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8/10
This is very good. I was pleasantly surprised
3 February 2025
I've been a big fan of Dylan since I was 15 (I'm 61 as of writing this) and the story line covered in this movie was something I completely consumed as a teenager. I read 'Bound For Glory' and Robert Shelton's 'No Direction Home' (still my favourite Dylan book after all these years).

So, I approached this movie not really expecting too much.

However, this is a steady, very solid and watchable take on this period of history and the Dylan story.

If I had one complaint (and it's no reflection on the film at all) I'd love to have seen this story extend slightly and stop with the (not in the movie) motorbike accident (just a screeching of brakes and fade to black ;) that took Dylan out of the madness and eye of the storm he had found himself in. It's a more natural 'break' in the Dylan story.

Great cast, Monica Barbaro is superb as Joan Baez, and Chalamet is very strong as Dylan. He's a far better actor than I ever have him credit for. Edward Norton is brilliant as Pete Seeger, a really excellent performance, where the balance of the man's decency and frustrations are expertly balanced.

Mangold has delivered a really good movie here, I always think the skill in stopping a biography bleeding into melodrama is an underrated achievement and I think he's really done this here.
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5/10
There's a potential solid movie in here somewhere, however...
31 December 2024
I saw this when it was released in the 80's. I remember liking it then (it lots of gratuitous boobs in it and bad guys being killed by bow and arrow :) - ok, I was 19 what would you expect).

The storyline, covert CIA, money laundering, high profile tv exposé character, KGB etc etc has many interesting elements to it. There is a decent cast here too, and it's directed by Sam Peckinpah, but it's shoddy. The quality of the camera work, direction, the editing, stunt work, and some of the minor character acting etc just doesn't hold up today. It doesn't need the nudity (but that was of its time tbh) and the whole thing is just 'shonky'.

I have to add that John Hurt is badly miscast here, and to be brutally honest, for such a fine actor, is just dreadful in his role. Dennis Hooper has rarely been SO wooden and totally underused.

On top of all that it has one of the worst music soundtracks I've ever heard. Lalo Schiffrin has never been worse. 80s elevator music at best. When there are some elements of intensity you hear waffling saxophone, electric piano blandness on screen and it's totally inappropriate at times and just destroys any emotional investment you've been making in the story.

Sadly, I've found that this movie just hasn't held up over the decades.

I was looking forward to watching it again, but I won't be watching *again* at any point in the future.
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Here (II) (2024)
8/10
This movie resonates according to your age
20 December 2024
I've see a lot of negative reviews and comments about the film. I just don't agree. Technically it's a wonderful, intelligent concept for the baseline of the story.

The interactions of the historic timelines are expertly done, to find a way to link the passage of time over several story lines must have been a challenge. However it's done here in a way that ties the history of the house from the past to the now to the future.

If I was 30 years old watching this it wouldn't have landed with as much emotional resonance. But I'm 61, I have two elderly parents (who are starting to be hit with illness and forgetfulness). I have four children, a grandchild, I've experienced sadness, loss, history in the making and I have a future of some sort ahead of me.

This movie made me contemplate deeply about how transient life is. We're here in the now, surrounded by all our beloved family, our memories, belongings, our existence. In relatively small amount of time given the millennia behind us, it'll all be gone. Someone's else's beloved family, memories, belongings and existence will replace us.

This is a mature film, if you haven't had a 'life' it could likely pass you by. If you're had a life and decades of it, it'll hit the feels in a deep deep way.

I saw some negative comments about the cgi used? Get a grip critics and go do something real, a piece of art of build a house. Then you might understand the decisions and compromises we make in life, to often put our dreams aside to do our best as parents, friends etc and then equate all that to what the director and writers were trying to do here. This is a really good piece of art.
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1/10
Awful film. Truly awful. Cynical and smug to the 'nth degree
27 April 2024
When a film starts with a young actress walking in a flimsy top with a very loose bra, you just gotta think, ffs, here we go, I know where this movie is going and it's exactly where it went, it was just pervy and made me feel very uncomfortable. The camera was actively leering at this young woman right through the movie.

Ms Sweeney is a very attractive young woman but her agent needs to be fired if THIS is the dross they're putting in front of her. As a bloke, and a dad Of 2 daughters, I genuinely cringe at the way this young woman is portrayed here. It's just SO cynical and misogynistic. I suspect this actress is much much better than this level of crap. There's also another actress in here who was reduced to showing her boobs and prancing around in her underwear for no plot reason other than to have a naked women on screen. Did I mention cynical?

This is a film with no 'real' people in the characters. All buffed up, uber cool/smug, self centered and sorting out their overprivileged lives.

