Movie review - "For Your Eyes Only" (1981) ***1/2 (re-watching)

 Excellent script but probably needed Sean Connery rather than Roger Moore. Can't think of the point of the Lyn Holly Johnson character. Loved Topol, Julian Glover, Cassandra Harris, Carole Boquet is dreadful. Suspenseful end. Wonderful locations.

Book review - "A Prayer for the Dying" by Jack Higgins (1973)

 Ripping page turner which feels incluenced by Odd Man Out though I may be unfair - Fallon is a superheroic doomed IRA man hired to do a private job. A terrific priest character - a violent man, veteran of World War Two, Korea and fights in Mozambique. Fallon is a worthy character too. The gay sadistic gangster hero is unfortunate - thriller writers loved their homophobia around this time.

Very exciting twists and turns and it all builds even if did think Fallon would kill the main guy earlier. They should've bought in the IRA too. I would love to have adapted this.

Movie review - "Hotel New Hampshire" (1984) **

The novel is probably good. This seems to lack focus. Hard for a movie to do justice to more than one to three characters as this proves. Rob Lowe tries but is too pretty. Jodie Foster is stunningly good. Natassa Kinski suits the movie as well.

The serious stuff - death of the mother, rape of Foster, death of a child - is handled well.  But the film got irritating. I think it was a mistake to follow the characters to Vienna and then Hollywood. Sure, it was in the novel, but so what? Setting it in the one place might've been better.

This is the sort of movie that no doubt has its fans. I am not among them. But good on Tony Richardson for having a go.

 

Movie review - "You Only Live Twice" (1967) **** (re-viewing)

 Connery seems bored at times but he's still Connery. Great settings and lines and moments. Tanaka is tremendous. Blofeld fun. Piranha lakes and Ninja armies and secret trains and Ken Adams being a genius. They kill off Aki too late and Bond gets over her too soon - that's the main flaw.

Movie review - "After the Ball" (1957) **

 Biopic about Vesta Tilley who I've never heard of and starring Pat Kirkwood who I've never heard of but both were big deals in England. It's very stock biopic, with bald exposition and musical numbers.  Tilley's life lacked drama - a lot of shows, a bit of World War One drama. She retires.

Romulus wanted to made it because it was a vehicle for Kirkwood and also Laurence Harvey who seems hamstrung in a hamstrung part as the husband/manager. No death, no reversal, no illness (they pump up an allergic reaction).

Some colour and. songs. Peter Rogers produced and it feels thrifty.  I mean it's period, and in colour but there's a lot of tight shots.

Movie review - "Fresh Air" (1999) ***

 Not much of a story, but interesting visuals, a bright cast, likeable characters. I enjoyed the scenes with the guy and his sick dad (Tony Barry) and it was authenticity. The director likes women.

Opportunities for drama thrown away like  Bridie Carter seemingly interested in the guy - why not have her flirt with him? Or Nadine Garner?

Still, hard to dislike.

Movie review - "The Custodian" (1993) **1/2

 John Dingwall may have written a great script for Sunday Too Far Away but he wasn't flawness and he's not the best argument for writer-directors. This is an intense, florid, corruption tale with Anthony La Paglia as a cop who decides to dob in mates including Hugo Weaving to journo Kelly Dingwall.

Famel characters consistently bland - Essie Davis' perfect coffee girl who just wants to be there for La Paglia and invites him home and is basically nothing, Naomi Watts also nothing to play as Dingwall's girlfriend, and there's also La Paglia's trashy wife Joy Smithers, and Barry Otto's nothing wife who is murdered (the only kick of this piece), Weaving's got a wife who's just there too. Nothing wrong with actors, just nothing to play.

La Paglia is meant to be a top cop but we don't see him do anything except dob. It's actually not that much of a role. Weaving goes full scenery chewing. Barry Otto is the best in the cast.

I don't think there's been a film with so many female characters that are nothing - you could cut all out of the movie except Otto's wife and she only makes it because she gets murdered.

Just put a dead body in it and have an investigation.