Film Reviews by PV

Well the Oscars often get it wrong and will do so more and more now they have gender and race quotas (unofficial). So this neat the dreadful LaLa Land to the best picture Oscar - GREAT! But it really is not that great. It's different because it has an entirely black cast with not a single white face anywhere in the movie - yet that really is the way some areas in the USA are. However, it's not a patch on HBO TV series The Wire in exploring that location and African-American culture.

All set in Miami's black areas, it starts on the street where drug dealing is happening - this is an areas where a white face should never go really and neither should anyone looking gay. The main character is bullied supposedly because he looks gay but I did not notice this at all - he wasn't effeminate in any obvious way which is what characters seemed to notice!

Anyway, the way repressed gay men often macho-up to 'prove' they are not gay is explored here - and that is the most effective part of the film, which starts strongly then sags a bit. Black communities are well-known for their often angry and violent homophobia - I think in the USA, in a poll a majority of African Americans would make homosexuality illegal, and the figure may well be the same in socially conservative ethnic groups in the UK (though we have 4% black population and total ethnic minority of 16%; the USA has 12 or 13 % black with whole areas 100% black and has had these for years - centuries even).

Watchable BUT turn on the subtitles would be my advice (the same with The Wire) because Afro-American is a dialect which is mumbled at best so hard to understand!

I didn't dislike this film, and it's theme is unusual and therefore interesting (I have come to loathe Hollywood movies whether action-based or emotional dramas). But feel it's over-rated, and it clearly won the Oscar because it was an all-black movie which matters in race-obsessed affirmative-action America. But at least it beat the utterly dreadful LaLa Land so well done for that! Anything that stopped that mediocre mess winning anything is fine with me!

3 stars. Meh...

This is almost 65 years old but is still a charming, funny movie.

Great actors in this fairytale - a spin on the old story of a royal living amongst ordinary people. Supposedly based on a story by soon-to-be-blacklisted screenwriter Trumbo, but a VERY old story actually.

For those who know Rome, this is a joy - you can see Rome in the early 1950s, before all the cars, graffiti, African immigrants. A lost world really - in a time they allowed kids to clamber all over the Trevi Fountain!

Silly, fun and charming - this is a fairy tale film to warm the cynical heart.

Well, I had no idea what to expect re this movie. The writer/director shot to fame with the Sixth Sense and hasn't really made a very good movie since, so I wasn't expecting much.

It's basically a horror film which uses the VERY old device of multiple personalities in one person to create twists and turns. Younger viewers will think this all new, but it's as old as the hills.

And want to watch a masterclass on mental illness - watch Silence of the Lambs.

This is a horror flick which will appeal to teenagers mostly. It bored me and I was laughing at the hokum plot too.

Some plot lines were utterly predictable too.

But a B-movie to eat popcorn by and the main actor pulls it all off despite the dire script.

2 stars.

I expected to enjoy this movie but found it disappointing and, frankly, annoying.

For a start, the constant moaning about the British legal system was unnecessary.

Timothy Spall gives a cartoon impression of David Irving. The most interesting character is the barrister played by Tom Wilkinson.

Don't think much really of Rachael W in the main role and lots of twaddle re Boudicca.

I knew the story anyway - yet my belief in freedom of speech makes me always side with anyone ever expressing a view.

So, passable but 2 stars.

For a short movie, this feels long. Maybe because very little happens.

I can imagine the script conference for this when they said: "well, the story is that Kennedy gets shot and his wife was there, so we need to pad it all out for make a movie to exploit the rich seam of Kennedy interest out there and make money."

It's like those dire movies on Princess Diana's life - like this, they often seem to have French involvement for some reason.

A weird central role by Natalie Portman acting like one of the Stepford Wives (maybe Jackie was like that?). John Hurt pops up as a priest is what is maybe he last appearance.

This is really a slick exploitation flick. AND it would have been interesting to have information on screen at the end about what happened to various real-life characters (for example, I think the toddler JohnJo in this film died in a plane crash; Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in 1968 etc. Another Kennedy Senator was a Noraid IRA supporter).

But it passes the time, I suppose. Just don't expect much. 2 stars. Just...

Sometimes there are films which win awards - Oscars and Golden Globes - and one wonders WHY. Black Swan was one. This is another. It really is a mediocre movie. I can only assume it's girly romantic appeal secured the women's vote - and in the last few years many more women (and ethnic voters) have been added to the voter list for the Oscars, so expect more of this drivel to win Oscars!

The songs are utterly average and unmemorable. The whole thing is primary colours and singing and dancing.

The plot of pure Mills and Boon melodrama romance.

