Sorry, Mr Redford, but for me this was painful to sit through. Just imagine the thinnest, tamest, most mildly mystical episode of The Twilight Zone stretched out to two hours, and that's The Legend Of Bagger Vance. Babe the valient pig made sheepdog trials infinitely more exciting than Bagger does for golf. This is so stultifyingly boring that it's actually stressful.

Grisbi (actually Touchez Pas Au Grisbi, French argot for Don't Touch the Loot). This came out on VHS not too long ago and I finally caught up with it. Superb French gangster film with the right tongue-in-cheek humor.

Around the World with Orson Welles. 5 of 6 episodes Welles made for British TV in 1955 (one episode is lost). Available on VHS and DVD. Welles interviews some eccentric people and comments on the state of the world. The most intimate thing I've ever seen Welles in. A real treasure.

In This Our Life, early John Huston film with a wonderfully hysterical & selfish Bette Davis destroying the lives around her. Strange stuff, especially the older uncle's hots for Davis. Seen it twice and still don't know quite what to make of this. Steiner score.

Shackelton's Boat Journey, 30 min short on Milestone VHS, detailing Shackelton's 1914-16 expedition to Antarctica focusing on the 18 day 800 mile journey in a 22 ft boat to find help to rescue the other members of the party. Epic heroism. It'll be interesting to see what Kenneth Branagh makes of this role in an upcoming film about the guy.

Unknown World, a B sci-fi from 1951, with an early Ernest Gold score. Scientists bore 1000 miles underground looking for place to hide civilization in advent of nuclear war with a pretty neat result. Strange idea kind of grew on me over the course of it. Victor Jory is as bad a leader of men as Shackelton is good--just about everybody gets needlessly killed.

I've seen a few other things but these were the highlights of the last 2 weeks.

Anyway, I'm as much to blame, I suppose, but I honestly haven't had the time to see anything (oh stop rabbitting) except:

RAGING BULL: Martin Scorsese's super-famous take on the Jake LaMotta story. Based on LaMotta's book, which I found surprising (did he WANT everyone to know what a complete bastard he was? Some of you learned scholars out there will be able to answer this I'm sure).

Anyway, I found the film impressive, though not exactly enjoyable. In fact, for all its attempts at super-realism, I'm not that sure that it's any more "realistic" than a Woody Allen film (with which, to me, it seems to share much). Tremendous performance from De Niro, who undergoes a quite remarkable physical transformation, turning into a kind of Bernard Manning character towards the end (British people will know who Manning is, I'm sure. A fat, unpleasant stand-up comic). Great support too from Joe Pesci. In fact, all the performances are so good that the film is ultimately qute scary.

No real music score as such, just plenty of Mascagni and period tunes coming in open windows etc., which adds immeasurably to some of the seedy, sticky, hell-of-a-summer interior scenes.

And THE GREEN MILE: I didn't see this first time round, but I'm very glad I caught up with it on video. It's almost brilliant (with stretches of sheer brilliance without the almost). I did feel that the few ILM/ Spielbergian light shows were just a shade overdone, and there was a bit too much spraying of good and bad magic from mouth to mouth towards the end, but it was genuinely emotionally affecting. By the way, I had trouble with what conclusions to draw: was it supposed to be life-affirming and optimistic? I'm not sure, but maybe that's good, because it certainly gives food for thought, I think (told you so, I'm thinking!).

Thomas Newman's score worked. No overblown heartstring tuggings, more just an overall mood, which may be why it doesn't work for me on CD.

Shadow on the Sun--Tony Richardson's mini-series about the life of Beryl Markham, author of West With The Night, considered one of the best non-fiction memoirs of the 20th century (IMHO, it is).

Covers a lot of the same 30s Kenya as Out of Africa. Pretty good score by John Addison. Probably the best thing I've ever seen Stephanie Powers do--she's really good in this. Soapy subject matter: adultery, children taken away, lovers dying, etc. Not great, but underplayed and it just grows on you over 3hrs.

Enemy at the Gates--How many new Hollywood films are set in Stalingrad? You gotta go.

But if you do, you'll leave as sad as I did.

Great and I mean great sets and production design that support engrossing sniper combat scenes, a potential masterpiece, destroyed by everything else that isn't a combat scene. The whole thing is poured into a formula with predictable outcomes and a really unsatisfying love triangle that is ridiculously resolved. Any time anyone opens their mouth look out! Dumb dialogue. They might be good at what they do, but otherwise they're idiots.

Criticizing the film for having Russians speak with British accents is nitpicking, but it was still annoying. One plus--it was good to see Eva Mattes again in anything. There really is enough great stuff here to justify a view but the emotional connection it tries to establish just isn't handled in a way that's involving.

A mixed bag. Good but could have been much better.

