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Reviews
The Last of Us: Part II (2020)
Stunning; a story that will stay with me for a long time
Easily one of my favourite games to date. I was struck by how beautiful TLOU was in places, when I'd been expecting a standard horror game.
This second instalment is so much more; the story is so good that I felt genuinely involved, even heart broken, in places. Exquisite detail, and compelling characters, that felt layered and intricate... this game will stick with me for a long time now that I'm done.
You can also play the game on various difficulty settings. So, if you're a gamer who likes to play mainly for the stories - then this is highly recommended from me.
Game of Thrones: The Watchers on the Wall (2014)
Exactly as I'd pictured when I read it.........
Wow... I am speechless.
This episode was EVERYTHING I expected and more... my house-mates had seen it before me, and asked me how I'd pictured it as I'd read it (knowing that the title alluded to what was coming). So yeah, beautiful scenery, big-arse mammoths, giants, hordes of everything coming out from the forest... and MOST of this was pictured as if I was looking down from the wall. (And, as I'd heard that this episode was directed by the same guy who did Blackwater Bay - I was actually expecting stuff on a level akin or further than the big battle scenes in Lord of the Rings)...
The fighting scenes were PERFECTLY choreographed, and I always love to see these different styles of fighting coming together so well... The Wildlings with their speed and brutality, and the Night's Watch with their precision and skill.
I was most definitely not looking forward to the dreaded "Kissed by fire..... Lucky." It wasn't quoted, but it was so well executed.
& It's nice to see Jon Snow KICKING SOME F*****G ASS for once.
The giant with that f*****g Dark Souls-style dragon bow though.........
Soldier's Girl (2003)
Powerful and Devastating
After seeing Lee Pace's performance in The Hobbit: DoS, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I decided to have a better look at other works he has previously been involved with. Soldier's Girl really stuck out to me the moment I read the synopsis.
The movie is very powerful, almost soul-crushing yet stunningly beautiful, and the acting is all spot on. I was too young to know of these events as they happened, as well as being from the UK. It focuses on the relationship between Calpernia Addams and Barry Winchell, how their worlds become intertwined, and how their life dreams are realised and begin to knit together, before being tragically snatched away.
"Opening up to the makers of the film was cathartic, and their telling of the story is an absolutely beautiful tribute to the wonderful man Barry Winchell was. I am very proud of the team I got to know and the finished film." ~ Calpernia Addams I also love the focus on the military's stance on LGBT issues, and the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy (which ended around 2011). The messages within the movie are very thought provoking, and really made me feel sad at how little the human race has actually progressed over such a long period of time. Out-dated policies, a lack of education, closed-minds and stereotypes: all creating many heart-breaking stories and truly unnecessary issues such as this, and it just went on for far too long. It STILL goes on.
"Since DADT ended in 2011, persons who are openly homosexual and bisexual have been able to serve, but those who are transgender are still excluded as subject to a medical disqualification." ~ Wikipedia source.
I really can't fault any of the acting, and both Troy Garity (Barry Winchell) and Shawn Hatosy (Justin Fisher) were both amazing in their roles. The transformation of Lee Pace into the character of Calpernia Addams is both subtle and stunning, and I feel he really did serve the role much justice. He managed to really tap into her character, and into her circumstances, and the results are truly wonderful and it makes the portrayal all the more devastating. I really wish that the film and crew had received more awards, and was much more well known, and it really SHOULD have a UK release! Calpernia Addams speaks about the movie and a little of the back-story briefly on her website, which I think is very important for everyone to read.
"I can only hope that no other person ever has to work so hard to justify their relationship with someone else, in the wake of a murder, to a public with mostly every wrong idea about them possible." ~ Calpernia Addams
Hannibal (2013)
Not another CSI-style series, but instead deals with dynamics and relationships & the psychology of.
Being a lover of the movies, and the books by Thomas Harris (particularly Silence of the Lambs, and Red Dragon), I wasn't too sure of this when I first heard about it. I decided to give it a go, however, because of the sheer number of recommendations of it from people who have similar interests to me. I was initially worried that Hannibal would be similar to the string of American series that seem to be hitting the screens at the moment, all seemingly aimed at the Twilight generation, all visually interesting but lacking substance.. I find those types of work difficult to digest, as many still desperately clamber to portray the everybody-is-rich-and-beautiful 'American dream' which just makes for more falsity than any of the dramatic fantasy/horror undertones they can conjure.
