Flyer "P" (Ralph Michael) has been grounded by the RAF and posted to assist a naval rescue squadron tasked with fetching shot-down pilots from the Channel. He's not very happy about this, but his stoic CO "Murray" (David Farrar) is sympathetic to his disgruntlement and gradually hopes that his new charge will begin to appreciate the cruciality of their task. They zip about the water in their high-speed motor launches avoiding enemy fighters and minefields (planted by both sides) and there's a decent sense of peril built up for just about an hour. It's not quite propaganda, but it has a 1944 feel good element to it that is augmented by loads of library footage and a sense of the stiff upper lip. John Slater adds amiably to the cast of familiar British faces and though it's all a bit predictable and the acting/writing nondescript, it raises awareness of the perilous nature of the risks of tracking and rescuing stranded air crews (and the flimsiness of some of their kit) as the conflict neared it's close.
Reviews
3,873 Reviews
Flyboys
(2006)
Flyboys
31 May 2024
Based quite loosely on the activities of a famed group of young American pilots who joined the French cause during the Great War, this is a rather disappointing drama. James Franco takes the lead as the charming "Rawlings". He's a man who doesn't really think rules apply to him, but like the rest of his disparate gang, is a brave man who knows how to get his balsa-wood bi-plane up and dangerous. Back then, there was still a certain code of honour between the warring parties and their Bosch opponents (including the "Red Baron") observed some of the niceties of war - a dignity useful on occasion as weapons jamming and engines failing wasn't uncommon. Then he encounters "Lucienne" (Jennifer Decker) in an house of ill-repute, falls for her and must then undertake a perilous rescue mission - against the orders of CO "Thenault" (Jean Reno). The result? Well, she gets shot and he gets a medal! Thing is, though, she must be relocated to a safe hospital and he has to lead a bombing raid - will they ever meet again? Will their love endure? Did anyone care? The camera loved James Franco here, and he does bring a degree of charisma to help carry it through. Otherwise, though, the acting - especially from Reno, is really flat; there's much too much dialogue and what airborne antics there are are not especially well integrated CGI effects that lack realism and culminate in a rather weakly photographed denouement. It could have been better had they bothered to use a few real planes and scored it a little more engagingly. As it is - it's just too long and plodding.
The Lady in Scarlet
(1935)
The Lady in Scarlet
31 May 2024
Reginald Denny is on good form in this rather formulaic whodunnit as "Oliver Keith" - an accomplished PI drafted in to investigate the killing of a wealthy art dealer. Once on the case, he discovers there is a lot more to the case than just the fatality - and there are no lack of suspects mired in this tale of greed and ambition. What helps this along nicely is the engaging double-play between Denny and his equally competent, if somewhat undervalued, assistant "Ella" (Patricia Farr) and Lew Kelly is quite good as the pretty hapless policeman. Only an hour long, but still a decently paced nostalgic look at crime fighting in days when everyone wore a hat and called themselves Mr. & Miss.
The Bourne Ultimatum
(2007)
The Bourne Ultimatum
30 May 2024
I got off to a bit of a bad start with this third instalment - the idea that a bloke in a building in Langley was issuing orders to murder a British journalist in a London railway station used by almost 100 million people a year really didn't sit at all well with me; so I already felt that whatever our hero wanted to do here was OK by me! Just as well, because Matt Damon has his hands full trying to stay alive and to discover the nature of the upgraded "Treadstone" operation - this time called "Blackbriar" which may well shed more light on just how "Bourne' became who he is! Again, Paul Greengrass elicits the best from his star - ably complemented by Joan Allen, again as "Landy"; David Straithairn as his ruthless pursuer "Noah Vosen" and Edgar Ramirez ("Paz") who is never far from his tail/trail. It features more end-to-end action - again, though, not gratuitously long and violent like many others I've seen and although the script is not so good in this one , it remains of the few franchises where the third film is up there with the others. I think it's done now, though - let's not have any more.
