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stephenbooth-uk
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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Father's Shadow (2012)
Very Frustrating to Watch
I've flagged this as containing a spoiler but I'm not sure you can really spoil an episode that was first shown over 4 years ago.
Really Benson should have been disciplined, probably sacked or at least demoted, for her actions in this episode. After she arrived on the scene where Eddie had taken his girlfriend and her daughter hostage the police had at least 5 low risk opportunities to end the situation. On each occasion Benson prevented them from doing so. She put the girlfriend, the daughter, her police colleagues, the public and her self at unnecessary risk to save Eddie's life. I got so frustrated that I was yelling at the screen "Take the shot!" and "That's a clean head shot there!". At one point one of the ESU at the front door has the muzzle of his weapon less than 6 inches from Eddie's head and a clear path across the apartment, if Benson hadn't interfered he could have ended the situation there and then with no unnecessary risk. Worst case he would have needed some counselling afterwards, but it would have been a textbook good shoot. Because Benson interfered the girlfriend needed to go to hospital, the daughter was traumatised and both Benson and Amaro were put in extreme risk. In the universe of the show she should have been disciplined and probably sacked.
In real life the writers of this episode should be, metaphorically speaking, taken out back and given a good kicking for lazy screen writing. It started out OK but rapidly went down hill, like the main writer had started the script but then gone sick so an intern finished it off the afternoon before filming was due to begin so they had a choice to shoot a very poor quality script or lose money by not shooting anything. It would have been better to miss an episode.
Dragon Hunter (2009)
Abysmal, just abysmal
This film is so bad I'm stuck where to start. The acting? The FX? The plot? The camera work? The costumes? Actually the costumes weren't too bad.
Acting was variable, from fan film to school play. Junior school (that's age 7 to 11, translate to your local education equivalent for non UK people) school play that is. Wooden would be an up. The most rational explanation I can think of is that the cast were basically handed the scripts 5 minutes before each take and not given the chance to even talk to each other. I have seen worse acting from professionals, but only in classes where they are demonstrating how not to do it.
FX were poor, both CGI and physical. The dragon, when you could see it, looked like a stop-motion shot with a mobile phone (my niece makes short films that way, the amusement of herself and friends, so I know the comparison is apt). Camera work was shaky, close to that of the Blair Witch Project or Cloverfield, where at least that was deliberate and part of the story.
The plot was largely absent, narrative causality and storyline were largely missing leaving us with a poorly connected network of events.
To be fair, I didn't see to the end. After just shy of an hour neither I nor my sister could bear to watch any more so we switched off and put "Rachel Getting Married" on. If faced with this film I recommend you do the same.
Stephen
Transmorphers (2007)
Abysmally Good
That this film was being shown on Zone Horror (a channel more used to showing films that aspired to be the sort of films that the Scream trilogy parodied) was the first hint to it's quality. Very low budget, and it showed. Plot sketchy at best, acting not brilliant and FX about what you'd expect from a fan film. The fight scenes were particularly bad (in particular the 'cat fight' in the barracks).
On the other hand, it wasn't as bad as many commenters have made out, certainly better than the normal fare on Zone Horror. Whilst the CGI was poor most of the physical FX were decent enough. Whilst the acting wasn't brilliant I've seen far worse in much higher budget films from mainstream studios, it felt like some more rehearsal or possibly another take would have improved it greatly. All in all it felt rushed rather than bad. Certainly the cast seemed attractive enough to hold one's attention if you're looking for eyecandy and the costumes were good if a little monotonous (though, to be fair, that's what you expect from uniforms).
A number of comments have compared this film to Starship Troopers, and a number have rebutted the the comparison. I think the comparison is,if you take the different in budgets into account, quite fair. Transmorphers is certainly close to Starship Troopers and far better than Starship Troopers 2. Yes it has ripped off plot points and scenes from other films, but then there's nothing unusual about that. Heck, there's an entire art movement based around that, it's called post-modernism! Stephen
The Hottie & the Nottie (2008)
Abysmal (Slight spoiler for something that's covered in the 10 minutes)
I think it says a lot about this film that Paris Hilton is amongst the better performers. The actor she's playing opposite has slightly less emotional depth than a block of wood and seems to be reading his lines off cue cards held over other performers' shoulders.
The script is utterly unbelievable. I'm prepared to suspend disbelief for many films, I'm a big fan of fantasy and Sci-Fi. If, however, you want to set a film in the real world and, more importantly, if you want to send a real world message then you need a believable story line. There are many unbelievable things in this film but the biggest is that Christabel would still be friends with June 20 years later. I can accept that they could be friends in first grade and maybe even stayed friends as far as 5th or 6th, but as soon dating hit Christabel would be out of there and June would be road kill, along with their friendship.
1 out of 10, but only because you can't give negative scores. The only good thing about the film is wardrobe. Some people have praised make up, but frankly any live action role play group has someone who can make an attractive person look ugly.
Stephen
Chance (2002)
Excellent indie film
I was one of the many who contributed to the making of this film (my name is in the closing credits) and hoped it would be good.
I wasn't disappointed.
It's not a Hollywood blockbuster by any stretch of the imagination, how could it be with such a small budget and having been shot over, literally, a couple of weekends? In many ways a fairer comparison is with Kevin Smith's "Clerks", which "Chance" matches and probably exceeds, and look at where he is now! There are many far worse films made with far bigger budgets and far longer shooting periods.
If I have any criticism of the film it would Andy Hallet. Having seen him in Angel (as "The Host"/"Krevlornesloth") and elsewhere I can't understand why his performance just doesn't seem to work. Perhaps, as this was shot in breaks in filming of "Buffy" and "Angel", the time crunch got to him and he was just tired. His character just didn't seem to work.
Stephen
Enduring Love (2004)
Should have shot the writer and let the movie go
This is without doubt the most foetid piece of excrement ever put to film and called British cinema. How Bill Nighy got involved after his recent excellent performances in "Love Actually" and "Underworld" is beyond me. I was not, however, at all surprised to see Rhys Ifans' face (dis)gracing this sorry excuse for a film. His fall from grace has been well charted since "Notting Hill", the Baldrik like gormlessness of his character in both films being a genius of casting, no acting required. As a whole the cast seem to sleepwalk through stodgy dialogue, unlikely plotting and amateurish direction cut, apparently, by a first year film student (first day, possibly) who has only ever seen 8mm home movies.