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Reviews
Juror #2 (2024)
I liked this,didn't know who the director was till the credits
I have a cinema season ticket.
I see a lot of films which can be risky,I see some bad films.
So I looked at the schedule and saw this and went to see it.
I only knew the plot outline,didn't know who the director was.
So this is a court room drama,hardly the first of its kind.
I like 12 angry men and Runaway jury along with many others.
This is well acted drama.
Nicholas Hoult is good as a juror,Toni Collette is great as a prosecutor.
Is she well known in the USA?
The rest of the cast are fine.
The script/plot?
Well it is a tense story perhaps unrealistic.
I am not an American (British/Scottish we have our own legal system) but the legal aspects seem accurate.
The film somewhat question the jury system.
Do the accused really always get a fair trial with local people judging them on where they are from?
The film involves a juror who has more involved in the trial than is clear at first.
This is a pretty good thriller which will make you think a little.
It seems this film is not being widely released or promoted for some reason.
It is certainly not a bad film and if it turns out to be the last film directed by Clint Eastwood he has nothing to be ashamed of.
The Apprentice (2024)
a strong and surprising tale,not a hatchet job.
I recall seeing W a film about George W Bush a few years ago.
I was pleased that that film was a fair,rounded view of its subject.
This film is somewhat more negative about Donald Trump than the W film but it still shows allows a little sympathy for his crazy life.
Trump is shown as a confused immature person.
He is bullied by his father.
He is mentored by Ray Cohn and steals his whole act while later disowning his influence.
I am not an expert on Trump's life but the film gives a detailed version of events.
The script is very good.
The acting is very good.
Nearly all the performances are good,Stan's performance as Trump in outstanding.
I don't like to be negative but as a Scotsman I have to say the actress playing Trump's Scottish mother cannot do a Scottish accent.
At some points Mrs Trump sounds Irish,other times she sounds east european.
The film's time period is not always easy to place.
From the great soundtrack it seems to be mid 1970s till 1990s.
The look of the film is great,the garish colours and designs of the 1980s and 1990s.
This is a film worth watching.
McQ (1974)
not as good as Brannigan but still worth a watch.
I have seen this a few times over the years and like it but it is not as good as Brannigan made a year after this film.
MCQ stars John Wayne as a veteran maverick cop in Seattle.
If you like 1970s cop films you should watch this even if you are not a Wayne fan.
If you are a Wayne fan give the horses a rest and watch this.
You could see this as a version of Dirty Harry with a different lead and a different port city location.
The film features then fashionable right wing cynicism,nearly everybody is corrupt,belief in America seems rare and most people grab what they can from society.
The plot seems cliched now but maybe less so when it was made.
It is a well made film full of good locations and lots of action.
Good cast as well,Wayne is convincing as a determined seeker of justice.
Diana Muldaur is great as the wife of a fellow cop.
Seattle looks grimy and gritty in this film.
Ports always good for a bit criminal stuff (I am from Leith)
The Boondock Saints (1999)
I used to like this? not aged well
I remember really liking this when I saw it on the big screen.
I have a dvd I never watch and watched it yesterday on a well produced blu ray.
It seems this film was not shown much due to coming out the same time as the Columbine shootings.
I still enjoyed this film mainly for the performance of W Defoe.
This is set in Boston and is about 2 brothers who become violent vigilantes.
Being Boston they are Irish.
Billy Connolly comedian has a small part in this.
As I said I remember liking this but really there is not a lot to it.
It is violent and very fast moving.
I suppose it came before other similar films but it still feels unoriginal.
I was somewhat disappointed seeing this again.
I remember liking the similar themed Little Odessa which I can't get on dvd.
Brannigan (1975)
actually quite good and a time capsule of London.
This film is often on UK tv.
But it is on one of these channels where they adverts every few minutes and it is hard to get concentrate on the film.
I got a widescreen blu ray and concentrated watching it.
Of course it is a different experience from watching on pan and scan on tv.
I am a John Wayne fan,I offer no apology.
You know what you are getting with JW.
Of course he made too many films and certainly (for me)too many westerns.
If you don't know this film it is a tough London set 1970s crime drama.
I compare it to Get Carter,Villain or the unjustly forgotten Hard Target.
The film stars Wayne of course but Richard Attenborough is great as a Scotland Yard big boss.
