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busstnactgrp
Live in: Belper, Derbyshire, England.
Work as: Was a Self-Employed English-German Translator/Interpreter until recently.
Love: Old vinyl records from charity shops. Modernist architecture. Travelling around Europe. Good films and bad films.
Hate: 'Sameyness'
Reviews
Duplicity (2009)
Live by trickery - die by trickery
It's very interesting that, in the context of this film, 'The Lake House' has been mentioned by another contributor, since this is yet another romance that plays with the concept of time - jumping hither and thither, seemingly at random - although at least this time around it is fairly obvious that the earliest of the action is the beginning of the film and the flashbacks are captioned (which may not have been appropriate in the more serious context of 'The Lake House').
Incidentally, I have become interested in the concept of what I refer to as 'films with non-linear time-lines', after having read a graphic novel featuring an Italian airman of WWII, 'Umberto Mistri', which itself goes all over the place time-wise and it is helpful to pick it apart and read it in chronological order in order fully to make sense of the action.
Since part of what 'Umberto Mistri' deals with is the subject of treachery (of a rather more visceral nature than portrayed in 'Duplicity') maybe the ending of this film, when it all becomes obvious that the chief protagonists, who came from the cloak and dagger world of espionage, have themselves been the victims of a huge confidence trick is supposed to indicate that those who live by trickery (for 'trickery' may be a more fitting word than 'treachery' in this context) die by trickery.
Not by any stretch of the imagination a film that would set the world alight, but the confusion of the first half of the film is, to some extent, resolved in the second, so I would urge those who feel tempted to switch off to resist and stick with it - and like I do with 'The Lake House' I may take the opportunity to re-watch 'Duplicity' fully to make sense of the time-line.
Oh...and yes...I agree with those who say that Carrie Preston's cameo is a veritable scene-stealer. Has there ever been such a brilliantly-executed small role? Should this not be a new category at the Academy Awards? It is, after all, a crucial part of what can make some good films great, average films good and poor films at least average.
Cemetery Junction (2010)
An unmentioned possible influence? And The North down South?
This was the film on late last night on BBC One, so it was one of those things that one just watches to pass an odd hour or so between the late-evening programmes and bedtime, without really demanding too much of oneself. However, it inevitably raised one of those half-forgotten aspects of British 1970s Popular Culture - the at-the-time ground-breaking BBC TV fly-on-the-wall documentary series 'The Family', set in a working class neighbourhood in nowhere else but Reading. I simply could not help humming the unforgettable signature tune of 'The Family' as I made my way upstairs to bed. I know I have only been on the 'Trivia' and the first page of the 'User Comments', but I am amazed that nobody has thought to mention this parallel, especially given that Gervais' 'The Office' was itself, essentially, filmed as a faux fly-on-the-wall documentary.
As a sort of Northerner, by the way, (well a North MIDLANDER, at any rate!), it's interesting to see the South take for itself a little bit of the 'ownership' of Northern Soul in the night club scene. Maybe that, itself, raises the engaging matter of non-Northern Northern Soul back in the 1970s heyday. I suppose that, like 'The Family' exposed those living in more northern climes to the fact that there were such things as blue collar neighbourhoods in the apparently privileged provincial South and East, one didn't have to have lived in the North to have experienced the essentially blue collar-driven social scene that was Northern Soul....an antidote to 'SoulBoy' and its Stoke-on-Trent setting? Not a film to set the world alight, but one that raises a couple of intriguing questions, nevertheless.
Return from the River Kwai (1989)
POW life 'lite'
This was one of the late-night films on last night's TV and having seen it I was wondering if there were some pretty dodgy reviews on IMDb.com. Although there were some fairly gritty scenes I could not 'escape' the feeling that years of internment in a Japanese POW camp had left many of the prisoners in remarkably good shape, thrown into sharp relief when the viewer was confronted by a dysentery case on board the vessel taking the prisoners to Japan, who looked rather more like one would ordinarily have expected the rest to have looked.
The production and acting were workmanlike enough for an at-heart TV movie and passed the time, but little more than that. However, it was only at the very end (at risk of spoilers!) that I had one of those 'they must have run out of film or something' moments which often is a pointer of a pretty below-average movie.
That said it did raise some moral dilemmas that would have happened in reality, so it wasn't quite 'dreadful', even though it ran quite close to it.
