Film Reviews by PV

The concept of this film may sound unexciting - a train travels across British India rescuing a royal boy. How can that be exciting, you may think? Well, watch this and film out.

It is almost a big British Western, actually, and the British director J. Lee Thompson (a wrongly forgotten director) whose film before this was the classic ICE COLD IN ALEX went to Hollywood after NORTH-WEST FRONTIER to direct so many classic movies. Before he went he directed TIGER BAY. I Hollywood he directed GUNS OF NAVARONE, CAPE FEAR, TARAS BULBA, MACKENNA'S GOLD before, perhaps, declining in 1970s and 80s to direct PLANET OF THE APES/DEATHWISH sequels. Probably the best British action director though.

Filmed in Granada (southern Spain) but looks like the north-west frontier and India to me (more perhaps than Snowdonia in Wales used in CARRY ON UP THE KHYBER) and some beautiful shots. Wonderful acting from a superb cast, all the actors British/American and Indian, and perfect pitch, structure, narrative progression, dramatic tension. In a word: PERFECTION.

I get tired of people giving trigger warnings to such films, as they 'reflect the attitudes of their time' - just because it's set in the British Raj and there is a (rather great and well played) Indian traindriver character (the pofaced woke seem to think anyone of colour playing a comic character which may have some caricature is racist. I S JOHAR was a great Indian actor appearing in so many Hindi films and starred in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA too. He was from what is now Pakistan and witnessed and entire Hindu settlement burnt down by a mob of Muslims in his youth, SO 100% Total authentic casting with bells on then!!!

Odd really, as they never complain at all the massive stereotypes and caricatures of white British people, as here in part, with the pompous British officer at the base). AND this film and MANY more are critical of the empire - Brits are always very self-critical and, as it says here, support the underdog (can you IMAGINE China of now ever even criticising their new unofficial empire on anything - ever?) Anyway, I ignore the ignorance of the perpetually offended.

This is set in the north-west frontier, and features Muslims trying to overthrow a Hindu Maharajarh. Set in 1905. Well this location is now Pakistan and a million died in ethno-faith violence from the same root. So that went well. The British did not do that... One of the first lines in the film is indeed 'ALLAH UH AKBAR' as the Islamist hordes attack the palace and chase the Brits who are helping the royal Hindu prince to flee.

In fact, the British empire was more than anything else an IDEA, and it was and remains the most benevolent empire in history (compare to Arab empires, Asian ones, barbaric Benin empire, Nazis, USSR et al).

Anyway, the cast is sublime with the brilliant Herbert Lom The Ladykillers, - born in Prague who came to escape the Nazis (oh that awful British empire eh?). GREAT actor - I can watch him in anything. He died in 2012 age 95 in London but 10 years earlier gave his final performance in Midsomer Murders! His career had started in 1930s in Czechoslovakia. He often played foreign roles, including being the first actor to play the King of Siam on stage - Yul Brynner took over from him to make the role in The King and I his own.

I sort of expected this to be from a class Victorian/Edwardian novel, esp as it is set in 1905. But no, original screenplay. SO well-written, great lines, tension itching with the heat throughout. I last watched this film on TV many years ago. I am SO glad I watched it again. Shows how awful so many modern movies are, to be honest.

One of the best films ever made. 5 stars with steam train whistles too!

I loved this. Great locations; wonderful characters; superb twisty script; great cast; brilliant direction and sets - especially a wonderful manhouse scene at an amusement park.

I do not usually like 'noir', but this is way more than the usual sort of film.

OK so I see the writer/director Andrew Legge made a film in 2013 about a 'mechanical maiden' - a machine invented by a widowed husband to help care for his baby daughter. That Sci-fi interest in mad inventors continues here, but with 2 female faces.

The use of old film footage here is really brilliant and so well done. It was so impressive and fascinating to watch. I am not usually a big scifi fan, but this goes beyond that.

