frukuk Reviews

Tenet (2020)

OKnonKO

[3/10 · 27 May 2024]

It's entertaining enough and moves along at pace, but the underlying story/concept is rather thin.

There are two significant problems with this film.

First, the motivation of the individual people and "organizations" is unconvincing. Especially the motivation of "Protagonist" with respect to Kat, the overarching motivation of Sator and the essential motivation of the people behind Tenet.

Second, once you get to around half way into this film, it becomes rather predictable as the general structure of what is about to come is obvious.

I was reminded a little of Travelers (2016-2018) when watching this and I'd certainly recommend that series, especially the first season, over this film.

The Twilight Zone: The Odyssey of Flight 33 (1961) Season 2, Episode 18

Laughably lacking locomotion

[1/10 · 25 May 2024]

So many crew and passengers in the plane comment that they have the sense of travelling at great speed and yet the plane is so stable it looks as if it's bolted to the ground. Of course, it's a set, but couldn't they at least have done something to suggest the amazing speed at which the plane was supposed to be travelling?

While I was reminded a little of the first episode of Land of the Giants (1968), where the "plane" encounters strange atmospheric conditions and crash lands, this episode has nothing to recommend it.

This series has some very well done episodes -- I'm particularly keen on The Night of the Meek (s2ep11) -- but please give this one a miss.

Z for Zachariah (2015)

"All things wise and wonderful, the Lord Bomb made them all"

[7/10 · 28 April 2024]

So many post nuclear war films and TV series are relentlessly dystopian. But this gentle little gem of a film shows that the human spirit might well survive.

Of course, not only the better aspects of human nature survive. But the three characters here are at least trying to be best version of themselves.

Margot Robbie gives a wonderfully believable performance. Chiwetel Ejiofor conveys his character's struggles without overacting. Chris Pine's character, Caleb, feels a little undefined, but that is probably the fault of the script.

("All things wise and wonderful, the Lord Bomb made them all" from Paul Dehn's revised lyrics for the hymn All Things Bright And Beautiful in the film Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970).)

Granite Harbour (2022– )

Pumice Paddling Pool

[1/10 · 25 April 2024]

(Reviewed after watching the first episode of the first season.)

What was a Jafaican (sic) wannabe Doctor Who doing here? He looked like he was on a character swap from the BBC Wales production. Will Doctor Who soon have a guest appearance from Rebus or a regenerated Cracker?

While I don't usually struggle with Scottish accents, I did feel like this series is going to require a lot of people to enable subtitles. Perhaps the BBC don't expect to generate many export sales for this show?

No endearing characters here and a very boring story. An awful waste of Dawn Steele and something better broadcast in the afternoon than in prime-time on BBC1 (at least that's when the second season is scheduled to be broadcast).

Blue Lights (2023– )

Soapy blue line

[2/10 · 25 April 2024]

(Reviewed after watching all episodes of seasons 1 and 2.)

This was reasonably watchable but, having seen rave reviews for this series, I couldn't work out why some though it was in any way special. It's a reasonably pedestrian tale of policing in Northern Ireland -- and I assume it's only really set there so that the police officers can routinely carry guns.

All the will-they-won't-they seduction-by-pastry of Grace and Stevie puts this firmly in soap opera territory.

The biggest failure here is that the stories told in seasons 1 and 2 are simply not that novel or entertaining. And I really struggled to accept the "man of the people" theme of the season 2.

So, entertaining if you're reasonably easily pleased, but in no way any special.

Men (2022)

mens rea

[1/10 · 13 April 2024]

I just can't take Rory Kinnear seriously as the cleric. While the script is clearly at fault, his rather limp performance makes this feel more like a farce.

While I think I get the "message" of this film, it's just so boringly and poorly elaborated. And while the flashback scenes between Harper and James perhaps hint at a certain oddness, I'd suggest this film would have worked much better if earlier events had had a vanilla flavour. That way, it would have been easier to have felt sympathy for Harper.

I also couldn't buy Harper's easy credulity. She seemed to accept what was going on in the final part of the film without, even for a minute, questioning her own sanity.

Other People's Children (2022)

La vie quotidienne

[1/10 · 4 April 2024]

This is a rather bland film. Everything goes relatively swimmingly for a long time and then, when things do get complicated, they are only ever so slightly complicated.

