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Dorothy_North
Reviews
Knives Out (2019)
Could've cut it if it were a parody film
The trailer looked intriguing, so I thought - let's go. But half a way through e I was already fast-forwarding some scenes.
The script and plot twists were very unrealistic and amateur. The lines got cheaper and cheesier with every scene, ending up being reduced to some quasi-Disney dogmatic remarks such as "you are a good person, that's why you won". Need I say that the template PC homage was way too in your face.
The characters. Craig was overacting so hard that it really made me wonder whether I am watching a Little Britain-esque whodunnit parody. The accent was no good either - the "aarhhrs" and "eerhrs" sounded as if he'd briskly rehearsed them over a lunchbreak. The rest of cast was pretty good, but then they were all pretty much playing themselves - a Hispanic female, a snug young professional, the senior female of the family. Very relatable and very generic roles.
Now onto the last discrepancy that really sent the movie out of the window. The accents were British, the architecture was British, and yet, the cars (number plates, steering wheel) were European/American, US foreign policy was debated over dinner table. How much lousier could a production possibly be?!
k.
The Plague Dogs (1982)
A one of a kind animated film
Two dogs seize a chance to escape a dreadful animal testing facility, where they have been subject to torturous experimentations. But once the walls of the gruesome research lab are behind, the characters come to realise that the outside world they were so eager reach, offers little food, shelter or protection to them.
Even though the storyline does have ups and down and even some fairly upbeat scenes, the question of whether this is the life worth fighting for hangs in the air throughout the film. Everytime a new obstacle comes in the way of the dogs, the audience is implicitly asked whether now is the time to, at last, surrender to circumstances. But to every hardship the dogs put up a fight. To me, the movie was really about perseverance - perserverane in the face of injustice. The dramatic and unpredictable plot, that deviates from the typical good guys-bad guys dichotomy and gives little hint to the viewer onto what is to come next, will ensure that the film stays in my mind for a time.
The picture must also be credited for an absolutely incredible animation of animals and nature. Typical canine traits, such as growls, sniffing and the movement of paws were depicted extremely accurately. All these small details make sure that the dogs are not just fictional cartoons on the screen, but are two very realistic and relatable characters. The voicing of all roles is very eloquent and expressive, in a right pitch for the film's atmosphere.
A strong and beautifully drawn work, which does not overbear one with sentiments and pity.
The Likely Lads (1976)
Pointless and Disappointing
Recently I've watched both seasons of Whatever Happened to Likely Lads followed by this feature film. Although the antics of Bob and Terry did seem to start losing their edge after the first half of S2 (not unusual for long TV series), overall it was a very enjoyable and a refreshing experience. The movie, however, turned out to be a disappointment.
First, the scenario itself was quite weak - it lacked direction, there was no central storyline and as a result, the film didn't have a build-up and a climax - the two things that made the majority of TV episodes work so well.
Secondly the humour was by and large recycled - the jokes, innuendos and the typical Bob/Thelma tug o' war were all just the twitched versions of various TV scenes. And given the movie goes on for longer than a TV episode, watching the same thing over again, coupled with the absence of a coherent plot, made me feel bored halfway through.
Onto the characters. Brigit Forsyth's Thelma got a bigger part to play in the film than she would've had in a typical TV episode. But given that in the show the character was (deliberately) kept one-dimensional, being "your stereotypical suburban wife", the enhancement of her role in the movie just made the scenes more dull and cliched. James Bolam's character, on the other hand, for some reason seemed to have lost a lot of the natural wit and charm that in the past would stir up the setting and enthrall in the viewer. Here we see Terry being somewhat lost both in his love life, as well as in his housing estate.
The film also portrays a great deal of philosophical midlife-crisis-dialogues between the main characters, (reckoning in places where the pub banter would have normally been instead). As for me those scenes not only fail to blend in with the usual light-hearted manner of Bob and Terry's adventures, but also, they contributed little to the storyline, if not distracted from it. Perhaps it was just unexpected, (and hence, quite odd), to observe the "lads" from this angle, not least because the characters have never been developed in that direction in the first place.
Overall, the film felt like an enmeshment of several of the less successful TV episodes and didn't add anything new to the story and the relationship of Bob and Terry as we know it.