If only the producers (and the film is part-funded by Arts Council Wales/FilmCymruWales) had cared as much about the English language!

This is set in 1938 in Britain, and the early 40s. And yet, the language used - even by British army officers - is pure American. For example, Brits say PARDON? not EXCUSE ME? or did back then (some BritKids now seem to speak Americanese). No-one back then said BRING IT ON. And Brits then and now do NOT say "Ayyy-dolf" Hitler. Brits say "Addd-olf". Sloppy and careless lack of attention to detail in the script. That really niggles. Maybe the writer/director can hire a literate script consultant next time?

Tbh the two female characters are so overblown I struggled to believe they were women from 1938. More like Girlpower ladettes straight out of 1997 London.

Anyway, I love Timeslip dramas and this follows the template of most which is that changing events in time can have disastrous consequences - always fun to watch! THE TIME MACHINE (best version of 1960) or LOOPER or even BACK TO THE FUTURE and most timeslip dramas tread the same path. As to speculative fiction with Nazis, well, where to start: FATHERLAND (1994), SS-GB TV drama, so many more.

Neil Hannon from The Divine Comedy does the new songs here, and he is always class. Well done to the film-makers for getting so many music clearances too, esp Bowie, The Kinks (and I bet the Beatles and Stones rights were way too expensive!)

I could sort-of predict a lot - but then, I have watched and read an awful lot of timeslip films and speculative fiction featuring Nazis! So most probably would not.

I won't be too harsh. This is a decent film, esp for a time-slip fan like me. 4 stars

I loved this. Of course, with its so-called national stereotypes it would never be made now BUT the white British army officers and working class businessman are NO less stereotyped than any Chinese characters.

Lots of fun stuff about precognition/premonition and superstition, beliefs, cultures etc. and the difference between the West and East. Really great to see Hong Kong again, before the Chinese 'invasion' after 1999. Sad to see it happen.

The scenes on the aeroplane, whether the dream at the start or the real events later (which I could sort of predict) are genuinely nail-bitingly tense. Compare to the airline section of 1980s movie THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

Made me giggle when the hungover passengers were trying to get a hit of oxygen to ease their headaches and pain! Probably illegal now. Anyway, the lack of oxygen on the plane is because there is no need for it for an aircraft that does not go over 10,000 feet - a crucial part of the plot later (NO SPOILERS)

A superb cast including a very young and plummy Denholm Elliot (watch him over 30 years later in ROOM WITH A VIEW)

4 stars, almost 5. A great solid old-fashioned British film that some will hate and sneer down at - but I loved it! A hidden gem.

The credits say written and directed by Carol Morley BUT it is Martin Amis who should take the credit mostly as this is based on one of his lesser-known novels Night Train (1997) which is a comedic parody of American detective novels. Not many viewers will know that; many will not know who Martin Amis is...

Unlike SO many films and dramas these days which parachute female characters into the plot then shoehorn them into the main roles (sorry for the mixed metaphor) the female detective here seems believable. The reference to drink works too - Martin Amis was the son of notorious drinker novelist of Lucky Jim, Kingsley Amis who even wrote a book called ON DRINK. I though the alcoholism aspect here was done well.

I can see why many find the ending unsatisfying (NO SPOILERS) and I was initially too, but then was not because we all know the plot trajectory and arrest a-coming.

I did grow tired of all the quantum physics and astronomy stuff, to be honest, though the space-y end credits are really so original - they're great!

Some great music incl the final track by THE CHURCH and also the Brenda Lee version of 1938 song I'LL BE SEEING YOU - it reminded me how Liberace's version of that song plays over the last scene of the Stephen King novel stalker 1990 film MISERY which ALSO features actor James Caan - 28 years later he plays a main character here. Now there's a future quiz question!

Great cast incl Brit Toby Jones playing a barely believable character, but...it is a fictional film so...

Be warned, those who expect fast-paced action crime thrillers will hate this. DIE HARD it ain't. But I enjoyed this slow-burner mostly.

