Film Reviews

Bourgeois couple seem to be instancing the social conflicts of the time: they're living in an picture postcard world

1976 The Eagle has landed

Some arguably lame acting is effectively disguised by the sheer drama of the subject matter

Enemy Mine 1985

Even people who aren't fans of sci-fi will like this one! It's a touching moral fable in any setting, well directed by Wolfgang Petersen and the final Stephen Friedman production is excellently well crafted having the look and feel of a classic fifties Film.

Suspect 1987

Don't watch this film casually! It will require your undivided attention to be understood as it's all about excellent plotting and it suffices to say that in terms of drama I'd have to give it at least approaching nine out of ten for a story line. The background to the film is in many ways about the social and political consequences of the rightist zeitgeist of the eighties and the stark differences between the poor looking employees of the legal system in the state of Columbia and the simply down and out denizens of the New World conurbations as WW2 declines into historical anonymity. At first sight the casting might seem a little odd, I mean the first thing I thought about the Film was what the devil is the progressive icon Cher doing playing the role of a Lawyer but you'll have to watch the thing yourself to find out how this fits in with the plot. Dennis Quaid's career survived what might be described as an unconvincing performance as the hard bitten Lobbyist turned voluntary worker and Liam Neeson turns in a workmanlike performance as the deaf and dumb Vietman veteran become principal suspect.

They Live 1988

I think this is a surprisingly good film! Many who may think of it as a low budget no brainer on casual inspection ought to think seriously about giving it a second viewing and I suppose it has to be put down to John Carpenter's genius for mixing tongue in cheek humour with horror that really frightens. I particularly liked the exploration of contemporary themes of social control & found it a very watchable film. Shame about the ending? Or have I seen alternative versions? The toned physiques on the down and out labourers seems a bit unrealistic but the fight scene between Roddy Piper, who very sadly died young and broke before his acting talent could be properly employed, and Keith David, in my opinion a very underestimated Actor, deserves to go down as one of Movie History's best choreographed fight scenes and it's very well scripted.

The Remake of Sahara with James Belushi standing in for the glory mad Humphrey Bogart determined to fight it out over the only water for a hundred miles is a bit more of an adventure film than the original. Of course the original was one of those films that had a touch of genius and it was never likely to equal its uncanny sense of surreality and psychological drama. I shall have to watch it again as I missed the first half hour on a first viewing but so far Jolly good Movie though I don't think Belushi quite fits the cynical Iceman role somehow: in which respect it ought to be conceded that Bogart was going to be a hard act to follow with this character. If there's one thing about the film that falls rather flat it's in the choreography of the fight scenes. The German Army of the time is generally reckoned as at least among the best and most professional in existence and it seems to say the very least, highly improbable that it would squander dozens of lives trying to bayonet charge the Water Hole before using Mortars on the entrenched defenders.

Night Falls on Manhattan 1997

Still not sure why I watched this self indulgent social propaganda docudrama which I did somehow almost without noticing until it was about to finish. There were no outstanding acting performances in that Ian Holm and Andy Garcia as Father and Son Good Guys in the roles of up and coming DA and veteran Detective perfunctorily muddle their way through a confused plot which eventually ends up with the Detective's partner shooting himself amidst various recriminations about who's been on the take, and who, for instance had forged the Paperwork on the prosecution of the afro-american Drug Baron who gets carpeted by Garcia at the beginning of the film.

I suppose the Movie is something more than a familiar and increasingly vainly smug justification of Drug Prohibition which is what one expects it to be by about a third of the way through, but if there's some kind of message relating to Law and Order there, it's one which is a bit difficult to get One's head round since OK, the viewer can understand the possible value to Society of Cops who stick to the Law, and the story of how a few on three separate precincts get discredited is in itself easy enough to grasp. I found however that the overwhelming impression I had got by the end of the Film was that the real tragedy had been that someone had started a rumour that Drugs were bad for Society, and that if it hadn't been taken seriously no-one would have banned it, no-one would have profiteered from the black market supply, no-one would have had to pay Policemen to stop it, who in turn wouldn't have had to give up trying to stop it, no-one would have made a big deal about it, so no-one would ever have made a film about a DA who prosecutes a handful of City Policemen for taking backhanders from Drug Dealers at immense public expense.

