Sweet Girl: Netflix Has Given Up Trying To Make Good Films

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A father daughter duo, played by Jason Mamoa and Isabela Merced, decide to take on big pharma after they raise the price of a lifesaving drug which leads to the death of the family matriarch.

All of Netflix’s action thrillers are the same. Bland confused and poorly written: it almost feels at this point like they are allowing a machine to write these films using a very basic formula for inspiration. Needless to say it is holding these films back.

I didn’t really feel any sort of emotional connection to the characters, though I did feel the film going out of its way to try and make me care. If anything I would say we don’t get enough time with the happy family unit to grow attached to it before it gets ripped apart.

As a thriller or ‘statement film’ this film has nothing new to say. The message of ‘geez isn’t big pharma bad’ has been one that is often spouted and less often used in an interesting and crucially fresh way. The whole conflict of the film feels played out before it has even begun.

Mamoa is playing the same character he always does, and Merced adds nothing and is simply along for the ride.

Overall, this is so by the numbers it becomes irritating.

Pros.

It is watchable

The opening is mildly interesting

Cons.

The acting isn’t very good

The story feels incredibly generic

It has nothing to say

It is boring

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Fear Street Part 3: The Worst Irish Accents Ever

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The survivors of Sarah Fier’s murderous rampage are transported back in time to see her origin and the truth behind the curse.

There is a twist. A really obvious and blatant one from the start of the film. I won’t spoil it here but suffice it to say that it will hit you in the face several times before it is finally revealed.

Moreover, the Irish accents that our cast are doing in these flash back scenes are particularly bad. They use a lot of the same cast from the previous films to flesh out the residents of Sarah’s township in this one and not a one of them can do an Irish accent, to a point where it becomes laughably bad.

However, therein lies the charm. This film much like the others is dumb fun. There is poor writing and silly moments that are supposed to be scary a plenty, but again it only adds to the charm.

I thought the final showdown was fairly well done it managed some scary moments and it gave everyone what they didn’t know they wanted…… A showdown between all the undead killers for some reason. I did think this final sequence could have been bloodier, but I suppose it is intended for a younger age group.

I thought the flashback storyline with Sarah Fier was interesting as it gave us a good look into the paranoia of witch hunting and provided the most chilling scene of the series with the church mass death sequence.

Overall, a slightly disappointing ending to the series, but still dumb fun.

Pros.

The church sequence

The killer battle royal

The dumb fun

Cons.

The accents

The ending is somewhat disappointing

The twist is super obvious

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Gunpowder Milkshake: In Search Of A Soul

2.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A hitwoman finds herself the target of a number of underworld characters after she botches one of her hits and finds herself in the company of her victim’s child.

I am mixed on this. One the one hand I thought the concept and the action to be good. I enjoyed the world this film sets up; I thought The Firm and the Librarians were both interesting groups rife for further exploration. In addition I thought the action choreography was spot on, and many of the scenes feel very real: making the bone crunching all the more impactful.

However, the characters themselves for the most part were entirely devoid of any kind of personality or charm and were instead defined by their role in the narrative. The previous mentioned Librarians don’t really have any kind of personality beyond their job and a previous connection to one of the other characters. Moreover, Karen Gillan’s lead literally barely speaks at all and has no charm or personality either, she remains a mystery throughout though in this case that is a bad thing.

The feminist aspects which this film displays front and centre and that will no doubt annoy some, as many are looking to be offended these days, are clear and present throughout. Whilst many of the things this film is saying on that front are good, the issue comes from the fact that these characters are almost not written as people rather as tools to make certain points, this surely undermines the cause and provides a flaw in the film’s presentation.

I didn’t think the child acting was very good, but I won’t belabour that point as it is low hanging fruit.

Overall, it has potential, but some real character work is needed if this film does indeed return for a sequel.

Pros.

The world

The action

The message

Cons.

The characters are devoid of personality

It feels a little bit too familiar at times

The child acting

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Outlaw King: The Fight For An Independent Scotland

4/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The film follows the struggles of Robert The Bruce as he rebels against the English crown and fights to become the King of Scotland.

Though there are a lot of historical epics, this one managed to stand out to me. I thought the pacing was tight and it covered a lot in an interesting way. The film could have easily felt slightly xenophobic and even as anti-English propaganda but honestly I think the film feels far more balanced than that and I found myself easily rooting for Bruce and his cause.

