J Martin

The Snowman 1982 was bottled lightening! The Bear animation came pretty close... But that's only because Raymond Briggs advised the animators, and they listened! Almost all other animations have presened their wears, and simply failed to access the winning formula! This is dull and depressing... It isn't helped by obvious and overly sentimental dialogue that's just heaped-on... Over-egging-the-pudding? The sanctimonious hand-wringing from the BBC production, just adds insult to injury! Watch The Snowman for the thousandth-time... Discover/ re-discover The Bear for pure story-telling without an agenda!!!

The set-up and story deserves a little praise! Russell Crowe is obviously loving every-second of this... Much more than his co-stars! The trope of the angsty-teenager was an instant turn-off... Especially here, as it was paid no-more than lip-service, and was delivered like a stupid 'Painting-by-Numbers'! The setting of an old Spanish church is utterly ridiculous... The sub-plot of the Spanish Inquisition was a huge diversion that leads absolutely no-where! The possessed child, was puerile and completely predictable! The make-up looked great for the most-part, but completely overused, meant the impact lessened every-time we saw him! A few scenes were lifted straight from The Exorcist, and just thrown on the screen, with the director demanding we believe this; 'if it walks like a Duck, and quacks like a Duck, then it is a Duck'! Ah, sorry, Nope! This was fun for the most-part, but 50 years-on.... THE EXORCIST 1973 IS STILL THE BEST FILM ON THE SUBJECT! An elusive fact, that the producers and director of The Pope's Exorcist will NEVER understand!

0 stars Woke sci-fi! This exists ONLY to insert agenda at every step! People were cast; Because..... With 'Best person for the job' is obviously the last box ticked! If at all! The acting is sub-par from everybody, until they get to force their agenda, then suddenly, all the stage-school lessons come roaring back! Woke, dumb, insincere, woke, double standard, and 'Because we said-so' film-making is lazy and very insulting! I can't imagine anyone enjoying this more than the producers themselves... If you take this for 'Intelligent' viewing, have a word with yourself!!!