4 stars.

Excellent South Park. The Passion of the Jew is VERY timely now, 20 years later. Short, at around 30 minutes. No idea how they get away with some satire, esp against named actors like Mel Gibson. Not sure they would these days, not in the UK anyway which now faces serious threats to freedom of speech and expression

2 other films here, one which targets the Catholic church and the scandal priests interferring with boys - truly scabrous satire. Very offensive to some - I LOVED it.. The one satirising the music business.

5 stars

I usually really hate very sentimental family films - and this trowels on the schmaltz, for sure. But this, I liked, with reservations. Sometimes I felt my teeth rotting with the sweetness of it all - but hey, most Hollywood films ladle on the schmaltz and maybe always have.

Yes, it is overlong - maybe because John Krasinski is the writer, director, co-producer and even plays the dad character. So it does need cutting.

BUT this is the perfect Christmas family film really.

Kids will love the CGI creatures - as in the Toy Story films or Monsters inc. Adults will appreciate the magic of it, the sweetness and a decent plot and acting.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Well, set in a boarding school it may be, but Harry Potter it ain't. In this original, wordless (and no subtitles), nihilistic Ukrainian film, feral deaf kids go on a rampage and run amok in what is a special school but more like a prison.

I admire independent films, they take so much effort to get made over years. And this is a well-made film, a truly unique experience, wordless, no subtitles, all set in a special school for the deaf (which resembles a prison more). I did think I would not follow the story, but I did, partly as the director spells it out, many long scenes with a static camera, like Chaplin films or that contemporary French director whose name I forget.

This is a miserabilist, depressing, nihilistic movie, where all characters are amoral or immoral. The criminality, violence and sexual exploitation runs rampant, and the main character wants to belong to 'the tribe' so gets sucked in. The actors are great, all amateurs, but really superb.

But really, at its core, the plot of this film is all about JEALOUSY and the poisonous toxic effect it has on this one young man - who is an outsider, like Othello (a play from an old story about JEALOUSLY not race - that is our age's projection. Othello is a Muslim convert to Christianity to belong, but never trusted because of that, which feeds the seed of jealously planted in his brain by a malicious enemy Iago).

Anyway, it is a film to admire rather than like, with a director and actors who have never made anything else. This won many awards and is a unique cinematic experience but not pleasant, and is deeply depressing ultimately with shocking violence. Amorality infects everything here. SO be prepared.

reminds me a bit of the great 1979 UK film SCUM or prison dramas about abuse really, or maybe DIRTY PRETTY THINGS.

3.5 stars rounded up.

I mostly enjoyed this film, with reservations. It is better than most BFI/lottery-funded films BUT not on the level of truly great road trip movies like WITHNAIL AND I or THELMA AND LOUISE. Very 2nd division. There have been loads of films recently about people going off on long walks, the mediocre schmaltzy UNLIKELY PILMGRAMAGE OF HAROLD FRY and the D-Day films two of them, one with Michael Caine.The best of all is FIRST AND LAST (1987) with Joss Ackland.

In particular, some male characters the two women meet on their roadtrip are cartoon character baddies - just absurdly so. Real misandry really, from a female writer/director there, I felt. Not necessary. To try and balance that obviously, there is a kind male policeman (ironic, as the real Audrey Amiss was often arrested for civil disturbance by police and locked up in mental hospitals; she even got deported from China for that when on many travels with her mother). Other very unrealistic and posed meetings with various groups - I doubt any of this really happened but Audrey Amiss did exist and was severely mentally ill.

Her archive is in the Wellcome collection - not as art, and scrapbooks of chocolate bar wrappers is what I did as a very small kid, so not art. But that collection has artefacts which link art, life, mental illness, so...

No idea how true to life this is. Audrey Amiss born 1933 died 2013, started scrapbooks late 70s - lived in Clapham near/with her mother, so not short of money really - they travelled the world together, exotic trips.

