dctrainer Reviews

Harlan Coben's Shelter (2023)

Harlan Coben's Version of "Stranger Things"

[5/10 · 13 October 2023]

Not bad, not great. My wife and I have greatly enjoyed every other Harlan Coben adaptation we've seen up to now, so we naturally looked forward to this one. It contains all the usual traits of earlier works with many twists, moving forward and back in time to reveal previously missed clues and populated with characters with hard to discern agendas that are not what they seem at first glance. This story has many elements of "Stranger Things": a quirky bunch of misfit kids band together to solve a series of unexplained events that may or may not have supernatural overtones. And every time it appears that one riddle is about to be solved the writers tack on one or two more twists to complicate things further. It got so complicated by the halfway mark we both lost track of what was going on. We stuck with it just to get a final explanation for all of it. A big positive was seeing a slew of 'older' actors brought in like Tovah Feldshuh, Didi Conn, Adrienne Barbeau, Peter Riegert in some key roles. Stephanie March, long time prosecutor on Law and Order also makes an appearance. All in all worth a watch but not one of the better Coben adaptations.

Un village français (2009–2017)

One of the best WWII Dramas ever

[10/10 · 1 August 2023]

France has long had a complicated relationship with its own history. Stanley Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" was long banned in France for its portrayal of the corrupt, out of touch and cruel generalship during the Great War. From the moment of Paris' Liberation General DeGaulle went to great lengths to create the "Myth of Resistance": that the majority of French men and women had resisted the German occupation in some way from 1940 onward. In fact barely 1% of the population actively fought against the occupiers. Even worse, large sections of French society actively assisted the Nazi occupiers in rounding up and deporting Jews, hunting down socialists, communists and other 'anti-nationalists'. Even well after the Normandy invasion and the clear prospect of Allied victory, collaboration continued unabated with the resistance fighters aiding the Allies being the main target. As James Holland's "Normandy '44" reveals, French collaborators gleefully informed on neighbors and even relatives fighting for the Allies. How do you achieve reconciliation after the war under such conditions? This series explores all those complications in great detail. The DVD version contains illuminating historical commentary from french historians and surviving eyewitnesses that that should not be missed.

Creed III (2023)

Jordan Elevates the Rocky/Creed Saga

[9/10 · 22 July 2023]

As an admirer of the original Rocky movies I was a definite skeptic when the original Creed movie came out. But it was much better than I expected, a worthy successor that improved on the earlier movies. Creed 2 was even better and Creed 3, with Jordan directing is the best of the lot. The story line, the characters, the attention to detail, all reflect a professional who respects all the earlier work and has learned his craft well. You can see the DNA of not just those earlier Rocky movies, but even further back to Wallace Beery and Kirk Douglas in their earlier career-making roles in their respective boxing flicks. It's always rewarding to see the work of a story-teller who loves what he does, loves the craft, appreciates Hollywood history and is still learning. There's a straight line from his time on "Friday Night Lights" to his present stature. Michael B. Jordan is the Adonis Creed of film-making. I can't wait to see his next stages after Creed.

Conrad Veidt - My Life (2020)

A Hidden Gem

[10/10 · 27 June 2023]

The only other 2 reviews seem to totally miss the point of this documentary. Yes, the gimmick of first person, accented narration can be a distraction, but only if you let it. If you know Viedt mainly as Major Strasser in Cadablanca and know little of the huge influence of German cinema, silent era and later this will be a revelation. Contains great insight into the influences his characters and films have had right through to the present day in everything from Batman villains to Disney animated features. And his recitation of film and social history takes us from the early films of Michael Powell in his pre-The Archers films with connections to the British Profumo Affair and other events. Many humorous observations on Hollywood, actors and directors and their careers.

