david-2348 Reviews

When Calls the Heart (2014– )

Getting more painful by the season

[2/10 · 25 May 2024]

I like intelligent dramas (the stuff the Brits are good at), and my wife likes wholesome romcoms. I put up with this show so we can watch something together, and for several seasons it was fairly painless viewing, even though some of the characters were extremely annoying. It has never been an intelligent drama, but now it is almost the polar opposite of intelligent. Erin Krakow has the acting depth and breadth of a puddle. How on earth did she ever become one of Hallmark's top actors? The half-open mouth, half-smiley look that she manages to pull off 20 times an episode is painful to watch. When it comes to wooden actors, she leads the pack. Rosemary and Bill try to inject some zing into the show, but it's pretty much on life support at the moment (season 11). Maybe the producer's plan is to keep the Elizabeth-Nathan-Lucas love triangle going forever, and just change the main love interest from season to season. They could just reuse the earlier scripts. Oh wait, that is pretty much what they are doing this season. I love my wife, so I will keep watching it with her, but she will probably need to wake me as the credits roll.

River of Freedom (2023)

So glad this documentary was made

[10/10 · 12 January 2024]

Yes, you can legitimately quibble that it should have have more of this, or less of that, but it captured the spirit of the anti-mandate protest, the freedom village, and the horrendous overreaction by those in power. Although I didn't camp out on the grounds, I was a frequent visitor to the village. I have never in my life before or since felt such harmony as I did on those visits. Where else can you see gay, straight, Christians, atheists, nature lovers, Hare Krishnas, surfies, rappers, metalheads, gang members, bikies, priests, nuns, ex-police, ex-nurses, ex-doctors, ex-military, farmers, pensioners, middle-aged, thirty-somethings, twenty-somethings, teenagers, kids, white, brown, black, and people from all walks of life, all getting along peacefully and genuinely caring for each other?

Apart from one early stupid foray, I thought the police were respectful and polite for the most part. Right up until the last day. Then they lost the plot. And of course, once attacked, some protesters decided to fight back. That was unfortunate, but it was a small minority. Perhaps the best way to have avoided that would have been for the police to leave the jackboots at home that day.

That not a single member of parliament would agree to talk to the protesters about the mandates was downright disgraceful, and I for one will never vote for any of those cowards ever again.

The majority may prefer to believe that the protest was just a bunch of fringe nutcases, but it was the finest example of living in harmony that I have ever witnessed.

The Show Must Go On: The Queen + Adam Lambert Story (2019 TV Movie)

Two thumbs up from long-time Queen fan

[10/10 · 7 May 2019]

Adam Lambert is not Freddie Mercury, and he doesn't want to be nor need to be. I have been following Queen from the earliest days and still rate the 1985 concert in Tokyo, just prior to Live Aid, as one of the highlights of my life. I love all the original Queen music, but Queen with Adam Lambert breathes new life into it, and the last Queen concert I went to in 2018 was actually a better concert (in terms of sound, structure, content, lighting, effects, etc) than the 1985 one. Queen with Adam Lambert is a different flavour, but it's just as enjoyable. This documentary goes into detail about how this new partnership came about. If you like Queen and have an open mind, you will like this. Now if only they would dare to write some new material together....

Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018)

I'm a right-wing conservative capitalist, but Moore deserves a pat on the back

[9/10 · 5 December 2018]

This should be required viewing in school. Yes, of course Michael Moore uses all the tricks filmmakers use to tell a story in an engaging manner, but anyone who comes to this with an open mind will see that at its core there is a message that is deeply disturbing about our politicians. I take my hat off to all the brave people, from the left or right, who are prepared to challenge the "old boy" power structures that corrupt politics.

The Only Way (1970)

Ruined by the soundtrack

[4/10 · 16 March 2013]

I like war movies. I like movies about the Jews in World War II. So this movie gets 4 stars just for being a movie about the Jews in World War II. However, this is by far the worst movie of its type I have ever seen. If you aren't a fan of this type of movie, then it has no saving graces and would probably only be worth 1 or 2 points at most. As a viewer I felt no tension whatsoever, despite the topic being one which should have been dripping with tension from start to finish. This was largely down to the musical score, which was totally inappropriate for the type of movie it was. It's as if the orchestra made the score without any reference to the movie content itself. Just re-doing the musical score to something appropriate would probably lift the movie's rating a point or two.

Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010)

Not the worst movie I have ever seen

[2/10 · 9 June 2011]

I've seen a few that are worse. I expected an Aussie version of Red Dawn, which I quite enjoyed at a sort of mindless entertainment level many years ago, but this was basically just another episode of Home and Away. As others have said, all the characters are barely two-dimensional, and to be honest I couldn't really have cared less if any of them had been killed. Furthermore, the plot is riddled with holes and unbelievable action. I was amused by the way that the petrol tanker parked under one end of the bridge on dry land managed to completely destroy the bridge with secondary and tertiary explosions. Obviously the Australian Defense force should decommission its tanks, fighters and warships, and just build a few battalions of mutant ninja petrol tankers. These would obviously have stopped the invasion in its tracks. I don't mind science fiction, but it should at least be plausible. Nothing at all about this movie was plausible. And perhaps the most implausible thing about it is that so many people think it's actually any good.