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Reviews
Blood Suckers (1971)
No-one's mentioned the editing!
Pretty much everyone so far has the same opinion of this film, but I couldn't find any comments about the horrendously brutal editing, which goes some way to ruining the pace and flow of the film. I'm pretty sure there's a half-decent film on the cutting room floor!
Dogged (2017)
Bad editing destroys fair plot.
Sub Wicker Man plot and some lumpy acting, but the true evil here is the lack of editing. This should be a snappy 85 minute film. Instead, all the bits anyone with any concept of flow and pace would have cut out are left in. Every scene is too long. Also, the music, being subdued, does not match the action sequences.
A missed opportunity.
Las acacias (2011)
The nearest you'll get to a perfect film
I've watched this twice, and it is astounding! Probably less than 30 lines of dialogue. Beautifully composed. Beautifully acted. A true journey, where you come to care for the characters immensely. A truly rewarding experience.
Cup-Tie Honeymoon (1948)
A quirky slice of English cinematic regional comedy.
Felt the last review a little harsh. Admittedly, the flimsy plot seems little more than a vehicle to string a number of variety hall skits together, but some of these are funny, and Betty Jumel is a delightful comic actress. Stilted, naive, haphazard, badly directed and inadvertently charming, I would recommend this to anyone who, like myself, enjoys the amateurish charms of regional British cinema of the 1940s. There are worse ways of spending an hour and a half!
The Curse of Downers Grove (2015)
A revenge tale where everybody behaves stupidly.
Just watched this nonsensical movie on DVD. Plot holes you could drive a bus through, and characters switch between extreme emotional states (e.g. scared to death - loving) with abandon. Spent the whole time screaming at the screen "You're doing what?!". Teenage characters forget mobile phones have cameras, parties can't be cancelled because they've been posted on social media (!) and, most incredibly (SPOILER), a girl leaves their boyfriend in the car whilst going to have a chat with the guy to tried to rape her! ("I can handle it", she explains??!!) As with the last reviewer, the end came out of nowhere, adding to the overall incoherence. Acting and camera-work okay.
The Phoenix Rises (2012)
A below par movie destroyed by its audio effects
This is your usual modern, cheap, apocalyptic movie. The plot is rushed, muddled and, in places, nonsensical. The narrative is rushed. The acting is mediocre at best. Characterization and motivation are both gauche and ludicrous. Scene changes are edited with an alarming abruptness; people swap locations without warning and explanation a LOT. So far, so good. I tend to love the trashiness of these movies. However, this is the first film I have watched where the audio effects are persistently painful. The jarring sounds, interspersed every two or three minutes, are earbendingly harsh and annoying. I read another reviewer call them 'jangly'. They are much, much worse than that! Almost as bad as a pneumatic drill in your living room. We spent most of our time with the remote altering sound levels and getting increasingly irritated.
The sound guy has ruined what could have been an entertainingly trashy, although appallingly edited, movie.
Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage (2014)
Cheap and badly cut, but stupidly amusing monsters
Yes, the majority of the plot seems to have ended up on the cutting room floor, the director uses filters instead of narrative, the acting is risible and the flow erratic. Not even the great Sir Patrick's voice is an asset. BUT The Harryhausen-esque monsters are a hoot.
The whole thing seems to have been filmed in a small green-screen room for the price of a decent family meal. Accept and embrace it for what it is - a silly, cheap, nonsensical piece of trash with ridiculous monsters in it. My DVD copy cost 50 pence. A fair price.