To be honest I'm not a big fan of this genere (with a few exeptions) since they rely too much on CGI. But a movie should be judged by to what extent it manages to be what it wants to be, and I think this one succeeds. A big plus for Chris Hemsworth who dares to portray Thor as a fat drunk )
He is picked up in a Tönsberg that looks like it's in Scotland or Iceland, but gets full marks for wearing a knitted cardigan that's 100% Norwegian. I don't have one myself, but many of my friends do.
What I don't like so much is Tarantino's tendency to include extremely violent scenes and make them in a way that funny. I know his stories are about movies are about movies and not life, but I still often find it jarring. I felt the most violent scenes don't really fit the rest of the movie and it would be a even better film if he changed the most gory scenes.
Agree. I do quite like his films (Kill Bill and Inglorious Basterds especially) but the level of extreme violence and gore he insists on including, don't sit well with me and detract from my complete enjoyment of his films. Just seems OTT to shock for the sake of it.
A succinct review, I didn't get time to bang on about this film. In fairness, I didn't 'get' the ending which has a twist of sorts, which I don't want to get into. Suffice to say Once Upon A Time... is the way you start a fairytale, and you get two kinds, the nasty Grimm fairytale and the Happy Ever After kind.
The film is a bit of a shaggy dog story and only after did I realise it's supposed to be.
But yeah, it's like in too many recent films QT suddenly says, you know, I've done the set-up and I've got you going - now I'm just going to trash it all and be damned, take it where I want! Have a laugh with it, after all, it's my ball and I can do what I want with it!
The Liquidator (1965/66--I've heard both given as its year of release), based on the first of John Gardner's Boysie Oakes novels. Rod Taylor is pretty good as the cowardly hero, and there's a fine supporting cast of Trevor Howard, David Tomlinson, and Jill St. John in her pre-Bond girl days. There's good stuff here, but I found it kind of poky and honestly I couldn't tell if it was trying to parody Bond or be a serious Bond-style thriller (there's even a pre-title sequence and a [bad] title song crooned out by Shirley Bassey). Another weird element: the American St. John tries her hand at an English accent, but the Australian Taylor puts on an accent that is. . .American-ish? Anyway, two and a half stars, if I'd be rating it.
My best friend bought us tickets to go see this classic on the big screen. It had been newly restored, and looked fantastic. Before the film proper, we were treated to film of a zither player explaining the technicalities of the instrument and the score and afterwards to a filmed interview with one of the last surviving crew members (Angela Allen). All fascinating.
The movie itself was as good as it has always been. Iconic cinematography, classic story, that wonderful music, and the timeless performances from Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli (heartbreaking), Trevor Howard, and some chap named Orson Welles. Film noir done British style. The war-ruined city of Vienna is the backdrop and provides much of the atmosphere.
Our first "M" Bernard Lee had a substantial supporting part, and future Minister of Defence Geoffrey Keen a one or two line bit. Guy Hamilton was assistant director (and doubled for Welles in some scenes). John Glen (uncredited) worked on the film too, I think it was his first, hence the references in TLD (the balloons, the Ferris wheel).
Eh? Did you come down to London to see that Barbel, or catch a showing in Scotland? The London one was a month ago!
I saw the one in London Piccadilly, film author Matthew Sweet introduced it. Yes, plenty of Bond references as you've pointed out. Excellent stuff, though it wasn't a Q&Q with questions from the audience. I would have asked if anything was left on the cutting room floor, or how it compared to other Greene movies. Two endings he didn't come up with: this one, and the final scene of Brighton Rock which takes the ending and turns it on its head with quite affecting ingenuity.
That zither went on a bit beforehand! I rushed my 90-year-old Dad to get to the opening, only we had to sit thru that!
Hi NP, it was at the GFT (Glasgow Film Theatre) on Sunday. The zither player, Matthew Sweet, etc, were all on film both before and after the main feature as said above.
A tragi-farce from Chris Morris, in which Moses Al-Shabazz, a hapless and mentally unstable (but ultimately harmless) Miami street preacher/urban farmer, is targeted by unscrupulous FBI agents as an easy mark for a domestic terrorism arrest, if only they can entrap him into doing something incriminating.
I was unfamiliar with Morris before seeing this; those of you in the UK probably know him better than I do, as he's had a long career as a radio and TV satirist. His previous film, Four Lions, about a group of inept UK jihadis, seems to be well-regarded (I've not seen it).
The Day Shall Come plays like an absurdist farce for most of the time, before shifting into a real tragedy late on. Tonally, it's very much like The Death of Stalin, not surprising given that Morris has long collaborated with Armando Ianucci, who made that film. The Death of Stalin was my favorite movie from 2018, and while this one isn't as good, it definitely kept my attention throughout. Marchánt Davis (also completely new to me) is superb as Moses, and the main FBI goofballs are played by the ever-reliable Anna Kendrick and Denis O'Hare.
All in all, I recommend this to anyone who can find it. You'll laugh at the absurdity, but the farce contains a deeper warning that is anything but absurd.