Oh, and Horner proves once again that pouring treacle over film images isn't the same thing as being able to create emotion. Choir, snare drums, an endlessly repeated motif for the Nazi, it tries for "epic" and all it succeeds at is rendering everything banal. Instead of shooting at each other, the cast should have laid in wait for JH.

Saw CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON today. I wasn't, shall we say, overly convinced by what it was trying to do. Despite the supposed depth of some of its concepts, I saw it as an elaborately dressed up chop-socky Chinese ghost story, not too different in essence, I imagine, from thousands of Oriantal movies never seen in the West. Sort of like a more polished Water Margin maybe. And the flying scenes had the audience perplexed and sniggering. Mmm, I'm in two minds about that aspect.

Tan Dun's music had some nice moments, but as a whole it was a bit of a shapeless score I felt. If it wins the Oscar, fair enough, but I don't think either the film or the score are anything special.

I liked Traffic. It has a stay-with-you haunting quality. The drug wars, as this
movie portrayed them, reminded me of the Myth of Sisyphus, pointless and
infinite, and that is tragic for our young. I also thought the acting by all main
characters was superb. I didn’t care for the cinematography, with its various
color lenses (blue, bright gold, etc.) to let the audience know which of the three
stories we were watching. I think I could decipher which story without the
shadings.

ROAD TO BALI (US 1952) movie *1/2 score **1/2

Tired late entry in the popular series (and the only one in colour), is briefly enlivened when Hope and Crosby do an amusing 'Scottish' song and dance routine.

March 3 2001

HALLOWEEN V: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS (US 1989) movie * score **1/2

Tedious follow-up to the entertaining fourth entry. Even Donald Pleasence is hopeless in this tired, formless and uninventive rehash of all that has gone before.

March 4 2001

GARGANTUA (US 1998) movie * score *

Sub-Godzilla rubbish.

FERNGULLY....THE LAST RAINFOREST (US 1992) movie ** score ***1/2

Undistinguished animated feature that will appeal to four-year-olds.

HANNIE CAULDER (GB 1971) movie **1/2 score ***

Yet another early '70s British western, this time with the accent heavily on comedy. Lovable comic outlaws Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam and Strother Martin impersonate the Three Stooges as they murder, rape and terrorize the Mexican border country. One of their victims, the titular Raquel Welch determines to exact revenge, with the help of bounty hunter Robert Culp and sympathetic gunsmith Christopher Lee. Diana Dors and Stephen Boyd pop up in amusing cameos. HANNIE CAULDER is good undemanding family fun.

March 8 2001

THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET (US 1945) movie ***1/2 score ***

Exciting and influential documentary-styled account of the FBI's war against American Fifth Columnists, further bolstered by British character actor Leo G Carroll's fine turn as a German-American nazi sympathizer and Lloyd Nolan's assured performance as an FBI chief.

March 9 2001

WHAT DREAMS MAY COME (US 1998) movie * score **1/2

The superb visuals are wasted on this mushy exercise in saccharine sentimentality that boasts a typically nauseating performance from arch tragi-comedian Robin Williams as a recently deceased family man who desperately tries to reach out to his grieving wife. WHAT DREAMS MAY COME is morbidly odious wish-fulfilment, and a complete failure.

March 10 2001

A PRIZE OF ARMS (GB 1962) movie *** score **

Atmospheric tale has Sir Stanley Baker and Tom Bell attempting to rob a British army barracks of its payroll. Despite being a tad overcomplicated in places, and with some telegraphed plot-twists, the story maintains one's attention, and the characterizations are fine. Not only is the barracks peopled by just about every known subgroup of English, Scottish, Irish and Welshmen, but the cast is made up of a massive array of familiar faces from British television, including Roddy MacMillan, Fultan MacKay, Geoffrey Palmer, Michael Ripper and Anthony Bate, to name a very very few.

March 12 2001

CAREFREE (US 1938) movie ** score **1/2

Disappointing Astaire/Rogers vehicle suffers from dull scripting and far too few numbers. Still, anything with Astaire in it is worth watching, and amongst the banality we get to see his famous golfing number in which he displays all the skill of Tiger Woods whilst brilliantly playing the harmonica, with which he even manages to cleverly mimic Scottish bagpipes.

