Reviews

I can see the desire to make Season 4 bigger than what has come before, the series really needed something like this in order to stop repeating itself.

The production is epic in every sense, really impressive work, visually Season 4 is a major accomplishment.

There's also a good story in there, it's just a shame that everything felt drawn out and laboured. The issue probably stems from there being so many characters, each needing something to do, so we have a constant jumping between stories which becomes jarring. Any pacing is ruined by then jumping to something else entirely for a good portion of time before coming back to one of the other groups of characters.

Things get there by the last 3 episodes but even then the finale feels laboured and drawn out with so many slow motion emotional moments at the very end coming off as overblown.

I hope I don't come off as too harsh, but for me, as a whole this was disappointing, purely because, it had all the elements in place to be so much better if only it was tightened up.

There's some fantastic performances in there, every actor knocks it out of the park so it is a real shame that it wasn't paced better, at times it felt like hard work to get through it all.

I'd prefer to see Season 5 as a movie rather than a TV series, as I fear the next series will also suffer from the same issues that have plagued this one.

I guess we'll have to wait and see on that. A tighter re-edit of this Season may go someway to improving it but would prove difficult I imagine because of all the characters that need to be shoehorned in.

Stranger Things used to be a perfectly crafted series, the first season is evidence of that but it now feels that it's outstaying its welcome with an overlong and excessive ending.

Firstly, I liked the pacing of this film and honestly it didn't feel like a nearly 3 hour film, I found it very engaging, well shot and well acted with a clever storyline that had a lot to say.

If you're a fan of film you're going to appreciate this, it's the first work of S. Craig Zahler that I've seen and he's quite a talent. If you enjoy the works of directors like David Lynch (particularly the more recent Twin Peaks episodes) , Jim Jarmusch or Takeshi Kitano, I think think you'd like this film.

If you go in not expecting an action-packed rollercoaster (like it appears some reviewers here did) and anticipate a very well made, thoughtful, character driven story with a clinical style then you should have a good time with this.

It also has plenty of humour, it's certainly not as dry and miserable as some reviewers have it made out to be. It's a fairly dark humour that's present here but it actually made me chuckle to myself a few times, the way it's intended to do.

Bear in mind though, in places, it's very violent and the extreme nature of the violence in a quiet film such as this gives it plenty of impact, reminiscent of Takeshi Kitano films but more visceral. I thought it was very effective, although not for the squeamish.

Hopefully this review will go someway to persuade those who are put off the 1-star reviews to give it a go or convince those to give it a miss if it sounds like it's not for them, rather than just saying it's boring...it's not, at least in my opinion.

The whole will they or won't they get together storyline gets old pretty quick, I found it all rather frustrating, didn't warm to the characters and most disappointingly, I didn't find it very funny.

It's very well made however with solid performances and a great soundtrack.

Err, ok, so this is supposed to be trashy fun, I get it, however it's hard to care about anything that's happening on screen.

Deathstalker himself is unlikeable and the characters as a whole have no real development, so much so they can hardly be called characters.

It starts out as being mildly entertaining and throws together something that resembles a plot but goes nowhere as the film throws up a sequence of increasingly perculier scenes, and while the bit in the cave with the puppet is strangely charming it's all pretty much downhill from there.

There's some weird stuff in here, the cannibal pigman, the mud wrestling, not to mention the male to female transformation sequence, it's just a series of nonsensical events that culminate in a load of boring fight scenes as the film gives up trying to tell any kind of story.

Some scenes are worth experiencing in isolation for their hilarity and sheer weirdness, perhaps as YouTube clips, but do yourself a favour and avoid watching this in its entirety as it is, in a word, Rubbish.

I've just finished watching Dracula and honestly I though it was a clever and fresh take on the character with a very effective ending. It's packed full of great ideas that culminate in the final episode, which, after reading the comments here I'm surprised to find that people found disappointing, my experience was quite different. If there is an episode that's slightly weaker than the rest it's probably the second as I didn't find it quite as engaging as the first and last. Well done to everyone involved, a classic story, fabulously re-told.

This has to be one of the most finely crafted TV series I have ever seen. Funny but also very poignant. Toby Jones is excellent, as is the entire cast. Every character is well developed and interesting. A special mention has to go to the cinematography, which is routinely excellent. I think the previous reviewer would be wise to go back and give this another chance...

The problem with this film is that it is not funny or original, where as the film which this is based on is both these things.

The best things about the film are it's design, action and special effects and the diligent performances of the cast, it's unfortunate that they have such a poor story and dialogue to contend with.

It's obvious to see that there was plenty of improvisation going on here, especially after watching the out-takes, it's just a shame that the jokes are so poor. Not everyone can improvise as well as Bill Murray. This film was really starting off on the wrong foot by attempting to compete with the original.

My mum and dad watched this with me, my mum's comments were that it should have been a 'new' take on Ghostbusters, there were too many throwbacks to the original story and situations. And simply, some parts just weren't very good.

My dad's thoughts were, 'is this supposed to be funny?'

Strangely though, there's one moment in this film that is undeniably cool and that's when Holtzmann unleashes those proton whips and the old theme tune plays.

Otherwise this is very light on entertainment, save for the pretty colours and executions of the scenes that actually have ghosts in them.