One shouldn't critique something which is really only a decent inflight movie, as you probably know it's about a struggling musician who has a bike accident during a worldwide blackout and upon awaking from a coma finds that only he knows who The Beatles are, to the rest of the world they never happened. So he sets about pilfering their songs for his own benefit.
The main problem with this conceit, of course, is that the Beatles' songs really were ruddy awful.
When he starts up playing Yesterday, saying a great guitar deserves a great song, and his mates start to choke up and cry, asking who wrote it... sounds like they're just sucking up to Macca. It's a nursery school tune with greeting card lyrics.
Now before the likes of Loeffs start to pm Barbel to wonder what someone has done with NP and should the police get involved, before realising the new NP might well be an improvement on the old one and maybe even likes Daniel Craig as Bond, I should say I am half-trolling here and am about to post my rave review of With The Beatles on the Vinyl thread, mark you I'd only recommend it on mono vinyl on the yellow Parlophone label and not on CD or iTunes or anything.
Now Yesterday may have been covered more than any song in history but if that's true, how come none of the other covers are any good? Matt Monroe's version is awful, unlistenable. I'v got Monroe's Greatest Hits and you have Born Free, Softly As I Leave You, FRWL, On Days Like These and Walk Away, all classics, then he does this and it's drek.
The record of Yesterday is brilliant. But it's got to be The Beatles, so sung and played by Macca and arranged by George Martin.
This applies to a great many Beatle classics, with few exceptions.
Ironically, the song in this film that works best is the playout, Obla-di Obla dah, and that's not seen as one of their best. But it is foolproof, as a band called Marmalade took it into the Top 5. There are others like that... Do You Want to Know A Secret got covered and was a hit, and Mary Hopkins Goodbye - a Macca tune - is also lovely.
But stuff like Hey Jude or Something - I never warmed to versions by Shirley Bassey.
Ironically some of the Beatles' solo output might translate better. Band on the Run is by any reckoning a great song. Happy Xmas War is Over also works well in any hands and so would Harrison's All Things Must Pass. The film doesn't really touch on this.
Still you don't really see a film like this to have these questions raised.
Richard Curtis films need a great lead such as Hugh Grant; Four Weddings originally cast Alan Rickman I understand but just as Grant would not have been good as Hans Gruber going after John McClane, I can't see Rickman working in this role!
The lead in this Himesh Patel is okay but not excellent, I suppose as he's Asian I'm in dodgy ground when I say he wears the harassed expression of the Indian guy in The Big Bang Theory, he actually seems to have more star power with his beard at the beginning of the film, where he seems to have more of the Russell Brand manner about him. That said, it's a boon to have an Asian in a film who is pushing 30 and a bit of a loser and don't have his parents bearing down on him saying why can't you be a doctor or a lawyer - it breaks that stereotype and it does have a surprisingly positive social effect to have an Asian as a lead in a film like this rather than as the sidekick.
Ed Sheeran is in it a lot and does well, no duff acting at all. In another film he'd turn out to be a jealous character or something, to send himself up, but it's not that kind of movie - it's not Paul Simon in Annie Hall, or Ricky Gervais' Extras, and maybe just as well.
Would-be Bond director Danny Boyle directed; it's okay and serviceable but no Bond fan watching will think they missed out on anything special on this basis.
Joker. It's been a long time since a film has left me with such mixed emotions. As I sat in the theater watching it I often felt uncomfortable. . .as one critic said, this is a movie where a mentally unbalanced loser turns into a serial killer. It's not pleasant watching: the killings are graphic and brutal, with none of the comic book over-the-topness that reminds you that this is just a movie. Still, I found a lot to admire: Joaquin Phoenix is damned brilliant in the part, and you can't help but be fascinated by his performance. The production design is also incredible, invoking Scorsese films like Taxi Driver and evoking the ethos of a lot of 1970s films that the city is just a metaphor for hell. And certainly the filmmakers strive for relevance: I halfway expected to see that the script was written by Democratic presidential aspirants Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, as the film shows Gotham City as a place where the poor and lower-middle class are routinely brutalized by the rich elite. Thomas Wayne--a sainted figure in the comic book, as he's a multimillionaire who chooses to practice medicine and devote a lot of his time and money to the poor--is here a cold and indifferent plutocrat who lives on a gated estate and narcissistically believes he's Gotham's "savior." And Joker's first victim--the death of whom turns the J-man into a folk hero--is a Wall Street type played by an actor who is a dead (no pun intended) ringer for Donald Trump Jr., even down to the hairstyle. So, anyway, do I recommend Joker? Dunno. This is one you just have to see for yourself and make up your own mind.
