marcus-11687 Reviews

Wolcott (1981)

Good old fashioned robbers and racists cops

[8/10 · 18 January 2018]

ITV drama at its ground-breaking best. Features Harris as a detective squaring up to not just organised crime but job-impeding racism within the force.

One memorable scene has him throwing an African tribal spare and impaling a villain.

Mudbound (2017)

An honest look at everything that is still wrong in White America

[9/10 · 18 January 2018]

If there are few 'must see' movies with a believable Black American experience at its centre then Mudbound tops that list. Set just after World War 2, it is an honest look at everything that was, and still is, wrong about White America, but without the over-the-top indignation or pretence that change or hope is somewhere on the horizon. Director Dee Rees does a sterling job in breathing life and lending voice into its few characters and weaving the narrative around them, the immediacy of their hopes and aspirations battling against a relentlessly grim and pointless present. No cardboard characters or caricatures were hurt or created during this production. Jonathan Banks is a more than believable full-blooded hateful racist redneck and Jason Mitchell the returning Black war veteran desperately clinging to the faintest possibility of a brighter tomorrow in amongst grim, poverty inducing share-cropping of his parent's and family's existence. Despite finding a friend, comrade and confident in fellow war returnee Xxxxxx it's this relationship and subsequent revelations that brings the events in this slow-burning narrative to a head and sad more bitter than sweet conclusion. With so few meaningful 'Black people related' tales coming out of Hollywood, the Netflix vehicle should make a fair bit on milage on Mudbound and not without reason.

Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2024)

Where no one has gone before...and about time too!

[9/10 · 5 November 2017]

Have to admit this series isn't bad at all...and is about as soul- searching as TOS was designed to be. The singular story arc allows for focus on the characters and their development within that universe and along that time-line. It subtly questions Starfleet and its Prime Directive in a way last seen in the second JJ Abrams reboot, which is something TNG, DS9, Voyager or Enterprise failed to address. Discovery is far more cinematic in look, feel and progress than standard TV but it is Netflix and I'm loving the way it's unraveling in its slow burn narrative.

The Intent (2016)

Nice effort but lacking in substance, confidence and any gravitas

[3/10 · 28 September 2017]

The filmmakers and its crew at least have a base from which to start which isn't bad considering. Location fine, casting okay and story a bit too simple, but easy enough to execute. Flaws are no believable characters or characterization, so no real reason to love, loathe or like the TIC crew, the Police or the 'other lot'. Even the exceptionally snarling lead character wasn't NASTY enough, and no, "I don't know who the *#@$ he is" either. Script needed a shed-load of revising, as not even the POLICE in FIREMAN SAM, EASTENDERS or TELLY TUBBIES talk, behave or are briefed like that. "Morning officers..." err no! Could've and should've been tighter...but hopefully the mob behind this one will progress on to bigger and brighter things.

3/10 NICE EFFORT