Film Reviews by PV

I enjoyed this, esp the first half. The second half goes OTT (no spoilers).

I love timeslip time travel films and try to watch em all. This is silly but starts well, then sags and drags.

Some decent CGI 'Day AFter Tomorrow' type special effects if you like that sort of thing.

But maybe just watch CLOSE ENCOUNTERS instead.

Watchable and passes the time. 3 stars

I loved this. How can a 1936 film be better than any new film this year? But it is.

From a novel by Eric Hatch called '1101 Park Avenue,'.

GREAT characters, really memorable, esp the obese father - he is great and VERY patient. Some madcap characters too, some Italian who eats so much but stays thin and who thinks he is an artist, 2 spoilt rich daughters.

Social commentary within this, however romanticised (so is Oliver Twist though).

I LOVED it.

A great cast does not a great film make, but it can create a passable film which passes the time.

This is a timeslip story, way better than the awful ABOUT TIME by Richard Curtis.

Not sure I believe all the characters. and some real cartoon characters here esp the baddies, but also the black boy slave goodie which is pure shoe-horned in tickbox diversity quota. Very unlikely actually.

Reminds me of children;s film unit films they used to make in 1960s and 70s actually, searching for treasure, baddies etc. Like Scooby Doo really.

Meh, 3 stars.

I thought this was rather fun. Silly, a bit bonkers and focused on special effects which are good for 1960. Apparently the flashing sequences and strobes can cause seizures which reviews in 1960 stated.

A flimsy simple plot and loose ends left but what horror movie does not have a simple flimsy plot?

So I give it 3 stars. I enjoyed it for what it was. Do not overthink it.

I wonder what happened to the boy Buck in real life, played by Alec Roberts.

Gosh this is a slow boring film. Goes nowhere too. Pretty lakes and forests in Canada - Quebec. But that is it. Writer and director is female so maybe the focus on character alone as with many women's novels is to be expected.

I was waiting and waiting for something to happen. I did think it might be a horror at first. Sadly, not.

Some mild sex and envy - lasting 2 hours. Yawn.

Watch CLOSE by Lukas Dhont to see how a film (in French) about sex and sexuality and teenagers can be made.

The actors are decent esp the main teenage roles, but I was confused about the relationship between everyone, the Americans and French or Canadians. SO 1 star for them and 1 star for the pretty vast Canadian lake and forest landscape (which I have visited) so 2 stars.

This film would seem to have been made in the wake of the success of The Dirty Dozen. It is no worse for that, but not as memorable.

I think I saw it many MANY years ago as a child - vague memories of the two gay Arabs and the ending. The two Arabs are genuinely groundbreaking but realistic - despite its supposed illegality, homosexual relationships in homosocial societies are not unusual. Watch THE KITE RUNNER. Trainee Jihadi suicide bombers are expected to keep their older trainers warm at night in the isis tents...

I really enjoyed this. It has some brilliant fighting moments, realistic explosions and gunfire. I loved the scenes with mines and boobytraps.

I see Melvyn Bragg cowrote the screenplay, though based on another man's idea based on a true story of a WWII Commando unit in north Africa, so frankly any half-decent writer could so that easily. Bragg must have been very well connected, not the urchin he claims to have been. I'd be interested to hear his views about how the German nurse is treated here.

Michael Caine is great here aged 39. The South African commando charged with protecting him is played by Nigel Green, who died in 1972 aged 47 from a probable suicide, sleeping pill overdose. His athletic build meant he played many military roles and Hercules in Jason and the Argonauts.

4 stars. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Series 1 of this was excellent - the last episode sagged and dragged a bit - the US version (THE NIGHT OF) cut all that flab out but it is generally a great drama with three-dimensional characters and so it works as a deeply moving drama.

This? Well it focuses on female issues and - OF COURSE - abusive monster men, as they are the only type allowed in most TV drama, that and useless buffoons.

I counted - every single man in this drama is shown as a sexist unfeeling brute who (women eye roll) do not get it. A token good man. ALL the women are angels except some cartoon characters in women prison (which looks well cushy compared to men's prison). I rolled my eyes so many times watching this as I mentally ticked off the ISHOO list.

We have become used to metoo drama, with 'strong women' and all men shown as weak and useless and violent monsters of course. I do not watch such movies.

I also dislike Maxine Peake and find her deeply irritating - and she plays a deeply irritating character here too with mental issues (which of course are all the man's fault).

Disappointing and just wrong. In fact, this is MISANDRY (look it up - it is the equal and opposite of MISOGYNY). One star.

This is the sort of film we need more of, especially in a see of manblaming metooboohoo movies (which are all massive flops at the cinema, it seems, and lose millions). I am rather sick of new films exploring what it means to be a woman and avoid most movies like that, but not female lead films like GRETA or THE BUTTERFLY ROOM which are great.

We need MANY MORE films like this focused on what MEN AND BOYS are.

This explores male friendship, the need (from evolution) for males to prove themselves and get status. It does that so well. And is true to life - many such groups, political or social, are homosocial at least. The Nazis always were from when they started in early 1920s, all about males together frolicking in forests in a state of Nature (as Himmler said). Worship of the muscular male form was very fascist and very communist too.

Ernst Rohm killed in 1934 Night of the Long Knives is mentioned here - he was openly homosexual and Hitler was no homophobe at all and did not seem to care at all (maybe because his great hero was Frederick the Great, openly homosexual). Adolf himself was more asexual BUT he had a very close brother/friend in WWI called Schmitt which has led to speculation. Rohm was murdered because he posed a threat to Hitler';s leadership - and Hitler wanted to make the Nazis respectable, so got rid of the stormtroopers Rohm led.

