With a great deal of store being set on a scientific (and expensive) test to determine relationship suitability, college best friend “Simon” (Brett Goldstein) escorts his pal “Laura” (Imogen Poots) to the clinic where they do the maths. Next thing, she’s hooked up with, married and has a child with Scotsman “Lukas” (Steven Cree) and he - without the gadget’s help - is living with her colleague “Andrea” (Zawe Ashton). Of course the writing is on the wall, and it isn’t in code. He doesn’t really want and she doesn’t really want, and so yada yada off we go on a predicable tale of clandestine affe…
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“What you feel for me is not love, it’s the call of a gorilla to it’s mate.” Nobody can ever say that pre-code plots weren’t racy enough, and this shows Norma Shearer, Chester Morris and Robert Montgomery’s characters at their most fickle. “Jerry” (Shearer) has been married to “Ted” (Morris) for a while now, but he is a bit of a philanderer. Meantime, another admirer “Paul” (Conrad Nagel) is living in a rather guilt-ridden marriage with “Dorothy” (Judith Wood) whom he managed to injure in a car accident when he was as plastered on the inside as she ended up all over the road. Finally fed up wi…
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**_What’s in your heart is told in your eyes_**
A noble young cop in rural southeast Texas (Brenton Thwaites) has to deal with his ‘black sheep’ brother (Ben Robson), including maybe covering for him when tragedy strikes. But will such a decision eventually destroy his life? Ted Levine is on hand as the snooping sheriff.
This is a Southern Gothic drama with crime thriller bits, similar to “Undertow” from 15 years prior, except that it doesn’t focus on kids. Like the best dramas, it fleshes out the characters and keeps everything in the realm of plausibility, refusing overkill. Ef…
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Two disillusioned British girls find themselves flying from London to Istanbul where they are to meet someone who will take them on to war torn Syria. Sadly for them, things at the Bean Kafe don’t go quite to plan and they have to improvise, think on their feet, and make their own way to their destination. We are never quite sure what their ultimate goal is, here, but as we follow their adventures we learn a little more about what motivated the more extrovert “Muna” (Safiyya Ingar) and her more subdued travel companion “Doe” (Ebada Hassan). The latter was having an hard time at school from an …
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Kids in Scotland of a certain age might just remember Glen Michael’s “Cavalcade”. This was a television programme on a Sunday afternoon that featured cartoons and one of the most popular of those was “Casper”, the friendly ghost. It was probably more popular because there were hardly ever any available and so when they were announced, it was always exciting. It’s against that sentimental backdrop that I really quite enjoyed this Spielberg action adventure film. It all starts when “Carrigan” (Cathy Moriarty) inherits a decrepit manor house in which she believes there to be a secret fortune. Whe…
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Netflix isn't even trying anymore. This is the Temu version of Rockstar. It's nit a bad movie, per sec, but it's predictable and a complete rip off of a better movie.…
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**_Odeya Rush in the waters between Florida and Bermuda_**
Shot in May, 2022, this comes in the tradition of “Dead Calm” and “Caught Inside.” I like those better, but this has its uniqueness and points of interest. It’s true that there’s an empty, almost depressing, vibe for the bulk of the story, but that fits the theme and, besides, the final act is dynamic and the ending offers a gleam of hope.
Critics say many of the things that transpire are unbelievable, but they’re not, if you think about it. Especially when you consider the protagonist’s youthful age, spirit, and mental c…
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# A well-made live-action adaptation
The Korean film «Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy» («전지적 독자 시점») is an adaptation based on the still-ongoing Korean webtoon «Omniscient Reader» which itself is based on a Korean novel of the same name. (That was a long sentence!)
While many gave it a low rating and were not satisfied, I was very satisfied and gave it a perfect 10 ⭐. Here's why:
1. It's an adaptation of a very long and still on-going serial novel and webtoon.
2. Adaptation writers have literary freedom on how to adapt a work of art in a differeet medium and target audi…
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**_From the ashes of “Halloween 4”_**
When three kids in a town in SoCal observe a possible murder at an abandoned house, it morphs their Halloween into a real scary time, as secrets of the abode’s past emerge.
“Natty Knocks” was helmed by the director of one of the top entries in the Halloween franchise, “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.” It also includes the actress who played Jamie Lloyd in that movie (Danielle Harris), as the mother of two of the kids.
The overall ‘feel’ is similar to "Curse of Crom: The Legend of Halloween" from the year prior with the except…
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An essential element of any love story is chemistry between the lead characters, even if it takes an unconventional form. Regrettably, however, that’s exactly what’s missing in director Bing Liu’s debut narrative feature, based on the novel by Atticus Lish. Told in the form of a narrated letter/journal entry to her late film, the film chronicles the unlikely love story of Aishe (Sebiye Behtiyar), an ambitious, sharp-witted twentysomething Uyghur woman who illegally immigrates to the US, and Skinner (Fred Hechinger), a troubled young American soldier who just returned stateside after three tour…
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