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murray-allison94
Reviews
Appropriate Adult (2011)
How true is this?
It's a good drama well acted. I don't know to what extent it follows actual events. I don't know whether there was an appropriate adult at West's interviews or, if there was, whether she found herself in a dilemma regarding confidentiality. I've just finished the first episode so I also don't know whether the appropriate adult is going to be properly advised about her position, but I do know that, if she is, she will be disabused of the notion that she is bound by rules of confidentiality. She is not. As a solicitor I would never have left a client alone with an appropriate adult because there is nothing to prevent that adult from giving evidence against the client and, if necessary, being compelled to do so. I'm also a bit confused as to why on earth the police would ask the adult to go to the suspects home to collect stuff and why his solicitor would let her. Finally I would say that the adult owes no duty to stay with the case. Here it seems that her role is causing her serious problems at home. That's just not necessary as she can drop out at any time and, if needed, another adult could be found. Appropriate adults are well motivated people performing an important task for no reward and, usually, no thanks but it's hard to think what misplaced sense of duty would compel one to stick on the case of a psychopath through thick and thin at the expense of family.
Red Eye (2024)
Compelling
It's funny because there's a lot about this series that is just plain dreadful, and yet I , who often give up on tv series after an episode or so, kept wanting to see what happened next.
The main problem is that a lot of the acting is atrocious. In particular, in that department, the two directors of MI5, stand out. It's possible it's a direction issue because I've seen Lesley Sharp in stuff before and I know she can act, but here she comes up with one of the flattest, most wooden, robotic, and generally all round unconvincing portrayals I've ever come across, and it's matched by the chap who plays the other MI5 chief.
Much of the dialogue is outstandingly poor also, and the plot is ridiculous.
But, as I said, it nevertheless ends up as entertainment. Up to a point.
Civil War (2024)
Corny
On the good side there's some very good cinematography. The acting is competent. As for the rest, it's not terrible. To say it's formulaic doesn't take things much further because what isn't these days. There's no actual plot but that's also allowed lately. It's a bit odd that there's no explanation at all about how the USA has found itself in a civil war or as to why the president is ultimately portrayed as such an unsympathetic character but that is ok too since it's really all about the journey of the central characters. As to those characters, they're somewhat stereotypical. You've got the photo hack who's seen all the horrors of war ( in case we didn't get this we are shown a sequence of her reminiscences) there's the ingenue and, as is normal, the hero's reluctance to take her on board and the usual mix of support. In the end you have the new girl getting on with business and proving that she's the real deal. If the characters are a bit cliche'd, the dialogue hardly helps with lines like (I'm paraphrasing because I can't recall exactly but something like) "I've never felt so scared in my life, but I've never felt more alive". It's a bit like a mixture between Watership Down and Apocalypse Now except it really doesn't match up to either of those.
Blue Lights (2023)
Best cop show for a while
I really liked the first series and I'd say that series two is looking pretty good too. All the main characters are really strong and very well acted. It's a shame about Gerry but the replacement is good too. Can't tell, up to beginning of episode 4, whether he's a goodie or not though. Gerry was a Kris Kristofferson fan and I guess that may be something to do with why Tommy is now so keen about Kris's mate, Johnnie Cash. I suppose the writer or director must be big fans of Kristofferson because, up to where I've got to so far in series two, we've had two of his songs on the soundtrack. (I'm a fan too)
The First Omen (2024)
One omen too many
I really thought this was a load of rubbish. It started off ok with a slow build of tension, but it totally failed to deliver. One problem was that it just wasn't spooky enough. It's actually not too difficult to make the Catholic Church, clergy and nuns come over as creepy but here it wasn't really accomplished. The, as could be predicted, evil, reverend mother, was about as scary as my French teacher. The equally predictable revelation that the avuncular guardian was demonic really hardly even registered with Nighy's playing of the part. As seems to have been standard for decades now, the scariest bits were the loudest. Great director though he was, I think Hitchcock started that one off. Now, horror movies are, of course, meant to be bonkers, but the notion that the true devotees of Catholicism thought it was a good idea to resurrect the antichrist in order to boost their own church's ratings seems especially ludicrous. I enjoyed Greg Peck's cameo though.
