I saw Tom Hardy (the actor, not my man Thomas Hardy) as the original Scarface in Capone. If you're expecting a gangster movie, think again: this is Big Al in the last year of his life, dying of syphilis, suffering hallucinations, and frequently losing control of his bladder and bowels. Not a pretty picture, but Hardy is fascinating--and he adds to his ever-growing list of mumbling accents.
Directed from a script by Luc Besson, this tale of an incompetent policeman teaming up with a taxi driver to catch bank robbers in Marseilles initially looks promising. But aside from the admittedly fantastic car chases, this Marion Cotillard vehicle (no pun intended) quickly runs out of steam, as the film tries too hard to be quirky and loses sight of its central characterisation. Essentially a shallow buddy-cop movie, this is worth seeing for the flashy car stunts, if not much else.
I watched this movie in memory of Dame Diana Rigg. The movie was made in the same year as OHMSS and in adition to Rigg we also see Bond actors Curd Jürgens, Milton Reid and Vernon Dobtcheff in adition to her own Blofeld, Telly Savalas. The story takes place right before WWI and Rigg plays a woman who tries to make it as a journalist by exposing The Assassination Bureau (TAB). The bureau kills key people based on the treath they pose to peace, but lately money has become more important than ethics. The Bureau is lead by Oliver Reed. Rigg is the catalyst for a situation where the leaders of TAB are trying to kill each other and Rigg is traveling with Reed. The story is based on an unfinished novel by Jack London, but the movie is an adventure-comedy and the novel was more serious.
I found the movie very entertaining with humor, excitement, good locations and fine characters. This is probably the wrong movie to fact-check historically, but St Petersburg wasn't re-named Petrograd until the Great War started. A good film with Diana Rigg in a fun central role.
,
Set in the first World War, Conrad plays a U boat Captain who is sent to the Orkney Islands on a mission against the British. A good thriller with some twists and turns.
John Liu in Mexico 3/6 (more like JL in Tenerife , heh)
Takes place on mex-US border , the baddies want a gold dragon broche , they also burn Lius eyes.......not really exciting and fight scenes are nothing special
Connery said he'd only ever cried once when reading a script and that was Chariots of Fire - but he was unable to do it due to scheduling commitments. Not sure what role he'd have been up for - the trainer, perhaps.
Showboat
The original with Paul Robeson, Irene Dunn and Allan Jones.
Maybe the best musical ever as it hits you with three great songs in opening 20 mins, including Ol' Man River.
Sadly, there's one scene that involves Dunn 'blacking up' to go on stage that I'd simply never registered before. Oh dear. It's not done maliciously, and it is of the time it's set (1880s I think) but it is done approvingly and it does somewhat sink the movie for a tea-time viewing.
Then again, due to the prominent roles of Robeson and Hattie McDaniel thus features two strong roles for blacks particularly for the time. Plus, the them of the film is resolutely anti-racist. So you sort of have to give it some credit.
A thriller set during the American hostage crisis in Iran in 1979. Based on real events, it tells the story of six hostages who managed to escape from the American Embassy and hide out in Tehran. Meanwhile the CIA, worked on a scheme to attempt to get them out of the country. Very tense in places.
The Hunt. This is billed as a horror film--from Blumhouse--but it's actually a political satire that, using the premise of "The Most Dangerous Game," has arugula-eating leftists hunting down pork-rind-chomping righties. I found it hilarious, and a comment on what politics in the U.S. is becoming. . .
I don't really have any problems with this WWI epic. Going from the front line trench to the green dressing station shouldn't go as quickly as we see at the end, but I undertand why it's done this way. Solid acting with young, lesser knwn actors taking center stage The plot is great and it's beautifully shot. No Germans turn out to be related to the protagonists, no questionable filters .... this director could make a good Bond film is given the chance
But Norweigian is beautiful, even if as an Englishman it's impossible to practice as from the moment your accent betrays you, from Kristiansand to Tromsø, you hear nothing but perfect English in response!
That's actually a problem for people from English-speaking countries who are living in Norway. Most people from ages 10 to 80 speak English so well it's usually quickest and easiest just speaking English intead of making the effort to learn Norwegian. I've known Englishmen who' lived here for years and they still barely know any Norwegian,while their kids or niehgbours from Africa speaks it fluently.
That's actually a problem for people from English-speaking countries who are living in Norway. Most people from ages 10 to 80 speak English so well it's usually quickest and easiest just speaking English intead of making the effort to learn Norwegian. I've known Englishmen who' lived here for years and they still barely know any Norwegian,while their kids or niehgbours from Africa speaks it fluently.
