bellapeligrosa's reviews

If I had a dog this photogenic and just downright adorbs I might also be tempted to make a feature length film which has him in every scene. The real meaning of the movie is pretty obvious from early on in and I get it, but I'm not really sure it works for a feature length film although the concept is rather brilliant. Apparently Indy is a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever which is an oddly specific name for a dog breed, and I'm sure people will be rushing out to get Indy puppies. Distinct lack of ducks, very little tolling, but if you're going to sit for 70 mins watching a film with a cute dog and can handle a little horror, this is a good candidate.

This is a drawn out hot mess. Mara is watchable as the astronaut who believes she may have brought something back from her space mission, but even Laurence Fishburne looks slightly puzzled about what he's doing in this movie and the ending is rushed and, frankly, ridiculous. This has been a dire year for sci-fi films and you'd be better rewatching an old episode or two of Black Mirror than this drivel.

This is one to put on the radar for horror fans. It's creepy as hell in parts with some stand-out moments in particular one in the tent towards the end. I imagine this is inspired by the Brady/Hindley murders (horrific enough without a supernatural element). If you've ever visited a moor in England it can be unnerving, easy to get lost and a sense of something old and ancient which is conveyed brilliantly in this film. There's a subtle element of paganism with strange carvings and statues, a part of British history that is still relatively unknown but often pops up in horror novels (Phil Rickman being one), and a faceless serial killer that ups the horror ante. It's slow-plodding in places and if had been a tad tighter it would have been stand-out. The cast are relatively unknown but the two female leads are ones to watch. All in all this was a great find.

When stranger things start happening in an already strange village in rural England (see what I did there?) a detective starts to realise everything might be connected.

Wunmi is outstanding amongst a not-very-well-known cast although there a few actors who pop up from time to time but who I couldn't put a name to, but everyone shines. The potential source of all these goings-on is the bread factory, where most of the town works. Chuck in teenage angst, fracking, racial prejudice and working class frustrations and there is a solid drama here admist the supernatural goings on. My biggest gripe is the cliffhanger ending with no wind of a season 2 from ITV as yet.

I wish that I could rate this better but whilst it's striving for an Edward Scissorhands vibe it falls short. It's stilted at best, despite strong performances. Kathryn Newton keeps surprising as the new queen of scream with a fabulous supporting cast although Cole Sprous felt somewhat under-utilised and there were a couple of plot holes that weren't resolved which could have been explored more. I think it's the script that lets it down, laugh out loud moments are few and far between so it's amusing rather than truly funny and it ended rather abruptly. Diablo Cody is famous for Jennifer's Body and that film felt a lot tighter and darker than this.

Ah, the English countryside. Birds, old houses with character, ancient forests, even more ancient dieties. Hats off to Rory Kinnear and Jessie Buckley here, particularly Kinnear who pulled off multiple roles, each one more stereotypically English than the other. Anyone not familiar with the green man legends (and it's probably worth a quick read before watching this) may struggle a little, but a lot of pagan mythology revolves around a male diety with a face surrounded by leaves - the green man - and a female diety with her legs spread open - sheela na gig. Life, rebirth and death are continual themes through the film, the most disturbing being the broken corpse of Buckley's husband, who died tragically after falling from a balcony. His death haunts Buckley, as they were fighting beforehand, he struck her, and she threw him out, only to see him falling past the window moments later, where they make eye contact.

There's enough on the internet to dissect the film, its mythology and the ending, so cutting to the chase, it is worth a watch as a horror? Very much so. Take away the supernatural, and this would have worked as a decent psychological horror, right up until the last 10 mins (which I wasn't a huge fan of, although I understand why it was necessary). Most women have been in uncomfortable situations with men, and felt scared and vulnerable. The power shifts here are continual, as Buckley's character tries to reason and gain back control as things get progressively weirder and scarier. I found the ending a little unsatisfying, but on the whole the film really delivers. Buckley seems to go from strength to strength in her career and deservedly so, this is an outstanding performance.

This has an incredible cast, telling a complicated, controversial and emotional story. It's a different take to the documentary, which I watched a few years ago. The real Michael vs Firth's portrayal are very different people, but the central character is a selfish man who managed to simultaneously love and destroy the women in his life.

