Film Reviews by PV

I rather enjoyed this film. Interesting to have a story set in the 17th century when Cromwell was Lore Protector - reminded me of Witchfinder General a bit, and good to watch Richard Harris in Cromwell too before watching this. Knowledge the that age will assist understanding and enjoyment, for sure.

Always like Freddie Fox as an actor and Charles Dance here too. Believable characters, if the Libertine Levellers storyline goes a tad too far - not sure I believe 17th century women would behave like that.

Yes, the third act does tend to jump the puritan shark a bit, when it all becomes a tad cartoon character - and the feminist agenda becomes loud instead of subtle. This unnecessary act also makes the film plodding and overlong.

And not sure about the music, as composed by Henry Clay the writer and director (of this and only 2 other films, horrors, in 15 years). And he did not write Beethoven;s Ode to Joy either at the end (though stating he arranged it gets a higher % of royalties - just as Paul Simon re Scarborough Fair or Alan Price re House of the Rising Sun).

3 stars. almost 3.5.

It is a fascinating but awful fact that 97% who committed atrocities in Nazi Germany and on their behalf never faced justice - most SS officers and Waffen-SS squads like Einsatzgruppen who slaughtered in the east were never arrested, tried or punished. Those at Nuremburg were the tip of the iceberg and many of the guilty such as Albert Speer got just 20 years in prison then got rich writing about their time with the Nazis. Speer died in London in 1981!

But then it is always the same. Most aristocrats were not guillotined in the French revolution and most kept their lands; ditto in the USSR and all the atrocities committed there and on behalf of the Soviets in eastern Europe and Germany.

Having said all that, this film is fascinating, especially the first half. The main actor Alexander Flehming carries the story and is totally believable. Hard to make a film whose main plot if bringing people to trial, so it focuses on his mental state really as the central story. His personal and Germany's collective guilt.

Watch to the end to see what happened to the SS men arrested.

The focus on Mengele is justified. Watch the movie THE GERMAN DOCTOR or even the classic BOYS FROM BRAZIL to see him in fictional form.

One correction - Mengele (living under an assumed name) died of a stroke while swimming off Brazil in 1979, not in a swimming 'accident'.

4 stars

For those who want to watch a biopic of Elvis, ignore this - which reflects the obsessions of our age (BLM, race etc) and return to a better time with the 2005 TV miniseries - I'd give that 5 stars. Or the 1990 film documentary. OR the 2016 excellent film ELVIS AND NIXON which shows Elvis's loyal Republican political leanings.

I am not great fan of the films of Baz Luhrmann so if you like Strictly Ballroom etc you'll probably like this. Full of theatrics and style, rather than substance - as with early scenes of Elvis in a gospel church which never happened. As I said, watch the 2005 TV miniseries to see a truth-based drama. NO SPOIILERS but I hated the ending and boy, does this movie DRAG!

Beware: this biopic plays fast and loose with the truth in many ways. Worst of all it perpetuates the claim that 'white people stole black music' when the musical truth is the other way round - the blues and rock n roll came from British folk music and the UK oral hymn tradition, which even has blue notes and call and response like gospel - watch the excellent Howard Goodall series on music for evidence. To that was added in the Memphis triangle some African rhythms. But then all pop music is written in 'equal temperament' (doh ray mee) discovered by white European monks almost 1000 years ago.

It is criminal to leave out of this story the white Jewish boys Lieber and Stoller who wrote a great many of the early Elvis hits - Jailhouse Rock, AND Hound Dog - yes, it was sung by a black woman first BUT it was written by 2 white men. Carl Perkins (white male) wrote Blue Suede Shoes, and so on. Fact. I know my songwriters! This film;s obsession with modern BLM racial politics is depressing - I detest the modern demands for segregation and endless race fixation from these groups. It;s divisive and causes conflict.

SO if that 30-50 minutes were shaved off this flabby bloated film it could be a half-decent biopic. At way less than 2 hours 20 minutes.