Not sure I believe the ending (no spoilers) but...

The Danish director went on to direct ACROSS THE WATERS with one of the same actors, about Jew escaping Denmark - that was great too. As is LAND OF MINE another top Danish film.

4 stars.

This was filmed on iphones - fine, that is the gimmick. BUT a film needs story and character - and dialogue to be understood (much is unintelligible here and there is no subtitles option).

The plot is wafer-thin. Interesting re the cab driver's story - WAY more than the trans prostitutes. I have actually known taxi drivers like him in the UK, Sheffield, Asian drivers married but...(NO SPOILERS).

I almost turned this off but endured. I am not a fan of Sean Baker really - I find his films boring. Just that. And he has some sort of obsession with donut shops.

But featuring poor people is a novelty in US films - not like British ones as we had kitchen sink plays and films from the 1950s on.

2 stars. JUST. Almost 1.

This is superb drama - rare for the BBC but then this was 2008,. Now the only decent drama on BBC is bought in from private production companies (Vienna Blood, Peaky Blinders, The Night Manager etc). Most is lazy easy drama for the largely female middle-aged audience (Call the Midwife anyone?)

This would have been 5 stars BUT it sags badly at the end. That last episode (no spoilers) was maybe not necessary, if the penultimate episode were tweaked. THAT is precisely what they did in the US remake THE NIGHT OF (2016), also good with a snappier ending. They cut the flab and it works better.

However, the first 4 episodes are brilliant. Ben Wishaw is brilliant in everything he does and other actors do well too. The late Pete Postlethwaite is superb in one of his last performances; not sure about David Harewood who always seems to play...David Harewood. Michael K Williams in the US version was so much better. Nice to see Southend again as well.

I would say the plot is not realistic. Again maybe the US version is more believable. But hey, it's drama! It can do that if written well, as this is.

Watching series 2 soon but do not expect it to be as good as series 1.

Anyway 4 stars. Decent British crime drama, for once.

The reason films like this in recent years seem radical and new to US audiences is that they had NO kitchen sink drama over there as the UK had from the 50s on - we had our social realist films then and after (like KES), showing real poor people failing at life. Shane Meadows continues that tradition.

I must say I am not always a fan, and never sure re improvised acting of real people BUT it is all part of the whole. The point is we in Britain are well used to it; the Americans are not as most movies there portray rich people NOT the underclass. So this film is useful for that.

The problem is that this convoluted movie (which is 30 minutes too long at last) cannot decide if it is that or some bedroom farce or BOOGIE NIGHTS so often it's a bit of a mess. No doubt Americans find it hilarious. I yawned a lot.

Great lead actor BUT I have a problem with why we have so much male full-frontal nudity (even though fake) and yet when a woman he has slept with gets out of bed she has her underpants on! Now THAT is sexism.

3 stars. Better than The Florida Project which I gave 2.

I was not sure what to expect of this and it does indeed fall part-way between a European film and a Hollywood movie.

Constantly shifting sands of suspicion keep the drama tense - and I was never sure what would happen next. Some parts were a genuine surprise.

The focus on Denmark is interesting. Watch LAND OF MINE to see another Danish WWII-set drama.

4 stars

This started as a BBC Radio 2 radio drama by Rachel Joyce, a long-time radio drama writer. Her agent encouraged her to turn it into a novel, which she did - and it became a best-seller, mostly amongst female readers, I suspect.

Like many radio dramas, it ticks a lot of boxes, creating unlikely characters to mirror others etc. The usual parachuted in BAME characters in what are almost all-white parts of England too (probably not in the novel). The usual manblaming - no spoilers.

However, what most people will not realise is how unoriginal this is. First and Last, a 1989 TV drama starring Joss Ackland, is the same idea - a man sets off on foot to walk the length of England, meeting quirky characters along the way. No cancer theme in that, true, but basically the same. I wish TV would repeat it as it was as both sad and funny, but NOT slushy and overly sentimental as this film is.

I particularly disliked the spiritual/mystical/faith element though some may like that. I found many characters unbelievable. No spoilers but just to say a qualified doctor is well able to work as a doctor in the UK NHS, direct or for agencies, with adequate English... I did not believe in many of the characters, though the two main actors do their best with a script dripping with lardy schmaltz.

The first half works best, the second half irritates and I just could not believe any of it. SO 3 stars for the first half; 2 stars for the second, 2.5 overall rounded up.

Just to add, THIS is a description of FIRST AND LAST (1989 TV drama): "Rather than relax in retirement, British senior citizen Alan Holly (Joss Ackland) embarks on a journey in which he will walk the entire length of England, from Land's End in southwestern Cornwall to John o'Groats in northern Scotland. While his wife, Audrey (Pat Heywood), finds his undertaking bewildering, she supports him nonetheless. As Alan makes his way from south to north, he meets a wide range of English people and has many moments of quiet reflection."

The first half of this film is brilliant! No spoilers, but I loved the first twist and did not see it coming (like the others).

It then becomes more horror movie than psychological thriller.

Still, it's a great film along the lines of 'Misery' or 'The Butterfly Room' (2012).

I loved the main characters - all women - especially than older woman. There have been a LOT of female-dominated films since metoo and most have been atrocious and total flops too. This is not one of them.

4 stars

I enjoyed this - especially the first half.

It then gets rather OTT and convoluted. Plots is not seriously believable but it is entertaining enough.

I saw the twist coming a mile off from an early plant in the story.

Based on a novel that got decent reviews; the novelist wrote the screenplay. Some nifty snappy dialogue.

I'd recommend DIRTY PRETTY THINGS more, however, which covers similar ground.