The only conclusion that the viewer can seriously make is that one way or another it really wasn't going to stop the supply of Drugs since they were far too popular as a means of recreational amusement, and he was only going to have to employ other Officers who'd have do the same thing.

Space Cowboys 1997

Highly amusing sci-fi action/comedy film with some excellent effects and a good old smugglers plot being set in a space age world of corrupt officials and gritty freighter pilots. I can't help feeling that I'd have liked to have seen perhaps a bit more depth on the political context of the purely action/adventure part of the story rather than an extension of the straightforward slapstick and situation comedy which rather takes over at the end. Insofar as I felt the basic script ideas were perhaps good enough to have justified a more comprehensive film offering, I wouldn't give the Movie more than a second or third viewing as a few budget shortcomings tend to show through after three or four, but an excellent film experience on the whole. As either a Comedy or an Action Film this one really works where a lot of similar attempts to blend these opposing themes fall through: one for livening up those bored summer weekends when the weather's bad and you've run out of ideas for some way to get a laugh out of your family and friends.

Saving Private Ryan 1998

Having only quite recently managed to watch this film the whole way through, not I might hasten to add because I didn't want to or didn't like it, I found myself asking, has Speilberg ever made a bad film? I have to admit I couldn't think of one unless it was an odd spoof about a Japanese attack on the West Coast that I only watched a few minutes of and was a Box Office flop.

One doesn't have to watch more than a few minutes of this film to see that it is a genuinely quality item exhuding the Speilberg magic from every frame and there's very little that can be said about it in any genuinely negative sense, unless it's about the contextual question is this a War Film or is this an Anti War Film? there are several excellent acting performances in the movie: Tom Hanks is at least good to very good or better as Captain Miller with the sole peccadillo of perhaps lacking just a little aggression and adrenalin in his portrayal of a Schoolteacher who ended up with one of the most dangerous jobs of the century. The casting on the whole demonstrates some fine, insightful and imaginative thought in that Tom Sizemore could have been born for the role of Sergeant Horvath, with Matt Damon similarly apt in the role of young Private Ryan through whose eyes we really see the story though Hanks's Captain Miller is the character who dominates the film. Whilst there is enough of a plot and plenty of action to satisfy the armchair Generals, to say nothing of a complex interplay of characters in a squad of Infantrymen wherein Barry Pepper is unnervingly convincing as the bloodthirsty psycho and finely counterpointed by Jeremy Davies's freaked out pen pusher, it is the fact that we see the film through the eyes of an old man that finally forced me to consider that the film was definitely anti war in its message in that there is no apparent rhyme or reason behind the survival of one Soldier. When the film ends we are rather overwhelmed by the sadness of the old man by the graves of his comrades and are rather forced to contemplate the pointlessness of War at a personal level than we are motivated to consider political justifications for it, despite the fact that the film is littered throughout with reminders that the allied cause was historically justified whilst disparate and rebellious troops debate various reasons for being in the Army.

2003 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

I see this Film has been panned by critics though it was a commercial success: I do quite like it but have to agree that it comes across as a bit disjointed with the action sequences not quite running smoothly with an appreciation of the plot which is very good despite it differing remarkably from the source material: this is probably the result of bad weather having hampered the Production in different locations.

Dawn of the Dead 2004

I don't actually know if Zack Snyder has a background in comic book art but his directorial debut certainly betrayed a gift for the presentation of slow and still imaging. There are lots of things about this film that I like especially the casting and the wry comic asides .............

THe Hills Have Eyes 2005

A rather more successful attempt to explore the dramatic possibilities than most low budget horrors I've seen lately and it must have employed a fair number of make up artists. The first half of the film is very well directed, the adrenalin builds smoothly from the start with the awful gory realism being well supplemented by an all too plausible plot, which is in turn counterpointed by some irritatingly clumsy comedic play on family relationships which had been casted quite well. This cleverly infuriates the viewer as the disingenuous family of squabbling stereotypes wander blithely into danger whilst excitement builds around a very promising storyline. I feel that the excitement of its earlier half doesn't quite resolve itself into the compelling culmination demanded by the action. The viewer is to a certain extent left with a feeling that the film ended half way through and had some additional scripting worked in, but on the whole a reasonably watchable film quite well put together for a sci-fi/shocker without significant computer manipulation: definitely a film for connoisseurs of the genre.