Casino Royale
(2006)
Casino Royale
30 May 2024
As reboots go, this is probably the best I've seen. Daniel Craig takes up the mantle of Ian Fleming's "007" in this two-part thriller that starts off at break neck speed and rarely drops below third gear for almost 2½ hours. Having just attained his licence to kill status - after disposing of the double-crossing "Dryden" (Malcolm Sinclair), he is now hot on the trail of a courier in an African republic. After a chase of pretty epic proportions that sees them leaping from buildings and cranes before "Bond" finally manages to trash an embassy, he obtains a cellphone with just one word. What does it mean? Well now he must use all of his roughly hewn skills to find out - a challenge that takes him via the Bahamas to Miami where he has two thwart a daring attack at the airport on a brand new airliner that would bankrupt the manufacturer and make someone $100m. That someone is now seriously annoyed - and in quite considerable danger themselves, so phase two of the story starts - and this is where it gets interesting. Off to the beautiful land of Montenegro for the ultimate game of poker. Staked by a rather wary HM Government, he is put in the capable hands of "Vesper" (Eva Green) and with the help of local fixer "Mathis" (Giancarlo Giannini) faces his new nemesis "Le Schifre" (Mads Mikkelsen). Quite literally - winner takes all. The story here is strong, the plot has twists - especially towards the end; there is loads of action, gadgets - a cracking Aston Martin; and loads of glamour. That latter element was largely missing during the Dalton/Brosnan eras for this suave and debonaire super-spy. Craig exudes a classiness about him, and Green likewise as she quickly realises that his is a dangerous business. Mikkelsen makes for a good baddie - so much of his acting is done through his expressions, and here he radiates a sort of measured menace that proves quite effective as the story reaches it's rather painful climax! David Arnold has written a score that nods to the John Barry sweeping and orchestral style of the early films and the writing doesn't waste time trying with the puerile double-entendres that dogged some of the earlier outings for "Bond". The one man missing, rather notably, is "Q" and "Moneypenny" has become a bloke called "Villiers" (Tobias Menzies) working for Dame Judi Dench's no-nonsense "M". The denouement is as action packed as the rest of it, and it introduces us to the idea that there is an organisation out there guiding so much of the criminal fraternity. A spectre of things to come, perhaps? Let's hope this is a sign of a new and improved vivacity for this tiring franchise. This is a very good re-start.
GoldenEye
(1995)
GoldenEye
30 May 2024
This actually starts out quite promisingly with a double-hander between Pierce Brosnan's "007" and his colleague "006/Alec" (Sean Bean) having a battle royal then a rogue general pinching the controls for a deadly satellites system - and that's pretty much all before Tina Turner gets her lungs around the theme song. Then, sadly it sinks into a really procedural action drama with some really mediocre writing and as B-level a cast as I've seen for ages. You could see the obvious twist in the plot from the satellite in orbit above, Joe Don Baker's megalomaniac arms dealing "Wade" is almost as comical as Robbie Coltrane's Russian gangster "Zukovsky" who is in turn almost as bad as Alan Cumming's even more thickly accented geek "Grishenko". Dame Judi had the sense to say in London for most of this and so out of harm's way as the denouement lurched into view. There's a nod to the Ian Fleming humour, I suppose, with this one's "Bond" girl being "Xenia Onatopp" (the entirely unconvincing Famke Janssen) but I'm afraid I just lost interest. It's hard to keep reinventing the franchise and to be original - but if it's going to be this hard, then maybe just stop?
