Film Reviews by PV

I had low expectations of this, especially when the graffiti credits started the film to a rap soundtrack! However, the script is so obviously well-written by an excellent writer (Al Wilson) and the main character's development and lines so believable, that I was won over. The performances of all the teenagers, some playing their age and some playing down, are also authentic and spot-on.

The extras here are worth watching esp the half hour film on THE MAKING OF - the director Julian Richards is interviewed as are all cast - Including Kevin Howarth who plays the mysterious and erratic 'disheveled drifter' the kids encounter in the woods. His Sheffield/South Yorkshire accent as the character is bang-on despite it not being his own. That accent makes the stranger even more strange. What precisely is he doing in some woods in Wales? On the run? Escaped? Just homeless?

I was surprised this script started as a film screenplay and not as a theatre play - though I suspect the writer comes from that background. The moody mercurial disturbed person who can switch from nice to nasty and back again in the blink of an eye is rather a staple of drama in theatres.

But no matter, the dialogue is spot-on and there is NO flab at all on this film! Which is always nice to see,. Why its running time is just over an hour.

There is real menace here in the main character, and humour aplenty too, and the teenager characters are believable. No doubt these days, a disabled kid would have to play the disabled kid character - yet more absurd 'authentic casting'. I do so wish they'd all try acting. This is NOT progress. I dread to think what this would look like if the box-ticking BBC made it as a drama now (and BAFTA has its race/gender diversity quotas now too...)

As ever, Darren Evans - here 17 playing down in age - excels as an actor (see him as Baz the junkie in A StreetCat Named Bob and many a Welsh-made film).

This is a true British film and I liked the twist ending (no spoilers). No state funding that I can see (lottery and BFI funded films do not tend to be was watchable and entertaining as this).

It's nice to get really contemporary technology into films - though one wonders how playwrights and screenwriters of a former age would have coped with the existence of mobile phones or smart phones, where everyone can inform everyone else of everything instantly! A teeny-weeny plot hole may exist in this film because of that, but not so much as to spoil it.

4 stars. Recommended.

This film is SO long - over 2 and a half hours, At least half an hour of flab could be cut in minutes, and maybe a whole hour. Some dreadful irrelevant scenes (like the one featured on the DVD cover should have ended up on the cutting room floor. Pointless nonsense and it seems the director getting a performance artist he liked into his film maybe? Other scenes are flab too - some relationship scenes are yawnsome. CUT CUT CUT.

The question ALWAYS to ask when making a film/novel/story is this "does this scene/chapter/sequence advance the plot, story or characters". If not, KILL YOUR DARLINGS. Self-indulgent films like this irritate and bore.

This could have been good - a satire on a modern art world which is so pretentious and arty it has lost all self-awareness or connection to artistic talent (and I have been to modern art galleries all over Europe where neon lights, videos and piles of sand are considered valuable art). Cut the flab or ignore it, and some scenes shine.

Maybe the best film on the pretentions of the art world is THE REBEL (1961) starring Tony Hancock. Never bettered.

Claes Bangs is bang on as usual. And the satire of other arty characters is fun.

I was less convinced by the slum flats/angry boy storyline - I suspect a directorial need for some clunky symbolism.

Should this have won awards? No. But then Cannes gives the Palm D'Or to some real Euro-turkeys.

Not bad but you need patience to watch it. 2.5 stars rounded up.

I enjoyed this. Like all Icelandic films I have seen (all 3 of them maybe) it is off-beat and quirky. OF HORSES AND MEN (2013) sticks in the memory.

I had feared this would be some sort of preachy angry man-bashing feminist lecture of a movie. It isn't.

Instead, this is an interesting, entertaining and well-plotted story told well. Some Hollywood tricks are used to keep the viewer on their toes - the whole reason a cardboard cutout 2-D character (on a bike) even features at all (no spoilers).

I was prepared to suspend my disbelief with both this and the ending because the story is developed well and the main character is believable and sympathetic, however misguided.

