Film Reviews by PV

This is not as good as ROYAL AFFAIR by the same director, also with the superb Mads Mikkelsen who makes any film (The Hunt) or TV series (Hannibal) watchable!

This is from a novel and I suppose it shows. Many authors now are keen (overly so perhaps) to include ethnic characters and show women being strong & independent, and this ticks those boxes. The Roma girl is great however and reveals the superstitions of country people all over Europe then.

It also has the biggest pantomime villain I have seen on screen since Alan Rickman in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. I mean really he could play the baddie in panto all Christmas long on the basis of his behaviour here! JUST this side of a cartoon character, but it's close!

It is fascinating as a story, set in 1755, based on truth apparently. The heath does not look like the heath I grew up near which was all gorse and broom and hawthorn trees, sometimes birch. The soil was sandy from an ancient shallow tropical sea, hence no farming interest. This is more heather moorland as in Scotland.

It is somewhat slow as a film, but intelligent.

4 stars

I rented this because it stars Tom Schilling, a great German actor who was in the brilliant Generation War (2013) though he looks much younger than he is (born 1982 so 24 here playing 14!). An advantage for an actor..

This film itself is Hungarian really and a bit of a mess - the scenes in WWII are by far the best.

I just did not believe Ed Stoppard was the grown-up version of Tom Schilling though - he sounded like a Londoner, no trace of a German accent which is silly. As is the relationship with the black London girl. As is a lot of the spy stuff and the end (no spoilers).

But the scenes in Germany etc are great though not a patch on a classic like DOWNFALL or GENERATION WAR.

3 stars

Disappointing and way overlong and, frankly, rather boring. yes it';s a Christmas movie and sentimental, on the same theme as DEAD POETS SOCIETY but way more tiresome.

I think based on a novel and maybe the book is better.

Honestly, I do not see why the supporting actress won an Oscar. Actually I do because the Oscars seems to always give that gong to plus-sized black women playing rather stereotypical big mama roles. Happens a lot and robs better performances by better actors IMHO. Happened when the actress playing Stan Laurel's wife in STAN AND OLLIE lost out to a woman of colour. It is racism really after all the #Oscarssowhite blackmail demands. Shame.

Half an hour too long. Just not enough here for a movie. The main character is dislikeable and not that interesting - watch BREAKING BAD to see what teachers can do! Or the original GOODBYE MR CHIPS or ANOTHER COUNTRY or IF.

Anyway, this is worth a watch but no more. Probably be on TV one Christmas Day.

3 stars. Just. I liked the Labi SIffre song at the end.

This is a stunning film in German - a disgrace it did not win the 2004 best foreign film Oscar (I suspect the Hispanic vote wone Almodovar the oscar for the mediocre The Sea Inside which is not a patch on The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (written by the great British screenwriter Ronald Harwood). I also think Bruno Ganz should have son the best actor Oscar for his jawdroppingly accurate portrayal of Adolf Hitler. Controversial for some as he is humanised BUT he was human, after all.

There is literally NOTHING bad with this film, It is perfect.

The only thing that comes close is 2013 German TV miniseries GENERATION WAR though that plays fast and loose with the truth, which is fine, for drama.

But this film Downfall is SO authentic and accurate - the portrayal of Hitler, the slippery social climber Speer, also Goebbels and his loyal Nazi wife (previously married to the boss of BMW) with all the children whose names started with H in honour of Hitler. That scene in the bunker is heart-rending.

I have watched this film at least 5 times and would do so again at any time. As someone who has researched and read a lot about the Second World War, I know who all the generals and characters are here, like Hitler's Adonis-athletic blond bodyguard, who was after 10 years in a Soviet prison loyal to Hitler until his death in his 90s. And all the others - their fates are stated at the end.

One of the top 20 films of the last century.

Essential viewing for all teens and children too. They can watch the horror of this and Schindler's List together.

This is a great watch esp the early episodes.

Not 100% sure all of this is true - inspired by truth but characters combined into those here, which are ticking the diversity boxes galore.

Not sure |I believe all the stories, esp the doctors. But maybe true. Certainly the level of duplicity from big pharma is shocking and true. Real-life footage at the end.

The timelines are handled REALLY well - so bravo for that. It flashed between various years because this story dates back to 1990s or even 80s and is still going. Legal settlements only in 2019. Many hundreds of thousands of deaths because of opioids, esp Oxycontin.

