laddiebuck Reviews

Sex Tape (2014)

Great movie, especially for couples!

[10/10 · 18 July 2014]

I was expecting worse based on the critics' reviews, but this movie hit all the right notes, and was both sweeter and funnier than your average summer movie fare (like all of Ben Stiller's career basically). They get a lot of mileage out of simple situations, it's held together with the glue of a warm couple, and a believable and relatable premise. The situations and the characters exceed the bounds of possibility, but in a good, slightly over-the-top summer-movie kind of way and the spice of great little touches like Jack Black or the boss with the unusual tastes. Great movie to watch, especially together if you are a couple, young or middle-aged! It's not a rom- com but provides a similar level of good feeling though without the tension, and delivers some really great laughs along the way.

Hugo (2011)

Style over substance

[5/10 · 25 November 2011]

I was seduced by the reviews on IMDb into watching this movie. It's got some big names, it's got terrific production values (think Dickens crossed with steampunk), an interesting concept, but ultimately badly let down by the execution, which generates no real emotion, not even sentimental nostalgia. Part of it is disbelief: the two main child actors talk and act like adults, are dressed and shot like adults, their reactions and motivations are those of adults. Then there's the complete lack of chemistry between any two members of the cast.

You're rewarded for your patience (it's a two and a half hour film) with some great visuals, humorous scenes especially from the supporting cast, a bit of early film history (the famous train scene is shown, as well as a bit of Méliès' work) though too disjointed to really enjoy, and a generally pleasant film, but precious little else.

Hanna (2011)

A beauty; went over the head of the action-film pack

[10/10 · 31 July 2011]

So first of all, this movie is a feast for the heart, eyes, and ears. There is so much wit and beauty in the cinematography and the directing that it lifts it to a work of art... But that's not why we go see a movie, we see it because it has to appeal to us on an emotional level and Hanna certainly does. Saoirse Ronan puts in a tour-de-force emotional performance, and it goes without saying that she also does all the action scenes very well. She absolutely steals the show, but she is supported by great acting from the rest of the cast, especially the father, the English girl, and the old magician.

You'll see a lot of negative reviews. Basically if you are blunted to beauty or subtlety, as a lot of the reviewers seem to be, you won't like it. This ain't no Mission: Impossible. Double-crossings and explosions aren't going to be keeping you on the edge of your seat. The thriller part of the plot is probably the weakest part of the actual film. To be fair, if you bother to pick up on subtle cues, the plot doesn't have too many holes, a quality which a lot of the intellectually lazy reviewers here obviously didn't have.

No, the plot is fairly straightforward, and in fact at heart it's not an action or a thriller plot. This film is mostly Hanna's emotional (and physical) journey, not exactly a coming-of-age story, but which is, anyway, a much better setting for the inspired cinematography, beautiful location work, powerful and exciting action scenes (compellingly, thrillingly scored), fairy-tale allegory, direction that rises to an art form, and even some humour (both verbal and visual) in what we might call the second act.

If you aren't that jaded, or you want more emotional depth in your movie-going experience, or your sense of beauty just hasn't been blunted, you shouldn't miss Hanna. Ultimately, I think Hanna herself would have liked the film: she had not lost her sense of wonder and her sense of beauty.

Chelmsford 123 (1988–1990)

Really hilarious show: one of the gems of British comedy and almost unknown

[10/10 · 22 August 2010]

This is one of the most entertaining comedy series ever produced -- agreed, maybe some of the humour would be strange to American audiences, but there are very few British-specific jokes, it's just the style that would be rather foreign. But for all that, it's brilliant. Perhaps there were episodes of Fawlty Towers or Yes, Minister that made me laugh more, but not only is this right up with them, I can keep re-watching Chelmsford 123 and it'll always make me laugh. It's no more than every few years that I can turn to an episode of Fawlty Towers and there are ones I just don't like. There isn't an episode of Chelmsford 123 that I don't like, and I turn to it every couple of months and always have a great laugh, though I probably know a lot of the scripts by heart. Yes, it's that good. Terrifically underrated, just a pity that so few episodes were made. I got my copy of both series from a friend in the UK, although I expect you might be able to find it on ebay or filesharing networks.

Blake's 7 (1978–1981)

Brilliant and it ignored convention

[10/10 · 18 December 2009]

Blake's 7 was not brilliant because it defied convention. It was brilliant because it ignored convention and just tried to be the best. Never mind that science fiction television was either self-consciously avant-garde, or special-effects mainstream, or avowedly political. Terry Nation just wrote the best stories he could come up with, and the actors followed him. If that meant that someone had to die unexpectedly, it meant that. If it meant that you had to be intelligent, so be it, the audience was assumed to be intelligent. If it meant that imagination had to be used in place of some special effects, the audience was assumed up to it. But more than that, it meant that whatever happened, whether clichéd or radical, had to happen because that was the best way. And the actors -- not the special effects -- brought this vision alive in every episode.

There is a moment in the first series that I think sums up why Blake's 7 is unlike any other science-fiction show, and deserves to be rated, at its best, with any drama television ever made. Among a collection of 20th century artifacts played by a broken man to help him think is Kathleen Ferrier's "Blow the Wind Southerly". Who could not be touched who knew Kathleen Ferrier, and all this meant? But even those who didn't could hardly fail to be moved, if even a little.

Blake's 7 really sums up what the BBC was -- peerless, fearless, and the best -- but it also, in an odd way, says a lot about England. The series is only occasionally optimistic, it positively rejects heroism, but -- it rings of truth, or reality. And that's something that's quite rare in television, let alone most science-fiction television.