Anna and the Apocalypse update 2021

 Update 26 December 2021 

Anna and the Apocalypse 2017

• Director: John McPhail
• Based on book: no
• Cast: Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming, Sarah Swire, Christopher Leveaux, Marli Siu, Ben Wiggins, Mark Benton, Paul Kaye
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Ella Hunt – Robot Overlords, Les Misérables
• Mark Benton – Hustle, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Breaking and Entering, Doctor Who, Topsy-Turvy, Kiss Me Kate, Career Girls
• Paul Kaye – Doctor Who, Humans, Friday Night Dinner, Hustle, Shaun of the Dead
• Why? Who knows?
• Seen: 19 December 2020      

       Just your normal Christmas musical with unhappy teenagers singing in the corridors and cafeteria about unrequited love and the need to escape their dreary small town in Scotland. There’s even a nerdy tyrannical headmaster.

       Until the zombies show up.

       Shaun of the Dead or The Girl with All the Gifts it is not but it’s a decent zombie film and a decent musical. Not bad entertainment for the Saturday evening before Christmas. Who knows? It may become a Christmas tradition in this Scrooge-y household. 

 3 ½ * of 5

Update 26 December 2021: nothing new to add but that it’s even better the second time. Now promoted to 4* of 5, and yes, definitely a Christmas tradition for us.

 

Last Christmas

 Last Christmas 2019

• Director: Paul Feig
• Seen by this director: TV episodes
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Emilia Clarke, Henry Golding, Emma Thompson, Michelle Yeoh, Boris Isakovich, Lydia Leonard, Peter Mygind, Jade Anouka, Calvin Demba
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Emilia Clarke –amazingly nothing
• Henry Golding – The Gentlemen
• Emma Thompson – Effie Gray, The Children Act, Alone in Berlin, The Love Punch, Beautiful Creatures, Harry Potter, Nanny McPhee, Stranger than Fiction, Angels in America, Love Actually, Wit, The Winter Guest, Sense and Sensibility, In the Name of the Father, The Remans of the Day, Much Ado about Nothing, Peter’s Friends, Howards End, Dead Again, Impromptu, Henry V, Fortunes of War, Tutti-Frutti
• Michelle Yeoh – Sunshine, Tomorrow Never Dies
• Lydia Leonard – River, The Fifth Estate
• Jade Anouka – Fisherman’s Friends, Doctor Who
• Why? Emma Thompson
• Seen: 25 December 2021       

       There are very few Christmas films I am willing to see but this was written by Emma Thompson, and she plays the neurotic mother here and Thompson is Thompson no matter what. Therefore, here we sit on Christmas Day.

       Kate (Clarke) loves George Michael (thus the film’s title) and has a messed-up life: nowhere to sleep except for quickly-losing-patience- mates (she tends to break precious things) or one-night pick-ups at pubs. She’s a singer who fails at auditions. She works as an elf in a year-round Christmas shop run by a Chinese Santa (Yeoh) who is addicted to truly dreadful Christmas kitsch. Kate has serious problems with her family, refugees from the war in Former Yugoslavia. She has been seriously and should take care of herself but doesn’t.

       Then she meets Tom (Golding), a saintly do-gooder who’s annoyingly fun to be with and who has his own problems.

       The twist at the end was a real surprise. Hmmmm. There’s a tad too much feel-good at the very end but the characters are all quirky enough to carry it. The two leads are terrific, and Golding has the most beautiful speaking voice. This will become a Christmas standard along with Love Actually, The Holiday and Anna and the Apocalypse. 

4 * of 5.

 

 

It's a Wonderful Life

 It’s a Wonderful Life 1946

• Director: Frank Capra
• Seen by this director: Arsenic and Old Lace, It Happened One Night, maybe others
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchel, Beulah Bondi, Gloria Grahame
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• James Stewart – The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Greatest Show on Earth, Bell Book and Candle, Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rear Window, Harvey, Rope, maybe others
• Donna Reed – Pepe, maybe others
• Lionel Barrymore – Probably something
• Thomas Mitchell – TV series
• Beulah Bondi – TV series
• Gloria Grahame – The Greatest Show on Earth, Oklahoma
• Why? James Stewart. And direct orders from several friends to see it NOW!
• Seen: 24 December 2021      

       Oh no, it starts with people praying. For George Bailey (Stewart). But OK, it’s all rather secular so maybe it’s all right.

