Film Reviews by PV

This is a watchable drama with strengths and weaknesses.

First, the history. Aden is a port city in Yemen which the British had visited since 1609. The Ottoman empire ruled Yemen then and the tribes who lived in and ran the port city did not want to be ruled by them or the imams/Sultans who replaced them. The British signed a treaty in 1802 and the Aden Peninsula was ceded to Britain in 1838. In 1839, Royal Marines landed at Aden to secure the territory and stop attacks by pirates against British shipping to India. The position of Aden mattered and matters, as with the recent Yemeni attacks on ships by the Houthi - the Red Sea is a shipping route to the Suez Canal. Aden was part of British India until 1937, then became a Crown Colony for 30 years. The British created the State of Aden post WWII to prepare it for independence. Remember, the British gave away their empire, did not fight for it like the French for example in Algeria or Viet Nam. In 1964, Britain announced its intention to grant independence to the FSA in 1968, but that the British military would remain in Aden.

Despite this, there were brutal terrorist attacks by the NLF who were communists - in the Cold War - allied with USSR, which is never mentioned in this drama which rather sympathises too much with them. They socalled Aden emergency when these terrorists massacred scores of British soldiers in ambushes meant the UK evacuated women and children, all military families. No need for it, as the Brits had planned to leave in 1968 and grant independence - just revenge, racist maybe, anti-White maybe anti-Christian. Yemen also used to have a population of Jews - not any more. Like most countries in the region, the Jews were attacked and expelled from their ancient homelands.

To judge an empire, just look what came before and after it. Well, look at Aden and Yemen now... Civil war, Islamists trying to make it an Islamic state, tens of thousands dead, chaos...

Honestly, only the BBC and British TV could make a TV drama which blames the British for everything. Sadly, this is the perpetual pose of those desperate to be seen as liberal and progressive, and it is woefully misguided.

But as a drama it works, but is overlong, with way too much time dedicated to some rather irritating wives on the base and issues with babies and romances. Expected from TV drama these days of course. But rather eye-rollingly irritating and dare I say it, boring.

Tom Glynn-Carney is excellent as Armstrong though the relationship shown is beyond unlikely, as is the female photojournalist WHO NEVER EXISTED. TV dramas and films always do that these days, make up female characters and parachute them into real stories. I find that morally wrong really, with true stories, as they did with the Kim Philby ITV drama recently. With fiction, well, inventing a female character for the new Name of the Rose made it woke and metoo pc BUT the initial film without her is way superior.

Filmed in South Africa, and the short BONUS films are interesting. It all looks authentically sandy and hot, with the usual desert moonscapes (well Yemen is next door to Saudi Arabia). Enjoyable to a point.

3.5 stars rounded up. I dare say a version made now would be even more pc and woke, so...

This is way too long, at over 2 hours, which was a shame really. I am no petrolhead and have no interest in car racing BUT good to see films like this and RUSH too, which appeal to men and boys as so many Hollywood films now have woke/metoo quotas and are made for a female audience, it seems.

The slush and cheese is added here a bit, though no female characters invented to make the story fit the tickbox gender agenda as in some other movies of real life events. That is a relief. So many films now ruined in that way (invented female characters in TV drama, new version of Name of the Rose, some dramas made into female-focused romances like Operation Mincemeat).

Look up KEN MILES - a real man born 1918, see the end of the film which shows what really happened too, his son (born 1950) watching (Noah Jupe age 12/13 here so younger than Peter in real life - the son followed the father into motor racing mechanics).

With a very pronounced Brummie accent & sardonic sense of humour, Ken Miles was affectionately known by his US racing crew as "Teddy Teabag" (for his tea drinking) or "Sidebite" (as he talked out of the side of his mouth). I think Christian Bale captures him well.

Sporting films always have to decide what they are, so usually are a romance, or a comedy, or little man succeeding against the system which this is, as well as a fish out of water tale. Sport is so immediate and dated by a year later, the sporting drama is instant. So films which feature sport need to be NOT about sport, ironically.

The racing scenes are very well done technically, and of course the conflict is needed for the drama, hence the alternative US title FORD V FERRARI. Though there is no mention of Henry Ford I being a friend of Hitler and deciding to build his ford factories in Germany in 1935 (they were bombed by the allies and form got compo for that, millions, late 1960s).

