BoyActors - Reviews/Ratings by diogenes

Welcome to BoyActors. Login.

Reviews by diogenes

Sort by: Title | Rating

350 reviews/ratings - 18 pages (20 reviews/ratings per page)

Teeth (2018)

Oh, I don't know. It's nicely acted, and surprisingly grisly. I rather liked it!

My Movie Rating:

7 / 10

Toast (2010)

The first hour of this movie is the best, with Oscar Kennedy delivering a natural and delightful performance as young Nigel. A slightly older Nigel is played by Freddie Highmore in the last half hour. Unfortunately, Highmore has certain limitations as an actor, the main one being that he can't act. Instead, he is clearly of the 'less is more' school of acting and his 'acting' consists largely of standing around and not emoting, maintaining a completely blank expression throughout the time he is on-screen.

What redeems this last half hour to some extent is the hilarious plot involving a sort of arms-race in the kitchen between Nigel and his step-mother as each tries to win Nigel's father's heart by baking ever more perfect culinary delights.

Also recommended, Nigel Slater's entertaining autobiography "Toast: the story of a boy's hunger", on which this film was based.

My Movie Rating:

7 / 10

The Winslow Boy (1999)

For a film ostensibly about the 'Winslow Boy', it is amazing how the story manages to concentrate on his mind-numbingly boring suffragist sister. I have no idea how closely the film follows Terence Rattigan's original play. Nigel Hawthorne is brilliant as the paterfamilias. Guy Edwards is good as Ronnie Winslow in the scenes in which he appears. The scene where Ronnie is grilled by Sir Robert Morton is electric, and Guy Edwards plays it adroitly.

My Movie Rating:

7 / 10

The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996)

It has a certain charm. The animatronic Pinnochio was quite impressive and likeable. (Like Cinefan below, I found him cuter than JTT!) The computer-animated cricket, however, is awful, and jars with the visuals of the rest of the film. Another letdown is when, at the end, Pinocchio wants his Papa to make him a girlfriend. Come on, you've got Lampwick (Corey Carrier); what more do you want? All in all, worth viewing at least once.

My Movie Rating:

6 / 10

Big City (2007)

A nice concept, but the writers are a little heavyhanded with the political preaching on the theme of the treatment of the negro and the Red Indian by the white man. Can't hold a candle to "Bugsy Malone", but pleasant enough, and Vincent Valladon is very photogenic and likable as 'James Wayne'.

My Movie Rating:

6 / 10

Boy (2011)

Decently acted and directed, but the film is too much a fragment of a film to make any real impression.

My Movie Rating:

6 / 10

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey (2007)

Pish-posh.

My Movie Rating:

6 / 10

David Copperfield (1974)

A good-looking miniseries with some excellent performances, but Arthur Lowe always plays Arthur Lowe - which is fine for many roles, but not for the role of Macawber, where he is far too subdued and stuffy. I assume that Jonathan Kahn was cast as Master Davy for his looks - because he can't act for toffee and his performance is painfully stilted.

My Movie Rating:

6 / 10

The Day After (1983)

Worthy and well-intentioned, if sanitised, depiction of nuclear holocaust, the film is too much like a glossy, Hollywood-style 'disaster movie', with stagey, stylised and prettified scenes. It really suffers in comparison with the British movie "Threads" (1984), which completely blows this film out of the water.

My Movie Rating:

6 / 10

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (2012)

Quite good, but not as good as the first two movies - something is lacking...

My Movie Rating:

6 / 10

Diggity: A Home at Last (2001)

Pure, sentimental fluff - though more entertaining than it has any right to be... Though when at the end the angel pronounced that the reward for virtue was "freedom of choice" I almost brought up my lunch. Max Dolbey is such an appealing young actor, it is a surprise his acting career was so short-lived. In sum, a modestly enjoyable film, but perhaps not the sort of film one is likely to feel the need to watch a second time.

My Movie Rating:

6 / 10

A Feast at Midnight (1994)

A rather slight affair, a little overlong, with some rather thin characters. The sort of film one watches once and then will never bother viewing again. Perhaps I'm being too harsh. It has some good moments of wry humour, and is at least partially redeemed by Freddie Findlay being a good actor.

My Movie Rating:

6 / 10

Henry (2011)

Not bad. Anton Starkman carries off his role well.

