Film Reviews by PV

I do not work in an office, but I have. This film nails the hellish awfulness of corporate office life - which so many endure (I do not, thankfully).

No doubt those who wrote this script have. The oppression and repression of office life, the faceless inhumanity of it all, the pointlessness. The usual obedient drones loyal to the company. The stuff of nightmares.

Oddly looks old-fashioned even though 1999 - how tech has changed since then,. How woke diversity box-ticking has ensured these issues are preached in every modern movie. Shame.

Watch this instead.

4.5 stars rounded up

This is a watchable, crude, lewd movies - a typical fish out of water, generation gap trope. But it is funny. I especially liked the satire on the world of the internet and Silicon valley busineses, and its contrast with the traditional world. Some funny one liners.

Bryan Cranston was sublime in Breaking Bad and is perfectly cast here, as is James Franco - a believable internet millionaire. The minor characters can also be fun.

A film like Game Night is similar in tone.

Get the popcorn in to watch on a Friday night.

3 stars

OK so this film is more propaganda than fiction.

Despite claims, socalled far right terrorism is not a major issue in any European country and nowhere near the equivalent of Islamist terrorism - the stats for that are terrifying. MI5 says there are 50,000 ticking Islamist timebombs in the UK alone.

Add to all that one-sided propaganda, repeating the old trope of perpetual victimhood, this film is way too long and muddled.

Watch FOUR LIONS and not this. One star

Firstly, I'd like to say the usual subtitle selection did not work on the disc - I had then to work out how to go into the DVD player options to choose subtitles, which meant i watched the whole thing in Italian with English subtitles as I did not select GERMAN as audio. be warned.

This is directed by the foremost female German film director. Fine. But it backs focus and so, despite come decent scenes, is not memorable as characters are often confused as is the plot.

It is not bad, but there are far better films about WWII and Jews in Germany than this.

3 stars. Just

I was not expecting much from this, BUT it was that rare beast - a modern Hollywood film which actually make me laugh and laugh out loud at that - some cracking one liners in a script sizzling with fun and OTT characters, all well-drawn.

Yes the plot is unbelievable and silly BUT IT IS A FILM - show me a Hollywood movie with a believable plot.

It's a comedy, it made me laugh, it as fast, zippy with lots of action and some cracking lines with the social satire - on race and gender too.

I loved it and would watch it again right now. 4.5 stars. Perfect for a Friday Night crowded cinema.

The final parts of this film are SO ludicrous that you feel swindled for caring about the movie until that point. It really is so unbelievable - almost cartoon character level.

NO SPOILERS but the ending was cringe-worthy wokery at its worst.

The first half of the film works BUT this is based on a debut novel (by Nicholas Searle) who writes thrillers, not relationship drama. And it does rattle along, with that 180 degree handbreak turn as designed right in the middle of act 2. Tricky and silly, and you could almost hear the author working backwards from the ending as he drew a diagram of the plot on the wall. Alarm bells sounds for me as soon as the Tovey character mentioned he was doing a PhD on Albert Speer which was SO random I knew something as coming and I was not wrong, ad we travel to Berlin (supposedly a random holiday destination choice for an old couple. I mean, SERIOUSLY? I like Berlin, but...)

The person I felt most sorry for in the film was the Ian McKellen character which was probably not the author's intention. The very loud ticking of metoo feminist agenda boxes was annoying. In WWII rather a lot of people died and got abused. A clumsy teenager is just that though well played by Spike White, the way his behaviour changes suddenly like that was not credible, like much of the backstory. It all seems very influenced by the TV drama series Spooks to be honest.

Some class actors and acting, though Russell Tovey yet again plays a gay character - no doubt authentic casting - but Ian McKellen plays a straight character (not authentic casting). Think that through, people and colourblind casting - all riddled with contradiction.

The requisite serpentine thriller plot with red herrings etc, But the way The Good Liar plays out the third act feels like a hoodwink in itself. Start watching this movie and you follow characters for at least half the film, , only to have odd backstories suddenly revealed for which there is no preparation or foreshadowing... Hence an inability in the viewer to suspend disbelief.

but hey, worth a watch though 2.5 stars rounded up.

