Johnny English Strikes Again (David Kerr, 2018) 4/10
Silly return of "Mr Bean" in this third installment of spoofing the Bond movies. When a dastardly villain exposes all the active British agents the Government is forced to recall retired agents. Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson), working now as a school teacher, jumps at the chance especially after the trio of geriatric agents (Charles Dance, Michael Gambon, Edward Fox) also in line for the job are "disposed" off inadvertently by the bumbling agent. It's off to exotic places where he burns down a restaurant, flirts and tussles with a Russian agent (Olga Kurylenko) and gets on the nerves of the exasperated Prime Minister (Emma Thompson in fine form rattling off spiky one-liners). The big budget allows a fairly accurate impersonation of the Bond world although the humour is strictly juvenile. Atkinson, doing his usual schtick, has the jokes coming at breakneck speed most of which fall flat. A film for young kids who will find this nonsense amusing.
Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
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Alfred the Great (Clive Donner, 1969) 3/10
The screenplay distorts history for dramatic impact. Alfred (David Hemmings) gives up the priesthood to become King of Wessex in 849 AD after the death of his brother. Most of the film depicts his battles with the Danish Viking invaders and the kidnapping of his pregnant Queen (Prunella Ransome) by the Viking leader (Michael York). Alfred initially spurns his Queen on their wedding night due to guilt over turning the Church down. Later he rapes her and when she is kidnapped she more than recipocrates the affections of her captor later giving birth to Alfred's son. Unevenly acted film has rousing battle scenes and good production values. The film's best performance is by Ian McKellan in one of his very early film appearances as the leader of a group of bandits who provide shelter to the King. In actuality Alfred never approached the Church to become a priest nor was his Queen kidnapped by the Vikings. These events were added to make the story more dramatic.
The screenplay distorts history for dramatic impact. Alfred (David Hemmings) gives up the priesthood to become King of Wessex in 849 AD after the death of his brother. Most of the film depicts his battles with the Danish Viking invaders and the kidnapping of his pregnant Queen (Prunella Ransome) by the Viking leader (Michael York). Alfred initially spurns his Queen on their wedding night due to guilt over turning the Church down. Later he rapes her and when she is kidnapped she more than recipocrates the affections of her captor later giving birth to Alfred's son. Unevenly acted film has rousing battle scenes and good production values. The film's best performance is by Ian McKellan in one of his very early film appearances as the leader of a group of bandits who provide shelter to the King. In actuality Alfred never approached the Church to become a priest nor was his Queen kidnapped by the Vikings. These events were added to make the story more dramatic.
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First Reformed (Paul Schrader, 2018) 7/10
Schrader here proves that Muslims aren't the only nutjobs who go beserk with an overdose of religion. There are a number of equally fanatic, confused, tortured and self doubting clerics in the American Church as well who can be like a time bomb just waiting to blow up. A somber look at a self doubting Protestant minister (Ethan Hawke) undergoing a spiritual and psychological breakdown. Already suffering anguish over the death of his son, collapse of his marriage, a brief past affair, alcohol issues and in pain from cancer of the stomach, he gets involved in the life of a pregnant woman (Amanda Seyfried) whose husband commits suicide. The dead man was an environmentalist deeply depressed about living life in a world being abused by mankind. Yet another cause that pricks at the brain of the tortured man who heads a historical church in a small town with few flock to provide his sermons to - the main flock instead congregates at another nearby more popular church. Schrader is clearly chaneling the films of Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky, Carl Theodore Dryer and in particular Robert Bresson's "Diary of a Country Priest" with the minister using a diary here to speak his thoughts. The film's camera - moving slowly but often at a standstill - stares out at the colonial architecture of the church standing under a gray sky providing a glimpse into classic European cinema featuring religion. The film ends on an hysterical but euphoric note which the director intentionally leaves to the imagination of the audience. An emaciated Hawke, dressed in a stark black ankle-length cassock, gives a riveting and extremely moving performance adding to his screen resumé yet another film that shows the risks this actor is willing to take.
