Series premiere of mystery web series ‘Victor’, created by David Woods.
A ruthless businesswoman and a grieving single mother are drawn into a dark game of vengeance by a shady organisation, known only as ‘Victor’. But who or what is Victor? And what are the group’s ultimate motivations?
Starring July Gunce Ates, Liza Callinicos & Mandi Chivasa.
Our latest castaway is Chris Olson from London based film review website UK Film Review
From the latest blockbusters, to small indie cinema, UK Film Review tackle as many films as possible.
UKFR promote not just films but also movie trailers from around the world. They also help support indie films that are using kickstarter to raise money.
Film 1 – The film you’ve seen more than any other
You’ve watched it countless times, but it never tires and you could watch it many more times and it will still have an effect.
CO: Funnily enough, it would be a musical! And I say that as someone who rarely indulges in that genre voluntarily. But it is also an animated, very adult, comedy: South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut. I’ve seen this movie so many times, growing up and as an adult, and it still makes me cry with laughter. The jokes are great, the characters are brilliant, the songs are incredibly catchy, and I dare anyone not to laugh at Saddam Hussein in bed with the Devil!
Film 2 – The Classic you’ve never seen
We all have classics we’ve meant to watch but haven’t…yet. Which one would be top of your catch up list. Why haven’t you seen it? What would make you put it on?
CO: At uni, I used to make a list of the “50 Films Everyone Says I Should Watch” – and then make my way through them. These were chock-filled with so-called “classics”, and when you’re a film critic if you ever tell someone you haven’t seen a certain film they like, their instant reaction is utter astonishment and outrage. The film that keeps doing this for me is The Sound of Music. I just can’t bring myself to sit down and watch it. I think if I was on a deserted island, someone had just deflated my best friend, and I overcooked my lizard dinner, then perhaps it would be time to indulge.
Film 3 – The film that will definitely give you a lift
It can be sad and depressing when you’re all alone. Which film would you put on that is guaranteed to lift your spirits
CO: Spaceballs. I have seen this countless times and constantly quote the lines to my brother over text. For me, Spaceballs is better than Star Wars. There it is, I said it.
Film 4 – The so-called masterpiece that deserves a re-visit
Sometimes everyone seems to love a film but it doesn’t work for you. Maybe being on an island will enable you to try and see what everyone else was seeing
CO: With a reboot due soon, it seems fitting that I reveal a lukewarm enjoyment for Blade Runner. I feel like I need to see this film in complete isolation with every comment about it wiped from my memory though! Perhaps the desert island will treat me to a coconut to the head which will erase the hyperbolic praise I have heard over the years.
Film 5 – The film you wished you’d made
Either as writer, director, actor, editor, D.P. or in any other role, which film do you wish you’d had a hand in and what role do you wish you’d played?
CO: As a writer, I wish I could have written the dialogue for Glengarry Glen Ross. That film is a masterpiece, and to then see that stellar cast bring it to life would have been orgasmic. “Always…Be…Closing”…getting chills thinking about it.
Film 6 – The film that had the biggest effect on you
Which film influenced your life, either personally or professionally, the most?
CO: Most likely Fight Club. My dad let me watch this when I was probably a couple of years too young, but he knew I would love it. After that I chased any film by David Fincher. I also tried to start a little fight club with my friends, which resulted in four very unfit lads huffing and puffing in a park having managed to hurt absolutely no one.
Films 7 & 8 – Wild Cards
Pick any other two films that you’d take along and tell us why
CO: The Prestige by Christopher Nolan. I would have to take one of that man’s films and I feel that this is one of his most underappreciated.
Then it would be Rope, the Hitchcock movie. I think this is excellent filmmaking and it stands up better than some of his other movies.
The rogue disc – The film you wished you’d never seen
Even bad films can teach us in some way but there are some that seem to be without any merit at all and you wish, like Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, you could erase them from your memory. Which film, if it somehow made its way onto your desert island, would you gladly throw out to sea?
