philstrachan Reviews

Vanderpump Rules (2013– )

Extremely Cringey To Watch

[2/10 · 23 May 2024]

Stassi: "I'm 22 and have had a lot of long term relationships..." sort of says it all. The Lead Young Woman needs serious psychological help! Total narcissistic, manic BPD, with truly psychopathic tendencies. A spolied brat; cry-baby and totally unprofessional.

All these young people confidently announcing how mature they are ~ taking one foot out of their mouths to put the other in.

There's a lot of little boys walking around in grown mens bodies, THINKING they're God's gift to women when none of them are particularly great looking.

Lisa Vanderpump Lords over her realm of these children, trying to be mature, refined, firm mother, but as she always does, stirs the pot behind the scenes, causing/guiding the conflict. She knows there's no such thing as "reality television " - tv just doesn't work that way.

This show is a great example of how evil and destructive alcohol CAN be with young people in toxic environments.

If I was Lisa, I certainly wouldn't allow a tv show to be made of my awful staff ~ she certainly doesn't need the money.

There's not even one cast member who's a real person, who has any real concept of reality. Hollywood?

Jax: "If I WANTED a real job, I could get one... I know enough people in this town...." ~ but looks unsure, was hilarious.

Stassi and Jaxx break up and it's the most gut wrenching thing ever in her life but TWO whole days later she's hanging out with new guy, Frank lol.

Tom: " Lisa isn't here all the time but she seems to know every little thing going on..." because the producers TELL her as they CONSTRUCT the narrative with camera crews! Mmmnnnn, wonder how she knows...

The Stassi Birthday episode is just hilarious! "Reality tv" always whack some shots in of the film crew to make it more edgy and "out of control". Brilliant television!

Jax does a speech admitting he got a woman in Vegas pregnant - 3 years ago BEFORE he met Stassi but no one brings that up, so she just keeps repeating it. Bad edit insert out of sequence? Makes no sense. And from then on, the time changed each time of the infidelity reduced.

The door slam sound effect of Lisa entering, pissed off, to tell them all off about Vegas was way over the top; laughable. Lisa wouldn't slam a door like that. She's too refined to do such a thing.

Jax is such a cad and a pathological liar. He has to be the one of the most unintelligent men ever and with his "looks" quickly fading, he has a liimited future in life. Will probably be working on a construction site in the near future, back in Michigan, living in his parents basement.

Sex in the toilet! Again, "reality television " camera crew following then into the bathroom, fully mic'd up, audio captured, then to sit there and blatantly lie to Lisa's face just shows how poorly produced this show is. I'm suprised Lisa let the producers make a fool of her in that sequence. Gag?

Jax doesn't deserve Laura-Leigh and has zero intelligence or maturity to deal with complex addiction issues. Every time you think he can't get worse, he does and sinks to new lows, as the villain he is. Glad she caught a break and got away from these toxic people! A shot of Laura-Leigh getting on a plane at LAX and plane taking off would have been a nice touch and highly symbolic.

The Reunion episode Stassi admits to domestic violence, why was I not suprised? The woman could commit murder and justify it to herself; she's dangerous.

Tom: "I ACCIDENTALLY took a Xanax that night, which is why I took my shirt off... " Seriously? Lol!

Lisa resting her arm on the bar behind Andy in some segments, spoke volumes; that he allowed it. She's made a lot of money for him. He's not just the interviwer, he's bossman of Bravo.

Cohen: "So when were you last in her pants?" Lisa: "Andy, come on..." This guy is so cringe and gutter..

Giggy, as always ~ across all the shows Lisa's in ~ delivers an Academy Award worthy performance as the Lead Dog. (RIP) The other dogs performances were mediocre and hardly noteable.

This is not a show I'd ever watch further episodes of. None of the cast are interesting people and I care nothing for any of them.

Bravo churn out a lot of crap and this is one of their worst shows.

Scoop (2024)

A GREAT STORY OF THE TRAINWRECK INTERVIEW, WHERE PRINCE ANDREW REVEALED JUST HOW MUCH OF A REPULSIVE IDIOT HE IS!

