Film Reviews by HM

Welcome to HM's film reviews page. HM has written 233 reviews and rated 246 films.

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Batman: The Long Halloween: Part 2

Let down

(Edit) 19/10/2021

Part one got some momentum up but it all thins out in a routine punch up conclusion and yet another version of how Two Face originated. Dissapointing and let part one down.

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Infinitum: Subject Unknown

Intriguing

(Edit) 12/10/2021

A Covid era film. The story follows a female in a time loop. She is caught in an experiment involving another dimension. She tries to get to the bottom of it as she has no knowledge of what is going on. Desperate to locate the scientific establishment that seems to be responsible for her plight she makes progress each time she returns to the scene of her detention in an abandoned house tied to a chair.

OK it is a low or no budget SF thriller. It kept me interested despite the murkey plot. One of the better 'not many people' Covi era films. Doesn't set the world on fire frankly.

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Ghost Stories

Daft

(Edit) 12/10/2021

Things go bump in the night. 'It's behind you' kids etc. Based on a stage play you won't have heard of because it probably wasn't much good. Neither is this film. Badly connected tales of ghosts and things of the forest, it attempts to make sense of itself at the end but only succeeds in being irrelevent and makes the preceeding events redundent in meaning.

Not up to the job of intelligent horror and not messy enough to be a really horrific experience.

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Batman: The Long Halloween: Part 1

Well thought out

(Edit) 22/09/2021

An intelligent build up to the next installment; looking forward to it. The script has more going for it than many of the rather dumb superhero films around. Plenty of action and character development. The graphics are not the Cgi we are used to or Pixar but you sink itno its world easily enough.

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Border

Slow to build but rewarding

(Edit) 22/09/2021

A lady customs officer who looks like a Neanderthal can sense and smell peoples emotions and actions. She bumps into a man who looks just like her. A relationship develops and she finds out more about herself and works with police to locate paedeophiles but revelations turn in darker directions.

A movie that passes thorough love, revelation, intrigue, police thriller and ultimatley fairy tale horror. Brothers Grimm could have written this for adults to enjoy and be oppressed by as it becomes a hard watch at times. It will leave an impression on viewers.

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A Call to Spy

True tale

(Edit) 09/09/2021

Although there are many more true stories of SOE operations, this film concentrates on the early days and specifically on an American operative and those that were in her orbit in France. The story is all the more compelling as it doesn't bull up the events to overkill. There is a compelling feeling of dread throughout without resorting or being attracted to tales of shoot outs. Fine performances all round and an air of reality.

The Germans are for once not shown as brutal dumb goons, but all the more beleivable for that. A good drama all tound and sincere.

1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.

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For the Sake of Vicious

Wow violence!!

(Edit) 09/09/2021

The story takes place in a nurse's kitchen and occasionally adjoining rooms. A man is convinced he knows identity of his child's rapist, captures him and takes him to the nurses home as she treated his daughter. Weird. Torture of alledged perpetrator begins, however, other parties get involved in a way that doesn't make sense. A mass chase round the house results in explicit carnage. I haven't seen this much cringe making violence before.

It is an exciting film but has not got its feet in the obvious reality of calling the police at some point, or neighbours hearing world war III taking place in the neighbourhood doing so. Where are the cops when you need them?

Exciting yes, but not for the squeamish.

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Fanny Lye Deliver'd

Not credible

(Edit) 01/09/2021

After the English Civil War, a puritan couple living in the countrside are invaded by a naked young couple running from the law. Charming at first, they become threatening and the mood darkens. Apparently there was a conflict at that time between the austerity of Cromwell's regime and libertarians having orgies in pubs which the young couple have indulged in. Pull the other one, the young invaders behave more like 70's punks than people of their time. I had a feeling of watching a clash of modern and ancient cultures, but the criminal behaviour of the young couple drains any credibility from their presence in the film. It ends up as a 'liberation for women' tale, liberation from men that is as the puritan life oppresses her and so does the sexual nature of our punky friends.

A mess of a film frankly with any real story buried under violence and comically bad officers of the law.

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The Owners

Formulaic

(Edit) 24/08/2021

Trapped in house with a weird old couple. Violent horror stuff. Proceeds in the way horror fans would expect. A well trodden path, so none horror fans may get more out of it not being used to the formula. Entretaining thrills and chases etc.

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Dark Waters

Brilliant

(Edit) 24/08/2021

Ruffalo and Hathaway are superb in their roles. Erin Brockovich situation; a big corporate company side steps its responsibilities for polution and harming its own employees. The story unfolds as a lawyer changes sides from working for corporations to battling one. A true story and one which confirms everyones worst suspicions about ruthless big business, perhaps other organisations (Catholic and other churches?) covering up their actions from the public and their victims. Not a life affirming story; grim and grinding. The years go by as our hero is banging at the walls of cover-up culture. Recommended for those that like real life stuff, always more intelligent and engaging than the usual holywood fare.

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Godzilla vs. Kong

Formulaic

(Edit) 11/08/2021

No surprises here. Lots of noise and cgi. Worn out plot, wooden acting essential to stay at same level as banal story. Studios churn this stuff out regularly. OK now and then but anyone wanting intelligence with their entertainment is going to struggle these days. This stuff best watched on big screen or good home cinema, I suppose this keeps money rolling in now that Netflix etc have got the market and churn out average dramas but cannot provide sound quality.

Cartoons and cgi are the sad future of the industry, but if you keep paying for this stuff they will just keep making it.

Help, I need good movies!

Kong gets knocked out, he revives in nick of time etc. Little kid uses sign language and Kong gets it. Pardon me, is a little girl the only one with sign skills? Give me a break.

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Sator

Rubblish

(Edit) 11/08/2021

A minimum budget can be just fine with a good idea, an excellent script, quality direction and nailed it acting. Unfortunately this movie has none of these ingredients. Don't waste you life watching this hogwash. Boring, none-sensical codswallop. Go for a walk instead.

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Laputa: Castle in the Sky

Not up to scratch

(Edit) 06/07/2021

Despite eminating from the esteemed studio of Chibli this is a rather unsubtle contribution to their otherwise high standard of excellence in both story telling and execution. Constant over the top action sequences bash the viewer over the head, noisey and rude it lacks the charm of their usual produce. Too much for me I am afraid and overlong at 2 hours!

A crude baddies and goodies plot leave little room for character development that the studio is so admired for. The end result is low level buffoonery which feels like being in an amusement arcade. A dissapointment frankly.

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Hereditary

Tingles but formulaic

(Edit) 06/07/2021

This did make the hairs on my body stand up now and again. However, the innocents drawn into witchy goings on is standard horror stuff by now. The ending is pretty much what you would expect except a bit silly, corpses don't behave with any discipline at all when headless!

A big problem is its length, it drags on somewhat, despite this, the plot doesn't really develop very convincingly. To be fair I am not a horror fan so it was so, so, entertainment but may be 'we have seen it all before' for true horror fans.

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Valhalla Rising

ugh?

(Edit) 27/05/2021

No budget, no plot, no sense. What was the point? Graphic violence with no purpose. A pagan accompanies a group of Christian warriors to the Holy Land for no particular reason (he cannot talk) and they proceed to fall out or fall victim to natives (they improbably end up in Americas - a bit of a journey) so pagans triumph in the end, but so what? Avoid a boring 90 minutes and don't bother.

0 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
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