Eraserhead. David Lynch is an auteur but not one I enjoy. Blue Velvet is okay and Mulholland Drive is good, but this is something I will never endure again! Ironically the time I saw it was at a BFI screening, and the guy in front of me had brought a date. On the way out it became apparent that he was a cineast, lauding Lynch’s filmmaking prowess to his obviously unimpressed partner. After he was finished she simply said, “I’d like to go home now”…my thoughts exactly.
Chris Olson is the editor and founder of www.ukfilmreview.co.uk You can find him on Twitter @UKFilmReview and follow the site itself @UKFReview
Based on the popular Radio Two show, this takes into account film lovers and what they’d need if they ever ended up on an island with only a Beach Ball for company, an ice skate for a tool and an un-opened package they need to deliver.
What eight films would you simply have to play on your waterproof, solar powered blu-ray device?
This week Mike from Midlands Movies shares his Desert Island Flicks.
Great question! At a guess it’s probably Ghostbusters or Weird Science as a friend and I watched them almost daily back in the 80s/90s. I can also add in Back to the Future 2 – which is a film I can quote more than any other – and more recently it’s been The Force Awakens which I saw 5-6 times on the big screen. I have to add that none of these are my favourite films of all time – more probably just fluke the amount they’ve repeated in my life.
I can answer this one very quickly – The Lion King. As I was 14 years old on its release, it wasn’t something I was massively interested in – along with a lot of the 90s Disney films in fact. Over time I’ve sadly never caught up with it.
I think I go straight for comedy and one of my favourites is This Is Spinal Tap. As a musician who’s done a bit of touring, it’s so spot on – even after all these years – that it makes me laugh and remind me of my own good times with my band mates ‘on the road’. Whilst I think of it, Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous can be added here too.
I’ve got quite a few of these but will opt for a very controversial opinion. I’m the biggest sci-fi fan of all time yet I’ve never been huge admirer of Blade Runner. I watch it about once every 2-3 years though and with the sequel out this year I definitely need to give it a re-watch – hopefully on the big screen somewhere.
For entirely selfish (and quite un-cinematic) reasons I’m going to choose Ocean’s Eleven (Soderbergh’s remake) and be an actor on set. A great group of respected actors (and Scott Caan, lol) hanging around in Las Vegas whilst playing pranks, talking film, giving OTT performance as well as getting to work with a great director seems a pretty fun experience.
I think Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind resonated with me greatly, not just for echoing a relationship I was in at the time but it showed that film can still be magical, innovative and original. The idea of past relationships and things like memories that you always take with you – a bit like a desert island if you will – is intrinsic to all of us and shapes who we are. Plus it’s funny, clever and has two great performances from actors playing against type.
As I’ve not picked any of my regular favourites yet I would reserve a place for Terminator 2: Judgment Day and JFK. T2 was one of the first really exceptional films I saw and realised I didn’t just like fun movies but movies with great stories and deeper meanings (well, as deep as a 12 year old can fathom at that time). JFK has so many layers and techniques that Stone has created a really remarkable cinematic movie by taking hundreds of story strands to piece together those days in Dallas and the subsequent trial.
I’m going to stick with the theme I’ve been talking about in all my answers and recollect my distant past when I first came to the realisation that not every summer blockbuster was good. Batman and Robin was hired from my local video shop, stopped halfway through and returned the same day. Didn’t even rewind it for them! I became a man that day. LOL.
Thanks to Mike from Midlands Movies for taking part. Check them out at Midlandsmovies.com
Fancy sharing your Desert Island Flicks? Leave us a comment below showing your interest and we'll be in touch!
Inspired by the popular Radio Four show, we take into account film lovers and what they’d need if they ever ended up on an island with only a Beach Ball for company, an ice skate for a tool and an un-opened package they need to deliver.
What eight films would you simply have to play on your waterproof, solar powered blu-ray device?
We’ve given you some rules though to help our castaways shape their choices.
Episode 2 is with Giles Logan, Editor of Birmingham Wire and Brum Cinema Addicts.
