Reviews

The Marvels is a ridiculous story done pretty well. The grounding premise is preposterous and plenty of the scenes are equally ludicrous. Some of the time it seems to be done with a humorous glint but at other times it doesn't work.

Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) is a lot better here than she has been before and I think that is mostly due to the writing. In previous incarnations she has been too powerful and has come off as obnoxious but now we get to see a person with vulnerabilities and it turns out that Larson wasn't the problem with the character after all.

Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel is very much the same as she was in the series. I find her a tad annoying at times but overall her charm makes it work.

Monica Rambeau is played well by Teyonah Parris but her character is a bit confusing to me. The main function of the role is to give Captain Marvel some sorely needed character depth.

The action is so fast that some may find it confusing and the humor is almost slapstick a lot of the time. It is definitely more juvenile than anything in earlier phases of the MCU. Still, compared to the last Ant Man movie this is a big leap forward. I was entertained and that is a good start but the fact that I thought the end credit scene was the most entertaining scene in the movie indicates how much room there is for improvement.

This isn't Shakespeare and it never tries to be. The entire premise is beyond ludicrous and the director knew that so he didn't take it seriously.

Statham is the top level of US secret agent and somehow he's British. The bad guys revel in their OTT badness worse than the worst MLM charlatan you've ever seen. If you take this seriously you will die from cringing so much.

Some of the actors don't know how to play it but Statham goes for a complete deadpan delivery that works.

If you want something that will do anything beyond entertain you then this is one to steer clear of but it delivers enough solid action and mindless mayhem that I enjoyed it.

I came into this viewing with very low expectations and still I was disappointed.

There were some impressive visuals, but even the visuals had some part that would be embarrassing in a low budget TV-series. There were some really good looking aliens but then there were a lot more that looked like make-up done for a school project. For example they had a creature to ride which was a normal horse with some kind of plate armour on its head, there were lots of designs stolen straight for Star Wars and the villain was just a plain Nazi in a Nazi uniform.

Zack Snyder has never been a master writer, but this is just sad. The dialogue is at the level of the original A-team and the plot is on par with an episode of Scooby Doo.

The action sequences occasionally shine but most of them are generic at best and are invariably like 80s Arnold action.. you know: 1000 bullets fly but none hit the good guys and they always hit.

Even the few actors I would have expected to be good were in fact pretty bad and I don't blame them. I don't know how anyone could deliver a good performance given this script.

Giving it 4/10 is a kindness and is only for some of the visuals without which it's a 2/10.

The Foundation was conceptual science fiction on the grandest of scales. Asimov envisioned a galactic empire and how science could be used to overcome the collapse of civilization.

The original isn't really about characters and tells small tales spread over large time scales. The show changes that completely and builds a large gallery of characters and a much more complex narrative.

The show alters Asimov's vision and gets some things right but is antithetical to the core of what Asimov was about. The characters are mostly interesting and one of them [Empire/Trantor] is really good though it wasn't in the book at all. The main story on the other hand is now nonsensical and riddled with things that feel more like magic or religion than science. It still has some interesting characters but on the whole it's a narrative mess with convoluted messy action sequences and poor dialogue.

As a show it is saved by impressive visuals, pretty solid acting and the invented story of the Empire. As a representation of The Foundation book it fails miserably.

Indiana Jones has always been over the top action adventures with some ancient magic sprinkled in and this movie doesn't break the mold.

The first three movies all had spectacular intros and this one makes a valiant attempt with a Nazi fight where a de-aged Harrison Ford almost looks real as a young man again.

After the introduction the movie falters and takes time to get into it's groove. There are unnecessarily many moving parts, many of which were not pertinent to the plot. But as we go along it gradually becomes more coherent and Phoebe Waller-Bridge becomes less annoying.

Harrison Ford seems more than able to keep up the pace and the fantasy plot elements were better than in any of the earlier movies.

In the end I was left with a tear in the corner of my eye and a smile as the Harrison Ford era of Indiana Jones movies is given a worthy conclusion.

Epic cinematography with a phenomenal cast makes me wish this was all it could have been. Now, I admit I don't know much about drugs or drug trafficking, so I can't really speak to the realism of the premise but it contains a whole lot of things that seems highly implausible with a lot of questionable choices along the way.

I don't know it the source material was this dumb or if Villeneuve made some very questionable choices but I can say that the end result is a bit of a mess. There are several phenomenal set pieces but even they don't really make any sense to me.

The movie does keep the tension high and keeps us being worried about Emily Blunt's character as she is forced further and further out of her depth. But in the end nothing has really changed and none of the characters has grown or learned anything. We were just witness to an inconsequential part of a huge war on drugs.

