epincion Reviews

Rise of the Nazis (2019–2023)

Fantastically chilling and highly relevant to today

[10/10 · 23 May 2021]

I've watched this series on the BBC twice now and am motivated to comment on it after learning its showing on PBS in the US. Back in 2017 the doyenne of US conservative writers George Will wrote an opinion in the Washington Post entitled 'The shady characters around Trump' and in particular looking at the hard right influences in his WH - such persons as Sebastian Gorka a Hungarian-American close to Hungarian PM Viktor Orban whose Fidez party has (and still is) dismantling all the checks and balances of a modern democratic state. Mr Will who is not given to hyperbole noted that what we are seeing now in parts of Europe and in the US is the rise of a philosophy that we thought had been defeated on the battlefield in 1945.

At the time in the US (2017) many thought Mr Will was a bit over the top but the Jan 6th violent attempt at take over of the US Congress and the subsequent total denial about it actually happening - despite tins of evidence- shows that this BBS/PBS series is very pertinent to today.

I note a number of comments on this set of comments attempting to justify Nazism.

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Excellent absorbing fun

[8/10 · 7 October 2017]

Just seen the movie (while on vacation in Canada). The original Blade Runner is one of my all time favorites. Watching this new Blade Runner 2049 I was absorbed and was never bored and highly recommend people see the movie. However to me it does not have the same level of innovative artistry as the original Blade Runner. Firstly the music score is not as good as the fantastic Vangelis score written for the original movie. Yes the music in the new movie is somewhat like that in the old movie but in reality the director seems to think that lots of very loud long chords is a good score. Secondly while visually the new movie is stunning sometimes the tiny scene details are not as consistent as they were in the original. The use of shadows and lights and rain is very well done following on the theme of the original Bad Runner. Of course the CGI effects are massively better in this sequel as would be expected. The story line is good and the baddies in this movie really are convincingly chilling and the twists in the plot are good. Clearly there will be a sequel - or two. Most of all I missed humor this is a movie that takes itself very seriously and in doing so has lost something.

Wuthering Heights (2011)

Tendentious nonsense

[1/10 · 4 January 2017]

Yes I know the Emily Bronte novel deals with a dark subject of a man driven to virtual madness by boyhood mistreatment and his perceived betrayal by a woman whom he loved but for me this film was a terrible interpretation. It was woodenly acted and given the wonderful language of the novel the script here was a joke. Disturbingly there was gratuitous killing of animals seen on film and this is simply unacceptable. Technically the film was very often annoyingly jerky (imagine the film from a hand-held camera on horseback) and essentially all night time scenes far too dark to see. Yes the reality of the era was that in poor stone farm houses it would have been very dark and dingy but with modern digital cameras such 'natural light' scenes can be enhanced so that the audience can see -as was well shown in the recent excellent BBC Wolf Hall series. I was excited at the thought of a major role in a classic of English literature going to a non-white actor and that was the one good thing I can say but everything else was dreadful. Don't bother is my advice.

Wild China (2008)

Fantastic

[9/10 · 18 December 2012]

Very Good Series. As a great fan of the BBC Natural History Unit series like Planet Earth I only came across this recently and it surprised me greatly in that I never realized China is so varied and full of amazing natural wonders. As with most Westerners my idea of China was just what we see on news channels with the background pictures of Beijing and the Great Wall. What was particularly good was the way the filmmakers include something of the life of local people in each episode. So many interesting local cultures exist in pockets each with a rich cultural tradition going back centuries. It is great that something is being done to record this before they disappear under the pressure of modern ways. The filmmakers also (quite carefully given the sensitivity of the Chinese government to perceived criticism) point out the huge problems for wildlife from human pressure for land taking the habitat for animals and birds and also the fact that in some parts of China they eat everything leading to rare animals being hunted for profit. For the first time ever I felt I would visit China to see its natural history and peoples.