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adrian.chell
Reviews
Moonfall (2022)
What the heck did I just watch?
I can only assume that Academy Award-winner Halle Berry received a massive tax bill just before she was approached to star in this film. There can be no other reason I can think of that persuaded her to participate in this utter nonsense.
Writer/director Roland Emmerich has a chequered history of earth-threatening disaster movies in his resumé; for every Independence Day, there's an Independence Day: Resurgence and this, sadly, falls into the latter category.
I'm all for sci-fi movies that ask "what if" until, like this, you get a plot based on "what if we ignore all scientific laws".
The effects are largely OK, though you can see occasionally where corners have been cut. The product placement is more heinous than any Bond film and jolts you out of the scene every time you see or hear it. The story is ridiculous, the characters two-dimensional stereotypes, and the ending is laughable.
Reacher (2022)
Throwback to 80s action movies
Back in the 1980s, action movies featured simplistic plots about impossibly muscular heroes who shrugged off numerous bullet and knife wounds, while singlehandedly overpowering a platoon of heavily-armed bad guys, before killing the head honcho in spectacularly gruesome fashion, then quipping a zinger line.
And with Reacher, we're right back there, and it's not necessarily a good thing.
Let's start with the titular hero and the actor playing him. Alan Ritchson is a big guy, who has obviously worked very hard at the gym; he's absolutely shredded. Yet, we're supposed to believe that this is a man who wanders from place to place, eating bad food from diners and fast food joints, and whose only exercise is beating seven shades of what's-good-for-the-roses out of bad guys. Good genetics and a fast metabolism can only suspend disbelief so far.
Then there's the writing. What passes for back story has Reacher unapologetically beating up anyone who breaks his moral code, a trait that continues into his adult life, apparently without any serious legal consequences. The main plot has no nuance and is ladled with heavy-handed foreshadowing; the supporting characters are stereotypes and most are so thinly fleshed out as to be 2-dimensional.
All that said, the show is not without its moments, and offers lots of spectacularly staged violence, if you're a connoisseur of such things.
If Reacher gets a second season - and on this showing, that's a big "if" - they need to give Ritchson much better lines, improve the plotting and give us more rounded supporting characters.
Eternals (2021)
Possibly the worst MCU movie yet
There were some interesting choices made in the production of this movie. First, much of the runtime was devoted to flashbacks that, for me, did little to flesh out the characters of the Eternals and merely lengthened an already baggy film.
Secondly, the decision to criminally under-use both Salma Hayek and Angelina Jolie; I can only assume they were being paid by the line and the movie ran over budget. There's an element of stunt casting at play in adding such actors to the roster (as is also the case with the last Eternal revealed), which becomes more obvious when you don't use them to their potential.
Then there is the choice of Gemma Chan and Richard Madden as de facto leads. Whether it's the lacklustre script, or a failure to project charisma, neither of their characters felt anything more than two-dimensional.
Then there's the plot. The underlying reason for the Eternals being on Earth makes no sense. This is a convoluted Bond-villain plan writ large. Simpler, faster solutions exist - like seeding a planet that already has a large population. Equally, the explanation for not fighting Thanos, whose actions could have significantly delayed "the emergence" if not for the Avengers resetting the "snap", is basically, "Sorry, we only fight Deviants".
It may be that this movie serves as the set-up to a whole new branch of MCU movies, but on the basis of this film, I have little in the way of excitement to watch them.
New Blood (2016)
Promising start ruined by hammering the same gags to death over & over
Two young investigators, one an ambitious junior police officer, the other an unconventional fraud investigator, team up to solve cases that - by miraculous coincidence - always seem to straddle both their areas of responsibility.
As a one-off, the coincidence might be acceptable, but the entire series uses the same conceit, so it becomes entirely unconvincing. Equally unconvincing is that either of the heroes wouldn't be fired or prosecuted, or both, for their antics in solving the crimes.
The series is aiming for the comedy-drama approach, but every gag is beaten to death by repetition: the heroes are hugely competitive, so are forever challenging one another to races or other contests; one wants to date the other's sister and the brother doesn't approve; one keeps getting the other into trouble of both the perilous and job-risking variety, but somehow they both survive; they barely get on, but are trying to buy a flat together, and so on.
Only the villains make the programme worth watching at all, and some of them are rubbish (I'm looking at you flat cap-wearing hit-man).
The chemistry between the leads is non-existent, the plots make too much use of coincidence and the decent actors in the supporting cast are wasted by being portrayed as two-dimensional.
Watch something else.
Above Suspicion: The Red Dahlia: Part 1 (2010)
Not so much "Above Suspicion" as "Beneath Contempt"
I gave it a chance, I really did, but La Plante's latest was as plodding as a flat-footed policeman.
This was a strictly by-the-numbers "thriller" that offered no thrills and little in the way of decent acting. Even the normally excellent Sylvia Syms was relegated to the role of a forelock-tugging housekeeper who may, or may not, have been involved in the case's frankly ludicrous conclusion.
As others have said, Ciarán Hinds was channeling the ghost of Jack Regan in his portrayal of the no-nonsense old-fashioned copper, even down to getting the women in the office to fetch his coffee and bacon sandwiches.
Female lead Kelly Reilly lacked the acting ability the role required, delivering her lines with all the passion of a sat nav while, as the prime suspect, Simon Williams wore out his dentures chewing the scenery.
Unfortunately, not even the excellent murder victim special effects could save the viewer from three turgid hours of this drivel. If anyone else had written this, it would never have been made, so I can only assume that La Plante used up one of her three lifelines to get this on prime time ITV.
Flashpoint (2008)
Some refreshing changes but it's still a cop show
Flashpoint is one of the few cop shows I've seen where every action has consequences, and the protagonists have to live with those consequences, not just forget them in time for next week's episode. While each week gives us a different superficial scenario, they all contribute something to the ongoing sub-plots. Hugh Dillon is excellent as the enormously experienced but tightly-wound Ed Lane and he is admirably supported by Enrico Colantoni as the team's leader Sgt. Greg Parker. To be fair, some of the minor characters have suffered from a lack of air time, and so development so far, so we get left with the stereotypes. There is the token woman (Jules), the new hot shot (Sam), the techie (Spike) and the all-round utility player (Wordy). Over time, and notwithstanding Amy Jo Johnson's pregnancy, I hope these characters will become as fleshed out as those of the leads. I'm certainly ready to give the show its chance.