Vox clamantis in deserto
BIG TAMWrexham, North Wales, UK.Posts: 773MI6 Agent
JOKER: Quite simply, fantastic. From the opening 1970s Warner Bros logo it doesn't put a foot wrong. Set in 1981, Arthur Fleck's essentially a kindhearted soul but one of life's failures. Forced into psychosis by a cruel turn of events & a society that doesn't give a damn about a fragile state of mind. Unable to hold down a proper job due to a Tourettes-style laugh he literally plays the clown to make ends meet. Living with his doting mother doesn't help & he continually flits between blissful fantasy & brutal reality. A set of circumstances cause him to be fired & a downward spiral propels him into a world of vengeful violence. There are more violent films but its intensity makes the violence more shocking. The film creeps up on you & gets under your skin. It takes its time. A blessing in this age of breakneck pace. Yes, it's unrelentingly grim but with a vice-like grip that doesn't let go. The film pays homage to many past classics, visually & thematically: DEATH WISH (1974), ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975), NETWORK (1976), TAXI DRIVER (1976), THE KING OF COMEDY (1982), MANHUNTER (1986), HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER (1991), THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991), FALLING DOWN (1993), SE7EN (1995) & FIGHT CLUB (1999) to name a handful. But it never feels like pastiche. This is very much its own film. In the title role an emaciated Joaquin Phoenix is magnificent. He moves from sympathy to hostility in a heartbeat & you're continuously tripped up as whether to like or loathe him. Fabulous soundtrack too made up of Bernard Herrmann style thrumming cellos (a la PSYCHO) & a spattering of well chosen tunes (to wit THAT'S LIFE, WHITE ROOM & ROCK & ROLL PART 2). I don't go to the cinema as much as I used to, or as much as I'd like to. There seem to be one too many blockbusters offset by a slew of worthy Oscar bait (which in their own way are equally formulaic). Texture has gone as studios play it safe to guarantee box office receipts. TV's taking over as the place for diversity. So I cling to a film like JOKER which bucks the trend of formula cinema. It gives me hope that my kind of cinema isn't entirely dead. Next up, Martin Scorsese's THE IRISHMAN this coming Sunday. I cannot wait.
I watched live and let die for a second time and I enjoyed it a lot more than my first time around. It was a bit of a jarring introduction to Moore the first time I saw it but the second time it was a really fun ride that had me laughing out loud.
I saw LTK on Friday and I think I haven't enjoyed it this much since I first watched it in the cinema. The film is perfectly tailored for Dalton, the plot is tight and very strong, there are many really good stunts, it feautures one of the best villans in the series, the girls are some of the better ones (perhaps not when it comes top physical beauty, but personality and story), Otomi is actually areally good location, David Hedison was the best Leiter before Jeffrey Wright and Q gets to go out in the field!
There are Things that should have been fixed, but they are mainly tweeks. The bigger changes I would have liked is rewriting the final telephone call with Felix and moving bar fight where Bond picks up Pam from Bimini to Thailand or Cambodia. It would be a night scene, so it wouldn't cost much. I never minded the "ninjas" and the winking fish.
In my current opinion LTK is the best Bond film of the 1980's.
Horror Express :
Peter Cushing Christopher Lee and Telly Savalas all stuck on a train with an evil alien killing
all round the place. Fun 70s horror film. I love the line at one point when Cushing and Lee
are being questioned about how they could be the evil killer, to which Cushing replies something
like " Don't be ridiculous We're British "
"I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
This fine 1930s film is the sort of thing they never, ever show on television anymore. It stars child star Freddie Bartholomew - who was probably up there with Shirley Temple in his day - taking top billing over Spencer Tracy. FB plays a spoilt, arrogant brat at a public school (private school if you're American) - sort of think Stewie from Family Guy without the wit or underlying decency and you're half-way there - who knows his largely absent tycoon Dad can buy up the school several times over. Matters come to ahead and on a swanky cruise ship events conspire so that the young brat winds up on a fishing trawler where he is taught humility and how to be a man - by Spencer Tracy.
It's a bit of a choker all round, the way it plays out, and there's some excellent footage of life at sea for the era, with a fine supporting cast too.
Bartholomew was also in the equally excellent Lloyds of London, where in that he took top billing over the up and coming Tyrone Power. That's also never ever shown on telly - I had to get that on DVD, too.
On the other hand, London Live was showing an early 1970s comedy called Au Pair at around midnight last night, so dreadful you'd imagine an original print and all copies could be better used as part of a landfill, or propping up a flyover.
Flashily directed by Sidney Lumet not dissimilar to The Ipcress File; this 1966 film has the same world of British betrayal and if there's a whiff of Smiley about it, there's a reason for that. It promises to be more depressing than Ipcress, as it stars a middle-aged James Mason rather than the funny and cool Michael Caine.
So it's based on a novel by John Le Carre and as there are series and new films by him out and in the pipeline, and a new novel out v shortly, you have to think, just how long has this guy been going? -{ It's as if Ian Fleming who died in 1964 was still alive and knocking out novels until 2010... That brings you up short.
I saw A Lot of movies that had it coming on my hard drive for the first time after I moved, I'll give my impressions in a few sentences.
Five Easy Pieces (1970)
Not sure if I get the point of the movie; he never changes? What he did in the past he'll keep doing, again and again till the end of time? Honestly, the ending left me mad as to what I'd just seen. It left me blue.
Groundhog Day (1993)
So specifically awesome. The definition of character development ?:) but still, it remains a writing masterpiece if not for how you can write a day and leave the rest up to what you'd want it to be. It must've been really fun to make.