Lets start this with some good news: this is the best Star Wars has been for a good while.. but it is a long way from great.

The biggest problem for me surrounds Andor himself. This is partly due to the story and partly the portrayal by Diego Luna. To me he comes of as a bumbling whiny oaf for 10 of the 12 episodes. Every other major character is much more interesting than the lead role.

Some Star Wars fans may take an issue with the tone because this is very much darker than anything else in the Star Wars universe, but that is where it's strength lies. Stellan Skarsgård and Genevieve O'Reilly give us well written and brilliantly acted portrayals of the leaders working within the empire to subvert it. Denise Gough and Kyle Soller bring the Empire to life in a new way which is far more nuanced than we have ever seen before. The other supporting roles are all well cast and mostly well written too.

The show starts slow and gradually gains pace, but the main story is mostly uninteresting until episode 7. The two last episodes are the best and the ending is satisfying, but I had a hard time getting though the first 6 episodes, so the overall feeling is still a bit disappointing.

The basic plot is very promising: the reason the Earth is falling apart is that Scrulls are infiltrating our societies and sowing dissent. That feels like something it should be easy to build a good narrative around.. but this isn't it, at least not so far.

The worst sin this show commits against the MCU is that it makes Fury seem not only like a dithering old fool, but also one of the most gullible people in human history. This is a completely different character from the Fury we know.

After two episodes there is only one character that is OK and that is Sonya Falsworth played by Olivia Coleman. The others are bland at best and usually a lot worse than that.

I hope it improves, but for now it isn't good.

Like most modern big budget action movies this is a beautiful movie, but most other aspects were pretty lame.

The title is a bit misleading because this is very much Ant-Man and very little Wasp.. though it is definitely manic about the quantum.

The story isn't all that hard to follow, but it's messy and not that interesting. To me it feels a bit like John Carter (2012) with better effects and action. It just feels childish.

I hear a lot of praise for Kang from fans but to me he was pretty terrible and not in a good way. He feels like a DC villain: cheesy and played like a cartoon villain from the morning shows I grew up with. I'm not sure how much of that is Jonathan Majors or a directorial choice, but I didn't like it.

There are parts that had potential, but we don't get enough of them. Even the comedy (the little there is) falls flat. The Kang plot line is going to be around at least until the end of phase 5 in 2026.. if anyone is still watching by then.

I haven't played the game this is based on, so I'm basing this on the first two episodes and I will update the review after the first season is complete.

The pilot episode has a big time jump and we never get really invested in the main characters for this season, but it does set up the situation and explain the world we find ourselves in. As a stand alone story I'd say it's less compelling than The Walking Dead but it isn't bad.

Episode 2 picks up the pace and gets us invested in the characters. Here we get to see the fantastic scenography and very impressive monsters. The story moves along briskly. All in all it's a great television episode.

If they can keep up the story development and pace from episode 2 this will be a great first season.

I think the core idea of this phase of the MCU is fundamentally flawed - that is "the multiverse of madness". Building good stories for this phase is next to impossible because the basic premise is so chaotic. So, it's not entirely surprising that the whole story line in Doctor Strange 2 is bad, but I didn't expect it to be this terrible.

I won't spoil anything but I will say that the plot hole in this one are more numerous than the jumps between alternate universes and bigger than Doctor Strange's ego. The actors generally do a good jobb and the directing is fine. I am disappointed that America Chavez as one of the lead characters is basically a MacGuffin that doesn't get any character development and even less relevance to the progression of the story (except for just existing).

The movie focuses on Wanda and Doctor Strange but their stories aren't good - in particular Wanda's that is a mess of contradictions.

The only reason to watch this is to follow the progression of the overall MCU plot, but I have a feeling that it's not going to be long before I'm past the point of caring about that.

Death on the Nile is a beautifully shot film with a star studded cast but it's problems go beyond the mediocrity of the Agatha Christy story.

The Hercule Poirot stories haven't aged very well and to compensate director Kenneth Branagh tries to make it more grandiose with more back story for both Hercule Poirot and others in the cast, but they just come of as unrealistic and make the characters even more unsympathetic. The only real pleasure for the viewer is derived from the lavish scenes and painstaking recreation of the era. In the end the traditional monologue by Poirot is unimpressive and the crime both unrealistic and the proof unconvincing - which is a staple of Christies novels, so it's hardly a surprise.

I haven't yet seen Belfast, but I expect that to be a much better way for Branagh to spend his effort. This left me cold and uninspired.

If you haven't seen "The Bourne Identity" then you absolutely should and you should do it before reading this review.

