Film Reviews by PV

This is a PROPER film - epic in scope and scale. A major achievement.

It is hard to squeeze in such a huge eventful life into just over 2 hours - the Battle of The Nile when Nelson beat the French to gain control of much of Egypt is left out entirely (but is why Brits got the antiquities found by the French like the Rosetta Stone now in the British museum, though the French found it as rubble in a wall as the natives did not care about their culture before the Arab empire invaded and made them Muslim).

Still, maybe we need a film called NELSON to dramatise that. I liked the scenes in Egypt anyway. No sure of the truth of the pyramid scene (no spoilers).

Did I enjoy it as much as GLADIATOR? No. But that is personal bias. I was not interested much in military TV drama like SHARPE either.

Phoenix plays Napoleon well and the predictable moaning of historians esp the French piqued that a Brit has made this should be ignored - this is DRAMA so has to concertina events together in symbolic scenes. It is not documentary (and they are all biased anyway in one way or another).

Generally a great epic film, and the battle scenes deserve watching several times.

Many praise the true scene at Austerlitz (modernday Czech Republic) where Napoleon famously fired cannons at a frozen lake on which Russians were retreating - in real life 200-2000 died. THAT scenes is nicked wholescale from an earlier NAPOLEON film, I think the 1960 one though maybe even the late 1920s silent version.

So 4 stars overall.

I know more about Norway and Sweden in the Second World War than most but have never heard of this woman and other others spies for the allies in occupied Norway in WWII, and other spies for the Germans in neutral Sweden.

Sweden is always a sore point - neutral i two world wars in the 20th C as it made a fortune supplying Germans with iron ore. Someone tell Greta....

The Battle of Norway April 1940 was the first engagement of the Second World War, when Germany invaded BUT the allies took back Narvik for a short time, the first defeat of Nazi Germany in the war. Norway was important as a base for planes with which Germany bombed Britain and also to transport iron ore to Germany esp in winter when the land route over Sweden was impassable.

This was interesting but complex, so keep your wits about you!

4 stars

I really enjoyed this as series 1. Focus on the fact it is fiction nor documentary, so homes in on the characters, their flaws, their journeys and arcs, how they change etc.

The German Navy never swore an oath of The Fuhrer himself as the army and airforce did, and of course the SS/AD (seen here in the French police). That did not mean they were not loyal to the Nazi regime and their Fatherland of course - the latter always. They had to be - 75% of U-boat crew died, esp when the Brits worked out how to tget em later in the war - early in WWII the U-boats (seawolves) sank so many ships supplying Britain in Atlantic convoys. Then they got that back and more.

Mutiny on ships are rare. Mostly it does not happen, When it does it is drama, as here - no pretence this is a true story. The relationship between a German and a black nightclub singer is unlikely but I am willing to suspend my disbelief AND THANK GOODNESS the producers have NO truck with nonsense colourblind casting on U-boats at least!

The mission of the U-boat captain is drama too, unlikely, though this film dares show the way many in the US and France too supported the Nazis and helped them - and the Irish especially, so that is accurate.

Anyway, it's written by, amongst others, a US writer of action movies, so that is what the producers are going for.

An actor called RICK OKON is great in a main role - reminds of me a bit of JONAS NAY from Deutschland 83/86 so will look out for more films he is in.

maybe a bit long and not sure I believe it, especially the more dreamy relationship bits BUT hey, it's great drama - exciting, tense, not ramming home wokeness and diversity quotas like so much preachy UK TV drama.

So 4 stars.

Hmmm well this film was very VERY French in so many ways. I found it all so ponderous and self-indulgent really.

Worst of all, the 2 girls look SO alike, it was hard to keep track, as it is with some Hollywood films where they cast actors who look alike.

IF the main character had been a boy and had met a girl in the woods, I think it would have played better.

This is a short story rather than a story that can carry a whole film.

I'd say watch CLOSE a Belgian film instead.

