Samuele Cinghiale

At times it was fun and watchable but ultimately there were a few things that annoyed me beyond any positives. Why do British productions still insist on copying guy ritchie’s tired formula all these decades later. It had worn thin by the time Snatch came out yet here we are still, with the retro cars and poor wannabe Tarantino dialogue feel that is so out of place. Why do they all drive 80s cars around an empty London before parking on double yellows? Is this made for a US audience who doesn’t know better or is it just lazy? If they could attract the big names why didn’t they get more extras for some of the scenes? The all female rival assassin team led by Harry Potter’s neighbour and Sarah Lancashire as the handler character all feel unrealistic and add to the eye rolling daftness and overall cringing. Then there’s the cheesy lowest commonly denominator script. Though the whole series is more annoying because there’s actual glimpses of potential- Keira Knightly and Ben Whishaw’s characters have good chemistry as does Andrew Buchan as husband. They’re all obviously good at acting. The storyline could have been decent too. There’s nothing original at all though, and there’s no shortage of competition in decent spy type thriller series with moments of comedy. But if Slow Horses is a brilliant 8.5/10 and The Agency is a decent 7.5/10- this struggles to hit 5/10 for me. Other than the two main characters and her husband there’s no reason to watch this. Absolutely none. But thanks to them it’s just about worth passing the time, sometimes. TLDR: Had potential but ended up as cliched, reductive, unrealistic and poorly cast/produced/directed.

The funniest thing about this film is that I sometimes recommend it to people and insinuate that it’s raw and an unknown gem of a film, plus there’s an amazing twist at the end that makes it hilarious and worth watching. Then I just sit back laughing inside that my friend will waste an evening watching an awful film and later tell me “hey!? I didn’t get it?”, and I laugh more as I explain that I hate the film and just like passing on the misery as a sick practical joke way of paying my frustration forward. Other than this. It’s 0 stars but I gave it 1 star for being able to have fun with it.

Ridiculously brilliant, my 8yo absolutely loved it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Don’t let the bad reviews put you off - this might not win any Oscars but it is better than most modern Christmas films I’ve seen.

Lazy and cliched new series (3), the first 2 were realistic, bleak and entertaining... this is entertaining but soooooo lazy. Why do these films/programs persist with the idea that there's some upper middle class drug lords supplying the street level dealers? The screws, teachers, police and immigration workers are all unrealistic and cliched. The youngsters/gang members are generally more empathic than in real life too. It's not bad and its entertaining but dont pretend it's anything other than entertainment, this is not some clever urban social political commentary.