Starring: Sean Connery
An ex-con forms a gang to rob a building, not knowing that police and others, for various purposes are making recordings of his conversations.
Sean Connery was at his peak at this time, I remember that he seemed to be in nearly every film released. He made a lot of duds, is he overrated or was his selection of scripts slightly suspect? The first half of this movie is confusing, clumsy editing spoiling any flow as we flicked from scene to scene. The last half was entertaining enough with Pop, an excellent charcter similar to the librarian in Shawshank redemption. But there was never sufficient explanation of 'The Anderson tapes' recordings and they all seemed a bit irrelevant as a kid with a ham radio was ultimately, the critical character. OK, but could have been so much better. 4/10
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Sunday, May 21, 2006
How to get ahead in advertising 1989
Starring: Richard E Grant
An advertising man, in revolt against salesmanship, grows a boil that turns into an alternative head.
In my view, a film should entertain, either by making you laugh, cry, thrilling you, scaring or amazing. I found this movie just plain irritating from the first frame to the last. Grant played the most hateful character, I hoped he'd become more likeable when the boil came to life, but alas no. Rachel Ward added a touch of glamour and was at least watchable. The only good point is that I'll never need to watch this again. 1/10
An advertising man, in revolt against salesmanship, grows a boil that turns into an alternative head.
In my view, a film should entertain, either by making you laugh, cry, thrilling you, scaring or amazing. I found this movie just plain irritating from the first frame to the last. Grant played the most hateful character, I hoped he'd become more likeable when the boil came to life, but alas no. Rachel Ward added a touch of glamour and was at least watchable. The only good point is that I'll never need to watch this again. 1/10
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Brighton rock 1947
Starring: Richard Attenborough
The teenage leader of a racetrack gang uses a waitress as alibi to cover a murder and marries her. He later decides to be rid of her, but fate takes a hand in his murder plot.
I'm a big fan of Richard Attenborough as both director and actor, I don't consider this to be his finest moment. A lot of his menace he portrays by using his eyes and I never really bought him as a hard man. Carol Marsh was terrific as the poor, misguided waitress and played her role to perfection. Brighton must be a very small town as when you're trying to avoid someone, you seem to constantly bump into them around every corner. Now, in the early 1970s, I used one of those booths where you record your voice onto a vinyl record and let me tell you, they were rubbish. The ending came as no surprise and brought back memories I hadn't thought of for years. The movie itself was built to a good climax which helped me to forgive some of its earlier tedium. 6/10
The teenage leader of a racetrack gang uses a waitress as alibi to cover a murder and marries her. He later decides to be rid of her, but fate takes a hand in his murder plot.
I'm a big fan of Richard Attenborough as both director and actor, I don't consider this to be his finest moment. A lot of his menace he portrays by using his eyes and I never really bought him as a hard man. Carol Marsh was terrific as the poor, misguided waitress and played her role to perfection. Brighton must be a very small town as when you're trying to avoid someone, you seem to constantly bump into them around every corner. Now, in the early 1970s, I used one of those booths where you record your voice onto a vinyl record and let me tell you, they were rubbish. The ending came as no surprise and brought back memories I hadn't thought of for years. The movie itself was built to a good climax which helped me to forgive some of its earlier tedium. 6/10
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Guadalcanal diary 1943
Starring: Preston Foster
Marines fight for a vital Pacific base.
A documentary style movie of 5 months on an island fighting the Japanese. This was probably made as a moral booster in the second World war and therefore had its place, now it seems very dated. It makes you appreciate how senseless war is and it certainly makes no attempt to glamorise. Touches oh humour such as the guy who never knows where his helmet is are welcomed and some of the battle scenes are quite effective. Interesting but past its sell by date. 4/10
Marines fight for a vital Pacific base.
A documentary style movie of 5 months on an island fighting the Japanese. This was probably made as a moral booster in the second World war and therefore had its place, now it seems very dated. It makes you appreciate how senseless war is and it certainly makes no attempt to glamorise. Touches oh humour such as the guy who never knows where his helmet is are welcomed and some of the battle scenes are quite effective. Interesting but past its sell by date. 4/10
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