Film Reviews by PV

This late 80s film is very dated but was when it was released too - compare to Back to the Future which was made a couple of years earlier. This is like a 70s movie with 80s mullet hairstyles! It';s simple incredible plot reminds me of a Star Trek episode from the late 60s or even Twilight Zone from 1950s,

Having said that, the central concept is great and well done in most part - pre-CGI effects work just fine too. The sunglasses 'reveal' moments of the characters in the early 2nd act work well, as sci-fi and satire on our consumerist society.

Nor so effective is a ludicrous rehearsed fight scene which drags on so long I actually started laughing during it. Then there are all the plot holes - eg the supposedly advanced aliens with superior intelligence who have a transmission station which is so vulnerable.

This is a B-Movie. Take it for one, and you'll be happy; expect more and you'll feel cheated.

And I still think the best thing John Carpenter ever created was the Halloween soundtrack.

3 stars - just

OK so I dislike historical novels usually - I find them a real cheat, to be honest. Authors of such tomes spent 6 months or more researching, then the next few months writing it up. They do not invent new characters or stories as authors of completely original novels do. Having said that, the familiarity makes them popular as do many socalled 'real life' stories. It's pre-branded content - we've all heard of King Alfred and the Vikings, after all.

Having said that, this series is watchable - though I know from my knowledge of history it plays fast and loose with the historical fact (watch Neil Oliver's brilliant 3 part VIKINGS TV documentary from BBC4 for background). Canute was actually king of all England in the early years of 11th C.

The main issue with this series is trying to remember what happened many months ago when I watched the previous series - it's all so complicated with so many characters and tribes/clans of kingdoms or Vikings, with switching allegiances, that sometimes I just it wash over me, and for the confusion to pass...

It';s not up to the sheer brazen class of the TV series VIKINGS but it's watchable. Does drag a bit at times and can be baffling at other times, especially when actors who look similar play roles!

The usual pc tropes with ' strong independent women behaving like men' as with most TV drama now - very 21st C attitudes and behaviours, and they all have clear skin and regular teeth which is pure fantasy. BUT we should be grateful for small mercies - at least now clunky colourblind casting here thank goodness. If there had been, I would have ejected the DVD. Vikings were not black; Zulus were not white. What's called a FACT really.

This historical drama could go on forever through the decades of the 10th then 11th Century AD, but maybe it shouldn't.

Anyway, 3.5 stars rounded up.

This drama is based on historical novels and a lot owes more to fiction than fact.

It's also hard to follow sometimes with the vast cast of characters and convoluted plot - it is fatal to leave months between series or you may be baffled!

I'd recommend watching VIKINGS TV doc by Neil Oliver first for historical background.

Not bad though, but I prefer VIKINGS.

(I think Weby may be the director as there is just one review - for this, the Last Kingdom).

I thoroughly enjoyed series 1 of this and series 2 as well. This, however, is where the series declines.

It is almost 2 series in one. The first half is better, set in Florence, a beautiful city I know well and have visited 3 times, so I sightsee as I watch! Of course, this has already been covered in the movie Hannibal (2001) and there is thus a strange overlap.

In the movie, Pazzi ends his days at the old town hall - in this, the building is not that. The Pazzi police inspector is allegedly a descendant of the real family annihilated by the Medici after a late 15th plot, though the Pazzi chapel is still by Santa Croce, the black and white shed-like church where Michaelangelo has his tomb and overlooked by Hannibal's apartment in this series). No idea which is loyal to the novel. But this half is fun with the usual deceptions and grand guignol.

tbh Anthony Hopkins in the movie Hannibal was better, more dangerous and threatening, with evil and malice. Mads Mikkelson's Hannibal is all dandy charm. A great cook though!

The second half tried my patience. It reverts to the Red Dragon book and movie, and rewrites it. No idea again which is loyal to the books. I found this half really weak, silly and actually dull and boring - which is quite an achievement when one is dealing with gruesome serial killers. It plays psychological games - as it has to, as Hannibal is otherwise engaged so cannot kill himself - much... All about mind control. And the bit with the blind woman of colour and a tiger...I mean, why? Yes yes blake wrote a poem called The Tyger, but...

The final part made me wince - it is actually very silly. JUMPS THE SHARK - esp in the final episode. No spoilers but I just do not buy it AND again, it is different from the films. There is an epilogue at the end of the final episode too so watch the credits - it's a taster for series 4 which was planned but never happened. Falling ratings for series 3 meant the TV company cancelled it. I am not surprised looking at this.

Having said that, GREAT acting as ever from everyone; very clever decent brooding dialogue too, esp how the writers incorporate lines from the movies into what various characters say (eg 'tick tock'... and many more)., Great attention to detail in all series of this and I love the advert-like interludes too.

Very bizarre how they all pronounce Jac-OH-bi though. Derek JAC-obi will be baffled.

So 3.5 stars rounded up. Enjoy series 1 and 2 especially, and the great movies.

