arcticurse Reviews

1883: This Is Not Your Heaven (2022) Season 1, Episode 10

and It was beautiful

[10/10 · 18 February 2024]

Well I was in tears the whole episode. Beautiful acting, emotion, script, music, scenery - the whole package.

I don't even watch westerns, but I came here from Yellowstone to see how it all began, and I'm glad I did. The series plays like one long epic film.

Every character remaining gets their story rounded off. I really loved Elsa's narration over the whole series. And while some got tired of her young ways, I felt she was like a Khaleesi character. Breaking the rules and living how she wants, but then being brought back down to earth in the harsh reality of life.

It was moving and all the actors played their parts amazingly. Thank you Sheridan for this masterpiece.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond (2020–2021)

Boring

[3/10 · 30 December 2022]

I only watched the first 2 episodes. They were pretty boring, and the cast of kids were also vapid tickboxes. (The only character I liked was the nerdy kid).

As an adult its pretty impossible to be entertained by teenagers making stupid decisions, making childish jokes and having annoying 'drama' and attitude. I won't be watching any more.

Anyone who watches the main show will know all the tricks in the book by now when it comes to survival - its not really entertaining to watch sheltered kids being complete novices at this point i

I gave 3 stars for having some quite nice music, the flashbacks were well filmed, and a very tiny glimpse of the state of human settlement in the walking dead world.

The Walking Dead: Rest in Peace (2022) Season 11, Episode 24

One of the Best series finale of any show

[9/10 · 26 November 2022]

I expected it to be terrible, most Tv shows final episodes end up annoying many viewers, or being unsatisfactory.

However this was brilliant! The acting and music was superb. There was just the right amount of sentimental monologues and flashbacks.

I can't believe this show is over. Its suffered hugely since Rick left but there are still characters I love (Daryl, Carol, Negan).

I was feeling at a loss until the end of the show where they revealed 3 new spinoffs coming. I knew about the Daryl spin off, and the Rick movie, but a Maggie/Negan one too?!

Walking dead may have passed its peak but I'm excited to see the characters we love in more stories.

Fear the Walking Dead: The Beginning (2021) Season 6, Episode 16

Pretentious but decently entertaining

[6/10 · 26 August 2022]

The segmented episode with the black screens and poignant quotes feels very pretentious for what is a thoroughly average show.

It might work in certain cinema, but the fact is none of the characters in this show are deep or believable enough to get away with it.

A lot of time is spent dealing with Dakota, who should have just been removed for everyone's safety a long time ago, while Morgan and Grace continue to grieve. A random character manages to off herself and deliver a baby to them, so hopefully that will cheer these two up at last.

There's plenty of moral statements in this episode about being 'one's true self', but again it falls a bit flat when most of the characters are either unlikeable or act out of character in order to move the plot in a certain direction.

There's some decent action and shots of the missile, but Morgan's plot armour is so thick he only has to lie under a truck on an open beach to be safe lol I hope to see Strand stick to his word and be his true back-stabbing self in the next series purely for the entertainment.

I actually thought some Lucky Coincidence would stop the missile going off, because surely the characters in the main Walking Dead show would see/feel the impact of these bombs? They're not that far away.

The Walking Dead: The Rotten Core (2022) Season 11, Episode 14

something not quite right

[6/10 · 30 June 2022]

The last couple of episodes have had lots of action which is great, but something just feels off. The characters we love are spread out all over the place, and going on suicide missions for little gain. I also refuse to believe any 'community' is surviving at this point in time without extensive farming/fishing - there surely cannot be anything left in the state for this apartment block of 40 people to scavenge :\

I really dislike the time skips mid-episode too. Not only is it annoying, its also left me confused as to what happened when. So Negan is now married and his wife pregnant - didn't he leave our group just a month ago??

I cant get past the fact that Daryl is seemingly completely happy being a grunt and living in a rubbish apartment. This guy who always wants to be free out in the wild. I get that he's caring for Judith but surely she could just go back to Alexandria now?