March 14 2001

QUEST FOR LOVE (GB 1971) movie * score ½

QUEST FOR LOVE is one of the greatest examples of a movie that is so bad it's good. Indeed, for entertainment value, it is worth at least four stars. Tom Bell stars as a scientist whose mind is transferred into his counterpart in a parallel universe in which he falls in love with 'beautiful' Joan Collins who promptly dies on him because of an incurable heart condition at which point Bell resolves to return to his original universe track down Collins' duplicate and have her saved by a medical practice that he knows has been discovered 'back home'. Though the plot sounds like a comedy, the movie is put across with deadly seriousness and profundity that further heightens the hilarity of the proceedings. The supporting players are laughably dreadful, including Denholm Elliot and Laurence Naismith's cringemaking performances, but it is Bell's hilarious miscasting that provides the richest seam of mirth, particularly when he is seen 'running' the length and breadth of Heathrow to the jazz version of Eric Rogers' mind-numbingly obtuse scoring. Thoroughly recommended to those who love fun 'bad' movies, such as THE PATRIOT and NATURAL BORN KILLERS, and once again there is a raft of familiar faces on show, including Sam Kydd as a bemused cabbie.

March 15 2001

ON THE UP (GB 1956) movie ½ score **

Average Norman Wisdom does not make good viewing. Here the sometimes amusing clown is a window cleaner who foils gangster William Lucas' kidnapping plot. Miss it.

March 16 2001

FRIENDLY PERSUASION (US 1956) movie *1/2 score **1/2

Well-produced, but stultifyingly boring Civil War drama.

March 17 2001

THE PETRIFIED FOREST (US 1936) movie ***1/2 score **1/2

Vibrant and, despite its staginess, still relevant drama focusing on frustrated Arizona barmaid Bette Davis' love for wandering burnt-out writer Leslie Howard. The great British actor Leslie Howard recreates his famous stage-role here, and insisted that Humphrey Bogart be given the part of Duke Mantee, a renegade gangster who takes Davis, Howard and other mismatched innocents hostage at a remote desert filling-station. A mesmerizing script is matched by a truly great performance from a gleaming Leslie Howard in this resonant and pioneering Hollywood classic. The highlight of the movie has to be Davis' question to Howard on their first meeting - "English, aren't you?", to which he replies, "Noooo....American, once removed". This is the movie that brought Bogart to the fore, and he was so indebted to Howard, Bogie (who had notable English ancestry, and was even related to the recently deceased Princess Diana) named one of his children Leslie after the legendary British actor.

ROYAL WEDDING (US 1951) movie *** score ***

Joan! You too have been absent too long! Speaking of golf, I liked the late (sometimes great) Peter Cook's definition: "A game played by men with small balls."

Anyway, saw SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE today. Thought it was kind of interesting, but no more than that. Willem Dafoe seemed to be taking the Michael a bit, as if he didn't believe in the concept. His constantly disapproving face put me in mind of Old Steptoe.

PRESS FOR TIME (GB 1966) movie * score **

Ran, Akira Kurosawa(THE GREATEST AND MOST PIVOTAL DIRECTOR OF ALL TIME) made this beauty of a film in 86 I believe, drags at first but by the end is amazing! One of the best films ever made, and the best film ever made based upon a Shakespeare play(king Lear) powerful stuff!

Seven Samurai...quite possibly the greatest and best film ever made, point blank amazing. Kurosawa ia a god and no other dirtector has done what he has in my opinion. all of this films get ********/****

THE KILLERS (US 1946) movie **** score ****

Beautifully crafted and deliciously over-elaborate crime drama starring Burt Lancaster (in his first movie role) as a former prize-fighter and crook attempting to evade the gang he double-crossed in a sleepy New Jersey town. Lancaster is killed-off in the second reel (that's not a spoiler, promise), but we get to see plenty of him in numerous extended flashbacks, as the rest of the movie involves Edmund O'Brien's insurance investigator piecing together the circumstances that led to Burt's murder. A crackling script, stark black and white photography, brilliant use of locations, vivid characterizations and Miklos Rozsa's blistering score make this a true '40s classic. The whole cast is superb, not least O'Brien, Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Albert Dekker and Jeff Corey, but it is William Conrad and Charles MacGraw who pack the wildest punch as the larger-than-life assassins. This 1946 movie is in a different league to the comically dated 1964 remake, and provides yet another fine example of how '30s and '40s cinema is infinitely superior to the general standard of movies made in the period late-'50s through mid-'80s. How gratifying it is that modern cinema has returned to the sophisticated, intelligent, fun and all-out entertainment value of cinema's Golden Age. Record-breaking box office receipts over the past decade accurately reflect this emphatic upturn in the standard of modern moviemaking excellence.

THE LAST MAN ON PLANET EARTH (US 1999) movie * score *1/2

In the not-too-distant-future the world is exclusively populated by females, so a sex-starved scientist decides to 'grow' the perfect male. A story as preposterous as this can only work as satire or comedy. Unfortunately, any satirical or comedic intentions remain well hidden. Utter bilge entirely lacking in imagination.

