yes @SoneroQuatermass II is an efficient sci-fi movie that probably influenced the Dr Who TV show more than any other with its alien invasion plot, the battle against the alien horde and the clever resolution. Pity Brian Donlevy makes a terrible Quatermass. One day, I promised myself, I would catch the original TV versions, but with so much to do, I wonder if that day will ever come.
I am not sure exactly where Ghost Rider sits in the MCU canon of movies; sort of outside of it, I guess. The motorcycle riding skeleton demon rode through most of the 1970s in comic strip fashion clearly inspired by stuntmen such as Evel Kinevil and the ever-present brigade of Harley owning Hell’s Angels. Ghost Rider feels a bit of its initial time, therefore rather out of time. The film isn’t very good, although it fulfils the expectations one might have of comic book super hero fantasy: dark nights and dark knights, spectacular villains, impossible goings on, a doomed romance, an everyday hero coping with transformative powers, etc, etc. I am rather prone to it, chiefly because it does sit outside the realm of Iron Man, Hulk, Avengers, et al.
Nicolas Cage is a wild enough actor to play a crazed hero and Johnny Blaze is certainly a bit bonkers. Having sold his soul to the Devil [Mephistopheles – or Mephisto as he is commonly called in the comics] stunt motorcycle rider Johnny discovers he turns into a flaming, skull headed demon by night. His task is to consume evil souls. There is some troublesome background about the Devil choosing a Ghost Rider once a generation and an abandoned town of evil spirits called San Venganza. None of that feels very relevant to the antics on screen. All we really need to know is Johnny Blaze rides bikes, loves Eva Mendes and beats the crap out of fallen angels.
It’s a hoot.
The villain is called Black Heart and he is aided by a trio of useless henchmen who use the power of Earth, Water and Wind to eliminate enemies. Our blazing Ghost Rider wraps them all up in balls of fiery flame, one way or another. I didn’t understand the half of it. I didn’t really care. Cage is certainly engaging. Sam Elliott mumbles his way through proceedings as an ex-ghost rider. Peter Fonda displays a suave evility as Mephisto. Photography, even the nighttime stuff, is quite decent. Editing crisp. The fights and chases do not go on interminably. Most heartening is a general warmth about the project: a love story that feels genuine for a change, a young man wanting to do the right thing who becomes the hero who can, the effects of the cult of celebrity. Brisk in manner. Light in tone, for despite the heavy subject matter it doesn’t dwell at length on the dark side of life.
The movie was shot in Australia. It made a ton of cash. It is not very well liked by Marvel fans, IMDB fans or anyone. Pity.
Until its slasher ending – which pays homage to Halloween and The Terminator at once – M3GAN is quite possibly one of the creepiest movies I have ever seen. Child real size AI programmed doll comes to life and takes its primary directive much too logically. Be careful what you wish for, O Toy Manufacturers.
I'm looking forward to the sequel. M3GAN was one of those 'much better than it had any right to be' kind of films. It was a good concept executed very well.
London's Prince Charles cinema was showing Stalingrad-born Elem Klimov's Come and See, filmed from the point of view of the Russian's on the Eastern Front as Germany invades. It's said to be one of the greatest war films ever, but never shown on TV. It's been shown at that venue a few times, but is always sold out.
It was being shown as part of Bleak Weak, a season of gritty low-key depressing films such as anything by Mike Leigh and Get Carter.
I made this part of my ritual, having a brekkie at Cafe Rouge at St Paul's, then walking across to the West End. It wasn't a clever day to do this, given the heatwave.
But by the time I got there, more tickets had been sold and it looked a bit Covid-central, so I opted out. A case of Come and Not See, if you will.
That said, the reviews on imdb which I later looked at talk about a live cow being machine gunned to death so I don't much fancy it now, I think I'll give it a miss.
Some films need no introduction and Jurassic Park is one of those. Steven Spielberg’s dinosaur blockbuster treads the familiar route trodden by King Kong and his stop-motion pals, but uses cutting edge CGI and animatronics to realise extinct reptilian monsters coming to life. For the story, the science is bafflingly simplified and the script is astoundingly banal. For some reasons two cheeky kids are introduced to give Sam Neill some fatherly bonding time. You do wish he could be out rescuing Laura Dern’s scientist instead of a geeky couple of blonde moppets. Still, you can’t fault the filmmakers ambition and the scene where the brachiosaurus first strides across the screen is something of sheer wonder – it really made you take a breath in the cinema. The action bits-and-bobs show similar attention to impact detail. There is a fine confrontation with a rogue tyrannosaurus rex, and a pursuit of much enjoyment [or fear, I guess, if you are in that age bracket] involving two vicious velociraptors. If you go on IMDB I am sure you’ll find oodles of references in the ‘goofs’ and ‘continuities’ sections. I spotted at least a dozen. As an older viewer catching this for the first time in a couple of decades, I wasn’t disappointed, but it feels over-burdened by expectation and despite all the glitz and glamour and computer stuff, it feels just like the flea circus Richard Attenborough’s John Hammond likens his dino-park too. To be honest, I think they did it better with clay models and black and white. At least the stories made sense.
Brilliant, in parts. Astounding to look at. Jurassic Park is a blockbuster of a movie, faults n all, and is probably Spielberg’s most immediately accessible family movie.
A supernatural thriller directed by Leslie Norman.