Napoleon Dynamite. This is such a perfect film. So hard to get the right balance of humour and storytelling in ‘quirky’ films and as I rule I usually hate them. Not a lot really happens, but it doesn’t happen so well if you see what I mean? There’s not a bad bone in the film, even the school jocks are likeable. I love every second; the stunning scenery, the cool soundtrack, every character is delightfully off kilter and the final scene with Napoleon and Deb playing ball always makes me cry. It does have a strong personal resonance as my son who passed away in 2011 loved it.
Satantango. I’m actually desperate to see this and have been for years. I have a pile of films which are my ‘watch next’ movies and it’s been in that mound of discs forever. I love Bela Tarr but want to watch it in one sitting without interruption or distraction, finding a 432 minute window is not very easy.
Laughing Gravy. I always default to Laurel and Hardy when I need a lift. The 21 disc box set is such a treasure chest I’d love to take them all but have narrowed it down to Laughing Gravy. It’s such a perfect L&H film. Two decent and unfortunate men always trying to get by and do the right thing and always thwarted by the cruel vagaries of fate and life. There’s such beautiful innocence about them and no matter what befalls them, they pick themselves up, dust off their hats and get on with it. Particularly poignant as in this film Stan is given a way out of his difficult circumstances to a life of great wealth and privilege but only on the condition he dumps Ollie. A great lesson in friendship and loyalty, when the chips are down you don’t just walk away, that is for the weak willed.
Last Temptation of Christ. I’ve tried hard to like this because apparently it’s a classic but I just find it silly and overbearingly dull. Also I just can’t stop thinking about Life of Brian when I watch it which doesn’t help. I find films with ‘wise’ character’s in annoying, all that ‘he is the chosen one’ (see Matrix) cobblers. I know Jesus should possibly be taken more seriously because he’s like well, the messiah and stuff, but I find him irritating.
Withnail and I. What a film? Quintessentially English and I love that the rest of the world will be mystified by the whole thing. Hilariously potent dialogue and characters with each line crafted to pure perfection. Must be an actor’s dream to have a script like this. It’s not just drunken high jinks though, beneath the raucous behaviour is a subtly moving story about growing up. Another film with an ending that will get the old tear ducts pumping.
If… I was a teenage anarchist, no really. Lindsay Anderson’s film really connected with me in a big way. Films were more than entertainment, they could energise, agitate, educate and send you to the barricades. Malcolm McDowell’s Mick Travis was an anarchist too and whilst I never had to put up with buggery, fags and elitism in a public school, Travis’ battle with the system and the incredible final sequence resonated with me in a big way. I love the anarchic way the film is shot too, with random black and white sequences appearing throughout giving the whole film an edgy dangerous feel.
Faust (Jan Svankmajer) When TV was good you’d get films like this all the time on BBC2, nowadays there’s a horrible over saturation of absolute rubbish. I randomly came across this one evening and have loved it ever since, all his film in fact but this was the first one I saw. Utterly chaotic mix of puppetry, stop motion and live action that is jaw droppingly mental throughout. Svankmajer creates beautiful otherworldliness in all his films where nonsense makes sense.
El Topo. The daddy of the exploitation film. Jodorowsky is untouchable when it comes to creating surreal and bizarre worlds that unsettle and disgust in equal measure. There’s a singular ugly beauty to his artful vision. There is no other film maker like him and there is no other film like El Topo.
Bridget Jones. I had the unfortunate experience of having to sit through this shoddy piece of crap with a girlfriend. I also had to pay a new release premium surcharge for the privilege. Horrible from start to finish, a ridiculously stupid storyline, vapid unsympathetic characters that made me wish it would turn into a Friday the 13th film and Jason would disembowel them all, an irritating you should laugh because it’s true thread aimed cynically at women, ‘it’s funny because I have periods too’. Bridget even goes to Glastonbury and she’s so like wacky and stuff, the vomit reflex usually reserved for hangovers haunted me throughout. Worst of all the cinema was packed and everyone was laughing, I really am out of kilter with this world.