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Boudica (2023)
Utter rubbish
Well pretty sure a GCSE drama student could have written a better script than whoever was responsible for this mess. Claiming it was based on history then including magic self straightening flying bronze swords that would out perform iron blew that idea away even before we got the ghost daughters.
Oh and from where did the two dead kids learn to be masters of battle tactics so good that any battle hardened well drilled Roman army formation mum encountered didn't stand a chance.
Didn't make it more than about half way through but was half expecting the the old Hollywood style rewrite of history where the American army appearing late in the day to save the plucky Brits.
Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)
What a pity.
This could have been good but oh dear, what a missed opportunity. Pretty much everything that was going to happen was telegraphed ages before it happened. Seeming interesting characters appeared, started to build a role in the story then vanished without a trace. Action scenes were more hilarious than tense and the editing to try to make them look impressive did the opposite, a weird mix of normal, slow and fast speed and of course the baddies for the most part were rotten shots. The acting was rather odd as well, lots of very flat characters and many of the actors seemingly not that interested in the story they were trying to tell.
Doctor Who: Blink (2007)
Hide behind the sofa time
I'm old enough to have watched the original run of Dr Who from the time of the third Dr Who, John Perwee. A good part of Saturday evenings back then was spent hiding behind the sofa from sea devils, cybermen and darleks but for sheer terror nothing comes close to the first appearance of the Weeping Angels. Google the scariest TV shows ever and Blink will be somewhere near the top of the list, with good reason. No real violence, no blood and gore just an unseen but high speed inevitability creeping up when no one is looking. For a Dr Who episode it is odd in that the Dr himself barely appears after being Weeping Angeled, but their method of murder becomes their downfall.
Life on Our Planet (2023)
Oh dear
Hmm, only watched 2 episodes so far but its jumping about all over the place and several scenes like the trickster cuttlefish seem nightly familiar, as it has appeared and been much better presented and described in one or other of the BBC's far superior natural history shows. Talks of billions and millions of years but no mention of the epochs those dates relate to and creatures from vastly different eras of the earths evolution presented one after the other with no indication millions of years separate them for example giant millipedes form the distant past straight to modern jumping spiders. Netflix seem to be trying to do what the BBC natural history unit and Sir David Attenborough do but have forgotten the BBC have been doing this.for well over half a century.
Kleo (2022)
Well worth watching
Cold war kid from the UK here and this plays wonderfully on the often rather very overblown stories of everything east of the iron curtain we were constantly told. What we have here is a mix of Kill Bill and James Bond with a bit of George Smiley and Bridge of Spies thrown in for good measure. Great writing, even better acting from the whole cast, even a flying saucer, a perfect balance between tension and farce and just when you thought it was all over a couple of twists in the plot that could lead to who knows what. Looks like Netfix have given themselves the option of season two, lets just hope the writers has an equally great story for us if that happens.
Utopia (2020)
Oh dear Amazon what have you done?
Do yourself a favour and skip this version and watch the original UK version from about 10 years ago, its on prime and well worth the purchase price. This is a dumbed down and sanitised version aimed at goodness knows what audidence with none of the tension and mystery of the original.
The Watch (2020)
One more star than it deserves.
Its pretty clear no one involved in this total mess has ever read a word written by the late, great Sir Terry. Characters carefully built through many books are unrecognisable. No one, cast or crew involved in this deserves to work another day in film or TV as they have shown a total contempt for the story they are supposed to be telling. And how on earth has this got an average rating of five and a bit? I've gone through pages of reviews and hardly any are above 2! Suspect there is some manipulation of the scores going on.
The Tomorrow War (2021)
Mindless
Huge plot holes but without them how could the hero have saved the world (and by saving the world destroyed the chance of the thing he used to save it being produced in the future!)
Love, Death & Robots (2019)
Season 1 brilliant, season 2 a letdown
Had I posted this after season 1 it would have been 10 stars, brilliantly innovative every episode made you think. Season 2 though 1 star, simply lacks the quality of story and twists in tail that made season 1 so brilliant.
Season 3 better than 2 but still dismal in comparison to the first season.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
Oh dear
Not the worst scifi sequel of the year, the new Blade Runner get thats honour, but it was close run thing, gaping plot holes, silly jokes (yes I know what the steam iron spaceship was about, pointless and childish!), ridiculous characters. Seems more is put into making millions out of the brand than delivering a sensible story. What story there was could have easily been told in 90min and giving either side some remotely competent commanders would have meant a walkover. We all know how to take out an at at but the revolution seems to have forgotten. Oh and as to the penguin things, bet Disney has made a fortune out of soft toys porgs.
Blue Planet II (2017)
The BBC and Sir David at their best
This is the BBC back to doing what it does best, world spanning documentary that takes years to film with little though on the commercial aspects (though I am sure this will make the BBC a fortune in years to come). Stunning filming with every episode seeming to make at least one genuine scientific discovery, spanning the world from pole to pole and across every ocean and most of the seas showing astonishing behaviour from familiar animals (I challenge every single one of the British MPs who recently voted to say animals have no sentience and can't feel emotion to watch the whale cradling her dead calf or the octopus outsmarting the shark) and stunning creatures stranger than any science fiction alien. Sit back, enjoy and learn!
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Bad sequel
Don't get me wrong this a pretty OK future dystopia sci fi film but it spends far too much time trying to be a sequel to a classic at the expense of its own story which has massive holes in the plot. Visually stunning, particularly the AI girlfriend though the whole film seems obsessed with naked ladies for no good reason. The sound track is heavily based on the original but tries too hard to match Vangelis and fails, heavy handed, music overpowers speech and the sound fails to reflect the action. Story is an interesting development of the original but could easily have been told in a 2 hr film and the blatant setups of more sequels are annoying, and as for the leading man, Gosling just spends the whole film being a smug and self satisfied Ryan Gosling. I've watched the original Bladerunner countless times since it came our (last time a couple of days ago). I can't see myself bothering to watch this one ever again.
World War Z (2013)
Why let a good book stop you making a rotten movie?
What we have here is a pretty mediocre zombie movie in the same sort of vein as the far better Zombieland. About the only thing it has in common with the book is title. The characters are about as uninteresting as it gets and there are so many holes and hanging threads in the story you can't help worrying they are planning a sequel!
They attempt serious science but it laughable, has WHO Cardiff heard of biosafety levels? Where do they get the sat phones that work inside, and why leave out what must have been a very exciting in flight refuelling to get the C130 to fly that far!
Seriously, if you haven't read the book don't waste your money on a ticket to watch the film, go buy the book for a properly entertaining zombie yarn!