[8/10 · 5 April 2024]

Yet again, Gillian Anderson absolutely nails her character, Emily, the way she did with Thatcher. The expressions during the interview with the Prince were so uncanny, you almost do a double-take to see if they'd spliced in actual footage! Billy was good as Sam, although her performance and the script didn't quite capture Sam's humour and her strengths that you can watch on longer interviews she's done. Rufus did an adequate job as Prince Andrew, certainly with replicating the trainwreck interview sequence but I feel they could have touched on a bit more of his repulsiveness - however, the story is, afterall, from Sam's point of view. When he gets out of the bath to check his phone, after the interview had just aired, it would have been a nice touch to see who had left the message ~ "Mummy".

Degrassi High (1987–1991)

GREW UP WITH THESE KIDS!

[9/10 · 16 February 2024]

I was just slightly older than the kids in the show and watched it religiously. The characters were relatable and the show tackled topics no other kids shows dared at the time. I can see why Aaron Spelling wanted to buy it but he would have ruined it. In Australia, Canada relates much more than American shows. This felt real. One of my first crushes was Caitlyn. The actors were all of a good standard, coming from a theatre group. I will never forget the line / scene when Wheel's parents were killed and his grandma snapped at him that "parents aren't meant to bury their children!". That has stayed with me my whole life. It was great to watch on dvd with my own son years later.

Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire (2021– )

OUTSTANDING INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM INTO ONE OF AUSTRALIA'S MOST TRAGIC BUT CORRUPT EVENTS IN OUR HISTORY

[10/10 · 16 November 2023]

Caro and team have done an outstanding job with this doco! Where do I begin? I'm stunned but also not suprised at all. In the 70s and 80s the Australian police and judicial system were at their most corrupt. It was such a tragedy when these kids lost their lives in an amusement park ride, while meant to be having fun. Electrical malfunction, we ALL believed for so long, has now been proven without a doubt to be absolutely false. As the tangled web is unravelled, the key culprits in this mass murder do not suprise me in the least. Saffron was one of the evilest men to walk Australian soil, as with "Justice" Murphy, et al, can be proven to be 100% responsible for this and the subsequent coverup. Australia has a track record of totally corrupt police forces. We never teach our kids here to trust a policeman because of the past actions of not a few but WHOLE forces in each State. Every decade presented MASSIVE corruption in each State's police forces. The politicians are ALWAYS corrupt, and still are (Adolph McGowan, Dan Andrews) - that's the nature of politics. And the underworld crime figures that flourished because of this is incomprehensible. "Justice" Lionel Murphy's wiki page omits he was the most rotten, corrupt, vile human being that was ever in such a high position. Premier Neville Wran was just a common gutter criminal. And the list continues... But the poor child victims and their families on-going suffering is just heartbreaking - all over land these men wanted to develop, equalling $s to them. Human life lost meant nothing to them. This doco shows irrefutable proof of what these men did without any regard for humanity. I'm truly disgusted. I was a kid myself when this happened, and I've never forgotten it, but to now know the truth just sickens me. Every 10 minutes of this doco made me go "this can't get worse", can it? As Caro revealed more details, it did. I'm gobsmacked, VERY angry, and shed several tears for the victims as this story unfolded. Caro deserves a journalistic award for this. Outstanding work. You want to know TRUE Australian history - watch this.

Heartstopper (2022– )

HAS A UNIQUE STYLE AND FEEL TO IT!

[8/10 · 10 September 2023]

I really love the way young people can be who they are now without the violent oppression my generation were faced with.

Even though he wasn't totally accepted being gay, he wasn't bashed for it either.

I totally got the first love who was deeply in the closet and was too scared to come out and tried to hide his homosexuality by being seen with girls. In my day, (old fart here), we absolved ourselves of gay sex with our mates as "practising" for when we did finally get a girlfriend, we'd know how to be intimate etc.

The thing I find with this younger generation is that all the texting they do could be easily more conscise if they'd PHONED each other and SPOKEN. Texts can be read wrong.