It feels like this is a distillation of the many films/stories in which a woman who desperately wants a baby, struggles to conceive in her late thirties. But in distilling all those other works, it lacks any unique flavour.

It doesn't feel like events are really happening to Rachel and Ali. It certainly doesn't seem like they really feel them. Things happen and they seem to shrug their shoulders and move on. Their lives just aren't interesting or stimulating enough for either them or us.

Big Mood (2024– )

Bilge Milk

[1/10 · 28 March 2024]

Oh dear. Another unfunny comedy. A weak first episode that didn't draw me in.

My general suggestion in response to an unfunny comedy is to suggest that the writer -- generally the sole writer -- gets a writing partner. But it looks like the sole writer here -- Camilla Whitehill -- has graduated from writing with a partner (Nicola Coughlan on Whistle Through the Shamrocks).

There seems to be a belief that if you use a cliche comedy situation -- visiting the school you attended as a student -- that's sufficient to make something funny appear out of thin air. But I'm afraid it's simply not that easy. You need to work at the script -- and keep reworking it -- until actually funny things happen and actually funny things are said.

No Hard Feelings (2023)

Lots of laughs, but a pretty predictable story

[6/10 · 17 March 2024]

Quite a bit better than I was expecting. I came for Jennifer Lawrence but stayed for the laugh out loud moments -- though the story is pretty predictable.

A good choice if you want a comedy that makes you laugh out loud.

And, while the story is nothing new, the "flourishes" are what lift the screenplay. I also liked the fact that, although there is some "philosophical" depth to the events, there's no preaching. There's also no straining to provide excessive symmetry to Maddie's and Percy's individual journeys.

One of the best moments is Andrew Barth Feldman singing (actually) while "playing" the piano. A wonderful performance and I never knew the familiar song he is singing was so strong, lyrically.

The Souvenir (2019)

Is She Really Going Out with Him?

[1/10 · 10 March 2024]

The funniest moment here? When Joe Jackson starts singing "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" on the soundtrack. The second funniest moment is when you realise that the writer-director is having a good old laugh at the audience -- at least at those in the audience who are tempted to take this film seriously.

It wouldn't matter if it was hard to believe that Julie really would be going out with the charmless Anthony, if Julie were someone you could care about. But she's a cypher -- there's nothing about her that encourages compassion/empathy/sympathy.

You might think, "well at least no one would be daft enough to commission a sequel" but, hey presto, I'm here watching this film on BBC iPlayer because the sequel is being broadcast on BBC2 tonight. So, at least there is one positive here: watching this leaves me with absolutely no appetite to watch the sequel.

Benediction (2021)

Overlong and pedestrian

[1/10 · 9 March 2024]

It's ironic that Sassoon rails against the "powers that be" for prolonging the First World War. This film feels unnecessarily prolonged too. I made it to 1h15m and then abandoned it because I was getting nothing out of it.

I'm sure I was exposed to the war poets when at school and I seem to have vague fond memories of the poem about it taking many, many bullets to kill a man (that is, divide the number of bullets fired by the number of men killed and you get a surprisingly large number), but none of Sassoon's poetry featured here struck me as particularly noteworthy.

Really, nothing of interest happens and what happens does so at a snail's pace.

Newark, Newark (2022)

No pints of lager, no packets of crisps

[1/10 · 5 March 2024]

Being funny isn't easy. Writing a successful comedy series isn't easy. Writing one without a writing partner is particularly difficult. Many try but very few succeed. Susan Nickson, creator and writer of many episodes of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (2001-2011) is one of the few who succeeded. Nathan Foad, who wrote this series, is one of the many who failed.

This has some experienced actors -- not least Mathew Horne and Beverley Callard -- but the script is simply not funny. Compare Beverley Callard in this with Beverley Callard in the wonderful Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (2001-2011). Same actor, but massively different results.

People commissioning comedy series really do need to be much more ruthless. If the scripts aren't funny, simply call things off before it gets into production. The "sunk cost fallacy" is responsible for many unfunny comedies, such as this.

True Things (2021)

Stuck in the middle with Mr Blond

[1/10 · 4 March 2024]

Clichéd. Clichéd. Clichéd. Why make a film like this when you haven't got a novel take on things?