At a party in Hong Kong, a naval commander recollects a dream he had seen to his friends, in which a Dakota DC-3 aircraft carrying Air Marshal Hardie and 7 other people crashes into a rock strewn beach. Obviously the Air Marshal dismisses the dream as mere superstition.
But things take on an uncanny turn, when everything the commander had seen, slowly but surely starts manifesting in reality.
Beautifully filmed and well acted, this film feels like a well crafted episode from the 'The Twilight Zone'.
“Republic. I like the sound of the word. Means that people can live free, talk free, go or come, buy or sell, be drunk or sober, however they choose. Some words give you a feeling. Republic is one of those words that makes me tight in the throat.”
John Wayne’s Davy Crockett, midway through The Alamo, espouses his personal political belief and damned if we don’t believe it really did come out of good ol’ Davy Crockett’s mouth and not just the pen of screenwriter James Edward Grant. If Wayne is all serious and his character politically driven, Richard Widmark’s Jim Bowie is more concerned with getting drunk and thumping Mexicans. Laurence Harvey’s uptight Colonel Travis rubs everyone up the wrong way, including, I expect, most of the audience; his hybrid accent doesn’t help. A host of bit part players mooch and mope about. The story of the Alamo Siege doesn’t need much explanation, we know how it ends; what The Alamo fails to address is why the Texans were engaged in a revolt and why Santa Anna was putting down insurgencies within Mexico. Whole swathes of background story feel missing while the script concentrates on its cast delivering sturdy life-affirming statements about love, death and freedom, much like the one above.
John Wayne directed and produced the movie, a real labour of love for the big star who poured his own fortune into the project and never saw a penny back. It was a huge box-office hit in 1960, was presented with a clutch of award nominations, but costs overran dramatically and The Alamo never made a profit. The set design of the famous mission was built brick for brick in Texas. It is outstanding and was reused for many western films in the sixties and seventies. William Clotheir’s cinematography is gorgeous, although it is a dusty palette he is working with. The battle, when it finally comes after almost three hours, is well worth the wait. Before that, the thing dawdles along not doing much other than allowing the beautiful Linda Cristal to feature in an unnecessary love story.
The Alamo isn’t a bad film, but it is a movie which feels operatic without providing enough of the drama of high opera, or even low opera. It lacks humour, mostly, so there isn’t much relief for us. Dimitri Tiomkin’s excellent score provides more emotion than the actors do.
Note
Jester Hairston plays Jim Bowie’s black aide Jethro, a role which was lined up for Sammy Davis Jr. The studio heads at United Artists would not allow Davis the part apparently due to the ‘controversy’ over his marriage to May Britt. That’s very disappointing to read of, but not unexpected for 1960.
Unnecessary sequel that spawned a franchise of similar thrills. Spielberg mashes his own Jurassic dinosaurs with ideas from King Kong and Godzilla. The magic swiftly evaporates.
Saltburn, the much talked about drama about a working-class student visiting a posh house over the summer, is on BBC1 tomorrow night. Stars our own Rosamund Pike.
A realistic war film, that shows the grim lives of Royal Navy sailors during WW-2.
HMS Compass Rose, a Flower-class corvette under the command of Lieutenant Commander George Ericson (Jack Hawkins) is dispatched to the Atlantic Ocean for convoy escort duties at the peak of the Nazi U-Boat offensive.
The young and inexperienced crew are quickly baptized by fire and become a battle hardened unit, who deal with a variety of contingencies during the course of the film.
Tragedy strikes the ship when a direct torpedo hit forces the crew to abandon the boat, which sinks in the Atlantic.
The Captain and the First Officer survive the ordeal and take command of a new ship, which is then dispatched to protect convoy routes in North Russia.
The film also highlights other bitter things from the war i.e., the V-2 rocket strikes on London, the effects of post traumatic stress on the crew, the civilian casualties of U-boat attacks and the tragic fate of the lost at sea.
A gripping and evenhanded account of the first 36 hours of the Falkland Islands invasion.
On April 1, 1982, Governor Sir Rex Hunt (Ian Richardson) is informed by the Foreign Office via telex that an Argentine amphibious force will be gathering in Cape Pembroke in the next 24 hours and that he should make his dispositions accordingly.
Governor Hunt and Major Mike Norman (Bob Peck), commander of a Royal Marines garrison, along with members of the Falkland Islands Defence Force (FIDF), decide to put up a fight.
As the Argentine special forces land on East Falkland Island and make their way towards the Government House in Stanley, vicious gunfights erupt. The Royal Marines and FIDF put up a brave front against the Argentine special forces, but when armored personnel carriers start assembling around the Government House, the writing is on the wall.
After handing his weapon to the Argentine Force Commander, the Governor and his family are dispatched to the UK.
This sets the stage for 'Operation Corporate', the British joint arms counterattack which ends the Argentine occupation on June 20, 1982.
28 YEARS LATER. A big surprise--a horror movie that's actually a coming-of-age film, with the boy-hero learning the meaning of death--while being surrounded by death! Well-acted, interesting, and, yes, pretty damn tense.
I've heard and read good things about 28 Years Later so will have to watch.
A Quiet Place 2 (2020) was on TV last night and as MrsRedKind was out (there's no way she could watch this) I thought I would tune in, given I quite liked the first film after stumbling across it a few months ago.