4 stars

OK so this movie is aimed at a teen demographic, which is not me! And so it contains the usual text/email features we see more and more now, plus a fixation with dating, image and all the soapy tropes we see on TV drama daily.

Personally, I think gay coming out movies such as Beautiful Thing (1996) or even TV's Two of U (1989?) do it better.

Plus this is VERY American high school and cheesy as heck. That always makes me cringe! BUT those used to watching the OC etc will be on familiar ground here.

Stereotypes abound too - Simon's father in particular, and his parents would surely be tech-savvy as US professionals in their 40s? And the older male high school teacher is such a cliche too. As if the director wants to portray older white males as the bigots of the world! No more bigoted than anyone else in my experience on any issue, and way less bigoted than certain demographics...

Some funny scenes and lines - but ultimately pretty predictable and forgettable.

The plots gives it structure though is SO unbelievable (and race issues complicate things), and some absurd fairground scenes may appeal to some, but not me. The whole story is utterly unbelievable actually though I sympathise with film-makers and screenwriters trying to make such things cinematic. The great god of jeopardy makes it so.

Anyway, it's moderately entertaining so 3 stars.

I suspect the gushing praise this film has received is more for its politics and message than anything else.

I almost gave this 2 stars as it is sometimes so bad - but settled on 2.5 stars rounded up to 3. JUST.

The problems are many: firstly, some roles are miscast, esp posh boy model Jamie Campbell Bower as King Arthur which I never believed; the female characters look so similar too, esp Morgan and Igrese; the whole thing is like a Mills and Boon cheap romance at times; but then it is also like a children's TV drama shown at 5pm Saturdays - which it could be, were it not for the gratuitous shots of buttocks and breasts throughout; the soundtrack is overbearing and adds nothing.

I see it is from STARZ and not Netflix/Amazon, and the quality is thus low, despite the best efforts of Joseph Fiennes who is a convincing Merlin.

It is worse than THE LAST KINGDOM but not as bad as BRITANNIA maybe.

It is nowhere near the league of the brilliant VIKINGS which Michael Hirst who co-created/produced/wrote this went on to make, or TUDORS which he did before this.

It plays fats and loose with the ancient British King Arthur legend, but as it;'s semi-mythical, I suppose it's not fixed and can be tampered with. That is not the problem.

I think one issue is that longterm BBC writer Chris Chibnall is involved - SO we have the usual BBC pc TV drama tropes - lots of 'strong independent' characters talking like girlpower mouthpieces, plus the usual ethic representations though fortunately this was made before the nonsense of colourblind casting.

Chibnall is responsible for turning Dr Who into the pc woke mess it is now, and the same achingly preachy pc lectures are here too., Some episodes are so bad I almost turned off (3) and I'd award them 2 or 1 star.

They obviously intended to have a second series, but the reviews and ratings were probably too bad for it. For that, at least, we should be grateful.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

OK so this is based on a French sci-fi novel apparently so the Korean director is not solely to blame.

But it is truly awful - so bad I ejected the DVD after 40 minutes and I rarely do that, ever with dross.

I knew it would not improve and could predict the glib, trite, tedious, predictable message of class war layered onto everything with a massive trowel.

How anyone can give this B-movie tripe 5 stars is beyond me. Must have very low standards or a penchant for steampunk scifi or maybe reviewers are just trying to look cool by giving a Korean director 5 stars eh?

Either way, I do not care and am so glad I gave up on this cinematic disaster - though I am never getting those 40 minutes of my life back.

1 star. Or less...

This is yet another superb TV drama from Netflix, which highlights just haw mediocre terrestrial TV drama by the BBC and ITV is, with its endless woke preachiness.

Here we have a superb drama all about Pablo Escobar drug lord of the 1980s cartel which more or less ran Colombia. The actor portraying him nails it utterly as do all others.

The writing is brilliant, the pace, the plot points. I loved the way some was in Spanish - and this drama may even be watched by the sort of person who usually refuses to watch movies with subtitles.

