Film Reviews by PV

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.

I rented this film because of the main actor which is brilliant in the film GREAT FREEDOM.

This pretentious French film, based on a novel and with loads of voiceovers from that, is just tedious.

I am not sure whether it wanted to say the fascists have taken over NOW in our age, or what. The clumsy clunky attempt to draw an analogy with modern-day racism and refuge issues just does not work.

Annoying and dull.

This film does what many Russian films do.

It is full of patriotism/nationalism, which seems quite deliberate these days, especially as one main character is from Kherson in Ukraine (liberated from Russians on 11/11/22). Was USSR yes, but... Made by nationalistic Russians and nationalistic Russians.

Then the massive overacting - very theatrical, facial expressions with bulging eyes, waving arms etc. Not natural at all. Then the attempts at action movie martial arts type fighting, lots of slow motion footage, lots of explosions so not a cheap film to shoot for sure. Amateurish and old-fashioned.

The main problem here though is lack of character development - too many characters and none one can really feel for, which means when any get attacked or are in danger, as a viewer you don't really care.

Watchable for the explosions. 2 stars

This is a 7 part series - almost 7 hours. It should have been a 3 parter, 4 maximum. Then it might not have been so slow and, frankly, boring. It goes on and on and on - so slow, because it is mainly a soapy family drama with a detective series hidden inside somewhere. Cut all the romantic family issues flab and it would be a decent watch like True Detective first series.

I watched the first DVD - 4 episodes - then the 2nd just 2 weeks later, and had really forgotten much of it. That says it all.

There are WAY too many characters - likes, score of them, Mostly extraneous and nothing to do with the main murder plot. Apeing the Sopranos maybe, but failing. So many boxes ticked too - I bet their had a pc checklist for that!

Maybe it would appeal more to female viewers, what with all the family drama, romantic interest etc.

but the plot relies on wild coincidence, which is the sign of a weak story to be honest - the story does not emerge from the characters, as it does in great drama.

SO slow - I was clock-watching a lot. And I did not really believe in the story or the main character - or many of the characters. I found her annoying and just did not believe she would do what she does. I gets tiresome when any 'strong' woman main character gets heaped with praise - it is just SO 1979 Alien really, Kate Winslet here has one expression - and a faraway worried look no doubt to encourage our sympathy. Sadly, only inspires yawning and eye-rolling in this viewer...

Anyway, OK if you like that sort of thing BUT I shall not be watching any second series.

This is an absolutely brilliant and ground-breaking 1974 documentary featuring home movies mainly taken of Hitler and his Nazi gang plus girlfriend. All the supporting act are here, from Eva Brain to Albert Speer and Himmler and Adolf's doctors.

The film is dubbed as the movie reels were silent - amazing they were found at all, as placed in a warehouse with other stock footage when the US military took possession of them.

Controversial at the time, this collection shows the human side to Hitler and other top Nazis, their human side - with Adolf talking to children and playing with his dog and complaining about Goring or Bormann going on a Boar hunt. It is all shades of grey, not black and white, because that is what life is.

Watch the extras - see a half hour interview with David Puttnam and the director etc who made the film, from 2007 or thereabouts, plus 1973 interview with Albert Speer, whose charm and slyness meant he escaped the noose Nuremburg should have slipped around his guilty neck. A massive 97% SS war criminals went unpunished.

Some other footage here of Germany in 1930s and 40s - some from Triumph of the Will (1935) but some new. These home movies at the 'Eagle's Next' with Hitler are familiar too us now as they have appeared in so many Nazi documentaries since, but this was the first time they had been seen.

This should be essential viewing for all schoolkids too, as should Triumph of the Will and more. Nazis - a Warning from History etc.

This independent German film is based on a novel - and follows a twisting thriller trope, with plenty of comedy too. A bit like UK TV series New Tricks or any other about art forgeries.

It is also an identity swap drama/comedy and original in that, however unbelievable. I doubt this actually happened. Though some Allies spies dressed as Nazis and some Nazis dressed as Allies troops - in the fog of war and invasion.

Best to focus on the drama and comedy, not the details here or the trueness to life - the concentration camp inmates look far too well-fed and healthy, for a start.

A nice documentary on the making on the EXTRAS which is worth a watch - it points out most WWII films about Jews show them being saves. Here the Jew saves himself.

I enjoyed it,. 4 stars.

Amazingly this was made in 1943 when Belgium was still occupied by Germany - from May 10th 1940.

A bit dated but it is nearly 80 years old! It was also a propaganda film really and a thanks to all the Belgians who made it to Britain AND the Belgian people who endured Nazi occupation. Many fought for the Allies including in the Battle of Britain.

I enjoyed it greatly. It is rare to see a film about Belgium in WWII.

One for anyone interested in WWII history.

Great Freedom is a great film. Groundbreaking and illuminating.

It follows a man moved from a concentration camp in 1945, by American army in effect, to prison to complete his sentence for homosexuality - under paragraph 175, not repealed in west Germany until 1968 (not equalised with heterosexual laws until 1994); in 1968,. communist east germany scrapped the law altogether so was more liberal.

he befriends - in all ways - another prisoner, convicted for murder.

The harsh, brutal conditions in the prison through 1940s to late 50s to late 60s are well depicted. It is barely better than any concentration camp. Even in late 1960s.

There also some explicit scenes here which I am surprised got past the censor.

The end is heartbreaking in a way (no spoilers) and shows what prison can do to people.

A tad long and ponderous in parts, hence the 4 stars. But one of the best prison films I have ever seen.