Film Reviews by PV

This film is a drama-documentary with dramatic biopic scenes of a man fighting in the war for the USSR, the partisans, in the Ukraine and Poland, are interspliced with interviews of the 90-something man himself who is clearly ill. That is fascinating. But this is NOT just a drama, a film - it is a drama documentary.

All very interesting but very bitty and disjointed as a film - and the title is misleading., Hitler;s V2 rocket weapons are only mentioned towards the end of the film - most ofthe movie is set in 1941,2, and 1943. Not 1944! I suppose they chose the title to sell more tickets but it is misleading.

The scenes and acting is great and full marks for including the anti-Semitism of the Soviets and Ukrainians - it was not just a Nazi German thing.

Ukraine is in the news so this is timely. This shows the USSR and Russians see Ukraine as theirs really.

So a flawed film and drama-documentary BUT worth a watch - though it is overlong and bitty, does not quite hang together.

Many errors i subtitles and written pages at the end of the film which explain what happened to the real-life characters etc.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

This is in the top 20 of films everyone should seem together with Night of the Demon too.

Forget the later remake or the new woke multiculti Sky mashup TV series - I refuse to watch that drivel. The whole POINT is all the children are white and blond. Alien. THAT is the point, so colourblind casting is yet again just wrong. And as silly as casting a white ginger-haired or Chinese actors as Zulu warriors...though we all know THAT would never happen... That is thus racist, non?

I watched this as a child of maybe 11 and remember the brick wall scenes clearly - it educated me re the possibilities of film. I am so glad I watched it again. It is a PERFECT film. Has to be seen in terms of the Cold War too which is highly relevant. USSR the enemy of the West then. The threat of nuclear war ever-present.

Maybe watch with classic original THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL too. Another classic based on fear of commies and nuclear war and space programmes etc.

Loving the lack of pc in this too - a doctor asking several people for a cigarette after helping a woman give birth LOL. 1960s eh? reference to 'Eskimo' too. All white men in charge - which makes a change from these days when they are rare in films tbh.

The actors playing the children are superb - though they all just get a credit as THE CHILDREN at the end. Wonder what happened to them...

Adult actors superb and perfectly judged too. Just p[erfect.

I suspect this film and the novel it came from influenced The Omen too.

5 stars. One of the best films ever made.

This is a big like The Dirty Dozen crossed with Widows the TV drama by Lynda La Plante.

A group of women are brought together by SOE in London and French Resistance to take out an SS Colonel Heidrick - I can find no information on this man so have no idea if this is true. The end of the film claims it as a true story and reveals what happens to characters.

I like the lack of pc preachiness - it is a French film so less likely to have that, and from 2008 so safe from wokery! I liked the realistic SS scenes and the spying skullduggery.

I did sometimes find it hard to keep track of who was who, but could rewind the DVD as I did too for some surprise scenes - the viewer has to pay attention! As some shocks happen without warning, NO SPOILERS.

Excellent war film from France. 4 stars

This 2005 was the most successful post-communist film in Russia up to then, and you can see why. It shows ordinary Russians, from Siberia etc, leaving ordinary lives to go to an unwinnable war in Afghanistan (1979-1989). Of course many get injured or killed and more get mentally scarred by that hellish civil war.

Bad things about this film: I dislike the speeded up or slowed down scenes common in Russian and also east Asian films and we have that here; overdone overacting very OTT really; a bit overlong and portentous; sadly no English subtitles for the credits.

Good things about it: the superb and honestly violent and realistically gruesome action/war footage, real edge of seat stuff, some of the best I have ever seen (also in the 2005 film WAR about Chechnya war). The wonderfully pc-free Russian script and scenes - no woke here, than goodness, and no constant preaching about pc issues re race and gender as in most Hollywood moves and British TV drama - it is really very refreshing. The trainer;s speech on what Muslims are like and how they see the world differently would never be allowed in pc woke UK or US films.

A Russian audience will identify more with the first half when the new recruits leave USSR to the training camp. For me, the second half is where the film comes alive - it is very tense stuff. Reminded me of Zulu in a way - a classic 1964 film where a small band of brothers fight against the odds against a massive attacking force. The difference s, this battle is pointless and the Soviet Red Army is already leaving Afghanistan as it takes place in early 1989. The Zulu war was won by the British and the Zulu empire collapsed soon after.