Drive-Away Dolls (2024)
Awful
I wish I'd read the reviews here before wasting my time on this. Instead I read a review in The Times which was very positive. I would anyway have been inclined to give it a try I guess. After all, I'm not sure the Cohen bros ever made a bad film, but this was an absolute shocker. I recollect that David Niven in his late career must have been prepared to do just about anything for money because in the early seventies (maybe late sixties) he appeared in an atrociously bad comedy all centred around a penis. Well this film is doing for Matt Damon, and everyone else associated with it what that film (I can't be bothered to look it up) did for Niven. I really can't believe that a Cohen could turn out such a mess as this.
Origin (2023)
Worthy
It's a well directed well acted film, but I can't say I found it either particularly entertaining or thought provoking.
If I understood correctly, it is about classes of people being discriminated against and seeks to get to the causes and effects of discrimination.
The central character is writing a book for which this film sometimes feels like an extended puff. Her particular concern is to highlight the difference between racism and the caste system. I found myself wondering what the importance of the distinction really is. It's the first time I've ever seen what I take to be a scholarly academic book turned into a film and, frankly, at the end, I felt a bit like I had been whacked about the head with a worthy treatise.
Tales of the Unexpected: The Flypaper (1980)
Shocking
I think this episode seems to have about the highest rating here of any of the series, and I find that totally extraordinary. I have just finished watching it and it seems to me that it is in extremely poor taste. It's not that I think that paedophilia should not have any place in drama but it's rather that it needs to be treated seriously. This whole series is about stories with endings which, as the title suggests , are unexpected but usually in a quirky, and often slightly humorous sort of way. This , though is not in that vein at all. It should have come with a warning. It treats a grave subject as if it were light entertainment. I am sure it could not have been made in the present day and I'm truly surprised that it's being shown.
Saltburn (2023)
Not as bad as I'd heard but could have been different
So it's a film where the central character is a psychopath and, like with Ripley, at least in the first book, not a particularly charismatic one. But it's not a suspense film like The Talented ...etc or Psycho because, unless I was being obtuse, you don't really get a hint ,until somewhere into the last quarter about what's going on. It is quite witty. Felix states that some of his ancestors were sources for Evelyn Waugh and it's clear that Felix's ancestral home and family bear a distinct (though in some cases inverted) comparison to the Marchmains. It would make more sense, as a drama, I think if they let us in on the plot a bit earlier.
Archie (2023)
Not quite like the real thing
The praise for Jason Isaacs that I've read in other reviews is certainly justified but I would not go so far as some who declare that he looks and sounds just like the original. The accent is good but it's not exactly like the man himself (actually I think that Captain Scarlett and Fancy from Top Cat were both slightly better), also it rather comes and goes a bit. That, of course, could be deliberate given that one of the main themes is that the character Cary Grant was all an act. As for the visuals, from what I've seen Jason Isaacs looks nothing like Grant, but long hours in makeup have made him into a good imitation, most of the time. At other times he looks like Eddie Albert or Robert DeNiro.
One thing that keeps coming up about Grant is whether he was gay or not. That's not addressed here. It seems a bit unfair that his great chum Randolph Scott is sidelined to one small scene though.
Justified: City Primeval (2023)
Maybe not Raylan's best
Justified is definitely one of my all time favourites. I don't think Fire in the hole is one of Leonard's best, nor is Raylan. But the series was great. I am also a huge Elmore Leonard fan. So about two episodes in I thought I started recognising bits of the story. When we got to the Albanian with the secret room, I knew it was familiar. It's a great story and there's lots of good things about this adaptation. The daughter isn't one of them but I can understand that when you get to where Olyphant is now the temptation to promote your children must be hard to resist. Raylan is more or less as cool as ever and we have a really good baddie here but I will say that I'm on ep 5 and maybe the action isn't quite up to the standard of the original. Definitely one of the best things I've seen so far this year though.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (2023)
Really rather dull but also implausible
So it's a low key account of someone with deep rooted feelings of guilt about past matters who becomes inspired to do something worthwhile. His wife really doesn't get it and, I have to say, neither do I. Stories are make believe. They don't always necessarily have to reflect real life. But this is no fantasy adventure. It's a story about a supposedly ordinary old bloke undertaking something, supposedly, extraordinary in a pretty ordinary world, so some grounding in reality would fit. But nothing about this is believable. Why would someone who has been around for well over seventy years be inspired by a few words from a shop assistant to change the course of his life? And having become so inspired why would he adopt the course of taking what in real life would be an utterly futile 500 mile walk? And why would other people be in some way inspired by this lunacy?
