Unfortunately, Westley Piddle doesn’t have a cinema, cineplex, or multiplex…only a Muttplex. But it’s showing some great movies…
🐾🐾🐾🐾= as good as it gets on the subject. Drop everything, , sniff out, scramble to catch up and ‘watch NOWS’!
🐾🐾🐾= entertaining or informative. Worth putting on your short-watch list.
🐾🐾= Average entertainment, will pass casual viewing time but does not exceed expectations – even modest ones. Ultimately forgettable.
🐾= Seriously! There are many far better movies out there on this subject. Don’t bother unless it’s a rainy afternoon with absolutely nothing better to do.
This week I am tackling films that disappoint, dismay and despair – reviewed in that order.
Fireball – Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020) directed by Werner Herzog
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A new documentary from Werner Herzog about meteors and comets and their influence on ancient religions and other cultural and physical impacts they’ve had on Earth. (courtesy IMDb)
My take: was so looking forward to Herzog’s latest, following on from his excellent Nomad – In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (2019). However, our most revered Bavarian oddball auteur doesn’t appear to have taken this subject very seriously. That in itself would be refreshing if Fireball was meant to be appreciated as satire, except that it ain’t. This is just 90 minutes of a wobbly, cobbled-together pastiche of everything we [humanity in the shape of Werner H] think we know about comets. Sadly, it turns out we probably know much about fireballs from 90s Hollywood epics than anything on offer from this hodgepodge documentary of odd people waxing lyrical about their favorite lump of rock, or iron, or whatever! C’mon Herzog – great balls of fire – this is just dull and lazy film making!!
If you know Herzog’s film you will watch for completism. If you don’t know Herzog’s films don’t bother.
Wolyn (retitled Hatred in English) – directed by (2016) Wojciech Smarzowski
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Despite being in love with a Ukrainian boy from the same village, Polish girl named Zosia is forced into marrying a wealthy widower. Soon World War II begins and ethnic tensions arise. Amidst the war chaos Zosia tries to survive.. (courtesy IMDb)
My take: If you are aware of the film Come and See (Elem Klimov 1985) then you may be intrigued by the Polish film Wolyn which [also] paints an unflinching portrait of rural communities facing the unstoppable and insurmountable waste of war on ordinary people. In the case of Wolyn, it highlights the dreadful atrocities which took place across the multi-ethnic Polish/Ukrainian communities of the Wolyn region of eastern Poland during 1939-41. An almost unbearable-to-watch testimony of the utter hatred felt by Ukrainians towards their Polish neighbours. A must see film of a little known and often overlooked part of WWII.
Viewer discretion advised. It is a beautifully produced vision of human depravity at its most grim.
Greenland – directed by Ric Roman Waugh (2020)
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A family struggles for survival in the face of a cataclysmic natural disaster. (courtesy IMDb)
My take: Oh, why did I waste two hours on this utter garbage?! If I could give this nonsense a zero paw mutt-o-meter I would. Without any redeeming features whatsoever, please, I beg you, totally ignore this cac. However, if you must sate your need for extinction level event disaster movies then download Deep Impact or Armageddon instead – movies which rank verily as a Citizen Kane when compared to this utterly aweful dross. Dog dammit, why can’t an same asteroid crash into Hollywood and spare humanity ‘this’!
USUAL MUTTWITS 
‘Come And See’ is one of my all-time favourite films. Being mentioned alongside ‘Wolyn’ means that I have to buy your recommendation from Amazon ASAP. Thanks mate.
Cheers, Pete.
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Definitely worth a viewing PJ – try and get the Uncensored version. Another film in a similar vein is ‘Donbass ‘ – wot we’ll be reviewing in a couple weeks 😊🐾
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