Reviews

Climate The Movie does as it says, present the Cold Truth. It gives a good overview of how climate change came to dominate current political discourse. It features a raft of prominent scientists, physicists, climatologists and Patrick Moore the founder of Greenpeace who dared to dispute the prevailing consensus that the science is settled. The documentary meticulously details the 4 other more reliable measurements of temperature change (rural surface stations, ocean gauges, satellite readings and atmospheric balloons) to show that all the IPCC reports and models are mostly based on sites that have been engulfed over time by urbanization and hence subject to distortions in the record by the urban heat island effect. The 4 methods confirm only a slight temperature rise and this is reported alongside the long term historical records going back centuries and then tree ring and ice core testing going back millennia to show that we've been warmer before when there was no industrial output to blame.

Finally many current media myths and obsessions were debunked including no increase in hurricanes and storms, hotter daily temps in the 1930's than recently and significantly fewer modern forest fires than the '20' and '30s.

The way prominent scientists, environmentalists, politicians and the media exaggerate and distort the truth to manipulate the masses into accepting all of the constraints on lifestyle and escalating costs of enforcing net zero is dramatically laid out. This documentary is an important contribution to the debate of climate science that is in reality far from settled.

Like many UK police dramas, there is often a regional setting that provides an interesting cultural backdrop. Blue Lights is set in Belfast, Northern Island and follows the fortunes of several young probationers or rookie cops in the PSNI (Police Service of NI), the replacement for the controversial Royal Ulster Constabulary. Whilst Blue Lights very well covers the normal travails of beat cops (or peelers to use the Irish nickname for police, after Robert Peel the founder of Britain's modern police force in the early 19th century), what sets Blue Lights apart is the intense examination of the unique cultural issues at play in Belfast.

The series builds the layers of nuance of the lives of the key protagonists from the rookies to the sergeants and inspectors alongside some very intense story lines laced with complexity of a city and county still showing the scars of the decades long "Troubles", the understated British euphemism used to describe the brutal civil war between the IRA loyal to the Catholic Republic of Ireland to the south and the Protestant Loyalist majority in Northern Island. Distrust of the police still lingers decades after the peace agreement (the Good Friday Accords) and this shapes daily conduct on the street and operational imperatives.

Layer against this tricky crime management necessity is a drug sting operation run by MI5 (the UK's internal security service) run out of London designed to trap a large European drug running operation based out of Dublin, Ireland. The sting involves a local Belfast drug lord in a complex web of intrigue and violence.

Blue Lights has all the street level intensity and operational drama of Line of Duty with a similar gripping story line that reaches a fabulous crescendo. This show is excellent on so many levels: the plots are compelling, the characters engaging, the acting first rate and the cultural backdrop of Belfast was perfectly interwoven. Blue Lights also avoids a lot of modern woke nonsense and keeps faith with the cultural reality of white Belfast with a minimum of uncomfortably imposed racial minority characters. In a field crowded with superb UK police dramas, Blue Lights is right up there with the best of this genre.

It is hard to write this review without having powerful emotions evoked by this movie bubble to the surface. What begins as a chronicle of the great Freedom Convoy that began in late January 2022 at Cape Reinga and Bluff, culminates in the month long protest on the grounds of NZ's Parliament and its ignominious ending. Given how one-sided the NZ mainstream media were by first refusing to report the massive size of support for the Freedom Convoy then portraying the protestors at Parliament as conspiratorial right wing nutters, the filmmakers give us a brilliant inside look at the convoy and the protest from the point of view of not just the organising insiders but an excellent cross section of the protestors in terms of age, gender, ethnicity and occupation from eloquent lawyers and doctors to esteemed local kaumatua and everyone in between. It gives an accurate sense of the authenticity of the protestors replete with heart wrenching stories from those mandated out from decades of service as nurses, doctors and police to the families of the vx injured.