There's a nice 'Carol moment' in this episode, and a good set up for the future with Negan and a very well-fed Hershel (not that we will probably ever see this reckoning)

Dexter: New Blood: Sins of the Father (2022) Season 1, Episode 10

Ruined

[3/10 · 15 January 2022]

I was ready to give this episode a 10, until the end.

What the heck?! Do the producers not want money?

This spin off was far superior to the last few series of original Dexter and could have made a ton of money if it carried on. There are still plenty of fans out there!

What a complete waste.

Landscapers (2021)

Surreal and moving but some off-putting characters

[8/10 · 30 December 2021]

I love Thewlis and Coleman as actors and they really shine in this surreal crime-drama. The story-telling and dream sequences will be too slow and odd for many to appreciate, but I really enjoyed them.

Cinematography was excellent with almost every shot in the series being beautiful or interesting. Despite the crimes involved I did find the couple very endearing - they way they loved each other so completely was charming in itself despite their difficult lives.

My only annoyance (which others seem to share) was the police characters. They were all depicted as being stupid, swearing simpletons. The lead female cop was the only bearable one, but she was also quite a nasty piece of work.

Hannibal: Digestivo (2015) Season 3, Episode 7

Just not feeling it

[6/10 · 10 December 2021]

Season 3 has been a real chore for me to get through. I was told it was bad but saw many high reviews on this site.

This episode wraps up the main story so far in a satisfactory way, but comes nowhere close to the masterpiece season 2 final episode.

The lack of 'CSI' stuff this season, overload of dream sequences, psychobabble and general depravity wasn't entertaining for me.

My favourite scenes in S1-2 were always those with Hannibal and Will. This season it takes an eternity for them to meet and when they do Hannibal just tries to kill him anyway, despite being his 'friend'? I get that they attract and repel each other at the same time, but it feels like there is no payoff to the story - I wanted Will to just get on with it and try to kill him, or go off into the sunset with him.

I will be leaving the series here. I saw it goes back to the FBI and a new killer for the last few episodes but I am completely burnt out with this season.

The Walking Dead: On the Inside (2021) Season 11, Episode 6

Scariest episode yet!

[9/10 · 15 October 2021]

I've noticed this season is much darker and more horror-filled than all previous ones (whisperers were very creepy though). Shame its taken until the last season to get this intense!

Raised by Wolves: Umbilical (2020) Season 1, Episode 9

Suspenseful, but sometimes confusing

[7/10 · 8 October 2021]

The story continues to drop us little hints about what's going on, 'Lost' style. Personally I love the mystery.

It was an enjoyable episode but one thing was a bit confusing.

Tempest tells us she was raped onboard the Arc, and recognises the voice of the rapist when she finds some 'being' in the ship wreckage. I could not tell if this was supposed to be an android or human.

Mother's 'pregnancy' is pretty disturbing but I guess her creator plans to continue humankind by creating a human-android hybrid though her.

Its great to see Father back, but Markus disappointingly has gone completely off the rails. Atheist-turned-religious, paranoid, yet somehow the other silly Mithrak follow him round. I hoped he would be an antagonist of sorts as I love Travis Fimmel (come on you can't help but be on Ragnar's side). Is his story over already?

The ghost theme is still driving me mad. We get some more hints about it in this episode. I kept wondering if its something to do with the planet itself bringing people (and mouse) back to life in some way if you fall in the pits.

Overall a decent episode, if you're enjoying the show so far.

The Vampire Diaries: I Was Feeling Epic (2017) Season 8, Episode 16

Emotional end to a rough final season

[7/10 · 12 September 2021]

After the masterpiece of series 1 to 3, and some of the terrible series after, its finally over.

The final 20 mins of the episode sum up the end of our character's lives as they 'find peace'. Yes I cried my eyes out. There were many cameos of our old favourites and the sad music just made it very emotional.

I think they handled it quite well by not showing the mortal lives of those who were left, just the final destination.