I really enjoyed this. True, when one has seen The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and Red Dragon it takes some adjustment to the new characters esp Hannibal Lecter, the devil or Mephistopheles figure, played in movies by Brian Cox then Oscar-winning Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins.

But Mads Mikkelson is a class act as an actor (see THE HUNT a great Danish film) and so we are in safe hands - he plays Hannibal as a Dandy, and does so to perfection. The food prep and shots are wonderful, filmed by a TV advert guy.

Other actors and great and the ingeniously gory and gruesome murders.

Filmed in Toronto. A great cast, superb writing with a dark brooding tone, lost of flashbacks and dream sequences. Atmospheric creepy music in the soundtrack tooo. Proper adult drama - but just a shame re the very puritan coy US TV restrictions on human nakedness which sometimes makes things absurd.

I loved it. 5 stars.

I enjoyed series 1 of this enormously and series 2 continues, with really elegant episodes and brooding characters engaged in psychological warfare.

New characters like Mason Verger tie in with the movie HANNIBAL with the pigs etc.

Not sure about Beverly Katz - such a Jewish name and in the book the character is Jewish, but here a Chinese/Oriental actress is cast. Nothing against her, but the name is a mismatch!

Of course, one has to suspend one's disbelief - any mass murderer like this arranging body parts would be caught by DNA despite precaations, CCTV of all shops and houses nearby, satellite tracking, NPR and passers-by. But hey ho, this is all fantasy.

Watch to the VERY end of episode 13 to see how it continues AFTER the credits. The 3 short featurettes on the last DVD are fine, but on disc 2 there is one over an hour long which is superb.

I really enjoy this series. Maybe because it is elegant, intelligent and classy - like me! lol

I had no idea what to expect of this BUT have long admired Mads Mikkelsen as an actor (eg The Hunt) so know he would nail it, and he does, with other characters. He plays Hannibal Lecter as a dandy, and the cooking skills are admirable! References to future films of The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and Red Dragon make me want to watch them again, esp the latter.

The story is complex and all very moody in tone, with the sort of long pauses and time taken for emotions to register which may try the patience of youngsters with short attention spans. This then is really not for those with puppy brains.

However, I revelled in the psychological complexity here, the mind games, though of course suspension of disbelief is needed - in reality DNA, CCTV, and NPR would catch a killer pretty quickly.

This is highly enjoyable 'grand guignol' drama - to the reviewer who called it 'icky', OH PURLEASE? It;s Hannibal Lecter. So what were you expecting then? Unicorns, rainbows and group hugs with teletubbies?

Loved it. 3 series apparently all filmed in Toronto. Then TV company cancelled it because of lower ratings. Maybe not a bad thing - some of these US box set series go on way too long.

Loving it for now! 5 stars.

I hated this and have NO idea how anyone can give it 4 or 5 stars.

To be honest, I have hated all Wes Anderson movies I have seen. I have no idea what people see in them. They are dreadful! I just do not get it.

I turned this off half way through. It's a weird and boring Japanese-set animation - not pretty at all. No fun. Not profound though no doubt it thinks it is. Maybe inspired by Japanese Manga animation and comics which hold NO interest for me.

One star, if that.

There are so many lovely animal animations out there. Watch the original 101 DALMATIANS if you like dogs, Not this barking twaddle.

This could have been good. It could have been accurate. It could have focused on HIV/AIDS in the 80s as many remember it.

Instead it chooses, like most UK TV drama now, to go full woke. SO it's all about race here with a diverse multiculti cast which is simply NOT realistic for 1981 - or now, with very few black/Asian out gay men.

Worse, but typical of TV drama now, every single white male - straight white males - is presented as a thick ignorant buffoon at best, and quite often as nasty, evil, bigoted monsters. SO that racism and sexism is OK then? It is pure bigotry - unpleasant, unnecessary and deeply hypocritical (because the drama purports to want tolerance and no racism/sexism and prejudice against people because of their sexuality). This modern trend is vile yet present in so much TV drama, many movies and sadly too many books including children's books. It really is vile.

The lazy Welsh stereotypes irked too. Yes, because in the 1980s all Welsh people were ignorant bumpkins who lived on eating faggots and peas and Welsh cakes. For goodness sake. Watch the movie 'Pride' so see how it should be done - though that falls back on lazy valleys stereotypes.

It's all very cartoony and shriek-y and drama school flamboyant (believe it or not there are many gay men who do not behave like this). That's fine, as it goes, but I find it increasingly tiresome - like watching a local stage school musical with all those keen moisturised young faces yell-scream-singing at you, in the business of SHOW.

There's a great TV drama to be made about the 1980s HIV/AIDS issue and the life of gay men then. This is not it.

Two stars because it is 'good in parts'. In fact one and a half stars rounded up. The ever-irritating Stephen Fry loses another half point.

