Maleficent

 Maleficent 2014

• Director: Robert Stromberg
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Leslie Manville, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Sam Riley
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Angelina Jolie – The Tourist, Beyond Borders, Changeling, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Girl Interrupted
• Elle Fanning – Ginger & Rosa, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Babel, Taken
• Sharlto Copley – Chappie, Elysium, Banlieu 9
• Leslie Manville – River, Mr Turner, Another Year, Cranford, Sparkle, Vera Drake, All or Nothing, David Copperfield, Milk, Topsy-Turvy, Secrets and Lies, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, Dance with a Stranger
• Imelda Staunton – Pride, The Awakening, Harry Potter, Another Year, Cranford, Taking Woodstock, Freedom Writers, A Midsummer Night’s Dream Re-Told, Vera Drake, Bright Young Things, David Copperfield, Shakespeare in Love, Twelfth Night, Sense and Sensibility, Much Ado about Nothing, Peter’s Friends, The singing Detective
• Juno Temple – Far from the Madding Crowd, The Dark Knight Rises, Kick Ass Girls 2 St Trinian’s, Glorious 39, The Other Boleyn Girl, Atonement, Notes on a Scandal
• Sam Riley – Brighton Rock, control
• Why?  Why not?
• Seen: 10 March 2022 

The other side of the Sleepy Beauty tale.

Maleficent (Jolie) is a powerful fairy, protector of the magical realm of the fairies. The bordering human kingdom threatens to invade the realm and slaughter the magical creatures who live there.

Thoughts go to Russia and Ukraine. The Russians/humans aren’t as powerful as they think they are.

As children Maleficent and the human Stefan (Copley) were in love but he left her to become wealthy in the humans’ kingdom. Now, as adults and enemies, the king sends him to kill her. Instead, he regains her trust, drugs her and cuts off her wings.

She gets her revenge.

Jolie is convincingly evil, the computer enhancement is pretty, it’s fun to see Staunton and Manville as fairies turned nursemaids. It’s a clever, entertaining and eye-pleasing revision of the classic fairy tale. 

 

2 ½ * of 5

 

Zombieland Double Tap

 Zombieland Double Tap 2019

• Director: Ruben Fleischer
• Seen by this director: Zombieland
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Zoe Deutch, Avan Jogia, Rosario Dawson
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Jesse Eisenberg – Night Moves, Zombieland, The Squid and the Whale
• Woody Harrelson – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Zombieland, The Glass Castle, The Hunger Games x 4, 2012, Battle in Seattle, No Country for Old Men, A Scanner Darkly, A Prairie Home Companion, North Country, EdTV, The Thin Red Line, White Men Can’t Jump
• Emma Stone – The Favourite, Zombieland, La-La Land, The Help
• Abigail Breslin – Ender’s Game, Zombieland, August Osage County, Little Miss Sunshine
• Zoe Deutch – Beautiful Creatures
• Rosario Dawson – Rent
• Why? Well, we have got to see what happens!
• Seen: 6 March 2022 

       Our zombie-killing quartet is back – older, wiser and wilier. And they’ve moved into the White House.

       I won’t tell you the story. There’s romance and jealousy and hippies and travelling and Elvis and loads of zombies.

       Yes, it’s pointless but it’s enjoyably humorously pointless. I think I’ll have to upgrade my rating of the first Zombieland to 4* so I can give this one

 

 3 ½ * of 5 (Maybe even 5*)

 

Le grand jour

 Le grand jour

• Director: Pascal Plisson
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Albert Gonzales Monteagudo, Dheegii Batjargal, Tom Ssekabira, Nidhi Jha.
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• They all played themselves
• Why? It sounded interesting.
• Seen: 5 March 2022      

Albert. 11 years old. Havana, Cuba. Boxer.

Dheegii. 11 years old. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Tom. 19 years old. Uganda. Student of wildlife conservation.

Nidhi. 16 years old. Maths student 

       Their lives are vastly different from those of European or North American kids. In some ways. In other ways not. There are economically poor kids in all countries. With loving supportive families. With homework and household chores. With dream. Big dreams. Impossible dreams.