The inclusion of real news footage of the time was a stroke of genius too.

Music is brilliant, esp the theme tune - a Spanish love song lasting 90 seconds only, which I now cannot get out of my head.

I cannot wait for series 2. BRILLIANT. 5 stars. In the same top league as Breaking Bad and The Americans.,

I enjoyed this film. And I adored the absolutely cracking soundtrack - both original score and songs used. That lifts it above most movies for a start.

I am not usually a fan of sci-fi, especially more tricksy, slow post-modern sci-fi movies. I hated MOON - and this film is written and directed by the main actor in that.

However, this film won me over - because it has intelligence and depth. It is not just a CGI-fest though the CGI is impressive, and the landscapes (filmed in Hungary or CGI) are superb and beautiful. The robots give a nod to both METROPOLIS and I though early 1970s film SILENT RUNNING which influenced Pixar's robot sci-fi film WALL-E. The question of what is human and can a robot have feelings predominate.

The unflagged used of flashbacks can confuse a bit though - so you have to pay attention as the timeframe flips back and forth.

Another reviewer says he did not see the plot twist coming - well, I did.. No spoilers but this sort of thing is not new and has been done a lot before in sci-fi films.

The focus is on identity and what it is to be human - an updated version of Frankenstein (the book) maybe? Toby Jones has a bit part but nails it as per usual.

4 stars

This film is not bad, and stars the wonderful Mads Mikkelsen who is one of those actors (like Anthony Hopkins) I can watch in anything, even bad films. A great film like 'The Hunt' shows Mads' substantial acting talent off as does the TV series of Hannibal. Not this.

This is basically a Danish attempt at an action movie, with a thriller in the world of high finance.

I found it a tad confusing at times, so rewind function may be useful. Unrealistic events but that is fine - it is fiction, after all, and aimed at being high-octane action movie.

It sort of all works though but, as I state, it is forgettable. I have almost forgotten in 12 hours after watching it! It's one of those. Meh.

3 stars

I remember watching this as a boy, and so thought I'd rent it out again - and I now realise I probably missed a lot of episodes.

There are 2 series set in 1981 and 1982, in East London and Docklands, just before it was developed (The Long Good Friday also set in the same pre-Canary-Wharf days).

The writing is strong and authentic here; the characters believable. Some may be offended by the racial language - however, it was authentic to the time and the characters and arguably better and refreshing compared to the woke po-faced puritanism and censorship of now.

David Yip stars as John Ho, the first ethnic Chinese character in a TV drama (and not many now either!). I warmed to his character's humour, though was a bit confused at the claim his parents are from mainland China when the language is Cantonese from Hong Kong., Oh well... There are also many episodes which features black characters and Jamaican clubs etc, as well as Britain villains from Liverpool. Scotland etc. I liked that diversity.

As is usual with such series, actors who later became famous show up in these episodes - Anna Wing and Bill Treacher here, and more., I always like that.

Series 1 (first 8 episodes) and 2 (second 8) are different in character - the later episodes have some really cracking script-writing,. Both have really memorable episodes. Others are weaker - but they are in all TV drama series.

You can smell the Chinese food with the cigarette smoke from the estate pubs and the sweet stench of corruption from the police here - and I loved it. Good music too. A shame David Yip has been so absent from the screen since then really.

4.5 stars. So glad I rented it again. Though probably youngsters will not get it or like it as I do, and may well gasp at some of the racial language! They need to calm down, and appreciate the context and authenticity of character here.

I really enjoyed this film. Some great acting by George Mackay and Nicholas Hoult, and a fascinating story.

Yes, it's full of swearing, esp the C words, and I am not sure if the folk songs are new or of the time; however, either way, I think all the swearing makes it authentic.

The only reason this is not 5 stars is some bits which drag, and the 'punk song' element which I think was trying to be Peaky Blinders, using a modern soundtrack for stories set a century or more ago.

