amazing that a rock bio-pic should be doing so well at the box office, It really goes to show the longterm impact of Queen's music.
Queen was the very first band I ever saw live in concert. In high school we used to argue whether what they were doing was truly significant or just enjoyable pop product, like Meat Loaf or Styx. I often heard them compared unfavourably to Led Zep in particular, as if it was assumed Led Zep had already earned some sort of position in the pantheon of greats Queen could never aspire to. Nice to see in the long run they've become much more respectable than Led Zep.
Gymkata what's your favourite Queen album?
...Some major hit songs are excluded for unknown reasons ('Crazy Little Thing Called Love' and 'Somebody to Love' aren't in the film).
it would be very strange to leave out 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' since that marks the major turning point in the band's style. They never really did the baroque-prog-glam-novelty thang again after that. I suppose 'Another One Bites the Dust' could represent that change just as well, but those two songs were both huge, and completely different, they ought to spend time on both, just to dwell on that big change in direction. I think their many 80s hits that followed were less significant in and of themselves, everything they did does not deserve equal weight when shaping it all into a story.
Mike Myers in a cameo. He's terrible here and sticks out like a sore thumb.
Mike Meyers did them a big favour by lipsynching 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in the first Wayne's World movie, it inspired a revival much like Apocalypse Now did for the Doors. They owe him a favour for that.
I would probably name the exact same two albums. A Night at the Opera is the more prefect album, in concept and execution, but those two just move me more. Maybe because they still retain a little of the heavy metal roots from their first album, but now with the more ambitious and silly songwriting that would lead to ...Opera?
specifically: Side Black of Queen II (the all-Mercury side) is possibly the greatest album side ever.
Like a good many, I watched They Shall Not Grow Old, a soundbite documentary about The Great War, its USP being that much of it is colourised, and quite effectively too.
Letters have been written about whether it should have gone with the original quote from the poem, which is 'They Shall Grow Not Old' which has a different implication.
The documentary begins in black and white and goes on that way for a while, it turns out that once the soldiers hit France, it goes into colour and the screen broadens out. This makes the whole thing effective, because it implies that nobody had any idea of what they were letting themselves in for, and those back home could never really absorb it (the film reverts to black and white footage upon their return from the war.)
Some of the colourised faces put me in mind of the Italian charlady who tried her hand at retouching a Renaissance masterpiece, and I'm not sure the recruits would have been so tanned back then (though they were outside in the sun all the time, so maybe.) It is very talky, being made up of the voices of unseen soldiers reminiscing - it doesn't distract by showing their faces or giving their names out as the film runs, but I could have done with some silence from time to time. It also seems to shorten the war a bit, implying that after one really horrific battle the Germans were ready to give in, as if to say, well, you just get through the worst part of it and it's all over.
The personal hygiene issue was pretty horrible and the blokes had awful teeth anyway. It could have done more to explain what happened when the soldiers got leave, it is a common misunderstanding from things like Blackadder Go Forth to think that they were in the trenches all the time, when in fact I think they were there nine days at a time then got sent away to town, then sent back, sort of revolving. I don't know if this allowed them time to get deloused, get the clothing clean, have a decent wash and so on.
Yeah, that's a good movie, a lot more raw than you'd think given the Bee Gees soundtrack, but of course back then the whole glam dressing up vibe was what working class kids with a bit of money did to take themselves out of things, like the Mods in the early 60s and glam rock in the early 80s.
Bombshell
This is a documentary about how the actress Hedy Lemarr was actually pretty smart and in WW2 patented a scientific invention - frequency hopping, which could be used between a ship and a fired torpedo to prevent the signal being intercepted and sabotaged by an enemy vessel.
The idea is that the radio frequency would keep changing so the enemy couldn't get a handle on it.
The idea was summarily rejected - only after the war it was farmed out to a contractor who did something with it, and it went on to make estimated billions. Lamarr wasn't informed at the time and lost out, besides there is a time limit for claiming on money made from patents, it emerges. She also suffered because her Austrian origins had it filed as unAmerican or something. Her invention is also the technology behind Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Lamarr didn't have a great life, she made bad business decisions and choices of husband.
I would probably name the exact same two albums. A Night at the Opera is the more prefect album, in concept and execution, but those two just move me more. Maybe because they still retain a little of the heavy metal roots from their first album, but now with the more ambitious and silly songwriting that would lead to ...Opera?
specifically: Side Black of Queen II (the all-Mercury side) is possibly the greatest album side ever.
