Movie review - "Steve Jobs" (2015) ****

Flamboyant, gloriously wordy, entertaining look at the life of Jobs via three product launches in his life. Having made that decision, Aaron Sorkin locked himself into the fact that major events need to happen off screen, which plays better on stage than film. He kind of tries to get around that by having brief cut aways to said event - Jobs and Woz in the famous garage, Jobs getting fired, etc.

Danny Boyle's direction is energetic and pacey, even if there are times I wish he'd slowed down to milk the emotion. The acting is uniformly excellent - but Michael Fassbender isn't a star and I think the movie would have benefited with someone more likable. Kate Winslet does wonders with that Sorkin standby, the faithful assistant (Sarah Snook is thrown in as another one for good measure - a girl with clipboard); Seth Rogen is really good as Wozniack; Jeff Daniels I was prepared to be getting sick off but he's great as the guy who sacks Jobs; Katherine Waterston is okay in perhaps the most sketchy role, the mother of Jobs' kid. It's smart and brave and I wish it had done better at the box office.

Movie review - "Traveller's Joy" (1949) **

Arthur Macrae's comedy play ran for two years on the West End; based on this it's hard to see why but the subject matter - currency restrictions for English travelling in Europe - no doubt had enormous appeal for it's target market i.e. West End theatre audiences. Today its fairly hard to watch with a bunch of Poms stuck at a hotel in Stockholm. Googie Withers wants cash, runs into her ex John McCallum, who flirts with American Yolande Donlan.

There is some interest watching Withers act with McCallum (the two had just gotten married) and the topic matter has some social history value. McCallum is wooden and Withers seems a bit old - sorry if that's mean, it's just how I feel. I get they were going for light comic touch but it defeated people. The cast try, Ralph Thomas' direction is workmanlike. There aren't a lot of laughts. The Swedish setting really isn't used well - needed to be in a country that had more of a history with England eg France, Italy.

Book review - "Father of the Blob" by Jack H Harris (2015)

Harris gives some of his best stuff up the front, talking about making The Blob then goes into his life story. Much of it at first feels familiar to regular readers of movie bios - Russian Jewish immigrant ancestors, moving to the US, becoming interested in the film industry on the exhibition side. Harris had a spell as a child actor and served in the war, then going to work for his dad. The two men clashed, Harris went out on his own and made a success of it (for instance, distributing old Laurel and Hardy films). Harris decided to go into actual production at had a home run hit with The Blob.

After that the book becomes less predictable and more interesting. He makes/finances a series of films, of wildly varying quality - The 4D Man, Dinosaurus, The Unkissed Bride with Tommy Kirk, Dark Star with John Carpenter, Schlock with John Landis, Equinox with a bunch of unknowns, Prison Ship with Fred Olen Ray.

He earns a lot of money with his movies including a Danish sex film, his marriage breaks up, he lives in Malibu where his neighbours include Larry Hagman (who makes a Blob sequel) and Jon Peters (who he becomes friends with, and Barbra Streisand, leading to Eyes of Laura Mars), doesn't like The Blob remake.

It's a jaunty tale. A lot of the time you do wonder if he's telling the truth but it's an entertaining read.

Movie review - "Her" (2013) ****

I was resistant seeing this because all the hipsters seemed to like it, and I have an instinctive aversion to cool group movies, and Spike Jonze is very much in the cool group, but it's lovely. Simple and lovely with Joaquin Phoenix falling in love with the voice of Scarlett Johanssen - both a very good. The characters in the film don't really judge Phoenix for what he does, and the twist is she falls for him more than he goes for her.

I did struggle to believe Phoenix's job - writing letters for people. Didn't feel like a real job felt like something people do in movies. Excellent support cast eg Chris Pratt, Amy Adams, Olivia Wilde.

Book review - Richard Burton Diaries (published 2012)

Every Richard Burton fan should read this - a fascinating insight into the man, his thoughts, ramblings, demons, passions. Melyvn Bragg's biography quotes extensively from these but nothing beats reading them, and there's a fair bit to go around- it's not consistent, with great gaps at key periods, but there is a lot, particularly in the late 60s and early 70s.