The story is not original even for 1975.
Wayne is a US cop who comes to London to collect a mob fugitive.
Must remind us of Coogan's Bluff,a cop out of his usual situation.
The star of this film is in a way London itself.
Commentary on the blu ray I watched joke that it is partly a tourist guide and certainly we see a lot of London in this film.
So if you like tough crime films and/or John Wayne perhaps have another look at this film.
I should say that British police are famously not normally armed but have always had access to firearms when required,especially in London.
Never Let Go (1960)
great forgotten British crime drama
I must have seen this years ago on tv.
But it is a long time since it has been shown.
If I ask myself why it has not been shown I think it is because it is a bleak and violent film.
So got a dvd of this.
This is an amazing film.
Set in London it concerns a struggling salesman (Richard Todd) who hits a patch of bad luck.
He is struggling against younger salesman and his beloved new car is stolen.
He needs the car for his work and it was not insured for theft.
Todd never plays parts like this,a weak guy you feel sorry for but he is great in this.
He is frustrated with the police search for his car and takes matters into his own hands.
He encounters some dodgy characters and gets beaten up.
The violent sadistic crime boss behind the car theft organisation is played by Peter Sellars.
There are no comedy elements to his performance he plays an unhinged sadist very convincingly.
The Sellars character has a teenage mistress played well by Carol White. The scenes between her and Sellars are hard to watch,I think the censor must have fallen asleep because one scene is unbelievable.
This is a violent and noisy film with good performances all round.
It looks great all rain soaked streets and cloudy skies.
If I was listing great British crime films I would list this alongside Payroll,Robbery,Get Carter,Villain and The Long Good Friday.
Forbrydelsen (2007)
very late to this and still skeptical
Of course most people saw and loved this many years ago but here I am watching it in 2024.
I am British and I love a foreign cop drama.
I love Spiral (French) Braquo(French),Wallender (Swedish) and Borgen (Danish).
So I watched all 20 episodes of series one over last few weeks.
I found it a hard watch.
I don't mind subtitles,that was not the issue.
I just felt not much happened in each episodes and that it didn't have to take 20 episodes to tell the story.
I did like it but not as much as many people did when it was on BBC tv years ago.
The story involves the murder of a teenage girl in Copenhagen Capital of Demark.
The background of the story involves an uhappy female cop and an election campaign.
I am sure not speaking Danish a lot of the story is lost by reading subtitles.
This is well acted but grim.
Nobody trusts anybody and nobody is very happy.
There are so many twists to the story I found it hard to keep watching it.
It surprises me how popular this was years ago around the world.
Sambre (2023)
this was great thank you BBC
If you are British like me you might want to check out BBC 4 tv channel on Saturday nights.
Due to government finance cuts BBC4 is mainly a repeat channel nowadays but they still show some great foreign drama like this series.
Based on a true story set in Northern France over a 30 year period.
The story involves a series of rapes of women over a 30 year period.
The 6 episodes give the story from 6 different points of view.
This drama is I have to make clear in French with english subtitles.
The subtitles convey the story well I think.
I found this thing to be well acted and moving.
I like France a lot and have been to the North of the country several times.
But you might feel negative about the country after seeing this because it is a grim story with few heroes.
Le procès Goldman (2023)
interesting French court room period piece
I had to watch this film at a different cinema from my usual one.
I have a cinema season ticket but my chain was not showing this so I had to shell out more to see it.
But the good news was it was worth the hassle.
This film took me back to the 1980s in Edinburgh.
The filmhouse art house cinemas showed new european films and seeing them was a big part of my life. More recently the filmhouse has gone bust because it showed hipster American films and obscure crap.
But back to this film.
It is set in 1976 France.
The trial of a left winger guy who robbed banks and perhaps killed a couple of people.
I had never heard of the guy but it is a true story.
The film is well acted and tense.
Somebody complained on here that it was all talk and it is but I don't see how else you could tell the story.
Some knowledge of French history since 1900 might help understand some of the historical references.
I am glad I saw this film.
There is little on the internet about mr Goldman and his story but it is an interesting tale.
Lee (2023)
saw this twice,enjoyed it more the second time
Some of the reviews of this film are by people who had never heard of Lee Miller before.
I must confess I am a history/World War 2 geek and have read several books about Miller and saw several exhibitions of her work.
