Film Reviews by PV

I enjoyed this. Very much of its time, though actually a tad dated in 1964 maybe - it's adapted from a mass market crime thriller novel - it's all a bit silly and stagey, like a page-turner novel or penny dreadful, but satisfies in its way.

The cast is interesting. The actress Isa Miranda about 57 years old here was a famous Italian actress, her career much helped by marrying an Italian film producer/director.

Dan Duryea an American actor in loads of popular post-war films and I liked the post-war connection with this exGI American in Britain.

Most interesting is young cop played by Barry Warren, RADA-trained actor who was in Lawrence of Arabia and various 1960s films then stopped acting. Sources state he had a sex change about 5 years before his death age 60 in 1994. "According to Sarah Miles' memoirs, Warren underwent a sex change operation and lived for five years as Claire Warren before her death in 1994"

All a bit hysterical and stagey, lots of unlikely coincidences to up the jeopardy and keep up the excitement - a B-movie really.

Gets a PG on Talking Pictures - in our prissy pofaced priggish hysterical age, especially involving the unshown death of a child (NOT a spoiler as it's in the description). We like in a New Puritan Age of Woke where universities stick socalled trigger warnings on old bones for archaeology students, and any old play with violence, possible sexism/racism etc gets flagged. Tiresome...

3.5 stars rounded up. A curiosity.

I suggest those who claim it's not suitable for small children maybe watch BAMBI, DUMBO or WATSREHIP DOWN, or 101 DALMATIANS - all very dark with death. KIDS CAN COPE WITH IT and should as it part of life. This hysterical overprotection of children is stunting their growth. Maybe take their mobile phones away and instead play them this film.

What irked me here is there is no real story. The plot is very weak after the initial inciting incident and first act. All very stylised.

it's all in a way I dislike BUT the worst thing for me is that sometimes animals behave authentically like animals and sometimes they behave like people, able to do people things. That inconsistency grates. Choose one or the other, not both!

As for the animals - lemurs live only on Madagascar; capybara in South America only; secretary bird in Africa only. Cats and dogs universal or maybe represent Asia and Europe in some metaphor/allegory. If so, it did not work for me. WHERE IS IT SET? Again, wooly. Temples look East Asian/Thai/Cambodian, so even more wooly.

This sort of thing is on-trend with wooly Buddhist soundbites, in the boy/mole/fix/horse Oscar winner short. Seems to work as this won best animated feature Oscar too. The environmental flood theme re climate change seems to have nabbed that.

The animation is impressive with cat moves and sounds authentic. So it's maybe best to let it wash over you...

Watch the short films on the extras - this film is a big budget feature remake of the 2010/12 short AQUA. A Latvian film copying Japanese style.

3 stars

I have nothing against arty films. Thought-provoking 2006 Norwegian film The Bothersome Man is excellent and - important, this - not BORING. I could not keep my eyes off the screen with that one or some arty Peter Greenaway or Derek Jarman films.

This? SO tiresome and painfully slow - I ENDURED it. I did not enjoy it. I did consider turning off after half an hour, my usual post Plot Point One decision. I did not. I wish I had.

This may well work as a novel. No idea. The sort of William Burroughs fantasy-horror-shock element can work in novels. But films are not novels. They need - REALLY need - narrative. STORY. Some structure and point to them. Some goal for the hero. Some point. This all felt utterly pointless to me.

No surprise that it's partly funded by FILM4 and BFI incl Lottery Funding. Hmmm...

I loved this. A rare colour feature from 1961, around the same time as THE TIME MACHINE, which is I think a British response to the monster movies from 1950s Hollywood, with classics such as THE BLOB, THEM and more,

I love dinosaur films and have watched a lot - and I can see this influence of this in both THE VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969) - which itself influenced Jurassic Park the film massively, esp the T-rex end scene but also others, as Spielberg has admitted - but also JURASSIC PARK 2, the movie. Ultimately all about the vanity of Man.

I thoroughly enjoyed it anyway. Though the model GORGO monster is hilarious, far too cute to be scary as well. I loved the scenes of London in 1960/1 too.

As ever, I research actors in these films. The boy is Vincent Winter who after being a child star worked as a production manager on such films as For Your Eyes Only (1981), Superman III (1983), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and The Color Purple (1985). Sadly died of a heart attack aged 50.

4 stars. A great Friday Night fun film to laugh at and with!

I see this had got middling reviews from most but personally I found it utterly hilarious - made me laugh out loud several times, which is rare!

The worry with sequels is always that they'll fall flat, but this doesn't - maybe because of the big 4 decade gap between the first film and this. In short, this sequel is not milking it as some do....