Following the events of the first film (it picks up pretty much where that one left off - with a brief reminder of how/why they are where they are). Evelyn and her children are forced to leave the relative safety of their farm and journey into the ruins of what lies beyond. The tension ramps up as they cross paths with other survivors and we get a bigger picture of the post‑invasion world. The sound-sensitive killer creatures are ever present of course and lie unseen at every turn, but what I like is that this isn't a gory or particularly scary film. It's just tense and pretty thought provoking throughout. It’s a gripping sequel that expands the world and shows how the family has to adapt, trust each other, and keep going when every sound could mean the end.
These films feel like a cross between War of the Worlds and 28 Days Later. If you like those, then give this a go.
I'm yet to see the prequel A Quiet Place: Day One and I see A Quiet Place 3 is in the making. Hopefully, they finish there as I think four films is probably plenty.
Big Jake was a big hit for John Wayne in 1971. The seventies was an interesting time for the big western star, as he tried to revive and continue a career which had peaked in the sixties and brought him an Oscar. Big Jake follows on from True Grit as an accomplished western that pokes fun at the Duke’s on screen persona while presenting a story of genuine depth and pathos; next year’s The Cowboys and his swansong The Shootist follow a similar narrative path.
Big Jake’s typical Wayne character is Jake McCandles and here the star does both his amiable father and his damnedest bastard impersonations. The two don’t quite mix. He’s adept with both, particularly when playing the authoritarian, feared-by-many, loved-by-some, hated-above-all. Yet the scenes when he plays the sardonic fatherly figure seem condescending to his fellow cast members. He needs someone to spar with and an early scene with a still tempestuous Maureen O’Hara – lovely to see the two united for a fourth and final movie, dignified and older, but still arguing like Irish navvies – fits the bill far better than those with his actual son Patrick and Robert Mitchum’s son, Chris, who are treated as the butt of his jokes and japes. This rather demeans the spectacle, as the characters of Jake’s sons eventually prove themselves both mature and competent – the scenes of immaturity and impracticality do not ring true with the on screen identities as initially and latterly presented.
Putting that quibble aside, you can’t fault the camaraderie on display. There is a decent turn for Richard Boone as the villain, John Fain. Harry Carey Jr has a support role as Fain’s sidekick. Bruce Cabot plays an Apache, which doesn’t seem very appropriate for 1971 – surely there was a Native American actor good enough to take the role? William Clothier’s photography shines. George Sherman directs his final film with his usual broad and effective strokes. The screenplay from Harry Julian Fink and R.M. Fink is full of the usual western cliches, but some of the dialogue has a more reflective edge to it, emphasising the onset of time and the changing times.
Big Jake is set in 1909. The old west ways are declining, but occasionally events stir up long vanished behaviours. When millionairess cattle rancher Martha McCandles’s grandson is kidnapped for a million-dollar sum, she contacts her estranged husband – the meanest son of a bitch she knows and employs him to find and rescue the lad. What she, and Big Jake, do not tell their two sons is that they have no intention of paying a ransom fee. Too many old friends died when the Fain Gang attacked the ranch and the McCandles want the Fain Gang to pay in blood. Mostly, the film is a bonding exercise for the father with his sons and grandson, but sporadic action keeps things moving nicely, and brutally, along. The hardcore violence doesn’t gel with the jokes very successfully and while the film wins on its star’s power and Boone and O’Hara’s support, it is tremendously uneven.
Nonetheless, a much better film than some John Wayne efforts.
I really enjoyed Saltburn when it had its UK TV premiere on the BBC recently, probably more than I should have. I hadn't caught it at the cinema.
It's a basic drama, with dashes of comedy, about a scholarship lad - not posh - who arrives at Oxford and struggles to fit in. Eventually he (Barry Keoghan who played the young simple lad from Banshees of Inishirin) finds a way to inveigle his way into a key clique headed by the good-looking and decent Jacob Elordi - can't remember his character's name - who is officially a contender for Bond. So far, so Starter for 10, though university dramas are very thin on the ground. The presence of Inside No 9's Reece Sheermsith as a university lecturer might alert viewers that things might take a different turn.
Saltburn is the name of the family home that Keoghan's character is invited along to for the summer but it has shades of The Go Between, another culture clash between the classes.
I enjoyed this - for me it's classic British cinema of the kind we haven't seen in years, it is masterful storytelling which takes the viewer with it and intends to entertain in every scene. I mean, it's in the tradition of Hammer or Richard Curtis or Doctor in the House - it's not Lawrence of Arabia, it just feels happy and familiar.
I'd have the director Emerald Fennell to do a Bond movie but that position is filled now - that said, her pedigree is slim so far; she wrote and directed this but previously wrote Series 2 of Killing Eve which I really didn't like.
Our own Rosamund Pike lends support though she's a tad miscast - in one scene she reveals that, because her voice tone is just right for the gullible, thick posh woman of a certain type - I don't say Pike isn't posh but she isn't that kind of posh; she looks smart; she'd be good in a dramatisation of Diane Athilll's memoirs, she seems beady eyed. Richard E Grant is the most natural I've ever seen him. Carey Mulligan I didn't recognise in this though as an example of confirmation bias, I found the performance better when I did, on the second viewing. But all the ensemble cast is excellent.
There are some great examples of what Twitter call ****housery or one=upmaship which I like to see in Bond movies, and was also in Cruella, but we haven't seen lately.