The actors are all great, esp the ambitious and unlikeable slimy toad who takes over the family firm and pushes opioids via the sales team. Everyone here is amoral at best, especially the corporates and big pharma and NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

I'd have cut two episodes though, jettisoned a lot of the relationship stuff, which is padding, often woke padding - no need at all to make this all about racism or sexism, SO many dramas do this now and it is tiresome. And anyway, the investigator in real life was NOT a black woman. Remember that.

The ending, well,. No spoilers but it sort of fizzles out BUT not sure what else it could have done.

4 stars

This film starts brilliantly - it took me a while to grasp what was going on, which is good! Think of the tedious film THE VILLAG by M NIGHT SHYAMALAN or the brilliwnt 2012 Italian film REALITY, the best ever film about the toxic effect of reality TV.

Not sure I BELIEVE the story but it is a great metaphor, an allegory, about how the poor are always with us and people always exploit others.

I can see why the Screenplay won at Cannes - its Catholic sensibility is there, with the main character Lazzaro is almost a Jesus character, or one based on Lazarus. Not a fan of quasi-spiritual stuff myself, but this could also fit into TIMESLIP drama territory for the second half. There is also a wolf here. No idea why.

Some of this baffled me especially later on when the film does drag,. hence the 4 stars and not 5.

But in general, this is a superb film and original. Watch with REALITY (2012). And THE LEOPARD (1963) also about the declining Italian nobility 9and there are plenty of Palazzo turned into hotels in Italy - i have stayed in a few). The Leopard (Italian: Il Gattopardo, lit.?'The Serval')[5] is a 1963 epic historical drama film directed by Luchino Visconti.

4 stars

This s a decent drama, sure. But it is ruined by the endless quest to ensure main characters are 50% female and many characters are black or Asian - as the extra interviews on disc 3 admit.

All very well BUT it is just not realistic. FYI in the UK 1940 there were just 6000 black people out of 44 million people in the UK. 8000 in 1945 due to GI mixed race babies.

I very much doubt there were evr a black female piano player in northern clubs - most were male anyway. Female singers yes but no way would a heavily pregnant woman be allowed to perform.

As for the later scenes on D-Day beaches - well a cockney Sikh in a usual British regiment is unlikely. yes, France had redhatted troops from Senegal BUT unlikely they would be looking after injured Brits. I would even go so far as to say portraying anyone of colour as angelic is racist in itself.

The more interesting characters are in Poland and Paris - the gay couple, doctor and Jazz pianist which is believable, as is the Martha Gelhorn-type US journalist (read William L Shirer or watch the TV drama about that US journalist in Germany then France until late 1940).

The Mrs SImpson style mother is a caricature. The romantic story was boring for me. The Polish and French bits way better.

Lots of ticking diversity ishooos of a list here, which does get tiresome,. Racis,, tick. Sexism, tick. And as per usual, the cocky women behave in a way women of then would not have behaved.

It would have been SO much better without the preachy woke lecturing and tickbox quotas. Far better WWII dramas out there. GENERATION WAR is the best, German one. BATTLE OF BRITAIN (1969 film). War films of 1970s and 60s. Downfall.

But it is watchable. 3.5 stars.

This is the sort of film which begins with a drunken discussion in the pub and is written on the back of a beer mat.

A WHAT IF... story - which I am sure was in science fiction short stories in the past, as was the I SEE DEAD PEOPLE concept and the village lost in time one. Very derivative stuff and magpie writer and director behind this.

Very silly, some absurd stuff and the reveal ending wordily explains stuff - like a bad episode of Dr WHo.

Watchable to a point but total hokum, and laughable at times.

maybe watch with the movie THE BEACH

I read about this so thought I'd rent it.

Tbh it could be ONE episode not 2 - loads of flab and filler here.

The main character annoyed me & is totally unlikeable.

As for the relationships, well I just did not believe some of them and wonder if the novel had them like that.

Not my usual thing, emofilms about cancer etc. Maybe more a woman';s film. I wanted to see the 80s flashbacks.

I felt there was a decent film in here trying to get out, but it did not in the end.

2 stars

I do not always like Stephen King adaptations but this is superb.

I think because I am involved in writing and have suffered targeted abuse by a deranged madwoman just like this.

It is really true to life re female psychopaths. Most TV crime drama and films manblame a lot, make the psychos male and the victims always young and female (and do not blame men for that as 80% crime novel readers and biggest TV/film crime fans are women).

The instability of this deranged woman is very true to life. Women like this really do exist and often play the victim to perfection, with what I call victim-signalling.

Possibly the best adaptation of a Stephen King book, with Stand by Me.

