Jack the Giant Slayer

Jack the Giant Slayer 2013

• Director: Bryan Singer
• Based on the fairy tale
• Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Eleanor Tomlinson, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, Eddie Marsan, Christopher Fairbank, Bill Nighy, Warwick Davis
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Nicholas Hoult – Mad Max Fury Road, X Men Days of Future Past, Wah-Wah, About a Boy, Intimate Relations
• Eleanor Tomlinson – Poldark, Alice in Wonderland
• Ewan McGregor – American Pastoral, Our Kind of Traitor, Mortdecai, August Osage County, The Impossible, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Perfect Sense, The Ghost Writer, The Island, Star Wars, Big Fish, Young Adam, Moulin Rouge, Little Voice, Velvet Goldmine, A Life Less Ordinary, Brassed Off, Trainspotting, Shallow Grave
• Stanley Tucci - Fortitude, The Hunger Games, Swing Vote, Maid in Manhattan, Road to Perdition, Joe Gould’s Secret, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Life Less Ordinary, The Pelican File, Billy Bathgate, Prizzi’s Honor
• Eddie Marsan - Their Finest Hour, Happy-Go-Lucky, River, Filth, The World’s End, Snow White and the Huntsman, Sherlock Holmes Game of Shadows, Merlin, Sherlock Holmes, V for Vendetta, Vera Drake, 21 Grams, Gangs of New York
• Christopher Fairbank – Wallander, Wolf Hall, Doctor Who, Pirates of the Caribbean, Merlin, The Fifth Element, Crocodile Shoes, Alien 3, Hamlet
• Bill Nighy - Hotel Marigold 1 & 2, Gideon’s Daughter, The World’s End, About Time, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1, Doctor Who, The Boat that Rocked, Valkyria, Pirates of the Caribbean, Hot Fuzz, Notes on a Scandal, The Constant Gardener, The Girl in the Café, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Shaun of the Dead, Still Crazy, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Kiss Me Kate, Longitude
• Warwick Davis – Star Wars etc, Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Merlin, Life’s Too Short, Extras
• Why? Ewan McGregor
• Seen: 23 June 2019      

       Peasant boy Jack (Hoult) and crown princess Isabelle (Tomlinson) both hear the legend of the giants as children. Ten years pass. Jack happens to defend Isabelle from ruffians at a fair. Then he happens to get some beans. Isabelle happens to be in Jack’s cottage. One of the beans happens to sprout and explodes out of the cottage floor. The adventure in Giant Land begins.

       Ewan McGregor is the intrepid but blasé guardian, Eddie Marsan his stalwart colleague. Jack is played by the kid who was the boy in About a Boy, a little more grown up. Bill Nighy is unrecognisable as one of the giants, but his voice is unmistakable. Stan Tucci is Isabelle’s evil betrothed.

       There are moments of excitement, some good effects and a mild entertainment factor. Good cast notwithstanding, however, the characters are uninteresting and the damsel in distress premise isn’t countered by Isabelle’s occasional tomboyishness. It’s all very macho.

       The first half hovered around 3* but it disintegrated to about

2* of 5

The Day the Earth Caught Fire

The Day the Earth Caught Fire 1961

• Director: Val Guest
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Edward Judd, Janet Munro, Leo McKern
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Edward Judd – The Onedin Line, O Lucky Man
• Janet Munro – The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Third Man on the Mountain, Darby O’Gill and the Little People
• Leo McKern – King Lear, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, A Man for All Seasons, Help!
• Why? Part of a campaign offering British classic films
• Seen: 21 June 2019      

       It starts with stark sepia scenes from London. A lone man wanders down the street with St Paul’s in the background into an abandoned newspaper office, sweating in the sweltering heat. He’s a journalist. He wants to file a report. Thirty minutes have passed since the bombs were detonated, the bombs that are meant to nudge the Earth back into its proper orbit.

       Ninety days ago. A busy newsroom. The news – sunspots, H-bomb tests, protests, earth tremors, extreme weather.

       Pete Stenning (Judd) is an arrogant, pushy journalist who is divorced and an alcoholic in danger of losing his job.