Glad to see someone agrees with me regarding Freddie’s Queen II side. I grew up listening to Queen’s Greatest Hits album. In high school, I started getting into all their albums and Queen II just blew me away.
Being a precocious teenager, I knew the Bond films were better than this stuff, offering as they did one-liners, a big song by a big name star, action across two or three continents, gals and gadgets.
Well, what did I know?
First Blood is a brilliant, stripped down action film.
You've got to hand it to the actors in the first 10 mins for setting the film up, esp those in the sheriff's office with their low-level, petty vindictive ways.
You have a bike chase and a wrecked police car in the first half hour - that's Bond!
Of course, Never Say Never Again came out around this time. What if Connery's comeback had been like this? Bond alone and embittered, seeing his 00 number usurped by a smirking dandy, he wanders the UK with his napsack, drifting. Then he happens upon a small village, in the Lake District perhaps, or near Snowdonia, and they all go a bit Hot Fuzz on him, cos he's not from round there.
The sheriff might be played by Fulton Mackay off Porridge. Or Grouty actor Peter Vaughan, esp as they had the same writers as NSNA!
At some point M could turn up and say: 'Do you boys really know what you've taken on? You remember that Japanase volcano meltdown in 67? Or Crab Key 62? That was him. He's now going to do that to your lovely village... What's more, he has access to some of his old hardware in a lockup near here... he's bound to be back...'
So the last reel would be Connery eviscerating the town with his Aston Martin DB5, and then Little Nellie, setting off explosions...
Well, maybe not. Actually, the CIA herbert who turns up does spoil things a bit. With his beret and raincoat he looks a bit like sitcom character Frank Spencer. You could imagine Frank standing there, doing his mincing grimace and saying: 'Hm-mm! Your boys seem to be in a bit of trouble there!'
I must say, there aren't many drifters with such lovely henna'd hair as Sly in this film. Bit of a day-night thing going on maybe, which you get with Bond sometimes, by the time he arrives back at the town for the final showdown it's dark, mind you, it is Xmas time so shorter days.
Anyway, this is great stuff, wish I'd seen it at the cinema at the time, mind you, was too young probably.
I've not really seen the other ones, and the final film doesn't come on telly ever, prob for the reasons you give; its brutality.
I think the Nap Solo actor Robert Vaughan might have been better in the role of the CIA man, he had more credibility but was the same type of actor. Maybe they couldn't get him.
Inspired by a true story, this is basically a road movie involving a mismatched pair.
It's 1962. Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) is a bouncer at the Copacabana who is temporarily out of work when the club closes for repairs. He's a first-generation Italian-American and lives with his wife and two sons in a one-room apartment in the Bronx neighborhood in which he grew up. He's a bit of a hustler, very good with his fists, and a racist.
Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) is a black jazz pianist with multiple doctoral degrees, erudite and sophisticated as can be, but also quite tortured and lonely. He needs a driver to shuttle him on a two-month concert tour, which includes numerous dates in the Deep South.
The two connect, and Dr. Shirley hires Tony. Of course, at first they are oil and water, but long drives force them to learn about one another. Not surprisingly, they form a bond.
This is a feel-good film whose intentions and plot can be sensed from a mile away, but it was fun -- and quite funny. The two lead performances are excellent. Ali has a royal bearing that is perfect for the imperious jazzman. And Mortensen hasn't been this much fun in years, maybe ever -- his Tony is a hilarious "deez and doze" kind of guy whose heart and mind have more room for growth than initially seems possible.
Ultimately, I can't suggest you rush out and immediately see this one, but it's worth spending a couple of hours on. If you're like me, you will be smiling for most of it.
This is a movie about the terror attack on Utøya in 2011. Erik Poppe is one of Norway's best directors and and his approach is worth writing about. He interviewed survivors and involved them in the scriptwriting and behind the scenes of the filming. The movie was filmed on an island next to Utøya. The camera is almost always on Kaya (Andrea Berntzen) who is looking for her younger sister while she tries to keep herself alive. Everything is filmed by one handheld camera, but it's not "shakycam". Only the cameraman, a grip and a soundman followed the actors, the the rest of the crew hid in a boathouse. The director followed the filming on a screen and gave directions to the cameraman via earplugs. The whole movie (other than a few minutes of real footage from Oslo at the begining) is in seemingly one long take. There are in fact two hidden cuts, but only to mask the longer distance from the tent camp to the shore in the location compared to Utøya. The three-man crew just turned off the camera, walked a couple of hundred meters, turned on the camera and continued filming. They had only five days to try to get the perfect take and could not attempt more than one take a day. The take from the fourth day has been used for the final movie.
