Film Reviews by PV

Just awful like the massively over-rated last film. also a tedious turkey (Cosmopolis).

The earlier Maps to the Stars is a sublime satire on Hollywood, and one of his earliest films The Brood is nutty fun. All downhill since The Fly though, over 35 years ago.

Any writer trying to get this made would be laughed out of the rom. It is some adolescent scifi fantasy, daft, not coherent,. and just BORING and slow on top of that.

I could almost hear the actors cashing the cheques, which was certainly for them the best thing in this dreadful misfiring mess.

No stars. How it gets an average of 3 is beyond me. I think people award well-known directors stars they would not, say, give a new director/film.

2 hours of my life I shall never get back.

This series (4) smells of money - HUGE budget, interesting EXTRA features showing it here.

But the story? The characters? Very pretentious, unmemorable, confused, up itself in so many ways.

Series 1 was really excellent, 4 stars; series 2, 3 stars maybe; series 3 has good bits maybe 3 stars, but esp 4 are losing it, 2 stars or even 1.

The casting (series 4 esp) is predictably woke and female-centric like ALL new TV drama series and movies. NOTE: the criteria to decide if a TV drama is good is NOT what % of main actors are BAME or female. The ONLY criterion is whether it is a good story told well. and THAT IS IT. Tickbox obsession has ruined another show.

Why on earth they cast 4 BAME women who look very similar in main roles. SO confusing. Characters need to be differentiated - in looks too. Series 4.

Thandie Newton is brilliant, always (she is in series 1,2,3)

Anyway, I endured this (series 4). But compared to the first series, this is forgettable pretentious nonsense. Series 4 anyway.

I quite liked series 3, especially 'Warworld' and Aaron Paul's backstory (like a Christmas Carol, Scrooge looks back) and the rigged employment chances (like the Matrix then which I am no fan of). Maybe Matrix and scifi fans will enjoy the later series more than I do.

I was considering 3 stars for series 4 because some bits are good, and the sets and look and style is great and expensive. But style is not substance. Pity. I think they should end the series now. No more.

I do not work in an office, but I have. This film nails the hellish awfulness of corporate office life - which so many endure (I do not, thankfully).

No doubt those who wrote this script have. The oppression and repression of office life, the faceless inhumanity of it all, the pointlessness. The usual obedient drones loyal to the company. The stuff of nightmares.

Oddly looks old-fashioned even though 1999 - how tech has changed since then,. How woke diversity box-ticking has ensured these issues are preached in every modern movie. Shame.

Watch this instead.

4.5 stars rounded up

This is a watchable, crude, lewd movies - a typical fish out of water, generation gap trope. But it is funny. I especially liked the satire on the world of the internet and Silicon valley busineses, and its contrast with the traditional world. Some funny one liners.

Bryan Cranston was sublime in Breaking Bad and is perfectly cast here, as is James Franco - a believable internet millionaire. The minor characters can also be fun.

A film like Game Night is similar in tone.

Get the popcorn in to watch on a Friday night.

3 stars

OK so this film is more propaganda than fiction.

Despite claims, socalled far right terrorism is not a major issue in any European country and nowhere near the equivalent of Islamist terrorism - the stats for that are terrifying. MI5 says there are 50,000 ticking Islamist timebombs in the UK alone.

Add to all that one-sided propaganda, repeating the old trope of perpetual victimhood, this film is way too long and muddled.

Watch FOUR LIONS and not this. One star

Firstly, I'd like to say the usual subtitle selection did not work on the disc - I had then to work out how to go into the DVD player options to choose subtitles, which meant i watched the whole thing in Italian with English subtitles as I did not select GERMAN as audio. be warned.

This is directed by the foremost female German film director. Fine. But it backs focus and so, despite come decent scenes, is not memorable as characters are often confused as is the plot.

It is not bad, but there are far better films about WWII and Jews in Germany than this.

3 stars. Just

I was not expecting much from this, BUT it was that rare beast - a modern Hollywood film which actually make me laugh and laugh out loud at that - some cracking one liners in a script sizzling with fun and OTT characters, all well-drawn.

Yes the plot is unbelievable and silly BUT IT IS A FILM - show me a Hollywood movie with a believable plot.

It's a comedy, it made me laugh, it as fast, zippy with lots of action and some cracking lines with the social satire - on race and gender too.

I loved it and would watch it again right now. 4.5 stars. Perfect for a Friday Night crowded cinema.

The final parts of this film are SO ludicrous that you feel swindled for caring about the movie until that point. It really is so unbelievable - almost cartoon character level.

NO SPOILERS but the ending was cringe-worthy wokery at its worst.

The first half of the film works BUT this is based on a debut novel (by Nicholas Searle) who writes thrillers, not relationship drama. And it does rattle along, with that 180 degree handbreak turn as designed right in the middle of act 2. Tricky and silly, and you could almost hear the author working backwards from the ending as he drew a diagram of the plot on the wall. Alarm bells sounds for me as soon as the Tovey character mentioned he was doing a PhD on Albert Speer which was SO random I knew something as coming and I was not wrong, ad we travel to Berlin (supposedly a random holiday destination choice for an old couple. I mean, SERIOUSLY? I like Berlin, but...)

The person I felt most sorry for in the film was the Ian McKellen character which was probably not the author's intention. The very loud ticking of metoo feminist agenda boxes was annoying. In WWII rather a lot of people died and got abused. A clumsy teenager is just that though well played by Spike White, the way his behaviour changes suddenly like that was not credible, like much of the backstory. It all seems very influenced by the TV drama series Spooks to be honest.

