This is pretty dire, and I regret watching all 6 episodes in the vague hope it would get better. The storyline is ridiculous (but I guess that's horror or sci-fi for you). It is painfully slow, the sets are unrealistic. There are some decent actors here who probably should have known better. Many of the characters are (I suppose deliberately) annoying or just plain thick. None are endearing or likeable. It is supposedly set on a north sea oil rig over several pretty stormy days, but the actors always seem to be freshly groomed, and there is hardly a whiff of a breeze in the air. The ending was unfinished, but please don't take this as an opportunity to make a follow-up series.
Reviews
12 Reviews
I Care a Lot
(2020)
Refreshingly different - and suspenseful
25 February 2021
I watched this today on Prime, after a recommendation from a friend - and I am glad I did. It is a rather different kind of movie from the norm, but is excellent in so many ways: the cast, the storyline, the twists, the action, the powerful ending. It is an unconventional plot, in the worlds of corruption in senior care and of a very dangerous mafia, but I see this as a strength and as a refreshing change. I rate it highly.
Cats
(2019)
Perfect for cat-ladies
30 December 2019
Well I'm going to give this a moderately positive score, because I enjoyed it for what it is - a movie version of a stage musical which is based loosely on T.S. Eliot's charming stories. I was accompanied by a neighbour who loves her own cats, and we had both seen the stage musical many years ago. The production uses CGI to enhance the costumes and movements of the human cast, and I think this works well. The performers are clearly still human beings dressed in cat costumes, which seems to be a look that some reviewers can't accept. I presume that some of the negative reviewers might prefer cartoon animation, but I reckon that what this movie does works well.
It isn't Tom & Jerry, or James Bond, or Star Trek, or romantic comedy, or of any other conventional genre. This is a different kind of movie, and I suggest for a different kind of audience: ideally cat-ladies who have seen the stage musical at least once.
Two Doors Down
(2016– )
Best sitcom in years
13 February 2019
I really enjoy this show. It was in series 3 before I discovered it, but I am pleased to see that the earlier series are on the BBC iPlayer for now. I just checked out the pilot episode (from 2013) and enjoyed it hugely too.
The writing is brilliant and the casting spot on. Some wonderful performances too, with lots of subtle detail in the body language and such things as just the little glances. Yes, many of the characters are "nightmare neighbours", but this is the fun of it. It may be too "Scottish" or "Glasgow" for some, but I think that the setting is an important part of its humour and charm. I look forward to going back to the earlier series - and hopefully to more to come in the future.
Mindhorn
(2016)
Good light-hearted fun - if you were there in the 70s
20 May 2017
Well I enjoyed this movie from start to finish. It probably isn't for everyone, e.g. if you are too old or too young or from another planet. But if you remember British cop dramas from the 70s and 80s – with a bit of Starsky and Hutch thrown in (and if you have a sense of humour) then you should find some real laugh-out-loud moments here. I found it great, light-hearted, rather slapstick fun, and I will enjoy seeing this again some day.
Three Girls
(2017)
Harrowing story, but a really excellent production - and some great acting
18 May 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I have watched this 3 part series on BBC1 over the past three evenings, and feel that I must pass some comment here. It has been a documentary drama based on the real life story of prolonged grooming and abuse of young girls in Rochdale - by adult men who are predominantly British men of Pakistani origin.
The story has received much publicity in recent years, as have too many similar cases in a variety of towns and cities around the UK (almost exclusively in England so far). These are true horror stories, with the young victims at the centre – but with a complex range of other people involved – the social workers and sexual health workers who tried to help (and probably some who didn't try very hard), the police, the CPS, the community at large, the parents. I won't attempt to re-tell it here.
I thought that this three-part series did a really excellent job of telling the story. It was quite harrowing to watch on many occasions, but this is a really excellent piece of TV production with wonderful acting by all concerned. Our deepest sympathies are of course with the victims and their families, as well as with the officials whose determination sees this particular case come to a successful prosecution. But I congratulate too those Asian actors who played their parts in this production.
I am grateful to the BBC for producing this series, and I consider it a good use of my licence fee. My sympathies go out to all victims of this kind of trafficking and abuse, and I hope that the series might help give some courage to other such victims.
