Film Reviews by PV

This is supposedly based on a true story, from a novel called GIBRALTAR and the film was called that in French - I suspect the name was changed as it does seem to pin blame or incompetence at the door of the British customs authorities there.

It's a decent enough thriller though one has to pay attention as the rival gangs operate - French, Irish, British - or it can be confusing.

Believable events - portraying all the deals the big fish do with national customs.

Best watched with the great TV drama NARCOS, the story of Pablo Escobar who gets a mention here re a cocaine shipment from south America.

4 stars

I recommend watching the EXTRAS here, the MAKING OF interview with the director (who also acts in this) which explains the inspiration for the film - letters written by a man called Arthur which led the director on 8 years of research.

The result is a slight, modest, low-budget biopic which is only just over an hour long. The story is possibly not strong enough to sustain more, fascinating though it undoubtedly is. For me, this would be perfect as a docu-drama for TV.

Lots of hand-held camera footage and fascinating detail. They use what they have to best effect.

Interesting as the only Dutch film on WWI I know of - perhaps because Holland was neutral in that conflict so any Dutchmen who wanted to fight against Germany had to sign up with the French foreign legion.

Worth a watch esp for anyone interested in films about World War One. 3 stars

Watching Anthony Hopkins play Hitler is odd, even though he won an Emmy for this performance - it is in the 2nd or 3rd division compared to the brilliant Bruno Ganz as Hitler in Downfall in 2004 - a true masterpiece. Not one of Anthony's best performances- he is an adequate Hitler at best, perhaps half a Hitler - but no more.

By contrast, this is a French production- 'Le Bunker' - though most of the cast is British, except a distinctly odd Josef Goebbels played as a Chicago gangster. Weird.

Character actors aplenty here - Julian Fellowes (Oscar-winning writer of Gosford Park and Downtown Abbey) plays a decided camp Nazi, and we have Pat from Eastenders (Man St Clement) as Adolf's cook. There's Robert Pugh and also Michael Sheard (Mr Bronson from Grange Hill) as Himmler (odd as his most famous role came as Hitler in Indian Jones and the Last Crusade). Martin Jarvis plays Hitler's unlikely boilerman and Michael Kitchen plays a Nazi, no doubt practising that worried scowl for when he played Foyle in Foyle's War.

A long film worth watching before Downfall perhaps just how to realise how magnificent the latter is.

3 stars

This film is based on a classic novel, apparently - which no doubt goes into more depth regarding each character.

The end notes make clear this is about the scouting movement in Poland and how they resisted the Nazis then the Stalinists. If so, the actors cast are rather too old - though I'd need to check the source novel and history before asserting that really,. Surely scouts are 11-16 or so? Not 18/19/20? Anyhoo...

Film-makers have to make choices when adaptations from novels are done, so a main character must be chosen and certain aspects highlighted but others dropped. This is possibly why much of this film is fragmentary and sags towards the end. Novels do not have to have the simple 3 act structure of screenplays.

I liked the high production values of this, esp re the music used - which is in contrast to some other Polish movies set in WWII and Warsaw. The quality of the novel shines through, though I suspect we only glimpse its poetry.

One very annoying aspect of this film - the overweight character is always eating, because that is what anyone slightly overweight does, right? This is pure cartoon character stuff and cringe-worthy.

But all in all a fascinating film that made me want to find out more. 4 stars.

This film tells the little-told story of the members of the colonies who fought for the European powers against Nazi Germany.

The end of this film (no spoilers) reveals some shocking information. A necessary film to make.

As a film it is rather fragmentary and bitty, all leading up to the final campaign in France. (Alsace).

I really enjoyed this. The script is sharp and even made me laugh out loud a couple of times. The characters fun. Very tongue-in-cheek.

Made in 2014 and about pollution at a chicken factories infecting people - and in 2012 The Bay was a movie also showing how pollution from a chicken factory destroys a town via similar infection. Then later The Girl With All The Gifts is another child zombie infection shtick. All 3 films are a decent watch.

I liked the characters - all OTT and caricature. Except perhaps the druggie driver who seems a bit superfluous. Elijah Wood even gets to laugh at himself with a Hobbit gag.

OK so it sags a tad towards the end. As an odd plot hole here in that with a virus supposedly only infecting pre-pubertal kids, a boy kept down a year is clearly adolescent yet infected. But hey, maybe he had a growth spurt during production eh?

Slightly surprised it is made in LA as it seems more an indy production, often made in Canada. Set in Illinois.

This all ultimately works because of a decent script which is way better and funnier than most comedy horror scripts.

4 stars. 1 star off sure to the third act sag. Acts 1 and 2 are 5 star.

I was not sure what to expect from this film, but found it very dated indeed - with a showbiz star going from New York to Estonia of all places - with Nazis and then Soviets invading.

A very odd story all in all. Rather forgettable to be honest.

And I do not believe a word really.

For showbiz in Nazi Germany watch the TV series from Germany BABYLON BERLIN set in 1929 Germany.