Texas Lady (1955)
I'm famous out West!
One of the contributors to IMDb has mentioned that it'd be OK to watch this film when the weather was awful and there was nothing better to do. Well, I've just watched it on a stunning October afternoon as the Friday afternoon movie on Channel 4. How could I not have done in view of the fact that, apparently, Ms. Colbert was a favourite of my grandfather's?
I can see what S. H. Scheuer was getting at in his 'Movies On TV' when he said that C.C. was miscast in the lead role. Maybe Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck would have been better and given the character the edge that it needed.
As one called Chris myself I felt - with all the mentions of the name 'Chris', as if I were watching a film version of one of those 'stories all about your child' books one sees advertised in mail-order leaflets. Was the script-writer being paid per 'Chris', or something?
The Chris Mooney character was asked of his future plans. I thought, humorously, that a re-naming to Jake, or something one would ordinarily hear more often in the context of a Western, might not have come amiss. Alternatively, 'Texas Lady' could have the alternate title 'A Man Named Chris'!
If your name's Chris you'll love this movie for all the unintentional humour. Otherwise it has little to commend it.
One of the stars I have given it is for the 'Chrisses', BTW.
The Lake House (2006)
Misses an obvious trick
This was the Monday night film on BBC One last night (12.01.2009) which I watched with some incredulity, even though, all the time, I kept thinking to myself, "it's a film - NOT real life". Ergo, one is SUPPOSED to suspend a deal of belief, obvious plot-holes or no. It was reasonably well-acted, for what it was, for which reason I give it a marginally above-median mark of 6/10.
As one of two brothers myself (the younger thereof) whenever two brothers are featured in a film I inevitably home in on the handling of the younger sibling's character. One cannot have failed to notice that the difference in ages of the two architect brothers was TWO years - exactly the gap between the two sets of events posited in the film. Why the younger brother's character was so under-written, therefore, is a potential plot-twist that went tragically unexploited (that's why I have placed a potential spoiler alert on this comment). As far as I can make out, as well, no other reviewers on this site have noticed this.
Intriguing premise, though.
Atomic Twister (2002)
Whoever dreamt THIS one up? Let's watch it!
...were my precise thoughts as 'Atomic Twister' began late last night on BBC 1. Long having been an aficionado of 'bad-film-ery' there was something grimly enticing about the prospect of something of the order of 'Storm Chasers: Revenge Of The Twister' combined with 'Atomic Train', in a late-night TV movie, Middle America in jeopardy sort of way and boy was I not disappointed. For me it wasn't so much the technical inaccuracies that stood out, since I don't claim to be a nuclear expert. It was the way in which at every turn if anything could go wrong it did, most spectacularly the satellite dish that was the station's lifeline to the outside world being blown clean off by one of those dratted twisters (UH OH!) The 'subtlety' of the offering was best summed up by our main protagonist's son and the babysitter indulging in a swift game of 'Twister' (get it?) Investigating this priceless slice of cinematic history on IMDb has incidentally brought up a fascinating piece of trivia - that Carl Lewis was born on the same day as Princess Diana, so I'm very thankful for having stumbled across 'Atomic Twister' for that 'factoid' alone.
I'm giving it a '5' since that's as close as I can get to a 50:50 mixture of awful and excellent.
Badlands (1973)
A strangely beautiful sleepwalk through slaughter
'Badlands' was the second part of a Sissy Spacek double bill on BBC 2 last night, the first having been 'In The Bedroom' and I'm very glad I decided to stay with proceedings, although the first had been rather on the long side. As the continuity announcer commented it was interesting to experience a double bill where the films concerned were nearly three decades distant from each other.
'Badlands' is one of those films that is absolutely perfect for late-night viewing, its almost sleep-inducing nature coming into its own at that time. It is so beautifully shot and directed that it is easy to forget that it is actually a pretty violent offering, Sissy's deadpan narration adding to the effect of unreality.
One thing that was a constant thought running through my head was this - and this is where one really pulls oneself up - the most 'sensible' people in this film is the couple on the run.
I look forward to its next showing (I don't go in much for videos and DVDs!) since I don't recall it being on British network TV before, although it must have been, surely.
Deep Rising (1998)
A cross between...