Film **/****
Score**/****

INSTINCT (US 1999) movie * score **

Film ****/****(PERFECT)
Score ****/****(PERFECT)

THRILL SEEKERS (US 1999) movie * score *

An 'intrepid' reporter discovers that thrill seekers from the future are revisiting 20th century disasters. Preposterous and inept, THRILL SEEKERS is unmitigated trash.

March 24 2001

MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (US 1998) movie ** score ****

Good looking, but weakly cast and sloppily paced children's fantasy in which a fifteen foot gorilla is brought back to LA, with predictable results. Despite some decent special effects and a typically professional James Horner score, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG is very much a 'poor man's King Kong', though it may keep the toddlers amused.

FALLOUT (US 1998) movie * score ½

Crazed Russians take over an international space station and threaten to unleash deadly satellites on America.....Daniel Baldwin comes to the rescue. You'll find more interest and inventiveness in your average X-MEN cartoon, and Baldwin's portly hero is about as convincing as an Ernest Angley sermon.

GOODBYE LOVER (US 1999) movie * score **1/2

Patricia Arquette, Dermot Mulroney, Don Johnson and John Neville star in this limply scripted light-comedy/thriller that neither amuses or thrills. The reasonably proficient cast is lumbered with some particulary infantile material, and John Ottman's over-scoring doesn't help - but I suppose the composer was hampered by the movie's childish simplicity and lamentable paucity of imagination, intelligence, sophistication, style and wit. Director Roland Joffe strains every sinew to create effect, and fails.

March 25 2001

NO DEPOSIT, NO RETURN (US 1976) movie * score *1/2

A couple of neglected kids engineer their own kidnapping. Tediously over-extended Disney kiddie-caper which will please nobody. British Hollywood stalwarts David Niven and John Williams have known far better days, whilst Darren McGavin and Don Knotts seem quite at home appearing in such dross. If you're looking for a good laugh, you're better advised to tune-in to Ernest Angley's bible-thumping freak-show with its parade of odious reptilian religious zealots falling at the feet of 'Angley, The Oleaginous One'.

NOT NOW, DARLING (GB 1971) movie ½ score *

Complications arise when a furrier plans to give his mistress a cheap mink coat. Jaded British sex farce which, despite the occasional glimpse of a generously-breasted naked woman, is about as titillating and risqué as EYES WIDE SHUT, and about as sophisticated. An accomplished battery of British comedy actors, including star Leslie Phillips, Joan Sims, Moira Lister, Bill Fraser and Jack Hulbert, fails to enliven the proceedings. 1971's PERCY, in which Hywel Bennet becomes the recipient of the world's first penis transplant, provides a far better example of early '70s British comedy. The 1974 sequel, PERCY'S PROGRESS, also includes funny cameos from Bernard Lee and Vincent Price, but that's another story.

March 26 2001

THE 39 STEPS (GB 1978) movie **1/2 score ***

Despite garnering little praise from critics and being overlooked by public on its release, this third filming of John Buchan's popular mystery-thriller has gained in popularity over the years, and now compares favourably with Hitchcock's classic 1935 original and with the accomplished 1959 Kenneth More remake, although after an exciting opening third, this 1978 version tails off rapidly as it lumbers to its rather absurd conclusion, complete with a ludicrous Will Hay-styled cliff-hanging climax - rather disappointing. This time Robert Powell plays Richard Hannay, a British-South African, visiting mother-England just prior to the outbreak of WWI, where he unwittingly gets caught up in the evil designs of a Prussian spy-ring - interestingly, Powell reprised the role in the short-lived and somewhat disappointing '80s television series "Hannay". Sir John Mills has a meaty supporting role as the British agent who entrusts the naive colonial with the security of the British Empire. This version of THE 39 STEPS benefits greatly from some wonderfully atmospheric location photography, an exciting and involving score from Ed Welch, and a fine array of larger-than-life British character actors. Although Powell is somewhat lacking in the starring role, Mills, Eric Porter, George Baker, Timothy West, Robert Flemyng, Andrew Keir and many others add considerable weight to the proceedings, whilst David Warner, Donald Pickering and Ronald Pickup are utterly convincing as the chillingly cold-eyed assassins - these guys make Joe Pesci's GOODFELLAS Mafia-man seem about as menacing as an arthritic sloth, but then again, who doesn't?

PENELOPE (US 1966) movie * score ****

Ian Bannen's Hollywood career fizzled-out almost before it began with this
remarkably unfunny '60s comedy. Here, the recently deceased Scotsman plays a bank manager whose establishment is 'held-up' by his kleptomaniac wife, played by Natalie Wood. Thanks to the appallingly banal scripting, this would-be cute comedy from Canadian Arthur Hiller barely raises even a glimmer of a smile, despite the best efforts of a fine cast, including Bannen, Wood, Peter Falk, Dick Shawn, Lou Jacobi, Jerome Cowan and Jonathan Winters. Only the expensive-looking photography and Johnny (John) Williams' score hint at quality, but, a good film-score does not alone make a good movie. Here, Williams provides a couple of reasonable popular-styled songs set against an expert orchestral score that incorporates plenty of popular '60s stylistics and instrumentation, lovely thematic material too. It is scores like these that serve to remind us of Williams' extraordinary versatility.

