Film Reviews by Philip in Paradiso

This is a very good thriller in the tradition of the genre. Frank (James Caan) is surprisingly plausible as a highly professional jewel thief who wants to settle down in life after one last big 'score': his aim is to leave his trade and start a family. All seems to go according to plan, at first at any rate.

The movie combines moments of intense and violent action with dialogues. The characters feel real and complex. Frank is an unlikely hero: in some ways, he is not a particularly appealing individual, and he is prone to violence. The film also shows, in a vivid way, how the criminal underworld and organized crime work: no one works independently, and the 'fence' plays a crucial role in such a criminal ecosystem.

The music seemed intrusive and exceedingly loud at times but, apart from that, I thoroughly enjoyed the film, which I recommend.

Allen Faulkner (Richard Burton), a former British Army colonel turned mercenary, arrives in London to meet a banker, Sir Edward Matheson. The latter proposes an operation to rescue Julius Limbani, the imprisoned President of a southern African nation who is due for execution by the country's current ruler. The film shows the preparation of the expedition and its unfolding, as well as its outcome and aftermath.

Thanks to the very good acting (there are several big names of 1970s British cinema, alongside R Burton) and the effective construction of the plot and its key characters, this is a very good and entertaining movie, which actually comes across as plausible in terms of its storyline. Ultimately, this is a man's world, where action and fighting predominate right through: this is a war film, in effect, adapted to the context of Africa in the post-colonial era.

The film is not a masterpiece, but it is very good. And the characters are not shallow or caricatural. I recommend it.

This is a good film, full of symbolic meaning about individuals and families 'disappearing' in Argentina, in the mid-1970s, right before the military coup that took place in 1976. The conformist, well-to-do, bourgeois classes of provincial Argentina are keeping quiet, while all of this is taking place, and getting implicated rather more than they would like -- willingly or not. There is a leaden atmosphere of fear and foreboding in the movie.

The film is well shot and does have the feel of the 1970s about it. The acting is good throughout, and highly convincing. The plot itself is quite simple, in fact, and rather linear. In conclusion, I found it is a good film, but it is also slow, and even very slow in places. This contributes towards creating this somewhat sticky, claustrophobic atmosphere that dominates the film. So, it is a good film, but perhaps not quite as remarkable as many critics have claimed.

This is a dark and very violent thriller featuring two police officers who decide to go it alone in the pursuit of financial 'compensation'. In so doing, they tackle an extremely violent gang of hardened criminals.

In some ways, the story is over the top and there is a certain amount of gratuitous violence that is quite shocking. The movie has also been criticised because it portrays 2 police officers who are not PC, to say the least. (A parallel has been drawn with Mel Gibson's real-life problems...)

What is appealing, however, is that absolutely all the characters in the film feel very real, and the acting is memorable (but for the near-robotic bunch of killers dressed in ninja outfits). You feel they could exist and their stories are entirely plausible. This makes the story interesting and is quite rare, nowadays, in that kind of thriller.

'The 12th Man' tells the dramatic and amazing story of Jan Baalsrud's escape from the Nazis during World War II. A Norwegian, he was part of a commando sent over to occupied Norway by Britain. Out of 12 men, only 1 survived: Jan Baalsrud. The movie tells his story, as he tries to survive, on the run, and cross into neutral Sweden. The Germans are making huge and persistent efforts to track him down, under the orders of a fanatical Gestapo commander: Jan Baalsrud has become a symbol of Norwegian resistance to the occupiers.

The film shows how he survived thanks to the help he got from Norwegian resistance fighters, but also from ordinary citizens who wanted to help and save him. It is a tale of endurance and survival, but also a depiction of a collective effort: the desire to resist on the part of the locals, against the will to crush them on the part of the Germans.

It is a relentless, yet remarkable film. A must-see. And the landscapes are breathtaking of mineral beauty as well as harshness.

This is a good heist thriller in the tradition of the bank robberies executed through the use of skill and intelligence rather than force and violence: the London-based gang tunnel under the bank from a nearby building to reach the vault where the safes are kept. The story is based on the 1971 Baker Street robbery, i.e. a true story, although the movie extrapolates quite a lot on the basis of the (limited) facts, giving credence to the rumours that have floated ever since the robbery itself as to what led up to it and who was actually behind it.

It is a good, entertaining film, but there is something a little bit predictable and formulaic in the acting, in the dialogues, and in the whole project. Somehow, the characters lack depth, even though much of the story actually is true...

