Ken Sellar

Too heavy on the gore for me. But what is truly awful is the appalling grammar of 90percent of the reviewers here. Did anybody go beyond 3rd grade? It's so bad, after a while it's hilarious. Want to see something horrifying? Read the reviews!

Ok, I found out that Google only lets you write one review of a website, program, restaurant, etc. But there are 3 parts to this epic, so I erased my review of part one, and here goes with part 2. I was moved. Many times. The great moments in part two are many and varied. From gut-wrenching pain to joyful elation, I earmarked many moments in my memory. Early on, Paul and Ringo are the only Beatles who show up to the massive warehouse after George walked out the previous Friday. You can see a million thoughts running through Paul's mind as the camera lingers on a closeup for what seems a minute at least. Then he whispers, "And then there were 2." And my heart broke, just as you can see Paul's heart breaking. It seemed the project was dead. It seemed the Beatles were dead. His pain is palpable. It's one of the emotional high points of the series for me so far. And it's a closeup with almost no words spoken. Nothing and everything is happening all at once. Is this instalment too long at almost three hours? Not a chance. The road to the greatness and history of the rooftop concert and the Let It Be album is a long and winding road, and I'm along for the complete ride. My truly favorite moments are when nothing is happening. Same as when I think of my son when he was very little, when hugs were 20 times a day and he'd wave at me from his bedroom window when I drove off to work. My favorite moments of those years are when we were doing absolutely nothing, sitting on the couch and watching TV. We just were. Same with this middle verse of The Beatles Get Back. I was mesmerized as much by the moments when nothing was happening as when songs began to become fully realised. This happened not by some magic Beatles fairy dust, but by hard work, playing a song over and over again until it worked. This three-parter is a joy to the world. There is joy in their smiling faces as they harmonize, jam, reminisce and eventually begin to realise that this is working. They are taking joy in being The Beatles. The aimlessness that characterized their first days of the project is gone and in its place the Beatles have become the Beatles we all remember and listen to now. As one of the onlookers says at one point, "You're all playing live in one room." They're cooking. Being able to watch them jotting down line revisions for songs that are now part of our language is nothing short of a miracle. I can't wait for the finale. It will be emotional. It will be great. And with that, I will end my little story with two lines from part two that I will never forget. With each one, when I heard it, my heart skipped and I felt like I missed a breath. "All we've got is us." - John "It's so much fun that it's over before it's begun." - John

I've never written two reviews of a film, but because I really want people to see this one, I feel compelled to once again urge people to experience this epic journey. These reviews are unfortunately dotted with one-star assessments standing out like dead tree branches among the mostly rave reviews, with such comments as it didn't show the horrors of war that they heard it was supposed to, and it was unrealistic that only two men were sent off with such an important mission. Firstly, there are dead bodies filling the screen everywhere as our two soldiers make their way through abandoned battlefields, truly showing the horrors of such a conflict. What was that guy looking for in the category of horrors of war? And when people write their review, they should have the common sense to check their facts, because the fact is there were soldiers who were messengers delivering important orders in that war. Heck, they even used homing pigeons in both World Wars. I would like to ask that person who said it wasn't realistic, did you expect 50 men all running across the battlefield with the same message? That's going to attract a lot more attention than just a single soldier or two who are much more able to slip past enemy strongholds. We are all free to disagree, but we must do so with intelligence and a little bit of thought. Check your facts, check your spelling and check your grammar. Most importantly, see this film. Learn some history about World War 1, which is certainly an underappreciated effort by those who gave their lives in defence of their country. If after viewing a film, you don't think some of the events are true, look it up. All I ever want in a cinema is an interesting story well told. I found that in 1917.

Call it Dr. "Too Little." So often what makes or breaks a film is the tone. Is it frenetic action like, oh, any Marvel movie, or satiric yet affectionate like "Princess Bride". Is it heartfelt and nostalgic like "Stan and Ollie." The tone in Dr. Dolittle is Wacky at all Costs, at the expense of any heart or character development. Jim Carrey would be perfectly at home here. There are at least a half dozen places in the film where it desperately needed to SLOW DOWN for a moment and have a scene of maybe 2 minutes where we can see a relationship develop, where we can see heartache or longing or sense of loss, where we can see friendship or regret. Where we could have a reason to care. It should have been largely about Dolittle rediscovering his own gifts by seeing his young protege begin to see that he, too, may possess the ability to speak to the animals. Yet that key plot point is never explored. They sail the seas and explore exotic islands and lands as mere strangers, and fail to explore where this story could have taken us. We are pulled in one plot direction, while we feel ourselves breathe and turn our heads almost in slow motion, and faintly look off to the side to imagine what wonders, joy and discovery may be found over there. We can only wish and wonder. The film gets off to a cold, brisk start. Dolittle and his menagerie are off and gone on their adventure in mere seconds with no feelings of leaving a home where they are safe and secure. No goodbyes. Fast forward through Wacky. Even the ending is rushed through when there could have and should have been a couple minutes of Dolittle speaking to his past, asking what he should do next after all the adventures he has had. Then it could bang- SHOW US what happens next. Instead they TELL US. We get a quick 10second voice over and it's here and gone. The tone was wrong from the beginning, and left us with Too Little. Ah, what might have been if only we had gone over there.

A funny thing happened on the way out of the theatre, having just seen the movie for the second time. After watching it the first time, I felt a little let down, and gave the movie a grade of good. Not great, but good. The first hour had been a little confusing, chasing after this thing that will lead our heroes to their goal, but first they have to find this guy who can tell them where to find the thing that will lead them to their goal. But they have to enlist the aid of this girl who can lead them to the guy who can tell them where to find the thing that can lead them to their goal. You get the idea. However, let me get back to that moment of just having seen it for the second time. I now considered it the great movie I wanted it to be. The mission, and its many chapters, flowed more logically in my mind. One scene did lead to the next. Subtle things that I had not quite picked up on the first time were suddenly revealed, and I understood. Those powerful, emotional moments in the film remained as potent as they had been upon first viewing. And the most human, heart-breaking reaction in the entire two and a half hours belonged to a Wookie. But what had happened was this: the rest of the movie had grown in strength as it rose up and with mighty shoulders, supporting the high points. I was swept along the emotion of the journey. Is it a flaw in the story because I needed a second trip to the cinema to embrace its plot, its essential need to take those apparent sideroads on the way to a satisfactory conclusion? No. Great movies invite repeated viewings, and each time we see something new, we DISCOVER a connection we hadn't seen before. That is when cinema becomes magic. As a male of 61 years of age, this really wasn't the conclusion to the storylines of the core characters I had come to love and claimed as belonging to my generation. I had followed the adventures of Luke and Han and Leia. The farmboy, the rogue, and the princess. This is about Rey and Poe and Finn vowing to take the fight to the enemy, and to stay together to the end. But there is enough of a whisper of my heroes of old to feel they are woven into the fabric of this new adventure. They are necessary. To sum it up, I had a great time. I embarked on an epic journey with heroes and villains. I watched them die, both in heroism and villainy. I consciously watched a movie with my heart and not my head. It spoke to a new generation of movie-goers who demand more diverse and flawed heroes. But it also welcomed me to my seat in row J, seat 11. It closed the door on that world and that universe which was brand new 42 years ago. I saw my new friends find their place in this world, and discover that they were family. And then, I said goodbye.