oliverdearlove Reviews

The Golden Hour (2022– )

Real life is like this

[6/10 · 24 December 2023]

I am not sure if the critics above live in America or just dont read the newspapers. The lorry attack is based on the Nice lorry attack where a lorry killed 86 people.

The title ( Gouden Uur ) is ironic. The first sixty minutes is when the chances of saving the lives of blasted or shot victims is greatest. I wondered if it were ironic that this phrase describes the fist 60 mins where the first responder are prevented from going in.

This occurred in the Arena bomb 2017 when a victim looked up into the face of a policeman who had stuck a gun in his face and asked: "are you actually going to do anything to help us?" He passed on to another injured victim and checked HIM out for bombs and arms. An hour was wasted, the telecomms didnt work, the firebrigade was sent away. Real life is much more chaotic

Americans should be aware of the Uvalde shooting where the police delayed entering the school on the grounds of their own safety.

The police in the Netherlands are much more integrated. 10% of British Police are Indian or Afro Caribbean - and I have never seen a policeman with an Arabic or Dari background.

Setting two bombs off within minutes of each other, the second one where the crowds of frightened people may collect was a standard IRA tactic.

So the facts are perfectly real - and based in events. The plot? Well you have to tell a story of sorts.

Well recommended.

Justice (1971–1974)

All Change

[8/10 · 19 January 2023]

Viewers should look on this as drama and judge it by those criteria. I saw and was intrigued by the GMC case. It was Fifty years ago and things have changed. Radically. It was solid drama and very watchable but viewers should not be taken in to think that things were really like that. The goof I spotted was the threat to appeal to the Court of Appeal whereas in that year it would be to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. I told you not to think of it as History. View it as Drama from 50 y ago. The characterisation and dialogue is good. It was surprising how low the production values were.

The Walk-In (2022)

Warning - scouse accents, subtitles needed

[16 November 2022]

This is a contemporary drama and based on facts. I in fact do not remember anything except the nurder of the MP. The drama is.about a lay organisation who is helping a witness. The characters are realistic. The wife loudly protests a possible danger to her children. She always takes them back to Mum, complaining loudly. Stephen Graham is the lead actor in Hope not Hate and has to handle a frankly stupid witness and a loudly complaining spouse.

I think anything English, in our post - diana and The Crown state we should remember even a fact based film is a drama. This means that it may contain characters who dont exist, and inaccuracies.

Well worth sticking with. Those in Manchester have no difficulty with the accent 30 m away - Scouse or the 'pule.

The Crown: The System (2022) Season 5, Episode 2

it is a drama

[12 November 2022]

It is obvious why people are complaining about the historicity of this fifth series. That is, whether it is true or not. Or whether any of it is true. The look-alikes are very similar to the real thing. The script for the events is standard. The sets - are to die for. The 17 cent. Interiors although re-used, the main dining hall, at most after 1450, as an entrance hall. The paintings that decorate the sets- a Gainsborough conversation piece, a John Singer Sargent, A portrait of Elizabeth I full of political symbolism. There are two burglaries to set the scene for the obvious well known conspiracy of MI5 and the Duke of Edinburgh to finish her off. You have been warned.

Hiroshima: The Aftermath (2015)

Good Film to watch

[1/10 · 22 July 2022]

I join the many reviewers who say this film is garbage. This film has driven me to attempt a review - so few of mine are published. One reviewer rejects the idea of the German atomic project helping the American one. He is right it didnt. Good review of the Nazi nuclear project by David Irving 1967 The Virus House. ( The later neo-Fascist).

I recommend this film as the data presented is good and some fresh. The way it is turned into information is not suspect, it is wrong. See above.

It is instructive for someone interested and with background knowledge to see how the data is distorted.

There are only two photographs of Hiroshima, immediately after. They identified and interviewed him. Then they failed to stress his photos were the only ones as the scientific plane 'failed'. This would have been a good entry for the lost neutron flux measurements. The neutron meter was lost for 50 y. It was later found in someone's garage and they assessed it as little better than a watering or jerry can. 'Lost' because they knew the data generated was useless.

Memories of what happened today are different to those memories of things that happened 50 y ago. This seemed very obvious when listening to the eye witnesses.

Contemporaries I agree, said " Dont go to Hiroshima, there's nothing there", unlike the ruins of Berlin or London. However, most of the concrete buildings survived upright, and so the massive spaces in between were burnt out wooden stock. These had been cleared by the time the Americans landed in Sep 1945. ( dumped in the river) So the timing of the photographs are vital. There were a few of the 'lost photographs'. A Japanese photographer went out within minutes and photographed the chaos and then regretted photographing so many who were dead or would die. However they show the scene after the bomb and before the firestorm.

