Monthly Archives: February 2021

“Movie Reviews Blog” (2020) Review

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the worst pandemic in a hundred years

After tragedy struck in the Autumn of 2017 forcing writer Bryan Parry (Bryan Parry) to cease work on his movie reviews blog, he had to rebuild his life. He was determined that 2020 would be his year, the year to relaunch his career and achieve success. Little did he know a global pandemic would strike. Can Bryan juggle commitments as husband and father, and power through the worst pandemic in a hundred years, to achieve his goal of online writing success, or will he succumb to the pressures of life?

Movie Reviews Blog (2020) is the long-awaited reboot of Film Movie TV Blog (2017) and the abortive reboot Film Movie TV Blog (2018). A slow-mover, the film sees Bryan slowly consolidate, expand and extend the reach of his blog, introducing new features along the way (such as social media channels Twitter and Instagram) and the Hall of Fame and Shame, and increasing production to upwards of two articles a week. His readership has increased massively, perhaps also helped along with his trademark touches of humour.

Not everyone’s cup of tea, Movie Reviews Blog is none-the-less the tale of how, even given hard circumstances, anyone can make progress. However, the story feels somewhat incomplete, almost as if the final act was missing. Perhaps the rumoured sequel Movie Reviews Blog 2021 (2021) will see our hero Bryan become a break-out success.

3/5

© 2020-2021 Bryan A. J. Parry

 

Netflix Review “Inconceivable” (2017) #NetflixReviews #150WordReview

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A good psychological thriller which is somewhat short on thrills.

When young mother Katie flees an abusive relationship with her newborn, she settles in a new town where she befriends another mum Angela. Katie seems like just what struggling Angela needs: a new best friend to help support her in her own moving on from a troubled period. But when Angela starts to notice strange things about Katie, we’re left to question is Katie all she makes herself out to be?

Inconceivable is an entertaining psychological thriller. It features good performances from Oscar winners Nicolas Cage and Faye Dunaway. However, the pacing felt somewhat plodding, the runtime seeming to stretch beyond its 105 minutes, and the key twists were resolved too early and thus deflated the tension. The main issue seems to be that the script isn’t sure what it’s trying to do. Is Katie the protagonist, or Angela? Do we live the journey of Angela’s descent into madness, or not? Is it an is-she-isn’t-she-crazy film, or not?

A good psychological thriller which is somewhat short on thrills.

3/5

© 2020-2021 Bryan A. J. Parry

featured image from https://www.netflix-nederland.nl/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Inconceivable-Netflix-810×456.jpg

Netflix Review: “Fractured” (2019) #100WordReview @netflix @thefilmreview @kermodemovie @fracturedfilmUK @_SamWorthington @lilrabe

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A kind of horror Flightplan

A troubled couple, Ray and Joanne (Sam Worthington, Lily Rabe), stop at a petrol station where their daughter’s arm gets Fractured in a fall. They rush to the nearest hospital, but something is terribly amiss. Pushy staff keep mentioning organ donation. And when daughter Peri (Lucy Capri) and Joanne disappear during an MRI, the hospital deny they checked in — or even exist at all. Ray must fight to save his family and prove his sanity.

A kind of horror Flightplan, we are kept guessing until the end: abducted family, or imagined family?

Unsettling, thrilling, but slightly shlocky. A good romp.

3/5

© 2020-2021 Bryan A. J. Parry

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Netflix Review: Under the Shadow (2016) #100WordReview #Netflix @UTSFilm @KermodeMovie #UnderTheShadow

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read the full review here

Where Babadook was a nerve-shredding slowburn, Under the Shadow was just a patience-shredding slow.

Under the Shadow (2016) sees a mother struggle to maintain a normal family life in war-torn 1980s Tehran amidst Iraqi bombs and a mysterious evil presence.

BAFTA award-winning, foreign language, original setting, social commentary, Mark Kermode-approved: everything a latte-supping cosmopolitan liberal like myself loves. Yet this Iranian The Babadook doesn’t quite work.

Where Babadook was a nerve-shredding slowburn, Under the Shadow was just a patience-shredding slow. Babbadook‘s is-it-isn’t-it-real psychological terror has been replaced with going-nowhere social commentary on feminism in post-revolutionary Iran. A truly scary “monster” and creepy apartment building can’t hide the lack of focus or peril. Disappointing.

© 2017-2021 Bryan A. J. Parry

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Netflix Review: Under The Shadow (2016) @UTSFilm @KermodeMovie #UnderTheShadow #NetflixReview

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read the 100 word review here

everything that a latte-supping cosmopolitan liberal like myself should love…

Under the Shadow (2016) depicts a mother and daughter struggling to maintain a normal life in war-torn 1980s Tehran. After their father and husband is conscripted, Iraqi bombs start raining down. In a visually striking moment, one bomb lodges in the building’s roof: it doesn’t explode, but it seems to bring a mysterious evil with it that begins to tear the family apart.

This BAFTA award-winning horror has long been on my “must watch” list. Sadly, I’m no longer a freeloading undergraduate with cash and time to spare, so I couldn’t catch it at the cinema. Luckily, Netflix bought it — a surefire sign that the film was gold — and I got to watch it this weekend.

Called an “Iranian Babadook” due to its slow build and psychological horror element, this film holds a 7.0 on IMDB and 98% fresh on RottenTomatoes — rarely heard of scores for a horror. Foreign language? Check. Original setting? Check. Social commentary? Check. Mark Kermode approved? Check. It’s everything that a latte-supping cosmopolitan liberal like myself should love. And how I wanted to love it. But this was the single-handed most disappointing film experience I have had in years.