       The Americans and Russians detonate one test bomb after another. In the middle of a Ban the Bomb demonstration there is an unexpected eclipse of the sun.

       This is fast paced, realistic and frightening film about the nuclear arms race and the end of the world. Seen through the eyes of Pete and several other individuals we see daily life go on as the horrible consequences of the test bombs become clear.

       The black and white filming of London in the 60’s is stunning as are the simple but impressive special effects.

       The cheeky bickering gender squabbles between Pete and state employee Jeanie (Munro) probably seemed modern and daring at the time but are now annoying. If you can bear with that the rest of the film is very powerful. Much of it is uncomfortably close to the news reports of today.

5- * of 5

Management

Management

• Director: Stephen Belber
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Steve Zahn, Woody Harrelson, Margo Martindale, Ward Hunt, James Hiroyuki Liao
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Jennifer Anniston – Cake, He’s Just Not That into You, Rumour Has It, Derailed, Friends, Bruce Almighty, Good Girl
• Steve Zahn – Sunshine Cleaning, Riding in Cars with Boys, Hamlet, Happy Texas, You Have Mail, SubUrbia, Friends, Reality Bites
• Woody Harrelson – The Hunger Games, The Glass Castle, 2012, Battle in Seattle, No Country for Old Men, A Scanner Darkly, Prairie Home Companion, North Country, EDtv, The Thin Red Line, White Men Can’t Jump
• Margo Martindale – August Osage County, Beautiful Creatures, Paris je t’aime, Million Dollar Baby, The Human Stain, The Hours, 28 Days, Homicide Life on the Street, Practical Magic, Marvin’s Room, Dead Man Walking, Lorenzo’s Oil
• Ward Hunt – Swing Shift, Silkwood
• Why? Likeable cast
• Seen: 16 June 2019      

       After working hard all weekend I need a short, lightweight and likeable film.

       Mike (Zahn) runs a hotel with his parents (Martindale and Ward). A young businesswoman Sue (Anniston) checks in. He hits on her, she’s sceptical. So then she initiates wild sex with him in the laundry room.

       Which is just silly. Is this going to be just a dumb romantic comedy?

       This is awful. Mike is essentially a creepy stalker. Sue is seriously neurotic for falling for him. Yes, yes, they’re both neurotic with issues.

       The acting is fine. The story is not. The film doesn’t feel short though it’s only 90 minutes. It’s not lightweight, nor is it likely or likeable.      

1* of 5

Spirited Away

Spirited Away

• Director: Hayao Miyazaki
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: all voices of Japanese actors I don’t know
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in: see above
• Why? I liked it the first time
• Seen: once before, now 13 June 2019      

       Chihiro and her parents wander through a mysterious tunnel and come to a mysterious world. The parents fall under an evil enchantment and Chihiro is alone in a scary nightmare world. A kind boy Haku helps her and she befriends a workmate Lin, a friendly (maybe) ghost (or something) and a cranky but generous old guy. This and that happens.

       It’s not as good as I remember it but Chihiro’s feelings are expressively portrayed and there are many colourful visual effects. There isn’t much of a story and it does ramble on and on but some of the characters and effects are fun. Kids probably enjoy it if they can sit still long enough.

3* of 5

Crossroads

Crossroads 1986

• Director: Walter Hill
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Ralph Macchio, Joe Seneca, Jami Gertz, Joe Morton, Robert Judd, Steve Vai
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Ralph Macchio – My Cousin Vinnie
• Joe Seneca – Malcolm X, Mississippi Masala, Mo’ Better Blues, Silverado, Kramer vs Kramer
• Jami Gertz – Twister
• Joe Morton – Night Listener, The X Files, The Astronaut’s Wife, Homicide Life on the Streets, Speed, Terminator 2, MASH
• Steve Vai – in concert at Gröna Lund in Stockholm
• Why? The music
• Seen: twice before, now 7 June 2019      

       Young Eugene (Macchio) is a bluesman wannabe. He’s classically trained at Juilliard but his hero is Robert Johnson. He smart talks his way into the grudging company of Willie Brown (Seneca), an aging, ailing bitter harmonica virtuoso.