This is a good film but the structure of the film means that it takes a while to become interesting.
The film can be enjoyed by someone who knows nothing of Miller's interesting life.
Kate Winslet is totally convincing in the lead role.
At first I thought she was not impressive because she plays such a stiff unemotional character but that is the whole point of the person she is saying.
Alezander Skalsgard plays her lover,later husband.
He is great,handsome and charming.
He was an important figure in British art for most of his life.
This is not really a war film it is more of a biography and a love story.
The film contains several scenes which seem highly unlikely but actually happened.
The film looks good and the performances of all the cast are fine.
Historically I had few issues with it although I doubt anybody said NO PROBLEM in 1944.
One Hand Clapping (1974)
short and only occasionally any good.
I am surprised by the good reviews this short film has received.
It is short about 70 minutes.
Is it really a film? Well no.
It is shot on video and is a self indulgent mess.
I am a 63 year pop and rock music fan and like The Beatles and a lot of Wings music.
I saw this was coming to a local hipster Everyman cinema and went to see it/
17 pounds 60 pence it was not value for money.
It would have been better value if the thing was longer and of more even quality.
I was 13/14 in 1974 and I remember how popular Wings were in the UK then.
They had a string of hit singles and the album Band On The Run was a huge hit and admired by many critics.
So I didn't think going to see this thing was much of a gamble.
Paul Mccartney was one of the most famous people in the world at this period.
The film is a self indulgent exercise in ego massaging from Mr Mccartney.
It was made by his own company and it reminds me of the Magical Mystery Tour,sadly no outsider said look this is not very good,change it.
We get several very good,live in the studio versions of loved Wings songs.
But we also get some 1970s talking nonsense scenes and some parts where people seem to be out of their heads on something.
The is a cringe worthy scene where Paul plays some awful ballads that he wrote when he was 14.
The whole thing is ill advised and fake.
Paul says he likes being in a band and working with other people but he is very much in control.
This thing would be even shorter than it is if it didn't include Paul playing rock and roll classics on an acoustic guitar for 10 minutes.
If you are a huge uncritical Beatles/Paul fan you might love this but for me most of it was sub standard.
It is obvious why it has never been seen anywhere until now.
I compare to the awful Eurythmics documentary Brand New Day which was hardly ever shown.
Nightsleeper (2024)
even if I wasn't a retired Railway person I would still say it is crap
When I was a kid old people used to say newspapers are fine until they write about something you know about.
I worked in the railway industry in the UK for 32 years,retiring last year.
I know a lot about railway operations but there are people even better qualified than me.
I was a supervisor and a train despatcher.
I have travelled on trains including sleepers all over the world
I know this thing is not meant to be a documentary but there must be limits as to how unrealistic something can be.
It worries me that there will be people who worry about travelling by train in the future after watching this.
I was never an actor but I am a huge consumer of tv and film and I don't see any good acting in this.
The script is poor and the plot is silly.
I say that the plot and setting is silly because it is totally unrealistic.
Modern trains have so many safety devices that it amazes me sometimes they ever go anywhere..
The meaning of the term failsafe is lost on the people who made this.
Assuming it is a 9 coach train there would be a driver,a guard and one member of staff per coach.
There would be 2 or 3 staff in the club car.
This drama shows 2 staff not counting the driver
Why do they have so many staff? For emergencies including fires
It would be easy to stop the train,there would be an emergency break button at each end and a passenger communication system in each coach.
If you pull the pass comm it applies the brakes.
The Transport minister is on the train,would she have a armed police officer with her? I don't know perhaps.
Rail operations are controlled by control offices,the guard would liase with them but the guard is in charge of the train.
So there would be more staff than in the story and they would be trained for emergencies.
The average guard would have punched somebody's lights out by the end of the first episode,probably the reporter.
Even as a drama this is a total failure
So all in all a total mess.
The Bikeriders (2023)
I liked it but lacks pace and structure
This film has been reviewed as Goodfellas of the modern age or something like that.
I like this film and plan to see it a few times but it is not a classic I think.
Someone might say I don't get the point of the film,I think I do.
I give no plot spoilers but it is about a biker gang.
It is not exactly sons of anarchy the plot wanders about but comes good at the end.
If you want to see a great film about bikers seek out The Loveless.
