HUGO (2011)
d: Martin Scorcese
CAST: Asa Butterfield; Chloe Grace Moretz; Ben Kingsley; Sacha Baron Cohen; Jude Law
> a kids' film with emotional depth; as good as E.T. and Babe & better than The Wizard of Oz and The NeverEnding Story; this is the film where Marty proved that he was one of the all-time masters of celluloid storytelling; a glut of treasures: wonderful child acting & adult performances which support rather than dominate & a fantasy story which warms, intrigues and enlightens & stunning use of 3D (the best so far) & terrific props and sets and soundtrack & genuinely funny comedic touches & a hilarious dog actor & a lovely homage to early movie pioneers & the funniest faux-Euro accent since Inspector Clouseau; a great one
Award-Worthy Performances
Asa Butterfield; Sacha Baron Cohen
MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL (1975)
d: Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones
CAST: Monty Python
> I am not a Monty Python tragic (I always thought the TV series was hit 'n' miss with more miss than hit...and many, many skits were stupid rather than silly) but this film is my laugh-out-loud fave of all time; just too many sublimely silly scenes to list with too many hilariously-clever lines (which are only hilarious because of how they are delivered by the team) and, yes, I do the classic lines in funny voices at get-togethers when I've had too much to drink; I acknowledge the usually-acknowledged flaws (the modern police procedural is crap and the guards at the door sketch is very unfunny) but who gives a shit?; ekky ekky ekky pitang...
Award-Worthy Performances
Monty Python
LOVE & FRIENDSHIP (2016)
d: Whit Stillman
CAST: Kate Beckinsale; Chloe Sevigny; Xavier Samuel; Tom Bennett; Stephen Fry
> wasn't expecting much from this Jane Austen adaptation (the BBC blighted my appreciation of classic English literary costume dramas during the 90's...overdose maximus...) but it proved to be wonderful; like 1940's Pride & Prejudice, the success of this is in its straightlaced humour...it's a hoot!; laughed out loud a number of times; Kate plays the Queen Bitch of social machinations, and all the men dance around her because they are morons; most moronic: Tom Bennett does a laugh-riot impersonation of Ricky Gervais circa The Office and is a 100% certified goob; enjoyed myself immensely
Award-Worthy Performances
Kate Beckinsale; Tom Bennett
THE SECRET GARDEN (1949)
d: Fred M. Wilcox
CAST: Margaret O'Brien; Dean Stockwell; Herbert Marshall; Gladys Cooper; Elsa Lanchester
> a lovely old-fashioned children's film (so...no fart jokes & precocious kissing & cartoonish adults being outfoxed etc); this has been remade a number of times with far better production standards (the major flaw of this film) but this remains the best; very Jane Eyre-ish in mood with Herbert brooding away and Gladys being gargoylic; love the Wizard of Oz mix of B&W and colour; the three kids are terrific together with Margaret shedding her cute little girl image by portraying a stuck-up little cow (who becomes good, of course); genuinely nice
Award-Worthy Performances
Margaret O'Brien & Dean Stockwell & Brian Roper
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL (2011)
d: Brad Bird
CAST: Tom Cruise; Jeremy Renner; Simon Pegg; Paula Patton
> never really accepted Tom as an action hero (hey, I'm sorry, but he's too short) & always preferred him as just a straight actor (y'know...Rain Man & Magnolia & Collateral etc.); the only thing I ever liked about the original TV series was the cool theme music; this movie cooks though...the action is close to non-stop and only occasionally ridiculous; closer to Skyfall than Moonraker thank Bond; truly amazing stunts with everybody (even the grey-bearded villain) really good at fancy fightin'; despite a not-funny comic-relief named Simon there is even a couple of pretty good jokes in it; the last 10 minutes shoulda been snipped off
THE ANNIVERSARY (1968)
d: Roy Ward Baker
CAST: Bette Davis; Sheila Hancock; James Cossins; Christian Roberts
> as much as I adore her in All About Eve and The Letter and admire her in Of Human Bondage and Dead Ringer, THIS is my favourite Bette Davis role: What. A. Bitch.; dripping with venom and having an absolute blast of a time with her emotionally-anemic children, Bette is one big Mother; if it had been anybody else, I would say the film was too talky, too obviously a stage-play, vicious to the point of being unpleasant with a couple of draggy spots; but Bette grabs hold of you and forces you to share the fun, running over all flaws; many laugh-out-loud moments if you're impressed by audacity; Movie Jukebox bound
Award-Worthy Performance
Bette Davis
SULLY (2016)
d: Clint Eastwood
CAST: Tom Hanks; Aaron Eckhart; Laura Linney
> expertly crafted movie by a director who has turned into a master in his twilight years; interesting story about the commercial pilot who landed his plane in the Hudson River, New York in 2009; not sure there was enough story in this though to warrant a movie but Clint is clever enough to (nearly) camouflage its thinness; the actual fateful flight itself is pretty much shown in its entirety three times during the movie; while the crash landing is excitingly enacted, the subsequent investigation is curiously unaffecting; title character is a decent man (and a little boring) so Tom is the perfect choice to play him; doncha love the cuddly way New York is depicted in modern movies?
