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Reviews
Black Sea (2014)
Unaccepatable cultural appropriation
The main actor, Jude Law - as English as they come (perhaps not quite authentically English as a Northern Englander like me - but we can argue that point another day) - and here he is playing a Scot! What on earth is going on with Hollywood and in society at large when actors can portray people who don't look or sound like them? This is cultural appropos or something like that - what I mean is as much as we shouldn't have the comedian Alan Carr playing Nelson Mandela then we shouldn't have English actors playing Scots. Are we all agreed? - MLK said we should all be treated equally but really we should all stay in our segregated lanes and play the parts that fit our identity (good luck to you then Trans people - who will get one role per decade).
Bank of Dave (2023)
Amusing but biased
This film is very watchable and amusing. As with so many cheap British films it's spoiled by its juvenile left-wing bias that's become utterly tiresome. "Evil Bankers, Evil Right wing white people". I won't include "Evil Southerners" even though I'm a Northerner myself. I was impressed by the Lancashire accents being adhered to instead of the usual film makers' lazy fallback of using any northern accent (I'm a Yorkshireman myself). Please can British film makers produce a film without some political message so that my naive partner (she has been indoctrinated into the Saturday night rubbish TV way of life) and I (a victim of Cancel Culture) don't keep fallling out while watching these films which usually include an attempt to bend minds to a particular viewpoint.
Mary Queen of Scots (2018)
Ruined by wokeness - yet again
Yet another film ruined by wokeness. It even implied that Elizabeth was a Trans Man. There was even a reference to something unpleasant related to the "love" scene that itself was completely prurient and uneeded. The annoying thing about the laxness of authenticity is that it only works one way. The one thing I did like was the lovely scenery - no twisting that to rewrite history. I'm not sure that it was a good idea to start the film off showing the execution of Mary as there are some people around who won't know the story and this would have spoiled the film for them. I look forward to Alan Carr playing Nelson Mandela.
Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)
Jeff Bridges must have been desperate. A failed Fillm Noir.
It started out as a gripping film noir but descended into a trippy, hard-to-believe, sham. Extremely disappointing given the thrilling start. It tried to inject drama by continually playing the "let's go back in time" stunt. Lesson for those involved - just watch "A Simple Plan" - that's how to do a modern Film Noir.
Your Honor (2020)
Spoiled by wokeness
The writer crowbarred in wokeness - which jarred. I want to watch something without being preached at.
To Walk Invisible (2016)
Brilliant
Absorbing and with authentic Yorkshire vernacular in parts.
Each sister was given their own character: Anne seemed to be the placid one,Charlotte was a feisty little firecracker while Emily was emotional and quick to temper. I admired all three characters.
I believe the rock outcrop on the moors where Emily stood in the film is Ponden Kirk near Haworth - this is a pre-Christian holy place and in Victorian times was where young couples would crawl through a hole in the base - this would mean they would be wed within a year. A fitting place to film on the moors which provided such inspiration to them.
A welcome and unique addition to dramas about the Bronte sisters who provided some of the finest writing in the English language.
La Coupe De La Gloire: The Official Film of the 1998 FIFA World Cup (1998)
wooden commentary
All these type of videos would be 10 out of 10 but this is ruined by Sean Bean's wooden commentary.
The game is given away early doors by his pronunciating the word move - as in move somewhere - as mowve - as when you mow the lawn. This clearly gives the game away that he's reading from a script and not watching the footage - inexcusable for a professional actor/voice-over actor but doubly inexcusable for someone who professes to be a football (soccer) fan.
I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the meeting to agree Sean Bean putting commentary to this - let's have a wooden, emotionless voice-over by someone who can't even be bothered to match the script to the footage.