Nemesis

'Nemesis' initially peaked my interest when I saw Nick Moran in the cast of a classic gangster movie. Whilst Billy Murray and Frank Harper's acting skills won't set the pulse racing, I figured I knew roughly what I'd be getting. I was wrong.

The first thing that immediately stuck out like a sore thumb was the strange dialogue, obsessed with everyone finishing each sentence with the other characters name. Remember the classic lines in Snatch:

"That sounds like hostility doesn't it John?" "Oh we don't like hostility, do we Errol?" "No we don't John".

It's like that the whole way through. Ok, I quickly knew who every character was but there's better methods of writing that can achieve that!

Acting was atrocious the whole way through, typified by the bizarre casting of Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott, who literally can't move anything above her lips. Whilst not a criticism of her as a person or her appearance, a basic pre requisite of acting in this kind of role does require an actor to be able to express different emotions between enjoying a nice glass or red wine or having a gun in their mouth. Sadly, she can't.

There are some classic cliché scenes, some bizarre ones and downright ridiculous ones. Very early on we get the druken copper going to the draw, putting the gun in his mouth and not going through with it. Never seen that before....

Then we have Moran at a complete loss with his life, walks in a bar and then a long chat with a guy he used to know completely changes his life around. Really?

Then to top it off we have 2 people with guns arguing over who's going to shoot a guy, when said guy is standing right there pointing a gun back at them. What? If he had anything about him he'd have shot them both whilst they were bickering. This was just blind ridiculous.

The main storyline actually wasn't bad but there's so many other random things going on with sub plots, it's just like a brainstorm of ideas bundles together and ends up a complete mess. A big meeting together between 2 big gangsters, taking up the best part of 10 minutes in the movie, which ends up having absolutely no relevance to the story at all. A filler scene, of which there are many.

Whilst generally being a terrible movie, it's curiously watchable. I don't know if I can give it any credit or it's just my love of the genre.

How anyone can give this a high score I've no idea. Movies are subjective, sure. But this is one of those that makes you very suspicious of any 9's or 10's. 'Mediocre' is a big complement to this movie.

From the trite, over-done dialogue to the trout-pout, fake EVERYTHING bimbo, this is a total waste of time. I cannot believe the hype that surrounds this film!

This film should win a worst gangster film of all time award.

Oh my - I have seen some bad movies in my time but this one is in a league of its own. I checked it out due to Bill Murray and Frank Harper who have done some great films but this was a joke.

Wooden acting, terrible editing and an abysmal script make this one of the worse movies of the year

Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott is an embarrassment and looks as plastic as a real life version of Lady Penelope with dark hair. One of the oddest actresses I have seen with all that botox but she did have reasonable baps. I am not sure though why she had to be half naked in that scene?

Overall dont even bother.

I spend a lot of time writing up an elaborate review about Nemesis but realized it wasn't worth it. This film is hard to watch. It's not very well shot. Poorly edited. And the writing is its weakest element. Here are some points that sum up Nemesis.

Some of the best acting is from Rupert Holliday-Evans, who spends maybe three minutes on screen, is completely stationary, and whose character could be cut completely without any loss to the narrative.

In the first scene where we meet John's brother, the color correction changes between shots, back to back. None of it is very good.

In the scene prior, John frequently leans in and out of focus. Damien is just not in focus for significant periods of time. Shots try to include an insignificant character, creating awkward compositions. Except for when they realized this, and they don't include him, creating a strange volley of similar shots.

The only believable characters are the ones who spend the least time on screen. Our major players are pretty inconsistent and mostly just looking to spout cliche dialogue, or to drop an F-word several times in one sentence.

I like to think this is not on purpose, but the relationship between John's daughter and her girlfriend feels somewhat fetishized. In a similar vein, there is no reason for the girlfriend to meet Sadie when she has her tits out. Even if it had been her daughter like she expected, that would still be really gross. I don't understand the thinking behind that.

Yes. The actress portraying Sadie has had a lot of work done. This is not an attack on her appearance. Quite frankly, she has lost some range in facial expression. That's pretty detrimental to acting.

I did not know who the protagonist was a half hour in.

Don't watch this. This is not a so-bad-its-good experience. It's pretty boring at times and just frustrating at others. I think it could be improved with a recut. Maybe 4 or 5 stars. Still pretty weak, but maybe more viewable. I just can't fully grasp how this film stumbles the way it does. Honestly, it's pretty sad to see. I'm hopeful this production group learns from Nemesis for their future work, especially considering that they had an entire lineup already planned before Nemesis was released.