Licence to Kill
(1989)
Licence to Kill
30 May 2024
I was just not a fan of Timothy Dalton's "007" and so can't say I was looking forward with much enthusiasm to this. Sadly, it didn't surprise - it's a really far fetched, frankly rather unpleasant, outing for Ian Fleming's deadly agent that sees him on the trail of an evil drug lord who fed "Felix" (David Hedison) to a shark whilst doing away that man's new wife. What now ensues is just a series of unremarkable set-piece escapades that have precious little jeopardy to them. Anthony Zerbe just doesn't cut it as the supposedly menacing "Milton Krest" (surely a milk-shake?) nor does Robert Davi as baddie-in-chief "Sanchez". Not that it's unusual for a "Bond" film - but this one really does play a bit too much to stereotype without any of the fun; the tongue-in-cheekiness or any charisma at all from the star very much on the wain here. As adventure films go, it is entertaining enough - there are gadgets; but the banal dialogue grates after a while and this one somehow appears much less "British" than many of it's forebears - certainly it is grittier and more violent. Adequate, but I would not say anything for the far classier and engaging Connery or Moore to worry about.
A View to a Kill
(1985)
A View to a Kill
30 May 2024
Roger Moore's last outing as 007 is his weakest. This story that Christopher Walker "Zorin" plans to dominate the world micro-chip industry by destroying California's silicon valley takes the franchise just a shade beyond credible. Whilst Grace Jones' "May Day" is lithe and beautiful, she has no subtlety or panache and Walken hasn't the script or the charisma to do justice to his role as the megalomanic industrialist. Moore tries his best, and with early appearances by Patrick Macnee there is a semblance of some of the style of films gone before; but as it develops this is all - except, perhaps, the "butterfly act" about large scale photography and product placement. Duran Duran & John Barry got a Golden Globe for the title song, but that is probably the only highlight for me...
Octopussy
(1983)
Octopussy
30 May 2024
This is my favourite Roger Moore outing as Ian Fleming's "007". A good, solid adventure story with Louis Jourdan as the ruthless, scheming "Kamal Khan" and Maud Adams as the equally ruthless, but far more glamorous "Octopussy" who are both involved in some seriously high-end jewel smuggling to fund a Soviet nuclear attack on NATO by the rogue Steven Berkoff ("Gen. Orlov"). The action flows quickly and smoothly, with some fun cameos from a racket-wielding Vijay Amritraj and Albert Moses as a sort of lethal "Oddjob" in a turban. Sure, there are plenty of double-entendres but there is also a much better cohesion to the story than with many of the others, less crass innuendo - actually a decent thriller lurking underneath the traditional "James Bond" wrapping that is largely down to strong, characterful, performances for the quartet of baddies and a good script for Moore to deliver with more than a soupçon of glint in his eye. An under-rated theme song from Rita Coolidge (via Messrs. Barry & Rice); some decent aerial photography at the start and cracking locations all contribute strongly too.
Food of Love
(2002)
Food of Love
30 May 2024
"Paul" (Kevin Bishop) is an impressionable young pianist who is delighted to be asked to turn the pages for the acclaimed "Richard" (Paul Rhys). That's that! Well, no - not quite. "Paul" is travelling with his mother "Pamela" (Juliet Stevenson) and when they arrive in Barcelona he realises that he has just missed the latest concert from his idol, but finds his hotel and goes to visit. A drink leads to a back rub leads to some over-large boxers and... Talk about love at first sight? Well that's a non-starter and so he gets back to study at Juliart in New York where he studies piano whilst sleeping with as many wealthy old men as he can - usually in the same building. Coincidence! More to come as one of his partners knows another who happens to be the manager/boyfriend of "Richard". Small world? Smaller when mum goes through his suitcase and finds a porno magazine and a photo she thinks is incriminating. That's when all hell is let loose with enough home truths to sink a battleship. There are times when this is quite touching, and Bishop does put some effort into his performance, but Stevenson (and her accent) are dreadful, Rhys is little better and by the conclusion I had really lost interest in this shallow character study of hormones and tantrums that really does fall off the cliff in the last half hour. On the plus side, there's some nice Mahler and photography of the stunning Gaudi architecture.