Crank 2006

Action comedy with some excellent funny bits though it seemed to drag out a bit after the plot changed somewhat mid film from something like a cross between a modern keystone cops parody and a psychological drama to a more recognisable sort of gangster spoof.

Severance 2006

Comedy Horror with a rather ambiguous failure of a plot which is more than rescued as a Movie offering by some intelligent casting and some genuinely gruesome effects. It was very nice to see some young British talent actually justifying the hopes of the viewer and there are several excellent performances with Danny Dwyer's loose lipped pill popping character superbly counterpointed in terms of characterisation by Andy Nyman's Mr socially responsible geek who has to give up being socially responsible in a socially irresponsible world.

I did think this Film was a great laugh though I found it lacked a bit of depth on a second viewing: Tim Nyman in what initially seems an incongruent piece of casting makes a great job of being the serious minded team leader, especially if you aren't aware that the film is also meant to be a comedy which is what one irresistibly expects from this Actor. All in all a reasonably watchable film despite the feeling that the storyline would have justified something more of a plot as one is left wondering what motivated the attackers and that a good film could easily have been almost great: as far as low budget offers go not bad at all.

This is England 2006

Very accurately atmospheric of the despair and drudgery confronting working class youth in the early eighties, so much so that I could have sworn I knew half the cast. I think the film could have done with a bit more of a plot resolution in that it ends up with some nebulous reflections on the Falklands War and I found myself wondering what the message or moral of the story was meant to be. I'd have to rate it as an also ran and it's a shame because I can't help thinking with two or three tweaks to the plot and the final production it could have easily been a cult classic.

Valkyrie 2008

Don't know if I really like Tom Cruise in this role and it's not just that I feel he isn't perhaps quite a serious enough actor in that his action films tend to have a comedic tinge, it is rather the case that casting for one of the twentieth century's doomed if far from forgotten heroes far too obviously invites if not quite actually demands that in many ways the role should be handed to a lookalike unknown. Whilst Tom Cruise does at least vaguely resemble CSvS one can't but help think that the finished production might have looked more like a feat of historical realism as well as a meaningful work of dramatic Art, if the impressive list of serious actors cast around the character had a nonentity as a blank canvas to work around so to speak.

RocknRolla 2008

Very watchable Crime Comedy Drama, well casted with some neatly directed twists and turns in the story: what I found most compelling however was the unnervingly accurate portrayal of contemporary Local Government which carries a rather sinister message for those with an optimistic view of Britain's Citizen Democracy.

District 9 2009

Brilliant offering, simply wanted to give it ten out of ten on a first viewing, as it's an almost unrivalled attempt at blending special effects with serious drama. To my mind this film could easily set the benchmark for those making use of new technology within the scope of a traditional artistic style: the slick looking final production speaks for itself.

Watchmen 2009

Whilst I might be persuaded to change my opinion, and I say might, offhand this was my nomination for Film of the Decade. I've tried watching it about half a dozen times and still haven't quite done so properly in terms of following the action/plot which somehow seems superficial because the Film has so much in it in terms of visual interest. It's difficult to follow the story because Zack Snyder has so much incredible talent with the presentation of nebulous atmospherics. For someone of my age, shhhhh, this is even more compelling because it references so many of the big news stories and personalities of the day that preoccupied my parents and family when I was a toddler. I like to think of it as a comforting daydream in the minds of all the poor nobodies who got nothing out of WW2, and then simply got trampled on by the aimless progress of the following generation, in which the Kennedy Assassination seemed like the iconic death knell of anyone's belief in moral propriety, and the Vietnam War became a symbolic admission of America's ideological incapacity.

Its final production came almost parallel with my Father's death, "You know the kind of Cancer that you get better from? The kind I got it ain't that kind," and the haunting portrayal of a world in which immorality has become a fact of life is an especially ghoulish experience for me: I expect I'll probably have a good weep over it one of these days.

