Film Reviews by JD

Watching this is it never felt as bad as it had been made out to be.

Its generally a harmless, formulaic comic book flic. However, the very first second you think about it you realise this is one empty, dull, bland and utterly pointless movie.

As some point out, modern movies from big studios or streamers are very much there for consumption. You consume, move onto the next. Consume, move on. etc etc. Its all about volume, the more they push out, the more there is for us to consume. Low quality, high volume.

On the bright side this film doesnt really push any messaging to aggravate the viewer which is a nice change. But by the same token it fails to push any sort of a plot or meaningful experience either.

Id never heard of this guy (yes, im an uncultured neanderthal) but of course you only need to mention this is the guy who came up with the score for those westerns and my interest was peaked. I can think of no films which are so fondly remembered - simply for the score.

It also seems that Ennio was almost oblivious to his abilities. Scenes with him show his clear love for his craft (which seems he didnt really have for working in cinema through most of his career)

He seems extremely humble and lacked the arrogance you get from such incredibly capable people. It takes those around him to clarify how good both he and his work was. Most of the films he worked on were 'niche' to say the least. However as his career spanned such a period we still get to enjoy his work in some modern films

Well worth watching as even if youve never heard of Ennio, its extremely unlikely you haven't enjoyed his work on more than one occasion.

Its shame guys like this dont live for ever. Luckily, his work almost certainly will.

Sadly this super low budget film easily makes my 'one of the worst films i have ever seen' list.

The acting is truly terrible. We are talking sub syfy special here. The lack of acting ability is exaggerated by the terrible screenplay and directing.

Most of the film is close up of actor A while they speak. Then Snap to actor B for response. Snap to actor C for there close up. Over and over again.

There are times when Actor B will respond to Actor A before Actor A has finished there last word!

We also have some confusing casting which given there is no context has you wondering if this is trying to be historically accurate or just going for some 'reflect the modern world' Which also seems to impact how the film ends.

And the monsters, yeh..... lets not go there.

This film could of worked. It has the setting, it has the plot. A low budget is no excuse for making such utter garbage.

Ill admit, there is something oddly watchable about this film. I guess it throws enough questions to keep you thinking.

Actually, no, thinking on it we spent more time laughing at how daft it was. It starts off with the awful explosion effects, then runs into a flimsy plot who's subject matter, hacking and explosives are clearly something the writer, director etc do not know the slightest thing about. Of course if theyd hired an expert it would of meant back to the drawing board with the story and screenplay.

A really bad film thats lucky i gave it 2 stars. But if your super bored and fancy a laugh.....

Probably more a 3.5 out of 5 than a 4, but rounding up as this is a thoroughly enjoyable film.

Its full of humour, and refreshingly a lot of it would see this film banned today. Arnies character is for the most part playing it straight which as my GF pointed out at the end seemed like some political undertones - the film is about our heros stopping the nasty middle eastern terrorists. However, the terrorists reason is 'to stop the bombing of there women and children' and i dont believe the terrorists kill a single person in the whole film - where Arnie leaves nothing but destruction behind!

Its all convincingly played and being a cameron job the visuals hold up well today. The Harrier scenes are for the most part utterly fantastic and in typical Cameron style its all done with enough detail to keep even a plane nerd like me failing to find much fault.

The cast is great to.

This might not be Camerons best work by a long way, but is better than most similar modern films of the type.

Ive not watched a marvel film or series since endgame as it all looks and sounds really bad. Apart from the brilliant spiderman of course, which was exceptionally good.

But thought we'd give this a go... its got the great Sam Raimi directing it so surely it cant be 'bad'?

Well it is. Its spectacular and no doubt Raimi's direction earns it that third star ive given. But the rest of the film is really disappointing.

The cgi is clearly cgi. It seems there is little effort to hide it, maybe because its the 'multiverse' they assumed they could get away with being lazy on the VFX.

Id say most of the acting wasnt great and the worst part was strange himself.

Dr Strange is one of the most powerful and wisest heros and with his power came great responsibility. However in this he is just a simple fool, bumbling from one fight to another. He is constantly being told what to do by other characters, every version of himself is bad, easily corrupted, stupid etc which even extends to our universe version. Ultimatly he's just a prop for wanda and america(?).

And we have Wanda. yeh, cast a tear and it doesnt matter the suffering you have caused. Its a bit of a silly character and i didnt find her acting particularly convincing.

And at the end where are we? What actually happened after all that? If i had to say what this film was about and where it leads it can only be the girl who is the key to everything. As for Dr Strange, it appears he's not really the guy we spent the last god knows how many years learning about.

Given the divisive and extremely poor 'new trek' it was looking like star trek as we know it was dead.

But no, Seth has shown us you can still make great trek. It might not be called startrek, but Seths passion for this classic scifi is clear.

It has all the things that made proper star trek so great. Including the welcome return of stories, characters, situations that arent simply sombodies opinion or messages but offering up genuine moral dilemas or clearly stating there are 2 sides to every argument. At the very least this is as good as any proper star trek (of course you cant replace shatner or beat 'the best of both worlds') and makes the recent efforts to modernise star trek by paramount on both film and streaming look horribly out of touch.

