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Wbsmith
Reviews
Small Soldiers (1998)
Underrated mini- masterpiece
I watched this film first as an adult, with my kids, several times and loved it, just watched it again with grandkids and loved it even more, it holds up really well, huge fun, I had forgotten how funny the dialogue is, the human and non- human characters and the story are engaging and really take you along for a rollicking ride. A satisfying story arc and ending. Just the right amount of mildly edgy violence (and sex) for 10 - 15 year olds and enough wit to entertain the adults. Dated in parts but charmingly so and not hard to take in the era of Stranger Things, it has a sort of moral lesson and perhaps is anti- militaristic but not in a heavy handed way, it is such fun that it is hard to get too political about it. Yes it's silly but go with it, high marks for heaps of fun!
Madame Bovary (2014)
Shaky
I thought this was not that bad, slow and moody, beautiful, a gothic tragedy- but then I haven't read the book. I would have given it a 7 if not for the frickin' shaky camerawork
Richard Jewell (2019)
Building interest
At first I thought this was slow, awkward and quite frankly poorly directed, but the interest increased as events unfolded. Engaging performance by Sam Rockwell as usual but Nadia nearly stole the show, Kathy Bates managed to impress, a bit of a sideshow from Olivia Wilde and Jon Hamm, but ultimately it really was Paul Walter Hauser's film as he earned our trust, sympathy and eventually admiration. A lasting impression. Well worth a viewing.
John Wick (2014)
So cool
Just watched for the third time, more enjoyment each time, so well directed and edited, great soundtrack, just the epitome of cool. Men, cars, dogs, guns, what more could you want?
Layer Cake (2004)
Classy crime thriller
Great direction and cinematography, charismatic characters, twisty unpredictable plot although sometimes hard to follow, an enjoyable experience
Equilibrium (2002)
Can't make a good movie from a stupid premise
I found this movie amongst an old collection of DVDs. "Great" I thought, an IMDB 7.4 science fiction thriller that I haven't seen, and what a cast! The plodding opening exposition slides were the first worry, but I thought they might make something out of it- no, the film continued with a contrived, nonsensical self contradictory story. All films have influences but this was one of the most derivative I have seen. The ridiculously unrealistic gunplay was justified in The Matrix by the manipulation of reality, but this was supposed to be a real-world setting and so it came across as completely unbelievable. And when the twist comes at the end, Keanu (sorry, Christian) just sprouts two massive guns from out of his sleeves (so much for being searched for weapons) and shoots up hundreds of heavily armed yet oddly incompetent stormtroopers (sorry, guards). I can't even give a score for the high production values because the whole thing is nothing but overblown cliche. DVD has been binned!
Mars: Grounded (2016)
The end
I really wanted to like this series.
The oh-so highly trained and responsible captain hides his coughing blood, Why? so that he can later be a drag on his compatriots?
The doctor, having just achieved a miraculous result by inserting a chest drain and carrying out a splenectomy to save her patient, not to mention having just trekked across the open territory of Mars through the night in blisteringly cold temperatures, should have been a triumph, sobs emotionally in her message back to earth like some upset child. Talk about false emoting. Finally, the crew being asleep, obviously so tired they could not put themselves to bed, the captain wakes and without a spleen and with a massive wound in his abdomen, don's his spacesuit without any difficulty, walks across the surface of Mars and climbs a mountain. I turned it off at that point.
The series loves to bang on about the emotions the characters are enduring and how tough things are for them and their family back on earth, when really they should just be getting on with it, the whole thing becomes painful to watch. Yes we know they will be separated and they might not come back, we know it will take a special type of person to undertake this trip, so why are they all behaving like pathetic millennials? I guess because that's what they are.