Saltburn is not family viewing. It is a water cooler movie, it has its talking points or reference points, like 'the butter scene' in Last Tango in Paris, which is now notorious due to the mistreatment of its lead actress.
A belated first viewing for this Rocky sequel of sorts. It was dubbed a boxing masterpiece by some on its release and I can't see how though I did enjoy it a lot; this time it's the illegitimate son of Rocky rival Apollo Creed who gives up his office job to follow his dream; his adoptive mother is the woman off The Cosby Show, which makes the movie a hostage of fortune given her subsequent refusal to condemn her co-star; still it's kind of nice to see her again anyway.
Other than that this film wants to have its cake and eat it - and mainly succeeds. It's kind of Rocky 2 in that the character (Michael B Jordan) comes from a priviliged upbringing - it's a bit Prince of Bel Air, so he has to learn to rough it again, but it's an underdog story too. He looks up Rocky Bilbao who initially refuses to train him or have much to do with him, even upon learning he is Apollo Creed's son. The neat story telling and charm of the whole thing make you overlook that Rocky would just believe this total stranger is his late mate's son with no letter of introduction, or that Rocky in his old age can teach him any useful boxing tricks - hasn't the sport moved on in 30 years? - or how on earth this celebrated legendary boxer is living in a skanky Philly apartment it seems - did his former business manager make him bankrupt just prior to Rocky being convicted on a historic padeophile charge? How come he can't do a few adverts to get him a nicer pad - it's hardly a promotion of the American dream.
As I say, I pick holes in it after the fact but that overlooks that I enjoyed all of this a lot, it's a bit by numbers and follows the template; it might be telling that they get round the conflict of having an audience cheer on either a black guy beating a white guy or beating up another black guy by having him beat a Scouser, so that's okay (!), and Red Dwarf fans might be put in mind of Queeg beating up Lister. Not quite sure again how said Scouser would be needing a fight to have a roof over his kids' heads when he's also said to have had a lengthy successful record in the ring and be about to retire. Maybe he also made dodgy business deals. It was probably explained but they skimmed over the character a bit.
The film details the events of the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition (1910-1913), led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott to reach the geographic South Pole.
An expedition of this sort would depend heavily upon the logistics of food and fuel, which is planned out well by Captain Scott, but as the journey proceeds the effects of a certain decision i.e., the use of motor sledges, turns out to be a critical mistake.
The expedition does reach the South Pole only to find that their main competitors, the Norwegians under Roald Amundsen, have already accomplished the task.
Disappointed the team head back, but are hit by frost bite casualties.
11 miles short of a supply depot, the remaining team members perish in a blizzard.
Starring screen legend Sir John Mills as Captain Robert Falcon Scott and directed by Charles Frend, Scott of the Antarctic is a moving tribute to the bravery of the British Antarctic Expedition and is a very well made film.
I question if Scott's expedition was planned out well. Both his expeditions used forward deployed depots. Scott's depots had serious leakages from their fuel containers while the expedition was still going on. Fuel containers from Amundsen's expedition were found decades later with the containers still full. I also remember a TV documentary years ago were elite soldiers from Britain and Norway tried to repeat the expeditions. Same clothes, same kit, same supplies. The "Scott" expedition had to be evacuated by helicopter because the men became undernorished. The men in the "Amundsen" expedition gained weight during their journey. For the sake of balance I should mention that Roald Amundsen was a selfish b*stard.
1.Scott's expedition was more of a science research mission that also had a component of reaching the South Pole. They found fossils, did glacier and meterological studies and also explored for minerals. Amundsen's mission was basically a race to reach the South Pole. Everything was planned to reach the target point and extricate.
2. The critical mistake was reliance on ponies and the motor sledges. According to Scott, the ponies and motor sledges would help them in carrying heavy loads upto the glacier phase and beyond. Unfortunately the motorcars broke down and the ponies performance took a hit because of their physical deterioration and age. Amundsen on the other hand used sledge dogs to great effect.
3. Weather conditions nose dived in the last phase of the expedition (-34 C in the day and -44 C at night) and the resultant frost bite injuries sealed their fate. Three of the five members had gangrene in the hands and feet.
4. There were also issues with the Atkinson rescue party, which was to meet up with the South Pole party. Atkinson's personal fatigue, lack of dog food and weather deterioration issues added to the delayed response.
The Scott Expedition case should be taught in decision modelling (excel) and logistics classes in universities today.
This would be an interesting case to study and even use AI to assess what other options the South Pole party could have taken to mitigate the risks.
'Decision making under opacity / Contingency planning for unmanifested risk- The South Pole expedition of 1912'
Comments
yes @Sonero Quatermass II is an efficient sci-fi movie that probably influenced the Dr Who TV show more than any other with its alien invasion plot, the battle against the alien horde and the clever resolution. Pity Brian Donlevy makes a terrible Quatermass. One day, I promised myself, I would catch the original TV versions, but with so much to do, I wonder if that day will ever come.
@Barbel
Thank you for the kind suggestion.
I will definitely check out the TV version.
GHOST RIDER (2007)
I am not sure exactly where Ghost Rider sits in the MCU canon of movies; sort of outside of it, I guess. The motorcycle riding skeleton demon rode through most of the 1970s in comic strip fashion clearly inspired by stuntmen such as Evel Kinevil and the ever-present brigade of Harley owning Hell’s Angels. Ghost Rider feels a bit of its initial time, therefore rather out of time. The film isn’t very good, although it fulfils the expectations one might have of comic book super hero fantasy: dark nights and dark knights, spectacular villains, impossible goings on, a doomed romance, an everyday hero coping with transformative powers, etc, etc. I am rather prone to it, chiefly because it does sit outside the realm of Iron Man, Hulk, Avengers, et al.
