mail-553-820891 Reviews

Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar (2022)

The '70's are calling and they'd like their style back

[5/10 · 12 August 2023]

Really, the title of this review says it all. In the 1970's there were a number of cheap Italian knock-off sci-fi movies that were cheap, flashy and stupid. They also had STYLE.

This is pretty much a homage to those movies but with better effects and better actors. Yes, the script is stupid and the lines are awful but incredibly the actors do actually manage to give them some weight. Not a lot of weight, it must be said, but that they managed it at all is very much to their credit. The script manages to throw in some surprises, while (sigh) still including the many predictable scenes you come to expect from low budget movies

It's a very silly movie but it's also a remarkably enjoyable one that manages to decently punch above its low budget and a lot of credit goes to everyone involved in its making. By way of disclaimer - I was NOT involved in the production in any way, nor do I know anyone who was. Nobody goes out of their way to make a bad movie. They try to make a good movie, and with the limited resources available to them they came reasonably close to it.

So, get some popcorn, turn off your brain and enjoy it for what it is. A romp.

Oh, and I just noticed that someone else called their review "The 1970's called, they want their movie back" Ah well, I clearly wasn't the only fan of cheap Italian sci-fi knock-offs.

First Signal (2021)

A story with promise but fails to deliver.

[5/10 · 26 April 2021]

The film starts well, but it quickly becomes apparent that the budget is simply too small for the breadth of vision it tries to engender.

Suffering from some truly dreadful lines and intermittently shaky acting at times the film is dragged down from what could have been a very good film indeed to one that is watchable.

It does manage to maintain a degree of tension fairly consistently throughout, but some tighter editing would have helped. A (even marginally?) greater budget and a (thorough!) polishing of the script to get rid of clunky lines and heavy exposition would have helped greatly, as would have allowing sufficient rehearsal time for the actors. You can tell quite clearly where some of them first began filming their scenes, only to produce stronger performances as filming their scenes proceeded resulting in some very uneven scenes.

Addressing those issues the movie would have punched well above its weight. A misfire, but not a grievously bad one. In short, it's certainly not the masterpiece some reviews would have you believe but it's not the total clunker others would suggest either.

Tangent Room (2017)

An ingenious film, that has rather more solid basis to it's premise than one might think

[7/10 · 27 December 2020]

The basis scenario is set out simply, 4 genius level scientists in different disciplines are set a problem by a deceased colleague to solve within a strict time limit. At first I thought it was a re-telling of the short story "Noise Level" by Raymond F Jones, and certainly it leaves the strong impression that it was originally intended to be so, beginning with the enforced isolation of the scientists and the scepticism shown by them to the situation and to the problem. However, it quickly deviates from that story and instead enters into a situation where it becomes clear that the scientists do not, and cannot possibly have, any control or understanding unless and until they solve the problem. Though the problem is one that cannot be shown cinematically without either great complexity or great simplicity (thankfully the directer went for the latter) it is one that is interesting. Is it worth watching? Yes, but be aware that the movie primarily consists of "talking heads" with a few simple special effects that you won't even notice at first, until they are made obvious to the viewer. More a thought experiment, but with a good cast able to hold your attention

Reminiscence (2017)

This review is taken directly from the TOHO website

[20 March 2020]

Abandoned as a child, Atsushi (Junichi Okada) grew up in the home with orphaned boys like himself: Keita (Shun Oguri) and Satoshi (Tasuku Emoto). And there was Ryoko (Sakura Ando), a mother to them, full of affection and love. Their days were happy...until it all suddenly came crashing to a halt with an incident that tore them apart. 25 years later, Atsushi is a police detective, separated from his wife after a miscarriage. Keita is a building contractor with a wife and a child on the way. Satoshi runs a glass company in Tokyo, inherited from his father-in-law. But saddled in debt, he must rely upon Keita for money. Three disparate and distinct lives, all bearing a secret past, reconnect over Satoshi's death. Atsushi views Keita as a prime suspect while their sealed past with Ryoko threatens to be exposed. "Some things need to be remembered, even if you'd spent your life forgetting." A truth, hidden in a phrase, resparks their lives.

Cosmos (I) (2019)

Sometimes cynicism goes too far...

[8/10 · 8 November 2019]

The film is certainly slow, but it's hardly a problem when the makers of a movie want to take their time in portraying their vision. I have little affection for those who want a "flash, bang" type of movie, usually indicating that they have little sense of story and instead seek a visual spectacular, all too often mindless. This isn't a film for them, and it clearly isn't intended to be. It is a low budget movie with an actual story, and I see no reason why the makers should be expected to apologise for that. It's a story of people, and their search for something outside themselves, and to their utter amazement they find it. Simple, clean and well worth watching. If you don't like it then so be it, but don't indulge in cries of "fake reviews" or other similar mindless attention-seeking refrains. It is a film that I watched from start to finish with fascination, and there are precious few films I bother to pay that sort of attention to these days. If you want a story well told, with people who are real and have their own foibles then I suggest you watch it and make up your own mind, rather than "follow the herd" in decrying what isn't to your taste. You may be pleasantly surprised