Was in Olso for a year in my early 20s - everyone of my contemporaries was engaged in a contest to prove they spoke better English than their parents. I learned nothing! Tusen Takk you devils!
Anyway, to stay vaguely on topic the last film I (re)watched was La Haine having read all the recent anniversary press. Still magnificent.
I was re-watching the opening scenes of Yojimbo last night...
One of the first things we and Mifune see as he enters the town is a stray dog carrying a human hand
David Lynch's Wild at Heart contains an almost identical shot at the end!
This is a spy movie starring Judi Dench, so I felt like watching it. The story is about Joan (played by Sophie Cookson when she's young and Dench later in life) who became a communist during WWII and joined the British nucklear weapons program. Already during the war she is recruited to give up secrets to the Soviets. This is losely based on the real story of Melita Norwood (1912-2005) who was discovered in 1992. Since we already know Joan is guilty the interesting part is how and why she handed secrets to Stalin's Soviet Union. The spy ring is called Comintern in the movie. That's plain silly. Comintern was an organisation backed by the USSR for communist parties who shared the Soviet world view. Comintern membership was for political parties and and the member parties were well known and a matter of public reccord. Calling a communist spy ring in wartime Britain Comintern is not too different from calling a US spy ring during cold war Soviet Union "NATO" - plain silly and unbelivable.
The Soviet secret service around 1945 was called NKVD, not KGB as the movie claims. I still find the movie interesting and the acting as expected very good.
Do you remember when we expected this movie to compete with NTTD at the box office?
This is the story about when Ford wanted to stop Ferrari's dominance in the racing circut through the efforts of Carrol Shelpby (Matt Damon) and Ken Miles (Christian Bale).
In my opinion this is the best racing movie since Rush in 2013. The strengths of the two movies are the same . first rate driving scenes and interesting characters. Ford vs Ferrari is one of the best movies I've seen so far this year.
This isn't first version of the novel that I've seen, but I think it's the most engaging and watchable. This is Greta Gervig's version and I think it's more vibrant, better cast, better shot, better edited (the story isn't told in a completely linear way) and in short I enjoyed the movie.
Noe I'm looking forward to the sequels "Medium sized women" and "Big women"
Apparently the inspiration for last year's Joker. A very dark comedy about a failed comedian (de Niro) who decides to kidnap his comedy idol (Jerry Lewis) in order to gain fame and success. Chaos ensues. Robert de Niro impresses as the pathetic loser figure, strangely sympathetic and yet insidious and repellent, while Jerry Lewis lampoons himself with a relatively straightforward but effective turn. One of Scorsese's best films, from what I've seen so far.
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFOWER (2012)
One of the earliest examples of the Young Adult book-to-film craze, and probably the best film of its kind. Logan Lerman does fine work as the troubled teenage protagonist, with support from Ezra Miller and Emma Watson, while the film effectively generates an atmosphere of unnerving isolation and alienation around the main character that makes up for the in places cliched plot. Surprisingly good.
Starring Margot Robbie. Based on a true story, this film depicts the life of Tonya Harding who, against the odds, became a competitive ice skater at Olympic level and was the first American woman to perform a triple axel. She suffered abuse as a child from her mother and later from her husband. Her husband interfered in a drastic incident in her career. (I don’t want to give anything away for those who aren’t familiar with this story, like I wasn’t. I’m guessing it was big news in America at the time.)
Gal Gadot is going to play Cleopatra in a movie by Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins. The casting has been critizised for white-washing. This comes from a lack of knowledge about history. Some of the Pharaos were black since they were from the upper Nile, today's Sudan. But Cleopatra was of the Ptolemaic dynasty that was started by Ptolemy, one of Alexander the Great's generals. In other words Cleopatra was ethnically Greek, or rather Macedonian. I for one am looking forward to seeing Gald Gadot in the role.
Has anyone seen the trailer for the upcoming Mel Gibson film about Santa ?
At first I thought , it was because he was a bit fat and had a beard they were
using the Santa description but on seeing the trailer He is indeed Fr Christmas
Only this looks like a full on bloody, action film it looks very Odd.
"I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
I'm not going to discuss the plot much, because who watches Disney movies for the plot? :v
I think the story is a good mix of the familiar and the new. I don't think the songs are as good as the last time, but perhaps I should let it go?
