Film Reviews by PV

This film is such fake new. Watch the great German film DOWNFALL to see the facts; what we see here is fantasy.

I had no great expectations of this TV series - though it's listed as a DRAMA when it is now. It is half drama and half documentary. Why someone gave it 1 star I do not know.

I found this fascinating as Speer is fascinating as one of the few top Nazis who escaped the noose at the Nuremburg trials even though his deputy was hanged! How he managed that is explored here.

Yes some dramatic scenes are cheesy, and some may object to the humanising of Hitler (the great film Downfall got criticised for the same). And the subtitles often leave a lot to be desired (they say people 'hold speeches' when they mean give them, and refer to 'Crystal Night' for example which in English is referred to as the Night of Breaking Class or more usually the German Kristallnacht).

Most fascinating perhaps is hearing from some of Speer's children - in their 60s mostly when this was filmed - and children of those who knew him, plus real archive footage of Speer who died in London in 1981 - the same London he bombed with V2 rockets who were built by slave labour he organised. The film exposes all his lies - it seems his charm and willingness to speak at the 1946 trials and say sorry even though he claims he was not directly involved saved his own neck.

And Leni Riefenstahl speaks too - aged maybe 100 (born 1902; died 2003). She who made all Hitler;s films like Triumph of the Will.

Part 1 is the rise of Speer who age 28 was chosen by Hitler to be his architect; part 2 is the war and aftermath; part 3 is the 20 years Speer served in Spandau prison with a select few other top Nazis like the deranged Hess and Doenitz and more.

The extra doc on disc 2 is interesting too.

If you are interested in World War II and the likes of Speer, you'd love this; if not you will not.

4.5 stars rounded up

OK so this is a bit of a B movie and looks it, Very annoying overly-loud background music and NO subtitle options.

Cary Elwes is best-known these days for the SAW movies, but I remember him as the Eton love interest of a teenage Guy Burgess later Soviet spy) Rupert Everett in Another Country (1983) probably the best film of both, and Colin Firth.

It is all watchable and an interesting story - focuses on a Christian family though the reason the Nazis persecute them is not explained. Maybe because they are evangelical or a form of Christianity not approved by the state? A note at the start of this movie would have been helpful. Lots of other vagueness here too, esp about the Swiss banker.

Some interesting scenes - and tense ones too - with the Nazis and gestapo. Not sure the ending would have actually happened (remember in Vichy the French Gendarmes rounded up many many thousands of Jews and packed them on trains to the death camps, and the French political class until 1990s collaborated with the Nazis more than has been admitted - Mitterand too).

Made during the pandemic, the 'stay safe' motif is clever and used well.

Not great but not bad so 3 stars. Shame about the too loud music drowning out dialogue. Why subtitle are useful!

There was only one series of DANGER UXB as it covers the whole of World War II, but there was no need for a second series as this is one of the best TV dramas of the last 50 years - in the top 10. The main character Brian Ash is played by Anthony Andrews who was also in another great ITV classic drama, Brideshead Revisited in 2-3 years after this. Some great character actors too such as Robert Pugh.

It has 13 parts, each one a cracker, despite every story being the same: will the bomb go off or not? My favourite episode is probably 10, BUTTERFLY WINTER, which I actually remember from the first time I watched this age 11.

The simplicity of the strong characters and trueness to life win through - unsurprisingly, the scripts were based on the memoir of a real WWII UXB officer.

Today's audiences may demand more CGI, quick editing and all the rest to pander to their tiny attention spans - and I dread what the woke pc producers of drama would do to this now (maybe make half the UXB men women?). This, however, is how it as - all white British men doing brave heroic war work defusing bombs or trying to. And, for me at least, it is better than any BBC or ITV drama today.

Watch the 45 minute documentary at the end of disc 4 - well worth a watch to learn about how the series came about.

That says the series was filmed on film and on location - the all TV drama until then was filmed on video and mostly in TV studios, so this series really was ground-breaking.

5 stars. Classic stuff.

I saw great reviews for this from critics, all 4 stars of 5 or more. But then critics are the vainest people ever and desperate to fit in an conform to whatever the on trend view is, and these days fawning over any film which features African American stories as this does, set against 1967 civil rights movement and early 70s. BLM has a lot to answer for - I wonder how this might have looked if made 3-4 years earlier.