Elvis like Michael Jackson came from a poor family and the fame and wealth knocked him off his perch - as they say, he got what he wanted, but lost what he had..

The music is great when original 1950s/60s/70s (the modern rap versions are AWFUL!) . Are You Lonesome Tonight was also written by 2 white guys in 1926; and If I Can Dream lyrics were written by a white guy working on the tech crew of the Elvis Comeback special in 1968.

It's also well-known Elvis had a heart condition inherited from his mother - who died from it young too, not drinking. watch the very last concerts of Elvis where he is babbling - that is a classic symptom of arrhythmia which I have seen myself in elderly people. Yes. Elvis took pills but that is one factor alone in his decline.

But a movie needs backstory and baddies, so the manager Dutchman gets it here BUT he is an interesting character and Hanks does well; the actor playing Elvis does too and esp the one playing the wonderful Little Richard. Would Elvis have had his success without 'Parker' as manager? Maybe not. Then if no Elvis, would there have been a Beatles? Easy to blame the manager.

HOWEVER,. far better to watch the real thing - see Elvis's 1973 Hawaii concert on YoutTube or similar; his 1968 comeback special; and the Little Richard archive. I hate tribute acts in general.

I wanted to watch a movie about Elvis, not a preachy sermon about race - if I wanted that, I'd go to church. I hate all these pc woke preachy lecturing movies. Since around 2016 or so, it seems all movies are now like this. I shall watch the archive then. Thank goodness we have it.

WHEN the movie focuses on Elvis, his adoration of his mother, his dead twin brother Jessie, his clueless business manager dad (well acted), and the manipulative Colonel Tom Parker it is great. The other stuff about race, which is so political, weakens the story of Elvis the man and Elvis the superstar (who by the way was blue-eyed blond - he dyed his hair black in adulthood).

So 2 stars.

This film is watchable in a plodding predictable way and we all know the plot trajectory these days. Basically, someone (who is NEVER a white man) works somewhere and faces opposition because of their race and/or gender so get kept down (while most white males, yet the ones who invented everything and made space travel possible, are shown as racist and sexist monsters).

Of course, the female and/or black hero wins through in the end and everyone realises they're a total genius who has been kept down by racism and sexism.

All very well, but it's JUST NOT TRUE. It is a LIE to claim the US space programme only worked because of 3 genius black women - they were part of a data processing team, sure. They crunched numbers. Women still dominate data-input and processing staff in firms now. But really, if one is to tick boxes, one would see the vast majority of the team who achieved that were white males. The main white character here played by Kevin Costner is a composite of 3 white males.

Hollywood can claim what it wants and rewrite history - as it did with ARGO and U571 and THE PATRIOT. Fine. But it's VERY dangerous because people esp kids believe this to be true history and it's not. It's inspired by the black power African-American movement that aims to claim people in history as 'our own' - which is actually racist and just factually untrue.

Just one example of the lies which are legion in this movie: NASA in fact banned segregated toilets in 1958. Think of that FACT when you watch this FICTION which promotes the lies that these black women had to use black only toilets. They didn't! The film starts in 1961! Some black women became NASA supervisors in 1948 and 1958 - at a time this movie claims blacks were little better than slaves and denied all promotion at NASA.

No stars.

Colourblind casting is awful - and deeply selective of course as you do not see white actors casting ins 'African/Asian' stories playing Nelson Mandela or Asian heroes. Of course 'authentic casting' is demanded for ANY non-white role. Pure hypocrisy then.

David Copperfield was the autobiographical novel of Charles Dickens who was not, as far as I am aware, Asian/Indian.

SO that makes it all nonsense in my opinion. I avoid all colourblind casting movies now. I have NO objection to African or Asian or black stories having no white actors - like Moonlight (not one white face in that film, but that is how it is in some US cities and schools). Fine, The respect needs to be applied the other way too, to the 'white' British stories (a fact: when WWII started there were only 6000 black people in the UK. Just 6000. A tiny number of Asians. So please do not claim more).