5 stars

I loved this. I watched the 1921 Danish version with subtitles. The option on the DVD Witchcraft Through The ages is the same whole film again, with a William Burroughs narration and a jazz score. I watched 10 minutes of that, but prefer the authentic Danish version with a score which tries as hard as possible to replicate what was heard at the November 1922 premier in Copenhagen.

Not a narrative film; more vignettes, a series of essays with still and moving pictures, in 7 chapters, some better than others. The actors are great and the costumes and scenes and special effects - theses are clearly all theatre actors and seem to be having a ball! The director plays the devil.

I loved the imagery - some so extreme TV would not allow it now. Reminded me of the best version of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT from 1930 in that. Just shows what priggish prudish hysterical puritans we have become.

One thing about this 1921 film is the medical belief of then which were 'modern' - a believe in HYSTERIA which it talks about as a definitive explanation of people behaving oddly. Our modern medicine has rejected that utterly of course. One little mention of the effects of THE WAR (1914-18 Great War of course) reminds us this was made in 1921.

Excellent and fascinating stuff!

I liked this and think I watched it in the cinema as a boy too. I watched it again recently and, though dated, it is fun and entertaining - esp if you likes cats. I found the dialogue hilarious at times.

BUT what makes it stand out today is how it is like a forerunner to ET. Alien on earth, has to go home, cue government goon squads chasing the cat from outer space and his new family,.

There is EVEN a chase sequence with flying bikes. At night. With a moon! Less emotion here than in ET, more humour, and a different 3rd act, but...

So even though many things influenced ET (Indian screenplay The Alien 1969; The Day The Earth Stood Still, classic 1950s Robert Wise movie), this MUST have done too - maybe it influenced the ET screenwriter.

This is basically ET before it happened - with added cat value.

I am simply stunned this won an Oscar and BAFTA for the screenplay, WHY? I noticed no stunning writing or character development - instead lots of stilted language in a French but sometimes English script.

I strongly suspect this was a #metoo win in the new woke Oscars and BAFTAs. Sad.

This is just tedious beyond belief. Something happens. Then we see the very boring French legal system at work. There is no tension. A married couple argue. A son is upset and there is a dog. And snow. I liked the snow. Not the people.

Was gonna give this 2 stars but relaly, why should I? The praise heaped on this like a snowdrift is baffling. ONE SAD STAR. The most boring film I have watched this year.

I had somehow missed this film, despite watching a lot of war and German Nazi movies. Thank goodness I found it.

Made by the director of THE WAVE a brilliant film too about youngsters who get caught up via indoctrination and brainwashing into conforming to extremism - this too made me think of the woke brainwashing of now, by education systems and the media.

The actor Tom Schilling debuted here - he was superb in GENERATION WAR 2013.

This film has a genuinely emotional pull, as its characters are well-written and there is plenty of action and events to give momentum.

as ever with such films I do wonder if it is true most Germans did not know of horrors being committed and how many knew and how much they knew.

Anyway, superb script, tragic story, and the stats at the end - there were 40 of these schools training hardline loyal Nazi boys at the end of the war, and of the 15000 who went from them to fight a forlorn battle with the Russians, half were killed.

Brilliant. 5 stars

I'm rather baffled by all the gushing reviews. I do find this director annoying as she seems fixated on Asian issues AND on promoting frankly racist portrayals of white British people, in between making dishonest TV dramas about the Raj.

I found so much of this TV drama territory - it could all have fitted in a TV drama.

I did like the father character, very MIND YOUR LANGUAGE caricature and the rest are cartoon characters, so 2-dimensional. Honestly, I lived through this time and can tell you there were no skinheads doing Nazi salutes except when Guardian hacks and photographers asked them to do them!

I can also say that kids in the 80s were NOT into the music of Bruce Springsteen at all - not one person I knew of any gender or race. People were into rock, indie, the Smiths, dance music yeah, some into emerging rap, the usual pop, Madonna etc. Bruce was for 30 somethings.

I hated the silly song and dance numbers with lyrics on screen and dances.

No idea why so many rate this highly. It is mediocre and also a massive egotrip, with the writer saying LOOK how Bruce helped me to be the genius writer I became, And the fawning FE college teacher makes me want to give this 1 star.

Not a fan of Bruce Springsteen music - Born to Run the best song, love the FRANKIE 1984 version. BUT ODDLY no BLINDED BY THE LIGHT song - Bruce wrote that and on his first album SO may have been a publishing dispute or someone wanted too much money.

Passable to pass the time, but honestly not that great. 2 stars just. One star for the MIND YOUR LANGUAGE Pakistani dad.