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Reviews
The Little Mermaid (2023)
Meh
I saw this at an early screening. It is an enjoyable enough film, but not worth the hype. However, Halle Bailey is totally amazing and a born star. She lights up the screen every time she features. Melissa McCarthy as Ursula is also good and suitable scary but with just the perfect amount of humour. And speaking of humour Sebastian is great. Flounder however is pointless and a waste of time- he didn't add anything to the story. Ariel and Eric have fantastic chemistry but I do think Eric as a character fell short with Jonah Hauer-King being a bit bland. Javier Bardem was a massive disappointment in this an was completely wooden- I don't think his script helped with this.
In terms of the film as a whole, the first 20 minutes or so we're a massive slog and I was bored but once the film got going it was ok. The original songs are good and Halle's voice suits hers perfectly. Scuttlebut was a total cringe.
All in all, I was just expecting something more due to the hype. I actually preferred Peter Pan and Wendy, which I had seen no publicity for.
Rise (2022)
Enjoyable but flawed
This was a v enjoyable if somewhat clichéd sports movie. Good performances from all the main actors. However, the fact that the younger siblings did not seem to age/grow over the film made the whole thing extremely unbelievable. For example, the NBA draft was in 2013 and Kostas and Alex looked exactly the same as they did more than '5 years' earlier.