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richy_payne
Reviews
The Marvels (2023)
Weak plot, pandering themes and amateurish direction
This was a real struggle to get through, even at its relatively short run time for recent Marvel films.
The tone is all over the place. I'm not sure what the Director was going for but it's quite disorienting.
It feels like this film was somewhat butchered in the edit suite and perhaps there were re-shoots as it doesn't hang together coherently at all.
Brie Larson is incapable of having chemistry with others, which we already know. The girl playing Ms Marvel was by far the most endearing.
The Rambo character is a just a whole load of nothing and her acting for the post credit scene was embarrassing. I heard sniggers when they were clearly going for an emotional moment.
I'd save your money if I were you.
Wish I had.
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023)
Not his best work
This was enjoyable enough but it's not his best work by a long way.
The tired cliched 'girl boss' character didn't work. She didn't have any funny lines and her character was one dimension (as they say often are in modern movies) and was written in a way where she could only look good at the expense of one of the male characters, or had to vocalise how great she was instead of just showing us.
Very juvenile and annoying stuff.
Overall the dialogue lacked punch and I'd prefer a little more substance over style myself.
Glossy presentation in expensive settings isn't a substitute for relatable characters and solid writing.
Oh and there was too much vocalising the plot, the next challenge or flashbacks to previous plot points. We don't need everything explaining to us or reminding of plot points.
Save that for reality shows.
All in all, watchable and forgettable.
The Strays (2023)
Amateur hour social commentary
You can imagine how this one got made.
A failing actor manages to secure funding for a film because it ticks the right boxes.
He's never directed before, but let's be equitable hey. It's not like Netflix are losing customers!
So then they try to make a film which is a clever social commentary about black social mobility in the uk and how you have to adopt whiteness to achieve it - and the psychological effect that can have you on.
Not only is this theory, of course, very limiting to anyone who takes it on board but it's also very questionable.
Regardless of this, the film itself has to be good for the theory to land.
And it's not.
It's poorly written - people simply don't behave like this - and the actors are on a hiding to nothing.
In short, it's painful to watch.
Netflix - leave the social commentary to undergraduates studying race theory and try to entertain people instead.
You might stop haemorrhaging subscribers. Just a thought.
Elvis (2022)
Dreadful and factually inaccurate fever dream
A very disrespectful film to Elvis's memory.
Highly politicised. Basically keeps implying that Elvis stole his music off coloured musicians rather than being influenced by them but very talented in his own right.
The constant cutting from one scene to another was agonising.
You learn nothing about Elvis. The story is wafer thin, as are the characters.
You don't hear half his songs. And none are the originals.
I don't know how you can make a film about one of the greatest entertainers ever so truly awful - what the hell were they smoking?
This film drove me mad. I had to turn it off.
Self indulgent agenda ridden nonsense. Avoid.
The Pogmentary (2022)
Brand over substance
Sadly this is just what I'd expect from Pogba.
A thin facade barely hiding his insane selfishness, passive aggressive personality and obsession with his personal brand.
How can a player who's contributed so little to any collective efforts, including his national team, get so much attention?
All hype.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
Perhaps good for kids
Found it very predictable and cliched.
Writing was weak and I felt like I was still waiting for something mildly interesting to happen after an hour.
A pointless enterprise except to make money.
Archive 81 (2022)
I couldn't past the wooden lead actor
I was looking forward to this but had to turn it off due to the bizarre lead's performance.
If he wasn't mumbling his lines, he was just staring blankly at people during lines of dialogues where a response was the next natural expectation.
I understand that his character is somewhat reclusive and evidently depressing prone but his performance was so clumsy and stilted that he came across as somebody never actually 'in' the role but always in his head trying to work out how he should now react to a new line or stimuli.
I can't sit through a whole series of that, sorry Netflix. Your casting failed here.
The Babadook (2014)
Seriously over-hyped
Personality, I couldn't finish this film as the child was simply too irritating, and the neurotic mother was just as bad.
Don't understand why it's highly rated. The one first half of the film goes nowhere except the 2 main characters becoming increasingly hard to watch.
The Old Ways (2020)
Devoid of any merit
I watch a lot of horror films, and this was dreadful. Be prepared for zero character development, a wafer thin plot and nothing of substance happening.
Back to Life (2019)
Facile and ridiculous characters, poorly written and insulting to intelligence
Deals badly with some serious subjects while managing to hold zero integrity nor get a laugh.
The characters are weak and their 'stories' rely on the very common and lazy plot mechanism of NEVER saying what they mean or simply telling the truth.
The main character could just say 'it was an accident' in every episode but never does.
It's just all over the place.
It feels like it had multiple writers with wildly different ideas of what this show should be and it ends up being a complete mess.
I started panicking that it might be more 6 episodes at one point while we laboured through this.
Yet another waste of time from the Beeb. Why do they insist on botching together these comedies which rely almost solely on all the main characters being idiotic while dressed up on misguided notions of political correctness?
Patronising and insulting nonsense.
Avoid like the plague. The ratings shock me.
Polar (2019)
Purile ugly drivel
Imagine Quentine Tarantino was labotomised and made a movie. That.
