Rear Window

 Rear Window 1954

• Director: Alfred Hitchcock
• Seen by this director: Torn Curtain, Marnie, The Birds, Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Trouble with Harry, Vertigo, Rope, Notorious, Spellbound, Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, The 39 Steps
• Based on the story by Cornell Woolrich
• Cast: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritters, Raymond Burr, Wendell Corey
• 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, Harvey, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, Rope, maybe others
• Thelma Ritter – The Misfits, All about Eve
• Raymond Burr – Perry Mason
• Wendell Corey – TV series
• Why? Stewart
• Seen: Maybe once before. Now: 1 March 2022      

       You probably know the story. Star global news photographer Jeff (Stewart) has been confined to a wheelchair with a broken leg for six weeks with nothing to do but watch the neighbours who conveniently have their windows wide open in the NY heat wave. It’s all very interesting.

       One night he becomes convinced that one of the neighbours has murdered his wife and carried her out in pieces. He gets his girlfriend Lisa (Kelley) and nurse Stella (Ritter) involved in detective work. His friend police detective Tom doesn’t believe him.

       It’s an unlikely story but very clever and it becomes quite exciting. Stella and Lisa are entertaining as the intrepid investigators.

       This was restored with colour added. A pity. I would have preferred the original black and white, but the visuals of the inner court of a block of NY flats are beautifully done.

       And yes, this time I caught the glimpse of Hitchcock visiting one of the neighbours. 

4* of 5

 

Miss Congeniality 2 Armed and Fabulous

 Miss Congeniality 2 Armed and Fabulous 2005

• Director: John Pasquin
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Sandra Bullock, Regina King, William Shatner, Enrique Murciano, Ernie Hudson, Heather Burns, Diedrich Bader, Treat Williams, Eileen Brennan
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Sandra Bullock – Gravity, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Crash, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Miss Congeniality, 28 Days, Practical Magic, A Time to Kill, While You Were Sleeping, Speed
• Regina King – The Leftovers, Ray, Boyz n the Hood
• William Shatner – Star Trek, Miss Congeniality
• Heather Burns – Manchester by the Sea, Miss Congeniality, You’ve Got Mail
• Treat Williams – 127 Hours, Hair
• Why? Miss Congeniality
• Seen: 27 February 2022

             Having heard less than high praise for this, my expectations are not high, but I hope it will be fun anyway.

       Grace Hart (Bullock) is famous after film 1 and she’s asked to be the new promo face for the FBI. She’s just as inappropriate as she was for the beauty pageant, and she gets a new stylist Joel (Bader). Where’s Michael Caine when we need him?

       Her new partner/bodyguard Sam Fuller (King) can’t work with anyone else because of her violent aggression. She and Grace thoroughly despise each other.

       The story is about the kidnapping of Cheryl (Burns) and Stan (Shatner), fellow contestant and emcee in film 1.

       It is funny. I love the Dolly Parton bit and the Tina Turner scene.

       I like it as much as the first one, not the least because it’s about friendship and not romance. 

3* of 5.

 

Johanna

 Johanna 2005

• Director: Kornél Mundruczo
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Orsolya Toth
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• None of them
• Why? Sounded interesting
• Seen: 26 February 2022      

       A modern opera in Hungarian about drug addiction, what could be more entertaining?

       Johanna (Toth) is a drug addict. She steals drugs from a hospital, gets caught by a doctor who keeps her there and trains her as a nurse.  Her treatments of her patients are unorthodox, to say the least, but she cures them. She’s called a saint by the patients and whore by her colleagues.

       What a bizarre film. Long facial close-ups, long cellar-like corridors and stairways. The hospital is like something from the 19^th century. It’s filmed in black and white and vivid greens. Religion, Madonna-whore, messianic sacrifice. The whole thing is surreal. I don’t know what to think. I don’t like it but it’s… different. 

2 * of 5   

 

Beyond Borders

 Beyond Borders 2003

• Director: Martin Campbell
• Seen by this director: Casino Royale, Golden Eye, Homicide Life on the Street 2 episodes
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Clive Owen, Angelina Jolie, Linus Roache
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Clive Owen – Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Extras, Elizabeth the Golden Age, Children of Man, Derailed, Closer, Gosford Park, Croupier
• Angelina Jolie – The Tourist, Changeling, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Girl Interrupted
• Linus Roache– Yonkers Joe, Batman Begins, Seaforth
• Why?  Good cast.
• Seen: 20 February 2022 

Nick (Owen) is a doctor who goes from one refugee camp to another in desperate attempts to save lives. In one of these in Ethiopia he meets wealthy socialite Sarah (Jolie) who has come to the camp with all her savings invested in food. At first, he regards her as a flighty ignorant socialite but though she returns to her husband (Roache) in England she starts working for the UNHCR. Nick and Sarah’s paths meet throughout the years and they have a passionate love affair.

      It gives a grim and in many ways no doubt accurate picture of the danger and despair of relief worker and refugee camps. It’s a grim and dramatic film. Owens and Jolie are very good.

A little Doctor Zhivago-y at the end but strong, nevertheless. 

