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      Castles In The Sky

      2014 List
      67% 6 Reviews Tomatometer 54% Fewer than 50 Ratings Audience Score Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

      View All (5) audience reviews
      Kathleen H Overall look and feel was realistic and casting was great, but pace was choppy and various scenes were downright corny. Too bad, because it's a good story and could have been told with quiet power. Gun battles aren't necessary to creating excitement. Recall the scene in "The Imitation Game" when Allan Turing (Bendict Cumberbatch) thinks he has found the key element for cracking the Enigma code. He puts in the new information, starts his machine, and he and his colleagues stare at the machine as it whirs and spins. We stare too, tense, and after some few seconds it suddenly stops. It worked. Now that was excitement. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 07/12/20 Full Review Audience Member Conventional and sometimes trite, but worthwhile for Izzard's leading performance. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member man this film gets me going ( nug nug ) Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member It is the mid-1930s and Germany is making radical advances in weaponry, especially aircraft. Suspecting that a war with Germany is likely, the British War Ministry look to new and advanced inventions of their own. After aiming for something more radical - a death ray - they end up with the invention that saved Britain during its darkest hour - radar. This is the story of the invention of radar, and, in particular, the story of Robert Watson Watt, its inventor. We see his trials and tribulations of its invention, and the characters that were trying to undermine his project. A decent history-drama. Gives a good sense of the work, trial and error and set backs involved in the invention of radar. We also see how close the project came to being shelved, and the impact it had on WW2, especially the Battle of Britain. Solid performance by Eddie Izzard as Robert Watson Watt. I couldn't imagine him as a dramatic actor before this, as he is more a comedy actor and stand-up comedian (and a very good one). However, he proves very much up to the task. Well worth watching, especially if you're a history buff. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/20/23 Full Review Audience Member Eddie Izzard is great in the lead, but the series suffers from a problem that I've seen several times in low quality BBC miniseries based on historical events: they don't have a clue how to make their story interesting. To be specific they don't have enough faith in the audience to give us complicated exposition and instead explain all the details to us Star Trek style, by giving us complicated technobabble and then summing up with a patronizing analogy that the characters shouldn't need. Except sometimes they don't even bother with the technobabble. The real difficulty is the absence of any conflict.Struggling to make a machine work is not the stuff of standard dramas. Sans technobabble we're left with external conflicts, in this case a group of ridiculously toffish superiors who want them to fail (and thereby doom Britain) because they're not from Oxbridge. I get that class snobbery is a thing, and that it was even bigger then than now, but this is well into parody. As a result, anything serious falls flat and anything funny is let down by the absence of interest in these characters. Only occasionally is Eddie Izzard able to overcome the film's moribund sensibilities and make his character seem alive. And it's not enough. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Critics Reviews

      View All (6) Critics Reviews
      Guy Lodge Variety [A] staid but affable biopic ... Jun 25, 2014 Full Review Andrew Pulver Guardian Director Gillies MacKinnon, probably best known for his mid-90s work Small Faces and Regeneration, does a sturdy job in putting together a well-constructed drama. Rated: 3/5 Jun 23, 2014 Full Review Mark Adams Screen International Castles In The Sky may well be modest in scale (and likely to have a greater life on television rather than the big-screen) but it's an entertaining look at a delightfully eccentric and brilliant scientist. Jun 26, 2014 Full Review Ben Rawson-Jones Digital Spy Izzard deftly brings out layers to the character, ensuring that no airbrushed idealisation takes place. There's an underlying sadness in his soul that emerges. Rated: 4/5 Jun 24, 2014 Full Review Paul Gallagher The List Although Watson Watt's project is always in danger of being axed, the film lacks credible tension. Rated: 2/5 Jun 23, 2014 Full Review Michelle Devereaux The Skinny It's so corny and faux-respectable even your gran would probably find it too fusty. Rated: 2/5 Jun 23, 2014 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Director
      Gillies MacKinnon