2 stars

If you like slow arty French films where everyone smokes endlessly and looks philosophically into the middle distance spouting poetry, you'll be in heaven with this.

Me, I liked bits of it, when it focused on the story and events. Supposedly based on truth.

All about Paris in the latter stages of WWII. The wait for those who may or may not return from POW or concentration camps in Germany.

Some bits are baffling. The issue of how many French collaborated with the German regime has never ever really been explored much on screen, and it is good to have a glimpse of that here, at least.

2 stars

I have to agree that the best thing about this film is the title.

The only reason this is not 1 star is the cinematography - and it is almost 1 star anyway.

Why this has got great reviews from some, I do not know. It's a paper-thin idea which could make a half-hour film yet is dragged out with flabby fleshy S&M scenes to try and be radical - however it merely succeeds in being dull. Very.

I gave TOME OF FINLAND with the same actor and gave it 3 stars. It is better than this dross.

I really wanted to like this film. There have been some great films made about WWII recently - from Poland, for example, BATTLE FOR SEVASTAPOL, WALKING WITH THE ENEMY in Hungary, ALONE IN BERLIN, the great GENERATION WAR. And the Russian ATTACK ON LENINGRAD.

This however is not the cinematic account of the horrific crucial battle of Stalingrad I was expecting.

I did start watching it with awful American dubbing. Then stopped and changed the setting to Russian with subtitles.

That however did not get rid of the awful loud intrusive fake-blockbuster-soundtrack, or the stilted dialogue or the awful martial-arts-style slomo fight scenes which I hated.

Watch the great 1993 German film STALINGRAD instead. Or a documentary.

Some decent scenes but very disappointing. The whole thing is rather muddled and flabby too.

This film is watchable in parts and educational too to learn about the awful siege which killed 200,000 and left Warsow with only 1000 inhabitants., The whoel place was rubble at the end of WWII; now 2 million live there.

The film tells the story through a young male character and that often works though the flights of fantasy sometimes jarr for me - I dislike magic realism and fantasy films in general.

Some shocking violence depicted but this history must be known. Especially now, with more cities besieged again in 2022.

3 stars.

All about the battle in 1920 to defend Poland against the USSR and so retain its independence. Also references Kiev and Ukraine.

Interesting enough as seen through the eyes of a young soldier, with all the fog of war and confusing loyalties. But it does drag on rather, with endless 1920 battle scenes.

Probably a smash hit in the UK around 2011I think, as stated on the sleeve, due to the Poles in Britain going to see it.

Very dated to my eyes really. I would have given 2 stars for that but it just about makes 3 stars due to some great battle scenes.

Despite some atrocious dubbing, and a lack of subtitles for when actors speak English which would have been a help, this is an action-packed film which educates and entertains. Siege warfare is millennia old, used now in Ukraine and in WWII and throughout history - besieging castles to starve them to submit was an old war method many centuries ago.

The siege of Leningrad was one of the worst ever and lasted over 800 days, 1941 until 1944, as Germans retreated. It was truly horrific and 1.5 million there died of disease, starvation and bombing - almost Putin';s own parents (his mother was pulled from a pile of dead bodies when she moved).

Having visited Leningrad when it was called that, before St Petersburg was restored as its name, I recognised many statues etc. The hell of the situation is seen through the eyes of an 'English' reporter and her female police officer Russian friend who rescues her, the 2 children they hide out with, and her lover Gabriel Byrne. Watch to the very end to discover their fate. This personalises what could have been a structureless story - as sieges are not that cinematic after all. Wavering loyalties on both sides brings home the foggy morality of war.

It could perhaps have been a tad shorter. And English subtitles would have been great.

But 4 stars anyway. Worth a watch.

I knew very little about this or the history of Finland, which pre this involved a civil war in 1918 when the new USSR first tried to take it over - after centuries of Swedish empire rule.

The Soviets invade and lose the Winter War, which is now known as the Finnish Miracle. 105 days of fighting in harsh winter weather.

Very timely with Ukraine now the victim of Russia;'s expansionist ambitions, as Poland was in 1939 too and after World War II.

This movie is from 1989, and includes a helpful starting section with a map and basic history.

It can go on a bit and be repetitive, maybe a bit long - but nowhere as much as recent Hollywood movies or Bond films which last 2 and a half hours.

3.5 stars rounded up.

This is a fascinating 2 part TV drama, 3 hours in all, though a rather Americanised version of 1920s/30s German history.

Great focus is put on the American wife of businessman Ernst Hanfstaenghl, a close friend of Hitler from 1923 until he defected late 1930s, no doubt for a US TV audience. Their son, whose godfather was Adolf Hitler, only died in 2007. That was an angle unknown to me before this TV drama.

Thomas Sangster plays the child Adolf - he later played Paul McCartney in Nowhere Boy.

3.5 stars really and it seems to end rather suddenly too. Perhaps part one is more interesting.

Fascinating to watch together with classy TV documentaries such as Rise of the Nazis, or the ones showing just how sneakily they took power after 1929.