Network (1976) "You have interfered with the primal forces of nature, Mr Beale"
Honestly, Better Call Saul had me watch this as that's where it found itself in the list™ and I'll just as honestly say I was impressed. Both this and Groundhog should be considered adventure movies because of the way they're written.
I was in blind and it hit me. Really good movie.
Pretty Woman (1990) Isn't It Romantic lead me to this one and I'm ashamed to say I'd never seen it fully. And well, I know have a thing for Vivian...and I have been where Vivian found herself without the happy ending. The setting, the colors, the lines, the Esprit, George Constanza getting punched. Enjoyed myself way more than I thought I would. It's a classic and no rom com can top it.
Rebel Without A Cause (1955)
Such a shame. SUCH A SHAME.
Other than that, it's Rebel Without A Cause, what is there to say. It defined 50s teen culture as much as Season 1 and 2 of Miami Vice defined the 80s.
El Camino (2019)
No, you can't watch it if you've not seen Breaking Bad (which I binge watched in the summer for the first time). No, I'm not blue because of it . Goddammit Vince, you've done it again.
Now on to the latter part, of movies I'd seen before but wanted to rewatch.
Scarface (1983)
As much as the lines crack me up, I couldn't help thinking that it was never meant to last for Montana. Not because of what happened like it did for Ace in Casino but because of the choices he made and because he was Tony.
I used to think that after the "Push It To The Limit" sequence it could be a happy ending. Turn off the movie and boom, you get what you want out of it.
But here, it's different now. Elvira was never the right girl because of what he wanted and because she was a junkie and because she didn't have the brains like Ginger did. Manny would die because he'd fall for Gina and Tony can't help himself but if he dies he needs him and his empire would crumble, because Manny was the thing that kept him on a leash and no matter how good of a business man he is while negotiating, he can't fit in because he can't help his greed.
It's not about the 1500 dollars. He would've been arrested any way. It's about his greed. What makes him, him.
As much as a good job they made for Ginger to be the best hustler out there in Casino, they did for Tony in Scarface to not fit in to the world. The little details like eating the lemon from a bowl where you're just meant to wash your hands.
Some might say, well duh. Didn't you realise it? I guess not. I wanted to watch Scarface again oddly because of an idea I have and because of Breaking Bad.
I can never come away disappointed from it.
Say hello to my little friend if you read through these all. Jesus christ.
This movie focuses on the dramatic relationship between Mary Stuart (Saoirse Ronan) and Elizabeth I of England while they were both reigning queens. This power struggle has been filmed before, but it's the first time I've seen it from both perspectives in the same film. The two women never met in real life, but here we see a fictional meeting written for dramatical purposes, and it really works. It works because of good writing and really good acting. This goes for the whole film, and I also like the filming and design. What I don't like is that this film is too PC. It's hinted that the two women could have made peace between the two countries and with each other if only all those power-hungry men hadn't meddled, forgetting that the two women probably wouldn't have gained so much power without being hungry for power themselves. The second problem is PC casting, what you may call "brown-washing". A black actor plays an English lord and an Asian actress plays one of Elizabeth's ladies in waiting. This would never happen in the Britain of that time. I'm all for casting non-white actors in parts we don't normally see them in, but not when it's obviously unhistoric to the point where it takes you out of the movie.
BIG TAMWrexham, North Wales, UK.Posts: 773MI6 Agent
THE IRISHMAN
Went to see this on Sunday night as part of a national live link to the last night of the BFI London Film Festival.
A superb film that may well be the last word in organised crime, at least from this group of Mafiosi titans. Interestingly it bears the book's title I HEARD YOU PAINT HOUSES as its opening title card. THE IRISHMAN doesn't appear until the end credits. It follows the template we've come to expect from Martin Scorsese: flashbacks & flash-forwards, freeze frames, slow motion, voice-over, etc but there's a leisurely quality that sets it apart from his previous mob movies. Scorsese's usual visual gimmicks settle into a more stately form of visual storytelling as the characters age. It's a neat trick to show the director's own passing of time. But this isn't a slow-paced bum-numbing ordeal. Far from it. The three & a half hour running time whizzes by but never feels exhausting.
The first half-hour is in more familiar GOODFELLAS territory as we chart Robert De Niro's career from truck driver to contract killer. A lot of info's packed into this section as familiar sights of overweight mobsters & their equally obese Cadillacs fill the screen. The usual 'bad-a-bing' wit is also present & correct. Mob bosses whisper in booths & both Joe Pesci & Harvey Keitel sizzle as made men. Keitel's role is little more than a cameo but Pesci dominates as a totally different incarnation of ruthlessness. Quiet & articulate (almost avuncular), Pesci is far removed from his two previous Mafia psychos. Even the swearing is pared back to a minimum. But in a way he's more frightening. This man gives orders to kill with a smile & a shrug. De Niro's the film's glue. Largely impassive, it's his voice that steers the narrative from his opening retirement home shot.
