tv The Film Review BBC News December 14, 2019 11:45pm-12:00am GMT
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if the today programme. why is that? they think it has been showing remain bias. downing street briefing ministers not to go on the bbc radio four programme. not happy with the bbc coverage. this other thing also is they are set to decriminalise the no payment of the license fee. this is something they were criticised on on all sides during the election campaign, and that will come through now. borisjohnson did hint that he would do this and it seems like he is actually coming through with that. eight and before we leave, what did you make of the attacks from both sides on the media? i would absolutely agree with jeremy corbyn that the media is biased. i actually do think there is remain biased and i think there is
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an anti— labour bias. but in terms of labour going forward, there is no point in saying that the media is biased because that isn't going to change. we need to find their way around that. i don't think there is institutional bias, i think you could see certain peoples' bases assigning to a point but i don't think the media is institutionally biased and i don't think there is a point in saying it is the media's fault, we hate the media, not limit yourself and look at your own problems. siana and olivia, thank you very much indeed. on cue. —— thank you. that's it for the papers tonight. don't forget you can see the front pages of the papers online on the bbc news website. it's all there for you — seven days a week at bbc.co.uk/papers — and if you miss the programme any evening you can watch it later on bbc iplayer. thank you olivia and sienna. next on bbc news, it's film review. good night.
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so, hello. welcome to the film review on bbc news. and taking us through this week's releases, we do have mark kermode. what have you got for us in store this week? interesting week. we have sons of denmark, which is a political thriller. we havejumanji: the next level. the same, but kind of more. and the kingmaker, a documentary about imelda marcos. so, sons of denmark. it's a danish drama. interesting? it's an interesting film. not necessarily entirely successful, but interesting. so, feature debut of ulaa salim, a danish director whose parents are iraqi.
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set in denmark four years in the future. there is a populist politician on the rise, and there is an election during which he appears to be doing quite well. behind him are the titular group the sons of denmark, who are basically a kind of white supremacist nationalist group who were behind a whole bunch of islamophobic attacks in copenhagen. as a result of those attacks, young muslims are being radicalised at the same time. let's see a clip.
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so you can see from that clip, it's kind of gritty but has a thriller undercurrent. what then happens is we follow an undercover agent who is infiltrating that cell, but who becomes absolutely convinced that the greater threat is being posed by these kind of white nationalists. the interesting thing about the drama is this — on the one hand, i mean, it takes a real—life situation, it kind of imagines it four years in the future, so there's an element of, you know, fantastical imagination about it. and at times, it's really gritty and really convincing and does a very interesting job of wrong—footing the audience about their expectations about where the drama is going. at other times, i have to say, it does tip over
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into rather crass melodrama. so you end up with a film that is intriguing and i do think that ulaa salim is an interesting film—maker and i think that we will see better work in the future. the thing with this is that it's fine, but it's not great because it does have a tendency to slip into melodrama, when actually, what it needs is to keep the downbeat tone that characterises the best scenes. it's set in 2025 — i wonder why. because it's basically extrapolating from the present situation and saying, "well, let's see. if we imagine these trends, let's put it..." so, it's near enough future to be present, but far enough away to not actually be what's happening right now. yeah. ok, thank you for that. and jumanji: the next level. the same but more, you say? you could say that about any sequel, couldn't you ? well, no, because it's quite often the same, but less. so nobody thought thatjumanji: welcome to thejungle would be any good, because thejumanji original movie — i know people like it, i was never a huge fan of it.
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but in welcome to thejungle, they essentially — rather than the things coming out of the board game, our heroes go into the video game. this time, we get the same crew back again of the in—game avatars — dwaynejohnson, jack black, kevin hart and karen gillan. we also add a couple of new characters, these old codgers played by danny devito and danny glover, who accidentally get sucked into the game with our young heroes. and all the things that made the original film work really well — which is this central body swap idea, that these people get sucked into the game and then they have avatars of different — one becomes heroic, one then becomes the rock, one becomes jack black. it's like that, but everything is turned up to ii. so there's more body swapping, there's more identities, there's more mixing and matching. there's some really good fun special effects sequences. there's a giant ostrich chasing a dune buggy sequence which made me think, "wow! cg has really come on since the days ofjurassic park!" and, i mean, when — as long as we assume — ok, it's not looking to be a masterpiece, it's not looking to redefine the boundaries of cinema but as a good piece
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of solid entertainment — i was going to say "family entertainment" with the exception of the fact there are — there are a couple of — i sound really prudish saying this — there are a couple of off—colour gags that i thought didn't need to be in there. there was a couple of unnecessarily bawdy gags. but those aside, i actually thought it was much better than we had any right to expect for the second time — or third time, if you count the third — or fourth if you count zathura, which i don't. oh, right. good to know! very good to know! right, now we have the kingmaker which is about mrs marcos! a documentary about imelda marcos. who had 3,000 shoes, famously? 1,200, according to this, but reports vary. ah! it is made by lauren greenfield who made queen of versailles and generation wealth, so she knows how to do documentaries of extravagant wealth. we see imelda marcos interviewed. she proclaims herself to be the mother of the nation. she claims herself to be this great, healing person who was driven out unfairly and who is the only person who could possibly reunify her people. we hear about her saying that all the extravagances that she had,