The extra DVD has 2 half hour films on, very interesting and timely, lots of ex-army Russians glad that the film will make young Russians more patriotic. That stands out in the present Ukraine war context...unfortunately. Making of film too which was fascinating. But why could it not all fit on one DVD?

Shockingly, 15000 Russians died in Afghanistan and 500 missing 9and 1 million Afghans died) - in almost a decade, where over 600,000 Russians served; already in Ukraine, 30,000+ Russians have died, in 3 months.

The sound is superb - it was done at Pinewood, UK.

4 stars

Yet another Hollywood movie gets infected with the pc metoo virus so makes this all a feminist film to score points. It does not work.

Does the time travel to radiation in history work? Not for me. It makes it all clunky and disjointed. All the Chernobyl, Hiroshima, US 1950s medical radiation lab stuff. I liked some of the graphics but this film misfires so badly.

But what irks most is the inaccuracy. The first is this: Marie had a scientist father in Poland but no money SO basically targeted Pierre Curie in PAris who had the best lab in Europe, and so got a job there and then married him. He was NOT her sidekick at all. He is often written out of history which is pure sexism - as it is when Joseph Anning who found the Ichthyasaur fossil but his sister Mary Anning gets all the credit, or Carole King praised for the song Natural Woman, when a man - her then husband Gerry Geffen, wrote the lyrics...

Moreover, when Marie's body was disinterred at Pere La Chaise cemetery in 1995 to be moved to the Pantheon in Paris, those doing it wore radiation protection suits as the myth was radiation killed her. BUT IT DID NOT - her body was not radioactive. Though the myth continues online BUT scientists who disinterred her at the time were surprised to find she had normal radiation levels. But the lead-lined coffin had already been prepared at the Pentheon.

Having said that, it is thought Marie Curie died in 1934 of aplastic anemia (likely due to so much radiation exposure from her work with radium). Her real name was Marie Salomea Sklodowska–Curie and she was Polish.

Also, in real life her daughters deeply resented the way Marie was devoted to her work and not them - and never forgave her.

So this is all fiction, and spoilt by MeToo political point-scoring - which is preachy lecture stuff and should not be in a movie at all.

2 stars. This is a VERY annoying film.

I quite liked this. It is very Russian - the credits are only in Russian, But spoken in English and with subtitles for German/Russian bits only.

The cuts between scenes are the slides I remember from old Flash Gordon series, as emulated by Indiana Jones films in tribute to such adventure stories of the past at the cinema, which Spielberg remembered fondly. Very 1930s!

It's all derring-do and adventure, not sure how believable though supposedly based don a true story. At the end of the film claims are made re the scientist - no idea if they are true.

Great fun in many ways. A good old-fashioned adventure film, by the Russians.

3 stars

I see the producer has form with gruesome horror, and this film continues the run.

Interesting scenario, a Canadian film so Canada mentioned. Some cartoon character Germans including a very nasty one (there is always a very nasty one).

But good fun, and horribly realistic parasitic worms etc.

The language is not very WWI but most war films do the same - which is a shame.

3 stars

This is effective low budget film making.

I was pleasantly surprised at how effective the film was and the story - very entertaining.

Made me jump more than once. Quite gory too.

OK so the plot is hokum BUT show me a horror film which isn't!

4 stars

This film has two halves - the first if overlong with scenes that should have been cut; then it wakes up for an exciting second half.

It states it is based loosely on a true story with lots of added fiction - at the start and the end. So one wonders how much of this is true. How much of this to believe? I have no idea. The choices made by the main character seem unlikely to me - to have happened like this anyway. I believe the violence and IRA punishment of their own too.

There is also a typical bias as seen in so many films esp from Hollywood, more sympathy for the IRA nationalists and too much Brit-blaming. Worth remembering that 3000 people died in The Troubles, 2000 murdered by IRA nationalists incl women and children, many bodies still buried and they refuse to say where they are. Brits and protestant Unionists killed 1000. All unhappy but they is the facts.

Anyway, quite unpleasant as a film about violence in The Troubles has to be, I suppose. Have to be in the right mood to watch something like this.

I almost gave this a 3 stars but the political bias and also the very slow first half which makes it overlong means 2 stars.

I ummed and ahhed about whether to give this 2 stars or 3.

I was irritated by the quasi-religious angle and there is no doubt the devout will enjoy this more than I did - it seems to have been financed by Christian groups too. The angelic light which just happened to shine on a folder etc - that sort of thing annoys me. The religious will love it no doubt. I do not believe in saints so have no investment in the significance of making someone a saint. I think it;s all a bit silly tbh. But I know how seriously some Catholics take it.

