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No Way Up (2024)
Not a disaster
This was a lot better than i was expecting, in fairness to it.
There was a bit of scene setting and then it was right into the action with passengers one by one getting munched by the over grown Goldfish of the deep.
It was well shot, at times the script was a bit lacking, and most of the main characters were decent enough, though the lad who broke his arm in the crash was one you just had no interest in as he was far too obnoxious in the opening scenes.
It did a decent job in building a bit of tension, though, for me anyway, it was obvious which characters were going to survive from early on, so although it succeeded in the tension, it did lack in suspense.
It's certainly better than some of the reviews would suggest. It's not going to be an 'Oscar' nominated film, but it's by no means awful.
The Camp Host (2024)
Horror/Comedy?
I'm not entirely sure what this was meant to be. Was it Horror/Thriller? Or was it a Horror/Comedy?
It ended up being nothing, really.
The poster itself tells us far too much by itself. We know exactly who the protagonist is and who the antagonist is, so there's absolutely no level of suspense or intrigue before we even watch the film.
Onto the actual film, and it's just not that good, and it's full of that overly annoying trope of 'stupid people doing stupid things'. It could've been an average film, had the part the characters were to play in this not been signposted before we watch the film.
It was just all too obvious how this was going to play out, though they attempted a twist ending, presumably with the hope of setting up a needless sequel. They need to leave this alone.
Jangan Sendirian (2021)
Incredibly poor.
Less than a minute into this film and i'm wanting to switch off.
Some woman approaches a house, hears a noise, looks round the corner to see a bucket being filled up with blood from an outside tap. She reels back in shock just as the blood stops flowing. She dips her finger into the bucket and looks at the blood, just then a head pops up inside the bucket. Shocked, she picks herself up and walks round the corner to the front door. She looks at her hand, and no blood...
Now, i'm not easy scared, but i have to admit, if this happened to me, i'd be back in my car and out of there as quick as my wheels could take me.
She notices the house door is now open, takes keys out her pocket(notice the blood on her coat at this point), and continues to enter the house, where upon, a creepy mirror thing happens, which once more sends her scrambling across the floor in sheer terror.
Surely she decides to leave the house now? Nope.
It's just awful.
The second story looks no better in all honesty, so i think i'll be switching off and checking on the grass seed i sowed last week, to see if there's any sign of it germinating yet... It'll be more exciting that this utter nonsense.
Scare Us (2021)
5 silly stories
I'm just on the first story as i start to write this, and the usual frustrations arise.
So it's set in a storage facility and some dumb Woman encounters a Priest whose coughing up blood outside a locked unit. She approaches asking if she can help. The Priest of course tells her to stay away, and to get out. Does she?
Don't be silly, this is a horror film, and so she's going to act like a complete imbecile and approach the Priest.
Soon his eyes roll in his head and he appears to be possessed. What does our highly intelligent horror film character do at this point? Run, perhaps like any normal person would? Of course she doesn't. She stands there looking gormless.
Then she hears a 'girls' voice coming from the unit the Priest was standing outside of. Does it even enter her tiny horror film characters head that something isn't right? Come on, you know the score by now... She unlocks the thing, then finds a locked crate. Surely at this point she'll at very least run and get help? Are you new to to badly written horror? Of course she doesn't, she unlocks the crate, releasing a literal Demon from Hell.
I mean, i know not everyone can be a great writer, but can someone start using even a tiny bit of thought when scripting a Horror film, because all of this utter nonsense is really making it difficult to enjoy any films in this genre anymore.
Onto story No.2. And no doubt more of the same utter dross.
Bio-Dome (1996)
Typical 90's 'try too hard' alleged comedy.
From the soundtrack right through to the acting and script, this film stinks of the worst aspects of 90's film.
Each line delivered by the 'moronic' friends is a pitiful attempt at a joke, and each one misses the mark by a distance.
This is the kind of film which was parodied to death in 2000's-2010's, and it actually gives one a whole new found respect for those awful films, which is a sad indictment of the quality of these films.
I feel like a deserve a medal for getting 30 minutes in before turning off this effort. It really is that bad.
For me, it's a really poor attempt to recreate a 'Bill and Ted' ,or 'Wayne and Garth' double act that they hoped would spawn a franchise.
Terrible film, definitely best avoided.
What Happened at 625 River Road (2023)
A true story 'horror' which isn't true... How original.
What could have potentially been a good film was sadly completely ruined by the abysmal acting. I don't know if it was dubbed, or if this was actors actually voicing the dialogue, either way every line from every actor was delivered with a total lack of emotion or tonal change.
