Film Reviews by JD

If you do not consider yourself au fait with economics you will find this hard going. But get a few Taurine drinks in sit with a pad of paper this is worth it. I have seen a few documentaries exposing the incredibly corrupt US government (particularly Bush jr. but not excluding Obama) but this is jaw dropping. I am sure most goverment's financial policies are heavily influenced by corruption, greed and self-interested lobby pressure but the US has got some good documentary writers to expose it. It is not just an exposure of evil bankers and corrupt politicians, economists get a full blast of vitriol.

I am interested in natural history (and you have to be to order this one) and was surprised that I had never heard of this pivotal fossil. It really is the most important and impressively complete in the history of the evolution of man. If you can watch a film about palaeoanthropology for 60 minutes this is the one to watch.

Ray Winston doesn't have a big range of characters. He played the usual one. This is a film about a family of particularly bad outlaws in Australia. Lots of shots of tooth decay, whiskey, sweaty shirts and menial police officers being naughty. It was poor. Unbelievable, poorly filmed and tedious.

It has to be stated at the outset that this is a highly sexual film. But do not think that it is cheap, it is really gripping. The characters are immensely complex and very interesting. The plot (it is outwardly a detective film) is good. The drama spot on. Scoring such a violent and pornographic film with a 5 star I did for the dramatic impact and intensity of emotion not for any smutty motive. Definitely an 18 rated. Not for winding down to.

This is a great light hearted romantic comedy. The children are surprisingly good actors. It is a little dated in that the plot is pretty much to formula. Clooney and Pfeiffer are well cast. I wasn't really in the mood for such froth but if you are it's good.

The idea of a parallel planet/universe is not new but this is absolutely parallel. I wondered if they were going to explore anti-matter. There were a few moments of silliness. The 2 planets were shown to be getting considerably closer over a few years. Clearly a worrying situation which did not concern any of the characters. In fact anything which approached science had been dumbed down. The drama was good and the acting superb. Some quiet scenes were tense with suspense even though the background music was only moderately suggestive. As I recall the music was by fall on your sword. They were querky. The camera work was also querky and I enjoyed it. Lots of close ups of hands for example.

Based on a true story always gives a film the edge. There is quite a lot of romantic plot which is a little irrelevant, not interesting and doesn't add much to the tension. The plot is very simple, but the direction is good, tension mounting slowly throughout and the emotions of each character easily appeciated. I was genuinely in extreme suspense.

This film has discontinuities every 10 minutes and then a break half way. I think it was poorly edited from a television series. The format is very similar to a few other knight's templar stories. No where near as good as Tom Hank's Da Vinci Code. The acting in Last Templar is poor and the plot strained. I liked the very close resemblance of the flash back scenes to the game Assassin's Creed. I don't know if this was intended and is not relevant unless you are a gamer. Quite a lot of romance. Generally poor.

Lots of romantic angles. A thwarted wedding being the central theme. Groom-to-be forced into a close liaison with an island spinster. Bride to be flattered by an idolising photographer. Opportunities for terrible acting as a camp personal assistant sorts out an island castle with his attentive female assistant. The plot goes as expected. There are some strange moments such as when an enraged bride holds the wheelchair of a landlady over a cliff telling her to throw away her money earned by tipping off the press. The landlady pauses to decide whether it is better to die with the money or live without. Why that dilemma was worth 5 minutes of our time we never discover.

I didn't realise quite how much this film is aimed at children. For those over 14 there is not much to be gained by this simple: goodie prince, goodie princess, baddie queen, film. Guess what happens in the end. You're right.

A romantic girlie flick set in a hairdresser's. Various romances falter and briefly blossom. Beautiful photography. A plot you could guess within 2 minutes. Generally good acting with some moments of romantic comedy. Dreadful pulp. Avoid unless you are complete slush.

Trial and error is almost anti-funny. The barrister has had an unbelievably unlucky life having studied so hard as a student and lived so meagrely only to see his fiancée killed in the war and be unemployed for 40 years.Difficult to see anything but the blackest humour in it. He meets a terminally sad and shy man who is so irritated by his superficial and trivially jolly wife that he kills her. Blacker still. The trial then fails because the barrister fails to follow protocol. The black cloud of depression hangs over this film which you should only watch if you have an incredibly macabre humour or you in fact want the second film on this DVD.

The Millionairess is equally strange. Sophia Loren is an actress who is arguably the most admired ever, but not for her acting skills. Casting her in a role requiring a delicate balance of humour and spoilt and desperate was ambitious. I think she overdid the desperate. Sellers plays an easier role but not much better. This DVD is for the nostalgic not the young.

A Sellar's classic. The opening scene with a bugler who just refuses to die, had me splitting my sides. A lot of the acting is very hammy and amateur. A lot of the plot is pretty thin and although it is dated some contemporary slap stick is at this level.

On one day you could watch this film and think "Shakespeare, I wish there was a translation and it doesn't really do well on film" and on another you could be transported to an abstract and arty dream-like state and be swept along in a modern vision of a ancient story. If you are not receptive to some fairly heavy duty Shakespearian English and magic don't get it.

A new genre of film, period romance seems to be increasing in popularity rapidly. This one has jealousy, history, love and lust with no small amount of plot but if you're not into romance or French History it is not for you.