crayonzero Reviews

Midnight Son (2011)

Excellent.

[9/10 · 10 March 2013]

An excellent, atmospheric and brooding horror film with a soul. This is not a cheap and tacky gore fest, it is a sharply written and engaging story of a young man who develops a condition that utterly changes his life.

The lead actor, Zac Killberg, inhabits his role totally. He is surely a massive name in the making, the other parts are all solid and convincing. The director, Scott Leberecht is now on my film stalker list. I'll hunt down his next film eagerly.

It is appalling that a film like this is barely heard of while utter drivel like "Transformers" rakes in the millions.

It deserves to be widely seen, so see it.

The Caesars (1968)

Outstanding.

[9/10 · 28 August 2009]

The only reason it is I Claudius, and not The Caesars, that people remember and fawn over today is The Caesars is in black and white and did not get nearly as much hype in its day.

It is a damn shame, as The Caesars is a superior show to I Claudius, from the acting to the choice of actors, to the portrayal of the main characters, it is simply far better.

Augustus, Tiberius, Germanicus, Claudius and Caligula are excellently portrayed here as believable human beings, with human motives, not like the tiresome 2d grotesques and borderline psychotics in I Claudius. Tiberius's character especially moved me.

If only it had been made in colour, it would be vastly more known and have the respect that is due to this wonderful show.

Instead of remaking, I Claudius, THIS should be remade with the same script. It is miles ahead.

Buy it or steal it, you are missing out.

Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003)

Awful. Wrong. Nonsense.

[1/10 · 10 May 2009]

I have rarely been subjected to such outright nonsense in a film that is supposed to be based on a historical figure. A horrible joke of a film, I cringed throughout. Terrible, trite, distorted and riddled with outright lies and half truths.

The famous Hitler biographer Ian Kershaw was to originally be a consultant for this film. However, he found the script to be so historically inaccurate and ridiculous that he refused, and also demanded they stop using his name as a source (it embarrassed him to think people would think he was involved).

One scene shows Hitler beating his dog. There is not one source for this. Hitler loved animals above people. He brought in the strictest animal welfare laws in Europe, banned vivisection and animal experimentation. He was also a vegetarian.

The film turns his gaining of the Iron Cross into a farce, involving bribery. Utter lies. He was awarded it for repeated acts of bravery over a long period of time.

There are no historical documents showing that Hitler ever had a sexual relationship with his niece. Not one.

Apart from these, Hitler is portrayed as a rabid simpleton in this garbage flick.

If he was even half as ignorant, demented and thick as he is in this nonsense film as in real life you would not even know he had ever existed. Never mind become the leader of Germany.

Honestly, this film was utterly terrible.

Go watch Downfall and give this a very wide berth.

The Hunt for Gollum (2009)

Top notch LOTR! Most impressive.

[9/10 · 5 May 2009]

I was truly surprised and very happy to realise that this film was actually very good!

Expecting a well meaning but very flawed fan piece, I have to say my presumptions proved to be nonsense. The hunt for Gollum is a masterpiece in what can be done with talent and determination, regardless of money. It looks good, sounds good, is well written and even has a great fight scene with an Ork war-band.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TEAM BEHIND THIS! Excellent job, thanks a lot for all your hard work!

BTW. for anyone who doesn't know, you can watch it on the official website in HD for free: http://thehuntforgollum.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html

Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire (2006)

Mostly a total farce..... Shame on the writers. Only 2 of the 6 episodes are quite good.

[5/10 · 14 November 2006]

(Edited)

It was frankly overall pretty awful.

But their was a couple of decent episodes with some merit that I watched with actual enjoyment, the Vespasian and Titus one (Rebellion) it was decently acted and portrayed with nice little battle scenes and had some respect for actual historical fact. Also the (Revolution) episode about Tiberius Gracchus was watchable (despite the obvious lack of his historically vital younger brother Gaius).

However, as to the other 4 'episodes', they are for the most part awfully acted, full of garbage characterizations, the scripts are repetitive and weak, the characters vacuous and the show is teaming with inaccuracies and anachronistic behaviour.

Both J.Caesar and Nero are total charades of their actual characters, Caesar, for example, comes across as a creepy effeminate thug who I wouldn't follow into a bar for a free pint never mind against the Roman Republic. I was not keen on Sean Pertwees characterisation of him, he portrayed him as neurotic, unhinged and desperately brutal, (what the hell was the decimation scene all about? this is not historical, Caesar did not decimate a legion), they omitted a LOT of his character and missed out on the charm, clemency and his famous dignitas. It is a shame as I really like Pertwee as an actor otherwise. Ciaran Hines as Caesar (from hbos ROME) was much closer to the mark.

Nero did not kick his wife to death in front of anyone. After coming home drunk, by himself, an argument started up and in the midst of this he lashed out at her and she miscarried and died. He was grief stricken for the rest of his life, he had just lost his beloved Wife and only HEIR. He also did NOT castrate a slave in public to look like his dead wife, (there is a scandalous report of a private (unseen) castration, 'make him a woman' my hole!). He was a thug and he was brutal, but he was not a camp psychopath.

Much of this series has dredged the gossip and vicious rumours of the Ancient world without for one minute questioning the source. And all the while they discount any other dissenting Ancient voice in order to make this show as shocking as they can.

I believe the prime time slot on bbc1 is to blame for this, the dumbing down of dialog and ham-fisted characterizations, in order to appeal to the 'talent show'/soap opera loving crowd, because a soap opera is what many of the episodes resemble.

Essentially I was really disappointed with it, after all that it promised. Plain terrible at times, the only thing going for 4 of the episodes was the decent looking battle set pieces but even these are all show and don't even try to keep your interest beyond the start of the battles.

And they said it would be historically sound? peh. :(

If you haven't seen this series, fear not, you missed little. (just go and watch the Rebellion and Revolution episodes on youtube and ignore the rest).

On a episode rating I would give: Rebellion:8 Revolution:7 Caesar:4 Constantine:4 Nero:3 Fall:5

I, Claudius (1976)

Good fun, but seriously sensationalist.

[5/10 · 23 January 2006]

Is this really as good as its massive rating here? I don't believe so.

The problem is it resembles a tabloid newspaper version of history, a sort of Rome through the eyes of the Daily Mirror or the Sun ( British newspapers of the sex, scandal and Television sort for any confused readers).

As I watched it, it struck me as more like a straight faced version of the Blackadder series than historical drama, minus the laughter track. The characters here are all either psychopaths, idiots, perverts or monsters, and when a character is none of these, they are soon dead.

The acting is good however and i enjoyed watching it, its the faulty characterisations that let it down. Augustus (Octavian) Caesar simply bears no resemblance, physically or characteristically, to the man who totally dominated the roman world through his cunning and political skills and seems more of a brash jolly old shopkeeper, (not to take away from brian blessed who plays the part hes been given well). His wife Livia is like some witch from a fairy story, there is no real support from either contemporary historians or even the later ones with access to the official documents of her having been involved in any of the deaths seen in the show beyond rumor. I could go on but you get the idea...

That said, it is an entertaining program and well acted, but due to the limited money behind it, fans of the far more splendid looking "ROME" by hbo/bbc may be disappointed. If your just now becoming interested about Roman History, do not get this, wait until you've read some more(have a look at this great site :http://www.roman-empire.net/) THEN watch it or you may be put off Rome altogether such is the venom of this work towards all things imperial Roman.

Cheers, Crayon