Reviews

I enjoy films like Open Water and The Reef so I really thought I'd like this but sadly it wasn't to be. ****MAJOR SPOILERS****Sean Astin plays a character who thinks he is responsible for the deaths of two people so goes out on Lake Michigan with the intention of killing himself. He runs over a small aircraft, damaging the boat, finds the pilot and drags him aboard. The propellor on the boat is gone so they are stuck and the pilot is injured. So far, so good. Then..well, not a lot really. We are told their stories in flashback. The pilot is delivering a backpack to some dodgy guys who he insists will kill him. In the end they popped up, got the backpack and left. Possibly the biggest anticlimax in film history. There was no real sense of danger with them being stuck on the boat as, well, they were on a lake, a big lake granted but still not the middle of the Atlantic. The two deaths that Mitch felt responsible for were laughable and overall the story wasn't really well thought out. The acting went between okay and ridiculous which disappointed me as I watched Sean Martin in Stranger Things and thought he was great in it but I suppose some blame has to be attributed to the director. The ending, I'm assuming, was supposed to be uplifting and inspirational but I don't think it would be too long before he was back out on the lake for his next suicide attempt if his big life turn around was a new fish and a job in a care home. These kind of films that don't have a lot of action need to keep us gripped with good storylines and solid acting but I'm afraid this one was just blah. Change the reason he wanted to kill himself, take out the ludicrous gangster story, add some actual tension and much better dialogue between the two men and it could be a decent film. As it is, I gave it a four for the funny dog story and...sorry, just the funny dog story.

This film is a mess. Before watching it , I read that a former lineman and founder of a charity for fallen linemen was behind it so I had high hopes. These were quickly dashed. I would have preferred if the film had shown what these men actually do but other than climbing a couple of poles, moving some cables out of the way and someone re-enacting titanic on the top of a pylon, we see not a lot. From what I understand, the technical stuff is mostly wrong and the plot is something we've all seen before. The two lovelorn "kids" in the movie must be in their mid to late thirties and John Travolta's various wigs were more convincing than most of the actors. I hate slagging a film that has been made with a good cause in mind but this was one of the worst films I've seen in a while and probably does a disservice to the men and women who do this dangerous job. I do think this is an interesting subject and I hope one day someone makes a film that does these people justice.

Cillian Murphy plays a man, John, who has been abused by his mother and, after her death, creates an alter ego "Emma" to look after him. After a train crashes into his backyard, Emma is revealed to the local community and slowly begins to become the dominant personality. She becomes involved with the community in a way John has never been able to. Thus ensues a battle between both personalities for dominance. I have to admit that, I'm not entirely certain that that everyone in the town really bought that Emma was John's wife or if they were just going along with it. Prior to Emma being discovered, people seemed to be very patient with John and his strange ways so it is possible that some were playing along. Murphy played this so well that after a short time I fully accepted them as 2 different characters. Great support from Susan Sarandon and Bill Pullman too. Overall I enjoyed this, it pulled me in and I was engrossed to the end.

"What if Superman was evil?" An interesting question and I kind of felt like this film answered it. Warning! Spoilers ahead! Okay. I've seen a lot of reviewers complaining that there was no reason for the kid's acts of violence and destruction but that's not what I saw. I saw a twelve year old who discovered he was invincible, had a hell of a temper and clearly had more fun being bad than good. There were basic reasons for him killing everyone he did and once he started he couldn't stop. I really enjoyed this take on the anti-hero. The production was good, the acting was good and the effects were good. Nothing to really complain about. I gave it an 8 because a film has to blow me away to get more but this was solid and I would watch a sequel. Also the closing credit music by Billie Eilish was great.

An American police officer moves to England for a fresh start. So far, so good. Its only when he arrives does it go a bit pear shaped. The plot holes in the first episode have literally no bottom. A weird guy who didn't realise the head in his freezer was human. Someone jumps off a wind turbine but a body was never noticed by workers? A missing person case that was never investigated. One policeman who decides exactly what had happened based on no evidence and informs the family. The list goes on.. On the plus side, I like Rob Lowe, the concept isn't terrible and I can't think of anything else, sorry. I'll give the next episode a go but if it's more of the same then I think that'll be it for me.

I stumbled across this fairly short documentary on Netflix and I'm glad I did. The filmmaker is a gay Chinese man living in America with his partner and soon to be two children while his very traditional family still live in China. The film basically documents his family coming to terms with his homosexuality and surrogate children. The parents (his mother in particular) are loving but outspoken and have clearly struggled with having a gay son. When the children come along, his mother is clearly a doting gran but still worries about the children being brought up without a female parent. As the documentary moves along I felt sympathy for his mother as she clearly struggled with her love for her son and her traditional views but I was delighted when she started being honest both about her sons sexuality and her grandchildrens conception. We didn't quite get to the stage of telling grandpa but I think he knew more than they realised. All in all, a lovely little documentary and well worth a watch.

I'm going to start off with the positives. Stanley Tucci, playing possibly the only character that I would care if he died. The effects for the creatures were fine. Yeah that's about it. Now for the bad stuff. For a family "used to living in silence" they seem to find it extremely difficult to live in silence. By day 2 it would appear that the government or any authority are not making much of an attempt at killing the creatures. Religious nuts wanting your daughters seems to happen remarkably quickly. Then apparently the only way to survive these quite easy to kill creatures is to head north cause they don't like to be cold. Overall, I would say this is watchable once but prepared to be annoyed often.

If this was an hour long and just told the family's story, it would have been fine. As a four hour long investigation to get to the bottom of what happened to Carol Packman it was ridiculous. The only new piece of evidence as far as I could see was that it was established you could burn a pig on a bonfire. Other than that, the investigator (I use the term loosely) was just rehashing evidence that was already known and framing it all as revelations. This included the revelation that people committed a crime that they were convicted of decades ago. As far as I can see the only person getting any pleasure out of this investigation was Russell Packman, the killer, who seemed to be enjoying the attention as it no doubt broke up the monotony of his life in prison. If the daughter really thought this so called investigation would give her answers then I feel sorry for her and the makers of this programme should hang their heads in shame for giving her false hope in the name of entertainment.

This man's story is definitely tragic and I feel for him and his family. In saying that, I'm reviewing this as a film and it's not great. The problem with making a true story film about a person who had a fairly ordinary life until one event happens is that there is not enough material for a full length movie. I had the same issue with 127 Hours. The writers have to find filler and, in this case, it was John's early relationship with his wife and, as someone previously said, a weird Benjamin Button remake with his unborn son. I feel as though if the makers of this had just kept it in the period he went caving and was stuck with perhaps more focus on how he, his family and rescuers were dealing with it, it would have been a more powerful telling of his story. Instead, I spent the first part wondering who the strangely dressed man was that kept popping up. The acting was okay but the underground scenes were confusing and you couldn't really get a sense of what was going on when he got stuck and afterwards. Although it was good that John's story was told, I feel it could have been done better.