       George has been a thoroughly decent person since he was a kid. Everyone loves him. Now he’s so despondent over all that life has done to him that he’s contemplating suicide for the insurance money. Apprentice angel Clarence (Mitchell) is sent down to Earth to help him.

       This is George’s story. And the story of his broken dreams.

       The film is as good as they say.  

4 ½ * of 5.

 

Billy Elliot the Musical

 Billy Elliot the Musical 2014

• Director: Brett Sullivan (live stage version)
• Seen by this director: I Robot, The Crow
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Elliot Hanna, Ruthie Henshall, Deka Walmsley, Ann Emery, Chris Grahamson, Zach Atkinson
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• None of them. They’re mostly stage performers.
• Why? Need you ask?
• Seen: On stage in London. On DVD six or seven times previously. Now: 23 December 2021.      

       Nobody can match Jamie Bell, Julie Walters or Gary Lewis in these roles. Billy Elliot is one of the absolutely best films ever made.

       But when we saw this musical at the Victoria Theatre in London we were lost at ‘The Stars Look Down’ and in complete thrall until ‘Once Were Kings’, with many a tear in between. And many a laugh.

       When it was filmed and released on DVD our bliss was complete.

       This time we’re including it in our Christmas film watching because of the wonderful ‘Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher.’

       Like the film, this production gets 

10* of 10.

Down in the Delta

 Down in the Delta 1998

• Director: Maya Angelou
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Alfre Woodard, Al Freeman Jr, Mary Alice, Esther Rolle, Loretta Divine, Wesley Snipes
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Alfre Woodard – 12 Years a Slave, American Violet, Bopha, Remember My Name
• Al Freeman Jr – Malcolm X, Finian’s Rainbow, TV series
• Mary Alice – Matrix Revolutions, A Perfect World, I’ll Fly Away, Malcolm X, Awakenings,
• Esther Rolle– Driving Miss Daisy
• Loretta Divine – Dream Girls, Crash, I Am Sam, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, Stanley & Iris
• Wesley Snipes – White Men Can’t Jump, Jungle Fever, Mo’ Better Blues
• Why? It sounded interesting. Good cast.
• Seen: 19 December 2021      

       Loretta (Woodard) has two kids, a drinking problem, no job, and an angry churchy mother Rosa (Alice). They live in Chicago. To save Loretta from self-destructing, Rosa sends her and the kids to Uncle Earl (Freeman) in the Delta.

       It’s very yay family and rural living, yay church and the lord, boo hiss big city.

       Woodard makes it worth watching. She’s very good. As are Snipes and Divine. But let me tell you, if anyone forced me to live in Mariana, Mississippi, I’d have more to offer than the sceptical dirty looks Woodard does so well. Violence would be involved. That goes for any other small rural town in the world.

       The little bit of slave history is interesting but it’s kind of shoe-horned in. I appreciate what Angelou was striving for in this film but it’s just too sweet and predictable to really work.

 2 1/2 * of 5.

 

Kon-Tiki

 Kon-tiki 2012

• Director: Joachim Rönning, Espen Sandberg
• Based on the book, sort of, by Thor Heyderdahl
• Cast: Pål Sverre Hagen, Anders Baasmo Christiansson, Gustaf Skarsgård, Odd-Magnus Williamsson, Tobias Santelman, Jakob Oftebro, Agnes Kittelsen
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Gustaf Skarsgår – 438 dagar
• Jakob Oftebro – Snowman
• Why? I’ve loved the whole idea since my dad bought the book in the 50s.
• Seen: 18^th December 2021      

       Thor Heyderdahl, Norwegian anthropologist, has a theory that fifteen hundred years ago Peruvians set out westward across the Pacific Ocean on rafts built of balsam wood to populate the Polynesian islands. Five thousand miles. Everyone laughs at him. Ridiculous! Impossible!

       He decides to prove them wrong by doing it himself. His wife and sons are not happy about it, but he’s obsessed. He gets a crew together and off they go.

