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mhandsley2001
Reviews
Dracula (2020)
Fabulous!
I loved this!
Created by the same team that brought us Sherlock, it's scary, horrible and funny, and like Sherlock there will be people who hate it!
As you would expect from Steven Moffat and Mark Gattus the dialogue is sharp as a vampires teeth, and they have fun with the characters, this new Dracula is handsome, funny, witty, viscious, and frightening.
The sets and gothic imagery hark back to Hammer, it looks fabulous.
Claes Bang is perfect as Dracula. it's as if he was put on this earth to play Dracula!
I loved it.
They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)
Brilliant!
This is an extraordinary film. Like most movies it'll pull at your emotions, one minute you're laughing, the next scared, the next the tears will be welling up.
Most of us will have seen grainy footage of WW1. The war started over a 100 years ago, and It's the age of the footage, and the jerkyness of the speed of the film that help us think of this particular war as a distant non relevant war. This film changes all of that, and helps bring us into the lives of the soldiers that took part.
The film starts in black and white and in a small box in the centre of the screen. As it continues the footage gets clearer, and the screen larger until the first transition into beautifully clear colour footage that fills the cinema screen. This first transition took my breath away it is just so good. The film gradually draws us in, until we are right there, in the trenches with the British and Germans as they fight each other. We then experience the sight and sounds of this horrendous war in the same way as the participants. You even hear the words they spoke while being filmed, Peter Jackson explaned in the Q&A that he used professional lip readers to find out what was said, and actors synced the words to what was being said on screen.
There is no narrator, but you do hear the voices of those that took part in the war who were interviewed in the 1960's and 70's, these snippets are sometimes funny, and sometime heartbreakingly sad.
The film draws to an end by returning to black and white, and as the screen starts to shrink back to the original size, we are slowly taken away from the horrors of the trenches.
This movie was just brilliant, and lovingly created by Peter Jackson and his team. Our screening was a one off, shown at the same time as the premier in London and included an interview with the director. If you do get the chance go and see in a cinema, you won't be disappointed.
Ozark: Kaleidoscope (2017)
Best episode to date.
I'd been struggling with this series until this episode. There has been darkness, but no why. No spoilers here, but we get an explanation why the Byrds are where they are.
There are several different timelines, which chop and change throughout the episode,(very Nolan-esque!) but which all come together towards the end. Superb!
Extinction (2018)
Great film.
Ignore the bad reviews. If you're a sci-fi fan you'll love it.
Bluestone 42 (2013)
Just very good!
I've been looking forward to watching series 2 since the last series ended. Two episodes in, and the show gets better and better.
The latest episode had several laugh out loud moments which is very rare with TV comedy's today. Everything is perfect from the main theme tune, location, gear and equipment - someone in the know helped put this show together. Those of us that have spent time in HM Forces will recognise all the characters - and the banter, which is very realistically portrayed.
Already hoping that there'll be a series 3, however with the news that BBC Three is on the way out, and will become an online channel, I really hope that the BBC find some space on BBC2 or even a late slot on BBC1.
My Boy Jack (2007)
Superb television
Excellent cast, beautifully shot and well scripted TV movie about the Kipling family at the start of the First World War. Premiered in the UK on Remembrance Day (11/11) this poignant tale has Daniel Radcliffe in the title role, showing once again (after his on stage appearance in Equus) that there's more to this young actor than the caricature that Harry Potter has become. His clipped and stilted performance completely captured what it must have been like to be the put upon son of a successful, middle-class author in late Edwardian England.
David Haig plays Rudyard Kipling (there's a remarkable resemblance) who many will remember from previous UK TV series 'Thin Blue Line' and 'Soldier Soldier' as well as the massively successful 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'. Haig captures the British Imperialist that Kipling had become perfectly, as well as the emotional turmoil that Kipling went through as he realised just what he had helped to achieve by sending his young son to war. Haig also wrote the original play and screenplay so the resulting TV movie must be pretty much what he wanted.
The supporting players, Kim Catterill as Rudyard's American wife, and Martin McCann as the Irish Guardsman who goes to war with young John to name two, give excellent, measured performances which compliment the two lead roles, giving the whole production a rounded, glossy finish.
This is superb TV catch it if you can (but don't forget the hankies!)