Reviews

This is a debut film from a director who has hundreds of thousands of followers for his you tube how-to videos.

A self-penned, directed and edited film, it's a fabulous piece of work, both darkly funny and terribly sad with brilliant, well drawn 3D characters that are flawed, beautiful, troubled and funny.

There's plenty of excellent dialogue and laugh out loud moments among the devastating sadness that surrounds the film. Really excellently done, subtle points that at times fill you in on the back story without ever punching you in the face with clunky exposition.

The actors all do terrific jobs, with a range of characters that are really well written with masses of empathy for them. The story almost never goes quite where you expect it to.

It will be a terrible shame if this doesn't get distribution and get to be seen by many more people.

If you get the chance to see this and you like low-key indie films with great characters that doesn't follow the Hollywood style this is an absolute must-see.

This is a spectacular looking programme, with plenty of great sets, great effects and great graphics.

The story is in turns riveting and eye-rollingly bad, with a collection of characters that are, almost exclusively, unlikeable.

Too many of the characters hate each other, then like each other, then hate each other, then respect each other and so on. All from one instant to another.

There's some great details with lack of gravity causing issues with body strength and it causing issues if they go to earth, yet some of these low-G folk have super human fighting strength.

The extra terrestrial part of it is tiresome and utterly ludicrous in equal measures. Just toe-curlingly awful.

This could have been a great series, but in the end it's style over substance.

There are so many similarities with parts of Babylon 5's earth and mars tensions, big spinning ships and space stations, but whereas B5 is rich in great dialogue and also has many humorous moments, this has poor dialogue, too much unintelligible mumbling, too much macho posturing and a total lack of joy in all the characters.

I've watched a lot of adaptations of Harlen Coben's books, many on Netflix, and have read everything he's written. This is one of the better ones that has been set in Britain.

It has the usual issues in that it's really a story transplanted from America and there are the occasional jarring scenes or bits of dialogue that don't belong in a British thriller, but it does hurtle along and is clearly bingeable having got through it all today.

Michelle Keegan does a good job in the lead role as the tenacious investigating mother although I didn't quite buy into her as a helicopter pilot.

I particularly liked - as I always do - Adeel Akhtar - as the likeable detective, his relationship with his DS was very good and real highlight of the series. Joanna Lumley chewed up scenery with panache and was good at being the particularly unpleasant matriarch.

There's plenty of Coben's trademark misdirection and a plot that keeps you guessing right to the end.

I thought Danya Griver as Abby was excellent and hope we get to see more of her. I do have a big quibble with her accent though. Based and always lived up north in the series, with northern parents, but speaking with a clear southern accent really narked me and was really poor. Same with her brother.

All in all it was an enjoyable romp, clearly preposterous, but all of Harlen's books are and they are always great fun. Definitely would recommend this, especially if you're a fan of his books and other series.

As a weaving of four stories this works well. The sets are great and even the thirty years into the future thread wasn't too out there.

There are a few good characters, some good light and shade and some that develop nicely as the series progresses.

Everything starts with a body being discovered in a lane in London and develops with four different time lines, Victorian, World War Two, present day and thirty years into the future. At first there is a lovely kind of what-is-going-on feel to the story, but come the middle of it, you realise that it's just the same thing that's been done so many times in so many other sci-fi programmes and films that it becomes more and more disappointing and eventually so incredibly and sadly predictable.

Excellent edge-of-the-seat tense psychological thriller that twists and turns, that has largely unpleasant characters, but pulls off that trick at times of rooting for someone you shouldn't.

It has a little bit of a Gone Girl feel to it, very much written by a woman with a woman's perspective of betrayal and narcissistic behaviour of a cheating husband. However, it's a little more grounded in reality than Gillian Flynn's story and way, way better.

It loses a couple of points for the ending which was a little disappointing and unrealistic, but the story takes you down a different path to what you might think after episode one and always keeps you guessing as to how it will turn out.

Very good casting, Jenna Coleman is good as the steely wife who is ore than she first seems, Oliver Jackson-Cohen believable as the controlling, lying, narcissistic scumbag husband. The two police are great characters and the interaction between Coleman's Liv and her mother very typical of that mother daughter dynamic that is so often seen.

The six episodes absolutely whizzed by and were brilliantly done. A better ending would have given this a full ten stars, but it's still great and well worth a view.

...with one exception: Mark Bonner's character.

The story moves along at a breakneck pace, but the laughs are very, very sparse and the problem is that the story moves at breakneck speed.

Like so many programmes these days, there are too few episodes to really develop the characters, they **** up and then forgive far too often and behave in a really far too unrealistic way.

The women are all 90s ladettes, there's no light and shade, the reactions to things going wrong are so over the top and then instantly forgiven, even when the sin occasionally is quite serious.

But Mark Bonner's character is superb, really interesting and probably the most believable. It's a real shame he wasn't given more screen time throughout.

In the end, billed as a comedy, this falls really short of its main aim, in that is simply not funny enough.

