Main Street

 Main Street 2010

• Director: John Doyle
• Based on book: no
• Cast: Colin Firth, Ellen Burstyn, Patricia Clarkson, Orlando Bloom, Amber Tamblyn, Margo Martindale
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Colin Firth – The Secret Garden, 1917, Mamma Mia 1+2, Genius, Before I Go to Sleep, The Railway Man, Tinker Tailor, The King’s Speech, Kick Ass Girls St Trinian’s 2, Genova, Then She Found Me, Love Actually, Girl with Pearl Earring, Shakespeare in Love, A Thousand Acres, The English Patient, Pride and Prejudice, Circle of Friends
• Ellen Burstyn – Walking across Egypt, Interstellar, The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Requiem for a Dream, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, The King of Marvin Gardens, The Last Picture Show
• Patricia Clarkson – Maze Runner etc, The Bookshop, Learning to Drive, Shutter Island, Lars and the Real Girl Good Night and Good Luck, Six Feet Under, Dogville, Station Agent, Far from Heaven, The Green Mile
• Orlando Bloom – Pirates of the Caribbean etc, The Hobbit etc, Extras, Kingdom of Heaven, Ned Kelly, Wilde
• Margo Martindale – many films
• Why? The cast
• Seen: 28 August 2022      

       Durham, North Carolina, is dying. High unemployment, closed businesses, delayed building projects flagging interest in community activities.

       Enter wheelin’ dealin’ smooth-talkin’ Texan Gus Leroy (Firth), offering the town endless benefits if they’ll let him build a hazardous waste disposal plant.

       Those who hate the film object to Firth’s dreadful Texas accent (I have no opinion, all Southern US drawl sounds the same to me) and its ‘liberal’ message, which in Europe means right-wing but, in the US, practically means communist. They also seem to think that hazardous waste disposal is fake news.

       My objections are as follows: 1) The clichés. 2) Burstyn’s weepy/smiley aging southern belle. 3) The pointless side stories of young (and middle-aged) romance. 4) The film, despite its strong cast and still vitally important subject, is a weak attempt to deal with this ongoing environmental risk.

       A pity. 

2 * of 5   

 

 

Dead Fish

 

Dead Fish 2005

• Director: Charlie Stadler
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Gary Oldman, Robert Carlyle, Elena Anaya, Andrew Lee Potts, Jimi Mistry, Frances Barber, Terence Stamp
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Gary Oldman – The Space Between Us, Dark Knight etc, Tinker Tailor, Harry Potter etc, The Book of Eli, Friends, Lost in Space, The Fifth Element, Immortal Love, Léon, Romeo Is Bleeding, True Romance, Dracula, JFK, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Prick Up Your Ears, Sid and Nancy
• Robert Carlyle – Yesterday, 51^st State, T2 Trainspotting, Stargate Universe, Stone of Destiny, 28 Weeks Later, Flood, Hitler, Black and White, Once Upon a Time in the Midlands, The World Is Not Enough, The Full Monty, Hamish Macbeth, Carla’s Song, Trainspotting, Go Now, Riff-Raff
• Elena Anaya – Wonder Woman
• Andrew Lee Potts – Primeval, 1408, Rose & Maloney
• Jimi Mistry – 2012, Blood Diamond, Ella Enchanted, The Guru, Born Romantic, East Is East, Hamlet
• Frances Barber – The Bookshop, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, Vicious, Doctor Who, Friday Night Dinner, King Lear, Hustle, Still Crazy, Twelfth Night, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid
• Terrence Stamp – Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, A Song for Marion, Valkyria, Full Frontal, Star Wars, The Limey, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Superman, The Collector
• Why? The cast.
• Seen: 27 August 2022      

       Lynch (Oldman) is a cold-blooded hitman. Danny (Carlyle) is a foul-mouthed debt-collector. Abe (Potts) and Mimi (Anaya) are in love and pregnant, though not happily so. Through a mix-up Abe gets Lynch’s mobile and Lynch gets Abe’s. Lynch falls passionately in love with Mimi and sings about it to his S/M hooker (Barber).

