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MichaelJohnMartin
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Insidious: The Red Door (2023)
A big letdown
As with the review above mine, where the reviewer mentions that they became interested in horror films through this series and the Conjuring series, I'm the same, watched Insidious one night on a whim and really liked it, so I proceeded to watch the rest of them, with a noticeable decline in quality as the series went on,with 4 being barely average, but this was drivel.
The cringey annoying college friend the son shares a room with is just the tip of the mountain of crap this film contains, predictable at every turn, very few actual scary moments, bitter divisions evident at the start of the film all seemingly reconciled at the end, nothing new here at all, and was sadly missing the best character of the whole series in Elise, seems to me that the worst thing the writers could have done at the end of the first film was kill her off.
4*
The Shield (2002)
Wonderful
***Contains minor spoiler***
Raw,uncompromising,unflinching are some of the words I have seen describing "The Shield".
I just call it television of the highest order.
Vic Mackey has a brutally efficient way of solving his cases, he goes straight to the root of it and often bends the law,and sometimes breaks it in his pursuit of justice.
Take for instance his horrific torture of a suspect in the very first episode when trying to find the kidnapper of a small child, well the interrogation room camera gets turned off just as it begins,but.....you get the message,from the implements he lines up on the desk just prior to his "chat" with the suspect.
The fact that he and his fellow strike team members are dirty and kill anybody in their way (drug dealer at the close of episode 1)unlawfully,then fudge the evidence is certainly a new twist for cop/detective shows,and takes it away from the many generic cop shows on television nowadays.
Because of their unorthodox methods of securing convictions they sometimes get into a lot of semi-comedic situations,which require,taking one example,stealing evidence from the evidence lock up,with one of them distracting the duty officer and the others going and taking the items.
In short.....if you are tired of your CSI,Law and Order or other programme's of this kind,please give the Shield a try, you won't be disappointed at all.
The Sign of Four (2001)
An abomination
Myself,being a huge fan of vintage Detective Stories, namely Agatha Christies "Poirot",immaculately played by David Suchet, and of the detective in question here Sherlock Holmes,previously played with particular vim and vigour by Basil Rathbone,and later (albeit with perhaps a smidgen too much eccentricity) by the effervescent Jeremy Brett.
Matt Frewers Holmes is quite frankly....a shambles.
Although to be fair his fellow cast members do little to help the film to get off its knees.
Particularly appalling were the two "actors",playing Miss Morstan and Inspector Jones,Sophie Lorain and Michel Perron respectively.
I can say in all honesty,that throughout the entire length of this preposterous production that these two actors had about them an air of mystique,chiefly for the reason that I could'nt make head nor tail of their accents!!
Inspector Jones, 'I presume' was supposed to be Scottish,well,his Scottish accent was risible,and made Mel Gibson's in Braveheart sound like an absolute triumph!!
As for Miss Morstan,there were elements of French,English and American accents in her voice,and it seemed to fluctuate with each sentence,appalling.
As for Holmes,the phrase "Camp as Christmas" would sum it up to a tee,Frewer is quite simply the worst Holmes ever to grace celluloid, whomever commissioned this dreadful film(and I see from his biog on this very website that a series of these films have been made with him cast as Holmes)should not have the distinction of working in film or television ever again.
My rating * out of *****.
And that is simply for the locations,which were quite authentic looking of that time I suppose.
Nash Bridges (1996)
Brilliant.
One of my favourite shows on television,I enjoy it immensely. Don Johnson is at his best,and in his element,in this type of show.His back up in the series,Harvey,Evan and Joe are very likeable as well.And the little side stories with Joe usually getting himself into all manner of situations provide some welcome light relief to the episodes.A shame really that here(in the UK)the channels do not deem it worthy of an earlier time slot,the episode I just watched started at 12.35am,a little late perhaps for a work night,but all in all,an excellent show.
An Inspector Calls (1954)
Excellent.
I have just finished watching this film on TV,and I must say,what a pleasant diversion it was for the afternoon,plenty of twists and turns,and the ending was excellent also,top performance must go to Alistair Sim for his protrayal of Inspector Poole,rivetting stuff.
The World at War (1973)
Wonderful,from beginning to end.
Example of how a World War 2 documentary should be made,using first hand accounts from actual troops and civilians whom participated in this awful conflict,and archived footage gathered from around the time .I caught this on a re-run on the History channel about a year and a half back,with no knowledge really of the Second World War at the time,but it enveloped me,and now I consider myself a World War 2 buff,watching and reading any and all that I can find about it,but nothing comes close to this landmark documentary,definitely worth buying the boxed set of.............
This is quite simply documentary making of the very highest standard.
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Wonderful.
One of the Academy Awards great injustices,cruelly ignored round Oscar time,much in the same way that Forrest Gump stole the limelight away from the vastly superior "The Shawshank Redemption" at the Oscars in 1994,this tale of gangsters features one of De Niro's finest ever performances to date,and was Leone's final masterpiece,but to this day is relatively unheard of,and is overshadowed by many other gangster type films,of which in my opinion,there are very few better.
Gosford Park (2001)
Overrated,overblown tripe.
I rented this from my local store,and sat down to it with extremely high hopes,and had them dashed considerably.I have watched it again since and still have not realised whom the killer was,and i will not be watching it again.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Exceeds all expectations.
What a movie,never before has a movie enthralled me as much as this masterpiece of film making,from the horrific opening 25 minute sequence,to the directors emphasis on the psychological effects that war has on such young lives,to the most stunningly realised locations,you could actually be forgiven for thinking you are watching a documentary on World War 2. The performances are also breathtaking,from the criminally underrated acting skills of Giovanni Ribisi,to the first noteworthy appearance of Vin Diesel,through to the Box Office heavyweight muscle of the the lead,Tom Hanks,of whom we now take for a granted quality performances. From the first minute,right through to its heart-wrenching,almost cruel ending,this,to my mind is the greatest war film ever made,in fact,forget that,it is quite simply one of the best movies ever made,and makes a welcome addition to any film fans collection.