I took my mum to see The Artist today. She perked up during the talkie bits.
The music score really is very good, very moving, though not sure if the Vertigo bit at the end should disqualify it for an Oscar. I wonder if it is on the CD. Poor ol' Peppy Miller does seem like a bit of a chiseller from the outset, and doesn't quite look of her time. Still, Dujardin really deserved his Oscar imo. Quite why BBC4 or whatever it is doesn't cash in by reshowing his Cairo Nest of Spies movie, I don't know. 8-)
That said, wish I'd seen it at a full cinema, again at 1.15pm it was mostly empty and you really need the audience reation to the jokes, otherwise it's like watching some duff old fashioned silent film in a mostly empty cinema when talkies have come in.
Anyone still to see it, catch it this week with the Oscar buzz making for full cinemas, and try to seat central and near the front, to appreciate the square picture ratio.
That said, it's not that feelgood. I mean, it's kind of teary for a lot of it, makes you well up.
This movie is written by Diablo Cody of "Juno" fame and directed by Jason Reitman. Charlize Theron Theron was also Oscar-nominated for her acting. This makes us expect high quality moviemaking and sharp diaogue, and it delivers. Theron plays a woman who was the most popular girl back in high school, mainly because of her stunning looks. Now she has moved to the big city to ghost write a series of novels intended for the young adult market. Now she discovers that her high school boyfriend is married and has just become a father. She drives back to the little town she grew up in to win him back. Yes, she is that self-centered and immature. She also never censures whaat she says and drinks heavily. It is obvious to compare Young Adult to Juno. Juno is about a teenager who has to become an adult too soon. Young Adult is about a grown woman who doesn`t want to become an adult. This movie is smartly written and well acted, definately worth your time. It is not as easy to like as Juno because the central character isn`t really likeable. Perhaps Theron`s character is more complex than Juno, she is no doubt darker. My advice is: you should go see it, but don`t expect a feelgood-movie. It is funny at times, but ironically it is more mature.
This movie is written by Diablo Cody of "Juno" fame and directed by Jason Reitman. Charlize Theron Theron was also Oscar-nominated for her acting. This makes us expect high quality moviemaking and sharp diaogue, and it delivers. Theron plays a woman who was the most popular girl back in high school, mainly because of her stunning looks. Now she has moved to the big city to ghost write a series of novels intended for the young adult market. Now she discovers that her high school boyfriend is married and has just become a father. She drives back to the little town she grew up in to win him back. Yes, she is that self-centered and immature. She also never censures whaat she says and drinks heavily. It is obvious to compare Young Adult to Juno. Juno is about a teenager who has to become an adult too soon. Young Adult is about a grown woman who doesn`t want to become an adult. This movie is smartly written and well acted, definately worth your time. It is not as easy to like as Juno because the central character isn`t really likeable. Perhaps Theron`s character is more complex than Juno, she is no doubt darker. My advice is: you should go see it, but don`t expect a feelgood-movie. It is funny at times, but ironically it is more mature.
I believe Theron was skipped over for the Oscars despite support for her to get a nomination from this one. At least she still has her win from Monster.
Glad to hear your thoughts and I'll be sure to watch it. -{
So Charlize Theron`s Oscar nomination for Young Adult was just a figment of my imaginatoin? Maybe. But Heidi, my blonde best friend who no everyone is too shy to talk to, agrees with me that Theron should have won!
Somehow I missed this when it came out a few years ago. Ron Howard directs from a Peter Morgan screenplay adapted from Morgan's own stage play. Frank Langella and Michael Sheen reprise their stage roles as Richard Nixon and David Frost, respectively. I had thought this would be more of a straightforward reenactment of the famous 1977 interview, but in fact it is much more. For example, I had no idea how Frost labored tirelessly to get funding from networks, sponsors and anyone else who could help finance what some people thought was a pipe dream of his. Nor did I realize that many in the news business thought of him as little more than a glib dilettante. Langella and Sheen are magnificent and they are aided by a superb ensemble cast, the highlights of which for me were Oliver Platt as one of Frost's supporting researchers and Toby Jones as the famous agent Swifty Lazar.
My only gripe with the film was that Morgan's and Howard's political biases show through a bit too much. The film goes out of its way to emphasize Nixon's less savory traits, with multiple references to his supposed greed and even including a drunken midnight phone call that never actually happened. The story was originally written in part to tie in with the supposed abuses of power of the Bush/Cheney years, so gets a bit heavy-handed at times. Whatever.
The Devil's Double, directed by Lee Tamahori--yes, THAT Lee Tamahori--and about the poor sap who got stuck with the worst job on the planet: the double for Saddam Hussein's psychotic son, Uday. The movie is worth seeing for Dominic Cooper's dual role as the morally compromised double and the truly frightening Uday, an overgrown spoiled child whose tantrums result in murder and terror. Otherwise, the movie itself so wallows in Uday's excesses--torture, rape, drug use--that it gets oppressive; and a couple of scenes are so grisly you'd feel like you just walked into a Freddy Krueger movie. . .but I guess that's the point. If anything, by the time the movie ends, you realize the world is a better place without the Hussein family in it. . .
I rented this one mainly because it stars Henry Cavill as Thesus and Freida Pinto as the Oracle. Oh, Mickey Rourke plas bad guy Hyperion. I soon discovered the best reason to see this movie - it is directed by Tarssem Singh. He has previously made The Fall and The The Cell. Singh`s movies are very stylized and visual. Clothes, arcitecture and everything else is very creative and striking. The director speaks art and painting as inspiration. Most hots do look like surrealist paintings, perhaps something by Salvador Dali. No surprise then that Tarsem Singh makes movies about different worlds, even the subconciosness.