The first SPINAL TAP film was also the first mockumentary which has spawned a whole genre, incl THE OFFICE and more, so they were wise not to make a sequel sooner, and US and UK TV and film in effect did - a lot! Maybe too much now, as the omnipresent mockumentary format now tends to generate eye-rolls aplenty...

The best of TAP is both silly and profound. It was in the first film and it is here. Just take this lyric: "Gonna wear you baby like a flesh tuxedo/I'm gonna sink you with my pink torpedo". Sheer poetry. AND the songs are well-crafted musically and lyrically, as all who've written songs or are musical will know. It's hard to do and get right, even when playing wrong, or doing satire.

As a film in the extras says, this is really a love story, a bromance - and anyone who's ever been in a band will be able to relate to the escapades of Spinal Tap then and now. It really does nail it, but then these actors started as musicians too, real ones, in the last 1960s so art is imitating life a bit. Other funny music business movies include KILLING BONO and KILL YOUR FRIENDS.

I still marvel at how American actors can nail the British accent so well, though the very posh aristocrat Christopher Guest is British-American. They still all nail it totally, as does pop royalty especially Paul McCartney - Elton has done cameos galore before.

Let the film run on past the credits to see two EXCELLENT short extra films which do not outstay their welcome - I never knew SPINAL TAP started on TV in 1978 on a comedy show.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. Then watched some of the extras and found the MAKING OF fascinating but also the 2003 Oscar-winning short film HARVIE KRUMPET and realised that this MARY AND MAX is a remake of that, in so many ways. I recommend watching it (give the tedious allegedly acted-out live-action 'comedy' scenes at the studio a miss).

In fact, the films are SO similar re the characters and story that I am getting them confused and mixed up when remembering them! MARY AND MAX adds a New York US connection, I suppose, with HARVIE KRUMPET. Both have Jewish older lone male oddballs at their heart. To tackle mental illness and other social issues in a film without being preachy or getting all moral and judgemental is an achievement in itself.

Both films are in the tragicomedy genre with themes of a bittersweet nature and psychological development of the often loner/outcast characters; both are shot in greyscale stop-motion with Plasticine (invented 1897!) which Britain's Aardman studios in Bristol have made their own in recent years. I salute the patience of all these people - animation takes years and weeks just to film a second or two of footage sometimes. Not for me... only to watch, anyway!

The film relies a lot on the voiceover, this time by the late great Barry Humphries (Dame Edna Everage) and some top-class US actors playing the characters including the late Philip Seymour Hoffman who ironically died of a drug overdose in a New York apartment age just 46... The first HARVIE KRUMPET Oscar-winning short is narrated by Geoffrey Rush, so somehow this film maker has a knack of attracting top talent to his animations!

I recommend all who like this to watch 2016 ETHEL AND ERNEST - a more traditional drawn animation feature film by The Snowman;s Raymond Bridge which also deals with mental illness - that is as heartbreaking as this ultimately is.

I almost gave this 2 stars, but it is such a self-indulgent vain meandering mess of a movie it could've been something by Wes Anderson whose films I hate SO if you like those then this is for you!

There is so much flab and padding here, lengthy sequences (no spoilers, but if you like drumming and/or dancing, this is a film for you. I like neither).

The structure which I presume mirrors the short story by Stephen King is not original or groundbreaking as some seem to think. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote THE CURIOUS CASE OF BANJAMIN BUTTON in 1922 with a life lived backwards, and there was a misfiring movie version in 2008. I've read some King short stories on vampires and boy were they boring! Long, meandering and pointless, a bit like this forgettable film.

The initial story with its effects will be considered profound by some, not doubt, though goodness knows why as we are bombarded with climate emergency propaganda 24/7 these days.

The supernatural bit is tacked on, almost literally. It';s NEVER explained, not even a bit. Such things ring alarm bells with me - it;s a sure sign of a badly written story actually. Very common in fantasy films where a magic sword or something gets our heroes out of danger. Not buying it! Work HARDER, writer! Not for me.

1 star. VERY disappointing. A shame as a like Tom Hiddleston and can see him easily as the next James Bond BUT he's wasted here.

Good things about this documentary: the early footage of Chaplin-mania in 1916 and other early real-life clips; the radio interviews of Charlie's childhood friend recorded early 80s; footage of Charlie in London in 1960s and 70s - though I'd LOVEto see the original TV film of him visiting his old house, footage of which is here too, the small attic room he called home before his mother went into an asylum and him into a workhouse; details of how Charlie ONLY got his film break because a Keystone Cops actor left, so Canadian producer Mack Sennett telegrammed his New York people to find the funny actor he';s seen in the Fred Karno American tour of British music hall, asking for Champion, Chapin etc. A lucky break.