One for the boys. 3 stars.

I loved this. Yes, it is a long film at 2 hours 40 minutes BUT an hour before the end there is an INTERMISSION, or ' un pissoir break' for 2 minutes which is a first!

I HATE the dubbing though, really. No option to have the original French and German with subtitles though which is a real shame.

There is actual footage of the liberation mixed in with the fiction, and at the end of the black and white film we are treated to a full colour aerial tour of Paris which was almost blown up - they were Hitler;s orders, but the general in charge of Paris disobeyed them (he'd have a statue and a rue named after him were it not for the bad stuff he did in WWII too, in Ukraine and in Paris, sending resistance fighters to concentration camps Buchenwald which most did not survive).

I found it all fascinating. The 2014 film DIPLOMACY uses the same lines and often identical dramatic shots to this film, and is based on a play and this film, which is based on a book - a true account of what happened. hence the identical word-for-word lines.

Kirk Douglas as General Patton; Orson Welles as a Swedish diplomat (in real life he met the German general again in the mid 50s), the Bond Goldfinger actor Gert Frobe as the German general in charge; Psycho star Anthony Perkins, Bruno Cremer (Maigret in the 2001 drama series), Alain Delon, Yves Montand, Jean-Paul Belmondo, loads of talent here.

Such a film is due a remake really, though I dread to think what a woke agenda would do to it, colourblind casting etc, the usual demand for 50% female roles.

4 stars.

This a superb film. I have read the novel and the film necessarily leaves a lot out. Graham Greene we a Catholic convert hence the fixation on faith, hell, heaven, redemption, whether people change, forgiveness etc. WENT THE DAY WELL (1942/3) is also based on a short story by the author and also one of the best films ever made.

The deeply sinister Pinkie Brown, meant to be 17 though Richard Attenborough does look older to be fair, is superbly played - still, sinister, psychopathic and disturbed by a childhood in which he has 'seen love' (ie witness his parents having sex, no doubt all living in 1 room in poverty in a slum). He has a horror of sex and closeness.

The plot merits 2 or 3 viewings - it is neat and makes sense, lots of little clues as one goes along.

The women acting are great - and Rose can only play the innocent which Pinkie corrupts, and is just eye candy. The older character Ida steals the show as the old trooper who will not let go. The drunken old soak lawyer is wonderful too.

William Hartnell future Dr Who has a main role here.

Great locations, The Palace Pier now called Brighton pier, and the other one,the West Pier, sadly derelict and torched in 2002 (deliberate? Who knows).

Brighton has the look of a town helping police with their enquiries, so they say. Some bits still are, and I lived there 2 years so know it. Close London connection. But these days on-trend and full of commuters who work in the capital.

5 stars. Of its time, but of course it is, as are we all, and this was made 1947/8 when marriage mattered as did virginity for girls.

One of the MUST-SEE films of all time, in the top 50 of films ever made.

So this is a short film and very wordy - it is stagey, as befits a theatre play. Most action happens in one room!

A minor film but interesting, esp for those who want to know about WWII.

The German general here replaced another who was executed for being involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler.

How true it all is, I do not know; and at least the film acknowledges that this general was implicated in war crimes, massacres of Jews and more in Ukraine AND he had French Resistance prisoners transferred to concentration camps in 1944 from which very few returned. Some may say he dodged a noose but so did Speer and SO many more - 97% in fact of SS war criminals walked free. The Paris head of the gestapo only arrested in Germany in 1980, jailed for 5 years.

Wait till the end for details of the history on screen.

I am not at all sure of the truth of all of this. And do remember that the Swedish diplomat is there because Sweden was neutral in WWII and WWI and got rich from both, selling iron ore to the Germans. One reason Sweden was rich post WWII. They let 2 million German soldiers march through Sweden to invade Norway too.

BUT it is true Paris was saved, and this General COULD have obeys Hitler;s orders to destroy it, detonate bombs in all the famous buildings. Others disobeyed orders too - Speer did not destroy infrastructure in Germany as Hitler ordered, and Florence in Italy, esp the Ponte Vecchio, old bridge with shops on, was saved because again a German general ignored Hitler's orders. Of course, Germany SHOULD have surrendered in 1943 when it was obvious they'd lose the war, but such as the fixation and obsession with Hitler who mesmerised the nation, they kept on fighting with disastrous results.

