Skip to main content

The Man Who Never Was Review

What I liked: I think this is an excellent example of old movies. It isn’t too long (Gone with the Wind/Lawrence of Arabia). It isn’t boring (Thing from the Black Lagoon). It isn’t sappy (Little Women/Citizen Kane). It isn’t just weird (Dr Strangelove). It has a good story to tell and does so quite well. It is the story of the misinformation campaign prior to the allied invasion of the continent. The pace is much slower than if it were made today, there is plenty of British tea drinking, but I think this actually works quite well to capture the amount of time that went into planning. It was also impressive to see the level of detail that the orchestrators included about the fictional man. I was also impressed by the execution of the token love story. Normally, I find romantic side stories boring, unbelievable, and completely superfluous. This one was actually believable and played an important role in the plot without upstaging the real action. I liked the morse code action, though do think the spy should have been more careful. If you carefully lock your door when you are sending a message you should probably wait to open your door until you have actually put away your radio. I also liked the map showing troop movements. This is something that would utterly fail now but since it was made when they actually presented information like that, it added a layer of authenticity.
What I didn’t: the score. There were way too many flutes and violins happening and not enough drums and trumpets. I know the Brits are all about stiff upper lip but they really should have been more supportive of the secretary after she encountered the spy. I would be curious to know how closely the film followed real events.
Who should watch this: anyone on a old timey movie spree.
Would I watch it again? Yes

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ready Player One Review

What I liked: I bet all of the developers loved making this film, I saw so many video game and movie references in the background of scenes. I bet all the developers just inserted their favorites like the ninja turtles, a whole platoon of halo soldiers, and orcs. That it was a video game made it possible and exciting to have all kinds of absolutely random physics and logic defying things happen. Obviously, I loved the T. Rex and who would not enjoy seeing Mechagodzilla or a cyborg orc driving a monster truck? Early in the movie they made good use of the video game architecture in a way that reminded me a bit of secret rooms in super mario. The characters visit the world of the Shining, which was amazing and hilarious. I loved the variety of characters, vehicles and weapons that we get to see and it is more fun (at least for me) that they draw from more than strictly the 1980's. I also really liked the music, for the most part the selections were great for the scenes. The book was...

Fast and Furious 8 review

What I liked: This is the first Fast and Furious movie I have seen but I have watched a number of the trailers. They always teemed with absurdity. Now instead of a 3 minute trailer, I got to sit through an hour and a half of turbo powered sports cars saving the world. As you can imagine the list of things to like is quite long. The movie starts off strong with a car race in Havanah (I guess that US-Cuban relations are going really well if a FBI agent is having his honeymoon there). The reason for the car race was a bit complicated but essentially the main dude was trying to win back his cousin's car. In the course of the race he manages to light it on fire, explode it, and launch it into the ocean. But at least he won it back. I'm sure his cousin was very grateful. I also find it noteworthy that the race was 1 mile long and took 11 minutes to complete. The moral of this story is that while both racers are excellent at theatrics, they take safety seriously. After blowing up B...

Crazy Rich Asians

What I liked: One of the earliest scenes has a flurry of social media. I liked the way it was filmed and thought it was funny and effective. The best friend is remarkably well prepared for almost any eventuality. If she could fit her closet in a utility belt she would be a fashion batman. Without all the cool gadgets and fighting. Just clothes and accessories. Worst Batman ever. I liked her collection of outfits in her trunk. The whole family making dumplings together was surprisingly cute. Until it reminded me of the recent Pixar dumpling short . You can't unsee it now can you? Really, that short is this movie in about 5 minutes. So if you want to save your self some time... The mom is a very effective villain, I think she and Lady Tremaine would get along well. I liked the proposal scene. Of the whole movie this is the part the seems the most realistic. What I didn't: Ok even if we buy the "I just wanted to be a peasant and my true self with you" non-sense, unde...