I thought the battle scenes were well done and very weighty enough to leave an impact. Moreover, I thought the performances were strong across the board, with Chris Pine being a dependable leading man throughout, only being upstaged by Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s James Douglas and Florence Pugh’s Elizabeth De Burgh. Truly everyone who said something to the extent of ‘oh Black Widow is Florence Pugh’s big breakout role’ are so deeply ignorant to a well of great performances from her.

Overall, I felt for a Netflix action film this was very standout.

Pros.

Pine

Pugh

Taylor-Johnson

The battle scenes

Cons.

Perhaps just a tad bloated

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Fear Street Part Two: What Is More Cliche In Horror Than A Summer Camp

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The Fear Street saga continues as we go into the past to follow the story of the only person to ever have survived a run in with the witch, and her undead minions.

Though this is a good film in its own right, it is also certainly a step back from the previous film. Maybe the American summer camp has been done to death as a horror location, in fact there is no maybe about it. So seeing it in all its cliched infamy here hurts the film as it lessens the quality and the originality.

Moreover, I found Sadie Sink to be a fine lead. Though she does get more than her fair share of the lime light and a lot of the side characters including her sister are given very little and are deeply underserved as a result. I enjoyed the few scenes we get with Gillian Jacobs she is very talented and brings a lot to the film, hopefully we get to see more of her in the final entry.

In terms of scares this is quite on a par with the first film with each of them having a few good scares here and there without feeling scary as a whole. Honestly, I found the horrific bullying in this film more traumatic than the undead killers. I will assume that was not how the film wanted it to be.

Overall, though this film is good the cracks and crucially the cliches are starting to show through.

Pros.

Gillian Jacobs

Sadie Sink

A few good scares

Cons.

For the most part not scary

The side characters, even those important to the plot, are pushed to the side

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Fatherhood: From Complaints About Cancel Culture To Possible Awards Season Glory, Kevin Hart Is A Dramatic Actor

4/5

Written by Luke Barnes

I never saw this coming. Kevin Hart is more than just a comedian who complains a little too much about cancel culture, clearly he has never heard of the Streisand Effect, he is also a very serious dramatic actor.

This film is being sold to you entirely incorrectly, it is not a light hearted comedy film but rather quite a serious and at times upsetting drama film. There are several things that happen over the course of the film that are deeply upsetting, including Hart’s character having to give his daughter up because it allows her a chance at a better life with her grandparents- this is not a comedy.

When I saw the film going in this serious direction I was at first troubled as I did not know if Hart could carry a film like this, if he could muster the necessary emotional heft, but he more than succeeds. Hart is the lifeblood of this film the father daughter dynamic is so sweetly crafted that it is honestly heart-wrenching. Moreover, during the dramatic scenes Hart plays the character as a real human being and feels the emotion rather than trying to crack a tasteless joke. I appreciated how sparingly this film used its comedy.

Overall, this is a powerful film for a lot of reasons, and it goes to prove that Hart can be a talented dramatic actor when he is not the butt of height jokes.

Pros.

The emotion

Hart

The father- daughter bond

Sparse/ tasteful use of comedy

Cons.

It is not what a lot of people are expecting

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Space Force: The War For The Moon Has Already Begun

Written by Luke Barnes

3/5

There is definitely shades of The Office here: American not British.

I think if anything this show is a testament to the likeability and the warmth of Steve Carell, the other characters in this show are quite underdeveloped, yet luckily the entire focus is on Carell and he sells it and makes the series as good as it is.

The major issue with this series is that it will/has age horribly. There are a lot of references to then current American politics, which feel dated and stilted even now, and it has only been a year. Also a perhaps more importantly I didn’t find this series funny, charming yes, but funny no: most of the jokes didn’t land for me.

Though the characters were underdeveloped, I still ended up caring for them by the end of the series and am excited to see where next season takes them.

As far as the series ideas go, I think the premise has a lot of potential and the actual execution is also quite strong, I enjoyed the one-ups Manship between the US and Chinese Space Forces and thought it was well built during the series.

Overall, though the characters are a little thin you still end up caring about them, with a strong lead performance and an interesting idea that helps this series to get at least part of the way to the moon.

Pros.

Carell

You end up caring about the characters

The US Vs China storyline

Cons.