The Killer Inside Me 2010

Excellent exploration of the hypocrisy of small town morality, fine sets and costumes but I would have liked to have seen more character development and perhaps something less of a predictable finale.

Morning Glory 2010

Likeable Film about modernist mass Psychology which is a bit of a whitewash of the issue of Media manipulation: compare Nightcrawler 2014 which presents a much more down to earth portrayal of the way TV Companies manipulate the News for political and financial motives in the US.

The Green Hornet 2011

I was a bit flummoxed by this film the first time I watched it: overall I thought it so bad it was good, though on second third and fourth viewing some surprisingly sophisticated undercurrents of topical comment evidence themselves. The mixed up roles are incomprehensibly funny, the viewer can't quite decide if the hero is a louse and his sidekick a long suffering brains behind the team or vica versa. The unusual questioning of stereotypes continues with the Bad Guy Chudnovski trying to be scary and cool at the same time and this poses some rather more serious questions about the motivational and psychological confusion of the criminal fraternity? The Film is much better than it appears at first sight as Seth Rogan's insufferability immediately infuriates the Viewer and having watched it several times I found myself wondering if it was Director Michael Gondry's intent to make the title character an abrasive egotist or an accident of casting. If you find the Film a bit lacklustre on a first viewing I recommend giving it another go; it adds up to a humorous look at crime issues and some excellent character Comedy requires surprisingly full attention to enjoy.

Dracula 2012

On first viewing this Film started out very well in that it looked and felt just like a revisitation of the classic Hammer formula with the sexually charged and youthfully affianced electing to undertake ill fated property business abroad; it has distinct pretensions to be a significant work and a fair bit of trouble has been taken in Wardrobe and Settings to give the thing the look and feel of a film of the classic sixties genre. I liked it better on a second viewing than at the first attempt and already have no doubt that it will be worth a third, so in most respects I'm going to have to reserve giving a firm opinion. Much as I'm significantly quite an admirer of Thomas Kretschmann's work generally, I think the best results in terms of making a Dracula film a Work of Art, rather than say just another spinoff Vampire Film, have in the past been obtained by centring the dramatic action on the dark brooding presence of the Count himself. Whilst our Thomas is no stringbean, indeed he once trained as an Olympic swimmer, at 5 ft 9 in or 175 cm he lacks the physical presence of actors like Bela Lugosi at 6 ft 2 and Christopher Lee at 6 ft 6 who made the dominating charisma of the Count himself the centrepiece of dramatic action: he is perhaps a bit too much of the contented Kraut rather than any sort of sinister near-eastern Potentate and I feel he is miscasted in the role.

Further first impulses on viewing the film are to suggest that Rutger Hauer's Van Helsing lacked zest and a decisive sort of impetus as one of the central characters rather more than Kretschmann's arguably did. The character is supposed to be in immediate danger of his life from an absolutely terrifying supernatural monster, and I can't help feeling that someone troubled by such an appalling entity should be more disturbed, in that he looks and sounds too much like a fat Actor who's simply had far too much Dinner. I also feel the CGI arguably doesn't run very smoothly with the action but then it was always going to be a very large ambition to produce a film using up to date techniques whilst retaining a characteristic format.

I can't help wondering how someone like Rodrigo Santoro might have fared in the title role .....

The Call 2013

The first half of this film is really great, an excellent plot leaps immediately and smoothly into action but what gets me is that about half way through the film when the cold calculating methodical killer discovers the abducted girl in his car trunk has been pouring paint over the freeway from a tail light she's kicked out, he pulls into a parking lot and then has to KO a fellow motorist who pointed out he was leaking paint from his Boot. He then bundles the unconscious motorist into the trunk with the hysterical girl leaving her to continue chatting away with the emergency services on her Mobile which is improbable to say the least.

The Evil Dead 2013

This Film is an excellent blend of the old and the new with a traditional Witches Tale in a modern setting: the youthful cast rise very well to the challenge this presents.