Blond, played by Tom Burke, is truly horrible, but I would have been more convinced by this if he hadn't begun to shed his "charming disguise" quite so early on.

Kate, played by Ruth Wilson, is clearly rather unmoored in her seaside non-idyll. But it's not clear precisely why she seems to have no agency. Yes, the mother is overbearing and the father is a bit of a vegetable, but is that supposed to be enough to explain her inertia?

All in all, this just feels like quite a shallow exploration of Kate's listless life. Give it a miss -- in both respects.

The Poison Rose (2019)

Better than its average rating of 4.8 (at the time of writing this review)

[6/10 · 2 March 2024]

I've been watching quite a few films on a new free streaming service in the UK and most have had low average ratings on IMDB and most have been pretty awful.

So, looking at the low average rating of this film before deciding whether to watch it, I almost decided it would likely also be pretty awful.

But, given Morgan Freeman and Famke Janssen are in it, I thought I would give it a try. And I was surprised that it was at least passably good. While the story is fairly run of the mill, I did find myself caring about Carson Phillips, played by John Travolta. So I gave this a rating of 6 (out of 10) because I felt it deserved a higher average rating than 4.8 (out of 10).

Beware My Brethren (1972)

A Clockwork Apple

[1/10 · 28 February 2024]

Diabolically awful.

I'm not sure if there was really any point to this film other than to have an excuse to have some actresses briefly appear topless. I have a feeling that at the time this was made it was necessary to add a gloss of seriousness to "excuse" the nudity. So, we have all this unconvincing mallarkey about a sect -- note NOT a cult -- in order to divert the censors' attention from the bare breasts.

I can't imagine there being any reason to watch this now, in the 21st century, other than to wonder at how constrained filmmakers were in the late 20th century. Or perhaps to see Suzanna Leigh playing the role of Paddy Lynch?

Petite Maman (2021)

Petits pois

[1/10 · 27 February 2024]

This is more broth than soup.

I guess most 8 year olds are quite credulous, so it probably shouldn't be surprising that Nelly and Marian quietly accept that some flavour of time travel appears to be taking place. But I did wonder why Nelly didn't blurt things out to her father -- who presumably would have suggested she had just been daydreaming?

One thing I really struggled with was telling Nelly and Marian apart. Perhaps I missed what was supposed to be an obvious "tell"? Or perhaps the confusion is intended, since they are played by actual identical twins? (But intentional confusion is still confusion.)

This felt massively underwritten and I don't think I got anything at all out of it.

The Killing of Two Lovers (2020)

A family driven apart by sound effects

[1/10 · 24 February 2024]

There are some very strange sounds effects at the beginning of this film. We can't see anything banging and yet we repeatedly hear a banging (vehicle?) door. I think the sounds are meant to represent the confused thoughts ricocheting around inside David's head -- but your mileage may vary.

Apart from the sound effects, there's nothing novel here. It's the usual story of a couple who got married too young, had children too soon and now find they've grown apart. The pendulum has well and truly swung. David struggles to deal with this, but not in any particularly interesting ways. I guess the point is that he simply doesn't know what to do to try to mend things. Will he accept that they actually can't be mended? That is the question.

The Kid Detective (2020)

The Too Long Goodbye

[1/10 · 24 February 2024]

The only good thing about this film is that it reminded me of The Long Goodbye (1973). But whereas that film had a source novel by Raymond Chandler, a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and an engaging central performance from Elliott Gould, this film just seemed to lack pretty much everything.

I really don't know why I persevered with it -- perhaps I just hoped it might redeem itself? I didn't find any of the characters sufficiently sympathetic. I didn't care about the guy who had been killed and so wasn't that interested in finding out who had killed him and why.

So if you want to watch something with a "chaotic" detective, try The Long Goodbye (1973). It's far, far more entertaining.

Breathtaking (II) (2024)

Breathtakingly good and surprisingly restrained

[9/10 · 19 February 2024]

I'm binge watching this on ITVX -- the free streaming service associated with UK terrestrial broadcaster ITV. I just got to the end of the first episode and wanted to write an early review because the first episode was just so wonderful.

