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Reviews
Mon crime (2023)
Classic Gaumont comedy
A character piece from well-known and much loved French cast, with witty scripting and well crafted twists.
Charmingly shot and well edited, the costumes and make-up reflect the period. The individual players are well matched and clearly defined, very much within the scope of French culture. One aspect that this film scores highly on is that it is not too long - unlike many Hollywood films which are overpadded with repetitious effects.
Cinema is a medium that targets particular audiences and this film hits the bull's eye. If you instantly forget 90% of a particular genre, then don't watch it. If you don't watch it, don't comment...
Lancaster Skies (2019)
Cheap and not very well done...
I know that the budget was small, which does make for some allowances, but this could have been so much better. For example, the mother's flat/house should never have been picked. Quite apart from the screamingly annoying radiator valve alongside the sheet cover-up, and the tarmac pavement outside (local councils didn't start ripping up the original paving slabs until the Thatcher council cut-backs in the 80's), no house in 1944 would have been decorated with satin-painted walls and egg-shell gloss doors.
What would have been so much easier to achieve would have been a decent script and story-board that explained WHY our hero was a burned-out fighter pilot and how he had adapted from being a short-range soloist to a long-range skipper. Oh, and what on earth induced him to thaw, from the angst-ridden authoritarian in the early scenes, into the seemingly relaxed individual who may or may not have worked out his co-pilot's complicity in his life?
A good film to show college students about how NOT to handle a good idea.
PER ARDUA AD VIBURNA is about as high as this flies
Free Fire (2016)
Shoot me now, it would be more enjoyable
Firstly, let me make it clear that the only reason we saw this film was that it filled some time we had to kill and finished at a convenient time for us to catch a cross channel ferry. If I were stranded on a desert island, with the only way out being to write a positive and glowing review of this film, I guess I would have to develop a liking for coconuts, sand and raw crabs. This has to be one of the most tedious films ever made - right up there with Aguirre, Wrath of God - and can best be described as 90 minutes of my life I will never get back. The plot? That question is more complex than the plot itself, which is basically, bunch of misfits, criminal deal, one insult and then 80 minutes of people shooting recklessly and all ending up in a bad way. The whole thing could have been over and done with in 5 minutes and saved an awful lot of celluloid. The fact that two of us were alone in a three hundred seat theatre for this debacle says quite enough. Funny? FUNNY? Are you kidding? If you think that was amusing or entertaining, good luck over summer, you'll have an absolute scream watching the grass grow.