       It’s even more absurd than it sounds.

       Some viewers hated the film. Come on, lighten up! How can you not love this nonsense? The cast is clearly having fun with it and so am I. It’s maybe not the best film ever made but it’s great entertainment for a Saturday evening. I will definitely be watching this several times.

 4* of 5   

 

 

 

 

 

Star Trek Insurrection

 

Star Trek Insurrection 1998

• Director: Jonathan Frakes
• Seen by this director: Several episodes of Roswell
• Based on book: no
• Cast: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, F Murray Abraham, Donna Murphy, Anthony Zerbe
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Patrick Stewart - The Hollow Crown Richard II, Hamlet, Extras, X Men First Class, Star Trek etc, Excalibur, Hamlet, I Claudius
• Jonathan Frakes – Third Rock from the Sun, Star Trek Generations etc
• Brent Spiner – Star Trek etc, The Aviator, I Am Sam, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, Corrina Corrina, TV series
• F Murray Abraham – Inside Llewyn Davis, Amadeus
• Anthony Zerbe – this and that
• Why? Last attempt to become a Trekkie
• Seen: 26 August 2022      

       This is my last Star Trek film. I probably won’t become a Trekkie, but I hope to enjoy the film.

       Well, there a few enjoyable moments and a few interesting ideas. Unfortunately, the story is weak, the dialog banal, the moral questions iffy, the romance trite and the humour unamusing.   

       All this could be forgiven if it were interesting but it’s not.

       Sorry, Trekkies. I love you but I won’t be joining you.      

2* of 5   

 

 

 

Cirkus Columbia

 

Cirkus Columbia 2010

• Director: Danis Tanovic
• Based on the book by Ivica Djikic
• Cast: Predrag Manojlovik, Mira Furlan, Boris Ler, Jelena Stupljanin
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Mira Furlan – Lost
• Why? Possibly interesting
• Seen: 24 August 2022     

             Divka (Manojlovik) returns to Bosnia after twenty years in Germany just as the war is about to break up and Yugoslavia is about to shatter. He’s now rich and thinks he can take over. He kicks his wife Lucija (Furlan) and son Martin (Ler) out of their house and moves in with his attractive young lover Azra (Stupljanin).

       The communists have been defeated and thugs now run the village. Divko is an uncouth tyrant and manipulative crook whose only redeeming quality is that he loves his cat. It’s an odd slow-moving film and the only thing that’s interesting is the mess the anti-communist thugs made of Yugoslavia. The sentimental ending loses it ½ *. 

2* of 5   

 

 

 

 

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

 

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958

• Director: Richard Brooks
• Seen by this director: Looking for Mr Goodbar, In Cold Blood, Lord Jim, Elmer Gantry, Blackboard Jungle
• Based on the play by Tennessee Williams
• Cast: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Jack Carson, Judith Anderson, Madeleine Sherwood
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Elizabeth Taylor – Crack’d Mirror, Reflections in a Golden Eye, The Taming of the Shrew, Cleopatra, Suddenly Last Summer, Raintree County, Giant
• Paul Newman – Road to Perdition, The Towering Inferno, The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Torn Curtain, Harper, Exodus, probably others
• Burl Ives – mostly I know him from my favourite record as a child ‘The Little White Duck’.
• Why? A classic
• Seen: Once before. Now 23 August 2022      

       A southern patriarchal family. Big Daddy (Ives) is a self-satisfied wealthy tyrant who’s dying. He treats his silly devoted wife Ida (Anderson) like dirt. Their son Goober (Carson) is married to Sister Woman (Sherwood) and has six horrible children. Their other son Brick (Newman) is a has-been athletic star and now a determined alcoholic who hates his wife Maggie (Taylor) and Big Daddy, and mendacity, all the lies the family perpetuates. Maggie is in despair because Brick refuses to touch her and all she wants is for him to love her.