The only funny part was a screenwriter talking about screenwriting and mentioning Joseph Campbell and a rewrite of the Three Bears! Plus a dig at the smug green car the Toyota Prius (or PIOUS) which so many Hollywood stars drive.

But really, apart from that it was dull, dull, dull - predictable, boring, and so over-rated.

Well filmed esp with the lighting. The jazz was OK BUT some awful songs - the FIRE song that John Legend sings is so mediocre and unmemorable - real B side stuff. Just awful.

One for Mills and Boon's female followers only.

OK, so this film is a bit too long - esp in act 3 - and layers on the emotion with a psychobabbly trowel sometimes. However, it is also a genuinely moving film about how a 12 year old copes with a broken home and a sick mother - though it does milk it shamelessly!

No idea of the Young Adult novel does the same, though I note the book's illustrator got himself a share of the profits by claiming copyright ownership of the monster image.

The special effects and cinematography are superb - and I notice this is mostly filmed in Spain where other movies with great special effects have been made (the one about the Spanish Civil War Pan's Labyrinth, for example). The director is Spanish too. Outdoor scenes were filmed in the UK in Manchester.

The lead actor is superb and Sigourney Weaver has nailed a normal British accent (unlike most Americans who sound like Dick Van Dyke when they try one!).

I liked the animated sections BUT thought some of those stories within stories a bit weak so the plot was not a strong point here. The whole what and why or the monster is never really explained. The adults also seem weirdly tolerant of the boy who never gets punished for anything!

I also saw the end coming a mile off. This movie will appeal particularly to those who like Hollywood group-huggy family films. It's all very conveniently emotional and aims to manipulative the viewer into an emotional teary response too.

BUT a decent and unusual film, and with British accents for once. 4 stars.

Good things about this film:

1) the inspiring true story of James Bowen (a man from a well-off family who, for various reasons and none, became a drug addict on the streets BUT THEN made the 'up the hill backwards' journey back to being drug-free) after meeting a lost, homeless cat - the symbiotic relationship here, the way their stories mirror each other, is nothing short of perfect - for story anyway.

2) the film is very well cast with Luke Treadaway perfect in the lead role - in fact, if this were a Hollywood movie and esp if Luke T were black, he's be a shoo-in for the Oscar! The fellow junkie Baz is also well-cast with Welsh actor Darren Evans (also to be seen in the soon-to-be-released film CHARIOT;

3) it is genuinely funny in places and touching, though some parts are NOT how they happened in real life (James met Bob outside on the estate, for example.

4) The way the film really does show how utterly awful the menace of drugs is, as is the desperate homelessness it causes where people - esp the kebab seller - are unimaginably cruel;

5) Bob the Street Cat himself - a cat who has obviously been raised on the street so who is not phased by traffic, people etc. It's the best cat story I have read other than A CAT CALLED DOG by Jem Vanston.

Bad things about this film:

1) It exaggerate the role of James' kooky female neighbour, I suppose because the screenwriters and directors wanted a love interest - I found this irritating and boring;

2) the sometimes cartoony feel of scenes, like the mouse emerging for a cartoon mousehole in James' flat's skirting board - are these scenes really needed?

3) Sometimes one feels the scriptwriter has piled up the obstacles - as all screenplay books says one must - to make James' challenge even greats BUT is there any need to make things up in a story like this?

4) the agent saw James outside Covent Garden and signed him for a book - she did not see it online.

5) AND it is worth remembering that the publishers have milked this dry, and made most of the money from 5 million sales - James Bowen himself will have received the tiniest fraction of profits from that (but as sales have been so huge he's still lucked out and could buy a house in London which most people cannot afford).

So, in general, a good film from what has become a publishing phenomenon - which has unfortunately spawned a huge industry of what I call "pity party cat books" where a cat (sometimes real; sometimes reincarnated) appears and saves someone or a family from: homelessness, illness, autism, library closure etc etc etc. I am so sick of these books now.

But 4 stars. A flawed film but also enjoyable to watch, esp for a cat lover like me! Go Bob!

OK, do first thing to say is this really is like a cartoon with a cartoon character teen girl superhero starring.

Having said that, it's also hugely enjoyable hokum and entertaining. The plot is utter nonsense of course, but if you don't worry about little details - like anything making any sense - it's all great fun.

Some odd flashbacks don't really work but I see the backstory needs inserting somewhere.

Would be 3 stars but a truly GREAT Soundtrack (I think from Hans Rimmer) make this special.

It's influenced by RUN LOLA RUN but better IMHO.

4 stars.

