Fast & Furious 10 (4 Stars)

Dante Reyes is completely insane.

That's not meant as an insult to Jason Momoa's performance; it's probably the best thing about the film. Dante is the son of Hernan Reyes, the drug lord Dom and his crew brought down in Rio in "Fast Five". Dante witnessed his father's downfall and has spent twelve years planning his revenge. He doesn't simply want to kill Dom. That would be far too easy. He wants Dom to suffer, and he wants to destroy everything Dom loves along the way.

Dante's plan is so elaborate that Dom and his family are constantly several steps behind him. He manipulates the authorities, frames Dom's crew for a disaster in Rome, steals the surveillance technology known as God's Eye and eventually focuses his attention on Dom's young son, Little B. But Dante isn't interested in simply kidnapping the boy. Everything he does is part of a carefully constructed game in which Dom is forced to watch his family being destroyed one piece at a time.

And Dante enjoys every second of it.

The film eventually brings the two men back to Brazil, where Dante recreates the circumstances of his father's death. Dom manages to save Isabel, Elena's sister, but Dante escapes with God's Eye and uses it to track Little B. The chase eventually moves to Portugal, where Jakob attempts to protect his nephew. Jakob sacrifices himself, destroying a group of Dante's men and giving Dom the opportunity to rescue his son.

You'd think that would be the end of Dante's plan. It isn't even close.

Dom and Little B head towards an airfield, believing that Aimes, the head of the Agency, is going to help them escape. Instead, Dante reveals that Aimes has been working for him all along. Aimes shoots down the plane carrying Roman, Tej, Han and Ramsey, apparently killing them all. Dante then traps Dom and his son on a dam with two enormous tanker trucks racing towards them from opposite directions.

Dom does what Dom does. He drives his car off the side of the dam, races down the concrete slope and escapes the explosion. For a few seconds, it looks as though he's actually beaten Dante.

But, of course, Dante has thought of that too.

The entire dam has been rigged with explosives. Dom and Little B are now stranded at the bottom with no car and nowhere to go. Dante detonates the explosives and the film cuts to black.

That's the end of the film.

And then we wait.....

I'm perfectly happy to accept that "Fast & Furious 10" isn't meant to be a complete story. It was intended to launch the final chapters of the saga, and a cliff-hanger was always going to be part of the plan.

But there's a difference between ending a film on a cliff hanger and simply stopping halfway through the story.

When I saw "Fast & Furious 10" in the cinema, I gave it five stars. I assumed that the next film would follow fairly soon and that I'd get the answers to all those questions before too long. Three years later, I'm still waiting.

So now the ending doesn't have quite the same effect. Dom and Little B are apparently about to be blown to pieces. Roman, Tej, Han and Ramsey have apparently just been killed in a plane crash. Jakob has sacrificed himself. Dante has won. And we're expected to sit here for years wondering how everybody is going to survive.

Because we all know they're going to survive.

This is Fast & Furious. People come back from the dead in this franchise. Gisele, who was supposedly killed in "Fast & Furious 6", turns up alive in a submarine at the end of this very film.

So the cliff-hanger isn't even particularly suspenseful. It's just irritating.

I like "Fast & Furious 10". I like it a lot. Dante is a wonderfully deranged villain, the action is spectacular and the film is enormous fun. But that ending has now cost it something.

If "Fast & Furious 11" had arrived in 2024, I'd probably still be giving "Fast & Furious 10" five stars. But three years of waiting for the story to continue is a different matter.

A cliff-hanger is supposed to make you desperate to see the next film.

It isn't supposed to make you think the filmmakers have forgotten to finish the film.

Success Rate:  - 0.1

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Anna (4 Stars)

When I first watched "Anna" in 2019 I wrote "This is a good movie, but it's not the sort of film I could watch more than once". Don't trust anything I say. Today is the third time I've watched it.

Anna is a cool, sexy spy who lives in a world where the Internet existed in 1985 and USB drives in 1990. Other web sites call these anachronisms mistakes, but the director Luc Besson isn't stupid. His choices were made deliberately.

In the course of the film Anna kills 62 men and 0 women. So much for equality. Valerie Solanas would be proud of her.

Success Rate:  - 0.9

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Barbie (5 Stars)

It is literally impossible to be a woman.

