Neil_Durrant Reviews

Brown and Friends (2022– )

Best kid's TV show in a long time

[10/10 · 7 January 2023]

Evening watching with the kids can be painful sometimes, when they insist on watching the most banal stuff being churned out on the computer animation conveyor belt.

Every now and then though, a gem comes along, and this is one of them. Laugh out loud moments are there for both kids and adults alike, and some episodes are brilliantly surreal. There are regular film references to keep parents entertained, but everything else is clear enough for children to understand and enjoy.

The characters are a great mix, and some of them, especially the duck, are downright hilarious. Lastly, the art style and quality of animation are top-notch and stand out from the pack, especially the, slightly surreal, colour choices.

Don't miss it, even if you don't have kids!

Midsommar (2019)

Honestly - so bad it's good

[5/10 · 22 February 2021]

I thoroughly enjoyed watching this film, but for all the wrong reasons. It was so predictable and hammy that I found it hilarious, laughing away at the plot points me and my wife saw coming a mile off, and the simplistic, incredibly shallow writing of the characters.

Their reaction to things is just utterly bonkers. Anyone who could imagine themselves in the situations in this film is immediately asking themselves: "What? What are you doing? What about what just happened? Why would you do that? No - stop! Why wouldn't you just say 'x,y,z?'" THE WHOLE TIME.

I have to say, realism is just simply absent in the characterisations, and the cast come across as literal stupid zombies. However, the cinematography, setting, set design and tone of the movie are top-notch, so I ended up being able to sit through and enjoy it, just because of the effort that was put in to the visuals and audio. Also the creepiness factor is reasonably high with the supporting cast, who do a great job creating a compelling atmosphere.

The best bad film I've ever seen, and I mean that sincerely, therefore I give it a 5 for giving me an evening filled with laughter.

Ma (I) (2019)

Enjoyable, original, clever and well acted

[8/10 · 16 February 2021]

What do you do in a horror film these days? Every filmmaker who tackles the task with the intention of being original ends up with an almost impossible task, because it's ALL been done.

This film is way above average, and you can really see the effort that's been put into not falling into traps other films do. Also the character writing is very well done - even minor players are interesting and far from being a cliche teen flick, it conveys a "slice of life" really well, despite the initial setup being one we've seen so many times.

Well worth a watch if you have "horror film fatigue", I found it to be something refreshing, entertaining and well put together. The ending is not the best, but compared to other modern horror films, I think it does the job quite well.

8 stars for entertaining me where plenty of other higher rated films simply did not.

Possession (1981)

The Emperor's New Robe

[4/10 · 15 October 2020]

This film makes no sense. No, really, not from any perspective at all. If compared to Eraserhead, which seems a common comparison, well, there is no comparison. Eraserhead is funny and charming, with amazing sound design and this film is neither. It's as if it has no soul.

The aesthetics are good, with some fascinating glimpses into old West Berlin, but the markedly austere cinematography is from two decades before, and the soundtrack is jarring and dated, even for 1981 - loads of overbright, shimmering synths and "unsettling" music that mostly misses the mark. There are films from ten years previous that had moved well beyond this kind of screechy, scratchy rubbish.

The plot.. About the plot: There is no plot. An "art" film supposedly, one watches with the carrot of some kind of resolution or sense being made, and is rewarded only with the stick of bemusement.

Supposedly it all makes sense if we read of the plight of the filmmaker and his thought processes and trauma at the time, but why should we? At least Roman Polanski made some sense, and he was hounded by the Nazis, amongst other things, far eclipsing the messy divorce and passport troubles this guy had.

Certainly a memorable film, but there's no excuse for not making it the decent arty horror piece it could have been by simply tying up a few narrative loose ends and making a more cohesive plot.

A Cure for Wellness (2016)

Outstanding, but some wasted potential.

[7/10 · 10 October 2020]

Overall an enjoyable film. Nothing was jarring or made me roll my eyes, the sets are beautiful and the acting, especially from the lead is particularly impressive, at least at the start of the film. I was definitely getting some Fight Club atmosphere from the washed out palette and the genuinely gritty acting - definitely a good way to draw the viewer in.

Wellness gradually and deftly changes tone, though with slight notes of cliché, and the gothic atmosphere creeps in nicely. What I was particularly impressed with - for a horror film - is that there was not a single moment when I was thinking "why don't they just...?". Pretty rare to come across that.