The story has received much publicity in recent years, as have too many similar cases in a variety of towns and cities around the UK (almost exclusively in England so far). These are true horror stories, with the young victims at the centre – but with a complex range of other people involved – the social workers and sexual health workers who tried to help (and probably some who didn't try very hard), the police, the CPS, the community at large, the parents. I won't attempt to re-tell it here.
I thought that this three-part series did a really excellent job of telling the story. It was quite harrowing to watch on many occasions, but this is a really excellent piece of TV production with wonderful acting by all concerned. Our deepest sympathies are of course with the victims and their families, as well as with the officials whose determination sees this particular case come to a successful prosecution. But I congratulate too those Asian actors who played their parts in this production.
I am grateful to the BBC for producing this series, and I consider it a good use of my licence fee. My sympathies go out to all victims of this kind of trafficking and abuse, and I hope that the series might help give some courage to other such victims.
Terrible
18 May 2017
I saw this movie as a new release a few days ago. It was one of only two movies available in the small town where I was.
I have to say that I found it truly awful in almost every respect. It had clearly cost a bit of money to make, and it does use some quite fancy computer-produced action graphics, but this doesn't compensate for a boring and badly told story-line - with some of the most pathetic dialogue you are ever likely to hear. To make matters worse, none other than David Beckham manages to show up (as himself it seems) somewhere in the middle to spout some garbage. Even those who can claim to have some acting credentials fail to make their words worth listening to.
The movie already seems to have several positive reviews here – but I can only assume that these must come from the ultra-geek community, rather than from your average punter who fancies an entertaining night at the movies. A lesson learned the hard way, and a waste of time and money.
I have to say that I found it truly awful in almost every respect. It had clearly cost a bit of money to make, and it does use some quite fancy computer-produced action graphics, but this doesn't compensate for a boring and badly told story-line - with some of the most pathetic dialogue you are ever likely to hear. To make matters worse, none other than David Beckham manages to show up (as himself it seems) somewhere in the middle to spout some garbage. Even those who can claim to have some acting credentials fail to make their words worth listening to.
The movie already seems to have several positive reviews here – but I can only assume that these must come from the ultra-geek community, rather than from your average punter who fancies an entertaining night at the movies. A lesson learned the hard way, and a waste of time and money.
Sunset Song
(2015)
Good movie. Shame about the subtitling!
18 May 2017
I watched this movie recently on Amazon Prime. I enjoyed it very much on the whole. The setting of north-east Scotland farm life over 100 years ago (and through the first years of WW1) is close to my own family background, and so maybe the story-line has special resonance for me. At any rate it is a fine story which is well told by the actors and the director and not forgetting the choice of locations.
My only complaint is about the sub-titling. I often like to watch a movie with sub-titles switched on – to help me catch the dialogue more completely. And OK, I admit that my hearing is deteriorating a bit. The dialogue in the movie is pretty faithful to the book and to the Doric dialect of this part of Scotland, so maybe some people would be more inclined than normally to switch on the subtitling. Anyway, much of the subtitling on the version I saw must have been created by some kind of phonetic interpreter, because it translated many of the Doric words or locations into meaningless garbage.
My only complaint is about the sub-titling. I often like to watch a movie with sub-titles switched on – to help me catch the dialogue more completely. And OK, I admit that my hearing is deteriorating a bit. The dialogue in the movie is pretty faithful to the book and to the Doric dialect of this part of Scotland, so maybe some people would be more inclined than normally to switch on the subtitling. Anyway, much of the subtitling on the version I saw must have been created by some kind of phonetic interpreter, because it translated many of the Doric words or locations into meaningless garbage.
A Walk in the Woods
(2015)
Enjoyable and funny
4 March 2017
I watched this movie today on Amazon Prime. I hadn't come across it previously, but I had read Bryson's "A walk in the woods" book a few years ago. Bottom line is that I really enjoyed the movie. It isn't a complicated plot, just a buddy movie about two ageing pals who go off on a walking adventure on the Appalachian Trail. They are mismatched on various levels, and pretty unprepared for the trek, but they get through quite a lot of it. Bryson's books are light-hearted easy reading delights, probably never envisioned to become movies, but I do feel that this movie does fair justice to the spirit of the book. The actors are perfect and do a great job – albeit that they are probably rather older here than Bryson and Katz were at the time. The movie isn't supposed to be a kind of guide to the Appalachian Trail – as some reviewers here seem to think. It is just a bit of fun centred on these two men and their adventures on the trail as well as their reflections on the earlier days of their friendship and the ways their lives have worked out. It is genuinely funny, and I laughed a lot.