The cinematography was stunning and, as an expat kiwi who watched aghast from afar NZ's descent into Covid tyranny, it fleshed out much of what l'd seen only snippets of and heard of from a family member also mandated out of work.

Even the title "River of Freedom" is a brilliant counterbalance to one of the most shameful moments during the protest, that of Labour Cabinet minister Michael Wood describing the protestors as "a river of filth". Fortunately, this film stands as an eloquent testament to the brave souls who stood firm for freedom during perhaps one of the darkest periods of NZ's history.

One of the great features of The Crown has been the fabulous attention to casting accuracy across all of the episodes involving not just the major royal family characters, but also the cast of English Prime Ministers and other major figures through the history of Queen Elizabeth's reign. This episode departs from that trend with the mistaken casting of William and Harry. In Season 6 episode 4 we see 15 year old William played by 16 year old Rufus Kampa and almost 13 year old Harry played by 13 year old Fflyn Edwards. Rufus is an almost perfect fit for the now awkward mid teen William. He would've seamlessly transitioned to 16 year old William in episode 5 Willsmania but the casting lept to 24 year old Ed McVey who actually did a fabulous job as the university aged Wills.

Similarly casting 22 year old Luther Ford as the 13/14 year old Harry in Willsmania was a massively inaccurate casting leap from Edwards who was perfectly cast as the early adolescent Harry easily covering his age in episodes 4 and 5 which was sad because Ford was excellent as the young adult Harry. These were very puzzling decisions given the very small age gap portrayed between episodes 4 and 5.

I really tried hard to get very enthusiastic about this show because it has some great redeeming features but ultimately it is let down by some torturous plot lines.

So the good: as an expat Kiwi who has been to Queenstown a lot, One Lane Bridge is a very faithful re-creation of life for the small established elite of this world famous alpine tourist resort town almost to the point that only NZ audiences would understand. The breathtaking scenery is a given and makes for an incredible backdrop. Life on legacy South Island high country sheep stations has become difficult as these operations are asset rich and cash poor and the ever present Chinese or foreign cash buyer is a common occurrence.

Also faithfully detailed is the hard drinking, rugby-centric, rugged outdoors lifestyle of the locals and the hard to watch homophobic incident is a demonstration of how mores from a bygone era live on in small town NZ. It is always nice to hear the full suite of kiwi slang, the accent and traditions on display (e.g. Deer and rabbit shooting). The acting across the board was solid and believable.

Having a young Maori (Cook Islander in this instance) cop come down from Auckland fitting in with very white Central Otago locals gives a good window into racial integration issues in modern NZ. What was less appealing was weaving into regular policing some Maori spiritual practices that neither did justice to how they are actually done nor to modern NZ policing. It led to a series of hard to comprehend flashbacks and the manner in which Detective Ariki Davis (Dominic Ona-Ariki) actually used his spiritual powers overlayed the whole purpose of the series (trying to determine the killer of local farmer Andrew 'Grub' Ryder - Dean O'Gorman) with surreal and awkward plot lines.

That said, it's always great to New Zealand scenery and culture on display.

Screen writer Colin Dexter's Endeavour series epitomized the magic of understated British reserve. The formality of the relationship between Thursday as working class soldier come patiently effective lead Detective and the urbane, educated brooding Morse as understudy has emerged as one of British television's most compelling and appealing police partnerships in a UK media universe peppered with fantastic police shows.

Exuant is an instruction to an actor to exit the stage and the screenwriters found a way to exuant the show with a series of lovely stories to send off the main characters in style and to close this fabulous series. But the tension and drama surrounding what Thursday and Morse have to do to survive unscathed in this episode is thoroughly gripping and nail biting to the end.

Both men had left a lot unsaid in the depth of their relationship over the years, but the final scene when they part has to be one of the greatest acting performances on British television, such are the facial expressions and unstated emotion between these two great policing partners underpinned with the old school utmost discretion, respect and mutual understanding that was the hallmark of their characters.

