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Reviews
Stan & Ollie (2018)
A quietly brilliant movie
Was not quite sure what to expect when turning up to see this movie of Stand and Ollie. Like many I suppose I had memories of the black and white movies shown on TV and recollect enjoying them as a kid - so perhaps seeing this movie was out of respect for my childhood.
The movie gives an insight into the relationship of Stan & Ollie during the latter stages of their life via a stage tour organized in the UK. Initial performances were poorly marketed with low turnout, but by the end of the tour stardom spoke and Stan and Ollie were performing to sold out London theater audiences. Stardom, talent and humor shone through.
I found this a magical movie, that was entirely captivating from start to finish: The movie explores the Stan and Ollie relationship, their humor, and towards the end, their sorrow as age finally takes its toll on both.
This is a must see movie: Quite brilliant and I hope both main characters earn Oscars for the Movie, as well as the Movie itself - the supporting wives of Stan and Ollie were equally fabulous and more than deserve supporting actor Oscars ...
Brilliant.
First Man (2018)
Very Watchable Movie - Shame about the rushed ending
First Man held my attention from start to finish - always a good sign - but the final scenes from leaving the moon to isolation periods were rushed, and hugely disappointing - putting two men on the moon was one thing - getting them back quite another - a missed opportunity to make the film an all around great watch.
One might instead want to argue that the movie was about Neil Armstrong the person. This makes for a difficult topic because reports have it that Armstrong was chosen to be first man on the moon because of his introversion and lacking in external ego which makes for a challenging script - but raises interesting questions - the choice of Buzz Aldrin as partner was influenced by Neil Armstrong
Jim Lovell - why was this - what was their relationship? The movie places more focus on the Apollo 1 astronaughts and Mrs Armstrong so we never really get to find out much about the relationships across the three folk riding Apollo 11 - shame.
The Children Act (2017)
An intelligent Thought Provoking Movie
How does one balance a life dedicated to public service 24/7 against a personal life? The reality is that one cannot, and so must rely on the sacrifice of oneself and others.
Emma Thompson plays this challenging role with superb ease while the main movie theme deals with the contradictions posed by religious belief and scientific progress via the legal system, which neatly folds back to the personal life.
In character, Emma Thompson saves a boy, who in turn saves her through his death.
Seek help if you come out of this movie with a dry eyes.
Excellent.
A United Kingdom (2016)
Fabulous Movie - Brought Tears to my Eyes.
As I walked out of the movie auditorium - I turned to the family sitting next to me and said - "Never Trust a Tory" - which for American readers is a Republican like Trump. Liars all.
A moving true story based upon ricochets of South African Apartheid in Neighboring Botswana when the English Educated heir to the crown of Botswana falls for an English girl.
Political intrigue from commodity assets buried deep in Botswana soil to colonial Britain keeping South Africa close to its chest for Uranium assets in order to develop atomic bombs.
Personal intrigue from the human story of a mixed race couple being forced apart by an untrustworthy UK government with mixed agendas.
Loved the movie would recommend to each and every liberal of this world - if you are not a liberal and enjoy this move ... you might consider being one!
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
The movie still has 50 minutes to go on the TV
I'm guessing that I am not the only one who finds IMDb ratings strange- 7.1 with so many negative posts? No-way - this undermines the IMDb brand.
Thoroughly enjoyed the first 3 Spidey movies - but when I saw the fourth come out as a revamp of Spidey 1 - the question was why - especially given the recent Batman, Superman revamps which were atrocious.
This movie follows suit as a terrible flop - Spidey is supposed to have a touch of humour about him - but really - shooting a web to the mouth to shut a criminal up? A sarcastic ha ha first time - second time Zzzzzz even if it was the lizard.
Cardboard script, cardboard acting but at least there are only 37 minutes left ..... and what happened or is happening?
Don't care.
Robinson Crusoe (1997)
Daniel Defoe would 'turn in his grave' .......
Let me start off by noting that this movie would rank highly in my top ten of worst movies ever. There are three main characters: Robinson, Friday and a dog called skipper. The smart one out of the three would appear to be the doggie, who committed suicide in the midst of the movie. Perhaps the doggie had read through the remaining script and decided that suicide, given Rin Tin Tin's status as the all time cult doggie hero, was not under threat, was the decent thing to do. I concur.