Where The Babadook was a nerve-shredding slowburn, Under the Shadow was just a patience-shredding slow. 82 minutes never felt so long. The film wasn’t awful: jaunts to the basement bomb shelter were creepy, the sound design was at times deeply unsettling, and the evil presence was original and truly scary. But unlike The Babadook which nigh-on perfectly balanced psychological terror, monster scares, and possible mental breakdown in a is-it-isn’t-it-real stylee, Under the Shadow just felt like a going-nowhere social commentary on the state of women in post-revolutionary Iran with a bit of bump-in-the-night thrown in. Tension wasn’t maintained, the film didn’t feel like it was headed anywhere, and our mother and daughter, strangely, never truly seem imperilled by the menacing presence. The picture juggles several themes, yet never delivers on any of them. Smaller productions often suffer from fewer rewrites, Under the Shadow is no exception: this is a screenplay crying out for another round or two of redrafting. It never fulfils the ample potential it hints at.

However, the acting, direction, clever construction, and originality save the film somewhat. Memorable, note-worthy, but sadly Under the Shadow just doesn’t hang together.

© 2017-2021 Bryan A. J. Parry

featured image from https://www.thestateofthearts.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/under-the-shadow-movie.jpg

Netflix Film Review: Unforgettable (2017) #100WordReview @netflix @thefilmreview @kermodemovie @theisabellakai @rosariodawson @KatieHeigl @geoffstults

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With a title like Unforgettable, this film is almost asking to fall on its face.

Julia (Rosario Dawson) has just clawed herself out of a violently abusive relationship. Her reward: super job and wonder-man David (Geoff Stults). But her new life is shattered by David’s “tightly wound” ex-wife Tessa (Katherine Heigl) who cannot, and will not, accept that she has been replaced. Julia battles the demons of her past to overcome everyone’s doubt and her new foe.

With a title like Unforgettable, this film is almost asking to fall on its face. The truly compelling central performances by Dawson and Heigl stopped this being a waste of time, but a classic it is not. Trite, boring.

2/5

© 2020-2021 Bryan A. J. Parry

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Upcoming Movie and TV Reboots: 5 “Back to the Future” (20??) #Spoof

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Back to the Future (20??)

How dare they will have going to have rebooted this classic!

Nooooooo. I can’t even bring myself to joke about this. But I just know it’s going to happen! Despite what Robert Zemeckis says, money talks; just ask Judas. How dare they will have going to have rebooted this classic! Sad face. Possibly justified as someone having gone back to the past from the future and changing the timelines in some kind of Star Trek reboot stylee.

No. Seriously. This will happen.

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Netflix Film Review: The Boy Next Door (2015) @TheBoyNextDoor @JLo #TheBoyNextDoor @ryanAguzman @Netflix @thefilmreview @ianmnelson95 @Lex_Atkins @KermodeMovie

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Read the 100 word review here

cliché-bingo

Having recently separated from her philandering husband, lonely classics teacher Claire (Jennifer Lopez) has a night of passion with her new next door neighbour: young, sexy, super-intelligent Noah (Ryan Guzman) who’s moved in to care for his frail Great Uncle. Unfortunately for Claire, Noah is a not a one night kind of guy. There’s a fine line between “persistence” and “harassment”, and Noah isn’t even trying to tread it.

The Boy Next Door is a paint-by-numbers thriller-stalker. But despite giving the impression that writer Barbara Curry watched hundreds of films in the sub-genre in order to compile a checklist with which to construct this cliché-Bingo of a movie, the film is exceedingly entertaining. That’s an unfair assessment of the script, anyway, as Curry based the story on her own personal circumstances, so all clichés are real, probably. None-the-less, let’s tick the clichés off.

Lonely and beautiful female lead? Check. Too good to be true younger male love interest? Check. Son who gets turned against his own parents by aforesaid love interest? Check. Stalking love interest who tries to ruin his lover’s career in order to, bizarrely, drive her back into his arms? Check. Final showdown where the adulterous husband gets the chance to redeem himself heroically? Check. Murder afoot? Check. And it goes on and on.

But the film has a lot of good points. Actions have consequences, and everything follows through logically. Okay, some of the deeds are a bit over-the-top, but everything feels internally consistent with the overriding logic of the film. Tonally the film is also consistent, and it zips along at a thrilling pace. There’s very little fat to cut. The acting is mostly convincing, particularly believable was Claire’s son Kevin (Ian Nelson), and Jennifer Lopez gives an understated and believable turn as Claire, although our two main protagonists do slightly ham it up as the tension reaches boiling point. The odd absurdity aside — Noah giving Claire a “first edition” of 2800 year old work the Iliad, a poem which has been in print in English for hundreds of years, the book itself clearly a twentieth century printing — this film is well-crafted and does what it says on the tin. I was on the edge of my seat and totally absorbed in the film world.

Is it a great work of art like the Iliad it keeps mentioning? No. Is it even a “good” film? Well, no. It’s unoriginal and often absurd. But is it entertaining? Absolutely. It holds a mere 11% rating on Rotten Tomatoes which is definitely unfairly harsh. Probably the best “bad” film I’ve seen in a while. Artistically-speaking, this feature only warrants two stars. But it’s just so damn enjoyable, that I have to give it a three!

3/5

© 2019-2021 Bryan A. J. Parry

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