Genres

Visitors Review

lucaspix 2012-05-25 06:49:54

Better than I expected

I saw this at home on DVD, and only realized it was a TV mini-seriesafter I checked the running time ( over 180 minutes! ). Anyway, Idecided to see it in one shot, if bored I could always stop it or pausefor more popcorn! I found the plot a bit of a mix of other stories'ideas, but it was well developed and ended up quite interesting. Ihappen to appreciate most British/Aussie movies, especially theespionage genre, where they have a way of keeping you always wonderingon the next move, like a chess game. Details come and go very quicklyand sometimes I was glad on having subtitles to better understand theaccent...! Acting is very good as I expected from the selected cast. Iguess I was tired after 3 hours, but I could hold for another half ifneeded!

charlytully 2012-05-25 01:22:07

Tame British version of "24," with a falsified DVD box for USA dupes

In America (aka Region 1), millions of yankees have been duped intorenting this title under the impression that it is a 94-minute longMOVIE--not a tepid British TV miniseries styled after Jack Bauer's"24," without most of the budget, killing, or excitement. In fact, theclimax of the 93-minute Part Two of THE DIPLOMAT (a more aptdescription of this story than the Brit TV title, FALSE WITNESS)shamelessly steals one of the season-ending scenes from "24." But wouldAmericans shell out one red cent for THE DIPLOMAT if they knew inadvance it was 187 minutes long, and chock full of title character IanPorter's flashbacks about his only child's disastrous loss (and by"chock full," I mean literally EVERY FIVE MINUTES, with a really cheapsepia-toned, shaky camera technique reminiscent of director Ulli Lommelat his cheesiest!) While Dougray Scott as Porter tries to create whatJames Bond would be like if he was a pathetic, mostly clueless andtotally graceless homely man with nothing to live for, all the othercharacters in THE DIPLOMAT are even stupider, incongruous caricatures.If you need three hours of only occasionally interesting tedium toprove forever that NOT EVERYTHING on Brit TV is MasterpieceTheater-quality, THE DIPLOMAT may be just the ticket for you. It showshow shrewd Alistair Cooke was in not being buried, since he has nograve to spin in!

Venus Attack 2012-05-23 09:26:59

Confusing plot

Shot in London & Australia. Ian Porter is the diplomat who got caughtin the London's Scotland Yard & Russian nuclear terrorists way. ChiefInspector of Scotland Yard questioned Ian Porter for sealing thediplomatic containers that contains 23kg of heroin. He thought he'shelping to counter-terrorism by acting as a middleman between theRussian mafia Krousov & the secret services so he's like the puppetbeing played by both teams but actually the secret services have otherplans themselves. So Scotland Yard decide to whisk Ian & his estrangedex-wife, Pippa to Australia Sydney under a witness protection schemeand slowly discovered a deeper conspiracy that might kill thousands ofpeople which Ian will have to decide who to protect. It's also about afamily who lost their son & love by real life couple Dougray Scott &Claire Forlani.

edward wilgar 2012-05-22 17:42:09

Worth witnessing

"False Witness" is an enjoyable enough espionage mini-series whicheasily kept me watching for more than three hours in two sessions onAustralian cable TV on the second weekend in January 2009 in what wasclaimed to be a "World Premiere". There's probably very little in itthat you haven't seen before though the degree of culpability of themain character Ian Porter (Dougray Scott) had me guessing for a longtime.I thought this was a co-production between Australian pay-TV companyFoxtel and British TV (BBC?) but apparently it's all-Aussie. The actiontakes place in London and Sydney and in case you're not sure where weare, every time the location changes we start with a shot of TowerBridge, the London Eye, Big Ben etc or alternatively Sydney HarbourBridge or the Opera House. (Incidentally, according to "False Witness"every resident of Sydney has a harbor view).Real-life couple Dougray Scott and Claire Forlani are a great-lookingpair, Clare especially is a stunning-looking young woman. Unfortunatelyon this evidence Dougray is something of a sleepwalker.I don't think I need to explain the plot again as Venus Attack hascovered it well but I suspect the couple whose marriage fails afterthey lose a child in an accident has been done before.(The broadcast I watched had sub-titles (which I find helpful) in thesecond episode but not the first!)

tabuno 2012-05-19 09:14:05

A Good But Cumbersome European Espionage Effort

This long and more intellectually convoluted espionage televisionmini-series incorporates the strong European tradition of subduedmystery and moral angst that skews the more uplifting, positive energyof American action-thrillers. The script and special camera workoverreach themselves in their attempt to be smart and intriguing,though a careful read will reveal a rather irritating editing andirregular flow of the storyline with a number of gaps in the plotcontinuity. There is a heavy dose of emotional guilt and suffering,strangely analogous to Eastern cultural humble and suffering sacrificephilosophies. The TV series never quite reaches the potential forreally potent enlightening, though it does mightily in its effort topush those notes of inspiration. A hard movie to sit through, TheDiplomat though still presents a qualitatively superior substantiveperformance.

patlightfoot 2012-05-19 03:43:49

Great movie

I viewed it on NBN last night the full version. I found it veryvisually dynamic, and the acting and action very exciting. I supposewatching three hours of this should have tired me, but it didn't. As afemale I found the male principal actors very interesting. Althoughbeing a bit unshaven was a bit - well emphasizing their masculinity alittle bit too much. But that's not a spoiler just a comment. The tempothrough out was to me consistent and the final solution was energeticand thrilling. One query though, can you use mobile phones to ringinternationally, I thought satellite phones could be traced? The cinematography was brilliant, showed Sydney off very well. Just onecomment, is there no customs for boat arrivals? Possibly not if theytransferred to a local boat from some other out at sea. And after theyblew up the nuke ? people were watching the flash etc. Hope the jetswere not effected, that might have been a little creative. But whocares it was just a fictional movie. I don't think the plot went beyond the point of probability. From whatI know there is not necessarily any collusion between secret servicesor police forces. Unless it suits.I found it very enjoyable and stimulating, and gave it a high ratingfor me. I'd like to see it again too!