This time it`s in the world of Greek mytology. Not the world of ancient Greece, but the world of gods, monsters and heroes. This works very well with Yarsem Singhs style, strangly the only thing that doesn`t work for me are the gods. Their cosumes are just too stranf they become silly. Still, The Immortals looks stunning and grand.
Singh has probably been a bit weak on story in the past, a case of style over substance. This time the plot works. The action scenes are very well. Complex fight scenes with a dozen actors and stuntmen are often filmed in long takes with no cuts. Impressive! Henry Cavill trained long and hard for this and it shows. He is ripped and he looks convincing killing off multiple oponents in difficult, long and uncut takes. I think Cavill is a movie star in this. He carries the movie and he looks like a grown man. He looks like James Bond. He is British, has star quality, is tall and dark and exells in demanding fight scens. At the end of the decade when it is likely Craig hangs up the tux, Cavill will be n his mid thirties. Only superstardom should be able to keep him from being a major Bond candidate. Also, Freida Pinto must be one of the the most beautiful actresses in cinema right now. An obvius Bond girl candidate.
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
"My Week With Marilyn"
My dad was the biggest Marilyn Monroe fan around; watched her movies whenever one came on TV; had DVD copies of “Some Like It Hot,” “The Seven Year Itch,” and---his favorite---“River Of No Return,” also starring Robert Mitchum…
I always bought a Marilyn Monroe calendar for my dad every Christmas. This last Christmas, he told me not to bother. Seemed strange at the time, but he said that he already had 20 Marilyn calendars, and they were probably repeating themselves anyway. So I honored his request, and didn’t get him a calendar for Christmas. When he died suddenly, on January 10th, I wondered if he hadn’t known something on some level…
I saw “My Week With Marilyn,” starring the positively luminous Michelle Williams, at the Lincoln Theatre this afternoon, as the first half of a double feature. What a fantastic and engaging film, not only for movie buffs (there’s a lot of ‘inside baseball’ stuff on the film industry inherent in the story), but also for those who appreciate great acting performances. The story is told from the point of view of a 23 year old 3rd AD (assistant director) on a film Monroe did with Laurence Olivier, which would eventually be entitled “The Prince and the Showgirl,” when the young man had a very brief relationship with the star during her stay in London for the production in 1956, while she was married to writer Arthur Miller. Marilyn drove classically-trained stage actor Olivier to insanity with her adherence to the Stanislavsky acting ‘method,’ and of course with her chronic tardiness and unpredictability.
Now, purists and pedants will no doubt say that Ms Williams isn’t as beautiful as Marilyn was…which may be true---who was?---but Michelle Williams completely inhabits/channels the tragic Hollywood legend, bringing her vulnerabilities and sensuality to brilliant three-dimensional life. I will own this film, and re-watch it often.
Many times during the film, I reflexively thought: “Pop’s going to love this!” And as the credits rolled, I shed my first tears for my father in many weeks, very unexpectedly, as another layer of his absence settled in over me. I hope he’s gotten to meet her.
Check out my Amazon author page!Mark Loeffelholz
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
My dad was the biggest Marilyn Monroe fan around; watched her movies whenever one came on TV; had DVD copies of “Some Like It Hot,” “The Seven Year Itch,” and---his favorite---“River Of No Return,” also starring Robert Mitchum…
I always bought a Marilyn Monroe calendar for my dad every Christmas. This last Christmas, he told me not to bother. Seemed strange at the time, but he said that he already had 20 Marilyn calendars, and they were probably repeating themselves anyway. So I honored his request, and didn’t get him a calendar for Christmas. When he died suddenly, on January 10th, I wondered if he hadn’t known something on some level…
I saw “My Week With Marilyn,” starring the positively luminous Michelle Williams, at the Lincoln Theatre this afternoon, as the first half of a double feature. What a fantastic and engaging film, not only for movie buffs (there’s a lot of ‘inside baseball’ stuff on the film industry inherent in the story), but also for those who appreciate great acting performances. The story is told from the point of view of a 23 year old 3rd AD (assistant director) on a film Monroe did with Laurence Olivier, which would eventually be entitled “The Prince and the Showgirl,” when the young man had a very brief relationship with the star during her stay in London for the production in 1956, while she was married to writer Arthur Miller. Marilyn drove classically-trained stage actor Olivier to insanity with her adherence to the Stanislavsky acting ‘method,’ and of course with her chronic tardiness and unpredictability.
Now, purists and pedants will no doubt say that Ms Williams isn’t as beautiful as Marilyn was…which may be true---who was?---but Michelle Williams completely inhabits/channels the tragic Hollywood legend, bringing her vulnerabilities and sensuality to brilliant three-dimensional life. I will own this film, and re-watch it often.
Many times during the film, I reflexively thought: “Pop’s going to love this!” And as the credits rolled, I shed my first tears for my father in many weeks, very unexpectedly, as another layer of his absence settled in over me. I hope he’s gotten to meet her.
I am very sorry to hear of your loss, Loeffelholz. I can relate to what you are going through as my dear Mother passed away almost three years ago. The last film we saw together at the cinema was Casino Royale. She was not really a Bond fan but wanted to see what all the fuss was about regarding Daniel Craig. She liked Craig and the film but was more interested in Vesper's Algerian love knot.
She was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease about a year later and I subsequently gave up basically everything to look after her full time. That meant I did not see Quantum of Solace at the cinema. Therefore, when I go to see Skyfall I will no doubt be reflecting back to Casino Royale and probably shedding a tear or two of my own.