       Powerful performances by the whole cast make us care about these deeply flawed, selfish and self-delusionary people.

       Now I’ll have to read the play, which is said to be even better. 

4* of 5   

 

 

Cemetery Junction

 Cemetery Junction 2010

• Director: Rickie Gervais and Stephen Merchant
• Seen by these directors: Gervais: Derek, Life’s Too Short, The Invention of Lying, Extras, The Office.  Merchant: Fighting with My Family, Life’s Too Short, Extras, The Office
• Based on book: no
• Cast: Christian Cooke, Felicity Jones, Tom Hughes, Jack Doolan, Ricky Gervais, Ralph Fiennes, Matthew Goode, Steve Speirs, Burn Gorman, Anne Reid, Julie Davis, Emily Watson
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Christian Cook – Doctor Who
• Felicity Jones – On the Basis of Sex, Rogue One, The Theory of Everything, The Invisible Woman, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, Hysteria, Like Crazy, The Tempest, Doctor Who
• Tom Hughes – Red Joan, Derek, About Time, Dancing on the Edge, The Hollow Crown
• Jack Doolan – Cockneys vs Zombies
• Ricky Gervais - Derek, Life’s Too Short, The Invention of Lying, Extras, The Office.
• Ralph Fiennes – Hail Caesar, Spectre, Harry Potter, The Invisible Woman, Skyfall, Coriolanus, The Reader, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Sunshine, The English Patient, Strange Days, Schindler’s List, Wuthering Heights
• Matthew Goode – The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Downton Abbey, The Imitation Game, Dancing on the Edge, Copying Beethoven
• Steve Spiers – Pirates of the Caribbean, Extras, Doctor Who, Topsy-Turvey, Star Wars, Keeping Mum, Cold Lazarus
• Burn Gorman – Imperium, Pacific Rim, The Dark Knight Rises, Johnny English Reborn, Bonekickers, Colour Me Kubrick
• Anne Reid – Last Tango in Halifax, Years and Years, The Snowman, A Song for Marion, Marchland, Doctor Who, Hot Fuzz, Rose & Maloney
• Julie Davis – Fighting with My Family, Little Britain, Love Actually
• Emily Watson – Testament of Youth, The Theory of Everything, The Book Thief, The Politician’s Husband, Fireflies in the Garden, Wah-Wah, Gosford Park, Equilibrium, Cradle Will Rock, Hilary & Jackie, The Boxer, Breaking the Waves
• Why? Gervais and Merchant
• Seen: 22 August 2022      

       Instead of listening to music by poofs, Bruce (Hughes) tells his friends Freddie (Cooke) and Snork (Doolan) to listen to Elton John. That’s the kind of sly humour we can expect from Gervais and Merchant and that’s what we get.

       Bruce gets into fights, hates his dad, works at the factory and is arrogant in his juvenile male chauvinism. Freddie aspires to a white-collar job and tries to sell insurance. He’s in love with the boss’s (Fiennes) daughter Julie (Jones) who longs to travel the world and become a photographer for The National Geographic.

       Snork is a chubby dork, offensive to women, and longs for sex and even love.

       Like all of Gervais’s and Merchant’s material, this is as cringeworthy as it is humorous, as tragic as it is funny. I’m slowly falling in love with it.

       Class, gender, ethnicity – three key words by which I judge films (and books and everything). This gets points for all three. Not to mention strong supporting roles by Watson and Reid.