You Only Live Twice
(1967)
You Only Live Twice
30 May 2024
This time, "007" (Sean Connery) has to investigate some mysterious goings on in outer space as first an American, then a Soviet rocket disappear. Naturally, they blame one another but "M" (Bernard Lee) has an inkling that Japan might be the source of the mischief and so our suave and debonair "Mr. Bond" is duly despatched. Allied with their spy chief "Tiger" (Tetsurô Tanba) who has his own underground train - he is soon hot on the trail of the "Ning Po" berthed by a small island that might well provide some answers. It's got loads of action scenes - "Little Nelly" and her heavily armed aerobatic battles being one of the better ones. The beautifully delicate Akiko Wakabayashi provides the glamour - though little of substance and Donald Pleasence - armed with some peckish piraña fish - turns up as the scheming arch enemy just before a series of disappointingly set-piece battle scenes at the end of what had, up until the last 15 minutes been a more sophisticated and intriguing film that relied more on subterfuge and mystery, as well as a decent soupçon of Japanese culture (including some interesting bathing/wedding traditions that our "James" joined in with, heartily). It's a good film, with a memorable Nancy Sinatra theme song (from Messrs. Barry and Bricusse), but not one of the best, I'd say.
Thunderball
(1965)
Thunderball
30 May 2024
Whilst he isn't quite as megalomaniac as "Auric Goldfinger"; Adolfo Celi is great here as "Largo" - the Spectre agent charged with their most ambitious mission yet. A great deal of meticulous planning has gone into their scheme to hijack an RAF plane carrying nuclear missiles that they intend to blackmail the world with. "M" (Bernard Lee) despatches "007" (Sean Connery) to investigate, a global journey that ultimately ends up in the Caribbean Sea. The film has oodles of pace and sexiness; the story is probably the best of the original Ian Fleming adaptations (by Richard Maibaum) and the last half hour finds us dabbling with sharks and scuba-divers armed with lethal spears; underwater jet-craft and ultimately a cracking boat chase with the original super-yacht - the "Disco Volante". Claudine Auger as "Domino" is one of my favourite, fiestiest "Bond Girls" - loads of attitude and glamour with just a hint of dastardliness of her own; and the characterisations are rich enough across the board to offer us a really superior, well put together, action adventure topped off with a rousing theme from John Barry, Don Black and a superlative Tom Jones.
From Russia with Love
(1963)
From Russia With Love
30 May 2024
We used to have a maths teacher at school who was small in stature. When the class got a little unruly, she used to stamp her foot on the floor like a petulant child. We called her Miss "Klebb"! I don't think that she ever had a poisonous spike that protruded from her shoe, but I wouldn't have been surprised. In that role, Lotte Lenya is up there in the league of deadly protagonists faced by 007 in this franchise. Robert Shaw - always underrated, I feel - is superb as "Grant" and Pedro Armendáriz is entirely convincing as the urbane "Karim Bey". The story here is a bit of a stretch, but Terence Young keeps it moving along as Sean Connery vies with SPECTRE to pinch a secret decoder from the nasty Soviets with a lethal briefcase of gadgets and gizmos. It's great!