Moore Not Less 4371 posts (2002 - 2007) Moore Than (2012 - 2016)
I think I've mentioned before that our mothers shared the same fate, Moore Than. . .though we call it Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease) here. We don't need to say anything more. . .
Anyway. . .
Last night I saw Drive, which I thought would be a sort-of mindless action movie. To my surprise, it's actually a smart, complicated film that has its sensibilities in the 1970s: Ryan Gosling's Driver is a Man With No Name trying to do the right thing in a violent Sam Peckinpah-ish world. And the usually hilarious Albert Brooks is brilliantly evil. I'm glad I put this in my Netflix queue.
Just watched Lethal Weapon 3 last night - yes these films are dated, but I really miss these sort of 90's actioners. Fast paced, a few laughs - nothing too serious at the end of the working week. Films lately don't give you many bangs for your buck. There are twisting threads of plot, layered subtext, flash backs, hidden meanings and big surprises (that I generally see coming) but I don't very often feel good at the end of a film. Stuff like the Leathal Weapon, Die Hard films are refreshing sometimes.
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A nice bit of retro homage styling and a spark of brutality, the film had me all the way through. Carey Mulligan and Ryan Gosling share few lines, but you can completely get the tone that their eyes set. It all has a satisfying excitement played into an artistically smart mood. It is fun by having so much look and feel right with glimpses of deep wrong dropping in to spoil the up and up that comes from Gosling's relationship with his neighbors.
I enjoyed it and it overall felt like a film that knows how to be effortlessly cool.
LoeffelholzThe United States, With LovePosts: 8,998Quartermasters
I am very sorry to hear of your loss, Loeffelholz. I can relate to what you are going through as my dear Mother passed away almost three years ago. The last film we saw together at the cinema was Casino Royale. She was not really a Bond fan but wanted to see what all the fuss was about regarding Daniel Craig. She liked Craig and the film but was more interested in Vesper's Algerian love knot.
She was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease about a year later and I subsequently gave up basically everything to look after her full time. That meant I did not see Quantum of Solace at the cinema. Therefore, when I go to see Skyfall I will no doubt be reflecting back to Casino Royale and probably shedding a tear or two of my own.
Thanks, my friend. And may I say that it's a great pleasure to have you here again amongst us. I've been rather spotty in my attendance of late, but hope to be more of a regular once again. Cheers!
Check out my Amazon author page!Mark Loeffelholz
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
I am very sorry to hear of your loss, Loeffelholz. I can relate to what you are going through as my dear Mother passed away almost three years ago. The last film we saw together at the cinema was Casino Royale. She was not really a Bond fan but wanted to see what all the fuss was about regarding Daniel Craig. She liked Craig and the film but was more interested in Vesper's Algerian love knot.
She was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease about a year later and I subsequently gave up basically everything to look after her full time. That meant I did not see Quantum of Solace at the cinema. Therefore, when I go to see Skyfall I will no doubt be reflecting back to Casino Royale and probably shedding a tear or two of my own.
Thanks, my friend. And may I say that it's a great pleasure to have you here again amongst us. I've been rather spotty in my attendance of late, but hope to be more of a regular once again. Cheers!
Thanks for the compliment, Loeffelholz.
I look forward to your more regular appearances. It will be nice to engage again and have some good old banter......especially about Roger Moore Bond. ) -{
Moore Not Less 4371 posts (2002 - 2007) Moore Than (2012 - 2016)
I finally got around to seeing Martin Scorsese's love letter to the early days of film. Lonely orphan Hugo is stealing spare parts from the shop of an old toymaker to fix a mysterious automaton, all the while being chased around by a strict stationmaster keen on sending him to the orphanage. A chance encounter with with the shopkeeper's granddaughter leads to adventure, redemption and ultimately fulfillment.
The cast is all very good and earnest. Asa Butterfield makes for a sympathetic little urchin and you can't help but root for him. Its also refreshing and reassuring to see Chloe Grace Moretz in a normal role where she isn't bludgeoning villains, spewing profanity or tearing unsuspecting victims apart and drinking their blood. Ben Kingsley is very good as legendary filmmaker Georges Melies, Sasha Baron Cohen brings some nice comedy relief (and even a twinge of heartache and romance) and even the great Christopher Lee makes a few appearances.
Hugo of course got a lot of press for being shot in 3D and Scorsese really pushes the medium with all shorts of inventive shots and pans and visual tricks. The film makes good use of 3D photography's properties to create an image full of depth and height. The panoramic shots of Paris, the train station and the inner workings of the huge clocks that Hugo calls home seem to go on for ever and the obligatory objects popping out of the screen are few but well integrated into the film. It easily out-3D's James Cameron's Avatar and it seems fitting that a film that pays tribute to one of the earliest innovators in film be shot in 3D; I think Melies himself would have probably gotten a chuckle out of the experience. If you know someone who owns a 3D TV this is definitely a fun exercise for the eyes.
I've never been a big fan of Scorsese's work as I really don't gravitate towards mob or gangster movies but this was a refreshing change of pace - a sweet, innocent movie with a happy ending utterly devoid of violence, profanity or explosions (when's the last time you saw one of those) and were it not for the technology it would be easy to think it had been released in another era.
I've seen a few movies recently... just haven't had time to post them here.
The ones I enjoyed the most were; Big Miracle, which I took Oliver to see.... didn't realise that this event (about 2 wales, and thier baby who got trapped in Alaska) was such big news back in the 80's. I guess it didn't quite filter over here, as much as it hit the news in the States. It was a cute movie...although a lot of it went over Oliver's head. However it produced some good converstaions in the car on the way home.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Utterly brilliant. A real feel good movie about a group of retirees who decide to go to India to a newly opened retirement hotel.... we learn about their circumstances... and their histories...and subsequent relationships which form over a period of 8 or so months.
