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Reviews
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)
Poor.
When I heard this film was being made I read the book. Having read the book I was pretty sure the movie would be a disappointment. I wasn't disappointed.
Commenters on here who, when discussing the quality of a drama, say, 'it wasn't like the book' are so boring. Adaptations can be not like the book and still be very good. This wasn't though. "Based on a true story" ? Yes it was; as in, World War 2 did happen and there was a raid on Fernando Po to disrupt U-Boat supply operations from neutral West Africa. The plot device of changing the mission from "blow it all up assault", to "steal the ships" missed the point that the carrying out of military operations in a neutral state was not possible in the first place, so stealing the ships was the original plan and was actually what they planned for. So much of this is similarly tedious fabrication; the objections from 'the brass' speaking over open radio from London to the mission operatives, and the captain of a British cruiser shouting at the protagonists from the side of the ship. In reality, the entire mission was conducted in secrecy and radio silence and then denied even as the British ambassador was arrested and interrogated and they were intercepted and boarded by a boarding party from a British cruiser and after being interrogated, were invited on board for showers and food. It goes without saying that the true story is a much better story than what we saw on screen. That aside, the depicted island assault on Palma, references the assaults on the channel islands carried out by the team operating under the auspices of SSRF (Small Scale Raiding Force) after the Fernando Po raids although these were to capture prisoners. Also, Lassen did use a longbow.
As others have commented, much of this is comic book stuff, when the reality of the intelligence and subterfuge and subtlety was totally airbrushed out and participation from a contingent of Africans was airbrushed in (there were some African stokers).
The careers of these men during the rest of the war were truly amazing. Amongst other medals, Lassen was awarded the Victoria Cross and the MC with two bars.
The unit went on to raid the Channel islands as mentioned, then notably fight in Greece and finally in Italy. Lassen was killed in an assault across lake Comacchio in north eastern Italy, just before the war ended. The tales of the campaign in Greece are really astonishing and would make a great movie on their own. Maybe Guy Ritchie will make a sequel. On this showing I hope not.
Before he was killed Lassen wrote these words :
"Fight for all you hold dear.
Die as if it counts.
Life is not so hard.
Nor is death."
This film should have been better.
Veloce come il vento (2016)
Great Fun.
This is a very enjoyable film. It's unpretentious, not particularly earth shattering and doesn't give any great moral message, but it's a fun drama, well filmed with some nice scenery and some amusing plot developments. The cast do a great job and I became engrossed in the story as the character interactions became more involved. The technical details were convincing and all in all the production values were pretty good. I didn't know before watching that it was based on a true story, and this ensured that the plot was not schmaltzy and predictable; there were some funny diversions, but these were in keeping with the characters and not unrealistic. The ending was clever which is always a plus. Watching it with English subtitles while listening to the Italian was also great. It definitely enhanced my vocabulary due to the colloquialisms and levels of slang :-)
Shôgun (2024)
Best TV in years
With the advent of the various streaming services, the money going into tv production has increased dramatically and this has produced a lot of excellent content, but also a lot of dross.
This production of Shogun is simply the best piece of tv in the last few years.
The sets, costumes and everything about the look and feel of the drama were faultless.
The dramatic elements, fight scenes etc, were all sufficiently realistic, showing fair bits of blood and gore to be sufficiently explicit and sobering without being gratuitous.
The truly outstanding achievement was the way it managed to convey the mentality of the Samurai mindset, much of which of course had to be unspoken. This is done with some quite intense scenes with incredible use of language and pacing, which enabled the actors to convey the emotion and sentiment with great subtlety and requiring the viewer to engage on an intellectual level and truly feel the emotions and motivations depicted by the characters. The apparent suppression of emotion within social interactions, including the brutality of the requirement to commit seppuku, or the 'matter of fact' acceptance of death as an act of service within the Samurai code of honour, which is somewhat at odds with reverence for life as a philosophical axiom of western thought, was transformed for me into comprehension of 'simplicity' as a defining thread within Japanese culture and philosophy. And while this probably reflects the quality of Clavell's original writing, this was certainly a brilliant dramatic achievement by all who contributed to this production. It certainly mocks those who complain in these ratings that this 'isn't the book'. These people have totally missed the point. As a piece of televisual tapestry that weaves historical fact with human drama and ultimately, human morality, this is as good as it gets. Congratulations to all involved.
Welcome to Wrexham (2022)
Good in parts but way too long
After the promotion of Wrexham AFC to League Two after 15 years in the Conference I was intrigued to watch this and binge watched it over a couple of nights. Rob and Ryan are entertaining 'protagonists' and their TV/Film background was evident in the production, which made for some entertaining TV. In taking over a small club in a small Welsh town they remained sensitive to the fact that the club is an important part of the community and this was reflected in the fact that the life stories of many fans were shown as part of the series. The 'fly-on-the-wall' stuff in the half time dressing room was great as was the way the series showed the dealings that went on to bring players to the club and also how some players were let go. But what let it down was that some of this was very repetitive, presumably R&R contracted with FX to make x minutes of tv. There was a lot of padding. A couple of episodes were really off topic and didn't work for me. The story could have been told in 12 episodes not 18, and by the end I just wanted it to end so I could say I'd seen it.
The Ipcress File (2022)
A Solid 7/8 out of 10 from me
After I'd watched the first couple of episodes I read a few reviews on here just to see what others thought. Many of the negative reviews were related to Mr Cole's performance. This is grossly unfair. He's meant to be playing a character scarred by killing in the Korean war and dealing with the British class system. The fact that this role was previously played by the actor who virtually invented the 'chippy cockney brit in sixties London' character, makes judging his performance by that standard totally bogus. He brought his own visualisation of the laconic, darkly wisecracking character and it was consistent and made sense.
The sets and scenes were good with only one or two anachronisms spotted (see how unfair that is, we all know too much about the process to just enjoy the story for what it is).
The latter parts were also not overdone and I actually think this part was better than the 1965 film. All in all the dénouement was nicely done. And if it wasn't exciting enough like a Bourne or Bond or MI that's because it wasn't meant to be. It will be interesting to see if they go further with the Palmer character from the other books.
The Last Duel (2021)
Just superb
Epic drama, brilliantly filmed and brilliantly acted. I went and read up on the history after the movie was over and the movie closely followed what were known of the historical facts. And what a story; totally no need to twist or embellish. The actors were at the top of their games, and the depiction of the period was excellent. The characters were complex and emotionally real. The fight scenes (which I normally find quite tiresome) were really well done. The horror of the ignorance of the age was also really well put across, but also the gloriousness of triumphing over adversity.
I had to give this a 10 out of 10 because most of the stuff out there is utter dross. This is a truly outstanding piece of cinema and highly recommended.
Words on Bathroom Walls (2020)
First movie I watched twice back to back in years
This one is an eleven out of ten. Charlie Plummer's performance is truly excellent and I have to say the utterly gorgeous Taylor Russell is pretty good too. Andy Garcia does an excellent job as the wise old priest. Had me totally engaged from start to finish both times through. Bravo to all concerned in this production.