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Reviews
The Other Woman (2014)
Dreadful
I expected a lot more from this film as it sounded like it could be fun especially with Cameron Diaz starring in it.I usually like her films.
To start with the film looked promising at first' a naive woman dating a man who is a serial cheater.She finds him out when she decides to turn up at his house hoping to give him a nice surprise but instead is greeted by a woman at the door who tells him she is his wife.
Okay so far so good but then suddenly the film takes a drastic turn for the worse.
The wife Kate turns up at Carly(Cameron Diaz) work place and starts to act over emotional causing a spectacle of herself.This is i believe supposed to be a funny scene but instead is so over the top and to say over acted would be an understatement .At this point it looks like Cameron Diaz was desperately trying to save the film as she is still giving a realistic performance.
But the film gets worse as the next scene is when the wife Kate goes out for a heart to heart drink with Carly only to get legless and again act well over the top.The Kate character is so annoying and irritating that it becomes of no surprise that the husband was cheating on her.The actress plays the character with far too much over confidence that you feel like you are being forced into finding her character funny.And i for one did not.And her painfully thin figure was painful to see.I saw other reviews that criticized the Amber character of being too chubby Really? i know whose figure i would prefer to have.Hollywood anything under a size 8 is not attractive.
I could go on about this film but what is the point its cliched in girl power and not in a good way.
Towards the end of the film the cheating husband Mark walks into a glass room that literally shatters all over the place.How is this even possible ?wouldnt this glass have been health and safety checked so that this wasnt possible.
If you are into over the top acted cliche comedies then this may be for you otherwise avoid like i wished i had
Silent Witness: Identity: Part 1 (2017)
Ridiculas
I have been watching Silent Witness ever since it started and was a big fan of the early series with Amanda Burton playing Dr Sam Ryan,back then it was a very realistic gritty drama that was very well acted,now with these later series they are becoming more and more far fetched and fall of cliches .
The Nikki Alexandra character played by Emilia Fox has just become so annoying, in the earlier series she was a brilliant forensic who just got on with her job,now in these later series shes now turned into some sort of super heroine whos trying to save the planet and even going against the police and taking the whole case into her own hands, really.?
In this episode she becomes distraught at the sight of 7 dead illegal immigrants who have been murdered and she is moved to tears and anger ,really?
I mean come on this is the woman who in many previous episodes has had to work on brutally murdered teens,babies pregnant women even people she had made friends with who have been murdered in the most horrific ways,and she has cut them up with out a second thought and gone for a drink and meal afterwards.And yet the viewer is now supposed to believe that she is hurt by seeing 7 dead bodies of people she had never met before .To me this is a sign that she should be changing her job and go to work for the refugee crises .She is definetely in the wrong job now.
Also the scene where she absconds with the illegal immigrant girl in the hospital just borders on stupiditety ,she hides her in a room and manages to plaster her broken arm in such a short space of time.Did they have the plaster already made up on the off chance?
And why was she not arrested or charged with aiding and helping an illegal immigrant escape,
I mean come on ,this series was brilliant before it started to try and up its game of trying to jump on the political bandwagon of trying hard to be liberal towards the immigrant crisis.
Also some of the acting has become a bit over the top.
You Must Be Joking! (1965)
Not quite a classic
I watched this film last night and found some of the film very amusing while other parts a bit cringy,for instance the many times women drivers were mentioned,which i know was very typical of that era, the only woman character driving in the film {Anabella) was portrayed as being very incompetent and was crashing into everything and everyone every time you see her behind a wheel which i found a bit annoying especially when you are kind of lead to believe that she is only on the road because she is upper class and privileged to be able to.In reality women drivers back then were usually very cautious and careful,if not slower drivers than the men.
Onto the characters ,Lionel Jeffries was funny in his Scotsman role although his accent did keep slipping from time to time so not entirely convincing .Terry Thomas and Wilfried Hyde White were brilliant as always.I feel James Robertson Justice and Leslie Phillips were badly underused and for me the actor who stole the movie for me was Denholm Elliot who i thought dominated every scene he was in and was sadly underused .