The hype around this film is staggering. As the film unfolded, I predicted all but two of the things that happened. It just seemed like such an obvious stream of events other than the surprise half way through and the Tarantino -Lite ending.

There's an almost complete lack of sympathy for, or empathy in, almost all of the selfish, unpleasant characters. Maybe that's the point, but if you want a film where there's someone to root for, this isn't for you.

Although you can see the point the film makes writ large from an early stage, it does a poor job of making you think the downtrodden deserve any sympathy.

Traditionally comedy films make you laugh, but this failed to raise even a grin. It's pushing it to call it a drama as well because so little happens. Sometimes films where little happens can still hold your interest due to good dialogue, but this can't muster even a few sentences in its well over two hours that show any sort of ability to hold attention.

Characters empty of empathy and compassion, a story that drags, lacks in any sort of ability to draw you in to the film and a ridiculously long running time.

The setting is ugly, the characters are ugly, the story is ugly and dialogue is ugly. Maybe that's the whole point, maybe this is supposed to show the industry the foul protagonist has been wrapped up in is ugly. However, none of this makes a compelling case to watch this ugly film.

A charmless, subpar Guy Ritchie-style film that aspires to Tarantino. Cartoon violence, a total lack of originality, lack of humour and lack of interest.

A film in Japan, full of Westerners on a bullet train, full of dull characters and hackneyed dialogue, a snake and James Bond level impossible stunts.

There's an attempt to reel you in with flashbacks about hateful characters that you've seen before in plenty of gangster films based in London or LA, transferred to a train. If this hadn't been done with with much more style and humour multiple times in the last thirty years it might have been with a watch.

Awful.

A film that could easily morph into a play, where almost all of the action takes place in a single hotel room.

What is clearly great about the film is the positivity towards sex, being comfortable with it and enjoying it, not least as you get older. It's a cerebral film that tackles a very emotional subject.

In the moment the film was hugely engaging and entertaining, and it's undoubtedly a good thing that it has me thinking about it the day after, it is without any doubt a thought provoking watch.

On the negative side, there were some very strange scenes in the way the mood between the two main actors changed in a very short spaces of time, flipping in and out of erotic moods in an instant. There were inconsistencies in behaviour of the characters that seemed very unlikely as the film went along, especially in the final act.

Most of all, I just didn't buy into the character of the sex worker or the idea that Thompson's character would ever, ever hire an escort.

With most films you have to suspend disbelief, but with one like this that is clearly aiming at something very much grounded in reality with the issues with which Thompson's character wrestles, it nags, after the event, that so much of the behaviour and dialogue is so unrealistic.

Yet despite all this, it's most definitely a film worth watching and is very enjoyable in the moment.

Yes, there are things wrong with this drama, but it rattles along at a decent pace, gradually letting you into the stories of the main characters.

The first action of the film does carry the horror of the situation well, it doesn't have a glossy, American feel, but a visceral portrayal of the panic that would doubtlessly ensue if you were unfortunate enough to be caught up in the something like this.

Many of the characters are painted with shades of grey and with some real pathos at times. People act stupidly as well as bravely, which, when you have gunmen tracking you down would undoubtedly happen.

The story is allowed to unfold and show the aftermath, which makes a really good change from most dramas like this.

On the negative side, I never bought into the idea that Keeley Hawes' character would be a member of the police, but all the relationships she had with the friends on the holiday were believable and well done. For its undoubted flaws, there's a lot to admire about this programme and it's well worth a watch. Flawed but with plenty to keep you hooked.

Right form the start this film is engaging and doesn't let up. There's some really good ambiguity and mystery to it in the first half or so where you're really not sure who is really what they say they are.

It stumbles a little with the initial interactions between Arterton and Norton in that you don't quite buy in to how many chances she gives him, thought that was slightly clunky. However, that's a fairly minor criticism and it's otherwise engrossing right the way through. Norton is very good at pl;aying the creepy, nasty type characters and it's hard to imagine him being nice bloke in real life, which says a lot about his acting ability.

It's better not to know too much about the film and let it unfold. It's well worth a view, just bear in mind this is cerebral, not a take your brain out thriller (and all the better for it).

Swirling between modern and 60s London, this chilling, charming thriller tells the story of a young fashion student thrust into a life that flips her between her time at college and living the life of someone sixty years ago.

Right from the outset through to the conclusion this films hooks you in and keeps you breathless as it sweeps you through the two stories, with cruel characters, enigmatic characters and empathic characters.

Fabulous casting of Stamp and Rigg in minor parts as well as the quite brilliant two lead women Taylor-Joy and McKenzie.

Matt Smith and Michael Ajao as the complete contrasting male supports are also excellent. John is a lovely character as much as Jocasta is the vacuous, jealous, insecure hollow loser.

Everything about this film is brilliant, from the use of music, lighting, colours, choreography to the script. Easily the best film I've seem this year.

Fabulously engrossing whodunit, engaging characters that draw you in, some great cliffhanger endings, especially episode five. Then: episode six and the whole thing falls over. Just utterly awful and deflating.

Dexter, twice, can only compete with the dreadful conclusion this came up with.