"The Bourne Supremacy" tries very hard to be Bourne again but it doesn't quite succeed for a number of reasons. The soul of the first film was in the relationship between Bourne and Marie (Franka Potente) and the strong action sequences. The sequel has no such relationship and the action scenes though bigger are horrendously filmed with constant shaky cam that often makes it hard to know exactly what is happening. The bad guys are slightly more nuanced but have very poor motivations for their actions.

In the end it is only our sympathies for Jason Bourne that saves it from being a disaster.

The writers seem to have watched Notting Hill and Music And Lyrics and decided to combine them. That could have been a disaster but surprisingly it isn't bad. Often in romantic comedies the characters are clichéd and one dimensional but here they are unexpectedly nice and normal. Jennifer Lopez feels completely authentic and all the supporting cast member are great. My one critique of the casting is Owen Wilson - he isn't terrible but he looks too surgically altered for me to buy him as a teacher.

I had to write this in reaction to a few reviews on here. I'm not a big fan of The Suicide Squad. I think it has mostly brain dead humour and too much gratuitous violence. So I was sceptical going in to this, but so far (6 episodes in) I think it's the best think in the DC universe.

This is not a show for kids. There is sex, violence and strong language. The cast is diverse but it keeps poking fun at diversity as well as bigotry and racism and doesn't pull any punches. The characters are all flawed but more human than I found them to be in either Suicide Squad. Where The Suicide Squad tried to be tongue in cheek and failed Peacemaker succeeds. If it continues like this I want more.

Shang-Chi has some gorgeous cinematography, good CGI, good acting and the best depictions of Chinese legends I have ever seen on screen but even so it isn't great.

The problems here are with the writing. Shang-Chi and his best friend Katy aren't very likeable characters despite Simo Liu and Awkwafina's best effort to be charming. The main villain Xu Wenwu is supposedly monstrous yet somehow his story ark makes him less scary and mostly just pitiable. The other characters are mostly good but they are smaller roles.

The only times I got excited were when we got to see classic Chinese legends brought to life and China is where the story should have stayed. The only reason we start in San Francisco is to justify speaking English. I did like that they mostly spoke Chinese when it was appropriate but they could just have set it in China and spoken English throughout.. or even better Chinese throughout.

I wish I could be excited at this new character in the MCU, but it didn't start very promisingly.

I liked season 1 of The Morning Show. It was a solid story, well acted and put a deserved light on the #Metoo movement. Season 2 ups the ante considerably. Following the aftermath for the characters affected by season one. The already good acting from season one is sensational in season two with very much higher stakes. This show doesn't do black and white characters but shows us how we tend to model people that way and how badly that can go.

Most older viewers will go in to this to see Steve Martin and Martin Short team up while younger viewers are likely here for Selena Gomez. You will certainly get your fill as far as screen time goes, but not quite the best as far as performances go. All three are fine enough in their roles but we are talking a spoofy murder mystery here.

Steve Martin gets more humor and drama than the others and does well with it and generally being a lot less over the top than we are used to seeing him - which I found refreshing.

Martin Shorts character works more an annoyance that lets others be funny although he does have some funny lines, but much less than we normally see.

Selena Gomez is a bit uneven. She works best when she is investigating and not so good when she is supposed to be emotional. It can't be easy holding your own with this cast, but I do think she held her ground pretty well.

The story is a spoof about crime/murder podcasts and manages to go through many different phases during the 10 episode run. It started strong and then ambles along very pleasantly until it crescendos with a very good final episode. It feels comfortable all the way through and that isn't a bad thing. In this age of media violence this is a balm that I looked forward to watching each week and enjoyed until the end.

I'll confess up front that while I love racing I think street racing is stupid and in particular when it's in a straight line, so I didn't have high expectations going in, but I was still disappointed.

The story is painfully stupid and somehow tries to glorify criminals who violently highjack trucks but does it so ineptly that in the end there is no one to like. It has been praised for the action sequences, but even those where pretty dreadful with shaky cameras and little drama or inventiveness.

I was tempted to quit watching but I was hoping for some redemption but it never came. In the end it wasn't so much fast and furious as it was slow and painful.

Frank Herbert's novels still stand as the pinnacle of creative sci-fi-fantasy more than 50 years after it was written. In 1984 director David Lynch made his version a very shortened and almost cartoonishly exaggerated version. Denis Villeneuve takes a very different route. With a visual tone reminiscent of his films Arrival and Blade Runner 2048 and a somber tone and steady pace he delivers an interpretation much closer to the source material.

Where the 1984 movie cut out all but the essential parts of the story Villeneuve splits the story in two and tries to include as much as possible from the book. This approach is probably better for those who know the source material but ends up including many characters that we barely get to know and never have time to care for in their brief appearances - unless we already know who they are.