Watched this last night on BBC 1, utterly ignoring the continuity announcer's warning that I'd be 'disturbed' by the film about to commence - aren't I a brave little bobby?. I can't say that I was 'disturbed', but I was hugely entertained by an extensive collection of some of the most magnificently awful one-liners ever uttered on screen. It's only to expected in an offering such as this, but you still enjoy it when it comes along.
Recalling a description of the 'naturalist', Steve Irwin, as 'David Attenborough meets a cheeseburger' I think that a fair description of 'Deep Rising' would be 'a sort of cross between The Poseidon Adventure and a cheeseburger' - with a generous relish of blood, guts and bones.
Strangely enough - I hadn't actually planned to watch the film, so I had no idea, before it started, who was in it - I thought of the female lead "that's the sort of semi well-known 'bit of stuff' who might have appeared in a Bond film and if she hasn't she should have done"...and sure enough Ms. Janssen - as I have since found out - did...in 'GoldenEye'.
White Man's Burden (1995)
Usual 'concept movie' prob's
Just watched this film tonight on TV and if I were asked to sum the film up I would say "it conveys an important message, but one feels oneself constantly checking the film for the 'real-ness' of the scenario it is trying to portray". I say this because even a fantasy film such as this - and fantasy is precisely what it is - has to be real to make sense. In the event it felt at least partially real, granted, but as a viewer I felt that this aforementioned 'checking' got in the way of getting emotionally attached to the characters, which would have helped get the message across. It wasn't a bad film but watching it was a decidedly strange experience. Maybe that was the intended effect. I don't know.
Storm Chasers: Revenge of the Twister (1998)
A 'twist' too few? (Possible MINOR spoiler)
This was the (very) late-night film on BBC 1 last night so I thought I'd give it a go since I'm always up for a witching-hour TVM - sometimes they offer the opportunity to unearth a gem, you never know.
The acting on display wasn't too bad for the genre and came over as 'real', despite the unreality of the situation. I say that because I wasn't sure about the science. I'd have to delve back into my old Climate Geography text-books for that - I am a Human, rather than Physical Geographer in any case.
Regarding the plot, it took some time really to get one engaged but when once it did, engaged - like, potentially, our chief protagonists? - you were, to the extent that there was a run-out-of-film feeling at the end - but as this was a relatively low-budget TVM does that not go with the territory?
All in all 'Twister' it wasn't but a creditable effort for a TVM it was and we could have done with another quarter- to half-hour to fill things out. It was, at any rate, quite an education on the abbreviations of a couple of US organisations - CSSR and FEMA - a marriage between the two, dare I venture to say?
Women in Love (1969)
Yes, it IS an antidote
Watched the film last night on BBC 2. Of course, the main interest to me is the Belper, Derbyshire location, although those attempting to view the lake, where the tragic young couple meet their demise, in Belper itself would be sadly disappointed. The scene where the sluice-gates are being opened is indeed one I encounter nearly every day (it's near the main Belper Bridge, carrying the road out towards Ashbourne over the River Derwent) but I have no idea where the lake is. Perhaps that should be classified as a continuity problem or a factual error.
It has to be said, however, that despite the error the film overall acts as an ideal antidote to the usual sanitised British period drama and shows life in all its magnificent ugliness, but in a very tender way and the acting is first-rate throughout from all parties. There are times, though, where Russell's style is perhaps rather too obvious, but then again, what do you expect?
Incidentally, I tried looking the film up in my copy of Stephen H. Scheuer's 'Movies On TV: 1975-6 Edition' (there SHOULD have been time for it to have appeared on US network TV by then, surely) and couldn't find it. Would TV exec's have had their doubts about putting the film out on their networks because of the 'Bible Belt' effect, I wonder?
Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)
This is what British Cinema could have been
One Saturday afternoon (not a wet one!) my mother happened to flick over from the sports on one channel to uncover an absolute gem of BRITISH Cinema from the 1960's. A little later I happened to come from my 'office', from where I run my home-based business, into the living room and was utterly transfixed by some of the greatest acting of all time in a British picture, together with a masterpiece of investigating the cinematic possibilities of the British city- and landscape. It's such a shame that the film wasn't a commercial success and that the independent production company behind it folded not long after the film's release. Both Mum and myself were amazed that we'd never even heard of Kim Stanley, who apparently was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in 'Seance...'. She should have been in more films than she was, but then again that was her choice to go more for theatrical work. I'd recommend this film to anybody and give it top rating.