The performance of Monica Dolan was superb - and that carries this whole film really. I found her companion and former nurse annoying. I thought the mental illness and delusion was handled well. Always tricky to do, that.

So good in parts, annoying at times, great acting in main role, 3 stars. Almost 4. Great music too, oldies and newer songs too, one from Boy George plays over the credits (watch the end to see real art by Audrey and her photo).

I have read RED DRAGON, the 1982 novel by Thomas Harris, the first appearance of Hannibal Lecter (Leckter in the novel). Many claim Brian Cox's performance in his 3 brief scenes as HL are better than Anthony Hopkins in the next novel Silence of the Lambs. WHAT ROT! Cox is passable but the hints of a Scots accent are annoying to me.

The first half is great and loyal to the novel/. Of course there is not much backstory of the life of Francis D which in the novel make the reader have real sympathy with him - one effective scene here covers that.

The second half cuts out lots of flights and stuff with the William Blake painting (in the novel Francis D visits a New York museum and gets a private appointment, knocks out the female staff member then eats the DRAGON WITH WOMAN drawing). The film rightly focuses on the visual, the home movies aspect.

but boy do the actors mumble! I had to rewind more than once to understand what was said and something did not even then. Maybe use subtitles.

The ending is extended in the novel, like the false ending in the SILENCE OF THE LAMBS film. Both work, book and film - the latter has to cut the flab and make it a mano a mano battle. But I think the end weakens it somewhat as does the not-very-good theme tune, though the synth music throughout is great.

So 4 stars. Almost 5 but not quite. I shall now rewatch the later film RED DRAGON to compare.

I sort of liked this - a flawed film, fore sure, maybe because the writer is the director's husband, and oh-so-cosy set-ups like that rarely lead to well-edited scripts or movies - usually too much flab and meandering is the result, as here. Focus lacking. An independent editor needed for the script, to 'kill the darlings' and het rid of extraneous scenes.

The plot here is a young innocent gallery worker Dali nicknamed San Sebastian (one of many young men & women chosen by the Dalis supposedly for sexual purposes - this nis 1974 New York, so not illegal or ignored if it was). Definitely exploitative. Christopher Briney is EXCELLENT as the lead, really - he'd only acted on one other film too (MEAN GIRLS) which I shall watch now.

The plot, and all narrative films need them, hangs on the dodgy dealings of Dali prints in 1970s, which could be classes as fraud, with Dali signing many pages of blank paper to ship on to various parties to photocopy paintings on - the difference between a lithograph and off-set printing and photocopies is explored here. And all Dali's signatures. I do wonder how many supposed 'Dali' pictures hanging in posh homes and galleries are mere photocopies now! Modern Art is Rubbish - as Blur said... AND as Banksy shows, art is ALL about money now.

Most fascinating for me was not cabaret act show-off Dali or even Alice Cooper, who the actor captures well in his pre-golfing days, but Dali's Russian wife played by Barbara Sukowa. Should have got a supporting actress nomination or won it for this performance. Dali's wife was 10 years older than him, a well-off Russian from a family of intellectuals, in France/Paris from

Rupert Graves is here as he is in lots of TV series now (incl Midsomer Murders and more) as a 60+ greying paunchy man but he'll forever be the ebullient young man/teen in Room with a View in cinema history.

So this film is not as bad as some reviews claim but maybe mostly for art lovers. I was very frustrated the actual paintings were not shown - copyright issues, I suspect, the galleries said NO or demanded too much dosh. A shame. His CHRIST OF ST JOHN ON THE CROSS from 1951 is sublime, a truly original take on a crucifixion alter piece. From above. After that and esp in 1960s/70s/80s, Dali became a parody of himself, a cabaret act. Silly lobster phones and dressing up as an Arab (the middle class Dali son of a rich lawyer claimed Moorish decent).

