Read Mark Pack’s film reviews. Features politics mainly, with a smattering of science fiction, espionage, thrillers and random others.
Based on comedy play written by William Douglas Home, brother of the later Conservative Prime Minister, The Chiltern Hundreds is one of those comedies that was successful in its time but has not aged that well. … Read the full post »
An entertaining and witty account of two conmen who try to pull off a huge scam, all the events happen within less than 24 hours and – a real tribute to the plot’s ingenuity – it remains gripping even if you successfully guess the key plot twist early on. … Read the full post »
Page Eight, David Hare’s espionage thriller staring Billy Nighy and Rachel Weisz, is solid enjoyable fare. … Read the full post »
Coming in at over three hours, Calling Inspector Marotta: St Peter’s Treasure is a long subtitled Italian movie set in the 1920s which has secured rather more attention that you might expect. … Read the full post »
Superficially, Sidney Lumet’s 1986 movie Power is a fairly standard acerbic look at political campaigning, with all the usual cliches of conspiracy, dodgy foreign intervention, cynical campaign managers, idealistic candidates tempted to drop what they believe in the search for votes and good winning out over evil. Standard, if as well made as you might … Read the full post »
Twelve O’Clock High, the classic 1949 film about an American bomber squadron based in England during the Second World War, is nominally a war film but really one about leadership. … Read the full post »
The 29-day siege of the Russian fortress at Brest is, at least outside the old Soviet Union, a largely forgotten piece of Second World War heroism against the odds. … Read the full post »
Spotswood is an amiable early-90s Australian comedy which won a clutch of film festival awards. … Read the full post »
Very clever graphic to illustrate a pretty clever film, Inception. (Only ‘pretty’ clever because sci-fi book authors have been trading in such complexity for decades.) … Read the full post »
The 1933 MGM classic, Dinner at Eight was the first film to feature on screen chocolate eating action. … Read the full post »