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djalexblanco
Reviews
Murder Is Easy (2023)
Ignore the people moaning about black leads in period drama
Putting a new spin on an old story is nothing new, and occasionally produces real gems, so ignore the people who were always going to hate anything that places brown faces in roles they grew up seeing white ones on TV. Despite the racism of the past, there were a good number of notably successful black and Asian people in Britain and the US (going back a couple of hundred years) - they just weren't in the films and TV shows the people complaining watched as children, and they weren't taught about in schools.
All that said, there are many more legitimate reasons to swerve this adaptation. It just lacked any real sense of jeopardy or tension. The pacing was off. Many of the characters came across as caricatures. There were too many ideas and unfinished / unexplored red herrings and other dramatic devices. All in all, it just felt like it was executed by people who don't love or understand the genre. Worth dozing on the sofa to one Sunday afternoon, but not much more than that, I'm afraid.
Memory: The Origins of Alien (2019)
Not for feminist-haters.
If you're triggered by any hint of what you classify as feminism, you'll suddenly decide you hate this and switch it off a little after halfway due to one tiny interpretation offered up - fleetingly - by one interviewee.
If not, you should give it a try. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Ps For what it's worth I found the five minute 'screeching feminist' take that spawned all the 1/10 scores quite thought-provoking (compelling even), although I'm not actually convinced it was intended by either the writer or director of Alien. It's a bit late to ask the writer, alas, but would love to hear Scott's take on it.
Senior Trip (1995)
One of the best examples of the genre
Having laughed my backside off while still in my teens, continued to laugh my cheeks off with each subsequent viewing in my twenties and now, at the ripe age of 36, having recently split my sides once more on the first viewing in nearly ten years, all I can conclude is that the viewers who conspired to rate Senior Trip (as i will always know it) so badly were clearly watching the wrong kind of film for them. It's perfectly casted, over-the-top, amusingly written and acted and ticks just about every box you want from an occasionally crass teen-comedy... in fact it ticks most boxes twice, and in bold. Do not let the score deceive you. Like Flight of The Living Dead, this is a film I have shared with at least twenty people over the years, of different ages, tastes, backgrounds, genders and religions - and I've not had a single negative response.
Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies (2012)
Not trashy enough to be fun, not good enough to be serious.
Okay, so my expectations weren't sky-high. I knew this was a shameless cash-in flick, made to make the most of the coming big-budget Abe-vampire-slasher movie. First of all, never mind the silly premise - as one reviewer has already pointed out, when you rent a zombie flick you are by definition suspending disbelief. The story too is engaging enough. It's got everything you need... political intrigue, racism, hookers, old love affairs. It even has some not-very-thinly-veiled historical character references and in jokes. Even the production values are pretty good for a low budget production despite the very mixed abilities of the cast. No, where this film falls down is that it simply doesn't deliver in the way that any decent zombie movie must... blood'n'guts. There just aren't any. Sure we see the occasional head flying around, but where are the intestines? Where are the broom handles through the face? There's also no self-aware comedy value, save for one scene where Lincoln shouts 'emancipate this' as he lops the head off another unfortunate zombie. So, my suggestion is avoid unless you really are a die-hard zombie fan that absolutely has to see every zombie film, good or bad.
Sand Sharks (2012)
Amazingly stupid fun! I loved it!
Anybody who watches something so obviously meant to be ridiculous and then complains because it is ridiculous is probably the same kind of moron who lies in the sun and then complains that it is hot. As such, I suggest you ignore the negative reviews on this page. They probably wrote them on the way home from seeing The Who in concert after leaving early and complaining that "it was just too loud in there".
There are two types of terrible movie. The first is best represented by Terror Inside. Badly acted, poorly written and generally excruciating to watch. Almost universally such movies take themselves too seriously (ANY hint of seriousness is too serious).
The second type includes such knowingly comic gems as Flight Of The Living Dead. A ridiculous name which diligently ticks all the boxes, as does the film. We're talking boxes such as a consciously silly script, a good cast of weird and/or attractive stereotypes and the collective tongue jammed so deep in cheek that it resembles a particularly greedy squirrel.
Whenever you are in doubt, the rule of thumb is that the more outlandish the name, the more likely it is to be brilliantly terrible.
But rules are made to be broken. Sand Sharks nearly passed me by, as it is quite a sensible and vague title. Then I saw the 2.7 rating and realised it might well be more preposterous and unashamed than the title suggested. Thank goodness I did.
This is a hilarious, over the top, over-acted and actually quite skilfully constructed comic b-movie-esque homage to Jaws, with a hint of Deep Blue Sea.