Schrader here proves that Muslims aren't the only nutjobs who go beserk with an overdose of religion. There are a number of equally fanatic, confused, tortured and self doubting clerics in the American Church as well who can be like a time bomb just waiting to blow up. A somber look at a self doubting Protestant minister (Ethan Hawke) undergoing a spiritual and psychological breakdown. Already suffering anguish over the death of his son, collapse of his marriage, a brief past affair, alcohol issues and in pain from cancer of the stomach, he gets involved in the life of a pregnant woman (Amanda Seyfried) whose husband commits suicide. The dead man was an environmentalist deeply depressed about living life in a world being abused by mankind. Yet another cause that pricks at the brain of the tortured man who heads a historical church in a small town with few flock to provide his sermons to - the main flock instead congregates at another nearby more popular church. Schrader is clearly chaneling the films of Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky, Carl Theodore Dryer and in particular Robert Bresson's "Diary of a Country Priest" with the minister using a diary here to speak his thoughts. The film's camera - moving slowly but often at a standstill - stares out at the colonial architecture of the church standing under a gray sky providing a glimpse into classic European cinema featuring religion. The film ends on an hysterical but euphoric note which the director intentionally leaves to the imagination of the audience. An emaciated Hawke, dressed in a stark black ankle-length cassock, gives a riveting and extremely moving performance adding to his screen resumé yet another film that shows the risks this actor is willing to take.
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Blow Out (Brian De Palma, 1981) 9/10
De Palma pays hommage to Antonioni's "Blow-Up" by way of Coppola's "The Conversation" in this paranoid conspiracy thriller which also incorporates elements of Chappaquiddick. A movie sound man (John Travolta), out in the wilds trying to record sounds at night, suddenly hears a car screeching and sees it fall down into a creek. He jumps into the water and rescues a woman (Nancy Allen) from the submerged car while a man inside drowns. Matters get suspicious when it is revealed that the dead man was a Presidential candidate and he discovers through that night's sound recording that a bullet went off just before the car crashed. When nobody believes him he enlists the aid of the woman who he discovers is a hooker who was involved with a sleazy photographer (Dennis Franz) in a blackmail set-up of the dead man. Chasing them is an assassin (John Lithgow) with an expertise in garotting and synchronised stabbing. Flashy thriller that allows the audience to witness the world of movie magic through the use of sound and editing as De Palma brilliantly incorporates both mediums into the suspenseful plot. The film is superbly shot by Vilmos Zsigmond with a wonderful edgy performance by Travolta. One of De Palma's best films complete with a number of his trademark Hitchcock touches one of which is played completely for laughs. Not to be missed.
De Palma pays hommage to Antonioni's "Blow-Up" by way of Coppola's "The Conversation" in this paranoid conspiracy thriller which also incorporates elements of Chappaquiddick. A movie sound man (John Travolta), out in the wilds trying to record sounds at night, suddenly hears a car screeching and sees it fall down into a creek. He jumps into the water and rescues a woman (Nancy Allen) from the submerged car while a man inside drowns. Matters get suspicious when it is revealed that the dead man was a Presidential candidate and he discovers through that night's sound recording that a bullet went off just before the car crashed. When nobody believes him he enlists the aid of the woman who he discovers is a hooker who was involved with a sleazy photographer (Dennis Franz) in a blackmail set-up of the dead man. Chasing them is an assassin (John Lithgow) with an expertise in garotting and synchronised stabbing. Flashy thriller that allows the audience to witness the world of movie magic through the use of sound and editing as De Palma brilliantly incorporates both mediums into the suspenseful plot. The film is superbly shot by Vilmos Zsigmond with a wonderful edgy performance by Travolta. One of De Palma's best films complete with a number of his trademark Hitchcock touches one of which is played completely for laughs. Not to be missed.