2 stars

I loved this - a truly great film about film-making.

Controversial now and not sure it would be made now either - which just shows how great it is.

5 stars, one of the best films of recent years.

I have just found out this is a remake of a Japanese film which i shall now watch.

It is postmodern cinema and in that VERy French - could be Derrida of Foucault at work! The direct us a fan of Jean-Luc Goddard, so makes sense.

me I find it all way too tricksy and contrived for my tastes. All this film in a film in a film tricksy stuff.

Beware viewers - the first half hour is worth sticking with as all will become clear later. I almost turned off after 25 minutes and am glad I did not.

I found it all deeply annoying rather than enjoyable or even clever, like all postmodern jiggerypokery then!

French-British actor Finnegan Oldfield (Brit dad, from Lewes) shines in this so will search out his other films.

BUT in general, this is a curiosity piece. 2 stars

Watch TROPIC THUNDER instead, the best and funniest film in a film like this.

I watched this as Mads Mikkelsen stars. He was magnificent in Hannibal the grand guignol TV series, plus The Hunt and more. He is great here too as are the other actors.

I loved the first half of the film especially - the 3 nerdish techies with various disorders are great characters.

Unfortunately, the writers try to squeeze too much in here - cutting some of that would have made it all leaner.

It is a movie unsure if it wants to be comedy or thriller/crime fiction, and that is fine, I like it. It mixes things up.

It becomes a bit like a Breaking Bad shoot-out in the end - I wonder if the film had been made without that, would the story suffer?

ALL totally unbelievable and seriously jumps the shark, and goodness knows what the prologue and epilogue are all about - probably something very Danish i am not party too. Ask a Dane!

4 stars - just.

This is known as AMERICAN CAROL in the USA with its clear references to Dicken's A Christmas Carol, a man being led by characters/ghosts to see the past and imagined future and learn from it.

I have awarded this 5 stars because it made me laugh out loud several times - genuine laughs. That does not happen much these days with Hollywood films.

Never seen this listed on UK TV - maybe too controversial and 'offensive' (wahwah boohoo diddums). I loved it! The world has declined so much in 15 years though, caught the mind virus of woke and then so, so maybe this is banned from TV.

I'd compare it to TEAM AMERICA - WORLD POLICE and maybe FOUR LIONS. I suppose as it is made in 2008 it references Michael Moore's 2004 film - but this is not that dated as many issues are relevant now. See the Brit/West/US hating anti-Israel marches right now. No different.

I thought it was great though a shame no English subtitles and I missed some muttered dialogue.

I thought it was so imaginative - the future vision of Hollywood was a scream! Other characters great. Canadian actor Leslie Nielsen (who had a Welsh mother) at 82 here just a couple of years before his death.

The song 1968 set in a university which brainwashes students to 'think correctly' could be sung now - though these days it is WAY worse what with wokery, BLM, decolonising the curriculum etc.

In recent years, the UK has become as race-obsessed as the USA thanks to various ideologies being imported and enforced here - just watch TV to see the evidence. This has led to something of an obsession with certain themes in drama, such as racism, and also arguably overpromoted various people at the expense of others. I can think of more than few BAME writers/directors in that number and TV producers I know too (who have come through BBC/ITV BAME-only schemes). This has also benefitted women, via female-only schemes. One can only wonder at the hug amount of white male talent deliberately blocked and kept down, excluded because of what could be called 'the new racism/sexism'.

Anyway, this film claims to be a true story, In fact, as the extra 'filming of' film states, it came about as the (black female) writer/director say a photograph of a black girl in 1930s Germany. There were a few thousand though very few ended up in camps. Germany had an empire in Africa (Cameroon, Namibia etc) before the first world war and had black male workers from there - some mixed race kids resulted. Then there were others left after WWI who could not return home and they were stuck there in 1930s and until 1945. Not many though - a few thousand. The Jews had it far worse, of course.

