rick-992 Reviews

Spencer (2021)

Unbelievably bad

[2/10 · 26 December 2021]

I'm gobsmacked by the number of good reviews! In a film where much of the dialog seems whispered, an over-loud cacophony of a soundtrack accompanies a cliché melodrama that follows a petulant Diana having some sort of paranoid breakdown.

While I don't doubt that Diana might have suffered a paranoia-induced breakdown (who wouldn't in her situation?), for me it's handled laughably badly.

It's a film that will make you shout "BS" at the screen again and again. I sincerely advise waiting for it to free-stream. The only thing more ridiculous than the film itself is the cost (at release) to rent it!

Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023)

It's dark. It's intelligent. It's grown up. It's Brilliant!

[8/10 · 6 March 2020]

I see lots of negative reviews who say this is not Star Trek. Well, yes and no. This is Star Trek for grown ups. I first watched TOS in the 70's and many times since. I loved TNG and Voyager. At the start of every episode, everything is "reset" to normal, a great adventure arises, and by the end everything is normal again. In around 45 minutes. Yes, I know there were movies and continuation episodes and story arcs, but mostly everything was very clean and tidy and the Federation was a force for good.

But Picard is different. It develops more slowly. We already know some of the characters, but times have changed and they are different now. Deeper. A bit scarred. The galaxy is darker. This new landscape drew me in very quickly!

I'm 5 episodes in and loving it, every delicious drop. There are some great new characters as well as some old characters, one in particular whose appearance made my heart almost burst: she's not who she was, but I totally understand how she became what she is ;-).

Please, give it a go. Ignore the haters: they will just have to rewatch the old series again, they'll never be happy with something new and bold. But I think it's brilliant!

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

Urgh just horrible

[4/10 · 30 March 2016]

This film is just horrible. What's wrong? Listing all the points would involve too many spoilers, and take several pages, so let me try to generalise. Or maybe I won't. Please don't read this if you plan on seeing the movie, although personally I would urge you not to, so as not to encourage or finance any more garbage like this to be made.

The movie is too long. Waaay too long. You could feel (and in several cases) hear the audience urging the film to end as we entered the last self-indulgent 15 minutes. I think we had maybe 3 or 4 endings one after another.

Early in the film Superman is demonised on very flimsy evidence and the (American) public come to hate him. He should have moved to Mexico where it's clear that he is still loved. The logic goes that because Superman is all-powerful the best thing to do is to destroy him before he destroys us. I felt that was a stretch to create a story that never really held water, was never believable in any way (yes yes I know it's a superhero movie). And even if the senate committee and general public felt that way, surely Batman wouldn't?

Around the same time that everyone is hating on Superman, Superman himself starts hating on Batman and his literal branding of criminals. So we're nicely set up for these two to battle it out, egged on (and manipulated) by Alex Luthor (son of Lex).

Ben Affleck turned in a decent performance as Batman but Henry Cavill was better. Really I shouldn't single out any of the cast as I have no quibble with the all-round good performances that were turned in by the strong cast. Although I wasn't keen on Jesse Eisenberg as Luthor but that's probably just me.

Back to the awfulness itself (having exonerated the cast I suppose I have to blame the director and writers). I think the movie didn't really flow and on the second occasion that a dramatic scene turned out to be Bruce Wayne daydreaming, I was ready for the inevitable BOO! JUMP OUT YOUR SEAT moment. Zzzz what a tired and lazy film technique.

Later on, a Lord of the Rings troll appears and a LotR "fire whip" too. Then we have a Harry Potter vs. Voldemort moment as Superman battles the troll, helped by Batman as they have since reconciled in a way that seemed absolutely as unbelievable as their contrived enmity.

Finally Wonder Woman shows up to save the day. I felt bad for her character and the actress: she should have got her own movie and not be tagged on to this one as what felt like an afterthought.

The dramatic final battle is a stunning waste of amazing CGI because by this time I don't think anybody cared who won. Well of course we all knew that good would triumph. But our journey with the characters had been such a long and boring one that I (and my companions) just wished it would hurry up and end.

