Category Archives: 150 word review

Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power S1E7 150 Word Review “The Eye” #AmazonReview #LOTR #RingsofPower #150WordReview

April 21, 2023150 word review, 2-5, TVAmazon, Amazon Prime, Arda, Battlestar Galactica, Bored of the Rings, BSG, BSG reboot, Celebrimbor, Dawn French, dragon, elf, Episode VII, Erik the Viking, Ewoks, fantasy, female Ghostbusters, female reboot, French and Saunders, Gaius Baltar, Galadriel, Game of Thrones, GoT, harfoot, House of the Dragon, Isildur, J R R Tolkien, James Callis, Jar Jar Binks, Jennifer Saunders, Lady Macbeth, Legolas, Lenny Henry, Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, Lord of the Woke, LotR, LOTR: ROP, Macbeth, member berries, memberberries, Michael Fassbender, Michael Palin, Middle Earth, Númenor, orc, Peter Jackson, Peter Mullin, Red Wedding, Reservoir Dogs, Rings of Power, RoP, scene where Mr Blonde cuts off ear, Star Wars, SW7, The Hobbit, Tolkien, wizard, woke, Zummerset, Zummerzetbryanajparry

“He’s gone, he’s gone, he’s gone”. Inspiring stuff.

“The Ring” opens with Hellish scenes: beautiful, evocative and compelling visuals reminiscent of the Fassbender version of Macbeth. Absolute carnage.

That’s about it for the good stuff. The bad?

Flabby dialogue and awful acting ruin anything remotely good. “He’s gone, he’s gone, he’s gone”. Inspiring stuff. And the plotting is non-existent. Gimli 2’s wifie suddenly becomes a power-crazed Lady Macbeth — a good idea, but there was no character arc. A shame, because the quadrangle of Gimli 2, Legolas 2, Gimli 2’s Dad and ~~Dwarven Lady Macbeth~~ Gimli 2’s wifie is one of the few things in this series that had potential.

The show’s like a billion dollar budget fanfic, but less professional. The name reveal of “Mordor” is one of the most absurd things I have ever seen in all of my life.

Speaking of absurd, how did everyone survive a volcano going off in their face? No explanation is, or can be, given.

Poor.

2/5

© 2022-2023 Bryan A. J. Parry
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Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power S1E6 150 Word Review “Udûn” #AmazonReview #LOTR #RingsofPower #150WordReview

March 18, 2023150 word review, 3-5, episode reviewAmazon, Amazon Prime, Arda, Battlestar Galactica, Bored of the Rings, BSG, BSG reboot, Celebrimbor, Dawn French, dragon, elf, Episode VII, Erik the Viking, Ewoks, fantasy, female Ghostbusters, female reboot, French and Saunders, Gaius Baltar, Galadriel, Game of Thrones, GoT, Halbrand, harfoot, House of the Dragon, Isildur, J R R Tolkien, James Callis, Jar Jar Binks, Jennifer Saunders, Legolas, Lenny Henry, Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, Lord of the Woke, LotR, LOTR: ROP, member berries, memberberries, memberberry, Michael Palin, Middle Earth, Númenor, orc, Peter Jackson, Red Wedding, Reservoir Dogs, Rings of Power, RoP, scene where Mr Blonde cuts off ear, Star Wars, SW7, The Hobbit, Tolkien, Udûn, wizard, woke, Zummerset, Zummerzetbryanajparry

a memberberry wrapped in a mystery box just for the sake of it

In Episode 6, everything happens and nothing happens.

The orcs invade, Adar’s identity is revealed, the evil sword’s purpose is exposed, and the finale is, err, explosive. But it’s a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. We simply don’t care about the characters, the dialogue is awful, and nothing makes any sense — especially the ending. Thus, the action is less active and more like a bunch of random stuff happening.

Also, the series is nothing more than a soft reboot of LotR, a memberberry wrapped in a mystery box just for the sake of it. There’s probably-Gandalf, Legolas 2, Gimli 2, basically-Hobbits, Female Sam and Frodo, and so on. We’ve also got pseudo-ring (the broken sword) and pseudo-Gollum (what’s-her-face’s son).

As for the ending… I don’t see how the series can even continue, short of a cop-out “it was all a dream” or a deus ex machina “resolution”.

Just about passable — if you don’t think about anything.

