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peterwoodhart
Reviews
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)
One of the most beautiful love stories
I've watched this movie many times. Beautiful story. Two wonderful actors. Great setting - Hong Kong before the world changed for the worse. Majestic theme music. An innocent love story.
I my opinion, William Holden and Jennifer Jones we're both highly underrated.
The scene where William Holden and Jennifer Jones swim across to her friends house is particularly moving.
I'll continue to watch it......
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Disappointed
I'm in my 70s and I've followed the Star Wars saga ever since I watched the fantastic Episode IV with my (then) young family in Leicester Square in 1977. I'm a real fan! On several occasions over the past 20 years, I've set time aside to watch the whole story from Episode I onwards and more recently fitted the two 'stand alone' films in the correct place. I know that sounds nerdy.
Anyway, tonight I watched Episode 9, 'The Rise of Skywalker'
I'm truly sorry to say, I didn't like it. Too dramatic, too loud, too many light sabre battles, too much trying to fit everything from earlier stories in, too much action, too much CGI. I could go on, and why did Rey kiss Ben?
Why didn't they ask the director of Rogue One to work on the story for this vitally important end of the saga? In my opinion, Episode IV was the best film and 'Rogue One' is in 2nd place. Fantastic believable characters....
A disappointed fan
Out of Africa (1985)
Exquisite
Out of Africa is a marvellous, wonderful, evocative experience. I'm 75, and I've watched it many, many times. It never, ever, fails to impress. The acting is superb. The shots of are Africa stunning. At my age, selecting the theoretical 'top 10 movies' of all times gets difficult. There are so many - but, for the record 'Rogue One' would be there.
This film is faultless.
Battle of the Bulge (1965)
Dated Hollywood Blockbuster
This is an appalling war film. I've watched it several times since it first came out (I was born during WW2) and I continue to feel sorry for the famous actors who had to speak those terrible lines. It's very dated in its style, camera angles and plot.
The script is formulaic. The Americans are good, the German are bad. The supposed German Tiger heavy tanks are actually American medium tanks.
Just think about the wonderful way the siege of Bastogne was handled in 'Band of Brothers' and then compare it with the shallow depiction in Battle of the Bulge.
What could/should have been a Great War film is actually a great disappointment.
Waterloo (1970)
Fabulous but broody
I've watched Waterloo many times since it first came out and the exterior shots and battle scenes are fabulous with tens of thousands of extras (no CGI in those days!). However, as the years have gone by, I feel the overall direction and in particular the obsessive close-ups of the main actors has become very dated. Rod Steiger plays Napoleon with all his usual over the top theatrical style.
Prometheus (2012)
Spear Carriers!
I absolutely love the 'Aliens' franchise, but I was deeply disappointed with Prometheus.
In my opinion, 'characterisation is' absolutely everything.
Using 'Aliens' as an example. Although some of the actors playing the marines are only on scene for a short time, each is clearly a distinctive character. If they hadn't been 'killed off' you could imagine them continuing in the movie.
On the other hand, in Prometheus, more than half way through the movie, the aged Peter Weyland turns up (that's OK) but he's accompanied by several new support characters. They never speak or add anything to the film!. They just appear in the background, they undertake no chores. Exactly like 'spear carriers' in theatre productions as 'background'
Terrible......
The Day of the Triffids (2009)
Appalling version of wonderful book
I can only assume the brief to the scriptwriters was 'ruin a great book'
It's so bad that it's hard to describe, but just one small incident at the start of this TV mini series 'says it all'.
Bill (the hero) wakes up after the eye operation. He can see, whereas most of humanity can't. The first blind person he meets is an elderly woman in a wheelchair. He tells her he'll come back with help. He manages to force his way through lots of blind people milling around in the hospital. He eventually exits the hospital, only to come across the same blind elderly woman dead outside (wheelchair overturned). How on earth the blind elderly woman managed to get outside before him is unexplained.
This just one of hundreds of dreadful examples of poor scriptwriting and direction.
They Were Expendable (1945)
Best WW2 movie ever made
I'm in my late 70s and a 'Brit' and I've watched war films all my life. My father was killed in WW2 flying as a navigator on a Halifax bomber so, although I hate war, I think I have a right to comment.
In my opinion, this movie is, by far, the very best WW2 movie ever made. It is understated in its dialogue and scenes. It is, in some ways, a documentary drama of those days just after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour with utter confusion by the American forces.
It is clear that many of the actors and others involved with the making of the film had served in WW2.
As you watch the movie, notice the number of times when actors move away and you don't hear what they're saying and the Director leaves it to you to imagine what's being said.
They can't make films like this nowadays!
Barabbas (1961)
Good film but costumes all wrong!
This is basically a good film and the main actors are believable, BUT for some reason the uniforms of the Roman soldiers are JUST WRONG. They appear to be wearing some sort of Greek helmets with large plumes. In addition, the soldiers in the early scenes in Palestine have round shields when most Roman soldiers used a famous rectangular shield. I know this might seem like 'nit-picking' but I just think that historical movies should try to be as accurate as possible.