French spies! The Bureau reviewed #AmazonVideoPrime #TheBureau

Imagine an up-to-date Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy crossed with a French romance… and you’ll get something approaching the superior French spy drama that is The Bureau. Seeing the modern tricks of spies is fascinating in its own right, and then you get international politics and a love story thrown in for good measure. It’s engaging and compelling on a number of counts – there’s something for everyone really.

Our protagonist (let’s call him Paul, although he has loads of different names, and we’re never quite sure which is the real one) has just returned to Paris from a successful 5-year mission in the Middle East (Syria, Jordan and Algiers). He has to break up with his Syrian girlfriend (Nadia) while still in character as a French teacher before coming home. He feels bad about it, particularly cos Nadia is smart and has a cat-walk model’s body (is she a spy for the other side, a ‘honey trap’?). A week after dumping her, feeling guilty and alone, he phones her… only to find out (with delight and horror) that she’s in Paris!!! Apparently, she’s on a course related to her work. Against all protocol, Paul meets up with Nadia in secret, still maintaining his cover as a French teacher. He has to lie to his colleagues, and the lies have to get bigger and bigger. And, of course, he has to lie to Nadia, cos she doesn’t know he’s a spy for the DGSE (the French CIA, sort of thing). Paul can’t trust anyone. He can hardly trust himself. He’s bound to make a slip, it’s so tricky juggling his different identities every day. Then Nadia’s Syrian entourage start to get suspicious of Paul, and enlist Russian operatives to investigate.

The pressure and close-calls become unbearable. But what can Paul do?

It’s an exciting and entirely tense affair throughout. Gripping. And it’s not just done for the thrills. Being French, of course, the series indulges in philosophical ruminations about identity, trust, reality and sanity. Don’t let it worry you (English ninnies inevitably get put off by all things philosophical), cos you can ignore the philosophical bits and go get a cup of tea.

The series has a dud episode or two (episode 8 is just a rehash of 7 really), but it is entirely worth persevering with. The culmination of it all is unexpected but credible. And means you’ll be keen for the next series. 8.5 out of 10. So there. (By the way, I’m half-French, but you don’t need to be to enjoy said proceedings.)

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As evil as it gets… #fantasy #sciencefiction #evil #Satan

Here’s the jaunty new collection of essays from Luna Press, about the changing nature of evil in fantasy and science fiction. You can read about how the Dark Lord (Satan, Darth Vader, Dracula, Sauron, Lord Foul, etc) emerged and ultimately became the (anti-)hero of the piece. Or how the Chosen One rose up, only to be considered too wimpy by more recent generations of reader. In a nutshell, each sub-genre of fantasy (dark fantasy, urban fantasy, epic fantasy, high fantasy, grimdark fantasy, etc) tends to have its own distinct version of evil, based upon the socio-historical values that specifically inform that sub-genre. Plus, there’s a superior essay by yours truly in the anthology. Get your copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Within-Fantasy-Science-Fiction-ebook/dp/B07QNCXK6Y/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=francesca+barbini&qid=1565771312&s=books&sr=1-3

Bruce Lee would be proud! Superior political kung fu drama: Warrior #BruceLee #WarriorHBO

 

In the 1970s, Bruce Lee pitched a TV series called Warrior to Hollywood. It was to be the story of a kung fu master wandering the Wild West during the Tong Wars of the late 18th century. Hollywood turned Bruce down, telling him that a show with an Asian lead actor simply wouldn’t work. A year or two later, Hollywood put out the cult TV series Kung Fu, starring David Carradine – a white actor who ‘passed’ for Asian. Meanwhile, Bruce was back in Hong Kong making the genre-defining movies of Way of the Dragon, Enter the Dragon, and Fist of Fury. Sadly, his TV series was never made…

Until now! With Shannon Lee (Bruce’s daughter) as consultant to the series, Warrior has now been made and released by HBO! Not only does the series have as Asian lead (okay, he’s Japanese British), but also a wide cast of fully rounded Asian characters played by Sino-American, Korean and Chinese actors. It’s set in the San Francisco of 1878, just after the American Civil War. Boatloads of Chinese labourers are arriving, liberated African-Americans are moving from the south to the north, Irish navvies and policemen are unionising, and various mafia groups run different parts of the city.

This series has a lot of lovely period detail, wicked martial arts scenes (many a direct homage to Bruce Lee), a lot of flesh on display (it’s HBO, remember, who made the eye-popping Game of Thrones) and fiendishly compromising politics. It’s great. I love it, and fully recommend it! 8.5 out of 10 from me. And I think Bruce would like it too!

Enough food for thought to make you obese! #TheGreatHack #TheGreatHackNetflix

Your personality and behaviours can be mapped and predicted with just 5000 data points. More than that, the way in which to influence you and change your behaviour (such as who you vote for) can be calculated and implemented (via platforms such as Facebook). None of this is particularly farfetched – human beings are far less sophisticated than our egos like to think. Yet, to watch it being carried out is hugely disturbing and unsettling. It makes you doubt if democracy actually operates anywhere in the world anymore. We like to think it does, but maybe we’ve simply been programmed to think that.

