Had to laugh and cringe in front of my wife at the "lovely" scene. While watching I started counting the number of ways this film wouldn't or couldn't be made today. I got to about 11 and then just started enjoying it. I liked the subtle things like Bob Rusk's fruit obsession. Hitch back to his best for the very last time.
I love that 'lovely' scene. It makes me laugh just thinking of it now. I watched 'Family Plot' a few weeks back. Like Frenzy it isnt vintage Hitchcock but still a good film.
7.5/10 Johnny 0'Clock (1947). Excellent Dick Powell film noir. Fine performances from Powell and Lee J Cobb. You can find this on youtube.... But beware one of the prints is lousy so make sure you look for the one uploaded by eba becanoba.
7/10. The Best of Enemies (2019). Powerful and involving drama based on the remarkable true story of a KKK chief who becomes friends with a black activist.
3/10. Aladdin. Dreadful live action remake of the Disney cartoon. Has very little going for it and many reasons to avoid.... insipid performances, the two hours running time, a genie that is not Robin Williams, the 'woke' princess etc etc
Roman J. Isreal, Esq 6/10 Great performance by Denzel Washington. Also good to see Colin Farrell and Carmen Ejogo in something half-decent. It sort of feels like it should have been a better film, though. I quite liked the score in it. The performances make it worth watching.
Passengers (2008) 3/10 Patrick Wilson and Anne Hathaway are good in this very slight story.
The Endless 3.5/10 Death cult members return to their cult. Not all is as it seems. Not a bad idea but it's about half an hour too long and becomes tiresome. I hadn't realised it's a semi-sequel to the film Resolution (it shares scenes from a different persepctive), which was garbage; all dull build-up to a laughable last minute, like Blair Witch Project. This film has needlessly wobbly camerawork, that just annoys, some bad CGI and a generally flat, cheap look.
12 Strong 5/10 Afghanistan war action. A series of dull, similar battles. Too little characterisation in the 12 man team. It does has the excellent Navid Negahban in it as a warlord, making it worth watching.
Other People 5/10 Jesse Plemmons is very good in this rather depressing drama about his dying mother, that has some nice humour throughout.
Into the Forest 1.5/10 Godawful, depressing end of the world drama. The main actresses are very good, but the world-building is terrible and nothing of interest happens in this terrible slow film. Nice Max Richter score.
The Yellow Birds 5.5/10 Alden Ehrenreich is an actor I really like, and he's very good in this modern war drama. There's also a decent supporting cast, but the emotional journey, if not the actual story, feels like it's been told before.
Clumsy but earnest stab at Lovecraftian strangeness. Sympathetic protagonists would have gone a long way in elevating the elements of psychological horror, because, otherwise, serving up a horrible upper-middle class family to unknown cosmic terror seems entirely anti-climactic.
Despite some faults, largely due to a less than coherent script, this is an enjoyable comedy thriller, though the early death scene is a little too serious for this specific genre.
This TV satellite broadcast boasted excellent w/s image and sound ... allowing me to enjoy Elmer Bernstein's score. I used to have a cassette tape recording, long gone, and I'd forgotten how good this one is.
Although I'm not a fan of any of the three stars, I particularly enjoyed Robert Redford's performance. It's a shame that Terence Stamp's role was so brief (the typical English bad-guy) and it looks, to me, as if said role was a victim of the script changes which apparently plagued the film.
Oh, and I kept thinking it was Jodie Foster ... not Debra Winger ... I was watching Mitch
The Captive 6/10 Ryan Reynolds is excellent as a father whose kid was abducted 8 years earlier, and now it looks like she may be alive. It's really a bit daft (I find Atom Egoyan films to be massively over-rated), but his performance and Rosario Dawson's make it worth watching. Plus, it's set entirely in very snowy Canada, so it's like looking out the window. I did enjoy the Mychael Danna score quite a lot.
Gerald's Game 4/10 Despite a very good central performance from Carla Gugino, and good support from Bruce Greenwood, this story really goes off the rails in the last ten minutes in a Stephen King on coke kind of way.
Peter Rabbit 6/10 There's a lot of fun stuff in this, kids should enjoy it.
Only The Brave 6/10 A great cast on top form with some good support from actors like Taylor Kitsch and James Badge Dale, who i've seen in a few films recently and have really stood out. A sad true life story of the Yarnell Hill Fire, that's told in a rather formulaic manner.