We have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we're always doing it wrong.

You have to be thin, but not too thin. And you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin.

You have to have money, but you can't ask for money because that's crass. 

You have to be a boss, but you can't be mean. You have to lead, but you can't squash other people's ideas.

You're supposed to love being a mother but don't talk about your kids all the damn time.

You have to be a career woman, but also always be looking out for other people.

You have to answer for men's bad behaviour, which is insane, but if you point that out, you're accused of complaining.

You're supposed to stay pretty for men, but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you're supposed to be a part of the sisterhood. But always stand out and always be grateful.

But never forget that the system is rigged. So find a way to acknowledge that but also always be grateful.

You have to never get old, never be rude, never show off, never be selfish, never fall down, never fail, never show fear, never get out of line.

It's too hard! It's too contradictory and nobody gives you a medal or says thank you!

And it turns out in fact that not only are you doing everything wrong, but also everything is your fault.

I'm just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us.

Success Rate:  + 9.3

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Barbie (5 Stars)

"Barbie" isn't in my top 100 films list at the moment, but I'll add it the next time I revise my list. That's a promise. It only became eligible for my list today. I only put films in my list that are available for me to watch whenever I want. That usually means that I own the film on Blu-ray or DVD, but I also accept films of which I have a digital copy. I bought "Barbie" today as a special offer for 99 cents.

"The Marvels" was criticised for having too much emphasis on a message. But look at "Barbie". The message is laid on thick for the whole film, but it's still an excellent film, because it also has a good story. I don't care about messages, unless it's a message that I'm violently opposed to. I want a good story, and that's something that "Barbie" has. It was the biggest box office success of 2023, and deservedly so. We need more films like "Barbie". We need more Barbie (and less Ken).

In Germany there were complaints about the film's age rating. It's allowed to be watched by children from the age of 6, but many people consider it unsuitable for children, in particular unsuitable for young girls. They say the film brainwashes young girls to look down on men. So what? We live in a new age. After thousands of years of being suppressed, women are learning that they don't need men. They can live their own lives, with or without a man. Insecure men are taking the path of claiming to be women in men's bodies to raise themselves to women's level. I'm sorry to say it, but no amount of putting on women's clothes or cutting off parts of your body will ever make you a man. You'll never be a Barbie, the best you can be is a Ken.

Success Rate:  + 9.3

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Barbie (5 Stars)

Today was the eighth day that "Barbie" is being shown in the cinema, and it's still sold out. Almost. When I booked a ticket, there were only three seats to choose from, but in the cinema there were four empty seats in front of me. It's possible to reserve a seat online and collect the ticket 30 minutes before it starts.

What was noticeable is that there were hardly any men in the audience. I looked around before the lights went out, and I could only see three other men. That's understandable, since it's a film about a doll for girls, but it's still unfortunate. Men are the film's target audience. It's a film all men should watch and learn from. As other reviewers have pointed out, every man in the film is stupid, a bigot or a pathetic loser. Those three categories aren't mutually exclusive. There hasn't been a film that puts men down so much since the days of Russ Meyer, who divided men into two categories:

The first type of man is weak and stupid, but sexually capable.

The second type of man is strong and stupid, but sexually impotent.

The women are all strong, intelligent and sexually demanding.

The difference in "Barbie" is that sex doesn't play a role. Or does it? Ken (Ryan Gosling) is embarrassed when Barbie (Margot Robbie) tells men at a building site that he doesn't have a penis. Barbie doesn't have a vagina, but that doesn't bother her. Women are able to do without men. There's a running joke in the film that Ken wants to be Barbie's boyfriend, but she turns him down. She wants them to be just friends. The modern Barbie doesn't need a man.

In the film the universe is divided into two worlds: Barbieland and the Real World. (The capitals are deliberate). Barbieland is ruled by women, who are intelligent and powerful and party every day. In the Real World there's supposedly equality of the sexes, but in practise it's ruled by men, who are stupid and bigoted.