The story itself was interesting and had huge potential to something worthy of a 7 or 8 star review. It would be interesting to see a big name look to remake this with a bigger budget and better cast, as i think in the right hands this could've been something special.
As it is, i'm giving it 4 stars purely based on that potential and the overall story.
Is it worth a watch? I would say so, but please, do not expect anything of any real standard.
Hillside Cannibals (2006)
As an actual descendant of Sawney Bean, i am offended by this
I'll say one thing about this film, it wasted no time getting started, and there ends the positive aspects of this 80 odd minute affair.
As an actual descendant of Sawney Bean, this film was actually rather insulting. No descendant of Sawney ended up in the USA, and just because he and his clan were alleged cannibals, it doesn't mean his descendants are. This is a silly, lazy, trope that we see in a number of films.
If your ancestors were Vegetarian, does it mean you are too? Of course not.
So immediately upon introducing our protagonists, i knew there was going to be the obligatory 'stoner'. Sure enough, less than 30- seconds of dialogue and we have the "Did you bring the stuff?" Line, and a big bad of parsley was revealed. Something strike you as odd about this? EXACTLY. They've very clearly been travelling for a fair number of miles and a number of hours. So would the time to ask that all important question, perhaps not have been before they set off, rather than once they'd arrived in the middle of nowhere? What would've happened had she forgotten the parsley? Would she have had to drive back for it and catch the gang the next morning? Would they all have gone back for it, and the Cannibals would've spent a lonely night chasing their own shadows, forlornly reminiscing about the 'good old days' when package trains and wagons used to come rollin' on through full of Pilgrims or the cast of Little House on the Prairie?
Had she forgotten the parsley, this would've been a far better film, in fairness. It could've switched back and forth, from them being chased by a psychotic truck driver, intent on annihilating the lot of them all because they pulled out in front of him at a cross roads some way down the way, to the Cannibals sat on rocks, picking their toenails and playing their mouth organs while howling at the moon, back to the 30 something teens, now booking into the dodgiest looking Motel on the trail, run by an incestuous Brother and Sister who take a troubling liking to the bloke with glasses and force him to breed with the Brother, while the Sister sits a strokes her...shotgun...(please, people, lets keep this clean here!!). Back to the Cannibals who are now sat in their hot tub, drinking hooch and smoking cigars, waiting for the Domino's Pizza to arrive.
Incidentally, i'm not a descendant of Sawney Bean, but i bet that story was more believable than this film was.
Hold Your Breath (2012)
Oh dear.
Why do i keep putting myself through this?
I'm barely 10 minutes into this and it's already ticked off so many tropes.
1. Cartoonishly evil Killer goes to the chair, but not before rattling off a monologue about how evil everyone is and how they'll all die horrible deaths, before managing to kill a guard.
2. During said execution, we have a thunder storm.
3. Next we meet our 30 somethings portraying teens, one of whom is of course a stoner. We also have the overly macho Jock and a bunch of silly wee girls.
4. Next up. Hand over your mobile phones. No phones this weekend, so we now know they're going to need them and they won't be available.
5. Now we have them travelling along a dirt track at around 10mph. One of them(guess which one) doesn't hold their breath when passing the grave yard(i've never heard of this urban legend), somehow the stoner pipe jumps from his hand onto the drivers lap, so the driver stops the car, right? No, don't be silly, he speeds up for dramatic effect and almost crashes.
I really can't wait for the rest of this film and the 'tick off the trope' game.
The Hooligan Wars (2012)
Laughably bad.
Apart from this just being a terrible film with a terrible script and terribly acted. They actually want us to believe that this guy who looks like he smokes 20 a day and chomps down on a diet of Kebabs and Curries, is a Professional Footballer.
They'd have been better casting his mate, the dealer in the lead role and this guy as the dealer. At very least the dealer looks a bit athletic, particularly when compared to our podgy Ice Cream Man.
This is another in a long line of 'Sarf ov Englund' (usually Essex) alleged hard Man films with lazy dialogue and all too predictable scenarios of violence for violence sake, and expletives for expletives sake.
To be honest, i only ever watch these films to get a laugh, as they offer very little else.
Bob Marley: One Love (2024)
One Love
Bob Marley was one of those 'once in a generation' artists, he encompassed a movement, inspired millions and brought people of all backgrounds together.
This is a lovely tribute to the Man and his music.
