Film Reviews by PV

This is a film version of the novel (and then stage play) Dracula by Bram Stoker. After complaints of copyright infringement, the film makers altered some details BUT Stoker's widow still sued - a court ruling ordered all copies of the film destroyed. Luckily, a few prints of Nosferatu survived, and thus the film came to be regarded as an influential masterpiece of cinema and the horror genre.

This is 90 minutes not 60 minutes as stated on the sleeve. It is divided into 5 acts with INTERTITLES between scenes as in old silent movies.

What makes this special is 1) the attention to detail - the skeleton clock, the shrouded horses, the atmosphere always and shadows of course; 2) the main character Nosferatu who despite his name Count Orlock is Dracula and is terrifying, his eyes, fangs to the front incisors not canine here, and those long, clever, sinister fingers clawing at the screen! 3) the film sticks loyally to the novel too, simply swapping Whitby for a German coastal town so is well-structured, even having its first plot point at minute 24 just like modern movies!. 3) the acting is superb - exaggerated as per silent films which came from stage acting BUT perfect for horror - and the still camera lingers over it which makes it worse - but better cinematically!

The soundtrack is a version of the original, apparently. Sometimes is jarred, the panpipes etc, but hey ho...

This is 1922, when silent films were either comedy shorts from Chaplin etc or the 1920s romantic epics of Rudolf Valentino playing a non-authentic non-pc Sheikh, the silent Ben Hur, various shorts - romance, crime etc. So this though only seen by German audiences was special and groundbreaking.

Watch the same director's silent films, and first sound film M a brave film about a child abuser which made Peter Lorre a star.

I also recommend another German silent films by Fritz Lang, Metropolis of course but especially Woman in the Moon (Frau im Mond) 1929 which is excellent.

As the credits state, this is 'inspired by' The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, so it was a stroke of genius to cast Natasha Kinski here who made such an impression in TESS from the early 1970s (she IS Tess).

A great cast, but lots of flab on the script and direction.

I was in the right mood to watch this to be honest, just let it wash over me, and I do like snowy landscapes - most of this film is that, so I was happy!

The film cuts back and forth between the 'present' and past without any signposts or titles saying 'X years ago' or dates to viewers have to be aware of that.

Lots of mumbling as in so many of these films.

Slow, but watchable, and great if you like snow! 3 stars

I loved this director's last 2 films, the Czech CHARALATAN and the English language MR JONES which tells an important story of Ukraine's Holodomor famines of early 30s and what a Welsh journalist exposed it to the world, or tried to and paid with his life when Stalin ordered his murder. Also the older film EUROPA EUROPE.

But this I'm afraid is pure propaganda. One has to ask WHY these 'refugees'; head to the EU (and Britain) from Asia and Africa and not go east or south to countries nearer their homeland with similar culture and religion and language? The reasons are purely economic. Lax laws, UK, EU and UN act as a magnet attracting them - thes ebadly need reforming. Uk refugee law created over 70 years ago when there were 2 billion people in the world; there are now over 8 billion mostly caused by a population explosion in the global south. That cannot continue; and Europe will have to build a wall and start deportations too.

Very wrong to try and tie in refugees from Asia and Africa with Ukrainians fleeing to Poland - those Ukrainians share a culture, language (Slavic family) and Christian heritage and faith with the Poles, so fine, AND they will return, most of the, to rebuild Ukraine one day, NOT AT ALL the same as people from Afghanistan, Syria, Asia, African states like the Congo, and even Morocco here (where Brits holiday) coming to Europe illegally to claim asylum because EU law stupidly states that anyone setting foot in EU has the right to apply for asylum which takes years and ditto bad UK law the same AND so many see UK as a laxland of free money and housing and healthcare and work to head here in small boats, TURN OFF THE MAGNET and then none would come and none would die in the attempt AND amoral criminal gangs would not make millions from this awful brutal trade.

This is a propaganda film, which is misguided and wrongheaded in my opinion. It would work better as a documentary - we get that at the end a bit re the Ukrainians heading to poland which is a TOTALLy separate issue to Africans/Asians paying criminals money to get taken to rich Europe as economic chancer refugees MOST OF WHOM of male, unlike what is shown here. See who arrives in England on small boats. Almost all younger men, mostly Muslim too. Some terrorists and criminals amongst them for sure,

What a mess. Like the film which is meandering, overlong, the last half hour, shamelessly tries to like Ukraine/Poland issue with the African/Asian migrant issue and here specifically the was BeloRussia's dictator and Putin;s bestie invited them in to cause problems for the EU and Poland. Turkey complicit in its flights it seems too.

A truly cringeworthy rap towards the end is the propaganda icing on the cake, Maybe people should look at spiralling crime rates in German, Scandinavian cities and realise most of the rise is due to migrants - and inthe UK 35%+ in our prisons are foreign-born.