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The Black Dahlia (Brian De Palma, 2006) 3/10
Hideously convoluted, overstuffed and sluggish adaptation of James Ellroy's novel about the 1947 brutal murder of a would-be actress/prostitute in Los Angeles where the girl's body was found cut in half, drained of blood and her mouth slit wide into an exaggerated smile. The actual case still remains unsolved but Ellroy, in his book, comes up with a far fetched denouement which De Palma brings to the screen in a deathly dull manner. He stocks up the film with the right "look" - Oscar nominated sepia toned cinematography by the great Vilmos Zsigmond, opulent sets by Dante Ferreti and costumes by Jenny Beavan. Too bad he failed in one crucial element - in the film's casting. The main leads look askew playing these period characters as if kids are playing dress up at a costume party. The film is less about Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner), the murder victim who is glimpsed throughout in an audition film, and instead focuses on two antagonistic cops - Josh Hartnet who is meant to be hard boiled but comes off more wooden than a plank of wood and his partner the fiery and anguished Aaron Eckhart whose character is underwritten (or maybe his role was slashed after the studio pared the film down from the original 3-hour director's cut). Both men are in love with a blonde bombshell (a vapid Scarlett Johansson). The film works too hard trying to create a noir-like atmosphere (this is not "Chinatown" or "L.A. Confidential" for that matter) as the screenplay meanders all over the place with countless subplots adding to an already confusing plot. The story enters into camp territory with the introduction of a rich family (suspiciously reeking of the one in Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep") - a tycoon (John Kavanagh), his inebriated wife (Fiona Shaw in a performance so over-the-top that she comes off looking grotesque) and their nymphomaniac daughter (a badly miscast Hilary Swank as a femme fatale who looks instead like an ugly drag queen) who is one of the murder suspects. Another campy sequence is set in a lesbian nightclub with slinky dancers gyrating and lip-locking on the floor (Cate Blanchett cameos as one of the dancers) as an elegantly butch K.D. Lang croons "Love For Sale". Surprisingly with the sleaze quotient so high in the plot the film is shockingly prudish when it comes to the sex scenes - we just get to view the before and after along with a few kisses between women in a stag film. The film recovers during one brief operatic sequence which De Palma shoots with great style - a struggle between two men on a balcony which involves a garoting just as a third figure slides up wielding a glinting knife (De Palma's signature take on Hitchcock) that slashes a throat followed by both men taking a slow-motion tumble down to a foyer many floors below with their bodies crashing alongside a fountain as the water turns red with their blood. The climax is a complete mess with an absurd explanation of the murder with the actors behaving as if they are on heat. De Palma falters badly with this film which can be blamed on the silly plot and the badly miscast actors who either emote stiffly or camp it up. Skip this film.
Hideously convoluted, overstuffed and sluggish adaptation of James Ellroy's novel about the 1947 brutal murder of a would-be actress/prostitute in Los Angeles where the girl's body was found cut in half, drained of blood and her mouth slit wide into an exaggerated smile. The actual case still remains unsolved but Ellroy, in his book, comes up with a far fetched denouement which De Palma brings to the screen in a deathly dull manner. He stocks up the film with the right "look" - Oscar nominated sepia toned cinematography by the great Vilmos Zsigmond, opulent sets by Dante Ferreti and costumes by Jenny Beavan. Too bad he failed in one crucial element - in the film's casting. The main leads look askew playing these period characters as if kids are playing dress up at a costume party. The film is less about Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner), the murder victim who is glimpsed throughout in an audition film, and instead focuses on two antagonistic cops - Josh Hartnet who is meant to be hard boiled but comes off more wooden than a plank of wood and his partner the fiery and anguished Aaron Eckhart whose character is underwritten (or maybe his role was slashed after the studio pared the film down from the original 3-hour director's cut). Both men are in love with a blonde bombshell (a vapid Scarlett Johansson). The film works too hard trying to create a noir-like atmosphere (this is not "Chinatown" or "L.A. Confidential" for that matter) as the screenplay meanders all over the place with countless subplots adding to an already confusing plot. The story enters into camp territory with the introduction of a rich family (suspiciously reeking of the one in Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep") - a tycoon (John Kavanagh), his inebriated wife (Fiona Shaw in a performance so over-the-top that she comes off looking grotesque) and their nymphomaniac daughter (a badly miscast Hilary Swank as a femme fatale who looks instead like an ugly drag queen) who is one of the murder suspects. Another campy sequence is set in a lesbian nightclub with slinky dancers gyrating and lip-locking on the floor (Cate Blanchett cameos as one of the dancers) as an elegantly butch K.D. Lang croons "Love For Sale". Surprisingly with the sleaze quotient so high in the plot the film is shockingly prudish when it comes to the sex scenes - we just get to view the before and after along with a few kisses between women in a stag film. The film recovers during one brief operatic sequence which De Palma shoots with great style - a struggle between two men on a balcony which involves a garoting just as a third figure slides up wielding a glinting knife (De Palma's signature take on Hitchcock) that slashes a throat followed by both men taking a slow-motion tumble down to a foyer many floors below with their bodies crashing alongside a fountain as the water turns red with their blood. The climax is a complete mess with an absurd explanation of the murder with the actors behaving as if they are on heat. De Palma falters badly with this film which can be blamed on the silly plot and the badly miscast actors who either emote stiffly or camp it up. Skip this film.