I'm sure i wasn't alone in dancing in my seat every time one of his songs dropped throughout this film and i'm sure that's what Marley himself would've wanted people to do.
The film is basically covering a two year period, from Marley leaving Jamaica to avoid the troubles, arriving in London and the recording of 'Exodus', the supporting tour and his return to Jamaica to then perform at the 'One Love Peace Concert' in 1978.
It's a fascinating watch and has what must be considered one of(if not the) best film soundtrack of all time.
If you love Marley, then this is a must see. If you're unfamiliar with him and want to know more, this is a must see.
Uninhabited (2010)
Not a bad film.
What annoyed slightly was the Lad. He was very much a 'soy boy' for most of the film until the journal was found and suddenly he became this pseudo Alpha Male. It just didn't seem genuine at all. They could've had the exact same outcome with the guy continuing to be an annoying soy. It was as though they wanted there to be a genuine reason for the ghostie to do him in.
It's not a bad low budget film in all honesty. It's not scary, there's no jump scares, there's not even much tension, but somehow it still kind of works in a strange way.
There's far worse films out there to watch, obviously, there's far better. This is worth a watch, just don't expect too much from it.
Sam (2017)
Oh dear.
So it would appear this 'Alpha' Male has never in his life met a Woman, never mind slept with one, because as soon as he becomes she, he can't help but continue to act like like a total prat.
This just isn't funny, it's sad. It's the worst 'body swap' film i've seen by some distance. 'Big' was brilliant, even the one with that Ginger Actress which was the remake of the 70's film was better than this, and i can't believe i'm actually admitting that.
This film has no charm at all and comes over that it's trying too hard to be fun and loose and it's missing the mark by quite a distance.
I can't in good conscience recommend this film to anyone. It's just not good. Go and (re)watch Big.
In Isolation (2022)
Just awful beyond words
This is the kind of film which really frustrates and annoys. It's not just that the characters do stupid things, much as we see in a great many films. No, it's that it appears these characters are deliberately doing stupid things, that's how it looks.
The overdubbing is bad enough, every line is uttered with a complete lack of any kind of human emotion, but to then add in the utterly stupid decisions made by the cast, elevates this film to a new realm of frustration.
This is an awful film, do not watch.
I'm 80 odd characters short of being able to publish this, so i'm writing anything to get this over the line.
Done. Avoid this film.
The Girl Who Escaped: The Kara Robinson Story (2023)
A harrowing tale.
I've seen two films starring Katie Douglas, both have been about abductions. 'Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey' was an extraordinary film, with an incredible performance by Katie. This one is no less harrowing and her performance is equally as strong. This Woman can act. How she isn't a huge star in Hollywood, is beyond me, she's one of the best actors of this generation. She throws her whole being into this role and it's easy to believe that she is the real victim of the piece.
As with the afore mentioned Lisa McVey film, the real victim, Kara Robinson, is an inspiring Woman. Both she and Lisa should be role models for the younger generation. The strength of character both Women have shown through their lives is honourable in the extreme. I have untold admiration for them both and any other Woman(or Man) who has been put through such a brutal ordeal and come out of it with their head held high.
The downside to this story is that the perpetrator wasn't anywhere near as brave as his victims. Rather than doing the time in Prison, the Coward decided to take his own life. May he rot in Hell.
The Purge (2013)
A joke of a film.
So this 'purge' has been an annual thing for 8 years, at the time in which this film is set, yet this family are acting as though it's the first time it's ever happened.
'Dad' who works for a security firm who sells their systems to the locals to protect them from the purge, heads home from work. Of course this family is dysfunctional. As they sit down to the evening meal one of them looks at the time... Oh, it's 5 minutes before purge time. 'Dad' then chooses this moment to suggest they should lock up the house... WHAT?? You mean you didn't lock the house up as soon as you got home from work? Were you planning on heading out to do a spot of gardening, perhaps? Maybe you were looking to sit in the garden and watch the sun set?
You've been doing this purge thing for 8 years, it's not a new fad, it's been going on a while now.
It then transpires naughty teenage daughter's boyfriend has snuck into the house, not to spend time with her, but to 'speak' to her Dad, she doesn't click that it's purge night and the boyfriend has had all week(all year for that matter, or even tomorrow) to speak to her Dad. Clearly he's there to kill Dad. How is this not immediately obvious to this girl?