THE GREAT MASTURBATOR (1929) with the melting faces and clocks in a desert - so influential. Dali in his younger days was a massively influential artist, one of the founders of surrealism, all the melting clocks etc (done cleverly here with the early day scene of cheese melting in the heat of southern Spain). The relationship with fascist Franco and Spain is not mentioned at all though - Dali stayed strictly neutral despite friendship with Lorca, the Republican poet murdered by the fascists.

His CHRIST OF ST JOHN ON THE CROSS from 1951 is sublime, a truly original take on a crucifixion alter piece. From above. Dali also got involved in film, doing sets for Hitchcock's SPELLBOUND (1945) and before that Un Chien Andalou, 1929 French silent short film directed by Luis Buñuel, who co-wrote the screenplay with Salvador Dalí.

Worth a watch, 3 stars.

Loved this. I watched it as my a Russian teacher recommended it to me, with reference to an army going through the ice as shown in Napoleon film recently and others (Napoleon did fire cannon at ice to deliberately do that). It is great - really.

At the 55 minutes to 1 hour mark, the music starts. By Prokofiev no less, which sounds JUST like the JAWS tense two-note soundtrack (which many claim is from Ravel's music). Brilliant, nicked by John Williams from somewhere anyway...

At this time, 1938, the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939 had not been made, so maybe Russia and Stalin feared German invasion - here we have 13th C Russ defending themselves against German invaders (Catholics wanting to merge with orthodox Christianity - worth looking at the BACKGROUDN extra to read before watching this). The German invaders have typical Nazi Wehrmacht helmets and a priest even has near-swastikas on his hat! Of course, one name in german for that sign is 'crooked cross' or 'hooked cross' It is a cross in a circle.

if you like old films then this is a classic. 4 stars.

I really liked this film. The (white male) writer has written one other scifi WHAT IF... movie, reminiscent of many dystopian scifi films tb.

One can see HAL in 2001 here or AI as a robot takes over, and even THE SHINING at one point.

Because I really get the writing process, good and bad, the struggle, the stress, the frustration, I could relate a lot to the main character so maybe I warmed to it more than others would - though yet again this is an all-female film, with the only man black, and even a short TV clip is an Asian man and 2 women. WHY? This is not even state-funded. It is bare racism/sexism to deliberately shun white male actors or characters surely?

Anyway, the first half hour us superb. It sags a bit then, due to the backstory of the author's supposedly early life. That was weak I thought. And why does the young girls have a posh public school accent and her mum a working class/lower middle class one. it does not make sense. All a bit overwritten and overdone.

this would make a decent theatre play to be honest as it all takes place in one space with few characters.

I liked the twist at the end. Reminded me of YOU WILL MET A TALL DARK STRANGER just about my favourite Woody Allen film.

4 stars - just. 3.5 stars rounded up.

I would advise anyone interested in the V1 and V2 rocket campaign to watch BATTLE OF THE V1 (1958) (also known as Battle of the V.1, Battle of the V1, Missiles from Hell and Unseen Heroes) which also uses authentic WWII footage, but of actual V1/V2 rockets flying and where they hit. This film uses some of British guns shooting them as they approach the coast.

German TV series BABYLON BERLIN also features the 1927/8 rocket mania in Germany, where the posh privileged assistant was Werner von Braun, aged 18, who went on to design the V1 and V2 rockets and was then poached with his team (and helped them escape justice and the Soviets) by CIA/USA to work for NASA - it was he who put man on the moon in 1969 really. Werner von Braun was a card-carrying member of the Nazi party and the SS.

Anyway, the worst thing about this film is the title, which was the real title for the operation to bomb the V1/V2 rockets development and manufacture centre at Peenemünde in Germany of course in summer 1943 and 1944. When the Soviet's liberated the plant, they found it 75% destroyed.