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Noah's Ark (Michael Curtiz & Darryl F. Zanuck, 1929) 9/10
Spectacular silent / part-talkie film is a parable about greed through the ages - from the time of Prophet Noah to WWI when God, in his wrath, caused a flood and later death and destruction during war to teach mankind a lesson. Simplistic, corny but riveting spectacle is a feast for the senses with outstanding set pieces all filmed with jaw dropping panache. The screenplay first covers WWI with a handsome man (George O'Brien) falling in love with a beautiful German girl (pretty Dolores Costello - grandmother of Drew Barrymore) when he rescues her during a train crash, his enlistment as a soldier and her capture by an evil Russian agent (Noah Beery) who leads her to a firing squad. The second part is set during the time of the Prophet Noah. His son (George O'Brien) loves a pretty shepherdess (Dolores Costello) who is captured by the evil King (Noah Beery) to be sacrificed at the altar to appease an angry God who rains down a flood in response while he commands his Prophet to build an ark to house animals and his family. The primitive but astonishing special effects in the film involve a spectacular train crash and the destruction of an ancient temple as the flood pours in (a number of extras drowned and were trampled to death during the filming of this sequence). Superb film has everything an audience would want - melodrama, romance, action and spectacle - although the film surprisingly flopped at the boxoffice probably because it was a pastiche of many other successful silent films that came before - you can catch a glimpse of the imagery of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) and the shimmery romanticism of Seventh Heaven (1927). Today it stands as a superb monument to the classic age of Hollywood cinema with its sharp editing and cinematography along with incredible sets by Anton Grot. Good old fashioned cinema that needs to be seen on a big screen to properly capture Curtiz's outsized vision.
Spectacular silent / part-talkie film is a parable about greed through the ages - from the time of Prophet Noah to WWI when God, in his wrath, caused a flood and later death and destruction during war to teach mankind a lesson. Simplistic, corny but riveting spectacle is a feast for the senses with outstanding set pieces all filmed with jaw dropping panache. The screenplay first covers WWI with a handsome man (George O'Brien) falling in love with a beautiful German girl (pretty Dolores Costello - grandmother of Drew Barrymore) when he rescues her during a train crash, his enlistment as a soldier and her capture by an evil Russian agent (Noah Beery) who leads her to a firing squad. The second part is set during the time of the Prophet Noah. His son (George O'Brien) loves a pretty shepherdess (Dolores Costello) who is captured by the evil King (Noah Beery) to be sacrificed at the altar to appease an angry God who rains down a flood in response while he commands his Prophet to build an ark to house animals and his family. The primitive but astonishing special effects in the film involve a spectacular train crash and the destruction of an ancient temple as the flood pours in (a number of extras drowned and were trampled to death during the filming of this sequence). Superb film has everything an audience would want - melodrama, romance, action and spectacle - although the film surprisingly flopped at the boxoffice probably because it was a pastiche of many other successful silent films that came before - you can catch a glimpse of the imagery of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) and the shimmery romanticism of Seventh Heaven (1927). Today it stands as a superb monument to the classic age of Hollywood cinema with its sharp editing and cinematography along with incredible sets by Anton Grot. Good old fashioned cinema that needs to be seen on a big screen to properly capture Curtiz's outsized vision.