The film highlights the problem with women's equality, a movement which came to public notice in the early 20th Century. The women who led the suffragette movement had good intentions, but they were doomed to fail. Women's equality is impossible, as the last 100 years have shown. If women say "We want to be equal", the men will grin and say Yes, giving them a figment of equality. In large companies like Mattel a few women are promoted to high positions to hide the fact that almost all the bosses are men. The suffragettes didn't go far enough. It wasn't enough that women should be allowed to vote, men should be forbidden to vote. The suffragettes said, "You've been suppressing us for the last 3000 years, so let's forget about it and be equal partners". They should have said, "Now it's our turn to suppress you for the next 3000 years".

"Barbie" contrasts the two systems: women rule Barbieland and men rule the Real World. Is Barbieland a perfect world? Not quite. The film shows the rise of toxic masculinity in Barbieland. The men should be happy to be Just Ken. It's not a bad life.

Shazam: Fury of the Gods (5 Stars)

This is the sequel to "Shazam", made four years earlier in 2019. In the film itself two years have passed. That should have been the real world time difference. The sequel was scheduled to be released in 2021, but it was delayed by the Coronavirus pandemic. It's a shame that time is passing so fast in the film. Billy Baxton is now 17 years old, so by the time the third film is made we will have lost the irony of a child being a super-hero. In the comics his age was never explicitly stated, but he looked like he was 10 years old.

The girls are obvious, but I still have problems telling Billy's three brothers apart in their adult bodies. I've put these two photos side by side to help me in the future. The next time I watch a Shazam film I'll put this page on my phone so I can glimpse at it when the film is running.

I never read the Shazam comics when I was younger, not one, so I have no idea how accurate the depiction of the characters is. If you know more than me, please leave a comment below. All I can say is that cute little Darla transforms into a smoking hot big Darla. I couldn't remember seeing Meagan Good in the past, but after checking her filmography I realised I'd seen her in "Venom", and I was even impressed enough to include a screenshot of her.

The film is about the return of three Greek Goddesses to the Earth, Hespera, Kalypso and Anthea. They're the daughters of Atlas, and they want to turn the Earth into a new Olympus. There seems to be some cultural confusion, because they also plant the Biblical Tree of Life, but who cares? It's a good story.

Of the three Goddesses, Kalypso (Lucy Liu) is totally evil, while Anthea (Rachel Zegler) is good and wants to spare mankind. Hespera (Helen Mirren) is morally in between the two extremes, more pragmatic than the other two. Kalypso wants to kill everyone, but Hespera will let anyone live who doesn't oppose their rule.

Shazam and his family are the only ones standing in their way. In the two years since the first film they've gained a bad reputation in their home town of Philadelphia. They frequently go into action fighting crime, but they're so inept that they've been called the Philly Fiascos. What do you expect from children?

The film has one of the most memorable catchphrases ever:

"Taste the rainbow, motherfuckers!"

The film was a box office flop with a success rate of -0.8. I have no idea why. It's every bit as good as the first film.

Success Rate:  - 0.8

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Fast & Furious 10 (5 Stars)

It must sound like a cliché, but I have to say it:

"I expected Fast & Furious 10 to be good, but it was even better".

The action sequences at the beginning made my heart pound, and the excitement continued until the final minutes. The film retells the scene where the bank vault was stolen in "Fast & Furious 5". It's been falsely called a retcon in some reviews. Nothing is changed. What happened happened. We're merely given a few extra scenes, things we didn't see in F&F 5. We see that Hernan Reyes' son Dante was involved in the car chase. Dante Reyes is the main antagonist in F&F 10, seeking revenge for the death of his father. He doesn't just want to kill Dom and his friends, because that would be too merciful. He wants Dom to suffer before he finally dies.

I can't say anything about the plot without giving away spoilers. All I can say is that Jason Momoa is the perfect villain. Other reviews have compared him with DC's Joker. I can see what they mean, but I don't agree. He's more similar with the Riddler, as played by Frank Gorshin and Jim Carrey. Simply put, he's insane. Whatever he does is a game, and he enjoys it to the full.

There's just one spoiler worth telling: the film ends on a cliff-hanger. I can hardly wait for F&F 11 to see how it continues. I'll be queuing up to see it as soon as it hits the cinema.

Fast & Furious 9 (4 Stars)

This is the ninth film in the Fast & Furious series. In America it's called "F9", but "Fast & Furious 9" is the title in the UK. That's what I would have called it anyway, so that it's in the right place in my alphabetical list of posts.

