Tag Archives: review

Movie Review – Widows (2018)

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TL;DR – This is a film that has one of the most ridiculous casts I have seen in a long time, but it just does not come together in end.    

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Widows. Image Credit: 20th Century Fox

Review –

It is rare that a film comes along with a cast just as ludicrous as this, with a premise as strong as this, indeed you should see it just to watch Viola Davis own every scene she is in. Add to this, we have a heist film, and ensemble heist films are some of my favourite films. Now,this should be an instant win for me, but while I think it is a good film, I am not sure it was a great one because it is held back but a couple of things.

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Movie Review – Robin Hood (2018)

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TL;DR – Of this films many, many failings, is the fact that you can see a kernel of a good idea here, that they refused to commit too and thus made it a film about nothing.    

Score – 1 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Robin Hood. Image Credit: Lionsgate

Review –

Oh wow, and I mean wow, how do you stuff this up as badly as you do here. For a lot of people, there is this annoyance that film companies keep going back to these public domain properties because it is just a cheap option, and I get that. But because these stories are so well known, you can use them as a basis for doing something novel or even experimental. In years past, we have gotten the full-on epic with Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves all the way to the absolute farce that is Robin Hood: Men in Tights. However, there was room for another film to take the mythos in a new direction … well, this is not that film, which somehow fails at being both a re-telling of the original myth and also an abysmal attempt at modernising the story for a new audience.

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TV Review – Doctor Who: Demons of the Punjab

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TL;DR – In the battle between love and hate, on which side would you be on? This is the question today’s episode asks before emotionally punching you in the gut.

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

 

Doctor Who: Demons Of The Punjab. Image Credit: BBC

 

Review –

When I heard Doctor Who was going to set an episode in colonial India, you can bet I was deeply concerned. A British TV Show doing an episode on the British occupation of another country, it is a recipe for disaster if handled wrongly, and the title Demons of the Punjab didn’t exactly fill me with confidence either. However, then we got to see Rosa (see review) earlier this season all about Rosa Parks and her struggles, they showed a real understanding of exploring deeply complex historical events, so I had a hope that they would be able to here as well, and I honestly think they pulled it off.

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Movie Review – Outlaw King (Outlaw/King)

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TL;DR – It is a film that is completely serviceable, with some amazing action, but just comes off feeling lacking in many ways

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Outlaw King. Image Credit: Netflix

Review –

This is a real odd duck of a film, even before it came out there were questions about its runtime and how it was edited together, with reports that over 20 minutes got cut for its final release. Add to this the only other thing it was noticeable for was a certain alleged scene involving Chris Pine and well, that was not a strong platform to release a film on. So, my real concern was – did taking a hatchet to the film trim it down to only its best parts, or did it turn it into a hacked up mess – and the answer is a bit of both. Now just a quick thing, I will let others more versed in Scottish history to comment on whether or not the film is accurate with history or not.

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Movie Review – Boy Erased

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TL;DR – This is at times a very difficult film to watch, but it is an important film because abuse is abuse and that is what this is.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Boy Erased. Image Credit: Focus Features

Review –

There are many reasons you can make a film, okay well other than making a profit, it is a business after all. It can be to entertain, it can be to inform, it can be to titillate, it could be to scare, or even to keep the kids entertained for 90 minutes so the parents can clean the house. However, sometimes a film exists to shine a light on a subject people might not know about, but they should. Today with Boy Erased we are looking a just such a film as explores the Pray the Gay Away industry in the United States and the dangerous harm it does to people.

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Movie Review – Bad Times at the El Royale

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TL;DR – A really strong ensemble piece that works like a puzzle getting reveal one piece at a time, which you will enjoy depending on how long you are willing to let the premise of the film take its time to get going.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Bad Times at the El Royale. Image Credit: 20th Century Fox

Review –

I am always a sucker for a good ensemble film, where you have a group of actors working together to make a better whole of a film. Indeed having a look at my Top 10 Films of All Time (see here) all of them fall on the spectrum of being ensemble films. However, Bad Times at the El Royale is not just an ensemble film, it is also a puzzle where we get to see parts of the story revealed one at a time, and they are all trapped there as a storm rolls in, and there are different motivations and, well I think you know that this is a film for me. However, it might not be a film for everyone, with that in mind let’s dive into the world of the late 1960s and one fateful night.

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TV Review – Bodyguard: Season One

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TL;DR – This show is a masterpiece of building tension and always keeping you wonder, just who is telling the truth.

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

 

Bodyguard. Image Credit: World Productions

 

Review –

Across the internet, I had heard these whispers about the show dropping in the UK called Bodyguard. It was the kind of whispers that instantly makes you wonder, just what kind of show this is going to be, and then it dropped over here on Netflix. So, I thought, hey let’s give this a look, and then those first twenty minutes of the first episode happened and wow, never have I experienced such a tense twenty minutes of television before. From that moment onwards, I knew I had to see all of this as quickly as I could and I am so glad I did, even if it meant some essays might be returned a bit late, so a belated sorry to my students.

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TV Review – Doctor Who: Arachnids In The UK

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TL;DR –  If you have a deep-seated fear of spiders, well this might be one of those hide behind the coach kind of episodes for you.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

 

Doctor Who: Arachnids In The UK. Image Credit: BBC

 

Review –

Today we continue looking at Doctor Who’s 11th season, a season with a lot of promise but also some recurring issues. This has created a bit of a problem that you see all the good they are trying to do, but also how they are being held back for some odd reasons. Well, today we come crashing back to Earth for a creepy episode just in time for Halloween that is going back to a Doctor Who staples, monsters, running, and the failure of capitalism, oh my.

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TV Review – Daredevil: Season Three

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TL;DR – Season Three pares everything back to the core and by focusing on our trinity and a truly phenomenal big bad.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

 

Daredevil. Image Credit Marvel/Netflix

 

Review –

So this is an interesting moment, I don’t think I have ever been halfway through watching a series and finding out that its two sister series has been canned, but that is what happened here. I was two episodes in and then bam bye Iron Fist and then three more and then bam bye Luke Cage. So besides inserting something witty about the Thanos snap, it should have ripped all the wind out of my sails to make it through the rest of Season Three. However, it didn’t, not even close, because Daredevil Season Three might be the best Netflix MCU series since … well maybe since the very first Daredevil all the way back in 2015.

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TV Review – Chilling Adventures of Sabrina – Chapter One: October Country

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TL;DR – A fascinating first episode that is both full of charm, determination, and also gets super dark … it had to be spiders …

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

 

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. image Credit: Netflix

 

Review –

When I was growing up there was this charming fun show on TV called Sabrina The Teenage Witch. It was this fun romp through the dangers of high school when you have to hide half of yourself away, though in this case, that half was the fact that you are part-witch. It had everything you needed in the 1990s, fun adventures, hilarious scenarios, oh and a sassy talking cat. So when I heard it was being resurrected, I was a bit concerned, and then when I heard it was part of the Riverdale universe I was more concerned because I get why Riverdale is popular, but it’s not for me. But this year we have already had one successful reboot from Netflix of an old beloved TV show in Lost in Space (see review) so I thought I would give it a look and well what an interesting first episode it was.

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