About forty minutes in Al Pacino's force of nature, Jimmy Hoffa enters the fray & the film ratchets up a gear. It's at this point the plot kicks in as Hoffa's belligerent union leader faces off against all manner of foes - the government, ambitious union men & the mob itself. De Niro develops a friendship with him as a bodyguard & it's great to see these two 1970s method masters joining forces again. The last hour & a half's magnificent as Hoffa suffocates under a sea of hubris.
The final half-hour's astonishing. Gone are the usual spectacular demises for gangsters. No bloody rub-outs, just mundane deaths courtesy of cancer, stroke or just plain old age. In its way it's more shocking than any number of toll-booth massacres. And De Niro plays a wise guy's deterioration into old age beautifully. After a decade or so of sell-out roles in the likes of DIRTY GRANDPA it's a blessing to be reminded of the great actor he once was. All concerned are fabulous. There's not a duff note played. Following on that musical pun, the soundtrack's interesting. There's a spattering of jukebox tunes but none of the 'wall of sound' we've come to expect from Marty's mob movies. In fact there are sections with no music at all. Perhaps just Robbie Robertson's mournful harmonica at most.
So, is it a masterpiece? Well, only time will really tell on that front, but at this stage I would say yes. It has the plaintive feel of THE GODFATHER PART II & ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA. For all its hefty running time it's never boring. I was transfixed by a group of cinematic greats at the top of their game. This film really is too good to be squandered on Netflix's streaming service. It's a majestic film that should be seen in a cinema, where it belongs. But it's not to be. Paramount foolishly passed on the chance to release this. More fool them. Oh yes, & if I haven't mentioned the much trumpeted CGI de-aging effects it's because in all honesty I didn't really notice them.
Not a film about the horror of the UK and Brexit but a film where ............
Peter Cushing must go to a small Island on the east coast of Ireland to investigate some strange deaths.
It's a Hammer Monster movie, and great fun. It feels like a feature length episode of Dr Who.
"I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
This movie is based on Alistair Maclean's novel and stars Donald Sutherland, Richard Widmark, Vanessa Redgrave and Christopher Lee.
The story takes place on the titular Artic island, the southernmost part of Svalbard, but was filmed in Canada. It's an action thriller about a UN Scientific expedition going to the island to monitor climate change. It's worth noteing that the only climate debate in this 1979 movie is about how fast it's happening. But this is an action thriller, and a pretty good one. There was no German submarine base on the island during WWII, but there was a secret automated meteorlogical station there. Neither has there ever been a NATO base on the island. The Svalbard Treaty forbids any military activity there. There is however a meteorological base there, a friend of mine has spent two winters there. The Macguffin of the movie was never in German hands, but it works for the plot.
I discovered this movie by chance and I really liked it. It's a well made thriller in a very unusual environment.
Tolkein. It's both a crashing bore and trivializes the horrors of The Somme by inviting the viewers to turn it into a hunt for Middle Earth Easter eggs. JRRT deserved something better.
Comments
To be honest I'm not a big fan of this genere (with a few exeptions) since they rely too much on CGI. But a movie should be judged by to what extent it manages to be what it wants to be, and I think this one succeeds. A big plus for Chris Hemsworth who dares to portray Thor as a fat drunk
He is picked up in a Tönsberg that looks like it's in Scotland or Iceland, but gets full marks for wearing a knitted cardigan that's 100% Norwegian. I don't have one myself, but many of my friends do.
A succinct review, I didn't get time to bang on about this film. In fairness, I didn't 'get' the ending which has a twist of sorts, which I don't want to get into. Suffice to say Once Upon A Time... is the way you start a fairytale, and you get two kinds, the nasty Grimm fairytale and the Happy Ever After kind.
The film is a bit of a shaggy dog story and only after did I realise it's supposed to be.
But yeah, it's like in too many recent films QT suddenly says, you know, I've done the set-up and I've got you going - now I'm just going to trash it all and be damned, take it where I want! Have a laugh with it, after all, it's my ball and I can do what I want with it!
Roger Moore 1927-2017
My best friend bought us tickets to go see this classic on the big screen. It had been newly restored, and looked fantastic. Before the film proper, we were treated to film of a zither player explaining the technicalities of the instrument and the score and afterwards to a filmed interview with one of the last surviving crew members (Angela Allen). All fascinating.
The movie itself was as good as it has always been. Iconic cinematography, classic story, that wonderful music, and the timeless performances from Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli (heartbreaking), Trevor Howard, and some chap named Orson Welles. Film noir done British style. The war-ruined city of Vienna is the backdrop and provides much of the atmosphere.
Our first "M" Bernard Lee had a substantial supporting part, and future Minister of Defence Geoffrey Keen a one or two line bit. Guy Hamilton was assistant director (and doubled for Welles in some scenes). John Glen (uncredited) worked on the film too, I think it was his first, hence the references in TLD (the balloons, the Ferris wheel).
I saw the one in London Piccadilly, film author Matthew Sweet introduced it. Yes, plenty of Bond references as you've pointed out. Excellent stuff, though it wasn't a Q&Q with questions from the audience. I would have asked if anything was left on the cutting room floor, or how it compared to other Greene movies. Two endings he didn't come up with: this one, and the final scene of Brighton Rock which takes the ending and turns it on its head with quite affecting ingenuity.