A stella cast, Dame Judy, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Tom wilkinson et all....this is just a wonderful feel good movie, and one which I will buy when it comes out on DVD. 5 stars
A room with a view
This was on the telly the other day... and it reminded me why this is one of my favourite movies. I must have seen it over 20 times.... and it was still as good as I remembered....
She's worth whatever chaos she brings to the table and you know it. ~ Mark Anthony
Mary and Max - In this Australian stop-motion animated feature film (featuring the voices of Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Eric Bana). It is about the unlikely penpal friendship that blooms for many years between Mary, the quirky, socially shunned Australian girl (Bethny Whitmore & Toni Collette) and Max, a middle-aged Jewish American suffering from high functioning autism (Hoffman), with the girl’s letters greatly enlivening his oppressively boring and repetitive life, and also greatly influencing Mary’s life well into young adulthood (and not always for the best). The stop-motion animation is stylised but oddly grounded in realism, with Australia depicted in golds and reddish browns, while NewYork is depicted with shades of blue and grey. However this animation veers a bit too much into scenes of heartfelt depression, with its many other moments of jet black comedy coming across as light in comparison. 8/10
Arthur Christmas - A movie that answers how Santa Claus delivers presents to billions of children throughout the world in a single night: a high-tech flying sleigh the size of the Enterprise, crewed by heavily tooled up elves who deliver the presents with military precision, captained by a Santa who is the latest in a long dynasty of Santas. Malcolm Claus (Jim Broadbent) is the incumbent Santa, with Steve Claus (Hugh Laurie) as his trusty lieutenant and eldest son, the real brains behind the staggering logistics of worldwide present delivery and poised to replace his father. However a single bicycle gets overlooked in the bowls of Santa’s sleigh ship and it’s up to the chronically clumsy Arthur Claus (James McAvoy) and the hilariously un-PC, long retired Grand-Santa (Bill Nighy) to deliver the bike to a English girl before Christmas Eve ends. Aardman Animation this time does a CGI feature that matches up better to the likes of Dreamworks and Pixar than its previous effort, the somewhat lukewarm Flushed Away. It has a quirky British inventiveness and humour to it that makes a change from the American take on things. Also the voice cast is universally excellent, especially Hugh Laurie (channelling the sneering arrogance of Dr. Gregory House) as Steve, the emotionally distant wannabe Santa who has gotten completely lost under a mountain of corporatism and military planning. 8/10
The Little Norse Prince - Decades old but oddly refreshing Japanese animated movie made in a more innocent era of Japanese anime, safely far away from the hentai, tentacle rape, and terrifying saucer eyed girls with pink hair. A film that included Hayao Miyazaki in its animation team, you also get the sneaking suspicion that it influenced Shigeru Miyamoto who produced The Legend of Zelda, and is about a adventurous, orphaned Viking boy who fights a cruel Nordic demi-god, Grunwald, who threatens to destroy a village with his terrible magic. It has interesting animation that can be somewhat stilted and clumsy (though not as terrible as in Speed Racer) juxtaposed with skilfully animated segments that are years ahead of their time. Unlike a lot of anime, it’s suited for family viewing but seems a little drawn out for very young children. 7/10
'Alright guard, begin the unnecessarily slow moving dipping mechanism...'
I turned on BBC4 on friday eve and there was George Martin banging on with this Beatle anecdote and I thought, 'Here we go again'. But no, it was Martin Scorcese's acclaimed bio of Harrison.
It's very well done, quite engrossing. The hippy era, for instance, isn't quite done chronologically, like Revolver, Sgt Pepper, White Album and so on, it kind of merges and doubles back on itself. You get a sense of that era unlike before. Starr contributes and is on good form, Macca does the usual stuff but nothing too revelatory from him. Harrison comes across very well though there are some dark stuff admitted, the mediocrity of his mid 70s output and a great moment on the Aspel chat show in the 1980s when Starr, sat beside and awkward and Quiet George on the sofa, cheerfully mentions the time when Harrison tried to sue him.
A lot of his spiritual journey is interesting but not wholly convincing - at points you think, well, has he brainwashed himself through the Krisha sect? And a certain glibness when it comes to other people's passing, such as Epstein and Lennon. Then I recalled the brilliant Ross Noble routine about the drunk and the Hare Krishna crowd (look it up on youtube).
Yet the scenes around Harrison's eventual death, when the camera focuses on what seems to be his grave, is brilliantly done, not to mention his widow Olivia's reference to some holy or golden glow that inhabited the room when Harrison's soul departed. Bugger me, I doubt I'd rustle up enough to illuminate a matchbox when I depart this earth.
No reference at all to George's Cloud 9 album from the late 1980s.
