A sort of 'Michael Moore goes to England' documentary about the gradual leaching away of civil rights under Tony Blair. Always interesting and entertaining, and occasionally deeply disturbing. Yet for me it just misses greatness through it's one-sided arguments that sometimes feel a bit forced, without the human voice that Moore puts on his films. The difference between someone blatantly, admitting 'this is my perspective', as a film- maker like Moore does, and this film's pretense at 'objectivity' makes it a bit harder to take, and somehow less affecting than films that are more honest that they are stating (in this case quite effectively) a specific point-of-view. None-the-less, I'd re-watch this, and I'm sure enjoy it again. But here in the States, the 'Daily Show' does it better, and a lot more succinctly.

Chris Atkins Documentary carrys some interesting accounts of the erosion of civil liberty's in great Britain, some of it I've seen before, such as the use of control orders on entirely innocent people and also the banning of protests outside the house of commons, though there is certainly a lot to focus on and even get you angry in certain parts. Taking a Michael Moore esquire approach with the use of archive footage, from silent films and also a cynical yet witty narration (provided by actors David Morrisey and Ashley Jensen), some have described the film as our version of Fahrenheit 9/11, which it is'nt as that film set out to show the incompetence of George W Bush, TAKING LIBERTIES exposes the fundamentally flawed and fear mongering policy of the British government led under Blair, to slowly erode civil liberty's and bring in new laws and change existing laws, that eventually let pensioners on peaceful protests become arrested under the terrorism act, putting them in the same league as Taliban extremists, destroying the right to protest outside of military basis', weapons factory's and the house of commons itself, and causing the police to swoop in vast numbers on anyone even thinking of waving a placard and most disturbingly of all putting control orders on Muslims who have been convicted in a court of law, as innocent and forcing them to remain in a designated area and effectively making them prisoners in there own home. The film approaches this in light hearted at times yet essentially serious manner, and my only criticism of it is that I would have liked to have more views on the other side of the coin, from the politicians who implement these laws, to at least argue there point, though in retrospect, probably no politician would want to appear in front of the camera for this film for fear of embarrassing themselves. Will civil liberty's change under Gordon Brown now that Blair has left, it's hard to tell and if your like me, i'm cynical and think, no, nothing will probably change, if you have a threat of terror, the best way to assure the public is to keep this threat up and then the public will be behind any change in law as long as it stops the extremists from blowing us up (see Adam Curtis' documentary series THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES to get a full picture on the use of terror and fear). Though one thing we can do, and in many respects the one prevailing factor in LIBERTIES is to keep a chin up and laugh at the absurdity of it all.

It had to happen. Noting the success of the Michael Moore anti-Bush polemic 'Fahrenheit 9/11', someone in the U.K. has tried to fashion a similar movie attacking Tony Blair's Labour Government. The trouble is there's not enough evidence to support the extraordinary claims it makes. Yes, the arrest of Maya Evans and Milan Rai for reading out the names of Iraq war victims opposite the Cenotaph in Whitehall was regrettable, as was the detaining of Walter Wolfgang under the terrorism laws for heckling Jack Straw's speech at a Labour conference ( you must remember that the security men were keen to avoid a repeat of the previous year's conference when Blair was heckled by Tory infiltrators ), and Gloucestershire police preventing a bus load of anti-war demonstrators from protesting outside RAF Fairford, but do these and other incidents combined paint a picture of a totalitarian government hellbent on destroying cherished freedoms? No!It is easy to make a film of this kind. You scour the news archive, cherry pick the bits that best serve your agenda, interview malcontents, string them together, overlay ominous sounding narration and music, and hey presto - you've got yourself a conspiracy movie. The only M.P.'s to appear are Boris Johnson, Ken Clarke and Clare Short. Is Chris having a laugh or what?Ask yourself this - if ( as Chris claims ) we really do live in a police state, why hasn't the Government suppressed this film and thrown its creator in jail? No mention of Britain under Thatcher, of course, when trade unions were banned from G.C.H.Q., when police stopped and searched cars during the 1984 Miners' Strike to block pickets from travelling around the country, when the G.L.C. was abolished simply because the P.M. did not like it, when Clive Ponting nearly went to jail for speaking the truth about the sinking of the Belgrano, when Trident protesters at Greenham Common were smeared as Communist sympathisers, when miners were beaten senseless for trying to protect their jobs, when London saw the worst riots in its history thanks to the hated poll tax and when Thames Television lost its franchise because it made a programme - 'Death On The Rock' - the Tory Government did not like. More recently, we have had Section 28. That, Mr.Atkins, was a true police state.When the evidence is not deemed strong enough to support his argument, he brazenly distorts the truth. For instance, he claims Blair has taken away an ancient right to protest near Parliament. That right never existed.Its true that, in the wake of the London bombings, security has had to be tightened up and one expects that. Which is the greater evil - having one's right to demonstrate curtailed or being murdered by fanatics? In all the palaver over identity cards, it seems to have been forgotten that the Tories were once keen on the idea. So come off your hobbyhorse, Chris.There's an interesting documentary to be made about civil liberties, but this is not it. I note that ads have been appearing on pro-fox hunting websites. When it comes out on D.V.D. it should be double billed with Channel 4's 'The Great Global Warming Swindle', another steaming turd-pile of lies and half-truths. If you're thinking of seeing this, don't bother.CODA: Its November 2013, and the Tory-led coalition government has ruled out a full enquiry to the Ed Snowden claims that the N.S.A. have been monitoring U.K. emails and phone calls. "The innocent have nothing to fear!", says foreign secretary William Hague. If Tony Blair had said that when he was P.M., the Murdoch press would have had a field day. Any plans to make 'Taking Liberties 2', Chris?

i have just been to the premiere of 'Taking Liberties' and was both astounded and thoroughly entertained. this film is a documentary about the prolific nature of the statutes that Blair (AKA Bliar)'s government have introduced over the past decade, that not only contradict what Blair promised the British People in his campaign for the Premiership at the 1997 election, but more worryingly, contravene our human rights and our civil liberties. this film is both hilarious and terrifying - the scariest part is that it is all true! the only disappointing thing about this film is that when it is released on June 8th it will only be shown in about 15 cinemas. i know that a lot of cinema goers (me included) will be anxious to see the summer blockbusters that will be released around the same time, but believe me it will be well worth waiting a week, so as to see 'Taking Liberties' instead, not only for your own entertainment and enjoyment but also for the benefit of the rest of the country as the distributors have promised to release this film nationwide if enough people go to see it on the opening weekend.you WILL enjoy this film so please go and see it!