4* of 5

 

Chain Reaction

 Chain Reaction 1996

• Director: Andrew Davis
• Seen by this director: The Fugitive, Holes
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Keanu Reeves, Morgan Freeman, Rachel Weisz
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Keanu Reeves – John Wick, The Secret Lives of Pippa Lee, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The House by the Lake, A Scanner Darkly, Thumbsucker, Matrix x3m, Sweet November, The Gift, Feeling Minnesota, Johnny Mnenomic, Speed, Much Ado about Nothing, My Own Private Idaho, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures
• Morgan Freeman – Lucy, Transcendence, Oblivion, The Dark Knight Rises, Invictus, The Dark Knight, Wanted, Gong Baby Gone, Batman Begins, Million Dollar Baby, Bruce the Almighty, Levity, Nurse Betty, Amistad, Moll Flanders, Seven, The Shawshank Redemption, Robin Hood, Driving Miss Daisy, and others
• Rachel Weisz– The Favourite, The Deep Blue Sea, The Fountain, The Constant Gardener, About a Boy, Beautiful Creatures, Sunshine
• Why?  Good cast.
• Seen: 20 February 2022

The world (way back in ’96) is on the brink of environmental catastrophe (if they only had known how close in reality, and we’re even closer now). Machinist Eddie (Reeves), mysterious powerful person (Freeman) and physicist Lily (Weisz) are working on new technology at (sort of) the University of Chicago. So far, the tests have failed then Eddie comes up with the solution. The plan is to share it freely to the world. Villains have other ideas. They blow up the whole eight-block area, the prototype with it.

Eddie and Lily are framed, and the chase starts.

People really love to hate this film and almost everybody on IMDb give it rock-bottom ratings. I disagree. I find it an intelligent and still timely thriller, never mind some holes in the logic. The three leads are good as always and it’s very exciting. 

4* of 5

 

 

O Brother Where Art Thou?

 O Brother Where Art Thou? 2000

• Director: Coen Brothers
• Seen by these directors: Hail Caesar, Inside Llewyn Davis, True Grit, A Serious Man, Burn After Reading, No Country for Old Men, Paris je t’aime, Intolerable Cruelty, The Man Who Wasn’t There, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, The Hudsucker Proxy, Barton Fink, Miller’s Crossing, Arizona Junior
• Based on Homer’s Odyssey
• Cast: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, Chris Thomas King
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• George Clooney – Hail Caesar, Tomorrowland, Gravity, The Descendants, Burn After Reading, Michael Clayton, Good Night and Good Luck, Intolerable Cruelty, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Solaris, The Perfect Storm
• John Turturro – God’s Pocket, Margo at the Wedding, Romance & Cigarettes, Secret Window, The Man Who Cried, Cradle Will Rock, The Big Lebowski, Clockers, Barton Fink, Jungle Fever, Mo’ Better Blues, Do the Right Thing, Desperately Seeking Susan
• Tim Blake Nelson – American Violet, The Darwin Awards, Holes, The Good Girl, Hamlet,
• John Goodman - Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Atomic Blonde, Kong Skull Island, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Inside Llewyn Davis, Dancing on the Edge, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Artist, My First Mister, The Big Lebowski, The Hudsucker Proxy, Barton Fink, Sea of Love, Arizona Junior
• Holly Hunter – Top of the Lake, Nine Lives, Levity, Moonlight Mile, A Life Less Ordinary, The Piano, Arizona Junior
•  Why?  Remember it as being very good. Good cast.
• Seen: Once before. Now 11 February 2022 

The unlikely adventures of three escaped prisoners in the state of Mississippi during the Depression. It is based on Homer’s Odyssey, Coen brothers style. It’s absurd, no surprise there, but it’s not really funny. Mostly it’s sad. And it has an unpleasant tone of contempt for its characters which takes some of the fun out of watching it. Even though most of them deserve it.

I really detest this kind of music.

What are two Minnesotans doing making a film about the Deep South?

It’s not the masterpiece I remembered, nor is it the best Coen brothers film. 

3* of 5

 

 

Guns Akimbo

 Guns Akimbo 2019

• Director: Jason Howden
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Samara Weaving, Ned Dennehy, Natasha Liu Bordizzo
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Daniel Radcliffe – Escape from Pretoria, Imperium, Victor Frankenstein, What If?, The Woman in Black, Harry Potter x 8, December Boys, Extras, David Copperfield
• Samara Weaving – Three Billboards outside Ebbing Missouri
• Ned Dennehy – The Eagle, Tyrannosaur, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I
• Natasha Liu Bordizzo - Hotel Mumbai
• Why? Daniel Radcliffe
• Seen: 13 February 2022      

       Miles (Radcliffe, speaking AmE) is a nerdy nobody loser until he finds Skizm on Internet, a website where murder takes place online in the form of a contest. It’s wildly popular. Miles makes a comment that the admins don’t like so they break into his home, knock him out, surgically attach guns to his hands and force him to compete against their current champion Nix (Weaving). She has recently escaped from a prison for the criminally insane.

       Is this going to be a violent parody à la The Running Man or is there some serious message lurking?

       It is kind of funny watching Miles trying to do normal things, like opening doors, using his phone, pissing. Oh yes, he also has big fluffy tiger paws for slippers.

       I guess it’s a comedy. He tries to get help from his ex-girlfriend Nova (Bordizzo) but for some reason she’s freaked out by his guns/hands.

       It’s all sent on the website and the viewers, millions all over the world, love it.

       It is actually funny. And exciting. And it almost has a message. I’m not sure what it is but…Violence kills? Our society breeds violence? Well, that it does. Our society loves violence? Well, here I sit…

       From funny to grim. Radcliffe is outstanding as always. A strong film in its bizarre way.

 4 * of 5