4* of 5   

 

The Kid (update 21 August 2022)

 

The Kid 2010 update August 2022

• Director: Nick Moran
• Based on the book by Kevin Lewis
• Cast: Rupert Friend, Natascha McElhone, Ioan Gruffud, Tom Burke, David O’Hara, Jodie Whittaker, Bernard Hill, James Fox, Augustus Prew, Con O’Neill, Shirley Ann Field, Johnny Palmiero
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Rupert Friend – The Young Victoria, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, The Libertine
• Natascha McElhone – Ladies in Lavender, Solaris, The Other Boleyn Girl, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Surviving Picasso, Cold Lazarus, Karaoke, Absolutely Fabulous
• Ioan Gruffud – Fireflies in the Garden, Amazing Grace, The Fantastic Four, King Arthur, Very Annie Mary, Great Expectations, Titanic, Wilde
• Tom Burke – The Invisible Woman, Great Expectations, The Libertine
• David O’Hara – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Hotel Rwanda, Braveheart
• Jodie Whittaker – Doctor Who, Journeyman, Trust Me, Broadchurch, Adult Life Skills, Black Sea, Good Vibrations, Attack the Block, Marchlands, Cranford, Perrier’s Bounty
• Bernard Hill - Wolf Hall, The Lord of the Rings, Valkyria, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Titanic, Shirley Valentine, Henry VI Parts 1, 2 and 3, Richard III, Gandhi, I Claudius
• James Fox - London Spy, Merlin, Sherlock Holmes, Charley and the Chocolate Factory, The Remains of the Day, Isadora
• Augustus Prew – About a Boy
• Con O’Neill – Frank, Wallander
• Shirley Ann Field – My Beautiful Laundromat, Alfie
• Sounded good. Grim but good.
• Seen: 4 June 2016   

        Screaming, drunken, abusive parents turn young Kevin Lewis into a very problematic foster child. Along the way he meets understanding and supportive adults but bad decisions as a young adult and some more hard knocks lead to even more bad decisions. Crooked partners, booze, pills, lost love, debts, suicide attempt.

       And then it ends happily. It’s based on a true story, so we have to believe it.

       It’s quite good actually. 

3 ½ * of 5

Update 21 August 2022 – not much to add or change. I’d give it the same rating. The main change is that Jodie Whittaker became Doctor Who, thus inspiring us to see many more of her films and series.

 

Sparkle 2012

 Sparkle 2012

• Director: Salim Akil
• Based on book: no
• Cast: Jordan Sparks, Carmen Ejogo, Whitney Houston, Derek Luke, Mike Epps. Tika Sumptner, Omari Hardwick
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Carmen Ejogo – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Cold Lazarus, Absolute Beginners
• Whitney Houston – Bodyguard
• Derek Luke – The Miracle at St Ana, Catch a Fire, Antwone Fisher
• Mike Epps - Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins
• Tika Sumptner – Get on Up
• Omari Hardwick – The Miracle at St Ana
• Why? Music
• Seen: 20 August 2022      

       One sister, Sparkle, (Sparks) writes the songs. Another sister, Tammy or Sister as they call her (Ejogo) sings them and a third sister, Dee, (Sumptner) sings back-up. Three black girls in Detroit in the 60s.  Sound familiar? Other than the obvious reality connection this is also a remake of the 70s version, and we also have Dreamgirls.

       Dee is in it to earn money for medical school. Sister lusts for fame and fortune. Sparkle lives to write music. They all bear the burden of their mother (Houston in her last role), a rigid religious fanatic who once had music dreams of her own.

       The acting is good, the character development wee done and the story dramatic. Even the sugary clichés are few and acceptable. 

3 ½  * of 5   

 

Iceman

 Iceman 1984

• Director: Fred Schepisi
• Seen by the director: Last Orders, Six Degrees of Separation, The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith
• Based on book: no
• Cast: Timothy Hutton, Lyndsay Crouse, John Lone, David Strathairn, Danny Glover
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Timothy Hutton – The Ghost Writer, Secret Window, Beautiful Girls, Daniel
• Lyndsay Crouse – Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Daniel
• David Strathairn- UFO, American Pastoral, Hotel Marigold 2, The Tempest, Good Night and Good Luck, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A League of Their Own, Matewan, Silkwood
• Danny Glover – Andron, 2012, Be Kind Rewind, Honeydripper, Dreamgirls, Manderlay, Beloved, Lethal Weapon
• Why? I like winter
• Seen: 19 August 2022      

       It’s the hottest day of summer so why not watch a cold film?