I really like the casting, too. The leads aren't classic heartthrobs but "normal" looking guys, falling in love.

I really find the animated emotions/graphics cute, it's a really nice technique.

I love how genuine this is. And in the British style of filmaking, makes it even more real, with great vulnerability for the characters.

Great music soundtrack - the songs were perfectly picked to fit the narrative.

The camera angles are creative and the cinematographer didn't just shoot this in a run of the mill formula.

"I'm not a homophobic, I'm an ally...." "Congratulations - we thank you for your service...." ~~ love it!

Love the line from the rugby teacher Ep 4 - "A lot of gay people are good at sports, Charlie" 🙃

Great show, looking forward to more to see where these characters lives take them.

Halloween Ends (2022)

WHAT?

[1/10 · 9 June 2023]

This has to be one of the worst, most disjointed, non-sensical films I've ever seen. It makes no sense whatsoever - I even watched it twice, thinking I must have missed something but, no, it's crap. I was making this sort of quality of horror movie as a 14 year old with zero budget. With all the hype preceeding the release, I was actually looking forward to it, for it to round things off, but no, it left me scratching my head, totally confused. It just makes no sense. The Corey character was there, why? It's just a mix up, muddled up series of scenes that have no relevance, I could see, with other scenes. Very disappointing- the actors must be very embarrassed by it. Don't waste your time, it's rubbush.

Outlander (2014– )

STARTED GREAT BUT HAS GONE DOWNHILL NOW

[7/10 · 22 May 2023]

I absolutely LOVED the first 3-4 series of this show! Historically accurate but with an awesome twist, going back and forth in time zones. She had to be sooo careful in healing people without being accussed of witchcraft. The actors in the first few series are outstanding and realise a well written screenplay adapted from the well written books. They capture the emotion and historical timeframe of those times very well. Unfortunately, with what seems all too common now - when a show starts off so strongly, builds a fanbase, artistic integrity seems to get lost along the way. It's always a HUGE warning sign when the two lead actors become Producers on a project - it's never ended well in tv/film history - ever. The actors have made so much money from the show, they start reinvesting their money into the project to keep it going, to keep themselves enployed. I'm finding it really hard to stay awake in Series 6. It's like watching paint dry. It's boring. They use the same vehicles - oh, she's synthasised ether! - they are no longer historically astounding as the two time periods become closer in reality. I feel like they're now flogging a dead horse and they need to sit down with the original writer(s) and sum it all up and FINISH it! The amount of latex on Sam's back is now almost laughable! Lets watch Sam be flogged once again, yawn. By Series 6, the show has run out of steam and I probably won't watch anymore as its become boring and I don't care about any of the characters anymore. Whenever the story of Scotland, which was very interesting, becomes the long drawn out story of America's foundation (which only Americans enjoy) and then back and forth in time planes, it just loses momentum. It's like the writers dont know where to go; so we'll have a time zone switch. It worked originally but now it's just an over-used tool whenever it gets boring. I wont hurry or set my calendar to watch Series 7 as i had with earlier series. Let a good show die a dignified death. There's a lot of shows on Netflix that - even though they're riding on success - know when to say : "this is the last part of the story." and finish. I'm finding Series 6 good to go to sleep to.

Miriam Margolyes: Almost Australian (2020)

WHAT A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT!

[3/10 · 26 April 2023]

I love Miriam. But - this is not great. Setting out to capture Australia she really missed the mark. From rural NSW to Melbourne, Bondi, Alice, Darwin, and to finish on the Gold Coast (one of the worst places in the world!, made for Japanese tourists).

