Change Your Image
johnbuckworth
Reviews
Cavegirl (2002)
Never heard of this brilliant series before..
Thank you Amazon Prime, Cavegirl is a jewel of a series, very funny, deceptively light but dealing with issues of male and female identity, self-image, collective dynamics, the role of the 'other' - and the protagonist, Cavegirl, is cursed with not only being the most intelligent person on the planet, but is also a teenager on the cusp of adulthood - a combination guaranteed to irritate the heck out of just about everyone. There's a lot more where that came from - don't you dare go away!
Midsommar (2019)
If you love the original 'The Wicker Man'..,
I had to write a review, having read a lot of "bizarre, traumatic" etc comments, If you love the original 'The Wicker Man', and I love 'The Wicker Man' a lot, I would suggest that you may well love this film as much. It's that good.
I'll watch it again (that's my basic measure of whether a film is really good or just good: Midsommar is really good).
The Breaker Upperers (2018)
I love this film!
I only feel the need to post a review on IMDb when I watch something special, and I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone else who might watch it on Netflix. so my review is: I loved this film!
Rather than tell you anything about the plot, humour, anything, 'The Breaker Upperers" is absolutely nothing like either 'Kath & Kim' and 'Run Lola Run', but if you love either or both you probably won't regret 82 minutes of your leisure time spent watching this gem of a movie.
Crawlspace (2012)
Really good!
I like that the other reviews on IMDb don't talk too much about the plot, I watched this film tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it, and I was happy to not know too much beforehand. The references to other movies are fair enough, but I think there's a bit of a trend to describe films as "This movie" meets "That movie", and sometimes that's fair enough: but I think this film stands on its own merits.
I liked the characters, I liked the plot, I like the pace of the story; I like the idea of the movie; I like the special effects. It's not a splatter movie but it is a fine addition to Antipodean genre films.
I would definitely watch a sequel, I can't explain more without giving away spoilers!
If you enjoy low-budget genre movies that transcend their financial limitations through darn good film-making, this is well worth a watch.
Kawaki. (2014)
Brutal yes, but plenty of black humour
I read some of the other reviews, I've just watched it on Shudder and I thought there was a lot of (admittedly very dry and dark) humour; some characters do very very unpleasant things (I really don't think this is a spoiler) but I found myself laughing as well as wincing during the 2 hours of this film.
(Having said that, I did pause the film about a half-hour in, turned the lights back on and watched 10 minutes of the Golf Open highlights on BBC2 just to have a little break from some of the unremitting bleakness).
Plenty of synopses in other reviews, you've already read at least one.
Beautifully filmed, loads of excellent visual loveliness amongst the brutality, soundtrack is very good and used to help identify the (frequent) flashbacks (nothing wrong with challenging the viewer to KEEP UP).
If you like 'Old Boy', 'Bad Lieutenant' and 'Mad Detective' I think you will really enjoy this film. I did say enjoy. I thought it was excellent.
Sick Girl (2007)
Along with Run Lola Run, my joint favourite film
I'm giving this 10 out of 10 because:
(1) when I first saw this film I was utterly gob-smacked, in the same way that Hellraiser and Evil Dead gobsmacked me. Utterly unique.
(2) Leslie Andrews is simply phenomenal.
(3) There are some films I watch again, and some that I watch regularly, every couple of years. Run Lola Run and Sick Girl beat all the others hands down in terms of repeat viewing (Peter Jackson's Braindead is close 3rd). (Note: Run Lola Run is not a gore film, it's just perfect).
(4) I'm not going to give any spoilers, but this film does not shy away from showing children that their casual cruelty can occasionally have surprisingly disproportionate consequences (which is surely a healthy message for all our younger generation to absorb?).
(5) On the region 1 DVD, the extra features include Leslie Andrews' "Death by.." art project, where she photographs herself as victim of 'death by..' (e.g. death by washing machine, death by garden hose) - subversive and really funny photographs, I wish they were available as a book. Worth buying the DVD for if you can't stream this movie.
Mechanic: Resurrection (2016)
Why so negative?
I read the bad reviews, and had to scroll down quite a way to find a half-decent one. When I am in the mood for an entertaining action movie, I am prepared to suspend a LOT of disbelief and I can forgive very very big plot holes. And I enjoyed this film.
Jason Statham is his own brand, I personally LOVE both Crank movies, Transporter 1-3 are lots of fun; The Mechanic I enjoyed more on second viewing, and expecting more of the same from Mechanic: Resurrection I wasn't disappointed. The Statham does his thing, he's not worried about the plot, why would he be? Jessica Alba should make more action movies, she, along with Michelle Rodriguez, could each carry an action franchise in their own right.
If you have enjoyed Statham movies before, you could probably EASILY find a worse way of spending 90 minutes of your life than watching this movie.
Free Fire (2016)
I'm telling you nothing about this film..
I really recommend this film. I've watched all of Ben Wheatley's films (apart from 'High Rise', JG Ballard is not my bag), and they've all been really worth watching but definitely flawed (from my point of view as the viewer, I don't want to offend anyone by claiming my opinion is any more valid than anyone else's). 'Kill List' was a strange film that turned from '90s gangster film to '70s Hammer horror 3/4s of the way through; 'A Field in England' was exactly what I would imagine eating mushrooms in the middle of a civil war battle would end up like (and why would I never need to know that?); 'Sightseers' was like Joe Orton writing 'Carry on Camping' (it wasn't, but once I thought of that I had to share it). 'Free Fire' is just wonderful. I can't tell you about any of the references, or any of the plot, I REALLY don't want to spoil this film for you if you haven't read any of the other reviews of it. I'm not going to tell you it's a British version of any celebrated American director's oeuvre, but if you've seen Ben Wheatley's work before you can expect humour, and violence (and humorous violence). I think that this is the director's most rounded work so far, as a film it is really satisfying.
Zashchitniki (2017)
Make up your own subtitles, it's pretty good!
The version I saw had the worst subtitles since the UK DVD release of Banlieu 13 (District 13), but, as with that film, you can pretty much make up your own dialogue and back-story for the characters; I really enjoyed the Russian take on superhero movies. Yes the film-makers do make a couple of 'nods' to the Marvel universe, but there are plenty of Marvel villains who have their 'origin' in the Cold War, there's no reason anyone should not see this movie entirely on its own merits: well filmed, good action, and (in my interpretation of the subtitles) a reasonably well-plotted superhero movie that was more entertaining than some of the US juggernauts (Doctor Strange, I'm looking at you). And despite the title, I don't think this is intended as a version of Guardians of the Galaxy, I think this is its own beast.
I would definitely watch 'The Guardians 2' (I'm fairly sure that doesn't count as a spoiler - some if not all of the heroes may or may not survive the course of the movie), and I really hope they make it. The characters are well worth a second outing. This movie was a '7' for me (I'd rate GOTG as '9', just so you can judge my judgement).
Reckoning Day (2002)
No-budget Gold
I really like this film, especially after watching the 'making of' extra. I really bought in to what they wanted to present: a full-on damn silly blood-happy gun-orgy. Job done! Great b-movie, I really enjoyed it.
(this is my first IMDb review, and I watch a LOT of dvds; this is a film I wanted to review. 'Sick Girl' is next..)
Having submitted this review, apparently I haven't been sufficiently verbose...
(IMDB tell me I haven't said enough. For me, this is a RARE event).
Appsrently, there's a minimum of 10 (ten) lines per review.
I shouldn't have used that semi-colon. Is that enough lines? I'd said what I wanted to say in the first paragraph.