V For Vendetta

Short review:

Wow.

Slightly longer review:

OK, well first off I wanted to go and see this early on Sunday, and there was an 11.10 showing. Which I booked and paid for online (I'm hooked on the Vue cinema, online booking, pre-paid collection to avoid queues and digital projectors on nine screens. Lovely.). I remember thinking "Well, I have to get up at 10am on a Sunday. No great hardship there." and immediately afterwards my flatmate comes through and asks "When do the clocks go forward?"

B*gger.

So up I get at the equivalent of 8am on a Sunday. I found out some useful things, like Vue don't bother keeping the ticket check point at the doors manned that early on a Sunday. And people at the BBFC can't spell Vendetta. The classification certificate shown has the second "T" clearly a different shade and slightly out of position, like it's been added afterwards.

So, the film. Out-bloody-standing. Now, given I knew nothing, and I mean nothing about this film beforehand, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Usually, after a movie, I start nit-picking, but with this, I enjoyed it too much. It's actually tempting me to go and see it again, and I only ever do that with Star Trek films, and that one time I saw Galaxy Quest three times in the same day.

It's a beautiful film. Evey in the rain, the Old Bailey, V's hideaway. And it's nice to know that even in a fascist, totalitarian future, the media still think that "Britain" and "England" are interchangeable.

It's not an easy film to watch, particularly if you start thinking about it. The government shown make the Nazis look like pussycats, not because what they do is any more or less evil (it's about par), but simply because the Nazis at least tried to hide a lot of what they did, because they knew the populace wouldn't accept it. The UK government in V for Vendetta simply don't care. They know the population is under their thumb, and they can squeeze whenever they want.

I think my favourite character is the chief inspector, the only man in the government with a conscience, particularly because of his question to his colleague, asking him what if everything he knew was based on a lie. Although Stephen Fry is excellent in it also.

I really don't want to say any more in case I spoil it for you. It's really worth seeing.

Score:
A+++
+
++

OQ:

"No, all you have are bullets..."

"Would you want to know?..."