Tediously slow and over-dramatic. It is full of irrelevant locations such as the wilds of the North of England and Scotland, or decaying steelworks. The other images are usually meaningless, presumably to keep us amused while waiting for the next sentence. Real images are confused with simulations, which are often misleading as a result. It may have been thought that a lecture in front of a blackboard would have made many people switch off. However the makers should have assumed a more attentive audience and used a more compelling speaker. Instead the slow pace may have bored many people. Somewhere in these episodes is useful information, but many people will not have the tolerance for this series's pomposity.
Reviews
9 Reviews
The Accountant
(2016)
Occasionally different but degenerates into cliche
30 July 2023
The idea that a fellow accountant could have such an action-packed life is amusing. I found paper better for writing on than windows though. The film feels a little like the Jason Bourne franchise, with a highly trained killer able to defeat several armed opponents with ease at once. Then it is like Jack Reacher where the hero seems able exist in modern USA without anyone knowing where he is. The final shoot-out provided the usual unlikely events: our hero hitting moving targets with a handgun with uncanny accuracy, and, after being hit, he is still able to engage in a fist-fight. The final reckoning was guessable a few minutes in advance.
Blue Lights
(2023– )
Exciting and educational
8 April 2023
There are many police dramas, but this deals with the reality of a constable's life and training better than any I can remember. Add in Belfast as the city, and it is truly eye-opening. You soon forget that you are watching actors, and so you identify with the characters. The acting is superb: Richard Dormer and Joanne Crawford in particular. The writers are ex-investigative journalists who did a lot of research with The Police Service of Northern Ireland. The dialogue is well-crafted and taut. The final episode is very satisfying. There is a good chance that you will "binge-watch all six episodes.
Empire of Light
(2022)
Great acting but the film deserved a better plot
26 January 2023
Warning: Spoilers
As ever Olivia Coleman does exceptionally well in portraying a whole range of moods and emotions.. However the story tried to hit too many targets at once and missed. There was the nostalgia for the days when more people went to the cinema by showing it was already in decline even before the era of video rental. (There were three other people in the part of the cinema showing this film in the early evening.) There was also the fragility of people with mental illness and the impact of racism. It was therefore a little unsatisfying that there was no resolution of these issues. No pointer that racism would become much less prevalent these days; nothing to say that this cinema would survive when so many others did not, and nothing to give any optimism that Olivia's character would ever find contentment. The film just stopped.
Good story with a homage to The Third Man
1 January 2023
Well produced and well acted. Interesting plot, though the number of bodies was implausible, and I have a feeling that similar multiple break-ins and opium dens are from another crime-writer's plot, Sherlock Holmes? However that was not the only reference to something else. It started with a scene in the narrow wet streets at night in Vienna, then there were large shadows on the wall of a running man, then a man selling balloons, and then a scene where the criminal disappears into one of the kiosk structures that lead to the sewers. Someone was having fun with scenes from The Third Man, one of the most highly rated films of all time. If you go to the Weiner Reisenrad, there is no mention of its appearance with Orson Welles in The Third Man. Like The Sound Of Music, The Third Man seems to be unknown in Austria. Perhaps one the co-producers was making a point.
Emily
(2022)
Poignant
15 October 2022
This is is well-directed and well acted with beautiful photography. It is loosely based on Emily Bronte's life and depicts events which are mirrored in Wuthering Heights. It is not hard to find factual errors eg.it was Anne who had the relationship with William Weightman, but if you just treat as a story in its own right, it is a great piece of film-making. I was reminded that the films: Becoming Jane and Shakespeare in Love, were also about famous authors used failed romances as the impetus to write. I noticed that the first edition of her book had her own name inside the cover. Like her sisters she wrote under a pseudonym: Ellis Bell.
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
(2022)
Escapist fantasy
8 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
The plot is completely implausible and trite. I had greater involvement with the characters in Puss in Boots. Hard-done-by cleaning lady has some bad luck but even more improbable good luck. She goes to Paris and keeps finding complete strangers who escort her about, invite her to sit in on a fashion show, offer her an apartment for a week which contains a wide selection of clothes just the right size. All speak fluent English, sometimes even when talking to other French people. Further implausible coincidences happen with increasing regularity. We then have the compulsory sad bits and set-backs before finally our heroine triumphs and lives happily every after. Congratulations are due for the re-creation of some of Dior's 1957 couture from old films and sketches. Feel good? No, I feel intensely irritated.
The Lost Daughter
(2021)
Very peculiar
19 February 2022
It might get nominated for awards, but I can't imagine many people outside the industry liking this. The disconnect between normal films and award-winning films is getting greater. I probably won't watch The Power of the Dog now. How can you spend all day in the sun in Greece without getting severe sun-burn or at least a tan? They are probably great performances, but they mean nothing without a coherent script.
The Dig
(2021)
Excellent film
30 January 2021
The words "based on a true story" always puts me on alert. I know a film cannot be history, and so characters and events always have to be simplified. In this case the story of Basil Brown is fundamentally true. Well done! The film is beautifully shot, the atmosphere of pre-war Suffolk is captured in subtle muted colours and the local accent is accurately portrayed. Treat it as a film, and you will love it. However if you look for the facts, you will find many variances. In particular you will discover that Peggy's liaison is fictional, and the two actual photographers were omitted. The one startling omission, for which the film loses a star, is that the magnificent artefacts now in the British Museum are not shown, just a few grubby bits of metal. It is beyond my belief that such a good director could miss this punch-line just before the credits.
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