The issue is way more complex than this simplistic propaganda film claims.

Worth watching this to see Peter Kay (who looks very young) and David Walliams (who overacts in his usual OTT way) in early appearances. Matt Lucas also here. Little Britain is fermenting here - it appeared 5 years later.

And Catherine Tate and Marcus Brigstocke. Rhys Thomas at age 20 here - before he did Down the Line on Radio 4 which became Bellamy's People.

Some sketches and characters work; some fall flat (esp a very odd 2 builders and a clueless son extended sketch series).

The CYCLE MASTER character by Brigstocke is underused! It is so relevant now! Starts only in episode 4 but could have been so many more sketches.

The best is the psycho PE teacher by (Paul) Mackenzie Crook, who also teaches maths bizarrely (geography for PE teachers surely so they know where they are on the pitch, or biology so they know where all the bits are, but maths? Seriously? Most PE teachers are not great at that...). The best character by far - I wonder if it is based on his teachers at Dartford Boys Tech in 1980s? This is before Crook made it big on The Eleven O'Clock Show which gave us Ali G pre Borat, and of course The Office and Detectorists.

Rhys Thomas at age 20 here - before he did Down the Line on Radio 4 which became Bellamy's People.

The worst sketch is by Omid Djalili, deeply unfunny and also racist as this Iranian comic actually blacks up and wears a curly wig to mimic a black African doctor. Gosh.

WHOLE CAST: Niall Ashdown, Will Barton, Marcus Brigstocke, Cliff Kelly, Matt Lucas, Dave Lamb, Sarah Parkinson, Rhys Thomas, Tim Verrinder, David Walliams, Tony Way, Glynne Wiley, Kriston Berlevy, Mackenzie Crook, Jo Enright, Simon Greenall, Catherine Tate, Martin Trenaman, Steve Brody, Steven Burge

Anyway, worth a watch for comedy fans as only one series of 6 episodes - it was not recommissioned.

I had no idea what to expect when I started watching this. I soon realised we were entering the metaphysical world of fantasy, however, though some viewers may be lost - being familiar with this sort of thing from novels and sometimes films I am attuned to spot it early!

It actually reminds me a bit of all those old portmanteau Hammer Horror films where a group of people sitting on a train or whatever tell each other their life stories but do not realise they are actually all dead and off to the next place...

I thought this could have been based on a stage play as it would work well as such with a small cast, but it's actually based on a 1988 Japanese novel which was made into a film that year called The Disincarnates there that year too.

One thing I like from a personal perspective is how all the characters in this story are like people I know and have known - both the city dwellers, alone but apart at their central new tower block, but also the parents in semi-detached suburbia which sprawls for miles and miles on every side of London. The forty-something man alone, and lonely, haunted by his past, in stasis due to trauma and disconnected to the wider world. The younger gay man, lost too in another way - the drink, the drugs, the sexual hedonism.

I really liked the '1980s' throwbacks and fashions of the suburban semi, and of course the music, the great POWER OF LOVE by Frankie Goes to Hollywood is a perfect slice of 1984/5. I loved the way the Whitgift Centre gets a mention and some shots too - it is in Croydon where the director is from. And Captain Sensible... I know it well.

Not so sure about the spiritual/magical/fantasy stuff but then I dislike fantasy usually. The ending (no spoilers) may have inspired the rather limp Christmas 2024 Dr Who ending too - and it all started in that 1988 Japanese novel.

And I actively disliked the Irish accent of the main character played by Andrew Scott who is Irish, sure, but so is the 20-years-younger Paul Mescal who manages to do an English accent,. Surely a suburban estuary English accent for Adam would have been better and possible? The Irish accent is explained by a line shoe-horned into the script in the middle somewhere, but I am not buying it. A pity as that annoyed needlessly. It seemed deliberate, pointless, out of place.

And yes, it can meander a little, but not a lot, So 4 stars.

Anyway, it is still a decent, heart-warming, sad-happy watch. And loved THE POWER OF LOVE over the end credits too.

This is VERY loosely based on the real-life story of Rafael Padilla, born a slave to slaves in Spanish colony Cuba which only ended slavery in 1886! It states in the credits that it is 'loosely based' on a book of the clown Chocolat's life, so much here is fiction.

For example, Chocolate would have had a Spanish accent, and the 'white' clown Footit was in real life BRITISH, who went to live in France - here he is shown as French.

However, it is all highly enjoyable, interesting, entertaining, tragic and comic, a decent biopic and one which does not preach, sermonise or lecture about race/racism as so many films about similar subject matter do. It wisely lets the story be character-led, and shows the performances.