       They start on the unlikely odyssey of searching for Robert Johnson’s missing 30^th song, this young white boy from Long Island and the old black man from the Delta.

       The legend of Robert Johnson and his deal at the crossroads with the devil is interwoven into the story of Eugene and Blind Willie, who had made his own deal at the crossroads with the devil.

       Eugene is an arrogant, cocky, naïve, gullible, pampered rich boy. Willie has known poverty, bullying, prison.

       They happen upon the young streetwise runaway with an attitude, Frances (Gertz). The unlikely duo becomes an unlikely trio.

       Eugene learns about racism, sexual exploitation, theft, nasty cops and survival on the road.

       The story and characters are fun, but it’s awfully macho. The film’s real strength, not unexpectedly, is the music.

4* of 5

Total Recall

Total Recall 2012

• Director: Len Wiseman
• Based on the story by Philip K Dick
• Cast: Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston, Bokeem Woodbine, Bill Nighy
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Colin Farrell – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Winter’s Tale, Fright Night, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, In Bruges, Intermission
• Kate Beckinsale – Absolutely Anything, The Aviator, The Last Days of Disco, Cold Comfort Farm, The Prince of Jutland, Much Ado About Nothing
• Jessica Biel – Ulee’s Gold
• Bryan Cranston – Breaking Bad, Contagion, Little Miss Sunshine, The X Files, Saving Private Ryan
• Bokeem Woodbine – Ray, The Sopranos, The X Files
• Bill Nighy – Hotel Marigold 1 & 2, Gideon’s Daughter, The World’s End, About Time, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1, Doctor Who, The Boat that Rocked, Valkyria, Pirates of the Caribbean, Hot Fuzz, Notes on a Scandal, The Constant Gardener, The Girl in the Café, Still, Crazy, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Shaun of the Dead, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Kiss Me Kate, Longitude
• Why? Colin Farrell
• Seen: 2 June 2019      

       Oh, look, Bill Nighy is in it too. Yay. He’s the resistance leader who the powers-that-be call a terrorist. In the future there are only two inhabitable territories on earth, the British Federation and the Colony.

       Lori (Beckinsale) is an anti-terrorist cop for the Federation. Her husband Doug (Farrell) is a factory worker, manufacturing synthetic cops (robots). He’s from the Colony so will never be promoted. He’s frustrated, angry and plagued by nightmares. His life is shit so he decides to take the drug Rekall and get himself some good memories. Illusion and reality. Rekall gives you what you long for. It least the memory of it.

       But it all goes horribly wrong.

       The cityscapes are fantastic. The technology is cool. Even the inevitable car chase is cool. And the class conflict and the Resistance and Bill Nighy are cool. The fist fights aren’t – they never are – but the twists and turns are.

       It has its flaws – it’s confusing at times, the abovementioned fistfights are boring, some of the dialog is stiff, the machismo is as always ho hum, and Beckinsale and Biel, with their identical long dark hair, look so much alike that it’s hard to tell them apart most of the time – but it’s a visual masterpiece. As a whole it’s exciting and entertaining enough for

3 ½ * of 5 (Hal gave it 2*. He thought it was too confusing.)

PS We’re never seen the original with Schwarzenegger, so we don’t need to worry about comparisons.

This Boy's Life

This Boy’s Life

• Director: Michael Caton-Jones
• Based on the book by Tobias Wolff
• Cast: Leonardo Di Caprio, Robert De Niro, Ellen Barkin, Chris Cooper, Jonah Blechman, Eliza Dushku, and a glimpse of Tobey Maguire
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Leonard Di Caprio – The Great Gatsby, Inception, Shutter Island, Blood Diamond, The Aviator, Catch Me If You Can, Gangs of New York, Beach, Titanic, Marvin’s Room, Romeo & Juliet, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
• Robert Di Niro – Joy, Stardust, Extras, Flawless, Cop Land, Marvin’s Room, Heat, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Awakenings, Stanley and Iris, Brazil, New York New York, The Deerhunter, Taxi Driver, 1900, Hi Mom, probably others
• Ellen Barkin – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Sea of Love, Down by Law, Eddie and the Cruisers, Daniel
• Chris Cooper – The Tempest, Remember Me, The Bourne Identity, October Sky, Great Expectations, Matewan
• Eliza Dushku – Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Tobey Maguire – The Great Gatsby, Spiderman, Cider House Rules, Pleasantville, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Ice Storm
• Why? Good the first time
• Seen: Once before. Now 1 June 2019      

