Film Reviews by PV

The tone of this film is more Finnish than Russian, and all the better for it, though it is a co-production.

I had to seriously suspend disbelief here as what happens in the first act (no spoilers) would make most if not all Western women screaming and demanding police action. SO it could not be a film set in Britain then BUT things get wilder and laxer out east...

I have shared a trains sleeper carriage, Amsterdam to Berlin, 4 in a carriage, no security, which surprised me at the time (1990s). Now, with anti-Western Russian feeling, I doubt this 2021 level of friendliness would be possible, sadly. Russia as USSR has always hated independent travellers, does not hate foreigners but distrusts them, esp from the West (I have personal experience here, from childhood, having met real live USSR Russians visiting us from the age of 8).

I enjoyed the ride which is all a metaphor or allegory for the futility of existence really, and the journey being the point, not the destination. Nice and gloomy and typical Russian to be honest.

It's set now, but of course Russian trains are not at Western 21st C levels and the towns/cities visited are the sort of hellholes I am always thankful were not my home. THIS I though when a child I went to the USS for a week 3 days Leningrad which I liked (now Petersburg) and 3 or 4 in Moscow (didn't like it). So I DID the exact train journey this young woman does, Moscow to St Petersburg but the other way. It was 7 hours when I did it, with wooden seats (yes, really) and I seem to remember lunch given to us where we sat was a lump of rye bread and cheese of a sort... Very basic indeed. BUT it was USSR pre-Gorbachev. The landscape for 7 hours were entirely flat between Leningrad and Moscow, all snowy, and my young eyes looked at people trudging wearily through the snow, babishkas galore, as I thought: "Thank God I wasn't born here'. Tbh I have had similar feelings passing through parts of England and Wales, though I would never want to insult Norwich or Neath by naming them. LOL

Does it work as a film? Yes, for adults. Anyone wanting fast action or plots with lots of happenings, this is not the film for you. I really REALLY liked the use of extras and amateur actors - makes it all so authentic, that very generous but slightly scary of often drunk-on-vodka stoical fateful brave accepting Russian character.

I particularly liked the old lady the young Russian for some reason visits. An extra for sure, not a pro actress. I was amazed when she referred to her 15 year old self as being 43 years ago, which would make her 58. Only 58!!! She looked 78! That's what Russia does to you... the harshness, the poverty, the cold, the diet, the vodka...

Anyhoo, it's original and 'inspired' by a novel, it says, so not sure how closely it sticks to that source.

Surprisingly enjoyable to watch so 4 stars.

OK so British short story writer M.R. James does not get a credit here BUT his WHISTLE AND I'LL COME TO YOU (1904) is surely the source. I've read his many ghost stories and many still work. The classic NIGHT OF THE DEMON (1957) - which Kate Bush sampled for the Hounds of Love ("It's in the trees! It's coming!") - is based on his story CASTING THE RUNES. M.R. James was and is the master.

Always great to see Nick Frost in anything. He's not in the half-hour EXTRAS film much but that's well worth watching to hear from the British director (who's filmed GANGS OF LONDON a lot) and Canadian writer of horror films. And this is a solid horror that satisfies.

Imaginative deaths are always great 'grand guignol' fun - as in Final Destination, or old-school The Omen, I suppose. A clever conceit at its heart even though lots of stuff is never explained. But in horror films, you can get away with that! I liked the setting in a steeltown too, could be Ohio or West Virginia or similar, smalltown rust belt.

Yes, it's all hokum and updated to tick a few boxes re LGBTQRST+ and race, which is fine. It does get a tad bogged down in family and relationship dynamics in the second half and that loses the film focus a bit, but not enough to spoil it.

This is what I call a Friday Night film, perfect to watch with mates and takeaway/drinks, or in a packed cinema - which may be noisier than a busy farmyard but with horror films like this, and all the scares and screaming, who cares? Shakespeare, it ain't.

One of the best neat little gruesome horror flicks I've watched for a while.

WATCH through the end credits to see the Epilogue, a coda which may or may not work.

4 stars. SOLID HORROR!

The first half an hour of this was great, 4 stars. It got the balance right wing singalong and performance, backstory, character, establishing shots.

