(ph: Steven Meisel)
Friday 30 November 2018
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
An anthology film comprised of six stories, each dealing with a different aspect of life in the Old West.
The Coen Bros. actually make it work it: the often maligned anthology film; each episodes ups the ante from macabre satire to intense drama, brilliantly conceived, perfectly cast, and with wonderful cinematography.
Thursday 29 November 2018
Nurse 3-D (2013)
By day a dedicated nurse, but by night she lures cheating men to their brutal deaths and exposes them for who they really are.
Not much to recommend here amidst all the bloody mayhem; maybe Paz de la Hurta's performace as an erotic killing machine is worth a mention.
Monday 26 November 2018
Butter (2011)
In Iowa, an adopted girl discovers her talent for butter carving and finds herself pitted against an ambitious local woman in their town's annual contest.
Ineffectual satire with a star cast is lively and colorful and has some moments, but seems not to know where it wants to go.
Maltin**: "Slick would-be satire is too self-satisfied (and vague in its aims) to connect."
Sunday 25 November 2018
The Jungle Book (1967)
Bagheera the Panther and Baloo the Bear have a difficult time trying to convince a boy to leave the jungle for human civilization.
On renewed viewing: always a joy - even in the German dubbed version.
Halliwell*: "Cartoon version relying less on action than on songs and voices; patchily successful but no classic."
Maltin***: "Genial Disney animated feature...Hand-picked cast of actors help create some vivid characterizations in this easy-going film."
Friday 23 November 2018
The Courier (2012)
A specialist carrier is hired to deliver a mysterious case to the underworld's most dangerous hitman.
Average thriller has lots of action, but with an uninteresting, costrued plot and a disappointing ending.
Wind River (2017)
A veteran hunter helps an FBI agent investigate the murder of a young woman on a Wyoming Native American reservation.
Finely directed crime mystery with a convincing story, excellent cast and great landscape cinematography; unfortunately, the ending celebrates an act of vigilantism.
Tuesday 20 November 2018
The Carlton Cinema, Dublin
The Carlton Cinema opened in December 1915. The building sustained damage during the Easter Rising and the Civil War and eventually closed in 1936. The Carlton Cinema was rebuilt and re-opened to the public in April 1938. It was noted for its beautiful cafe and restaurant. The cinema was nicknamed 'the House of Horror' during the 1970s due to the frequency of horror films shown there. It became a multi-screen venue in 1976. The Carlton Cinema closed in October 1994.
Babylon Berlin, Season 2 (2018)
The true nature of the locomotive, smuggled into the country and hijacked by Russian counter-revolutionaries and re-captured by the state, sitting in a hangar in the middle of nowhere, is finally revealed.
Successful continuation of the story with equal quality in style, atmosphere, period detail and the same excellent cast finally wraps up its complex plot into a final, albeit twisty conclusion.
The Fourth Estate (2018)
A look at how The New York Times covered President Trump's controversial first year in office.
Extensive, close-up and intimate documentation examining the inner workings of a newspaper in constant response to daily events; highly revealing, even in minor details.
Saturday 17 November 2018
Murphy's Law (1986)
A cop is running to stay alive long enough to even the score with his wife's killer.
Typically 'dirty' Bronson thriller, brash and violent and set in a derelict urban underworld.
Halliwell (no star): "Unattractively violent and foul-mouthed urban thriller in the wake of Dirty Harry."
Maltin*1/2: "All-too-typical Bronson vehicle...only novelty is that the psycho is a women (Snodgress). Strictly formula; violent and unpleasant."
Friday 16 November 2018
The Woman in Black (2012)
A young lawyer travels to a remote village where he discovers the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman is terrorizing the locals.
Old-fashioned ghost story has good production value, style and atmosphere, but isn't quite suspenseful and offers nothing new to the genre.
On renewed viewing: what it lacks on plot is well compensated with Goth style and atmosphere.
Maltin**1/2: "Fairly satisfying thriller refreshes familiar ideas but takes an awfully long time to get up to speed. Radcliffe is satisfactory as the increasingly unnerved lead."
Tuesday 13 November 2018
Savages (2012)
Pot growers face off against the Mexican drug cartel who kidnapped their shared girlfriend.
Basically a standard crime thriller with a highly contrived plot, but made with expertise and a capable cast; the double entendre ending is superfluous and disappointing.
Maltin**: "Stone encourages his actors to go way over the top in this long, boring look at mostly scummy characters. Travolta comes off best as a corrupt DEA agent."
Navajo Joe (1966)
A Native American warrior called Navajo Joe seeks revenge on a gang of sadistic outlaws who has massacred the people of his tribe.
Violent and rompous Spaghetti Western hardly takes a breath to stop the action; Burt Reynolds is curiously cast as some kind of "half-breed" superhero.
Maltin***: "Gory, quite savage spaghetti Western with some rousing action and a good score by Ennio Morricone..."
Friday 9 November 2018
The Gambler (2014)
Literature professor and gambler Jim Bennett's debt causes him to borrow money from his mother and a loan shark. Further complicating his situation, is his relationship with one of his students. Will Bennett risk his life for a second chance?
Although this thriller is more conceived as a character study than it's interested in suspense, and it has a good cast and is professionally directed, the gambler himself is a most disagreeable narcissist for whom hardly anyone can root for.
Badge of Honor (2015)
Two narcotics detectives find themselves in an intense investigation lead by a determined Internal Affairs Detective after a child is wrongfully shot dead in a violent drug bust.
Solid thriller about police corruption, more interested in action and suspense than making a moral comment.
Tuesday 6 November 2018
The Equalizer (2014)
A man believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and has dedicated himself to beginning a new, quiet life. But when he meets a young girl under the control of ultra-violent Russian gangsters, he can't stand idly by - he has to help her.
Violent vigilante thriller has style ans suspense, and Denzel Washington can really pull off his role as righteous avenger, but all that said, it's still a dubious genre.
Monday 5 November 2018
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)
The Peanuts gang celebrates Halloween while Linus waits for the Great Pumpkin.
Probably the best of the Peanuts TV specials and meanwhile a Halloween season classic; story, plot and animation perfectly handled.
On renewed viewing: still love to watch this one every Halloween.
Saturday 3 November 2018
Columbus Circle (2012)
An heiress who's been shut inside her apartment building for nearly two decades is forced to confront her fears after one of her neighbors is killed and a detective arrives to begin the investigation.
OK thriller is a Hitchcock wannabe creates some suspense, but the convoluted plot with all its twists is quite predictable.
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