Film Reviews by PV

This is the sequel to the lower budget Deutschland 83 which I actually preferred. That was set in Europe; this takes place a lot in South Africa and other African countries, which is very timely, but maybe less interesting for me.

However, this is still classy drama and better than most UK drama, for sure.

As usual, some neat twists and turns, confusion about how to trust and action scenes. Too much focus on romance this time though, which borders on treating the main actor as a sex object - feminists used to complain about when female actors were treated in the same way! Such double standards really.

4 stars

I enjoyed this movie for the simple reason that I knew NOTHING of this period of history in Japan, other than the Dutch (richest trading nation on earth in 17th C) were the only people allowed to trade in Japan in certain areas such as Nagasaki. I had never heard about Christian missionaries from places such as Portugal and the many who were persecuted and killed.

This is very timely too - Christians are being persecuted throughout Asia at the moment, and indeed killed. Not much reported though.

It is long - too long. And could have been pulled in under 2 hours, I am sure, without losing much.

The story is one of belief and betrayal, and fascinating.

Based on a 1966 Japanese novel - which is probably better than the film, as so often with epics with multi-dimensional stories and themes and a myriad of characters.

I suppose INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS from 1958 would be a good partner piece, this time about the persecution of Christians in China in the 1930s. That was filmed in Snowdonia, Wales, apparently and because not many Chinese lived in Britain in the 1950s, the kids in it were the posh offspring of diplomats etc!

An oddity for Scorsese maybe, and if you want hardcore action, then don;'t even bother. Glad I stayed with it though, after the slow start - this movie only really begins after at least half an hour, maybe 45 minutes.

Well this is a Tom Ford film, and seeing as he comes from the massively pretentious modern art world, it is no surprise to see one part of the movie take place there.

This is a story-within-a-story -no spoiler here as the blurb says the key character received a novel.

It's all quaintly old-fashioned ultimately, especially towards the end. Feels like I had to sit through an awful lot to get there. BUT the police chief steals the show (Bobby Andes character).

Ultimately, I disliked the main female character and the other spoilt and self-absorbed art-world types - seen it all before, so no desire to see the dreadful pretentious modern conceptual art again.

2 stars. If it had been JUST the story about the fictional novel in the film, probably 4 stars.

However, as this is all based on an actual novel, one cannot entirely blame the director. Only for the dedicated.

I see from the credits that this is based on an 'original idea' by the director/writer and producer. Well, now. In no way, shape or form is the idea of someone who hires an assassin to kill him, then changes his mind and is in a fix, is 'original'. I have seen and heard half a dozen such stories - from Bulworth with Warren Beatty to various others. And as for failed attempted at suicide - well A MAN CALLED OVE does that as does the Jim Broadbent film whose name I cannot remember.

Anyway, this comedy is passable, if very predictable, though oddly feels too long despite an 80 minute run time, The final act flags badly - and the relationship story is weak and not very credible. Cartoon character comedy really.

The old assassin and his wife are massive stereotypes - no-one lives like that any more, not even 70 year olds!

But it's fun in parts, as a cartoony drama - so if you don;t expect too much, it passes the time.

And some class acting talent here. So 3 stars - just - as some decent music here.

It says Stephen Fry produced it too (THE SF? Who knows?)

Watch A MAN CALLED OVE, LEAVING LAS VEGAS or KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS for real class.

I really enjoyed this movie. It's WAY better than the (for me) tedious and derivative Hunger Games, even though the low-ish budget does not stretch to Jurassic Park levels.

It is not original and neither are any of these movies about extreme reality TV. Loads of previous films and books, from Death Race 2000 to Logan's Run to the novel Rasmus and others like Dead Famous.

But I thoroughly enjoyed it - the film has pace and is fun, not pretentious, with lots of action and dramatic scenes. There is satire on reality TV and celebrity aplenty too, which I always like.

A great fun popcorn movie.

4 stars

This film is 2 and a half hours! It could easily have an hour cut from it, especially from the second half. This movie is so flabby that if it were human it'd be a 45 stone mattress man having a sponge bath in a bed he hasn't got out of for 20 years. It seems half-improvised too, with completely extraneous, irrelevant and pointless scenes aplenty.

Occasional humour BUT all in that 'practical joker' way which I, for one, find totally unfunny.

Odd how critics love films like this, especially at Cannes - maybe that sort of comedy appeals in mainland Europe. In Britain we're spoilt for choice with comedy, and it just does not translate into British English well.

1.5 stars rounded up

I had this series on my rental list for a year before lifting it to the top and committing to watch this 83 series and the more recent 86 one after. I am SO GLAD I did - it is BRILLIANT. Way better than ANY UK drama and anything I have seen set in the 80s (Ashes to Ashes was a pantomime).