Is it possible to make a biker gang film without paying tribute to The Wild One?
I might be being too critical of this film which I did enjoy.
This film looks great,it is a period film but I am not qualified to say if the period details are correct.
The cast is good with several great performances.
I especially like the soundtrack which avoids obvious choices.
It amazes me that films with great soundtracks like Priscilla and The Bikeriders do not have soundtracks I can buy.
So to sum up an interesting and well acted film which I think could do with a better script and structure..
I think the film could have been better.
Remembrance (1982)
finally on blu ray,moving interesting film.seek it out.
British film/tv fan here born in 1960.
In the 1970s I made a point of watching BBC tv Plays For Today.
Britain had 2 tv channels from late 1950s,then BBC2 from mid 1960s and Channel 4 started in the early 1980s.
In the early 1980s I made a point of watch the films on Film Four that were made for film 4.
Watching the Film Four films was not always educational or enjoyable but they were usually worth watching.
I recall seeing this film on Channel 4.
Broadly it is about British sailors shortly before they get sent on a big exercise.
By the time the film came out the Falkands war had started and the film became referred to as a tribute to the Royal Navy.
But after a short big screen release and a showing on tv the film was mainly forgotten.
There is smoking,drinking,sexism and swearing.
This is a film that has become a historical document due to the passage of time.
There are some great music of the period used in the film.
The cast is great,the always underrated Ewan Stewart is in it,Gary Oldman and Tim Spall also star.
The highlight for me is seeing Michelle Winstanley who was a rising actress at this period.
Frankly I always found her very interesting performer.
This film was made 1982,the level of public interest in the Royal Navy would have been low at this time,in 1983 we had the Falklands War and the navy were in the news and were heroes.
In the booklet with the blu ray someone mentions that during research for the film they interviewed serving sailors who explained they joined the navy for a career,it was unlikely they were going to be in a war.
But in 1983 this generation of sailors took part in the Falklands war.
Tomorrow We Live (1942)
tomorrow we watch a better film.
This is a ww2 drama made in 1943.
It is exactly my sort of film but I don't recall seeing it before I bought an expensive remastered blu ray.
I value the fact that I can buy remastered forgotten classics.
The blu ray comes with a 40 page booklet that claims the director is underrated,disagree there is a reason why his films are not well known,they are weak.
I can't buy Operation Secret or Cross Of Lorraine but somebody decided to issue this film? Crazy.
My god I can see why it is never on tv or why I don't remember it.
I am British,my parents used to groan when most British films came on tv when I was a kid.
I thought this was unfair and I love lots of British films from 1940s and 1950s.
But this film was not known to me and I miss I had not bought it without seeing it previously.
I a trying to not be negative but I can't find much to like about this film.
I have a high tolerance for war films but this disappointed me.
Rebus (2024)
this is great and so are the other 2 versions
I am from Edinburgh (EH7 -poor rough bit) and I like this sort of drama.
I love that Rebus books and various tv series show all sides of Edinburgh.
I have often explained to English people that there are very rough areas of Edinburgh and some well off areas of the West of Scotland but the Glasgow cliches live on.
But I am not a huge fan of the books although Ian Rankin seems to be a good person and very intelligent.
So to this latest version of Rebus.
I like all 3 versions that have been on tv so far,think this one is best then Hannah then Stott.
I love Stott in The Vice for example but felt he overacted in his Rebus,but it had great moments.
I give no spoilers but no secret that this Rebus is different from the other 2.
It is written by Gregory Burke a Scottish writer who looked like he was going to be a huge name but faded from view.
Hopefully there will be another series of this and Burke will become a big name again.
Some of the dialogue is brilliant.
I think you can tcompare he evolution of Rebus on tv to the Bond franchise,or to Doctor Who.
They are all the same thing but they evolve over the years,this is like Daniel Craig era Bond.
No plot spoilers but this is very gritty.
There are letters in this week's Radio Times (the main British tv magazine) complaining about the amount of swearing in this,there is a lot of what you could call industrial language but realistically criminals swear in real life.
I love the Edinburgh locations ,I have guessed most of them.
One thing I loved about this was that Caroline Lee-Johnson is in it.
She is a very convincing actress in everything she is in but she has not been in much for years.
In fact the casting and the look of this series are both first class.
The plot is complicated but convincing.