Joanne Froggatt provides a wonderfully restrained central performance. Despite not having the appropriate PPE -- because the central authorities have deemed it not essential -- she soldiers on.

The use of Boris Johnson -- the Prime Minister at the time -- is also restrained. It would have been easy to have included all his ignorant and ill-judged comments, but a few well-chosen clips are sufficient to damn him.

The only very minor niggle I have with this is that the font used for the onscreen text is very hard to read -- it's quite small and all uppercase.

Nobody (I) (2021)

Unconvincing

[1/10 · 18 February 2024]

I don't buy Hutch Mansell's backstory. Specifically, I don't think anyone who did what he used to do would be so undisciplined as to start a chain of events that might undermine his life.

This is a rather violent film, but a lot of the violence is so ridiculous that it becomes comical. Indeed, it does seem that this film is striving to be a violent comedy, if there is such a sub-genre.

If you're thinking of watching this film and haven't seen The Accountant (2016) with Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick, I'd strongly recommend you watch that film instead. It's far more entertaining and actually more believable. And it has plenty of non-comical violence.

Save Yourselves! (2020)

Kill Them First!

[1/10 · 18 February 2024]

Su and Jack: the two most unsympathetic, irritating and repulsive characters ever to appear in a film? Come the end of the world, you'd really hope these two would be the first up against the wall.

I thought it was likely Sunita Mani (who plays Su) and John Reynolds (who plays Jack) co-wrote this. Otherwise, I couldn't understand why they were cast. While I don't expect every actor to be Hollywood handsome, I definitely don't want to watch actors who should be appearing only in butter commercials. There's a reason some actors are better suited to audio only entertainment.

Apologies if I am being too harsh. But(t) really!

Zola (2020)

Trying to make Emile out of a mouthful

[1/10 · 17 February 2024]

So very little happens. I was amazed I was 50 minutes in and things had only just started getting going. This is massively underwritten and if it is based on a true story, somebody really does need to get a life.

Stefani, played by Riley Keough, is a quirky enough character, but that is not enough to carry this film. A whole lot more needs to happen if you're going to keep the audience's attention. Something original would be nice. Perhaps even a real sense of peril, so that Zola can show how a strong and smart woman can overcome adversity?

So, please don't waste your time on this. Don't spend $10. Certainly don't spend $150. Absolutely definitely don't spend $500.

Piercing (2018)

Silent Unmovie

[1/10 · 17 February 2024]

I gave this 27 minutes to get going and draw me in, but it signally failed to do so.

I wanted something I could half-watch as I was doing other things but this was impossible because this film swings between being a talkie and being a silent movie. If you don't give it your undivided (visual) attention, you will have no idea what is going on.

Very little seemed to happen in the first 27 minutes. A lot of rehearsal (sic) from Reed, played by Christopher Abbott, but no significant action. I was attracted to this film by the casting of Mia Wasikowska as Jackie, but even she couldn't entice me to continue watching it.

Open 24 Hours (2018)

What is ACTUALLY happening and what is imagined by Mary?

[1/10 · 17 February 2024]

Vanessa Grasse gives a very committed performance as Mary, but I spent far too much of the first hour or so of this film wondering what was ACTUALLY happening and what was being imagined by Mary.

You might argue that the uncertainty is clearly both intentional and essential, but I found it simply too distracting and poorly executed. My assumption was that anything we, the audience, saw when Mary was not present was something that was actually happening. But then the uncertainty made me question what appeared actually to be happening in the final 30 minutes.

So, while some bafflement is good, the large dose of it delivered by this film is not.

Too Good to Be True (2024)

Too Silly to watch More Than One Episode

[1/10 · 15 February 2024]

(Reviewed after watching the first episode.)

This is so, so, silly. Rachel is desperate for money as she struggles to raise her son, Liam. She's offered a lucrative new cleaning job and is told that certain areas of the house are off limits. So what does she do? Does she respect the prohibition because she is desperate to keep the job? When her son messes around on the piano and she tells him that his misbehaviour could lead to her losing her job, does she then confusingly join him at the piano keyboard?

Just so very, very silly. And it's clear there is something about Rachel and/or her son that attracts her new employer. But this is so silly that I've no desire to stick with it to see his motivation finally revealed.