Castles in the Sky

With war against Germany approaching, the British government sends out a request for a death ray. Robert Watson Watt (Eddie Izzard) suggests something else, radar. Instead of the stuffy professors from the highest universities, he recruits other weathermen. The program faces opposition from his superior Lindemann with Churchill calling it building castles in the sky.

Not every story can be dramatized and this movie tries its hardest. The small guy against the world is always a good angle. All of that works very well. The technical aspect of radar is explained but the drama isn't that dramatic. I'm reminded of squeezing an orange to explain the nuclear bomb. His married life is probably the least appealing. It diminishes his wife. It's almost more compelling to have her fade into the background which would justify her leaving. As for the acting, these are experienced veterans. Eddie Izzard is solid. Tim McInnerny is playing Churchill which I wouldn't be able to guess. He's a little skinny for the role. Overall, it tries hard to be dramatic and works well enough.

The story of Robert Watson Watt, a pioneer, who helped enormously in Britain's war effort.

I liked the humour, feel and spirit of it, it was a light hearted take, on what's quite a serious story, I'm not sure about how much of it was historically accurate, but the story itself is fascinating, and if you're interested in this piece of history, it's worth reading up.

Some nice touches of humour, the scenes on the beach were food fun, such a contrast to the authentic footage of the Nazis, chilling still to watch.

A wonderful cast assembled here, Eddie Izzard and Julian Rhind Tutt were both great, Tim McInnery, great actor, but not the right fit for Churchill.

It's worth seeing, 7/10.

What could have been a fascinating tale turns out, regrettably, to be a pile of slush. Fine cast can't overcome a weak script by the brilliant historian Ian Kershaw. Not only does he fail to create rounded believable characters, but he is unable to capture a substantive explanation for how the men are developing their theories. All reduced to blackboard scribbles. It's not an easy thing to present complex science to a credible plot for lay viewers, but Kershaw's version collapses into the simplistic and flat. It just leaves the film empty. If you want to see a great film on a war-time pressure cooker for inventors try The Dam Busters (1955), directed by Michael Anderson. Another absolutely brilliant one about scientific war time geeks is The Small Back Room (1948) by the startling, inventive and fun duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. They nail all the quirky Britishisms and get the romance right too. Kershaw might've taken a few tips from these tremendous scripts and films.

Not knowing much about how radar came about (although knew of the significance) and being a fan of Mr Izzard I was keen to watch this docu-drama. They were honest from the start saying this was based on true events, but the events you see have been made up for TV. Well, that's fine and fair enough.

But as soon as it started I felt my attention slip, Eddie Izzard was good, his accent went from Scottish to American can back again which I found funny. But he came across as a nice enough chap enthusiastic about his job. I didn't care much for his wife, and assumed that they didn't have children but lived that experience through his nephew?! That's when it hit me, if these things matter I clearly am not enjoying this programme.

I fast found myself confused by who everyone was, what became of the mole, or the guys who worked for him. I didn't care much about Robert's personal circumstances and was surprised he was surprised things didn't go according to plan. His team were good sorts, but I guess they all enlisted bar one?! I don't know I was out of the room at that time.

I understand the writers didn't really know how they got to a successful radar station, but the "eureka" moments were plain dull. I had hoped that Taffy was having a flash back from WW1 and was going to put them all in jeopardy. But no...

I wanted to like this, but it was just too dull, like boiled meat and potatoes. Shame for something so momentous and unsung. If you don't know about the birth of radar and don't want to be spoken at for an hour, this will give you all you need to know in a softer 1 ½ hours.

In 5 years, this is only the second review that I have done on IMDb. The reason for this review is that there were only 4 other user reviews and this movie deserves much more so here I am writing a review. I started off watching by myself and a few minutes into the movie my son joined me. My son is an action movie buff and will usually leave the room if it isn't action so I was surprised to find him still there at the end of 'Castles In the Sky'. Not only was he still there, he initiated a discussion about the movie with respect to his new-found know knowledge of just how important radar was in helping Britain win the second world war. This movie was also very inspiring since Robert Watts developed radar in the face of adversity and very much to his credit, he was able to overcome many obstacles while under immense pressure. I know that myself and my son left this movie with a 'can- do' attitude. The acting was superb and even though it was a dark time for England, there was some light-hearted scenes which were thoroughly enjoyed by both of us. I can absolutely state that this movie is a good movie that I would highly recommend to others.