March 27 2001

CONSPIRATOR (GB 1949) movie * score **

Dismal 'cold war' drama has British Guardsman (Robert Taylor) 'earning' a few extra pennies by selling Britain's military secrets to the KGB. Complications arise when he marries Elizabeth Taylor. A potentially interesting story is turned into a turgid and interminable exercise in incompetent moviemaking. There's plenty of familiar faces in the cast, such as Thora Hird, Harold Warrender, Robert Flemyng and Honor Blackman, but that's not enough reason to sit through this clinker.

THE JOURNEY (US 1959) movie ** score **1/2

Competent, solid and wholly unremarkable, THE JOURNEY tells the story of a group of mismatched British, American and European travellers as they attempt to escape Hungary during the 1956 uprising. Yul Brynner stars as a flamboyant Russian officer who detains the bus party, which includes Deborah Kerr, Robert Morley, David Kossof, Jason Robards Jr (in his first movie), EG Marshall, and other familiar faces. Although there's an interesting (though largely pointless) score from George Auric and some professional work from the accomplished cast, coming as it does during cinema's rapid decline into its period of generally unenlightened banality (late '50s through mid '80s), the movie is barely worth watching. THE JOURNEY neither has the cinematic verve of '30s and '40s Hollywood, nor the moviemaking excellence of '90s cinema, which the superbly made and hugely entertaining movies of Bruckheimer epitomizes so well.

March 29 2001

THE POWER AND THE PRIZE (US 1956) movie ***1/2 score ****

Surprisingly successful, and underrated, mixture of soap opera, romantic drama, light comedy, insightful Anglo-American social comment and boardroom intrigue. Robert Taylor (near his best) plays the ambitious corporate boss who, after a week-long business trip to London, learns to replace arrogance and cut-throat ruthlessness with honesty, even-handedness, humility and compassion - yes, it is a bit of a fairy tale, but so positive and accomplished that one can forgive the movie's many absurdities and occasional moments of weakness. The plot has Taylor being sent to England by tyrannical boss Burl Ives to stitch-up a struggling British firm, run by Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Whilst in London, Taylor falls in love with an Austrian refugee as well as quickly growing to respect Hardwicke's honesty and strength of character - within a week Taylor's a changed man - a better man - and on his return to New York he seeks to change Ives' ruthless and uncompromising ways, along with the help of fair-minded fellow company director Charles Coburn. The cast alone makes this film worth watching, Hardwicke is particularly excellent, but there's plenty of other reasons to enjoy this splendid movie - an insightful script, Taylor's ingratiating hero, an interesting story and Bronislau Kaper's wonderful score all contribute to the movie's success - Kaper's memorably rhapsodic theme is heard in many guises, including a smouldering jazz version. The best moment in the movie has to be Taylor's first meeting with Hardwicke in England. Hardwicke tests Taylor's acumen and attitude with the remark, "I'm surprised you Americans want to do business here in gloomy old London with its dusty monuments to so many long-dead British heroes - you know, I often feel inclined to pencil in moustaches and daub paint on those relics of Britain's imperial past". The American smiles gently and casually responds, "Many of them are our heroes too". As Taylor walks ahead of Hardwicke, the Englishman looks on approvingly - nice touch.

On a personal note, the Cunningham household is in a state of celebration at the moment, though it usually is for one reason or another. My younger sister, Sinead O'Flanagan, has won yet another award for her tireless work in maintaining the public lavatories in Weston-Super-Mare's 'Grove Park'.

"We're an all-weather international tourist attraction", says Sinead, who has been Chief Lavatory attendant since 1973 at the award winning Grove Park toilets.

"We get all sorts of lovely letters from all over the world, some just addressed 'Grove Park Toilets, England', and people arrive in Weston-Super-Mare for the first time already aware of the loos' reputation."

Tireless at 62, Sinead loves to talk of her most memorable foreign tour visit. "I like to write the signs myself and I hung one up that said, 'You are advised to book seats in advance during the peak period'. A German tourist came in and saw it. The next thing, I got a letter from the German Tourist Board booking a tour for a party of 12 German gentlemen, explaining they had been advised to book in advance!"

Sinead has been interviewed on radio, appeared on television six times and has given many lectures for Women's Institute movements, how apt. She is recognized wherever she goes but stresses that, despite being on first name terms with all her 'regulars', she uses tunnel vision on entering the gents section. "I only recognize my male customers from behind", she remarks.

