Change Your Image
Bulldog332
Reviews
Genie (2023)
What was Richard Curtis Thinking?
Well, this is pretty simple - even though terribly dated, the original TV film (Bernard and the Genie, 1991) is infinitely better - funnier, sharper, less plot holes, less pointless scenes, better comic acting; on the list goes.
Melissa McCarthy has become a bit tiresome. She was fantastic in 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?', and hilarious in 'Identity Thief' - but seems to have been playing the same basic character for quite a few years now. As the woeful 'Thuinder Force' showed, McCarthy isn't a sure-fire box office draw anymore.
Paapa Essiedu is clearly a talent, but there was something off with this performance. It could be the script, it could be Sam Boyd's direction - but he starts most of his sentences with 'Er' or 'Um', as if he's trying to be uber-natural, and that this is a documentary. Sadly, he fails, and looks as though he's forgotten his lines, or that the script includes those little pecadillos and he's reading verbatim off the page. Either way, it was a struggle to watch at times, especially when you add in the unconvincing family dynamic, Swiss-cheese storyline and stilted dialogue, which was up and down like Tower Bridge.
While we're on dialogue - are we not allowed to say the word 'homeless' anymore? 'Unhoused' was the preferred terminology in the latter stages of the picture. Such PC language is creeping into film and TV steadily, and it's not heartening or pleasing for the majority - it's patronising, distracting and completely unnecessary.
I just don't know what Richard Curtis was thinking. He's only had a handful of decent films since his late-90s heydey; it's almost as if he doesn't really commit himself to the stories. A good example is 'Yesterday' (2019) - a fantastic concept, but has even more plot holes than 'Genie'. That film had so much promise, but was ultimately a let-down. To me, it felt like there was so much more story to tell in 'Yesterday', but that Curtis had to keep within the paint-by-numbers filmaking rule of 'YOUR FILM MUST BE 120 MINUTES OR LESS!' 'Genie' runs at around 90 minutes, as if Working Title wanted to make it short enough that it wouldn't lose the audience. I suppose that worked; I carried on watching in the hope it would get better, and by the time I decided for sure that it was a dud, the credits were not far off. Unfortunately, I had already sat through the convoluted and frankly appalling 'Three wishes after I've gone and here's a bit of paper with a clue' scenes - an amateurish attempt at tying it all up neatly, at which it failed. It was a hot mess - an apt way to sum up this really bad film. I feel for the director; it doesn't seem as though he was given much to work with.
Perhaps it's time to hand over the rom-com, feel-good reins to someone who will see a project through and make an unmissable movie, just as Curtis' films were back in the day.
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Disney Has Let Down Almost All Star Wars Fans
Disney bought Star Wars from George Lucas, I personally think that doing that has let down star wars fans from around the world.
Disney bought Lucasfilm because they new they would make an incredible amount of money for any more films related to Lucasfilm.
Disney didn't really care about the script they had written for this movie. The acting really wasn't good.
And when chewie was captured, and his ship blew up (because Rey had Emperor Palpatine's Powers), it was later revealed that there where actually two ships and chewie wasn't on the one that blew up. It's stupid! There was clearly on the ship that blew up, we saw him get in!
And Disney just don't understand how the force works, you CAN HEAL PEOPLE WITH THE FORCE? And you can use the force to bring people back to life? Disney has been so used to remaking animated films into live action films, that their ability to write some sequels with new ideas has taken a turn for the worst. Disney has been so used to making fairy-tale movies, it should be more like - "May the Magic be With You" because it really is magic. The lightsaber battles are poorly choreographed and around the middle of the movie it is revealed that Emperor Palpatine is actaully alive? In Return of The Jedi, Darth Vader threw Emperor Palpatine into the big hole on the Death Star II. You could see a big flash afterwards, probably him blowing up or being killed. Nobody could survive that. And then Lando Calrissian destroyed the Death Star II, and it very clearly blew up killing everybody inside of it. Yet many years later, Emperor Palpatine is actually alive, he survived the fall, and the massive explosion at the end of the movie. What is up with that??
If you have read up to the end of the review, thank you for your time, If you haven't seen the movie I don't recommend it. If you want to see it, don't waste your money on going to the cinemas to watch it. It's not worth it.
Rumor Has It... (2005)
Average comedy
I agree with most of the posters so far - this is a very average movie, and Jennifer Aniston has indeed, since season 9 of Friends, been doing some very strange mouth acting.
Let's hope she stops the gurning and someone sends her a decent script. Let's face it, she could probably have her pick of good roles. Or is she worried she's not talented enough.....
However, for all the people posting comments about Shirley MacLaine being the best thing in this movie: Let's be honest - she's been playing the same character since Steel Magnolias in the 80's. She's just not that good any more - build a bridge and get over it.
Final Cut (1998)
This tripe really makes my blood boil...
This film is utter, utter tripe.
Self indulgent nonsense - how on earth did they get anyone to finance this? Or did they do it themselves? I would guess the latter - if anyone other than cast has invested in this rubbish then I would imagine they are, quite literally, sick as a dog.
I can just imagine them all sitting down together saying 'Oh, we're the cream of the British film industry - let's do something all together! Don't care about script or plot - let's make it up as we go along! As long as Jude and Ray are in it, the public will pay to see it!'
And Law and Winstone really do give the only half-decent performances in this crap. Winstone almost looks embarrassed - as he well should.
0 out of 10.
High Fidelity (2000)
I liked it, but...
I have to admit, I was very sceptical about the predicted success of this picture in the weeks before it's release.
Nick Hornby - even though he's an Arsenal fan! - is an incredibly touching writer. He can put into words all the things that men, whether in a relationship or not, just cannot explain. When I first read the novel I was dumbstruck - he seemed to be describing the exact same emotions I went through in similar (if a little more acrimonious) breakups. It felt personal - he seemed to understand ME in a way no mate or other confidante could. I sang the writer's praises, recommended the book to all my friends...then heard that he had sold the film rights, agreeing for it to be set in the States.
I was, to say the least, annoyed and a little...well, hurt. Betrayed, even. How could he cheapen what we had together - our mutual lack of understanding of women (London women, I hasten to add) - by doing this? I was indignant!
The American film and TV industries have a knack of destroying anything decent to come out of our English screen market in recent years - 'Absolutely Fabulous' and 'As If' immediately spring to mind - but that's forgivable. However, changing the location of an essentially English, or dare I say 'London', novel is another thing entirely. However, it seems that to get a British film made these days, you have to either change the location to the States (like this one) or change the lead character into an American (The Beach - a fantastic book ruined to make a highly average film).
It can be argued that basic human emotions, feelings and general reactions to the opposite sex are universal, pretty much the same the world over. But, even though I know it's fairly irrational and a little bit selfish, I wanted 'High Fidelity' to stay just between me and the writer. And if he wanted to sell the film rights, then I wanted it to stay between him and...England, I suppose. Irrationality is a family trait of mine.
Given the fact that a huge percentage of British films that actually get made are funded by American investors, I suspect that this trend for 'Americanising' British scripts and novels will continue for the foreseeable future - unless the British Film Industry (and the British Film Council in particular) pulls it's finger out and invests in the considerable talents of Britain.