A solid if unspectacular little film about how Paris was saved from destruction and the end of Nazi rule there in 1944. So 3 stars.

Hmmm well, this went on and on and on, over 8 parts, 43 minutes each. Probably could have told the same tale in 4 parts.

It dragged badly, and the ghosty, eerie stuff failed to convince. As in the first Black Lake (not sure how the lead in that can be the lead here unless it is a prequel?)

So many plot holes here. WHY didn't they do XYZ? I asked myself as I watched.

Just a long WHO DUNNIT really with added spooky haunted house themes.

By the end I was weary of it, eyerolling away. No fault of actors, they did well. The writing is flabby - an editor needed badly.

I hope there are no more Black Lakes.

3 stars. Just

This German film was an excellent watch.

Suspend your disbelief (pretend DNA and CCT does not exist in 2004) esp with plot holes, unlikely events, and random coincidences and roll with it.

The leftwing revolution theme and throwback to 1968 and 1970s activism is VERY German, as is the alpine snowy scenery. In Britain we lack snowy mountain ranges and back in the 1970s we were all Wombles and Wurzels rather than Baader Meinhof and Karl Marx...

Very well acted by all the leads, Daniel Bruhl has done loads since, DAS BOOT series and more.

Decent music too. My only criticism is it is a tad too long, sags in the middle and too many romance scenes which are flab - could be reduced by 20 minutes probably if the unnecessary love-gushing is dispensed with.

The ending twist (no spoilers) is fun, however unlikely.

4 stars overall

What to say about this film? Well it's a mess and the French actor who directed it never directed again, though the writer Buck Henry wrote TO DIE FOR, though this is from a novel, which is no doubt also of its time.

I've never seen this on TV listing - it may be seen too outdated re sex comedy, complete with former MISS TEEN SWEDEN Ewa Aulin who retired a couple of years later. I suppose it is like THERE'S A GIRL IN MY SOUP and THE YEAR OF THE SEX OLYMPICS and NO SEX PLEASE WE'RE BRITISH and a bit of THE PRODUCERS. The American madcap humour is a bit like that in the movie and TV series MASH and films like AIRPLANE!.

This really does not work, however. BUT where else will you see Ringo Starr playing a Mexican gardener complete with very dodgy accent and Marlon Brando playing an Indian guru - all would be banned not for WAYCISM of course... Maybe why it has never been shown.

A curio. 2 stars

I avoided the whole media circus around this film so come to it fresh with no baggage.

As a movie it works, though not sure how closely it is based on a true story or whether the rather hysterical stats given at the end are true. At the end we see the real life 'Tim' and children.

I suppose it falls into the same category south American drugs cartel movies such as TV drama NARCOS and NARCOS MEXICO and the movie ESCOBAR. Maybe even BREAKING BAD. Maybe THE COUNSELLOR by Ridley Scott.

It works fine for what it is. Really why is it so significant who funds a movie? Most movies are coproductions and get passed for funding for ticking diversity boxes these days, I think, so I do not care if a church funded this. The number of private donor 'angels' listed at the end is the longest I have ever seen - thousands of names there.

I think this film worked, as fiction. 3.5 stars rounded up

I really enjoyed this. The music is great and the performances.

When it was released it got mixed reviews, a lot from female reviewers who objected that Amy's life was seen via her relationship with various men. They clearly wanted a feminist role model heroine. But, as Amy says in this, she likes men. Some of those reviewers clearly don't.

Recently various biopics of famous tragic dead women have been made which manblame - all their troubles are the fault of men. A recent Marilyn Monroe TV drama series was just that - but it all seems fake to me. These women have issues no matter what. Blaming men for their demise is, in a word, sexist. Misandrist actually. A real agenda.

What I disliked about this film was the timeline which was unclear - as to when Amy got famous. It was a bit blurred.

But anyway, all in all a decent biopic so 4 stars.

This is an excellent film set in 1953 shortly after the new Queen Elizabeth was crowned. Talk of fresh bombsites and the rationing in the caf also place this firmly in its time.

