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If anyone was thinking this would be an historically accurate telling of the Battle of the Bulge, as most people would, they'll be sorely disappointed. This film merely uses that event as an excuse for a war movie, and a very poor one at that.

For a start, the "historic" details of the Battle of the Bulge provided in the movie are wildly inaccurate. What follows is a very badly made film with some big names (Henry Fonda, Robert Ryan, Robert Shaw, Dana Andrews) attached.

Even if it was called something else and didn't pretend to be about the Battle of the Bulge it would be bad: plot is implausible, action scenes are the gung ho sort kids dream up.

So bad that General Eisenhower, commander of Allied forces during the actual Battle of the Bulge and former US President, condemned it!

The original Emmanuelle, released in 1974, was hardly Citizen Kane. It was soft core porn dressed as art. It was probably quite provocative for its time but by today's standards is reasonably tame. There are some moderately interesting sub-plots but overall it is quite forgettable.

This film, the 2024 version, strives to take that film and make it even less memorable. The director and writers have somehow set out to make the world's most dull, sanitised, meaningless "erotic" drama. The average comedy is more erotic than this!

There's absolutely nothing good about this. The plot is close to non-existent and follows the original's style-over-substance, nothingness-dressed-as-art line.

Avoid.

Ray Shoesmith works "in security". What this involves, however, is him being a killer/thug for hire: no job is off-limits or too large and Ray is very good at what he does. While the pay is good the job means he accumulates enemies and can't trust anyone. There's also the problem of keeping his work life separate from his private life.

A spectacular series, the greatest yet made in Australia. It starts off slowly - the first two episodes are really just scene-setting - but once it gets going it's absolutely riveting. It's a great mix of crime-drama, human drama and comedy in an Australian setting.

The fact that episodes are only 25 or so minutes long helps as there's no space for filler. Yet, despite the shortness of the episodes and being action-packed, there's still time for profundity and reflection - it just isn't signposted or spoon-fed like lesser series.

Another area the series scores in is authenticity. A lot of Australian movies and TV shows try to be too Hollywoodesque or too Australian, playing to a stereotype. This gets it just right: everything looks and feels like real Australia down to the minor characters seeming like people you would meet in real life.

Scott Ryan, who is also creator and writer of the show, is fantastic as Ray Shoesmith, absolutely inhabiting the role. He is also upstaged, however, by Chika Yasumura who plays his 8-to-12-year-old-daughter Brittany. She, being sweet and innocent, is the contrast to Ray and shows the bipolarity of his life. She gets some of the best lines and puts in a wonderful performance, especially for one so young.

A must-watch.