TO LOVE SOMEONE. (2007) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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TO LOVE SOMEONE. (2007)

DIRECTED BY AKE SANDGREN.

STARRING SOFIA LEDARP, JONAS KARLSSON AND ROLF LASSGARD.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

I loved this ninety-minute Swedish language film about an abused woman called Lena. She’s in her late thirties and, when her violent ex, Hannes, is sent to prison for basically battering her half to death and putting her in hospital, she builds a new life and a new relationship with a kind and decent older man called Alf.

Now, however, Hannes has been set free, after complying with the prison’s therapy programme for domestic abusers. Lena is, unsurprisingly, on edge about his upcoming release, but Alf, a fish shop owner in his early fifties who has given her a secure home with him, assures her that she will be safe and he will protect her. Lena has clearly landed on her feet with Alf, a devoted boyfriend and unstinting…

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POSSESSION. (1981) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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POSSESSION. (1981) DIRECTED BY ANDRZEJ ZULAWSKI.

STARRING ISABELLE ADJANI, SAM NEILL AND HEINZ BENNENT.

‘THE CREATURE’ DESIGNED BY CARLO RAMBALDI.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

I came to this movie knowing literally nothing about it beforehand. Can you imagine the shock I got as the film played out?

I was thrilled to see the gorgeous French actress Isabelle Adjani in the lead female role. She is utterly exquisite to look at, and was superb in Werner Herzog’s film adaptation of NOSFERATU in 1979, in which she played the frail but determined and gutsy Lucy to Bruno Ganz’s Jonathan Harker.

Sam Neill of JURASSIC PARK (1993) and THE PIANO (1993) fame is quite a dish himself, and is still very good-looking in 1981 when this film was made. POSSESSION is set in Cold War-era West Berlin at the time of the infamous ‘Wall,’ about eight years before it eventually comes down.

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DEATH SHIP. (1980) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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DEATH SHIP. (1980) DIRECTED BY ALVIN RAKOFF. STARRING GEORGE KENNEDY, RICHARD CRENNA, SALLY ANN HOWES, NICK MANCUSO, VICTORIA BURGOYNE AND SAUL RUBINEK.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

Wow. This ghostly horror film completely blew me away. I’d been You-Tube-ing ‘ghost ships’ and related stuff, on account of having read some really scary true-life stories about same in John Robert Colombo’s TRUE CANADIAN GHOST STORIES, an excellent book I read over Halloween. Then a clued-in FB friend recommended DEATH SHIP, and I was intrigued enough to give it a go.

It stars George Kennedy as the main character, a Captain Ashland, the captain of a cruise ship who’s on his last voyage before handing charge of the ship over to Richard Crenna’s Trevor Marshall. I love George Kennedy.

He was one of those very masculine old-school actors like Paul Newman or Steve McQueen, although I’m not sure if he was ever…

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HUNGER. (2023) A NETFLIX FILM REVIEWED BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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HUNGER. (2023) A THAI MOVIE.

DIRECTED BY SITISIRI MONGKOLSIRI.

STARRING CHUTIMON CHUENGCHAROENSUKYING AND NOPACHAI CHAIYANAM.

This Thai movie is wickedly stylish, slick and laced with a razor-sharp social commentary on the haves and the have-nots. Don’t be put off by that last fact, though. It all fits together beautifully with the action and the stunning visuals of food, food preparation and the consumption of food. In fact, if you like food, and would like a sneak peek behind the scenes of both a high-class kitchen and a bustling street food restaurant, then this is the exact movie for you.

Aoy is the movie’s heroine. She’s a beautiful young woman who works in the second scenario as laid out above, the bustling street food restaurant owned and operated by Aoy and her family. They work hard, long hours and the money isn’t great, but the food is delicious and cooked with…

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THE DEEP HOUSE. (2021) A NETFLIX HORROR FILM REVIEWED BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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THE DEEP HOUSE. 2021 DIRECTED AND CO-WRITTEN BY ALEXANDRE BUSTILLO AND JULIEN MAURY. PRODUCTION COMPANY: BLUMHOUSE PRODUCTIONS.

STARRING JAMES JAGGER, CAMILLE ROWE AND ERIC SAVIN.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

I’ve seen this seventy-five-minute horror film twice now. The first time, I was alone, it was night-time and I’ll admit I was thoroughly spooked by it. Then I watched it with my two (adult) kids over our Saturday night takeaway because I wanted them to see and enjoy it too.

They thought it was rubbish. Garbage. A load of old bollocks. My son even made some rude toilet noises to express his disapproval. I was gutted. I just wanted them to like it too, even though there’s a lot wrong with it. It just rubbed me up the right way at the right time, I guess. That can happen sometimes.