The movie begins with a script brought back to Scotland by the shipwrecked Robinson who has managed to be saved. The irony that Robinson left Scotland as an accused murderer following a dual with a friend, and returned to Scotland through a similar route after a dual with Friday - was not lost on me - but just in case I didn't get it - the background narration made sure the point was voiced. Thanks but no thanks. The saving of Robinson, by Friday followed an attack on his shared dwellings by cannibals. Shock, horror I can hear you say, but given Friday's rapid take up of the Scottish language, it does make you wonder why such an intelligent man could not have escorted Robinson back home at the earliest opportunity and spared many of us a tedious last 40 minutes of the storyline. Still without Friday's brilliance, or perhaps the dying and hallucinogenic Robinson, after being wounded in a cannibal raid, but still managed to sober up sufficiently to point Friday in the direction of his journal, with those immortal words: "Save my Journal Friday ..." Robinson's manuscript might have been left on the Island, and this particular tale lost. Pity.
Into the Woods (2014)
Tedious second half
Having a partner who loves theatre, this was a must be dragged along to movie. I read the cinematic reviews beforehand which were less than complimentary - but decided to go to the film with an unbiased view.
What I assumed would be the first half of the play - i.e. the set up of the various stories of 'into the woods' was entertaining. Merryl Streep was entertaining in her role as witch, and the story developed reasonably well.
Ten minutes into the what I assumed would be the second half of the play i.e. after the intermission, I was looking for the exit door. It was painful, slow, and tedious. Far too long dealing with polite conversation across actors passing a baby from one actor to another with an irritating interplay between an Americanized perception of a London accent delivered by Jack supplemented by an irritating American twang by little red riding hood. The combination didn't work in Mary Poppins - so there was no reason to suppose that the combination would still work some 50 years later.
The scene in which Jonny Depp played cameo as the wolf in the first half with little red riding hood - implied a great deal of sexual innuendo - which may be the origins of the fairy tale - but in 2015 we have laws against 'coming on' to minors - and so this aspect was uncomfortable and looked out of place. Little Red Riding Hood should have been played by a somewhat older individual to move with the current times.
Hence 2/10 - not one of Disney's shining performances.
The Railway Man (2013)
Superb Movie- A must see.
Reading critical reviews, and blog comments, would lead one to expect a slow movie, saved purely by its link with the autobiography of Eric Lomax. Equally, one might also expect the message of atrocity in the Burmese death camps to be one that has been been played many times over with little to be added. Sceptics will further point to tenuous links with US actions in Quantanamo and various torture scenes in the movie as having a dig at the USA. A somewhat egocentric view and one that misses the point of the film. One might expect such a response from the narrow minded.
This movie describes a journey that ends with compassion. The kind of compassion shown by the Scottish people in the premature release of the alleged bomber of the Lockerbie PAN AM flight in 1988 owing to cancer and one cemented by the friendship between the author Lomax and his Japanese captor. Eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth people are unlikely to accept the message.
The story is probably not unusual in describing atrocity - but what is unusual is the outcome in which captor and prisoner meet to become friends with mutual respect and understanding. Frith is an accomplished actor and gives a sound performance. Kidman plays an English wife - and looks every bit the part.
Is the movie slow? Depends upon your benchmark. If as a movie watcher you like the kind of movie that moves quickly, exists without a story line and is filled with extended special effects - to the point where you sit through the movie wondering what is going on - then this one is not for you.
If, however, you like a good story, with good acting, time to think through the movie and what it is saying to you, then this is certainly one to consider watching.
I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Well done to all.
American Hustle (2013)
Reasonable
A fair movie working on the template of Goodfellers but without the violence or tension. Acting was reasonable, although many of the characters are slightly cardboard in their presentation. There is a twist at the end but to be honest, it was neither a surprise nor a shock - it was just the way it was - which is a testament to the movie's ability to engage.
I liked the story - but as a film it missed something - which was disappointing. A film to watch but not rave about. 70's moments really didn't fit in - one might have expected Travolta to jump in and add some character to the scenes. I'm guessing the make believe testosterone scenes of lust were supposed to capture one - but it didn't work for me.
The character I really liked was Jennifer Lawrence who I thought played her role exceptionally well.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
No need for Spoilers - This one Spoils Batman.