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Living on Velvet (Frank Borzage, 1935) 3/10
Borzage in slumming mode. Trite screenplay - a man (George Brent) survives a plane crash but loses his family so acts recklessly feeling a void in his life which his wife (Kay Francis) even cannot fill. The stars are better than the material. Fun to see Francis dressed to her teeth in gowns most inappropriate to the occasions at hand.
Borzage in slumming mode. Trite screenplay - a man (George Brent) survives a plane crash but loses his family so acts recklessly feeling a void in his life which his wife (Kay Francis) even cannot fill. The stars are better than the material. Fun to see Francis dressed to her teeth in gowns most inappropriate to the occasions at hand.
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Sentimental Journey (Walter Lang, 1946) 7/10
Old fashioned sentimental tearjerker was a boxoffice smash for the Fox studio. A dying Broadway actress (Maureen O'Hara) adopts a young girl so that her self centered workaholic director husband (John Payne) will have someone to be with after she is gone. The child lives in a dream world and after the actress dies the bereft husband totally ignores her. Nobody on screen has died looking as perfect or beautiful as O'Hara who slips away conveniently propped up on a chaise lounge with the camera zooming in on her lovely face with not a hair out of place. She later keeps popping up as a ghostly presence to lend moral support to the confused kid gently advising her to not give up on Payne who is in a catatonic state. Despite the mawkish plot it all somehow manages to work thanks to the superb performances by O'Hara, Payne and sad-eyed Connie Marshall who plays the orphan. William Bendix is the comic relief as a close friend. One of Hollywood's neglected classics.
Old fashioned sentimental tearjerker was a boxoffice smash for the Fox studio. A dying Broadway actress (Maureen O'Hara) adopts a young girl so that her self centered workaholic director husband (John Payne) will have someone to be with after she is gone. The child lives in a dream world and after the actress dies the bereft husband totally ignores her. Nobody on screen has died looking as perfect or beautiful as O'Hara who slips away conveniently propped up on a chaise lounge with the camera zooming in on her lovely face with not a hair out of place. She later keeps popping up as a ghostly presence to lend moral support to the confused kid gently advising her to not give up on Payne who is in a catatonic state. Despite the mawkish plot it all somehow manages to work thanks to the superb performances by O'Hara, Payne and sad-eyed Connie Marshall who plays the orphan. William Bendix is the comic relief as a close friend. One of Hollywood's neglected classics.
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Traitement de choc / Shock Treatment (Alain Jessua, 1973) 8/10
Fast moving mystery-thriller which clearly seems to have been the inspiration behind author Robin Cook's "Coma". The film, probably considered science fiction when it first came out, eerily mirrors much of what goes on today in the field of medicine as humans, in their quest to desperately hold on to their youth, try to rejuvinate their bodies using any nefarious means. A woman (Annie Girardot), suffering from a mid-life crisis, checks into a secluded clinic in a coastal town - the film's stunning location is set on the coast of Brittany - run by a charming doctor (Alain Delon). All the patients are extremely happy with their "cure" which entails daily sea-water baths, meals made of seaweed, nude frolics on the beach and injections of sheep blood. It all seems too good to be true until a friend commits suicide and she notices that the foreign immigrant boys who work at the clinic mysteriously fall sick and disappear. Turning detective she discovers the charming doctor, who has also been having sex with all the female patients (including with her) has been using a secret ingredient in his treatments. The film's exciting climax is a shocker. The film has a bright and sunny disposition with every scene brightly lit masking all that is dark and evil. An ominous score of tribal music underlines the story's theme of predators preying on the weak. Girardot and Delon are very good and the film seems very contemporary in its sympathetic treatment of a gay character and in its use of full frontal nudity of which the cast seems very comfortable in all the scenes depicting free love.