Detailed as it is it can't be as detailed as a book and I don't think those who haven't read the book will grasp the full scope nor the finer details. Despite all this it is still a fine film. The grandeur and scale is staggering, the visual detail is exquisite and an impressive cast manages to insert a lot of life into characters in the sometimes brief moments they have on screen.

I hope a lot of people see it because otherwise part two may never get made and I really want to see if Villeneuve can tie it together because then it may become a classic just like his last two movies.

Chernobyl is my pick for the best mini-series ever. Just like the Chernobyl disaster this series would have turned out very differently unless a lot of people that don't get much attention hadn't done the best work of their lives. Here are some fantastic performances by lesser known actors:

Jessie Buckley plays Lyudmilla Ignatenko the wife of a firefighter that was called in as a first responder to the "fire" at Chernobyl. One of the central characters and perhaps the hardest role in the whole series is played perfectly by Jessie.

Paul Ritter as Anatoly Dyatlov the arrogant man in charge of Chernobyl the night of the calamity. Rarely have I seen someone play an unpleasant man so believably it is a great performance. Paul was a well known actor in the UK both on stage and screen who sadly died 54 years old in 2021.

Adam Nagaitis as Vasily Ignatenko who was one of the men in the control room of the reactors at Chernobyl the night of the explosion.

Alex Ferns as the indomitable foreman of miners brought in to stop the reactor fuel from reaching the ground water.

Every small part was played brilliantly which is part of what makes this series so extraordinary.

I don't believe in ghosts, demonic possession, God or the supernatural, but I do believe in good story telling and can enjoy supernatural horror if it's well done.

The Conjuring starts very well if somewhat typically with a family arriving at there new home and strange things happening. The mood is built successfully with creepy camera angels movements and very good music and sounds. The actors are all very good including the children and we do care about them which is crucial in a film like this. After the very effective setting of a creepy mood we bring in the experts and this is where is becomes a bit slow and plodding as well as overtly Christian. The religious messaging is way to explicit, but if I set that aside the story gradually picks up again and we get some effective scares along the fairly formulaic way. Yes, it is formulaic. We have seen this before, but it is better packaged than usual and combined with the music, cinematography and acting it is still well worth watching.

I haven't read any suicide squad comics but I get the appeal of a group of anti-heroes brought together to do good unwillingly. I think James Gunn has done a great job directing Guardians of the Galaxy so I had high hopes for this movie.

What does it get right? The actors are great, the top final villain is suitably over the top idiotic and the visuals are mostly great.

So that leaves the bad.. Writing: we expect clichés in a movie like this, but most of them feel so old and over-used that it hurts to watch and the dialogue is pretty bad too.

Humour: if you laugh when people are stupid and hurt themselves then this is probably your kind of fun, but it didn't do it for me - I think I smiled once.

Violence: I don't have a problem with violence in movies, but it often feels unnecessarily graphic and brutal and wants the audience to laugh at it. I didn't.

Directing: This had a lot of what I call Michael Bay syndrome.. when the characters constantly survive impossible odds without any good explanation. It also uses graphics in similar ways to Bay at times that is so much clutter moving on screen that you can't really see the action.

Music: I didn't like any of the music (except a Cash song). If was like they consistently chose bad songs from good artists.

When you put all that together the result is a terrible movie that is only slightly better than Wonder Woman 1984 - and I hope DC never sinks lower than that stinker.

So, "the best female superhero movie yet"? Yes, but that isn't a high bar. The first Wonder Woman was the only OK one so far and even that had a terrible second half.

Black Widow is a competent action film with a decent plot, some fun characters, OK jokes and very well done action sequences. It isn't on par with the best in the MCU. The main problem is that Black Widows back story is given too little focus and that makes the villain forgettable and makes the whole affair a bit shallow. I think the director wanted to avoid it being too dark knowing where it ends, but that was a mistake. As it stands the jokes come across as a bit odd because we understand the underlying darkness but we haven't explored it. If we were given the full story I believe the humor would have been the gallows humor that feels appropriate for people who have been so abused. That could have been one of the best MCU movies ever.

The exorcist is a beautiful build-up to very little. Most things in this movie are very good - if you enjoy a sedate pacing. Actors, characters, scenography, cinematography and dialogue are all very good and the juxtaposition of the secular treatment for doctors with the possessed girl work very well.

There are two problems. There isn't much in the way of a story - it is all in the title - and when the titular event happens I find it very underwhelming. I find it hard to imagine anyone who isn't deeply religious would be impressed by the exorcism, but judging by many other reviewers I may be wrong. To me it falls flat in the end.