Then it all turns into a TV soap with songs, a tear-jerking melodrama punctuated by Neil Diamond songs.

He's a great songwriter, born at the right time, from a Jewish family and diamond is his real name (or probably the one given to his Polish grandparents at Ellis Island). I think he's always been bigger as an act in the USA< esp in the 1970s. As a songwriter he was lucky to live at the (long-gone) time publishers hired youngsters to write songs on a salary. He wrote Daydream Believer by the Monkees and of course Red Red Wine (number 1 for UB40 in the UK in 1983 and in the USA 5 years later, bizarrely). It's a song on his second album in 1967. UB40 only heard the reggae cover version before recording it.

The soapy melodrama was too much for me. Yes it's based on a true story,. Based. But the schmaltz is layered on with a trowel, and lots of it. Sure, screenwriters all learn they should up the ante, create obstacles to the goal, remember jeopardy but... you can overdo it. Here, some stuff is true, but I do not think there';s a soap storyline not covered here (NO SPOILERS). And of course the final act is all timed to coincide (NO SPOILERS).

As for the singalong parts. Maybe too many and on for too long. Not sure. If I liked the song, fine; though repeated shots of stage school kids showing off in the crowd made me close my eyes for some sections!

NOT a bad film at all. It starts as a 4 star film, original and inspired by truth (which I have looked up - the real-life Mike died age 55 in 2006 after banging his head in a fall, heart issues). AND the 2 leads can sing and the musicians can play - probably better than the real-life couple and band (which often happens - looking at you Lisa Minelli in Cabaret who was way better than Sally Bowles ever was).

A solid biopic. Not perfect, too long, too soapy and melodramatic, but great songs so 3 stars.

Gosh, this was a slog.

I was very annoyed by the vague historical setting, though the Inclosure Act led to events like this from around 1600 for 300 years.

Yet again, colourblind casting nonsense raises its ugly head - in 1939 there were just 6000 black people in a UK of 44 million, so how is it appropriate to featured 4 black people in a tiny village from centuries ago? As absurd as Lady Macbeth and other British films which do this, no doubt to tick dem EDI diversity boxes to be eligible for a BAFTA. WOULD it be seen as good to cast 'white' actors or Chinese ones as African warriors of the past, Zulus maybe? Of course not - the moral compass swings to the polar opposite for ANY drama set in Asia/Africa EVEN on the radio and EVEN for fantasies like the Lion King and Black Panther - but then all actors must be of colour as AUTHENTIC CASTING is demanding. Be consistent - do authentic casting for British/European stories too. It's all actually racism and deeply silly, People need to grow up & get real.

I hate using this word ever, but what this film is - is BORING. Annoying too, in its amorphous vagueness of time and place. It sometimes resembles a preachy sermonising political lecture, which reveals the authors very leftwing leanings - which is fine. But so much of this film seems to be bullying the viewer into cheering for the poor oppressed folk (NB MOST people were oppressed in the past everywhere in the world, including 'white' males who had no privilege whatsoever in the main).

It's based on a novel by Jim Crace I have not read but it was shortlisted for the Booker prize; I did like his short 2nd novel The Gift of Stones, fascinating glimpse into the transition between the Stone Age and the Bronze Age.

2 stars. Just.

I have not read this novel - I did try a couple of others by Camus when younger, but gave up. They, like many French films, are dripping with philosophical wisdom and existentialism - I may try to read L’Etranger now as an older reader.

Anyway, I really liked this film. The cinematography is perfectly monochrome, which paradoxically makes the dripping heat and humidity of sun-drenched Algeria even more real (watch the DVD extras to learn from director and stars' interviews that it was filmed in Spring, so not so hot, and filming in colour would have shown north Africa as cooler!). Perfect for the courtroom and prison cell shots too, all those German expressionist shadows a la Nosferatu and M.

I have not watched other versions of this novel so cannot compare. All I can say is that the actors are perfectly cast, with Benjamin Voisin perhaps too prettily magnetic for a role meant to represent a blank man unmoved by existential forces - and it is very VERY French on the philosophy as one would expect. Voisin is like the Alain Delon of now - watch his interview in the extras on the DVD. The character here is SO philosophically French, all casual shrugs, that at times I was almost yelling at him on the screen stuff like LISTEN TO YOUR LAWYER and JUST SAY WHAT YOUR LAWYER TELLS YOU TO SAY! (no spoilers). or even SAY YOUR THOUGHT THE ARAB WAS GONNA GO FOR YOU WITH THE KNIFE. But no, that's be far to pragmatically British LOL!

