D-Day77 Reviews

Road House (2024)

Terrible

[2/10 · 21 March 2024]

I turned this off at the 1hr 2 minute mark.

Why, because Coners poor attempt at acting ruined what was already a poor film.

Let me start with the positives, Jake does well, a troubled character that had potential ( didn't see all the film so can't judge fully) his first fight outside the roadhouse, brilliant , extremely well choreographed and made me think, ok this film has potential, then it went downhill rapidly. Sadly this film is a poor attempt at a remake, revamp or reimagination of a great albeit dated classic.

No one can replace Swayze but I gave Jake a chance and he may well be the only good thing about this.

Everyone else, you need to enroll in more acting lessons.

The villain, Ben Brandt, just terrible acting but not compared to coner, with his ott stupid smug grin showing off his pearly whites, the dude can throw a punch obviously but jeez, why try acting, its not for him. Had his character been mute I probably would have sat through the other crap actors but he was just so bad!

If the story was going to follow the original I'd took too long to get to the point.

I gave it a chance but nope, my advice, just watch the trailer then go and watch Swayze's far superior classic.

Excalibur (1981)

Great film, sh;(£ acting

[2/10 · 2 March 2023]

First off this is one of the better tales of Arthurian legend.

Story wise it's fascinating , set pieces , costuming are phenomenal however, where this film falls is the shocking acting ability, or lack of. The cast are truly appalling. Nigel Terry is laughable and cringeworthy, in a recent rewatch of this film he makes me want to turn it off. Patrick Stuart with a strange Brian blessed style over acting, Nicol Williamson as Merlin is probably one of the best but even he hams it up considerably. Gweniviere and Helen Miren as Morgana the only saving grace of talent seen here.

The dialogue may be to blame but so is the direction.

Visually 10 out of 10 Looses points for the terrible performances .

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Fan service and not needed

[12 January 2022]

First off this was a vast improvement over the answer the call film however! At least that one was original despite being hindered by cringeworthy Thor!

This latest addition does have some nice elements, but, this is a nostalgia movie and nothing more. Rehashed villain, fan service overload - the stay pufts are not needed and it didn't make sense them being there as they were conjured by Ray not a regular ghost!!

But anyway, the few things that bothered me.

Why gozer again, why not Vigo seeking revenge or trying to get a grown up Oscar, a child we know about!

When did Spengler have Carrie Coon ???

Also a lack of ghosts! Although once again we see the cab driver ! Not needed apart to please the fans , the one eyed creature that I had a toy of was a nice touch from the real ghostbusters cartoon.

But why did her dress change ? Why did it not change then when another gay keeper was taken ?

Rays statement of the firehouse now being a Starbucks! Blatantly not at the end.

The original cast being only cameos!

Phoebe was great, good actress for sure. The rest of the cast, no!

The end credits state , based on the 1984 film, this is not what happens on a sequel so is this another spin off? Not canon?

Was it needed? In my opinion, no Was it good? Again no Will I watch again ? No

Sadly fan service ruined this film, I didn't need it , didn't fall for the hype,

So many ways the ghostbusters could continue, will this be a bridge movie to a new franchise? Maybe! Could we see Spengler kids, podcast and lucky being in a new film? That could be a vast improvement on this borefest!

Leave the 80s alone, it's done, it was great. Stop rehashing rebooting remakes and sequels. Hollywood is too scared to take a chance and do something new. And it shows!

Myths & Monsters (2017)

Very good with only one drawback

[7/10 · 18 August 2021]

Very informative and very well illustrated/animated. Episode length is fantastic and each episode left me wanting more.

Expertly introduced and partially narrated by Nicolas Day.

My only issue with the series was the annoying voice of Dianne Purkiss, her whining snobbish voice irritated me and often made me want to mute her.

Conan the Barbarian (2011)

Ignore Conan this is Rise of the barbarian

[6/10 · 6 June 2021]

First off I love the original Barbarian and despite a lacklustre sequel (destroyer) and a poor spin off (red Sonja) I've still remained a fan of the IP the short lived TV series also had a few moments. So I was eager to see this remake but there is one of the reasons it did not do well, this is not a remake, it's an entirely new story and should be referred to as a reboot.

There is still a strong revenge fuelled Conan, there is still witchcraft and scorcery which all tick the box in what I'd expect from a Conan film,, plus the gore is pretty good so it's on par with the original rather than the Aimee at kids follow ons.

