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Reviews
Saltburn (2023)
A mediocre film build from the pieces of something much better
Many of the parts of this film are impressive. Fragments of masterpiece. They just don't quite assemble in a way that works. And some of the story choices, especially later, felt lazy.
The dialogue is often witty and develops characters in entertaining ways, though is perhaps a little prone to relying on stereotypes to carry the characterisations.
And the film seems the lean a bit too heavily on weird for the sake of weird. Which must be more than just Barry Keoghan's quirkiness on set being kept in the film. There is definitely some footage that doesn't seem to contribute to the film but is just used because they had filmed it and it would make good memes.
The Witcher: Blood Origin (2022)
Not near as bad as the reviews suggest
It is fine. The only real problem is that it has story enough for two or three times as many episodes so everything is rushed.
Oh, and some of the effects are a bit cheaper looking than one would expect from a Netflix budget.
Michelle Yeoh is a bit good for this and her acting shows up her cast mates a little. But on the whole the cast is fairly good and none of the main characters are actively badly performed.
Which some more space to develop the characters, and thus have meaningful character development, this might have been good. It has hints and promise and The Witcher setting has plenty of fun things they could have worked with. It really just needed more time.
Still, fun enough to watch. Was fairly enjoyable until I made the mistake of thinking about what I had watched.
My Fake Boyfriend (2022)
Problematic
Deception is rewarded and everything else in this film is vaguely incoherent and incomprehensible. At times the characters come across as if the screenwriter had never met a human.
Cast diversity is nice for pride month, just wish the film was better.
Joe vs Carole (2022)
Unnecessary
It is pretty well done, but doesn't add anything to the documentary series (except for a more sympathetic read on Carole).
So yeah... it is good but there is no reason for it to exist.
The Green Knight (2021)
I may be too close to the text
Have focused on this text for much of my postgraduate study, I found this adaptation to be bordering on "in name only".
While beautiful to look at, it is just a mess that misuses what few bits if they text it actually uses.
Though I do give it props for not shying away from Gawain repaying the kiss owed to Bertilak. Though considering the previous scene, that was not what really needed repaid.
Overall, just watch the 2002 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It is better. And only 25 minutes.
Rim of the World (2019)
Lazy and just not fun or funny
Walking stereotypes fail to act like people while in a simple adventure story where nothing makes narrative sense.
Complete with very dated monster effects.
Game Over, Man! (2018)
Bad but "good"
It is so terrible as to be hugely enjoyable.
Watch it because you hate yourself and be left feeling slightly better about the world.
Steel (2015)
Kind of terrible
I came in to this expected a run-of-the-mill bad homo film, but this was so painful to watch I had to dig up my decade lost IMDb login details to warn people off it.
The story is a bit flat and corny, the dialogue is cheesy and the score is so far over-the-top as to be jarring.
Basically, for a homo film you'd almost be better just watching porn....
The cast does okay with the material but, really, you would be better off watching pretty much anything else.
Unless you are very in to stories about people going mad, or just really, really, really want to see Chad Connell naked. These are the two thing this films has to offer.