Change Your Image
HuwWilson650
Reviews
Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)
Better than I expected !
As someone who was 7 when the original was released, I feared that this would be an absolute flop and that you wouldn't be able to recreate the original. While that is true and I feel the new film was dumbed down for a modern audience and was slightly politically correct - I do not feel the film was the let down I thought it would be.
It was wonderful to see the Sanderson sisters back on our screens. The actors were dressed up in a way that made it seem like they hadn't aged. The story was decent but not great and definitely no match for the original but still worth seeing.
However, I feel it made the characters look weak, too emotional and slightly too comical. The original concentrated on storyline but this focused more on popularity and appeal. I feel we will never have the calibre of film that Hocus Pocus (1993) was able to give because we didn't have the restraints that we now have back then....
It was good. It was better than I thought it would be. In truth, I was very worried it would be a total flop and although it wasn't, it's not a film I would watch again (not like the original - which is the real test). Hocus Pocus 2 is not timeless. Hocus Pocus 1 WAS !
Bertie and Elizabeth (2002)
A remarkable account and by the most part extremely accurate.
This programme was by far one of the best accounts of the history of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and King George VI that I have ever seen. The scriptwriters should be commended in placing such valuable historic accounts of this period into such a short space of time. I cannot even begin to express the great detail that the producers and cast went through to make it all the more realistic and the subsequent death of George VI and the reaction of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother was truly heartbreaking. What a remarkable theatrical production, especially in light of Her Majesty's Golden Jubilee celebrations. The programme itself rouses a great sense of National pride and I for one am proud of our monarchy for their achievements during the war years which are accurately described in this moving tribute to them. well done!
Witchfinder General (1968)
A terribly brutal but fantastically directed film.
The film is set in seventeenth century England and bitterly insane witch finder and his assistant are looking for as many witches as is possible to burn or torture for their own frightening lusts. I cannot comprehend in words the sheer brutality of the film itself but it covers largely facts of the time and the character of Matthew Hopkins is portrayed in a rather frightening manner. One cannot imagine how it was like to live in these times under such terrible conditions. Consider if you like being in such a pragmatic position as this. If you tell the truth - nobody believes you and you are tortured, if you lie - you are believed and hung. I remember a comment from another film which describes the feeling "it's a topsy turvy world Cranmer, when a lie would save an honest woman and the truth would strike her dead!". I for one can only say if I lived in these times and under such cruel and terrible conditions I would probably want to die rather than face the unthinkable.