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nigelmacdonald
Reviews
Charged: The Eduardo Garcia Story (2017)
Fascinating and inspiring
Would definitely recommend watching this very well made documentary. The guys recovery and attitude throughout is incredibly life affirming and very moving too. It's also a testament to everyone who helped him in that recovery.
Dracula (2020)
From sublime to the ridiculous in 3 steps.
Started with so much promise and the first episode is really good. The second episode begins to take too many liberties with the source material and by the third is unrecognizable as even part of the same series. I can't remember a series which nosedived so rapidly.
The Thing (2011)
More remake than prequel
I didn't realise this was a prequel till the very end. It's more or less a copy of the original and doesn't add anything to it, but if you enjoyed that you should enjoy this.
Black Death (2010)
Worth a watch.
Not the most original film of its type, but ticks all the boxes. Can be viewed from two sides depending on your religious or none religious perspective, which is a refreshingly intelligent idea.
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Another poor rehash and no new ideas.
The main problem is that all the lead characters are so dull. Add to that a boring script and it just doesn't draw the attention like the original trilogy did. No amount of special effects or shoehorning old ideas into it are going to make up for a decent, engaging story.
Scrooged (1988)
Starts well, but goes downhill fast.
Very few laughs and not even Bill can save it from its predictible and ever increasingly schmaltzy message. Everything is thrown into it towards the end, but by then my mind had long wandered off.
Mortdecai (2015)
Highly underrated. Ignore the critics.
Johnny Depp is hilarious channelling Terry Thomas in this quirky and highly original film that critics unfairly savaged for some reason. I'd say its his best performance since Ed Wood and certainly funnier than anything else released in the last 5 years. The story is very silly, but that's half the fun. There are some brilliant lines and it deserved a much better reception.
Ad Astra (2019)
Wafer thin plot
Not sure why this was so well received by critics. There is virtually no storyline at all. It is incredibly dull for the most part and very little happens. Not sure why so many directors insist on making sci-fi so pretentious and ponderous. They all seem to think they are saying something profound, but manage to make the most fascinating and amazing subject matter boring and lifeless.
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Proper film making
Apart from the beautiful direction and meticulous attention to detail this actually has genuine heart and depth. Such a shame that nobody seems to be able to bring that to the screen anymore.
Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)
Disappointing and quite dull.
Probably Tarantinos worst film. No plot to speak of. Long, meandering and needless scenes throughout. Worst of all it doesn't have any decent dialogue, which is the one thing that can usually be expected at least.
Autómata (2014)
Started well then turned to mush.
Liked the first half which was unexpectedly good, then it suddenly turned into a cliched pile of farlytale rubbish.
47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019)
Awful Soundtrack, but not bad.
As shark films go there are far worse and this has the expected amount of cheap scares and building drama. There aren't too many surprises and all the main characters are annoying and brattish, which makes you care very little about what happens to them. Status Quo, Roxette, The Carpenters and Aztec Camera is a weird choice of tunes for any film though!
Wounds (2019)
Wha? Eh? Huh?
This was a really strange one. Made very little sense and not sure why it was made. The ending is among the most baffling and daft I've endured.
Ghost Town (2008)
Odd concept stifles the humour.
There are a few laughs, but the formulaic and dull storyline makes Rickys best bits seem out of place.
Fractured (2019)
Obvious twist
Guessed the ending from 15 minutes in. Unfortunately there were far too many signposts to it all the way through, which spoilt an otherwise OK film.
Absolutely Anything (2015)
Absolutely awful
This is a dreadful copy of Bruce Almighty. Despite the considerable talent involved it manages to fail at every turn with half baked ideas, poor jokes and a terrible script.
Mary (2019)
Not a scary Mary.
What on earth is Gary Oldman doing in this very low budget and formulaic ghost story? Apart from a few cheap jump scares this is very slow and boring. It has been done better loads of times before and has very little originality.
Dolores Claiborne (1995)
Great performances all round
One of the best Stephen King adaptations. A good story and a great cast. Very underrated and overshadowed by Misery, this is just as good.
It (2017)
Tim Curry was far better.
'None of this makes any sense' says one of the kids at one point and I couldn't agree more. The book was much creepier and it hasn't translated well at all here. It does benefit from better special effects, but the acting and a lot of the dialogue is very poor.
Bosch (2014)
Finally something worth watching.
Well paced and intelligent detective series. Has it's share of cliches, but keeps up the momentum and interest with dual plot lines and character intrigue. Titus is a good lead actor and the relationships are believable. Love the dark humour too.
The Island (2005)
Slow starting familiar sc-fi light.
The most entertaining thing is how much they got wrong about the future. Its surprising how optimistic they were about our transport systems in 2019 back in 2005 for a start. We've made virtually no progress and if anything have regressed in many ways. The film is very silly, but fairly entertaining if you ignore the bad science and cliched plot.
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)
More of the same
No idea why this has got such high score. It's watchable and the stunts are great, but like the previous 2 there is virtually no plot, just relentless fights, a ridiculous body count and after seeing the first 50 or so bad guys get offed in a variety of ways it does get boring.
The Last Czars (2019)
Brilliantly executed.
Fascinating lesson from history and as good a plot as any fictional drama. The documentary parts are just as interesting with actual footage of the times. Highly recommended.
Phil (2019)
Waste of time
Tries so hard to be both a comedy in the style of Green Card while also attempting some deep and meaningful examination of human existence. It fails at both, but Kinnear is likeable and his performance almost saves it.
The Professor (2018)
Has its moments
For a film about someone dealing with terminal illness this has some amusing moments and although it drags in places, Depps performance is nicely understated. It's also very unlike most Hollywood films in dealing with such a bleak and taboo subject.