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johnmhalton
Reviews
The War Below (2021)
Entertaining, but not history
A sanitised Netflix offering, which is not without merit, but has very little storyline or mud in the trenches.
Without doubt you be better watching Beneath Hill 60 for a more historically accurate, much more realistic and rewarding depiction of the conditions in the trenches and the claustrophobic conditions digging the 'deep mines' prior to the Battle of Messines.
F9 (2021)
Preposterous Waste of Valuable Time
I don't follow the franchise, but after seeing the entertaining Hobbs and Shaw spin off, I was persuaded to give this instalment in the franchise a try. The start was promising, but it literally spiralled out of control in every possible way. How the film makers spun this out to 150 minutes is beyond me. The undoubtedly large budget would have been far better spent on humanitarian aid.
Mare of Easttown: Sacrament (2021)
The Convenient Missing Gun Returns (Beware Spoilers)
OK, ex policeman stores loaded gun in his garden shed, rather than in the attic, so that his grandchildren don't play with it. Not very safe, or secure, despite the padlock on the shed door, but OK.
Increasingly confused on a day-to-day basis, but (if I recall correctly) not yet bereaved, he hears a prowler one night, goes out to the shed and notices that his treasured police issue gun is missing. But he doesn't report it to the police!!! We are starting to stretch credibility now.
After an undisclosed amount of time, for some reason, when looking for tools in the shed, he opens the wooden case in which his missing gun was previously stored. Why?
Miraculously he finds that the gun has been returned, but it has two bullets missing. Although he and his late wife reported prowlers to the police, a former police officer doesn't think this discovery is worth reporting to the police, despite there being an unsolved murder in a small PA town. He really must be confused.
Whilst all this helps to maintain the integrity of the plot, it's just a little too convenient a way to introduce the final twist in what has otherwise been an excellent series.
But Kate Winslet deserves every acting award she picks up for her master class in character portrayal.