It borrows certain characters and events from Red Dragon, but I wouldn't call this a prequel as such - if at all, and I see it as an almost 'alternate universe' using the same characters. It goes into a completely different direction from the books and movies, and flips everything over. You are seeing the exact same relationship between Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter, but scrutinised, and in an entirely different light because of the circumstances they find themselves in within the story.
I think that if you are watching this in the hopes of watching another crime investigatory series, such as CSI etc (and the movies did have such a pattern) then you might be disappointed. This is a series that focuses on Hannibal, on Will, their relationship, and the dynamics of that relationship. Everything else is only a secondary enjoyment. I do particularly LOVE the relationship between Hannibal and Bedalia Du Maurier, his psychotherapist, as well, but I won't say much more on that... I have a feeling that her arcs in the story will be revealing much more about Hannibal, himself, in time.
Hannibal is visually interesting, and stunning... but there is much more meat on the bones, and if you can't see where it is then you probably won't. It seems to me, that those in the audience who have gotten the most from this, tend to have an empathic thinking pattern already similar to that of Will Graham.. so, we can understand and sympathise with his predicament fully, as well as that of Hannibal (though it is hard, as even though we do get more glimpses of him than Will, he is very much locked away from us as well - for now), and the characters (both 'good' and 'villainous') that surround and intertwine with them. Here, we have two desperately lonely individuals, on two extreme and opposite ends of the spectrum, both over thinking the details, and harbouring the desire to connect with another. Some of the most beautiful scenes involve Will when he is alone and reflective, much symbolism is used, and is almost breathtaking during his moments of breakdown.
It is a slow burner, initially, and I have to admit that I wasn't fully locked onto this until around the seventh or eighth episode. Now, I am glued to it, and am currently having to deal with waiting a week for each episode of season 2 just like everybody else!! I was worried that Anthony Hopkins' portrayal of Lecter could not be topped, it was perfect to me, but Mads Mikkelsen has eclipsed him. His portrayal is different, obscured, and much more subtle in some ways whilst being more outlandish in others. His version really is just as good, if not better. His portrayal is much more closed off, sociopathic, and left to the imagination, even as we witness his brutalities, but then I guess we are dealing with Hannibal under a much different set of circumstances here. I wonder if he will be as colourful and as outspoken when (and if) he is caught in the continuing series, as Anthony Hopkins was in Silence of the Lambs. What is beneath the stitching of his 'person suit'?
Breaking Wind (2012)
Abysmal... Wast of time and money
I watched this last night but could only stomach watching half before me and my girlfriend just HAD to turn it off.
I do not like Twilight much, But I have been watching the movies as it has grabbed me in some small way (probably just to cure boredom, more than anything, and to ponder on what the hype is all about).
There is SO MUCH material to take and twist out of the Twilight movies, and general dull characters and story lines. Which is what brought me and my girlfriend to watching this spoof. I was hoping for something somewhat clever like the Scary Movie spoof series that I watched years ago, and loved...
But I think I have found a film that is actually WORSE than Twilight and the series. I actually quite like Twilight, now, in comparison. As I've mentioned above, there was plenty of material to use with a bit of wit and intelligence and make something truly comedic.. plenty of very simple people have managed to do it thus far on the internet with pictures and memes and such... However, this movie ignores all this and, in place, just flat-out resorts to really idiotic jokes about sex and flatulence... on a pretty much CONSTANT basis.
I am no prude, and I very much love a bit of disgusting humour, but the 'jokes' in this movie sucked.. they weren't clever, there were no build ups... something about farts, talk a bit, something about granny sex, talk about, farts, plastic shlong on face, fart some more... it wasn't even a case of being a film that is so bad it's funny - it genuinely IS trying to be funny, and for that reason it really IS just rubbish.
I think the only thing that even made me crack a SLIGHT smile was the random appearance of Neytiri from Avatar and several Johnny Depp movie characters... not that they really count due to the total irrelevance. Clinging at straws, much?