Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Paddington in Peru 2024

  ★★★½ Watched 02 Jan 2025

  Weakest of the three, but still a lot of fun. Don't like that he introduced industrialisation at the end though, but that's the British for you.

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  The Schizophrenia of Working For War 1970

  ★★★ Watched 13 Oct 2024

  Interesting short documentary about the role of the university in imperialist war and mass slaughter, and the collaboration or resistance that all who are associated with it must decide upon. Good to watch in light of everything happening in Palestine.

Popular reviews

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  The King 2019

  ★ Added

  This movie was awful. A bland, boring, ugly, slog. The decision to cast Joel Edgerton as Falstaff, and Edgerton/Michôd's decision to play him as a dour, brooding young man is mind-boggling. The Henriad is one of the greatest works of literature in the English language - its drama, its speeches, even its comedy (an aside: Jamie Parker's performance as Henry V in the 2012 production does the comedy particularly well). But here, it is stripped of its heart and reduced…

• 

  Elizabeth 1998

  ★★ Watched 09 Jul 2022

  For a movie ostensibly about the Reformation, there was very little religion in it. Where there is religion in the film it’s something bad or sinister – the Catholics are portrayed as being true believers, self-flagellating and burning heretics, whilst the Protestants are either tolerant liberals who don’t understand why we need to fight over questions of faith (Elizabeth) or borderline atheists (Walsingham). Instead, the film chooses to focus on the personal drama of the characters, which is fine, but…