One small gripe - and this really applies to all movies where characters are required to carry backpacks. It is just too blatantly obvious to me that the packs have been filled with nothing heavier than a block of polystyrene. Maybe it would be a bit cruel to load these ageing actors with 20kg packs, so I will let them off with that here.
One small gripe - and this really applies to all movies where characters are required to carry backpacks. It is just too blatantly obvious to me that the packs have been filled with nothing heavier than a block of polystyrene. Maybe it would be a bit cruel to load these ageing actors with 20kg packs, so I will let them off with that here.
Moonlight
(I) (2016)
Pretty tedious
20 February 2017
I saw this movie in the cinema today, largely influenced to see it by rave reviews from some well-known TV pundits, and the fact that it has some impressive award nominations. I stuck with it, but found it pretty tedious. To a large extent this is because for me the dialogue was difficult to follow – since it is mostly in a rather indistinct southern US urban style. Subtitles would probably help a lot on that front. But that wouldn't speed it up. It is just a fairly plot-free life story which is not very interesting (to me anyway). And by the way I found some of the cinematography to be unpleasant – e.g. camera swirling round the scene in an apparent attempt to compensate for the lack of action interest. The film will probably appeal to some people e.g. if they feel that what they know of the story-line is of some personal relevance. My advice, though, is to wait for the DVD/streaming version so that you can switch on the subtitles and fast-forward where necessary.
Gone Girl
(2014)
Gripping stuff
6 October 2014
I saw this movie in the cinema today, and feel I have to put on record that it is one of the best I have seen in a long time. A great story which develops into a proper "page turner", complete with unexpected twists. I won't try to summarise the story, because there are plenty good summaries out there already. Great acting and direction all round....with my only gripe being about the rather poor audibility of some scenes, particularly in the first 15 minutes or so. Yes, the characters here are talking in low voices - but I would prefer to be able to make out the dialogue. Not an issue if you have the DVD and can switch on subtitles of course. But I am glad that I saw this in a cinema setting, where the sense of being gripped is more complete.
Disappointing, disjointed, but strangely accurate
21 November 2013
Well I have to say that I was rather disappointed with this film. It comes across as disjointed and of varying levels of quality. It certainly never reaches anything like the standards of entertainment of the old Monty Python stuff. Mind you I suppose it is clear that it doesn't set out to or pretend to do that. It is, after all, a film based on Graham Chapman's autobiography.
I did read this book many years ago – in part because I and some friends met the man himself back in 1974, and we spent a rather drunken evening together in the bar at the Kingshouse in Glencoe. This episode even gets a mention in the book (page 218), although not in the film; so I have some first hand knowledge of what he was like.
Essentially I reckon the book is an honest and accurate insight into Chapman's life (despite the title), and the film comes across as a project based on the book. The film does some things reasonably well, but mostly it looks like the producers simply farmed out sections of the book to several different groups of students (or maybe recent graduates) of media studies or animation, and then stuck them together using odd snippets of Chapman's own reading of the book.
I watched the film on DVD and found the "additional material" to be considerably more watchable than the film itself, particularly some old 8mm film and the "behind the scenes" stuff on the way the animation scenes were produced!
I did read this book many years ago – in part because I and some friends met the man himself back in 1974, and we spent a rather drunken evening together in the bar at the Kingshouse in Glencoe. This episode even gets a mention in the book (page 218), although not in the film; so I have some first hand knowledge of what he was like.
Essentially I reckon the book is an honest and accurate insight into Chapman's life (despite the title), and the film comes across as a project based on the book. The film does some things reasonably well, but mostly it looks like the producers simply farmed out sections of the book to several different groups of students (or maybe recent graduates) of media studies or animation, and then stuck them together using odd snippets of Chapman's own reading of the book.
I watched the film on DVD and found the "additional material" to be considerably more watchable than the film itself, particularly some old 8mm film and the "behind the scenes" stuff on the way the animation scenes were produced!
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