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World War II: From the Frontlines (2023)
Truly heart rending in relevant to today
A huge amount of work gone has clearly gone into this series. The colorized footage is amazing and makes the series feel as if these events had unfolded in the recent past.
The series gives a strong sense of the global nature of the conflict and the scale of atrocities and horrors committed across the world.
Watching this in December 2023 is a stark reminder of the dangers the world faces and how events can gradually spiral out of control.
Especially when one side is driven by a very powerful and determined orator on a mission. Us humans seem to have an ability to be manipulated and fired up by such people...
I was especially struck by how many soldiers from across the world and the diversity of ethnicities fighting for us allies and for a cause that must have felt somewhat distant.
One section describes the experience of a black American soldier and his comrades who wanted to "be the best" in their tank outfit even though they suffered racial abuse from their white comrades. He joined the tank regiment as apparently at that time the US would not allow him in the air force! How things have not changed so much!
My one criticism as an English viewer is a sense that the war was fought and won mainly by the USA (with Russia)... I think it is fair to say that the UK did play a part in this conflict!
Finally there is a wonderful scene in which a young Italian girl offers a fresh peach to a British pow. Keep an eye out for that, it restores ones faith in the human race.
Jack Ryan (2018)
What Happened to the Jack Ryan of Season 1 ?
Wow is this disappointing... I liked S1 well enough, the odd time you thought why did that happen... but S2 is just full of dumb, dumb scenes...
Here is sample of such cracking scenes, so far (might not get to the end, we'll see)
Why does Jack shack up with what is obviously a honey trap in a Caracas hotel and then leaves all his credentials and highly confidential papers "on show" for her to riffle through?
Why after they are nearly blown-up in Caracas do they all seem happy to wander around on their own in various scenes when presumably there is a significant threat level?
A small ex-special forces or whatever team is sent it to the jungle... They parachute in offshore with the latest US high tech, except the boat cracks open when it splashes down and oh yes, their communications equipment gets wet or something and stops working (haven't they heard of pelicases in the US army?) and oh come on, haven't they heard of the Samsung S10?
The same team leaves the driver (Uber man ha ha) to guard the boat while they go off in the jungle, except he doesn't hang around instead wandering off and getting lost and then jumped by some random kid who just happens to be there for some reason yet to be discovered... Maybe this is why Uber man didn't make it into the Seals!
and best of all so far Jack chases an ex-German spy now turned hit man over the roofs of London in one of those rather predictable chase scenes. He chases him for quite a while, catching up with him at one point , but waits until he jumps into the Thames to have a go at shooting him. He obviously needs to watch some Dirty Harry movies to understand how to handle such situations...
Hold the Dark (2018)
Weird, bizarre another one to add to a popular Netflix genre
No idea what this was about. Made plenty of use of fast forward to move the story along. I just don't get how, in this day and age, someone can't read the script and say this going into recycle. Check out at 1h44m if you enjoy nice flight scenes!
From Darkness (2015)
Painfully slow moving and full of over blown meaningful looks and gazes
I wasn't able to finish watching the first episode...
Lots of shots of Claire Church gazing deeply (into the past) with accompanying visual and sound effects. Close ups of quivering lips and tears and other such artifacts.
Little else going on, the usual "boss (es) not happy with progress".
Then the flashbacks started, that did it for me, had to hit the kill switch.
The most entertaining part provided by DS Anthony Boyce, the Oxford educated dog-hating, orange juice drinking, seasick, hung over assistant.