       Storms. Sharks. Illness. Madness. Fear. Conflicts.

       At times it’s so dramatic that I’m literally biting my nails. I love that science is so exciting. And beautiful. And provable.

       Maybe now I’ll finally read the book.     

5* of 5.

 

Notting Hill

 Notting Hill Update 17 December 2021

 

Notting Hill 1999

• Director: Roger Michell
• Based on a novel: no
• Cast: Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts, Rhys Ifans, Richard McCabe, James Dreyfus, Dylan Moran, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Henry Goodman, John Shrapnel, Tim McIinnerny, Gina McKee, Hugh Bonneville, Emma Chambers, Alec Baldwin (uncredited)
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Hugh Grant - Music and Lyrics, American Dreamz, Love Actually, About a Boy, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Sense and Sensibility, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Remains of the Day, Impromptu
• Julia Roberts – Closer, Mona Lisa’s Smile, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Erin Brockovich, Runaway Bride, Conspiracy Theory, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Michael Collins, Mary Reilly, The Pelican Brief, Hook, Sleeping with the Enemy, Pretty Woman, Steel Magnolias
• Rhys Ifans - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One, The Boat that Rocked, Elizabeth the Gold Age, The Shipping News
• Richard McCabe – Wallander, The Constant Gardener
• James Dreyfus – Colour Me Kubrick, Richard III
• Dylan Moran – Tristram Shandy, Black Books, Shaun of the Dead
• Julian Rhind-Tutt – Merlin, Stardust, The River King, To Kill a King, Les Misérables, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, The Madness of King George
• Henry Goodman – Taking Woodstock, Colour Me Kubrick, Cold Lazarus, Mary Reilly
• John Shrapnel – Merlin, Elizabeth the Golden Age, Troy, Gladiator, King Lear, Troilus and Cressida, Timon of Athens
• Tim McInnerney – Longitude, Black Adder, Richard III
• Gina McKee – In the Loop, Atonement, Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood, Naked
• Hugh Bonneville – Downton Abbey, Bonekickers, Daniel Deronda, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
• Alec Baldwin – The Aviator, State and Main, Glengarry Glen Ross, Prelude to a Kiss, Miami Blues, Great Balls of Fire, Working Girl, Married to the Mafia, Beetlejuice
• Why? Why not? – just a feel-good film. In London.
• Seen: Once before. Now May 25, 2014.  

London. We’ll be there in three weeks...! Not in Notting Hill though.

If I had a bookshop in Notting Hill, Colin Morgan, Adrian Lester, Kenneth Branagh or Johnny Depp are the famous people I’d like to walk in and buy a book and if one of them did I’d be even more of a dork than Hugh Grant. But not as funny.

Because he is. Hugh Grant. Very funny. Dumb but clever and loveably funny.  As is the whole film.  Flatmate Spike (Ifans) steals every scene he’s in and Dylan Moran of Black Books, (one of the funniest TV series ever) as the grungy shoplifter who denies that he just stuffed a book down his trousers brings a big laugh.

I’ve never quite liked Hugh Grant but every time I must admit that he’s right for the part (Colin Morgan would have been better but he was only thirteen at the time). I’m quite fond of Julia Roberts and I like her here too.

It’s a thoroughly unlikely story. Super famous film star walks into the tiny bookstore of obscure socially inept loser and after a lot of funny and sad complications they work things out. Surprise surprise.

It’s a trifle. But sweet. And funny.

And London. Maybe we’ll get to Notting Hill this time. 

3 * of 5

Update 17 December 2021 – ah, so miserly I was last time! Definitely 4* of 5 this time. It’s just a lovely film. Alas, we’ve still not been to Notting Hill.