OK so this is low budget stuff, mostly set in a bar with various people relating shaggy dog stories. But then I have seen Hollywood movies do the same, with multiple flashbacks and the issue of how reliable - or not - storytellers are being central to plots. Tricksy scripts can be deeply annoying and unsatisfying, however, irrespective of the film budget.

It's NOT BAD - all a bit of a damp squib, to be honest. Also it is confusing, and nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is. This probably was a stage play or should have been maybe.

Ticks the boxes a bit. The main character is played by RJ Mitte who plays the disabled son in Breaking Bad - like that character he has cerebral palsy (is such authentic casting REALLY always necessary? Maybe people can try acting?). All good so far BUT what that character has supposedly done and the relationship with his father etc would rather suggest he is able-bodied. I found that clunky. In acting, appearances matter a lot, re disability, race, gender - pretending they do not is silly.

But actually, this may be the first film I have seen since Lawrence of Arabia which features not ONE woman or female character at all.

Not one to watch if you're after gory horror and violence really (watch TV drama Hannibal for that). But passes the time and some nice writing as well and character development.

So 3 stars

This is a 2005 British film which delves into the world of the underclass and feral drug-taking youth - a bit like later films Eden Lake and Attack the Block. It is mostly derivative of A Clockwork Orange and various European films, especially French (Maybe why it did well at Cannes 2005).

It is clunky at times, with random scenes added to colour in the backstory of characters. Not sure if they are needed or wanted.

Ironically, for a film which wants to contrast the class between the working class/underclass/'chavs' and the middle-class main character (the actor Daniel Spencer who plays him seems to have vanished though he was likely chosen for his cello-playing skills in the first place), and then with the upper-middle class TV chef and his superior wife, it ends up depicting massive stereotypes of all social classes! Some political points are rammed home hard. That can feel preachy.

This film is a tough watch, so be prepared, I preferred it to Son of Saul which tells the same or a similar story - based on a book by Mengele's assistant doctor, a Hungarian Jew, though that account has been disputed by some Jewish historians.

Most witnesses were murdered, and that doctor a rare survivor - though he died of a heart attack in his mid fifties a decade after the war.

It can be a difficult watch at times. But all the better for that in educational terms, It is an accessible film and I'd recommend showing it to all schoolkids.

The on-screen information and the beginning and end of the film explain who people are and what happened - I researched some individuals online after that too.

Nothing else to say, Watch it. 4.5 stars rounded up.

This brilliant films tells the often-forgotten story of Norway in WWII.

Invaded by Germans in April 1940, the allies retook a town before finally being defeated - BUt that did inflict severe damage on the German navy which was weak anyway, and so was one factor of many for Hitler decide not to try and invade Britain in summer 1940 or the next year. Every little helped! The Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square London is an annual present from Norway to Britain for our help in WWII and we are not both proudly out of the EU too!

Watch THE DAY WILL DAWN, 1942, a British film about events which then were just 2 years old! That shows the history. Also watch THE KING'S CHOICE 2016 about how Norway';s king escaped to London where the free Norwegian government was based.

This is a tragic tale, and the 12th Man of the title is the only of 12 to survive. It is an almost incredible tale or survival - and very fitting to watch in winter and there is a LOT of snow and ice in this movie!

Jan Baalsrud escaped Norway when it was taken over by Nazis and the puppet leader Quisling. Eventually he made it to Britain where he joined the Norwegian Company Linge - a unit to train Norwegians to sabotage the Nazis (run by SOE). In early 1943, he and 11 others embarked on a mission to destroy a German airfield control tower at Bardufosss. Operation Martin, was compromised when Baalsrud and his fellow soldiers, seeking a Resistance contact, accidentally made contact with a civilian shopkeeper who ran the same store as their contact. Fearing for his life and suspecting it was a test by the Germans, he reported them to the local police office, who notified the Germans.