A secret monitoring committee has identified the special purpose of Enola Gay and its group - and gathered information and passed it on. Nothing happened. Enola Gay was identified in flight but not shot down, inexplicably. No, the explanation was that Japan had no air defence by that time.

The standard view is "All communication with Hiroshima ceased at 0815". This was due to the unknown Electro Magnetic Pulse. They decided to send someone to see, but it would take 3 days to get down there owing to American bombing. A secret committee knew the secret but told no one, is less credible

The account of the Cabinet meeting where the Emperor breaks the dead lock is completely wrong. Other things happend.

The Good Fight (2017–2022)

Don't Bother Watching

[1/10 · 16 January 2022]

The whole of this current series is a load of garbage. It MAY be a satire of American manners. It doesnt matter to the rest of us in the world. The extra details are not needed, intrude and dont make sense. I wouldnt say that this series is politcally dominated, it is just boring to watch. There may be another series, I wont hold my breath.

Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar (2019 TV Movie)

Watch this film!

[8/10 · 9 January 2022]

I found this quite watchable, and loved the well observed details of a dig in 1930. The plot line has been covered already. One other reviewer has worked on a dig, and so did I. Fifty years ago. There would have been eight or ten Europeans who of course do not dig. There are far to few labourers, and no noise and dust. But there is a magazine ( place for objets trouves) and it is locked. There is an Iraqi official. There are internal tensions. The sets are phenomenally well observed. I think they must have studied Carter's House in Luxor. I enjnoyed the film, thinking, ( besides the murders) it really was like that.

The Good Fight: And the Violence Spread. (2021) Season 5, Episode 10

The Tedious Fight

[3/10 · 30 December 2021]

I think we can all say: we have seen better.

As someone outside the American legal system, I have no brief to admire it, or convert it back into something I can admire. Recent Presidential appointments to the have made no attempt to make a balanced court that commands respect. I can see that the series looks at the consequences of such failure. - There is lack of respect of the legal process which has always been present in the black African section. There is substitution of local courts and their inevitable consequences. The social control agencies ( Police to you and me) do not act as they are set up to do or should do.

The trashing of the room in the final scene re-enacts the scenes of 6 Jan including the surreal scenes of violence towards some and not others.

It was a fair satire about a President trashing a system that worked for one that obviously didnt or wouldnt work

Perhaps a satire I didnt need to watch.

Resistance (2011)

Brilliant ! in a quiet way

[10/10 · 5 March 2021]

This is a wonderful movie which not many people like. Like this: Terrible, slow, boring, pretentious, bad cast worse crew specially the director, all that a movie shouldn't have, this one have it. If you like NCIS or Deadpool then clearly this movie is not for you. Like NCIS or Deadpool - this plot never happened. The scene is a back water Welsh valley where the war has almost passed them by. It is green and cold and it rains alot and life goes on. Some of the points that reviewers have repeatedly missed and are beautifully portrayed. The old farmer's wife who refuses to supply the occupying contingent, give her husband's shoes to the guard who is accompany her to the horse show. The occupiers change out of uniform, which is unheard of. Then Michael Sheen turns up in mufti and is hot as a spy - as he is without uniform. The farming community get on with life, and the teenager makes a pointless contribution to resistance. London falls in the action and a German asks if the war must end. Wars end when the capital falls except in Russian 1942 and France 1940. Overall it is beautifully done and the fact that everyone dies in the end is an inevitable conclusion

Outside the Wire (2021)

Bit of a dog really

[3/10 · 16 January 2021]

I do not feel bad about giving a poor review to this movie. Some one has said that middle school students could have written this. Grossly unfair to the students, what they write would be better. Make sure you have a crossword to complete or some knitting to do, to take up the time.

Bridgerton (2020– )

Great Fun - it didnt happen like this you know !

[8/10 · 29 December 2020]

This is a drama for the times ( 2020s) . The sets are amazing, stunningly so. The costumes well thought out. Queen Charlotte, the King's Wife ( George III) is interestingly Afro-Caribbean and her staff dressed in court dress of around 1750. Courts as we know, never move with the times. The dialogue and themes are 21st century. Jane Austen is sufficiently replayed that one can watch that for authentic period dialogue No one has four daughters "coming out" at one time. Each one came out in a different year and had to find a husband by the years end. Lord Berborough visits "at home" without visiting cards. More shocking The Duke has no cravat at a society ball ! A servant wears his bicorn hat crossways - 'like a ship in full sail' coming towards you. The last person to do that was 25 y prior, one Horatio Nelson. The more modern way was as the line that one walked. At one At Home, the lady of the house converses with the visitor - who appears to visit without a manservant - whilst two daughters play cards and one a harp. The girls of course should be around the visitor listening to what she had to say Excellent drama, and I recommend it to everyone. As for - did it ever happen once? No, it is a drama.