 

 

Dark City

 Dark City

• Director: Alex Proyas
• Seen by this director: I Robot, The Crow
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Rufus Sewell, Jennifer Connelly, Kiefer Sutherland, William Hurt,
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Rufus Sewell – Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, The Tourist, Pillars of the Earth, Holiday, Amazing Grace, Paris je t’aime, The Taming of the Shrew Re-Told, A Knight’s Tale, Hamlet, Cold Comfort Farm, Middlemarch
• Jennifer Connelly – Alita Battle Angel, American Pastoral, Winter’s Tale, Creation, He’s Just not that Into You, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Blood Diamond, House of Sand and Fog, A Beautiful Mind, Pollock, Requiem for a Dream, Labyrinth
• Kiefer Sutherland – Melancholia, Stand by Me
• William Hurt – Humans, Winter’s Tale, Robin Hood, Into the Wild, A History of Violence, AI, Sunshine, Smoke, The Accidental Tourist
• Why? Sci fi. The cast.
• Seen: 16 December 2021      

       Aliens come to Earth because they’re dying out on their world. Dr Schreber (Sutherland) helps them. He’s a traitor to the humans.

       John Murdoch (Sewell) wakes up with no memory. Jazz singer Emma Murdoch (Connelly) is told that her husband John needs help/ is wanted by the police.

       It’s all very film noir-y with lurking, threatening, human-looking aliens and weird scientific experiments. It’s also atmospheric, mostly in sepia tones, justifying the film’s title. The story is strange, amorphous, filled with shifting memories and realities. Its complexity and surrealism creeps in under the skin.

       Human souls, memories, individuality – all very existential. It doesn’t hurt that it’s a bit Doctor Who-y. I’m intrigued. It’s worth seeing again someday. 

4 * of 5. Hal says 2*. He doesn’t like the premise.

 

 

Carousel

 Carousel 1956

• Director: Henry King
• Seen by this director: David and Bathsheba
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Gordon McRae, Shirley Jones, Cameron Mitchell, Barbara Ruick, Claramae Turner, Robert Rounseville, Gene Lockhart, Audrey Christie, Susan Luckey
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Gordon McRae – Oklahoma
• Shirley Jones – The Music Man, Pepe, Elmer Gantry, Oklahoma
• Susan Luckey – The Music Man
• Why? It’s a musical.
• Seen: Once before. Now 14 December 2021      

       When I was a kid, this was one of the soundtrack LPs I played a lot. I didn’t have a clue what it was about. When I saw the film as an adult, I was disappointed and angered to realise that in the story the abused wife makes excuses for her violent husband because she loves him.

       Billy (McCrae) is a carousel barker who charms naïve Julie (Jones), a mill worker. He’s a loud-mouthed, obnoxious misogynist bully but she marries him anyway. She loves him. Yech.

       Even for the 50s, this is too much. It’s got every gender stereotype in the world. Even the songs are so sugary they make my teeth hurt. It follows the formula of many musicals but is completely devoid of the cleverness and humour of, say, Oklahoma.

       It’s the weakest, by far, of my childhood musicals. But OK, it gets nostalgia points. I still remember the song lyrics, more’s the pity.

      

1 ½ * of 5.

 

Regeneration

 Regeneration 1997

• Director: Gillies MacKinnon
• Seen by this director: Tara Road, Hideous Kinky
• Based on the book by Pat Barker
• Cast: Jonathan Pryce, James Wilby, Johnny Lee Miller, Stuart Bunce, Tanya Allen, David Hayman, Dougray Scott
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Jonathan Pryce – The White King, Wolf Hall, Woman in Gold, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Brothers Grimm, Very Annie Mary, Tomorrow Never Knows, Evita, Glengarry Glen Ross, Brazil, Timon of Athens and on stage (the Globe in London) The Merchant of Venice
• James Wilby – Gosford Park, Crocodile Shoes, Howards End, A Handful of Dust
• Johnny Lee Miller – Trainspotting 2, Dark Shadows, Trainspotting
• David Hayman – Fishermen’s Friends, Blinded by the Light, London Spy, Macbeth, The Hollow Crown, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, My Name Is Joe, The Boxer, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Rob Roy, Sid and Nancy
• Dougray Scott – Doctor Who, My Week with Marilyn, United, To Kill a King, Ever After
• Why? The book. Jonathan Pryce.
• Seen: 12 December 2021      

       WWI. Dead and dying on the battlefield.

       War hero and poet Siegried Sassoon (Wilby) throws his medal away and declares his opposition to the war. He is sent to a military mental hospital. Psychiatrist Captain Rivers (Pryce) is given the job of making him change his mind about the war.