Tales of Earthsea - Widely seen as arguably the weakest movie by Studio Ghibli and directed by the put upon Goro Miyazaki. Was it awful? Not genuinely, but does not reach the high standards set by Goro’s father. The animation and action scenes are pretty competent, with some interesting world building and unusual use of warm colours, but mainly it is a confused, plodding mess full of plot threads that don’t go anywhere and not properly explored. It’s even more of a failed adaptation of a fantasy novel than Howl’s Moving Castle (so little wonder it got a mildly negative reaction by US author, K. Le Guin). But I like the main antagonist, the deeply unnerving and asexual Cob, an evil sorcerer that lurks inside a vast castle. But most of the rest of it is kinda by the book and forgettable. Goror Miyazaki, you’ve got potential kid, but better luck next time. 5/10
Kiki’s Delivery Service - That’s more like it! This is one of Studio Ghibli’s better outputs and back when Hayao Miyazaki was in his prime. Set in a alternative Earth, in a historical era similar to the late 50s and early 60s, in a unnamed country that bares similarities to Italy, Sweden, and France, witches who fly on brooms and converse with animals are valued pillars of the community. Kiki, just 13 years old, is one of these witches setting out into the wide world on her flying broom with no adult supervision, with just her wisecracking cat, Jiji. As usual with classic Moyazaki, he has a great love for the wide open vistas of the deep blue sky and ocean, and tells a relatively simplistic plot that hides deeper meaning (in this case not neglecting your talent). The action scenes are light hearted and mildly perilous, and it drags a bit halfway through, however it all ramps up brilliantly towards the end. And there is some brilliant world building that helps the storyline and characters rather than distracting from them, by adding lots of unanswered questions (like with the lukewarm Tales of Earthsea). 9/10
'Alright guard, begin the unnecessarily slow moving dipping mechanism...'
The only Japanese animation/anime studio I like. I am usually set in my ways with enjoying Western animation exclusively, but I make exceptions when Studio Ghibli is the team behind the pictures.
I enjoyed the film very much for its 60s Hollywood charm. It has the lure of using some of the biggest stars of the era in a romanticized investigation and an engaging plot. Faye Dunaway is a longtime favorite of mine thanks to Chinatown and Bonnie & Clyde. Steve McQueen shows off one of his many performances that make him just so cool to watch. Definitely worth a watch and a great example of a classic movie.
I enjoyed the film very much for its 60s Hollywood charm. It has the lure of using some of the biggest stars of the era in a romanticized investigation and an engaging plot. Faye Dunaway is a longtime favorite of mine thanks to Chinatown and Bonnie & Clyde. Steve McQueen shows off one of his many performances that make him just so cool to watch. Definitely worth a watch and a great example of a classic movie.
Yeah, it's a really good film. It has a little more class than the remake, better chemistry between the lead cast as well.
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I had minimal knowledge of the Thor character before watching the film, yet I was highly entertained and impressed by the work of Director Kenneth Branagh and star Chris Hemsworth. The film strikes a good balance between character development, action and comedy to provide two hours of entertainment.
Thor is a powerful, but arrogant son of Odin the King of Asgard, played by Anthony Hopkins. After ignoring one of his father’s orders, Thor is banished to earth. While on earth, Thor meets and falls in love with scientist Jane Foster played by Natalie Portman, meets the agents from SHIELD and learns humility and sacrifice from his friends on earth.
Whoever did the casting for Thor did an excellent job, as Chris Hemsworth seems perfect for the role of Thor, Anthony Hopkins has a commanding presence as Odin the King of Asgard, and Natalie Portman is excellent as scientist Jane Foster. Some of the smaller players like Kat Dennigs as Darcy, Portman’s somewhat eccentric assistant and Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Thor’s brother also provide good performances.
The world of Asgard is gloriously presented in CGI beauty and stands in contrast to the barren look of the earth location, New Mexico. Director Kenneth Branagh does an excellent job of juxtapositioning the two worlds and the characters that inhabit them. The writers also deserve credit for a script that I found intelligent and at times humorous.
I enjoyed Thor more than I expected and I look forward to the sequel. It also raised my excitement for this summer’s release of The Avengers, as with all the Marvel films we get a small, but compelling tease for The Avengers at the end of the Thor credits.
Hairspray- I’m not in the demographic that enjoys musicals, but it engaged me enough for a 116 minutes, and it had a rather strong ensemble cast (with Christopher Walken playing a weirdo as usual albeit a harmless one, John Travolta inexplicably in drag and also a fat suit, and Michelle Pfeiffer channelling cold Aryan arrogance). A remake of the 1988 movie and a then more recent stage musical, it set in Baltimore, 1962, where in these supposedly more simple times even light entertainment TV shows are segregated by skin colour and trouble looms: a essentially heavy subject matter perhaps belittled by the endless parade of chirpy and colourful musical numbers. Nikki Blonksy was cast as an annoyingly optimistic “every girl” who played off well against the snide falseness of Michelle Pfeiffer‘s tyrannical, bigoted studio manager. 6/10
'Alright guard, begin the unnecessarily slow moving dipping mechanism...'
The Hunger Games - Quite possibly the most dull film I've ever seen. Some have called it a cheap mask for a love story, but it isn't even that as there is no love story! Low on drama, cheap on action. This is a blatant commericalised rip off of Battle Royale.
Comments
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Especially jarring when he didn't have to speak to get his award in the first place!
The music score really is very good, very moving, though not sure if the Vertigo bit at the end should disqualify it for an Oscar. I wonder if it is on the CD. Poor ol' Peppy Miller does seem like a bit of a chiseller from the outset, and doesn't quite look of her time. Still, Dujardin really deserved his Oscar imo. Quite why BBC4 or whatever it is doesn't cash in by reshowing his Cairo Nest of Spies movie, I don't know. 8-)
That said, wish I'd seen it at a full cinema, again at 1.15pm it was mostly empty and you really need the audience reation to the jokes, otherwise it's like watching some duff old fashioned silent film in a mostly empty cinema when talkies have come in.
Anyone still to see it, catch it this week with the Oscar buzz making for full cinemas, and try to seat central and near the front, to appreciate the square picture ratio.