I was really disappointed. This ISN'T the true Australia- well.... She had some little gems mixed in but most of it was crap. A few Ockers here and there, farmers dealing with drought. Obviously this was filmed and distributed before Lidia Thorpe went totally feral, dragging the Aboriginal flag through mud recently when police tried to arrest her for breaching the peace, or her arrest outside a Sydney strip club, or her swearing in Parliament. They're changing Parilimentary process because of Lidia's behaviour so the can be dismissed instantly for undignified, disgusting behaviour. I also thought it was a bit weird for an old lesbian to be perving at her teenage daughter on the tranpoline. She literally missed half the country!!! This is in no way anywhere close to a true representation of Australia. The token remote Aboriginals was quite exploitative. The violence in the Alice was totally missed out. The alcohol problem in the Territory wasn't mentioned. She/the producers picked bits of Australia that showed a tiny part of our country and not very well at that. It's a great shame, as I expected better from such an intelligent woman. Please don't think this is a true representation of Australia, it really isn't. 🙄

Adoration (2013)

IF SEXES WERE REVERSED THEY'D BE OUTRAGE!

[1/10 · 1 April 2023]

I don't know how this film got funding - the story is truly peverse and if the sexes were reversed they'd be an uproar! Two mothers, who've been friends since childhood, suddenly fall sexually "in love" with each other's teenage sons and seduce them. Wrong. It's just wrong. Yes, the actors are all good looking and play the characters well but I'd be getting another agent after this recommendation. I can't see it helping their careers. Beautifully filmed in a stunning part of Australia. I'm usually not bothered by the most extreme of films but this truly bothered me. If it was men predating on girls the film would never be made (unless they could afford Polanski or Allen). The whole movie is like the child rape scene in the film "Breathe" when the woman rapes the boy.

Elvis (2022)

UNDERWHELMING AND ALL OVER THE PLACE

[5/10 · 1 April 2023]

I have waited wirh excitement to see this film as I wasn't going to pay to see it at a cinema - I didn'trust it. I had a feeling it was going to be like this. Normally love Luhrman films but this missed the mark entirely. Butler did a great job, Hanks was just Hanks, mediocre. Lots of factual errors. You could easily tell Priscilla had input to make herself seem the victim - someone who wanted nothing to do with Elvis at the end of his life till she saw the $ potential in his legacy. This film was a mess. Incredibly disjointed. I was actually wanting it to end. Luhrman failed to capture the true Presley family, especially his parents and Elvis' demise into addiction and WHY: his misery and exhustion. The stock footage hurriedly added at the end is always a sign of a tacky film, especially titling as it looks like the filmaker ran out of time and money to finish it properly. Bad choice of several of his songs too. I can understand what Lisa Marie meant when she said it took her five days to process! I wouldn't watch this again.

Chris Rock: Selective Outrage (2023)

I DIDN'T LAUGH ONCE

[1/10 · 10 March 2023]

This has to be one of the unfunniest "comedy" shows I've ever seen. Really disappointing as I expected so much more from him. I gave up counting the amount of times he said the "n" word. People spent decades getting that word removed from use and here is a man using it almost every second word. It's usually pretty hard to not find even one thing funny in a comedy show but this one did it for me. I watched patiently hoping something funny would come soon but then the end credits started rolling. I guess, some people would say, if you don't like it, don't watch it - of course - but having never seen Chris Rock's past performances, I'm not sure what I was expecting but this wasn't it and so obviously I won't bother checking out any of his other stuff.

Surviving Summer (2022– )

WHAT A DEADBEAT MUM!

[7/10 · 8 March 2023]

Poor Summer is dumped from New York to the picturesque Great Ocean Road in Victoria because she's not convenient to her mother's life. The young cast did a great job in their roles were believable enough as young, countey, Australian youth but the older geberatiobs were not great, which is probably why we haven't seen them act in anything better. It's a typical story of surfing. Conquor the fear for the seasoned surfers who'd had "an accudebt" tobthe new york surfer chick showing bothbthe boys up with ger courage. Of course she needs rescuing. And low and behold, the boys suddenly realise they've conquored their fears, by saving her. Yah! It's ok. Ok for kids. It's not the worst Australian surfer flick I've watched. Less insidious than "Breathe".

Cuckoo (II) (2012– )

VERY PROMISING SEASON 1 BUT THEN...

[2/10 · 29 December 2022]

Starts out ok in season 1 but series by series it just dies a horrible death. I can imagine the actors are embarrassed and wouldn't put it at the top of their resume! It gets more and more disjointed as it goes along to the point of cringey, tacky English comedy television. It's probaby why so many of the actors took better jobs and left as soon as their contracts would allow to go on to other things.