Just like the first Frozen the influences from Norway are absolutely there. While the first movie was very much a winter movie, here autumn is very much a theme. The landscapes and vivid colours look very familiar, especially in the birch forrest with the red and orange leaves. The people in the far north with all the reindeer are clearly inspired by the Sami people, and this movie was actually dubbed to Sami. The mountain giants are a strange reversal of our trolls - they are made of stone while according to legend the trolls turned to stone in sunlight. The giants throw stones, while old legends say large stones far away from mountains were thrown by trolls.
I'm sure this is compulory viewing for all parents of little girls, but other than fast forwarding throw some of the songs I actually liked it.
Fun fact: Do you remember this scene in Frozen? Both my father and grandfather worked on cutting ice back in the day, very much like this (apart from the singing)
Comments
Directed from a script by Luc Besson, this tale of an incompetent policeman teaming up with a taxi driver to catch bank robbers in Marseilles initially looks promising. But aside from the admittedly fantastic car chases, this Marion Cotillard vehicle (no pun intended) quickly runs out of steam, as the film tries too hard to be quirky and loses sight of its central characterisation. Essentially a shallow buddy-cop movie, this is worth seeing for the flashy car stunts, if not much else.
"The spectre of defeat..."
often over looked action/suspense film, Terrorists take over a plane and they
have to be given a smacked bottom.
I watched this movie in memory of Dame Diana Rigg. The movie was made in the same year as OHMSS and in adition to Rigg we also see Bond actors Curd Jürgens, Milton Reid and Vernon Dobtcheff in adition to her own Blofeld, Telly Savalas. The story takes place right before WWI and Rigg plays a woman who tries to make it as a journalist by exposing The Assassination Bureau (TAB). The bureau kills key people based on the treath they pose to peace, but lately money has become more important than ethics. The Bureau is lead by Oliver Reed. Rigg is the catalyst for a situation where the leaders of TAB are trying to kill each other and Rigg is traveling with Reed. The story is based on an unfinished novel by Jack London, but the movie is an adventure-comedy and the novel was more serious.
I found the movie very entertaining with humor, excitement, good locations and fine characters. This is probably the wrong movie to fact-check historically, but St Petersburg wasn't re-named Petrograd until the Great War started. A good film with Diana Rigg in a fun central role.
,
Set in the first World War, Conrad plays a U boat Captain who is sent to the Orkney Islands on a mission against the British. A good thriller with some twists and turns.
Takes place on mex-US border , the baddies want a gold dragon broche , they also burn Lius eyes.......not really exciting and fight scenes are nothing special
Happiness, hope and heartbreak.
Showboat
The original with Paul Robeson, Irene Dunn and Allan Jones.
Maybe the best musical ever as it hits you with three great songs in opening 20 mins, including Ol' Man River.
Sadly, there's one scene that involves Dunn 'blacking up' to go on stage that I'd simply never registered before. Oh dear. It's not done maliciously, and it is of the time it's set (1880s I think) but it is done approvingly and it does somewhat sink the movie for a tea-time viewing.
Then again, due to the prominent roles of Robeson and Hattie McDaniel thus features two strong roles for blacks particularly for the time. Plus, the them of the film is resolutely anti-racist. So you sort of have to give it some credit.
The ending is a choker.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
A thriller set during the American hostage crisis in Iran in 1979. Based on real events, it tells the story of six hostages who managed to escape from the American Embassy and hide out in Tehran. Meanwhile the CIA, worked on a scheme to attempt to get them out of the country. Very tense in places.
I don't really have any problems with this WWI epic. Going from the front line trench to the green dressing station shouldn't go as quickly as we see at the end, but I undertand why it's done this way. Solid acting with young, lesser knwn actors taking center stage The plot is great and it's beautifully shot. No Germans turn out to be related to the protagonists, no questionable filters .... this director could make a good Bond film is given the chance
https://www.vgtv.no/video/206073/her-avsloerer-cruise-norge-detaljer-for-lokalbefolkningen
But Norweigian is beautiful, even if as an Englishman it's impossible to practice as from the moment your accent betrays you, from Kristiansand to Tromsø, you hear nothing but perfect English in response!
Is the Norwegian language dangerous then )
Was in Olso for a year in my early 20s - everyone of my contemporaries was engaged in a contest to prove they spoke better English than their parents. I learned nothing! Tusen Takk you devils!
Anyway, to stay vaguely on topic the last film I (re)watched was La Haine having read all the recent anniversary press. Still magnificent.
