I thought THE TERMINAL was whimsical, sweet,
but inevitably tepid Spielburg. I was a little bored. Hanks is always good, and I imagine the movie has all sorts of messages and that gate 67 was some type of microcosm, but I just wasn't pulled into this movie. I like Spielburg when he is deadly serious (Private Ryan and Schindler's List) or when he makes thrilling popcorn movies. (Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, etc.) I wish he would return to either genre.

THE NOTEBOOK is sweet and syrupy and inevitably enchanting because it is elevated by stunning performances
and gorgeous cinematography. Aaron Zigman provides a lush, melodic score that
supports the love stories; however, I must admit that John Barry may have melted
my marrow even more. Zigman has scored few movies, but he is a guy who can
compose a theme, and I'll be listening at his future movies.

The fiesty McAdams and regal Rowlands give solid performances. Ryan Gosling
and James Garner are outstanding. Garner has a scene that will break the
the most steel-hearted. My only objection to this movie is the ending. The movie
should have kept the book's ending.

Looking for a fine love story and wanting to hear real melody, then go see THE
NOTEBOOK.

Do I really have to explain what this movie is about? Not long finished here on BBC 2, I just didn't enjoy it as much as I did many years ago, still entertaining in a very corny way and I'd still like to own Tiomkin's original score (does it still exist?), to me, this is one of those rare 'classics' where the remake pisses all over the original, Carpenter took this film and turned it into a TRUE classic of horror sci-fi.

I also watched TRUE LIES again tonight for the first time since I originally saw it on it's release, James Cameron is a great action director but this was really clunky! I was vaguely entertained (when I could be bothered to look up from reading the latest issue of EMPIRE magazine).....Jamie Lee Curtis's cleavage was eye catching as usual.

NP : nothing...I'm off to bed.

Directed by Raoul Walsh
Screenplay by Wally Kline and Aenear Mackenzie
Photography by Bert Glennon
Music by Max Steiner

Main Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Arthur Kennedy, Charles Grapewin, Anthony Quinn, Sydney Greenstreet

The life of General Custard, from his early days at West Point to his death at Little Big Horn.

Quintessential classic Hollywood - though hardly great despite the standard attractiveness. All that comedy and romance at the outset is hard to take, but I woke up as things turned increasingly dramatic, and the whole endeavour does take on appropriately mythical proportions by the end.

Errol Flynn is Goldilocks Custard from Never-Neverland here, but some of the supporting cast are quite good.

Directed by Sam Peckinpah
Screenplay by NB Stone Jr
Photography by Lucien Ballard
Music by George Bassman

Main Cast: Joel McCrea, Randolph Scott, James Drury, Mariette Hartley, Edgar Buchanan, Warren Oates

Two ageing, saddle-sore cowboys take on the job of ensuring the safe transport of gold from a mining camp to the bank.

This movie has a good reputation, and I know some folks around this Board like it, but I didn't think it was that special. For all its expansive photography there's a kind of conventional TV feel to it, probably due to the TV faces of James Drury and Mariette Hartley. The other faces are of course potato-faced Joel McCrea and lizard-faced Randolph Scott as the old-timers. McCrea outshines Scott here, the latter being far too wooden, but as Western icons both function adequately.

As I say, nothing special, but there are good scenes along the way, such as the surreal wedding in the mining camp. Just think of how much blood and sex Peckinpah would have inserted into this sequence if he'd made it ten years later! Actually, it's interesting to see how Peckinpah's recurring themes are established in this film. Fascinating in context, less so as an isolated unit.

Although I didn't think it was great, RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY is probably the most plainly enjoyable Peckinpah movie I've seen (if only because I disliked so much of his subsequent output).

Directed by Mike Leigh
Screenplay by Mike Leigh
Photography by Dick Pope
Music by Andrew Dickson

Main Cast: Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Claire Rushbrook, Phyllis Logan

Secrets and lies come to the fore in a broken-backed family when an adopted black girl (a succesful middle-class optician) finds her real mum (a thick, working-class, chain-smoking, silly white slag).

I found this a bold, generous, affecting movie, but one which at its heart simply didn't convince me. I may be a mean-spirited snob, but I just didn't buy the growing friendship between the succesful black girl and her silly cow white mum. If only the class gap were so easy to bridge. One more thing - Award-winning Brenda Blethyn far overdoes the whining, giggling, sobbing, chain-smoking working class bit. That's a 10 on the Julie Walters Annoying Silly Tart scale. I'd have slapped her, but, of course, the whole message of the movie is that she just needed a big hug. It's a lovely idea, and one I can't help but file under "bollocks". Still, her scenes with her other daughter (grumpy, chain-smoking, pub-going - you get the picture) are quite horrifically accurate. I've seen that kind of particularly English awfulness in operation in several households throughout my life.

So, Blethyn is a caricature, and the central idea doesn't gel, but there's much to admire in SECRETS AND LIES, not least Timothy Spall who silently suffers at the heart of it all. It's an unshowy, thoughtful and very moving performance.

Band of the Hand
Directed by Paul Michael Glaser
1986
Writing credits go to Jack Baran and Leo Garen

Plot summary:
In an attempt of resocialisation, five hopeless juvenile criminals are sent away from prison into the Everglades for a survival training under the Indian Joe. When this is successful, they move back to Miami. However this offends the former illegal inhabitants of their house, all loyal customers of drug baron Cream. The conflict leads to armed fights.

