benuk Reviews

The Witcher: Blood Origin (2022)

Perfectly decent

[8/10 · 20 July 2023]

I put off watching Blood Origin for ages as I assumed it really was terrible. In reality the cast is perfectly fine and there are no problems at all with the acting (although I'm not sure Lenny is entirely suited for pure evil). The plot is clearly meant to be the form of a yarn and it races along perfectly fine without too many narrative leaps to get from A to B which leave you infuriated as often happens in these kind of series. It's not absolutely fantastic but it's perfectly decently written and acted high fantasy and I have to say I enjoyed it. I gave it an extra mark to 8 due to the unfairness. Actually perfectly fine. Not bad at all. Enjoyable high fantasy romp.

John Wick (2014)

Incredible total non-plot and how the heck rated 7.4?

[1/10 · 23 October 2019]

I saw John Wick for the first time last night. I was amazed - I mean - what the absolute? After the set up, it was basically one violent murder session. The 'set up' was the most perfunctory excuse for what followed possible. Laughable doesn't begin to describe it. If this is what scriptwriting has become then I'm getting into it. It is just incredible. And what follows completely avoids any kind of human description - they aren't people at all. Just automatons with no discernable personalities heading towards violent oblivion or an ostensible human dishing out said violent oblivion. And I like cheesy action films. Amazing. I sent this to a friend and he thought I was being postive. Which I suppose makes sense because what I describe is, I suppose, the film's strength in some people's eyes. I wasn't - I thought it was TERRIBLE.

The Wolverine (2013)

Plot seemed to go off the rails half way through

[6/10 · 17 April 2015]

*****Contains spoilers******* I was really enjoying this film (well quite enjoying it) until about the time Logan pulled the spidery thingy out of his chest. The plot with the estranged boyfriend was fine, and it looked like the yakuza/father/green woman (what the heck ARE her powers??) villain plot was going to work out perfectly OK. Then it seems to me that there was a collective Hollywood-style ambush with some exec deciding that Wolverine MUST get the girl, there must be a criminal lair and the old guy who was the pull to get Logan to Japan must in fact go against his previous nobility and be a 'supervillain'. In fact they just decided 'we liked the ending of Iron Man 1 - let's just do that'. The last scene was utterly anti-climatic for me, and after the spider scene and as Logan got to the town next to the lair, I turned to my wife and said: "I've quite enjoyed it but we appear to be heading for a b*****ks ending". And we did. I tend to agree with the plot-holers in the highly rated reviews, but all that could be overlooked without the story going somewhat off the rails. Ah well...

Man of Steel (2013)

Invulnerable people punching each other..,.Yawn

[3/10 · 4 April 2015]

Can't believe the high IMDb score on this one to be honest. I was very disappointed with this film. It starts off OK with Krypton, and the early part on Earth is OK-ish, but about half of the film is one long moronic punch-up. Invulnerable people hitting each other seemingly endlessly does not a dramatic encounter make. Superman gets punched, flies back into building which is demolished. Gets up as he's invulnerable. He punches person who punched him, who flies back into building which is demolished. Gets up as he's invulnerable. Repeat for 2nd half of film. The next film I viewed was Watchmen. The comparison with such a rich packed storyline just threw into sharp contrast the wasteland which is the Man of Steel script.

Conan the Destroyer (1984)

Not bad - but blimey - the most annoying sidekick ever!!!!!

[7/10 · 9 May 2007]

The plot moves on at a fair old pace from one big set piece to another and it is clear the film had a decent budget. In fact, I would say that this is excellent bubblegum sword and sorcery fodder except for a few minor, but annoying quirks. For one thing the comedy sidekick Malak is phenomenally irritating, badly acted, and takes any tension, interest etc out of any scene. Clearly they were going for a wider 'family' appeal with this film, but this was also clearly a decision made some time down the filming process. Most obviously this hits home during the fight scenes with some very choppy cutting as some of the more gruesome bits have been removed. And Conan's second encounter with the camel suffers from this too! That aside the cast carry off their roles with aplomb, Grace Jones in particular really getting across her character's zest for and love of combat. One of the better hack and slash films out there.

The Thin Red Line (1998)

War is hell. OK OK I geddit!!!!

[2/10 · 14 April 2006]

War is hell. War is hell. War is hell. Repeat 1,000 times and you've got the Thin Red Line. Terrence Malick doesn't understand the 'show don't tell' ethos of good filmaking. I watched Cross of Iron, All is Quiet on the Western Front and Das Boot and definitely got the feeling that being at war was pointless, wasteful and, er, hellish. But old Tel thinks those great films completely missed the point. What they needed was endless voice overs and slow-mos of people looking unhappy to get the message across. Unable to get the overall feeling that warfare isn't mankind's greatest hour across? What you need to do is just get the prettiest young actors around to look tortured for about three+ hours. OK I'll declare an interest. I hate voice-overs. I think they just show a director that has panicked in the editing room and lost confidence in his film. To sum up: the Thin Red Line stinks. It's beautifully shot, got some great actors in it, and has a lauded director at the helm. It sets itself up as an overwhelming indictment of war. I just found it tedious, preaching, nonsense and a massive disappointment. And it was up itself.

Lionheart (1990)

Fights, Van Damme, a semi decent script. By God it's GREAT!!!

[10/10 · 11 April 2006]

Some people have given this film 1/10 in the ratings. Clearly they do not understand cheapo action films (or their standards are too high). There are a lot of awful exploitation flicks of this variety (Van Damme has certainly done his fair share), but this isn't one of them. The script stands up, it's got a coherent plot, a decent sidekick, a bit of "heart" (helping his brother's family) and Brian Thompson. For crying out loud - what more do you want? It's not Citizen Kane, but it's far better than a lot of the action dross out there. Of Van Damme's early films it's up there with Bloodsport and Kickboxer, so if you like this sort of thing, I'd definitely give it a go!