mr-michael-wood

It delivers everything it has on the tin. If you enjoy the personality of James May and his interests in lathes, beer and the small things in life then you'll love this.

It is relaxing and interesting without being "overstimulating", seeing James build an ingenious deer repelling device and test the validity of the statement "roundabouts are better than traffic lights" is just fun in a very low key way.

If you enjoyed any of James' other Tv shows then you'll love this. His disdain of TV trickery and straightforward nature really just makes me chuckle and the question he feels he must answer, such as "can you cook a curry in the washing machine", are always funny and informative.

The world needs more James May in my opinion.

The world of cinema has moved on at great speed since the original but, even accepting this, I found that the overall look and feel of the movie was just so different from the original that it lost all connection. From CGI gone wild to costume design, it went from a gritty original with practical effects that made Gladiator feel more like a documentary, or moving history to a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie with no realism that made the original so great.

The story was uninspired, lacked sense most of the time with characters that just don't act as logic would dictate. A general who hates war and regrets victory? Don't misunderstand, it's perfectly logical to hate war, even as a general but after watching the utterances flow you'll understand that it just doesn't fit. It's almost as though this gentle soul was thrust straight into the role of a general just before we meet him rather than a man who would have clearly worked their way up the ranks and served for some time.

The opening of the movie is a bit of a change, the camera angles, score and characters make it a bit of an assault on the senses. It felt a million miles away from your normal box office movie and had me gripped. From there it slowly goes downhill, nothing much happens and nothing (except the most insignificant thing) gets resolved.

Some people enjoy complete and full closure to movies where we start out without the full understanding of what is going on. This movie, however, gives no closure to any events that happen within it which makes it seem like a two and a half hour set up or opening and then just stops.

It's hard to explain without spoilers but the basic premise is that an attack takes place while a family is vacationing in rural America. We don't need to know about the origin of the attack, why it's happening or if it gets resolved. So with that I want to point out that I'm not referring to this lack of closure.

Within the story there are several plot points that are started up and never concluded at all. The movie essentially finishes where you would expect the final act to begin.