The Orville, although i believe this touch was forced by the studio, also has its own touch of brilliance. And thats the humour. Its sprinkled in light touches so as not to turn the program into a farce, but at times is incredibly funny. Often Jokes will be more for the sci fi fans but are superbly well integrated into what are almost always very serious stories.

cmon CP, get the other seasons!

There are very, very few films that can claim to be better today than they were the day they were launched.

The only flaws i have for this film is some of the special effects - some are ok, but most look bad even for the 80's and the film is perhaps a bit to sharp and trim. Its a brilliant film and i wouldnt of minded a little more runtime.

On this disc you only need to slot it into your machine to be witness of this films greatness. There is no noisy menu running through bits of the film. Just the logo and the timeless theme song. Its special and not a frame of film has yet rolled.

The cast are brilliant, as youd expect from the names in this. Even the supporting characters are excellent.

So back to my first statement, how can a film be better 30 years on? gb2016 has that honour. It showed us all how under appreciated fantastic films like this were. By failing so miserably to re-invent ghostbusters it forced home how how good the original was.

I might not of given this 5 stars (that honour is saved for the likes of Carpenter or Cameron) but it is a fantastic film that that my Son, girlfriend and myself all thoroughly enjoyed.

Entertainment value here is near zero.

Its nicely made, looks good and so on but its so incredibly dull.

We turned it off after 30mins

Which really does put it in a very small pile at the bottom of my film ratings.

This is the sort of film my Girlfriend watches with our daughter a lot.

Those are usually naff affairs, but this one has been spiced up with a talented director. Its is however tedious. 90minutes are quite literally spent going over the same thing again and again and again. And Its not long before certain viewers will feel the film is telling them they must do better.....

I have nothing against the story, but why bookend it with such meticulously violent chapters? And make it so, so long when the story could be told just as effectively in 30minutes?

Its 2 stars from me, but my GF said it was really good so ill give it 3

Also, did the french really do things like run horses across rivers into spear Infantry waiting on the opposite bank? Might explain why they didnt win much...!

All the way through this film i couldnt help but feel 'it could of been good'

But for the most part it was just ruined by what i can only call childish ideas of what a film should be like.

The biggest stand out issue i had with it was twice it turned pretty horrible characters into a hero. One was the cobra woman and the other our main protagonist. Both played through the film as outright villains. Yet at the end were celebrated hero's for being evil people. Uh???

It goes without saying the film makes no attempt to make any sense or any attempt to be any good.

Sadly its just naff, really naff.

Maybe one day we will see some talented writers and directors pick things like this back up and do it properly.

I usually enjoy watching N.Cage. But this was pushing it. The film is just weird and doesnt do anything to make the weird feel justified.

Infact take Cage out of it and your probably looking at one of the worst films ever made.

This is a quality war film.

It avoids taking sides and the professional soldiers act like professional soldiers.

The banter is entertaining and while all the guys look the same, it makes sure to build several characters. One going from someone you wouldnt trust with your cat to a hero.

My Girlfriend pointed out it was a bit miserable. Which it is, like blackhawk down things just keep getting worse.

But its well written, the action is sound and importantly, like blackhawk down it goes to show how stupid ideas can cause such tragic loss of life. But on the flip side it brings out the best in men as they rise to the threat.

If you like your war films realistic and gritty then this is well worth a watch.

And yes my title is a shared line in the film. Its brilliantly delivered.

This is one glorious film.

It looks stunning. Infact i think you could give this film 5 stars if there was no sound!

The cast is made up of big names and everyone is excellent. There is no turning up just for the pay cheque going on here thats for sure.

Ive never read the books, but i think this is a combination of faithful and skilfully adapted. It sure is a joy to watch

I always hark on about how they dont make films like they used to. Well in the hands of Denis Villeneuve it appears they still can.

Its not perfect, a couple of things that got me was a lack of world building and the ending was literally like they had a 5 hour film and just scissored half way! But they are minor complaints.

Lets hope this film makes loads of ££ so we can get more like it. And i cant wait for Ep2

Space monsters landing on earth and the military (solely the US it seems) sent to fight them.

Its been tried many times and usually fails, but let give it another spin shall we.

I suppose one thing this film does is not go down the usual sci-fi action route but rather a more anti american anti war drama.

I get the daft inexperienced soldiers. Up for anything, but quickly collapse under pressure (a play on what happened to many unfortunate US servicemen in Vietnam?) The more experienced senior officer is more robust, but slowly breaks down. Again, this sounds like something from Vietnam. Unfortunately we are not shown or have any idea why this toughened old hand does break down. He just does. Maybe its easier to see him as a villain if we dont know everything he has gone through.

The monsters are a side event in there own film. Just there. Again, like the us soldiers there is a clear point to there position in the film but it has no depth, story or purpose except for the director to have his say on... something.

And the locals, we see both sides. The nut jobs and the poor civilians. Yeh, we know - and the point is?

This is more of a commentary on things than any meaningful sci-fi.

like the original monsters, this promises way more than it ever intends to deliver. Its more a film for critics to use big words to explain the deep meaning of rather than hold any entertainment value.