Wander (I) (2020)

Much better than they say !

[9/10 · 27 December 2020]

This is much better than they say and the things they say are wrong with it - are probably intended It clearly isnt about a conspiracy theorist getting knocked up It is about a disturbed man who is not taking his meds, His obvious hallucinations are very well done - having had a few myself. So all the things that dont fit together arent meant to. When he goes out to the ranch - he is greeted by someone as an aside - it is beccause the house he is going to is abandoned and not occupied by the dead girls mother. When she is shot, he doesnt hit the floor and wonder who has done it In the final shoot out - he is told later than the dealer he has shot is the local doctor. Jimmy leal really is decapitated ihe boot of the abandone care where all the evidence is meant to be Good film about someone going completely to pieces, and the ones who should be helping such as Cleal are intentionally making it worse so that he can make money.

Black Crows (2017)

Much better than they say

[7/10 · 24 October 2020]

I have come back to this as it is a relatively good source of intermediate Arabic so it is a good learning source. Reviewers are correct when they complain this is crude anti-ISIS propaganda. People complain about the stiff dialogue and wooden acting. I am not sure how real that you want something about ISIS. It is not that a better or more cuddly script would make them more loveable. It is difficult to doubt the events took place - but also difficult to mould them into a useful progressive thread. Yazdia slaves were sold. I think the slave who sang and would not be silent did occur as she had nothing to lose. I think the children were abused. I think the mothers who took their children as well did not expect them to enlisted in suicide battalions. I think the convoys did pass dead men rotting in gibbets. I think the troublesome children were sent to their suicides before their more pliant class-mates. So the complaints of unreality and poor dialogue I consider unfounded. How much of a James Bond film is true?

Taboo (2017)

Great Georgian Drama

[9/10 · 24 May 2020]

This is a great series to watch and enjoy. The sets are authentic and mostly from Hatfield House. The ladies' dresses I thought were underdecorated and too plain for the time. Someone has suggested that it is an educators mightmare whereas I think it would well be used as a learning vehicle and fun to do. The contessa's ball for example - there are too few men in uniform, whether or nor they were overseas fighting and winning the last phase of the Napoleonic War. None of the fine houses seem to have any house servants. The master of the house or mistress would never see people out of the house after visiting. There seem not to be any people waiting at table or preparing food. Nonetheless there are some really pleasing points to see. The American agent is in St Bartholomew's Hospital and historically Benjamin Franklin hired part of the cellar of Barts the Great for business before he emigrated. The outside of the house he has inherited from his father is overgrown and in disarray that matches the state of his affairs. Cholmondeley is based on Faraday who gave public lectures on science. He was at the Royal Institution and not the Royal Society. A great majority of scenes are candlelit, These are luxuriantly lit to give colour contrast - in fact the servants would be given candle ends to use up and would be doing it one at a time. There are far too many times when a room is left unwatched but full of lit candles. Corridors have candlebra but no one walking down them. Fires are kept in after everyone is in bed. The Prince Regent is referred to as Prince Prinny however the 'Prince' is unnecessary. His suite at Carlton House now pulled down was well represented. His costumes well conceived. Delaney wears his had inside buildings - completely wrong. Delaney is waterboarded in the Tower - preposterous - torture was not used after 1650 and waterboarding is 200 y too early. This is a great series to watch and enjoy

Peaky Blinders: Mr. Jones (2019) Season 5, Episode 6

excellent finale

[22 September 2019]

I have stopped writing gaffes and trivia about this series because they were never printed and have written this review. The drama is not true to life and doesn't try to be which is a regret for my generation whose parents grew up then and bore witness to the events of the 1930s. A neighbour's father was Mosley's chauffeur and and my mother said the uni students would go down and take on the fascists. Mosley for example always wore a peaked cap at rallies and spoke with one arm akimbo. One message was simple and popular: 'Old men stayed in their offices and made profits from the Great War (1914) while sending other men's sons to their deaths in the trenches'. There were similar messages after VP Cheney made whopping great profits for his companies rebuilding Iraq after Bush's War had flattened it. Churchill as Home Secretary was given fantastical lines which I don't he ever thought let alone said. 'I must come and stay with a gypsy family' - I don't think so. MPs were reading from notes which they weren't allowed to - I could go on picking. Fantastic television. So what it it never happened ! There is a film where John Wayne won the Vietnam War ( he didnt )

Out of Africa (1985)

It does seem unbelievable but....