That zither went on a bit beforehand! I rushed my 90-year-old Dad to get to the opening, only we had to sit thru that!
Roger Moore 1927-2017
A tragi-farce from Chris Morris, in which Moses Al-Shabazz, a hapless and mentally unstable (but ultimately harmless) Miami street preacher/urban farmer, is targeted by unscrupulous FBI agents as an easy mark for a domestic terrorism arrest, if only they can entrap him into doing something incriminating.
I was unfamiliar with Morris before seeing this; those of you in the UK probably know him better than I do, as he's had a long career as a radio and TV satirist. His previous film, Four Lions, about a group of inept UK jihadis, seems to be well-regarded (I've not seen it).
The Day Shall Come plays like an absurdist farce for most of the time, before shifting into a real tragedy late on. Tonally, it's very much like The Death of Stalin, not surprising given that Morris has long collaborated with Armando Ianucci, who made that film. The Death of Stalin was my favorite movie from 2018, and while this one isn't as good, it definitely kept my attention throughout. Marchánt Davis (also completely new to me) is superb as Moses, and the main FBI goofballs are played by the ever-reliable Anna Kendrick and Denis O'Hare.
All in all, I recommend this to anyone who can find it. You'll laugh at the absurdity, but the farce contains a deeper warning that is anything but absurd.
One shouldn't critique something which is really only a decent inflight movie, as you probably know it's about a struggling musician who has a bike accident during a worldwide blackout and upon awaking from a coma finds that only he knows who The Beatles are, to the rest of the world they never happened. So he sets about pilfering their songs for his own benefit.
The main problem with this conceit, of course, is that the Beatles' songs really were ruddy awful.
When he starts up playing Yesterday, saying a great guitar deserves a great song, and his mates start to choke up and cry, asking who wrote it... sounds like they're just sucking up to Macca. It's a nursery school tune with greeting card lyrics.
Now before the likes of Loeffs start to pm Barbel to wonder what someone has done with NP and should the police get involved, before realising the new NP might well be an improvement on the old one and maybe even likes Daniel Craig as Bond, I should say I am half-trolling here and am about to post my rave review of With The Beatles on the Vinyl thread, mark you I'd only recommend it on mono vinyl on the yellow Parlophone label and not on CD or iTunes or anything.
Now Yesterday may have been covered more than any song in history but if that's true, how come none of the other covers are any good? Matt Monroe's version is awful, unlistenable. I'v got Monroe's Greatest Hits and you have Born Free, Softly As I Leave You, FRWL, On Days Like These and Walk Away, all classics, then he does this and it's drek.
The record of Yesterday is brilliant. But it's got to be The Beatles, so sung and played by Macca and arranged by George Martin.
This applies to a great many Beatle classics, with few exceptions.
Ironically, the song in this film that works best is the playout, Obla-di Obla dah, and that's not seen as one of their best. But it is foolproof, as a band called Marmalade took it into the Top 5. There are others like that... Do You Want to Know A Secret got covered and was a hit, and Mary Hopkins Goodbye - a Macca tune - is also lovely.
But stuff like Hey Jude or Something - I never warmed to versions by Shirley Bassey.
Ironically some of the Beatles' solo output might translate better. Band on the Run is by any reckoning a great song. Happy Xmas War is Over also works well in any hands and so would Harrison's All Things Must Pass. The film doesn't really touch on this.
Still you don't really see a film like this to have these questions raised.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
The lead in this Himesh Patel is okay but not excellent, I suppose as he's Asian I'm in dodgy ground when I say he wears the harassed expression of the Indian guy in The Big Bang Theory, he actually seems to have more star power with his beard at the beginning of the film, where he seems to have more of the Russell Brand manner about him. That said, it's a boon to have an Asian in a film who is pushing 30 and a bit of a loser and don't have his parents bearing down on him saying why can't you be a doctor or a lawyer - it breaks that stereotype and it does have a surprisingly positive social effect to have an Asian as a lead in a film like this rather than as the sidekick.
Ed Sheeran is in it a lot and does well, no duff acting at all. In another film he'd turn out to be a jealous character or something, to send himself up, but it's not that kind of movie - it's not Paul Simon in Annie Hall, or Ricky Gervais' Extras, and maybe just as well.
Would-be Bond director Danny Boyle directed; it's okay and serviceable but no Bond fan watching will think they missed out on anything special on this basis.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Basically zombies in the trenches of WW1. Not great but it's on Amazon prime
There are Things that should have been fixed, but they are mainly tweeks. The bigger changes I would have liked is rewriting the final telephone call with Felix and moving bar fight where Bond picks up Pam from Bimini to Thailand or Cambodia. It would be a night scene, so it wouldn't cost much. I never minded the "ninjas" and the winking fish.
In my current opinion LTK is the best Bond film of the 1980's.