It is not a masterpiece, but it's a good film and I would still recommend it, overall. I did enjoy watching it.

Dr. Bill (Tom Cruise) and Alice (Nicole Kidman) Harford live in New York with their daughter, Helena. Bill is a well-liked doctor for the rich, who loves his wife and trusts her to be faithful. One evening, they are smoking cannabis together, when she tells him about an incident during a recent holiday, in Cape Cod, involving another man. Bill's trust in Alice is shattered. There follows an oniric and erotic journey through the dark New York night, through the soft underbelly of the city.

The film, adapted from a 1920s Austrian novella, is one of a kind. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it, although it did remind me of 'The Damned', the masterpiece by L Visconti. The atmosphere, mixing strange encounters, bizarre experiences, unsettling dreams and troubling memories, also reminded me of 'Mulholland Drive' by D Lynch. The film is about what happens when you leave your comfort zone -- the comfort of your set ideas and established relationships. Things become dangerous and unpredictable: it may be exciting, but it's also scary.

The acting is good, the characters (including the minor ones) are memorable, and the music is haunting. It is a great movie, atmospheric and disconcerting. You will think about it for days after seeing it. And there will be many unanswered questions. It all makes sense, and yet none of it does -- like life itself, presumably, in the eyes of S Kubrick who, uncannily, died a week after they had finished shooting the movie, I believe.

In the mid-1980s, a serial rapist, sadist and murderer killed 10 women (young and old) in a provincial South Korean town. The local police force botched up the investigation and never managed to catch the killer, despite getting help from a more sophisticated detective sent over to assist them from Seoul. The movie tells the story of the police investigation and the gruesome murders.

It is a good film: rather than a conventional thriller, it is in the tradition of social realism in film, with the stress on antiquated police methods typical of those times, i.e. beating up suspects and, in effect, torturing them until they confess. There is no doubt that it is a realistic portrayal of 1980s South Korean society outside the capital.

I found the film slow in the 1st two-thirds, but the last third is more interesting, as the Seoul-based police detective starts coming to terms with the reality of the situation. I also found the film nauseating rather than thrilling, I must admit. It is not so much the accumulation of monstrous murders and dead bodies. It is, rather, the fact that absolutely all the characters, except the Seoul-based police detective, are so coarse, crude, uncouth, unsophisticated, ugly, violent, drunken, and frequently stupid: are South Korean provincial types really so hopeless, so crass and so primitive? Even the Seoul-based detective is not that smart, and his morals or work ethic are not that strong either.

So, a good film, but you need a strong stomach to enjoy it, if 'enjoy' is the right word. A bit like kimchi, if you have tried it: it is an acquired taste, in my view.

To end on a positive note: the killer was caught in October 2019, according to Wikipedia. He was in jail for murdering his sister in law and DNA analysis has linked him to the crimes depicted in the movie.

Qiao is the girlfriend of a mob boss called Bin: together, they enjoy a lot of power in Datong, an old mining town that is in decline. From what we can see, Bin and his motley gang are involved in gambling (they run a gambling den) and real estate (with dodgy deals). Things start going wrong when Bin and his crew are challenged by a gang of young bikers. (It is never clear who they are and what they really want, by the way.)

The film is a combination of social realism (with an insight into life in provincial towns of mainland China, today) and the usual topics found in a thriller (crime, violence, gangs, etc.). But the movie is, really, a love story: that between Bin and his girl, devoted Qiao. They are an odd couple in some ways. Perhaps due to cultural factors -- how do Chinese people communicate their love and talk about their feelings, if at all? -- one gets the feeling that those 2 are never quite able to actually express their emotions in an open and mutually intelligible way. There is something of the Greek tragedy about their fate and how they interact, in muted silence (or near silence).

As a thriller, the film is not a masterpiece: it is moderately interesting. As an odd love story, it is more interesting, despite the fact so many things are left unsaid, perhaps (and probably) on purpose. The combination of the 2 produces a slightly unusual feature film. Many film critics have described it as a masterpiece. I don't think it is. Had it been an American or European film, it would most probably have got more measured and more critical reviews. In some ways, the plot is quite simple and linear.

In a way, the most interesting aspect of the film is the insight it gives into life in a provincial Chinese city today. Overall, I recommend the movie, which will surprise you, or not, as the case may be.

The film dramatizes the nearly decade-long international manhunt for Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the September ‘11 attacks. This search, led by a stubborn and sharp female CIA officer (Jessica Chastain), leads to the discovery of bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan and the military raid that resulted in his death on 2 May 2011.