For me it should have always been Stefan and Elena. Stefan's relationship with Caroline never felt convincing (she should have gone off with Klaus!). Glad they got Nina Dobrev to return for this episode, as I heard she chose to leave the show a few series back.

Overall its a decent end to the show, but it certainly left me hankering to re-watch the first few seasons again when the show and characters were at their best.

Supernatural: The Trap (2020) Season 15, Episode 9

Finally...

[8/10 · 4 April 2021]

Pretty good episode: not so much in the way of action, but plenty of emotions and some pretty moving scenes.

The best part was Dean FINALLY forgiving Cass. Its been driving me mad the last couple of seasons how awkward and unforgiving Dean has been. At least its now said (nice performance from Jensen). Sam also struggles with the knowledge of what will happen if they trap Chuck. We all know he goes with his emotions, but was what he saw even true?

Supernatural: The Rupture (2019) Season 15, Episode 3

Plenty of action but some difficult emotions

[8/10 · 3 April 2021]

The episode is action packed and entertaining, great performance from Rowena - its sad to see another great character go, but she did it for the greater good.

The most bothersome aspect for me yet again is Cas and Dean's relationship. Cas has made some huge mistakes in the past, but when he's there, hes There for the boys, like family. For the past few seasons Dean has just been awful to him, its a wonder he stayed around so long. The end of the episode was heart wrenching to see Dean treat Cas in such a way. A big portion of the fans love these guys, and the writers seem determined lately to break them apart and let Dean be miserable for ever more. As the final series I would have liked to see some reconciliation.

The Walking Dead: Find Me (2021) Season 10, Episode 18

Nice nature, bit of a retcon

[7/10 · 1 April 2021]

This ep has some of the most gorgeous nature scenes in the whole series, which boosted my score. Also the cute Dog scenes of course.

The scenes between Carol and Daryl were good, and I'd say they were good between the flashback character too except it felt like a rewriting of what we knew.

All this time we thought Daryl had been out in the wilds looking for rick, whereas he was basically living with this woman for half that time.

I've always enjoyed that Daryl was never 'paired off' with someone, as characters always are in Tv series. He was just a great team member, brother, friend. This episode felt like it needed to force a relationship for the sake of it.

Tenet (2020)

Disappointing chaos

[5/10 · 18 December 2020]

I consider Inception to be a masterpiece in every way. I was so excited to see this film, but couldn't even finish it.

There's plenty of action and great set pieces but the story is just a clusterfudge, delivered at 100mph. I enjoyed the main characters: the main guy was bad ass and robert pattinson has great chemistry, but the others...not so much. In fact I could barely pick up on what the characters' names were, things were moving so fast. With such a complicated story which didn't seem to make sense, dialogue delivered super fast and fairly mumbled I simply did not know what the hell was going on. Also there were few crazy visuals or epic music. The whole film has some trance track going on (which reminded me of the equally underwhelming Pulse by Danny Boyle). No Hans Zimmer here I'm afraid. The main pro's of the movie were: good stunts, action and real set pieces (rather than CGI), A cool couple of main characters. Other than that I'm afraid I couldn't recommend this movie, such a disappointment.

In the Heart of the Sea (2015)

The Revenant at sea

[8/10 · 31 October 2020]

This is not a monster film, its mainly about the hardships and survival of the whaling crew. There's an all-star cast - I was constantly shouting at the screen as I recognised side-characters like Kat Stark from Got, Nick from Fear the walking dead. The acting, cinematography and music are excellent, so I'm surprised this doesn't have a higher rating. As another reviewer said, the visuals are like an oil painting: The clouds, water lighting are all beautifully shot, and the CGI is excellent. There's a fair amount of action with the whaling, but most of the film is focused on the characters, which are all brilliantly portrayed by the lead actors. The depictions of nature, isolation and survival really reminded me of The Revenant. Watch this if you like survival films

Buddy Boy (1999)

an interesting but rather slow film

[9/10 · 14 August 2010]

I discovered this as i was hunting for Aidan Gillen films, and saw it had decent reviews. I wont go into the plot, as others have already. OK so this is a 'thinky' psychological film, and it reminded me a lot of the film 'The Machinist' (I'd recommend that if you liked this), but without the stylish effects. I thought Gillen would be too 'pretty' to pull off the role of a social misfit, but his acting is brilliant throughout, and his looks even help us to like the character more. His character is good at heart but completely sheltered. The female character is acted very naturally, though there is a certain ambiguity to her. The invalid mother is also well acted, initially I thought she was pretty light-hearted (if a little eccentric) but as the film progresses we see she has several 'other sides' to her personality.

