cken29 Reviews

The Pale Horse (2020)

Keeping it in the family.

[8/10 · 10 February 2020]

A lovely visual feast in this creepy horror version of the original novel. Many films lavish huge sums on the Special Effects but this movie managed to freak me out with a few little girls marching in step down the High Street in animal masks! The casting has been perfect with Rufus Sewell as a flawed smoothie struggling to maintain his Zen-like calm in the face of supernatural terror. Bertie Carvel unrecognizable behind those thick lenses. Leonora Lonsdale did well to cast the glorious Sarah Woodward as Mark's delightful aunt. What a charming and clever tribute to The Wicker Man. Dad would be so proud!

The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016)

Tedious and dull.

[3/10 · 10 April 2016]

Walked out after 20 minutes. No spoilers because I didn't watch enough of it but the dreadful voice-over kills the pace and removes the last vestige of tension. Painting by numbers in terms of plot. This happened so this happened, then this happened and that happened. No sense or reason. My first thought was along the lines of: "What do they eat?" If they live in a frozen wasteland and wipe out villagers then where do the groceries come from? None of it made any sense. So sad to see Emily Blunt and the wonderful Charlize Theron wasting themselves in this rot. I enjoyed the hot dog but there were only ten people in the cinema, so I don't think it's going to be around long.

Project Almanac (2015)

Good film ruined by disastrous camera work.

[8/10 · 21 February 2015]

I'm not going to include any spoilers. I enjoyed the story and found the cast appealing. It was an interesting idea with some good special effects. There were a couple of plot holes but there were also some funny nods to movies such as Back to the Future which I enjoyed. You remember the scene where Doc Brown is trying to get two electric cables to connect?

It reminded me a lot of the superb low-budget 'Primer' which covers some of the same ground. In that movie, some geekie guys accidentally discover time-travel and have to decide what to do with it. Also, Almanac had some good jokes, which many movies seem to leave out.

Seriously, did you see any jokes in Man of Steel? Sadly the shocking camera work ruined the whole experience.All the jumping about, whirling, juddering and flicking etc. It just made me feel ill.