BE AUTHENTIC in casting. Respect the author and the story.

AND Ianucci is an unfunny and over-rated writer and director too. Pleases the critics. Not the public. Just not as talented as he thinks he is or as metropolitan woke London movie critics.

No stars. Watch OLD versions of Dickens to avoid this depressing racist mind virus of woke. DAVID LEAN'S Great adaptations. Watch all the old films, not modern pc cololurblind casting tickbox adaptations. Oliver Twist, Great Expectation from late 1940s are all kids need to watch. Not this woke dross.

The reason I am giving this oddity 3 stars is not because of the quality of the acting or direction or writing - pretty dire at times on all 3 counts. It is because it is a real oddity, a curiosity based on the tiniest thinnest sliver of truth in film history perhaps?

It IS true that 20,000 Jews fled Europe mainly to Shanghai which had an established Jewish community as it was a very European place with British and French zones (sadly it was also invaded by Japan so many ended up in camps there; watch Empire of the Sun). China also had a community of Jews from way earlier - 7th. 8th. 9th centuries AD vis the Silk Road from the middle east, Persia etc. A tiny community survives despite Chinese oppression and the fact China does not recognise those 2500 Jews as one of China's minority groups.

Anyway this is a very odd film - full-on Kung-Fu bruce Lee style at times - Chinese versus the Nazi stormtroopers! Lots of fake blood a la Sam Pekinpah and I suspect Tarantino's awful films like the Inglorius Basterds one (I hate his films) were an influence. Weirdly even Ian Fleming pops up.

Truly bizarre BUT less than 90 minutes, entertaining and weirdly fun, hence 3 stars.

Someone one day will make a serious film about the same issue of Jews fleeing to China before and during WWII. However, until then, we have this cartoon character B-movie. So be it!

Btw the credits at the end credit the wedding march to 'Johann Wagner'. No such composer; they mean Richard Wagner. I think Johan Wagner is a footballer... Ho hum...

See, THIS is what you can do when you have a great script and a tiny budget. Take note all the lame boxticking pc BBC/ITV crime dramas which I no longer watch.

The main actor Jakob Cedergren is absolutely brilliant. This movie should have won Oscars. The decline of those awards may be the reason it was not even nominated.

I only rented this because the producer also produced the hilarious satirical film WILD MEN. I am now looking at other films made by the same director/producer and starring the same main actor who has credits as far back as 2005.

The script is spare, superbly paced, dripping facts into our ears like poison. OK so I guessed the 'reveal' early but then I doubt most viewers will. That did not spoil it for me at all. It made me admire the writer even more. NO SPOILERS but we need more films like this - instead of the focus always on socalled 'male violence' (40% domestic abuse is done TO men by women; and half of all child murders and most baby killings by women too, not men).

The best thriller i have watched for ages. It;s been remade in Hollywood, by the same director too. Not sure if I want to watch the remake though - they are almost always disappointing.

One note: the subtitles are very American (so we get 'baby carriage instead of 'pram' and more).

4.5 stars rounde dup.

OK so this is a character study - as are most state-funded (BBC, FilmFour, Arts Councils) films these days.

Ben Wishaw is a great actor and he is the reason to watch. I do believe in his character - I do not believe in his parents, esp the father, a stereotyped bad man father character if ever I saw one.

The rest is just an unbelievable tale of a man with a tedious unfulfilling lonely life who has a breakdown (the source of so many novels, films, comedy too). Many MANY people live such lives. The inciting incident and plot points do seem very contrived, however, Do I believe in the world of the story> No. NO SPOILERS but I do not believe the main character can get away with the first plot point. There is such a thing as security at such places.

It is basically a short film stretched out to feature length which it cannot carry really - it adds cliched tropes in the 2nd half to keep the film jogging along.