       An intact Neanderthal man is found by an Arctic scientific team. Astonishingly, they’re able to revive him.

       Anthropologist Shephard (Hutton) wants to get to know him as a man while the other scientists want to take him apart and study him for medical reasons.

       I don’t know when the 80’s started feeling old fashioned, but they are, after all, 40 years ago. This has a bit of the feel of the Star Trek of the 60s. That’s a compliment. The original Star Trek was way ahead of its time.

       The universal question – what makes us human? We know that Neanderthals weren’t quite human although we also now know that we have quite a lot of Neanderthal DNA in us. How different are we?

       Why haven’t I seen this film before? Why didn’t I even know about it? It’s interesting. It’s cool. It’s deeper than it seems.      

3 ½ * of 5   

 

 

 

American Gangster

 American Gangster 2007

• Director: Ridley Scott
• Seen by this director: The Martian, Prometheus, Robin Hood, A Good Year, Kingdom of Heaven, Gladiator, GI Jane, Thelma and Louise, Blade Runner, Alien
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Josh Brolin, Lymyra Nadal, Carla Gugino, Ruby Dee, John Hawkes
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Denzel Washinton – Fences, The Book of Eli, The Great Debaters, Déjà vu, Antwone Fisher, Devil in a Blue Dress, Philadelphia, The Pelican Brief, Much Ado about Nothing, Mississippi Masala, Cry Freedom
• Russell Crowe – The Water Diviner, Winter’s Tale, Man of Steel, Les Misérables, Robin Hood, A Good Year, A Beautiful Mind, Proof of Life, Gladiator, Romper Stomper
• Chiwetel Ejiofor – Doctor Strange, The Martian, 12 Years a Slave, Dancing on the Edge, 2012, Children of Men, Kinky Boots, Love Actually, Dirty Pretty Things, Amistad
• Josh Brolin – Dune, Hail Caesar, True Grit, Milk, No Country for Old Men, The Dead Girl
•  Carla Gugino - The Space between Us
• Ruby Dee - Jungle Fever, Do the Right Thing
• John Hawkes - The Peanut Butter Falcon, Three Billboards outside Ebbing Missouri, Contagion, Lost, Winter’s Bone, The Miracle at St Ana, Identity, A Slipping-Down Life
• Why? Russell Crowe
• Seen: 23 January 2022      

       Too many men and the word ‘gangster’ in the title bodes ill but the cast is good and it’s Ridley Scott so it’s worth a try.

       Lucas (Washington) is a Harlem crime boss. Roberts (Crowe) is the cop determined to bring him down.

       I really like Russell Crowe. Denzel Washington has done some good films (and some mediocre ones) and Ridley Scott has several masterpieces, but alas, not this one. This one is boring me out of my head.

       I like the way Crowe plays his role but I like neither Washington’s character nor his way of playing him. Idris Elba SPOILER doesn’t last long and the story – well, we’ve seen it a hundred times and I’ve liked very, very few. But the ending is kind of good.

 2 ½ * of 5.

 

 

Sameblod (Sami Blood)

 Sameblod 2016

• Director: Amanda Kernell
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Lene Cecilia Sparrok, Mia Erika Sparrok, Katarina Blind, Hanna Alström, Julius Fleischanderl
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Hanna Alström – Äkta människor
• Why? Highly recommended by Sami friends
• Seen: 17 August 2022     

             Elle Maja (L C Sparrok) is sent away from her Sami family in the far north of Sweden to a boarding school where her language is forbidden but where her attempts to live a Swedish life are also punished. She is met with racism and scorn, but also increasing conflicts with her family. She chooses to leave the north and go to Stockholm to try to get an education.

       It’s the universal story of ethnic minorities, often the natives of an area as in this case, who are forced to give up their identity and remain sundered and incomplete for life. But it’s also the universal story of a young woman who longs for a different life in the face of her family’s rigid opposition and traditionalism.

