tv The Film Review BBC News December 15, 2019 11:45pm-12:01am GMT
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here as well that people are relu cta nt to here as well that people are reluctant to come forward often. let's finish with the daily telegraph. world cup and ashes hero wins sports personality of the year. only the fifth cricketer to win that prize and this year it was hardly a surprise with winning the world cup and how he played. a fantastic year for english cricket winning the world cup. then stokes has had a difficult couple of years, he was up for affray which he was cleared of a couple of ago. and he has been, had a few brushes with the press. quite interestingly, unfortunately for viewers, gary lineker accidentally announced the fact he had won an hour early before you were meant to. at least he didn't announce the wrong person. and oxo style moment! oscar.
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it was a shame not to see in my view more women on the list. it feels like we don't have quite so many. when was the last time... paula ratcliffe, that might be it. it was a long time ago. 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 — 7 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, giles and maya. do buy a paper. next on bbc news it's time for the film review. night night. so, hello. welcome to the film review on bbc news. and taking us through this week's releases, we do have mark kermode.
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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. 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
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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 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.
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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 7 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 big fan of it. 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
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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 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. a couple of unnecessarily bawdy gags. but those aside, i actually thought it was much better than we had any
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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. good to know! very good to know! 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. 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, they were all there in order to offer a shining star to the poor, who need somebody to look up to. and, as we see in this clip here, she drives around handing out money, because she has some. she has a lot!
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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
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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 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
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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." you think, "you might actually believe that to be true". it isn't! it's not true, no. best out? ordinary love. i can't recommend this highly enough. liam neeson and lesley manville as a couple facing a diagnosis of breast cancer, and it's a year in their life. it's written by owen mccafferty, who is a really well—known belfast playwright. 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.
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despite the subject matter, it's very funny, it's very human, very much about their relationship. it's really honest — it's written, to some extent, from personal experience. and i've 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. 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.
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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. mark, thank you very much. thank you. very good to see you. that it is for this week, though. thank you so much for watching. and it's goodbye from both of us. good evening. could be a bit slippery in places tomorrow, more ice and snow wonton hills. at the
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moment, nasty rainstorms with hail mixed in, particularly across the london area and kent and essex. away from that, showers continue with the odd rumble of thunder, heavy rain around the coasts and across northern england and central and southern scott and, further covering of snow. it's these areas most likely to cic conditions. still bust reran some southern and western coasts where you get the showers. temperatures from wales, and after a touch of frost. some showers across east anglia to being the day and they will be there all day long. we can showers across western scotland, strong, gusty winds, lighterwinds further south. a few showers by and large across england and wales. temperatures very similar, around 4— 10 degrees.
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i'm rico hizon in singapore. the headlines: marathon talks on climate change close in madrid, but a compromise deal prompts scathing criticism. we prompts scathing criticism. will never accept cruml future, we will never accept crumbs of a future, and we will make the polluters pay. this cop has failed the people on the planet. —— and the planet. indian police clash with demonstrators on the streets of delhi, as protests over a new citizenship law intensify. i'm kasia madera in london.
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