Peter Cushing Christopher Lee and Telly Savalas all stuck on a train with an evil alien killing
all round the place. Fun 70s horror film. I love the line at one point when Cushing and Lee
are being questioned about how they could be the evil killer, to which Cushing replies something
like " Don't be ridiculous We're British "
Another spoof of Scream, and I found it very funny.
This fine 1930s film is the sort of thing they never, ever show on television anymore. It stars child star Freddie Bartholomew - who was probably up there with Shirley Temple in his day - taking top billing over Spencer Tracy. FB plays a spoilt, arrogant brat at a public school (private school if you're American) - sort of think Stewie from Family Guy without the wit or underlying decency and you're half-way there - who knows his largely absent tycoon Dad can buy up the school several times over. Matters come to ahead and on a swanky cruise ship events conspire so that the young brat winds up on a fishing trawler where he is taught humility and how to be a man - by Spencer Tracy.
It's a bit of a choker all round, the way it plays out, and there's some excellent footage of life at sea for the era, with a fine supporting cast too.
Bartholomew was also in the equally excellent Lloyds of London, where in that he took top billing over the up and coming Tyrone Power. That's also never ever shown on telly - I had to get that on DVD, too.
On the other hand, London Live was showing an early 1970s comedy called Au Pair at around midnight last night, so dreadful you'd imagine an original print and all copies could be better used as part of a landfill, or propping up a flyover.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
An espionage thriller staring Michael Caine Directed by Terence Young and with a host of
Bond actors sprinkled through it.
Flashily directed by Sidney Lumet not dissimilar to The Ipcress File; this 1966 film has the same world of British betrayal and if there's a whiff of Smiley about it, there's a reason for that. It promises to be more depressing than Ipcress, as it stars a middle-aged James Mason rather than the funny and cool Michael Caine.
So it's based on a novel by John Le Carre and as there are series and new films by him out and in the pipeline, and a new novel out v shortly, you have to think, just how long has this guy been going? -{
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Five Easy Pieces (1970)
Not sure if I get the point of the movie; he never changes? What he did in the past he'll keep doing, again and again till the end of time? Honestly, the ending left me mad as to what I'd just seen. It left me blue.
Groundhog Day (1993)
So specifically awesome. The definition of character development ?:) but still, it remains a writing masterpiece if not for how you can write a day and leave the rest up to what you'd want it to be. It must've been really fun to make.
Network (1976)
"You have interfered with the primal forces of nature, Mr Beale"
Honestly, Better Call Saul had me watch this as that's where it found itself in the list™ and I'll just as honestly say I was impressed. Both this and Groundhog should be considered adventure movies because of the way they're written.
I was in blind and it hit me. Really good movie.
Pretty Woman (1990)
Isn't It Romantic lead me to this one and I'm ashamed to say I'd never seen it fully. And well, I know have a thing for Vivian...and I have been where Vivian found herself without the happy ending. The setting, the colors, the lines, the Esprit, George Constanza getting punched. Enjoyed myself way more than I thought I would. It's a classic and no rom com can top it.
Rebel Without A Cause (1955)
Such a shame. SUCH A SHAME.
Other than that, it's Rebel Without A Cause, what is there to say. It defined 50s teen culture as much as Season 1 and 2 of Miami Vice defined the 80s.
El Camino (2019)
No, you can't watch it if you've not seen Breaking Bad (which I binge watched in the summer for the first time). No, I'm not blue because of it
Now on to the latter part, of movies I'd seen before but wanted to rewatch.
Scarface (1983)
As much as the lines crack me up, I couldn't help thinking that it was never meant to last for Montana. Not because of what happened like it did for Ace in Casino but because of the choices he made and because he was Tony.
I used to think that after the "Push It To The Limit" sequence it could be a happy ending. Turn off the movie and boom, you get what you want out of it.
But here, it's different now. Elvira was never the right girl because of what he wanted and because she was a junkie and because she didn't have the brains like Ginger did. Manny would die because he'd fall for Gina and Tony can't help himself but if he dies he needs him and his empire would crumble, because Manny was the thing that kept him on a leash and no matter how good of a business man he is while negotiating, he can't fit in because he can't help his greed.
It's not about the 1500 dollars. He would've been arrested any way. It's about his greed. What makes him, him.
As much as a good job they made for Ginger to be the best hustler out there in Casino, they did for Tony in Scarface to not fit in to the world. The little details like eating the lemon from a bowl where you're just meant to wash your hands.
Some might say, well duh. Didn't you realise it? I guess not. I wanted to watch Scarface again oddly because of an idea I have and because of Breaking Bad.
I can never come away disappointed from it.
Say hello to my little friend if you read through these all. Jesus christ.