       These four have big dreams and they work hard to achieve them. They all have a big day ahead of them, a decisive day. A boxing match for Albert to see if he can get into Cuba’s boxing academy. An audition for Dheegii to get into circus school. Final exams for Tom to see if he will qualify to become a park ranger. A maths exam for Nidhi as a step towards getting into a technical university and becoming an engineer.

       It’s quite suspenseful. They’re nervous, they’re uncertain, but they face their challenge.

        A little gem of a documentary. 

4 * of 5   

 

Forget Me Not

 Forget Me Not

• Director: Alexander Holt and Lance Roehrig
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Tobias Menzies, Genevieve O’Reilly, Gemma Jones
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Tobias Menzies – The Night Manager, Doctor Who, Bonekickers, Atonement, Casino Royale, Finding Neverland
• Genevieve O’Reilly – The Fall, Young Victoria
• Gemma Jones - Rocketman, Unforgotten, Last Tango in Halifax, Merlin, Harry Potter, Wilde, Sense and Sensibility, The Merchant of Venice, The Devils
• Why? Oh, why not? A romantic film once in a while can’t be harmful, can it?
• Seen: 5 March 2022      

       Will (Menzies) sings and plays at a local pub. He’s suicidal. Eve (O’Reilly) works in the pub. She’s attacked by a drunken patron. This is the story of how they rescue each other over the next twenty-four hours.

       Oh, London at night. That’s worth a * of its own. Another one for London in the daytime.

       Well.

       A romantic comedy it certainly is not.

       Menzies is terrific. 

4* of 5.

 

 

 

Seabiscuit

 Seabiscuit 2003

• Director: Gary Ross
• Seen by this director: Hunger Games, Pleasantville
• Based on the book by Laura Hillenbrand
• Cast: Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, William H Macy
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Tobey Maguire – The Great Gatsby, Wonder Boys, The Cider House Rules, Pleasantville, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Ice Storm
• Jeff Bridges – True Grit, The Big Lebowski, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Last Picture Show
• Chris Cooper – August Osage County, The Tempest, Remember Me, American Beauty, A Time to Kill
• Elizabeth Banks – The Hunger Games, Pitch Perfect, Catch Me If You Can
• William H Macy – Room, Happy Texas, Pleasantville, Fargo, Benny & Joon
• Why?  I like horses
• Seen: 4 March 2022

Charles Howard (Bridges) is a wealthy go-getter car salesman. Red Pollard (Maguire) grows up in a loving poetry-reading family who loses its fortune in the ’29 Crash, and who has a way with horses. Tom Smith (Cooper) is an eccentric loner horse trainer. It’s a long slow build-up but eventually fate and circumstance bring them together.

Enter, after nearly an hour, Seabiscuit, a small horse who has been abused and rejected by trainers until Tom sees his worth. He talks Charles into buying him and Red into riding him. The saga begins.

Seabiscuit becomes the darling of the working class. An underdog who wins. And wins. And wins.

Two problems. Only one woman and one black, both token characters with nothing for the actors to work with. And it’s too long.

The horses, of course, are beautiful. It’s a nice story, a nice film. But I don’t love it. 

3* of 5

 

 

Nordwand (North Face)

 North Face (Nordwand) 2008

• Director: Philipp Stölzl
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Benno Fürmann, Florian Lukas, Johanna Wokalek, Ulrik Tukur
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Florian Lukas – Into the White, Good-bye Lenin
• Ulrik Tukur – Das weisse band, Solaris
• Why?  Scary mountain climbing
• Seen: 2 March 2022 

Another scary mountain climbing film. Why do I torture myself with scary mountain climbing films?

Because I love mountains. And ‘based on true stories’. And this one is different. It’s in German. It takes place in 1936 and it’s about the Nazis’ lust for glory.

Two expert and fanatical and anti-Nazi climbers, Toni (Fürmann) and Andi (Lukas) take part in the competition to be the first to climb the most dangerous face in the Alps, Eiger’s North Face. Their childhood friend Luise (Wokalek), now a press photographer, goes to Switzerland, eager for her first scoop, to report on their climb. Toni and Andi’s main rivals are ardent Nazis whose climb is financed by the SA.

The drama of the climb is interspersed with politics, avid spectators, news reporting, and the love between Luise and Toni.

It’s the best, most complex scary mountain climbing film I’ve seen. 

5* of 5

 

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