digitalrep Reviews

Mr. Robot (2015–2019)

A perfect ten for me

[10/10 · 7 October 2022]

I think this is my favourite TV series of all time. It's a perfect ten for me. There were only a few moments throughout the whole lot that I got bored, mainly early in season two. But the rest of the episodes were gripping and mind blowing.

I stopped watching in season 2 in fact, but then I decided to keep going a year or two later. I'm so glad I did.

I cried my eyes out several times while watching this show and that doesn't happen much for me with TV shows. I love Elliot. His strengths, his vulnerabilities. His failings. Despite being a character with an unrealistic and almost 'super' power, he still seems somehow unbelievably real.

Sam Esmail is a genius.

Caveat (2020)

Plot doesn't quite come together

[5/10 · 6 February 2022]

I think there are some implausible scenarios here (why do they live on an island surrounded by water with no boats? Why doesn't Isaac remember anything? Where is all the food? Why is the house so run down? But most importantly, who would agree to that situation?) but even if you look past those, the plot doesn't quite come together in the end.

It's a thriller that decides, at points, to become a horror, and I think it should be one or the other (it should be a horror). All the stuff about the planned murder and the double crossing and what-not just don't gel for me. If it had been about an eccentric family living on a weird isolated island and a witch it would have been ok, I think. Maybe focusing more on the mother and re-animating her. I think then it would have been alright. But as it is it just didn't make sense.

Cowboy Bebop (2021)

It's a visual feast

[9/10 · 9 January 2022]

I watched the original over ten years ago - I barely remember it. I am sure it was wonderful. But I really like this. I can't believe it got cancelled. Eh. Just goes to show we are all held prisoners by cancel culture. A few people really don't like something so they make enough noise to scare a network into abandoning a decent show.

Blithe Spirit (2020)

Unwatchable

[3/10 · 5 December 2021]

It's boring. The setup is boring. The characters are boring. The attempt at comedy falls flat.

It would have been watchable if the characters had been somewhat funny or interesting... The film needed some real talent in it to carry it along. I feel the actors were chosen because they have the look of the era but they don't have enough talent to bring this thing to life.

Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021–2022)

I liked it

[8/10 · 27 November 2021]

I thought it was good. I like the burgeoning friendship between the two women. I also like how the series points out how stupid husbands on sitcoms are.

Tell Me Your Secrets (I) (2021)

Implausible but entertaining nonetheless

[6/10 · 9 September 2021]

It has its good points... But it also has its bad points.

Overall it is a good drama and a good thriller but there are so many unbelievable elements to it that it doesn't seem plausible.

Now I know everything these days has been done before and it's hard to come up with something new in this space, but some things just border on ridiculous.

For instance, why would someone suspected of helping a serial killer find and kill his victims be let out of jail? It just doesn't happen. And why would they be put in witness protection of all places? Certainly the public should know about and be warned about such a person.

But more importantly...

Why didn't Karen and Kit tell the police it was all Theresa? Why did they keep quiet? It doesn't make ANY SENSE WHAT-SO-EVER.

When Mary went to visit Karen the first time, that would have been the time for Karen to tell the truth about Theresa. Mary would have had time to process it and realise it was true. But instead she kept quiet. For what? To serve time in jail she didn't need to?

Sure, she said she lost some important memories, but she saw the photograph and spent a lot of time with Theresa before the traumatic 'incident' that triggered her 'PTSD blackouts'. Surely she recognised her then. "Oh yeah, that's the young woman I lived with for several weeks that was having sex with my boyfriend."

But also, KIT DIDN'T HAVE AMNESIA. Why wouldn't he tell the police about Theresa? Why not tell Mary? If he enjoyed psychologically manipulating people for fun, as he did with the mother of the other girl, why not do it with Mary? Surely it would be fun for him to see her face fall when he told her that her beautiful sweet daughter was involved with him.

But perhaps the worst part of the series for me was when it was revealed that ovaries were being harvested from young girls in the group home. At that point, I almost laughed.