So a tragic tale. A shame the man in real life only got an honorary MBE, the very common medal awarded to any and every grime rapper these days, it seems. Sad. I'd award him and the Norwegians who dies far more.

4.5 stars rounded up.

I sort of liked this film because it was different. The animation is NOT Disney so may not be what kids are expecting. I liked it though - it was different.

I liked the dark side - but in our hyper-sensitive age, some adults (not kids) may panic that it is too dark for kids. Read some fairy tales so see real horror though.

This clicks in to the very mainland European Krampus myth which is essentially Germanic - this is Danish.. next to Germany.

I liked all the snow and ice, and the plot just about carries it. Based on a book - and so many great kids' books come from Scandinavian writers (incl Denmark, Norway, Sweden)

Yes, lots if magic in the story - rather than logical plot points, And very derivative but not as much as A Boy Called Christmas (another Father Christmas backstory origin tale and just as silly) which maybe had 100+ times the budget of this.

So 3 stars

I rather enjoyed this film. Interesting to have a story set in the 17th century when Cromwell was Lore Protector - reminded me of Witchfinder General a bit, and good to watch Richard Harris in Cromwell too before watching this. Knowledge the that age will assist understanding and enjoyment, for sure.

Always like Freddie Fox as an actor and Charles Dance here too. Believable characters, if the Libertine Levellers storyline goes a tad too far - not sure I believe 17th century women would behave like that.

Yes, the third act does tend to jump the puritan shark a bit, when it all becomes a tad cartoon character - and the feminist agenda becomes loud instead of subtle. This unnecessary act also makes the film plodding and overlong.

And not sure about the music, as composed by Henry Clay the writer and director (of this and only 2 other films, horrors, in 15 years). And he did not write Beethoven;s Ode to Joy either at the end (though stating he arranged it gets a higher % of royalties - just as Paul Simon re Scarborough Fair or Alan Price re House of the Rising Sun).

3 stars. almost 3.5.

It is a fascinating but awful fact that 97% who committed atrocities in Nazi Germany and on their behalf never faced justice - most SS officers and Waffen-SS squads like Einsatzgruppen who slaughtered in the east were never arrested, tried or punished. Those at Nuremburg were the tip of the iceberg and many of the guilty such as Albert Speer got just 20 years in prison then got rich writing about their time with the Nazis. Speer died in London in 1981!

But then it is always the same. Most aristocrats were not guillotined in the French revolution and most kept their lands; ditto in the USSR and all the atrocities committed there and on behalf of the Soviets in eastern Europe and Germany.

Having said all that, this film is fascinating, especially the first half. The main actor Alexander Flehming carries the story and is totally believable. Hard to make a film whose main plot if bringing people to trial, so it focuses on his mental state really as the central story. His personal and Germany's collective guilt.

Watch to the end to see what happened to the SS men arrested.

The focus on Mengele is justified. Watch the movie THE GERMAN DOCTOR or even the classic BOYS FROM BRAZIL to see him in fictional form.

One correction - Mengele (living under an assumed name) died of a stroke while swimming off Brazil in 1979, not in a swimming 'accident'.

4 stars

For those who want to watch a biopic of Elvis, ignore this - which reflects the obsessions of our age (BLM, race etc) and return to a better time with the 2005 TV miniseries - I'd give that 5 stars. Or the 1990 film documentary. OR the 2016 excellent film ELVIS AND NIXON which shows Elvis's loyal Republican political leanings.

I am not great fan of the films of Baz Luhrmann so if you like Strictly Ballroom etc you'll probably like this. Full of theatrics and style, rather than substance - as with early scenes of Elvis in a gospel church which never happened. As I said, watch the 2005 TV miniseries to see a truth-based drama. NO SPOIILERS but I hated the ending and boy, does this movie DRAG!

Beware: this biopic plays fast and loose with the truth in many ways. Worst of all it perpetuates the claim that 'white people stole black music' when the musical truth is the other way round - the blues and rock n roll came from British folk music and the UK oral hymn tradition, which even has blue notes and call and response like gospel - watch the excellent Howard Goodall series on music for evidence. To that was added in the Memphis triangle some African rhythms. But then all pop music is written in 'equal temperament' (doh ray mee) discovered by white European monks almost 1000 years ago.