After decades of the original Morse that seemed to have petered out of steam, Endeavour not only breathed in new life, but established itself as one of the very finest of Britain's police dramas, and there is very stiff competition.

Through the 1960s and 70s, the British produced a series of fabulous and authentic movies about specific aspects of the Second World War. These include: The Battle of Britain, The Dambusters, 602 Squadron, Reach for the Sky, The Guns of Navarone and The Great Escape, but A Bridge Too Far is, in my opinion, the best of a great bunch.

It re-creates the ambitious plan launched in the autumn of 1944 by British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery dubbed Operation Market Garden to shorten the war after the successful D Day landings of June 6, 1944. The plan involved the capture of four key bridges through The Netherlands then still occupied by Nazi Germany by punching a huge hole in the German defenses and hastening the invasion of the Rhineland and Ruhr, the industrial heartland of Germany.

Three things come together in A Bridge Too Far to ensure it that it sits at the top of the war movie rankings:

1 - Fastidious attention to historical detail including frank and even brutal coverage of parts of the operation that were an abject failure.

2 - For the 1970s the special effects were spectacular, from the dramatic scenes of the take-off of the vast airborne invasion fleet of DC 3 Dakota's and gliders to the intense battle for the town and bridge in the northern Dutch town of Arnhem. Attention to every aspect of military detail from uniforms, weapons and heavy artillery/tanks etc was incredible.

3 - These aspects were crowned by one of the most star studded casts in the history of cinema. I don't believe any movie has ever brought so many then A list actors from both sides of the Atlantic into one movie as this one does: Sean Connery, Laurence Olivier, Robert Redford, Michael Caine, Ryan O'Neil, Gene Hackman, Dirk Bogarde, Anthony Hopkins, Edward Fox, James Caan and Elliot Gould along with a raft of young up and coming stars like Ben Cross (Chariots of Fire) and John Ratzenberger (Cheers) and a Who's Who of top German actors including Maximilian Schell and thousands of Dutch extras. All apprise their roles fabulously.

The net effect is to create one of the greatest war movies ever made in a gripping and breathtakingly authentic tale of one of World War Two's most audacious military campaigns.

Happy Valley is simply one of the very best British police dramas and there is a lot of high quality competition. There are a series of unique factors that come together to make this such a gritty and compelling series.

First is the location - shot in the grim valleys of West Yorkshire around rural Hebden Bridge near Bradford, Halifax and Leeds which is unlike the more urban or picturesque locations often used in UK cops shows. The dreary weather, the working class cast, the ubiquitous thick Yorkshire accents and the economic struggles of the former coal mining area are front and centre.

Second is the fact that the central character, Police Sergeant Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire), is a rank and file cop and not a more glamourous Detective is a major departure from normal British police show casting. The tough daily routine of the uniformed constables she leads and not the murder investigations of the CID is what is mostly shown on screen.

Third is the elongation of the gap between series 2 and 3 done deliberately around the other central character, that of Cath Cawood's grandson Ryan (Rhys Connah). Rhys was 8 and 10 in the first two series but the plot lines and subject matter of Series 3 needed to be filmed around the reactions and impact on a mid-adolescent boy and so the writer and director Sally Wainwright waited 6 years for the character of Ryan to grow from a child to a near adult sized teenager and the impact of this decision adds a fantastic and realistic dimension to the story line.

Finally is the ending of the show in Episode 6 of Season 3 (as it is clear there will be no more seasons), which features a stunningly intense climactic encounter between Sergeant Cawood and the other central character psychopathic killer (and father of Ryan) Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton) that rewrites all the norms of every preceding police drama of this type in a most satisfying and dramatic way.

Happy Valley has it all, fabulous dark and brooding locations, tough and gritty working class Yorkshire realism, superb and award winning acting from a stellar cast of veterans and newcomers like young Rhys Connah and a plot line that is taut, compelling, intense and gripping. In a country renowned for its incredible quality police dramas, Happy Valley is a true standout.