The film has several themes running through it, which to me, were: the growth of the main character's confidence and opinions(which develops possibly into madness), his changing views on religion, and the relationship with his mother, and of course the mystery of what the female neighbour is up to. There was also a lot of emphasis on some kidnapped little girl, but I wasn't quite sure how this fitted in with the story.

For me, one of the best bits in the film is when Francis challenges gloria about her vegan-ism, and to me it was a parallel with religion. He was pretty devout at the start of the film, and defends that Jesus died for us even though we don't all love him. Yet he shouts at Gloria 'you would rather starve to death than eat a hamburger? You would die for a cow that's already dead?' Towards the end of the film, Francis is more outspoken, and is finally breaking free from the world his mother forces him to remain in, but his obsession with Gloria's eating habits start to rule his life. The whole thing is very ambiguous, and we don't know if it is true or he is just imagining it, and no there is no conclusion at the end! which keeps us guessing.

In terms of style, its not the most eye-pleasing film. As i've said it is similar to The Machinist in it's dreary depiction of life and the surreal, repetitive shots used. The music is fairly un-noticeable throughout the film apart from the blasts of rock music at Francis' workplace, which helps to break up the monotony of the sets used, as its mostly set in Francis or Glorias apartments. the music at the opening credits is very creepy and Silent Hill-ish! Overall I'd say you'll enjoy this if you like psychological films you have to think about. There's little action, and basically no horror, but an interesting watch. My only complaint is that the film is way too long, pretty slow paced and tends to drag on too much in the first half. But give it a go!

Interceptor (2009)

very boring

[1/10 · 13 August 2010]

I love nightwatch/daywatch and picked this up in the supermarket-what a mistake. The story is confusing and nothing or no-one is ever explained. the music is plain even during the action scenes, and not one person in the film had to 'act'. what little dialogue there is is churned out in monotone sentences, and there is no character development. I had to stop this before the end. I was a little tipsy but 15 mins into the film i was stone sober, so i was certainly trying to figure out what was going on. The special effects are pretty dodgy and over used to fill time it seems, at least in nightwatch(which had similar effects) they were put to good use. i wouldn't recommend this film to anyone unless you fancy a dreamy bit of background noise. Sorry if this sounds harsh but i couldn't find anything good about it, waste of £5.

12 Rounds (2009)

not bad but don't spend too much money on it

[5/10 · 11 July 2010]

we rented this film when we were looking for a film full of action, car chases and preferably some nice interesting villains(because they're always the best!) unfortunately it was quite a let down. Yes there is lots of action but it goes beyond entertaining and into the pure ridiculous. The plot is cliché but it should have been a lot more interesting than it turned out to be. The 'challenges' set by the villain were over the top, and the main character seemed to have no problem mowing innocent people down as he rampages through the city to save his girlfriend. The pace of action was relentless, but it was just too much. In good action films like Die Hard there's always some 'downtime' where we can take a breather, maybe learn about the characters, but in 12 rounds it just doesn't stop. The camera shakes all over the place, and the music really annoyed me because it was just CONSTANTLY playing some generic thriller/action tune. The acting was bad. I don't know anything about the main wrestler character but it shouldn't matter, all i know is that the dialogue was appalling for all characters, the main guy didn't change his expression or show any emotion, and the girlfriend was unremarkable. The villain was the only character who kept me watching the film, and even he was pretty monotonous and plain. I've seen him in Queer as Folk and Identity and i know he could do better.

So pro's: non stop action, good stunts cons: basically everything else