Reviews

In July 1975, as a callow youth of 18, I was in London for my first job interview after leaving school. It was to become a Quantity Surveyor and was in an office almost overlooking Trafalgar Square, but I knew as soon as the interview finished, I hadn't got the job. So I wandered down The Strand and at the far end there were posters for a concert that evening in the Lyceum Theatre, a few yards away. Why not I thought, the day can only get better. I was only vaguely familiar with the performers, Bob Marley and the Wailers, but by the end of that show my life had been changed, probably more so than if I had got that fancy job. Even now, many years later, I still can't listen to No Woman, No Cry without tearing up. A recording of that song, actually made during that concert, can be heard on a few of Marley's albums, have a listen sometime and you might feel just a touch of the emotion we all experienced that evening almost a lifetime ago. Thank you Bob, Rest in Power.

As others have said, the 10/10 reviews are obviously from shills connected with the movie or friends of Mrs Peltz-Beckham. The simple fact that it was written by, directed by, and stars Nicola should make you suspect that this is purely a vanity project, much like her husband's attempts to portray himself as a photographer and/or chef. And you would be right as she spends most of the film looking dead behind the eyes and completely detached from the storyline. She should stick to doing what she does best, being a "poor little rich girl", as she sure as hell doesn't have a future in the film industry.

Near to the end, the Alison Brie character says "WTF is going on?" and most viewers will have asked the same thing about an hour earlier. The film starts off fairly predictably but once the action moves to Tuscany, no-one, except the above mentioned character, behaves like normal people behave. And not in a funny, zany-comedy way, they simply become progressively more weird.

OK, you think, at any moment now, the hidden under-story will reveal itself and things will start to make sense. But it doesn't, the plot just becomes increasingly illogical, as if the writers (Brie included) concocted it one Saturday evening after several bottles of wine, with no idea how the story would end.

Having said all that, it's not so frustrating that you don't see it through to the finale, it is set in Italy in the sunshine after all. But you will probably stare at the closing credits, as I did, thinking so what was that all about?

Yes, I know, it's a typical Emmerich disaster fest where you suspend your disbelief and enjoy the ride. But you can only get away with this so many times and I think this film ought be his swan-song.

He seems to have taken a sample of every disaster movie of the last 30 years and written a script to stich them together. You constantly find yourself thinking "Hey, that's just like in....." In short, if you don't think the plot of this one is idiotic, you're an idiot. Anyone who did any science at school, at whatever level, will know the physics makes no sense at all. But it's an undemanding way to pass 2 hours, you can even go and have a cup tea, come back and it will feel like you've missed nothing important. Because you haven't.

I really enjoy this light-as-a-feather nonsense - who wouldn't love to know someone as kooky and perky as Emily. But I am watching E2/S2 where Emily is visiting St. Tropez and has just checked into the "Grand Hotel du Cap Ferrat". As anyone who is remotely familiar with the French Riviera will know, this fabulous hotel is actually about 100 miles along the coast from St Tropez, a little far for Emily's evening stroll into town! Of course, film locations are often not where they pretend to be, but don't give us a close-up of the hotel entrance name plate and assume none of us have a clue where it is. Or is this just some up-market product placement?

As others have said, the time shifting means you have to initially give this your full attention to keep track. I'm all for character development, but for the first few episodes there is too much back-story and not enough actual story. You have to make it to about episode 4 to be able to fit all the characters together. And then there's the main premise - 20 years after a pandemic which kills 99% of the human race, some of those who survive have decided the best use of their time is to form a travelling Shakespearean theatre company. Let's be real, in such an apocalyptic scenario, even 20 years later, performing Shakespeare would be very low on the "to do" list. I think just surviving would still be an all-consuming occupation, but I suppose that wouldn't make for much of a drama. By all means, give it a try, but you will need quite a high boredom threshold.

Lots of chasing and shouting and shooting and stabbing. The plot is completely ludicrous, but it's just a framework for the above. You won't really care what happens to any of the participants and nor should you. So the Hollywood "big hitter" actresses will bank a nice cheque and you will soon forget you ever watched it.

Formulaic, predictable, in short you deserve a medal if you make it to the end. You know those afternoon TV serials, full of unknown actors trying to inject melodrama into a lifeless script? Well this film is about that level, the actors are second-rate (apart from the always excellent Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Stephen Dillane) and the dialogue consists mainly of shouting matches separated by banality. As for Miss Leigh-Anne Pinnock, whoever told her she could act as well as she can sing, was quite correct. She is bang ordinary at both.

An almost non-existent plot, gamefully pushed along by clearly amateur actors, trying to convey deep meaning in a cliche-ridden dialogue. If you are aged 16 or under, you might find it mildly diverting. Anyone older should find something else to watch, or be prepared to bale out before the end.

The original novel was written by an Australian, set in Australia and the series is clearly filmed in Australia. Yet we are supposed to believe it's California, despite the fact it doesn't look anything like California.

Then we have Nicole Kidman's strangulation of a Russian accent. For some reason she seems to think it only necessary to attempt it on one sentence out of every three. But we should be grateful for small mercies.

As for the series itself, I really don't know why I bothered to give it a chance. I read the book several years ago and thought it was a slow journey to nowhere. Unfortunately, this adaptation is very faithful to the novel.

Ignore the shill reviews from friends and family. The truth is a totally unbelievable plot, an idiotic script and unconvincing actors. About the standard of a poor afternoon TV movie. The second half of the film supposedly takes place in Spain, except it looks nothing like Spain and is full of American vehicles. This is because it's not Spain, it's Puerto Rico. You get the idea. Possibly not the worst movie you will ever watch, but doing almost anything else will be a better use of your time,