Bad things: the very prissy priggish pofaced puritanical #metoo manblaming of now, as if somehow a man is wrong to be sexual and fancy young women; the absurd claims Chaplin was gender-fluid and pioneered LGBTQRSTUVWX+ rights JUST because he put on a dress for some short funny films and did feminine mannerisms - it's called ACTING and COMEDY; the narrator is annoying and it seems it's a young black actress doing it - though the script is written by 3 white men - probably to tick boxes as BAFTA demands a certain % of BAME in all films now or they are banned from awards; the lack of ANY details of Charlie's older half-brother Sid, to whom he was so close; the clarification that Sid';s father was NOT Charlie's real biological father - Charlie never knew who he was, though a great TV doc years ago explored this, I think done by Richard Attenborough (could have been a fellow performer a one-off encounter in a tent, acc to a letter someone posted to Chaplin later.

It asks more questions that it answers really. The greatest rags to riches story in history with Chaplin's grinding childhood poverty and likely abuse in London - Kennington, Lambeth - and his remarkable life story and contradictions.

I'd recommend watching the BRILLIANT film CHAPLIN (1989) which does it so much better.

OK so the start of the extras (I only watched a bit of the first short) says that the man is the damsel in distress getting saved by the woman who now has agency, and is labelled brave, strong and independent for overcoming past trauma. Like most movies from Hollywood these days, it is infected with a nasty tang of wokery with added #metoo juice which all leaves a bitter and boring taste.

To say you have to suspend your disbelief to watch this to the end is the understatement of the century, and maybe even two or three. It is absurd, all of it. The flashbacks and the twisty, incredible, patience-testing plot. I asked myself WHY BOTHER. Why didn't they XYZ instead? No spoilers but really, WHAT A FAFF! And WHERE are the police?

As with most TV drama now, male characters can be one of two things - violent abusive pervy monsters, or, at best, clueless buffoons. ALL male characters here fall into one or t'other except to the sidekick bland two-dimensional man Henry she is dating, and her son (a typical trick to show us what a selfless GOODIE she is). If that couples chemisty were put in a chemistry set, it';s be invisible...

2 stars. Meh

The handheld camera work here and the dull grey colour palette make this 1970s-set story even more creepy. This is rural southern smalltown Germany, and looks bad enough - all grey and brown and hardcore Lutheran puritanical religiosity, so imagine how bad East Germany must've been!

The title Requiem is lame and does not describe the story at all. Surely something else could've been chosen?

I read some of the EXTRA pages - text from the director which were interesting and make this tragic tale sadder still.

For those wanting horror, there's The Exorcist, and for trashy loud horror there's The Conjuring series of movies and many, more more.

But none is as sad and tragic as this very bleak true story.

I really enjoyed this - a reboot of the ailing FINAL DESTINATION franchise whose later sequels to 2011 got progressively lamer, after the great fun first film.

The prologue here is just BRILLIANT - the first 20 minutes if 5 star stuff, reminded me of 1970s disaster movies like THE TOWERING INFERNO, and my own personal visit to the CN TOWER TORONTO complete with its glass floor!

After that, the film does sag a tad especially in the final act, but I remember the endings of these Final Destination films were always a bit abrupt and sudden (no spoilers).

Having said that, it's a great ride, and the best FD film since the first one imho.

Great to watch it on DVD as one can rewind and rewatch the fun sudden deaths. Also be great to watch in a packed Friday Night cinema or film night with friends at home. It's that sort of movie - do not think TOO much about the plot, of the timelines/ages of characters, or why some seem to suddenly vanish, or the pure hokum logic here. Just strap yourself in and enjoy the ride.

The film is dedicated to CANDYMAN himself, Tony Todd, as Mr Bludworth, who was ill with stomach cancer when he signed for the film (and he does look gaunt and ill), and was allowed to adlib his poignant final line:

"Life is precious, enjoy every single second. You never know when. Good luck."

4 stars.

I really wanted to like this. The thing is, it's not entertaining, funny or profound.

I watched the 3 sketches on the extras - shot on hand-held video, maybe sketches done before the film as some scenes rehearsed there. Tbh performance artist David Hoyle would have been better served by a short TV drama with this wafer-thin story, or maybe a stand-up spot, a TV revue? A feature film is just the wrong context for his talent imho. Which is why this falls so flat. I'd prefer to see Hoyle live really in a venue, doing an act. I dare say it'd work well too in a way this just does not.

The 18 certificate is just for the footage of porn on screens in the background sometimes, I think, as just flaccid male nudity on show from professional porn actor Ashley Ryder so this must have been an easy gig for him then as he does not have to DO anything much. he is way too old to be playing a teenager too,. The use of the actor's real names David and Ashley for characters is very meta and postmodern, but ultimately rather pointless and pretentious.