Superb period details, the Cold War paranoia, and full of thrills and twists, slips and slides of spying, and nail-biting tension in the slithering plots, with strong characters and performances (the main character is perfectly cast; also the general's son is the actor who played Viktor in the brilliant German TV WWII series GENERATION WAR - a great actor too). Whenever an episode finished I was desperate to watch the next part. I have not felt that way about a UK TV drama for years with the possible exception of Peaky Blinders. This is up there with Breaking Bad for quality.

Just superb. Proper grown-up intelligent drama - unlike what you see on the BBC then.

Five stars.

Imagine if I had written a screenplay about a bus driver who writes DREADFUL poems with a kooky ditzy girlfriend in a story where basically NOTHING HAPPENS except the man walking his dog and going to the pub for a pint every evening, oh and randomly meets some characters planted into the film to bulk it out and make it longer. Would it ever be made? No chance.

SO why was this drivel made? Baffles me. I thought the French had a monopoly on long, tedious, yawn-inducing, self-indulgent, pointless films. I stand corrected.

I suppose how much you like this film depends on how much you like this director Jim Jarmusch BUT for me, his movies (and those of Wes Andersen) are deeply self-indulgent, pretentious, pointless, self-consciously 'quirky, 'post modern', 'Noo Yoik hipster', affected, and, in a word, boring. Oh and the poetry is just TERRIBLE - as was the drivel written by William Carlos Williams, plums and all. Maybe if I were a Californian hipster I'd like this. But I am not and I don't. Two hours of my life I'm never getting back.

On the plus side, if you suffer from insomnia, just watch this and feel yourself drift happily away to the land of nod.

1 star. For the dog.

This movie is probably necessary, and based on a memoir too, BUT when watching it I realised it would only strike a chord if you lived in the very religious states of the USA. We do not really have the same Christian culture in the UK and I doubt there's much gay aversion therapy here - maybe via some evangelical churches of African ones, and as for Muslims in the UK and other faiths, I think being gay is pretty much a no-no, so maybe we needs some movies about that bigotry.

I also pondered the fact that actually in most of the world (all Africa and Asia) gay people don;t get sent to therapy - they get killed or imprisoned, so maybe we need more movies about that (one African film THE WOUND is superb - I recommend that). 'Gay' is only a lifestyle in the West; in most of the world, it's a behaviour as it was in most of Western history.

It's all imbued with that self-obsessed pity-party therapy-culture that has seeped into all areas of American (and now British) life, and can be very preachy and rather precious as a propaganda movies.

I also saw the act 3 twist coming a mile off - it's been the same plot twist in so many similar movies (Scum; Another Country etc). No spoilers.

I just didn't believe the journey of the mom character here and disliked the stereotype of making the dad - ie the man - the baddie. Enough already! Plenty of women are massively homophobic esp as they tend to be more devoutly religious than men all over the world.

Russell Crowe as the devout preacher dad character drawls it in, and is more believable - and he looks like he's had all the pies too, so I wonder if the actor gained weight for the role. Maybe he needs some pie-aversion therapy eh?

Also, there are no black faces in this movie. Why? Hollywood is always parachuting in African Americans, even to play roles of people who in real life were white, so why not here eh? That is necessary because most African-Americans would, in any referendum, vote to make homosexuality illegal according to polls - 70% of those in California according to reports I have seen. The ethnic communities in the UK, too, are much more homophobic than the average white person and yet that is never ever mentioned or debated, and I have certainly never seen any films highlighting the issue. WHY NOT?

All in all, a necessary if rather worthy movie and way too long, so 2.5 stars rounded up.

I loved this film. I rarely watch movie documentaries. But this and the recent British documentary FRANK are genuinely moving.

Very sad of course, that someone should not get success and then have to go back to their old life of little money and hard graft BUT that happens to MOST PEOPLE who want to make it in the music business (or film business or as an author!). Only a select few make it via sheer luck and contacts; right time right place.

This guy didn't help himself when playing songs at gigs in a veil of smoke and his back to the audience (as I would like to do to!). I disagree with the music boss here who makes claims of racism, that he failed to make it because his name sounded Hispanic (Rodriguez). It's not as though all pop and rock stars in the late 60s and early 70s were wasp white Americans, is it? Plenty of racial diversity.

No, I think the reason Rodriguez failed to make it is that his songs were very derivative and simply not good enough. Some nice ones though and I was yearning for him to finish that 3rd album now at age 70-ish. BUT most money now is in live shows, not CD/record sales as once was, so he should keep doing that. The guy is so stoical it's unreal. One wonders if he's been on the 'sugar'...lol

Weird that he made it in South Africa - but only white Afrikaans community, it seems. A fairytale come true really. Reminds me of others who get fame in certain world locations - the old 'Big in Japan' thing, where pop bands who do nothing in the UK or even US make it there. It happens, for weird and vague reasons.

Genuinely loved this film. Reminds me a bit of 2008 documentary about failed Canadian 80s rock band ANVIL - who were, yes, big in Japan but never made it anywhere else, so members do regular jobs. Or did, until reforming after the documentary and touring the world.

