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Sarah (7799 KP) rated Peaky Blinders - Season 5 in TV

Sep 30, 2019

Peaky Blinders - Season 5

2019 | Action, Drama, History

9.0

(5 Ratings)

TV Season Rating

Shame about the loose ends

All in all, this is a rather good series and aside from the slightly dodgy Russian series (3), I’m impressed at how good a run Peaky Blinders has had. It’s not often anymore that you get such a consistently excellent series, and yes I am still ignoring series 3.

Unsurprisingly there are stellar performances in this yet again. Cillian Murphy is fantastic as we see Tommy spiralling into a terrible state, and I absolutely adore the rabid dog with a heart of gold that is Arthur. And Sam Claflin is truly slimy and despicable as Oswald Mosley, I didn’t realise I could hate him so much, he really embodies such an awful character. There are also some surprise deaths and reappearances in this too, some of which that were unexpected and very welcome.

The plot itself is good, but my main issue with this series is the amount of loose ends that haven’t been tied up by the end of the final episode. One of the things I’ve loved about the earlier series, is that everything is wrapped up rather nicely so the next series can start ‘afresh’ set a few years later. The same can’t be said about this fifth series, there’s a lot of plot points that aren’t cleared up and it’s rather frustrating that we have to wait another couple of years to find out!

Kudos

Rickey A. Mossow Jr. (689 KP) rated Dumbo (2019) in Movies

Aug 27, 2019

Dumbo (2019)

2019 | Animation, Family, Fantasy

6.5

(81 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Another unnecessary remake of a childhood classic.

When I originally saw the trailer for this pop up on YouTube, my heart swelled with happiness and the child in me grinned from ear to ear. So many memories came back and flooded my heart and mind. Then, I actually watched this movie. It struggled for me from the beginning as it was instantly clear the star wasn't the elephant with big ears, but rather a typecast Danny Devito, Collin Farrell with a terrible southern accent, his women empowerment staple daughter, and his son that is just kinda there. The anthropomorphism of the animated film is gone, and without it, the key scenes lifted from the original don't carry the emotional weight they did. Much of the story makes little to no sense, including the climax and tie everything up in a neat bow ending. All the PC nonsense and making a statement about current social and political issues isn't needed. It's a kids movie. Once it was clear that this was Disney making a movie about evil corporations buying up small entities to make a monopoly, I checked out mentally from the obvious irony. As the credits rolled, I was just left with an empty feeling, my swollen heart shrunk and my grin gone. Memories from my childhood had been stamped out by Disney Inc. in search of the almighty dollar with yet another unnecessary and bad remake.

Kudos

Bertram Fiddle: Episode 1: A Dreadly Business

Games

(0 Ratings) Rate It

App

A hilarious tongue-in-cheek point and click adventure game that mixes the classic formula up with...

Sarah (7799 KP) rated Hustlers (2019) in Movies

Sep 5, 2020

Hustlers (2019)

2019 | Drama

6.1

(23 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

Tries too hard... and fails

I've had this on my Amazon to watch list for quite some time and finally decided to give it a go last night, and to be honest I wish I hadn't bothered.

This makes out like it's going to be a stylish crime caper similar to films like Ocean's Eleven etc, but it really is as far from it as you can get. It's very dull and considering it has a less than 2 hour run time, it drags on for a very long time. The plot sounds interesting but in reality it's completely lacklustre. It tries to pull off this heartwarming friendship tale but it fails miserably - none of the characters in this are particularly likeable and endearing and aren't helped by some rather terrible acting from the likes of Constance Wu and Julia Stiles. I am very glad though that Cardi B and Lizzo were only cameos as they were bad enough in those, I couldn't have dealt with Cardi B especially for the entire duration. Also the stripping scenes have been handled very badly. Yes it's a film about strippers, but rather than showing this aspect in a powerful and respectable way, it actually feels really seedy and is a bit cringey to watch.

Overall there wasn't really much to like about this film, although Jennifer Lopez was bareable. Could've been done so much better.

Kudos

LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019) in Movies

May 7, 2020

47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2019)

2019 | Adventure, Drama, Horror

5.3

(20 Ratings)

Movie Rating Watch

47 Meters Down: Uncaged is pretty much what you would expect from a low budget shark-horror-sequel. It has ok moments, insufferable characters, dodgy CGI, buckets of nonsense - the whole package.

In all honesty, the first 25 minutes or so are actually half decent. The plot revolves around four friends getting stuck in an underwater Mayan ruin whilst cave diving. This setting is effective, providing a claustrophobic backdrop for the characters to be stalked by a great white shark. There are countless shots of sheer blackness, and it's relatively unsettling now and again.
Of course there's a hastily introduced plot kicker not long after - the shark is in fact blind, and hunts using sound, and here is where the movies big gaping issues lie....
The ladies figure this detail out immediately, but then proceed to constantly scream and shout for the test of the runtime. Not only can they hear each other talking clear as day UNDERWATER, but their incessant warbling had me rooting for the shark before long. What starts as a fairly tense underwater thriller, devolves into Hollywood silliness in a matter of minutes, complete with a set of characters that lack any relatability or likable qualities.

The sharks themselves look ok when shrouded in darkness (there are a few creepy shots, and a few fairly good jump scares), but up close, the poor CGI is easily exposed.

It's not a terrible, but you're not missing out if you give this one a pass.