Deepwater Horizon 7.8/10 Kurt Russell and Mark Wahlberg are both great in this solidly done factual disaster movie.
Interesting western about 3 soldiers who are robbed by thieves on way to Medicine Bend buy supplies for a settlement. Subsequently they stay on in town undercover to find the culprits and go up against a crook and his henchman that run the town. Early role for James Garner as Scott's Sergeant and Angie Dickinson was very beautiful when young. 6.8 out of 10.
Victoria & Abdul 6.5/10 Nicely written and directed story of Queen Vic and her Indian mate. Dench is on form as a miserable old bat, a role she's played for the last 300 years. A pleasant score by Thomas Newman.
Den 12. Mann (The 12th Man) 7/10 Pretty decent retelling of an astonishing true story of a Norwegian soldier evading capture by the Germans in 1943. A film that actually gets cold weather right - it frequently looks freezing.
Embryo (1976). 6/10.Rock Hudson creates Barbara Carrera, whom he shags a few weeks later. Naff but creepy with a decent score from Gil Melle
The Workshop (2017). 6/10 Interesting French film about a writing workshop. An intellectual exercise for much of the time, towards the end it develops into a more traditional thriller
Dogman (2018). 5/10. Italian film about a dog groomer. Terrific lead performance but dislikable characters making ridiculous decisions alienate the audience
Ghost house (1988) 2/10. Dreadful horror from Umberto Lenzi. The acting is incredibly bad. Amateurish is being too kind. The music and Cinematography are the best things about the film.
Films about card games and films with voice-overs I find almost always boring or tiresome. But this is well written by Aaron Sorkin and breezes along pretty briskly but is massively overlong. This one is surprisingly watchable due to Jessica Chastain who is really excellent in the lead, despite being lumbered with an almost entirely unlikeable character.
In every scene she lets someone else know she's better read, more intelligent, more thoughtful, and just "better" than everyone - her dad, her lawyer (she knows the law better and how to parent his kid better), other lawyers, ice-rink security, and every player she deals with, basically any man. She starts a card game for the uber-rich, and when it's taken away her voice-over whines that her situation is unfair and "men" are the problem. Her dad was apparently a cheat, so it's okay to hate men. She then sets up another game - "a frat house for degenerates" - recruiting highly intelligent Playboy Playmates as recruiters and hostesses - starts skimming and knowingly gets mixed up with the mob.
By the end she's still money-hungry (despite the voice-over claiming otherwise), drug-addicted (she's tired, tired of it all, it just helps her through her rough days), Russian Mafia connected, and as arrogant than ever. And nothing is ever her fault.
Howard's End 7/10
The Departed 8.5/10
Serena 3/10 Dull, depression-era drama with decent acting, lots of Brits cast in it for some reason, good actors too but with some ropey American accents.
American Assassin 1.5/10 Really poor spy thriller. Feels like it was written by a teenager in the 90s after they'd binge-watched a load of spy thriller.
Killing Season 1/10 Not a bad idea, but not a great script and a really poor film. Travolta is exceptionally poor and his Serbian accent keeps veering towards a Schwarzenegger impression.
PARASITE follows the down-on-their-luck, but opportunistic "Kim" family, led by Song Kang Ho, who gradually inveigle themselves into the lives of the wealthy "Park" family, headed by Lee Sun Kyun. The Kims do this by fair means and foul (mostly), and in the end are serving as the Park's tutors, driver, and housemaid. Although, they obtained their positions primarily through playing some dirty tricks on the previous holders of those jobs, for the most part, the Kims aren't thieves and are serving the Park family fairly well. At the midpoint of the film, once these relationships are established, one wonders where the story is going to go.
Writer-director Bong Joon Ho must have had the same thoughts. Having seemingly written himself into a corner, Bong has the screenplay take a sharp left turn into crazy-land. We move from some observant, humorous, plausible domestic situations, into desperation and then on to madness and violence. It's all well-performed by the cast, who won a Screen Actors Guild Award for their ensemble playing. But it was a bit too much of a deus ex machina for me, and knocked the film down a point.
I've been wanting to see this film - again - for many years, though not quite enough to spend the money on buying the DVD. It's probably thirty years since my last viewing and I had forgotten some parts, although I know the story, having re-read the novel by John Le Carré (Call for the Dead) ... twice in recent years. Twice because, for me, outside the main storyline (Why did the FO official commit suicide just hours after he had been interviewed by Smiley/Dobbs?), the novel is instantly forgettable.
