info-996-828544's Reviews

Life and Death in the Warehouse (2022 TV Movie)

9/10

9 April 2023

Watching this, I was reminded of reading about Soviet style encouragements to greater productivity. The hardest workers were paraded and lauded as an example to the comrades, while those considered "lazy", were the victims of oppressive behaviour by the supervisors. All the time, the Communist Party, were the beneficiary of what might be analagous to "Customer Focussed" attention, that kept rearing it's ugly head throughout this film.

Ever wondered why these sort of businesses set up in depressed areas? A frightened workforce is a compliant workforce, and most here were complicit. Just as in the days of Soviet Labour, in todays so called market economy, fear and useful idiots are the business drivers.

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Official Secrets (2019)

9/10

An apt joke to consider when watching this.

19 April 2022

As we all know, Blair claims to this day that he genuinely believed that there were WMD's, though he now concedes that this was a mistake on his part. Of course that is the problem: that you never really know when someone says "I believe this to be true", if that is what they really believe.

The kindest thing I can say about this sordid affair can be reflected in a joke I heard: A year after the invasion, Bush phones Blair to apologies for having lied about WMD's to get the UK into the war.

Blair thanks him and then tells Bush, " I am sure if we keep looking, we will find those WMD's".

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Ridley Road (2021)

5/10

Not the Ridley Road I know so well.

7 October 2021

Having been brought up about 500 yds from Ridley Rd, I looked forward to seeing this. Having seen the first episode, I am reminded of the wise words of Mark Twain, "The difference between truth and fiction, is that fiction has to be believable. This was not.

I am old enough to remember both Colin Jordan and Oswald Mosley, and in particular, the 1962 "visit" by the latter to Ridley Rd in 1962. This ended within minutes with Mosley receiving a police escort to get him out of the area. I'm not certain, but If that was not his last public appearance, it must have been close to it.

What I don't recall from that period, was that there was a Dalston office of Mossad operating in the area. I know that may seem harsh, but the problem I have with it, is that even as "Faction", it doesn't work for me. When it's gets as specific as naming a real place and a real date, you'd expect to see bits that you can recognise as being "based on a true story". But so far, I've seen nothing of the sort. This bears no resemblance to my recollections of Ridley Road and events in 1962.

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I, Daniel Blake (2016)

9/10

The most brutal film I've seen in years.

14 June 2021

There is no need for a spoiler alert here. This is a Ken Loach film, and he rarely does happy endings.

I am reminded of the quote from Mahatma Gandhi in which he says, "The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members". Here we have a story of a 59 year old man who is recovering from a heart attack who falls foul of the revised social security rules introduced under the Cameron gov. The tone is set in voiceover of the very first scene where he has to deal with an undefined "healthcare" worker whose job it is to assess whether he is too sick to work, in which case he must instead seek unemployment benefit and jump through the hoops recently introduced by them. Among the questions he is asked, is can he put a hat on his head without assistance using one hand? I am not sure what job that might qualify him for.

In spite of the fact that he has a letter from his GP, consultant Cardiac DR, and his physiotherapist, the "healthcare" worker, who refuses to divulge her qualifications or even a job title, deems him fit for work so now he must apply for unemployment benefits.

Though he is awaiting an appeal against the decision, he tries to register as unemployed in the interim. The problem is that this is the 21st Century and everything is now online. Daniel tells the Jobcentre that he knows nothing about computers, but Jobsworth doesn't care about that. Eventually, he is told that he needs to fill out a form. When he asks for the form, he is told he can get it online.

The brutality of the film is not violence, but the total indifference to a sick man that regardless of of the fact that he needs financial help, is clearly unable to cope with all the hoops that he is made to jump through. The people who have designed the system have deliberately designed it to fail it's clients and the success of the system is best measured by the number of clients it fails. The more, the better.

This film together with his most recent offering "Sorry we missed you" paints a very grim and often brutal picture of a black hole that we may end up in through no fault of our own and the almost impossible task of breaking free from it.

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Not of This Earth (1957)

6/10

I watched this X cert aged 7.

31 December 2020

I first saw this film in 1959 as a 7 year old while on holiday in Ireland. I remember feeling very scared watching it. It was part of a double bill with "The Attack of the Crab Monsters", another equally scary film for a child of such tender years. Both were rated "X certificate" by the UK censor.

The reason for my review is that I've just watched a doc on TV which deals with censorship in Ireland from 1923 to 1980 and one of the films discussed was "Casablanca", which in my opinion is the greatest film ever made. Though released in 1942, it was not shown until 1945. In those days, Ireland only had one certification, and any film that had content that was deemed "offensive", had to be cut, or was denied a certificate. The offending bit in this case was the portrayal of the Germans, quite rightly, as the villains.