However, as the end draws near, the plot-holes and unanswered questions appear, and the film starts to feel rushed. The "Grand Finale" feels tacked on from another film. Also, as much as I was entertained, I wasn't remotely uncomfortable at any point, let alone scared.

It feels like a poor man's Shutter Island, but if you liked that film, you will assuredly enjoy this one.

The Sopranos: Irregular Around the Margins (2004) Season 5, Episode 5

The Nadir of a Depressing, Confused Series 5

[3/10 · 4 August 2020]

This episode had me cringing - every element of the story was rushed, like Tony having cancer seemingly just to make a conversation piece for his sudden bond with his nephew's fiance. In previous seasons this would have been handled much more expertly, in this season everything seems to be being shoved into the grinder at once to make the most AMAZING episode EVER.

Suddenly Tony does coke. Suddenly everyone is disloyal and spreading rumours behind Tony and Chris's backs like children. Suddenly the therapy sessions become unga-bunga caveman stuff, literally insulting the viewer's intelligence:

"Oh, you did not sex woman? Good!" "Yes, I mature. I strong to avoid temptation of flesh!" "But no, you are wise man, better to not sex woman, not have to be strong, but always wise elder for young to look up to" "This is good idea, I will avert disaster because of this".

If the series hadn't been so nuanced and well crafted before this utter dross, I don't think I'd have been so utterly disappointed.

Wild Horses of Newbury (1997)

The Oak

[10/10 · 25 May 2020]

A poignant, almost fantastical moment, captured as the way is brutally cleared for a motorway in Newbury, England.

The film and its commentary would have been a powerful enough document, even without the surprise visitors that came, distraught, almost magically and brought tears to the eyes, even to those of the chainsaw wielding workmen.

Better Watch Out (II) (2016)

Sick of "Horror" films? This one will Whet your Appetite again

[9/10 · 24 December 2019]

We love a good horror film in our house, but there are so few genuinely exciting (horrifying?) horror films in the world that it only takes a few years to run through them all, if you're a regular viewer. This one, thank goodness, still had its rating intact at 6.5 - amazing given the pearl-clutchers at work in this very section: "Oooh! I thought it would be a nice film!!" "How dare they advertise falsely, it looked like the type of bland teen flick I like!" I'm incredulous. The genius of this film is precisely what these people are complaining about. It is LABELED clearly as HORROR. I think what's led to people being thrown off balance is the fact that the term "Horror" has been diluted. This film IS truly horrifying, a breath of fresh air if you ask me. Yes it is deceptive, yes it goes very far, yes it should! This does not make it a bad film, it makes it great entertainment. To make a review that "answers" other reviews is a little vulgar, I know, but this is a worldwide gauge of merit, that anyone worth their salt checks before watching a film. I hope that some more people can get the pleasure me and my wife did by checking this gem out, that had us howling with laughter and fear in equal measure.

Recommended.

Joker (I) (2019)

One of the few films I've seen that seemed too short

[9/10 · 2 November 2019]

It wasn't too short, it was the perfect length I think, but I wanted more. No scene overstays its welcome, there just always happens to be something extremely watchable happening, and when it ended, I couldn't believe it was the end. There were quite a few references to other films, and the handling of the "origin" was impeccable. I can't see how it could have been done better to fit in with the canon of nearly all the iterations. Pretty much flawless.

And the nonsense about "incels" and "inciting violence" is beyond ridiculous and should be ignored - part of the pendulum being at one end of the scale for most "respectable" sources and pundits desperate to sell their content.

The Eyes of My Mother (2016)

Fatuous Tripe

[3/10 · 5 February 2019]

This film may come across quite well if you're naive of the likes of Lynch and the Cohen Brothers, but having seen it done SO much better, to me this film is try-hard mindless nonsense. To get away with this kind of aesthetic and style, you need a compelling plot for it to hang from, so that it acts as dressing as you journey along, absorbed. This film just strings along a lot of "arty" shots with a girl with a black bob and enough loose ends to tie you up in frustration at the sheer over-reliance on genre.