1957. DiCaprio (playing Toby, later Jack) is about twelve. He and his mother Caroline (Barkin) are driving cross country fleeing her abusive boyfriend (Cooper), who catches up to them so they flee again, this time to Seattle. Toby becomes a foul-mouth, strutting, smoking Elvis wannabe, hanging out with other tough guy kids.

       Enter Dwight (De Niro), charming new boyfriend. Toby, now Jack, hates him on sight. He gets into more trouble and Caroline sends him to Dwight’s place in the north woods. If they get along she might marry Dwight.

       The nightmare begins. Charming Dwight is a vicious, violent, sadistic tyrant, determined to break Jack’s spirit and make a man out of him.

       Dwight and Caroline get married. And so it goes.

       Grim, painful and well-acted by all, it’s still strong. But it’s too grim for a full score and good acting notwithstanding, I’m always aware that it’s Di Caprio, De Nero and Barkin doing a good acting job.

3* of 5

Ecstasy

Ecstasy 2011

• Director: Robert Heydon
• Based on the novel by Irvine Welsh
• Cast: Adam Sinclair, Kristin Kreuk, Billy Boyd, Carlo Rota, Keram Malicki-Sánchez, Stephen McHattie
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Billy Boyd – Lord of the Rings, et al, Macbeth, Stone of Destiny
• The others, probably somewhere
• Why? Working class, Scotland
• Seen: 31 May 2019      

       Lloyd (Sinclair) is a drug courier and a raver. It’s a sleazy world the world of druggies – dealers and takers. Sleazy people. But we know that, not from our own reality (not mine, anyway) but from other films like this.

       There must be a moral to the story here somewhere? Even sleazy druggies can be kind to their dear old drunken widowed da? Drug bosses are violent? True love can be found at a rave party?

       What a dreary film. What a load of clichés. What an unlikeable main character/narrator. The only one worth watching is Billy Boyd. And the general Edinburgh atmosphere. For that it gets

2 * of 5

Glorious 39

Glorious 39 (2009)

• Director: Stephen Poliakoff
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Romola Garai, Eddie Redmayne, Juno Temple, Toby Regbo, Christopher Lee, Corin Redgrave, Charlie Cox, David Tennant, Bill Nighy, Jeremy Northam, Jenny Agutter, Julie Christie, Hugh Bonneville, Tom Goodman-Hill
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Romola Garai – Suffragette, King Lear, Atonement, Amazing Grace, As You Like It, Inside I’m Dancing, Daniel Deronda
• Eddie Redmayne – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Jupiter Ascending, The Theory of Everything, Les Misérables, My Week with Marilyn, The Pillars of the Earth, The Other Boleyn Girl, Elizabeth the Golden Age
• Juno Temple – Far from the Madding Crowd, The Dark Knight Rises, St Trinians 2, The Other Boleyn Girl, Atonement, Notes on a Scandal
• Toby Regbo – Treasure Island, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I
• Christopher Lee – The Hobbit, Dark Shadows, Hugo, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Lord of the Rings, Sleepy Hollow etc
• Charlie Cox – The Theory of Everything, Stone of Destiny, Stardust, Casanova, The Merchant of Venice
• David Tennant – Broadchurch, What We Did on Our Holiday, Doctor Who, Hamlet, Fright Night, The Decoy Bride, United, Secret Smile, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Blackpool, Bright Young Things, Jude, Takin’ over the Asylum
• Bill Nighy – Hotel Marigold 1 & 2, Gideon’s Daughter, The World’s End, About Time, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1, Doctor Who, The Boat that Rocked, Valkyria, Pirates of the Caribbean, Hot Fuzz, Notes on a Scandal, The Constant Gardener, The Girl in the Café, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Shaun of the Dead, Still Crazy, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Kiss Me Kate, Longitude
• Jeremy Northam – Creation, Tristram Shandy, Gosford Park, Happy Texas, Amistad, Emma
• Jenny Agutter - Love’s Labour’s Lost, An American Werewolf in London, Romeo and Juliet
• Julie Christie – Finding Neverland, Harry Potter, Hamlet, Heaven Can Wait, Nashville, McCabe and Mrs Miller, The Go-Between, Petulia, Far from the Madding Crowd, Fahrenheit 451, Dr Zhivago, Darling
• Hugh Bonneville – The Hollow Crown, Downton Abbey, Doctor Who, From Time to Time, Lost in Austen, Bonekickers, Man to Man, Daniel Deronda, Notting Hill, Frankenstein
• Tom Goodman-Hill – Humans, The Imitation Game, The Hollow Crown, Case Studies, Hustle, Doctor Who, Gideon’s Daughter, The Office
• Why? The cast
• Seen: 26 May 2019      