Anyway it is all very episodic, with expected violent scenes and people getting 'whacked', but is very bitty and fragmented, with civil rights issues shoe-horned in, I think. Watch Peaky Blinders to see gang warfare done with Jewish gangs and others.

Told from POV of Christopher and focusing on his father and grandfather rather than a child and teenage Tony Soprano - the film tries to explain his personality and backstory as we all know the man he became.

As we know, James Gandolfini died of a heart attach in Rome aged 51 in 2013. His 14 year old son found him slumped in the hotel room in room, That son is Michael Gandolfini who was 20 when he brilliantly played the teenage Tony Soprano here. One to watch for the future, he is. Some funny scenes too, at school, with the usual personality tests showing what he may become, and a hilarious scene with a dog and Christopher as a baby (remember Tony choked him to death after a car crash in the series - no spoilers - it mentions this in the first scene of the film and is in the Sopranos series). A bit Omen-mystical but funny. Tony is a man to be wary of, even as a boy or teen.

No spoilers but when it all ends with a MEH one is left wondering if one can remember any of the film. I have forgotten most of it already and I only watched it yesterday. I looked up some of the Italian-American slang on the internet (there are sites) which was as illuminating as it was hilarious, I do rather suspect the N word was toned down a great deal from what real Italian-Americans like these would have said in the late 60s and early 70s. So not really realism at all. Very mild racial swearing mostly. Some new words on me too, and the hilarious insults the gangstas use - esp 'your sister's C' - had me laughing every time.

An interesting curiosity piece like the Breaking Bad movie spin--off and equally forgettable.

My advice: watch the TV drama series of the Sopranos instead - then you can see some characters younger in this like Junior etc. Maybe enjoy this as you might an extra slice of cake after that main meal - which you do not really want but feel you have to eat because everybody else is.

2 stars

OK so this is a German film - more a TV movie in feel - and instead of any British or American characters speaking English to be subtitled, they speak German. So Joe Louis black American boxer of 1930s speaks fluent German as does a British POW. Very odd in a way but maybe just what US films do all the time the other way round.

What is great about this being German is that you get to see lots of original and well-used archive footage of boxing and the Nazis and WWII which we in the UK have never seen before as these are German newsreels.

Sadly, whenever we get to hear of Max Schmeling it is in the contest of Joe Louis, hero of African-Americans so Max is portrayed as the (white) enemy. Very refreshing to see this German and European angle on it all.

Liked the footage of Crete where Max was sent as a soldier.

Watch right till the end to find out what happened to all the characters.

NO SPOILERS as biography, but Max became very rich as the man in West Germany who supplied Coca-Cola and died in his 100th year. Fab. He also financially supported a destitute Joe Louis in later life.

3.5 stars rounded up

I heard about this on a David Bowie documentary - he loved it as a 12/13 year old in Bromley in 1960/61 and based himself on Anthony Newley in so many ways, copying his accent and style (see the way he introduces THE SNOWMAN from 1982).

This is all very surreal - a prototype TRUMAN SHOW in a way.

And part 4 of 6 is very risque too - I can only assume the pofaced censors were unaware of the double entendre.

Una Stubbs is here and Bernie Winters and a young Geoffrey Palmer in part 1.

I loved it - it only feels dated with some comments and attitudes that our pofaced judgemental feminist puritan metoo age would consider sexist. Maybe 1960 was a more intelligent age! AND of course, the computers shown back then look hilariously dated because NOTHING DATES AS FAST AS A VISION OF THE FUTURE> Watch Westworld (1973) to see that. I could not help a smile when two men ballroom dance and we are informed that dancing should be with people of the opposite sex. Not now, Newley!

Anthony NEwley died in 1999 and seems forgotten BUT cowrote the song FEELING GOOD made famous by Nina Simone and the score of the early 70s US Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film incl the famous IMAGINATION song - I suspect Anthony Newley wrote the lyrics. Multi-talented.

I loved it anyway. More entertaining than most drama on TV now. I see it was on ITV then as there are ad breaks minus the ads - shows how far TV has gone downhill, NO WAY would any TV channel risk something like this now - not terrestrial anyway.