I have little time for people saying that it is not like the books or the other tv versions.
The character has evolved in the books and in any case fans don't own the character and can't dictate what happens to him.
Jack Ryan (2018)
after 4 seasons a little disappointed
No plot spoilers.
I give a general opinion after watching all 4 seasons.
I am a big fan of all the Ryan films,yes even the last one.
So when the tv series came along I was keen to watch it.
It was on one of these annoying overpriced trendy platforms so I had to buy the dvds.
I am British and I am not saying British tv is always great,but this is typical American tv,a bit bland and predictable.
It probably had a huge budget but it nearly always looks uninteresting.
A band from Norway called A-HA had a hit called the sun always shine on tv and that applies to this drama.
I like spy stuff so I did enjoy this but the earlier seasons were better than the final 2.
I was rarely moved or thrilled watching this.
Passage to Marseille (1944)
I like this but it is a crazy film.
This review contains spoilers.
I saw this years ago on tv and I liked it.
I am a Bogart fan but he made some poor films.
This is a good film and finally available on beautiful looking blu ray.
This is a very unrealistic film about Bogart's character a French journalist sent to Devil's Island after being framed.
It is quite political,it shows corrupt pre WW2 France,Bogart is a crusading presumably left wing journalist although this is not spelled out.
Bogart and other inmates escape from Prison to fight for France in WW2.
The film will be of interest to lovers of tough old fashioned Warner brothers films,films with a message.
I think the cast is good and so is the script.
This is an old fashioned macho film,the convicts look like convicts and the fascists (French and German)are the bad guys.
Why do I say it is a crazy film? Because there are scenes in it that are so silly you will laugh out loud but other scenes are moving and emotional.
People are critical of the old studio system but it produced great looking films like this with big sets and proper soundtracks.
Puppet on a Chain (1971)
after a hunt found a dvd but not as good as I recall
I am sure I read the book as a teenager.
The film used to be on tv back when British tv showed a lot of films.
I think this is the weakest film of a Mclean book.
I am surprised so many people here praise it so highly.
I can't see why people like it so much.
Set in Amsterdam this is a crime thriller involving drug smuggling.
The plot is less important than the action.
The film has one good boat chase on the canals.
Sure the makers of Bond saw this scene.
The lead is some Swedish guy who is not very good in the part.
Amsterdam looks ok I suppose.
I am not a huge fan of Amsterdam,full of dodgy people and always cold.
As I said the plot is weak,it is hardly a who dunnit.
I only paid 50 pence (half a pound Sterling) for this and I am glad to add to my Mclean film collection but I didn't enjoy the film much.
I do like The Satan Bug and When 8 bells toll which also obscure films based on Mclean books.
When Eight Bells Toll (1971)
forgotten by many but not by me,check it out.
This film is I think unjustly forgotten and unjustly underrated by reviewers.
I saw this with my family on the big screen when I was 11/12.
I liked it at the time and still like to watch it again.
The film is set on the west coast of Scotland and it looks beautiful.
It is a spy/crime thriller based on an Alistair Mclean book.
Mclean is forgotten or disparaged nowadays but he sold millions of books some which are pretty good (South By Java Head is the best I think.)
People say this is Bond on a budget but I think that is unfair.
A fairly young Anthony Hopkins is a Naval intelligence agent.
I think he is great in this and is handsome.
Corin Redgrave plays another agent and his performance makes me wonder why he was not in more films.
But he had outside interests and perhaps was happy with his career.
This an action filled film which is quite violent.
I understand it was a box office flop or at least a disappointment.
It is a much better film than people suggest and one day it might be discovered by the hipsters and come out on blu ray.
Napoleon (2023)
disappointed maybe blu ray will be better
I was greatly looking forward to seeing this film.
I find after seeing it I am slightly disappointed.
You could say that it is impossible to make a bio pic of Napoleon that does not last 5 hours.
I understand Ridley Scott is planning an extended blu ray version of this like his Days Of Heaven blu ray.
Knowing where to start and finish the story must have been difficult.
Making a historical drama faces the dilemma of guessing how much history the audience know.
Unlike Abel Gance's famous film this film does not cover anything of Napoleon early life.
It covers several incidents of Napoleon's rise to power.
There are a couple of great battle scenes but the film fails to explain how Napoleon rose to supreme power.
