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harper_m
Reviews
Yellowstone (2018)
A good enough show with some awful female antagonists
Have to confess it's a bit of a confusing show. Maybe it should have ended at the end of the season 3 (or so) arc - where the local conflicts were resolved, or achieved balance.
The season 4 and after story arc with big city politics feels forced.
The main reason for writing the review is just to say how much the character (and actress) Beth Dutton grates. She's a one dimensional maniac with absolutely no redeeming qualities. Somehow she's a financial and strategic mastermind yet she's got severe issues keeping her temper in control. The "bar fight" scene in season 5 was a nadir for the show and for the character. Way to trivialise extreme violence!!!
I also loathe the actress - she ruined Britannia and she's awful in this too. In my opinion she lacks the skills to bring this character to life as anything other than a cross between Freddy Kruger and Nicole Kidman (another stunned mullet posing as an actor!!). Actually, Nicole Kidman has done some halfway decent acting but only in very specific roles. My point is, that as bad as the writing of the character of Beth is, the acting just magnifies it.
Well, that's my rant over...I'm not going to get into the weird lady who's up the rear end of the casino dude. Another awful character brought to life by someone who thinks gurning equals thespianism!!
Britannia (2017)
Monty Python Meets Emmerdale Farm
One can only ponder what this series could have been if it hadn't been turned over to the local Improv troupe (after a heavy night on the turps!!).
Has its moments but it's incoherent in the main and somehow manages to extend a 60 minute idea to.over 1,500 minutes of the Bognor Regis amateur opera society's take on Game of Thrones The Space Oddity.
Whoever wrote the script deserves never to have ice cream again - the end was absolute dreck. A cack-handed final 15 minutes was truly an insult to the foolhardy who expected any payoff to the story or characters therein.
Zoe Wanamaker literally chews her way through the Welsh or Cornish or Dornish countryside before we discover that Jebus Crystal Meth was the real saviour of Blighty - who knew!! Not the malnourished Druid (or his brother)!! Not the various deeply unsanitary Canti, Droogs and Lannisters.
I can't believe the producers sat through the screening and didn't pop of few kilos of pharmaceuticals as they watched their careers (righteously) go up in smoke but not in a Cheech & Chong way, but more like in the fashion of Freddie Stardust does Star Wars.
The only upside is that it likely cost big Rupe's evil empire a motza...
Chasing the Sun (2020)
Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing
I'm a proud Scot and passionate supporter of Scotland's rugby team (and the British & Irish Lions!!), but I can honestly say that I have a deep, deep respect and admiration for the South African team having watched this documentary.
Over and above the superb production values of the documentary, to see and gain a little more understanding of where this team (players, management and support staff) comes from is truly inspiring. It's a fascinating, heartfelt watch that brings a tear to the eye whilst uplifting the soul.
I know what South Africa is like having travelled and lived there a few years back and this gives me more hope than anything else that there's a better future ahead than what appears in the news sections. It's even more inspiring to see the build up to the RWC2019 victory when offered a peak behind at the people involved.
This is one of the best sports documentaries ever - it's powerful and rewarding.
UnREAL (2015)
Epically deep show that gets better on second viewing
Watch the entire show once for the sheer exuberant malignant glee with it executes it's vision, then watch it again to see every moving piece floating in the miasma of misery and moral decay.
I'm binge watching a second time and am realising some of the sly/exceptional writing I missed whilst I was watching the narrative play out. It's literally a masterpiece and the main characters are amazeballs!!
Yeah there are some flat spots as it reveals itself with delicious wanton abandon.
Binge watch it with your bae and be thankful you resisted the crazy urge to go on a reality TV show.
Aliens (1986)
An all-time classic!!!
This is a movie I can never watch too many times - not only is it a rip snorting tension laced roller coaster ride, it's also one the last films I watched with school buddies and smoking was allowed in the back row!!