3/5

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Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power S1E5 150 Word Review “Partings” #AmazonReview #LOTR #RingsofPower #150WordReview

February 26, 2023150 word review, 3-5, episode review, TVAmazon, Amazon Prime, Arda, Battlestar Galactica, Bored of the Rings, BSG, BSG reboot, Celebrimbor, Dawn French, dragon, elf, Episode VII, Erik the Viking, Ewoks, fantasy, female Ghostbusters, female reboot, French and Saunders, Gaius Baltar, Galadriel, Game of Thrones, GoT, harfoot, House of the Dragon, Isildur, J R R Tolkien, James Callis, Jar Jar Binks, Jennifer Saunders, Legolas, Lenny Henry, Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, Lord of the Woke, LotR, LOTR: ROP, member berries, memberberries, Michael Palin, Middle Earth, Númenor, orc, Peter Jackson, Red Wedding, Reservoir Dogs, Rings of Power, RoP, scene where Mr Blonde cuts off ear, Star Wars, SW7, The Hobbit, Tolkien, wizard, woke, Zummerset, Zummerzetbryanajparry

I only spent half the time distracted [this episode] … hardly a ringing endorsement

Episode 5, “Partings”, sees the Southlanders split between two factions — those who are going over to the dark side and those who will stand and fight. We also witness the Queen of Númenor having to make a fateful decision.

Definitely stronger than the previous episode. I only spent half the time distracted, and I remained conscious. Yet hardly a ringing endorsement.

The big problem continues to be the characters — and that really is a fatal flaw. What actually motivates them? The Queen of Númenor’s fateful decision is incomprehensible. Galadriel continues to resemble a teenage fan fiction version; petulant, stupid, arrogant, essentially angsty and definitely not a good guy.

However, on a plus point, black-guy-who-is-the-friend-of-the-guy-who-is-supposed-to-be-Isildur shows signs of potentially maybe having the possibility of becoming an okay character, eventually.

Let’s see if this season has the exit velocity to launch us into a hopefully much improved season two. That’s the best we can hope for at this stage.

3/5

© 2022 Bryan A. J. Parry
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Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power S1E1&2 “A Shadow of the Past” and “Adrift” 150 Word Review #AmazonReview #LOTR #RingsofPower #150WordReview

February 7, 2023150 word review, 3-5#150WordReview, 150 word review, Amazon, Amazon Prime, Celebrimbor, Dawn French, dragon, elf, Episode VII, Erik the Viking, Ewoks, fantasy, female Ghostbusters, female reboot, French and Saunders, Galadriel, Game of Thrones, harfoot, J R R Tolkien, Jar Jar Binks, Jennifer Saunders, Legolas, Lenny Henry, Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, Lord of the Woke, LotR, LOTR: ROP, member berries, memberberries, Michael Palin, Middle Earth, orc, Peter Jackson, Rings of Power, RoP, short review, Star Wars, SW7, The Hobbit, Tolkien, wizard, woke, Zummerset, Zummerzetbryanajparry

Carefully constructed from the appendices, footnotes and old bits of crumpled-up post-it notes

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power tells the tale of the second age of Middle Earth, some thousands of years before the events portrayed in the Lord of the Rings. Carefully constructed from the appendices, footnotes and old bits of crumpled-up post-it notes from Tolkien’s rubbish bin, LOTR:ROP will take us back to experience the world of J. R. R. Tolkien once more, a world of good versus evil, dragons and treasure, duty and honour, and prosthetic ears.

What has one billion dollars got Amazon? A lot of memberberries, apparently. It’s a soft reboot of LOTR: Galdriel, Legolas 2, ~~Hobbits~~ ~~Harfeet~~ Harfoots, a dark lord, juicy maps, Probably-Gandalf. But it’s all in a 2022 stylee: black hobbits and elves, Female Frodo and Female Sam, lots of powahful women who don’t need no man.

Episode one and two were enjoyable. Not what we feared, but not what we hoped for. Let’s see how the series develops.

3/5

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Netflix Film Review “Perdida” (2018) #150WordReview #NetflixReview

May 7, 2022150 word review, 3/5, film review#MovieReviewsBlog, #NetflixReviews, @MovieReviewsBlo, Alejandro Montiel, Amaia Salamanca, Carlos Alcántara, Cornelia, crime, crime-mystery-thriller, film, film blog, film review, film reviews, film student, films, Florencia Etcheves, Luisana Lopilato, movie, movie blog, movie review, movie reviews, movies, mystery, Netflix, netflix film, Netflix review, Nicolás Furtado, nunca dejes de buscar, Oriana Sabatini, Perdida, Perdida 2018, Perdida MOVIE, Perdida PELICULA, Rafael Spregelburd, thrillerbryanajparry

totally falls apart, our main players [are] totally incapable

A policeman carries around the pain of the mysterious and unsolved disappearance of her best friend from years before when they were on a teenage night out together. But when she finally decides to reopen the case and investigate it herself, she soon finds herself in danger.