Fast moving mystery-thriller which clearly seems to have been the inspiration behind author Robin Cook's "Coma". The film, probably considered science fiction when it first came out, eerily mirrors much of what goes on today in the field of medicine as humans, in their quest to desperately hold on to their youth, try to rejuvinate their bodies using any nefarious means. A woman (Annie Girardot), suffering from a mid-life crisis, checks into a secluded clinic in a coastal town - the film's stunning location is set on the coast of Brittany - run by a charming doctor (Alain Delon). All the patients are extremely happy with their "cure" which entails daily sea-water baths, meals made of seaweed, nude frolics on the beach and injections of sheep blood. It all seems too good to be true until a friend commits suicide and she notices that the foreign immigrant boys who work at the clinic mysteriously fall sick and disappear. Turning detective she discovers the charming doctor, who has also been having sex with all the female patients (including with her) has been using a secret ingredient in his treatments. The film's exciting climax is a shocker. The film has a bright and sunny disposition with every scene brightly lit masking all that is dark and evil. An ominous score of tribal music underlines the story's theme of predators preying on the weak. Girardot and Delon are very good and the film seems very contemporary in its sympathetic treatment of a gay character and in its use of full frontal nudity of which the cast seems very comfortable in all the scenes depicting free love.
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The Loves of Joanna Godden (Charles Frend & Robert Hamer, 1947) 6/10
At the turn of the century a stubborn woman (Googie Withers) inherits a sheep-farm on Romney Marsh on the border of Kent and Sussex, spurns the love of a fellow-farmer (John McCallum), flirts with a farmhand (Chips Rafferty), gets married to a rich farmer's son (Deren Bond) who drowns, watches her former love marry her selfish younger sister (Jean Kent) and eventually comes around to an alliance at the film's rather hasty conclusion. Based on the novel by Sheila Kaye Smith (screenplay by H.E. Bates), the story is clearly inspired by Thomas Hardy's " Far From the Madding Crowd" and was one of the author's many tales about rural life in England. Superbly shot on location by Douglas Slocombe this soap opera moves at a brisk pace helped by the great chemistry between Withers and McCallum which culminated in marriage that lasted 63 years.
At the turn of the century a stubborn woman (Googie Withers) inherits a sheep-farm on Romney Marsh on the border of Kent and Sussex, spurns the love of a fellow-farmer (John McCallum), flirts with a farmhand (Chips Rafferty), gets married to a rich farmer's son (Deren Bond) who drowns, watches her former love marry her selfish younger sister (Jean Kent) and eventually comes around to an alliance at the film's rather hasty conclusion. Based on the novel by Sheila Kaye Smith (screenplay by H.E. Bates), the story is clearly inspired by Thomas Hardy's " Far From the Madding Crowd" and was one of the author's many tales about rural life in England. Superbly shot on location by Douglas Slocombe this soap opera moves at a brisk pace helped by the great chemistry between Withers and McCallum which culminated in marriage that lasted 63 years.
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La Séparation (Christian Vincent, 1994) 8/10
Quiet harrowing look at the disintegration of a relationship. Pierre (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne (Isabelle Huppert) are in a non-marital relationship and have a small baby son. While watching a movie she rebuffs his affectionate attempts to hold her hand. This becomes the catalyst making him realise there is something wrong and which is confirmed shortly when she calmly tells him that she is in love with another man. Too shocked to react and suppressing his emotions they continue living together until one day he reacts with a burst of violence. The tightly knitted screenplay authentically captures the nuances between the couple, their daily existence, irritations, interactions with the baby, the babysitter and close friends. A lack of communication, the bane of many relationships, is the culprit. Or is Anne pretending to be involved with someone just to get back her husband's attention? The screenplay leans towards that conclusion but the rift caused between them appears too great for Paul's ego to accept. Both actors are superb (they were nominated for the Cesar award) with the camera capturing in intense close-up flickers of emotions through facial movements. A painful film to watch but extremely rewarding in it's depiction of a relationship that seems all too real.