Time passes slowly, then we see via their CCTV a Man on the street, begging for help. What does our weird Son do? Disables the security system and ushers this complete stranger into their(until this moment) safe house. Why does this boy even know the security code in order to disable the system? Surely, come purge time, the whole family is planning to be inside the house? Surely the parents aren't expecting to out shopping, with the kids safely tucked up inside, only for the parents to ask the kids to disable the system in order to allow them to get into their home upon their return from Walmart?? The kids shouldn't know the code.
The bad guys arrive, cut the power and our mysterious stranger has vanished within the house. The family, who live there, and know it inside out can't find him, and he knows the layout better in the dark than they do. How is this possible?? Surely it is he who should be stumbling around, bumping into things and making a din, giving away his position?
Then the bad guys break in and they know the layout of the house better than our family.
This stumbles along for however many minutes, making very little sense and not even trying to. It's a horrible film, a joke of film. The best part is the last 3-5 minutes. I won't spoil that, as it's the only thing worth watching in the entire film.
I would love to score this a '0', as it's all it deserves. How this has spawned so many sequels is really quite baffling. It just shows you that you can make any old rubbish and studios will throw money at you to make an endless stream of mind numbing sequels. Just look at 'Insidious', 'Paranormal Activity', 'The Conjuring', if you don't believe me.
Alone (2020)
Just more of the same old rubbish
I read a heap of positive reviews for this film, saying how amazing it was, or calling it a brilliant film. I took the chance and decided to watch it.
Less than 5 minutes in, and it was clear this was going to be more of the same recycled crap we've seen a dozen times or more in this genre of film. One such part which always amuses me is when the 'victim' manages to escape into the woods, and gets a good head start on the villain, the villain then notices they've escaped and set off after them...ALWAYS in the correct direction. They have an entire woodland surrounding them, their victim could've set off in any direction, but immediately our clued up bad guy knows the correct direction to give chase, and always knows the exact path their victim will take. It's just not realistic.
We always see the bad guy somehow catch up to them in incredibly quick time too. In this, she's helped out by a hunter, who gives her a lift out of the area, but somehow our super villain has managed to get ahead of them and fell a tree across the road, rapping them. HOW?? He's had to get ahead of them, them driving, him running through the woods, only to then run back for his truck and coincidentally pull up behind them claiming that she's his sister. No one questions how he knew they were there, on that track.
This is just a stupid film from start to finish, the acting isn't bad, but the plot is so far beyond absurd.
The Ledge (2022)
Edge of the seat stuff? Well, not quite, but nowhere near as bad as some are making out.
Unusually, for films of any genre, this almost immediately got right into the meat of the film.
I would say two of the characters were cliché's. The Protagonist's friend, was that slutty, good time girl, and the main Antagonist was that cartoon villain. Other than those two the characters were all fairly well presented.
There were a few things which didn't exactly feel right. One being, why the other three 'dudes' were friends with 'The Hooded Claw' and then why would they go anywhere with him? They must've seen this psychotic behaviour from him previously, as it took practically nothing for him to turn from a a guy who fancied himself as a Ladies Man to wanting to cut every Woman in a 100 mile radius into tiny pieces. The other was just how easily 'Penelope Pitstop' managed to defeat him, considering he'd just very easily killed three mates, and her mate.
Outside of that, it was a decent enough film, and probably better than many in this sub genre of 'Mountaineering gone wrong'. It was certainly much better than the film 'Fall' from a couple of years back, but then, in all honesty, it wouldn't be difficult to make a better film than that.
I think some of the ratings are exceptionally harsh. It's not a masterpiece, that much is certain. We have to two cartoon characters, but it does a decent enough job of building a certain tension. It's worth a watch.
Vertical Limit (2000)
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, it seems that everything could go wrong if you want to believe the events of this film.
We've seen a fair number of 'action' films set on mountains or around climbing, but i think this one is the most disaster packed(certainly that i've seen). It would appear that anything which could go wrong on an expedition does go wrong in this film.
Of course it starts with the now customary 'high impact' disaster as an introductory scene(Ok this was made in 2000, so was one of the fore runners of this genre). We then have experienced climbers (or more specifically, one experienced climber ) making an absolutely ridiculous decision to stay on the mountain despite the warnings of an incoming storm. Disaster strikes again and three are trapped in a crevasse, while two are swept away majestically by an avalanche. A rescue mission is organised and out team are told they can get dropped off at 21,000 feet by helicopter. Where the 'copter decides to drop them off is on a tiny ledge on a sheer cliff face. Really? That's the only spot at 21000 feet where they could be dropped off?
