truthfully I remember very little from the whole series. I can't think of any parts that made me cackle aloud like a drunken witch, which is what I look for in a sitcom. The exception would be Jeff's leg saga, and I think that was mostly because his storyline in that episode was so incredibly BBC that it took me straight back to the 90s/00s, which is clearly not what this show is about. However, I have also tried to watch many, many sitcoms, both US and UK, where I've watched a few episodes and couldn't be bothered watching any more - Coupling was not one of those, and while I can't push it as a favourite sitcom, I can definitely push it as better than most
Cuckoo (2012)
Not the worst but nobody to really carry the show
On the advice of a couple of reviews, I watched beyond episode 2 and agree that it is all upwards from the pilot. I got a few chuckles and the plot progressed. I desperately wanted to rate this show higher because of one negative rating regarding Adam Samberg's Semitic background. I saw a few episodes of Brooklyn99 and while I enjoyed it I found that it was the supporting cast and his foil to that that I liked and here there just isn't such a foil. Greg Davis always made me laugh in the Inbetweeners and I delight in spotting him in other shows, but I don't honestly think he or Samberg can carry a show and the script isn't quite strong enough to pull it off. For comparison I found it slightly less funny than season 2 of Todd Margaret - I chuckled at it on Netflix but probably wouldn't buy it or watch it again
Pieces of April (2003)
A good movie that never really fulfilled its potential
I don't live in America, so Thanksgiving is a bit lost on me, but I thought this movie was very enjoyable, with a totally justified "happy ending." However, I would never, ever label it a comedy, as I would expect all of the more light-hearted dramas to contain some humour. There were places where I expected a joke to be made, or to be made more of, and so when there wasn't one, that scene ended on an anticlimax. I thought the soundtrack was absolutely perfect; I looked it up after watching the film yesterday, and almost every song on the soundtrack album spoke to me, and connected with me far more than the film itself (not a criticism of the film, I just adore the soundtrack that much) Also, the ending was a tad predictable; just from reading the back cover of the DVD I assumed that she would demonstrate her worth through all the people in her block who considered her a friend, and while that wasn't the case, it was close enough to make me feel slightly cheated.
Benji the Hunted (1987)
a must-see
I'm 20 and this film just came on the day after Boxing Day, it looked like a cute easy-going Incredible Journey sort of thing so me and my Mum settled down to watch it and we were just blown away. I'd never heard of Benji so there weren't any expectations although it made it harder to understand the beginning. But I wish I'd seen something like that when I was a kid, and I don't care how different films are in the future - when I have children I will DEFINITELY sit them down to watch Benji the Hunted! The acting was frankly astonishing for a dog, and I laughed out loud when the little dark kitten went up to the bear and tried to growl. How they got a small male dog to run up and down and even climb cliffs with cougar cubs in his mouth I will never know. In short, a 20 year old and a 49 year old give this movie 4 big thumbs up and even Dad watched it all the way through, although he'd never admit to liking it