Film Reviews by Schrödinger's Cake

I wasn’t really sure what to expect when this film started out. Mostly as I couldn’t remember ordering it (I think I’d selected it on a whim as part of a war film phase I was going through).

However, it quickly settled into Hollywood plot recipe #3 “underdog overcomes impossible hardships resulting in winning respect from fellow men”. Which is of course, a well-trodden path.

That said, this is still a good film, with moments of horror, laughter and empathic joy. There’s plenty worse that you could choose to watch!

Whilst I do enjoy a good Hollywood blockbuster (complete with obligatory men in vests and exploding aliens), they do tend to alternate between a half-dozen pre-agreed plot lines. Whilst meanwhile, out in the low-budget wilderness, there are original stories aplenty.

Primer is the perfect example of what can be done with a brilliant plot and a limited budget. It doesn’t waste any time on poor quality CGI and special effects, but instead inundates you with an incredibly rich storyline, and immersive dialog and acting. The twists in the plot are a genuine surprise when they come, and yet the overall affect is one of subtle consistency throughout.

A wonderful piece of cinema.

I am in general a huge fan of low-budget films, and can easily overlook a bit of thin plot, and some heath-robinson CGI etc. as long as it does a good job of telling a story. For a great example of this, you could do a lot worse than take a look at Primer: great story, absorbing acting and they have sensibly avoided splurging any of the budget on CGI. Awesome.

D-Day Survivor is the complete opposite: a total car-crash of drama-club acting, terrible effects and a ropey plot.

They’d have been better off adding some canned-laughter and positioning it as a parody…

My daughter and I stumbled upon the trailer for The Facility by chance, and whilst it looked low-budget, it also left the impression of a film that (whilst obviously made to a standard recipe) would also be fun to watch. Sadly, we were completely wrong.

As a general rule, I avoid trailers like the plague. I understand the marketing that drive them to be made of course: it’s just that they almost universally splurge out all the best bits of a film so that watching it becomes an anti-climax.

So as usual (other than the title and the posters) I had no idea what to expect of this film when I got to the cinema. I won’t give away too much though, other than to say that this is one of those films that benefits from being watched through a few times. The storytelling has several subtle side plots woven into the main action, that inevitably work toward a big reveal at the end.

However, without an additional watch-through or two, those unblessed with a photographic memory will miss the relevance of some of the beautiful subtleties that the writers have worked in.

In all, I really enjoyed this film: a bit of action; a bit of subtlety; the odd tear. Time well spent.

You know how when you meet someone for the first time, and within a few minutes they start to be annoying because they’re trying a bit too hard? That’s this film.

It wants to be a grindhouse, spaghetti-western, full of cool, quotable lines, but it ends up just being an awkward cousin. So, as much as you want to give it a chance and to try to like it, you spend most of the film with one eye on the clock waiting for the credits to roll, so you can escape the wall of awkwardness.

I loved this film. Whilst some of the plot aspects are a bit silly and unbelievable, I can easily forgive all that because of the general quality of the filming and acting, and the way the director has managed to keep the tension working throughout. Flawed but fun!

For the most part it is of course a re-hash of the first film in many ways, however if you are having your doubts about watching it, at least catch the opening wedding scene. My daughter and I couldn’t look at one-another for the rest of the evening without bursting into laughter. Silliness at its best.

I really wasn’t sure what to expect when I sat down to watch this, and consequently I ended up being pleasantly surprised. Although the script offers little new (hey, why bother writing original material, when you can recycle the old ad nauseam) both Denzel Washington and Chloë Grace Moretz put in performances that are enjoyable to watch.

Season two takes the broad general recipe from season one, substitutes a few ingredients here and there, then throws it back into the oven to see what comes out.

Gone is the immediate, intense darkness of the first, along with the electric relationship between the two main characters which for me made it so compelling to watch. Sadly, the stunning camera and post-production from the first also seems to have been watered down along the way too; where season one plays like a collection of feature films, season two definitively feels like something made for a TV budget.

The result being that if you simply expected more of the same, you’ll likely be disappointed. However, if you can approach it with an open mind (and can sit-out the first two episodes which are painfully slow) then you’ll be rewarded with some wonderfully rich acting, dialog, back-stories and plot.

Still superb, but just a different flavour of superb...

I’m not usually interested in TV series (well, other than the ubiquitous Game of Thrones), but after a chance encounter with True Detective I was instantly hooked.

The script, filming and acting are all first-class, and the story is delightfully dark, believable and engaging. The characters are instantly engaging, as the writers have managed to avoid falling into the same old hackneyed, 2D stereotypes. Fully rounded characters, with flaws, strengths and back stories that work.

It doesn’t get much better than this!

I found this a really frustrating film to watch. In general, it is the usual low-budget buffet, however, I was left feeling that it could have been good. Maybe even great.

Because if truth be told, if you manage to stick with it, every now-and-then you’ll be pleasantly rewarded with a flash of true insight, or a perfect camera angle, or the inkling of some solid acting. But alas, it quickly slides away, like a surly teenager that has dropped pizza on your kitchen floor, but can’t be arsed to clean it up.

From the outset this anime leaves you with the feeling that all is not as it first appears. Beyond the cute characters, something more sinister is being played out. Well worth the time to watch...

Whilst the acting, filming and direction are all at points excellent, in general this film never really got it together. However, that's not to say that it wasn't enjoyable to watch. For me, it just felt like it could have been great, rather than good.

Of the cast, Jude Law seems to be maturing well as an actor, and I enjoyed watching his character's progression. Ben Mendelsohn is also enjoyable to watch, but neither the role or his portrayal are in the same ballpark as his contribution to Animal Kingdom (if you've not seen it, you could do a lot worse than add it to your todo list).

From the outset Black Sea was gripped with a surly, desperate tension which kept me watching through to the end. But the overall effect was of something that missed the mark.

This film adds nothing to the world model that was already established by the earlier GitS films, and is little more than a half-sibling that recycles some familiar characters and little else. That said, it is still enjoyable enough to watch, and there is a mountain of worse anime that you could pick in its stead. So do you feel lucky punk? Do you?