Kingsman: The Golden Circle (Matthew Vaughn, 2017) 7/10
This overlong sequel lacks the surprise element of the original but it has enough cheeky cartoonish moments for a rollicking good time at the movies. Kingsman agent Eggsy (Taron Egerton) is faced with the annihilation of his entire team at the hands of a rogue who was rejected from the service and now working for sweet but evil drugpin Poppy (Julianne Moore) - a relic straight out of the 1950s. For star whores (like me) this film is a treasure trove of new faces along with the old. Colin Firth, who was assumed dead, returns with an eye patch and retrograde amnesia with stiff uppercrust tongue firmly in cheek. Helping the agents is the gung-ho stateside secret service ("Statesman") headed by whiskey salesman Jeff Bridges (looking exactly like Lloyd and doing a take-off on the gruff cowboys he has played), his frontman (Channing Tatum) and computer expert (Halle Berry). Adding fuel to the fire is the Trump-like U.S. President (Bruce Greenwood) at odds with his Chief of Staff (Emily Watson). There are spectacular set pieces scattered throughout - a car chase through the streets of London, a whirling Bond-like alpine fight scene and the delirious final assault on the villain's lair where a kidnapped Elton John sings ("Saturday Night"), fights and shouts hilarious expletives. The film's non-stop hit songs on the soundtrack accompany the outlandish action (CGI galore) with John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" sung during a highly emotional but funny moment. This is an explosive, ultra-violent and darkly humourous adventure film which works mainly because of Egerton and the genius of Firth.
Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
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mother! (Darren Aronofsky, 2017) 2/10
Is this sheer nonsense posing as art? Yes, and pretentious to boot. It crams in a lot of fantastic imagery with a central character who, like Alice in Wonderland, seems to be in a nightmare that starts as a dream and gradually goes for the jugular throwing in everything and the bloody kitchen sink which literally collapses. A woman (Jennifer Lawrence), married to a successful grumpy poet (Javier Bardem) suffering from writer's block, lives in a huge house in the middle of nowhere. While she renovates the house he spends his time moping around. There is an uncomfortable distance between them until a stranger (Ed Harris) arrives at the doorstep and the husband invites him to stay much to the discomfort of his wife. The next day the stranger's wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) appears, also moves in followed by her two sons who get into an altercation with one killing the other. So far the film has been moving at a snail's pace with Pfeiffer providing the film with a little life through her inquisitive and insensitively sharp retorts. The screenplay suddenly jumpstarts to include the man's success with a new book of poetry, the wife's growing pregnancy, followed by hordes of people storming the house with absolute anarchy as part of the menu - a hole in the floor morphs into a bloody vagina, the walls seem to contain something sinister, the crowds inside the house turn violent and it resembles a battlefield with police in riot gear and zombie-like entities reaching out for our heroine who gets ready to give birth to her baby in the midst of all this chaos. Aronofsky appears to have scraped out bits and pieces off far superior films - Polanski's "Repulsion" and "Rosemary's Baby", Hitchcock's "Rebecca", Cukor's "Gaslight", bits from "The Evil Dead" and silly hysteria from assorted films about the apocalypse with religious overtones as characters take on the mantle of Satan, Eve, Cain and Abel and the house begins to depict several levels of hell. Unfortunately the title character is such a boring drip that one fails to muster any sympathy for her and Lawrence is badly miscast floundering about and clearly looking confused while trying to make some sense of the silly story. Bardem underplays when he should have been over-the-top. His part is annoyingly underwritten with Aronofsky concentrating solely on Lawrence whom he puts through the mill by throwing every possible indignity her way - they both became lovers either before, during or after the film was shot. The entire film takes place within the confines of the house and as the story progresses and more and more characters appear crammed within the walls claustrophobia sets in. Matthew Libatique's camera is in constant motion with chaotic scenes of people crowding inside the house making it feel like we are in the trenches of WWI. This is a deeply flawed film which sadly could have been better if only more focus had been given to the erratic plot which has the smell of putrid deja vu. Wonder what David Lynch might have done with this material?