It is actually a badly-written film with preachy on-the-nose dialogue which is often cringeworthy for being so worthy, so determined to ram home the point that 'racism is bad' and the Nazis were really mean to people not Aryan, No, really?

The events are predictable - I knew what would happen from the first scenes. The script needs trimming - a lot, by half an hour. And cartoon character Nazis need more padding too.

My fear is kids will watch or be shown this and so think a huge number of black people were persecuted by the Nazis. Not true at all as so few there.

This is good in parts; George MacKay never fails to impress but the actress paired with him in this Mills & Boon slushfest is wooden.

And I just did not believe the character arc of the father. Yes, we writers all know to ramp up the jeopardy and ensure characters go on a journey so end up different at the end of a film than at the start BUT there are ,limited. For an anti-war german veteran of WWI who is hinted to have suppported the 1944 plot against Hitler to end up, well, doing what he does (no spoilers) is absurd.

I do wonder if such a film would have been made without the tickbox diversity interest.

Instead of this, watch THE OCCUPATION also called MY NAME IS SARA (2020) - a superb film about a Jewish girl pretending to be Christian to survive in Ukraine. Or watch GENERATION WAR a superb German TV drama in parts. or maybe even Babylon Berlin

Too worthy by half and historically questionable too. 2 stars max.

Well this is all very cosy - the same director/writer and producers and main actor as several films the team has made before. Yves St Laurent, Frantz etc.

This is trying to be a Hollywood thriller and may well be remade there in future. It is bang on-trend with its focus on AI etc. It is basically a machines-gone-wrong morality tale, like WestWorld or Jurassic Park.

It is a conspiracy thriller treading a well-trodden path - lone knight of a man fights to discover the truth against an organisation dedicated to stopping him. As in any by-numbers Hollywood thriller, the twists and turns appear, and the jeopardy is ratcheted up as the plot reaches its conclusion.

Just about manages to convince me to suspend belief, however unlikely the plot. I thought the Jihadi theme was interesting and other red herrings.

A tad overlong with some flab round the middle but for a French film it is entertaining.

Possibly inspired by the tragic Germanwings Flight 9525 crash in the Alps in March 2015, though that was pilot-initiated.

3.5 stars rounded down.

I liked this loads. Produced by comedy movie Hollywood director Nora Ephron's dad, this has luscious colour for 1956 and must have cost a bit, and an oddly old-fashioned romantic score too.

What lifts it is the story, which is original with a visually-impaired playwright depressed and drinking too much, relying on sound and early reel to reel tape recordings - all integrated and folded into the plot.

Yes, the plot is rather penny thriller by-numbers and not that credible perhaps, all derring-do. BUT the main character's take on it lifts it.

Lovely London views from 1956 even if on a projected backdrop at a studio. Makes one remember how London had so many bombsites back then and until 1970s and even 80s, and massive issues with homelessness - which shows just how generous native Brits were to incomers from Windrush etc, though most postwar migrants to the UK were white Europeans (all forgotten as they do not tick the diversity box).

Funny to see how a golliwog doll as part of the plot and does not cause conniptions either - just a doll. As it was and is. No spoilers.

I enjoyed it. 4 stars

This is great fun, a real Friday night friends film, lots of gags and arch one liners, even satirising the modern woke gender fluid age of pronoun-obsession.

Great acting esp by Vince vaughn but also the girl, each utterly believable in their body or brain swaps!

Most would cite 1980s Tom Hanks vehicle BIG as THE first bodyswap story, Nonsense of course - the first was in 1882. Vice Versa, comic novel by Thomas Anstey Guthrie, writing as "F. Anstey". A magic stone from India make a father and son switch places & live each other's lives, so gain a better understanding for each other before they switch back.

This movie too uses the magic exotic element so back to the future 1882! The mass murderer plot if sun and very 'SCREAM' esp the long prologue. Not so keen on the coda at the end of the film (no spoilers).

