Change Your Image
jmcnulty-1
Reviews
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
Did I watch a different movie?
I'm looking at the reviews here and there are pages and pages showing 9's and 10's. Did I watch a different movie? The biggest plot hole starts with James T. Kirk! Why would anyone trust a Starship to a petulant, spoiled, childish, immature, brat of a man who turns to alcohol at the first bump in the road and who constantly endangers the life of his crew and the entire ship? We are supposed to believe that the Admiral sees some redeeming qualities in this roguish pompous dolt...but we never quite know what it is. Kirk is portrayed as a gambler and a chancer, who makes more mistakes than the lowest midshipman, which is about the level of his ability, not really someone you'd want to save the World exactly! The supporting cast are more comic relief than believable characters.
I like my sci-fi to have some sense of real possibility at least and not total fantasy. For that I'd watch Harry Potter.
The Amazing Grace (2006)
Opportunity lost
Oh dear! Why do they do it? Why do they change history when history is already a dramatic and awful story? The movie falls into the usual trap of trying to be politically correct and a good example is the scene showing peaceful Africans apparently attending the village fête with song contests and wrestling and happy go lucky natives dancing and having fun...before being pillaged and kidnapped and murdered by evil white men on a slaving raid. Unfortunately this has little, if anything, to do with reality and common sense! The implicit racism presumes that white men were more intelligent and cunning and could survive better in this unfamiliar land than the childlike natives who were born there! Absolute nonsense! The slave coast was densely populated with warlike tribes who were well armed (admittedly with European guns) and who spent much of their time raiding and pillaging and enslaving each other. We know as historical fact that most slave ships trading on the coast consisted of crews of less than 30 seamen many of whom quickly became ill and were likely to die of disease if they spent any length of time in one of the unhealthiest climates on the planet which was totally alien to them! The ugly reality of history is that the vast majority of slaves that left the coast were bought from Africans who willingly sold them! The true evil of the slave trade is that white Europeans created the demand that ensured the largest diaspora and ultimately, murder of peoples in history, and it disrupted and destroyed almost the entire African continent. The effects of the evil trade are still being felt in Africa today. If you're going to spend money making a movie about an historical figure who certainly had an interesting and moving story...at least tell it honestly, show the ugly face of slavery, whether by black or white people, and stop perpetuating myths taught at school to kindergärtners!
Shaka Zulu (1986)
It's both awful...and excellent!
To begin with, the entire first episode should be ignored! It is so laughable terrible that you can't imagine that it was written and filmed by anyone who knew anything about film making. Truly AWFUL wooden script combined with wooden acting and the soundtrack that was surely lifted from a bad Bert Bacharach L.P., although I suspect that I'm insulting Bert. I watched it in amused awe at the waste of film and beautiful scenery.
I watched the second episode so I could boast that I had suffered and sat through, the most awful drivel of a movie, but was amazed as the story finally turned from the European perspective to the story of the rise of Shaka Zulu.
It was the feeling of authenticity of the filming that dumbfounded me. It is so rare that a movie set in Africa captures (as I imagine) the sense of raw, brutal and naked power without flinching. It seems very, very real and I have to presume that it works so well because it is using the natural talent of real people who aren't acting. The movie almost becomes documentary at times and you realize that you are watching a believable movie based on a true story.
Having said that, there is something slightly schizophrenic about the movie making which makes it one of the most bizarre movies I have ever reviewed but it deserves an eight because of the location filming with people who obviously believe and understand their own proud history.
Bramwell (1995)
Very engaging
I had never heard of this series but since it was available on Netflix streaming I gave it a go.
What a pleasant surprise! It engaged me immediately and I found myself sitting through all night marathons to catch up with the story.
What the show does best is not to be cliché. The characters portrayed are not perfect human beings and have faults which makes the storyline nicely unpredictable with a few twists and turns that I found quite emotional at times.
It's very well acted throughout and Jemma Redgrave is outstanding and perfectly believable as a late Victorian doctor working in the slums of London and all the supporting cast do a fine job.
I have to add an addendum to this review since I hadn't seen the entire series when I wrote it.
The show is very good, but somehow it comes off the rails at the end of the line! Talk about a train crash!It's as though the show was canceled at the last minute so they hurried up the plot to wrap up two years into two episodes. Who knows, but all the characters are out of sync as is the plot with main characters disappearing never to be heard from again, and others appearing from no-where to take the lead. And the music get's surreal at times with no connection to the plot... at all. Quite a mystery and quite strange.
I had to remove two stars for the above reason.
Shutter Island (2010)
What was he thinking??
The movie starts out really nicely as you settle down into your seat. Two great actors in a very nicely set period piece, beautiful lighting, great supporting cast...this is going to be good you think to yourself and you almost hug yourself in anticipation. But, things quickly start to go wrong. Thirty minutes into it...that doesn't make sense...hold on...surely he's not trying to...but that's been done before...there must be a twist...it's coming...any minute...any minute now. Then it slowly dawns on you that it's not coming because there is no double-double bluff...he's actually trying to sell a story that's been done so many times before but better...Twelve Monkey's...the audience is restless because they've got it too and they're waiting...waiting in vain! My head is in my hands...What a waste of talent and what a waste of time!