They've also been given nitro-glycerine to use in order to blow a hole in the crevasse, of course disaster strikes several times with this stuff too. Barely 5 minutes passes in this film without another disaster. There's then the added pleasure of watching everyone arguing with eachother over nothing.
Several more disasters happen and then we're left with a similar scenario to the opening scene, four of them hanging off a rope. Who will survive? Well, i think we all know the answer to that one. Right?
I've certainly seen far worse films than this, i've of course seen far better. It's not a disaster of film, but it's perhaps not too far off it. What it is, is an excellent drinking game. Have a shot every time a disaster happens, or a falling out occurs. You'll be on the floor well before the end.
Shackled (2023)
We now know that Alex Scott is an awful actor as well as an awful pundit
I'm no expert in what to do when you waken up shackled in the back of a pick up truck in the desert, but i would imagine you would look to try to free yourself, rather than immediately start half shouting for help. If, after several hours of attempting to free yourself, you're still not free, then by all means give the whole shouting for help in the middle of nowhere a wee go.
This is another one of those films where nothing actually happens while attempting to be some deep and meaningful philosophical journey. Please, just stop with this idea, it doesn't work.
Oh, and then it appears it was all in her subconscious mind as she lay in a hospital bed, in a coma. Load of nonsense.
Reacher (2022)
It's decent enough, but not great by any stretch of the imagination.
It's a fun watch, good action, decent enough plotlines, but holy hell, the dialogue at times is as though a child of 10 wrote it. There's times throughout too, where it feels like characters are trying to show they're smarter than the other. There's an instance where they're checking out an apartment of one of their (now dead) colleagues, the place is turned upside down and it's stated that 'they' didn't find what they were looking for, the reason being, they turned the place upside down. Reacher then points out that 'they'd' thrown the phone through the glass panel of a sideboard in frustration at not finding what they were looking for, his colleague then picks up a broken chair leg and states that whatever 'they' were looking for must be small if they had to snap a chair leg looking for it... Now, Ok, i get these guys are meant to be the best, but surely it's a reach to presume they broke a chair leg because the 'thing' they were looking for was small. Of course it turns out it was small, but come on.
Later, their hotel room gets totally wrecked by the bad guys, obviously looking for this pendrive which wasn't hidden in a chair leg. Do they apply the same logic here as they did at the colleague's house? No. They come in, guns(sorry, side arms) drawn, scrutinising the hotel suite, they then of course bump into another colleague hiding in a closet that they thought was a 'bad guy'.
It is a good series, but it's not as good as i was led to believe and that's disappointing.
When Darkness Falls (2022)
How this didn't win a handful of Oscars, i'll never know.
Less than 5 minutes in and i'm already wondering why i'm going to punish myself for the next one and a half hours.
The opening dialogue between the Scots lad and the English lad was painful to the ears. It's obvious they got the Scots lad to slow his speech so that an international audience could understand him, as a result, this conversation between the two lacked any natural flow or even basic human emotion.
The following foot race is sair tae bare and this is all before the opening titles.
I don't mind that people have to start somewhere when it comes to making film and those initial films will tend to be poor quality and this certainly ticks those boxes. Why though, do so many films have to rely on stupid people making stupid decisions?
One part which amused me was when we see our two charming ladies walk into Wanlockhead, then moments later, they tell the two lovely lads that they're walking across the Highlands. They'll have one hell of a trek, as Wanlockhead is in Dumfries and Galloway in the South West of Scotland, the Highlands are several hundreds of miles further North.
While She Was Out (2008)
One of the most stupid films i've ever seen.
What was this?
To skip over the first 15 minutes or so, because it was quite frankly, boring, and right into the crux of this 'thriller'...
We arrive at a construction site, she's smashed her car into a pile of logs and the idiots chasing her have grounded their beat up trash wagon(because all bad guys have to drive a beat up trash wagon in order to identify them as the bad guys). She's got a 10 minute head start on them, and takes a small tool box from the car, with her.
Bear in mind this is a substantially sized construction site and it's late on Christmas Eve, but the bad guys find her easily, even when she hears them run beyond her position, and all she then has to do is run the opposite direction, she still manages to run right into them. A couple of utterly pointless minutes of gesticulating follows and she manages to escape into woodlands. These guys hang around for an age, arguing over who killed their wee pal before heading off after her, and after a while running around the pitch black woods, she runs into them again. It really is quite incredible.
