Film Reviews by Frank TALKER™

A mediocre comic exploration of White history and of how White people see the world as filtered through their belief that White people are the civilising force which determines the direction of world history.

Cultures of Colour are depicted as childish, brutal, loveless or savage - especially the second largest empire in history (the Mongolian) - and of being unable to speak English correctly despite the ahistorical nature of the movie in which they appear. Moreover, neanderthal men are played by White performers when their historical counterparts would have been Black; while ancient Egyptians are portrayed as Arabic rather than as Negro.

The theme of a man being a role model for his son is not dramatically explored in dialogue that is so trite that there is no genuine character development or differentiation. There is simply no clear explanation as to why anyone would want to mentor their child that strikes at the fundamental existential and personal identity issues involved. All the other characters are also equally uninvolving.

Despite the lead actor being advised to read a history book, in order to understand the dead White males with whom he finds himself interacting on a regular basis, the movie itself possesses no sense of objective reality regarding historical reality.

This film was an ideal opportunity to be an entertaining history lesson where the implied theme of learning from the past as a preparation for the future is reduced to a mere visual representation of the idea that history comes alive in our imaginations. Instead, the audience is treated to the obsessions of a culture that killed its history by lying about it; making the movie a colossal non sequitur originating from the resulting paucity of the White imagination and its inability to see the past as anything more than a justification for the present.

"Gravity" was a piece of dreck compared to this well-made look at the greatest human achievement of the twentieth century. This film made me cry.

A sequel should be made to dramatise Yuri GAGARIN's inevitable psychological inability to handle his worldwide fame.

A Caucasian, propagandist view of history which pretends to realistically-present the clash of civilisations represented by the ongoing Cold War between Communism and Democracy. All it succeeds in doing is to pretend that inside every Communist is a Democrat desperate to escape, with no attempt made to explain why any sensible person would believe in the merits of Communism, in the first place - as if Communism were somehow a self-evidently insane proposition.

Like the movie's black & White photography, the political issues are presented in the most simplistic black & white terms. The Communists are presented as two-dimensional cartoon villains and obviously-soulless robots, who could not possibly hide-in-plain-sight as real spies must in order to be effective. This, in the desperate hope that the audience do not get to like them; as hypocritically and in exactly the same manner in which the Communists are shown warning all of their number not to empathise nor fraternise with the allegedly free-born White Westerners.

As drama, this movie fails because the characters of both sides of the political divide are so unconvincing and because they are really political mirror-images of one another - that there is no inherent conflict here is a fact which the film is politically and dramatically unwilling to be honest about. After all, Russians who commit treason are labelled Defectors; while Americans who betray their country are Traitors.

If it were not for the presence of good and likable actors doing their best with political speeches disguised as dialogue, this would be quite unbearable. "L'Affaire Farewell" (2009) was far superior to this propaganda nonsense.

Very good scary White people chasing scared White people movie.

Here we are presented with a culture from which there is no escape, when two couples go against their culture and are repeatedly threatened until an explosive climax is reached.

Lara PARKER, in particular, essays a superb sense of being trapped in a nightmare from which she cannot awake, by showing how complacent White people are in their uncontrollable fear of each other.

Despite the implausible plot, the emotional realism and dread-filled atmosphere grips like a garotte and never let's up.

The sexism and racism really sinks this movie and makes it just about average for a Hollywood blockbuster.

The French do sex comedies so much better than anglophones; with much greater insight into the stresses and strains of married life than shown in this remake of the movie Le Totale. The sexual humor is orificial and schoolboyish with no sense that sex for American Caucasians is any more than a hard penis regularly-inserted into a semi-willing vagina.

Only Jamie Lee CURTIS' knowing, funny, sexy, superb performance hints at what a terrific movie this could have been given a less superficial screenplay.

The characterization is weak and the acting generally mediocre, but the visual emptiness of the actual mist creates decent suspense from a seemingly irrational predator - created by a Frankenstein-like scientific meddling with the purported primal forces of nature.

The characters' reaction to their predators and, more importantly, to their own fears - dominated by Marcia Gay HARDEN as a Christian fundamentalist - serves as a rather crudely-dramatized but effective allegory for the so-called War on Terror as White people battle both the unknown and each other.

Little more than Zionist propaganda, this pseudo-documentary offers little context in order to make Israelis seem to be the victims and Palestinians the victimzers. With no political context to allow the viewer to understands the events shown, one is simply witness to the merely tragic - for there is no great tragedy here to speak of. This is a shame, since the world in which we live is far more nuanced than the simplistic Us and Them worldview on show here.