Change Your Image
asfrtas-65363
Reviews
Reptisaurus (2009)
Not-so-mysterious island
You might recall the B-movie THE GIANT CLAW - it was a decent enough monster movie sabotaged by the producers skimping on special effects and producing (ahem) a real turkey.
This movie is just the reverse. The CGI monster looks reasonably convincing but the rest of the film does not. I watched till the end but I am not sure why.
Plot, dialogue, acting and sets are, well, pretty ordinary.
I don't remember the comic book that is said to have inspired it.
BUCK ROGERS fans may be interested to see Gil Gerard as the general in a couple of scenes back at headquarters, though he is mostly just sitting at his desk.
Twice at Once (2018)
Who done what to who?
Intriguing short film made by Amos Efrat about a dysfunctional couple. It seems to be a triangle -- him, her and his stamp collection. But it's only after she takes drastic action to get his attention back that we realize our assumptions may have been mistaken.
When the lady of the house goes to what looks like the set of a porn movie, we think we know how the story is going to develop ... but we would be wrong;
Nicely done for its 15 minute length. There's an art to making movies with a shorter running time, just as novelists can't always handle the limitations of writing a short story. (You remember them - they were what people started off writing before producing a 1,000 page epic!)
Maigret (1988)
Not for moi
I'm sorry to say I switched off in the first fifteen minutes, after Richard Harris shambled into view slouching and shouting at all and sundry. (Which is a pity because that meant I missed Caroline Munro in a supporting part.)
Over the years I have encountered several incarnations of the Chief Inspector, but never had I run into one that had made me reach for the Off switch the way this one did.
It is true that screen adaptations cannot be absolutely faithful to their literary heroes, otherwise the movie of a bestseller would have to be about eight hours long. But there is no excuse for merely using the famous name of a character if that is all there is in the finished product (yes, I am looking at you, George Gently).
Island Zero (2018)
Surprised me
I knew nothing about this movie when I started watching it (got to admit it's not the sort of film I usually watch). The opening scenes suggest it's going to be a story about ordinary folks living on a rugged island.
But as we get into it, the thought that came to mind was "What would happen if John Wyndham and Steven King had teamed up to write an episode of The X-Files set inn Maine?"
Obviously, British novelist Wyndham (who wrote the novel Out Of The Deeps) would have handled the first part of the story, with the islanders becoming unsettled at their home being cut off from the rest of the world. Tension mounts. Then King takes over for the rest of the story. The menace begins to take a role in the lives (and deaths) of the islanders.
I didn't know any of the actors or the director, but I can say this is one scary movie !