A Walk in the Woods (2015)

Missed Opportunity

[6/10 · 18 September 2015]

I went to see this movie today, having read the original book by Bill Bryson and subsequently listened to a hilarious 'audio book' version narrated by Kerry Shale.

My first comment is that Robert Redford is just too old, way too old, for the part. By my estimate, Bill Bryson was less than 50 when he walked the trail with Katz, whereas Redford is 78. It made a big and substantial difference to my enjoyment of the movie, since a lot of the humour in the book comes from the fact that it's two middle-aged slightly overweight guys who start the walk, not two old men.

Furthermore, I found Emma Thompson's portrayal of Catherine Bryson simply irritating and humourless. Like Robert Redford, I felt she just turned up and did her lines.

Many of the best anecdotes from the book appear in the movie, and yet somehow none is anything like as funny as in the book/audio book. For example, the overweight nasal-sounding Mary Ellen segment just isn't as funny in the movie not least because the actress playing Mary Ellen is not overweight and therefore her jibe at Katz for being overweight misses the joke.

Overall, the movie was light and amusing in places, but bad casting and uncommitted acting makes it just average and with a heavy heart I rate it just 6/10. And trust me, I went in with fairly low expectations yet hoping for a good laugh. It was worse than I expected and not as funny as I'd hoped.

The Little Death (2014)

I defy you not to like this movie

[9/10 · 31 January 2015]

I have absolutely no idea where I heard about this movie, but having watched it this evening I'd like to thank whoever / wherever it was.

Wow! What a movie, I've not seen anything this funny and quirky for a long time. Thoroughly enjoyable, extremely witty.

Gosh. I'm lost for words. Read the synopsis for details, I won't try to re- synopsise it, I just want to register my recommendation and I defy you to walk away without a huge grin and a glow about you.

Superb acting, great screenplay, unusual subject material, very well done and not at all distasteful. Watch it, tell your friends and report back!

Flight (I) (2012)

Expertly acted, awful script

[4/10 · 12 July 2014]

I like Denzel Washington and was looking forward to watching this movie, it sounded quite interesting and rang a bell that it might be loosely based on real events. But early on I started to "have a bad feeling about this" which just got stronger until I found myself yelling "what rubbish!" during the very predictable and truly awful last 30 minutes.

I can't criticise any of the players, I think they all acted their parts well. But what a terrible trite script. What nonsense! So much of what happened just clearly wouldn't have happened the way this was written. I despair. It's rare that I come away from a movie feeling that my time was robbed, unfairly taken away from me, but in this case, it was.

Avoid.

Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

Despite so many bad reviews, not that bad!

[7/10 · 2 January 2014]

I tend to read the bad reviews more so than the good ones, to get a more balanced view of a film, but having rented this on a streaming service, I was going to watch it no matter what the bad reviews said. Although I wasn't exactly hoping for much and was concerned I'd wasted my voucher code on a load of rubbish!

Overall I was very satisfied with this film as a non-stop action movie. Yes there are plot holes. Yes, the "we will not negotiate" followed by full-on capitulation is hilarious. Yes, saving the President over and above millions of South Koreans is ridiculous. Yes, casting North Koreans as the Bad Guys is tasteless bordering on crass.

But it's surprisingly easy to put those objections (and more) to one side and just get carried along by the fast action and satisfyingly high body count. Actually, the longer I take writing this, the fonder the memory. Ya know what? The fact is I enjoyed it and I'm not ashamed to say so!

To hell with all the "that could never actually happen". This movie is as implausible as the Die Hards but at the same time just as enjoyable, although less humorous and rather more graphic - there is a huge amount of gun fire and plenty of bloody splatter.

Two hours ago I was ready to sharpen my pencil for a savage review.

But now I'd say give it a go, but please don't take it seriously!

Triangle (2009)

Not bad, but not brilliant by any means.

[6/10 · 20 October 2009]

I certainly agree with other reviewers that Melissa George in the lead role of Jess really does an excellent job. And I also agree that the film is worth a look, but I'm afraid I wasn't too impressed with the storytelling and plot.