It's just a REALLY bad movie.
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5/10
Don't understand the 7.9 score on IMDB
21 March 2024
While there are significant production values on show and presumably a huge budget for CGI, this show just didn't connect with me.

Some of the flying situations are really good, and gives a sense of the abject horror those young men must have experienced. However all momentum was lost when the action returned to the Earth.

It introduced a lot of characters very quickly, killed a lot of them quickly, and tbh, a lot of the actors looked very alike and for a couple of episodes I couldn't tell who was who! (But that's a me problem :) ) Simply can't be compared to Band of Brothers, just not anywhere in the same league.

Maybe it was just me too but the spoken dialogue was often impenetrable to make out what was being said. You have to turn the volume up, and then minutes later the action is in the air and you have to turn the sound down again so that your ears aren't suffering.

A missed opportunity, felt rushed, but action sequences in the air were really good.
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Argylle (2024)
7/10
Great craic. It's a fun movie, it's not Shakespeare folks...
15 March 2024
Had read some of the poor reviews (The Guardian in particular) but they miss the point.

This IS a leave your brain at the door and just go with the flow movie. Some of the CGi (compared to what we've become accustomed to) is a wee bit hokey at times but it doesn't distract from the action.

FWIW I want to address some of the comments I read about Bryce Dallas Howard? There are mysogynistic a** holes everywhere you look these days. She's a very lovely woman, sexy as heck, but forget all the comparative nonsense you may read elsewhere, the important thing is she's really good in this, movie and adds another string to her acting bow.

Sam Rockwell doesn't disappoint, is there a more watchable actor alive? Maybe, but he's having a lot of fun here. They all are!

It's a very watchable, has the distinctive Mathew Vaughan visuals, and is not as ultra violent as The Kingsman movies.

Leave your brain at the door....enjoy.
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5/10
Horribly pretentious...
16 September 2022
This is NOT the filmic epitaph Bowie deserved. I feel like a heretic writing this (I'm a DB fan for nearly 50 years) however, and it's nothing to do with Bowie, he literally had no producer or directorial input here, it's just a series of jump cuts, flash edits and (non DB) content that was just irritating. There was also a lot of previously seen footage (from 'Richochet' or 'Cracked Actor').

The only thrilling piece was the Earls Court footage from '78. It was incredible, movie quality and great sound. Maybe someday we'll get to see this.

I'll watch it again at some point but I'm just very disappointed. Additional point of context, I saw this in IMAX in Dublin and it was ear splitingly loud. I'm a musician, I LIKE 'loud' but this was headache inducing.
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Rubikon (2022)
6/10
Hmm. 6/10 Overall a good film let down by its ending
16 July 2022
It's a slow burn for much of the film. Not a lot happens, there's nothing graphic or horror based. The direction is good and the sets and CGI are really (really) good. It must have cost a lot to produce this film.

The ending is very poor having sat through 150 minutes. Other reviews have varied between very low and high medium.

It's a pity and a rather a wasted opportunity.
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Eternals (2021)
5/10
What can you say?? Waste of talent and money
12 January 2022
There's a huge effort gone into making this movie, millions and millions and millions of dollars. But for what? Another deeply unsatisfying CGI monster movie about 'super heroes'? Take that money and go cure a disease or two, solve world hunger and really do something super heroic.

Someone somewhere at Marvel/Disney needs to say STOP. Stop until there's something actually worth making as opposed to what just seems to be a mandate to get more 'product' out the door. This movie is all flash and little substance. I feel it adds little or nothing to the MCU.

I watched this movie with subtitles (because it was night time and I didn't want to disturb the rest of the house). When you read the dialogue it's really not well written (sorry script writers!). There's a lot of extraneous talk, and I don't know if anyone else noticed (or were too bothered tbh) the beatification of 'primitive' cultures with many scenes of costumed 'superheroes' appearing to be angelic while braiding little urchins hair or doling out magic crystals. Or something like that.

It's just a poor movie from storyline perspective and I was very disappointed with the outcome here. It's an extremely saccharine messaged plot line with no real substance.

One day Feige and his crew will (like the first Iron Man) put their non Avenger superhero stable into a good - reality based - detective story and get rid of fire monsters and supreme cosmic entities. We've had enough.
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4/10
What?....
7 January 2022
This movie is pretty poor. It's a mess. Dialogue is dreadful, the acting, other than the main leads, is amateurish but the whole self reverential story line (with cuts to the original movies) is simply atrocious. And? 'Deus Machina'? Wee bit insulting to the intelligence of the audience.