Some may be confused by time shifts and ambiguity of dreams/reality so do not look away or lose concentration - but for me, it was a mesmerising experience. I am unsure if the novel concludes things more solidly but do know it has a close first person point of view. Perhaps the story loses its power a bit by the director here using multiple points of view? I'd also say there could be pointers on screen as to the date - which is 1938/9 as the DVD extra interviews reveal.

AND I was not a fan of the glib using of The Cure's Killing an Arab over the end credits, despite knowing the song and having watched the band like at Glastonbury many moons ago. It jarred badly IMHO with the overall feel of the film.

Do watch the DVD extras, two early 1990s short films by the director and illuminating interviews with the director and the two main stars including Voisin.

Also, for those who want to know more about the French-Algerian relationship, watch DAYS OF GLORY (2006) a great French film about north African Arabs/natives and the 'Pieds-Noirs', white French of European descent who were born in Algeria during the period of France colonial rule from 1830 to 1962. Most departed for mainland France during and after the Algerian War of Independence). Britain GAVE up its empire; France did not - it fought for it, causing the Viet Nam war in French Indo-China and that Algerian War.

One line in the film made me laugh. The dead Arab's sister says his killer should 'go home' so the hero's girlfriend says 'this is his home' at which the Arab sister laughs. Hmmm I wonder if you told all the north African heritage folk in France to go home (to Algeria etc) what you'd get called. BUT this does raise issues of nationhood, loyalty etc.

Watch THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (1966) and often cited amongst the best films ever made anywhere to see the later events that happened post WWII in Algeria.

Not perfect, but I was enthralled, so 4 stars.

For me, this is probably the weakest of the films with wonderful stop-motion effects by American-British Ray Harryhausen (1920-2013). Watch the 1958 Seventh Voyage of Sinbad film and the rest in that series, Jack the Giant Slayer (1962) or classic Jason and the Argonauts (1963) to see his best work.

This is passable, and Herbert Lom (1917-2012 Czech-British) is always wonderful. He looks older than 43 here and nicely underplays the role. Watch him excel in so many films, The Lady Killers (1955) as the villain is perfection. Lom spoke many languages and was, bizarrely, the first actor to play the King of Siam in the King and I on stage; he was replaced by the Russian Yul Brynner! No Thais, nowhere, mister! The authentic casting demands of now would never permit either to play that role. Pity.

This film just lacks a certain something for me. The acting and plot are fine, and one can imagine the eyerolls of the sisters at the two women doing the cooking and housework LOL (to be fair as someone said, most of these old adventure novels had no women in that AT ALL, so this was progressive for 1961!)

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1955) also features a Captain Nemo and stars Peter Lorre.

Not bad and worth a watch, just for the Ray Harryhausen special effects, Herbert Lom, and the gender politics comedy! Interesting start too in the US Civil War (and based on truth and balloons were used during it, though not for travel, but to see across the landscape to enemy positions).

3 stars.

I enjoyed this. Not a brilliant film, or profound, but just roll with it and go with the flow, breathing in the lavish costumes, sparkling jewels and lovely countryside and castles/mansions with your eyes, and you'll enjoy it.

I knew about Paget, partly from antiques shows, and he's quite the most famous person connected with the Welsh island of Anglesey (Ynys Môn in the Welsh language commonly spoken in rural and north Wales) - Lemmy from Motorhead is maybe the 2nd most famous as his preacher dad moved there with young Ian who must have stood out with his English accent in what is now a very monocultural Welsh-speaking rural place, reliant on tourism (often from nearby north-west England, Liverpool etc).

Biopics need a focus, a structure - so they need 3 acts, plot points, jeopardy/dramatic tension, and a baddie to fight. All this is here, some more effective than others.