The terrorist is only seen for a few seconds as a shadow in the distance. We hear shots from loudspeakers from factually correct distances, directions and rates of fire along with cries for mercy. It was a very demanding shoot for the crew and actors.
Nearly all the actors are young unknowns with little or no acting experience. Especially given the very difficult job, both technically and emotionally, the actors give us hugely impressive perfomances. The director claims Andrea Berntzen is one of the most talented actresses in her generation in the Nordic countries and perhaps all of Europe. I don't disagree. They are playing fictional characters, but the situations they are put in and their actions are based on fact. The director has been very careful not to make this an action movie or a gore-fest. I think he handled it all very tastefully while not sugar-coating it.
I have rated this movie among one of the best I've seen this year. I can recomend it highly, but the subject matter is very difficult and it's not for everyone.
Alfonso Cuarón's autobiographical film depicting the Mexico City he grew up in during the early 1970s, told from the perspective of the domestic servant who raised him. There's been a lot of buzz for this one within the film festival circuit, and for good reason. It is a stunning film to look at and listen to, shot in black and white with many long-track and wide-pan shots, and entirely without a score. It is also entirely without a conventional plot, but rather a series of anecdotes that sometimes are resolved but often are not. The actors are mostly first-timers that Cuarón and his team found through auditions, often in small villages. Wow, are they good.
Without being preachy or heavy-handed, the film depicts the racism, sexism, class divisions -- and especially the brutally repressive political climate -- that plagued Mexico back then (and in some ways still do).
It's not for everyone, but this is a true work of art in the best sense of the term. Highly recommended.
Belated, out of time sequel from 1988. Rambo goes into Afghanistan to vanquish the Soviets when at that time they were pulling out of their own accord anyway. Worse, Sly's unironic big haired look had fallen behind to the clean-cut quippery of Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson and Arnie. Oh, and Timothy Dalton...
That said, decades later, none of that irks so much. I enjoyed this movie in a lazy sort of way. It's set around the same time as GoldenEye, or I should say, GE's pre-credits sequence. So it's pleasing to see the same detonator timers in use to go off in a few minutes time, as well as the Soviet tanks - Sly's posturing with a machine gun seems to be used by Brosnan in his debut too.
The film lacks a third act or maybe new reveal. You might expect Rambo to realise once he's got out there that he's been tricked by the Americans in some way, to give more fire to his ire. Instead it becomes a rather conventional thing - his boss gets held hostage when he's out there, so he goes into rescue him and lay waste to the Russian army. Okay, but it's not exactly vengeful, so it removes a vital ingredient of Rambo's character, that sense of betrayal we saw in the first two films.
His boss is better in this film than the first but is given some horribly corny lines.
I think Douglas Slocombe, whose mentor was legendary lenser Jack Cardiff, was cinematographer. He also worked on The Italian Job, The Lady Vanishes and Never Say Never Again.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. I expected this to be pretty much a jokey mash-up, and in some respects it is--you've got Spider-Man Noir and The Spectacular Spider-Ham rubbing shoulders with more serious versions of the hero--but it's also a well-written, often exciting, and (surprisingly) often moving foray into the Spider-Man mythos. Oh, it's also a blast. Go see it!
Finally watched Aquaman. Not as good as Wonder Woman, but a thousand times better than Suicide Squad. It starts a little slow, but once the heroes go into an adventure to find a triton it becomes a lot of fun. In fact, at times it reminded me one of those old Ray Harryhousen Sinbad movies. I hope this shows that the DC movies are getting in step. . .
Christian Bale, transforming his body yet again, absolutely disappears into the role of Dick Cheney, GW Bush's Vice President. Directed by Adam McKay in a similar style to The Big Short (narration, breaking of the 4th wall, insertion of real-life footage, celebrity cameos, onscreen text), the film chronicles Cheney's rise from ne'er-do-well Yale dropout to arguably the most powerful VP in US history. The story is interesting, but it's a polemical film, and McKay's hatred of Cheney means he attributes just about everything bad in the world to the man. Well-told though it may be, it all becomes a bit much by the end. The major players (Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell) are all very good, but the film left me rolling my eyes in fatigue when it was over, unlike The Big Short, after which I could have run a marathon to release all my anger.