THE MAN WITH NINE LIVES (1940)
d: Nick Grinde
CAST: Boris Karloff; various members of the Zero Charisma Club
> a proud little second feature (which we now unkindly call a B-Movie) about a mad doctor who is an early practitioner of cryogenics; nifty setting underneath an island which somehow taps into a massive glacier; obligatory use of shadows to help camouflage the low production values...this of course also adds to the creepy atmosphere; Boris succumbs to obsession as his need to contribute to medical science leads him to kill pesky fools; love how the secret ingredient to help thaw frozen patients is hot coffee poured down their gullets via a hose & funnel; a minor movie for sure, but that doesn't mean it's not effective and enjoyable
FAMILY PLOT (1976)
d: Alfred Hitchcock
CAST: Barbara Harris; Bruce Dern; Karen Black; William Devane
> Hitch's swansong and he stumbles off the stage in the worst possible way for him: the movie is just ordinary; apart from his cameo, there is just no way to discern that this is an Alfred Hitchcock production; light-comedy with a bit of murder and intrigue but the closest it gets to suspense is a car out of control; I kept waiting for a classic Hitchcockian scene but none materialize (well...maybe the hypodermic struggle); cast is fine with Barb being the stand-out (she usually was when in comedic roles); gives the impression of a made-for-TV movie (mainly due to the cliched soundtrack) or an episode of one of those old Columbo / Barnaby Jones / Ironside / Cannon etc etc 70's detective shows; bye bye Alfred
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (2011)
d: Lynne Ramsay
CAST: Tilda Swinton; John C. Reilly; Ezra Miller
> a highly regarded film which I obviously don't regard highly; not a fan of the flashback / flash-forward structure (you can tell within minutes what's going to happen in the big finale) so the tension is leaked out...all drama & discomfort without any suspense; curious soundtrack-song choices; while Tilda's performance as the mother-martyr is impressive, the character is just unbelievable: why didn't she just piss off as soon as the kid was making her life a misery? & why did she keep visiting the abomination in jail?; Ezra is pure psychotic evil and gives autism a bad name, although it's the younger version who gives me the chills
Award-Worthy Performances
Tilda Swinton; Ezra Miller
HIGH-RISE (2015)
d: Ben Wheatley
CAST: Tom Hiddleston; Jeremy Irons; Sienna Miller
> just might be the bleakest film I have ever seen; no laughs in this one folks (despite being labelled a "dark comedy" in some critical quarters); enormously tall apartment block is a capsule-class society - the higher up you are, the higher up you are, with the building's architect living on the very top; all amenities (electricity, water) shut down as the rich out-consume the poor and the residents resort and are reduced to drugs, drink & debauchery just to cope with living in squalid conditions; violence, insanity, rape are not far away; within the first 5 minutes, the protagonist eats his dog...if you can handle that...; as a cinema patron said as the end-credits rolled, "That sure wasn't The Sound of Music"
FRANCIS (1950)
d: Arthur Lubin
CAST: Donald O'Connor; ZaSu Pitts; Chill Wills; John McIntire; Ray Collins
> in the Channel 7 Saturday Matinee Movie tradition of Abbott & Costello and Ma & Pa Kettle, here's #1 of the Francis the Talking Mule series; not much to really say about this movie apart from the obvious: it's pretty stupid and is only held together by the giving-it-his-best-shot approach of Donald O'Connor (who was poorly served by 50's Hollywood...other than Singin' in the Rain of course...which, it could be argued, was enough) and the vocal charisma of Chill Wills; humour rests solely on select people's gobsmacked reactions to the mule conversing with them...once he talks to all and sundry, it falls flat; dropped a couple of notches for the repugnant scene of mass-slaughter which sours this one-joke considerably
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