Is this sheer nonsense posing as art? Yes, and pretentious to boot. It crams in a lot of fantastic imagery with a central character who, like Alice in Wonderland, seems to be in a nightmare that starts as a dream and gradually goes for the jugular throwing in everything and the bloody kitchen sink which literally collapses. A woman (Jennifer Lawrence), married to a successful grumpy poet (Javier Bardem) suffering from writer's block, lives in a huge house in the middle of nowhere. While she renovates the house he spends his time moping around. There is an uncomfortable distance between them until a stranger (Ed Harris) arrives at the doorstep and the husband invites him to stay much to the discomfort of his wife. The next day the stranger's wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) appears, also moves in followed by her two sons who get into an altercation with one killing the other. So far the film has been moving at a snail's pace with Pfeiffer providing the film with a little life through her inquisitive and insensitively sharp retorts. The screenplay suddenly jumpstarts to include the man's success with a new book of poetry, the wife's growing pregnancy, followed by hordes of people storming the house with absolute anarchy as part of the menu - a hole in the floor morphs into a bloody vagina, the walls seem to contain something sinister, the crowds inside the house turn violent and it resembles a battlefield with police in riot gear and zombie-like entities reaching out for our heroine who gets ready to give birth to her baby in the midst of all this chaos. Aronofsky appears to have scraped out bits and pieces off far superior films - Polanski's "Repulsion" and "Rosemary's Baby", Hitchcock's "Rebecca", Cukor's "Gaslight", bits from "The Evil Dead" and silly hysteria from assorted films about the apocalypse with religious overtones as characters take on the mantle of Satan, Eve, Cain and Abel and the house begins to depict several levels of hell. Unfortunately the title character is such a boring drip that one fails to muster any sympathy for her and Lawrence is badly miscast floundering about and clearly looking confused while trying to make some sense of the silly story. Bardem underplays when he should have been over-the-top. His part is annoyingly underwritten with Aronofsky concentrating solely on Lawrence whom he puts through the mill by throwing every possible indignity her way - they both became lovers either before, during or after the film was shot. The entire film takes place within the confines of the house and as the story progresses and more and more characters appear crammed within the walls claustrophobia sets in. Matthew Libatique's camera is in constant motion with chaotic scenes of people crowding inside the house making it feel like we are in the trenches of WWI. This is a deeply flawed film which sadly could have been better if only more focus had been given to the erratic plot which has the smell of putrid deja vu. Wonder what David Lynch might have done with this material?
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Princess O'Rourke (Norman Krasna, 1943) 6/10
Ten years before Audrey Hepburn was introduced to the world as an incognito princess in Rome in "Roman Holiday" there was one in New York also played charmingly by Olivia de Havilland. The plot has her interacting and falling in love with a commoner (Robert Cummings). A wonderful supporting cast adds colour - Jack Carson and Jane Wyman as his married friends, Charles Coburn as her lovable uncle and Gladys Cooper as her secretary. Silly fluff which the cast manages to keep afloat. An Oscar winner for Original Screenplay.
Ten years before Audrey Hepburn was introduced to the world as an incognito princess in Rome in "Roman Holiday" there was one in New York also played charmingly by Olivia de Havilland. The plot has her interacting and falling in love with a commoner (Robert Cummings). A wonderful supporting cast adds colour - Jack Carson and Jane Wyman as his married friends, Charles Coburn as her lovable uncle and Gladys Cooper as her secretary. Silly fluff which the cast manages to keep afloat. An Oscar winner for Original Screenplay.