       Also in the hospital is Wilfred Owens (Miller), also a poet, now known for his powerful war poetry.

       Life in a mental hospital for shell-shocked soldiers. Is Sassoon the only sane one there? Or is insanity the only sane reaction to war? Is Capt Rivers more insane than any of them because he takes his job of getting the men fit enough to return to battle seriously?

       The battlefields we’ve seen in other films, and the trenches. Maybe even some mental hospitals. If only telling the story many times would stop war. Damn masculinity ideals.

       Still, it has to be told again and again and this version is well done. Jonathan Pryce, as always, gives a superb performance. They’re all good.       

4 * of 5.

 

 

 

Light of My Life

 Light of My Life 2019

• Director: Casey Affleck
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Casey Affleck, Anna Pniowsky, Elizabeth Moss (barely visible)
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea, Interstellar, Gone Baby Gone, Lonesome Jim, Hamlet, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Good Will Hunting
• Elizabeth Moss – Top of the Lake, High-Rise, Mad Men, Girl Interrupted, A Thousand Acres
• Why? It sounded good.
• Seen: 11 December 2021      

       A father (Affleck) lives with his daughter Rag (Pniowsky) in a tent in the wilderness. He tells her stories, teaches her spelling and discusses morals and ethics with her. They move frequently. They are in constant danger.

       Ten years ago, a deadly virus killed most of the women and girls. Rag’s hair is kept short, and she dresses in boy’s clothing. She wants to be a girl but it’s too dangerous.

       It’s slow and sombre and one of the best dystopian films I’ve seen. There are similarities to The Road, yes, but I think it’s even better. It’s a real tour de force by Affleck who also wrote and directed it, with strong support from young Pniowsky. 

4 * of 5.

 

 

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

 The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 2007

• Director: Andrew Dominik
• Based on the book by Ron Hansen
• Cast: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Shepard, Mary-Louise Parker, Sam Rockwell, Jeremy Renner, Garret Dillahunt, Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Brad Pitt – Ad Astra, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, World War Z, The Tree of Life, Inglourious Basterds, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, Babel, Troy, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Friends, The Fight Club, Being John Malkovich, Meet Joe Black, Twelve Monkeys, Seven, True Romance, Thelma and Louise
• Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea, Interstellar, Gone Baby Gone, Lonesome Jim, Hamlet, Good Will Hunting
• Sam Shepard – August Osage County, The Pledge, Hamlet, Snow Falling on Cedars, The Pelican Brief, Steel Magnolias
• Mary-Loise Parker – Romance and Cigarette, Angels in America, Fried Green Tomatoes
• Sam Rockwell – Jojo Rabbit, Three Billboards outside Ebbing Missouri, Moon, Frost/Nixon, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Galaxy Quest, The Green Mile, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Jeremy Renner – Avengers, 28 Weeks Later, North Country
• Garrett Dillahunt – Widows, 12 Years a Slave, Looper, Winter’s Bone, The Road, Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles, No Country for Old Men
• Paul Schneider – Lars and the Real Girl, Bright Star
• Zooey Deschanel – 500 Days of Summer, The Happening, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Good Girl, Almost Famous
• Why? The cast. And I like the title.
• Seen: 10 December 2021      

       Jesse James (Pitt) is in his 30’s and he’s getting worn out. He lives with his wife (Parker) and children, who do not know that he’s a robber and a killer. He is also a confederacy loyalist who, fifteen years after the end of the Civil War, does not accept defeat. He and his gang are racist, and misogynist, and they hate the Yankees.

       Geeky young Robert Ford (Affleck) has idolised Jesse James all his life and now wants to join the gang to fulfil his ambitions of greatness.

       It takes a long time for the tension to build up, but it does, slowly and inexorably.

       Brad Pitt can play this kind of role in his sleep and do it expertly. And, wow, is he good. If Casey Affleck hadn’t yet convinced us of his acting prowess, we’re convinced now. Wow, is he good.

       This is not the Jesse James story one usually sees.       

4 * of 5.