Very realistic heathrow scenes and the London here could have been filmed in all those parts of London I hate, the jumbled streets with phone shops, fancy goods shops, barbers, 24 hour supermarkers, pawn brokers, takeaways, £1 chick shops etc. I know those streets and hate them, though I love historic London. I just hate that horrible hinterland of London. This was filmed in Hackney, Haringey, Islington and yes, could be so many streets in all them.

2 stars.

This is the partner film to SWASTIKA (1974) which shows the home movies discovered in the early 70s, showing the human side of Hitler, relaxing at the 'Eagle's Nest' with Eva Braun and the boys...

It's more traditional really. Though I had never seen some of the newsreel footage of Hitler here, and I have watched just about every WWII/Nazi documentary ever! Here we can see Hitler aged 30 in 1919 (never seen that before) at a nationalist meeting, and again in 1923.

Baffled why the 2 films have never been shown on TV. They should be compulsory viewing for all kids in school really.

I found this film deeply annoying. Why? Well any story which requires an elf casting a magic spell as a plot point is taking the easy way out and cheating. Toby Jones phones it in there.

It is the characters which should drive the story., always. Here, it is if the author has cobbled together an absurd Father Christmas backstory from anywhere he can - legends/myths, Buddhist sayings, Scandinavian folklore, the Wizard of Oz etc. Consequently, it's all an annoying and very derivative mash-up and OH so slushy gloopy sentimental saccharine too.

I cannot see kids loving it - or following the story, which has way too many characters and is cluttered and flabby and convoluted. Watch the Wizard of Oz instead, again and again and again. Way too many characters - and the way everyone with Nicolas has for be a 'strong independent female' is tiresome too. And predictable in these woke metoo days.

I admire very much the wonderful special effects - the CGI is elegantly done and directed. A huge team of people did that, in the Czech Republic and at the historic Barrandov Studios. Much of what you see here is made on computer. This is a VERY expensive movie, have no doubt.

The tickbox casting could have been created by the local council diversity enforcement department, however, and is often cringe-worthy.

I have not read all the book - just the start for free on the usual online book website - and there is no bookending of the main story there. Why is it done here? To get in a black family? To make it relatable? To make it even more slushy sentimental and gushing with teary emotion? Unnecessary and rather lazy, I thought.

All a bit of a mess and rather forgettable. I suspect the book it came from would not have got published had the author just sent it to agents/publishers either.

And I think if I were a child, I'd be bored by it all, frankly, and just focus on the CGI special effects whizz-bang stuff, and at the end of the film I'd be pretty muddled about what it';s all about.

So 2 stars for all those reasons.

I had no idea what to expect with this film. The very woke Radio Times gave it 2 stars out of 5. It often gives utter dross five stars though, basically anything with a pc/metoo/woke agenda with a majority female cast,. Maybe that was its issue here - almost all the cast is male.

It is rare for a modern movie to make me laugh out loud - this film managed it, 2 or 3 times. Such clever satire on the misery of marriage and the tedium of modern life.

OK so it's a bit far-fetched and maybe not entirely believable esp the ending. BUT, as I said, it is clever, funny and warm - a really enjoyable film with something to say.

4.5 stars rounded up. JUST GREAT - fine writing, direction and acting.

I loved this film - had no idea what to expect and often dislike the main actor, BUT does well here BUT in real life, Greville Wynne was from an ordinary background, not a toff, and he was even brought up in South Wales. He could have affected poshness of course as many did via elocution etc, esp a salesman.

The prison scenes in the USSR back then are so believable - though none of this is filmed in Moscow. Filmed in the UK and the Czech Republic.

Watch till the end to see real black and white footage of the actual Greville Wynne in 1964.

These sorts of movies often exaggerate the influence of the individuals whose lives they portray - (eg the awful OTT claims in Hidden Figures which absurdly claims 3 women of colour put men on the moon!). Wynne and Petrovsky were very brave men indeed who, amongst many others, did certainly contribute to the peaceful end of the Cuban Missile crisis in late 1962. Wynne should have a statue outside MI5 in London.