The film is long (2 1/2 hrs), but it should be pointed out that only the last 30 mins show the actual raid on the compound -- and in a highly realistic way. The first 2 hrs focus entirely on the search for bin Laden, showing how the CIA managed to track him down, also using torture in the process -- the early part of the movie, in this respect, is not pretty.

It is quite fascinating to see how the Americans succeeded in pinpointing the exact location of his residence, in Pakistan: this was no mean feat, considering the circumstances.

I thoroughly recommend this film, and the acting is good and convincing throughout. For the full facts: go to -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Osama_bin_Laden

The film (1976) describes what happened at the Battle of Midway, during World War II, in the Pacific Ocean. The Imperial Japanese Navy had been undefeated until that point and out-numbered the American naval units by 4 to 1, but the US carrier force prevailed over the Japanese. Midway came to be seen as a revenge strike by America after Pearl Harbour and a turning point in the war. The film stars Charlton Heston and Henry Fonda.

The film has been criticised for being overlong, predictable and not that memorable. I tend to disagree. It is not a masterpiece, but it is a good war film. It gives a good idea of how the battle was fought and will interest you, more particularly, if you are interested in WWII, war films and military strategy. It gives an interesting insight into the way decisions are made at crucial moments, up and down the chain of command, depending on the information available, and to what extent luck and timing can be decisive in naval warfare -- and in war in general.

Overall, I would certainly recommend this movie.

In the American West (1851), brothers Eli and Charlie Sisters are hitmen hired by a wealthy businessman, ‘the Commodore’. He asks them to kill a man named Hermann Warm. The movie shows how the 2 brothers -- killers who think nothing of shooting dead anyone they have been paid to eliminate -- track down H Warm and what happens next.

It is a good film -- a Western, which was directed by a Frenchman, oddly. Some twists in the plot are implausible and the story is a little bit too long, but the plot is good overall. If you like that kind of cynical Western, I don't think you will be disappointed. But it's not a masterpiece.

The film is billed as 'a comedy' but I don't think it is funny per se. This is a misnomer.

Set in Argentina, in the province of Corrientes bordering Paraguay, the story follows the half-English doctor, Eduardo Plarr (Richard Gere), who meets a range of people, including the British Honorary Consul, Charley Fortnum (Michael Caine), who is a colourful character and an alcoholic. Dr Plarr finds himself caught up in local politics and tangled up in a love affair that puts him in a difficult position in more ways than one.

The plot is very good, as it is basically G Greene's novel, adapted for the big screen. The acting is excellent insofar as M Caine (the consul) and Bob Hoskins (the chief of police) are concerned. However, I feel the movie is let down quite a bit by the wooden acting of R Gere, who is inexpressive and somewhat dull. At times, this means that the dramatic tension fails to flare up as and when it should, given the situations depicted, which means it is a good film, but not a great film.

Having said that, I recommend it, and not only if you are a fan of G Greene's novels or Michael Caine's acting.

The entire film focuses on one character -- a Danish police officer who has been posted to the desk of a 999 emergency hotline. Through him, we follow a case involving a young mother, who calls to say she has been abducted by her violent ex-partner. The action happens remotely, down the telephone line, as the officer liaises with colleagues on patrol and so on.

The suspense is unbearable at times and the plot is intelligently crafted. The police officer is unusually sensitive, one might argue, but the movie is, ultimately, about what it means to be 'guilty', as the title indicates, when things can be more complex and relative than one might imagine -- something that applies to the lead character himself.

A very good film you will not forget.

This is a classic in the Western genre, with a twist. For a start, most of the action takes place along the US/ Mexico border or in Mexico itself. A group of ageing outlaws are trying to achieve one last 'score' before retiring, and find that there are more options on Mexican soil than in Texas: the story takes place against the backdrop of the Mexican civil war (involving Pancho Villa).

The film was a sensation, when it came out, because of the level of graphic violence and the pile-up of dead bodies -- something we are used to today. The lead characters are actually depicted in some detail, so that they are not cardboard caricatures, with good acting, sharp dialogues and humour. The story is dark and the characters are cynical: there is no idealism here and the old West is dead...

What you will remember, ultimately, are the shoot-outs and action scenes, which are amazing, more particularly the attack on the military train, along the US/ Mexico border, which is remarkably well shot. The last piece of mayhem, at the end of the movie, is distinctly over the top and requires a certain suspension of disbelief, however.