I enjoyed this film, and found it interesting - it is rare to see Afrikaans characters in movies, other than cartoon baddies in so many films about the Apartheid years of South Africa - the richest country in Africa arguably specifically because that system ran it well and meant the country avoided communism and tribal wars and corruption of so many basket case African countries.

I found the extras fascinating - so watch those on the DVD. The boot camp preparation for these actors looks painful!

I generally enjoyed the story, which was well cast and well acted. Whether the gay love story strand is believable or not is another matter, though the film is based on autobiographical books.

Many of the characters certainly ring true to any tale of army life.

So 4 stars. And good to watch this with the documentary 'Searching for Sugarman' about a US singer huge in South Africa at this time, who then vanished into obscurity, as the main theme song is a cover of his biggest hit I WONDER.

OK so one thing about these BETTER CALL SAUL series - so many months pass between me watching them that I've forgotten who is who and what happened, so sometimes get lost in the labyrinthine plots and time frames, and confuse characters.

It may help to watch the lot close together therefore - Breaking Bad then this - in as short a time period as possible. I did struggle to understand what was happening at times. But if you let it all wash over you and enjoy the ride, then it's fine...

Not as great as the sublime Breaking Bad, especially the early series of that, but good to see old faces again. No way can anyone compete with Bryan Cranston though! Good to see Fring again.

As with Breaking Bad, some lovely original opening sequences and mucho fun in the scorching desert. And there is the usual drug cartel ultra violence and piles of money too.

Seems to end a tad prematurely - I sort of expected more from this series. Apparently there'll be another. We'll see...

Well what to say? Some older jobless teens apparently who left school with no qualifications get together in the south of France to sit around looking arty and angsty and serious while in some sort of writers' workshop where they intend to write a novel. Ho hum.

I was quite surprised that the debate was so free and open and applaud the French for that - far better than pc woke Britain where at least 3 students would be expelled from this class for what they say (and the teacher) and maybe arrested by the pc gestapo for 'hate crime' 'being offensive' or causing 'hurty feelings'.

And the supposed extreme right extremism plot strand is absurd as what the alleged extremist said (a country being able to secure its borders, prevent illegal immigration and terrorism) seems eminently sensible, surely?

It all looks pretty in the south of France. So one star for the scenery. The other for the acting. No stars for the non-story and the absurd third act.

Honestly, how do films like this even get made? I smell EU funding. Or some bloated pretentious pompous arts body.

Want to watch a film satirising writing workshops then there are others - better ones. Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger ( I think) and one called The Retreat maybe, and campus comedies about absurd creative writing courses.

I really enjoyed this Aussie movie. It's a farcical OTT comedy horror - like a comic version of Wolf Creek or Wrong Turn.

Some original and laugh-out-loud moments. The Brit trippy traveller fake hippy is hilarious. No spoilers but loads of fun had with that. Horrific trippy fun.

The only thing I though misfired was the more sexual element introduced, no doubt for shock value. Not even sure one female character is needed in that third act. Not a really believable plot or character arc but so what?

But a really good fun popcorn movie. Grand Guignol comedy horror and really great fun.

4 stars.

Well this is probably the first Nepali film i have watched and may well be the last.

It's so-so, very slow-moving and sometimes confusing. Some cliched sequences too.

But it ticks the world cinema boxes. Stunning mountain scenery.

I do not know much about Nepal BUT I did know about Maoist rebels (remember Chairman Mao killed over 30 million people) and the caste system (which the British in India tried to end but couldn't). The caste discrimination is endemic throughout India of course, yet accepted.

OK so I was not sure what to expect from this.

To be fair, it is no more unbelievable that other dramas base don supposed truth, like US drama The Americans - it is drama not documentary, after all.

I suspect I am the wrong demographic for this, (teenage boys and those who like action movies are), though I thought The Sopranos and esp Breaking Bad were sublime - premier league stuff. This is occasionally interesting and entertaining, though sometimes clunky, with cartoon characters and shoot-em-up nasty violence which no doubt aims to shock (though so extreme is it that it isn't really credible).

However, like so much UK drama it is painfully slow in parts - reminds me of Hinterland, the Welsh TV drama with all those shots of people staring into the middle distance and thinking, for ages, looking all profound. Oddly that is counterbalanced here with very violent scenes and stylised violence which will no doubt appeal to kids and esp the south-east Asian market (so no surprise that the director specialised in martial arts films and lives in south-east Asia). I think perhaps SPOOKS is the only UK crime drama that doe snot do this and is fast-paced and snappy throughout.

A shame I thought that no native English gangsters were shown - there have been plenty, the Krays and the Richardson gang still going as are others. It;s no all ethnic gangs - and maybe they strived to tick too many diversity boxes here.

Annoyingly, as in many dramas and movies, a lot of characters look alike too which makes a sometimes confusing plot even more confusing.

Ho hum, Meh for me. Not dreadful, but unsure if I shall bother with series 2. Maybe I shall rewatch Breacking Bad or The Sopranos instead.