Some class actors and acting, though Russell Tovey yet again plays a gay character - no doubt authentic casting - but Ian McKellen plays a straight character (not authentic casting). Think that through, people and colourblind casting - all riddled with contradiction.

The requisite serpentine thriller plot with red herrings etc, But the way The Good Liar plays out the third act feels like a hoodwink in itself. Start watching this movie and you follow characters for at least half the film, , only to have odd backstories suddenly revealed for which there is no preparation or foreshadowing... Hence an inability in the viewer to suspend disbelief.

but hey, worth a watch though 2.5 stars rounded up.

OK so this is low budget stuff, mostly set in a bar with various people relating shaggy dog stories. But then I have seen Hollywood movies do the same, with multiple flashbacks and the issue of how reliable - or not - storytellers are being central to plots. Tricksy scripts can be deeply annoying and unsatisfying, however, irrespective of the film budget.

It's NOT BAD - all a bit of a damp squib, to be honest. Also it is confusing, and nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is. This probably was a stage play or should have been maybe.

Ticks the boxes a bit. The main character is played by RJ Mitte who plays the disabled son in Breaking Bad - like that character he has cerebral palsy (is such authentic casting REALLY always necessary? Maybe people can try acting?). All good so far BUT what that character has supposedly done and the relationship with his father etc would rather suggest he is able-bodied. I found that clunky. In acting, appearances matter a lot, re disability, race, gender - pretending they do not is silly.

But actually, this may be the first film I have seen since Lawrence of Arabia which features not ONE woman or female character at all.

Not one to watch if you're after gory horror and violence really (watch TV drama Hannibal for that). But passes the time and some nice writing as well and character development.

So 3 stars

This is a 2005 British film which delves into the world of the underclass and feral drug-taking youth - a bit like later films Eden Lake and Attack the Block. It is mostly derivative of A Clockwork Orange and various European films, especially French (Maybe why it did well at Cannes 2005).

It is clunky at times, with random scenes added to colour in the backstory of characters. Not sure if they are needed or wanted.

Ironically, for a film which wants to contrast the class between the working class/underclass/'chavs' and the middle-class main character (the actor Daniel Spencer who plays him seems to have vanished though he was likely chosen for his cello-playing skills in the first place), and then with the upper-middle class TV chef and his superior wife, it ends up depicting massive stereotypes of all social classes! Some political points are rammed home hard. That can feel preachy.

This film is a tough watch, so be prepared, I preferred it to Son of Saul which tells the same or a similar story - based on a book by Mengele's assistant doctor, a Hungarian Jew, though that account has been disputed by some Jewish historians.

Most witnesses were murdered, and that doctor a rare survivor - though he died of a heart attack in his mid fifties a decade after the war.

It can be a difficult watch at times. But all the better for that in educational terms, It is an accessible film and I'd recommend showing it to all schoolkids.

The on-screen information and the beginning and end of the film explain who people are and what happened - I researched some individuals online after that too.

Nothing else to say, Watch it. 4.5 stars rounded up.

This brilliant films tells the often-forgotten story of Norway in WWII.

Invaded by Germans in April 1940, the allies retook a town before finally being defeated - BUt that did inflict severe damage on the German navy which was weak anyway, and so was one factor of many for Hitler decide not to try and invade Britain in summer 1940 or the next year. Every little helped! The Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square London is an annual present from Norway to Britain for our help in WWII and we are not both proudly out of the EU too!

Watch THE DAY WILL DAWN, 1942, a British film about events which then were just 2 years old! That shows the history. Also watch THE KING'S CHOICE 2016 about how Norway';s king escaped to London where the free Norwegian government was based.

This is a tragic tale, and the 12th Man of the title is the only of 12 to survive. It is an almost incredible tale or survival - and very fitting to watch in winter and there is a LOT of snow and ice in this movie!

Jan Baalsrud escaped Norway when it was taken over by Nazis and the puppet leader Quisling. Eventually he made it to Britain where he joined the Norwegian Company Linge - a unit to train Norwegians to sabotage the Nazis (run by SOE). In early 1943, he and 11 others embarked on a mission to destroy a German airfield control tower at Bardufosss. Operation Martin, was compromised when Baalsrud and his fellow soldiers, seeking a Resistance contact, accidentally made contact with a civilian shopkeeper who ran the same store as their contact. Fearing for his life and suspecting it was a test by the Germans, he reported them to the local police office, who notified the Germans.

So a tragic tale. A shame the man in real life only got an honorary MBE, the very common medal awarded to any and every grime rapper these days, it seems. Sad. I'd award him and the Norwegians who dies far more.

4.5 stars rounded up.

I sort of liked this film because it was different. The animation is NOT Disney so may not be what kids are expecting. I liked it though - it was different.

I liked the dark side - but in our hyper-sensitive age, some adults (not kids) may panic that it is too dark for kids. Read some fairy tales so see real horror though.

This clicks in to the very mainland European Krampus myth which is essentially Germanic - this is Danish.. next to Germany.

I liked all the snow and ice, and the plot just about carries it. Based on a book - and so many great kids' books come from Scandinavian writers (incl Denmark, Norway, Sweden)

Yes, lots if magic in the story - rather than logical plot points, And very derivative but not as much as A Boy Called Christmas (another Father Christmas backstory origin tale and just as silly) which maybe had 100+ times the budget of this.

So 3 stars

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