Was he,as he always claimed always a supporter of the revolution or was he a opportunist who didn't believe in very much.
The film is worth seeing but for me there is too much of Napoleon's private life.
Bob Marley: One Love (2024)
too safe,too official,little passion for subject.
This review contains spoilers in as much as the film is based on a true story that it does not fully tell.
Many people watching this film will be younger than me (I am 63) and will not be from Britain,so their experience of the film will differ from mine.
My late brother and I were great music fans,teenagers in the 1970s and by 1976 Bob Marley was become famous in Britain,his 1976 live album was a big hit,as was the single from it No Women No Cry.
After 1976 Marley became more and more popular.
The film shows how his dramatic personal story and the Exodus album made him a world superstar.
As I said my brother and I were music fans,Marley fans we saw him at one of the 1977 London shows featured in the film.
So I was looking forward to seeing this film but I was a bit disappointed.
The number of family members involved in producing this film means you hardly see Marley the flawed human.
Even when he was alive the music press hinted he a tough self belief which meant people close to him sometimes suffered.
The film does not address the way that Marley was happy to shape his sound to reach as big an audience as possible.
Marley was a man of the people but he was also a man and his love life seems to have been complicated.
The film does not show what a huge star Marley was by his death,nor does it show how the vast majority of his fans ignored his religious messaging.
Madame Web (2024)
the trend of popular opinion is not always correct
The trend of popular opinion is not always correct.
Do I have to mention nazi Germany or Mr Tarantino or Oasis (British band)?
Ok I am overstating the comparisons but in January 1933 Hitler was a hip guy.
I am a habitual cinema goer.
I go at least one a week so I see a lot of films.
Among the films that are less worthwhile watching in the last 3 years would be Morbius,Thor love and Thunder,the first Wakanda film and Aquaman 2.
Although I am an old guy I like most of the Marvel type films especially the Batman ones.
I honestly think Madame Web is a good film and because I have a cinema season ticket I expect I will watch it twice.
Leaving aside the idea of being in step with the crowd I think I know why people might not like/appreciate this film.
For a film of its kind it actually has a plot which means people should stop playing with their phones and eating crap and actually watch the film.
If you like these sort of films especially if you are a Spiderman person I don't see how you can fail to enjoy this film.
But realistically popular opinion will probably take a while to give a fair opinion of this film,so we probably won't get a sequel.
Allied (2016)
I always liked this film ,hate is unjustified
This is quite an old film now.
So I give spoilers since people have had a few chances to see it by now.
My review is prompted by it being on British tv during the Christmas holidays.
I am someone who has a great interest in WW2 and the SOE/OSS and the French occupation in particular.
Some of the negative reviews focus on the unrealistic nature of the character played by Brad Pitt.
He plays a French Canadian SOE hero.
There were such people,I easily find the names of 6 executed by nazi Germany.
Likewise somebody doubts there are French speakers in Ontario.
Well there are although they are more common in Quebec.
But to the film.
Of course the film is fiction and made by film makers and not historians so aspect of it are unrealistic I am sure.
There are a couple of modern aspects to the story that seem unlikely and a couple of expressions used wrongly.
As a drama/human story I find the film very watchable.
They shoot their Sten Guns correctly (not holding the magazine) a detail I always like to see.
On the blu ray extras someone says the film is a true story told to him by his grand father,but as much as I like the film I doubt it is a true story.
I find the acting fine and the production values high apart from the parachute scene at the start of the film.
Perhaps part of the negative views of the film were due to the publicity for the film being over the top.
Anyway to sum up if you like war films and/or period romances you will like this.
Ferrari (2023)
I was gripped without being a motor racing fan
I compare this film to Priscilla which I also saw recently.
Many of the more negative reviews here and elsewhere must be from motor racing/Ferrari geeks I think.
Priscilla disappoints Elvis fans because they are Elvis fans,perhaps Ferrari disappoints motor racing fans for the same reason.
I found this to be a moving and very watchable film,I didn't know the real historical events at all.
It is also a film about place and time,Italy in the late 1950s.
I hope this film makes loads of money and Mr Mann can make more films.
This is a very well acted film,I am amazed anybody does not like the performances of the lead players.
People might be worried the film is all action but while there are great action sequences it is really about people and their obsessions.