I wanted a bit more - esp re the back story of the English clown Footit and his hinted-at sexuality and where the money went. But maybe that would be another film. Just a tad more would have sorted that, a scene or two.

Watch to the end to see real footage of the clown duo Footit and Chocolat. Taken by Lumiere Brothers.

4.5 stars rounded up.

This starts well. It was genuinely tense and mysterious. Act One promised a lot. Sadly the later acts, esp the final one disappoint.

NO SPOILERS but the ending makes this a real B-Movie. Just silly, mad scientist territory. Almost Frankenstein. But less scary or meaningful.

Just not scary enough to be honest. I liked the sound effects and visual trickery, but it;s never really explained. Another poster is correct - the trailer makes this film look excellent and very creepy/scary. It is not though and loses momentum a lot when it gets very silly in Act 2.

Influenced by all those films about aliens/monsters/viruses possessing people or zombies - THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS is the best of them.

Influenced by A QUIET PLACE too for sure. And maybe films like MIDSOMMAR. Even the classic THE OMEN. even ALIEN.

And it has been done way better in THE VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960) the first and best film version of the novel THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS (1957) by John Wyndham.

So 3 stars - just. Maybe 2.5 rounded up

This is a superb adaptation with a top cast. Daniel Radcliffe is great as a 10 year old actor in part 1.

I almost cried in joy at seeing NO colourblind casting in this drama. Just shows the sad decline of UK TV drama in the last 25 years. It is NOT progress to cast BAME as white characters in period drama when hardly any black/brown people lived in the UK (only 6000 in 1939!). It is racism. AND double standards - whenever there is an Asian/African story the demand is AUTHENTIC CASTING and never colourblind casting.

I demand AUTHENTIC CASTING again in UK TV drama, to, to cleanse it of the curse of colourblind casting. I refuse to watch modern drama with it. Just that. As do many seeing the plummeting TV drama ratings and all the woke metoo box office fails too.

It makes me so sad to see what has happened in just 25 years BUT we still have the archive such as this superb adaptation.

Watch this, not the dreadful boring 2019 film which casts an Asian actor of colour as David Copperfield/Charles Dickens. Like casting Ed Sheeran as Nelson Mandela or Tony Hopkins as Gandhi,. NO NO NO!

5 stars for this one.

Martyr (Märtyrer) is a German play by Marius von Mayenburg from 2015, here translated into Russian and realised by an openly gay director as a critique of Russian society and government. Sadly his latest films have not been released, maybe because of sanctions due to conflict with Russia?

I found the tone inconsistent and mixed, and sometimes the story meandered and lacked focus. Better than the Russian films which ape action movies though - much.

The acting is superb, esp the main character Pyotr Skvortsov who plays his role to perfection.

Subtitles are small and fast, so rewinding sometimes was required. The script is full of biblical quotes for those who are interested.

Not the first film about a religious conversion or someone thinking they are a prophet, but a decent effort.

4 stars

Watch MIDSOMMAR for a great film about a weird isolated community. Or maybe BRIGADOON. Not this dross.

It seems someone has decided to write a feminist pity party fantasy, a la Handmaid's Tale, in which all males are portrayed as nasty evil monsters and all women as innocent wickle girls (which is actually deep misogyny, infantilising adult women).

It seems the writers tried to rip off rumours Jeffrey Epstein in this.

The movie thinks it is SO clever and radical but it is neither. It does not have the style of the albeit flawed GET OUT. In a word, it's BORING.

And the ending. Why, this is metooboo feminist emoporn I think, complete with a manhating starter kit.

For anyone disagreeing with my take on this, JUST REVERSE the genders - and then ask yourself if you'd consider that sexist.

This is a silly girl fantasy, which I'd classify as porn really. And the TRIGGER WARNING before it thanks to AMAZON MGM studios made me realise the horror to come.

No stars

I see lots of people crediting this 'passing on a curse' trope to IT FOLLOWS as if that movie created it! Nope. This is an OLD idea, centuries old in fact in literature and myth.

I would highly recommend everyone to watch one of the top 50 films of all time, the 1957 British horror THE NIGHT OF THE DEMON (U.S. title: Curse of the Demon) which Kate Bush sampled for her track HOUNDS OF LOVE ('It's in the trees, it's coming) and which stars the actor Brian Wilde later famous as the wet Mr Barrowclough from TV sitcom Porridge and Foggy from LAST OF THE SUMMER WINE (it doesn't end well for him). It was adapted from the 1911 M. R. James story "Casting the Runes".

If you have not seen that, WATCH IT. More than once. It is sublime, a top 10 horror film of all time.

M.R. James is the master of creepy ghostly short stories of late 19th and early 20th C, often 'folk horror' or antiquarian. UK TV makes adaptations of them every Christmas now too though there are many old film versions. Worth reading for those who can appreciate the written word. James as a massive influence on Stephen King.