       It is the year before the war in a Downton Abbey type estate with an aspiring young film actor Ann (Garai), a young MP Hector (Tennant) who clearly sees Hitler as a threat, loving Pater (Nighy), cheery siblings (Redmayne and Temple), old-fashioned aunt (Christie). And then there’s espionage, a tragic and mysterious death, a kidnapped baby. Suspicion falls on Ann and she is forced to take steps. She becomes involved in politics, the victim of intrigues and betrayal.

       It’s an odd film but suspenseful and well-acted. Of course it is, with this cast. I’m not sure I like it, though.

3* of 5

Star Wars - Rogue One

3 June 2019

Rogue One – a Star Wars Story 2016

• Director: Gareth Edwards
• Based on Book: no
• Cast: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Forest Whitaker, Mads Mikkelsen and a bunch of cameos
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Felicity Jones: The Theory of Everything, The Invisible Woman, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, Hysteria, Like Crazy, The Tempest, Doctor Who
• Diego Luna: Elysium, Milk, Frida
• Forest Whitaker: Arrival, Last King of Scotland, The Butler, Repo Men, The Great Debaters, Smoke, The Crying Game, Bird, Platoon, Fast Times at Ridgemont High
• Mads Mikkelsen: Casino Royale
• Why bought: Star Wars
• Seen: 24 May 2019

       Do I need to tell you the story? I’m not sure I can. As usual with Star Wars it’s confusing. The Empire is bad, and it has an evil new weapon. Jyn (Jones) is a rebel = good. There are a lot of creatures and fantastic cities and spaceships and planets and things.

It has the Star Wars feel without the Star Wars characters. No annoying Han (thank you!) or lovelorn Leia (thank you!), no Yoda (a pity) or Darth Vader (a pity) or Chewbacca (RIP) or wimpy Luke (thank you!) or R2D2 and the other one (but a close-enough amusing droid). The main characters are more or less without depth but at least they’re not irritating.

Oh wait, there’s Darth Vader! What’s he doing here? Where is this film in the chronology of the whole thing?

Oh, who cares?

It’s not the most brilliant film ever made but it’s pretty to look at and entertaining enough until the endless battle scenes at the end. Boring!

Gender analysis: Main character Jyn notwithstanding – macho. Totally male. Boring. Oh, look, a female bomber pilot. Too little, too late.

For a while it was worth 2 ½ * but it doesn’t hold up.

1 ½ * of 5.