Collette's portrayal of Kathleen and the relationship between the children make this a drama well worth watching. The death scenes are harrowing and hats off to Collette who managed to channel the horror and pain of each possible scenario so poignantly.

It's long - very long. The last episode is over an hour. They could have cut out 2 hours easily. It switches time periods, sometimes quite quickly between the scenes. If you've not seen the original documentary it might be worth looking at Wikipedia to get a bit of background knowledge of the trial and timeline. This won't detract from your enjoyment because the focus here is very much on the characters and possible scenarios that transpired before and after Kathleen's death, the dynamics of the family and how it affected them all, plus the insight into Kathleen herself. Collette portrays her as a highly intelligent women who keeps a lot of balls in the air, having a difficult time at work and generally quite stressed, something most people can relate to and I think a lot of women that age will see parts of themselves reflected in her. What I like about it is that it doesn't keep the whole focus on Michael. We will never know the truth of what happened to her, and I'd watch the documentary if you want to see what the real Michael is like, but this series is a tribute to Kathleen, and beautifully done.

UK drama has become punchier and better over the last few years as fantastic shows like Line of Duty, Happy Valley and Broadchurch have upped the ante. Attracting major British talent, the showrunners have their work cut out for them to blend edge-of-seat action, complex plots with plenty of suspects and some personal drama for the main protagonists simultaneously. It's not an easy feat.

This show wins on the action, staggers a bit with the suspects and fails miserably with personal drama. The love triangle is contrived at best. Vicky McClure regurgitates her down-to-earth, job-focussed LOD character somewhat but this only dilutes her emotional scenes and the two sides of her character seem discordant. This isn't down to the actress who has delivered an excellent performance, but it just doesn't ring true, and these scenes feel like they belong in a completely different show. The other characters just don't get enough screen time or have any interesting subtle quirks, and this two-dimensional environment that Lana (McClure) exists in means the series lacks some depth and passion that would have made it far more engaging viewing.

There are other instances that don't really gel - finding some highly unsubtle key evidence in a place where no terrorist in their right mind would leave it, and a scene with a bomb in a car where even I could have made some better decisions with my zero bomb-squad training. Each viewer will have a few of these eye-rolling moment, but those aside, the show does deliver on action and cliffhangers as the team really races against the clock to diffuse the bombs, track down the terrorists and save as many lives as possible.

The professionalism and expertise will, I'm sure, mirror what the real-life bomb squad have to go through on a daily basis. Having lived in London for over 30 years, from the IRA attacks in the early 90's, to the tragic events in 2007 and the more recent terrorist attacks in Borough and Westminster - I've been nearby (some near-miss) for all of them. I remember in the 90's hearing the bombs explode. The brave people that put themselves on the line - whether in law enforcement, terrorist control or even civilians - these are the people that I think about when I watch shows like this. Terrorist attacks are foiled in London on a daily basis (and no doubt worldwide), and the effort that goes into preventing them is heroic. That's what I think about too when I watch shows like this, the real-life heroes that the show aims to mirror, bringing these scenarios to life so we get to experience a little bit of what they have to go through to protect our lives. And in achieving that, Trigger Point is a winner and well worth a watch.

I wish Anna Friel had broken out of the Marcella mould to do something completely different. I feel like she is now typecast to be an atypical off-the-rails detective spiralling into (or from) a nervous breakdown who always solves the case using unconventional means. Chuck in a supernatural element and you've got The Box.

Conceptually there is so much good stuff here, yet it fails to be creepy enough, cohesive enough, or edge of your seat enough to actually level up to being anything compelling enough to recommend. The half hour episodes don't help. The lack of locations make it stifling - which is clearly intended to amp up the overall psychological oppresiveness - it fails to do so. Midway through the series, the case should have been ramping up significantly, some red herrings thrown in. A bit of actual legwork should be involved (forensics don't even seem to come into it). That Pici is still walking around with a badge at this point is ridiculous enough in itself as she jitters her way out of one absurd situation into another whilst her colleagues orbit around her, clucking with anxiety like mother hens. Peter Stormare seems to be hamming it up for the Razzie awards which would be well-deserved if he gets nominated (I'm hoping he goes head to head with the actor who plays Marco Inaros on the Expanse). The ending is one big massive confusing mess.