Lone Star (1996)

A 2023 Film Released in1996

[10/10 · 6 May 2023]

Just watched this for the first time in 2023. Knew of the film and had enjoyed other Sayles films in the past, so I'm not sure how I missed this one, as it has to be his best ever. I was blown away about how timely the dialog and issues being covered turned out to be. Arguments about school curriculum, small town corruption, race relations, illegal immigration in an ethnically diverse population, unsettling transitions for the majority white population, it's all there. A great cast with Chris Cooper, Matthew McConaughy, Clifton James, Kris Kristifferson and a host of other supporting players hit all the right notes. Some people insist that history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes. But the narrative and themes on display here prove that history really does repeat itself in the US when it comes to race and immigration. At least n Sayles' view some people really do strive to shape a better future by finally being honest about their past.

Slow Horses (2022– )

Dramatic Spy Thriller but hilarious

[10/10 · 26 March 2023]

I know it's billed as a drama/thriller series bit it's also downright hilarious in parts. After seeing Oldman and Scott-Thomas as husband and wife Winston and Clementine Churchill in the totally serious "Darkest Hours" it's hard to stifle a laugh when they're on screen together in this series. Scott-Thomas deserves a BAFTA award just for keeping a straight face during some of their scenes together as Oldman treats her as crudely as possibly in every encounter. All the supporting characters are perfectly chosen, not just for their acting ability but their actual facial characteristics and mannerisms. They genuinely inhabit their roles. Near the end when the "Slow Horses" all meet at Blake's grave and are ready to split up, perhaps never to see one another again, Oldman appears ready to deliver a sentimental farewell but instead tells them all what a useless and incompetent bunch they are and what a low point in his career it has been to be associated with them. A classic scene.

Emily the Criminal (2022)

A Bad Influence

[8/10 · 3 February 2023]

It seems like a standard cautionary tale about what can happen when you get involved with someone with a sketchy background. A series of poor decisions gradually leads to inevitable tragedy. The only surprise for the viewer is who is the bad influence and who is the victim. This film started out as a standard crime drama but quickly turned directions to something quite different, with some sideways jabs at the 'gig' economy and side hustles cleverly inserted into the storyline. The screenplay and direction pack a lot of character development and storytelling into a compact space. I highly recommend this for anyone who appreciates film noir type dramas.

Tokyo Trial (2016)

One of the best Docudramas Ever

[10/10 · 17 December 2022]

Tokyo Trials covers a lesser known episode in Post-WWII Allied efforts to bring justice to Japan's wartime leaders. More than a year had passed since the Nuremberg trials had resulted in death sentences and long prison terms for former Nazi leaders. Enough time had passed for reflection on that process and a more dispassionate appraisal of how to proceed in the current tribunal. The prior decision not to pursue the original demand for Unconditional Surrender meant that Emperor Hirohito could not be prosecuted along with the other defendants. Defense attorneys for the accused raised valid defenses based on treaties signed by Japan and the victorious Allies in the 1920's that omitted provisions for legal punishment of nations that engaged in aggressive warfare. Could someone like foreign minister Togo be charged or convicted for his failure to vote against the governing council's decision to go to war? He was actually opposed to the war but provided one of the votes for the required unanimous war vote rather than resign. Doubtless his replacement would have voted yes in any case and his absence would have allowed even less check on Japan's aggression.

It was apparent from the start that several judges came into the process with varying levels of prejudgment about the need to punish many of the defendants before much of the testimony had been heard. And the judge from India, Pal, was the unexpected and reasoned counterbalance to the urge to inflict "Victor's Justice" on the accused. All in all an excellent series that can resonate with current events unfolding that bring attention once more to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Ndia's representative was an unexpected.

A Sniper's War (2018)

The Other Side of the Hill

[10/10 · 6 December 2022]