I kept watching to be honest to see the landscape on the Isle of Sheppey which I know well. This is filmed on the east side of the island around Leysdown where the amusement arcades are - I have visited that place just once age 18/19. However, at the western point of the Isle of Sheppey is Sheerness where I spent many happy childhood holidays in the static caravan by dad owned - not on a gated organised site like there (and no running water in caravans, a communal tap and toilets is what we had in 1970s and 80s). Now a Tesco carpark, next to a Napoleonic moat and not far from Bluetown by the docks where Charles Dickens lived 2 years as a boy - he based Magwitch from Great Expectations on a real case and a prison ship moored off the east of the island.

There've been a lot of found footage horror films now, ever since the Blair Witch Project kicked off the craze (and earlier movies to that too, though less well known). This is one of the better ones imho. As ever with horror films, one asked WHY DIDN'T THEY XYZ? But then if they left or called authorities there'd be no story...and/or a bigger budget.

It's clearly low budget, as are many horror films, especially those who use the haunted house trope. Some may be disappointed at the lack of gore or CGI/model monsters etc. But it's not that sort of film.

I wanted the ancient Greek demon story to be outlined more - there is no mention of Mormo anywhere in the script, not that I heard anyway. Mysteries are great, sure, and too much reveal can spoil a story BUT so can too much concealment and esoteric hinting at things and mysteries never expanded upon. I found that annoying anyway.

It ends abruptly in the framework of an investigation trawling through footage found on phones and digital devices. The first part of the film works best.

3 stars

I made a mistake. I watched this mess of a monster movie while comparing it to the original THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT from 1974 - a decent enough film with stop-motion monsters, as is THE VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969) which is where the last T-Rex scene in Jurassic Park comes from and other scenes too. My bad.

This is truly atrocious - I tried to like it, I really did, as I adore dinosaurs and dino films too. Some low-budget modern ones are great like THE DINOSAUR PROJECT - a British found footage dinodrama from 2012.

I laughed out loud several times. The acting is so hammy it could feed everyone on that tropical island for 65 million years and often so wooden they could build cities of houses with it too. The German WWI submariner is pure Herr Flick from ALLO ALLO, 1980s WWII TV sitcom. Unintentionally funny.

The CGI effects look cheap - the original Jurassic Park only had dinosaurs on screen (CGI and models) for 6 and a half minutes. The rest was building tension, sounds, rustling trees, impact tremors on a glass of water etc. Learn from that.

As for the plot? The 1974 original film's plot MADE SENSE despite the hokum. This? Even the actors look like they cannot believe they are spouting such badly-written nonsense. The producer of this has form - loads of cheaply-made monster movies etc, so obviously they earn cash on DVD releases.

Do yourself a favour and rent the 1974 THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT and 1969's VALLEY OR GWANGI.

The ancestors of birds today are dinosaurs, of course, and boy oh boy is this a turkey AKA a failed dinosaur.

I liked this, especially the first and second acts. The third? Well... no doubt a horror audience demands that sort of money shot. It spoils the film really though no spoilers!

I loved the way it was told from the POV of various characters, their point of views of the same scenes are reminiscent of arthouse movies & stuff like Short Cuts etc. This is common in novels but not so much in movies, esp horror films, so I LOVED that intelligence in the script.

Maybe the movie overall reminds me of the classic British film THE VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960) based on the 1957 novel THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS - way better than the 2022 TV series. The 1964 sequel CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED is also passable with an early multi-ethnic UN-style cast of kids.

Some have compared this to THE SHINING (1980) which I have always considered a massively over-rated movie. For a (male) teacher who's the victim of a witch hunt after false allegations just watch THE HUNT (2012) with the brilliant Mads Mikkelsen. Tbh I struggled here to 1) think a female teacher could be targeted as the one here - a male teacher, sure and 2) a teacher with a drink driving conviction and removal from another school would, in the UK anyway, be referred to a teaching panel and maybe banned from teaching for a while or for ever, or is able to return to teaching at primary school only with conditions.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977) seems to be references a bit here too. This movie is a real mish-mash of influences. I was also reminded of David Cronenberg's THE BROOD (1979) with Oliver Reed and maybe The Sixth Sense too. Kids are creepy, basically...

Anyhoo, the initial mystery is nicely weird, and the image on the film poster is excellent - coming up with an original LOOK, with those arms 'flying' works.

The plot may well be daft and lacks detail - lots of sly plants here about parasites early on but the viewer is left asking WHY? All the way through, to the end and beyond. WHY anything. WHY this? WHY that? Especially when a certain character appears...

You have to willingly suspend your disbelief a LOT by the end.

Anyway, I enjoyed it, especially the first half, so 4 stars. A decent watch.

And I see I gave the same director's earlier movie BARBARIAN 3 stars so...