'Das Boot'
An extremely poor updating of the cracking original from 1981, which remains one of the best (if not the best) fictional dramas about WWII. Although, this version is more about ripping off the famous title than actually remaking the classic Wolfgang Petersen TV show/film. The producers only use the title, 'Das Boot' because nearly everyone knows it and they want to piggyback on it's fame. But, 2018's 'Das Boot' is more about the goings on in port, than at sea and the actual boat of the title is reduced to a mere "subplot"  .
And subplots are a plague on this new TV show, reducing it to a lamentable series of melodramatic mush, involving unconvincing French resistance nonsense and spending far too much time on the character played by Vicky Krieps as she surreptitiously manoeuvres around a Gestapo officer, helps Jews and has a tacked on lesbian affair with the head of the resistance group. Why all of that is in a supposed drama about a U-Boat, I don't know, and it continually drags the story away from its ostensible titular focus. If the producers wanted to make a drama about the French Resistance in La Rochelle, why didn't they just do that?
It's also laced with English speakers. Nearly every major character breaks into English at some point in the most inexplicable way and it's incredibly irritating. Of course, this is done to appeal to an English/US market by Sky, but it's infuriating nonetheless. There were more English speakers in La Rochelle in 1942 than there were in Portsmouth it seems according to this show.
But, the absolute worst sin of this TV series is its depiction of the U-Boat crews, who are simply ridiculous. There is no discipline, everyone fights with everyone else, there's an absurd mutiny aboard U-612 and none of them are even a vague representation of the real men who crewed the U-Boats during the war.
All in all, it's a complete travesty.
1/10
'Shane'
The well known 1950's western that sees a troubled gunfighter, who wants to forget his past, befriend a homesteader family who is under pressure to up sticks and vacate their land because of a ruthless rancher who believes he has a bigger right to it.
Finding myself more agreeable to the "revisionist" westerns myself (although I'm not really a fan of the genre at all), 'Shane' is about 20 years too early for my tastes generally. But, the film is a bolted on classic that deserves the title and despite some awkward period trappings - if you knock ten shades out of a guy, he'll respect you and all your problems can be solved with a gun - 'Shane' still lives up to its movieland status as one of the best westerns ever made.
It's well acted by everyone, with Alan Ladd (Shane) and Van Heflin (Joe Starrett) coming off as genuine men forming a believable bond and George Steven's direction does a lot to add to the basic story that may have been absent in the hands of another director of the period. It's also got its fair share of great, familiar faced, character actors, like Elisha Cook Jr, Ben Johnson and the always watchable Jack Palance as a nasty piece of hired trouble.
But, what's most interesting about 'Shane', is that despite its surface layer white hat/black hat simplicity, there's an attempt to add grey area to the story, which was unusual for the time. Although there are definite "bad" guys, they have genuine motive for their actions, as elaborated on during a scene where Ryker (the ruthless cattle merchant) explains why he wants to get rid of the homesteaders that are on "his" land and that are interfering with the open range. His reasoning being that he and his family/friends were the ones who "tamed" it years before anybody else moved in and that the homesteaders get in the way of the natural resources that the range provides, by fencing off their own little areas.
His argument is clearly countered by Starrett, who correctly points out that the Indians and trappers were here long before Ryker and the other pioneers were and that the land wasn't tamed by him at all as he's essentially just passing through. It's a small, but important scene that gives everyone more depth than the usual Hollywood western tropes provide.
'Shane' is not only a great western, but a great film, which has had an enormous impact, not only on other westerns, but on films outside of that bracket too, and it's fully deserving of its place in cinema history. It's beautifully shot as well and makes good use of its Wyoming surroundings, which look fantastic on the Warner Blu Ray and I've never seen the film look as good.
To some, it may seem a little clunky here and there because of the time it was made in - and Brandon DeWilde's Joey can be a little irritating - there's still an awful lot to it that makes for truly satisfying viewing today.
9/10
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Originally Posted by bassman
Children of Men? I'll see if I can find it somewhere. 
Again, great stuff that shows off the man's masterful ability to play with the audience, to set up a controversial opening premise and then absolutely nail it in an unexpected way that inverts the opening premise while also skewering social media bullshit, pious expectations, and what people are thinking but not saying. There's a couple of really great bits in this one including one about a Gorilla that speaks sign language, and another about the 'Hall of Fame of evil'.
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