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Mr. Malcolm's List (2022)
A Very Ordinary Reflection On The Austen Narrative
The best thing you can do before watching this is to dismiss the notion of all historical accuracy. It is an entertainment piece that takes the usual Austen narrative of stories motivated by perspectives, as well as perspectives that clash. And to be honest you can feel the feminine touch of Emma Holly Jones pressed firmly on the ideas of a time when women were chattel but unlike most property, they actively sought to impose themselves upon the romantic whims of men. I like the notion that revenge is used but it does not mark out the film from numerous better examples that came out of Hollywood in the nineties and noughties. Consequently, we end up with a very ordinary story that is lavish to look at but little else. It had me wondering whether the acting was bad...but it wasn't. I knew all of the main actors and have enjoyed their work when in other guises. Was the script bad? Not really. It wasn't extraordinary but it was an okay script. What was it then? Well, I'm left with the thought that it was badly cast. Sope Dirusu would have been a better Captain Henry Ossory & Theo James a better Mr Jeremy Malcolm but even this change would have done little to rectify the lack of chemistry we see on the screen. I hope that Emma Holly Jones displays a bit more bravery in future to make us engage with her characters because she has a gold cinematic eye but she needs to engage with the emotional aspects of a film a little more. In all honesty, I spent a period of time during the period piece hoping all the characters would just die. I need the characters to live up to their build-up and then draw me in through my emotional engagement. This didn't manage to do that although it was splendid if only okay watch.
Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008)
Just had the unfortunate luck of sitting through this film...
...And I have to say that my low expectations were not low enough. Maybe, it's a girlie film intended for a different audience but my life is poorer for having had to endure it.
Because of Grácia (2017)
Thoughtless In Its Thoughtfulness
Nothing in this that I enjoyed. Perhaps if it provided some better debate or some factual elements to arguments. But, ultimately, it provides nothing of the sort. It amounts to 'flat-earth' propoganda parading as a film.
Love and Monsters (2020)
A Perfectly Good Watch For All The Family
This film will not change film history, it will not be remembered for having a stunning plot or being clever in some other way acceptable to the penalizing critics BUT it's fun and a great escape. It provides the right balance of hope, comedy, action, romance and 'buddiness' for the whole family to get something out of it. We thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend that you skip the over critical reviews and just make up your own mind. Would I have done certain things different? Yes, but so what? The film is a perfectly good watch for all the family!
Perry Mason (2020)
Sometimes I Wonder If Other People Watched The Same Thing
I do occasionally get baffled reading through comments made by people about series, episodes or films they have seen. Am I so low-brow that I've managed to miss the nuances they've magically captured? Of course, it is a possibility but in the case of the new Perry Mason series I think not.
This is not to be compared to the original series starring Raymond Burr (which was, by the way, absolutely terrible and bereft of proper legal protocols but fun to watch nonetheless) ...This series is better compared with Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. It captured the nasty, seedy world of a PI and transposes it over a courtroom show played around a background of corruption. Most of the characters have hidden things to contend with and this is firmly embroidered into the corruption and destitution that exists in post-Wall Street Crash America where everyone seeks hope, resolution and salvation. Parry Mason isn't a man on a mission, he is a man contending with the demons of his past. He doesn't see a future for himself but instead attempts to hide in a past that precedes the horrors of war whilst hardly dealing with reality except for a few investigative crumbs thrown his way via friends. It is also via friends that his future is assured for need rather than want. This series is Perry Mason: the origin story and has more in common with the actual famous crime novels based in those times than many poor adaptations that became praised. Most people do what they have to in order to survive and thrive in this particular 'lala land' and this is something we know was true from authors that were obsessed with the corrupt abuses of then. In this world it is not simply a tale of black and white, good and bad, right and wrong. It is well filmed, beautifully acted and I found myself caring about and invested in characters regardless of their short-comings. I think the team behind this did wonderfully well and I'm glad it has a second series...long may it continue.
Pennyworth (2019)
Fun with no relation to reality
Let me first get this out of the way. I dare say that most people reviewing this have zero experience of what life in London was ACTUALLY like in the 1960s but I can tell you this is nothing like the reality. This is the fictional equivalent of movies that make all Turks wear a fez or London businessmen wear bowler hats - there's an element of truth in it but it's far from the real thing. If you can dismiss this you'll have some fun watching the development of Batman's Butler as a fictional parallel reality.
Both Jack Banon and Paloma Faith do wonderful jobs and are admirably supported by Hainsley Lloyd Bennett & Ryan Fletcher but I cannot get a proper grip on the Thomas Wayne character. I see the foundations laid for his wife to be (Martha) but nonetheless find his character a little disjointed. This is not the actor's fault but maybe this will change with time...who knows what direction Bruno Heller will end up taking...for now he paints a man metaphorically working both ends of the candle simply because his country (via the CIA) demands it. Wayne has a sense of moral duty and patriotic responsibility that makes him take to the field...but herein is the problem for Bruno Heller. London was not the battlegrounds of the mid 60s cold war world and Heller must convince us that this reality is of little importance or consequence. I am thus far not convinced...and although London had it's fair share of swingers, playboys, dramatic scandals and the like in the late fifties and early sixties, even The Beatles went to the more free-spirited Hamburg to begin their cultural rise to icons. This tale would of been better placed in the Germany of that time. But dismiss all of these points of realism and you have a darn good yarn which is (on the whole) very well acted. If Heller can stop paying to homage to the image of London sold by "grey" and stark films like The Krays or The Ipcress File and take a bit more from the slightly more whimsical The Italian Job or Summer Holiday then we'll have an adult series that is both funny and sufficiently playful enough to take as serious entertainment.
I may well return to the title after the first series or into the second and write further comment...as it currently stands, it is not as good as some have suggested (this is no Breaking Bad) but neither is it anywhere near as bad as some others have claimed. Give it a chance and make up your own mind.