War is traditionally described as mostly boredom for its participants with short bursts of gut-wrenching, bloody terror, and this is no exception. Often into that sliver of a gap between the two states fit extremes of behaviour and personality; those people who almost seem to thrive on the chaos. Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) and… Apocalypse Now – Final Cut Read More
Dr Strangelove, back with a 4k restoration and probably Twitter’s longest ever hashtag
*** Read my 5-star Dr Strangelove review and my interview with Matt Wells, director of new short film Stanley Kubrick Considers The Bomb *** Growing up in the 80s, when I wasn’t crimping my hair and listening to Duran Duran berating me for being “about as easy as a nuclear war”*, I was worrying about surviving one…. Dr Strangelove, back with a 4k restoration and probably Twitter’s longest ever hashtag Read More
An American Piano (Short Film) Short Film 4 stars
Music, like war, is a great leveller. During World War Two, Youko (Leon Masuda), a little girl living in Japan with plans to train to be a concert pianist, sits at her grand piano playing Chopin. Across the way, an Allied prisoner of war listens and catches her eye. Based on a true story, An… An American Piano (Short Film) Read More
OutLaw King 3.5 stars
This is a traditional account of Robert Bruce’s fightback against the English as the Scottish nobleman claims his country’s crown, taking on Edward I and his son Edward, Prince Of Wales (later Edward II). There are no gimmicks, and watching it on Netflix, it did feel as if TV is a good home for it;… OutLaw King Read More
Hunter Killer 3.5 stars
*** Check out my submarine movies section *** One side-effect of the current political situation is that films like Hunter Killer are stuck in that 1990s post-Cold War warm glow where protagonists and presidents are decent people who just happen to have been born on different sides of an arbitrary border. While their real life equivalents are… Hunter Killer Read More
The Darkest Hour Trailer May Be My Darkest Hour…
*** My Darkest Hour review is now live *** …as I used up all my Churchillian superlatives for Brian Cox’s Winston in the recent movie – and Gary Oldman looks like he’s going to be incredible in this. WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO. Oh and thanks to this and the “other” Churchill I found out I’ve… The Darkest Hour Trailer May Be My Darkest Hour… Read More