Dr. No
(1962)
Dr. No
30 May 2024
This first cinema outing for James Bond is actually quite lucky it managed to spawn any sequels at all... Sean Connery is suave and debonair as the British Secret Agent dispatched to Jamaica to investigate a mysterious murder with potentially far more serious repercussions. Ursula Andress is great as the first "Bond girl" but the film itself is a bit short on substance. It's pretty light on action, the script a little too innuendo-ridden and Dr. No hardly features at all - when he does he hardly sets your teeth a-chattering with fear. It has no theme song, either.... It's passes the time OK, but not the best.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
30 May 2024
Starts off promisingly, but descends quickly into a somewhat outlandish tale as the crew of the Enterprise meet up with the half brother of "Spock". We are then lumbered with a search for "God" that messes up the whole point of escapist fantasy with religiosity and along the way subjects us to a mind-numbing attempt at indoctrination. Of course there is scope for a discussion on a more ethical approach to the universe and our place in it; but "Star Trek" movies are just not that place - and I am afraid the story just glugs along like a rhino stuck in a puddle of treacle. The SFX are great and the usual trekkie team keep this from being a complete disaster, but it's not a good film.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
30 May 2024
Probably my favourite of these sci-fi adventures. Having revived "Spock" to something akin to his previous, pompous old self; the crew of the now destroyed "Enterprise" set sail for home in their captured Klingon Warbird. Meantime, unbeknown to them, a probe is wreaking havoc on the galaxy as it emits odd pinging sounds on it's way to Earth. Our explorers approach the planet to discover that the probe has polarised the atmosphere and even the sophisticated Starfleet Command has no idea what's going on... Well, it turns out that the probe is pretty fluent in humpback whale-song but we have long since hunted them into extinction. What's required now is some legerdemain and a bit of time travel to go get some from back in 20th century California. What follows is a fun series of escapades as they set about their tasks - and all of the crew have their own roles to play. It touches on the ecology issues in a humorous but pointed manner and all round delivers an enjoyable 2 hours of entertainment.
Star Trek Into Darkness
(2013)
Star Trek: Into Darkness
30 May 2024
I will own up to actually quite enjoying this. It has less of the holier-than-thou moralism of some of the "Star Trek" features and is basically just a sci-fi adventure that pitches Chris Pine ("Kirk") and his crew against enemies as they say - both foreign and domestic! The dynamic between Pine and "Spock" (Zachary Quinto) still doesn't quite work for me; but Karl Urban makes for quite a good "McCoy" complete with all his daft metaphors. (The less said about Simon Pegg's "Scotty", the better - but fortunately, he features sparingly). The "Enterprise" must track down the arch-criminal "Khan" (Benedict Cumberbatch) - responsible for a bombing in London and then an attack on Starfleet Command - in dangerous Klingon territory and off they set armed with some distinctly dodgy torpedoes. There's a bit of jovial banter between the unlikely couple of "Uhura" and "Spock" which raises a smile, and Anton Yeltsin still has trouble with the computer comprehending his "w's". It's got plenty of phaser fights, the shirts get ripped quite a few times and the story has a bit of definition to help it move along. The last fifteen minutes do, however, drag out the ending just a bit too much - but hey, if you are looking for some high-end science fiction with a few twists in the plot and a good look to it, then you could do worse than this.
Star Trek
(2009)
Star Trek
30 May 2024
I quite enjoyed this. It is a simple, end-to-end action adventure set in space. It doesn't attempt to moralise or philosophise, it is just an interstellar shoot 'em up. Chris Pine is pretty wooden, Zachary Quinto does a passable "Mr. Spock" and Anton Yeltsin seems to be having a good time trying to get the onboard computer to recognise his particularly thick "Chekhov" accent. Sadly Eric Bana completely lacks menace as "Nero" and Simon Pegg's "Scotty" is just plain irritating but the special effects are stunning. If you're just looking for a bit of brain fodder with phasers, then this is your film...
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
(2019)
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
30 May 2024
In the best tradition of Disney, this film has a rousing score and looks stunning; but just like the recent rehash of "the Lion King" is entirely an example of style over substance. Maleficent is meant to be evil - like Venger from "Dungeons and Dragons". Instead we get a sugary, goody-goody with all the venom of a water snake. Robert Lindsay, Chiwitel Ejiofor and Harris Dickinson fail to make any impression at all leaving Michelle Pfeiffer to reprise her role from "Stardust" and try to salvage something - anything - from a very weak storyline. It seems uncertain as to whom this film is actually for - but if it is meant to be for children, then it has no business being two hours long.
Strapped
(2010)
Strapped
30 May 2024
Quite an interesting tale of an handsome young hooker (Benjamin Bonenfant) who finds himself caught up in an architectural equivalent of an Escher drawing - he can't seem to find his way out! Whilst searching, he has a series of almost surreal encounters with various characters who need a variety of forms of sexual satisfaction. The ultimate encounter, rather unexpectedly, offers him some satisfaction of his own - physical and emotional - as he comes to terms with his own frailties. It's done on a shoestring, but classily and with some style. There is some nudity, but nothing gratuitous - it's a search for self, and actually works quite well.