That said, it's not that feelgood. I mean, it's kind of teary for a lot of it, makes you well up.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
This movie is written by Diablo Cody of "Juno" fame and directed by Jason Reitman. Charlize Theron Theron was also Oscar-nominated for her acting. This makes us expect high quality moviemaking and sharp diaogue, and it delivers. Theron plays a woman who was the most popular girl back in high school, mainly because of her stunning looks. Now she has moved to the big city to ghost write a series of novels intended for the young adult market. Now she discovers that her high school boyfriend is married and has just become a father. She drives back to the little town she grew up in to win him back. Yes, she is that self-centered and immature. She also never censures whaat she says and drinks heavily. It is obvious to compare Young Adult to Juno. Juno is about a teenager who has to become an adult too soon. Young Adult is about a grown woman who doesn`t want to become an adult. This movie is smartly written and well acted, definately worth your time. It is not as easy to like as Juno because the central character isn`t really likeable. Perhaps Theron`s character is more complex than Juno, she is no doubt darker. My advice is: you should go see it, but don`t expect a feelgood-movie. It is funny at times, but ironically it is more mature.
I believe Theron was skipped over for the Oscars despite support for her to get a nomination from this one. At least she still has her win from Monster.
Glad to hear your thoughts and I'll be sure to watch it. -{
8th Place on its opening weekend in the states! Nobody saw it!
It has gotten mixed to positive reviews: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wanderlust_2011/
Somehow I missed this when it came out a few years ago. Ron Howard directs from a Peter Morgan screenplay adapted from Morgan's own stage play. Frank Langella and Michael Sheen reprise their stage roles as Richard Nixon and David Frost, respectively. I had thought this would be more of a straightforward reenactment of the famous 1977 interview, but in fact it is much more. For example, I had no idea how Frost labored tirelessly to get funding from networks, sponsors and anyone else who could help finance what some people thought was a pipe dream of his. Nor did I realize that many in the news business thought of him as little more than a glib dilettante. Langella and Sheen are magnificent and they are aided by a superb ensemble cast, the highlights of which for me were Oliver Platt as one of Frost's supporting researchers and Toby Jones as the famous agent Swifty Lazar.
My only gripe with the film was that Morgan's and Howard's political biases show through a bit too much. The film goes out of its way to emphasize Nixon's less savory traits, with multiple references to his supposed greed and even including a drunken midnight phone call that never actually happened. The story was originally written in part to tie in with the supposed abuses of power of the Bush/Cheney years, so gets a bit heavy-handed at times. Whatever.
All in all, an excellent film that flies by.
I rented this one mainly because it stars Henry Cavill as Thesus and Freida Pinto as the Oracle. Oh, Mickey Rourke plas bad guy Hyperion. I soon discovered the best reason to see this movie - it is directed by Tarssem Singh. He has previously made The Fall and The The Cell. Singh`s movies are very stylized and visual. Clothes, arcitecture and everything else is very creative and striking. The director speaks art and painting as inspiration. Most hots do look like surrealist paintings, perhaps something by Salvador Dali. No surprise then that Tarsem Singh makes movies about different worlds, even the subconciosness.
This time it`s in the world of Greek mytology. Not the world of ancient Greece, but the world of gods, monsters and heroes. This works very well with Yarsem Singhs style, strangly the only thing that doesn`t work for me are the gods. Their cosumes are just too stranf they become silly. Still, The Immortals looks stunning and grand.
Singh has probably been a bit weak on story in the past, a case of style over substance. This time the plot works. The action scenes are very well. Complex fight scenes with a dozen actors and stuntmen are often filmed in long takes with no cuts. Impressive! Henry Cavill trained long and hard for this and it shows. He is ripped and he looks convincing killing off multiple oponents in difficult, long and uncut takes. I think Cavill is a movie star in this. He carries the movie and he looks like a grown man. He looks like James Bond. He is British, has star quality, is tall and dark and exells in demanding fight scens. At the end of the decade when it is likely Craig hangs up the tux, Cavill will be n his mid thirties. Only superstardom should be able to keep him from being a major Bond candidate. Also, Freida Pinto must be one of the the most beautiful actresses in cinema right now. An obvius Bond girl candidate.
My dad was the biggest Marilyn Monroe fan around; watched her movies whenever one came on TV; had DVD copies of “Some Like It Hot,” “The Seven Year Itch,” and---his favorite---“River Of No Return,” also starring Robert Mitchum…
I always bought a Marilyn Monroe calendar for my dad every Christmas. This last Christmas, he told me not to bother. Seemed strange at the time, but he said that he already had 20 Marilyn calendars, and they were probably repeating themselves anyway. So I honored his request, and didn’t get him a calendar for Christmas. When he died suddenly, on January 10th, I wondered if he hadn’t known something on some level…
I saw “My Week With Marilyn,” starring the positively luminous Michelle Williams, at the Lincoln Theatre this afternoon, as the first half of a double feature. What a fantastic and engaging film, not only for movie buffs (there’s a lot of ‘inside baseball’ stuff on the film industry inherent in the story), but also for those who appreciate great acting performances. The story is told from the point of view of a 23 year old 3rd AD (assistant director) on a film Monroe did with Laurence Olivier, which would eventually be entitled “The Prince and the Showgirl,” when the young man had a very brief relationship with the star during her stay in London for the production in 1956, while she was married to writer Arthur Miller. Marilyn drove classically-trained stage actor Olivier to insanity with her adherence to the Stanislavsky acting ‘method,’ and of course with her chronic tardiness and unpredictability.
Now, purists and pedants will no doubt say that Ms Williams isn’t as beautiful as Marilyn was…which may be true---who was?---but Michelle Williams completely inhabits/channels the tragic Hollywood legend, bringing her vulnerabilities and sensuality to brilliant three-dimensional life. I will own this film, and re-watch it often.