If you offered those girls money they would probably have just given them up, right? And then you don't have to lure them to a seedy hotel room and perform a backyard operation on them. I mean, they've lost their parents. They'd be wanting money. It doesn't have to be some clandestine evil undertaking. Everyone could profit here.

Anyways as I said the series has some merit. There were some interesting (albeit unlikely) twists and some strong characters. It's worth a watch if you desperately need to get your mind off things.

Promising Young Woman (2020)

Entertaining but ultimately misses the mark

[7/10 · 10 January 2021]

• Other reviewers here are writing that they thought this was going to be a 'serious' movie... I knew from the poster, the trailer, the title, the casting etc. that it was going to be a cheap thriller.
• Being a cheap thriller, ultimately, it has to have a twist - and being a Hollywood movie, an A-list movie, the twist in this one would have to be unexpected, otherwise it would end up as a mid day movie.
• There have been so many thrillers written in the last twenty years that most 'twists' have been done already. It's very difficult to come up with something new for this genre.
• To come up with something new sometimes means stretching the suspension of disbelief to disconcerting levels.
• Or worse, writing a screenplay that while entertaining and with an exciting, unexpected twist, just doesn't make any real sense.

The Invention of Lying (2009)

Double standards

[4/10 · 1 January 2020]

Why does she have to compromise and settle for someone she isn't attracted to, but we don't expect the same thing of him?

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2019)

Quit your whining

[6/10 · 22 December 2019]

Reading through all these reviews and seeing all the hatred spewing forth...

Like people complaining that the movie has people of different races and genders in it. It's set in the future - why wouldn't space have people of different genders and races? Why would it be all white people? That wouldn't make any sense.

I think a lot of people don't like seeing women be heroes... There's another reason a lot of people are complaining. But again, I just have to point out - it's set in the future. Why wouldn't women be heroes in the future?

People calling Rey a Mary Sue with no training... Kind of unfair. She has had training. She is more than just a normal Jedi. She's kind of special. I think people just can't stand the fact that she has a v-----. I really do think that's what all the whining is about. That she's female. And that's sad.

Apart from those things... Yes Disney is milking this for all its worth. But they're Disney - what did you expect?

Yes the plot in this movie was pretty terrible - but it was co-written by JJ Abrams, who gave us Lost. What did you expect?

The bad plot is why it got a 6 from me.

If Leia was Rey's mentor, their relationship should have been fleshed out more. And yeah I get why it wasn't - because Carrie Fisher died. Also, if you're going to have everyone in the resistance show up at the last minute to fight - you need to really build up the whole 'but everyone's too scared to come' thing. Because it kind of wasn't much of a surprise when everyone did come. And why did Ben have to die? That was really odd - he saves Rey then dies. Was that really necessary?

Apart from those things I was quite absorbed by the movie and I loved the first two so... If you didn't like it, well, all I can say is, welcome to the new order. It's not gonna change just cos you keep whining about it. Eventually you're gonna have to start accepting reality. Women, people of colour - we exist. Accept it. Stop whining about it. Big stupid babies.

Bad Mothers (2019)

Badly Written

[3/10 · 4 March 2019]

The dialogue is clunky (though the actors try their best to make it work, with the exception of Melissa George, who just makes the whole thing grind to a halt whenever she's on screen) and the characters are badly dressed (really, is that how rich women dress?), and though it feels like it should be another Big Little Lies, it's so badly written that you find yourself wanting to re-watch that rather than suffer through this. They've crammed what should have been stretched out over a few episodes into one, with a man suddenly deciding to have an affair and then just as suddenly deciding he should make his marriage work all in the space of a day, and a bunch of women who aren't rich suddenly deciding to take under their wing a rich bitch they've hated for a supposedly long time. Why would they do this? What's their motivation? Pure pity? Wouldn't the rich bitch find their pity grating? So many things just don't work with this. It's disappointing because I was looking forward to it.

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

Really enjoyable

[8/10 · 26 January 2019]

I love the fact that Disney are breathing new life into this franchise. If they release a new Star Wars movie every two years I'd be thrilled.

I love the fact that they are a socially conscious company that cares about issues like slavery (even robot slavery) and a company that has the courage to step up and use a diverse cast of actors, and to portray women as heroes for a change.