What grates and really annoys is the parachuting of a black girl into this story. There was not one. Even now, Wales is 94% white and Anglesey almost 100%. BUT to get FFILM CYMRU funding and BFI options, they now demand (blackmail...) film producers into focusing on certain themes (race, gender etc) and all productions MUST have X% of BAME faces and women. Fine, in theory, In practice, it spoils things. Only one colourblind casting face parachuted in from the woke skies here. BUT WHY? No reason for it APART from getting state funding and being able to get nominated for BAFTAs. Not as bad as LADY MACBETH (2016) but... Predictably the baddies are all white males...

Having read up on Paget's life, I also realise the stuff with his ally cousin wife in nonsense too. In reality she left him after 6 months. BUT to get funding, films now must have 'strong women' characters. It's forced and wrong and silly.

So, apart from that eye-rolling wokery, is it a good film? Yes, overall. Not brilliant, though and not profound, despite claims of making Paget a transgender hero for our times. However, possibly the strongest thing is the lavish costumes and jewels, though the actors in main roles do well too, esp the one who plays the entitled pampered aristocrat himself. Not sure if I can quite believe how tolerant the locals were too him - he had power and wealth, and spent his cash in their shops, so... no wonder they were friendly to him.

Almost 3 stars but 3.5 rounded up. The landscape is lovely in Wales too - all filmed in the north of the nation, produced in the south.

I REALLY liked this. A wild ride, with a large cast of characters - each with a different director (watch the MAKING OF extra) woven together as a tapestry in the edit suite after shooting. I liked some more than others, loved the backstory of the 2 former East German (GDP) soldiers from 58 years before. Others worked less well.

For those expecting a huge CGI-fest of end-of-days burning hell, this will be a disappointment. It's character-based, all about these people's lives in the days before the meteor hits and their backstories.

The 1979 film METEOR comes to mind, of course, but also all end-of-days movies from 28 DAYS LATER (and the less good 28 YEARS LATER and the truly awful BONE TEMPLE) though that has zombies, as does the wonderful GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS. The 1970s BBC TV plague drama SURVIVORS was terrifying at the time; the pc tickbox 2008 remake not so much. Thankfully this German TV drama is not woke, as a UK version would be. A Turkish cop backstory works. Nothing is grafted on to tick boxes though, as UK TV does as standard.

This is basically a disaster movie, so such 1970s classics as THE TOWERING INFERNO or THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE come to mind - a group of characters who have to make moral decisions, to stay or leave, to be selfish or not. The theme of the selfish gene v altruism is what it is all about.

What I did not like about this: 1) the agenda that it's Europeans seeking to leave Europe as refugees rather than people trying to come to Europe from the rest of the world. It's eyerollingly obvious BUT not hammered home - this is no preachy woke lecture sermonising at us like some finger-wagging nanny as so much UK TV drama is.

2) the nudity and sex scenes. Now, I am no prude - when nudity/sex is necessary then fine. However, here it was gratuitous at times - would the drama suffer if some party scenes were cut out. No. So why include them? To shock? The EXTRAS filmlet has the showrunner admitting as much. Also, I have no problem with full frontal male nudity, but why was it not balanced with full frontal female nudity? Gender equality, purlease!

So, one star taken off for the abuse. Otherwise, I seriously enjoyed this wile ride, and the deep digs into character the plot allows, however unlikely and conveniently neat some bits are. And it helped me improve my German!

The music of the opening credits is superb, original score BUT clearly based on Handel and maybe Purcell, very English then, possibly Bach. The graphics also fit so well. I usually fastforward through credits. I watched this every time, for 8 episodes. It is truly beautiful. One of the best since TV drama VIKINGS.

So 4 stars. 4.5 almost.

There COULD be a sequel, the aftermath....

At one stage in this film a character says "I'm lost." You and me both, pal!

This is a confusing film, ,maybe purposefully so. It's post-modern. Do you see? Ha ha.

The wafer-thin plot is tacked on to give it some structure at least, but much is unexplained. That makes it baffling and all very MEH.

One problem here is the viewer does not care about the characters - a problem if one goes missing or worse. WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

The tacked-on ending (NO SPOILERS) seems an excuse to indulge in exotic dancing. The scenery looks great - mostly it takes place in a very Germanic forest.

Messy post-modern slop then. Enjoyable? Me. Good for those who're trying to learn or improve foreign languages as there are several spoken here - German, French, Spanish.