Many times during the film, I reflexively thought: “Pop’s going to love this!” And as the credits rolled, I shed my first tears for my father in many weeks, very unexpectedly, as another layer of his absence settled in over me. I hope he’s gotten to meet her.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
I am very sorry to hear of your loss, Loeffelholz. I can relate to what you are going through as my dear Mother passed away almost three years ago. The last film we saw together at the cinema was Casino Royale. She was not really a Bond fan but wanted to see what all the fuss was about regarding Daniel Craig. She liked Craig and the film but was more interested in Vesper's Algerian love knot.
She was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease about a year later and I subsequently gave up basically everything to look after her full time. That meant I did not see Quantum of Solace at the cinema. Therefore, when I go to see Skyfall I will no doubt be reflecting back to Casino Royale and probably shedding a tear or two of my own.
Anyway. . .
Last night I saw Drive, which I thought would be a sort-of mindless action movie. To my surprise, it's actually a smart, complicated film that has its sensibilities in the 1970s: Ryan Gosling's Driver is a Man With No Name trying to do the right thing in a violent Sam Peckinpah-ish world. And the usually hilarious Albert Brooks is brilliantly evil. I'm glad I put this in my Netflix queue.
http://apbateman.com
A nice bit of retro homage styling and a spark of brutality, the film had me all the way through. Carey Mulligan and Ryan Gosling share few lines, but you can completely get the tone that their eyes set. It all has a satisfying excitement played into an artistically smart mood. It is fun by having so much look and feel right with glimpses of deep wrong dropping in to spoil the up and up that comes from Gosling's relationship with his neighbors.
I enjoyed it and it overall felt like a film that knows how to be effortlessly cool.
Thanks, my friend. And may I say that it's a great pleasure to have you here again amongst us. I've been rather spotty in my attendance of late, but hope to be more of a regular once again. Cheers!
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Thanks for the compliment, Loeffelholz.
I look forward to your more regular appearances. It will be nice to engage again and have some good old banter......especially about Roger Moore Bond.
I finally got around to seeing Martin Scorsese's love letter to the early days of film. Lonely orphan Hugo is stealing spare parts from the shop of an old toymaker to fix a mysterious automaton, all the while being chased around by a strict stationmaster keen on sending him to the orphanage. A chance encounter with with the shopkeeper's granddaughter leads to adventure, redemption and ultimately fulfillment.
The cast is all very good and earnest. Asa Butterfield makes for a sympathetic little urchin and you can't help but root for him. Its also refreshing and reassuring to see Chloe Grace Moretz in a normal role where she isn't bludgeoning villains, spewing profanity or tearing unsuspecting victims apart and drinking their blood. Ben Kingsley is very good as legendary filmmaker Georges Melies, Sasha Baron Cohen brings some nice comedy relief (and even a twinge of heartache and romance) and even the great Christopher Lee makes a few appearances.
Hugo of course got a lot of press for being shot in 3D and Scorsese really pushes the medium with all shorts of inventive shots and pans and visual tricks. The film makes good use of 3D photography's properties to create an image full of depth and height. The panoramic shots of Paris, the train station and the inner workings of the huge clocks that Hugo calls home seem to go on for ever and the obligatory objects popping out of the screen are few but well integrated into the film. It easily out-3D's James Cameron's Avatar and it seems fitting that a film that pays tribute to one of the earliest innovators in film be shot in 3D; I think Melies himself would have probably gotten a chuckle out of the experience. If you know someone who owns a 3D TV this is definitely a fun exercise for the eyes.
I've never been a big fan of Scorsese's work as I really don't gravitate towards mob or gangster movies but this was a refreshing change of pace - a sweet, innocent movie with a happy ending utterly devoid of violence, profanity or explosions (when's the last time you saw one of those) and were it not for the technology it would be easy to think it had been released in another era.
The ones I enjoyed the most were;
Big Miracle, which I took Oliver to see.... didn't realise that this event (about 2 wales, and thier baby who got trapped in Alaska) was such big news back in the 80's. I guess it didn't quite filter over here, as much as it hit the news in the States. It was a cute movie...although a lot of it went over Oliver's head. However it produced some good converstaions in the car on the way home.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Utterly brilliant. A real feel good movie about a group of retirees who decide to go to India to a newly opened retirement hotel.... we learn about their circumstances... and their histories...and subsequent relationships which form over a period of 8 or so months.
A stella cast, Dame Judy, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Tom wilkinson et all....this is just a wonderful feel good movie, and one which I will buy when it comes out on DVD. 5 stars
A room with a view
This was on the telly the other day... and it reminded me why this is one of my favourite movies. I must have seen it over 20 times.... and it was still as good as I remembered....