And I think this is where all the hate comes from... From those people (white guys) who hate women, who resent women and don't want to see their picture perfect perception of reality to change. You know, the one where men are heroes and women are just objects... Pretty things to be looked at, silent and yielding. These guys hate to see women being portrayed as anything other than decoration. And they hate the feel bad about things like slavery and entitlement etc.

So yeah, you can see why they'd be upset that the franchise, which was previously only really enjoyed by a rather small sub-section of the community (think Big Bang Theory) is now being enjoyed by a wide array of people from various walks of life.

So let them hate. They are in the minority now. And I hope Disney keeps making heaps of movies - really, just churn them out one after the other. They are all brilliant in my opinion.

The Possession (I) (2012)

A few jumpscares here and there, but overall, this movie lacks atmosphere

[5/10 · 28 May 2018]

Admittedly this is the first horror movie I've watched in a while, but I was still expecting a little more than what I was delivered here. Throughout the whole movie I was never really scared; I always knew in my heart that the parents would be able to solve the problem and that everything would get wrapped neatly up in the end. I think the problem here is that whoever made this movie didn't put much effort into putting the viewer into a state of unease. Every thing just kind of logically happened, one after the other.

Unforgiven (2009)

Great but then disappointing

[8/10 · 7 January 2018]

I was very pleased with this depiction of life for an ex con for the first two episodes for several reasons - it was very realistic in that some people are ready to offer Ruth Slater a second chance, feeling that she's paid the price and suffered enough, while others are determined to continue to make Ruth pay forever. Obviously some people waver and change their minds but all in all it's a fairly accurate portrayal of the situation. When someone says to Ruth, "... she would take one look at you and not know what to say to you. She's never met anyone like you," it shows just how people think about certain people, how they dehumanise them. In Britain it seems to be a lot worse than other places, but still, even everywhere else, there is that prejudice that is always present, always there. There is, in reality, no real way to 'pay the price', to 'serve the time' - as Ruth says, she 'served her time and paid her pound of flesh'. But honestly no one will really ever let her forget it for the rest of her life. And I think that would have been enough; it would have made compelling viewing. Switching between thinking she's a bad person who deserves her fate and she was a messed up kid with a messed up life who deserves some kind of redemption - it would make for good viewing. And this is the problem I have with the third episode, where we find out that Ruth is actually a Saint. I was disappointed, to say the least... It gives the viewers a nice sense of closure, sure; hey, this woman who we spent two episodes watching being treated like trash because we thought she deserved it suddenly turns out deserving of a medal. I don't know, I felt tricked. It's like, even in 'serious' fiction, as someone who broke the law and paid the price, you just can't get any representation. Ruth was innocent after all, and therefore totally deserving of a three episode melodrama. It's so neat, so tidy. Imagine, though, if it hadn't been the case - if she'd been guilty after all - the drama still would have held up, right? So was it really necessary to reveal her 'innocence' after all? I don't think so.

Bad Moms (2016)

Bad Actress

[3/10 · 15 November 2017]

I really wanted to like this movie, but I kept being pulled out of the storyline by the terrible delivery of lines by Mila Kunis.

"Look at that mom bra..." Mila Kunis destroying the delivery: "This isn't my mom bra, this *is* my sexy bra."

Okay. No one said anything about a sexy bra in this scene. They only mentioned the 'mom bra'. So should the emphasis be on the word *is* in that line? Or should it be on the word *sexy*.

Anyone with half a brain could tell you the answer.

Some people say the dialogue in this movie stinks... I reckon it's all Mila. I think she just doesn't know what the hell is going on in each scene. Actually, the scenes where she gets slammed by a kid and ends up with spaghetti on her face are okay because she's not talking in them!

She's such a bad actress. I knew it from that 70s show when she delivered every line in the same flat, seethingly hostile tone. Now she's learnt to deliver her lines with *some* variation, but it's still not right.

How did she land the lead role in this? I swear it would have been better if ANYONE ELSE had gotten it - well, anyone who could act, that is.