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It (Andy Muschietti, 2017) 8/10
It's incredibly tough being a school kid. And if you happen to be a "loser" - weak, fat, a hypochondriac, black, new kid in town or you stammer - it's double the rough time. Stephen King's mammoth and acclaimed 1986 novel gets a new adaptation, this time for the big screen, in a vastly truncated version which only covers half the book (with a lot of plot points omitted) detailing the section with the kids - a sequel will be made covering the other half with the kids as adults. The premise of the story is deeply unsettling and downright traumatic. A child dies when a mysterious smiling clown chomps up his arm and pulls him into the sewer below a small town. His brother and his six friends - a gang of "losers" - battle the scary being who preys on kids' fears and arrives in town every 27 years to kill children. A horrific battle ensues in the underground sewers as the scared children are confronted by "It" in different forms - a leper, a werewolf, decomposed cadavers, and the smiling evil clown. The unfortunate kids not only have to battle this monster but also "evil" elements in their own homes - a young girl has to ward off her father who has been sexually abusing her and the town bully and his friends repeatedly torment, beat and mutilate the children. A scene which parallel's a young girl's menstruation (shades of "Carrie") evolves into a terrifying scene set in a toilet where blood oozes out of the sink and literally explodes covering the walls and the girl with blood. The violence is unrelenting throughout which usually in a horror film one can bear but here it is directed solely at very small children and each violent act becomes unbearable after a while. The entire cast of young actors is superb and the director has achieved what he set out to do - create a bone chilling horror film which will remain with you and manifest itself through your own nightmares.
It's incredibly tough being a school kid. And if you happen to be a "loser" - weak, fat, a hypochondriac, black, new kid in town or you stammer - it's double the rough time. Stephen King's mammoth and acclaimed 1986 novel gets a new adaptation, this time for the big screen, in a vastly truncated version which only covers half the book (with a lot of plot points omitted) detailing the section with the kids - a sequel will be made covering the other half with the kids as adults. The premise of the story is deeply unsettling and downright traumatic. A child dies when a mysterious smiling clown chomps up his arm and pulls him into the sewer below a small town. His brother and his six friends - a gang of "losers" - battle the scary being who preys on kids' fears and arrives in town every 27 years to kill children. A horrific battle ensues in the underground sewers as the scared children are confronted by "It" in different forms - a leper, a werewolf, decomposed cadavers, and the smiling evil clown. The unfortunate kids not only have to battle this monster but also "evil" elements in their own homes - a young girl has to ward off her father who has been sexually abusing her and the town bully and his friends repeatedly torment, beat and mutilate the children. A scene which parallel's a young girl's menstruation (shades of "Carrie") evolves into a terrifying scene set in a toilet where blood oozes out of the sink and literally explodes covering the walls and the girl with blood. The violence is unrelenting throughout which usually in a horror film one can bear but here it is directed solely at very small children and each violent act becomes unbearable after a while. The entire cast of young actors is superb and the director has achieved what he set out to do - create a bone chilling horror film which will remain with you and manifest itself through your own nightmares.
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The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston, 1950) 10/10
Huston dispensed with his usual all-star cast and came up with this intimate little noir which ended up becoming one of the most influential crime caper thrillers. Everyone from Dassin to Tarantino picked up ideas from this film. An almost documentary-like crime procedural film, this is tautly directed and scripted with marvelously drawn characters - a mild mannered elderly german jailbird (Sam Jaffe) gets out of prison on parole and immediately plans his last jewel robbery and gets together a diverse group of crooks - a crooked lawyer (Louis Calhern) who finances the job, a petty hood (Sterling Hayden) who wants to finance a horse farm with his share of the spoils, a hunchbacked cafe owner (James Whitmore) who is the designated driver and a safecracker (Anthony Caruso). Naturally the plan goes awry and the double crosses begin almost immediately. Adding colour to the proceedings are Jean Hagen as Hayden's sweet moll and a very young Marilyn Monroe as Calhern's innocent mistress. Superbly acted by the entire cast - with Calhern and Hayden especially outstanding -this is a taut and tense drama and a classic of the crime genre. Oscar nominations for Huston's direction, the screenplay, Harold Rosson's starkly lit cinematography and for Sam Jaffe's great performance as the mastermind whose weakness for young girls traps him. Great film.