Sinead's public lavatories are generously decorated with flowers, there is a large selection of books and magazines, and a varied choice of piped music. Indeed, of all of the thousands of compliments received over the years, Sinead singles out that of a blind woman who described the park toilets as 'smelling like a garden of fragrance'.

The gents section of the toilets provides Sinead with most of her work, and has also led to her formulating one of her most important academic theories that has now been embraced by the scientific community. The absence of a carpet in the gents is no accident and Sinead has developed a now-scientifically accepted theory as to why men wet the floor so freely. "It is very, very simple. The male of the species likes to mark his own territory, like a cat or a dog."

As stated above, Sinead has piped music and informative leaflets to help customers 'relax'. Sinead jokingly dismisses the options of piping 'chamber music' or 'cheek to cheek', but admits that the Jerry Lee Lewis number "Whole Lot of Shakin' Goin' On" is a personal favourite. She even muses that her toilets can rival the nearby theatre with its own production of 'Piddler on the Roof'.

On a serious note, Sinead loves living and working in Weston-Super-Mare, and praises the work being done by the town to combat the common problems of drug and alcohol abuse. She comments, "Just in the last two years, the number of overdoses in my toilets has dropped by a third".

Sinead is so proud of her work she claims she would like to 'die on the job', and asks that her ashes be flushed down the pan.

Having just won a 'Best in the West' lavatory award, the Cunningham and O'Flanagan households are currently flushed with pride. Sinead's latest award will sit nicely with many of my own garbage-collection medals and plaques here at the farm's 'awards room'.

THE SUNDOWNERS (UK/Australia 1960) movie **1/2 score **1/2

BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA: From about 1975 I think, I'm sure that people have written thesis (thesesis? thesi?) about this. It has oodles of subtext, and lots of shots in mirrors. You see, it's all about corruption, and people die in slow motion. The corruption of life itself, the corruption taking place around Alfredo's fly-eaten head etc. People could also write thesis about the different kind of glasses that the characters wear (sunglasses at night, to show us that they're NOT SEEING), and about the incredible implicit gayness of the Robert Webber-Gig Young relationship.

****/****

Easily will be the best or the second best film of 2001. Brilliantly done film that will be copied, studied, and dwelled upon for years. I loved it! Go see it...now! I cannot really explain the film for it seems simple on the outside but is very complex in how it is done. SO I will not try to explain the film. Just see it!

I no longer know what to make of Leonardo DiCaprio, who seemed so promising when he burst onto the scene in 1993 (I didn't see his Oscar-nominated appearance in WHAT'S EATING GILBERT GRAPE, but was highly impressed by him in the slightly earlier A BOY'S LIFE). His callowness in TITANIC seemed appropriate for the poorly conceived role, but also allowed him no room to show the kind of dramatic chops he seemed to have expressed in those earlier films. And inasmuch as this was his first big role following TITANIC, I don't blame him personally for picking something so esoteric -- unless it's somehow HIS fault (the big star!) that the filmmakers made something so downright incomprehensible and weird?

The director-producer-writer team (headed by Danny Boyle) that earlier inflicted the hideous SHALLOW GRAVE ("shallow" is a compliment in that case") and the adequate but overrated TRAINSPOTTING seems now completely to have gone off the rails. Very little in THE BEACH, whether it be plot development, character behavior, or simple logical motivation, makes any objective sense, and I rarely felt that the filmmakers cared if it did or not. I really did feel that the script (by the hopeless John Hodge, based on a novel that I haven't read) cobbled together the worst and most bizarre aspects of such various influences as that CBS-TV masterpiece MYSTERIOUS ISLAND OF BEAUTIFUL WOMEN. and Tarzan comics from the 1970s. Plus a dollop or two of the RAMBO series, just to make it "up to date."

One is faced with the peculiar spectacle of Leonardo DiCaprio giving his all (whatever that comprises) to this oddball project, and winding up making himself look equally as ridiculous as the project in general. Tilda Swinton was interesting as the evil matriarch of the island, but I'd bet a lot of more famous actresses in the same age group turned that same role down because the part is so inherently loathsome and demeaning. Nobody else in the cast gets to make much of an impression.

THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK (US 1933) movie ***1/2 score n/a

In WWI France, two American airmen serving in the Royal Flying Corps forge an unlikely friendship. Fredric March and Cary Grant are superb as the squabbling airmen, whilst Sir Guy Standing is his usual dominant self as their British commanding officer, and Jack 'king of the double-take' Oakie provides plenty of light relief. THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK is a stunning and moving tale of Britain's struggle to overcome the Hun during WWI, highlighting with uncompromising effectiveness the horrendous (and often needless) loss of life this entailed. Not only did Britain lose the cream of its manhood, but many other nations from within the British Empire, along with the United States, lost many sons. Movies such as THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK provide a powerful reminder of the supreme sacrifice made by so many Britons, Australians, Canadians, South Africans, Indians, Frenchmen, Americans, New Zealanders, and so on, during the Great War.

