Plague

 

Plague 2014

• Director: Kozakis and Ouzas
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Tegan Crowley, Don Bridges, Scott Marcus, Steven Chianai
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• None of them
• Why? Australian dystopia
• Seen: 4 April 2023     

       A small group of survivors of an Australian plague turning folks into zombies are holed up in a farmhouse. Despite the dangers Evie (Crowley) insists on waiting for her husband John (Marcus). The others leave. John arrives. Zombies attack. Charlie arrives. Is he a hero or a villain?

       The film got so many vicious 1* reviews on IMDb that I was expecting utter rubbish. But then scrolled on and saw 7*, even 10*. So, let’s see.

       The first half is quite good, and it is suspenseful but then it turns ugly. But still suspenseful. More of a psychological thriller than a zombie film, it doesn’t always seem to know where it’s going.  Much better than 1* but nowhere near 10* either, it is one of the strangest films I’ve seen. But there’s something about it… 

3* of 5   

 

 

 

 

Paddington 2

 

Paddington 2

• Director: Paul King
• Based on the books by Michael Bond
• Cast: Sally Hawkins, Hugh Bonneville, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, Brendan Gleeson, Peter Capaldi
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Sally Hawkins – The Shape of Water, Maudie, The Hollow Crown, Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, Made in Degenham, Never Let Me Go, An Education, Happy-Go-Lucky, Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky, Vera Drake
• Hugh Bonneville – Downton Abbey, Breathe, The Hollow Crown, Doctor Who, From Time to Time, Glorious 39, Lost in Austen, Bonekickers, Filth, Daniel Deronda, Notting Hill, Frankenstein
• Julie Walters - Secret Garden, Mamma Mia 1&2, Before You Go, The Hollow Crown Henry IV Parts One and Two, Henry V, Harry Potter 1-8, Becoming Jane, Driving Lessons, Wah-Wah, Calendar Girls, Billy Elliot, Titanic Tow, Intimate Relations, Prick Up Your Ears, Educating Rita
• Jim Broadbent - Filth, Cloud Atlas, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Another Year, The Young Victoria, Hot Fuzz, Vera Drake, Gangs of New York, Moulin Rouge, Topsy-Turvy, Little Voice, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Richard III, The Crying Game, Enchanted April, Life is Sweet, Brazil, Black Adder
• Hugh Grant – The Gentlemen, Cloud Atlas, Music and Lyrics, American Dreamz, Love Actually, About a Boy, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Notting Hill, Sense and Sensibility, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain, Four Weddings and a Funeral, The Remains of the Day, Impromptu
• Brendan Gleeson – The Guard, Alone in Berlin, Suffragette, Edge of Tomorrow, Harry Potter, Perrier’s Bounty, In Bruges, Breakfast on Pluto, Kingdom of Heaven, Cold Mountain, Gangs of New York, 28 Days Later, AI, My Life So Far, Braveheart
• Peter Capaldi – David Copperfield, Doctor Who, World War Z, In the Loop, Modigliani, Shooting Fish, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Neverwhere, Local Hero
• Why? The cast.
• Seen: 27 March 2023      

       Paddington is falsely accused of theft and sent to prison. It’s a sweet story and the many supporting roles are fun. It’s clever, entertaining and loveable. 

4* of 5   

 

 

 

 

 

Paddington

 

Paddington 2014

• Director: Paul King
• Based on the books by Michael Bond
• Cast: Sally Hawkins, Hugh Bonneville, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Geoffrey Palmer, Matt Lucas, Nicole Kidman, Peter Capaldi
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Sally Hawkins – The Shape of Water, Maudie, The Hollow Crown, Great Expectations, Jane Eyre, Made in Degenham, Never Let Me Go, An Education, Happy-Go-Lucky, Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky, Vera Drake
• Hugh Bonneville – Downton Abbey, Breathe, The Hollow Crown, Doctor Who, From Time to Time, Glorious 39, Lost in Austen, Bonekickers, Filth, Daniel Deronda, Notting Hill, Frankenstein
• Julie Walters - Secret Garden, Mamma Mia 1&2, Before You Go, The Hollow Crown Henry IV Parts One and Two, Henry V, Harry Potter 1-8, Becoming Jane, Driving Lessons, Wah-Wah, Calendar Girls, Billy Elliot, Titanic Tow, Intimate Relations, Prick Up Your Ears, Educating Rita
• Jim Broadbent - Filth, Cloud Atlas, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Another Year, The Young Victoria, Hot Fuzz, Vera Drake, Gangs of New York, Moulin Rouge, Topsy-Turvy, Little Voice, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Richard III, The Crying Game, Enchanted April, Life is Sweet, Brazil, Black Adder
• Geoffrey Palmer – The Hollow Crown, Doctor Who, As Time Goes By, Anna and the King, Tomorrow Never Dies, Mrs Brown, The Madness of King George, Black Adder, A Fish Called Wanda, Fawltey Towers, O Lucky Man, The Saint
• Matt Lucas – Doctor Who, Little Britain
• Nicole Kidman – Destroyer, Top of the Lake, Genius, Queen of the Desert, Strangerland, Before I Go to Sleep, The Railway Man, Rabbit Hole, Nine, Margo at the Wedding, Fur, The Interpreter, Birth, Cold Mountain, The Human Stain, Dogville, The Hours, Birthday Girl, The Others, Eyes Wide Shut, Moulin Rouge, Practical Magic, Batman Forever, Billy Bathgate
• Peter Capaldi – David Copperfield, Doctor Who, World War Z, In the Loop, Modigliani, Shooting Fish, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Neverwhere, Local Hero
• Why? The cast.
• Seen: 26 March 2023      

       You’ve probably seen this long ago, maybe even read the books when you were a kid. I’m always way behind the times. It wasn’t so very long ago that I started noticing that some great actors are in the films and even more recently discovered that they are based on books.