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i read she had a fortune of $24 billion, so she certainly had a bit to give away. yeah, and one of the things that this documentary is about is how much of the money that she still has is now being used to attempt to reintroduce the marcos dynasty. and we follow her as she promotes her son, who is known affectionately as ‘bongbong', in the elections. the really interesting thing about this documentary is that on the one hand, you have this character, this ludicrous character, who speaks ridiculously about herself and about her situation. but behind it is something much, much darker — somebody who talks about martial law as being a golden age. somebody who talks about gaddafi as being a friend. somebody who turns their noses up at any suggestion of reports of torture and incarceration and killings. somebody who basically has — still has a huge amount of wealth that nobody‘s entirely sure where it came from. peter bradshaw in the guardian — i hate to quote another critic
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but this case, i should — said rather brilliantly that this was "an exquisitely horrible portrait" and i think that's exactly what it is. and what i think the triumph of what lauren greenfield does is she draws you in just enough to the ridiculousness of the situation, this character who does look ridiculous. and then you see behind that something really, really dark. and i think the film does a very good job of balancing, you know, what will interest an audience — the stories about the shoes, the stories about — all that stuff — and actually, the horrible reality behind it. i thought it was a very interesting piece of work. i mean, she's an extraordinary figure. i think she has the guinness world record for the amount stolen from a government, basically. yes. and at one point, she is heard to say "well, you know, if i was running this now, i could have sorted out all the world's problems, because all the world leaders love me. and as soon as they meet me, they smile, and that will be it." and you think, "you might actually believe that to be true". but it isn't! well, evidently, it's not true, no. alright, best out? ordinary love. and i can't recommend this highly enough.
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so this is liam neeson and lesley manville as a couple facing a diagnosis of breast cancer, and it's a year in their life. it is written by owen mccafferty, who is a really well—known belfast playwright. it is directed by lisa barros d'sa and glenn leyburn, who made good vibrations, which is a film about the northern ireland punk scene. and i think this is a great movie. i think that it has got fantastic performances. it's — despite the subject matter, it's very funny, it's very human, it's very much about their relationship. it's really honest — it's written, to some extent, from personal experience. and i have now seen it three times and every time i have seen it, i've liked it more, and i really want people to go and see it. it's a hard sell, i know, but it's a really good movie. high praise indeed. and best dvd? well, a bit of nonsense — angel has fallen, which i had chosen because i think the first two in this series — olympus has fallen and london has fallen — i thought were rubbish. and then now, gerard butler teams up with nick nolte and suddenly, it becomes funny. and this was the first in the series when i thought, "actually, you've got the measure of this now". this is deliberately ridiculous and i enjoyed it.
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gerard butler is back in my good books. yeah, he's a bodyguard who's protecting the president? yeah, he's a sort of secret service agent who — how do we get up to speed? — everywhere he goes, chaos seems to follow. but in this one, he has basically — he's got to go, you know, off on his own because he is because he is suspected of being the bad — of course, he's not bad. he's gerard butler. yeah, yeah, yeah. i love — i've got to say i love films about american presidents and their bodyguards. there was that one with with clint eastwood, wasn't there? i can't remember the name of it. yeah, but olympus has fallen started off with kind of, you know, a premise that was done almost at the same time by white house down. and of the two movies, white house down was the less good one — was the better one. olympus has fallen was the less good one, yet that's the one that's produced the two sequels. and, you know, gerard butler — nobody chews the scenery like gerard butler — and him and nick nolte together... nick nolte plays his father — his gruff, survivalist father from who he is completely estranged. their scenes together are a joy. and then there's all the other stuff. yep, other stuff which kind of goes with it. yes. right. mark, thank you very much. thank you. very good to see you.
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and you. that it is for this week, though. thank you so much for watching. and it's goodbye from both of us. goodbye. good evening. some fairly lively downpours out there this evening. heavy with hail, thunder, rain, sleet snow extending. rumbles of thunder in east anglia and the south—east, that will clear through. notice how the showers moved further north and fall quite readily. coating parts of northern england, central and southern scotland, even northern ireland and some fairly gusty winds accompanying it as well. usually we see the winds that strong in the temperatures don't drop away as much, but looking at the chart there is indications there will be first in icy conditions around. one oi’ first in icy conditions around. one or two of this will be waking up to an extra coat of snow bursting. for many of you, tomorrow will be a dry and sunny day, particularly through central and this den areas. in the south on the west the showers get going again later, so that heavy
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this is bbc news. i'm nuala mcgovern. our top stories: extra time for climate talks in madrid, as delegates struggle to agree on crucial measures to tackle global warming. we will fail to address the hopes of people waiting for us in our country. borisjohnson promises to repay the trust of former labour supporters whose votes helped him to victory in thursday's election. tens of thousands take to the streets of rome to protest against the italian far right party. and arsenal distance themselves from comments made by mesut ozil. their star player criticised china over treatment of uighur muslims.
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