The Iceman 2013

A lot of Films from the Gangster genre have tried to define the lack of ideological and ethical propriety of affluent western society in recent years: The Iceman 2012 provides an entirely humourless juxtaposition with Black Mass in dramatic analysis of post modernist social and political material whereby on the one hand we have smug statistically ignorant Tradcons with secure compartmentalised views of society and on the other, the real world of human and fallible individuals wherein populations are peppered with psychotic Gangsters who just want to know what's going on.

Bonnie and Clyde 2014

The inspired casting for the original 1967 version headed by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty was always was always going to make a the film an impossibly hard act to follow in terms of a remake. The original was an excellent first rate historical drama and a seminal landmark in dramatic presentation of serious political and social subject matter though it unfortunately deviates markedly from the real life story.

It was originally intended as a comic romance but Arthur Penn had switched to realistic scenes of graphic violence which I understand were pretty much a first in American cinema.

Black Water Vampire 2014

The lackadaisical feel of the first two thirds of the film meant I almost lost interest but it's basically a good story on which the Writer/Director Evan Tramel should probably have focused more decisively. A certain amount of inexperience on the part of a cast of unknowns might be blamed for what I felt was a failed attempt to concentrate on the psychological reactions of the young adventurers as the fear level ratchets up. The twist in the tale finale doesn't quite rescue some sense of underachievement in that One feels the final production to be a bit like a good joke but one which has ironically miscued its punch line.

Fury 2014

the film seems offhand a bit like two different films in that the first half seems rather taken up with contemporary views abut the War in the personal perspective, this is then left rather up in the air as the Tank Crew proceed to a rather improbable second half consisting of the rather improbable spectre of a German Colonel ordering his Troops to attack a suspiciously parked Tank in piecemeal manner, which I'd say was something even a German Sergeant wouldn't really be likely to fall for.

I haven't watched the thing properly yet so I may change my view but on the whole I got the impression that the Film should be either a personally or politically relevant character story, or a simple action movie. In the first instance this should be more developed than it seems to be with perhaps some attempt to define a relevant sort of historical perspective from the contemporary eye; in the second case as I say it seems improbable that the best trained most experienced regular army that the Wehrmaht was in the later stages of the war, would sacrifice many dozens of soldiers storming a vehicle before eventually thinking to sneak up on it with the Panzerfaust.

But I have only cursorily viewed the film as I say so I may change my view to some extent.

Battle for Sevastopol 2015

I was very surprised at the quality of this Film and I've no doubt many will react similarly if it is imagined that the only sort of Films that come out of the old eastern bloc countries are cheesy propaganda flicks. It is an absolutely first rate Docudrama which I thoroughly recommend for the discerning viewer. Some first rate acting performances are perfectly counterpointed with a skilled and insightful handling of historical material which as far as I know is at least about 95% accurate. It isn't a particularly lengthy film but it is so well directed and produced I felt as if I'd been watching a Movie something like twice its duration: very taken aback to find it far superior to almost any of the War/Action Films I've seen coming out of the English speaking world in recent years.

Black Mass 2015

An absolutely first rate no holds barred expose of the Corruption and Moral Flaws in western society which includes some fine acting performances. It's the first time I've actually been genuinely terrified of Johnny Depp for some other reason than the fact of bad acting. Benevolent Thundersnatch turns in a perfunctorily creditable performance as the deranged Gangster's brother in the establishment woodwork. Joel Egerton does quite well in extrapolating a general sense of moral bemusement as the corrupt Detective haplessly struggling to find some meaning in the world around him. Rory Cochrane provides an excellent deadpan anchor around which the chaos unfolds as Whitey's chief sidekick and gives the film a nice well rounded feel.

Legend 2015

Too comedic at least until near the end after Frances commits suicide and would have preferred a docudrama style: isn't factual? When were they arrested not after the Cornell killing? Tom Hardy hasn't done a bad job but he's a bit much of white boy at ease insofar as the real story about the Krays relates to their roots in the Jewish community and establishment guilt in the post war era in context of sociological understandings of crime and criminality with the Windsor girls and their fishy pedigree lurking in the background. I would have liked to see the moral of the story finish with a sort of vilification of the bourgeois world view implicitly stating that Society shouldn't be a giggling paradise for spoiled bourgeois Schoolgirls and I don't think the subject matter readily lends itself to any sort of agreeable sense of humour.