       Beautifully filmed and powerfully acted, it’s one of the best Scandinavian films of the decade. It is Sami actor Lene Cecilia Sparrok’s first, and so far, only film role and she is phenomenal. Many of the cast are Sami and the director herself has Sami roots.

 5* of 5   

 

 

 

 

The 51st State

 The 51^st State 2001

• Director: Ronny Yu
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Samuel L Jackson, Robert Carlyle, Emily Mortimer, Meat Loaf, Sean Pertwee, Rhys Ifan
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Samuel L Jackson – Glass, The Hateful Eight, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Django Unchained, Jumper, 1408, Star Wars, Kill Bill, Changing Lanes, The Red Violin, Jackie Brown, The Long Kiss Goodnight, True Romance, Jurassic Park, Pulp Fiction, Jungle Fever, Mo’ Better Blues, Sea of Love, Do the Right Thing
• Robert Carlyle – Yesterday, T2 Trainspotting, Stargate Universe, Stone of Destiny, 28 Weeks Later, Flood, Hitler, Black and White, Once upon a Time in the Midlands, The World Is Not Enough, The Full Monty, Hamish Macbeth, Carla’s Song, Trainspotting, Go Now, Riff-Raff
• Emily Mortimer – The Bookshop, Hugo, Shutter Island, Lars and the Real Girl, Paris je t’aime, Dear Frankie, Bright Young Things, Young Adam, The Kid, Love Labour’s Lost, Notting Hill, Elizabeth
• Meat Loaf – probably something
• Sean Pertwee – Camelot, Doomsday, Equilibrium, Swing Kids, Prick Up Your Ears
• Rhys Ifan – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Boat that Rocked, Elizabeth the Golden Age, Once Upon a Time in the Midlands, Human Nature, Notting Hill
• Why? The cast.
• Seen: 16 August 2022      

       Samuel L Jackson in a kilt? Emily Mortimer as an assassin? Rhys Ifan as a yoga-loving arms and drug dealer? Robert Carlyle being Robert Carlyle? This is promising.

       Elmo (Jackson) is a master chemist, and he invents the all-time best drug, 51 times stronger than heroin, ecstasy, cocaine, and LSD, then he blows up the lab so his partner Lizard (Loaf) can’t get at it. Lizard tells Dakota/Sawn (Mortimer) that her enormous debt to him will be cancelled if she takes out Elmo. Off to Liverpool she goes on the same plane as Elmo.

       Small-time gangster Felix (Carlyle) hates Americans but agrees to work with Elmo for the price of two tickets to the Liverpool-Manchester United football match. There is a nasty cop, Virgil, (Pertwee) involved too.

       It’s just a silly drug heist film with lots of shooting and car chases but it’s funny. Jackson and Carlyle make a great Yankee-Brit pair and Mortimer as the icy killer who happens to be Felix’s ex just adds fuel to the fire.     

 3 ½ * of 5   

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins

 Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins 2006

• Director: Malcolm D Lee
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Martin Lawrence, James Earl Jones, Margaret Avery, Joy Bryant, Cedric the Entertainer, Nicole Ari Parker, Michael Clarke Duncan, Mike Epps, Mo’Nique
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Martin Lawrence – Do the Right Thing
• James Earl Jones - Star Wars etc, Field of Dreams, Matewan
• Margaret Avery – The Colour Purple
• Joy Bryant – Bobby, Antwone Fischer
• Cedric the Entertainer - Cadillac Records, Be Cool, Intolerable Cruelty
• Michael Clarke Duncan – The Island, Daredevil, The Green Mile, Armageddon
• Mike Epps - Sparkle
• Mo’Nique - Precious
• Why? Possibly entertaining
• Seen: 15 August 2022      

       Family comedies are usually anathema to me, but James Earl Jones has to make it worth watching, right?

       Roscoe Jenkins (Lawrence), a famous TV host, is reluctantly coaxed into going to his parents’ (Jones and Avery) fiftieth wedding anniversary weekend.