Some background. After D-Day landings 1944, the allies liberated France, incl Paris, Belgium and the southern Netherlands up to the Arne river, the famous Battle of Arnhem followed at the bridge. SO the Nazis still help northern Netherlands and that is where the rockets were made in underground networks. Not only London was targeted with the rockets, also Antwerp in the south of the Netherlands. As well as the terror and deaths wreaked on London, the massive destruction of these huge rockets contributed greatly to the post war housing crisis.

Of course this film is a story, fictionalised, with heroes infiltrating the plant which never happened. Operation Crossbow was the name of the bombing mission. In reality, 2 Polish janitors passed plans of the plant to their Polish Home Army Intelligence service, and separately in 1943 the same year an Austrian resistance group gave plans to the British too, and they were in contact with head of US secret service in Switzerland too, before they were discovered by the Gestapo and executed.

SO the story of the Brits and an American parachuting in is all derring-do hokum, to create narrative tension and suspense - fair enough. It does not try to deceive (as some movies may do when faking real events, like Argo, or U-571, which claim Americans did stuff done by Brits, Canadians and Poles.

Great cast. Anthony Quayle almost replays his ICE COLD IN ALEX role; Tom Courtney is superb. Reminds me of THE DAMBUSTERS in its higher-ups cynical of success while the better junior officers are proved right in the end...

Amazing to think Sophia Loren is now 90...

Anyhoo, I liked this for what it is. Not a classic but watchable. 3.5 stars rounded up.

OK so first thing, this is a short 'film, 50 minutes, and I assume only got made with public money courtesy of Lottery and Arts Council Funding and I think Channel 4 is because it is all about the 80s in on-trend Manchester AKA Madchester in the Hacienda club etc. TV often has a Manchester bias as so much based there - Granada TV and now Salford BBC Media City. I was oop north late 80s to early 90s in a city NOT called Manchester and we were sick of the constant focus on Madchester then and we are sick of it now (Sheffield, Nottingham, Liverpool people may well agree).

Well no doubt if you were there in 1980s Manchester Hacienda club and band scene it's interesting, a bit like people looking at their own holiday snaps or videos, of family photos, For the rest of us, this is BORING. It's a bit like when people relate their dreams (boring to you) or smell their own f-arts - no doubt pleasant for them but not for anyone else. Yes, this is an egofart of a film. And so BORING. It takes no talent to get drunk a lot, go to clubs and sleep around and very many people did it. The difference is, they do not claim it makes them special and talented as this alleged film director does. It takes NO talent to do. None.

This is really a BORING documentary, much better suited to TV and local TV at that. I suspect the director being female aided production funds too.

Watch the 2 short films on the DVD - one is narrated by John Peel with what sound like unusual stories from his own Radio 4 show tbh. A bit misandrist really some of them but good to hear John Peel again (died age 65 in 2004).

Lots of people featured here died relatively young - Pete Shelley (born MacNeish, named himself after the poet) died aged 63 in Estonia in 2018; Alan Wise, the Jewish promoter of the Hacienca and Nico in late 80s died age 63 in 2016 3 months after his 22 daughter killed herself jumping off a bridge. Nico who he promoted as heard on ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES and FEMME FATAL and SUINDAY MORNING by Velvet Underground died aged 49 in 1988 of a stroke while cycling in Ibiza, and her son died age 60 of a heroin overdose in Paris in 2023.

Nico gets a mention here as Alan Wise was Nico's promoter and she stayed in the shabby box room bedroom at his house whose next occupant was the egomaniac attention-seeker Carol Morley who directed this. i took an instant dislike to the manipulative seemingly parasitical director, who seems so egotistical that she thinks her life of getting drunk and sleeping around is interesting. It isn't. It is boring, BORING! A shame the likes of this get public funding when talents writers/directors struggle to get a bean in public money or private funds to make films (esp non-BAME men...)

2 stars only, one for the interviews with some interesting people, Pete Shelley etc who she manipulated into having a fling with, and Alan Wise AND one star for the short film narrated by John Peel. The stuff about the director is so tiresome and boring.