Allied 2015

This is a very well crafted atmospheric film that conveys quite well the confusion felt by ordinary people in the war years. It's highly atmospheric of the time but there is unfortunately a huge flaw in the plot which concerns the fact that Mr Pitt as Max Vatan a Royal Canadian Air Force Intelligence Officer, has married a brown eyed Resistance Fighter Marianne Beauséjour who he met on Operations earlier in the War. When he learns she is suspected of being a German Spy posing as the female Resistance Fighter who is actually dead, he visits a former colleague named Guy Sangster played by Mathew Goode who knew Marianne but, blind from a wartime injury, supposedly cannot confirm her identity. Max then defies SoE orders getting loads of people killed on an unauthorised trip to check the facts with Resistance Fighters in Dieppe, having rather foolishly forgotten to ask Guy Sangster what colour Marianne's eyes are or were: the point being it would have been far easier for Guy Sangster to have told him that the real Marianne had blue eyes and that for some reason he forgets to ask his blind colleague this simple corroborating question when he discovers him to be blind and unable to examine a Photograph.

Oh Dear Oh Dear

I Spit on Your Grave: Vengeance is Mine 2015

I liked this film a lot because it's an excellent example of how film drama should seek to explore contemporary issues. It certainly isn't family oriented and critics might say that there's a bit too much S&M in the scenes but I think however that Director RD Braunstein makes it a really good examination of Urban Psychology and Violent Crime which film makers are often reluctant to address. Sarah Butler's quite excellent performance in the lead role is perfectly judged, and seems to inspire a cast of mostly unknowns to several first rate performances: think in terms of recent media stories about contempt for Women's rights in Central America and the United States Armed Forces.

X Men Apocalypse 2016

Metaphorically explores a lot of contemporary political themes including the summary use of ultimate force. A lot of people who might think it intellectually beneath them might find this Film surprisingly enjoyable.

Live by Night 2016

This film is something a little bit more worth while than just another Ben Affleck vehicle, it's very atmospheric, watchable and in some respects well crafted but its bombast to be a great work of art falls through with the ott finale. Gangsters aren't the kind of ppl who have these grandiose shootouts, they don't have that much imagination, they get bad tempered and have feuds, while heavyweight intellectuals give them the runaround or is that wishful thinking?

The Great Wall 2016

Fairly watchable Sword and Sorcery/ Monster Epic: if it has a weakness it's in the improbability of the defence tactics practised by female warriors on the wall. If the story wasn't written explicitly for film this may explain why the story doesn't translate into a very credible action sequence in certain respects.

Oiuja: Origin of Evil 2016

The first half of the Film is unreservedly excellent horror comedy but the Plot fails to resolve itself understandably.

why is Paulina's hair always in a mess? Did the make up artist put the wrongs specs on?

American Made 2017

This Film's amusing aspects are made rather less comic by the references to Global Realpolitik, the Drugs Trade, and the contempt for Law and Life evidenced by the Big Players. I'll bet it infuriated a lot of American Taxpayers: Tom Cruise seems well cast in the role of Smuggler blackmailed by the CIA into working as an Agent.

Bitter Harvest 2017

The Film is a good example of what Film Art should be in its exploration of the origins of contemporary hostility between Ukraine and the Russian Federation and I think it would have been a much better Opus if the make up section had been given some brief to make the characters look realistic. Ukraine in the thirties was had hardly evolved beyond a feudal condition and the extent to which the characters look too much like absurdly clean and well manicured Actors is quite laughable and rather detracts from some good performances.

Hurricane 2017

This a very good film in most respects though I felt some of the acting left something to be desired: what I like most is the fact it makes some attempt to explore War in objective and psychological terms, portraying the conflict in western europe as oddly morally ambiguous. This in respect of the fact that it closes with mentioning that after these Poles fulfilled their heroic roles in fighting the Germans they were packed off back to grim and thankless fates under Stalin's auspices.

The Death of Stalin 2018

Wikipaedia lists this film as a Comedy but I'm afraid it falls rather flat as such. Having watched it once I find Steve Buscemi ill suited to the role of Nikita Kruschev.