IN LIKE FLINT (US 1967) movie * score **

Flint's up against a secret society of women bent on world domination in this dire follow-up to the entertaining OUR MAN FLINT. The entire cast, excepting Lee J Cobb (hilarious in drag), is hopeless, especially James Coburn, the direction is non-existent and the script is excruciatingly banal. Jerry Goldsmith's score does little to lighten the tedium, and bears very little relation to the music he developed for the pleasing album. IN LIKE FLINT begins badly, and gradually becomes increasingly unwatchable. When it isn't cringemakingly silly, IN LIKE FLINT is exceedingly boring - it's easy to see why this was the final Flint movie.

ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER (US 1970) movie ** score ***1/2

In this middling screen adaptation of the successful Broadway musical, Barbara Streisand recalls, under hypnosis, a previous incarnation in 19th century England. ON A CLEAR DAY YOU CAN SEE FOREVER features some very nice songs, but the movie suffers badly from the inappropriate casting of Yves Montand in the pivotal role as Streisand's psychiatrist - not only is his enunciation tortuous, his singing is very poor. The movie is at its best during the sumptuously photographed flashbacks to Regency England, and there's a raft of familiar British faces on show, including Irene Handl, Roy Kinnear and John Le Mesurier. The contemporary American cast-members, including Jack Nicholson and Bob Newhart, fare less well. Worth watching for the songs, otherwise a no no.

THE GLASS SLIPPER (US 1954) movie * score *

Wooden musical take on the Cinderalla story suffers from rank bad acting, tedious dialogue, banal music, and laughably inept dance routines. In the title role, a very pretty Leslie Caron's English diction is sadly no better than Yves Montand's, and British star Michael Wilding's Hollywood career suffered another setback with this garishly photographed flop. Still, there are solid contributions from Keenan Wynn and from a strong British supporting cast that includes Estelle Winwood, Barry Jones and Elsa Lanchester. Walter Pidgeon narrates.

RAVENOUS (UK/US 1997) movie *** score ***

Gently amusing British comedy western filmed in the Czech Republic. British star Robert Carlyle plays a mysterious Scotsman who turns up at a remote Californian fort in the 1840's. The fort's occupants, including Guy Pearce (an English actor who was taken by his parents to Australia when he was three), Jeffrey Jones and David Arquette have little idea of the horror that will follow. The plot is full of satisfying twists and turns, the score, centred around a banjo, is full of interest, and the comedy is never allowed to undermine the entertaining story involving rampaging cannibals. RAVENOUS is another one of those '90s movies that lovingly recreates the fun all-out entertainment quality of many '30s and '40s classics, combining the atmosphere, absurdities and rich characterizations of the Universal horror series, the flavour and mood of many an early John Wayne western and the cinematic skill of a larger-than-life Bogart urban crime drama. British director Antonia Bird has come a long way since Eastenders and Inspector Morse.

SWEETHEARTS (US 1938) movie ***1/2 score ***/12

SWEETHEARTS is perhaps Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald's finest screen outing. Sharply scripted, beautifully photographed in glorious early technicolor, richly scored with exquisite singing and inventive dance routines, and brilliantly acted by a cast of top Hollywood character stars, this is the kind of movie that is a must for any lover of cinema. The story involves successful Broadway stars Eddy and MacDonald being coaxed to Hollywood by a cunning talent scout, superbly played by the imperious British character actor Reginald Gardiner. Frank Morgan is his usual endearingly fuddled self playing the singing duo's loveable manager. Perhaps a smidgen overlong, but rather two hours of SWEETHEARTS than one minute of IN LIKE FLINT.

The IMDb credits FIVE composers (including source music), but the principal score seems to have been done by Michael Nyman. If so, it's the first worthwhile work from him I've really ever heard.

Considering the score to RAVENOUS was the work of more than one composer, I thought it worked for the movie remarkably well. Like you, I’m not a great fan of Nyman’s output thus far (in my case, probably more out of ignorance than anything - although I didn't think much of GATTACA, movie or score), so I found it difficult to distinguish exactly what was Nyman’s work and what wasn’t. However, the impressive music that accompanied the lengthy scene following Pearce's jumping off the cliff, and his subsequent recovery, sounded very 'Nyman' to me, and added considerably to the impact of that part of the movie.