Mary Poppins Returns. That's right: the crusty ol' Hardyboy saw a Disney film about a magical flying nanny. I'll admit it: I love the original and I wanted to see how the long-delayed sequel would stack up. Hmmm. You really do have to take it on its own terms, in which case it's fine: Emily Blunt is very good in the title role (as Mary Poppins, not as the Returns), and everything moves at a pippy pace. The problem is that the movie openly begs comparison to the original: instead of Bert, we've got Jack (and I hope my English friends find Lin-Manuel Miranda's Cockney accent more acceptable than was Dick Van Dyke's), instead of the medicine chest we get the bathtub, instead of Ed Wynn on the ceiling we get Meryl Streep on the ceiling, instead of dancing chimney sweeps we have dancing lamplighters, etc., etc. There's also the problem of a much darker tone (set during the Depression, right after the death of good ol' Ben Wishaw's wife) and the fact the songs are just serviceable. . .you won't come out of the theater humming any tunes. So, again, take it for what it's worth. . .
I've posted about this story before, it being one of my favourites, though normally about the 1967 Hammer film, and have just spent an enjoyable 3 hours rewatching the original 1958-59 BBC b&w serial. Dated, obviously, but still great stuff- I particularly enjoyed how the story begins with trivial events and builds relentlessly including sci-fi and occult elements to a gripping climax.
Much of this was re-used by Dr Who among others, and it strongly influenced Stephen King's "The Tommyknockers". André Morell is just fine as Quatermass (though I prefer Andrew Keir in the Hammer version), but the standout performance is from Cec Linder as his best friend- and Cec Linder as the hero's best friend should be very very familiar to us Bond fans....
A couple, on a cross-country plane flight just before the new year...
ARRIVAL
Quite a lovely film, with Amy Adams starring as a linguist assigned to decode the language of extraterrestrials who have landed spacecraft in 12 locations around the world. In this film, the aliens are more good than bad, with most humans the opposite. But some clumsy political subplots aside, the film is really about Adams's character, who uses the experience as a means to both purge herself of and to revisit a tragedy in her life. There's a twist at the end that I don't entirely understand, but I found the whole thing uplifting. Beautiful, both visually and sonically.
THE DEATH OF STALIN
Wow, if only all black comedies were this good. In 1953, Stalin dies, and a massive power vacuum ensues. Various Soviet higher-ups (Khrushchev, Beria, Malenkov, Molotov, etc.) jockey for position in an attempt to take over. Steve Buscemi, Michael Palin, Simon Russell Beale, Jeffrey Tambor and Jason Isaacs are among the cast, and Bond veteran Olga Kurylenko shows up in a small but important role. Everyone plays their parts in their native accents (or close to them) so you have Buscemi talking American English as Khrushchev, Beale sounding British as Beria, etc. This was a great decision, as opposed to having everyone sport a bad Russian accent (as in, say, The Hunt for Red October). The story is alternatively brutal and hilarious, and all the players bring their A-games, particularly Beale, who is absolutely amazing as the vile Beria. Probably the best film I saw in 2018.
Hilly...you old devil!
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 26,510Chief of Staff
It's odd seeing this all those years later, it reminds me of The Craig Wars that broke out... ) At times, Craig looks more Bond in this than he ever did in his movies, very young and cool. He never quite looked that young and cool as Bond. At others, you can see why many railed against him, his looks are very changeable and imo his face looked better in the last one, more filled in with age, though maybe he's had some work done.
I do also prefer this movie to his Bonds, I wish they'd gone with Matthew Vaughan as director for CR. So many of his camera set-ups looks so cool and classy, esp as all of it is shot in and around London. I just like the easy style of the movie, I find I want to watch it if it's on.
Sarah Hawkins had a small role in it, as the clueless gangster's girlfriend! She's got one hell of a range.
Craig does very well in this, but it helps he's part of an ensemble cast, something the Bond producers only really picked up on by his third film. He's great, he elevates the film; you can imagine James McAvoy or Ewan McGregor in a film like this, and you'd know what to expect of course - in some ways it might make for an easier viewing experience but Craig has more surprises.