Perdida is a mystery crime thriller with some interesting twists and turns, although you can see one of the main twists coming a mile away. Sadly, the just-about-passable acting totally falls apart, our main players totally incapable of even trying to react normally at several crucial moments; indeed, there is no reaction at all at emotional pay-offs. This weird disjunction between what is happening and the performance of the actors is vaguely confusing and certainly ruins the film’s high points.

A good story, some bizarre acting.

3/5

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Netflix Film Reviews “Lost Girls” (2020) #150WordReview #NetflixReview

April 2, 2022150 word review, 4/5, film review#150WordReview, #MovieReviewsBlog, #NetflixReviews, 150 word review, @MovieReviewsBlo, Amy Ryan, based on a book, crime, film, film blog, film review, film reviews, film student, films, Gabriel Byrne, Lola Kirke, Long Island Serial Killer, Lost Girls, Lost Girls 2020, Lost Girls MOVIE, Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery, movie, movie blog, movie review, movie reviews, movies, murder, Netflix, netflix film, Netflix review, New York Times Bestseller, serial killer, Sundance, Thomasin McKenzie, thriller, true crime, true storybryanajparry

will surely haunt you

Lost Girls is based on the disturbing true case of the Long Island Serial Killer, where upwards of 16 young ladies, all sex workers, were murdered and buried in a field behind a gated community. The killer has yet to be identified. The film focuses on the story of Shannan Gilbert whose disappearance and subsequent police search led to the gruesome discovery of this string of dead bodies.

Nobody wanted to listen, but Shannon’s mother, Mari (Amy Ryan), was tenacious and made it happen. Deeply flawed individuals. Amazing acting even from those with very few lines. The casting was fantastic.

The obligatory credits sequence where we see the real people involved was particularly grisly and gruesome, especially when the fate of the surviving members of the family is revealed.

I don’t want to overegg this sell. Just watch the film. Fans of crime, thriller, documentary, and true stories will all love this deeply disturbing tale that will surely haunt you weeks later.

4/5

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Netflix 150 Word Film Review: “Fatal Deceit” a.k.a. “Gaslit” (2019)

March 13, 2022150 word review, 2/5, film review#MovieReviewsBlog, #NetflixReviews, @MovieReviewsBlo, Academy Award, Academy Award Winner, Academy Awards, Fatal Deceit, Fatal Deceit 2019, Fatal Deceit MOVIE, film, film blog, film review, film reviews, film student, films, Flightplan, gaslighting, Gaslit, Gaslit 2019, Gaslit MOVIE, horror-thriller, Jodie Foster, movie, movie blog, movie review, movie reviews, movies, Netflix, Netflix documentary, netflix film, Netflix review, Oscar, Oscars, plot spoiler, Return of the King, Zoe McLellanbryanajparry

check out the full length review here

Flightplan in the ‘burbs.

Olivia’s (Zoe McLellan) world is turned upside down when her teenage daughter Hannah goes missing just weeks after the death of her estranged husband in a car accident. But when people deny having seen Hannah, ever, Olivia’s whole world rapidly unravels. Has someone taken Hannah, or did Olivia’s sick mind make her up in the first place?

Fatal Deceit a.k.a. Gaslit (2019) is nothing new. It’s Flightplan in the ‘burbs. None-the-less, the basic storyline was entertaining and capably written. Sadly, a key plot twist was clumsily and blatantly telegraphed early on, a real suspense-killer. And Gaslit itself has to be the biggest spoiler-title since “Return of the King”.

The direction was unusual, often ridiculous, but always sublime compared to the acting.

Zoe McLellan’s a decent television actor. She did well. But her co-stars’ performances were so uniformly awful that it made McLellan look like an Oscar contender.

A trashy TV movie for the insomniac — but with redeeming features.

