bevin_brett Reviews

Murder on the Home Front (2013 TV Movie)

Yet another great idea ruined by a terrible plotline

[3/10 · 19 April 2023]

The book this is based on is excellent. The actors in this movie are great.

The special effects are well executed nonsense - only occasional AA shells exploding in the sky while the bombs are falling, the secondary characters being trivial caricatures, bombers flying through searchlights without being followed, .

The plot is NOT from the book. It is full of smart people doing stupid things, and highly improbably coincidences.

If you do decide to watch it, turn it off before the last 20 plus minutes of proof of how script writers think their audience will tolerate vast quantities of utter rubbish.

Stowaway (I) (2021)

Yet another set of actors struggling with a really dumb script

[1/10 · 25 February 2023]

Couldn't get past the ideas that

(a) the crew didn't realize right away that they did not have enough supplies and simply kill the stowaway before he even regains consciousness

(b) the stowaway was so utterly ignorant of spaceflight dynamics that he thinks the can just turn around

(c) I could not figure out any way in a reasonably safe work environment the stowaway could have gotten to where he was accidently wearing the clothing he was

at this point, I simply stopped watching this waste of time

When will the movie industry start checking their scripts for plausibility

Go watch The Martian instead.

Or read The-Cold-Equations - available online.

Taboo (2017)

A mixed bag

[3/10 · 7 August 2022]

The bleak but interesting setup and sets and acting is really good utterly ruined by stupid incidents in the plot. The script writers are obviously targeting an audience who doesn't care about plausible and consistent narratives. I care, hence the low rating

(1) You probably don't survive being stabbed in the guts in the streets of East India company London

(2) You certainly don't let a bad guy sneak up on you and whack you over the head - I pulled the plug on the series after this happened

(3) The mere matter of a few boarded up windows is not going to stop the bad guys from killing you

(4) nor is the existence or non-existence of some individual's document going to seriously impact the negotiations of the USA Canada border.

The Ice Road (2021)

Great Setup, Absolutely Rubbish Execution

[1/10 · 4 June 2022]

After a plausible start it went through the ice - absolutely horrible plot and utterly implausible events.

It fails at every level - supposedly smart people doing stupid things, and impossible things happening all the time.

The Queen's Gambit (2020)

Interesting plot. Shame about the details.

[7/10 · 1 February 2022]

1: If you are going to film even mediocre players playing chess, put plausible positions on the board and make plausible moves. They aren't had to come by - either steal them from any chess playing program or any openings or endings book. At least in episode 1, the positions and moves are nonsense.

2: While a few tranquilizers might relax you to play better, overdosing does not make you play even better.

These two mistakes spoiled what would otherwise have been a good opening.

Ófærð (2015– )

Why let the script writers mess up a great concept?

[6/10 · 18 January 2022]

Episode two: The script writers can't think of any way other than an experienced police officer being really really stupid for a person to escape from a holding cell.

This absolutely ruined Season 1 Episode 2. I hope this is the last of the script writers being utterly incompetent - but I doubt that it will be.

Mother/Android (2021)

Do you like watching people doing stupid things?

[1/10 · 16 January 2022]

Scene 1: Early 20 y old couple discover she is pregnant

Scene 2: A party going on when all the androids attack in a stupid disorganized way, and the humans defend in even more stupid ways

Scene 3: Stupid humans put up their tent in a totally exposed indefensible location in the woods, hear noises, and continue to act even more stupidly

CLICK - who wants to watch boring stupidity.

The Chestnut Man (2021– )

Ok, but ruined by too many smart people doing dumb things

[7/10 · 16 December 2021]

Even Shakespeare used coincidences to move the plot along, but here we have several of them, with the heroes never asking "how the BLEEP did the bad guy know to do that?"

Furthermore, as the previous review said, they do obviously dangerous things unnecessarily without backup

and following the instruction to "turn the phone off and dump it" was an absurd action by a smart person.

The Good Liar (2019)

Water-tight plot, well acted

[10/10 · 9 December 2021]

The Netflix intro contains enough of a spoiler to make watching the performances really interesting - because the fact that they are engaged in a con can be caught in flashes of expressions on the faces of the con artists

All the characters are superbly acted, and the plot makes sense all the way through, right to the end.

Bordertown: The Mural Murders (2021)

Absolutely stupid plot line

[3/10 · 9 December 2021]

The totally predictable escape of the villain was so contrived it utterly ruined this movie.

Somehow the villain goes from being a guy who kills by drugs to a superb martial arts fighter and weapons expert, while his handlers have obviously forgotten almost every possible rule about moving a likely escapee outside a prison

The series of lucky breaks, rather than either persistence or insights, that lead the investigation also shows a lack of script writing skills

The actors - well, they do their best with the rubbish hand they have been dealt.

The Forgotten Battle (2020)

The technical mistakes in this movie were overpowering

[3/10 · 9 December 2021]

The aircraft scenes in this movie are ridiculously bad.

When bombers in a formation get hit, they do NOT start flying faster than they were before. A gliders especially do not.

Nor do the fighter escort fly right in the midst of the bomber pack where they are worse than utterly useless.

Spies do not develop their photographs and leave them lying around before delivering them - they just deliver the much smaller and easier to handle negatives.

Germans searching for a downed aircrew look at the back side of a row of reeds that they are powering along through

Gliders do not do rolls in some silly 'unjam the connection' stunt. Nor does a glider with most of one wing shot off glide under any semblance of flight to a landing people can walk away from.

The Valhalla Murders (2019–2020)

Gorgeous scenery, plot predictable, characters okay, plot holes huge, stupid last episode

[8/10 · 27 July 2020]

This is a story where you can predict the approximate story arc but not the details

However, as other reviews point out, the "action scenes" require our smart heroes to suddenly do something utterly stupid.

While there are a few instances of this in several episodes, the second half of the last episode should be completely and utterly thrown away and redone. It is garbage.

Two Lives (2012)

Great idea, scenery, and casting but bad plot

[5/10 · 15 July 2014]

Sadly the plot falls apart. The more you understand what has happened, the less plausible it is.

The seaside, buildings, mountains, etc. make for gorgeous background.

The characters are portrayed with depth and sympathy. Each deals appropriately with the stresses that they are under, and you can understand their actions.

The plot moves a long at a good pace, with flashbacks becoming clearer as the movie progresses.

But sadly when all is revealed, the plot has more holes than Romeo and Juliet. Coincidences, unlucky timing, unrealistic actions by professionals, ... it has them all.