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Reviews
Monarch (2000)
Monarch the hidden gem, polished in 2K
It's not often you see a debut director take on something as vast as a costume drama epic about Henry VIII. Most goes the easy route of gangsters and modern day ghost stories. But this film is not epic, but is a costume drama and has an element of haunted house too. I read about the remastering of this relatively recent film, shot in 1996 and in cinemas in 2000. But after hearing the original negative was lost I felt I had to find out more. John Walsh shot this film in two weeks with a micro budget, but amazingly on 35mm film. This is the format that all major Hollywood movies shot on.
Clever bloke as this has future-protected the film and now it is back this time in a 2k remaster looking as sharp as a new pin. Is it any good? Unfair to compare with multimillion pound Hollywood fare, but this worth the price of admission to see how John Walsh pulls of the impossible of shooting a costume drama with some heavy eight performances from Jean Marsh and legendary Irish thesp, the late great, TP McKenna.
Toryboy the Movie (2010)
ToryBoy for PM!
I must admit to not being a big fan of politics until I saw this film. I knew about the main parties and didn't think that there was much left to say beyond the "yah-boo" of the weekly PMQs on TV. Wow John Walsh is a breath of fresh air, albeit, blue air at times!
John becomes a candidate out the blue for the Tories (no pun intended) and goes on the political rampage in Middlesbrough where the corrupt local MP Sir Stuart Bell had been getting away with 'murder' for 30 years. When Walsh uncovers a political record that shows a town neglected by its most senior paid political representative, it is not simply a case of showing some on screen statistics, which would have been the tired old BBC approach.
The film and the final result left me dumbstruck for a few hours. I want the whole world to see this film, you don't have to like politics, the Tories or even John Walsh, but I reckon you will come away rooting for one of these three.