Once more, they chase her down, somehow get separated and she manages to kill the one who's skipping about all alone... Better comes, when she once more runs off into a stream and then promptly starts shouting for 'God'. That's right, she's shouting, while 2 more idiots who have had 3 or 4 opportunities to kill her already are hot on her tail.
Of course once more, they catch up to her, firing their wee gun. How does she escape them this time? A branch of a tree swings back and cracks one of them in the face, only one of them mind you, but it's enough to have them stop and converse for another hour, while she scrambles up an embankment, once more having got a good 10 minute head start on them, diving into cover, nano seconds before one of the idiots passes her. She dispatches him, though there's plenty of screaming and groaning.
Head idiot, who was initially only a matter of seconds behind his mate, seems to have stopped off at McDonalds for a Happy Meal, because it takes him a further 10 minutes to find his wee idiot pal, slayed.
Off he sets in pursuit, wanders into the vicinity in which she's hiding and, as is so often the case in these rotten films, he sits down to talk to her. In reality, she should now be a mile away from the guy, but his sixth sense has kicked in like some kind of Terminator and he knew exactly where she was. It's quite remarkable, it really is.
She exposes her position, he walks up and does he just kill her, like he's been planning to? No, of course not. He sits and converses with her for a few hours. Santa is now flying overhead, delivering gifts to all the good boys and girls and this clown is still not acting and killing her(mind you, i think this woodland is only 100m wide by about 5 miles long, judging on how easily he's continually found her in the pitch black, so where would she run to?)
We then see the worst seduction in history, and idiot shows how idiotic he is, and then she kills him. She walks 50 yards and she's back at her car. Seriously!! I wish i was making this manure up. She drives home and her car breaks down just as she arrives as the gate.
Her lovely Husband then starts the verbals, she goes to check on the kiddy winks, comes back and points a gun at her Hubby.
It could've been pretty decent, but that would've meant a re-write, and a whole new production team.
The Gaelic King (2017)
A decent low budget film
Sometimes people forget that not all films can have multimillion Hollywood budgets.
Of course there are some low budget films which are embarrassingly atrocious, some i've reviewed, many more, i'm grateful to have so far avoided.
This is a low budget film, but it does very well with the restraints. I would say where it fell short was with the effects. Why did the 'black cloud laddies' look like extras from 'Men In Black'? Their design was not good. Some of the fight scenes were poor, and why were the Picts wearing tie dyed jeans? I'd also have liked to see this take a different direction, rather than going the 'sword and sorcery' route. There's enough ancient Scottish myths and legends they could've incorporated, if they really wanted to do something mystical.
On the whole though, this really isn't a bad film, it's low budget, and there's a massive difference between the two. It was filmed well, the editing was good, the dialogue was far from the worst i've heard and the story was well told.
Ignore the overly critical reviews of this film. I don't know what some were expecting for a low budget film. Of course, it's not perfect, that stands to reason, but it's far from the disaster some would have you believe.
A Christmas Carol (1984)
Far from the original, but most certainly, the best
The first time i watched this was as an 11 year old boy, back in 1984 and i've loved this version of the classic tale ever since.
George C. Scott nails his part as Scrooge, bringing a certain dark humour to the character, never before seen. The supporting cast are all fantastic and are as integral to the film as Scott.
It's a story which i've always enjoyed and other versions on film have been enjoyable to watch, but this version has always stood out to me as the definitive version.
There's elements of the film are 'cheap' looking, clearly an indication that it was made for TV, but it's overall feel of the film which wins over. It captures the spirit of Dickens tale magically. This has become a Christmas Eve staple in my house over the years and never fails to bring a wee tear to the eye.
A truly amazing Christmas film which will endure through they years to come.
A Merry Christmas, and God bless us. Everyone.
I Spit on Your Grave (2010)
A female empowerment film you can actually get behind.
I remember having read about the original 70's film and originally watched this upon it's release, though watched it again recently.
The opening half is tough to watch, i have to say, the 'assault' scene is very well choreographed and acted, as a result it is hard to watch.
The film then alludes to a month or two having past, the Men involved have all but moved on not knowing that 'Jennifer' is watching and plotting and this is where the film comes into its own.
The revenge she plans for each one of the guilty is gruesome, but satisfying. As hard as the 'assault' scene was to watch, the revenge scenes take on a morbid fascination. As the viewer you're right with 'Jennifer', cheering her on the whole way. I would say a couple of the deaths were arguably a bit quick. It might've been better to see them truly suffer for a while before finally meeting their end.
It's a decent enough film considering the subject matter and fall as hard as the first half was to watch, the pay off is satisfying.