Dirty Money (2018–2020)

A setup for the last episode and its agenda

[6/10 · 5 September 2018]

Up until the last (the heralded 'DT') episode, this series is a compelling look into the world of hard-nosed business practices and their consequences. Skirting the edge of the law, or all-out breaking it, the companies featured are hauled over the coals and brought to shame. All very compelling until the last episode, featuring Donald Trump. If you're an avowed Trump hater, this episode will have you cooking up popcorn and nodding sagely at the "revelations" that are cranked out. As an impartial viewer, my first thought was "this episode is not like the others". It was basically a hit piece, going over a few less than salubrious projects he'd engaged in, and wheeling out dusty contractors who hadn't been paid in full, along with a slightly odd ex-employee who provided the bulk of the talking head content, clearly with an axe to grind. So basically, a long, elaborate buildup of sleazy context, all to shed doubt on their bogeyman. Sad.

Afflicted (2018– )

An impartial review of this remarkably objective series

[9/10 · 29 August 2018]

There's clearly been a stir over this series in forums for people with esoteric conditions, hence this campaign of one star reviews. If the authors had watched the series and given any specifics, I'd be less disgusted. As it stands, ordinary people have been drowned out by biased activists and the rating has been trashed, a real shame.

From an ordinary viewer's perspective, Afflicted plays it straight down the line. It's not fawning, but neither is it sceptical. When expensive therapy is being filmed, a message sometimes comes up on the screen explaining why the person is putting whatever it may be into their body, or "Detoxing" by some bizarre method or other - the foot bath taking the prize for idiocy. The text is noncommittal, e.g. "Some say that x helps to cleanse the body of toxins". So far watching the series, this is the only aspect that isn't 100% supportive of the participants, but to fawn over unproven treatments that are bankrupting and breaking up families for no clear purpose would be utterly ridiculous.

If the participants DO have a problem with the film, it can only be that looking in the mirror was a shock. There are a few sequences that were clearly not expected to be used, showing warts and all the sometimes transparent behaviour that I'm sure would have led to damaged egos. I must add at this point though that there were some sufferers that came off very well, and lent lots of sympathy from the viewer toward their clearly terrible predicament - this with exactly the same treatment from the producers.

in fact, the plethora of fake one star reviews is to be expected, given some of the personalities involved. I do think it's unfair to the makers of the film, as they have created something interesting and eminently watchable about a subject generally avoided by mainstream television.

Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (2016)

Not Werner's best outing

[5/10 · 6 February 2018]

This documentary promises to shed light on the history of the internet, especially the time before the invention of the World Wide Web, in 1990. What we get instead is a procession of middle aged kooks pontificating randomly on AI takeover, sun spot events and the end of the world, and the internet being embedded into walls.

The framing of most of the interviews is quite flippant. Normally a WH documentary is irreverent, but fond. Here though the viewer feels like an intruder into the world of a series of out-of-step eccentrics, whom the internet had long since left behind and taken on a life of its own - this being brought painfully into view when the question "does the internet dream of itself"? is raised.

It seems what was intended to be a film about the, mostly undocumented, innocent history of the pre www internet, took on a life of its own as the subjects started rambling about other things. It ended up showing only the wide-eyed naiievety of both Herzog and the interviewees, as they wandered away from their areas of expertise and into what is essentially uninformed futurology.

There was a veteran "Hacker", who "hacked" into this and that, we're told. That he'd done 99% of his "hacking" by calling companies and pretending to be a manager wasn't made clear. A bizarrely posed family who'd had a picture of their daughter that had fatally crashed on a joyride in the father's Porsche published online, told us the devil was in the internet, listing some nasty things that had been emailed to them about their daughter and her death. In the same vein, an apocalyptic prediction by three fervent geeks, who think we're on the edge of a societal collapse caused by solar flares.

All in all, the film misses the mark. If it had been presented a bit differently, I think it would have been a more worthwhile watch, but as it is, it comes across as nothing more than the poking of some Silicon Valley eccentrics with a stick, and seeing what they do.

What the Health (2017)

Four stars for the production values, but the film ultimately fails

[4/10 · 24 January 2018]

Firstly, let me say that this documentary is very watchable, and the production values are high. It's nice and easy to watch. However..

Right from the image of red blood cells being "coated" with cholesterol supposedly coming straight from an egg yolk, to the statement that all protein comes from plants, to the bewildered obese woman suddenly cured of everything by eating no meat for a while (Hallelujah!), down to the hilarious claim that veganism can cure blindness - this film is more religious manifesto than documentary.

On the subject of curing blindness, I'd actually joked a little earlier in the film that "I bet they'll say it cures blindness next". Oh how we laughed when they wheeled in someone that said it did. The religious, cultish overtones are way too visible, because they went too far in the end with the agenda pushing.