Huston dispensed with his usual all-star cast and came up with this intimate little noir which ended up becoming one of the most influential crime caper thrillers. Everyone from Dassin to Tarantino picked up ideas from this film. An almost documentary-like crime procedural film, this is tautly directed and scripted with marvelously drawn characters - a mild mannered elderly german jailbird (Sam Jaffe) gets out of prison on parole and immediately plans his last jewel robbery and gets together a diverse group of crooks - a crooked lawyer (Louis Calhern) who finances the job, a petty hood (Sterling Hayden) who wants to finance a horse farm with his share of the spoils, a hunchbacked cafe owner (James Whitmore) who is the designated driver and a safecracker (Anthony Caruso). Naturally the plan goes awry and the double crosses begin almost immediately. Adding colour to the proceedings are Jean Hagen as Hayden's sweet moll and a very young Marilyn Monroe as Calhern's innocent mistress. Superbly acted by the entire cast - with Calhern and Hayden especially outstanding -this is a taut and tense drama and a classic of the crime genre. Oscar nominations for Huston's direction, the screenplay, Harold Rosson's starkly lit cinematography and for Sam Jaffe's great performance as the mastermind whose weakness for young girls traps him. Great film.
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Yanks (John Schlesinger, 1979) 8/10
Overlooked gem has Schlesinger returning to his own country after time spent in Hollywood with a look at WWII on the homefront and the effect the "Yanks" had on the locals in small town Britain. The period is superbly evoked as the two different cultures collide. "They're oversexed, overpaid and over here" was the general consensus on the arriving U.S. troops. The screenplay covers the story of three couples - an army chef (Richard Gere) falling in love with an english rose (Lisa Eicchorn), daughter of a shopkeeper, a married American officer (William Devane) who carries on an affair with the married lady of the manor (Vanessa Redgrave) and a sex starved grunt (Chick Vennera) who has the hots for an equally sex starved bus conductor (Wendy Morgan). The film is full of vivid vignettes set in pubs, at the dance hall where a fight breaks out when a black man dances with a white girl, Gere being invited to Sunday tea at Eichhorn's simple home where her mother (a superb Rachel Roberts) eyes him with a mixture of suspicion and awe. The film shows the drastic rationing the British people had to endure via small gestures on part of the characters. Gere and Eicchorn are both superb and very moving where he represents the American Dream in his thoughts and ideas while she is very provincial in her thinking. This is Richard Gere before he struck it big with "American Gigolo" and he is incredible here. The film harks back to Hollywood epics of the 1940s and concludes with a wonderful scene set at a railway station with departing soldiers and the women left behind. Richard Rodney Bennett's lush score accompanying the moving train, the camera soaring above with Anne Shelton belting "I'll Be Seeing You Again" on the soundtrack is an unforgettably grand finale to what is in fact an intimate little film with a lot of heart.
Overlooked gem has Schlesinger returning to his own country after time spent in Hollywood with a look at WWII on the homefront and the effect the "Yanks" had on the locals in small town Britain. The period is superbly evoked as the two different cultures collide. "They're oversexed, overpaid and over here" was the general consensus on the arriving U.S. troops. The screenplay covers the story of three couples - an army chef (Richard Gere) falling in love with an english rose (Lisa Eicchorn), daughter of a shopkeeper, a married American officer (William Devane) who carries on an affair with the married lady of the manor (Vanessa Redgrave) and a sex starved grunt (Chick Vennera) who has the hots for an equally sex starved bus conductor (Wendy Morgan). The film is full of vivid vignettes set in pubs, at the dance hall where a fight breaks out when a black man dances with a white girl, Gere being invited to Sunday tea at Eichhorn's simple home where her mother (a superb Rachel Roberts) eyes him with a mixture of suspicion and awe. The film shows the drastic rationing the British people had to endure via small gestures on part of the characters. Gere and Eicchorn are both superb and very moving where he represents the American Dream in his thoughts and ideas while she is very provincial in her thinking. This is Richard Gere before he struck it big with "American Gigolo" and he is incredible here. The film harks back to Hollywood epics of the 1940s and concludes with a wonderful scene set at a railway station with departing soldiers and the women left behind. Richard Rodney Bennett's lush score accompanying the moving train, the camera soaring above with Anne Shelton belting "I'll Be Seeing You Again" on the soundtrack is an unforgettably grand finale to what is in fact an intimate little film with a lot of heart.