In many ways this feels like the real Casino Royale to me, in particular the whole learning curve of the character and his first kill, etc.
Sarah Hawkins had a small role in it, as the clueless gangster's girlfriend! She's got one hell of a range.
Fantastic film, so much better than the Ritchies that preceded it. Gambon's sermon at the end is worth the price of admission all by itself (by the way, his is the ugliest tan I've ever seen). Unfortunately, for me, nothing Vaughn has directed since then has measured up.
Think you mean Sally Hawkins, but you're right, she's great in this film and terrific in general. Ever see her (and a very young James Corden) in Mike Leigh's All or Nothing? Depressing film, but great performances all around.
Yeah, Sally Hawkins, that's who I meant! No, I haven't seen All or Nothing. (Saw Everything or Nothing of course... )
It's odd, there are films like that that simply never get a showing on telly.
"This is where we leave you Mr Bond."
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 26,510Chief of Staff
Stan & Ollie...an absolutely wonderful, touching and heartwarming film...both leads are superb...but you will know this if you’ve seen it...and if not...why not?
Glorious -{
I saw Peter Jackson's World War I documentary They Shall Not Grow Old. Absolutely stunning. I study the war and teach literature from it (mainly the poetry), but this made me feel like I was there.
Vox clamantis in deserto
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 26,510Chief of Staff
I saw Peter Jackson's World War I documentary They Shall Not Grow Old. Absolutely stunning. I study the war and teach literature from it (mainly the poetry), but this made me feel like I was there.
I watched this just before Christmas...it is stunning...and also brutal...and touching...and funny...
Adding sound - as well as colour - just adds more layers of reality...it’s an epic piece that is a fitting tribute to all that fought in that horrible war.
Comments
Queen was the very first band I ever saw live in concert. In high school we used to argue whether what they were doing was truly significant or just enjoyable pop product, like Meat Loaf or Styx. I often heard them compared unfavourably to Led Zep in particular, as if it was assumed Led Zep had already earned some sort of position in the pantheon of greats Queen could never aspire to. Nice to see in the long run they've become much more respectable than Led Zep.
Gymkata what's your favourite Queen album?
it would be very strange to leave out 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' since that marks the major turning point in the band's style. They never really did the baroque-prog-glam-novelty thang again after that. I suppose 'Another One Bites the Dust' could represent that change just as well, but those two songs were both huge, and completely different, they ought to spend time on both, just to dwell on that big change in direction. I think their many 80s hits that followed were less significant in and of themselves, everything they did does not deserve equal weight when shaping it all into a story.
Mike Meyers did them a big favour by lipsynching 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in the first Wayne's World movie, it inspired a revival much like Apocalypse Now did for the Doors. They owe him a favour for that.
specifically: Side Black of Queen II (the all-Mercury side) is possibly the greatest album side ever.
Letters have been written about whether it should have gone with the original quote from the poem, which is 'They Shall Grow Not Old' which has a different implication.
The documentary begins in black and white and goes on that way for a while, it turns out that once the soldiers hit France, it goes into colour and the screen broadens out. This makes the whole thing effective, because it implies that nobody had any idea of what they were letting themselves in for, and those back home could never really absorb it (the film reverts to black and white footage upon their return from the war.)
Some of the colourised faces put me in mind of the Italian charlady who tried her hand at retouching a Renaissance masterpiece, and I'm not sure the recruits would have been so tanned back then (though they were outside in the sun all the time, so maybe.) It is very talky, being made up of the voices of unseen soldiers reminiscing - it doesn't distract by showing their faces or giving their names out as the film runs, but I could have done with some silence from time to time. It also seems to shorten the war a bit, implying that after one really horrific battle the Germans were ready to give in, as if to say, well, you just get through the worst part of it and it's all over.
The personal hygiene issue was pretty horrible and the blokes had awful teeth anyway. It could have done more to explain what happened when the soldiers got leave, it is a common misunderstanding from things like Blackadder Go Forth to think that they were in the trenches all the time, when in fact I think they were there nine days at a time then got sent away to town, then sent back, sort of revolving. I don't know if this allowed them time to get deloused, get the clothing clean, have a decent wash and so on.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I love these feel good comedies
Bombshell
This is a documentary about how the actress Hedy Lemarr was actually pretty smart and in WW2 patented a scientific invention - frequency hopping, which could be used between a ship and a fired torpedo to prevent the signal being intercepted and sabotaged by an enemy vessel.
