Review: Peterloo

Weighing in at well over two hours, there should have plenty of time to tell this important milestone in the history of suffrage in a engaging way. Instead, director Leigh chooses to extend too many scenes beyond their natural length to fill out the running time and populate it with two dimensional, often declamatory, caricatures. There's one positive in all of the speechifying - it does serve to illustrate just how much biblical language influenced the timbre and content of the written and spoken word at the time.

Verdict: Overlong and strangely lacking historical drama

Review: Top Gun

The recent release of the trailer for the sequel to this 80s piece of nostalgia reminded me that I couldn't recall seeing the original.  Putting his weird beliefs and private life aside, I also find Cruise a very watchable screen presence so I thought it was time to remedy this gap in my knowledge of his filmography.

In Top Gun, the jets and other military hardware compete with the star qualities of Cruise, Kilmer and McGillis and the humans only just about come out ahead.  Director Scott certainly knows how to get the most out of both which in combination with an iconic soundtrack crystallises into a perfect drop of 80s filmmaking.

Verdict:   Breathtaking planes and 80s manes do battle.

Review: What we left behind: Looking back at Deep Space Nine

I was tidying my office last night and thought I'd have this on in the background while I did so. It was a bit of an odd choice as I count myself as nothing more than a casual Star Trek fan. I've watched most of the Next Generation, up to half of Enterprise, a dozen or so episodes of the original series and erm...just a smattering of episodes of Deep Space Nine.

Led by showrunner, Behr, this is a good overview and review of the series covering production elements such as casting and recasting, script writing (including a rather wonderful realisation of what an opening episode of a notional series 8 might look like), on-set dynamics etc.   It does occasionally get repetitive (we get that makeup was lengthy), but remains interesting rather than fascinating and revelatory throughout.

Has it persuaded me to actually revisit series myself? Yes, perhaps - I still have the boxset sitting on top of bookcase...

Verdict: Respectful review of somewhat sidelined Trek. 

Review: An Angel for May

Charming kid's time-travelling film which is very reminiscent of the output of the Children's Foundation.  Naturalistic performances, gentle plotting and strong characterisation help anchor the fantasy.

Be warned, the Prime video copy looks pretty dreadful with burned in "This is the property of..." messages occasionally appearing which makes you wonder where on Earth Amazon sourced it.

Verdict:   Can't fault this British made-for-TV fantasy film. 

Review: This book could help:The Men's Head space manual

No-nonsense and useful guide for blokes to take some early steps to improve their mental health and resilience. It's unlikely to turn around a deep depression, but there's plenty of useful tips and tools to help prevent negative thoughts spiralling down.

It helps from a credibility point of view that the book is produced with the blessing of Mind.

Verdict: A good introduction to getting a little mind space.