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