4 stars

This is apparently adapted from a graphic novel - I never read these so I have no idea if this was a best seller or not.

Anyway, this is what I call a 'little film' - a little British film. Not very cinematic, more suited to TV maybe, very domestic, gentle, domestic.

I enjoyed it as a quirky funny comedy - not one to guffaw at, but just to smile wryly. Some of the teenage lines are great, as are the mother's reaction. The actor playing the 15 year old, Earl Cave, is 18+ here, and arguably looks it. Ever so slightly stereotyped and the scenario with the kids' band and the teacher played by Rob Bryden do not ring true. More cartoon character drama - well it is from a graphic novel.

But hey, a gentle watch. I enjoyed it for what it was. 3 stars. Just.

This film starts slowly - but stay with it. Because it slowly grows into an exquisitely corrupt and violent, almost Shakespearean, family vendetta drama set over 5 days in the resort of Ostia near Rome (the old port Ostia Antica is 2 miles inland and can be visited easily - more compact than Pompeii but similar, with snack bar, bath house, brothel etc excavated).

Particularly good and authentic is the gypsy mafia Rome family - UK TV would probably not allow such a depiction of an 'ethnic minority'; however, having sat on a train from the airport to Rome city centre with just such a family, I can say the depiction is spot on! The boss is particularly repulsive and amoral; but not in a pantomime villain way - these are real 3d characters.

As with all in Italy, the rich, powerful Catholic church is involved as are politicians - it';s the way Italy operates. And the EU perhaps.

The music is superb too. There are some loose ends not tied up or clear, and a tad confusing, and the start is rather slow - too much so, hence 4 stars not 5.

I am surprised I liked this so much as the director also did Gomorrah which I did not like much and I hated the TV series and watched just 2 episodes.

But this, I would watch again - it is that good. No spoilers but the third act is worth waiting for.

A new sort of mafia movie - tawdry, corrupt, 21st century. I loved it!

This Danish film was funny in parts - gross-out sometimes, but then look at Hollywood teen movies. This had some really funny bits and is not po-faced like US movies, so I am glad I watched it.

Not sure about the impro style though - common in Denmark. And totally unrealistic and unbelievable.

I enjoyed the jokes which would never get past censors in the UK or US, with the po-faced puritan hysteria of now. Jokes about rape/sexual assault banned now in US/UK.

Still, a Danish oddity. And mercifully short. Cartoon character stuff but fun and funny moments. The satire of privilege people male and female is fun.

The kids is cute - there is a sequel too. I suspect this is from a Danish TV show or a well-known comedian, though new to me.

3 stars.

Written and directed by adopted Aussie leftie Ben Elton, so no surprise top hear his preachy voice in the mouths of some characters - that is the weak point of this occasionally woke leftie lecture on how wondrous all immigrants are and how Australia belongs to Aborigines (who were immigrants there 40,000 years ago of course).

One wonders if people knew about the real history they would honour the elders at the end of the film credits - they killed disabled and mixed race babies, for one thing. Romanticisng pre-colonial cultures is actually as racist as demonising them.

BUT some things here are funny. The film is really a series of sketches stapled together and some are great - I especially l;iked the community radio DJ Queenie (Magda Szubanski who should have had an Oscar nomination imho) and her woke pc extremist feminist campaigner folk singer singing classic Aussie folk songs with new woke pc gender neutral words. GREAT! Ben Elton shows that he in fact thinks woke metoo gender-fluid transmadness femitwerpery is as absurd of most of us do.

Best just enjoy the sketches which can be funny, and Ignore the silly slushy romantic plot - as thin as a Rizla. Though I always enjoy hearing a Theremin!

The clunky subplot of cartoon character 2D bigot Aussie child migrant if compared to a non-white asylum seeker boy in a MASSIVE way OVER AND OVER AGAIN just in case you did not see the link and pro-immigration political point being made. Preachy pc lecture.

A little twee film best watched to enjoy the occasional funny sketches.

2 stars