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Reviews
Notting Hill (1999)
Infantile mentality of the average cineman goer
In truth, I cannot understand the mindset of an adult who rates this film above average. Contrived, formulaic, utterly predictable romcom - perhaps appeal to the Mills and Boom or Barbara Cartland reader. Mindless tosh, I find mind-numbingly boring.
Greyhound (2020)
Impressive CGI is not Enough
Special effects and CGI were very good as expected from a mega budget Hanks film, if a bit cartoonish at times. The narrative though was pure Americana - from the captain's fanatical religiosity likely intended to appeal to fundamentalist evangelicals, to the melodramatic 'moments', deep lingering pregnant pauses, and Hank's irritatingly ponderous, morose demeanour.
The main weakness with the film was Hanks. The film was made in 2020, and it showed his age. At 62, he came across as an old man suffering from corns and ingrown nails... Much too old for a destroyer commander on his first convoy escort mission. I've never rated Hanks as a great actor. His casting as the captain severely detracted from an otherwise well crafted war film.
And then there was the inevitable American triumphalism and exceptionalism which is almost invariably overdone in just about every US war film I've ever seen with the possible exception of Saving Private Ryan.
Compare and contrast this at times spongy American melodrama with the electrifying Das Boot which encapsulated the utter horror of sea warfare. A masterpiece of a motion picture which grabbed you by the throat and never let go..
1917 (2019)
Grossly Exaggerated praise
Having watched the film twice now, I cannot comprehend the reasoning behind the fawning praise and the 8.5/10 rating. As a war film it was decidedly lame and sanitized, with its clean newly dug trenches where comfort was occasionally disturbed by a shell or two! The acting adequate - though nothing special or outstanding. The Storyline was merely a rehashing of much that had gone before it and better told...Here, there was no utter misery of trench warfare. The ubiquitous mud, the dissembled rotting corpses, vermin infestation, the endless queue of broken bodies stricken by war and epidemics.. This '1917' occurred on different planet - where war is glorified and sanitised. much has been made of the single shot filming technique. One has to wonder... 'so what'? Surely, cinematic innovative filming techniques are deployed to aid more accurate , dramatic story telling.... Given the paucity of the storey line and the insultingly sanitised mise-en-scène just about any filming technique would have done. indeed, a handheld 16mm camera might have greatly improved the end result.
Ad Astra (2019)
A failed attempt at the profound
I watched the film today and must express my great disappointment in just about every aspect of the film, apart perhaps from the CGI. thisd is yet another failed example of Hollywood's inability at doing 'profound' - confused as they are for thinking that all they need to do is to string out a trite banal script and all will magically morph in to 'Solaris' (the Russian one of course).
To add to the mind numbing boredom of emotioally incontinet 'astronaught's '
self-pitting musing, was the many failures to retain a semblence of scientific authenticity. No so much a eyelash was singed in our hero's fall through the atmosphere.....adding sound to the explosion on the moon were no atmosphere exits was rather pathetic. As was the littel juvenile hijacking of the jupiter rocket... they don't do CCVT on Mars it seems!
worsdt of all was mr Pitt who exuded the emotional gravitas and intensity one might experience in quantum vacuum. The man may have been an action hero pretty boy once... Those days are well and truly gone. Best stick to stick to what he's good at - as Eastwood once sai, a man should know his limitations...
Sally4Ever (2018)
Does not qualify
Astonishing, mind-numbing, dismal juvenile attempt at 'comedy' - . Non-dimensional 'character-fail force-injected in a poorly scripted non-event of a soft-core lesbian soap opera invoking carrier bag full of now passé risqué troupes depicting the entrapment and sexual-emotional rape of a pathetic insecure woman by a predatory 'lesbian'.
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Aftermath (2016)
Astonished by the negative posts
A really engrossing series, well made and well acted. The storyline retains momentum and progresses well. The unfolding reality of well=grounded family with the father a university professor and the mother, a military chopper pilot spins out of control due to circumstance beyond their comprehension let alone control. Time and space, it appears, is unraveling around them. Other rather wild daughter has gone missing set about trying to find her........ While each episode is more or less stand-alone woven around the plot line..
some of the comments her defy understanding. unless of course written by Adrenalin-junkie juveniles.