Nicolas Cage is a wild enough actor to play a crazed hero and Johnny Blaze is certainly a bit bonkers. Having sold his soul to the Devil [Mephistopheles – or Mephisto as he is commonly called in the comics] stunt motorcycle rider Johnny discovers he turns into a flaming, skull headed demon by night. His task is to consume evil souls. There is some troublesome background about the Devil choosing a Ghost Rider once a generation and an abandoned town of evil spirits called San Venganza. None of that feels very relevant to the antics on screen. All we really need to know is Johnny Blaze rides bikes, loves Eva Mendes and beats the crap out of fallen angels.
It’s a hoot.
The villain is called Black Heart and he is aided by a trio of useless henchmen who use the power of Earth, Water and Wind to eliminate enemies. Our blazing Ghost Rider wraps them all up in balls of fiery flame, one way or another. I didn’t understand the half of it. I didn’t really care. Cage is certainly engaging. Sam Elliott mumbles his way through proceedings as an ex-ghost rider. Peter Fonda displays a suave evility as Mephisto. Photography, even the nighttime stuff, is quite decent. Editing crisp. The fights and chases do not go on interminably. Most heartening is a general warmth about the project: a love story that feels genuine for a change, a young man wanting to do the right thing who becomes the hero who can, the effects of the cult of celebrity. Brisk in manner. Light in tone, for despite the heavy subject matter it doesn’t dwell at length on the dark side of life.
The movie was shot in Australia. It made a ton of cash. It is not very well liked by Marvel fans, IMDB fans or anyone. Pity.
M3GAN (2022)
Until its slasher ending – which pays homage to Halloween and The Terminator at once – M3GAN is quite possibly one of the creepiest movies I have ever seen. Child real size AI programmed doll comes to life and takes its primary directive much too logically. Be careful what you wish for, O Toy Manufacturers.
Frighteningly good.
Universal Studios in Florida did a recurring M3GAN flashmob during their Halloween Horror Nights in 2023. It was a big, big hit:
@HarryCanyon that was frighteningly good too
I'm looking forward to the sequel. M3GAN was one of those 'much better than it had any right to be' kind of films. It was a good concept executed very well.
London's Prince Charles cinema was showing Stalingrad-born Elem Klimov's Come and See, filmed from the point of view of the Russian's on the Eastern Front as Germany invades. It's said to be one of the greatest war films ever, but never shown on TV. It's been shown at that venue a few times, but is always sold out.
It was being shown as part of Bleak Weak, a season of gritty low-key depressing films such as anything by Mike Leigh and Get Carter.
I made this part of my ritual, having a brekkie at Cafe Rouge at St Paul's, then walking across to the West End. It wasn't a clever day to do this, given the heatwave.
But by the time I got there, more tickets had been sold and it looked a bit Covid-central, so I opted out. A case of Come and Not See, if you will.
That said, the reviews on imdb which I later looked at talk about a live cow being machine gunned to death so I don't much fancy it now, I think I'll give it a miss.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
JURASSIC PARK (1993)
Some films need no introduction and Jurassic Park is one of those. Steven Spielberg’s dinosaur blockbuster treads the familiar route trodden by King Kong and his stop-motion pals, but uses cutting edge CGI and animatronics to realise extinct reptilian monsters coming to life. For the story, the science is bafflingly simplified and the script is astoundingly banal. For some reasons two cheeky kids are introduced to give Sam Neill some fatherly bonding time. You do wish he could be out rescuing Laura Dern’s scientist instead of a geeky couple of blonde moppets. Still, you can’t fault the filmmakers ambition and the scene where the brachiosaurus first strides across the screen is something of sheer wonder – it really made you take a breath in the cinema. The action bits-and-bobs show similar attention to impact detail. There is a fine confrontation with a rogue tyrannosaurus rex, and a pursuit of much enjoyment [or fear, I guess, if you are in that age bracket] involving two vicious velociraptors. If you go on IMDB I am sure you’ll find oodles of references in the ‘goofs’ and ‘continuities’ sections. I spotted at least a dozen. As an older viewer catching this for the first time in a couple of decades, I wasn’t disappointed, but it feels over-burdened by expectation and despite all the glitz and glamour and computer stuff, it feels just like the flea circus Richard Attenborough’s John Hammond likens his dino-park too. To be honest, I think they did it better with clay models and black and white. At least the stories made sense.
Brilliant, in parts. Astounding to look at. Jurassic Park is a blockbuster of a movie, faults n all, and is probably Spielberg’s most immediately accessible family movie.
Recommended to watch at least once.
THE NIGHT MY NUMBER CAME UP (1955)
A supernatural thriller directed by Leslie Norman.
At a party in Hong Kong, a naval commander recollects a dream he had seen to his friends, in which a Dakota DC-3 aircraft carrying Air Marshal Hardie and 7 other people crashes into a rock strewn beach. Obviously the Air Marshal dismisses the dream as mere superstition.
But things take on an uncanny turn, when everything the commander had seen, slowly but surely starts manifesting in reality.