Still Crazy

Still Crazy 1998

• Director: Brian Gibson
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Stephen Rea, Bill Nighy, Juliet Aubrey, Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall, Billy Connolly, Helena Bergström, Bruce Robinson, Hans Matheson, Rachel Stirling, Frances Barber
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Stephen Rea – V for Vendetta, The Butcher Boy, Fever Pitch, Michael Collins, Interview with the Vampire, The Crying Game, Life Is Sweet
• Bill Nighy – Hotel Marigold 1 & 2, Gideon’s Daughter, The World’s End, About Time, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1, Doctor Who, The Boat that Rocked, Valkyria, Pirates of the Caribbean, Hot Fuzz, Notes on a Scandal, The Constant Gardener, The Girl in the Café, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Shaun of the Dead, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Kiss Me Kate, Longitude
• Juliet Aubrey – The Constant Gardener, Go Now, Middlemarch
• Jimmy Nail – Crocodile Shoes, Evita, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Spender
• Timothy Spall – Mr Turner, Harry Potter, The King’s Speech, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd, Auf Wiedersehn Pet, My House in Umbria, Nicholas Nickleby, Love’s Labour Lost, Topsy-Turvy, Our Mutual Friend, Hamlet, Secrets and Lies, Life is Sweet, Gothic, Quadrophenia
• Billy Connelly – What We Did on Our Holiday, Quartet, The X Files I Want to Believe, White Oleander, Third Rock from the Sun, Mrs Brown
• Helena Bergström – Änglagård, Snoken, Blackjack
• Bruce Robinson – Withnail and I, Romeo and Juliet
• Hans Matheson - Sherlock Holmes, Les Misérables
• Rachel Stirling – Their Finest Hour, Bletchley Circle, Doctor Who, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
• Frances Barber – Vicious, Doctor Who, Hustle, Twelfth Night, Prick Up Your Ears
• Why? Bill Nighy et al
• Seen: 18 May 2019

             Rock band Strange Fruit is not at its peak in the 70’s. In fact, it just went defunct. Years go by. Fate wants them to reunite. Not an easy task getting them together again. Or getting them to recreate the panache. Especially since they all still hate each other. Especially since one of them is dead.

       That’s the story.

       It’s quite tragic. And painfully funny. The cast is brilliant, including Sweden’s very own Helena Bergström.

       Don’t you just have to love it?

5* of 5

Made in Dagenham

Made in Dagenham 2010

• Director: Nigel Cole
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Sally Hawkins, Geraldine James, Bob Hoskins, Daniel Mays, Roger Lloyd Pack, Rosamund Pike, Rupert Graves, Miranda Richardson, John Sessions
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Sally Hawkins – The Shape of Water, The Hollow Crown, Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, Never Let Me Go, An Education, Happy-Go-Lucky, Little Britain, Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky, Vera Drake
• Geraldine James – Sherlock Holmes Game of Shadows, Sherlock Holmes, Alice in Wonderland, Little Britain, Calendar Girls
• Bob Hoskins – Doomsday, Paris je t’aime, Mrs Henderson Presents, Last Orders, David Copperfield, Felicia’s Journey, Hook, Mona Lisa, Brazil, Othello, Rock Follies
• Daniel Mays – Treasure Island, Victor Frankenstein, Doctor Who, Hustle, Atonement, A Good Year, Vera Drake
• Roger Lloyd Pack – Twelfth Night, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Hustle, What We Did on Our Holiday, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Prick Up Your Ears
• Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl, What We Did on Our Holiday, A Long Way Down, An Education, The Libertine, Die Another Day
• Rupert Graves – Sherlock, Last Tango in Halifax, Doctor Who, Wallander, V for Vendetta, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Intimate Relations, The Madness of King George, A Handful of Dust, A Room with a View
• Miranda Richardson – Harry Potter, Paris je t’aime, Gideon’s Daughter, Wah-Wah, Absolutely Fabulous, The Hours, Black Adder, Sleepy Hollow, The Crying Game, Enchanted April, Dance with a Stranger
• John Sessions – Legend, Doctor Who, Filth, Sherlock, The Last Station, The Merchant of Venice, Gangs of New York, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry V
• Why? Sally Hawkins
• Seen: 17 May 2019

             A hundred and eighty-seven women are employed at the enormous Ford factory in Dagenham – amongst the thousands and thousands of men. The year is 1968. The women’s work has been degraded to ‘unskilled’. They vote unanimously to strike.

       Rita (Hawkins) is chosen to be one of the four union members to meet management. Luckily for the workers, unluckily for the stodgy old in-management’s-pocket union representative, Rita doesn’t keep her mouth shut. Their own shop leader Albert (Hoskins) is proud of her.

       So now Rita finds herself strike leader. And union leader. And it becomes a strike for equal pay for women.

       I love films about radical factory floor unionists defeating conservative union officials and multinational capitalists especially when said radical floor unionists are women and the bad guys are men.