To me, one of the best things about RAVENOUS was the authentic recreation of time and place. Not everyone spoke like John Wayne or Arthur Hunnicutt in 1847, and the filmmakers here avoided that kind of 'western cliche' without compromising the movie's atmosphere. The same goes for the 'attitude' of the characters, and the way the Indians were portrayed. Thankfully, there were no naive concessions to political correctness here and the Indians were simply portrayed as people, without lumbering them with stereo-typical characteristics born out of late-20th century sensibilities. In fact, the whole cast was impressive, this was a particularly well-cast movie. Each character was memorable and distinct for one reason or another, not least Jeffrey Jones' wonderful characterization. As far as I'm concerned, this movie's greatest strength was the way it didn't allow its comedic elements to undermine the strength of the characterizations and storyline, it never got stupid, although at times it seemed on the verge of descending into farce but never did. If this 'cinematic brinkmanship' was intentional, it was a very clever device.

Film ****/****
Score ****/****

I have seen this thing many times(once in theater by mistake, I thought it would suck but It was fat out awesome, strange, original in the feel of it all), own the score, the DVD, and it is one of my fav. films by the way, it flat out rules.

Mr. 2, you're most welcome. I just got to feeling that enough was enough. As stated, I disagreed with your banning in the first place -- I forget how vocally, perhaps not at all on the Boards at the time. I'm not a fight-picker by nature, but finally decided one must hang on to principle. I actually expected a lot more hostility to the idea of your reinstatement than was received, and was quite surprised that the opposite was true.

Who woulda thought it, y'old curmudgeon, yer missed! Even your arch-nemesis Andre said "yea." (Although vulcantouch really is the one who has called for your reinstatement the longest, the loudest, and the most consistently.)

Much as I've appreciated the support from everyone for my reinstatement, demonstrated at your FSM thread 'Time to Reinstate DANIEL2', I believe such positive sentiment from many is born more out of the great respect other board members have for your opinions, than any desire to see me return.

Nevertheless, it is great to see so many board members willing to put their personal opinions to one side in an attempt to uphold the principle of free speech. It is most gratifying to see the 'spirit of fair play' surfacing among so many varying board members.

Despite your efforts, and those of vulcantouch, Chris Kinsinger, and others, I am resigned to the fact that it is unlikely my ban from posting at the FSM message board will ever be relaxed. And I am fairly comfortable with this.

Please allow me to remind you of Bill Smith's public response to my banning at the 'Do you want to be the new Daniel2?' thread on November 5th 2000 -

"Due to his repeated abuses of this Board, Daniel2 has been permanently banned from the FSM Message Board. He has been skirting the line of decency and tolerance for weeks now, and with this unauthorized publication of private correspondence and false representation of conversations, he has crossed the line into pure policy violation.

"Sometimes people can get around this banning procedure, so I will need all of you other members to keep an eye out for him. I would like any of you who notice activities by Daniel2 to email me at "smith@email.com" and mention where this may be happening.

"Thank you very much. Hopefully the quality of this board has gone up a few notches."

I think it is quite clear from the tone of the FSM Board Administrator's statement above, that the misrepresentation of Big Bear's e-mail was merely the 'final straw that broke the camel's back', and that Bill simply seized on what he considered was a golden opportunity to officially ban me. The fact that Bill did not inform me via personal e-mail of my banning, and merely posted the above admonishment in a public place, in my view reflects the dislike he had of my presence at the FSM board. Further, I e-mailed Bill shortly after I was banned to firstly communicate my respect for his decision to ban me, and also to assure him I would not attempt to post at the message board under a different guise in future - I received no response to this. Although I thoroughly respect, and understood, Bill's decision to ban me, I was a little disappointed at his lack of personal contact and his belief that I may attempt to continue posting at the FSM board under a pseudonym.

Considering Bill's general non-involvement with message board affairs (not a criticism, merely an observation), it is interesting to note that the administrator seems to rely on e-mailed correspondence to inform him of breach of policy or taste, and, along with the content of Bill's above statement of reprimand, this leads me to suspect that The Big Bear was not the only board member to have complained to the administrator privately about my input at the FSM board. And, also because of the board administrator's apparent lack of involvement at the FSM board, I wonder if he is even aware of the 'Time to reinstate DANIEL2' thread.

Nevertheless, I would like to reiterate that I bear Bill Smith, The Big Bear and every other FSM board member no malice, and willingly accept my permanent ban.

Indeed, much as I would love to be able to post freely at FSM once more, I am quite comfortable with my ban, and find the MovieMusic Message Board an admirable alternative.

PS This message also appears at the FSM thread 'Time to Reinstate DANIEL2'.

Anyway sticking to the topic, I saw the following movies;

Life is beautiful - which so deserved to win the oscar.
Casablanca - really ahead of its time in terms of how a movie should made.
Gladiator - which just rocked! Russell Crowe is god in that movie! He's so hot.
Saving Grace - a funny british movie that involves growing weed