michelle-263 Reviews

Balthazar: Noces rouges (2020) Season 3, Episode 8

A mixed bag

[7/10 · 8 July 2021]

The good: the unexpected twist to the "whodunnit" and some interesting mysteries throughout the series.

The bad: substantial parts of the story were like Mills & Boon romances, including the ending.

The even worse: The final part of the story was like a Jacobean tragedy. Sterhill-1's title was definitely meant literally.

I'm pleased that I watched all three series, and full marks to the makers for trying to do something different with the ending even though it will leave a lot of unhappy campers in the audience. Balthazar himself is a likable character but so larger-than-life that it was sometimes difficult to believe in him.

Balthazar: Paradis perdu (2020) Season 3, Episode 1

In search of Times Past

[4/10 · 6 July 2021]

An interesting episode - unless you have seen the film The Wicker Man. This episode embellished the Pagan ritual but added little to the story.

Josephine Baker: The Story of an Awakening (2018 TV Movie)

Not quite comprehensive.

[9/10 · 25 October 2020]

The film does what it does well, and the material on Baker's anti-segregation work in the US after the war was new to me. The only disappointment is that there is absolutely no mention of her film career. I would suggest seeing this film along with "Chasing Rainbows" to get a full picture.

Jupiter Moon (1990–1996)

In-Joke

[5/10 · 29 August 2020]

The low rating is based on the first eleven episodes only but I have no reason to think that the programme's later episodes will be any better. "Jupiter Moon" falls between two stools and was always going to be difficult for people who don't like both science fiction and soap opera. My mark is as high as it is because the science fiction elements are not bad and the producers have taken pains to be scientifically correct. The big problem is the tedious soap opera ,which would be bad enough but the focus on unusually immature teenagers makes it unendurable. You need only watch a few episodes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to see how this sort of thing can be done well.

I can't help wondering if the name of this university ship is an in-joke for Londoners, the series had London writers and was made in London. For a Londoner ILEA is the acronym for the Inner London Education Authority which was responsible for London's schools. Update: I have just watched the extras on the first DVD and the show's creator, William Smethurst, confirmed that the space ship was indeed named after the Inner London Education Authority which was abolished at the time he was creating the show.

Five Golden Dragons (1967)

Armchair travelling

[4/10 · 25 July 2020]

This is an enjoyable "B" or, perhaps, "B-"film. I'm sure the cast had a marvellous holiday in Hong Kong, if only they had been there to make a better film. Rupert Davis did sterling work as Sanders, the police commissioner The four famous actors who played the dragons are woefully underused and could only have accepted the parts for the paid holiday, as the roles are just cameos. The only mystery is the Bob Cummings character (who would have been better suited to a different film) This character is clearly far more than the dizzy playboy that he purports to be but we are never told what. He does tell Sanders, who immediately treats him as an equal, but we come in at the end of that conversation and only hear Sanders' calling him a "strange duck" (not "doc" as stephenabell suggests).

The actors do what they can, the faults are caused by the writer and director.

I can imagine watching this film again but not for a few years.

Profiler (1996–2000)

Law of Increasing Returns

[8/10 · 20 November 2019]

I disagree with the opprobrium cast on the season with Jamie Luner . In my view it was the best of all four seasons. There was much more discussion about profiling (I agree with the programme's profiling consultant, Howard Tetan, who said on the DVD extras that Sam was much more like a psychic than a profiler), the cases were not split with the rather absurd super-villain Jack and it was not bogged down with Sam's tedious family life. This last difference had the advantage of giving space to develop the other characters. I think it would be unfair to discuss the continuing plot line of Joe/Damian Kanaras because it had been intended to develop the story in the cancelled fifth season.

This might not be the place, but I want to moan about the ridiculous amount of shelf space taken up by the US DVDs. I have seasons one and two on Australian DVDs which comfortably fit six discs into an ordinary jewel case. The US issues of seasons three and four are the size of bricks - a regular problem with A & E Entertainment.

The Young Lawyers (1969–1971)

Downward spiral

[4/10 · 30 July 2018]

This series is OK but failed to live up to the promise of the pilot which had three young lawyers given more or less equal prominence and a strong court room scene. As the series progressed the stories became ever more soapy and far less legalistic. The biggest miscalculation however was that it was turned into the Zalman King show. King was a likeable enough actor but the undue focus on his gauche character became tedious. The situation did not improve with the arrival of Philip Clark as he was given so little to, usually just a couple of lines in each episode, that he might as well have not been there.

Because of the Cats (1973)

Eurocrime?

[8/10 · 23 May 2018]

This film is now available in all its 98 minute glory on a Dutch (Region 2) DVD for a very reasonable price. The really good news is that the rape scene is nothing like as graphic or as protracted as other reviewers suggest. The five minutes are intercut with the police questioning of the victims. I'm at a loss to understand why four minutes were cut from the original British release as the rape scene itself lasts for no more than two minutes.

My title for this review has a question mark because it is very different from the treatment we have become used to in long-form dramas like "The Bridge". The film is very much of its time. It is certainly not as action-packed as modern American dramas which may be why some reviewers find it slow. I thought the portrayal of Van Der Valk was reasonably true to the novels save, of course, for the philandering with Feodora.

The film as a whole worked well aside from the hippy-trippy bit towards the end which really stamped it as being from the early 1970s, although I think that the basic plot idea or rich kids going bad is one of Freeling's less believable stories.