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Seven Days' Leave (Tim Whelan, 1942) 6/10
Innocuous little musical set during WWII with Victor Mature coming into an inheritance with the stipulation that he marry a woman from a family who have been daggars drawn with his own since the Civil War. Enter Lucille Ball, looking drop dead gorgeous, and amusing sparks fly. Patriotic if rather silly RKO musical with zesty song and dance numbers.
Innocuous little musical set during WWII with Victor Mature coming into an inheritance with the stipulation that he marry a woman from a family who have been daggars drawn with his own since the Civil War. Enter Lucille Ball, looking drop dead gorgeous, and amusing sparks fly. Patriotic if rather silly RKO musical with zesty song and dance numbers.
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Paris brûle-t-il? / Is Paris Burning? (René Clément, 1966) 6/10
Ambitious but extremely erratic and disjointed filming of the book by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre (adapted for the screen by Gore Vidal and Francis Coppola). This extremely long and rambling film is a series of vignettes set in Paris on the verge of liberation by the Allied Forces in 1944. The city is under siege by the Nazis and the Resistance movement is at its peak. General Dietrich von Choltitz (Gert Fröbe) is ordered by Hitler to burn down Paris before the Allied Forces enter the city. He is persuaded by the Swedish Consul (Orson Welles) to instead offer a cease fire as destroying historical buildings of the city would be a sin of epic proportions. The real star of the film is the city itself although the main gimmick is to cram just about every famous french star into the fray playing assorted soldiers or members of the Resistance (Jean-Louis Trintignant, Alain Delon, Jean-Pierre Cassell, Charles Boyer, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Claude Dauphin, Bruno Cremer, Daniel Gélin, Yves Montand, Claude Rich, Michel Piccoli) or briefly glimpsed like Leslie Caron fighting to save her husband and Simone Signoret seen fleetingly in a tavern. American stars appear even more briefly - Kirk Douglas as General Patton and Glenn Ford as General Omar Bradley while George Chakiris, Robert Stack and Anthony Perkins play Allied soldiers. The floodlike flow of action is a mishmash of melodrama totally lacking suspense which is not surprising as adapting the mammoth, sprawling and heavily documented book was quite impossible. However, if viewed as a documentary of historical events about a city under siege this film has a lot to offer and is beautifully photographed in stark black and white. Try and avoid the star gazing and instead concentrate on the city itself.
Ambitious but extremely erratic and disjointed filming of the book by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre (adapted for the screen by Gore Vidal and Francis Coppola). This extremely long and rambling film is a series of vignettes set in Paris on the verge of liberation by the Allied Forces in 1944. The city is under siege by the Nazis and the Resistance movement is at its peak. General Dietrich von Choltitz (Gert Fröbe) is ordered by Hitler to burn down Paris before the Allied Forces enter the city. He is persuaded by the Swedish Consul (Orson Welles) to instead offer a cease fire as destroying historical buildings of the city would be a sin of epic proportions. The real star of the film is the city itself although the main gimmick is to cram just about every famous french star into the fray playing assorted soldiers or members of the Resistance (Jean-Louis Trintignant, Alain Delon, Jean-Pierre Cassell, Charles Boyer, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Claude Dauphin, Bruno Cremer, Daniel Gélin, Yves Montand, Claude Rich, Michel Piccoli) or briefly glimpsed like Leslie Caron fighting to save her husband and Simone Signoret seen fleetingly in a tavern. American stars appear even more briefly - Kirk Douglas as General Patton and Glenn Ford as General Omar Bradley while George Chakiris, Robert Stack and Anthony Perkins play Allied soldiers. The floodlike flow of action is a mishmash of melodrama totally lacking suspense which is not surprising as adapting the mammoth, sprawling and heavily documented book was quite impossible. However, if viewed as a documentary of historical events about a city under siege this film has a lot to offer and is beautifully photographed in stark black and white. Try and avoid the star gazing and instead concentrate on the city itself.
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Backlash (John Sturges, 1956) 5/10
This is basically a thriller set within the Western genre and has Widmark investigating the death of his father and the theft of $60,000. Joining him on this quest is Donna Reed whose husband was also killed during that mysterious ambush by Apaches. Beautifully shot in colour the film is mainly a hybrid Western talkfest with an intense Widmark creating sparks with Reed.
