musaw-57675 Reviews

Old Henry (2021)

Possibly the nest movie I've watched so far this year.

[8/10 · 14 October 2021]

Westerns are far from being my favourite genre, but this is one the best.

Tim Blake Nelson is excellent in the lead, and Stephen Dorff makes for a very good bed guy.

It's a brave director who chooses not to include any female characters in a movie.

The greyness, the gloominess, and the unwashed feel, all make for a very believable setting.

The build up makes for an enjoyable denouement.

The Guilty (2021)

Ignore the naysayers.

[8/10 · 30 September 2021]

The first thing to say is that I have not watched the original Danish version of this movie.

Whilst a lot of the reviewers here may see this as a travesty, for me it was a benefit, as it meant that I had no preconceived ideas as to what to expect.

Having watched it, I have to confirm that Jake Gyllenhaal is brilliant as ever.

I liked the claustrophobic nature of it being filmed inside the one building, that could easily be transferred to the stage.

I was gripped throughout, and have to say that it worked for me.

Stowaway (I) (2021)

Waste of money, time and acting.

[5/10 · 25 April 2021]

First thing to say is that the title of the movie is a spoiler in itself.

I like sci fi, and I was initially impressed with the opening scene, whereby on take off, the camera concentrated on the Anna Kendrick character, rather than CGI external shots of the rocket.

This worked for me.

I'm not one of those viewers who worries too much about the practicalities of the technology on show.

That's the last positive thing that I can say about this movie.

It's great that Netflix can make films with no concern as to the potential box office, and I have loved some of their recent offerings, particularly Extraction, 6 Underground and The Irishman, but this was a total waste of time and effort.

As others have already noted, the main two gripes that I have with this is two enormous plot holes.

When the stowaway was discovered I was willing to accept the original explanation of how he got there as being "he forgot", but I did so in the expectation that there was likely to be something sinister going on, and the explanation would be forthcoming at a later stage.

It became increasingly clear as the movie progressed that no such explanation would be given, and I found it infuriating that every interaction with the stowaway did not begin with the question as to whether he could yet recall how he got there.

The second distracting plot hole was regards the fact, that once they realise that they are unable to complete the journey to Mars, that no one at any stage simply says "why don't we turn around?".

It's apparent throughout the movie that they have not travelled very far from earth as there are several shots where earth still looms large in the windows.

Every time there is any sort of interaction between the characters with the aim of raising the tension, my partner and I found ourselves shouting at the TV to "turn around".

Shame!!!

Can't Get You Out of My Head (2021)

Adam Curtis' best yet.

[8/10 · 12 February 2021]

First thing to say is that I've only watched the first episode so far. I loved his previous two documentaries, Hypernormalisation and Bitter Lake. I find it very difficult to describe Adam Curtis' style, but I'll have a go. It as if he has discovered a massive archive of TV and Movie reels, has spent several years watching them, then has taken numerous clips, stitched them together, and then concocted a theme that connects these seemingly random events together, in order to make a coherent story. He then uses music to great effect, which creates a kind of dissonance. It's brilliantly done. A visual treat. I feel after watching the first episode that my IQ has been improved by a couple of percentiles, but this may be part of the trick. You get the feeling when watching his documentaries that there is something even deeper, that you just can't quite grasp, which makes you want for more. I found myself walking the dog later, and reappraising what I had seen in my mind, and then later again seeking to look up on Wikipedia and Google some of the issues that were only touched on during the film, from such diverse subjects as the Voynich Manuscript, to William Keswick & Lord Kindersely. A must see series.

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020)

Much better than I expected.

[7/10 · 12 July 2020]

First thing to say is that I'm a big Will Ferrell, and Eurovision, fan, and so I was a little dubious as to what to expect of this film. I was very pleased to see that my fears were totally unfounded. In a year when there was no Eurovision to watch, this made for an acceptable substitute. Whilst a viewer would not need to be totally au fait with Eurovision to enjoy this movie, I do feel that a liking for the subject helps increase the pleasure. There were several laugh out loud moments for me. The storyline was a little predictable, but this did not matter at all for me. Very enjoyable.

Extraction (2020)

One of Chris Hemsworth's best

[8/10 · 3 May 2020]

This is another very good movie from Netflix. The action gets going early on and it maintains the pace throughout. The fight scenes and requisite stunts are very well choreographed and believable. I have read some of the criticisms of it's depiction of Bangladesh, but I have to applaud the makers of this movie for at least setting it somewhere other than a major US or European city.

The Platform (2019)

It was average

[6/10 · 19 April 2020]

I have read several well written and researched reviews on this movie, and I have to admit that all the deeper meaning went straight over my head. I generally enjoyed the film, but began to think that the ending would need to be an ingenious one to pull it off. Sadly I was disappointed as the ending was a damp squib. Whilst others have imbued the movie with an intellect, this passed me by, and I felt cheated.

Underwater (2020)

Nowhere near as bad as I expected

[7/10 · 19 April 2020]

First off I have to say that I expected very little from this movie, mainly because I find Kristen Stewart's acting very annoying. That said, I generally find that having low expectations at the outset tend to make an average movie feel better than it perhaps was. What I did like is that it avoided the common movie trope whereby the first half hour of the movie is spent giving us some background of the characters, what I would call "the touchy feely" section, before finally getting going with the story. This movie dispenses with this ballast, and gets straight into the action, moving along at a good pace. Others are correct in citing such movies as The Abyss, Leviathan, Deep Star Six and Alien. I read another review that claimed that there was no explanation given for the implosion of the drilling station at the beginning, but I can only assume they did not watch it till the end. I know it's not saying much, but this is Kristen Stewart's best movie so far.