Change Your Image
aljoclark
Reviews
Killing Eve (2018)
Silly and unsatisfying
After eight episodes of nonsensical behaviour the end leaves everything up in the air, with no winner and no loser, and nothing explained. The mysterious Twelve who are behind it all are still a total mystery.
I understand that there will eventually be a second series, but they should finish the first series before they start a new story.
Civilisations (2018)
A poor remake of Clark's Civilisation.
First: the title. This is a ludicrous title for the series, because it is actually about art alone, and completely ignores all other aspects of civilisations - the science, mathematics and technology that makes civilisation possible; how they rise and fall; and even why they exist at all. Remains of Homo sapiens have been found which have been dated to around 300,000 years ago, but there were no civilisations until the last 10,000 years ago. This needs to be explained!
Also, it describes cave paintings which were created tens of thousands of years before civilisation, so they should be irrelevant if the title of the series actually has any meaning.
This criticism applies to Clark's series "Civilisation", but this new series, while similar, is far more incoherent, with several presenters instead of one, no structure, and claims made without any evidence: "These hand stencils do what nearly all art that would follow would aspire to. Firstly, they want to be seen by others. And then they want to endure beyond the life of the maker."
I would recommend the viewer to watch it with muted sound because visually it is great, but the commentary is distracting and adds little.
Tenable (2016)
Useless contestants!
Not a bad format for a game, but where did they get the contestants???
Presumably they regard themselves as pretty good at general knowledge, but in one round they were asked to name the last ten British monarchs, and one player guessed Elizabeth the Third!
In another game they had to name the ten US states which have a land border with Canada. First three answers: Alaska (correct), New Orleans and Seattle!
If you like to laugh at pig ignorance then this is the show for you!
The Prestige (2006)
Bad in every way.
The film starts with ridiculous rumbling noises drowning the natural sounds, in a pathetic attempt to create atmosphere. It then proceeds with actors mumbling their lines so it is hard to tell what is going on.
Then we have a rapid series of flashbacks, which are sprung on us suddenly, and sometimes it is not immediately apparent that we are watching a flashback or merely a change of scene.
As a result of all this it is very hard to follow the plot, and it is not helped by the fact that two of the main actors are very similar in appearance.
At the end, we discover that it is a Science Fiction film!
I find it hard to see why so many people rated it so highly, it is badly acted, confusing, and I did not find it entertaining.
The Magic Box (1951)
Entertaining but could have been better
The most notable aspect of this film is the enormous number of famous actors, some of whom I didn't notice but saw them on the cast list. Older viewers will enjoy looking out for them. The acting is therefore generally very good.
I have two main criticisms of the film. First, the story is shown out of sequence, and would have been just as good and less confusing if shown in the correct sequence. Secondly, it is not accurate, being a strange mixture of fact and fiction. For example, at one point he meets William Fox-Talbot, who died when Friese-Green was only 22! If a biographical book made such a claim it would be strongly criticised, but for some reason which I have never understood it is perfectly acceptable in the cinema.
So watch it purely for entertainment., but for biographical facts go to Wiki or elsewhere.