The ending for me was very disappointing as the American character who you were kind of rooting for as he did get more screen time than everyone else, turns into a complete shallow user and a creep in the last 3 minutes of the film ,by this point you were hoping he would get disqualified or something.
This film is not a class British comedy and doesnt hold up to the Ealing films or even the early Carry ons of the time . It is amusing at times but just dont expect too much as a classic it isnt even though the great star cast may make you think otherwise.
Carry on Dick (1974)
Not one of the best Carry ons
This has to be one of my least favorite Carry Ons .The humor for me was lacking it really lacks the comical and charm of the previous Carry ons like Up The Khyber ,Cleo,Follow That Camel,Screaming,camping ,Cowboy etc these were all tongue in cheek comedies and were fairly innocent and they had memorable scripts and lines{ like I seem to have got a little plastered}from Khyber,and (Frying to night) Screaming.
Carry on Dick to me goes all out for vulgarity and with the addition of some then known Page 3 girls it seems the writers couldnt come up with any original jokes so instead they chose to make this one into more of a sex comedy.It is however better than the last two Carry on England and Carry on Emanuel ,i didnt mind Carry on Behind as i found Elkie Sommer very good in that one which kind of saved it.
But in this one i found Barbara Windsors crude laugh really over the top and irritating ,Hattie Jacques gives the impression on her face most of the time thats shes embarrassed to be in this film.Maby she was.
And for me the most cringy part of the film is the scene where Joan Sims loses her bloomer support because Sid James has pulled her necklace off,so you then see her crouched in a toilet position ,This i found to be just awful and a cheap way of trying to raise some laughs.I suppose you could call it toilet humor
The rest of the humor is pretty much the same all through the film.
So if your like me and love the previous witty Carry ons then give this one a miss.
What a Whopper (1961)
Lighthearted comedy
I dont understand why this film has so many bad reviews and some are even claiming it as the worst comedy ever made,really?? i think these people need to see more comedies as i would say the film version of On The buses takes the honour of being the worst comedy.
This was one of my favourite films as a kid and when ever i watch this it always brings back fond memories of the days when my father used to take us on holidays to Scotland,we used to visit Loch Ness and Loch Lomond etc.And i remember always seeing tourists taking photos hoping to get a glimpse of the mysterious monster.There was a reward back then for whoever could come up with a genuine photo to prove Nessie existed,but to my knowledge no one ever has.There were a lot of tricksters about then faking photos hoping to get the generous reward,and this is what the plot of this film is all about.Its a simple story and very innocent.Its a little sexist in parts but not enough to make any libbist to write up about.And the film makes up for being PC by having a black man in the cast who plays one of their flatmate artists,you rarely saw ethnic minorities in comedies in the early 60s,so the film deserves some credit here for being diverse.
Its a fun film with a familiar cast of British comedians of that era,Sid James,Terry Thomas,Charles Hawtrey,Wilfred Brambell ,Spike Milligan and some other well known faces.
Its probably best watched in an afternoon with the family,sit back and enjoy
A Patch of Fog (2015)
Brilliant
I watched this on Netflix last night and it was a case of what shall i watch ? i couldn't be bothered to go through all the thriller list so i just chose the first one that was there,and this was it. I wasn't expecting much from this film as i could tell straight away that it was made on a low budget.But i was so wrong this film is brilliant ,its tense,gripping and keeps you wondering all the time what is going to happen next.It is full of twists and you cant help watching and wondering how it is all going to end.The two main actors play their parts really well,their two characters are very different people and would never be friends normally,but Tony the security guard is such a lonely person that he is willing to trap ,stalk and blackmail someone into being his friend.His a very sad character but also very creepy.Sandy the other man is a well off TV celebrity who has a habit of kleptomania ,Tony catches him in his shop and ends up blackmailing him into being his friend. This is basically the plot of the film but what follows you don't see coming.Its a very unpredictable film which is what i like most about it and i never guessed the ending either.