The Great Hack is a documentary-movie on Netflix that tells the story of how Cambridge Analytica (CA) nicked personal data from Facebook, identified the most vulnerable amongst us (‘the persuadables’) and then targeted them during both the US presidential election of 2016 and during the Brexit vote. It very much appears that CA swung the votes in favour of Trump and Leave.EU.

The Great Hack follows the story of one IT professor who simply demanded to know what data CA were keeping on him. And the story of two ex-CA-employees who’d retrospectively had an attack of conscience and wanted to make some sort of amends by exposing the ‘truth’.

This documentary-movie is almost a dystopian horror… except it’s just real life. Yikes. You will certainly feel sickened when watching it. You will wonder why some of the facts revealed in the movie didn’t appear in the UK press. You will wonder if you were influenced/manipulated by CA. You will wonder how we can switch off the machine. Or can we never put that genie back in the bottle.

It’s not a perfect piece of film-making, by any means, and you may not trust a word that of what many of the talking heads say. But it’s certainly a hugely thought-provoking watch, and one to discuss with everyone you know. Very much recommended (if it’s not going to give you an insurmountable degree of anxiety). 8/10

Marmite peanut butter is real! #marmitepeanutbutter

This is not a test. This is not a swizz. I just bought some actual Marmite peanut butter… and it’s the absolute shizzle. Get down your supermarket before the stampede begins. (Also, I am not an influencer who gets paid for telling you how to live your life, you muppet. Get some now. If you don’t, and you miss out, then I will laugh at your tears and point at you in the street.)

The beer of King Arthur! #Tintagel #Cornwall

Behold! Tintagel brewery’s fine ales! Supreme quaffing for all fantasy authors and readers. ‘Merlin’s Muddle’, ‘Castle Gold’ & ‘Arthur’s Ale’!

John Wick 3 took more in the opening weekend than John Wick 1 did in its entire run! #johnwick #johnwick3 #KeanuReeves #HalleBerry

 

The John Wick movies have quite rightly earned a cult status. The fresh fighting style that’s used (I heard Keanu describe it as being based on ‘gun katas’), the cool Matrix stylings and intertextuality, the simple righteous revenge plots, the intriguing underworld and global hierarchy of assassins, the lack of fear when it comes to the body-count, and Keanu’s inimitable style of acting… all combine to give us a compelling, adrenaline-fuelled and screamingly addictive ride. And it’s a welcome ride that really has resurrected Keanu’s career, to boot!

The first movie in the sequence opened without much media fanfare but quietly grew in audience and fame. Now, with John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, we have a movie that has taken more at the box office in its opening weekend than the first film did in its entire run. Added to that the fourth movie is already confirmed and a TV show spin-off called The Continental (named after the uber-cool, steampunk assassins’ hotel) is also being produced. Oo, and if you want my guess, the gun-toting Halle Berry character from the third film (along with her trained killer dogs) will also get a spin-off!

Regular readers of this site will know that this often grumpy reviewer was a massive fan of John Wick 1 & 2. So what did this often grumpy reviewer make of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum? Well, indulge my grumpiness here, if you will. The title of the film itself is something of an indicator that the simple innocence of the first two movies has somewhat been lost. Things have become somewhat overloaded with new and contrived expectations. (For reference, Parabellum means ‘Prepare for war!’)

You see, the first two movies were based on simple revenge plots. In the first movie, John’s dog is killed by mafia types (and the dog was a gift from his wife before she died!) and his car is stolen. The mafia types have failed to realise that John is a notorious retired assassin… whom they have just brought out of retirement! Gulp! We cheer as the aggrieved and grieving John sets out for revenge upon the entire mafia. We are properly engaged, meaning that the action is emotionally compelling, no matter that it is overblown and not credible. It works morally and symbolically. The second movie is very similar… and that’s just fine indeed.

Yet the third film departs from the plot premise of the first two. It’s simply John on the run from all the other assassins because he has broken the rules of the assassins’ hotel/world. Hmm. Morally, we don’t feel much for John concerning this… after all, he’s a cold-blooded assassin himself. When we don’t care, the umpteen fight scenes become tedious rather than compelling. The refrain of the movie is ‘There are always consequences!’ but that is just a tautologous nonsense statement about the cause and effect nature of the world and basic physics, surely. The film struggles and strains to give itself depth… where before it naturally had it with simple elegance and without effort. Chapter 3 is by turns a dull and painful struggle to watch. Even the baddies in this third part aren’t properly bad. We have the Adjudicator character and her hired samurai, but they are simple functionaries, simply doing their jobs… and not actually evil for the fascinating sake of it. So we can’t even root for John based on his being more morally attractive than who he’s up against.

Look, true fans might be able to see past the inadequacies of the third film anyway, and I note the film has good scores from IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes, so maybe I/we shouldn’t talk too much more about it. Certainly, the third film does offer some new ideas and some extra world-building. And it’s setting up one helluva war for the fourth film! So let’s just say John Wick 3 is the equivalent of The Matrix 3, and leave it at that. I, for one, and no doubt one of many others, fully intend to watch the fourth movie and all future spin-offs – and maybe that’s the only real test of things! Onwards to war!