It's all there - constant talk to "E"; ramblings about politics, sport, human nature, the industry; accounts of the making of various films; traveling to various glamorous locales. I was aware Burton was a great reader though not how passionately and consistently - as he himself writes at one stage, literature, not acting or theatre or films, was the great love of his life. He read all sorts of books too: the classics, biographies, histories, pulp, classy pulp.

I didn't realise how much of a family man he was - even though the kids didn't live with them most of the time they are always turning up for breaks and the diary entries are full of concerns for what they've been up to.

The most comprehensive behind the scenes accounts concern Raid on Rommell, Staircase, Boom, Villain, Taming of the Shrew, Anne of a Thousand Days, Assassination of Trotsky, Bluebeard plus the early 80s revival of Camelot.

The most entertaining bits are (sorry have to admit it) the bitch sessions - slagging off on actors (Elliot Gould), directors (Franco Zefferelli).  He goes back and forth on Joe Losey. There are some fascinating "I remember when" bits, especially recalling getting contracted to Alex Korda, making My Cousin Rachel, the making of Cleopatra. There's also things like watching Alexander the Great on TV, making fun of Ice Palace.

There is a lot of genuine affection and admiration for Taylor (with whom he had a healthy sex life) and his family, mixed in with concern. His marriage to Susan Hunt clearly had good times too. He is enthusiastic about Welsh rugby and has interesting things to say about other actors.

The most moving entries concern his drinking - self loathing, little congratulatory moments when he cuts down on his drinking. It's a very big book but is very gripping.

Movie review - "Joy" (2015) **

I really like Jennifer Lawrence and tend to enjoy David O. Russell movies once I get in the cinema, but this was a slog. It sounds like it's going to be interesting - an unconventional biopic about the inventor of the Miracle Mop - and there are good bits, like her initial sale, and trying to sell the mop, and working for shopping networks.

But I couldn't get into it. There are all these characters - Robert de Niro as dad, Bradley Cooper as a selling executive, Edgar Ramirez as her ex, Diane Ladd as mum, Dascha Polanco as her best friend, Virginia Madsen as mum, Isabella Rossellini as dad's girlfriend, PLUS two kids - but none of them make an impact. I think it's meant to have something to do with family, and also soap operas (they cut away to some) and women's role in society. But... it doesn't hit home. It didn't work for me. Lawrence was watchable, though.

Movie review - "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean" (1972) **

I think John Milius was a hard writer to film - at his best he wrote in such a big flamboyant style, that he needed characters and handing to match. Milius the director was never up to Milius the writer - he never quite conveyed visually the grandiosity of the scripts. Francis Ford Coppola got it right in Apocalypse Now but he's one of the few. (Just like Brian de Palma is one of the few directors to do justice to the operatic nature of David Mamet's writing.)

I can understand why they would have thought John Huston was ideal to direct The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean - like the central character, Huston was a rogue, a womaniser, a teller of tall tales. But the film he turned in is a sober, buttoned down version, with Paul Newman miscast in the lead. Oh he gives a nice enough performance, hitting all his marks, even being quite effective in the quieter moments - but he's still Paul Newman. You never believe he was an outlaw, or would grow a big beard, or be a megalomaniac. Huston himself actually would have been a better choice.

The plot consists of a series of vignettes - Bean's arrival in town, his revenge on the people who try to kill him, hanging murderer Tab Hunter (an effective performance), meeting reverend Anthony Perkins, getting a bear from John Huston, cavorting with said bear and beautiful Victoria Principal while a song plays on the soundtrack in a scene that throws back to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, taking on an albino gunman (Stacy Keach in perhaps the best bit in the film), knocking out Roddy McDowall, trying to visit Lily Langtry, losing Principal. 

The final act, where McDowall becomes an unconvincing villain and Bean/Newman returns to help his daughter, the not terribly American Jacqueline Bisset, feels very tacked on and is likely to try your patience - though I did like the epilogue with Ava Gardner as Langtry.

I get the feeling the filmmakers were torn about how "likeable" to make Bean. He needed to be compelling but he isn't. Victoria Principal is beautiful but it's a terrible role - pretty adoring simpleton who dies, like Debra Paget in Broken Arrow. There doesn't seem to be any real build - it's not about bringing justice is it, since Bean is mostly lining his own pockets.

I should add though, the script was a lot of fun to read, and some people love the movie. I just didn't enjoy much watching it.