Careful What You Wish For (2015)
Entertaining
After reading a lot of the other reviews on here i will stand boldly and admit i enjoyed this movie and found it entertaining as i think that was all it was trying to do and not trying to be the most original fatal attraction type dangerous liaison movie thats ever been made. Other peoples reviews seem to be comparing this movie with the 1980s and 1990s femme fatale movies that still are very popular today. But were they originals???No i don't believe they were as its all been done before as in the film Noir in the 1940s back then they especially specialised in dangerous women the likes of Barbara Stanwick and Gene Thierney etc played these very same type of women and so did Joan Crawford even earlier.So no the 1980s -2000 + movies of this genre don't have original characters or story lines. Anyway back to the film the location is beautiful and should keep you interested enough to wonder where this happy picturesque place is as it looks so chilled. I admit the film did seem to be going down the predictable path of dangerous extra marital affair ,husband gets killed mysteriously , you could see that coming a mile off but then i think you are meant to as the twist that happens in the end you don't see coming, i defie anyone who says different I liked this movie i wasn't expecting much from it as i was just flicking through Sky and kind of thought this will do and it turned out good enough viewing for me and i am picky
House of Secrets (2014)
Entertaining
I've just read some of the other reviews and was really surprised how many people have many negative things to say about this film.
okay it may seem very strange and illogical that the main character Amy would take on the massive house that her and her ex abusive husband were having built together.Its even more illogical that she still wants to live there on her own when things start mysteriously disappearing,and she becomes aware that someone is creeping around the house?. Why does she still live there ,i don't know
But that aside i found this film very entertaining and there was a lot going on to keep you guessing who the stalker might be,was it the ex husband ,the contractor ,her boss,even the police etc The acting was quite good also,and there were some good jumpy parts. The body count piles up towards the final and to be honest i was a bit surprised as to who the killers identity was as i was expecting some other sort of twist from somewhere.But never mind. I rate this film 8/10 because i was entertained and the location was beautiful.
Identity Thief (2013)
Film that gets sillier and sillier
In all fairness the subject of identity fraud is very hard to make funny for a films plot,its a very sad and worrying problem that we all hope and try to avoid falling victim to,yet careful people still do. The film starts off okay there's a good build up of the man Sandys character and you straight away connect with him and sympathise with what his going through. But where the film goes wrong for me is when he meets up with the woman who has been defrauding him,the film then becomes so unrealistic and cringy.This woman has been ruining his life and has cost him even more money trying to find her,yet he tries to reason with her saying that he wont press further charges on her if she just admits that she has stolen his identity Hmmm ????? The film also relies heavily on this woman Diana for comedy effect which just doesn't work as her character is far too vulgar and 100% despicable to be funny,in fact i was disappointed that the assassins didn't catch and dispose of her.She was that bad Also the scene where she was having sex in the motel with the tycoon she picked up was just nauseating ,and done to the effect that it is good comedy to see and hear to obese people having sex.Really? This film just got more and more cringy by the minute ,i could go on but why bother ,just don't waste your time and avoid this film at all costs
Mojave (2015)
Was expecting more
I viewed this film last night and did have high hopes for it,but instead felt very let down from the start to finish. The acting was good and the location interesting but the biggest let down for me was the script and the way the main two actors mumbled it and yes i mean mumbled as there were times i couldn't quite get what they were saying to one another,i know their characters were supposed to be moody but i would have preferred if they spoke a bit sharper. Another problem i had with the film was that i really didn't care less about any of the characters not one central character was decent and worth rooting for apart from the poor little dog who got abandoned half way through the film. We never got to know anything about the characters and why they had become how they were,and the drifter character who was supposedly the more hardcore man came across as weak and idiotic,and you began to wonder how he could ever had survived on his own out in the desert for so long,a spoilt Hollywood star could run rings around him.The ending of the film really came to nothing,so it was all a bit of a waste of time. I could go on but i really cant see the point,if you watch this film just don't expect much of it to make much sense.
