duncplus

Elements of this series are excellent. Neil deGrasse Tyson is a passionate science communicator with an infectious sense of wonder. The historical segments describing key contributions to the development of astrophysics are particularly interesting, and there are some nice explanations of important concepts and discoveries. The graphics are impressive.

But parts of this series are very tedious - one example being the earnest explanations of why evolution is real, which will irritate people who already believe in evolution but probably won't convince anyone who doesn't. In some ways, this show tries to do too much, causing it to lose focus.

Cosmos usually explains ideas very clearly, but sometimes runs through some quite technical stuff too quickly (e.g. That bit on electrons jumping between orbits around an atom's nucleus and absorbing/emitting light).

And those impressive graphics... well, there's a fair bit of hammy acting in front of a green screen, which IMO detracts significantly from the show.

Overall, Cosmos is fascinating in places but very tedious in others, so it becomes a slog and I never feel very enthusiastic about watching the next episode of the series.

Many reviewers are describing Enys Men as a folk horror film. This is sort of correct, but is also likely to lead viewers to approach the film with expectations that will not be met. This is an experimental film with little overt plot. Perhaps it's an abstraction of folk horror, or maybe just a film that uses some folk horror techniques.

The camera work goes from breathtaking panoramas to the smallest details: cracks in rocks, lichen, gorse, gulls. The sound design is thoughtful, powerful and central to the film. Both together capture such a strong sense of place, making Enys Men very immersive.

The story does not explain itself or resolve in a clear way. Some people will find this frustrating. Indeed, I found it frustrating at first, because I had gone into the cinema expecting a folk horror movie with the fairly standard tropes and story arc of the genre. But that's not what this is.

This film is experimental, slow, and leaves you plenty of space for interpretation. To me, it's a film about the power of place, our connection with the past, ritual, and grief. I'd really recommend this fascinating and unusual film, just try to leave your genre expectations behind!

Another Hong Kong action film that pits a gritty detective who seem to have been borrowed from the SWAT team against a comic-book villain who appears to be mostly intent on showing just how much of a bad guy he really can be.

There's also a police chief who only seems to get in the way of our hero until he eventually does something useful late in the day, a gang member who isn't as bad as he seems, an evil henchman with a penchant for grenades, and a female character with no personality whatsoever who also manages to help save the day in a stereotypically female way in the end.

Pure cliché then.

There's a little plot development in here, which is unimportant because the story - cop trying to stop a gun smuggling gang after they kill his partner - is basically an excuse for huge amounts of shooting and a whole lot of explosions.

This is one of those movies where all kinds of things blow up whenever someone shoots them as if each bullet were a miniature bomb, and people only ever need to reload when the director wants to add a little twist to a fight scene.

Towards the end, Hard Boiled almost seems to slide into parody, and I was half expecting to see a helicopter emerge from behind a panel in the rubble of the villain's lair to carry the him away, laughing evilly while machine gunning a children's birthday party, or something.

If you're looking for an over-the-top action film that has no time for nonsense like making much sense, this is a reasonably entertaining two hours that you might as well experience. It's not one of the better action movies I've seen though.