       How could this be anything but one of the best of the genre with this cast?

5* of 5

PS True story

Les Misérables 2012

4 June 2013

Les Misérables 2012

• Director: Tom Hooper
• Based on book: by Victor Hugo
• Cast: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks, Daniel Huttlestone
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Hugh Jackman  – X-Men, Australia, The Fountain, Kate and Leopold
• Russell Crowe  – Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Robin Hood, A Good Year
• Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married, Alice in Wonderland, Brokeback Mountain, Ella Enchanted
• Amanda Seyfried – Mamma Mia
• Sacha Baron Cohen – Sweeny Todd
• Helena Bonham Carter - Harry Potter, Sweeney Todd, The King’s Speech, Alice in Wonderland, Frankenstein, Keep the Aspidistra Flying, Howards End
• Eddie Redmayne – Elizabeth the Golden Age
• Why? I like musicals, the book and the other versions.
• Seen: March 31, 2013 with H, ÖB and B-IS.

Very impressive! What scenography! What undreamed of power in the voices of Hathaway and Crowe! Three out of the four of us sniffled all the way through the last hour or so.

So yes, I liked this film.  Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway are magnificent. It is a delight, as always, to see and hear Helena Bonham-Carter. No one can do nasty like she can and the songs she and Cohen do are funny.  Samantha Barks as Éponine doing the rain song is beautiful and heartbreaking. The opening scene with the convicts pulling the ship, the mountain views, the panorama of Paris from the roof tops, the final scene of the ghosts of the revolutions and the thousands to come rising up on the barricades – vive la révolution!

Only, sadly, that’s not what they were singing. They were singing about heaven and God. Oh why did they have to ruin it like that? Sure, people tended to still be believers back then but much of the French Revolution(s) – this one was in 1832 but there was another one coming right around the corner in 1848 – was/were about liberation from the tyranny of the church along with the fight against class inequality and poverty. So this powerful, stirring final scene loses much of the meaning that the film has built up.

There are other problems. Music has to be heard several times and strangely I have never heard anything at all from this musical. This will only get better, of course, when I watch the movie again (and I will) but I like musicals with specific songs – not opera where everything is sung, much of it just la-la-la between the real songs. Our friends, B-I and Ö, who themselves have worked with musicals, say that in the stage productions there’s talking, not singing, between the songs. The movie would have been better if this choice had been made.

Another problem is that Hugh Jackman’s songs are boring and at times bordering on the pathetic (not his fault probably). It was, however, fun to see him in his non-Wolverine, non-Australia role.

A third problem – Amanda Seyfried.  Sorry, I’ve never seen her in a role I like. Her voice is too shrill, her sweetness is too sweet, her in-loveness is too wimpy. So it was in Mamma Mia, so it is here.

Some of this criticism will disappear when I’ve seen it a few times.  Much of it will not.

The good stuff is very good indeed and gets 10 * of 10. But the bad stuff drags it down. Altogether?

3* of 5.

Much Ado About Nothing 2013

27 June 2013

Much Ado about Nothing 2013

• Director: Joss Whedon
• Based on the play by William Shakespeare
• Cast: Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Nathan Fillion, Clark Gregg, Reed Diamond, Fran Kranz, Jillian Morgese, Sean Maher, Spencer Treat Clark, Riki Lindhome, Ashley Johnson, Emma Bates
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Amy Acker – Catch Me If You Can
• Reed Diamond – Good Night and Good Luck, Spiderman 2, Homicide Life on the Streets,
• Clark Gregg – Thor, In Good Company, The Human Stain, State and Main, The Usual Suspects
• Fran Kranz – Matchstick Men, Donnie Darko
• Spencer Treat Clark – Mystic River, Gladiator
• Riki Lindhome – The Big Bang Theory, Changeling, Million Dollar Baby
• Ashley Johnson – The Help, Roswell, Anywhere but Here
• Why seen: Shakespeare, Barbican, London
• Seen: June 15, 2013 with Hal at the Barbican in London

Seeing a new Shakespeare film the day after its official UK release, in the Barbican Cinema 2, in a rain-drenched London – can film blogging get any better?

