davi-shaw's Reviews

All the Light We Cannot See (2023)

6/10

17 November 2023

Great book so I was looking forward to this. The sets were great the acting, for the most part was great. It stayed close to the story and was engaging. However, the incidental music during various dialogue scenes was dreadful. Too loud by far.

You know those Hallmark Christmas movies. Just like that music to heighten the drama because the producers think people are to stupid to follow dialogue.

It spoiled the whole movie for me. I'm giving it a 6 only because I loved the book.

Hopefully someone decent will pitch it up and make a movie of this. The book deserves so much, much more than this effort.

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Barun Rai and the House on the Cliff (2021)

4/10

This should be studied at film school

9 September 2023

Warning: Spoilers

Visually the photography is excellent, think Hammer Horror with a skilled eye. I liked the 70s feel to it. Its a basic Ghost story just not particularly well told.

The acting is very 'Bollywood' but is you accept that it stops being jarring.

What I cannot forgive is the editing. OK, there are load of of jump cuts as you would expect in a 70s style film, however, some of these are plain stupid. The lead actress is being followed so we see a male foot walking towards a twig, then we see a close up of the twig, wait 20 seconds whilst following the woman THEN there is the sound of a twig breaking, we are not stupid - we can join the dots.

Is the film editor a secondary school student?

Don't get me started on the sound editing - it is all over the place from looking like the actors are dubbed to weird drops in volume between edits some of the worse I have seen (heard). I'm giving it a 4 for the photography 0/10 for the rest.

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Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

3/10

Dreadful

5 February 2023

Now, I must declare an interest. I'm a martial arts expert and kung fu movies do nothing for me - I see the fakery. The entire movie seemed to be a loop of the same fight scene. Boring.

The parellel universe has been done to death in other movies and no matter how bad they were, they were better than this.this.

It is the only film I have watched to the end and still hated - how did it get so many 10 star reviews???

I didn't care a jot about any of the characters, could care less how it ended or who won. Take this movie and remake it word for word, scene for scene, with unknowns and most would have given it a one star. The ratings are more for who is in it than the actual content. Dire, dire, dire.

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Capone (2020)

3/10

A lockdown disaster

6 March 2021

Let's be clear. I wasn't expected a gangster movie and wasn't upset not to get one. But this, this waste of Hardy's time and my eyeballs was as bad as a movie can get. I've watched some terrible crap over lockdown but this is the worst thing I have seen in a year of Covid19. Maybe it's the direction. There is no pace to the movie so it feels like a stitched together collection of scenes rather than a story. That's 1hr 43 mins I will never get back.

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Hap and Leonard (2016–2018)

10/10

Perfect Series

17 February 2021

I went into this not expecting much, just another American lightweight drama to fill in sometime during the pandemic - boy was I wrong. I'm not a fan of Purefoy but in this show he is excellent. True he gets out acted by his co-star, but the relationships feels real, the dialogue really works. Funny, sad, hopeful, despairing, uplifting, dark and voilent this show has everything. Only 3 series sadly. Well worth a bingewatch you will love it.

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The Professor and the Madman (2019)

7/10

Scottish Accent Peaks and Troughs

9 February 2021

Jennifer Ehle with easily the worst Scottish accent in history. Unless the Western Isles have relocated to eastern Europe. Gibson,on the other hand, has refined his Scottish accent into something approaching decency. As to the movie, great performances from Gibson and Penn which lead to what is a rather excellent movie.

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The Captain (2017)

9/10

A Real Treat in B&W and colour

5 October 2020

On Amazon Prime loved that I could watch it in Black & White then the whole movie again in colour. B&W was best. Well acted, great plot and illustration of the collapse of sectors of the German army as it became clear they were losing the War.

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Let Us Prey (2014)

5/10

Liam Saves The Movie

13 July 2020

Dialogue from a college project. Set that they spent at least a fiver on. Thank the Devil for Liam Cunningham, the one star, who saved this from being a one star review. The idea is sound the directing is fine, even the effects are OK. However, the fight scene choreograph and the dodgy accents almost had me switching off. In fact I nearly turned it ofg at the start - no-one does knuckle press ups like that, the toy shop police uniforms, the fake police station all screamed 'no budget'. If it was remade with a decent cast it might have made a solid 7 out of 10. PS Jonathan Watson wasn't the worst actor in this but I kept expecting him to do a Graeme Souness impersonation.

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The Reliant (2019)

1/10

Oh God It Is So Bad

20 May 2020

Hands down one of the worst films I have ever seen. Might go down OK in God Bothering countries like America. Truly, truly dreadful

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Palm Swings (2020)

1/10

Probably the most ridiculous Hollywood ending ever.

30 April 2020

Warning: Spoilers

May Contain Spoliers:

We are in middle of Apocalypse so have to lower our viewing standards so that we can fill the time. This was on Prime so I gave it a look. Acting is not bad. Seen much, much worse. Couple meet swingers. Decide to give it a try. It goes wrong. The dreadful Hollywood ending. Estranged husband is lured into a meeting with wife so that they can talk - at another swingers party where are the people involved in the breakup are attending. Seriously. How is that going to work?

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The Collapsed (2011)

2/10

Probably Worst Dialogue Ever

20 November 2019

The script is dreadful, almost like it is written by a 12 year old who got lucky and his parents let him make a movie.

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After Life (2019–2022)

10/10

Truly Great TV

29 April 2019

You will laugh. You will cry. You will laugh some more. Gervais excels in this type of drama. A cracking job. And the dog. Don't forget about the dog.

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The Drug King (2018)

8/10

Better than Scarface

25 February 2019

Better than Scarface because it it is part dark comedy part blood and guts thriller. If you watch a lot of Korean movies you will get the style a lot sooner. The tension between Japanese gangsters is as much political as it is territorial. The movie straddles the Yushin (4th Republic) and 5th Republic eras including the assassination of Park chung-Hee. I watched on Netflix and it kept me engaged throughout. So good I will watch again very soon.

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The Night Eats the World (2018)

7/10

Not Half Bad

4 January 2019

Nice study. I couldn't care less about the Zombies as it is not really a horror movie. A couple of nice twists. I did feel the main characters loneliness and acceptance of his predicament. Well worth the watch especially if you are any kind of musician.

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The Pledge (I) (2001)

9/10

Stunning

23 November 2018

Warning: Spoilers

The ending will break your heart. Acting is outstanding as you would expect. I didn't want it to end could have watched it for hours.

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Lost in Space (2018–2021)

7/10

Not too shabby

14 April 2018

Plus points: special effects. Really good. The robot is superb. Molly Parker. Negative points; the constant flashback, assumes that the viewer neexs to be spoon fed the back story. Dr Smith - truly, truly awful. If there is a second series get rid of her. I suspect it wil all peter out as most of tbose shows do. A reasonable attempt at updating the original.

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Hard Sun (2018)

6/10

Woeful fight scenes

14 January 2018

Great idea, dreadful fight choreography. The CGI at the end was embarrassing. Still, entertaining enough despite the many plot holes.

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Tjockare än vatten (2014–2020)

9/10

Almost perfect

16 May 2016

Warning: Spoilers

Sure there are gaping holes in the plot, some of which may be down to the translation into English or our lack of understanding of Swedish culture. Similar in both subject matter and pace to the wonderful Legacy by Maya Ilsøe.

Those who have a poor attention span won't like it, but if you love real drama with great acting - dive right in.

The acting and character of Oskar is the weakest part of the show but he grew on me as time went by. Joanna and Lasse are fantastic, 1 part hedonistic to 1 part family.

The finale sets things up well for season 2.

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