The idea is that the radio frequency would keep changing so the enemy couldn't get a handle on it.
The idea was summarily rejected - only after the war it was farmed out to a contractor who did something with it, and it went on to make estimated billions. Lamarr wasn't informed at the time and lost out, besides there is a time limit for claiming on money made from patents, it emerges. She also suffered because her Austrian origins had it filed as unAmerican or something. Her invention is also the technology behind Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Lamarr didn't have a great life, she made bad business decisions and choices of husband.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Glad to see someone agrees with me regarding Freddie’s Queen II side. I grew up listening to Queen’s Greatest Hits album. In high school, I started getting into all their albums and Queen II just blew me away.
It's a sort of hybrid Bond/Indiana Jones thing while seeming more entertaining than either of late.
I mention it because parts of it seem a bit like Spectre, in particular the old car in the desert.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Being a precocious teenager, I knew the Bond films were better than this stuff, offering as they did one-liners, a big song by a big name star, action across two or three continents, gals and gadgets.
Well, what did I know?
First Blood is a brilliant, stripped down action film.
You've got to hand it to the actors in the first 10 mins for setting the film up, esp those in the sheriff's office with their low-level, petty vindictive ways.
You have a bike chase and a wrecked police car in the first half hour - that's Bond!
Of course, Never Say Never Again came out around this time. What if Connery's comeback had been like this? Bond alone and embittered, seeing his 00 number usurped by a smirking dandy, he wanders the UK with his napsack, drifting. Then he happens upon a small village, in the Lake District perhaps, or near Snowdonia, and they all go a bit Hot Fuzz on him, cos he's not from round there.
The sheriff might be played by Fulton Mackay off Porridge. Or Grouty actor Peter Vaughan, esp as they had the same writers as NSNA!
At some point M could turn up and say: 'Do you boys really know what you've taken on? You remember that Japanase volcano meltdown in 67? Or Crab Key 62? That was him. He's now going to do that to your lovely village... What's more, he has access to some of his old hardware in a lockup near here... he's bound to be back...'
So the last reel would be Connery eviscerating the town with his Aston Martin DB5, and then Little Nellie, setting off explosions...
Well, maybe not. Actually, the CIA herbert who turns up does spoil things a bit. With his beret and raincoat he looks a bit like sitcom character Frank Spencer. You could imagine Frank standing there, doing his mincing grimace and saying: 'Hm-mm! Your boys seem to be in a bit of trouble there!'
I must say, there aren't many drifters with such lovely henna'd hair as Sly in this film. Bit of a day-night thing going on maybe, which you get with Bond sometimes, by the time he arrives back at the town for the final showdown it's dark, mind you, it is Xmas time so shorter days.
Anyway, this is great stuff, wish I'd seen it at the cinema at the time, mind you, was too young probably.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I think the Nap Solo actor Robert Vaughan might have been better in the role of the CIA man, he had more credibility but was the same type of actor. Maybe they couldn't get him.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Inspired by a true story, this is basically a road movie involving a mismatched pair.
It's 1962. Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) is a bouncer at the Copacabana who is temporarily out of work when the club closes for repairs. He's a first-generation Italian-American and lives with his wife and two sons in a one-room apartment in the Bronx neighborhood in which he grew up. He's a bit of a hustler, very good with his fists, and a racist.
Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) is a black jazz pianist with multiple doctoral degrees, erudite and sophisticated as can be, but also quite tortured and lonely. He needs a driver to shuttle him on a two-month concert tour, which includes numerous dates in the Deep South.
The two connect, and Dr. Shirley hires Tony. Of course, at first they are oil and water, but long drives force them to learn about one another. Not surprisingly, they form a bond.
This is a feel-good film whose intentions and plot can be sensed from a mile away, but it was fun -- and quite funny. The two lead performances are excellent. Ali has a royal bearing that is perfect for the imperious jazzman. And Mortensen hasn't been this much fun in years, maybe ever -- his Tony is a hilarious "deez and doze" kind of guy whose heart and mind have more room for growth than initially seems possible.