Watching the movie thru a smoke haze was other-worldly!! It was such a tense denouement I chain smoked a pack of 20!!
Yeah the first 30 minutes or so were slow BUT...the rest of the movie was more than compensation!! It builds and builds and builds - it's nirvana!!
The Outpost (2019)
Visceral
I've seen a few other reviewers say that this is an accurate depiction of the experiences of the men who saw action in these god forsaken environments. Nothing but the utmost of respect for these men and their ilk. If nothing else, it shows us civilians why military veterans deserve our respect and gratitude and it makes the disgraceful treatment of them when they get back to the nations that send them into the eighth circle of hell all the more offensive to society.
Motherless Brooklyn (2019)
Edward Norton delivers a piece of magic
I won't lie, I'm a lover of movies that transport the mind and soul without effort or demand - this is a beautifully crafted little slice of what I would call American mysticism, a tale of a time when the promise of America was precisely that, an almost unknowable promise of a greater future (the issue of the capacity of the denizens of this little corner of the world to deliver it is another issue that's best left alone).
It's a nice little tale well told and the sound track was a visceral pleasure to be bathed in. It's not going to be a huge movie but it is one that rewards the contemplative viewer. It doesn't thrash around with undue kinetic energy but it's still a moving story well told.
Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
It's about the beauty all around and within
You'd have to be heartless not to smile at the confection of this movie - truly a masterpiece of quirky, off-beat film making and all involved should be mightily commended. Watch it and let the absurd wash over you whilst having your faith in humanity re-affirmed and the warmth of true community and compassion bathe and salve your soul
Messiah (2020)
This is just good TV
Other than a few moments of epic gurning on screen, this was a great YV production - perhaps one might quibble about the character of the Israeli Shin Bet protagonist (an irredeemably hostile and bigoted person without any good to balance out the nihilism - perhaps it's an accurate commentary on the types of folks who do that work), but I'm hoping there's a second series out there
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
The horror, the horror, the horror
My goodness this movie was a struggle; something to be endured cheerlessly and seemingly endlessly. Looking back on it, I'm struggling to remember what happened in the first half other than Adam Driver gurning as an alternative to emoting and Daisy Ridley keeping her pyjamas impressively clean as she clambered over and on to various very dirty things.
The gurning continued till the final scene from the aforementioned Mr Driver...I guess when no one really knows how this Force WhatsApp thing works, it's hard to reproduce it on screen.
When the best lines are reserved for a golden robot, perhaps the movie's just trying to do too much with too little in terms of exposition and being lazy with it too. Oscar Isaac perhaps should go back to the cat wrangling in Brooklyn...
So yeah, disappointing end to a saga that's basically been in the zeitgeist for all my life. It's funny, after the butchery visited upon the Alien franchise as the studio accounts department got off the elevator at the screenwriting floor, at least Ridley Scot (t??) got back in the chair and went somewhere interesting, original and above all superbly crafted. All we got was a Seventh Sense wonder at seeing the image of Carrie Fisher from live shots they managed to shoehorn in there. As much of a hack that yer man Lucas was/is, perhaps this was the time to let him the saga home with something of the passion and love he showed when he started this journey in a galaxy far far away etc etc!! Sure JJ's a good director with some moments of greatness in him, but he didn't bring it here.
And didn't John Boyanga start off as having a British accent? He's village drama club stuff here....
The King (2019)
Tremendously Satisfying Movie
It may not have been overburdened with historical accuracy but what a bloody well made movie - glad I saw it on the silver screen rather than on Netflix. It's well crafted, well written (a couple of dead spots in the script) and overall quite engrossing.
Happy to have spent my hard earned going to see it at the movies.
Joel Egerton is building quite the compendium of compelling, nuanced supporting characters and its a pleasure to see him work his craft (both acting and co-writing) here.
Booksmart (2019)
Excellent
Involuntarily spat out my drink at one of the jokes!!!
A real treat and one the best comedies I've seen in a long, long while.