My problem with this is sadly Jason Mamoa, he is no Arnold Schwartzenegger and the vision of Conan has been for 30 years that or arnie. Mamoa had big shoes to fill and it cannot be done through no fault of his own it's just arnie is arnie and the originals got it right. This film has so much right but for me, loose the title , loose the character name , call it Rise of the Barbarian give him a name like Thorg and you've got a very decent sword and scorcery movie.

It fails as it was hoping to lure the fans of the original rather than stand alone. Like nearly all remakes / reboots / reimagined what evers .

I think my greatest sadness over this film is that because it failed at the box office, we didn't get the Rose McGowan Red Sonja film, which from the teaser posters would have been epic.

To sum up, this film is great if you class it as a non Conan film .

But it is no epic, then neither were the originals.

Give it a second watch and like I say ignore the Conan branding .

The Mandalorian: Chapter 15: The Believer (2020) Season 2, Episode 7

A filler but a good one

[11 December 2020]

Wasn't sure what to expect with this episode but glad to see Bill Burr do well and redeem his past. Didn't like Richard brake in his role, but then I kinda expect a Star Wars imperial officer to speak with a posh English accent! Would have preferred to see Gina's character fighting at top the transport but maybe (hopefully) they'll let her throw some fists in the finale alongside Rosario and katee. Closing moments of this episode were awesome

Game of Thrones: The Last Watch (2019 TV Movie)

Mainly pointless

[27 May 2019]

I'm a huge fan of the show and have enjoyed the insider episodes documenting the production of each episode but this documentary (and I use that term lightly) was mainly a disjointed, badly edited home video. Yes we get to see behind the scenes sequences, rehearsals, make up applications and prop shop footage which is all good Fodor for a making of show but this overly long waste of my time was focused on foul mouth location manager full of her own self importance, a childlike makeup artist making phone calls to her daughter, a directors assistant pandering to a stubborn oaf and pointless repetition. A set dresser dealing with snow was interesting the first time we saw him, but by the third, I was thinking I'm bored of this guy now. His job is important but this show could have shown more people of been cut down to a half hour or 45 min special rather than the stretched out monotonous almost 2 hrs. Part of this shows charm is one of the stark soldier extras his comedic persona was a saving grace but again, don't show too much of him, there were other people there, seems the production team of this show were not wanted and only got the chance to speak to about 6 people and no offence to them, they are not as important as they think they are.

Mile 22 (2018)

High hopes only half delivered

[6/10 · 23 January 2019]

First off, the trailer sold this film to me, I'm a whalberg and Peter berg fan.

Having both Iko Uwais and Rhonda rousey made me believe that there would be plenty of fight scenes and to an extent, yes there was and they were great but only by iko. Rousey never throws a punch! No offence to Rhonda but she is not an actress, she can fight and fight well, don't under use someone's talents! Much like the majority of Gina carano films of late. Now I know you shouldn't typecast and we have to give a performer the opportunity to widen their talents but the fact this film could have had her fight but didn't, annoyed me immensely.

The film also suffered from 20 minutes of completely unnecessary character development for whalberg and Cohan that had no point being there .

Overall I'm disappointed for the underusing of rousey I felt as if she should have been in the Cohan role instead . Bad casting

Final Score (2018)

Die hard meets sudden death

[14 January 2019]

It's ok, but so much of it is almost shot for shot the same as and even dialogue lifted from both Die Hard and Sudden Death, two films that are superior in many ways. Brosnan's cameo coulda been more, Batista does a good job as ex military gung ho American saves the day. At the end of the day it's nothing special apart from probably being of interest to some due to the location, but for me, it's a thumbs down, it's only saving grace being Batista

The Sighting (2016)

Hidden gem

[8/10 · 10 January 2019]

I saw this originally at a festival in 2008 and had been searching for years, I'm so thrilled to have found it on amazon prime albeit under a different title. The Paper Dolls that I remembered was still just as good under the title Black Forest, a refreshing take on the theory of Sasquatch with some really well developed plot twists and red herrings. For a low budget film this should worry Hollywood, thouroghly enjoyed this and highly recommend.