       What can I say? This is unbearable. What horrible people. This is so not funny, it’s just mean. According to some, this has an undertone of seriousness and a message of the importance of family values. With family values like these I would choose to be an orphan. If it had been made as a serious drama with some humour it could have been good. As it is, it’s rubbish. It’s so painful to watch that I can’t stop watching it and for that it gets 

1 * of 5   

 

 

 

The Fountain

 The Fountain 2006

• Director: Darren Aronofsky
• Seen by this director: Black Swan, The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Ellen Burstyn, Sean Patrick Thomas, Cliff Curtis
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Hugh Jackman – The Greatest Showman, Wolverine etc, Chappie, Les Misérables, Australia, Kate & Leopold
• Rachel Weisz – The Favourite, The Deep Blue Sea, The Constant Gardener, About a Boy, Beautiful Creatures, Sunshine
• Ellen Burstyn - Interstellar, The Devine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Requiem for a Dream, Walking Across Egypt, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, The Last Picture Show
• Sean Patrick Thomas - Honeydripper
• Cliff Curtis – Doctor Sleep, Sunshine, Whale Rider, Once Were Warriors, The Piano
• Why? Interesting film
• Seen: Once before. Now14 August 2022      

       A queen condemned to death for heresy. A conquistador killed by a Mayan priest. A man under a vast starry sky, scraping bark of a gigantic tree and eating it. An irritable scientist urged by a smiling woman in white to take a walk with her in the first snow. A woman, perhaps dying, on a bed.

       Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz play these two in intertwined stories, the main one being a scientist trying to find the cure before his wife dies of cancer.

       Mayan myths, Christian myths, eternal life.

       This is neither a masterpiece nor a turkey. It has strong moments, dull moments, pretentious moments. Jackman and Weisz are always good.

       It’s an honest, if not completely successful attempt to once again tell this ancient and universal story.      

 

3 ½ * of 5   

 

 

Donnie Darko

 Donnie Darko 2001

• Director: Richard Kelly
• Seen by this director: The Box
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Duval, Patrick Swayze, Jolene Purdy, Beth Grant, Drew Barrymore, Katherine Ross
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Jake Gyllenhaal – Life, Zodiac, Proof, Brokeback Mountain, Day after Tomorrow, Moonlight Mile, The Good Girl, October Sky
• Jena Malone – The Hunger Games 3+4, The Soloist, Into the Wild, Cold Mountain, The United States of Leland, Ellen Foster, Contact
• Mary McDonnell – Battlestar Galactica, Matewan
• Holmes Osborne – The Box, Identity, TV series
• Maggie Gyllenhaal – Hysteria, The Dark Knight, Stranger than Fiction, Paris je t’aime, Sherrybaby, Mona Lisa’s Smile, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Adaption, Riding in Cars with Boys, Waterland
• Patrick Swayze – Keeping Mum, Ghost, Dirty Dancing
• Beth Grant – The Artist, No Country for Old Men, Factory Girl, Little Miss Sunshine
• Drew Barrymore – He’s Just Not That into You, Music and Lyrics, Riding in Cars with Boys, Ella Enchanted, ET
• Katherine Ross – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Graduate, Shenandoah
• Why? Remember it as good.
• Seen: Once before. Now 13 August 2022      

       High school student Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) sleepwalks and has a scary friend he calls Frank, who tells him the world is going to end in twenty-eight days and makes Donnie do bad things.

       And that’s just one of the weird things in this jumble of a film. Time travel, concerned parents, youthful rebellion, ultraconservative politics, young love, rich white American suburbia, love messiah/anti-Christ/child pornographer.

       The film has achieved cult status and for good reason. It’s complex, enigmatic, unexplainable, and captivating.      

