The Sprog Blog (Free subscription) | 23/11/2009
Robert Zemeckis has a slightly worrying performance-capture fetish. He hasn't made any live-action films since 2000's Castaway and What Lies Beneath, and it doesn't look like he's going to be making another one any time soon. His remake of The Beatles' Yellow Submarine is set to be a 3D motion-capture adventure, and Rodger Rabbit 2 is leaning heavily in that direction too, the current idea doing the...
all about paul (Free subscription) | 14/11/2009
Finally things have slowed down a little and I am no longer at the theatre five nights out of seven in the week. I am sure, however, that this is a short resting period before the Christmas Season hits and I am busy 24/7 again. So far, both plays in November have had a gay-theme and I will say that both of them were extremely good. Busted Jesus Comix by David Johnston tells the story of Marco, a Tallahassee...
Losanjealous (Free subscription) | 14/11/2009
The Getty has a pair of great British cinema double-bills this Saturday and next in their Four Angry Young Men film series. Tomorrow, November 14, screens Look Back In Anger and Satuday Night and Sunday Morning (starring Albert Finney, above). Next Saturday, November 21 features This Sporting Life and The Loneliness of the [...]
mosses from an old manse (Free subscription) | 07/11/2009
Ridley Scott's first & best film THE DUELLISTS is on TCM tonight, containing (besides a lot of very crisply rendered landscape) Harvey Keitel as the martinettiest, shortest-tempered Napoleonic officer in movie history, as well as Stephen Frear's fine first effort, the 1972 neo-noirGumshoe, with Albert Finney...
'Do You Write Under Your Own Name?' (Free subscription) | 07/11/2009
ITV 3 repeated a documentary from 2005 the other day, which took us ‘behind the scenes’ with a year of Poirot stories for the small screen. I found it interesting, and a reminder of what a fine actor David Suchet is, and of how completely he has made the role of the Belgiam supersleuth his own. There were clips from four episodes. One ( The Mystery of the Blue Train ) was based on a mediocre...
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Free subscription) | 04/11/2009
Lionel Barrymore. Alastair Sim. Laurence Olivier. Albert Finney. George C. Scott. Bill Murray. Michael Caine. Mr. Magoo. Scrooge McDuck.
And Another Thing (Free subscription) | 04/11/2009
Last night I caught up with HBO's Churchill film, "Into The Storm", on the iPlayer. I'm a sucker for Churchill TV films. I've seen all sorts of people play him - Patrick Wymark, Robert Hardy, Timothy West, Nigel Stock, Albert Finney, any British actor with jowls and a growl, in fact - and I've heard Richard Burton recite his speeches so often I confuse them with the real thing. (There's no...
JCooney.NET (Free subscription) | 04/11/2009
With November 5th only an hour away (in my part of the world anyway) I'm planning once again on watching V for Vendetta like I do every year on Nov. 5th. This year I'm doing something a little different, and starting on the 4th such that the 1812 overture scene, and the blowing up of the old bailey happens at around 12:00. V is the inspirational film that keeps me going until xmas, when the Albert...
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Catgirls (Free subscription) | 02/11/2009
Watched this tonight, a good dramatisation of Churchill's war years. What seemed most interesting to me was how callous he could be (such as ordering the wounded to be evacuated last at Dunkirk or how Singapore had to be defended to the last and no thoughts should be made for evacuation), and how prophetic he was in how Labour would screw up the (already bankrupt) country. Would have been better with...
The Corner (Free subscription) | 02/11/2009
Here are emails I mostly agree with: The Bogart "The Maltese Falcon" was the THIRD version of that story put on film and undoubtedly the best. Also, the 1973 Richard Lester version of "The Three Musketeers" was not the first by a couple and in my opinion, clearly the best as well. I think the best chance of a good remake is when it is based on a classic book or novel rather than...
SHADOWPLAY (Free subscription) | 02/11/2009
Six images from UNDER THE VOLCANO ~ Love how Huston’s director credit appears over a lookalike skull. But then, ALL skulls look a bit like John Huston, just as all monkeys do. The signature image, Albert Finney’s shades. Malcolm Lowry’s book was often described as “unfilmable,” and I’m not sure Huston found a way in. A drunken [...]
The Telegraph (Free subscription) | 27/10/2009
After winning an Emmy and a Bafta for his performance as Sir Winston Churchill in the drama The Gathering Storm Albert Finney naturally had first refusal when it came to reprising the role in Hugh Whitemore's eagerly awaited sequel Into the Storm.
On Transmigration (Free subscription) | 24/10/2009
Had a grand day at job #2 yesterday; the fair weather made everyone cheeful and we were very busy - always a good thing. The interaction of two diners reminded me of a fave movie, "Two for the Road" with the gorgeous Audrey Hepburn and a beautiful Albert Finney, which I know I had on VHS, somewhere. (Click the image to embiggen.) I searched every nook and cranny of this tiny place and cannot...
Travel (Free subscription) | 20/10/2009
By Wesley Pope It used to be that you had to go to the video store to get a movie. The next generation it seems will be getting their movies from movie downloads, avoiding any trips to the store. Following is a list of a few movies that you can get using a movie download site. Doulos The Finger: Delightful round-the-globe venture based on the real tale of a l6-year-old who cruises to every conceivable...
The Hot Blog (Free subscription) | 18/10/2009
There are occasional reminders why, amidst all the bullshit that flies in my profession these days, I still write about movies. Today, that reminder is Where The Wild Things Are . Simply put, it is the great film about divorce and its effect on children of this generation. The last English-language film that hit the subject so cleanly and skillfully was Alan Parker’s long forgotten 1982 masterpiece,...
Videos