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

JarJar is no longer worst thing about star wars

[25 May 2018]

Well, I wanted to give this a chance, I had faith in Ron Howard and the cast was impressive. However, I have to say I thought this was weak, for me I think Star Wars is now dead, for other people it might still be entertaining but for me the magic has gone. To start with Alden isn't too bad but he lacks the roguish charm of Harrison, also he is revered to many times as 'boy' or 'kid' yet he looks like he's in his 30's! Plus no chin scar origin which would've been nice! Secondly I believe we have a new contender for most annoying character ever L3 has taken JarJars crown! Thirdly no real villain, paul bettany as always delivers a great performance but only so much he can do with poor writing and basically a lack of a decent story. Ok so we get answers to the Kessel run and how Han got the falcon, plus a nice meeting between Han and Chewie but storywise nowt seemed to grab my interest. What's all this about Han and his gold dice, am I missing them once the original trilogy or is this just a weak nod to last jedi same with the let's mention scariff to tie in with the far superior Rogue One! The characters lacked emotion and depth and the ending! Well, how is Darth Maul alive and ignoring that why did me need to fire up his sabre? To me that was a reason to reconfirm that this is actually a Star Wars film as not much else felt like this is supposed to be in the same universe.

Mama (I) (2013)

beware the woods

[8/10 · 17 September 2017]

Based on the success of the short, Guillermo del Toro presents this feature length version of Andy Muschietti's vision. First off, the 15 certificate filled me with foreboding. When are we going to start seeing horror 18's again! But saying that this film does have it's fair share of jumps, throw in to the mix a spirit who's 'Grudge' like noises definitely creeped me out and will make me check my closet before going to sleep his evening. the film follows two young girls who are abandoned in a cabin in the woods by their estranged father for 6 years before their uncles efforts to find them succeed.

They are rescued and taken in by their uncle and his reluctant girlfriend but who has been looking after them all this time? I was fairly impressed with the overall aesthetics of this movie and it confirms my suspicions that Europeans are indeed the masters of horror. Yes this is technically a remake, but a remake of the directors own short film made 6 years previous and not a pointless scareless rehash that seems popular in the states of late. Muschietti's ability to take us on a journey through the eyes of not just Annabel but also of the two young girls was expertly driven, normally kids in movies make me reach for the remote to change channel but these two were fantastic.

Jessica Chastain's portrayal of Annabel was very believable as a woman not ready for the burden of motherhood but she carries the role exceedingly well and the film is as much her journey as that of the kids and of the 'what' that has been looking after them.

Watch it if you were disappointed with Drag me to Hell or Don't be Afraid of the Dark as this is far better

Leon's Broken Mind (2011)

Deranged Mind

[28 October 2011]

I'm a great fan of underground films getting the exposure they deserve and was very grateful to get my hands on a copy of Leon's Broken Mind. From the very beginning of the film we are introduced to Leon, a fantastic performance by Richard Robotham who at times I forgot I was watching an actor and thought he was actually a mentally disturbed individual, fantastic acting and somewhat disturbing as the events that unfold are most definitely centred in the extreme.

The film is very well executed with great performances from all which is a pleasure to see on an indie project. The fx are good and there are several moments guaranteed to shock

There are some obscene scenes that the censors will disapprove of but thats the appeal of this film, its one of those films that i can see becoming a talking point in the underground independent film world, one of those films that will turn up on someones shelf and instigate a cult following.

The Kidderminster Killer film, also from the same filmmaker, makes an appearance during an in joke within the film where Leon is given the film free of charge as its not supposed to be at the store. Bazz Hancher is a director who isn't afraid to hold back.

So if you can stomach the obscenities on display here, definitely keep an eye out from the deranged mind of Bazz

Won Ton Baby! (2009)

the rebirth of a genre

[8/10 · 6 March 2011]

Sitting down to watch this at its UK premiere at the Gorezoe Weekend of Horror I wasn't exactly sure what I was about to see.

This homage to 80's shock horrors like Basket Case and Childs play was everything i could have wished for and then a swift kick in the nuts to follow.

From the start I felt I was watching something that I perhaps shouldn't be. the Low production costs and sometimes shaky camera and off framing made this feel like a very underground independent film, luring me in with the expectation of something gross to come in the final reel Once the arrival of the title character hit the screens I found myself in pain form laughing so hard. having seen promo photos of Baby, what you see on the screen is a fantastic well executed puppet that is far better than I imagined and what he does on screen is both insane and hilarious and I'm sure everyone who watches this will try to impersonate baby's crazy noises, I know I did this is a fantastic horror comedy that gives you everything you could want from the genre. gore, shocks, sex, drugs, a freaky perverted baby, an Elvis impersonator and hell of a lot more.

This is definitely worth watching