[9/10 · 7 September 2019]

A review is of course meant to be about the film. we are coming up to 100 years after the setting of this film and so it also useful to record how close it was to reality. The accents of the two main actors are wrong and it seem odd that a positive choice was made for an American actor for what was a British role. The setting, clothes and furniture are quite phenomenal, and I sat there thinking - yes it was really like that ! None of the businesses made money and so the fine ideals of Blixen and the rest used other people's money. In her case, it was her family's money. The fire at the end ruins her because she isn't insured. The morals of her 'set' were so low that she gets over having been given VD by her husband who was also free with his favours. Most people would divorce. Finch Hatton is so thick that he flies his aeroplane whilst drunk and kills himself. Bror doesnt tell her - no one will tell her or speak to her as her reputation is so scandalous that she reads it in newspaper. We met these people in my youth in the fifties. They were returnees who couldn't do business, and lost other peoples money. This is a brilliant glossy film showing what fun they all had whilst doing it.

Peaky Blinders: The Duel (2017) Season 4, Episode 5

Exciting Stuff

[9 August 2019]

Good to see a program set outside London. I liked the Brummie accents and could distinguish Black Country accents nicely done - the goofs mount up. The men smoke tipped cigarettes. They wear their caps inside. The bereaved mother encompassing Arthur's death professes to be Christian. Luca C makes a pay phone call from a box in the middle of a lettuce field. The Rolls Royce is raked with fire and not a hole in it. If Arthur were garotted properly then his fingers would have gone. The men dont wear evening dress for dinner. The bands never wear white tie to perform. There is no general election for Tommy to win in 1926 or 7. Rosettes are not allowed in the polling station as that would be canvassing. Fun to watch and pick needlessly at the detail.

Year of the Rabbit (2019)

Far too funny for some viewers

[9/10 · 20 July 2019]

To quote Dubwise:"Clever writing, intelligent use of language (obscure, period based and obscenities) are all timed and delivered beautifully. Uniquely scripted and very well cast." - obscure - but not for olds such as myself - Period based, I speak like that the whole time so I could understand and enjoy the dialogue. The script accurately reflected the social standing of the characters. The accents varied according to the class as well. There was a ladies club at that time - the Cowdray Club, and even criminal unions of women were described. Since it was fantasy - the gaping plot holes were irrelevant. The last public hanging was 1867 and was attended by huge crowds. Rabbit visited a condemned woman in prison, who looked as though she had been kept in a barred stable, attended by a warder and not a wardress. So strong shades of Monty Python set 100 y ago

Black Crows (2017)

Worth a look

[7/10 · 27 May 2019]

I imagine that all the events took place but not consecutively and in the same place. Very good for learning intermediate Arabic. I am not sure if any of the reviewers are from the Middle East - I am an English Christian. The Yazdis being buried alive in episode 2 gives the viewer an idea of what is to come. It is obviously propaganda, as the Daesh have no redeeming features, and have some rather damning little foibles. I guessed the leader of the Boys' Paradise Battlalion would show more than a passing interest into the welfare of the boys, and that there would be recycling of contraband in a seize-resell cycle. There are stock items and events - the doctor visiting the attacked hospital and instead of treating people is forced to witness their killing. Men are thrown off buildings and women stoned for sorcery, whilst by standers approvingly quote the goriest bits of the Quran.

(the parallel in western programs is the CIA dealing in heroin with the observation that this really did occur)

very well worth watching

Trial & Retribution: Trial & Retribution I - Part Two (1997) Season 1, Episode 2

Excellent

[10/10 · 15 November 2018]

This is of course replayed - 2018 and all the actors are so young. Lynda La plante has truly kept up her standards and one can looking back see why she was ( and is) so highly regarded. - two two-hour episodes with plenty of side issues were riveting. Very well written - credible human characters - side issues which are relevant to the whole story Very well acted - much better than 80% of the crime programs making the rounds today

Somewhere Between (2017)

This show is .... somewhere between

[6/10 · 27 October 2018]

Certainly if it is cold and rainy outside - then watch this show. You will know by now that it is about having a second go at things. Fate combines to frustrate the changes the leading actors make. I enjoyed it as a family schedule - as I am partially sighted and could ask co-watchers - 'what is happening now?' and others in the family are deaf. There are some good one liners in the show which made me wonder if it were American. It isnt, its Canadian which explains the rather odd Spanish. The parents speak Spanish to each other to exclude the child whereas further south towards Mexico it is more likely tha the child would use Spanish to exclude the parents. I thought it was watchable. The character of the perky child would make any European want to put the brat down but I thought this was cultural.