Ultimately, I can't suggest you rush out and immediately see this one, but it's worth spending a couple of hours on. If you're like me, you will be smiling for most of it.
This is a movie about the terror attack on Utøya in 2011. Erik Poppe is one of Norway's best directors and and his approach is worth writing about. He interviewed survivors and involved them in the scriptwriting and behind the scenes of the filming. The movie was filmed on an island next to Utøya. The camera is almost always on Kaya (Andrea Berntzen) who is looking for her younger sister while she tries to keep herself alive. Everything is filmed by one handheld camera, but it's not "shakycam". Only the cameraman, a grip and a soundman followed the actors, the the rest of the crew hid in a boathouse. The director followed the filming on a screen and gave directions to the cameraman via earplugs. The whole movie (other than a few minutes of real footage from Oslo at the begining) is in seemingly one long take. There are in fact two hidden cuts, but only to mask the longer distance from the tent camp to the shore in the location compared to Utøya. The three-man crew just turned off the camera, walked a couple of hundred meters, turned on the camera and continued filming. They had only five days to try to get the perfect take and could not attempt more than one take a day. The take from the fourth day has been used for the final movie.
The terrorist is only seen for a few seconds as a shadow in the distance. We hear shots from loudspeakers from factually correct distances, directions and rates of fire along with cries for mercy. It was a very demanding shoot for the crew and actors.
Nearly all the actors are young unknowns with little or no acting experience. Especially given the very difficult job, both technically and emotionally, the actors give us hugely impressive perfomances. The director claims Andrea Berntzen is one of the most talented actresses in her generation in the Nordic countries and perhaps all of Europe. I don't disagree. They are playing fictional characters, but the situations they are put in and their actions are based on fact. The director has been very careful not to make this an action movie or a gore-fest. I think he handled it all very tastefully while not sugar-coating it.
I have rated this movie among one of the best I've seen this year. I can recomend it highly, but the subject matter is very difficult and it's not for everyone.
English trailer: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=u+22+july+erik+poppe+trailer&&view=detail&mid=FC4AB59BE8A9BFA9004CFC4AB59BE8A9BFA9004C&&FORM=VRDGAR
Alfonso Cuarón's autobiographical film depicting the Mexico City he grew up in during the early 1970s, told from the perspective of the domestic servant who raised him. There's been a lot of buzz for this one within the film festival circuit, and for good reason. It is a stunning film to look at and listen to, shot in black and white with many long-track and wide-pan shots, and entirely without a score. It is also entirely without a conventional plot, but rather a series of anecdotes that sometimes are resolved but often are not. The actors are mostly first-timers that Cuarón and his team found through auditions, often in small villages. Wow, are they good.
Without being preachy or heavy-handed, the film depicts the racism, sexism, class divisions -- and especially the brutally repressive political climate -- that plagued Mexico back then (and in some ways still do).
It's not for everyone, but this is a true work of art in the best sense of the term. Highly recommended.
Rambo III
Belated, out of time sequel from 1988. Rambo goes into Afghanistan to vanquish the Soviets when at that time they were pulling out of their own accord anyway. Worse, Sly's unironic big haired look had fallen behind to the clean-cut quippery of Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson and Arnie. Oh, and Timothy Dalton...
That said, decades later, none of that irks so much. I enjoyed this movie in a lazy sort of way. It's set around the same time as GoldenEye, or I should say, GE's pre-credits sequence. So it's pleasing to see the same detonator timers in use to go off in a few minutes time, as well as the Soviet tanks - Sly's posturing with a machine gun seems to be used by Brosnan in his debut too.
The film lacks a third act or maybe new reveal. You might expect Rambo to realise once he's got out there that he's been tricked by the Americans in some way, to give more fire to his ire. Instead it becomes a rather conventional thing - his boss gets held hostage when he's out there, so he goes into rescue him and lay waste to the Russian army. Okay, but it's not exactly vengeful, so it removes a vital ingredient of Rambo's character, that sense of betrayal we saw in the first two films.
His boss is better in this film than the first but is given some horribly corny lines.