One of the most remarkable war documentaries in many years. US/Western documentaries rarely, if ever, give us such a clear window into the mindset and motivation of our adversaries. The sense of victimization felt by the pro-Russian civilians and fighters alike in Donetsk is palpable and fully articulated in multiple scenes through the voices of young and old, from various walks of life. The central character, Serbian fighter Deki, traces his personal life and experience fighting in the former Yugoslavia to the present Ukraine conflict. He clearly blames the US and NATO for the 'destruction' of Yugoslavia, not the years long attempts by Milosevic, Karadzic and others to incite ethnic violence and carry out ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity to remake and reshape the former Yugoslavia that had previously existed as a peaceful multiethnic society for decades. His narrative of an intrusive and invasive NATO/US constantly intruding in the affairs of other nations is shared by his comrades and other civilians shown in the film. We see ourselves as the 'good guys' with nothing but good intentions and wonder how we could be seen in a negative light by the 'other' side. This film explains it much like Shelby Foote in the Ken Burns Documentary "The Civil War" late in the conflict when a Union soldier asks the Confederate POW why they're continuing to fight when the war is clearly lost. "We're fighting cuz y'all are down here, that's why".

Some reviewers have carelessly derided this film as some sort of "pro-Russian propaganda" piece. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Calibre (2018)

Deliverance with a Scottish Twist

[9/10 · 29 September 2022]

A pair of city dwelling, upper class outsiders come to a clannish, rural Scottish town for a weekend of hunting. The town is suffering from hard economic times and it's natives look upon such outsiders as callous, thoughtless boors at best and potentially exploitive overlords at worst. And the Alpha male of the pair ends up driving them both down a path of unplanned destructive behavior. It starts out tragically and spirals ever further downhill with every misstep they make. The most frightening aspect of the film is the simple, believable plot and the character development/dialog. There is hardly a false note present and it has the flavor of a Hitchcock classic: normal, everyday people caught up in events beyond their ability to deal with and we can see ourselves being thrust into a similar situation. We identify with the outsider's dilemma, even when they make the wrong choices at critical moments because we could easily make the same mistakes if thrust into the same situation.

Like Jon Voight's character in Deliverance, the ending leaves a key protagonist as a haunted survivor, forever plagued by memories of what it took to emerge broken, but alive. Instead of a cold, dead hand rising from a lake, the sound of his own infant son crying in the night is the catalyst for his nagging guilt and we know it will never go away.

Z (1969)

One of the Best All-Time Political Thrillers

[10/10 · 18 August 2022]

Saw it in 1969 while in High School and read the book immediately. The film still holds up well in 2022, especially in light if recent events in US politics over the last 6 years. The ability and willingness of current US political leaders to inspire and exploit the current crop of violent, right-wing extremists to advance their cause at the expense of our democratic institutions is distressingly similar to the Greece of 1960's and 1970's. In the end, the Greek Junta got it's just desserts in 1974 with the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and was revealed to be an incompetent, corrupt criminal gang destined fail at the basic task of defending their nation from external threats since it was devoted for so many years to making war only on it's own citizens for the sin of political dissent. Within a few years the Argentine Junta would go through the exact same trial and fail just as miserably with the Falklands War. A military devoted to propping up an illegitimate, corrupt regime by suppressing it's own citizens will always fail to recieve the popular support it needs at the moment of greatest crisis.

Borgen: The Future Is Female (2022) Season 4, Episode 1

A Character Study of Two of the Serie's Central Characters

[9/10 · 18 August 2022]

Birgitte Nyborg and Katrine Fonsmark are the central characters of season 4, set 9 years after season 3. Both characters are tested in their new roles of Party leader and news chief, respectively and it doesn't paint a pretty picture. In the three prior seasons both of them took principled, difficult stands that sometimes came at high personal and professional costs for both of them. They were portrayed more heroically in the 3 previous seasons than the final series.

Now they both face difficult choices while in positions of power and find themselves making the same compromises they once decried and criticized while in more subordinate roles. More than once their supposedly important principles take a back seat to expediency and the desire to retain control and position.

We may not enjoy seeing them portrayed this way, but it is a realistic turn of events and the writers are to be congratulated for providing the framework for this transformation and the actors are to be praised for bringing them to life in a believable fashion.

As an American viewer I enjoy getting insight into 4 specific areas: Denmark's parliamentary system; the relationship between the professional Civil Service and elected politicians; the relationship between Denmark and Greenland; and the relationship between Denmark and the Superpowers. Very refreshing and informative. It has the best attributes of 2 long running US series, "West Wing" and "Madame Secretary".