This movie attempts to detail the lives of various Americans who volunteered to fly for the fledgling French Air-force in the First World War in what became known as the Lafayette Escadrille or Squadron. We have to assume some degree of accuracy of the backstories of the various flyers as the post-war lives of the survivors are summarized at the end. This movie was a mixture of good and bad hence the ranking.

Good

* The general portrayal of the Lafayette Squadron was accurate.

* The training techniques used to rush pilots to the front was accurate.

* The short life expectancy of the new recruits was brutally portrayed.

* The utter chaos of WW1 dogfights was spot on and the special effects used to demonstrate this is the best part of the movie.

* The raw, seat-of-the-pants, rough around the edges nature of the nascent flying technology is dramatically portrayed: no parachutes, open cockpits, jamming guns, close proximity to the enemy and the rapidly evolving technology and battle tactics.

* The rather nihilistic lifestyle of the pilots was well portrayed arising from the stress of losing so many friends.

* The sub plot of one of the key pilots Blaine Rawlings (James Franco) falling for a local French girl Lucienne (Jennifer Decker, by then an already famous French actress) is endearing.

Bad

There were various glaring and easily avoidable historical inaccuracies:

* The movie likely begins in the summer/fall of 1916 soon after the time of the squadron's formation and yet features their German opponents flying the distinctive Fokker Dr.1 Triplane but this aircraft did not enter service in wide numbers until the Spring of 1918 so some 18 months later. Even prototypes were not flying until September 1917.

* The only German fighter plane ever seen is the triplane but in actual fact the mainstay of the German Air-force during the latter part of the war was the Fokker D VIII such that the famous German fighter ace Baron von Richthofen (the so-called Red Baron) only got 17 of his 80 kills in a triplane.

* The portrayal of entire multiple German squadrons of triplanes in red was an embarrassing and silly error built no doubt around the fact that the Red Baron was the most famous and recognizable WW1 fighter ace and he painted his triplane red but he was the only one, the remaining German planes were flown in the standard German colors of grey and black tail trim. Seeing nothing but red German triplanes was silly.

* The shooting down of the Zeppelin scene was inaccurate. The German Zeppelin bombing raids over Paris and London were at night and the French air-force rarely flew at night and only the RFC (precursor to the RAF) were successful at bringing down Zeppelins at night but over England not France.

All in all it was a fun movie.

Set in rural Ireland (the Republic), two series cover life in the Hogan family, the middle aged local doctor Jim (Adrian Dunbar) and his urbane but slowly dying wife Mary (Ingrid Craigie), oldest daughter Fiona (Grainne Keegan) also suffering from Muscular Dystrophy married to Paul Crowley (Ian Lloyd Anderson) with 2 children, Michael (Diamuid Noyes) and feisty Cal (Carolina Main) who lives in Dublin.

In series one, Mary is found dead and the Garda (Irish police) suspect foul play and investigations begin by local Constable Dez Breen (Sean Duggan). In series two Paul unearths drug dealing on the horse stud farm where he works involving the young son of the wealthy owner and the death of one of the dealers and eventually Paul. The true story of how Mary then Paul dies unfolds over the two respective 6 episode series told in a series of flashbacks in a most compelling and fascinating way.

The show is anchored by the fabulous acting of veteran Adrian Dunbar, a son of Belfast in Northern Ireland, but who transitions to a rural southern Irish accent perfectly. All the key actors are excellent and interwoven into the taut plot lines are excellent portrayals of the tight knit community life of rural Ireland, the centrality of the pub and drinking, the primacy still of Catholic culture and thinking, remaining society discomfort over homosexuality, the ever present magnificent Irish humour and the warm self deprecating manner the Irish interact replete with the mellifluous, beautiful accent all of which gives the show a great distinct Irish hue.