Greg tries hard and at times channels a bit of Rick from The Young Ones (Rik Mayall). I think sometimes i can see him highly embarrassed at what he's having to do or say.

The guy that plays Cuckoo is sufficiently irratating but then - the title character/ show name - disappears. The actor got a better deal.

Taylor tries so hard and is enthusiastic to have a job but he can only ever act 2 dimensionally. Then he suddenly disappears too with no explanation than a little kid saying one line.

If you make it to season 5 Andy is so over the top and is like pantomime. The budget must have dropped significantly to hire her. The token American actors drop in talent levels as the show goes on.

There's better stuff out there to watch than this. It's not great.

Inside Man (II) (2022)

ENTERTAINING BUT TOTALLY IMPLAUSIBLE!

[4/10 · 15 November 2022]

The actors all do a very good job in a story with more holes than swiss cheese! There's no way a vicar and the tutor wouldn't immediately go to the police and have the perpetrator arrested, regardless of his suicidal tendencies. Why would a vicar protect someone like that anyway - and to absurd lengths. No one keeps stuff like that on a usb stick anymore anyway. The vicar and his wife just complicate and then compound something that got totally out of hand that wouldn't happen in real life! Their son never needed protecting to begin with as police forensics could easily trace the origins and see the images never came from him. Although well acted, the story is just laughable. Oh, and the Sherlock and Watson characters were great - there could be an independent show about them perhaps, two men on death row trying to attone for their sins, but the whole English side to this show just wouldn't happen in real life and again, was bizarrely laughable.

Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi (2022)

WASTE OF TIME REALLY

[3/10 · 14 November 2022]

We all know the Vatican has been and still is guilty of horrendous crimes - some say the Devil himself lives there. I feel deeply for the family of this girl but am in no way suprised. This whole series could have been 2 hours in length. It really goes nowhere except around in circles and four hours later, you're back where we started. There's no doubt the Vatican were involved and continue to cover it up with the only weighted theory is that the poor girl rejected a filthy paedophile priest's unwelcome advances and perhaps threatened to tell on him. And i don't believe for one minute she's the only person ever to go missing in the whole of the Vatcan's history, it's just this one had a lot of publicity around it. Interesting the grave/vault was empty. I wonder if they removed the bodies secretly prior to the investigation? With such valuable real estate in that cemetery, it makrs no sense to have an empty vault. Production values are fine but the content is disappointing. No answers in this doco.

Broadchurch (2013–2017)

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCES BY ALL THE CAST

[9/10 · 31 October 2022]

All of the actors give incredibly believable performances in this show, set in an idyllic town where the murder of a young boy has far reaching effects on everyone. You can't not be affected too when you watch this as the story developes. It's one of the few shows to be filmed actually in sequence as the writer, producers and directors didn't want the actors to know who committed the murder until the end, hence scripts were only issued in the days prior to filming, ensuring reactions between the actors were as humanely realistic as possible. With only three seasons, it's a story that knows when to stop and not waffle on unnecessarily just to keep a successful show going for financial gain, unlike other shows which end up becoming laboured and storylines fizzling out. This show is basically perfect with many levels and great depth due to an outstanding, well cast group of fine actors.

Blue Water High (2005–2008)

WORTH A WATCH, ESPECIALLY IG YOU'RE A TEENAGER!

[7/10 · 17 October 2022]

This was well made. Following the lives of teenage surfers in a exclusive surf school on the wealthy north shore of Sydney, Australia.

The actors do a very good job and their character development through each series is good. Well written, covering all the basic teenage dilemmas set in a surfing portal. Beautiful scenery and nice nothern Sydney beaches. It's ittle obvious during the surfing scenes that body doubles were used but the editing is really good to hide this as much as possible, as well of compliing all the other shots. The actors settle into their characters and each series progresses and give they gove worthy peformances.