The Big Picture (1950–1968)

Childhood Memory

[8/10 · 24 November 2020]

My brother and I were a couple of those kids who set an alarm to get up in time to see "The Big Picture" on Saturday morning in the 1960's. We really thought we were getting the real story on the US Army and it's exploits in various wars up through the Korean War. We loved playing with our large collection toy soldiers to refight the battles we saw on the show. At the time we didn't even realize some of the battle footage even came from Hollywood movies like "They Came to Cordura" which jumped out to us when we saw that movie on TV after watching "The Big Picture". A few years ago I borrowed a set of DVD's from the local library of the show and saw them in quite a different light now in my 60's. Yes, it was definitely a propaganda show for the Army, and some of the episodes were quite poignant, particularly one focused on Major General Dean who was captured by the North Koreans and eventually early in the war and was eventually awarded the Medal of Honor. He was interviewed at length and he was apparently still suffering from the mental and emotional strain of his ordeal as evidenced by his difficulty understanding some questions and struggling to articulate his answers. Rather than a dispassionate and careful examination of military history like more recent TV history series, this show is more an artifact of it's time and place in America in the depths of the Cold War and broadcast to a population made up of millions of WWII veterans like our father and their Baby Boomer offspring.

The Great War (2010–2012)

Russian Documentary Without Propaganda

[9/10 · 2 March 2020]

Produced in Russia with updated British narration, this documentary is a surprisingly evenhanded portrayal of The Great Patriotic War. It is also maintains a high standard in production values that make good use of detailed computer graphics and accurately equipped re-enactors displaying valid tactical portrayals. Sometimes the two are melded together seamlessly in scenes where live actors appear to move alongside CGI military vehicles. The CGI is of quality to the "Dogfights" "Greatest Tank Battles" and "Battle 360" series. Some Russian documentaries are guilty of glossing over the mistakes of Stalin and the negaive effects of his purges. This series doesn't hesitate to highlight mistakes made at every level, even after the Soviet Union had turned the tide of the conflict in 1943. Includes excellent animations of typical German and Red Army tactics at various stages of the war; brief bios of key commanders on both sides; and specifications of key weapons/vehicles. The only minor drawback are the maps which retain the original cyrillic spellings of place names showing major movements.

Cowboy (1958)

Cowboy Echoes The Cowboys

[9/10 · 19 January 2020]

This is a little known gem of a western with a great cast and a narrative that draws you in. Tenderfoot hotel clerk Lemmon is able to insert himself into Ford's cattle drive, to prove himself--not just to himself and Ford, but to his fiance and possible future father-in-law. The work is much harder than he imagined and Ford takes more than a little satisfaction in seeing his naive charge face some hard lessons. There is no romanticizing the hardships and the type of men needed to face those hardships. Lemmon is transformed but part way through their journey even Ford comes to realize he may have done too good a job in getting Lemmon to shed his naivete. Look for a poignant portrayal against type by Brian Donlevy. The hard-boiled icon of gangster flicks, more at home in fine suits and glitzy night clubs in the films of the 30's and 40's plays a grizzled, aging trail hand who is nearing the end of his own long, hard trail. I happened to see this just after seeing John Wayne's 1972 "The Cowboys". There a veteran trail hand transforms a group of much younger novices into men on the trail in similar story arc. Both tell worthy stories in different ways.

An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Did not watch this until 2019

[8/10 · 16 February 2019]

When this movie came out I purposely avoided it. The trailers for it seemed over the top with a doomsday sort of approach. It became a political football immediately and the extreme views of both supporters and detractors turned me off from seeing it as well. After 13 years I finally watched it out of idle curiosity rather than any strong interest in the pros or cons of any climate change debate. And maybe that's what it takes to view certain documentaries with any sort of objectivity. I always thought Gore was a bit of an alarmist on the topic when seeing him interviewed after the movie came out. However the ultimate irony is that the movie (and Gore) probably understated the peril of climate change at the time. After 13 years the predictions now seem a bit tame, if anything, especially when compared to the actually tally of extreme weather events that have affected just the US. And the actual rate of glacial melting, polar ice retreat and permafrost degradation is actually a bit faster than predicted even at the time the movie was made. I notice many negative reviews concentrate on the possible misinterpretation of certain data or the omission of conflicting sources and possible counter narratives using the same data. All well and good. The only problem with those criticisms now is that they have been overtaken by events in the space of just 13 years. Both Gore and his critics got it wrong. Climate change is worse than Gore or the even more extreme partisans predicted. Not a pleasant realization to come to.