5 stars. Just great.

This film is OK and stars Mads Mikkelsen who is a GREAT actor (watch THE HUNT). But I just think WHY?

Maybe it's an attempt to ape other survival dramas like The Revenant or Everest or others?

You can PREDICT there will be lots of ice and falling down crevasse and, as this is the Arctic, yes to polar bears and no penguins (no spoilers!)

At the end you just feel a bit MEH really.

Weird watching it in the heat of summer as I did too. I felt like getting some ice cubes out of the freezer, just for the empathy...

Not bad but a bit pointless, and not even as one would expect, a true story. Mads Mikkelsen can do MUCH better than this.

3 stars

I enjoyed this. It was filmed BEFORE the movie THE MERCY, the slick higher budget version of the same story which was released in cinemas first because the same company owned distribution rights to both! Why film-makers do this I have no idea, Just like ANTZ and A BUG'S LIFE out at the same time. Maybe they just lack creativity and copy each other?

Anyway, this is a low budget British film which uses some avant-garde techniques to good effect.

I enjoyed THE MERCY too but that is a slicker high budget effort really - this film feels more real, somehow. It was filmed in the actual house where the Crowhurt family lived too. I liked the portrayal of bankers here - who will always lend you money so long as you have loads of it!

A tragic and maybe even scary movie about obsession and ambition.

4 stars

This is an excellent bitter sweet drama - a tragi-comedy - which I thoroughly enjoyed. In fact, having watched this I think Melissa McCarthy should have won the Oscar for best female in a lead role and not the massively over-rated Olivia Coleman queen performance in the massively over-rated 'on trend' women-only-focused The Favourite. It really is a stunning performance from Melissa McCarthy, and actress I had not heard of before.

I never really like Richard E Grant in anything though as he always plays - Richard E Grant. I dislike the way modern movies all seem to need the camp outrageous sidekick of the black sassy woman too (thankfully absent here).

Based on a true story but a really believable ones. Writers really do struggle - according to the Society of Authors the average salary of a professional author member if around £11,000 per year, down £1000 in a decade, and most author members of that society earn £5k a year or less. So this story is utterly believable. Many writers will relate to it and the world of agents and rejection and awful jobs being treated like dirt - and drinking of course!

Genuinely intelligent and touching as a movie, which does not happen much in Hollywood.

It would have been 5 stars but for the OTT performance of Richard E Grant and the way the film becomes more serious as it goes on and loses some warmth and humour BUT congratulations on the script for making us like someone who was not really a likable person and lived a very lonely life of great suffering. Oh and I loved the cat (no spoilers BUT I knew what was coming when I first saw it!)

This movie reminds me of, I think, a TV drama of a man who faked paintings for decades ('sexton blakes') as he called them - a BBC2 drama from years ago. You have to admire anyone who can pull it of, I suppose AND wonder how many fakes are out there, as yet undiscovered...

I found this movie intensely depressing. Maybe it's the constant relentless violence and shooting (no spoilers there - it's a mafia drama, what d'you expect, a bake off?). Maybe it's the total lack of hope for something better.

I understand a lot of Italian and have visited Naples, so 'get' a lot of the cultural references. The problem is, I found I didn't really care that much about the characters, who are pretty predictable: the mafia boss, the son, the wife, the underlings, the snitches etc. Nothing different from 1930s James Cagney movies except the Italian rap soundtrack! The instrumental music played is actually highly effective.

Also, so much of the scenes happen in near-darkness and the lighting seems to waver too, not sure why - but for that reason and more, I doubt I shall watch the other series of this.

For classic gangster mafia drama, I suppose The Sopranos will always be the standard.

3 stars.

The critics hated it when this won Best Picture Oscar 2019, and I agree that it's a mediocre movie - though deplore the race-obsessed over-rated director Spike Lee's tantrums. This movie is way better than any of his! I may try watching it again at some time to see if I revise my opinion, but I was bored watching this. Noting original or memorable here.

However, it was the same critics and campaigners who demanded more African-American voters in the Academy and more black Oscars, so this is what you get when you rig the voting.

For me, John C Reilly in STAN AND OLLIE should have won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and the actress playing Stan's Russian wife should have won best supporting actress. It now seems true, however, that those who are not 'people of colour' are disadvantaged in winning Oscars, that merit is not the true judge any more - if it were was. The Oscars will become more irrelevant as a result, however, as have many awards which seemingly exist to promote 'diversity' (i.e. ensure the award doesn't go to any nasty supposedly privileged white man!). A shame really that these days merit is not all. Race politics and pc is what it's all about - % diversity, not talent.

It is what it is. 2 stars. Too race-fixated for my tastes.

Also, this is not a copy of superb French film 'Untouchable' - totally different story. UNTOUCHABLE is a great French film which was remade in the US as THE UPSIDE. Not this. Maybe the reviewer means DRIVING MISS DAISY which this does resemble?