The premise is great. The execution leaves a lot to be desired. There's plenty of better stuff on the box (see what I did there?!)

There's a lot of positive and bad reviews here, but ultimately I think this is worth a try. If you're a classical scholar or a fan of the Iliad, then potentially you might be disappointed - but it's not a retelling of the Iliad, which is also a work of fiction let's not forget, but another spin on the tale. Historically there's nothing to suggest Helen existed, let alone a Trojan horse or a 10 year war, so if you're expecting a faithful classical retelling don't even start watching, as many people have pointed out there's anachronisms galore. The hardest thing for me was the way it varied wildly in its delivery, something between a Starz-type T&A series to credible historical drama, and as such it never seemed to settle comfortably or confidently into something that was easy to watch. They could have done without the threesome, however I've got no issue with the casting (and if they hadn't cast black actors in some of the main roles they would have been accused of white-washing, it's a no-win situation). I thought it gained traction and the last few episodes were more enjoyable than the first. I would have liked a little more involvement from the Gods as they seemed to start with a supernatural spin yet not really develop it. For me, personally, it was lovely to see the South African backdrops being used so beautifully as well as a lot of South African acting talent.

This is loosely based on real events, which doesn't help explain the completely absurd title. Research into the Wyrick hauntings won't ruin the film for you however as the only comparison to recorded events are the names of the characters.

As with any horror movie these days there are plenty of stock thrills: ghosts in white dresses, waking from a dream to find you are still in a dream, swings that move by themselves etc. The best thing about this film is that the characters are quite likable and you do become invested in their welfare. There's enough twists and turns to keep you guessing at the real nature of the evil. The breakout star is Emily Alyn Lind, who is so adorable that you want to reach into the movie and rescue her yourself, her plight not helped by her somewhat inconscient father who encourages her friendship with an old dead guy if it means directions to hidden treasure. His commitment to his daughter is only outweighed by his commitment to their hapless rescue dog.

The two female leads are nicely balanced. All the women in this 'see dead people', and it's how they handle it that is the crux of the film, their conflicting reactions and opinions driving the plot forward as the truth is revealed. This is obviously low budget, shots of the forest using various filters providing the atmosphere, the gore is minimal and the special effects fairly low key, but enough here to give you a tingle, even if it's only the fact that Mr Gordy really did appear to Heidi and he gets his photo in the end credits.

Based on the 1938 Hitchcock thriller of the same name (which I haven't seen), this looked like rather a good whodunnit. The cast if full of young up-comers and old stalwarts, many of whom seem to be doing the rounds in British TV at the moment.

The premise: a beautiful young socialite, Iris Carr, is making her way back to England by train after a Balkans holiday and finds herself befriended by a kind older lady who calls herself Mrs Froy. Disorientated by a fall at the station earlier, Iris drifts off to sleep, only to find on awakening that Mrs Froy has disappeared and nobody else seems to have seen her - in fact they don't believe she existed in the first place. Of course there are only two possible outcomes: the woman isn't real and Iris is barking mad, or she has genuinely disappeared and there's some sort of conspiracy going on.

Unfortunately the final hour dedicated to resolving the mystery is slow-paced, boring and ultimately all a bit predictable. Apart from Sandy McDade and Tuppence Middleton, all the other characters are stereotypes who get to do very little with their screen time. Middleton is superb, tackling Iris's transition from petulant snobbery to concern and brave determination with aplomb, but the plodding script can't keep up with her enthusiasm. It's definitely a Sunday afternoon movie, and one you can watch with Grandma - just don't expect edge-of-your-seat thrills.

I'm surprised this got such a bad rating. It's the kind of quirky TV series the Brits are so good at. The subject matter is a little off- putting to the first time viewer (angel lawyers, really?!) but shouldn't be as this is a good old-fashioned human drama and the angelic theme is just a good guy/bad guy spin. In fact if you are tuning in expecting to see a 'Supernatural'-esque show you are more likely to be disappointed. It could have just have easily been a courtroom drama and in that respect it delivers. The angelic element adds a little mystery, and the city of York is the kind of backdrop where you can believe mortals and eternals could mix. Whilst it might not be the best-written series on TV, it's also not worth a 5.6 rating.

Doesn't look like it will return for a series 2 but if you can catch series 1 somewhere - on DVD or demand - well worth a watch.