So no spoilers BUT I liked this film though its trope is old, it's well-directed and paced, acts one and two anyway. Sadly the last act lets it down with as other reviews say a full-on CGI-fest. I prefer the psychological horror and felt the film would have worked just with that. BUT audiences these days demand it maybe.

I liked the dream sequences and flashbacks, all the waking dreams kept me on my toes - it is not a predictable plot anyway. Reminds me of an old Hammer horror films set in psychiatric hospitals too.

I see at the end the credits boast re DIVERSITY IN MOVIES - maybe that is why the mixed-race relationship of the main character with a man of colour seems so unrealistic, almost as absurd as so many TV advert unrealistic couples. It just felt so fake, there to tick the DEI box. Shame.

4 stars anyway, just. Now to the sequel which someone told me is better...

First let's get this out of the way: it is not as good as FOUR LIONS. What could be? That is one of the best ever satirical movies, up there with DR STRANGELOVE.

So this will pale by comparison, pardon the pun. It's a short film with some cracking scenes.

I could have done with subtitles and did rewind sometimes to try and catch all of the fast fizzing paradoxical CATCH-22-style dialogue. Some could compare it to MASH or in brits terms THE THICK OF IT, or THE WEST WING/VEEP.

Due to the madness of 2020, Covid and BLM take the knee stuff which was satire made real, I doubt this could have been made only 2 years later and that is probably why it has not been released on DVD.

The religious satire was fun, taking aim at all cults and the black power fanatics like Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Elijah Mohammed etc. Plus of course Santa and superheroes.

AND it dares tackle the faith connection with mental illness psychosis (very common symptom of mental disorders is thinking you are god or can talk to god/s and are a prophet, seeing things others cannot and being able to cause events - this was shown in Samuel Johnson's 1759 novel RASSELAS which features with a man who thinks he can control the weather).

3.5 stars

Want a horror film with a sinister sense of place in the British countryside? Watch THE WICKER MAN. or IN THE EARTH. Or MIDSOMMAR the 2019 Swedish folk horror film. Or 1970s TV series for kids CHILREN OF THE STONES.

But this is better than the same director's AWFUL debut BAIT which I gave 1 star. That as this is funded by public funds, FILM4 and others. This is the sort of arty film that gets our cash, and I suppose the claim is made it reflects the region of Cornwall so ticks that box. I am SURE there are better writers/directors in that region and others, so WHY does public money always go to arty pretentious self-absorbed stuff like this? Or the endless tickbox BAME/metoo stories.

As per usual these days, the main character is a woman and it is very female-focused like every other state-funded British film made in the last decade. Token male characters. But really these are 2D cartoon characters.

Pretentious, pointless and simply not coherent - a bit like conceptual art which needs a long label to explain WHT IT MEANS because the artwork itself gives no clear. I hate that.

And as for the plot - well, where is it? I literally did not have a clue what was going on here. And did not care.

And how long was the script for this? 3 pages?

I just watched the pretty shots of Cornwall and enjoyed the sea - why this gets 1.5 stars and not 1.

This is based on a stage play, unsurprisingly - its attempt to use fantasy elements cannot get away from the wordy stagey origins.

Thing is, this is what I call IMAGINED REALITY. at the end the captions tell us about Freud and CS Lewis, and then state an unknown Oxford Don visited Freud in 1939 - from that, this was constructed by a playwright Mark St Germain to debate faith and belief really. All fine for what it is but probably more suited to the theatre actually.

Tony Hopkins cruises and never quite convinces as Freud - maybe someone could have taught him how to pronounce German words authentically.

It is what it is. I have no idea if the female characters, daughter etc, feature a lot in the stage play, but it seems this is an attempt to woke up the film, as with SO many these days that shoehorn women characters into plots, always as 'strong and independent' women of course... And we even have here one of the 6000 black people who lived in the UK in 1939. What a coincidence.

A rainy afternoon film, not offensive in the least to me but then I am not a worshipper of any religion so even the nonsense woowoo of the Da Vinci Code does not trigger me.

Passable, so 3 stars.

The Battle for Warsaw. Warsaw 1944 and Warsaw Uprising are arguably better movies which deal with the same events. WALKING WITH THE ENEMY (2014) is great.

This pretends to be a true story, a bit like the excellent 1989 film THE MUSIC BOX, which is way better and also had a WWII Hungarian setting. Son of Saul also and the documentaries The Last Days and Hungarian Corridor will explain the context.

However, as a film it's a bit unfocused, bitty, meandering, partly set in the present or maybe 1980s/90s. Not sure how true much of it is, but it has exciting moments and the main character is great - though the ending if for me predictable.

A small modest film worth watching however. 3 stars