Yes, this is not fast paced, yes it's a slow burner.

It's well acted, with characters that you end up caring about, especially once you take the whole three series into account. It's great to see Welsh being spoken so much, some lovely scenery to contrast with the run-down estates and some familiar landmarks. Plus Cadi's family home on that amazing little island.

It's kind of cool to see normal people who aren't completely ruined by the job, alcohol or general neuroses to the detriment of family that tends to be the case in these dramas. It's shame they've stopped after three series, but they've gone out with an at-times moving episode.

I can only image the ridiculously low score for this film is due to homophobia and general intolerance because it is way, way better than 5.6.

This is a hugely enjoyable film, with some fabulous performances from all of the cast. In these times where we seem to be going backwards in terms of tolerance, it's great to see such a positive film about identity and sexuality, of wanting to be different and showing relationships between people of such different backgrounds and origins.

Richard E Grant is absolutely fantastic as the old drag queen just as Max Harwood is as the young one. Love the relationships between Jamie and Pritti, Sarah Lancashire is great as always she always is and Shobna Gulati is a hoot.

I really hope that people look past the score here and read the glowing reviews of the films. Even as someone who is straight and who likes different music to this, I found this film to thoroughly entertaining .

Total garbage. Take a Red Dwarf silly plot that would have been rejected by Grant and Naylor for being too bonkers, add some Doctor Who plot that's been used a hundred times, mix in some spectacular scenery and throw gazillions of pounds at it, while making the dialogue incomprehensible. Sack the sound mixer.

Music was good mind.

The first two episodes are real groundwork and not a whole lot of laughs, which made me wonder whether this might be a rare Bill Lawrence misfire, but from episode three it really gets going. As you start to get used to the characters and appreciate them and their foibles, the humour starts to come and four episodes in it gets to Scrubs level laugh out lout funny.

By episode five it was hard to remember a funnier Scrubs episode.

There is an absolute charm in the way Ted gradually gets to grips with the difference in life between the US and the UK. There's lots of lovely moments of things like getting tie and draw mixed up, of (quite understandably - and I'm a Brit) realising how awful tea is, of the brilliant description of a scone and lots of other subtle gems.

Then there's the completely unsubtle constant chant from the crowd and people in the street to Ted that he brushes off with a skin thicker than a rhino's hide, that beautiful stays the same and yet changes.

There is wonderful joy in the brilliance, but seemingly crazy, motivational tactics of Ted, the inscrutable and brilliantly named Coach Beard, the evolving relationship between Rebecca and Keely, Kent and Tartt, Kent and Keely, of how Nate is treated and many other characters' interactions. Very much like Scrubs, this works because the characters are brilliant, which really makes the humour work.

Most surprisingly is that, although this isn't really about football, the footy is some of the best choreographed I've seen in fiction. Something which most films and programmes get horribly wrong, this doesn't do badly on.

Would be great if there were plenty more series if it keeps on at this level of brilliance and would be nice to see more episodes per series.

Although by the time you'd reached episode five tension finally started to mount, and it kept you going for two or three episodes, this is a grim story, with characters (other than Julien) that you have no empathy for, a storyline that is preposterous in parts and a resolution that is a huge let down.

I think this story might have made a semi-decent film, but bloating it out into eight episodes was a poor decision. It made me feel empty at the end and I was thoroughly unconvinced by most of the characters.

Not a good program. At all.

Radioactive is far better, far pacier and insightful than people are making out. I also do not feel that the film is making any sort of judgement on Marie and Pierre's discoveries; it is merely pointing out consequences. It firmly leaves it up to you to decide, and it clearly points out oas many benefits to their work as issues.

It's never going to be a take your brain out, fast-paced thriller, it's a biopic about two scientists, about how one struggles because even through she's brilliant.

Sure it's not perfect, but it was engaging, Pike does a fine job as does support cast and the time passed quickly. By the end you knew a lot more about her life and you have to remember this is a biopic, not a documentary, so there will be some liberties taken for dramatic effect.

So much is wrong about this film, in so many ways, but it is one of the funniest films I've ever seen. It's irreverent, daft, cartoonish, mad, inaccurate, pretty predictable and crammed full of belly laughs.

What's great about this film is the laughs start early and never let up, the characters are likeable and the are cameos brilliant. Vinny Jones stands out as the ludicrous football hooligan.

No need to say too much about the plot which is just a trip around Europe visiting cities and the odd village and a series of crazy adventures.

If you go into this expecting highbrow comedy, you'll be disappointed, but if you enjoy daft humour this is a real treat. I'm sure I'll be going back to watch this again!

Really don't know where people are getting Four Weddings comparisons from on this film. Sliding Doors, yeah, but Four Weddings? Absolutely not.

It has several laugh out loud moments and some decent characters. It's a perfectly good feel (fairly) good film. It's not totally saccharine and you're not totally sure *exactly* how it will end. Several of the characters, especially the snooty groom's family are great. The bride has enough shades of grey to make her character interesting and not fully sympathetic.