This is basically a thriller set within the Western genre and has Widmark investigating the death of his father and the theft of $60,000. Joining him on this quest is Donna Reed whose husband was also killed during that mysterious ambush by Apaches. Beautifully shot in colour the film is mainly a hybrid Western talkfest with an intense Widmark creating sparks with Reed.
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Daisy Kenyon (Otto Preminger, 1947) 9/10
A rare Joan Crawford film where not only is she the most intelligent character but also appears very human. In fact everyone appears very civilised despite the heavy emotions involved. Paired opposite two very unlikely co-stars - Dana Andrews as the married man she is having an affair with and Henry Fonda (in a very tongue-in-cheek performance) as the disturbed war vet she starts seeing when she realises her affair is basically at a dead end as Andrews is unwilling to leave his wife (Ruth Warrick) and kids (Peggy Ann Garner & Connie Marshall). The love triangle moves realistically showing genuine problems that are faced by humans in such situations. Preminger's astute direction with a sharp eye for character, a screenplay that touches on various themes including child abuse and superbly shot sequences - the nightmare sequence is beautifully photographed by Leon Shamroy and acted by Fonda - all combine to make this a superior soap opera with nour overtones. David Raksin's swooning but nightmarish score creates just the right mood for this melodrama enhancing Crawford's intense performance.
A rare Joan Crawford film where not only is she the most intelligent character but also appears very human. In fact everyone appears very civilised despite the heavy emotions involved. Paired opposite two very unlikely co-stars - Dana Andrews as the married man she is having an affair with and Henry Fonda (in a very tongue-in-cheek performance) as the disturbed war vet she starts seeing when she realises her affair is basically at a dead end as Andrews is unwilling to leave his wife (Ruth Warrick) and kids (Peggy Ann Garner & Connie Marshall). The love triangle moves realistically showing genuine problems that are faced by humans in such situations. Preminger's astute direction with a sharp eye for character, a screenplay that touches on various themes including child abuse and superbly shot sequences - the nightmare sequence is beautifully photographed by Leon Shamroy and acted by Fonda - all combine to make this a superior soap opera with nour overtones. David Raksin's swooning but nightmarish score creates just the right mood for this melodrama enhancing Crawford's intense performance.
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The Natural (Barry Levinson, 1984) 6/10
Levinson's film adaptation (written by Robert Towne with a different ending to the book) of Bernard Malamud's acclaimed novel is an ode to the then "golden boy" of cinema - Robert Redford - who plays Roy Hobbs the rookie baseball player, a "natural", who gets shot by a showgirl just when his passion for the sport is at it's start and then makes a comeback years later. This whole production - a fairy tale - bows down to the star who is presented as some etherial mythical demi-god. Caleb Deschanel, the cinematographer, bathes the entire film in hues of gold and brown with the star often in shadows - the filters try to make 48 year old Redford look 34. He is surrounded by an incredible supporting cast - Robert Duvall as a slimy journalist, Wilford Brimley as the baseball team's manager, Darren McGavin as a morally corrupt bookie betting against him, Jo Don Baker as the hotshot player he supplants, Robert Prosky as the team's owner and Richard Farnsworth as the team coach. The rookie's downfall is his attraction to women and he has three in his life - the childhood sweetheart (Glenn Close who was nominated for an Oscar) who waits patiently for him, the mysterious showgirl (Barbara Hershey) who shoots him and then commits suicide and his unhappy main love interest (Kim Basinger) who leads him on. This old fashioned film captures the spirit of the sport - the rousing Randy Newman score soars with every ball that is hit out of the park - along with enshrining a movie star who is a throwback to stars from the Golden age of Hollywood.