1.5 stars rounded up.

I actually really enjoyed this - it made me laugh out loud several times. Some cracking lines in it.

It's all played deadpan, and yes, it has cartoon character goodies and baddies. BUT WHY NOT? It is what it is, and has no pretentions otherwise.

Some classic scenes although I was sad they did not reference somehow the Jon Voigt scene from the 1997 Anaconda movie where he's in the snake's mouth slowly getting digested and gets thrown a gun with just one bullet in it.

All very silly and hammy, but great fun and hugely enjoyable and entertaining. The story works re pace and character arcs and the self-referential bits about lots dreams gives it some emotion at least. Tbh the most disappointing bit was the CGI snake - somehow I expected more. That Jon Voigt scene...

Watch until the very end to see updates on all characters. Huge fun!

Hence 4 stars.

I enjoyed this. More that the famous weepy OUT OF AFRICA from memory, though that's from 1985, so...

It's a fascinating tale, how Britain let Jewish refugees escape Germany to go to its colonies. This happened with some going to Singapore and India too, as Tom Stoppard and his family did after they fled Czechoslovakia. Of course, Germans and Italians too had to be interned - we were at war, and alone (USSR was friends of Nazi Germany until May 1941 and the USA only entered WWII when bombed at Pearl Harbour December 1941. The UK only ended paying back the USA for its war loan in2006, so if you paid any tax before that, you helped repay it!)

The BIG plus with this film is that this all looks and feels authentic, perhaps because it's a fictionalised autobiographical novel from Stefanie Zweig (1932-2014), who grew up JUST like the girl here in Kenya. It's basically her life story.

What I did not like about this film was the very romantacised view of the native Kenyans - which sugar-coats what could be a brutal culture, and often with intra-tribal fighting. Some references here to polygamy and how they treat old, ill people. But... I always argue romanticising such people of colour is as bad as demonising them. Anyhow, the portrayal of white Brits is often negative here, though it was Brits who saved this family. I'm sure some farm owners were nasty brutal racists but no more than native landowners of those of other nationalities. Interestingly, Kenya now is very corrupt, with a hereditary elite in charge. Progress?

To watch a great film about how brutal African cultures can be, watch THE WOUND (2017) a South African film about native cultures.

Interestingly, there were 25000 black people in Nazi Germany even during WWII, compared to just 6000 in the UK in 1939 (8000 in 1945 due to GI babies...) Not a lot of people know that!

An interesting addition to films about Jews fleeing Nazi-ism before, during and after WWII.

4 stars

I did not expect much from this film but actually really enjoyed it and was so hooked I did not notice time passing - the magnificent scenery and colonial-style weirdness was visually impressive, and the dialogue is crackling and cutting at times. I already knew about the fossils trade in that part of the world courtesy of David Attenborough haggling for a trilobite on some TV show years back, but it was interesting to see it explored as a backdrop to the story nonetheless.

I guessed it was from a novel instantly - by Lawrence Osborne (b1958), a poshboy upper class British writer who';s lived a nomadic life in many countries incl Morocco (a bit like posho rich kid William Burroughs and other 20th C GRAND TOUR of sex n drugs types).

One point I think is missed by some is that this is a satire of upper-class privileged types - and as the author is from that set himself, he can accurately satirise them albeit in an OTT way. The City traders, ladies and gentlemen of leisure, the hippychick greenieweenie posh totty, the druggies, the camp ruling class establishment queens living spoilt silly lives,they all ring true. The ONLY thing that is not realistic is the complete lack of black/brown characters in that set - go to ANY famous public school like Eton and you'll see 25%+ faces are not 'white' now.

Some dialogue is memorable, probably taken word for word from the novel. The acting is believable, and the characters. Matt Smith does well and Ralph Fiennes is perfectly cast as the cynical world-weary alcoholic. I guessed the ending at the start, but so what? The ride was enjoyable if not joyful.

I'd advise everyone to watch the excellent 2023 Moroccan movie HOUNDS which depicts city life, complete with drinking alcohol, Western clothes, sex, which many wrongly assume do not exist in Muslim countries as they're so used to seeing hardcore Pakistani Muslims praying 5 times a day now in the UK and promoting the sort of ascetic miserabilist devout Islam that exists in villages and rural areas only in many Muslim countries really.