The Ouija Experiment 2: Theatre of Death (2014)
only watch this as a comedy
I wasn't expecting much from this film as you could tell straight away it had been made on a small budget,plus none of the actors are well known. Most of the actors played their parts in a quirky way and a lot of the dialogue was quirky ,i got the impression they weren't taking their parts seriously and were acting for comedy effect and in all fairness they couldn't do much else in a film like this.For instance the sheriff character really hammed up his part in a well over the top ending. Their were a few genuinely scary moments and the film was quite entertaining even if it was silly,but then i didn't feel it was meant to be took seriously anyway. What i didn't quite get was why was the ghoul(monster?} suddenly appearing and disappearing in earlier scenes where she appears in a flash to kill someone,and then in the last scene she shackled up and cant move??eh Wouldn't she be able to disappear out of her shackles if she wanted to? I've just read that this is a sequel to a previous Quija film which i am interested to watch one day,as i did find this entertaining .
The Neon Demon (2016)
Disappointing
I just watched this film on Netflix ,which i had been browsing through hoping to find a good thriller this one had been given 4 stars so i thought ahh it must be good.???? No i was wrong The film starts off promising enough and is about a young 16 year old girl who has run away from home and turns up in Los Angeles hoping to become a model,here she encounters and makes friends with a lesbian make up artist who hangs out with two other women,one an over the hill model and the other a model wannabe.The lesbian wants to bed her where the other two women are envious of her and want to be her. She also has a nice caring boyfriend who makes photo shoots of her and helps her put a portfolio together. After a very short time in the industry she becomes the special one and the new promising IT girl.She then becomes very self obsessed and vain and acts like shes immortal,she dumps the nice boyfriend as his no longer of any use to her,and the other two models who have been cast aside by the industry become even more envious which lead to disastrous consequences. This is basically the thin plot of the film. Through out the film her dwellings are in a run down motel run by a rapist possibly peadophile (Forgive me for not writing down the characters names but they were all pretty much pointless empty unrealistic characters with no real substance} As I've said the film started off okay and held your interest as to where it was all leading,but further into the film it just became stranger and stranger and towards the end had some very distasteful scenes one involving the make up artist performing a necrophilliac act(disgusting). Apart from this i couldn't understand why if she was the new top model why she was still living in a run down terrible motel,wouldn't the modeling industry have moved her into a nice penthouse suite? Also why didn't she call the police when she heard the woman in the next apartment being raped or killed as she thought. The directing was annoying as well where in many scenes there was too many long pauses every time they spoke,you felt like certain scenes should be speeded up ,but all through the film it was slow and plodding. I gave this film a 3 because i did find the acting good at least
London Road (2015)
Shocking
I was really shocked by this film ,it showed no empathy for the victims or their families and came across as callous and cold hearted. This sort of story should be kept as a documentary or court case film.Not a musical where some of the characters are even laughing and joking about. What bad taste,if this was made about Jack The Ripper set in 1889 it would still be bad taste a century later. These Ipswich victims were five vulnerable young women and considering none were sexually assaulted we can only assume they were just easy targets,no motive has ever been established it was unfortunate for them that they all knew and trusted Steven Wright,after all he was probably like other serial killers enjoying the fear and publicity he had created. Who is to say he wouldn't have murdered five office women or cleaners etc if he had the chance? These women were still humans and deserve to RIP , All the way through i couldn't help thinking about these poor families of the victims and how they must feel about this film. Instead the film sympathises only with the local community and their plant growing show,is this really more important?and even goes as far as the locals rejoicing that they have no more soliciting which could have been shown in a more tactful way. I live not far from Ipswich and i must say have never met anyone from Suffolk who acts like the people portrayed in this film,im sure they cant be happy with this film.
The Witness for the Prosecution (2016)
Disappointed (spoilers)
I found this version rather gloomy and a bit depressing to say the least.Agatha Christie adaptions are usually quaint ,classy and clever this lacked any of that.And i couldn't see the point in adding unnecessary sex scenes,swear words and hints of lesbianism to do with the maid,what was the point of that other than to try and appeal to a modern audience in which case it fails,as we all prefer Christies original style of writing. Other than that i found the acting very good especially from Toby Jones who like the maid deserved a better ending like in the original 1950s and 1980s versions.These earlier versions were more true to Christies style. After watching this two part series i came away thinking that this has to be an anti-capital punishment version where miscarriages of justice could so easily have been prevented in the past if courts hadnt just relied on circumstantial evidence If this is the point the director was aiming at then it works,other than that i didn't find it comfortable viewing