This is a gem. really. 5 stars

Not the first time a Nazi invasion had been imagines - that honour goes to WENT THE DAY WELL from 1942, the much better film, to be honest.

However, one has to admire the 2 students who spent 8 years getting this together, albeit with a plot thin as parachute silk and possibly the worst sound I have heard in any film - ever.

The SILLY remarks, offensive and ignorant, that somehow this film has 'relevance to today' in an age of Brexit shame those who speak such drivel. No Brexit was not Nazi - IN FACT the UNITED EUROPE the Nazis praise is rather like the EU who grew of course from the Franco-German Vichy-Nazi pact. Shameful lies and fake news from Remainiacs fabricating racism when none exists (JUST like the media during the run-up to the Brexit referendum). The EU is the United Europe Hitler dreamed of actually.

I enjoyed this especially some scenes - the social realism when people give their views is rather talky and probably improvised but utterly believable. These days one would expect a more diverse ethnic mix and maybe then anti-semitism from those groups (after all the Grand Mufti and Hitler got on like a house on fie and shared views on the Jews and what to do with them). Though interesting, one SS officer shown here is non-white.

Good to remember too that Hitler and Nazi-ism were both especially popular with women who adored Adolf - something that needs to be flagged as does the connection of the Nazis to the green movement. The views of Himmler are almost identical to modern green activists. Yes, they are. Read them.

A must-see for any film student BUT watch WENT THE DAY WELL first and then FATHERLAND from 1994 and SS_GB miniseries and all the other alternative reality Nazis in Britain stories.

Heard a dreadful review for this on BBC radio 4 from arch Bowie Fan Mark Commode and it's his usual full of it approach (well there's a man who actually states the absurdity that old films were 'made before their could benefit from colourblind casting' Yeah right, so maybe he wanted Idris Elba to play Bowie? Or Miss Lenny Henry? Or Cush Jumbo?)

SO glad I ignored the bad reviews and watched this. Yes, I am a Bowie fan since sealy 80s CHANGES ONE and CHANGES TWO best of compilations. ANd I saw him live 1996. BUT I am no Bowie obsessive so do not feel personally hurt if a film is not like one I would make of him.

Also I am too young to remember Ziggy Stardust - my first Bowie was 1980's Fashion, Ashes to Ashes and Scary Monsters, and prob his best album is Hunky Dory (his 4th - great critic reviews but did not take off). Hence I watch this as a short biopic of that time, not a hagiographic bowing tribute to Bowie.

I enjoyed the story, the character arcs, and the connection with Bowie/;s schizophrenic brother Terry (though I did know he killed himself by throwing himself in front of a train in the mid 80s). I enjoyed all that. And the fantasy sequences - which was tied up with drugs at the time of course. Bowie was addicted for much of the 70s, cocaine and more.

I thought the main actor did well as Bowie - the final performance sections are superb. It is very unfair the way his performance gets trashed by Bowie fans who are so invested in the David myth that no actor could play him to thjeir satisfaction.

Some characters are a bit old perhaps - Tony Visconti (my favourite producer) is the same age as Bowie yet looks around 50 here. I did like the portrayal of Bowie's parents and his back story re mental illness in his mum's family. Good to hear Bromley get a mention too (Bowie's family like many white working class ones fled Brixton when he was 6 for more suburban whiter climes as waves of immigrants moved in).

Some fun parts here. OK it's the a major film but a slight one - and one which I enjoyed.

SO 4 stars.

I think I watched this on TV as a boy BUT I do not think it has been shown since, possibly because of its non-pc language regarding possibly gay German POWs. That is a shame as it is a really decent film.

Original, well-acted and not much dated since 1970. Based on a novel.

4 stars.

I watched this on TV when it first came out. Now watching it again I realise how brilliant it is - the writing, first of all. Then the acting and direction.

All schoolkids should watch this at school too.

Watch till the end to see what happened to some of the 15 men at the Wannsee conference which so casually, politely and legally talked of mass genocide. As always, only a couple brought to justice.

Many escaped it and lived to old age in the 80s - unlike their victims. Remember, only 3% of SS and Gestapo were ever brought to justice.

5 stars. Classic TV. A must-see.

Excellent if a little overlong an wordy film on Eichmann - though it is actually a movie about the law and lawyers really.