Some may see it that way. I felt a warning was only fair
One of the first things we and Mifune see as he enters the town is a stray dog carrying a human hand
David Lynch's Wild at Heart contains an almost identical shot at the end!
This is a spy movie starring Judi Dench, so I felt like watching it. The story is about Joan (played by Sophie Cookson when she's young and Dench later in life) who became a communist during WWII and joined the British nucklear weapons program. Already during the war she is recruited to give up secrets to the Soviets. This is losely based on the real story of Melita Norwood (1912-2005) who was discovered in 1992. Since we already know Joan is guilty the interesting part is how and why she handed secrets to Stalin's Soviet Union. The spy ring is called Comintern in the movie. That's plain silly. Comintern was an organisation backed by the USSR for communist parties who shared the Soviet world view. Comintern membership was for political parties and and the member parties were well known and a matter of public reccord. Calling a communist spy ring in wartime Britain Comintern is not too different from calling a US spy ring during cold war Soviet Union "NATO" - plain silly and unbelivable.
The Soviet secret service around 1945 was called NKVD, not KGB as the movie claims. I still find the movie interesting and the acting as expected very good.
Still as silly and as funny as always
Then Top Secret another classic still laugh out loud funny
Do you remember when we expected this movie to compete with NTTD at the box office?
This is the story about when Ford wanted to stop Ferrari's dominance in the racing circut through the efforts of Carrol Shelpby (Matt Damon) and Ken Miles (Christian Bale).
In my opinion this is the best racing movie since Rush in 2013. The strengths of the two movies are the same . first rate driving scenes and interesting characters. Ford vs Ferrari is one of the best movies I've seen so far this year.
This isn't first version of the novel that I've seen, but I think it's the most engaging and watchable. This is Greta Gervig's version and I think it's more vibrant, better cast, better shot, better edited (the story isn't told in a completely linear way) and in short I enjoyed the movie.
Noe I'm looking forward to the sequels "Medium sized women" and "Big women"
Apparently the inspiration for last year's Joker. A very dark comedy about a failed comedian (de Niro) who decides to kidnap his comedy idol (Jerry Lewis) in order to gain fame and success. Chaos ensues. Robert de Niro impresses as the pathetic loser figure, strangely sympathetic and yet insidious and repellent, while Jerry Lewis lampoons himself with a relatively straightforward but effective turn. One of Scorsese's best films, from what I've seen so far.
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFOWER (2012)
One of the earliest examples of the Young Adult book-to-film craze, and probably the best film of its kind. Logan Lerman does fine work as the troubled teenage protagonist, with support from Ezra Miller and Emma Watson, while the film effectively generates an atmosphere of unnerving isolation and alienation around the main character that makes up for the in places cliched plot. Surprisingly good.
"The spectre of defeat..."
Starring Margot Robbie. Based on a true story, this film depicts the life of Tonya Harding who, against the odds, became a competitive ice skater at Olympic level and was the first American woman to perform a triple axel. She suffered abuse as a child from her mother and later from her husband. Her husband interfered in a drastic incident in her career. (I don’t want to give anything away for those who aren’t familiar with this story, like I wasn’t. I’m guessing it was big news in America at the time.)
History is a thing of the past, and nostalgia is not what it used to be
At first I thought , it was because he was a bit fat and had a beard they were
using the Santa description but on seeing the trailer He is indeed Fr Christmas
Only this looks like a full on bloody, action film it looks very Odd.
I'm not going to discuss the plot much, because who watches Disney movies for the plot? :v
I think the story is a good mix of the familiar and the new. I don't think the songs are as good as the last time, but perhaps I should let it go?
Just like the first Frozen the influences from Norway are absolutely there. While the first movie was very much a winter movie, here autumn is very much a theme. The landscapes and vivid colours look very familiar, especially in the birch forrest with the red and orange leaves. The people in the far north with all the reindeer are clearly inspired by the Sami people, and this movie was actually dubbed to Sami. The mountain giants are a strange reversal of our trolls - they are made of stone while according to legend the trolls turned to stone in sunlight. The giants throw stones, while old legends say large stones far away from mountains were thrown by trolls.
I'm sure this is compulory viewing for all parents of little girls, but other than fast forwarding throw some of the songs I actually liked it.
Fun fact: Do you remember this scene in Frozen? Both my father and grandfather worked on cutting ice back in the day, very much like this (apart from the singing)