Beautifully filmed and well acted, this film feels like a well crafted episode from the 'The Twilight Zone'.
Recommended.
(94 mins)
THE ALAMO (1960)
“Republic. I like the sound of the word. Means that people can live free, talk free, go or come, buy or sell, be drunk or sober, however they choose. Some words give you a feeling. Republic is one of those words that makes me tight in the throat.”
John Wayne’s Davy Crockett, midway through The Alamo, espouses his personal political belief and damned if we don’t believe it really did come out of good ol’ Davy Crockett’s mouth and not just the pen of screenwriter James Edward Grant. If Wayne is all serious and his character politically driven, Richard Widmark’s Jim Bowie is more concerned with getting drunk and thumping Mexicans. Laurence Harvey’s uptight Colonel Travis rubs everyone up the wrong way, including, I expect, most of the audience; his hybrid accent doesn’t help. A host of bit part players mooch and mope about. The story of the Alamo Siege doesn’t need much explanation, we know how it ends; what The Alamo fails to address is why the Texans were engaged in a revolt and why Santa Anna was putting down insurgencies within Mexico. Whole swathes of background story feel missing while the script concentrates on its cast delivering sturdy life-affirming statements about love, death and freedom, much like the one above.
John Wayne directed and produced the movie, a real labour of love for the big star who poured his own fortune into the project and never saw a penny back. It was a huge box-office hit in 1960, was presented with a clutch of award nominations, but costs overran dramatically and The Alamo never made a profit. The set design of the famous mission was built brick for brick in Texas. It is outstanding and was reused for many western films in the sixties and seventies. William Clotheir’s cinematography is gorgeous, although it is a dusty palette he is working with. The battle, when it finally comes after almost three hours, is well worth the wait. Before that, the thing dawdles along not doing much other than allowing the beautiful Linda Cristal to feature in an unnecessary love story.
The Alamo isn’t a bad film, but it is a movie which feels operatic without providing enough of the drama of high opera, or even low opera. It lacks humour, mostly, so there isn’t much relief for us. Dimitri Tiomkin’s excellent score provides more emotion than the actors do.
Note
Jester Hairston plays Jim Bowie’s black aide Jethro, a role which was lined up for Sammy Davis Jr. The studio heads at United Artists would not allow Davis the part apparently due to the ‘controversy’ over his marriage to May Britt. That’s very disappointing to read of, but not unexpected for 1960.
I think for example the former members of the republic of East Germany will question John Wayne's description of a republic. 😂
@Number24 😪😪
THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK (1997)
Unnecessary sequel that spawned a franchise of similar thrills. Spielberg mashes his own Jurassic dinosaurs with ideas from King Kong and Godzilla. The magic swiftly evaporates.
Saltburn, the much talked about drama about a working-class student visiting a posh house over the summer, is on BBC1 tomorrow night. Stars our own Rosamund Pike.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
@chrisno1
Jurassic Park III (2001) directed by Joe Johnston and starring Sam Neill and the Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus, was a decent film.
Well made, efficient story telling and a runtime of 92 mins.
THE CRUEL SEA (1953)
A realistic war film, that shows the grim lives of Royal Navy sailors during WW-2.
HMS Compass Rose, a Flower-class corvette under the command of Lieutenant Commander George Ericson (Jack Hawkins) is dispatched to the Atlantic Ocean for convoy escort duties at the peak of the Nazi U-Boat offensive.
The young and inexperienced crew are quickly baptized by fire and become a battle hardened unit, who deal with a variety of contingencies during the course of the film.
Tragedy strikes the ship when a direct torpedo hit forces the crew to abandon the boat, which sinks in the Atlantic.
The Captain and the First Officer survive the ordeal and take command of a new ship, which is then dispatched to protect convoy routes in North Russia.
The film also highlights other bitter things from the war i.e., the V-2 rocket strikes on London, the effects of post traumatic stress on the crew, the civilian casualties of U-boat attacks and the tragic fate of the lost at sea.
A well made and unique movie.
Recommended.
(Directed by Charles Frend - 126 minutes)
When I saw the movie I imagined the captain in "The cruel sea" gives us a fair idea of the war experiences of the M of the novels.
AN UNGENTLEMANLY ACT (1992)
A gripping and evenhanded account of the first 36 hours of the Falkland Islands invasion.
On April 1, 1982, Governor Sir Rex Hunt (Ian Richardson) is informed by the Foreign Office via telex that an Argentine amphibious force will be gathering in Cape Pembroke in the next 24 hours and that he should make his dispositions accordingly.
Governor Hunt and Major Mike Norman (Bob Peck), commander of a Royal Marines garrison, along with members of the Falkland Islands Defence Force (FIDF), decide to put up a fight.
As the Argentine special forces land on East Falkland Island and make their way towards the Government House in Stanley, vicious gunfights erupt. The Royal Marines and FIDF put up a brave front against the Argentine special forces, but when armored personnel carriers start assembling around the Government House, the writing is on the wall.
After handing his weapon to the Argentine Force Commander, the Governor and his family are dispatched to the UK.
This sets the stage for 'Operation Corporate', the British joint arms counterattack which ends the Argentine occupation on June 20, 1982.
An excellent film and an underrated gem.
(Directed by Stuart Urban - 1hr 58 minutes)
28 YEARS LATER. A big surprise--a horror movie that's actually a coming-of-age film, with the boy-hero learning the meaning of death--while being surrounded by death! Well-acted, interesting, and, yes, pretty damn tense.