Best watched with other films such as Hitler's Circle of Evil or other documentaries like The Nazis - a Warning from History. Or even fiction such as The Boys from Brazil.

4 stars

I really enjoyed this movie - I had never ever heard of Axis Sally and found it fascinating on that level.

We Brits had our own Nazi propaganda broadcaster, William Joyce, Anglo-Irish traitor hanged after the war for treason, known as Lord Haw-Haw, a parody of an upper class Brit, which people here used to listen to during WWII - BUT Brits laughed AT him not WITH him. This film seems to suggest Axis Sally had some Americans and their soldiers on-side.

No idea if that is true BUT remember, the USA was very reluctant to enter the war at all to help Britain and only did when attacked by Japan. Many Americans wanted to stay out of it, including the 'Mothers for America' group who more or less supporters Hitler, as did Joe Kennedy father of JFK and US ambassador to Britain in 1930s who stated 'Britain is finished; we should deal with Hitler'. Yes, really.

This is well made and acted and I enjoyed it. It flips around back and forth from early 40s to the present day a bit too much for my liking. But the final summing up speech by the Al Pacino characters is superb - one of the best I have heard and no doubt taken from the court records.

Yes, it is a courtroom drama at the end - but so what? Plenty to interest an audience before then too though it maybe lays on the poor abused woman act stuff with a trowel. Axis Sally was a traitor for sure BUT an opportunity just wanting a break in showbiz - twas that ambition that was and is dangerous.

The end says what happened to her. Absolutely fascinating, 4 stars.

I watched this when it was on TV, but rewatched it again after reading the excellent Len Deighton novel. I enjoyed it better the second time when I watched it more closely - this drama demands that. It is no action movie.

The atmosphere, decor and design of London in 1941 after the Nazi invasion of 1940 is expertly and exquisitely done, as it is in the novel - the Nazis had detailed plans for what they would do after invading Britain, so the novelist based his London and UK on that.

It's a clever and intricate plot, for of double bluffs and slippery characters - the German actors playing SS chief Kellerman and senior SS officer Huth are superb and spot-on. The character arcs make sense and are tight.

The ending was changed from that in the novel as so often happens in films. Also, our pc age demands main female characters in the middle of the action with agency, so one survives to do that - in the TV drama., The novel is different there., But be grateful for small mercies - they could have done colourblind casting! No doubt in 2021 they would. Absurd.

Watch with the FATHERLAND TV movie maybe (or read the classic novel) and also GENERATION WAR by the same director which is real history fictionalised, not an alternative history, a real history .

Then there is the 1942 British film WENT THE DAY WELL, the first example of an imagined Nazi takeover of Britain, There have been many more 'alternative histories' with the Nazis winning the war - the US-set The Man in the High Castle written 1961 on Netflix recently. The 1964 film IT HAPPENED HERE Is low-budget student film but good nonetheless. Other WHAT IF films include the recent TV series tHE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA.

Some reviews criticise the expressionless main actor - I do not. He has to hide his feelings to negotiate a role as a British policeman in Nazi London, suspected by both dies, so that acting is perfect as is that of others - though the character of Harry Woods is way too old here really - he is younger in the book, fat and mid-late 40s maybe. Not 70 as James Cosmo., Coppers retire aged 50, remember. Miscast there maybe.

Fascinating and watchable - but attention needed by the audience to understand the plot.

4.5 stars rounded up

I was going to give this utter tosh 1 star but decided for 1.5 rounded up, simply because it reaches Sharknado-levels of badness. It is so awful in places.

The acting is so wooden on occasion it could be made into a table and chairs - but it seems the director got his mum and other family members parts in it, so that may be te reason. The crony casting does not stop there either. The elf is the son of the film studio doctor, for example.

The plot is so full of holes it could be a sieve - the little girl saying she saw something she cold not possibly have seen, just one example. But one suspects the makers really do not care! Some random Japanese stuff chucked in. Some nonsense re a magnet. I'd love to see the back of a cigarette (or vegan vitamin pill) packet where the original script idea was written!

Utter nonsense from start to finish with some bad songs in musical interludes.

Very odd and the green issues shoe-horned in the final act are toe-curlingly greenie-weenie bandwagon bad.

Occasionally fun and so bad it ls good, in an Ed Wood or Sharknado sot of way.