4 stars

This starts and develops well, and pay attention to events replayed from various points of view with no signposting. I liked that. Some movies do that and baffle the viewer - it's skillful to do it well as here.

However, the third act is silly, I thought, and the character arcs of some vanished too! NO SPOILERS but the end is too neat for me.

This is NOT a horror film or even a thriller. More a social drama. A subtle one, which touches on some taboo subjects such as sexuality.

THE TEACHERS' LOUNGE is a 2023 German film with similar issues BUT of course the culture there is more similar to ours in the UK. Japan has its own traditions and behaviours - very quiet students in my experience, obedient, so this surprises at times.

I did chortle at the way a kid from a single parent family is unusual in Japan. Having 2 birth parents nis almost a novelty in such British schools, as is an all-white class. No ethnic diversity in Japan yet then...

3.5 stars rounded down as that third act let the story sag and meander too much for my tastes.

I LOVED the Norwegian film SICK OF MYSELF by the same writer/director, by far the best satire on the pill-popping age of now (whether it's anxiety or weight loss pills). It's like a DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS for our age - a cautionary tale. I loved DREAM SCENARIO too despite the fact I usually hate Nicholas Cage.

This bears the hallmark of sly intelligence in all the films of Kristoffer Borgli. However, it does not reach their heights of his previous two films. I think that is because, for me anyway, this is all very American & New-York-based, with 2 lead actors chosen for their fame perhaps - though they act fine - to attract a younger audience. Not sure.

I did not quite believe the relationship somehow. Perhaps because I doubt an art gallery curator would behave as he does or fall for this mixed race girl - who imho is actually not that attractive. Anyway, that's just me.

I have zero interest in wedding movies either. I mean, why should I care?

Not sure I believed all the plot developments, the first which leads to the wedding going off the rails. Hated the ending (no spoilers). I could not believe that or some events.

Some decent jokes re Brits/Americans, though it never quite rings true for me as a story, or perhaps I did not believe the way characters reacted to events and news (no spoilers). This is the USA, where you can but guns in Walmart, remember! Not sure. Some clever imagined scenes and quick-edit cuts n fun too, which lifted the film from a rather pedestrian wedding-themed TWENTY-SOMETHING soap.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Slowbeat says it all. I stuck with it, enjoyed the beautiful Greek island scenery and was interested to read in the end credits that some of it was filmed at Ostia Antica, the former Roman port (now 2 miles inland) half an hour by train from Rome. Great place to visit, more compact than Pompeii.

Definitely not a film for kids of those lacking patience - put on the subline JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1963) or a SINBAD film for that.

I did enjoy it, with reservations. All a bit soapy for me, family relationships. Reminded me a bit of TV drama VIKINGS and Ragnar's journey. probably a good add-on film to the major big budget Odyssey movie.

The latter's caused controversy by casting a black woman as Helen of Troy (absurd for an age that valued very white fair blonde blue-eyes girls most of all), and this also parachuted those with sub-Saharan African features into this Ithaca, an island to the west of Greece near Corfu. WOULD there be so many black African-origin faces there 3000 years ago? No. Maybe the odd one. For those who defend this colourblind casting, fine, but be consistent - so let's see black Chinese emperors and Indian sultans then, and white ones, and maybe white ginger Zulu warriors and Chinese ones, with ed Sheeran playing Nelson Mandela and Lenny Henry and Idris Elba playing Samurai. OK? I hate this colourblind casting cult, makes me wince ESPECIALLY as the baddie is, yep, you guessed it, a very Nordic white blond man. Sigh...

The director seems to make very stagey films, which perhaps should be drama-documentaries on BBC2 or Channel 4. I half expect some TV presenter in a sunhat to pop up between scenes explaining the historical context, arms flailing as they do that slow walk to camera they learnt at TV presenter college...

to me, it felt like an Italian film - I see it's a UK/France/Greece/Italy coproduction but most cast and crew are Italian, from the names.

I enjoyed the climax. But even I, with my well-trained attention-span, found the prelude wearing at times... and I do confess to clock-watching! The third act is great though.

3 stars.