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Reviews
ER: Age of Innocence (2008)
No smoke without fire?
As others commented, this episode was clearly trying to demonstrate that any man accused of child sexual abuse, even after a jury finds him not guilty, must in fact be guilty and thus needs to have his house burned down and be severely beaten in the ER. After the poignancy of the previous episode, this was a shockingly badly written slice of ER.
Eye in the Sky (2015)
Lurid military propaganda
It's obvious that, like any Hollywood production that puts military hardware on screen, Eye in the Sky's script was not just vetted by the Pentagon's specialist media unit but co-written with it. That is plain from the themes and characters. If you love the idea that the USA uses drones to kill people without the remotest checks or accountability, you'll adore this piece of nonsense. It creates the sick pretence that murdering is wise and not murdering is a form of propaganda. The world would be a better place without this film.
Vigil (2021)
Doesn't even try to be realistic
I didn't get more than part way into the first episode. I wonder if the script was vetted by the Royal Navy? Given the heavy use of RN property, that seems likely, which bodes ill for the realism of the plot.
Would an anti-nuclear campaigner lie in the road on a 60mph road in order to make an unknown driver (she hopes) stop so she can lecture the driver on her cause? I doubt it. Then, when the campaigner has somehow evaded security to wander the base's staff quarters - again, no peace campaigner would do this, mainly on ethical grounds - and is arrested, the subsequent police interview violates the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. The interview room is equipped with a cassette recorder, even though such devices stopped being used in the early 2000s. Interviews are never conducted by a single officer as here; the recording device's use is mandatory, yet here it is ignored. The suspect campaigner states she has been previously arrested yet, strangely, turns down the provision of a solicitor.
I left it here. I suggest you do, too.
Dark Encounter (2019)
Derivative to the point of plagiarism
As other commenters note, there are numerous scenes and shots which are close to being lifted from far better films. CE3K is the most obvious and frequent source: its scenes of Roy Neary in his truck and the abduction of the small boy from his house are recreated without credit being given.
Additionally, there is the question as to why an alien race would take the gigantic trouble to visit Earth merely to solve an old crime which in reality, given the numerous clues, would have been cleared up by the local police shortly after commission. Surely they would have better things to do but, if they did want to involve themselves in human affairs, they'd be more interested in world peace as in The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Captain Marvel (2019)
Blockheaded military propaganda
To quote The Grayzone: "Captain Marvel is a perfect case study for how the United States military uses Hollywood to spread propaganda... As soon as the film opens, it bombards viewers with two hours of non-stop US military propaganda. And it is not even subtle; at the plot's climax, Captain Marvel changes the colors of her suit to match those of the American flag... just the latest and most blatant example of the US military exploiting the film industry to generate support for its agenda". kind.
Scrubs: My New God (2006)
The usual American religious schmaltz
I thought the Scrubs writers had more in them than the religious rubbish in this episode. At the start, atheist Cox is expressing his disgust with the notion of baptising his son. By the end, he has, it seems, no opinion at all about religion - let's not offend the believers, eh? It finishes with everyone happily enjoying the priests indulging in the bizarre ritual. Really, you ought to be ashamed, writers.
The Old Man & the Gun (2018)
Smooth, deceptive distortion of reality
Who would complain about a likeable, friendly bank robber played by Robert Redford at his most twinkly? Well, if you want a performance with true humanity and depth, this is not your film. RR plays a white man, supposedly based on a real, live human being, who has been committing substantial offences since his childhood for no apparent reason other than the pleasure it affords him.
This film portrays him and his fictional colleagues (wasted appearances by Tom Waits and Danny Glover who is shamelessly there too add a black face into what was, apparently, an all-white reality) as scamps, affable rogues who cause not the slightest upset or harm by their offending behaviour. That they cause misery and fear wherever they appear is not dwelt upon. No, they are just having a bit of fun and making money, the American dream.
Of course, we can imagine if someone with darker skin were to commit even one of these offences, he would be seeing the inside of a cell for several decades. In this account, RR's character is eventually caught and goes to the stereotypical white man's country-club prison for, it seems, a few months. Sissy Spacek, who should know better, plays an elderly woman who has met him and instantly turned into a giggly schoolgirl, besotted with this insincere fount of self-centredness. She is apparently so stupid that, after he's released and she welcomes him into her home, she doesn't pick up on either his obvious scoping of a bank to rob nor that, when he tells her he's going out for a while, he might not be popping down to the supermarket to buy her groceries with all the money he stole.
This is, sadly, merely the latest in a long line of Hollywood attempts to pull the wool over our eyes about human nature and our society.
The Wrong House (2009)
Which film is this?
Over on YouTube, there is a film called The Wrong House with the same cover art but with this plot synopsis:
"Two very different families search for the perfect house to call home. When both families show up at a deserted farmhouse, it quickly becomes clear that something is not right. After rescuing Hanna, a lost girl whose tongue has been cut out, they discover that every attempt to leave the farm .
Actors
Marc Singer, Art LaFleur, Hayley DuMond
Director
Eric Hurt"
The Painted Veil (2006)
Clumsy signposting
So far I've not been able to watch more than the first few scenes. Not owing to any gruesome horror, but because I feel I've seen this film many times before. I stopped at the scene in the Chinese theatre. When Liev Schreiber's character tells Watts about the theatrical plot, he is so obviously telling her what she feels about her mistaken marriage, it is the writer and director choosing to verbalise rather than let the characters show through their actions and emotions. Too clumsy and obvious to generate real feelings in me at least.
Rachel Getting Married (2008)
Who would like this film?
I couldn't bear to watch much of this film, even though I'd bought the DVD for 50p. The clichéd, nauseating shaky-cam (this from a director who'd used superb cinematography in Stop Making Sense or Silence of the Lambs); the use of cigarette smoking as a marker of authenticity against health-loving fakeness (that has to stop, it's been used far too often and is not admirable); the self-love of the editor & director manifested by the overlong scenes; the rampant virtue-signalling via strange choices of ethnic diversity in casting... what's not to hate? Perhaps the Julia Roberts class of rom-com has something going for it, after all, but I certainly prefer Woody Allen's less showy approach.