I missed the film when it was shown in the cinema. I'm not sure why. I've owned it on Blu-ray since last year, but I've deliberately delayed watching it until the tenth film is in the cinema. The Blu-ray contains two versions, the theatrical cut and a Director's Cut. I watched the theatrical version today, and I'll watch the other version some time in the future.

The Fast & Furious franchise has to keep stepping up the action from one film to the next. It can't go backwards. In an early scene the cars were being attacked by an army with tanks. I sat looking at it shaking my head. "That's impossible", I told myself. I try to suspend belief, but "F&F 9" goes too far. That must have been obvious to the director/screenwriter, because Roman Pierce addresses his comrades afterwards:

"We've now been on insane missions around the world, doing what most would say is damn impossible, and I ain't got one single scar to show for it? I mean, look at my jacket. There are bullet holes from 14 dudes trying to take my head clean off its shoulders. We've taken out cars, trains, tanks. I'm not gonna even mention the submarine. And yet we're still here. We are not normal".

My thoughts entirely. It's like Roman is becoming meta? He's not a character in the film any more, he's speaking as a viewer. None of the team ever dies. Wait! Wasn't Han killed at the end of "Fast & Furious 6"? Yes, but in this film we find out that his death was faked. Gisele was also killed in "Fast & Furious 6", in a way that couldn't possibly have been faked. Or maybe she'll return in "Fast & Furious 12", telling her teammates that it was a body double. Anything is possible.

But the most outrageous stunt is saved until later in the film. A car is propelled into space, driven by Roman, accompanied by Tej. It has to be Roman. We've already established that he can't die. He rams an enemy satellite to destroy it, but he still survives.

What can "F&F 10" do to top this? Ask me again next week.

Michelle Rodriguez remains on the ground, but she's the film's heavenly body. She seems to be getting more attractive in every film. She's not normal.

Success Rate:  + 1.6

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Hobbs & Shaw (4 Stars)

Wow! Dwayne Johnson has muscles! What do they feed them in Samoa?

Or is it the pancakes that he eats in America?

This is the first film in which he performs the People's Eyebrow (TM). I'm sure he could raise his eyebrow higher in his wrestling days. I'll have to check.

Out of all the professional wrestlers who've ever tried their hand at acting, Dwayne is the most talented. Hulk Hogan was embarrassing. John Cena tries his best, but he just doesn't have what it takes. Can you recognise another WWE wrestler who appears in "Hobbs & Shaw" as a non-speaking extra? Will Roman Reigns take the plunge into real acting? He's 37, whereas Dwayne Johnson was 29 when he made his first film, "The Mummy Returns", followed by his first lead role in "The Scorpion King" a year later. I have "The Scorpion King" on DVD, but I haven't watched it since I started my blog in September 2010. I don't think I liked it very much, but after all this time I should give it another chance.

Maybe I should write a few words about the film itself. Dwayne Johnson plays the DSS agent Luke Hobbs, Jason Statham plays the ex-SAS fighter Deckard Shaw. Deckard was the main villain in "Fast & Furious 7" when he sought revenge for the near-death of his criminal brother, but he teamed up with Vin Diesel's gang as a hero in "Fast & Furious 8". I'm surprised that the two initially refuse to work together when they're assigned to the same case. Luke repeatedly says that he doesn't like Deckard, but I thought they'd already got over it in "Fast & Furious 8".

Their main antagonist is Brixton Lore, a genetically enhanced super-soldier played by Idris Elba. He calls himself the Black Superman. Okay, but I think the Samoan Superman is stronger.

There's actually another antagonist behind the scenes. Brixton works for a high-tech terrorist organisation called Eteon. The director of Eteon says that Luke and Deckard know him, but we only hear his voice and his identity is never revealed. A sequel was planned, but the latest news is that it won't be made, so we might never find out who this mysterious character is.

Success Rate:  + 1.8

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Fast & Furious 8 (4½ Stars)

This is the eighth film in the Fast & Furious series. The title is silly, whether it's spelt Fate or F8. I hope you approve of my sensible renaming.

The team has two new members in this film. The first is Ramsey, the hacker we met in the seventh film. She was rescued from a Nigerian terrorist, but I didn't expect to see her return in the next film as a team member. Maybe she had nowhere else to go.

