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Reviews
Reprisal (2019)
More flash than bang
They should've just made this a movie. It hasn't got enough interest to hold a series. Since the first series finished with so, so many loose ends, I can only imagine they're going to try and milk a second out of it. If they do, I hope they get a better sound artist. The sound is so bad it seriously detracts from the story and just becomes distracting. Swishing water around in a jug does not make the same sound as a person taking a swig of a beer, and since they drink so much in the show it's a real irritation. It's the worst sound of any show I can remember.
It seemed like they were trying to do something gritty, but it's not gritty, it's just silly, and pretentious. Is it supposed to be what 50's hot rod gangs could've been like if they had cell phones? The timeline is all over the shop, they're all veterans of the conflict on "the Archipelago", but they're all way too young to have served in the Pacific. The shows in the few shots of a tv set suggest late 60's or early 70's, but they all have mobile phones. I know that there are plenty of folk that like to get frocked up in rockabilly garb for a festival, or car show but this portrays the whole mid west US like it's stuck in a time warp. The motels, diners, bowling rinks, are all retrofit, and the cars all have a rusty patina, suggesting a time gone by. About the only thing in the series with a fresh coat of paint is the Pinup's fingernails.
Why are they so fearful of the impending gang war? They give their main rivals a straight flogging early in the series, then these battle hardened veterans are worried about going to war with the gang they just flogged? The big Chief's daughter has a shootout in the opposition's clubhouse, and not one of the gang members bother to see what all the gunshots are about whilst she rides off on one of their owns' bike? Then the 2IC's daughter gets taken and it takes just 3 blokes go in and wipe out the entire clan? It's hardly the battle of the century. All they'd have had to do is kick back for 3 hours, that kid and her bloody annoying stories would get handed back in no time.
Cut in loads of flashy, yet senseless flashbacks and tangential sub-plots that don't go anywhere, obligatory shots of people racking weapons and spinning revolver barrels(once where she even spins it twice, just to be sure), and set it to a soundtrack, and there you have it. It's like they wanted to expand on a high school essay.
Having said that the soundtrack is about the best part of the show. The selection of very obscure, old tracks adds to the feeling of nostalgia, albeit for a time that never existed. If you like your rockabilly, hot rods and hipsters you might like it, but it's really just another teen fantasy soap opera, only with hotrodders, that more look like a barbers convention, instead of the fairy's, dragons, vampires, cartoon characters, or superheroes of recent years.
Detectorists (2014)
Who knew metal detecting was so dangerous
I love this series, I really hope they come back with a fourth season. If you like modern comedies with blatant jokes and juvenile dialogue you probably won't like it, but if you like the older comedies, check it out. It's a bloody funny show, but it's also beautifully shot, and great audio too. It makes combing every inch of a massive paddock look quite pleasurable. I can see why they do it.
Spotlight (2015)
Probably the best movie I've seen in a very long time
If you haven't watched this one yet, check it out. Great to see a movie with a story for a change. No need for special effects if the story is solid.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
I guess this proves you can flog a dead horse
I can't believe they're still making these things. It's got to the point when they couldn't make a TRex seem scary enough so they had to create a new, more violent dinosaur. Too silly to laugh at
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
I give up
I've tried to watch this about a dozen times, but it's so bloody boring I just can't stay awake.
S.W.A.T. (2017)
Where's the Gumbo?
If Hondo cooks his "World Famous Gumbo" the he raves about so often, why doesn't he ever cook it on the show? He seems to know every person in LA so why not have some people over for gumbo one night?
Hey, it's a cop show. The stories are weak, the action is alright, but not over the top with inexplicable explosions like so many others, you're going to get what you get. If you want depth and meaning turn the tv off and go read a book, there's none of that stuff here.
L.A.'s Finest (2019)
If this is LA's Finest, the LA Tourism board should petition to have this show cut.
I was surprised when the pilot wasn't that bad, my expectations were pretty low for this one, it's just a shame they didn't stop there. Each episode just gets sillier. All the slow motion, multiple camera angles, and gun cocking is so clichéd now it's just boring. Does anyone think a slow motion shot of someone turning around adds anything to the viewing experience? It just fills up a few seconds of airtime so they can get away with a lesser script. To anyone that works in showbizz, people don't cock their weapons, and then drive to the shootout. Especially cops, no cop in the world would chamber a shell into a shotgun, then drive with a loaded shotgun to a firefight. It doesn't look cool, it makes them look foolish and drastically increases the chances of accidental shootings.
As for the plot, it's not a good sign when they have to ditch the watch captain after the pilot because the actions of the officer's are so absurd, the idea of them having someone to answer to regularly would cause too many problems for the flow of the story. Then they have the District Attorney who can only play a supporting role for the same reason, you have have this level of stupid and have a regular voice of reason present. Rogue federal police that can bust someone guilty of vehicular manslaughter out of prison within 24 hours, no paperwork, no parole board meeting, nothing? A District Attorney's wife, who in the early episodes was a weapons expert, upon hearing that her stepdaughter's just been kidnapped, decides not to try and track down the kid, but to follow her friend, who is a cop, but apparently is so stupid she rides a motorbike with a ridiculously incendiary fuel tank, flat-out in pouring rain, because she needs her gun collection? So the weapons expert doesn't have her own gun collection, she needs to borrow from a friend? Taking a few high powered assault weapons out of evidence would be nothing compared to the number of violations these guys breech in every episode.
If I worked on this show and someone asked me what id did for a living, I'd lie, tell them I was an editor on Gogglebox, or the guy that cleans the fishtanks at one of those places that has fish nibbling at your feet. I can't believe they made a second season.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
The woman who'll play Woody Harrelson's next wife hasn't even been born yet
Great movie, right up to the end, then it was like they couldn't think of an ending. Do the deadbeat cop and the bitter crone just go around the country now, and clean up crime? Such a disappointing end. It ruined an otherwise good movie. Good story, good character development, awful ending. Was Woody Harrelson's character some kind of predator that married a child he'd groomed many years earlier? Why are his wives getting younger in movies as he gets older? It's like he and Kevin James are having a competition.
The Irishman (2019)
Yawn!
One of the worst movies I've ever sat through. It took 3 sittings to get through it, and I only persisted because it kept getting good reviews, so I thought I must be missing something. Only thing I was missing was the 3 hours of my life I can't get back. If you like really long, and boring stories of old men, doing little more than getting older, this one's for you. Is hollywood so starved for actors that they have to resort to making old men look young? Why did they have young actors playing the younger women, and older women playing the older parts, and these sappy old men playing the young and the old? When Joe Pesci calls DeNiro "Kid" at the start thought it was going to be a comedy, but that was the only funny moment in a very long and very boring movie. Send it back to the cutting room and cut at least another hour off this thing and it might be worth another run. Just using well known actors and directors doesn't turn into a gem.