The last role of US-born UK actor Robert Adair as ebullient and cynical jury foreman.

Good to watch with SERIOUS CHARGE (1959) another film about a falsely-accused man - even in those days when kids ran free and played out.

Rather quaint mention of taking sweets from strangers, and these days the Richard Attenborough character would probably be branded a pervert just to talking to kids in a friendly way, such is our hysteria and paranoia (esp as most child abuse and killing is done by parents and family members NOT be strangers).

A contrived plot esp at the end but I liked it. Not great but good. 3.s stars rounded up to 4 stars.

OK so this states it is a DRAMA on the DVD sleeve but is really a horror cum ghost story. And it is low-budget stuff.

The director/writer/producer has not made anything else.

It is not THAT bad - very derivative, and I have seen many similar dramas before. Haunted House trope and more (NO SPOILERS). Nice and short.

THE OTHERS, TRIANGLE, LOOPER, and especially GHOSTS OF WAR (2020) which arguably does it better.

But watchable if not brilliant. It had scares and jumps and horror/ghost story stuff in spades. Though some horror tropes seems tacked on, runes etc. Some of it is extraneous and drags the story out, cinematic flab really BUT the whole movie is less than 90 minutes so not overlong.

So 3 stars

This is an excellent Israeli film from 2004. It starts brilliantly,. No spoilers but it shows how HAMAS was a problem back then, organising suicide bomber attacks in Israel. HAMAS is nothing new.

It progresses well, with the actor playing the Mossad agent utterly believable.

Rather contrived and convenient events perhaps challenge believability, re his wife and the ease of taking a gun on a plane etc.

The Nazi element is perhaps a tad unbelievable BUT sort of works. Maybe.

Then right at the end, this goes turbo, with UTTERLY unbelievable plot developments. A great shame. That was a jump-the-shark plot point too far for me.

The German characters are hardly believable as they seem to be aristocracy really, so unlikely the son will work for peanuts as a woke liberal teacher of immigrant kids and the daughter in a leftist kibbutz YEAH RIGHT.

The director seems to focus entirely on gay life in Israel - I have watched his YOSSI AND JAGGER film previously. That can be limiting, I think. But other directors are limited in what they make too as are writers so... not just him.

Anyway, I loved this film until the very end. Then I cringed. SO unbelievable. ALL spoilt then, i just did not believe the Mossad agent hardcase character would behave like that and...well. NO SPOILERS!!!

So 4 stars

Overlong but interesting 2004 mockumentary about dragons and their evolution.

This starts well - I watched the 30 minute MAKING OF doc on the DVD first and I would advise that. It;s a very clever ANIMAL PLANET doc, made by Brits.

The museum featuring is not a real one, but shot at Museum of Natural SCiences in Oxford.

The evolution aspect is explained with reference to real evolution in crocodiles and bombardier beetles, so made plausible to a degree. NO mention of Wales or Britain with our dragons for many centuries, 1500 years at least in various banners and standards, legends back to old British/Welsh language poems from 7th to 9th C, Merlin involved too in the,, Arthur legend.. Too much emphasis on China, no doubt for those international ANIMAL PLANET sales. Shame.

Gets a tad absurd in the end BUT great animation AND it does success in imbuing the dragons with empathy - we feel for them!

Sadly this is a US TV doc and the Americans are SUCH puritans that these dragons lack holes in their bottom ends. Maybe why they explode inside and breathe fire eh?

ABSURD but I have seen this in US animation and memes online, some Americans even X out cat's bottoms on videos on Twitter. SUCH PURITANS. Animals have bumholes and poo. DEAL WITH IT!

Almost 4 stars but not quite, so 3.

OK so this Swedish drama series set in Norway is 8 episodes of 40 minutes - that is too long. It drags. Could and should have been maybe 6 episodes.

It is all totally unbelievable, lots of plot holes (would police just leave as they do?).

A mix of ghost story, horror story, and murder mystery thriller (with Nazi eugenics backstory) - almost as if it cannot decide which it is.

I did watch this on TV years ago, remembered the first few parts which are most memorable, not the rest which it becomes increasingly far-fetched and metaphysical.

Odin Waage was great in EYEWITNESS (2014) hence my renting this.

3 stars