American Sniper (2014)

Read the Book For the Whole Story

[5/10 · 1 February 2019]

I was disappointed in this movie after reading the book some months earlier. In his autobiography Kyle is unsparing in his self-appraisal. Kyle tells us from the beginning that he is no hero and certainly no role model and proceeds to tell us why in unsettling detail: an extreme alcoholic with a violent temper, borderline abusive husband and initially a neglectful father, saved from jail time by overly indulgent judges, Kyle finds his purpose and a home as a Navy SEAL. Rather than show us the complete man, the movie is more an exercise in hero worship with typical American war heroics more at home in a WWII era film. It would have made a more complete and absorbing movie with a picture of the whole man as Kyle intended for us in his book. He found peace and was restoring the nearly broken relationships with his wife and children at the time of his death which made his death even more poignant. But that might have been too complex a tale for American audiences looking for a tale of good guys versus bad guys.

Murdoch Mysteries: The Accident (2017) Season 11, Episode 7

Third Time This Premise Has Been Used.

[30 October 2018]

This episode copies the movie "Signs" with Mel Gibson and the season 6 episode of "Homicide: Life on the Street", titled "The Subway". In the former, Mel Gibson's wife is pinned by a car against a tree. Alive, lucid and talking they are given a chance to say goodbye knowing that she will die as soon as the car is moved in an attempt to save her. In the latter, Vincent D'Onofrio plays a businessman pinned between the platform and a subway train. He is awake, alert and lucid but the EMT'S quickly realize any attempt to Jack the subway car away to free him will likely kill him. The detectives also determined his fall was no accident, he was pushed. Attempts are made to locate his girlfriend for a final goodbye, to no avail. At the end she is seen jogging by the subway station on her morning run, oblivious to the tragedy that has just unfolded below.

The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974)

Finally Got Around To It

[8/10 · 18 October 2018]

I always wanted to see this film ever since it was released when I was in college, but just never got around to it. Just watched it now in 2018 and not disappointed. Dreyfuss really was the perfect Duddy Kravitz. Many of his subsequent roles had a "little bit of Duddy" in them. The viewer can both cheer for Duddy and also be repulsed by him, the mark of a good screenplay, script and actors. Warden, Wiseman and Lanctot lend realism to the tale and provide the other prisms through which to view Kravitz. Both a story and a character study it can be tough to watch, even if occasionally softened by touches of humor. By the end we're left to wonder if it was all worth it and we sense that Duddy is wondering the same thing.

Barefoot in the Park (1967)

Natwick and Boyer are worth watching

[7/10 · 18 September 2018]

Just watched this movie for the first time after watching most of Simon's film adaptations previously. Most of them hold up very well with the passage of time like "The Odd Couple" and "Out of Towners". This one doesn't, though it doesn't quite deserve the harsh reviews some have given it. It's more an artifact of a certain time and place with dialogue and situations definitely holding to a 60's vibe we've seen in shows like "The Dick Van Dyke Show" with Fonda taking the Mary Tyler Moore role. Her over wrought "I want a divorce" schtick is a bit over done but this isn't supposed to be Hamlet. Boyer and Natwick are the real attraction for me. He purposely skewers his own prior screen persona as romantic leading man and Natwick gets to cut loose as Fonda's mom who isn't totally averse to his womanizing tendencies.

As an interesting counterpoint watch "Our Souls at Night" after viewing this to see how five decades in film reveals the maturation of Fonda's and Redford's acting abilities in a drama rather than alight hearted rom-com.