Directed by Billy Wilder
Screenplay by Billy Wilder and IAL Diamond
Photography by Charles Lang Jr
Music by Adolph Deutsh

Main Cast: Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe, Joe E Brown, George Raft

Low-key case study of the social problems facing those who fail to project a clear gender identity.

Here's an admission - I've never been a great fan of Billy Wilder. I've always found his films to cater for the naughty old ladies in the audience. But I must admit I had a good time with SOME LIKE IT HOT. No complaints about pacing this time, and some of the reaction shots of Lemmon and Curtis are classic. Great faces. But it's still not in my top 50 list. Just shows I don't know nowt about cinema.

Directed by Tay Garnett
Screenplay by Adelaide Heilbron, from the novel by Bess Streeter Aldrich
Photography by Hal Mohr
Music by Edward Ward

Main Cast: Martha Scott, William Gargan, Edmund Gwenn, Sterling Holloway, Sidney Blackmer, Mary Anderson

The life of a teacher in a smalltown school.

I quite liked this. Martha Scott is the teacher showing integrity in her career choices whilst her sense of responsibility puts the needs of others first. So she misses out on some of the romantic and family disasters the rest of us go through (only to a certain extent - the film makes it clear that an old spinster has lived life just as anyone else). Whatever, her sacrifices reap some kind of compensation in the end because she has helped so many others find the right road. But has it been enough for her?

There's the usual handicap of seeing young actors perform in old-age makeup but it's still a well-done little movie, even if it doesn't seem to be making much of an impression whilst it's on.

Amenábar's score is great too. Beautiful Main Titles which gives the solo instruments room to breathe. Some of the later "horror" music is less great (though still amazingly effective in the film - isn't that what matters?), though I still think it's grand how such a skilled film-maker as this openly acknowledges Jerry Goldsmith as an influence. FREUD is all over THE OTHERS (or is that the Bartok influence?).

So, THE OTHERS - brilliant.

Just digressing for a moment - what other movies have I thought were "brilliant" of the ones I've recently caught or recaught? Well, off the top of my head - AMERICAN BEAUTY; TWELVE ANGRY MEN; THE BUTCHER BOY; ROSEMARY'S BABY... THE OTHERS is that good.

Clayton

one word...

CRAP!

I promise to rectify this next month....

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay by Samson Raphaelson, Alma Reville and Joan Harrison, from a novel by Frances Iles
Photography by Harry Stradling
Music by Franz Waxman

Main Cast: Joan Fontaine, Cary Grant, Nigel Bruce, Cedric Hardwicke, May Whitty, Leo G Carroll

Quiet little thing marries a dodgy playboy and gets a bit paranoid about his motives.

Fairly thinly plotted Sir Alf movie. The whole thing seems even more contrived than is usual - we're putty in the director's hands here to an extreme, and the imposed ending IS very rushed and unsatisfactory. However, the classic Hitchcock touches keep it reasonably gripping throughout, and the cast is good - I particularly liked Nigel Bruce doing his loveable buffoon act once more.

No music score, but they sing to the leopard a lot.

BRINGING UP BABY (USA 1938)

Directed by Howard Hawks
Screenplay by Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde
Photography by Russell Metty
Musical Director: Roy Webb

Directed by Richard Brooks
Screenplay by Richard Brooks, from the play by Tennessee Williams
Photography by Milton Krasner
Musical Director: Harold Gelman
Orchestra conducted by Robert Armbruster

Main Cast: Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Ed Begley, Rip Torn, Shirley Knight

It's Tennessee Williams territory, apparently toned down for the screen (Newman doesn't lose his bollocks at the end), but a strong, gripping piece of cinema nonetheless. It's handsome looking, and the script has electrifying passages, but the acting's the thing here - Paul Newman has some good moments of James Dean angst, and Geraldine Page is fine, but best of all is Oscar-winning Ed Begley ferociously spouting venom. Frightening too is Rip Torn as Begley's thuggish azzole of a giggling son.

Directed by Norman Taurog
Screenplay by Elwood Ullman and Robert Kaufman
Photography by Sam Leavitt
Music by Les Baxter

Main Cast: Vincent Price, Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman, Fred Clark, Susan Hart, Jack Mullaney

Dr Goldfoot makes sexy robots that seduce rich men.

Now, I absolutely ADORE Vincent Price, but if he was prone to cutting off more ham than he could chew in his SERIOUS roles, just imagine him hamming it up in a ridiculous COMEDY. Yes, sadly, DOC G is very dim-witted, a spoof of a spoof. It reminded me of the FLINT and MATT HELM movies (though it just about pre-dates them all - as if that were a consolation), with elements of those 60s beach party thingies. Truly embarrassing (watch it ALONE, or better still, don't watch it).Actually, there is a modicum of interest for fans when Vincent shows the dimwits around his torture chamber, even parodying THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM for one sequence (it looks to me like there were genuine scenes from that Corman classic cut into this). Then it all degenerates (even more) into a very WACKY RACES-type chase through San Francisco, which might amuse a four-year-old.

Expect my THUNDERBIRDS review at the begining of the August thread.

'hic'