There were enough jokes in the last film about her not looking like a hacker, so I won't repeat them here. I'll just say that I agree. She doesn't look like a hacker.

Roman and Tej are vying for her attention. Tej (on the right) says he's the most suitable partner because he's also a computer expert. Roman (on the left) says he's the most suitable partner because of his sex appeal. If he says so.....

The second new member is Deckard Shaw, and his presence in the team is even less expected. In "Fast & Furious 7" he was the team's enemy. I knew he wasn't really a bad guy. He was only taking revenge for his brother. But now his brother has recovered from his injuries, so there's no need for him to work against the team. Apart from that, the mysterious Mr. Nobody got him out of prison on condition that he did a job for him. That job involves taking down an international terrorist called Cipher.

A shocking development in this film is that Dominic Toretto (Dom) turns his back on his team to work for Cipher. It's obvious that she has something she's using against him, but I'm not going to tell you what it is. If you haven't seen the film yet, now's your time.

In the 11-minute pre-credits scene the film returns to its roots. Dom takes part in an illegal street race in the streets of Havana, Cuba.

There's a scene in which we see Luke Hobbs working as a football coach. He's good. He's really good. I wish VfB Stuttgart had a coach like him.

He turns innocent young girls into lean, mean fighting machines.

I'd be scared to play with a girl like this.

This girl scares me even more.

And a girl like this would make me run and hide behind the goalposts.

You can see where they've got it from.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock is the ex-wrestler who's the most talented actor. I feel tempted to say that he's the only ex-wrestler who's a good actor. Most wrestlers are embarrassing when they try to act, but don't tell them I said so. They're tougher than me.

I'm glad that Paul Walker's character, Brian O'Connor, hasn't been written out of the series after his death. It would have been tasteless to hear the team talking about him being killed by an enemy in between the films. He simply isn't there any more, so we can imagine that he's settled down as a happy family man, living a quiet life in a house by the beach. He's had enough of being fast and furious.

Success Rate:  + 2.9

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Anna (4 Stars)

When I watched this film in the cinema last year I accused it of being a second rate copy of "Nikita". I have to take that back after watching it again. The two films begin with the same premise, but they develop in completely different directions. That didn't become obvious to me until I got to the last half hour today. Maybe I should watch it a third time to fully appreciate it.

The year is 1987. Anna is a drug addict in Moscow who applies to join the Russian navy. Her application is intercepted by the KGB, who think she would be more suited to work as a spy. She's told that the training will last one year, after which she'll have to work for four years. After that she'll be free to do whatever she wants. We don't see her training period. The story jumps to her first assignment, and we see that she has exceptional skills. She keeps her cool, killing with calm precision. The next time I watch "Anna" I'll be sure to count the number of kills.

Halfway through the film she becomes a double agent for the CIA. She becomes the lover of both of her handlers, both the Russian handler (Luke Evans) and the American handler (Cillian Murphy). She's playing a dangerous game.

One of the biggest differences between Anna and Nikita (the characters) is that Anna is self-confident. Nikita was a skilled killer, but she was insecure in her dealings with her colleagues and her bosses. That makes Nikita more accessible as a character, but it makes Anna sexier.

The film was a box office failure, as you can see from its negative success rate. That's unfortunate. It's a film worth seeing.

Success Rate:  - 0.9

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Anna (4 Stars)

Anna is a Russian drug addict who's recruited by the KGB as an assassin. On joining she's told that she'll be given one year training, after which she'll serve for five years. Then she'll be free to return to her normal life. She's highly successful in her new career, killing her victims just as calmly and efficiently as John Wick. Maybe more efficiently, because she needs less bullets. When she asks about the schedule for her discharge from the KGB she finds out that it was a lie. She was only told it was five years because she wasn't expected to live that long. The only way she can leave is death.

Does the story sound familiar? It should. It's a variation of "Nikita", which Luc Besson made in 1990. A beautiful woman trained to be a killer who wants to get out. It's difficult to review "Anna" without comparing it with "Nikita".

"Anna" doesn't show the training period, which was an important part of "Nikita". We jump straight into her life as a successful killer. She's given a job as a fashion model in Paris, the perfect cover for her activities. In the glamour world of modelling she mixes with the high society and is able to make contact with the men she has to kill.