Derry Girls (2018–2022)

DARK HISTORY BUT THERE IS HOPE AND SUNSHINE

[9/10 · 9 October 2022]

I never thought I'd love this as much as I do! It's very well written with a wonderful sense of hope in very dark times in Ireland's history. The characters are all very well developed and the ensemble cast feed brilliantly off each other.

As with life, there's comedy but there's also tragedy at times - in the characters lives but more importantly it's a very good reference historically of what was happening in Ireland and England over those decades from a first hand perspective the rest of the world probably dont know a lot about.

It became apparent to me, in the early 90s, as a young adopted Australian man in my early 20s - when I went back and lived in London for a while, having emigrated when I was 5, that the tensions of the two countries still very much existed, when i was two streets away from an IRA attack on Downing street. It taught me that these countries had been suffering from "terrorism" for a very long time that the rest of the world didn't really know a lot about.

This is a wonderful show as it portrays the strong humour of the Irish in very dark times. These characters are very real, despite the melodramatic, slapstick moments, it works!

Blonde (2022)

YOUNG PEOPLE DON'T WATCH THIS FILM!

[2/10 · 4 October 2022]

This whole film was like a very, VERY bad, long acid trip! I hope young people don't watch this and think any of it was real - the director totally missed who Norma-Jean really was.

Ana did an ok job as Marilyn - it would have been hellish for any actor to play her in THIS film. The screenwtiter/director, Andrew, has obviously not bothered to do ANY actual research into his subject matter. He got so much of it wrong which only conpounded a badly written fictional book anyway. His kink of Chaplin Jnr & Robinson Jnr engaging in 3-somes with Norma is just plain wrong and never happened. She had breif relationships with both men but years apart. Cass writing the letters allegedly from her father is one of the only truths but in real life, his motives seemed to be from a caring motive to give his friend hope, which has always been debated to whether he was morally right or wrong to do so. He died from a pulmonary embellism, not from choking on his own vomit, as said in this film.

Andrew's obsession with the nudity was his boyish fantasies of seeing Monroe's breasts, clearly. If he'd bothered to read any other account he'd know she ALWAYS slept in a bra as she worried her breasts would sag otherwise - which, incidentally, added to the suspicious circumstances of her real death. Andrew has also never understood abortions and fetal development and wanted to insert some lovely featus shots he'd obviously bought for cheap from a filmstock library. Marilyn's pregnancies would have been no more than cells. And the miscarriage scene was just ridiculous and pure cringe.

Where was Sinatra who gave her the dog we see at the end, she named "Maffy" after his involvement in the Mafia? Kennedy was portrayed as the vile man he was, who just used her as he did numerous women. Where was the housekeeper, Eunice Murray, who before her death confessed that Bobby Kennedy, Peter Lawford and Dr Greenson were present the night she "suicided" on over 79 barbituate pills without a glass of water in the locked room (physically impossible, noted even the first uniformed policeman on the scene) and barbituate poisoning makes the subject vomit profusely just before the point of death - not lay "swanlike" as she was found and portrayed in this ghastly film.

Very, very disappointing all round and should never have been made. I hope Andrew is ashamed of himself for portaying a vulnerable, highly intelligent, very abused woman like he has.

Into the Deep (2020)

IT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER

[6/10 · 2 October 2022]

Although it's an ok documentary, i felt it missed a lot of details that have previously been disclosed in other documentaries. There were times I felt it was being padded for time instead of using that time with interviews with police, criminal psychologists, prosecution and others involved. Most psychopaths like Peter rarely "just start" and usually have a history of other events in their lives. More background on him would have been interesting. Forensic experts could have been interviewed about their discoveries and findings. Her friend is well covered, perhaps too much, but you must have empathy for her as she'll live with the "what ifs?" for the rest of her life. I feel there could have been so much more put into this. It's a fair tribute to the victim although not much about her and her journey to produce her project was covered in much depth - why did she choose Peter as her subject? Was she targeted by him specifically or was she just very unlucky to be the woman, that he was obviousky going to do this to, in the wrong place at the right time?