2/5

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Film Review “The Nameless” a.k.a. “Los Sin Nombre” (1999) #NetflixReview #FilmReview #150WordReview

March 6, 2022150 word review, 3/5, film review#MovieReviewsBlog, @MovieReviewsBlo, buscan los límites del mal, buscan los límites del mal ... pero el mal no tiene límites, Emma Vilarasau, film, film blog, film review, film reviews, film student, films, horror-mystery, Jaume Balagueró, Karra Elejalde, Los Sin Nombre, Los Sin Nombre 1999, Los Sin Nombre PELICULA, movie, movie blog, movie review, movie reviews, movies, mystery, mystery-horror-thriller, netflix film, pero el mal no tiene límites, psychological horror, psychological thriller, Ramsey Campbell, The Nameless, The Nameless 1999The Nameless MOVIE, Tristán Ulloabryanajparry

… still worth a watch.

Several years after a six year old girl is brutally murdered, her mother receives a mysterious phone call from a woman claiming to be none other than her daughter. With the help of a retired policeman and a journalist, our mother struggles to find the truth in the face of grave danger from a mysterious force.

Los Sin Nombre, based on Ramsey Campbell’s 1981 novel The Nameless, is a disturbing psychological thriller horror mystery. It’s dark, broody and grimy. It’s not clear until much later on in the film what actually is going on with her daughter and who this mysterious caller is. When the reveal comes, it’s a bit of a let-down as the back story isn’t fully worked out on screen. None-the-less, the first two thirds of the film make this still worth a watch.

A notable and praise-worthy film with a disappointing ending that hobbles it.

3/5

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Film Review “A Classic Horror Story” (2021) #NetflixReview #150WordReview

January 15, 2022150 word review, 3/5, film reviewA Classic Horror Movie, A Classic Horror Movie 2021, Alida Baldari Calabria, body horror, Cabin Fever, cabin in the woods, carpool, Cristina Donadio, Evil Dead, film, film blog, film review, film reviews, film student, films, forest horror, Francesca Cavallin, Francesco Russo, horror, horror film, horror movie, Lucio Besana, Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, movie, movie blog, movie review, movie reviews, movies, netflix film, Paolo Strippoli, Peppino Mazzotta, Roberto De Feo, Saw, Saw 2004, survival horror, The Hitchhiker, Will Merrick, Yuliia Sobolbryanajparry

Should be called A Classic Horror Story Medley

Strangers carpooling together across Italy get stranded in the woods and stalked by an evil presence and must fight tooth and nail to get out in one piece. As one of our characters remarks, “It’s like the set-up of a classic horror movie.”

A Classic Horror Movie, ironically, won’t go down as a classic horror movie. Indeed, it doesn’t even have the storyline of a classic horror movie. It does feel eerily familiar, however, with hints of Evil Dead, Saw, and Cabin in the Woods thrown in. The spooky house in the woods (another classic horror trope) was well-designed and very unsettling. What the movie sometimes lacks in acting it makes up for in atmos.

A suspenseful and gruesome flick with a wonderful post-credits sequence which is just perfect. However, it thinks it’s a bit cleverer than it actually is. Should be called A Classic Horror Story Medley.

3/5

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Netflix Review “Intrusion” (2021) #NetflixReview #150WordReview

November 13, 2021150 word review, 3/5, film review#NetflixReviews, Adam Salky, Chris Sparling, crime thriller, crime-horror-thriller, crime-mystery-thriller, crime-thriller, Eric Lin, film, film blog, film review, film reviews, films, Freida Pinto, horror-thriller, Intrusion, Intrusion 2021, Intrusion MOVIE, Logan Marshall-Green, Megan Elisabeth Kelly, movie, movie blog, movie review, movie reviews, movies, Netflix, netflix film, Netflix review, psychological thriller, Robert John Burke, stalker-thriller, The quietest towns hide the darkest secrets, thriller, Tom Hardy, whodunnit, whydunnitbryanajparry

the excitement wasn’t whodunnit, but howdunnit and whydunnit

A woman (Meera, Freida Pinto) starts a new life with her husband (Henry, Logan Marshall-Green: Tom Hardy’s American doppleganger) after overcoming a bleak cancer prognosis in the dream house that he designed and built. But when they fall victim to a home invasion and robbery, Meera’s newfound sense of security is left shattered.

Intrusion plays the old “vulnerable wife, is the husband too-good-to-be-true?” angle quite well, although I could see where the film was going quite early on. None-the-less, this felt like an episode of Columbo: the excitement wasn’t so much in whodunnit, as we could guess quite early on, but howdunnit and whydunnit — although it must be said that the film didn’t quite deliver on the why.

Somewhat trite, somewhat staid, Intrusion was none-the-less capably written, effectively directed, and well acted. An entertaining Friday night flick.

3/5

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Bryan's Magic Lantern Filmhouse

Mostly pithy film/series reviews of Netflix and Amazon Prime