It is criminal to leave out of this story the white Jewish boys Lieber and Stoller who wrote a great many of the early Elvis hits - Jailhouse Rock, AND Hound Dog - yes, it was sung by a black woman first BUT it was written by 2 white men. Carl Perkins (white male) wrote Blue Suede Shoes, and so on. Fact. I know my songwriters! This film;s obsession with modern BLM racial politics is depressing - I detest the modern demands for segregation and endless race fixation from these groups. It;s divisive and causes conflict.

SO if that 30-50 minutes were shaved off this flabby bloated film it could be a half-decent biopic. At way less than 2 hours 20 minutes.

Elvis like Michael Jackson came from a poor family and the fame and wealth knocked him off his perch - as they say, he got what he wanted, but lost what he had..

The music is great when original 1950s/60s/70s (the modern rap versions are AWFUL!) . Are You Lonesome Tonight was also written by 2 white guys in 1926; and If I Can Dream lyrics were written by a white guy working on the tech crew of the Elvis Comeback special in 1968.

It's also well-known Elvis had a heart condition inherited from his mother - who died from it young too, not drinking. watch the very last concerts of Elvis where he is babbling - that is a classic symptom of arrhythmia which I have seen myself in elderly people. Yes. Elvis took pills but that is one factor alone in his decline.

But a movie needs backstory and baddies, so the manager Dutchman gets it here BUT he is an interesting character and Hanks does well; the actor playing Elvis does too and esp the one playing the wonderful Little Richard. Would Elvis have had his success without 'Parker' as manager? Maybe not. Then if no Elvis, would there have been a Beatles? Easy to blame the manager.

HOWEVER,. far better to watch the real thing - see Elvis's 1973 Hawaii concert on YoutTube or similar; his 1968 comeback special; and the Little Richard archive. I hate tribute acts in general.

I wanted to watch a movie about Elvis, not a preachy sermon about race - if I wanted that, I'd go to church. I hate all these pc woke preachy lecturing movies. Since around 2016 or so, it seems all movies are now like this. I shall watch the archive then. Thank goodness we have it.

WHEN the movie focuses on Elvis, his adoration of his mother, his dead twin brother Jessie, his clueless business manager dad (well acted), and the manipulative Colonel Tom Parker it is great. The other stuff about race, which is so political, weakens the story of Elvis the man and Elvis the superstar (who by the way was blue-eyed blond - he dyed his hair black in adulthood).

So 2 stars.

This film is watchable in a plodding predictable way and we all know the plot trajectory these days. Basically, someone (who is NEVER a white man) works somewhere and faces opposition because of their race and/or gender so get kept down (while most white males, yet the ones who invented everything and made space travel possible, are shown as racist and sexist monsters).

Of course, the female and/or black hero wins through in the end and everyone realises they're a total genius who has been kept down by racism and sexism.

All very well, but it's JUST NOT TRUE. It is a LIE to claim the US space programme only worked because of 3 genius black women - they were part of a data processing team, sure. They crunched numbers. Women still dominate data-input and processing staff in firms now. But really, if one is to tick boxes, one would see the vast majority of the team who achieved that were white males. The main white character here played by Kevin Costner is a composite of 3 white males.

Hollywood can claim what it wants and rewrite history - as it did with ARGO and U571 and THE PATRIOT. Fine. But it's VERY dangerous because people esp kids believe this to be true history and it's not. It's inspired by the black power African-American movement that aims to claim people in history as 'our own' - which is actually racist and just factually untrue.

Just one example of the lies which are legion in this movie: NASA in fact banned segregated toilets in 1958. Think of that FACT when you watch this FICTION which promotes the lies that these black women had to use black only toilets. They didn't! The film starts in 1961! Some black women became NASA supervisors in 1948 and 1958 - at a time this movie claims blacks were little better than slaves and denied all promotion at NASA.

No stars.