After about two days his feet and legs are completely done in, as are his shoes. So how does he, a man who, according to his wife, normally only walks to the car, carry on with those same feet , in those same shoes, for another two months (with his, what looks like Clark's, shoes still intact at the end)? Implausibly he adapts to living off the land cooking up nettles and stuff. Along the way he routinely supplements his diet with vegetables that people leave in boxes by their gateposts. I live in London, where nobody ever does that. But I've been in the countryside and I've never seen it there either. Anyway, on that meagre fare you'd think he would lose a few pounds, but no, he's as tubby at the end as he was at the beginning.
The plot line regarding his debt to a dying woman is laughable. It seems that in his self obsessed previous existence, consumed with guilt over his son's suicide, he went on a binge and organised a one man smash up in the brewery where he was employed, in the middle of the night. We are given to understand that his co worker, a woman apparently in late middle age, decided to take the rap for him and was fired because their employer was credulous enough to believe her story of a drunken rampage.
And the ending is just trite, corny rubbish.
C'era una volta il West (1968)
Is it about the eyes?
I like the old westerns more than spaghettis but I like them too.
I'd say that this one is definitely in my top 5 off all time westerns .
It's probably Leone's second best film, after Once Upon A Time In America. But watching it again today it strikes me that the first three scenes, ending with Jill's exit from the railway station, are just about the most spectacular start to a film that I have ever seen. No small thanks to Morricone.
The other thing I noticed today was about the eyes.
Obviously cameras spend a lot of time on the actors faces, but it seems to me that, in spaghetti westerns, the eyes are particularly focused on. Never more so than here. And is it just by chance that we have a bunch of blue eyed men contrasting with a black eyed woman?
I've read that Fonda wanted brown contacts. I don't think that that would have worked so well (to put it mildly).
Daisy Jones & The Six (2023)
It's not rock and roll but I like it
I have seen a review which said that this is not real rock and roll. I agree. The six do fairly catchy pop. It's just middle of the road stuff. They've been likened to Fleetwood Mac and I'd call that a fair comparison. However I don't think that matters. As an exercise in nostalgia it works for me (dob 1955). But what really gives it verve is the performance of Riley Keough. Daisy seems to be more of a Grace Slick than a Stevie Nicks. Keough's acting is just outstanding (she's at least the second most talented performer from that family and definitely the best actor). Also, and I think this seems so obvious that it must have been deliberately contrived, she looks, apart from her more wasted moments, just like someone from a Pre-Raphaelite painting.
A Town Called Malice (2023)
Not exactly the Krays
Somehow none of the members of this crime family are in the least bit convincing. They all seem like middle class people posing. Mum can say C*** as often as she likes but she'll never be convincing. I don't know whether they paid for a linguistics (technical?) advisor but if they did it was too much. Saying 'potless' over and over again and interspersing a bit of rhyming slang just isn't going to get there. Still at least they killed off Dougray. He kept his accent (whatever it was supposed to be) understated, and that was a good plan because he was totally unable to control it, even at that level.
Columbo: Last Salute to the Commodore (1976)
An oddity
Peter Falk gave his friend Patrick Magoohan free rein with this one. The result is that, unusually, this is a whodunnit, but not only that, it is the most overly theatrical episode of the franchise. It's really quite bizarre. Columbo is far from his usual self and his sidekicks (there's an extra one for this episode) who normally are mere cyphers, are required to join in with the mugging. I did like the scene with everyone in the lieutenants car, but after that it's all just overblown nonsense. Also, while it's often the case ,in this series, that the contrivance of plot that allows the culprit to prove his own guilt is a bit of a stretch, in this one it's just ludicrous.