At that time, they were treading a path of strict neutrality and they did not want to show the film in case it led to an anti-German backlash. To give some idea of how rigidly they stuck to this policy, when Hitler committed suicide, the then Irish Prime Minister, Eamonn De Valera, signed the book of condolence at the Germany Embassy in Dublin after Hitler's death

But I digress. Thinking about Irish censorship compared to the UK version and remembering how scared I was watching this X cert double bill, I wonder how scary the uncensored version must have been?

In case anyone is unaware, the film is considered a "Cold War allegory" with the invaders from Davanna representing an attempt by the Russians to take over the world.

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Your Honor (II) (2020–2023)

8/10

Looks like another Cranston Masterclass.

15 December 2020

As one who was totally unimpressed watching Mr Cranston in "Malcolm in the Middle", I now have to say that he is now rapidly developing a body of very watchable performances following "Breaking Bad" and the even better "Trumbo". These are three very diverse roles, but all are very believable.

It's only Ep. 2 and this promises to be nine weeks of cliff-hangers before matters are concluded, but I have no doubt that whatever the outcome, BC will not be found wanting. For me, the only real question is how such a straight-shooter is going to square the circle with his breaches of his own principles. But that will depend on the writers who so far, look good.

Just a point about those of my fellow armchair critics who began by challenging the reality of Ep.1 It's very easy to say that this wouldn't happen, but we are talking about the reality of what a 17 year old boy facing such a traumatic event might do in the absence of wiser counsel. It is not wise for any of us who live most of our traumas through a TV screen to assume that every 17 yr old would behave as we would.

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The Bridge (2011–2018)

8/10

The condition that dare not say it's name.

6 September 2020

I am just over the half-way stage of series two of this very watchable series and have noticed that two trends in detective series are that (1) women are being given increasingly greater on-screen roles. They are no longer there to "make the coffee", and that the lead detective invariably has an amusing quirk. The Bridge combines both of these.

The two leading actors include a woman that clearly has some form of Asperger's Syndrome. I find myself frequently laughing at her, not because of her condition, but because most of her colleagues fail to recognise her condition and just consider her to be "odd". In truth, I am really laughing at her colleagues.

But I keep watching waiting for someone to say, "She has Aspergers" so that once they become aware of this, they will understand her quirkiness. But as the series continues without someone stating this obvious fact, I wonder if it is intentional that they do not dare to say it's name, so that we can laugh, not at Saga, but the ignorance of her colleagues?

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La dernière vague (2019)

6/10

Lost in France.

4 August 2020

I am now waiting for the last two instalments, but straight from the first episode, it looked to have a very familiar to feel to it, and I rapidly developed a feeling that this was French TV's answer to the US series, "LOST", with both series being riddled with the inexplicable. Both series even have their own mysterious clouds, though in Lost, it was more like black smoke.

Of course, unlike Lost, this is not set on a desert island, but what looks like the South of France. That tends to make me raise questions, such as why are there no old or fat people to be seen.?

And then there is a plot line that if true, would have the whole town besieged with the world's media. yet there is no media presence at all. The unlikely events that take place, include a lighthouse being moved from offshore to a mile inland. If that can't get a few TV cameras interested, then nothing can, and yet there is no media. Where are the Politicians from Central Government, who you might normally expect to be giving unhelpful interviews?

The whole story lacks the infrastructure that one might expect if such an event ever were to happen.

Reverting back to my comparison with Lost, that was a series that I enjoyed for about the first five seasons, and I looked forward to all the mysterious events being explained. But as it continued, I got to the stage where I lost interest, and can't even be bothered to find out what happened. With that in mind, if the series ends and I have to wait for season two (3? 4? 5? 6? etc), I won't bother. The comparison is that both series are highly implausible and so you want to see the final episode to make sense of it. But I am not that interested that I am going to wait years for an explanation.

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Babylon Berlin (2017–2025)

8/10

Atmospheric and compelling.

8 January 2020

Stumbling across this series, I found it compulsive viewing.

Set in Berlin of 1929, it recaptures both the hedonistic atmosphere of Sally Bowles in "Cabaret" as well as the paranoia of Fritz Lang's "M" which are contemporary to this period.

Scenes of a storyline with multiple characters whose intentions appear ambiguous, are intercut with another side of Berlin which shows the grinding poverty endured by the "have nots" in what we would nowadays describe as a "swinging city" for the "haves".

Also, a special mention for the nightclub dance scenes. They really do create the impression that if you were a "have", Berlin in 1929 was a great place to be.

