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johnaalsmeer
Reviews
Meet You in Scotland (2023)
Switch the sound off and look at the views
A ludicrous script (honestly, my granddaughter has been a better writer since she was 10) has a 24 year old pose as a world famous writer of pulp fiction (did she also start writing at 10 year old) off to Scotland to pick up an award. So many silly errors suggest a badly researched script, the soup stained shirt she couldn't change before leaving home - although she managed to pack luggage - to saying she'd never heard of a scone (yes, they're different in America to Scotland, but they're common in both), to ...oh, it's not worth continuing and neither is the movie. I said switch the sound off - no, just switch the movie off.
Santa Switch (2013)
Oh dear!
Finally found a Christmas movie worse than Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. So, so bad. At best infantile garbage. From the moment it starts it is draw droppingly bad. Had to go make a coffee - very strong - to help brace me through the rest of the movie. Ludicrous characters litter a story that would only have a chance of working - and I stress chance - if it was converted to a cartoon and shown on a midday children's network. OK, the storyline is meant to be unrealistic but before the 'change' takes place, the characters are incredibly ridiculous. After the change, the transposed characters do not represent who they originally were. Confused writing, confused story - confused why I chose to watch it.
C'era una volta il West (1968)
Emperor's New Clothes
The most overrated movie of all time. Starts with a ludicrous gunfight at the station (with a badly dubbed harmonica playing). Slow to the point of ponderous? No. Slow to the point of boring. Main characters stand and stand and stand, then speak a few words - this is repeated interminably. Leone obviously decided the ponderous approach had worked well in the Clint Eastwood trilogy, so he thought he'd extend - and extend he did - scenes in this tedious, self indulgent piece. The buildings all look like the movie sets that they are. Fonda is a great actor with a tendency to be a little wooden when he's off form. Leone exploits this wooden aspect to the full.
If you like watching people stare and do things very slowly, this is for you.
Movie could be better if it was cut to 75 minutes instead of the elongated bore-fest it is.
Cry Macho (2021)
Retro and worth it.
They used to make movies like this in the 1940s and people loved them. Then came epics and big budgets, then special effects and space, then cgi and we all forgot about good stories. We wanted loud noises, flashes and bangs, cgi, special effects, big budgets, Marvel or DC, etc, but Eastwood decided he'd make a movie with a story. And that's what we got. I love it, but, then again, I'm over 70. Yes, it's a simple story, but mostly it's a heartwarming story. It deals with relationships of various types, but mainly it demonstrates the age old differences between people who want to like and be liked and those who are 'in it for what they can get out of it.'
Just sit back and enjoy.
Upstart Crow (2016)
Brush up on your Shakespeare and history
Cleverly written comedy with numerous smart references to the Bard's works and ingenious twists on real historical characters. As a bonus there are satirical futuristic comments on 21st century behaviours and situations. Ben Elton at his very best.