 

Hotel New Hampshire

Hotel New Hampshire 1984

• Director: Tony Richardson
• Seen by this director: Tom Jones, The Loneliness of a Long-Distance Runner, A Taste of Honey
• Based on the book by John Irving
• Cast: Rob Lowe, Jodie Foster, Beau Bridges, Paul McCrane, Jennie Dundas, Lisa Banes, Seth Green (he was too young, I didn’t recognise him, but I like him so much as Oz that he’s included here), Nastassja Kinski
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Rob Lowe – The Invention of Lying, Contact
• Jodie Foster – Elysium, Panic Room, Anna and the King, Nell, Sommersby, Little Man Tate, The Silence of the Lambs, The Accused, Taxi Driver, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Any More
• Beau Bridges – The Mountain Between Us, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Norma Rae
• Paul McCrane – Shawshank Redemption, Robo Cop
• Seth Green – Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Nastassja Kinski – Tess
• Why? The author. Decent cast
• Seen: 9 December 2021      

       A family buys an old boarding school and turns it into a hotel. I think it’s supposed to be a comedy, even though there’s tragedy in it, but it’s neither funny nor sad.

       It’s pointless and unpleasant. It must be admitted that we fast-forwarded through some of it.  What a waste of this cast.       

1 * of 5.

  

Sully

 Sully 2016

• Director: Clint Eastwood
• Seen by this director: Jersey Boys, Invictus, Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, The Bridges of Madison County, Bird
• Based on the book by Chesley Sullenberger
• Cast: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney, Anna Gunn
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Tom Hanks – The Circle, Cloud Atlas, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Catch Me If You Can, Road to Perdition, Cast Away, The Green Mile, You’ve Got Mail, Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, Sleepless in Seattle, A League of Their Own, Joe and the Volcano, Punchline,
• Aaron Eckhart – The Rum diary, Rabbit Hole, The Dark Knight, Conversations with Another Woman, Nurse Betty, Erin Brockovich
• Laura Linney – Genius, Jindabyne, Driving Lessons, The Squid and the Whale, Love Actually, Mystic River, Dave, Lorenzo’s Oil
• Anna Gunn – Breaking Bad
• Why? Recommended by FB friend CF.
• Seen: 5 December 2021      

       Airline pilot Sullenbergen (Hanks) is seen as a hero when his plane’s two motors fail and he brings the plane down on the Hudson River, thereby saving the lives of 155 passengers.

       You may remember that. It really happened.

       But the National Transport Safety Board regard him as criminally negligent, or at least making the wrong decision. He should have returned the plane safely to La Guardia. It would have been possible.

       So, is he a hero? Or is he incompetent and careless? Did he panic? Make a bad judgment call?

       Sully begins to doubt himself.

       Some of the flashbacks are unnecessary and disturb the drama of Sully’s anxiety and the suspense of the film. Only the ones of the flight and crash are relevant, and indeed dramatic.

       Hanks is very good.    

       

4 * of 5.

 

I, Robot

 I, Robot 2004

• Director: Alex Proyas
• Seen by this director: The Crow
• Based (sort of) on the book by Isaac Asimov
• Cast: Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, Chi MacBride
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Will Smith – Winter’s Tale, After Earth, I Am Legend, Wild Wild West, Men in Black, Independence Day, Six Degrees of Separation,
• Bridget Moynahan – John Wick
• Bruce Greenwood – Doctor Sleep, Being Julia, Nowhere Man
• James Cromwell – Becoming Jane, The Queen, Six Feet Under, Angels in America, The Green Mile, Snow Falling on Cedars, Romeo Is Bleeding
• Chi MacBride – What’s Love Got to Do with It
• Why? Sci fi.
• Seen: 4 December 2021      

       Asimov’s Three Laws of Robots are classic. The film is inspired by them.

       Chicago 2025 (that’s only 14 years away, peeps). There are robots everywhere. Del Spooner (Smith) does not like robots. In fact, he’s a police officer who chases robots that he assumes are rogues and criminal, only they aren’t, and they can’t commit crimes. So he gets into trouble with his boss (MacBride).

       The man who more or less invented the current robot technology (Cromwell) commits suicide. Only Del doesn’t believe it was suicide, he believes it was murder and the perp is a rogue robot. Dr Calvin (Moynahan), a robot psychiatrist, insists that it’s impossible.