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Salt of the Earth (1954)

8/10

From the "Land of the Free".

23 December 2019

The thing I note most about this film is it;s "pedigree", with most of the back room staff having been blacklisted in the Mccarthy era. To then discover that it was banned by the US Congress until the mid-60's only adds to it's kudos in my humble opinion.

I don't doubt for one minute that it was written with a left wing agenda, but what a difference it makes to see a film about American Trade Unions that is not about the nore venal aspects of the topic.

Clearly made on a shoestring budget, but a worthy film for all that.

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Dublin Murders (2019)

3/10

A herd of Elephants in the room!

6 November 2019

Warning: Spoilers

Having just watched the final episode, I anticipated a "Sixth Sense" type finish. You have just sat through hours of a film which is getting tedious and confusing, and suddenly in the final few minutes. all is explained and you realise that what you have been viewing is a brilliant script.

Sadly, there was no such ending. Instead, there was a multitude of plot holes. All of these were the size of an Elephant, but nobody wanted to discuss these Elephants in the room. The main character centres on Detective Rob Reilly, who it transpires was connected to the disappearance of two childhood friends about years earlier. That case remains unsolved. Somehow or other, he manages to join the Police without this coming to light in spite of the stringent vetting that recruits undergo before enrolment.

He sets about investigating a recent murder of a child in the same area as the disappearance and we are left wondering whether the cases are connected. His Police partner, is a complex character, Cassie Maddox, who at one time was an undercover officer playing the role of Lexie Mangan. The plot becomes more complicated when an identical woman to Maddox is found murdered, and her name is Lexie Mangan too. To all intents and purposes, this "Lexie" has just materialised from nowhere and there seems to be no evidence that she ever existed very long before her murder.

The police then involve a hospital in the ethically dubious plan to resurrect Lexi, using Maddocks. Clearly, for them to be able to use such a device they would have to know that she has no family who might later be outraged at the deception, but as there is no apparent history of her prior existence,nobody seems to let that little plot hole worry them.

Eventually, Reilly's antecedents are revealed by a school age girl, though where she has got this knowledge from is also never made clear. And so it goes on. It's almost as if the script was written by two people in separate rooms who never consult with each other., with one person responsible for plot twists and the other for explaining it.

It's a shame really, because it had all the ingredients of a good story. If only the writer could be bothered with trivialities such as PlotHoles.

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The Young Offenders (2018– )

9/10

Ireland's answer to Fawlty Towers

5 November 2019

Just watched the entire Season 1 again and laughed just as hard as the first time, something that "Only Fools and Horses" and "Fawlty Towers" has managed so far. Then it hit me! All three series were about the" best laid plans", going gloriously comically wrong.

Solid all round performances from the entire cast, and a real masterclass in mania from Shane Casey as the demented Billy Murphy, who reminds me of yet another TV classic character, "Yosser Hughes" without the pathos.

A series that definitely deserves a better slot in the schedules, though the language compels it's showing after the watershed.

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Sully (2016)

9/10

The spoilers didn't spoil it.

23 April 2019

Just a brief comment. The whole world knows what happened so I was not expecting too much of this film. However, in spite of knowing how it will end, i found the tension in the Air Traffic Control tower to be gripping.

What greater comment can I make about a film, that even though I know how it will end, it can still feel the tension that others must have felt that day?

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Murder on the Campus (1961)

4/10

Long on abrasiveness. Short on credibility!

19 July 2018

In a University town that is famed for it's genteel manners, somehow Michael Winner believes that the hero, Mark Kingston, can get to the bottom of what he believes is the murder of his brother. There is precious little, "please, thank you or sorry" from him and his whole manner consists of being at best, abrasive to all and sundry.

I do realise it's only a film, but credibility hits a low when the police appear to believe that two drownings in the local river are not suspicious. The area of Cambridge where the River Cam passes the Colleges is know as "The Backs". The Cam is about four foot deep there, hence the use of flat bottom boats driven by poles (Punts).

As with so many "B" pictures of this era, there is the customary American Actor who despite his obscurity in the film world even among Americans, is there in the hope of creating some interest in the film stateside. In this particular case, his character is that of a USAF Sergeant, who is equally rude and abrasive to complete strangers. At one stage, Kingston offers him a lift back to his airbase, to which he responds that it's not necessary because it's within walking distance. The nearest airbase is Duxford, which is about 9 miles from Cambridge, and the USAF pulled out of there in 1945.

If you have a reasonable knowledge of Cambridge, you are more likely to treat this film as a comedy rather than a thriller.

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