The lack of pc, metoo wokeness here is SO refreshing. Imagine if they had demanded colourblind casting or 50% women in main roles? Like all movies who tick diversity boxes like that, it would have been eyerollingly bad. Instead, what we have is a half-decent spy thriller.

Very entertaining - I shall now see if I can find the 1985 TV drama series based on the same story, Wynne and Penkovsky - both of whom were very brave men indeed.

I really enjoyed this. It is based on the 1939 Agatha Christie novel 'Ten Little N-s' the best-selling mystery of all time; between 1964 and 1980s it was called Ten Little Indians esp in the Americas; since then it is always entitled 'And then there were None'. A 1964/5 film and of its time.

No idea why this has such dire reviews. It was dated as many older films are, and black and white. BUT it jogs along happily enough. Relocated to a house in the snowy mountains - a setting for another famous Poirot mystery The Labours of Hercules - the latest adaptations are more faithful with it set in a hotel in Devon. BUT at least this is now like awful new woke pc TV versions of Agatha Christie which change the ending.

Some great old British acting talent here, Stanley Holloway, Dennis Price and Wilfred Hyde-White. PLUS just the voice of Christopher Lee apparently. A pop star called Fabian too, still going, born 1943.

As I said,. I enjoyed it. A proper Christie adaptation, and worth a watch.

OK so to say this is based on true events is stretching it. Yes, there was such a German girls' school at Bexhill-on-Sea from 1932-1939, and yes they had a badge with a swastika - but then in 1936 the German ambassador who'd died suddenly in London had this coffin draped with a swastika flag as it was taken to a German destroyer docked on the Thames, whilst being serenaded by a British military bagpipes, and the England football team gave swastika salutes in Berlin 1936 as did competitors at the Olympics that year - the swastika then did not mean the same as the swastika now, which has changed its meaning due to history.

However, in real life all the girls went back to Germany a week before was was declared on 3rd September 1939. So all the spy stuff, and plane at the end, and chase scenes are all a derring do fictional B-movie spy thriller tacked onto a real context. To be fair, most 'true story' movies are mostly fiction (like the recent 'Elvis').

I cannot decide whether I like Eddie Izzard in the role or not. I preferred him playing a serial killer cannibal in TV drama series Hannibal, but then maybe that's because it was fun watching him eat his own leg! I liked the authentic casting of German girls as German girls - having heard horrendous attempted accents (Russian and German) from actors in BBc TV/radio dramas. Judi Dench plays Judi Dench as per usual - cue gushing.

Anyway, this is his baby as he spent much time in Bexhill on sea, attended prep school there then Eastbourne private school - his dad was a rich oil company man. how very socialist.

This film was made in 1949 and set in 1948 though from a 1926 short story by DH Lawrence who said he wrote it to show how love and money cannot co-exist well together.

What I find astounding about this film is how in many ways it would be too shocking to make today. The tragic ending (NO SPOILERS) for sure would be too strong for Hollywood, which worships children and must have a happy ending to everything; also the behaviour of the parents especially the mother. The Metoo mob would simply not allow any blame to be attached for a mother.

Superbly filmed, this mystical drama about the supernatural could have been a Hammer Horror film really - it's a haunted house story, in effect.

The social class boundaries are dated, and one wonders how an upper class family with a nanny and gardener, living in a massive mansion with grounds, and buying a very expensive rocking horse as a Christmas present, could be so short of money. But then, blame the parents...

I loved the trance-like rocking horse scenes, especially a cloud shot of horses.

Of course John Mills is one of acting's greats; the boy John Howard Davies, a child actor from a very well-off family connected to the film business (dad was a major screenwriter), also starred as Oliver Twist in the class David Lean film, went on to a management/comedy career at the BBC mostly, producing and directing a great many comedies, including Steptoe, Fawlty Towers, Monty Python and., notoriously, he is the man who in effect sacked Benny Hill by failing to renews his ITV contract (Hill then locked himself away and more or less ate himself to death - tragedy in comedy...)

A classic. 5 stars.