This movie focuses on the dramatic relationship between Mary Stuart (Saoirse Ronan) and Elizabeth I of England while they were both reigning queens. This power struggle has been filmed before, but it's the first time I've seen it from both perspectives in the same film. The two women never met in real life, but here we see a fictional meeting written for dramatical purposes, and it really works. It works because of good writing and really good acting. This goes for the whole film, and I also like the filming and design. What I don't like is that this film is too PC. It's hinted that the two women could have made peace between the two countries and with each other if only all those power-hungry men hadn't meddled, forgetting that the two women probably wouldn't have gained so much power without being hungry for power themselves. The second problem is PC casting, what you may call "brown-washing". A black actor plays an English lord and an Asian actress plays one of Elizabeth's ladies in waiting. This would never happen in the Britain of that time. I'm all for casting non-white actors in parts we don't normally see them in, but not when it's obviously unhistoric to the point where it takes you out of the movie.
Went to see this on Sunday night as part of a national live link to the last night of the BFI London Film Festival.
A superb film that may well be the last word in organised crime, at least from this group of Mafiosi titans. Interestingly it bears the book's title I HEARD YOU PAINT HOUSES as its opening title card. THE IRISHMAN doesn't appear until the end credits. It follows the template we've come to expect from Martin Scorsese: flashbacks & flash-forwards, freeze frames, slow motion, voice-over, etc but there's a leisurely quality that sets it apart from his previous mob movies. Scorsese's usual visual gimmicks settle into a more stately form of visual storytelling as the characters age. It's a neat trick to show the director's own passing of time. But this isn't a slow-paced bum-numbing ordeal. Far from it. The three & a half hour running time whizzes by but never feels exhausting.
The first half-hour is in more familiar GOODFELLAS territory as we chart Robert De Niro's career from truck driver to contract killer. A lot of info's packed into this section as familiar sights of overweight mobsters & their equally obese Cadillacs fill the screen. The usual 'bad-a-bing' wit is also present & correct. Mob bosses whisper in booths & both Joe Pesci & Harvey Keitel sizzle as made men. Keitel's role is little more than a cameo but Pesci dominates as a totally different incarnation of ruthlessness. Quiet & articulate (almost avuncular), Pesci is far removed from his two previous Mafia psychos. Even the swearing is pared back to a minimum. But in a way he's more frightening. This man gives orders to kill with a smile & a shrug. De Niro's the film's glue. Largely impassive, it's his voice that steers the narrative from his opening retirement home shot.
About forty minutes in Al Pacino's force of nature, Jimmy Hoffa enters the fray & the film ratchets up a gear. It's at this point the plot kicks in as Hoffa's belligerent union leader faces off against all manner of foes - the government, ambitious union men & the mob itself. De Niro develops a friendship with him as a bodyguard & it's great to see these two 1970s method masters joining forces again. The last hour & a half's magnificent as Hoffa suffocates under a sea of hubris.
The final half-hour's astonishing. Gone are the usual spectacular demises for gangsters. No bloody rub-outs, just mundane deaths courtesy of cancer, stroke or just plain old age. In its way it's more shocking than any number of toll-booth massacres. And De Niro plays a wise guy's deterioration into old age beautifully. After a decade or so of sell-out roles in the likes of DIRTY GRANDPA it's a blessing to be reminded of the great actor he once was. All concerned are fabulous. There's not a duff note played. Following on that musical pun, the soundtrack's interesting. There's a spattering of jukebox tunes but none of the 'wall of sound' we've come to expect from Marty's mob movies. In fact there are sections with no music at all. Perhaps just Robbie Robertson's mournful harmonica at most.
So, is it a masterpiece? Well, only time will really tell on that front, but at this stage I would say yes. It has the plaintive feel of THE GODFATHER PART II & ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA. For all its hefty running time it's never boring. I was transfixed by a group of cinematic greats at the top of their game. This film really is too good to be squandered on Netflix's streaming service. It's a majestic film that should be seen in a cinema, where it belongs. But it's not to be. Paramount foolishly passed on the chance to release this. More fool them. Oh yes, & if I haven't mentioned the much trumpeted CGI de-aging effects it's because in all honesty I didn't really notice them.
Not a film about the horror of the UK and Brexit but a film where ............
Peter Cushing must go to a small Island on the east coast of Ireland to investigate some strange deaths.
It's a Hammer Monster movie, and great fun. It feels like a feature length episode of Dr Who.
I know this was a flop, but I do like it. A fun adventure story, The same with
The Wild, Wild west. Still one of my favourite movies.
I will never forgive the producers of Wild Wild West for destroying the town sets from Silverado.
Just to see the difference in quality from an actual disc
Compared to a 4k download.
This movie is based on Alistair Maclean's novel and stars Donald Sutherland, Richard Widmark, Vanessa Redgrave and Christopher Lee.
The story takes place on the titular Artic island, the southernmost part of Svalbard, but was filmed in Canada. It's an action thriller about a UN Scientific expedition going to the island to monitor climate change. It's worth noteing that the only climate debate in this 1979 movie is about how fast it's happening. But this is an action thriller, and a pretty good one. There was no German submarine base on the island during WWII, but there was a secret automated meteorlogical station there. Neither has there ever been a NATO base on the island. The Svalbard Treaty forbids any military activity there. There is however a meteorological base there, a friend of mine has spent two winters there. The Macguffin of the movie was never in German hands, but it works for the plot.
I discovered this movie by chance and I really liked it. It's a well made thriller in a very unusual environment.