The King
(I) (2019)
The King
30 May 2024
At last an opportunity to see Timothée Chalamet doing something a little grittier. Sadly, t'was not to be. His portrayal of this great character from early 15th Century British history left me cold. He looked like a good meal would have killed him, never mind a bloodthirsty foe clad in iron armed with an axe. The accent held up reasonably well, but he still struggles to shake off the winsome, "butter wouldn't melt" image and as he has to pretty much carry this film en seul, it just doesn't really work. The rare appearances by Robert Pattinson border on the hammy; with his final appearance reminding me of the first few steps taken by "Bambi" back in 1942. It is great that Netflix are prepared to fund projects like this, but the plain truth is that no amount of money can compensate for a poor screenplay - think Shakespeare "light" - supplemented with a few high-profile cameo contributions and some, admittedly, fantastic battle scenarios.
The Happy Prince
(2018)
The Happy Prince
30 May 2024
It is odd how many gents convicted of some form of sexual "deviance" in the 19th century ended their days in penury in rural France. This film looks at the last few years of one of the most famous, and successful - and Rupert Everett directs his own portrayal of Oscar Wilde like a natural. Emily Watson and Colin's Firth and Morgan lend a capable hand as this tale of his decline both morally and physically takes shape. It's beautifully shot, and has a steady narrative that illuminates his absinthe-fuelled demise sensitively, but not especially sentimentally. He was only 46 when he died of meningitis, but this film gives quite a lot of insight into what he packed into this relatively brief lifespan!
Gemini Man
(2019)
Gemini Man
30 May 2024
Ok, so it isn't going to trouble any BAFTA juries but it is quite a bearable couple of hours of special effects and fisticuffs in the same vein as "The Mechanic" (2011). "Brogan" (Will Smith) is the past his use-by date hitman who finds himself facing a much younger, nimbler, version of himself who seems to know exactly what he's going to do before he does it! What's this all about? As if we couldn't guess almost instantly... Smith still has just enough charisma to carry this off but it is all predictable stuff and Clive Owen still performs with all the animation of the original Trojan Horse. It passes the time - but once was enough for me.
The Day Shall Come
(2019)
The Day Shall Come
30 May 2024
"Moses" (Marchánt Davis) is a preacher who runs a mission in Miami with his wife "Venus" (Danielle Brooks) trying to keep things legal and decent, but with cash pressures pressing, he finds himself embroiled in a complex FBI-devised plan to lure some half-baked revolutionaries to the fore whilst the well meaning "Moses" if left completely in the dark. Personally, i reckon that's the best place to be for this. Where was Eddie Murphy and/or Danny Glover? This wobbles along OK, but the attempts at satire are so swamped in a search for some form of anti-establishment acceptance that it loses much of it's sting and the comedy at times borders on the crass. I'm not as versed in the other work of Chris Morris as some, but perhaps that helped me be more objective when I saw this. Not sure it is even 1½ Lions.
Werewolf
(2018)
Werewolf
30 May 2024
If ever a film demonstrated man's inhumanity to man, this has to be up there. Here we have a few half starved kids so terrified of their Nazi guards that they perform automatic, humiliating tasks just to get through each day. You get the distinct impression that they have never known any other kind of life. Once their camp has been liberated and they are effectively abandoned, they take a chance to bond together in a derelict country house for survival and turn into quite an effective group against a clear and natural animal enemy that is now just as deprived of freedom (and food) and many of them. There is certainly some gore, but it seems appropriately inflicted on the deserving. The title is slightly misleading, I thought. There is nothing supernatural about the "horror" here - it's as plain as the nose on your face. Certainly worth seeing on a big screen.
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