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Reviews
Orange Is the New Black (2013)
Possibly the best series of the decade
Hi folks!!
I can't convey in words how good this series is. It has been absolutely wonderful and is truly heartwarning. It a complete story arc across the 91 episodes of a women going into prison, everything that happens to her and her leaving pirson. I doesn't pull any punches but at the same time there is real warmth right through it. The ending was bittersweet for me, because I knew it was the end of the series and the feelings you felt for the characters, after such a long series. For me the best character was the Indian. You won't see her name in cast list, but you get know her, by her actions. There is so many individual characters. I really recommend this series.
Vesper (2022)
Unique science fiction
This is unlike any other science fiction film you've ever seen since possibly since the 1960s. Its seems to be completely original. There is no generic and mediocre exploding cars, large robots, or super heroes jumping about or large explosions. It is really unusual. It is quite a small film and it would be great to see a second production to provide further insight. I reminds me in many ways of Geoff Rymans the The Child Garden. It has that kind of bleak future that is not defined by robots or super heroes but by generic engineering. It is essentially the story of the young women and her dad trying to survive in a destroyed world.
The Great (2020)
Historical comedy of the Russian sort
Really funny great series, set in the Russia palace with the court, lots of intrigue, murders and so on, played for laughs, with Elle Fanning playing Catherine the Great. It's not historically accurate by any means, being described as anti-historical but really funny.
Inferno (2016)
Terrible, absolute rubbish.
Seems to be one sketch bolted on to another, one after another, and all crammed in to try to make a voyage of discovery. Constant audio explanations of the plot. Hanks and Jones are fairly decent and try an make a go of a terrible plot.. Surprised that Hanks put his name to it. Avoid.
La grande speranza (1954)
Surprisingly good
Fairly decent Italian anti-war film. Worth watching on a wet day with a hangover. Dubbing is poor as is cinematography but not bad for it, and seems to have some decent action, in one instance a ship is cut in half.
The Shape of Water (2017)
Absolute masterpiece
I watched this film, and it felt like a story or prequel to Bioshock, perhaps a story that occurred as part of that universe, or some absolute connection that had the feel of that place. It was a love story, but also a story of betrayal, and loss, but also one of salvation. The setting, the long tunnel, presented many stories, each one potentially in its own room. Our room was a humanoid, captured, and lost, who a found love and freedom. It was all Bioshock.
Hart's War (2002)
Plot is contrived and the setting is unrealistic
I just watched this film for the second time, and it was astonished how contrived the plot and overall settings were. As I started watching quite late into the start of the movie, the first thing that got me irked was the fact that band members/entertainers, in the mess hall, were all parodying Hitler, if somehow that would be allowed. Any passing Nazi, would have shot them dead on the spot, and more so, the camp commandant would have been relieved of duty, or at worst, shot by the Gestapo. It simply wouldn't been allowed to happen. The Germans at this time, considered themselves the Master race. Any sign of insolence from anybody, would be instant death.
There is a whole number of these plot/action points which happen throughout the movie, like the Willis character being insolent to the camp commandant. There seems to be a time-line, call it the time-line of forgetfulness. In the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, and even 90's there were still people about, who could give you first hand details about conditions in the camp like this. Now, sadly most of them are dead, so it quite hard for set/directors, to get good idea of how the camp would work. So we end up with films like this, which has strayed so far from what it would be really like.
The real contrivance though, is the trial. Holding a military trial, and commandant allowing it, is absurd to contemplate, almost laughable. The fact he is allowing it, would be seen on the part of the allies, as collaboration, by the Willis character. Instead, the camp leading allied officers would hold an internal military tribunal, if held at all, and the enemy, wouldn't even hear about, why, because they were at war. So we have this contrivance, with Farrell, with daft dialogue, saying i'm going to kill you, if you do that. It was war. No members of the Allies would threaten each other. Simply too absurd to think about really. I know you have to suspend belief, when watching films of this type, but there is a finer point, in the fact, that any such trial would have been used as propaganda by the Axis powers. Although it is the central tenet of the film, why would the plot provide for the Willis character to push for a trial. Absurd!. Keep it real.
I could list the duffers, like Willis drinking whisky with the camp commandant, the camp commandant alluding to a "real American trial", .... This is the German master race, the 1000 year third Reich, all that madness.
Its a pity really, the actors are first class, and are wasted on this absurd plot.