After their yacht capsizes, 5 friends find themselves seemingly rescued by a cruise liner named Aeolus. One of the group remarks that in mythology, Aeolus was the father of Sisyphus… you can look him up if you want a clue as to the film's theme.

Jess is immediately uncomfortable and it's not long before her trepidation seems to have been warranted. She suffers disturbing dejá vù as the plot unfolds, and faces a number of increasingly difficult choices. We rarely doubt that Jess will make the difficult choice if it means a chance of escape from the nightmare. In a perverse way the choices become easier as it dawns on Jess what is happening.

The movie is definitely a thriller, not a horror. Although there is quite a lot of blood! Personally I was glad there were no "boo!" moments where you jump out of your skin. The writer had many opportunities to do that but clearly chose not to turn the movie into just another bad-guy-jumps-out flick. But this doesn't mean that the movie lacks suspense! There's plenty of suspense and I was tense (in a good way) almost throughout.

Towards the end, the pieces all start falling into place, and a few odd and inexplicable moments at the start of the film, which made me wonder what the heck the writer was thinking of, suddenly made perfect sense. As the final scenes unfolded I felt very much more satisfied than at any other time during the film. The ending is very neat and tidy, and clever too. It left me grinning.

But overall this neatness and feeling of completeness didn't make up for what had gone before. As a total package it just wasn't as good as it could have been, perhaps because the main plot device has been done before, and in my opinion, done much better by others. I'll give it 6/10.

I'm sure that others in the sparsely populated theatre liked it much less than I did: I overheard several damning comments when the titles rolled which I felt were pretty harsh. If you're looking for a bloody and frightening horror, this movie isn't it.

*** SPOILER ALERT *** I'm not going to ruin the film for you, but I will say that the forever-repeating never-ending loop scenario has, in my opinion, been done much better elsewhere. Groundhog Day, 50 First Dates, and others I haven't seen, plus a myriad of sci-fi shows such as Star Trek and Stargate. However it's truthful to say that Jess finds herself in an altogether more disturbing scenario than any of these others mentioned! *** END OF SPOILER ***

Surrogates (2009)

Very enjoyable! I left the theatre with a large grin!

[8/10 · 29 September 2009]

Plenty of other reviewers have given their own in-depth views, so what else is there to say? Well, this film made me grin from ear to ear. And after the recent disappointment that was D9, I was delighted to find a film which delighted.

I found it funny and clever with an enjoyable (and believable) plot. And a neat ending! I loved the SFX and seeing the young Bruce Willis really made me smile (how did they do that?).

This film will never be a classic, but if you're looking for solid entertainment, unpretentious and very well done, then this film is a must-see. Be warned though that you won't find too much depth - this is much more an ID4/5th Element than a Dune/2001.

100 Million BC (2008 Video)

Not quite as bad as most seem to say!

[5/10 · 19 July 2009]

Well many on here have observed that the effects are pretty bad, and for a film made in 2008 I'd have to agree, but as "B" movie fare they weren't that appalling! I've seen worse! The plot wasn't such a bad idea, but the rate and style of the causalities incurred when the team first goes back to 70 million BC are pretty funny. Yes, the acting is in the main wooden and the script could have been much better - those folks from the 1940s seemed to have a pretty modern vocabulary especially in the cussing department! Marie Westbrook stars as Ruth and as noted in another review, her short skirt is a little too short and as she runs around LA we do get a few enjoyable revealing glimpses :-) All in all I thought she played a good part and was pleasing eye candy.

In summary, there are plenty worse ways to spend 90 minutes than this enjoyable dinosaur romp. As long as you don't expect too much, you won't be disappointed. I'll give it 5/10 and you can shoot me later

Doomsday (I) (2008)

Oh dear Oh dear!

[3/10 · 9 May 2008]

*** SPOILERS *** Well as another reviewer said, a combination of 28 Days/Weeks Later, Mad Max 3 and Braveheart. And featuring the Gimp from Pulp Fiction.