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile 2019

Another Bundy Film this time through the eyes of his long term girlfriend provides a sort of atmospheric window in time back to the haphazard world of the cultural revolution of 70's America. I suppose if there's a particular reason the film comes across well from the outset it is because so many different aspects of the Production gel together particularly well in presenting the most serious sort of sociological matter in a paradoxically lazy sort of sidelong snapshot of the time that is recognisably characteristic and convincing.

I suppose it seems a perhaps not unreasonable proposition that the key to the Bundy enigma in psychological terms must relate to his not having known who his Father was. Zac Effron isn't as obviously Jewish looking as Ted Bundy though according to his Wikipaedia entry he is known to have been raised in a religious home and has identified as 'Jewish,' so one tends to presume that he is in fact of significantly Jewish descent despite the fact that many like myself at least at first sight may have taken him as of mixed anglo hispanic background: I similarly thought Peter Falk was hispanic until quite recently.

Expanding the hypothesis a little further we might observe in at least a superficial sort of way how much Bundy conformed to the desirable stereotype of the all american male of the times whilst, if the Guilty verdicts are to be believed, sustaining the most profoundly unhinged or evil sort of alter ego. Suave looks, aspirational white collar career prospects, trendy hippie chick girlfriend, even the iconic VW Beetle all conspire to make him out as the young wannabees upwardly socially mobile ideal at least superficially conforming to waspish norms and values.

It may well be that the fact the Film focuses on Bundy's relatively contemporaneously normative looking personal relationships is what exposes this prima facie presumption that Bundy's unknown Father was of distinctly Jewish descent, and statistically not unlikely to have been among those who experienced the Holocaust at first hand; it being a conventional if sensational psychological hypothesis that his trail of chaotic murders of young white girls sporting germano-scandinavian ethnic hairdos coupled with paradoxically semi professional cover up techniques may have originally derived from resentment of an American establishment that eagerly co-operated with nazi scientists and other Third Reich escapees many of whom were for instance considered Criminals by the German Government. This whilst trying to put its non white servicemen back in their ethnic pigeon holes or something approximately such could arguably explain accounts of his indistinct appearance, as well as other circumstances appertaining his criminal career such as the meticulous, military style planning of his escapades. If there's one thing that tends to me to conclude that this was in fact the case in respect of Bundy's motivation, it is the fact that his final victim was in fact a half caste Schoolgirl and the fact tends to come over as some sort of subconscious attempt to disguise some reasoning that might explain his actions and identify him.

If Bundy himself had offered up a motive for his actions he sought to explain them in terms of a sort of addictive compulsion but that's merely the gist of a lot of contradictory comments. Most of the information he related about his spree which is presumed accurate was disserted in his final days and people will say and do the strangest things when threatened with imminent execution.

If there's one minor criticism that might possibly be made of the final production I suppose it might arguably come across as a little bit thematically diffuse, vague or confusing which I suppose is what tends to happen when you try to make some kind of dramatic entertainment out what is essentially horror. Its hardly a serious flaw of any sort to say the action sequences are a little unconventional in the presentation of different aspects of the story in that it is stylistically focused on psychological drama rather than being, some kind of in your face harsh reality trip or a law and order morality tale. Overall its a very fine attempt by Zac Effron to do something a little bit more like serious drama and since he is also the Executive Producer that might account for the relative ease with the different production elements combine to produce a window on the past which is perhaps not so much highly polished as it is compelling. The genre tends only to interest a limited sort of audience in many respects but I'd give it around 7/10 for general watchability and as a work of Film Art it works much better for me than Stranger Beside Me of 2003, in which Billy Campbell's lead by comparison woodenly fails to demonstrate the passionate contrarities of Bundy's character.

Peterloo 2021

Someone seems to have taken a fair bit of trouble over historical accuracy in this production which is nice to see: it doesn't just have an authentic look and feel. I don't know if what was screened on terrestrial TV in the UK this year was a cut down version but certain sub plots were not resolved which is really a highly dysfunctional thing to find in a dramatic presentation. Good source matter for the contemporary debate about the need for Electoral Reform in a Country where a majority was obtained in the Legislature with 43% of votes cast.