       Anyway, a young bear arrives in London from darkest Peru and is taken in by the kindly Mrs Brown (Hawkins) and the very reluctant Mr Brown (Bonneville). He takes the name Paddington after the station because his bear name is impossible for humans to pronounce.

       Adventures, misadventures, misunderstandings, dangers, and wonders abound and as you can see from the cast there are marvellous supporting roles.

       It’s quite marvellous altogether. Better late than never. 

4* of 5   

 

 

 

 

I Am Not Your Negro

 

I Am Not Your Negro 2016

• Director: Raoul Peck
• Based on the writings of James Baldwin
• Cast: It’s a documentary narrated by Samuel L Jackson
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• It’s a documentary.
• Why? The subject.
• Seen: 26 March 2023      

       James Baldwin’s written words are narrated by Samuel L Jackson and interspersed with interviews and speeches by Baldwin himself. Clips from the 50s, 60s and 70s alternate with scenes of police brutality against blacks in the 21^st century. Things are only getting worse.

       Nothing is sugar-coated. The grim truth as Baldwin presents it is that white America is terrified, ignorant, blind and unconsciously or violently racist. Not every single individual but the institutions, the structure of society and its economy.

       It could be a very important film if the white people who need to know this were to see it, understand it, accept its truth and be strong and humane enough to try to change themselves and the society that benefits them at the cost of people of colour. 

5* of 5   

 

 

 

The Ledge

 

The Ledge 2011

• Director: Matthew Chapman
• Seen by this director: Slow Burn
• Based on the book:  no
• Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Terrance Howard, Liv Tyler, Patrick Wilson
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Charlie Hunnam – Pacific Rim, Children of Men, Cold Mountain, Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?
• Terrence Howard – Prisoners, The Butler, Ray, Crash, Dead Presidents
• Liv Tyler – Ad Astra, The Leftovers, Lonesome Jim, Lord of the Rings etc, Armageddon
• Patrick Wilson – The Conjuring, Prometheus, Lakeview Terrace, Phantom of the Opera, Angels in America
• Why? Possibly interesting.
• Seen: 25 March 2023      

       Gavin (Hunnam) is a hotel manager, an atheist and a flirt who hides his grief over the loss of his daughter and wife. When the film opens, he is standing on a ledge, ready to jump. Hollis (Howard) is the detective trying to talk him out of committing suicide and struggling with the recent revelation that he is not the father to his children. Shana (Tyler) is a student, a musician, a recently hired cleaner at Gavin’s hotel, a former hooker and junkie, Gavin’s new neighbour. Joe (Wilson) is Shana’s husband, a homophobic fanatical Christian.

       With flashbacks Gavin tells Hollis how he came to be on the ledge and why he is being forced to commit suicide. It’s a surprisingly strong film, intelligent, thoughtful and suspenseful, with an unusually frank conflict between atheism and religion. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film in which the protagonist is an atheist. More of that, please. 

4* of 5   

 

 

Ragtime

 

Ragtime 1981

• Director: Milos Forman
• Seen by this director: Amadeus, Hair, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
• Based on the book by E.L. Doctorow
• Cast: James Cagney, Elizabeth McGovern, Howard E Rollins Jr, Brad Dourif, Moses Gunn, Kenneth McMillan, James Olson, Mandy Patinkin, Mary Steenburgen, Debbie Allen, Robert Joy
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• James Cagney – something, no doubt
• Elizabeth McGovern – Woman in Gold, Downton Abbey, Angels Crest, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, If Not for You, Racing for the Moon
• Brad Dourif - Alien, Mississippi Is Burning, Dune, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, various TV series
• Mandy Patinkin – Dead Like Me, Lulu on the Bridge, Impromptu, Daniel
• Mary Steenburgen – Song One, The Help, Honeydripper, The Dead Girl, I Am Sam, The Grass Harp, Philadelphia, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Back to the Future
• Robert Joy - The Shipping News, Waterworld, Desperately Seeking Susan, Atlantic City
• Why? I mixed it up with Kansas City
• Seen: 24 March 2023      

       What a mishmash story. Turn of the century New York, Rich white family, abandoned black baby, young black piano player, free spirit ex showgirl divorcée, poor immigrant. It’s not as though it’s hard to follow the story, it’s just that I’m not sure it’s being told in the right way. Racism is naturally an important subject but it gets lost in all the rest.

       I read the book years ago but to tell the truth I was as little impressed by it as I am by this film.

 

2 ½ * of 5   

 

 

The Blind Side

 

The Blind Side 2009

• Director: John Lee Hancock
• Based on book by Michael Lewis
• Cast: Sandra Bullock, Quinton Aaron
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in
• Sandra Bullock – The Heat, Gravity, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Lake House, Miss Congeniality 1&2, Crash, The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, 28 Days, Practical Magic, While You Were Sleeping, Speed
• Quinton Aaron – Be Kind Rewind
• Why? Bullock
• Seen: 17 March 2023

 Leigh Ann (Bullock) is a bossy sexy rich white Christian Republican businesswoman who takes on Big Mike (Aaron), a large black homeless, nearly mute, and underachieving student and outstanding athlete.

There’s an enormous risk that this film is going to be a saccharine sweet holier-than-thou film about good-hearted privileged white folks who are shocked by the poverty, drugs and crime on the other side of town and get all self-righteous about charity but give nary a thought to changing the system that gives them their privileges.

It is. And oh yes, it’s a true story.

Bullock and Aaron are good, but the film is Bullock’s worst, of those I’ve seen. 

2 * of 5