This movie is hugely enjoyable to watch and far better than the Da Vinci Code and the other earlier movie based on a Dan Brown novel. Also I adore Florence and know it so well having holidayed there twice, so I knew all the places the film was shot on location. Also been to Venice to knew that too.

The screenplay is by David Koepp who adapted the novel into the movie Jurassic Park SO well and effectively.

Similarly, the plot here is lean and mean - not much flab on it. Some great twists, 180 degree car spins at times (and as ever in Hollywood movies halfway through the 2nd act so exactly halfway through the movie). A bit long maybe and too much is made of flashbacks and hallucinations etc.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Yes, it's hokum and utter nonsense. But Tom Hanks is less irritating than usual and the plotting is clever and classy - and the film LOOKS beautiful too.

The only weird thing is this: the baddie is portrayed as someone who wrongly wants to cull the world population which is now heading for 8 billion (when it was 4 billion in 1970 and 1-2 billion in the 1930s. Now, I happen to agree with this character - world population WILL destroy us all. Already it is making most animals extinct and causing most famine, wars, environmental disasters. We MUST act now or humanity is doomed. So I was rooting for the so-called baddie in this!

4 stars maybe 4.5.

This is a fun watch and suitable to all the family really - not TOO crude, not TOO much swearing or nudity. My old mum found it fun anyway, and some lines are laugh out loud.

It's all a cartoonish caper really with goodies and baddies. A road movie with a difference.

All very silly but the actors are clearly having a ball and carry the story along - the script is sharp too.

Perhaps a bit overlong towards the end, but a funny comedy anyway.

4 stars

OK so this is a bit dated BUT just think: this was made in 1942. Britain had already fought for 2 years ALONE as the USSR was in hock with Nazi Germany and the USA sitting on the fence (and would have dealt with Hitler if, as Joe Kennedy expected, he'd invade Britain).

Just imagine people watching this at the local pictures. It would certainly boost morale. Now it exists as a tribute to all those Britons who lost their lives in the war and a nation who fought alone and fought bravely to save the world. It should be shown in every classroom of every school in Britain. Sadly, it many classrooms it would be mocked because daft 'political correctness' has made hating one's own country fashionable. But just imagine what the world would look like if Hitler had won the war! And without Britain's bravery, he would have done. In 1941 or 2.

This is a Noel Coward Tour de Force. Coward needed a director as well as himself as he needed another director for scenes he was in (Noel Coward stars as the captain of this ship). He selected the editor David Lean - who went on to direct Lawrence of Arabia etc.

So this film stands tall as an important one in cinema history.

5 stars

OK so this is so-so is all ways - so-so script, so-so story, the usual so-so CGI effects etc. It has a stellar cast including Judy Dench (who no doubt is still hugging the large cheque). But all in all it left me a little bit cold.

But it's not that bad. A well-worm time-travel plot. A build-up to an improbably finale. A love interest.

A Brit comedian dons a good US accent to play the kid's father and the lead actor Asa Butterfield is well cast. Terence Stamp seems a bit miscast for some reason though... Not sure why.

I tire of fantasy and sci-fi - the way anyone can solve a problem by waving a wand or using magic powers is tiresome indeed and all a bit of a cop-out.

But watchable so 3 stars.

This is a spin-off from Harry Potter which I have always thought was massively over-rated anyway.

The difference here is that character does not seem to be the motivating force for the story - instead, it all seems just an excuse for endless CGI imagery - loads of fantastical creatures on screen most of the time. Maybe the makers of this movie should remember that in the classic Jurassic Park the dinosaurs were on screen for only 6 and a half minutes. Spielberg knew the anticipation and suggestion of dinosaurs would be more effective. Less is more, indeed. With this movie, more is less and it all gets very tedious indeed.

The plot is limp as a lettuce leaf. I never believed Eddie Redmayne as the character he played either - he seems miscast. And it's 2 hours long!

The female characters are better especially the mindreading sister. Best of all is the short stout moustachioed Polish-named fellow who works in a factory but has ambitions to start a bakery - HE is the reason I am not awarding this film one star.

Only watch this if you like yawning. One to watch for duty not pleasure.

This is a superb film - laugh-out loud funny. Also relevant to ANY era and timely now.

All about a politician having a breakdown really which makes him tell the truth, however offensive. Having taken out a contract on his own life he then changes his mind and wants to live - and so an almost Shakespearean farce ensues.

Halle Berry is the love interest here as well as Don Cheadle, I think.

The culture clash between genteel middle class white America and the black ghetto is lots of fun (though I didn't understand some of the slang).

Brilliant stuff. This is the 3rd time I have watched this film and could watch it again soon - it's that sharp as satire.

5 stars