The story has two main characters, Ben and Tina. They’re…

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JAPAN SINKS: PEOPLE OF HOPE. (2021) A NETFLIX DISASTER SERIES REVIEWED BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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JAPAN SINKS: PEOPLE OF HOPE. (2021) BASED ON THE NOVEL BY SAKYO KOMATSU.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

I loved this Netflix ten-part drama series about, well, the sinking of Japan due to seismic activity in the earth’s crust, but the weird and wonderful thing about it is as follows. It looks like a modern-day series written to serve as an awful warning against the very real current threat of climate change, but it was actually written in 1973 by Sakyo Komatsu, one of science fiction’s finest writers.

It hadn’t been that long since the atomic bomb had fallen on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and so I suppose that that would have been on the mind of any sci-fi author writing in those times. The writer also specifically said that he was inspired to write it while thinking about what the nationalistically-minded Japan would do if she lost her land for…

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1939. (1989) A SWEDISH WW2 MOVIE REVIEWED BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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1939. (1989) DIRECTED BY GORAN CARMBACK.

STARRING HELENE ENGLUND, HELENE BERGSTROM AND PER MORBERG.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

This is a magnificent film to look at, set as it is in neutral Sweden during World War Two. Firstly, on the subject of being neutral during World War Two. Winston Churchill, a decent enough cove, accused Sweden of ignoring the greater moral issues of the war and playing both sides, the Allies and the Axis Powers, for profit.

She (Sweden) provided Germany with steel and machine parts, and permitted German soldiers on leave to travel freely through her country on their way to Norway or Germany. This doesn’t sound like Sweden was neutral exactly, but just saying she was neutral to get out of the conflict while favouring Germany slightly.

Before the war, Sweden refused to take in European Jews seeking even temporary refuge from the far-reaching arm of the…

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OBSESSION. (2023) A SEXY NETFLIX THRILLER REVIEWED BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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OBSESSION. (2023) AN EROTIC NETFLIX THRILLER MINI-SERIES.

BASED ON JOSEPHINE HART’S NOVELLA, ‘DAMAGE.’

STARRING RICHARD ARMITAGE, CHARLIE MURPHY, RISH SHAH, INDIRA VARMA, SONERA ANGEL AND PIPPA BENNETT-WARNER.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

‘Damaged people are dangerous.’ Anna Barton.

‘Troubled women are better in bed.’ Donald Trump.

This erotic Netflix thriller mini-series (what a mouthful!) has its pros and cons, or even its ups and downs, if you will. Firstly, the name is awful and so generic. How many books, TV shows and films out there have the word ‘obsession’ in the title? Secondly, the cast of posh English people is a bit wooden at times, their dialogue stilted.

This four-parter ‘watch in one night’ Netflix mini-series tells the story of family man and top surgeon William Farrow, who falls head over heels in lust with his son Jay’s new fiancée, Anna Barton. Anna is a bold hussy who totally initiates…

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GANDHI. (1982) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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GANDHI. (1982) DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH. WRITTEN BY JOHN BRILEY. MUSIC BY RAVI SHANKAR AND GEORGE FENTON.

STARRING BEN KINGSLEY AND ROHINI HATTANGADI.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

I keep this multi-award-winning movie with my Biblical epics, not because it has anything to do with Easter per se but because a film about someone who walks long distances in the sand and heat wearing only a loincloth and carrying a staff strikes me as being a very Biblically kind of thing to do. And if Mahatma ‘turn the other cheek’ Gandhi isn’t the person you know of in life who most resembles Jesus Christ, well, then, quite frankly, I don’t know who would be.

The film is three hours and three minutes long, and it has an all-star cast of fine Indian actors like Saeed Jaffrey and Om Puri, as well as a superb cast of ‘Old Guard’…

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I AM GEORGINA (BUT ONLY IN MY DREAMS…!) SEASON TWO REVIEWED BY SANDRA HARRIS.

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I AM GEORGINA: SEASON TWO. (2023) STARRING GEORGINA RODRIGUEZ.

REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

‘I used to sell bags, now I buy them.’

‘You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.’

‘There must be a reason why the (fashion and jewellery) brands fight over me.’ (Cue enchanting giggle.)

‘I guess the brands see in me what they want to convey to the public.’

Season Two of reality/lifestyle show I AM GEORGINA dropped on Netflix recently and, as I’d watched the first series and am a huge fan of top footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, I had a look at the first couple of episodes with my son. He’s a big football fan in general, though not necessarily of CR7. (He says Messi is the real ‘goat,’ the little tyke…!)

Georgina Rodriguez is the beautiful, part-Argentinian, part-Spanish, social media influencer who, in 2016, became Ronaldo’s girlfriend after he strolled into…

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