Well, actually a little, yes.  You see, after walking back to our side of the Thames in the now sunny London I’m handwriting this review with a pen bearing the text “To Be or Not to Be” bought yesterday at the Globe Shop. That’s cool, isn’t it?

I had seen on the IMDb that the film was coming. It was just luck that it was now. And we’re here.

I love the film It’s a straightforward adaption of Shakespeare. The play is moved to today’s America in some California-type wealthy setting – a big sprawling house with lots of stairs and a swimming pool.  The cast are all naturals. Shakespeare flows out of their mouths as if that’s how they and we talk all the time.

The quirkiness is brilliant. All the macho talk takes place in small girly bedrooms with cute stuffed animals and frilly pillows.  Claudio in snorkel and swimming goggles is informed by Don John and his two cohorts in the pool – four bodiless heads bobbing in the water – of Don Pedro’s supposed betrayal with Hero.  The two scenes where Beatrice and Benedick hear their friends talking about their love for one another are hilarious. Beatrice scrambling on her hands and knees to hide under a kitchen counter is priceless.

The drama and pain are believable and gripping. The photography is beautiful. Making a black and white film in the second decade of the 21^stcentury is a radical move. It works a treat.  Two striking scenes: the acrobats swooping around high above the party (from their perspective) and the memorial procession for Hero.

Comparisons to Branagh’s version are inevitable. Branagh and Thompson can never be equaled and the lavish sumptuousness and energy of the 1993 production is one of a kind. But this 2013 version certainly holds its own in its black and white opulence of down home (wealthy style) lavishness, after-party kitchen chaos and all.

In a long line of Shakespeare films it’s right there at the top.

5 * of 5

The Great Gatsby

10 June 2013

The Great Gatsby 2013

• Director: Baz Luhrman
• Based on the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Debicki, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Leonardo DiCaprio – What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Romeo and Juliet, Marvin’s Room, Titanic, The Beach, The Gangs of New York, Catch Me If You Can, The Aviator, Blood Diamond, Shutter Island, Inception
• Carey Mulligan – An Education, Public Enemies, Never Let Me Go
• Tobey Maguire – The Ice Storm, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Pleasantville, Cider House Rules, Spiderman
• Joel Edgerton – Ned Kelly, The Night We Called It a Day
• Why seen: Baz Luhrman, read-book-see-film
• Seen: June 9, 2013 with Hal, YW, IA, B-IS, ÖB, and KW at a cinema in Stockholm

When we saw a trailer for this film a couple of months ago I thought, “Why is Luhrman doing this?! Why isn’t he doing another Shakespeare?!”

I have spent much of my book-reading life resisting reading this classic, for some reason. But when both YW and IA said it’s one of their favorite novels I said, “OK! OK! I’ll read it!” Both Hal and I did.  And…we have to admit, it’s a good book.

But reports on the film have been very mixed. We were curious, to say the least, to see how we’d react. 

Well.

The reactions were, in this group, and in me, just as mixed as the reports.

Loud, is one word that comes to mind.  Extreme, is another. Extravagant. In your face. Off the wall. If the book has an almost minimalist feel in the pared down sparseness of the literary style, the movie is what you could call maximalist. Somehow, that works just fine.

But I simply can’t decide if I like the film or not. It has a very similar feel to Luhrman’s Romeo and Juliet, which I love. It’s perfect.  And I can see how Luhrman wanted this classic story to work in the same way. It does. It does.  And yet.

DiCaprio was great as Romeo.  Is he great as Gatsby? I don’t know. Carey Mulligan was superb in Never Let Me Go.  Is she right for the role of Daisy? I don’t know.

Does the music work? Yes. Compellingly so. As in Romeo and Juliet the aggressively modern music is a part of making the story timeless and connected to no specific era.

The heartlessness, the decadence, the sickening wastefulness of the rich and the emptiness of their lives are made painfully clear.

More adjectives: dashing, exuberant, opulent. Breathtaking.

Relentless.

Is it a film to be seen again? Definitely.

Is it a film to love? I don’t think so.  Not yet, anyway. Maybe next time.

3 * of 5? 4* of 5? Something like that.