Megan Leavey (2017)

cute actress with added dog

[4/10 · 9 October 2018]

I thought this movie was about the struggle of a marine, to do her job and get her life straight after leaving the marine corps. There is a dog involved who appears throughout the film but this is not what the film is about or why it should be watched. Other reviewers have divided the film into three parts - the first is training ( both ) the second is active service, and then recovery from service and securing the dog The bit that stood out for me was the doomed nature of the American presence in Iraq. They were an occupying power which did nothing to meet the hearts and minds of the people, and considered all of them the enemy. Not surprisingly the film showed accurately why the occupation is doomed. The people serving learn this whilst abroad and are scarred by the process and need a prolonged course to recover from this. Occupation and empire building was not meant to be like this There is a dog in a lot of the scenes to lighten the depressing message

Before Winter Comes (1968)

A time people never knew about

[8/10 · 30 August 2018]

I first saw this in 1970 as a teenager and have thought about it intermittently ever since then. Topol made it later on and so I remember him in this film rather than his other famous less meaty roles later on. He plays a Jewish fixer in a camp in Austria. There is friction with the Soviet forces which is protrayed well, but we are not told the allied powers have already agreed to send all the Displaced Persons back to their countries of origin pre 1939. There are humourous incidents however the ending is foreshadowed for those who are aware of history - the betrayal of Yalta. In the end the Russians DPs are going back to trial and then a life in the gulags. Churchill later described a great wall ( from Stettin in the Baltic down to .....) and this has resonances in 2018. Niven's characters job is to get the job done according to the agreements already in place and then get back to England. After this film, a neighbour commented - no one else knows that large numbers of Eastern Europeans were sent back against their will to their deaths in Russia, and I explained we had a large displaced population in our village and they talked about it alot. I agreed with him that it was a very odd subject for a comedy and a lot of it I didnt find funny at all. Perhaps I was mistaking comedy for farce, and that it was a comedy in the sense that Chekhov wrote

The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies (2014)

Must watch film, well hidden gem

[10/10 · 20 April 2018]

This is a truly amazing film and well worth a binge-watch on Netflix. Mr Jeffries is a retired teacher from a fee-paying school. He has a few flats in an HMO - house in multiple occupation, - and one of his tenants is distressingly murdered over the Christmas holiday. In real life he looks like a freak - with a tri-angular hair cut.- there is a Dutch element and he would definitely be called de duitzer lezeer by Dutch children. There are many more lie Mr jeffries in Holland and they call teach German, apparently.

He has the misfortune to tell the press something that is inconsistent with what he told the police, in a scene that is accurately portrayed. At the time, we were told it was much more significant than "I saw her, / I didnt see her ". We were assured that they were details only the murdered could know.. Trial by television was in full swing

This is incredibly well portrayed by the actors, the Bristol accents not commented on by anyone on this site are very well done. The director was at school in Bristol. The police interviews are, we are told. almost verbatim. They show what a disaster an investigation can become if a misconception becomes an accepted truth.

The script has bland British humour one liners basking in the weak winter sunshine. "I have got you a lawyer, he's really good: my friends tell me he does all the most violent and vicious criminals!" Jeffries thanks him in stilted tones and he replies " well it was the least I could do considering I was your worst least talented pupil."

History is already being re-written - Jeffries found the ostracism he suffered in the 'burb AFTER he was bailed the most distressing as people still thought that he must have done it.

It is historically set in a snow scape - I know Bristol coming from the area and cant remember a white Christmas for fifty years - 1963 was quite near.

Brilliant Brilliant film and thank you to the one who recommended it to me

Eye in the Sky (2015)

How times change

[4/10 · 20 January 2018]

I thought I would write a post-Manchester review. In May 2017 a bomb went off killing 23 people of whom ten were under the age of 20.

This film is about whether it is better to spare one child and allow a suicide bomber to go ahead or sacrifice the child and kill everyone in the bomb factory

I didn't feel there was a moral dilemma. The film is only two years old before the writing of this review. I live in Manchester and having seen the aftermath of a bomb aimed at children, the idea of sacrificing one to save more seemed a straightforward trade-off, with no element of " shall I - shan't I ?"

The moral dilemma such as it was - was not discussed as such but much more shuttled around. The team couldn't decide or more likely was told by people they could not decide - so it was referred up. Past the attorney-general to the minister and possibly prime minister . Then across to more ministers of another country . The only issue was that politicians are not good moral debaters.

I waited for the real moral dilemma

A few months earlier, at London Bridge men carrying knives were shot out of hand by the then armed police without warning. We live in interesting times