Arthur Christmas - A movie that answers how Santa Claus delivers presents to billions of children throughout the world in a single night: a high-tech flying sleigh the size of the Enterprise, crewed by heavily tooled up elves who deliver the presents with military precision, captained by a Santa who is the latest in a long dynasty of Santas. Malcolm Claus (Jim Broadbent) is the incumbent Santa, with Steve Claus (Hugh Laurie) as his trusty lieutenant and eldest son, the real brains behind the staggering logistics of worldwide present delivery and poised to replace his father. However a single bicycle gets overlooked in the bowls of Santa’s sleigh ship and it’s up to the chronically clumsy Arthur Claus (James McAvoy) and the hilariously un-PC, long retired Grand-Santa (Bill Nighy) to deliver the bike to a English girl before Christmas Eve ends. Aardman Animation this time does a CGI feature that matches up better to the likes of Dreamworks and Pixar than its previous effort, the somewhat lukewarm Flushed Away. It has a quirky British inventiveness and humour to it that makes a change from the American take on things. Also the voice cast is universally excellent, especially Hugh Laurie (channelling the sneering arrogance of Dr. Gregory House) as Steve, the emotionally distant wannabe Santa who has gotten completely lost under a mountain of corporatism and military planning. 8/10
The Little Norse Prince - Decades old but oddly refreshing Japanese animated movie made in a more innocent era of Japanese anime, safely far away from the hentai, tentacle rape, and terrifying saucer eyed girls with pink hair. A film that included Hayao Miyazaki in its animation team, you also get the sneaking suspicion that it influenced Shigeru Miyamoto who produced The Legend of Zelda, and is about a adventurous, orphaned Viking boy who fights a cruel Nordic demi-god, Grunwald, who threatens to destroy a village with his terrible magic. It has interesting animation that can be somewhat stilted and clumsy (though not as terrible as in Speed Racer) juxtaposed with skilfully animated segments that are years ahead of their time. Unlike a lot of anime, it’s suited for family viewing but seems a little drawn out for very young children. 7/10
I turned on BBC4 on friday eve and there was George Martin banging on with this Beatle anecdote and I thought, 'Here we go again'. But no, it was Martin Scorcese's acclaimed bio of Harrison.
It's very well done, quite engrossing. The hippy era, for instance, isn't quite done chronologically, like Revolver, Sgt Pepper, White Album and so on, it kind of merges and doubles back on itself. You get a sense of that era unlike before. Starr contributes and is on good form, Macca does the usual stuff but nothing too revelatory from him. Harrison comes across very well though there are some dark stuff admitted, the mediocrity of his mid 70s output and a great moment on the Aspel chat show in the 1980s when Starr, sat beside and awkward and Quiet George on the sofa, cheerfully mentions the time when Harrison tried to sue him.
A lot of his spiritual journey is interesting but not wholly convincing - at points you think, well, has he brainwashed himself through the Krisha sect? And a certain glibness when it comes to other people's passing, such as Epstein and Lennon. Then I recalled the brilliant Ross Noble routine about the drunk and the Hare Krishna crowd (look it up on youtube).
Yet the scenes around Harrison's eventual death, when the camera focuses on what seems to be his grave, is brilliantly done, not to mention his widow Olivia's reference to some holy or golden glow that inhabited the room when Harrison's soul departed. Bugger me, I doubt I'd rustle up enough to illuminate a matchbox when I depart this earth.
No reference at all to George's Cloud 9 album from the late 1980s.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Kiki’s Delivery Service - That’s more like it! This is one of Studio Ghibli’s better outputs and back when Hayao Miyazaki was in his prime. Set in a alternative Earth, in a historical era similar to the late 50s and early 60s, in a unnamed country that bares similarities to Italy, Sweden, and France, witches who fly on brooms and converse with animals are valued pillars of the community. Kiki, just 13 years old, is one of these witches setting out into the wide world on her flying broom with no adult supervision, with just her wisecracking cat, Jiji. As usual with classic Moyazaki, he has a great love for the wide open vistas of the deep blue sky and ocean, and tells a relatively simplistic plot that hides deeper meaning (in this case not neglecting your talent). The action scenes are light hearted and mildly perilous, and it drags a bit halfway through, however it all ramps up brilliantly towards the end. And there is some brilliant world building that helps the storyline and characters rather than distracting from them, by adding lots of unanswered questions (like with the lukewarm Tales of Earthsea). 9/10
The only Japanese animation/anime studio I like. I am usually set in my ways with enjoying Western animation exclusively, but I make exceptions when Studio Ghibli is the team behind the pictures.
I enjoyed the film very much for its 60s Hollywood charm. It has the lure of using some of the biggest stars of the era in a romanticized investigation and an engaging plot. Faye Dunaway is a longtime favorite of mine thanks to Chinatown and Bonnie & Clyde. Steve McQueen shows off one of his many performances that make him just so cool to watch. Definitely worth a watch and a great example of a classic movie.
Yeah, it's a really good film. It has a little more class than the remake, better chemistry between the lead cast as well.
http://apbateman.com
I had minimal knowledge of the Thor character before watching the film, yet I was highly entertained and impressed by the work of Director Kenneth Branagh and star Chris Hemsworth. The film strikes a good balance between character development, action and comedy to provide two hours of entertainment.
Thor is a powerful, but arrogant son of Odin the King of Asgard, played by Anthony Hopkins. After ignoring one of his father’s orders, Thor is banished to earth. While on earth, Thor meets and falls in love with scientist Jane Foster played by Natalie Portman, meets the agents from SHIELD and learns humility and sacrifice from his friends on earth.
Whoever did the casting for Thor did an excellent job, as Chris Hemsworth seems perfect for the role of Thor, Anthony Hopkins has a commanding presence as Odin the King of Asgard, and Natalie Portman is excellent as scientist Jane Foster. Some of the smaller players like Kat Dennigs as Darcy, Portman’s somewhat eccentric assistant and Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Thor’s brother also provide good performances.
The world of Asgard is gloriously presented in CGI beauty and stands in contrast to the barren look of the earth location, New Mexico. Director Kenneth Branagh does an excellent job of juxtapositioning the two worlds and the characters that inhabit them. The writers also deserve credit for a script that I found intelligent and at times humorous.
I enjoyed Thor more than I expected and I look forward to the sequel. It also raised my excitement for this summer’s release of The Avengers, as with all the Marvel films we get a small, but compelling tease for The Avengers at the end of the Thor credits.
Recommend