Dated references

The jokes don’t land

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Army Of The Dead: A Zombie Tiger, Now I Really Have Seen Everything

2/5

Written by Luke Barnes

This film was billed as the restoration of the zombie genre bringing it back to popularity- it is not that. Really, this is more of the same zombie killing action that you have seen done to death over the last ten years across all forms of media. Yes, there are some funny moments and some good knowingly cringe moments like playing the Cranberries song Zombie at the end, but even still it can’t make up for the fact that you have seen it all before.

The cast of characters are mostly forgettable, the only two who inspired any real interest were Lily and Martin and yet, they got killed before they had any real chance to grow into interesting characters- the same can be said for the rest. Not everyone needed to die to make this film feel dramatic.

I thought Bautista was fine as the lead, serviceable but not in any way memorable. Moreover, I found his daughter character to be extremely annoying and poorly written: she’s angry at her dad so she will willingly put her own life at risk to spite him, when the zombies are gearing up for an attack she runs outside, it is bafflingly dumb.

Additionally, I didn’t like the reveal that the zombie queen was pregnant when she died, I thought it was needless and in bad taste: more so when they cut her stomach open and pulled out her dead zombie baby. It left a bad taste in my mouth that is still taste as I am writing this review.

Finally, the runtime of this film makes it a slog. There is no reason this film needs to be over two hours, none, and yet it is.

The action and the cinematography are for the most part well done and visually pleasing, however I found that a lot of the concepts were not fully realised: there is a zombie tiger who other than killing off one character does very, very little and which could have been so much more.

Overall, the zombie genre is played out.

Pros.

The action

The cinematography

Cons.

The dead zombie baby

The runtime and staggering pacing issues

It is repetitive

None of the characters are allowed to be interesting

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The Woman In The Window: Close The Curtains

The Woman In The Window

2/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Netflix original films really can’t seem to catch a break. For the most part originals fall into the beige category and are quickly forgotten about, with even once in a while a film coming out that is either really good or really bad, but for the most part the film’s turn out average; this is the issue of having a machine/algorithm making your decisions for you.

This film is definitely more of the same generic content the service is littered with, it shares a lot of the issues that plague other Netflix originals and it sadly wastes what it could have been.

Amy Adams and Wyatt Russel are the shining stars of the piece, their performances are the ones that stayed with me, for the right reasons, and the ones that were convincing. Sadly a lot of the other big name performers here such as Julianne Moore and Gary Oldman are wasted in a big way, and just feel around for the sake of it; don’t even get me started on Anthony Mackie.

Whilst watching this film with my girlfriend we both had different interpretations of what was wrong with the film as a whole, she thought the film was deeply predictable and guessed the twist early on. I however, thought the opposite true and thought the film was so convoluted, trying ridiculously hard to prove its own intelligence, that it became illegible about halfway through.

The one thing we could agree on however, was that this film was depressing. Oh boy, get a happy film lined up for after this, or hug your pet, this film is the opposite of the sort of thing you want to be watching in lockdown, and will make you sad by the time it ends.

Overall, Netflix needs to realise that not all their films are deep, thoughtful looks into the human condition and that some of them are just pretentious.

Pros.

Adams

Russell

Cons.

It is depressing

It is convoluted

It wastes most of the cast.

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Behind Her Eyes: The TED Talk On How Not To Do A Twist

Written by Luke Barnes

Behind Her Eyes is a supernatural thriller series directed by Stephen Lightfoot based on the novel of the same name by Sarah Pinborough. The plot revolves around a love triangle at a local doctor’s clinic that becomes more dangerous due to the fact that one of the trio can astral project.

This was billed as Netflix’s most recent must binge series and I did, and honestly I have to say it is kind of a mess. The first few episodes start the show off on a strong note, there is a keen sense of place and characters and the hint of something more at play- a supernatural element. However, as the series rushes to its end, things quickly start to come apart.

The last two episodes of the series feature a number of twists that I believe ruin the show. The generic erotic thriller themes of the first few episodes are made more interesting by the tease of something more supernatural going on, and boy do you get that in the last two episodes. Sadly, when we do start dealing with the ideas around astral projection it is boring, poorly thought out and leaves more questions than answers.

Overall, the series does have moments of promise, but it throws it all away at the end.

Pros.

Some early intrigue and the tease of something more

Cons.

It quickly becomes generic

The twist is not very good

The astral projection stuff is riddled with issues

It derails itself

1/5

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