Loved some of the one liners by the gay character - though I was not keen on what is becoming an increasing cliche in many films and also esp children;s books - every single white male character is bad, stupid, racist, oafish, useless, abusive. EVery one, except the gay guy. Very BBC Dr Who actually, where the one white man is a clueless buffoon as in all TV adverts and much TV drama (though he can also be an abusive brute monster man). I call this out for the racism/sexism it is.

BUT this is a well-written script - rare in such films - and the main actors nail it utterly

SO 4 stars. Good fun stuff.

This is neither a horror or a thriller - no scares or thrills. Not a comedy either. No laughs at all,. Not a satire that I can see either.

SO what is it? a pompous pretentious mess is what.

I only give this 2 stars due to the great cast esp George MacKay who I first noticed in PRIDE (2014) though he was a child actor before that in PETER PAN and more from age 11. The THE THIEF LORD and JOHNNY AND THE BOMB aged 13. It sure helps to be posh and at private schools agents visit and to have parents working in the TV and film industries...

Paddy Considine phones it in (watch THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS instead, a great virus end of days film). Johnny Depp's Nepo-baby gets a starring role too.

I see it has been compared to the awful film called THE LOBSTER which I have 1 star and reviewed thus: "This film is called 'The Lobster'. It should be called 'Preposterous pretentious unfunny Eurotrash fantasy drama'. It clearly thinks it is so clever and original - but it really is not. Theatre and film have done all this surrealist absurdist stuff a great many times over the last 100 years."

I really wanted to like WOLF but would recommend people watch AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON instead of maybe GREYSTOKE if they want a wolf shot.

1 star; plus 1 more for George MacKay who will win best actor Oscar one day for sure.

I really enjoyed this. Maybe it is my age - I suspect younger viewers will not get it.

From a novel, a penny thriller a bit by-numbers sort of plot-heavy derring-do story BUT none the worse for that. It has a story, and is exciting (if a tad confusing sometimes). I liked the film in a film trick too (Tropic Thunder before its time).

Czech-British actor (1917-2012) who was so good in the later The Ladykillers and most famous from The Pink Panther films is superb in an early role. He often played baddies but his English was superb, only slightly accented. He escaped the Nazis to come to the UK in 1939 then could not return of course as the Communist dictatorship came. Last seen in Miss Marple in 2002 aged 85.

The ending is abrupt BUT this is a watchable thriller nonetheless, and I loved the snow - must have been filmed on location in Italy or Switzerland or somewhere post-war in a time of real austerity.

if you like old black and white thrillers, this is for you, If not, maybe go watch CGI Marvel mush.

4 stars

This film is funded by the BBC in its pre-woke days, and looks it. Based on a novel by Matt Thorne with a screenplay with a fellow artiliterati, it proves it is great to have contacts. The BBC runs on such crony-fuel.

Riding the 90s/00s focus on what men are, a la Nick Hornby Feverpitch, or High Fidelity or maybe David Nichols' Starter for Ten.

There is just not enough here to sustain a film - or a novel, one suspects. It just tries way too hard, with subplots galore, stretching the plot out over almost 90s minutes and that felt long. A TV drama of an hour of half and hour is what such a story needs. It is a sitcom basically and not a very funny one.

Some funny moments and the actors do well with their cartoon characters Tom Hughes has played big roles since, Robert Graves in a recent film.

But in general, it is all as limp as the main character - get another wimp loser man portrayed in film (TV drama now only has those or men as incompetent buffooons, as in TV ads). There is a very long British tradition of this, think Some Mothers, Norman Wisdom and Chaplin etc. But they did it well.

The cat subplot is silly and not realistic too. And the one with a make underling and female boss would be considered sexual harassment at least if the sexes were reversed, and maybe even sexual assault or rape. But when a man is abused it is comedy, ha ha.

And they probably wouldn't get past the woke pc metoo new puritan police now with the lewd images, subplots and attitudes, oh no matron! Me I prefer Are You Being Served for innuendo.

2 stars. JUST.