The scenes of the 'brainstorm' sessions (gamestorming?) has some of the worst acting I've ever seen in such a high profile film.

Deeply disappointing movie. Arguably it was impossible to get beyond the original film which was simply a genre breaking, generation defining science fiction masterclass. It's been the law of diminishing returns ever since. Sadly.
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5/10
Mixed feelings
6 January 2022
First and foremost this is a kids film, whereas the original had broader audience appeal. The young actors are great here, as is the usually and generally excellent Carrie Coons.

It's a basic 'greatest hits' run which tries to squeeze in *every* old reference in from its ancestory. While I understand that, movies are there to make money, it just feels a bit cynical.

I think Jason Reitman is a fine director, his body of work speaks for itself. However this movie has the feel of either committee group think (must have this, must have those, can't leave out that) or a self reverential wrap party for a bunch of folks with great memories to look back and reflect on.

If there's another movie, ALL the past has to be put behind it, including the cameos, and the producers/writers MUST step up the scary element. This movie is quite tame.

There's a much better GB story to be made that will become self defining for the future of this franchise. Or it simply becomes a ghost of itself.
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The Trip (2021)
8/10
This is great craic...
3 January 2022
Just an enjoyable horror film with many comedic moments. The humour is dark, however, THEN it gets *very* dark.

Read the IMDB first if you're at all queasy. It's an extremely gory movie. This film had many, many, watch from between your fingers moments.

It wasn't too hard to guess the majority of the plot lines however it is very inventive and just great fun (er, if you like to see unsympathetic characters tortured, battered and killed!).

The ending could have pivoted a couple different ways but was ultimately enjoyable given the outcome.

Well worth a watch.
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6/10
Some really good acting here however...
3 January 2022
...this movie ultimately felt more like an endurance test than an enjoyable experience. Dunst, The Benedict, Plemons were all great as their characters. The cinematography and direction was really compelling at times and NZ easily passed muster as the turn of the century American Midwest. The ending was interesting but it took way too long to get to it.

Very much like how the critics darling 'There Will Be Blood' was feted, it's an energy vacuum, I feel this movie might end up touted the same way.

What I suggest is? Whenever Wes Anderson makes a film just give him ALL the awards, and leave it alone. I'd rather be entertained, provoked and amused by his work than do the equivalent of gritting my teeth wanting for a movie to end.

Lot of quality, I can appreciate the subtleties but ultimately a lot of over thinking here. Don't bore us get to the chorus etc it'll probably win a bag of Oscars and fair play if it does.
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6/10
95% really good, often uncomfortable to watch..
3 January 2022
...ending was (for me) a major let down. We travel so far with the main character through her life story to a sudden resolution in the last few minutes to tie up the redemptive threads?

Ultimately unsatisfying end to what had been up to then an interesting story.

One other thing that bothered me? The lingering camera on the female characters when wearing swim suits? As much as anyone might appreciate Olivia Coleman and Dakota Johnson in such circumstances it just felt a bit, well, voyeuristic.
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2/10
Truly awful. Awful....
26 March 2021
Eddie Murphy will be back at some point with something worth his talents. This certainly isn't it. It's an embarrassment.
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Hitmen (2020–2021)
7/10
Absolutely not as bad as some of the reviews on here
18 April 2020
I don't understand how some one can watch a first episode for 10 minutes then dismiss a whole season?

It's quite funny in places, maybe more smiles than guffaws but I liked the show and the two leads work well together, which is not surprising I suppose!
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Peterloo (2018)
4/10
Was looking forward to this ...
6 April 2020
But christ jesus it's hard work...very earnest but the two and a half hour running time is superfluous. There's a great story in here but it's delivered in a laboured way with extensive exposition that I feel could have been handled in a more concise manner. Some beautifully framed scenes which highlight the directors eye but the whole thing just doesn't gel and it becomes frustrating to watch. A missed opportunity I feel
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Uncut Gems (2019)
6/10
Watchable but
17 March 2020
...has the most annoying musical score I've ever heard...and I'm a musician!! Faux '70's soundtrack that would have been bad back then and wouldn't have (hypothetically!) improved over time. Noisy, intrusive and irritating. Spoilt the movie
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Hunters (2020–2023)
3/10
I SO wanted this to work
29 February 2020
A huge missed opportunity. This could have been spectacular. If only the producers of Mindhunters had got to it first. My issues - Dylan Baker cartoon villain; Pacino, one of my great acting loves, speaking in an often indecipherable accent; Carol Kane wasted with dreadful dialogue; ridiculous set pieces. it's just badly made. Very frustrating that this wasn't delivered as the potentially great show it could have been
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