Agnosia

 

Agnosia 2010

• Director: Eugenio Mira
• Based on novel: no
• Cast: Eduardo Noriego, Félix Gómez, Bárbara Goenaga
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in
• None of them
• Why? Possibly interesting
• Seen: 5 August 2024 

Barcelona, the turn of the last century. Joana (Goenaga) suffers a rare malady which makes it impossible for her to interpret and understand what she sees. She is the only one who knows the formula of an industrial secret held by her industrial weapon-making father. Villains are out to get her and steal the secret.

Is there anyone she can trust?

It’s very confusing an unintersteing. It tries to be a thriller, a period piece and a love story but it fails at all of them.

It’s quite visually pleasing though, all mysterious and chiaroscuro. 

2* of 5

 

 

Assault on Precinct 13

 

Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)

• Director: Jean-Francois Richet
• Based on novel: no
• Cast: Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Byrne, Maria Bello, Drea DeMateo, John Leguizamo, Brian Dennehy, Ja Rule, Aisha Hinds
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in
• Ethan Hawke: Many, including Hamlet
• Laurence Fishburne: Many, including Othello
• Gabriel Byrne: Many
• Maria Bello: The Fifth Wave, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The Jane Austen Book Club, A History of Violence, Secret Window
• Drea DeMateo: The Sopranos
• John Leguizamo: John Wick, Cymbeline, The Lincoln Lawyer, The Miracle at Santa Ana, Moulin Rouge, Romeo and Juliet, Carlito’s Way
• Brian Dennehy: Many
• Ja Rule: Pauly Shore Is Dead
• Aisha Hinds: Beyond Lights
• Why? The cast.
• Seen: 4 August 2024 

New Year’s Eve in Detroit during a blizzard. Trapped in Precinct 13 are traumatised cop Jake (Hawke), his psychologist (Bello), his colleague (Dennehy), the office secretary Iris (DeMateo), the drug warlord Bishop (Fishburne), and a few other crooks. Surrounding the precinct are a bunch of bent cops led by Byrne), determined to kill them all to prevent them from revealing their nefarious ways.

It’s evidently a re-make, not as good as the original according to many, but I’ve not seen it so I don’t have to bother comparing. Obviously things don’t go well. There’s danger and action and shooting. The two women are sexy and scantily clad, the guys are all macho, except one of the prisoners who is a woman and macho. Standard stuff.

It’s OK. I like the blizzard best. The cast deserves a better film. 

2* of 5

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thor - Ragnarok

 

 

Thor – Ragnarök

• Director: Taika Waititi
• Seen by this director: Jojo Rabbit, What We Do in the Shadows, Boy, Flight of the Conchords,Eagle vs Shark
• Based on novel: no
• Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Idris Elba, Cate Blanchett, Mark Ruffalo, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Anthony Hopkins, Benedict Cumberbatch
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in
• All of them in many, including lots of Shakespeare
• Why? Hiddleston and Elba
• Seen: 3 August 2024  

Loki (Hiddleston) will always be my favourite. He’s just so adorable. This film is funnier than I remember the others being. I even enjoy Doctor Strange’s brief appearance and even Jeff Goldblum is funny.

The villain of the story is Hela (Blanchett), Odin’s (Hopkins) first-born, elder sister to Loki and Thor (Hemsworth). Goddess of Death. Heavy stuff. There’s a lot more to it but that’s enough.

It’s great fun. 

4* of 5

 

 

 

 

 

UtØye

 

 

UtØye 2018

• Director: Erik Poppe
• Seen by this director: Hawaii Oslo
• Based on novel: no
• Cast: Andrea Berntzen, Alexander Holmen, Solveig KolØen Birkeland
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in
• None of them
• Why? I remember that horrible day.
• Seen: 2 August 2024 

2011. 22 July. The horror of that day stays with us. A 32-year-old Neo-Nazi murders 77 young socialists at a summer camp on a Norwegian island.

A fictional film based on the memories of the survivors.

’We’re on an island, the safest place in the world.’ Says Kaja (Berntzen) on her mobile to her mother who is worried because of the bomb that exploded in Oslo earlier that day. But the kids at the camp are worried too. The mother of one of the campers works in the government building that was bombed.

But they’re on UtØye to have fun, promote world peace and argue politics.

Then the shooting starts.