Unlike "Nikita", "Anna" makes use of non-linear narrative to spring surprises on the viewer, jumping backwards and forwards months or years. We see something happen. In the next scenes the results aren't as expected. Then we go back to the initial event to see what really happened, the things we missed.

The film takes place towards the end of the cold war, between 1987 and 1990. The KGB are definitely the bad guys, but the CIA are also ruthless, in different ways. Both organisations are active in France, in a country that's not their own. They're both using foreign territory as their playground.

One thing that annoyed me about the film was the computer technology. Anna seems to be making an online application to join the Russian army in 1985. She downloads data from a laptop to a USB stick in 1990. What was Luc Besson thinking? Was this deliberate?

My overall impression is that this is a good movie, but it's not the sort of film I could watch more than once. I greatly enjoyed it in the cinema, but rather than watch it again I'll go back to "Nikita".

Hobbs & Shaw (5 Stars)

There are a few posters for "Hobbs & Shaw", but this one, which is also the preliminary DVD cover for the UK release, is the best. It says it all in one picture. Two men on different sides of the road, from different countries, with different styles. The film emphasises this from the beginning, including exaggerated bouts of insults and trash talking. They don't want to work together, but they don't have a choice. The fate of the human race lies in their hands.

An organisation called Eteon has created a virus that will kill almost everyone on Earth. Only the strong will survive, and I'm sure that Eteon has its own definition of "strong". A group of MI6 agents try to steal the virus, but they're wiped out by Brixton Lore, a cybernetically enhanced super-soldier. The only survivor of the MI6 team is Hattie Shaw, who injects the virus into herself to smuggle it out of the building. It will lie dormant within her for a few days, after which it will kill her and infect the whole Earth. Brixton frames her as a traitor who's killed her own men.

Hattie's brother, Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), is recruited by MI6 to find the virus, not knowing that Hattie is carrying it within herself. The CIA also sends Lukas Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) to find the virus.

The film's action scenes are so exaggerated that I almost laughed while watching them, but they overwhelmed me and kept me excited throughout the film. Whenever the action stopped it was replaced by humorous scenes. It's rare that a film has drawn me in on such a visceral level. This is a spin-off from the Fast & Furious film series, and it's just as exaggerated as the recent Fast & Furious films.

I've already used the word "exaggerated" three times, so I think that's the single word that I should use to describe "Hobbs & Shaw".

Exaggerated.

Trumbo (4½ Stars)

This is a true story that took place during one of the darkest periods in American history. Although the expression isn't used in the film, I call it the "Communist witch hunt". After the euphoria of winning World War Two the American government began to realise that Russia, their wartime ally, was an evil country intent on world domination. Russia was a Communist country, so the assumption was that Communism was evil as a system. There was a Communist Party in America, so it was assumed that its members were also evil and intended to overthrow the American government to subjugate the country to Russia.

That is very simplistic reasoning. On the other end of the scale we find Dalton Trumbo, Hollywood's highest paid screenwriter, who had equally simplistic reasons for being a Communist, as revealed in a conversation with his 9-year-old daughter Nicky:

"At school you're eating your favourite food. You see that another girl has nothing to eat. What do you do?

1. You tell her to get a job so she can buy food.
2. You lend her the money to buy food and charge her 6% interest.
3. You ignore her completely.
4. You share your food with her.

If you choose the fourth option you're a Communist".

That shows Trumbo's reasoning behind becoming a member of the Communist Party. He wanted to help people. That's all. On the other hand, he was criticised by his fellow Communists. His friend Arlen said to him, "You talk like a radical, but you live like a rich man". We see that in the photo. He lived on a ranch. He owned a large field which contained a lake. His daughter had a pony.

Let's look at the fourth option in Trumbo's Communist Test again. Let's assume there are 30 children in school. Nicky has food and the other 29 have nothing. If she shares her food with everyone else nobody will have enough to eat and everyone will be hungry. It's more sensible to share with just one or two people, so that they at least have enough to eat. Being selective in your help is more sensible.

