Search

Search only in certain items:

40x40

Awix (3310 KP) rated Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) in Movies

Feb 13, 2018 (Updated Feb 13, 2018)  
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
1982 | Action, Sci-Fi
A Mid-life Crisis, but Not as We Know It
Easily the best of the Trek movies. Made with half-an-eye to concluding the franchise, it ended up revitalising the series for another quarter century.

Old enemy from the TV show is rediscovered, vows revenge on Kirk; many rousing space battles and well-handled character moments ensue. Ricardo Montalban really goes for it as Khan; William Shatner gives a proper movie leading man performance. Relatively low budget is artfully concealed.

Benefits considerably from being willing to acknowledge that everyone has aged since the original TV show; Kirk has to confront the consequences of choices he made as a young man (later movies disregarded the fact the crew were becoming increasingly geriatric). The essential Trek philosophy of optimistic liberal humanism somehow gets a bit lost along the way, but you really don't care as the rest of it is so much fun. Almost unreasonably well-written when you consider the script was done in less than a fortnight.
  
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)
2019 | Drama
Contains spoilers, click to show
I’m of the opinion that ‘Breaking Bad’ is one of the greatest TV shows of all time and the ultimate example of how to end a TV show properly. Which is why when I heard this was being made I couldn’t help but be a bit apprehensive and unfortunately I did come away from this a bit underwhelmed. Aaron Paul puts in a great performance and I enjoyed catching up with Jesse and some other old faces again but this wasn’t really a story that absolutely needed to be told. I felt the action was a little flat and draggy at times as well. Barring a very brief crowd pleasing flashback cameo you really miss having Walter White on screen. Not having him there you realise just how much Bryan Cranston absolutely dominated the series and his absence is really felt. It’s still an enjoyable watch even if lacking the magic of the show and certainly worthy of your time but ultimately it probably didn’t need to have been made.
  
    Chroma Squad

    Chroma Squad

    Games and Entertainment

    3.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Chroma Squad is a tactical RPG about five stunt actors who decide to quit their jobs and start their...

    GLWiZ

    GLWiZ

    Entertainment and Music

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Welcome to world’s most powerful WebTV technology! GLWiZ WebTV service offers live television...

    iROKOtv

    iROKOtv

    Entertainment and Photo & Video

    6.5 (2 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Access the world's best Nollywood movies & TV series: Thousands of Nigerian & Ghanaian films. Watch...

40x40

Awix (3310 KP) rated Edge of Darkness (2010) in Movies

May 5, 2020 (Updated May 6, 2020)  
Edge of Darkness (2010)
Edge of Darkness (2010)
2010 | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
The legendary TV mini-series is retooled for the big screen as a bog-standard Mel Gibson revenge thriller. A detective's daughter is killed, and his investigations lead him to discover she was a target of forces within the military-industrial complex operating above the law.

As well as two-thirds of the running time and most of the plot, the movie version of Edge of Darkness also cheerfully dispenses with virtually everything that made the TV show so memorable: theoretically a fiendishly convoluted thriller, it also contained an environmentalist subtext, an incest subtext, a subtext about Anglo-US relations, even some borderline SF & fantasy elements. All of this is gone and just replaced with Mel Gibson looking intense and beating people up. As a result it is very hard to care about what's happening, although the illogicality of much of it does manage to cut through (someone poisoning someone else and then deciding to shoot them as well is practically a motif). Ray Winstone is not bad as Jedburgh, but given the source material the rest of it is unforgivably lousy.
  
40x40

David McK (3600 KP) rated Sharpe's Company (1994) in Movies

Oct 10, 2021 (Updated Oct 10, 2021)  
Sharpe's Company (1994)
Sharpe's Company (1994)
1994 | Action, Adventure, Drama
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Back when this was first shown on TV (it's a TV movie) in the mod 90s, this was based on what-was-then on of the mid entries in Cornwell's long-running series.

I say what was then, as there have since been more novels set before, during or even after The Napoleonic Wars, which provided the background for these movies.

This - both novel and movie - is the one that starts with the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo and ends with that of Badajoz, with (Sean Beans) Captain Richard Sharpe 'pushed aside' in the intervening period by those who can afford to buy his commission. This is also the one with the mad, twitching Obadiah Hakeswill (portrayed here by Pete Postlethwaite), who isn't so much a danger to Sharpe himself as he is too his men - Patrick Harper included - and who has a history with Sharpe.

I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again: I so wish they had a proper budget for these movies!