I've heard and read good things about 28 Years Later so will have to watch.
A Quiet Place 2 (2020) was on TV last night and as MrsRedKind was out (there's no way she could watch this) I thought I would tune in, given I quite liked the first film after stumbling across it a few months ago.
Following the events of the first film (it picks up pretty much where that one left off - with a brief reminder of how/why they are where they are). Evelyn and her children are forced to leave the relative safety of their farm and journey into the ruins of what lies beyond. The tension ramps up as they cross paths with other survivors and we get a bigger picture of the post‑invasion world. The sound-sensitive killer creatures are ever present of course and lie unseen at every turn, but what I like is that this isn't a gory or particularly scary film. It's just tense and pretty thought provoking throughout. It’s a gripping sequel that expands the world and shows how the family has to adapt, trust each other, and keep going when every sound could mean the end.
These films feel like a cross between War of the Worlds and 28 Days Later. If you like those, then give this a go.
I'm yet to see the prequel A Quiet Place: Day One and I see A Quiet Place 3 is in the making. Hopefully, they finish there as I think four films is probably plenty.
BIG JAKE (1971)
Big Jake was a big hit for John Wayne in 1971. The seventies was an interesting time for the big western star, as he tried to revive and continue a career which had peaked in the sixties and brought him an Oscar. Big Jake follows on from True Grit as an accomplished western that pokes fun at the Duke’s on screen persona while presenting a story of genuine depth and pathos; next year’s The Cowboys and his swansong The Shootist follow a similar narrative path.
Big Jake’s typical Wayne character is Jake McCandles and here the star does both his amiable father and his damnedest bastard impersonations. The two don’t quite mix. He’s adept with both, particularly when playing the authoritarian, feared-by-many, loved-by-some, hated-above-all. Yet the scenes when he plays the sardonic fatherly figure seem condescending to his fellow cast members. He needs someone to spar with and an early scene with a still tempestuous Maureen O’Hara – lovely to see the two united for a fourth and final movie, dignified and older, but still arguing like Irish navvies – fits the bill far better than those with his actual son Patrick and Robert Mitchum’s son, Chris, who are treated as the butt of his jokes and japes. This rather demeans the spectacle, as the characters of Jake’s sons eventually prove themselves both mature and competent – the scenes of immaturity and impracticality do not ring true with the on screen identities as initially and latterly presented.
Putting that quibble aside, you can’t fault the camaraderie on display. There is a decent turn for Richard Boone as the villain, John Fain. Harry Carey Jr has a support role as Fain’s sidekick. Bruce Cabot plays an Apache, which doesn’t seem very appropriate for 1971 – surely there was a Native American actor good enough to take the role? William Clothier’s photography shines. George Sherman directs his final film with his usual broad and effective strokes. The screenplay from Harry Julian Fink and R.M. Fink is full of the usual western cliches, but some of the dialogue has a more reflective edge to it, emphasising the onset of time and the changing times.
Big Jake is set in 1909. The old west ways are declining, but occasionally events stir up long vanished behaviours. When millionairess cattle rancher Martha McCandles’s grandson is kidnapped for a million-dollar sum, she contacts her estranged husband – the meanest son of a bitch she knows and employs him to find and rescue the lad. What she, and Big Jake, do not tell their two sons is that they have no intention of paying a ransom fee. Too many old friends died when the Fain Gang attacked the ranch and the McCandles want the Fain Gang to pay in blood. Mostly, the film is a bonding exercise for the father with his sons and grandson, but sporadic action keeps things moving nicely, and brutally, along. The hardcore violence doesn’t gel with the jokes very successfully and while the film wins on its star’s power and Boone and O’Hara’s support, it is tremendously uneven.
Nonetheless, a much better film than some John Wayne efforts.
I thought Cillian Murphy was really strong in the sequel. Cool character.
He's always value for money isn't he👍️
Would make a good Bond villain (probably too old for Bond now).
Cillian Murphy is a great actor, but he doesn't have the look of James Bond.
I really enjoyed Saltburn when it had its UK TV premiere on the BBC recently, probably more than I should have. I hadn't caught it at the cinema.
It's a basic drama, with dashes of comedy, about a scholarship lad - not posh - who arrives at Oxford and struggles to fit in. Eventually he (Barry Keoghan who played the young simple lad from Banshees of Inishirin) finds a way to inveigle his way into a key clique headed by the good-looking and decent Jacob Elordi - can't remember his character's name - who is officially a contender for Bond. So far, so Starter for 10, though university dramas are very thin on the ground. The presence of Inside No 9's Reece Sheermsith as a university lecturer might alert viewers that things might take a different turn.
Saltburn is the name of the family home that Keoghan's character is invited along to for the summer but it has shades of The Go Between, another culture clash between the classes.
I enjoyed this - for me it's classic British cinema of the kind we haven't seen in years, it is masterful storytelling which takes the viewer with it and intends to entertain in every scene. I mean, it's in the tradition of Hammer or Richard Curtis or Doctor in the House - it's not Lawrence of Arabia, it just feels happy and familiar.
I'd have the director Emerald Fennell to do a Bond movie but that position is filled now - that said, her pedigree is slim so far; she wrote and directed this but previously wrote Series 2 of Killing Eve which I really didn't like.