I am completely unbiased on this subject, and only have a basic knowledge of nutrition. Up to the middle of the film, me and my wife were nodding and considering lowering our meat intake, but then it started to get so absurd, that it was even noticeable to lay people like us. Even we knew that the stuff in the computer graphics and diagrams was at best simplification, and at worst outright misinformation.

Then came the two "meat victims", who were magically cured just by putting them on a vegetarian diet. This was simply insulting to the intelligence, especially as one of them was on oxycodone (supposedly as an antidepressant), and claimed that through pure veganism, she no longer "needed" to take it.. Uh huh.. So veganism can replace one of the best, physically addictive buzzes known to humanity? (Hitler's time in the bunker was probably the best known Oxycodone withdrawal).

Lastly, my biggest gripe of all was that there was NO mention of QUANTITY of food. This is the single biggest factor in weight control, which is hugely important for health. Even vegans would get fat and unhealthy if they don't watch how MUCH they eat.

So the film fails, even in its putative goal - the reason being that it only works on the already converted. All of the "I WISH I COULD GIVE ELEVEN STARS" reviews are from one demographic alone: religiously fervent vegetarians and vegans. Scientists and healthcare practitioners are scoffing and debunking, and the rest of us omnivores are left bewildered due to the clearly nonsensical information given, especially in the latter half of the film.

Bright (I) (2017)

A reasonable romp, elevated from the rest by a neat fusion of genres.

[7/10 · 18 January 2018]

Bright is set in a parallel Los Angeles, where mythical creatures live alongside humans, combining the "downtrodden cop/partner", and fantasy adventure playbooks. You can infer to your heart's content from the roles of the different races and their parallels in our own society, and the humour is unsophisticated, but serviceable.

There's nothing new here at all really, but the film is well made and shot, and there are enough good ideas to keep you in your seat.

Whispers (III) (2015)

WARNING Fake reviews

[1/10 · 9 May 2017]

This film is one of the worst I've ever seen. The plot is formulaic dross, production values are through the floor, the acting is wooden.. The general quality is awful in every way shape and form. I spent money to watch this film because of its high ratings, and feel like I have been conned out of this money. I think it's despicable that an awful, two-bit vanity project like this can be rated higher than hundreds of films that wipe the floor with it.

Please do not endorse this gaming of IMDb's system. The site is vulnerable to fake reviews, that much is clear, but this is the worst example I've seen - nearly every single review is fake and there are tens of them.

Bordering on criminal.

The Last House on the Left (2009)

A horror film strangely cathartic.

[8/10 · 5 June 2009]

Most classic horror films have a big black, monolithic slab of horror that lasts nearly their entire length. This nearly always includes ridiculous incompetence from the "goodies", a seeming omnipotence on the part of the "baddies" (whether supernaturally endowed or not), and that merciless, terrifying violence that we secretly love to see, while ostensibly rooting for the vulnerable flowers as they're smashed against things and stabbed.

This film has all of these things in the first half, but mercifully seems to have minimised the more irritating aspects of horror. It's almost as if the makers, crazy though this sounds, actually put some thought into what might be running through viewer's minds, rather than just doing the same things that everyone else does.

Then, joy of joys, the film starts to become quite a pleasure to watch. It's not a jarring change, and it's not just because things go nicely (they don't, to be honest). No, it's because plausibility, a thing so rare in shockers down the ages, steps in and rescues The Last House on the Left from mediocrity. Recommended.

Blue Velvet (1986)

Gratuity.. Where?

[8/10 · 21 March 2008]

A film like this should be watched with only the utmost trepidation, or that's the impression I'd been given by most reviews and comment I'd seen regarding the film. Now, don't get me wrong, I will agree that Blue Velvet does contain some graphic scenes, but really now, I've seen worse, a lot worse. I really feel I must convey this by putting a short review here, as there is so much talk of this film being borderline unwatchable.

Anyway, to the film itself. The direction and pacing was satisfactory; not being an expert on either, all I can say is that the film never left me bored, and I was kept glued to the screen wondering what was going to happen next - a good watching experience. Never at one point did I think that even one tiny part of the film was gratuitous in it's use of violence, and there is a strong undercurrent of innocent, and not so innocent, romance. The viewer is kept guessing about a lot of the character's intentions during what is essentially a great detective story.

Anyway, as you can see, I'm no film expert, but while this isn't "one for all the family" I think there are a lot of people missing out on Blue Velvet due to it's reputation. Don't be one of them, give this great film a try.