Quiet harrowing look at the disintegration of a relationship. Pierre (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne (Isabelle Huppert) are in a non-marital relationship and have a small baby son. While watching a movie she rebuffs his affectionate attempts to hold her hand. This becomes the catalyst making him realise there is something wrong and which is confirmed shortly when she calmly tells him that she is in love with another man. Too shocked to react and suppressing his emotions they continue living together until one day he reacts with a burst of violence. The tightly knitted screenplay authentically captures the nuances between the couple, their daily existence, irritations, interactions with the baby, the babysitter and close friends. A lack of communication, the bane of many relationships, is the culprit. Or is Anne pretending to be involved with someone just to get back her husband's attention? The screenplay leans towards that conclusion but the rift caused between them appears too great for Paul's ego to accept. Both actors are superb (they were nominated for the Cesar award) with the camera capturing in intense close-up flickers of emotions through facial movements. A painful film to watch but extremely rewarding in it's depiction of a relationship that seems all too real.
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Juggernaut (Richard Lester, 1974) 7/10
Highly underrated disaster film, without the gloss of its Hollywood counterparts, is exciting fun. After all no film starring Dumbledore, Doctor Zhivago, Hannibal Lecter and Bilbo Baggins could be all that bad. A cruise ship is found to have seven bombs planted on it and there is a tense filled ten hours allowed by the terrorist (Freddie Jones) to pay the ransom. The owner of the ship (Ian Holm) wants to pay, the Scotland Yard inspector (Anthony Hopkins) searches for the terrorist in London, the ship's Captain (Omar Sharif) tries to keep his passengers and crew calm while the Government parachutes their best bomb disposal experts (led by Richard Harris & David Hemings) onto the ship. Tension mounts as the experts try to diffuse the bomb with the men having to choose between cutting the (oft-used and simplistic) blue or red wire. Despite the clichés this is a surprisingly realistic drama with thankfully no scenes involving back projection - the film was shot on a ship on stormy seas. Also interesting to see a pre-stardom Anthony Hopkins who is very good in a supporting role. Harris is appropriately heroic as the saviour with a dry wit. Heartthrob Sharif is the only one who gets a love interest - a nymphomaniac passenger (Shirley Knight). One of the better disaster films from the 1970s.
Highly underrated disaster film, without the gloss of its Hollywood counterparts, is exciting fun. After all no film starring Dumbledore, Doctor Zhivago, Hannibal Lecter and Bilbo Baggins could be all that bad. A cruise ship is found to have seven bombs planted on it and there is a tense filled ten hours allowed by the terrorist (Freddie Jones) to pay the ransom. The owner of the ship (Ian Holm) wants to pay, the Scotland Yard inspector (Anthony Hopkins) searches for the terrorist in London, the ship's Captain (Omar Sharif) tries to keep his passengers and crew calm while the Government parachutes their best bomb disposal experts (led by Richard Harris & David Hemings) onto the ship. Tension mounts as the experts try to diffuse the bomb with the men having to choose between cutting the (oft-used and simplistic) blue or red wire. Despite the clichés this is a surprisingly realistic drama with thankfully no scenes involving back projection - the film was shot on a ship on stormy seas. Also interesting to see a pre-stardom Anthony Hopkins who is very good in a supporting role. Harris is appropriately heroic as the saviour with a dry wit. Heartthrob Sharif is the only one who gets a love interest - a nymphomaniac passenger (Shirley Knight). One of the better disaster films from the 1970s.
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Euphoria (Lisa Langseth, 2018) 2/10
Extremely dour film is a talkfest between two estranged sisters who thrash out the past with bitter recriminations the order of the day. A woman (Eva Green), dying of cancer, invites her sister (Alicia Vikander) whom she hasn't seen in years to a European countryside "resort" (the film was shot in stunning Bavaria). Gradually it is revealed that the hotel is a place where people come to die by being provided a drink with a powerful sedative inducing sleep and death. The sisters argue, fight, laugh and cry finally coming to terms with the dilemma. As a slightly lively aside to the dull drama between the two leading ladies is an eccentric patient (Charles Dance) prone to tantrums and the hotel's host and companion (Charlotte Rampling) who offers sturdy advice and a shoulder to cry on. Death, hardly an exciting subject, proves to be a death knell for this film. Skip it.