Thai Cave Rescue (2022)

VERY MEDIOCRE

[3/10 · 30 September 2022]

The English dubbing adds an almost comedic feel to this. The dialouge has been adjusted to try and lip sync with the actors but most of it comes across as very corny and cheesy. It jumps around too much and at times seems like bits have been cut to fit to time, it's very disjointed. For such a long route in the cave system they seem to come out too quickly. They start the dives and with a little underwater footage, they're suddenly at the other end - obviously they couldn't do it in real time but for such a dangerous thing, it happens too quickly. I watched a couple of the episodes twice as i thought I'd fallen asleep as events seemed to be missing with outcomes that were actually without explanation. Things that were perhaps too hard to film, they just had characters saying bits afterwards. This is overall quite tacky.

I Used to Be Famous (2022)

80s FORMULA THAT STILL WORKS!

[7/10 · 28 September 2022]

I was pleasantly suprised by this film. It was not what i was expecting as the promo I saw shows it to be a documentary about former manufactured bands of the 1990s and 2000s but i found myself getting into it.

It's a typical story of a washed up boy band singer trying to recreate days long gone in his life.

He meets an autistic young man by chance one day and they hit if off and form a "band" together.

Of course it's not plain sailing and the young man is overwhelmed with his first time on stage so, of course (like you couldn't see it coming) the mother feels she has to protect her son and asks the older guy to stay out of his life.

All the actors are great, especially the guy who plays Stevie.

There are too many flashbacks that don't make a lot of sense - like what did the older guys little brother die from?

I was left a bit confused at the end, maybe I missed something, but not sure if the older guy did the right thing for friendship and loyalty by turning down the tour offer to then teach the other disabled young people and if the young guy actually got into the prestigious college or was just invited to perform as a one off.

Overall, a great, laid back, cheesy 1980s style formula about doing the right thing by a friend.

Definately worth a watch!

Monster (2022– )

WELL MADE, COMPLETE STORY

[9/10 · 24 September 2022]

Although brutally graphic, this is probably the most accurate and comprehensive tv series/ movie ever produced about Jeffrey Dahmer. Outstanding performances from all the actors but particularly Niecy Nash as the passionate Glenda Cleveland who delivered an amazing performance as Dahmer's neighbour. An horrific story of this man's abhorent crimes that will leave you numb, especially watching all episodes in one sitting. The set decorators and costume designers did a great job of accurately representing the time periods the series is set in. Certainly not for children to watch or the faint hearted.

Snowflake Mountain (2022)

RIVETING REALITY TELEVISION AT ITS FINEST!

[1/10 · 28 June 2022]

There is reality and there is television - there's no such thing as reality tv; it doesn't work that way. These guys got the scripts Survivor threw out. Total formula-if you're a uni film/ tv student, it's worth a watch. . Tick the formula off as you go. Lots of costume changes for people who had their suitcases burned. D's wigs miraculously survived the blaze, thank God. The acrtors need to keep going to their acting classes if they want a serious career and learn to tap dance too. Camera crews everywhere. The mountain was a bit of a hill at the cresendo. I was hoping CAT would come down by helicopter on top of "mountain" to give final motivation speach. " i feel so accomplished to walk up a well worn hike trail up a hill. ". The auditing system for the winner is totally fair and right. My life is definately better for watching this.

Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story (2022)

HALF THE STORY IS MISSING!

[6/10 · 7 April 2022]

Started out promising when i saw the footage in the opening sequence where the camera zooms in on his eyeball rings - more on that in a tick. The first 3 quarters of this build him up to the national treasure, then quickly finishes with not enough victim interviews. But stuff thats been proved now is missing. For one, that he was a necrophile and used his positions at hospitals to gain access to the morgues. Those rings were glass eyes taken from corpses. He continually flaunted and said things openly but no one saw it then for what it was . I thought it was interesting how he said that because he did so many good things, he was allowed to do all the bad things, as a balance well, look how much good he did do, so imagine just what depths this monster went down to. A friend of mine worked at BBC in makeup and she said it was a given that you never left him alone with children or women on their own. I would have liked to have seen interviews with Ransen and JS Porter who have said they knew but as a woman in tv back then, you said nothing. Shame on them. This is a nowhere near complete doco.