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Raffer_J
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The Equalizer (2021)
Surprisingly good... make that "Surprisingly very good"
This show is a winner.
Queen Latifah owns the character and drives the series with a pleasing blend of kick-ass ex-CIA operative and single Mom. On paper, it sucks; on TV, it just works.
The support cast is excellent and make their characters convincing.
The interplay between McCall and Marcus provides tension and keeps the viewer guessing as to where Marcus will end up.
The writing stumbles on occasion but, for a first season, I can look the other way, and everyone involved deserves a high-five.
Looking forward to Season 2.
O.G. (2018)
Did Somebody Lose the Second Half of this Movie?
This movie is the story of a prison inmate, banged-up for 26 years, who is due to be released.
It's a well-observed account of prison life; the performances are excellent and all concerned deserve praise.
However, there are problems with this movie. The story, near the end, involves the central character foiling the plans of an inmate gang leader, but nothing happens to him for having done so. Really? Next scene, he's released from prison. The end.
It's as though half the movie was lost.
The War of the Worlds (2019)
A Heroically Bad Mess from Beginning to (Welcome) End
Where to start? The book, perhaps, which is more than the BBC did.
The only horror in this turgid crumb of a production is that BBC licence fee money was ever spent on it.
The deviation from the book is so off-course that it has no real relation to it.
The characters, so wooden that one could get splinters from touching them, seem to have been constructed at an Islington macrame & yogurt workshop run by well-meaning, yet hopelessly inept, art teachers from a third-rate comprehensive school.
The effects are not that much better than those used in the (infinitely superior) 1980s BBC series, Tripods.
The sound of woke square pegs being sledgehammered into round holes echoes throughout every episode.
Avoid.
War of the Worlds (2019)
Good First Episode - Quickly Turned into a Borefest
I don't mind adaptations going in different directions to the source material. However, I think that a few robot dogs fitted with guns that fire bullets is weak, compared to the iconic WotW tripods that we all know and love.
None of the characters elicit sympathy; the acting is poor; the dialogue is weak; the plot died at the end of the first episode; and the whole thing has collapsed like a sandcastle being hit by a lukewarm wave of yawns.
It's obvious that budget was tight, as the cast is tiny, the effects are few & far between, and using the mute robot dogs (just one, I suspect, used over & over) as the "Evil Unassailable Tech", rather than the traditional machines, looks like penny-pinching production.
Shoehorning Gabriel Byrne into the cast to add kudos hasn't achieve its goal. He looks like he's in 2nd gear throughout and appears to be wishing he was at home watching the footie.
It isn't the worst series I've seen, but it's not far off as it has utterly confounded expectation.
If you haven't seen it yet, don't bother.
Villain (2020)
Familiar Territory But Very Well Done
I really like this movie.
The story is simple, but the acting is very good, and I was genuinely moved by the ending.
The tale is, in effect, a Greek tragedy, wherein Eddie Franks, played by Fairbrass, is doomed from the off in his attempt to go straight after having just been released from prison.
Robert Glenister adds some malevolent magic as a scumbag villain, and George Russo is just marvellous as the weakling, up to his eyes in debt, no-hoper brother who brings woe upon Eddie's plans.
Fairbrass's performance is spot-on as a tough guy who is far from invincible, and makes it easy for the audience to root for him.
The final few minutes of the movie were genuinely exciting and heart-rending.
This movie is more realistic than most crime movies and I'd watch it again.
Bad Day for the Cut (2017)
Could Have Been an 8/10, But For The Ending
Nearly 2 hours of action, intrigue, dark humour, and great acting.
All of it sadly diminished by a poor ending. By poor ending, I mean, no ending.