My Movie Rating:

6 / 10

Jossy's Giants (1986-1987)

The series contains a surprising amount of feminism, and the character of Tracey spends all her time hectoring the boys, which isn't entirely pleasant. Nevertheless, the show is quite entertaining, though perhaps not something you are likely to feel the need to watch more than once. One never really gets a sense of the team's progress, of their struggling gradually to success from match to match, since episodes tend to concentrate on something tangential to the team's career. I like the theme tune, though!

My Movie Rating:

6 / 10

Let's Kill Uncle (1966)

This really is quite bizarre! But Pat Cardi and Mary Badham are excellent.

My Movie Rating:

6 / 10

The Mummy Returns (2001)

Thin action/CGI pabulum, though redeemed by some nice one-liners, and by Freddie Boath's performance as the cute, clever, cheeky boy. Without Freddie's contribution, though, it would scarcely be very satisfying for anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together.

My Movie Rating:

6 / 10

My Uncle Silas (2000-2003)

A pleasant enough series, lightweight and fluffy; though, in all honesty, Joe Prospero as Edward doesn't really have a lot to do except ask questions of Albert Finney which display his (Edward's) naivete, for humorous effect.

My Movie Rating:

6 / 10

Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981)

There is no doubt that this film seems disappointing, and I was recently trying to think why this is so. I think there are a couple of reasons. First, this is billed as "The Final Conflict" - so by now you would expect Damien to be President of the US, or at the very least Vice-President plotting the murder of the President, and preparing for World War III. But no. Instead he's a rather humble diplomat who gets sent off to sodden old Blighty! - where, incidentally, he spends a considerable portion of his time having rough sex with a journalist and trying to recruit her son as one of his minions, despite the fact that the boy in question is even more powerless than he is! (Actually, the first time I saw this movie I mistakenly thought that the boy, played by Barnaby Holm, was a girl!) Second, there is at least one lengthy scene in a room where he keeps his general clutter (including a fascinating reverse crucifix thing - it's amazing the stuff you can get off ebay), involving a monologue where Damien attempts to justify his evil, and wraps himself in the mantle of victimhood. Oh dear. You know, I really think that if he were Pure Evil he wouldn't bother with the tedious handwringing of "justifying" himself. Perhaps the scene is supposed to invest him with the nobility of Milton's Satan, but he just comes across as a whinger. At the climax of the film, Damien bafflingly goes to some ruins where he is supposedly to find the reborn Christ Child. But what does Damien think the baby is doing there? Does he think that His parents just deposited Him there to be brought up by wolves or something? I'm not sure I understood this. And then (after he finally realises that the whole thing was just a ruse), Damien stamps about calling to Him, saying things like "where are you? Show yourself!"...um, but isn't the reborn Christ at this stage still a baby? At this point I completely lost the plot, but then so did the screenwriter, so it doesn't matter. The best thing about this film was the inadvertent humour of the "assassins", who are clearly incapable of organising a piss-up in a brewery, let alone dispatching the Anti-Christ, and just end up wrapping themselves in burning plastic, etc. Hilarious! In fact, I'm going to give it a 6 for this reason alone!

My Movie Rating:

6 / 10

Pojedeme k mori (2014)

Entertaining and highly watchable piece of fluff - though I did sometimes feel that I was viewing something like an extended Youtube video, which was slightly irritating.

My Movie Rating:

6 / 10

S tebou me baví svet (1982)

A fluffy, insubstantial comedy, centred mainly around the spousal relationships of three married couples, with a bit of slapstick thrown in for good measure. Bafflingly popular in its native Czechoslovakia.

My Movie Rating:

6 / 10

This site is non-commercial and is not an official or representative web presence for any of the actors or movies listed. All images and text are the property of their respective owners. Do not link directly to any of the images on this site - please upload them to your own webspace, on the understanding that yours is also a non-commercial site.

While every effort will be made to ensure that no offensive or illegal material is posted on the forums or linked to from the links database, BoyActors administrators accept no responsibility for any content posted or linked to by its members.

PHORM PROHIBITED

The contents of this site, and communications between this site and its users, are protected by database right, copyright, confidentiality and the right not to be intercepted conferred by section 1(3) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. The use of those contents and communications by Internet Service Providers or others to profile or classify users of this site for advertising or other purposes is strictly forbidden.