I think Douglas Slocombe, whose mentor was legendary lenser Jack Cardiff, was cinematographer. He also worked on The Italian Job, The Lady Vanishes and Never Say Never Again.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Christian Bale, transforming his body yet again, absolutely disappears into the role of Dick Cheney, GW Bush's Vice President. Directed by Adam McKay in a similar style to The Big Short (narration, breaking of the 4th wall, insertion of real-life footage, celebrity cameos, onscreen text), the film chronicles Cheney's rise from ne'er-do-well Yale dropout to arguably the most powerful VP in US history. The story is interesting, but it's a polemical film, and McKay's hatred of Cheney means he attributes just about everything bad in the world to the man. Well-told though it may be, it all becomes a bit much by the end. The major players (Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell) are all very good, but the film left me rolling my eyes in fatigue when it was over, unlike The Big Short, after which I could have run a marathon to release all my anger.
I've posted about this story before, it being one of my favourites, though normally about the 1967 Hammer film, and have just spent an enjoyable 3 hours rewatching the original 1958-59 BBC b&w serial. Dated, obviously, but still great stuff- I particularly enjoyed how the story begins with trivial events and builds relentlessly including sci-fi and occult elements to a gripping climax.
Much of this was re-used by Dr Who among others, and it strongly influenced Stephen King's "The Tommyknockers". André Morell is just fine as Quatermass (though I prefer Andrew Keir in the Hammer version), but the standout performance is from Cec Linder as his best friend- and Cec Linder as the hero's best friend should be very very familiar to us Bond fans....
ARRIVAL
Quite a lovely film, with Amy Adams starring as a linguist assigned to decode the language of extraterrestrials who have landed spacecraft in 12 locations around the world. In this film, the aliens are more good than bad, with most humans the opposite. But some clumsy political subplots aside, the film is really about Adams's character, who uses the experience as a means to both purge herself of and to revisit a tragedy in her life. There's a twist at the end that I don't entirely understand, but I found the whole thing uplifting. Beautiful, both visually and sonically.
THE DEATH OF STALIN
Wow, if only all black comedies were this good. In 1953, Stalin dies, and a massive power vacuum ensues. Various Soviet higher-ups (Khrushchev, Beria, Malenkov, Molotov, etc.) jockey for position in an attempt to take over. Steve Buscemi, Michael Palin, Simon Russell Beale, Jeffrey Tambor and Jason Isaacs are among the cast, and Bond veteran Olga Kurylenko shows up in a small but important role. Everyone plays their parts in their native accents (or close to them) so you have Buscemi talking American English as Khrushchev, Beale sounding British as Beria, etc. This was a great decision, as opposed to having everyone sport a bad Russian accent (as in, say, The Hunt for Red October). The story is alternatively brutal and hilarious, and all the players bring their A-games, particularly Beale, who is absolutely amazing as the vile Beria. Probably the best film I saw in 2018.
You do...it’s excellent -{
I haven't enjoyed a spy film like this for absolute ages, and part of me wishes there could be an X rated James Bond film.
A torture scene well there's a couple of believable ones in this movie, Plus Jennifer Lawrence (or her body double) has wonderful tits!!!
A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon in darkest North West of England, where it's been unrelenting pissing down rain and freezing cold!!
"Do you expect me to talk? "No Mister Bond I expect you to die"
It's odd seeing this all those years later, it reminds me of The Craig Wars that broke out...
I do also prefer this movie to his Bonds, I wish they'd gone with Matthew Vaughan as director for CR. So many of his camera set-ups looks so cool and classy, esp as all of it is shot in and around London. I just like the easy style of the movie, I find I want to watch it if it's on.
Sarah Hawkins had a small role in it, as the clueless gangster's girlfriend! She's got one hell of a range.
Craig does very well in this, but it helps he's part of an ensemble cast, something the Bond producers only really picked up on by his third film. He's great, he elevates the film; you can imagine James McAvoy or Ewan McGregor in a film like this, and you'd know what to expect of course - in some ways it might make for an easier viewing experience but Craig has more surprises.
In many ways this feels like the real Casino Royale to me, in particular the whole learning curve of the character and his first kill, etc.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Think you mean Sally Hawkins, but you're right, she's great in this film and terrific in general. Ever see her (and a very young James Corden) in Mike Leigh's All or Nothing? Depressing film, but great performances all around.
It's odd, there are films like that that simply never get a showing on telly.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Glorious -{
I watched this just before Christmas...it is stunning...and also brutal...and touching...and funny...
Adding sound - as well as colour - just adds more layers of reality...it’s an epic piece that is a fitting tribute to all that fought in that horrible war.
Roger Moore 1927-2017