 

4* of 5   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disco Pigs

 Disco Pigs 2001

• Director: Kirsten Sheridan
• Based on the play by: Enda Walsh
• Cast: Cillian Murphy, Elaine Cassidy
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Cillian Murphy – Dunkirk, Transcendence, The Dark Knight Rises, Broken, In Time, Inception, Perrier’s Bounty, The Dark Knight, Sunshine, Breakfast on Pluto, Batman Begins, Cold Mountain, Girl with Pearl Earring, Intermission, 28 Days Later
• Elaine Cassidy – Felicia’s Journey
• Why? Cillian Murphy
• Seen: 12 August 2022      

       Baby Pig and Baby Runt form an alliance as new-borns. They grow up in neighbouring houses, sharing a wall in which they’ve cut holes so that they can hold hands at night.

       At sixteen they get into trouble. Repeatedly. Adults despair of them and separate them by sending Runt (Cassidy) to a school in the country. Pig (Murphy) goes off the deep end.

       This is one of the weirdest films to come out of Ireland. Are these two kids psychopaths? Misunderstood soul mates? Violent thrill-seekers? Lovers? All of the above?

       It splits the viewers. Some regard it as genius, others filthy rubbish.

       It certainly is fascinating. But odd. But fascinating. But a little bit scary. But fascinating.

       Brilliant? Rubbish? Brilliant? Rubbish?

       Definitely not rubbish. So, it must be brilliant. Or something. Murphy is clearly brilliant. And terrifying.      

 

4* of 5   

 

 

Twister

 Twister 1996

• Director: Jan de Bont
• Seen by this director: Speed 1 & 2
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes, Jami Gertz, Philip Seymour Hoffman
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Helen Hunt – Then She Found Me, Bobby, Cast Away, Play It Forward, As Good as It Gets, Peggy Sue Got Married
• Bill Paxton – Edge of Tomorrow, A Simple Plan, Titanic, Aliens, Terminator, Streets of Fire
• Cary Elwes – Ella Enchanted, X Files, Cradle Will Rock, Lady Jane
• Jami Gertz – Crossroads
• Philip Seymour Hoffman - Hunger Games etc, God’s Pocket, The Invention of Lying, The Boat that Rocked, Cold Mountain. Punch-Drunk Love, Almost Famous, Happiness, The Big Lebowski
• Why? Remember it as somewhat entertaining
• Seen: Once before, if I remember correctly, in Minnesota during tornado season. Now10 August 2022      

       In 1998, St Peter, Minnesota, was severely damaged in a series of tornadoes. My sister-in-law lives there. She and her husband and their house survived but when we visited them that summer, we saw a town that was half demolished. Tornadoes aren’t entertaining, they’re deadly.

       With that said, I’m ready to be entertained.

       It has been noted by many that the story is lame and the acting mediocre at best. True. Even Helen Hunt and Philip Seymour Hoffman are pure cliché and Bill Paxton is just bad, so wrong for this role. I’m hoping a tornado will sweep through my TV and suck the whole thing into the land of Oz.

       Mostly it’s boring but the actual tornadoes are dramatic enough. It does get a bit exciting at then end but you know, I don’t think you can outrun a tornado that’s on your heels.     

 

1½ * of 5   

 

 

Women without men

 Women without Men 2009

• Director: Shirin Neshat Shoja Azari
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Shabnam Toloui, Pegah Ferydoni, Arita Shahrzad, Orsolya Tóth
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• None of them
• Why? Sounded good.
• Seen: 11 August 2022   

             Four women in Iran, 1953. Merin (Toloui) whose brother is insisting that she get married.   Faezeh (Ferydoni), her pious friend.  Fakhri (Shahrzad), a wealthy middle-aged woman who leaves her husband for an old lover. Zarin (Tótj), a prostitute driven mad by her profession.

       Iran is rising against England. The CIA foments the coup and puts the Shah back in power.

       The film is visually extraordinary, stunningly beautiful. The story is vague, the loosely connecting thread the four women who find different ways to throw off the yoke of male oppression. It’s dreamlike, even hallucinatory at times, which is artistic, to be, sure, but confusing.

       No matter. It’s well worth seeing, perhaps more than once. 

4* of 5