Anyhow, based on what I can recall of said novel, the film keeps largely to the same plot but makes a major change in that it brings Ann, something of a sideline character in the novel, in as a significant one on screen. And somehow this doesn't really work. Perhaps it is the performance by Harriet Andersson ...
On the plus side we have James Mason in good form ably supported (and to a great extent: out-played) by the wonderful Harry Andrews. His presence makes the film highly watchable. Neither Kenneth Haigh (playing character Bill Appleby, though I thought it should be Peter Guillam ... or my failing memory) nor Maximilian Schell/Dieter Frey were particularly good. Seeing Roy Kinnear in the role of Adam Scarr is highly amusing.
Simone Signoret's presence gives the story more gravitas but she's in only a few short scenes ... and I can't recall whether there is anything revealed about her character's background which supports her role.
The Smiley character, renamed as Dobbs (apparently Paramount which had made the more famous The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) owned the original name) is played much more earthy than the literary figure.
The washed-out image (a new idea then) makes everything dark and dingy ... and tiresome. And Quincy Jones' score, lovely melody, etc. is ... I'm afraid not particularly effective. The overlaid melodic theme playing whilst Dobbs and his wife have their early row is completely misplaced. It appears as if this tune played every time the scene was set in Dobbs' house. I like the score on CD but it wasn't good enough for the visuals.
I saw Deadly affair on talking pix i think not long ago. I remember the Jones soundtrack LP being everywhere. Film a little slow but interesting enough.
I nearly docked it a point for including so many cliches, but decided against it because I don't know how many of them WERE cliches at this time. So instead I docked it a point for Victor Young including so much reference to pre-existing music - chiefly the Marine's ditty "From the Halls of Montezuma...".
Otherwise very solid film about John Wayne's hard-arsed sergeant trying to whip recruits into shape to keep them alive during the sweep through the islands.
A better than average British B-movie with studio sets complemented by lovely Catalonian scenery. It is a bit stage-y but don't let that put you off. Although not an original story (what is?), if you don't know the plot then it is intriguing: man arrives at villa claiming to be the owner's brother whilst she claims said brother died a year earlier.
You're left guessing as to who is telling the truth, or could it be the lady is having a mental breakdown; when he acts as if he's not sure of his facts and the local police get involved then earlier guesses may need revision.
The eventual resolution/denouement could almost be that of an Alistair MacLean thriller.
The small cast act their roles well, though it may be difficult to accept Richard Todd as the villain, and - as I've found before - Anne Baxter talks too much! (Perhaps I simply don't like her voice ... )
The music score by Mátyás Seiber is interesting (a little mickey-mouse in places) with a lovely romantic theme and this is further enhanced by guitarist Julian Bream who promotes the Spanish flavour.
Well worth 90 minutes ... I gave up on it a few months ago but I'm pleased I gave it a second chance. Even knowing the plot I'd happily watch it again. Mitch
Interesting western about 3 soldiers who are robbed by thieves on way to Medicine Bend buy supplies for a settlement. Subsequently they stay on in town undercover to find the culprits and go up against a crook and his henchman that run the town. Early role for James Garner as Scott's Sergeant and Angie Dickinson was very beautiful when young. 6.8 out of 10.
Just watching Young Billy Young....Angie Dickinson as a saloon girl again. Wonder how many times she played that? Its like Fernando Rey as a priest in westerns. I think he was in 3!
Mascots 6/10 An okay, mildly amusing Christopher Guest mockumentary about a sports mascot competition.
D-Tox AKA Eye See You 1.5/10 Abysmal early 2000s Stallone vehicle, a police thriller set in a secluded detox clinic in the middle of a snowstorm, with a killer on the loose. Does nothing to see any character up outside of having them literally explained to Stallone in a couple of lines. It had a very troubled production, and it shows. Wastes a great cast. I think i read whoever did the score had to redo it a couple times and it still got mostly dumped (but could be wrong).
I loved the part where June Lockhart hilariously acted out shooting "The Great Vegetable Rebellion," and then that part where Austin Wolf recounted his Mile-High Club imbroglio. Hey, it's Ray Liotta!
Sorry, my attention wandered there for a moment. Was I supposed to be giving a damn?