Our own Rosamund Pike lends support though she's a tad miscast - in one scene she reveals that, because her voice tone is just right for the gullible, thick posh woman of a certain type - I don't say Pike isn't posh but she isn't that kind of posh; she looks smart; she'd be good in a dramatisation of Diane Athilll's memoirs, she seems beady eyed. Richard E Grant is the most natural I've ever seen him. Carey Mulligan I didn't recognise in this though as an example of confirmation bias, I found the performance better when I did, on the second viewing. But all the ensemble cast is excellent.
There are some great examples of what Twitter call ****housery or one=upmaship which I like to see in Bond movies, and was also in Cruella, but we haven't seen lately.
Saltburn is not family viewing. It is a water cooler movie, it has its talking points or reference points, like 'the butter scene' in Last Tango in Paris, which is now notorious due to the mistreatment of its lead actress.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Creed
A belated first viewing for this Rocky sequel of sorts. It was dubbed a boxing masterpiece by some on its release and I can't see how though I did enjoy it a lot; this time it's the illegitimate son of Rocky rival Apollo Creed who gives up his office job to follow his dream; his adoptive mother is the woman off The Cosby Show, which makes the movie a hostage of fortune given her subsequent refusal to condemn her co-star; still it's kind of nice to see her again anyway.
Other than that this film wants to have its cake and eat it - and mainly succeeds. It's kind of Rocky 2 in that the character (Michael B Jordan) comes from a priviliged upbringing - it's a bit Prince of Bel Air, so he has to learn to rough it again, but it's an underdog story too. He looks up Rocky Bilbao who initially refuses to train him or have much to do with him, even upon learning he is Apollo Creed's son. The neat story telling and charm of the whole thing make you overlook that Rocky would just believe this total stranger is his late mate's son with no letter of introduction, or that Rocky in his old age can teach him any useful boxing tricks - hasn't the sport moved on in 30 years? - or how on earth this celebrated legendary boxer is living in a skanky Philly apartment it seems - did his former business manager make him bankrupt just prior to Rocky being convicted on a historic padeophile charge? How come he can't do a few adverts to get him a nicer pad - it's hardly a promotion of the American dream.
As I say, I pick holes in it after the fact but that overlooks that I enjoyed all of this a lot, it's a bit by numbers and follows the template; it might be telling that they get round the conflict of having an audience cheer on either a black guy beating a white guy or beating up another black guy by having him beat a Scouser, so that's okay (!), and Red Dwarf fans might be put in mind of Queeg beating up Lister. Not quite sure again how said Scouser would be needing a fight to have a roof over his kids' heads when he's also said to have had a lengthy successful record in the ring and be about to retire. Maybe he also made dodgy business deals. It was probably explained but they skimmed over the character a bit.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC (1948)
The film details the events of the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition (1910-1913), led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott to reach the geographic South Pole.
An expedition of this sort would depend heavily upon the logistics of food and fuel, which is planned out well by Captain Scott, but as the journey proceeds the effects of a certain decision i.e., the use of motor sledges, turns out to be a critical mistake.
The expedition does reach the South Pole only to find that their main competitors, the Norwegians under Roald Amundsen, have already accomplished the task.
Disappointed the team head back, but are hit by frost bite casualties.
11 miles short of a supply depot, the remaining team members perish in a blizzard.
Starring screen legend Sir John Mills as Captain Robert Falcon Scott and directed by Charles Frend, Scott of the Antarctic is a moving tribute to the bravery of the British Antarctic Expedition and is a very well made film.
Recommended.
(110 minutes)
I question if Scott's expedition was planned out well. Both his expeditions used forward deployed depots. Scott's depots had serious leakages from their fuel containers while the expedition was still going on. Fuel containers from Amundsen's expedition were found decades later with the containers still full. I also remember a TV documentary years ago were elite soldiers from Britain and Norway tried to repeat the expeditions. Same clothes, same kit, same supplies. The "Scott" expedition had to be evacuated by helicopter because the men became undernorished. The men in the "Amundsen" expedition gained weight during their journey. For the sake of balance I should mention that Roald Amundsen was a selfish b*stard.
Fascinating information Number24.
I think a few other contributory factors were:
1.Scott's expedition was more of a science research mission that also had a component of reaching the South Pole. They found fossils, did glacier and meterological studies and also explored for minerals. Amundsen's mission was basically a race to reach the South Pole. Everything was planned to reach the target point and extricate.
2. The critical mistake was reliance on ponies and the motor sledges. According to Scott, the ponies and motor sledges would help them in carrying heavy loads upto the glacier phase and beyond. Unfortunately the motorcars broke down and the ponies performance took a hit because of their physical deterioration and age. Amundsen on the other hand used sledge dogs to great effect.
3. Weather conditions nose dived in the last phase of the expedition (-34 C in the day and -44 C at night) and the resultant frost bite injuries sealed their fate. Three of the five members had gangrene in the hands and feet.
4. There were also issues with the Atkinson rescue party, which was to meet up with the South Pole party. Atkinson's personal fatigue, lack of dog food and weather deterioration issues added to the delayed response.
The Scott Expedition case should be taught in decision modelling (excel) and logistics classes in universities today.
This would be an interesting case to study and even use AI to assess what other options the South Pole party could have taken to mitigate the risks.
'Decision making under opacity / Contingency planning for unmanifested risk- The South Pole expedition of 1912'
Very tragic story never the less.