They panic, they try to hide – there’s nowhere to hide, they run, they huddle down behind rocks, under trees. They have no idea what is happening but they hear the shooting and the screams. They see the bodies.

If the film is 90 minutes of excruciating suspense, imagine – no, it’s impossible – the terror these kids felt for the 70 minutes the shooting went on before rescue comes.

Seventy-seven were killed, hundreds seriously injured. The killer Anders Behring Breivik (not named in the film) said in court, according to the closing credits, that this was just a prelude to what would happen if the socialists didn’t change their politics, and that he would do it again.

Right wing extremism and violence is growing and spreading to this day. 

5* of 5

 

 

 

 

 

The Lion King

 

The Lion King

• Director: Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff
• Based on novel: no
• Cast: voices of Matthew Broderick, James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons etc.
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in
• Voices only
• Why? Still trying to like it
• Seen: 1 August 2024 

This is the third time I’ve tried to watch it. It’s supposedly based on Hamlet after all, but the first two times I gave up after a few minutes. Wish me luck this time.

Well, I seem to be watching the whole thing but I’m not impressed. It’s OK but the animation is not up to Disney’s usual artistic genius. The story and dialog are banal, the songs are mediocre at best and there’s not much Hamlet about it. Oh wait, the father’s spirit just said, ’Remember, remember, remember.’ Yay.

I really don’t understand the rave reviews. But yes, it’s OK. 

2* of 5

 

 

 

 

Dear Wendy

 

Dear Wendy 2005

• Thomas Vinterberg
• Seen by this director: Far from the Madding Crowd, Jakten
• Based on novel: no
• Cast: Jamie Bell, Alison Pill, Kris Owen, Bill Pullman, Michael Angarano, Danso Gordon, Novella Nelson, Mark Webber
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in
• Jamie Bell – Rocket Man, Skin, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, Fantaswtic Four, Filth, Snowpiercer, Jane Eyre, The Eagle, Defiance, Jumper, Hallam Foe, King Kong, Painkiller, Undertow, Billy Elliot
• Alison Pill – Hail Caesar, Snow Piercer, Pillars of the Earth, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Milk, Dan in Real Life
• Kris Owen - The Mist, Hidalgo
• Bill Pullman – Dark Waters, Cymbeline, Igby Goes Down, Independence Day, While You Were Sleeping, Sleepless in Seattle, A League of Their Own
• Michael Angartano - Red State, Seabiscuit, Almost Famous
• Danso Gordon - American History X
• Novella Nelson – Antwone Fisher, Mannie & Lo
• Why? Jamie Bell
• Seen: Once before. Now 31 July 2024  

 

It all starts when Dicky (Bell) buys a toy gun as a present for an idiot but when he’s told the kid would love it he keeps it and gives the kid a book instead.

He forgets about it, finds it several years later, and learns from his somewhat weird co-worker at the supermarket, Stevie, (Webber), that it’s not a toy, it’s real.

They’re both pacifists but Stevie is a gun freak and Dicky gets pulled into it. Horrified but fascinated Dickie falls in love with his gun, and names it Wendy.

He and Stevie gain confidence carrying their guns and decide to share this with three other losers in town. Pacifists who carry guns but will never use them.

An odd but enthralling film. No surprise that it was written by Lars von Trier and directed by Vinterberg, which seems to irritate many Americans.’ ’How dare these Europeans make an anti-gun anti-America film?’ ’What do they know?’ mutter mutter. Oh, touchy.

It’s Von Trier, it’s Vinterberg, it’s Bell, it’s tragic, it’s brilliant.

 

5* of 5

 

 

 

 

 

Yellow Submarine

 

Yellow Submarine

• Director: George Dunnin
• Based on novel: no
• Cast: Animated
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in
• Animated
• Why? The song.
• Seen: Previously: several times Now 31 July 2024 

After yesterday’s 0* film I need to clean out my poor head. What could be better than this whimsical classic? Any film about the Blue Meanies has to be a winner, right?

It was a shock back then to learn that the Beatles’ third film with United Artists would be animated and it will never come close to A Hard Day’s Night or Help! But it has its nonsense absurd humour and clever colourful action. And of course, some good songs, not the least of which the title song upon which the film is based.

I wonder what kids today would think of it. The story is practically non-existent, it’s not even their voices, the animation is stone-age.

But it’s still fun. 

3* of 5