How do you select? If nobody has food Nicky would share with her best friend. If her brother and sister were in the room she would give them priority. That's the sort of Communism that Dalton Trumbo practised. He was relatively wealthy, but not a millionaire. He didn't spend much on himself, but he wanted his family to live in comfort. He paid the legal costs of his critical friend Arlen. That's the same attitude that I have. I invest in very little luxury for myself, but I want my children to have enough. Maybe I don't give my friends money, but that might just be because I don't have enough money to give. I've never been in a position where I could afford to be generous.

Dalton Trumbo wasn't a traitor. He didn't want to overthrow the American government. He loved America, and he loved democracy. His only crime was that he thought America should be fairer. More money for the poor and less money for the rich. He wanted to persuade the government to spread the wealth, but the self-centred establishment that didn't want to give up any of its privileges misinterpreted what he said. They claimed that he wanted to force them to spread their wealth.

There were many Communists who were persecuted by the American government, but the main targets were those who worked in Hollywood, especially directors and screenwriters. In a way, it's understandable that they had to endure the brunt of the guilt. They were in a position to influence the American public with either direct or implied messages in their films.

All those who were members of the Communist Party or merely suspected of having Communist sympathies were blacklisted and forbidden to work in Hollywood. Dalton Trumbo was one of ten men arrested and imprisoned for his political beliefs, or more accurately for his political affiliations. America was in the grip of anti-Communist hysteria. The good people of America had forgotten the foundation on which America had been built: the freedom of speech. I would add to that the freedom of opinion. As Trumbo aptly puts it in the film, "Everybody has the right to be wrong". Nobody should be arrested or disadvantaged because of his membership of a political or religious group; he should only be judged on the basis of what he says and does.

A subplot in the film is Trumbo's troubled relationship with his daughter Nicky. He loved her, but the government pressure on his life harmed the family. Nevertheless, she followed her father in wanting to do good. When she was older she joined the Civil Rights Movement to fight for the equality of black people in America.

Before watching "Trumbo" I already knew about the Hollywood blacklist, but some details were new to me. For instance, after his release from prison Trumbo was still forbidden to work, so he wrote screenplays under false names. This led to absurd situations. In 1956 he wrote the screenplay for "The Brave One", using the pseudonym Robert Rich. At the Academy Awards Robert Rich won the Oscar for the Best Screenplay, and nobody knew who this person was. It wasn't until he wrote "Spartacus" in 1960 that the political climate was calm enough for him to write under his own name.

I was also quite shocked by the attitudes of actors at the time. John Wayne, of all people, considered Dalton Trumbo to be un-American and a traitor. There was no solidarity between the professionals in the film industry. They took opposite sides in the war on Communism.

Bryan Cranston's acting in the main role is nothing short of magnificent. He was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actor, but didn't win. The award was given to Leonardo DiCaprio for "The Revenant". Once more I'm utterly amazed. The Film Academy chose wrong.

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Collateral Beauty (4½ Stars)

Here we go again. It's another one of those films. I mean the films that prove that the critics have lost touch with the public. This is a wonderful film, deeply moving in its romantic moments. It's a box office success. The public loves it. I love it. But the critics hate it. I shan't even bother trying to explain to you what they don't like about it. I'll just say that they're wrong.

The film is about Howard Inlet, the founder of a highly successful New York trading company. He has three business partners, but it's his genius and his charisma that carry the company. His life changes when his six year old daughter dies. His marriage breaks up. He becomes depressive and unable to work any more. After two years his partners lose their patience and want to have him declared mentally incapable of running the company. They find out that he's written letters to Love, Time and Death, complaining about what they've done to him. The partners hire three actors from a small theatre company to pretend to be these entities. They also hire a private detective to film him when he meets and argues with these three people, in the hope of making him seem unbalanced.

I shan't say anything else about the plot. You can already imagine that as soon as Howard is convinced that they're who they're pretending to be they have a profound effect on him. Unexpectedly, the three actors also connect with the three partners, helping them deal with their respective problems.

For years I've never liked Will Smith as an actor. That's beginning to change. He's no longer typecast as the brash kid from the ghetto. As he's getting older he's playing more serious roles, like this one. The film features several of my favourite actors, but Will Smith stands above them.

I repeat once more. This is a wonderful film, so don't let anything the critics say put you off watching it.

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