Without doubt the worst Batman Movie that I have seen.
The plot: Confusing and out of sync - a rehash of another Hollywood Blockbuster that I enjoyed but whose title I forget. A city held to ransom by a fusion bomb that might go orf - tick tick tick.
The characters: Batman looks past it - badly beaten up - and then manages to come back to full form not once .. but twice (Yawn). The villain Bain you would imagine to be the main man - but low and behold the real villain is his side kick who has little to do with the plot, whats going on etc etc etc - kind of thing I would expect from a Harry Potter story rather than Batman.
Batman locked in jail - police underground - Batman has a way of escaping and does so from a broken position (Yawn Yawn Yawn).
Can we get back to basics here with the Penguin, Joker, The mad Hatter, The Riddler, The Scarecrow etc etc etc. as drawn in the original comic scripts.
AND
Where was Robin? Batman without Robin is like Ollie without Hardy
Gravity (2013)
A film worse than worse than Terrible
Some spoilers included.
Good visual effects but predictable and over-rated as a film. How this film won as many Oscars as it did is beyond me. Didn't see the film in 3-D but hey ho I must be old school: I like a story with good acting.
Not a patch on Apollo 13 - Mr Clooney plays the one character that he seems able to do : over confident & vein - which is fine in almost any other movie but this one.
Sandra Bullock oscillates between hysteria and nostalgia - not really very space like at all. The very idea that one could randomly push buttons to eject a Chinese landing module and arrive safely on earth was just silly. Not sure I would have acted any differently myself in the same situation mind you.
Somewhat dismayed that I am obliged to write 10 lines on this movie in order to post a review - because I would have thought the title of this review was enough.
A Bunch of Amateurs (2008)
Fabulous Movie Doing what Britain Does Best
A fun, low cost movie with a serious undertone portrayed in a light hearted manner - a classic example of what the UK does best putting story, humour and entertainment at the fore-front of the movie experience.
Reynolds plays an archaic Hollywood movie star looking to resurrect his career, via an agent whose relationship with the bailiff leaves him with a telephone and chair from which to do his business.
The star of the movie at the beginning of the show is a cheeky hound, munching through Reynold's boots. A few predictable Hollywood tantrums from the ageing movie star add to the ambiance of the movie - but the underpinning theme is one of grouping together under adverse and conflicting human forces.
Not quite a 'four weddings' nor a 'Notting Hill' but a lovely movie to watch over the Christmas festivities.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
This movie is being shown on TV
... and I'm on IMDb looking to see if I'm the only one who found this film tedious. Looks like I'm not!
I appreciate Potter is a growing lad ...... and growing lads want to find a girlfriend ...
But the opening scene looked like the superman 2 movie - with baddies flying in from the mist. That looked promising except the same baddies re-appeared somewhat later in a corn field and I had lost the plot probably because I fell asleep with all seeming to be very tame, uninspiring and boring.
Maybe I should go and read this book - but then again I read the first first book and wasn't convinced - the plots need conjured coincidences to work - well the main characters are magicians - but then how do you put magicians in jail such that the can't just escape by waving a wand and uttering a few words? There seems little overall thought in putting the plots together in the series - I mean to say Voldemort is disembodied so he is not alive and he is not dead .. why is he the only one disembodied? Why are the prisoners of Azkhaban not disembodied too ... presumably if you can catch a wizard and stop him from teleporting himself from one place to another - then you might be able to contain the poor chap by disembodiment (whatever it means) ... give me the books and films from the Narnia series any day.
Lost in Translation (2003)
Boring
Wasted an hour or so waiting for something but nothing appeared. Am wondering how this film received its Oscar: 2003 must have been a pretty shoddy year for movies. Watching two people hardly speak, and when they do in monotones - makes for even less interest. Most memorable moment from the film was a two minute shave plus phone call giving notification of a FaX arriving. "Put in under the door". End of scene. Spent the next 10 minutes pondering why the scene was shot then gave up.
One problem with movies that portray 'true life' is that those lives are often uninteresting. Perhaps I should give myself an Oscar for the humdrum three of four weeks I've just lived - or - maybe the point of a boring film is to self reflect to makes one's own life less boring. I know, I'll go to the pictures to have some entertainment - that will make a change - but only so long as I don't go to see this movie!