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Reviews
The Smoke (2014)
What's the point?
:Possible spoilers (though, if you watch much TV these days you'll probably know what's coming already...):
What is the point of this programme?
Seriously? If the programme is just going to be about people having sex with each other and then getting angry about it, why bother setting it in a fire station? To be honest, given that we already have about a thousand programmes using that template, why bother making it at all?
As I firefighter myself I knew there were going to moments of artistic licence but I looked forward to seeing a dramatised representation of what we actually do that might be good entertainment.
The first episode seemed promising but that was as far as it went. Every episode since then has been like Eastenders with big red lorries in the background.
Firefighting is an interesting and exciting subject, I can tell you that for sure. The 'relationship' (i.e. bed-hopping) drama that TV writers always fall back on when they run out of real stories, though? Not so much.
I'll stick with Chicago Fire: it hurts my 'suspension of disbelief lobe' less.
Twelfth Night or What You Will (1996)
And why not?
Those who complain about the fact that watching films of Shakespeare is not, in their eyes, as good as reading him are rather missing the point: Shakespeare wrote plays. Plays intended to be watched, not read. Admittedly, Elizabethan theatre and C.20th/21st cinema are completely different beasts and the transplant of a work from one to the other needs to be handled very carefully. This is quite a good film. The cast are good, the choice of which parts would and would not work in film was (usually) good and the soundtrack is quite nice, although certain liberties have been taken with the lyrics that Shakespeare included in the play. Nigel Hawthorne does overact, but then, the play is a farce and Malvolio a comedy villain of sorts. Heaven help us when comedy baddies no longer overact. The sets are good, although parts of Illyria seem to bear a striking resemblance to well-known landmarks in Cornwall, and the damp look to the outdoor shots adds a certain something to the really rather bleak situation in which Viola finds herself. Overall, this film is, well, nice; it won't set the world alight , but it is an enjoyable diversion, best watched with a mug of tea on a rainy afternoon, made all the more pleasant by the total absence of Leonardo DiCaprio and lamentable Hollywood directors who can't create drama without a riot of flashing lights and sirens.