But what what a poor combination! Absolutely laughable most of the way through. Nearly a walk-out from me, which is very rare indeed. This movie makes 28 Weeks Later seem like an Oscar candidate. Groan! Top marks to Alexander Siddig for an all too brief but decent performance. Also excellent were Emma Cleasby as the main character and Bob Hoskins as the chief of police. These performances earn the film 2 stars. Miss Cleasby was very reminiscent of Kate Beckinsale in Underworld (yum!). I'll award a final star for the Bentley which was pretty cool and drew admiring gasps from the audience who like me were clearly hoping for some exciting action.

Particularly memorable (for all the wrong reasons) was the scene where (one) of the bad-guys dances around to Bad Manners' "Can Can" accompanied by several "Rab C Nesbitt" characters in kilts and other assorted lovelies. What was the writer/director thinking? What were the financiers thinking? I suppose it did bring new insight into the myth that Glaswegians are prepared to eat anything so long as it's deep fried.

The car chase scenes (with the aforementioned Bentley) were almost good, but totally ruined by the Bentley being out-paced by a Glasgow Taxi, an old Rover 3000 police car, a VW Beetle and what may have been an old VW sportster. This along with the "dance" scene are blatant rip-offs from Mad Max 3. This is not homage. It's garbage.

I don't see anything in this film for anyone. Visuals and plot were just a complete joke (in the worst way). And not much in the way of gore for horror fans either. Not funny. Not homage. Not even so bad it's good. Just plain awful.

Avoid. Don't waste your money or your time. I did and am angry enough about that to write this review. You have been warned.

Jumper (2008)

Ignore the bad reviews - Switch off brain and Enjoy!

[7/10 · 9 March 2008]

With so many bad review on IMDb, I had very low expectations of this film and I expected it to be terrible. But I really enjoyed it! And so did my two teenage kids (and boy and a girl who would both be the first to complain if it was boring or confusing).

OK it's not a *great* film (in the sense of truly great destined to be a classic) but there are plenty of worse ways to pass 90 minutes. Sure, it won't be winning any awards. Yes, it could have been done so much better.

But if you've enjoyed X-Men, Spiderman, Deja Vu, Back to the Future and Heroes (TV), then I think you'll enjoy this too. Certainly better than the Fantastic Four! So ignore the detractors, leave your brain and the critical reviews at home and go and enjoy. You can thank me later!!

In retort to a few of the specific criticisms on here (no spoilers) I think Hayden Christensen got the part right (in my opinion his character is supposed to be lacking in emotion - he's been emotionally damaged). The brief narration at the start enables us to cut to the action as far as the rest of the movie is concerned. I also thought Samuel L did a fair job as the bad guy. The ending did point to a sequel but did not rob us of a self-contained story.

The Last House on the Left (1972)

Utter Rubbish

[1/10 · 9 November 2006]

Well the first mistake I made was not reading past the first page of comments on here. What rave reviews... dark and chilling... cult classic... seminal masterpiece... etc.

Utter nonsense! This film is just plain bad. Hammer House of Horror movies are better made, scarier, better acted, better script, better score.

The genre, I suppose, is rape-revenge, but the manner in which it is executed is laughable and Wes Craven obviously had no idea how to make the bad guys menacing or how to create empathy for the victims. The "comedy" moments - ah yes - clever juxtaposition? No. Just clueless film-making.

OK - what about the famous rape scene? The scene that makes this film so well respected. The scene that redeems the remaining amateurish nonsense? Well, OK, the girl in question doesn't look exactly pleased I admit. However, the "remorse" shown by the perpetrators is ham acting at its worst, but even then not so bad as most of the acting (and direction) in the film. One 10-second scene does NOT redeem this film is any way.

I can't believe I bought this (albeit just 5 pounds). I've seen some dross in my time but this is Top-Ten garbage. Certainly not in the "so bad it's good" category.

Plan 9 from Outer Space is much much better.

You have been warned.... a total waste of time and money.