       She’s wrong. He’s right. Sort of.

       Will Smith is his usual cocky almost-irritatingly-arrogant-macho-but-likeable self. There are clichés throughout and there’s way too much action. But it’s interesting, fun and exciting. I quite like it. 

4* of 5.

 

Effie Gray

 

Effie Gray 2014

Director: Richard Laxton

Seen by this director: River, Fortitude

Based on the book: no

Cast: Dakota Fanning, Greg Wise, Tom Sturridge, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Russell Tovey, David Suchet, short appearances by Robbie Coltrane and Derek Jacobi

Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:

Dakota Fanning – Once upon a Time in Hollywood, American Pastoral, The Runaways, War of the Worlds, I Am Sam

Greg Wise – Walking on Sunshine, Cranford, Tristram Shandy, Johnny English, Sense and Sensibility

Tom Sturridge – The Hollow Crown, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Boat that Rocked, Being Julia

Emma Thompson – The Children Act, Alone in Berlin, The Love Punch, Beautiful Creatures, Harry Potter, Nanny McPhee, Stranger than Fiction, Angels in America, Love Actually, Wit, The Winter Guest, Sense and Sensibility, In the Name of the Father, The Remans of the Day, Much Ado about Nothing, Peter’s Friends, Howards End, Dead Again, Impromptu, Henry V, Fortunes of War, Tutti-Frutti

Julie Walters – Mamma Mia 1+2, Brooklyn, One Chance, The Hollow Crown, Harry Potter, Becoming Jane, Wah-Wah, Driving Lessons, The Calendar Girls, Before You Go, Billy Elliot, Titanic Town, Intimate Relations, Prick Up Your Ears, Educating Rita

Russell Tovey – Years and Years, The Lady in the Van, Pride, Doctor Who

Why? The cast.

Seen: 3 December 2021

      

       Effie Gray (Fanning) marries artist and critic John Ruskin (Wise) and leaves her childhood Scotland to live with him and his parents in their mansion in London.

       His overbearing mother (Walters) inform Effie that his genius must be left in peace. Effie finds that her only role is to pose for his paintings and be a decoration at his dinner parties with London’s intellectuals and their wives.

       She finds an ally in the outspoken Lady Eastlake (Thompson, who also wrote the script).

       It’s a grim portrait of Ruskin and a fascinating portrait of Effie Gray. It’s a slow, moving, and beautiful film.

       

4 * of 5.

PS This is the 1000th film I've reviewed on this blog.

In the Heat of the Night

 In the Heat of the Night 1967

• Director: Norman Jewison
• Seen by this director: In Country, Moonstruck, A Soldier’s Story, And Justice for All, Jesus Christ Superstar, Fiddler on the Roof, The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming!
• Based on the book by John Ball
• Cast: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant, Larry Gates, James Patterson, Beah Richards, Quentin Dean, Scott Wilson, Anthony James
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Sidney Poitier – To Sir with Love II, For Love of Ivy, Guess Who’s Coming to Dimmer, A Patch of Blue, To Sir with Love, Paris Blues, Good-bye My Lady, Blackboard Jungle
• Rod Steiger – Mars Attacks, The Ballad of the Sad Café, The January Man, Happy Birthday Wanda June, Doctor Zhivago, Blackboard Jungle, Oklahoma!
• Warren Oates – TV series
• Lee Grant – Defending Your Life, Valley of the Dolls, TV series
• Beah Richards – Beloved, Drugstore Cowboy, Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner, TV series
• Anthony James –TV series
• Why? Good film.
• Seen: Twice before. Now 2 December 2021.      

       You know the story. Black cop from Philadelphia (‘They call me Mr Tibbs!’) (Poitier) finds himself involved in a murder investigation in Mississippi. It’s the 60’s. His partner (Steiger) is a racist. The whole town is racist.

       It’s a classic.

       I’ve been reading Poitier’s Measure of a Man. Very interesting. Now I’m curious to see his films again.

       It deserves all its accolades and 50-year reputation. If Poitier and Steiger had never made another film, they would still deserve their star status.

       It was dynamite back then. It’s dynamite now. 

5* of 5.