It was OK but a lot left out. I wanted to know more of what happened to the characters - Michael Praeger the journalist (played by a Brit actor) who investigates, for example. I can find nothing online, and do not know how true this story is.

This is overlong too - should be one and a half hours max. Some extraneous scenes with people who knew Edith clog up the flow of the plot.

So a slight film. 2 or 3 stars. Just squeaked a 3 from me.

I expected nothing of this film but was hooked - it is a fascinating film about Chechens taking hostages in the 1990s. The film was made in 2002. Putin was in charge of Russia then too and his photo and terrorist policy features.

The real star here is the actor Aleksey Chadov - who is brilliant in this and perfectly cast. It's an action role but way more than that about a highly complex military situation in Chechnya, part of Russia. He relates the story.

As one Chechen says to the main Russian character: "you gave away your country in Kazakstan and Ukraine". Putin would no doubt agree...

The most irritating thing is the bumbling cartoon character Englishman and his oh-so-irritating girlfriend., Not the actor;s fault - Ian Kelly does well. The script to blame.

Watch the half hour MAKING OF extra - it is fascinating.

Quite violent at times and with random Russian rock music.

But a great film all in all - and fascinating to see a war film set in Chechnya.

4 stars. Would be 5 but a star deducted for the cartoon character Englishman stereotype and the random soundtrack.

This is the most authentic portrayal of Ukraine in The Second World War in film (apart maybe from the tragic episode of German TV miniseries Generation War).

It is mostly in English (sadly no subtitles available) but also Polish, Ukrainian, German and Russian. This is an independent US movie.

Based on the true story of a girl from the eastern flank of Poland who pretends to be a Christian classmate in order to escape the Nazis - and ends up over the border in Ukraine. Watch until the very end to see the real life woman.

The portrayal of the vast flat Ukrainian farmland and peasant farmers seems very authentic and accurate - and the film does not shy away from the problems and issues of that less than ideal world, including anti-Semitism (I loved the carnival scenes). Remember the pogroms in Russia and Ukraine in late 19th and early 20th century is why so many emigrated esp to the USA - one was a baby who became Kirk Douglas., There were many more.

A revenge for Partisans killing 2 German soldiers scene is particularly effective. The film does not shy away from the fact partisans/communists were as bad or worse than the Germans - as a character says.

This is a superb film, and so very timely. Watch it. 4.5 stars rounded up.

Here's something unusual: a modern French film which is both funny, intelligent and entertaining.

A bit like a French 'Truman Show' - but less believable - a film I loved; or 'Synecdoche, New York', a film I hated - this is could be called postmodern, or magic realism even.

However, it is also well-written and acted, and fun - with unexpected twists and turns. It entertains intelligently, despite some silly bits and some self-indulgent romantic naval-gazing.

It will really strike a chord with many 'older' viewers who remember the 1970s or 1980s and think in so many ways life was better, happier and simpler then, back when we were poorer and had no tech or trendy bistros or foreign food and holidays etc.

Some great music too - though one track played (Yes Sir I Can Boogie) is from 1977 and very much disco, not from hippy-ish crusty 1974.

A rare French film I would happily watch again - right now. 4.5 stars rounded down - just.

There have been several films made about Rommel and he pops up in countless war movies too.

The most famous is the classic Desert Fox from 1951. Worth a watch.

Also there is Valyrie with Tom Cruise and the superior German film Stauffenberg (2012) about the plot to kill Hitler which is part of Rommel's downfall.

This German TV movie is excellent however.

Those who know a lot about the Second World War and this story willl enjoy it as will those unfamiliar with it. Debate rages still about how Nazi Rommel was and how much he knew of Nazi atrocities.

I particularly liked the way real-life newsreel footage (from Germany) was spliced into this film.

Ulrich Tukur stars and is superb, as he is as John Rabe in City of War.

5 stars.

OK so I am probably not the target audience for this. I have left school, after all. ..

But I enjoyed it for what it was - though I am glad I turned on the subtitles as the dialogue is so fast and/or mumbled and/or drowned out by the score.

It is not too long (as so many Hollywood movies are now), had some good one liners and twists.

Of course it's all very silly. Anything based on a computer game will be, after all.

But for a high octane adventure with loads of CGI students, chases, mad characters, it's fine.

So 3 stars