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The Salvation (2014)
Clichéd plot with jarring low-budget visuals
I was looking forward to seeing a danish take on the western genre, turned out to be an uninspired and poorly executed film. What a waste of good talent, especially Mads Mikkelsen.
The only thing different about The Salvation is some light danish dialogue, everything plot related has not only been done before but it has done better.
Some scenes look gorgeous but like the plot the visuals only get worse as the movie goes on. The quick cuts between real and fake smoke and fire is very jarring especially when it goes on for so long. The gun and blood effects aren't top notch either but unlike the CGI they're not completely unbelievable.
Calvary (2014)
Calvary is an empty movie with no character development
I'm absolutely baffled as to why this movie is getting such high praise, so many talented actors wasted thanks in part to the poor/non-existent character development. Because of this don't get to excited when you recognize a face from your favorite TV show in here.
The writing isn't good either and the story isn't really believable or all that interesting sadly, the only depth seen here would be credited to you for reading to much into it.
At least Gleeson is great as always and the scenes between him and Kelly Reilly are actually good and interesting, the only other nice thing I can say about this movie is that it's shot rather nicely. Despite some reviewers claiming otherwise make no mistake, Calvary is a drama. Not a laugh or smile to be had. I love movies like In Bruges and The Guard but this is just dark, I like those as well when done right but Calvary wasn't.
Derek (2012)
The Lack Of Pilkington Makes The Show Boring
I'll try and keep this short, I really enjoyed the first series of Derek, Gervais walks a fine line with the character but you can see it's a genuine heartfelt portrayal. There's a good balance between Kev, Derek, and Dougie aka Karl Pilkington. This kept things interesting and entertaining. Season 1 gets a 8/10 from me, I recommend giving it a watch.
Season 2 starts off with the whole Gang intact but after the first episode Dougie is gone and the balance never returns, this show just lost my interest and wasn't as entertaining without Karl Pilkington. 6/10 i'd recommend skipping season 2 and will skip series 3 myself if Dougie doesn't return.
Man of Steel (2013)
Interesting take but egregious product placement
The first 20 minutes of Man Of Steel is very good, it was nice to see more of Krypton, the casting of Russel Crow and Michael Shannon was a good fit and they didn't disappoint. I thought Henry Cavill was very vanilla but serviceable as Superman. There are many familiar faces in the supporting roles some of them good some not so much but nothing to ugly performance wise.
I'm not a reader of the comics so I have very little idea what they stayed true to until I looked up reviews for this movie, they said they were going to take Superman in a different direction and it seems they didn't stay very true to the comics in doing so, I can sympathize with the negative reviewers who had problems with aspect. The story didn't come off that bad but I can see how it would if I wasn't ignorant of Superman's history.
The Ugly part of this movie is the egregious product placement that takes place throughout the film, so many name drops and shots dedicated to showing off a product. The one fight scene in Smallville is just one big Sears, 7-11, and Ihop ad sequence. They are so prominently featured, every logo treated with the up most care, it looks so out of place and it popped me right out of the film. Apparently they had 160 million dollars in product placement alone, unreal. Unacceptable.
Then we have the Wilhelm scream when a guy falls out the back of a plane... that's not getting old at all, did you you know that's a secret inside joke that only hardcore film buffs notice?! /s it hasn't been that for a long long time and they still keep putting it in movies.
And a heads up about the special features on the DVD/Blu-ray, they put in a segment for The Hobbit, surely he means trailer, no I do not. It's a full on featurette about them filming in New Zealand that is found on The Hobbit DVD and Blu-ray, it has no business being on the Man Of Steel DVD/Blu-ray but the studio decided to put it there to cross promote their film, the product placement never stops over at Warner Brothers. When I'm looking for special features on a DVD I don't want to watch one from a completely unrelated film, maybe that's weird now I don't know anymore.