Levinson's film adaptation (written by Robert Towne with a different ending to the book) of Bernard Malamud's acclaimed novel is an ode to the then "golden boy" of cinema - Robert Redford - who plays Roy Hobbs the rookie baseball player, a "natural", who gets shot by a showgirl just when his passion for the sport is at it's start and then makes a comeback years later. This whole production - a fairy tale - bows down to the star who is presented as some etherial mythical demi-god. Caleb Deschanel, the cinematographer, bathes the entire film in hues of gold and brown with the star often in shadows - the filters try to make 48 year old Redford look 34. He is surrounded by an incredible supporting cast - Robert Duvall as a slimy journalist, Wilford Brimley as the baseball team's manager, Darren McGavin as a morally corrupt bookie betting against him, Jo Don Baker as the hotshot player he supplants, Robert Prosky as the team's owner and Richard Farnsworth as the team coach. The rookie's downfall is his attraction to women and he has three in his life - the childhood sweetheart (Glenn Close who was nominated for an Oscar) who waits patiently for him, the mysterious showgirl (Barbara Hershey) who shoots him and then commits suicide and his unhappy main love interest (Kim Basinger) who leads him on. This old fashioned film captures the spirit of the sport - the rousing Randy Newman score soars with every ball that is hit out of the park - along with enshrining a movie star who is a throwback to stars from the Golden age of Hollywood.
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Maggie's Plan (Rebecca Miller, 2015) 8/10
Miller's film has a Woody Allen vibe to it and Greta Gerwig, although certainly not "Annie Hall", plays Maggie, a quirky control freak whose rapid fire delivery is reminiscent of eccentric women in screwball comedies. Obsessed with wanting to have a baby she meets a professor (Ethan Hawke) and finds herself, three years on, married to him with that baby but unfortunately unhappy with her life. A woman who thinks she is in control of her life discovers that things don't quite work out as planned. So she decides to pair her husband up with his ex-wife (Julianne Moore, who is an absolute scream speaking in a hybrid German-Danish-Austrian accent). The lovely screenplay creates a charming role for Gerwig, who has never been better despite once again playing an insecure brainy New Yorker (the female version of Woody Allen?), and has the jaunty repartee and New York setting reminiscent of both Allen and Noah Baumbach. Breezy little gem.
Miller's film has a Woody Allen vibe to it and Greta Gerwig, although certainly not "Annie Hall", plays Maggie, a quirky control freak whose rapid fire delivery is reminiscent of eccentric women in screwball comedies. Obsessed with wanting to have a baby she meets a professor (Ethan Hawke) and finds herself, three years on, married to him with that baby but unfortunately unhappy with her life. A woman who thinks she is in control of her life discovers that things don't quite work out as planned. So she decides to pair her husband up with his ex-wife (Julianne Moore, who is an absolute scream speaking in a hybrid German-Danish-Austrian accent). The lovely screenplay creates a charming role for Gerwig, who has never been better despite once again playing an insecure brainy New Yorker (the female version of Woody Allen?), and has the jaunty repartee and New York setting reminiscent of both Allen and Noah Baumbach. Breezy little gem.
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Ten Little Indians (Peter Collinson, 1974) 8/10
Fascinating production of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None", filmed in Iran and starring an international cast representing the different countries which funded the film - Britain (Sir Richard Attenborough & Oliver Reed), Germany (Gërt Frobe & Elke Sommer), France (Charles Aznavour & Stéphane Audran), Italy (Adolfo Celi), Spain (Alberto de Mendoza) and rounding out the cast were Czech Herbert Lom and Austrian Maria Rohm (married to one of the principal producers). The familiar story has ten strangers who are invited to a remote location and accused, via a recording voiced here by Orson Welles, of having committed crimes. Then one by one each is killed off by an unseen murderer. The film is heavily influenced by the Italian gialo genre in the gruesome way each victim dies. Filmed at the famous Shah Abbas Hotel in Isfahan, the huge baroque structure takes on the role of a character as the camera swirls through the vast rooms and corridors. The ominous wailing music is by Bruno Nicolai and the cinematography by Fernando Arribas both veterans of various classic gialos. This film is a forgotten gem and was part of a series of Christie novels that were filmed during the 1970s although this version flopped or barely got a release. Not to be missed.
