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robertstorey-36164
Reviews
The Death of Stalin (2017)
not as good as the cast think it is
It was fun for about 15minutes then the silliness and caricatures just got boring and grating. The cast seem to be enjoying themselves though.
For some reason I couldn't help thinking the old carry on cast and writers would have made something much more amusing.
The Tourist (2022)
Wonderfully entertaining
Anyone who enjoys slightly unhinged tales will enjoy this. It was highly original and a real wild ride and there were constant plot twists to entertain. The only slightly tiresome bit was an American oddball hitman who seemed to have wandered in straight out of Fargo. There was a particularly enjoyable and funny but sad sub plot about a trainee female police officer with self esteem issues who gets taken hostage but ends up having a more enjoyable time with her captor than she ever has with her awful subtly bulling fiancee. The background cast of characterful but friendly Aussies was a delight.
Threads (1984)
entertainingly grim
For those who like to revel in despair Threads is the ultimate grimfest as it explores the consequences of a nuclear attack on the UK. Life as we know it ends and then it gets worse and worse. The film is a very useful and important reminder to our leaders that nuclear war must be avoided at all costs.
There is a slightly irritating and childish undercurrent that CND are the only ones who understand the consequences of nuclear warfare and have the only policies that will stop it. The truth is that having a deterrent makes the awful events shown in Threads much less likely to happen. Indeed the scenario envisioned in threads that leads to the attack is in fact wildly implausible given
the consequences for both sides, something that is overlooked when praising the film's realism.
Angels One Five (1952)
A worthy tribute to 1940 Britain and its air force
This film reduces the Battle of Britain to a human scale by focusing on the experiences of a novice pilot at a fighter station in 1940. The hero is a bit of an annoying cocky type who tries to do everything by the book but who in truth makes a series of blunders due to his inexperience. Ultimately he dies because he can't bale out as his canopy is stuck despite being warned early on in the film to only get in an aircraft he's sure he can get out of by another pilot. He obviously ignored the advice.
The other characters are a realistic and likeable bunch. Polite and decent, and with a strong sense of humour that is always bubbling to the surface.
Overall with its flawed blundering hero, oily Hurricanes, lack of sentimentality and streak of humour in the face of adversity the film is a great tribute to the people that won one of the most important battles in history. The special effects of the German planes are pretty poor but the live action scenes of Hurricanes make up for it.