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951)
Such photography
I think that James Mason was a great film actor. Apparently his voice did not go over well on stage, but, on film, it is one of the best ever. Ava Gardner was stunning, and a passable actress. In this film her costumes are amazing too. I also have always liked Nigel Patrick. But, what none of the reviews I've read here have mentioned is the cinematography. Surely it's Jack Cardiff's work behind the camera , plus the glory of technicolour, that lifts this film to another level. It rather reminds me of the way Rita Hayworth was filmed in The Lady From Shanghai (tho that's in B&W)and it's superb.
Amsterdam (2022)
Not all bad
I almost didn't bother seeing this after reading a poor review in The Times. I'm sort of glad that I changed my mind. For the first hour or so it was terrific. Definitely one of the best this year. The three main actors were great, though I thought that Bale's imitation of Lt Columbo almost went over the top. Meanwhile Washington seemed to be channeling Christopher Walken. Anyway, over all it was like a pretty good screwball comedy. I think it might have been cut to about 100 minutes and been regarded a triumph. However, it starts to meander after about 70 minutes. I can see what the plot was all about, but the last part of its delivery was still screwy without being particularly funny or captivating in any way.
The Power of the Dog (2021)
It's not a western
I've seen this described as a great 'western'. It's a good film but it's not a western. I've seen it suggested that all that standing around in doorways is an homage to John Ford. Maybe. But I've also seen it said that the cattle herding is a Red River reference. I really don't think so. There are other elements that are straight out of westerns. Some of the dialogue, and some of the lack of it. The protagonist could have been a western hero (maybe anti hero), and I think Cumberbatch could bear comparison with Stewart or Fonda in their more laconic roles. But the western is a fairly simple and clearly defined genre that this doesn't fit. This is a dark melodrama in western clothing.
The Proud Rebel (1958)
Pale remake
It is a slightly underpowered remake of Shane all the characters are there apart from Wilson,
Chris and Joe Starrett snr (who is replaced by a dog) Linnett gets dressed up for shopping rather than the annual shindig and the saloon isn't actually attached to the general store. This one also has a happy ending.
It's ok, but I have to disagree with those who have praised De Havilland here. I'd say that this often great actress seems to have phoned in her performance.
A Hidden Life (2019)
It is thought provoking
I'd not heard of this film and only watched it because of the rating. I thought the style curious but about half way through I realised it had to be Malick.
Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)
Cliffs wife
Is Robert Wagner suing?
Clearly the demise of Cliff Booths wife (who mentions her sister Natalie) is a reference.
Monte Walsh (1970)
I keep going back to this
Great acting, great theme, great mood.
I think of two Lee Marvin films about the death of the old ways of the West. This and Liberty Valance.
Obviously very different but hard to tell, in their own ways, which is best.
I guess it's TMWSLV, on balance. For all the (understated) sentimentality of Monte Walsh, it's the other one that just makes me gush up every time (esp when they get to the cactus rose at the end).
Also there's a slight problem with the flow in this film I think. Some scenes seem just a bit mashed with each other.
But Marvin and Moreau are terrific and I don't remember Palance ever being better.
The theme by Cass Elliot is superb too and that music is integral I'd say.
Fractured (2019)
Disappointing
So there's a bit of Coma, and a touch of Frantic. But really, from fairly early on, it's pretty obvious how it has to end. Kept watching in case I was wrong but that turned out just to be another wasted hour of my life.
Goliath (2016)
Curious change of style
I loved season 1, and season 2 up to the last episode. Season two had pretty weird stuff and then, in the penultimate episode, went full David Lynch. Actually I really like that episode. That thing on Prime that gives you scene info said that Billy's suit was based on Grant's in North by North West. I haven't seen NBNW recently but I don't think Cary's jacket had a double vent. Anyway,if it was the same, it looked much better on Grant. I guess the drone was a NBNW ref.
Although the last episode of season two was rubbish, I've stuck through two episodes of s3. I'm finding though it's all a bit disjointed (carrying on from about the last three episodes of s2). That caused me to check the reviews. I don't mind that it's still Lynchian, and I'm surprised s2 seems to be so hated but, on balance, from what I've read, I think I'll stop now.