Fascinating production of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None", filmed in Iran and starring an international cast representing the different countries which funded the film - Britain (Sir Richard Attenborough & Oliver Reed), Germany (Gërt Frobe & Elke Sommer), France (Charles Aznavour & Stéphane Audran), Italy (Adolfo Celi), Spain (Alberto de Mendoza) and rounding out the cast were Czech Herbert Lom and Austrian Maria Rohm (married to one of the principal producers). The familiar story has ten strangers who are invited to a remote location and accused, via a recording voiced here by Orson Welles, of having committed crimes. Then one by one each is killed off by an unseen murderer. The film is heavily influenced by the Italian gialo genre in the gruesome way each victim dies. Filmed at the famous Shah Abbas Hotel in Isfahan, the huge baroque structure takes on the role of a character as the camera swirls through the vast rooms and corridors. The ominous wailing music is by Bruno Nicolai and the cinematography by Fernando Arribas both veterans of various classic gialos. This film is a forgotten gem and was part of a series of Christie novels that were filmed during the 1970s although this version flopped or barely got a release. Not to be missed.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (Joachim Rønning & Espen Sandberg, 2017) 2/10
Another loud, obnoxious and totally unnecessary fifth installment in the adventures of pirate Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) who joins forces with the young son of Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Kightley) - both stars appear in cameos - to search for Poseidon's trident which has the power to undo bad spells or some such nonsense. Chasing them across oceans are slimy Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and a dastardly ghost - Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) - and his band of ghostly cutthroats. The film is like a cartoon with non-stop action that refuses to let up as men are hanged, stabbed and shot at. The plot also manages to throw in 3 ghost sharks (as maybe an homage to Jaws IV?). Depp repeats his by now very tired act of the seemingly stoned pirate constantly rolling his eyes. They desperately need to flush this franchise down the toilet but apparently the studio has greenlit a sixth installment. The only thing going for this crappy film are it's visual and makeup effects.
Another loud, obnoxious and totally unnecessary fifth installment in the adventures of pirate Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) who joins forces with the young son of Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Kightley) - both stars appear in cameos - to search for Poseidon's trident which has the power to undo bad spells or some such nonsense. Chasing them across oceans are slimy Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and a dastardly ghost - Captain Salazar (Javier Bardem) - and his band of ghostly cutthroats. The film is like a cartoon with non-stop action that refuses to let up as men are hanged, stabbed and shot at. The plot also manages to throw in 3 ghost sharks (as maybe an homage to Jaws IV?). Depp repeats his by now very tired act of the seemingly stoned pirate constantly rolling his eyes. They desperately need to flush this franchise down the toilet but apparently the studio has greenlit a sixth installment. The only thing going for this crappy film are it's visual and makeup effects.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
The Hero (Brett Haley, 2017) 5/10
This rather innocuous little film is a charming celebration of Sam Elliott and his whiskey soaked voice. The actor is getting a late career resurgence as a lead in films and is quietly magnificent. The conventional screenplay is well-worn and familiar - a has-been elderly actor, long out of commission, whiles away his time doing voice commercials, smoking pot with a former co-star, has an easy going relationship with his ex-wife (Katharine Ross), has neglected his daughter and is in a relationship with a much younger woman. When he discovers he has cancer he tries to figure out which way his life should move. The film is a loving ode to Sam Elliott whose calm demeanor, laconic wit, masculinity and old fashioned romanticsm come through in his relaxed performance. Watch this for him and see an old pro create magic on screen even if the story falters.
This rather innocuous little film is a charming celebration of Sam Elliott and his whiskey soaked voice. The actor is getting a late career resurgence as a lead in films and is quietly magnificent. The conventional screenplay is well-worn and familiar - a has-been elderly actor, long out of commission, whiles away his time doing voice commercials, smoking pot with a former co-star, has an easy going relationship with his ex-wife (Katharine Ross), has neglected his daughter and is in a relationship with a much younger woman. When he discovers he has cancer he tries to figure out which way his life should move. The film is a loving ode to Sam Elliott whose calm demeanor, laconic wit, masculinity and old fashioned romanticsm come through in his relaxed performance. Watch this for him and see an old pro create magic on screen even if the story falters.