Extremely dour film is a talkfest between two estranged sisters who thrash out the past with bitter recriminations the order of the day. A woman (Eva Green), dying of cancer, invites her sister (Alicia Vikander) whom she hasn't seen in years to a European countryside "resort" (the film was shot in stunning Bavaria). Gradually it is revealed that the hotel is a place where people come to die by being provided a drink with a powerful sedative inducing sleep and death. The sisters argue, fight, laugh and cry finally coming to terms with the dilemma. As a slightly lively aside to the dull drama between the two leading ladies is an eccentric patient (Charles Dance) prone to tantrums and the hotel's host and companion (Charlotte Rampling) who offers sturdy advice and a shoulder to cry on. Death, hardly an exciting subject, proves to be a death knell for this film. Skip it.
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Cleanskin (Hadi Hajaig, 2012) 8/10
Riveting action packed and violent thriller which purports to show how a terrorist is gently goaded into reaching a stage where he foolishly blows himself up all in the name of religion. The film also shows the political manoeuvrings of senior Government officials who use these misguided men to further their own causes while using the media to pull the wool over the eyes of the public. A British secret service agent (Sean Bean) is given the task by his handler (a steel-eyed, chain-smoking Charlotte Rampling) to find two British-Arab men who are planning to detonate bombs in downtown London. Gritty, realistic and very brutal film does not shy away from extreme violence - there are graphic scenes of men being shot point blank in the face and head, assorted stabbings, a man on fire and a woman being brutally beaten up. Sean Bean is superb as the tired, jaded and emotionally beaten up agent who gradually discovers he has been used and people he trusted have been bending the rules. Rampling, in a small but very important part, brings a quiet gravitas to her role showing exactly why an actress of her stature would accept such a seemingly inconsequential part in such a film. A film with a strong message and not for the faint of heart.
Riveting action packed and violent thriller which purports to show how a terrorist is gently goaded into reaching a stage where he foolishly blows himself up all in the name of religion. The film also shows the political manoeuvrings of senior Government officials who use these misguided men to further their own causes while using the media to pull the wool over the eyes of the public. A British secret service agent (Sean Bean) is given the task by his handler (a steel-eyed, chain-smoking Charlotte Rampling) to find two British-Arab men who are planning to detonate bombs in downtown London. Gritty, realistic and very brutal film does not shy away from extreme violence - there are graphic scenes of men being shot point blank in the face and head, assorted stabbings, a man on fire and a woman being brutally beaten up. Sean Bean is superb as the tired, jaded and emotionally beaten up agent who gradually discovers he has been used and people he trusted have been bending the rules. Rampling, in a small but very important part, brings a quiet gravitas to her role showing exactly why an actress of her stature would accept such a seemingly inconsequential part in such a film. A film with a strong message and not for the faint of heart.
Re: Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
If Winter Comes (Victor Saville, 1947) 4/10
Typical stuffy MGM production set in a small English village with Hollywood's approximation of genteel english characters. An upright middle-aged gentleman (Walter Pidgeon) is accused of impropriety when he comes to the help of a young girl (Janet Leigh) who has been ostracised because she is pregnant. Adding complications to his life is an unhappy marriage to a harpy (Angela Lansbury) and the return to the village of his former lover (Deborah Kerr). The disjointed screenplay - the film was probably cut by the studio - rushes through the events with not enough character development (Kerr is wasted here although she was being groomed as the new "Greer Garson" at the studio). Pidgeon comes off best along with Lansbury as the bitchy wife. Adding to the correct Brit atmosphere is the delightful Dame May Whitty who also gets a short shrift thanks to abrupt cutting. Dreary film.
Typical stuffy MGM production set in a small English village with Hollywood's approximation of genteel english characters. An upright middle-aged gentleman (Walter Pidgeon) is accused of impropriety when he comes to the help of a young girl (Janet Leigh) who has been ostracised because she is pregnant. Adding complications to his life is an unhappy marriage to a harpy (Angela Lansbury) and the return to the village of his former lover (Deborah Kerr). The disjointed screenplay - the film was probably cut by the studio - rushes through the events with not enough character development (Kerr is wasted here although she was being groomed as the new "Greer Garson" at the studio). Pidgeon comes off best along with Lansbury as the bitchy wife. Adding to the correct Brit atmosphere is the delightful Dame May Whitty who also gets a short shrift thanks to abrupt cutting. Dreary film.