Underwhelming. Relies on work done by others especially Patrick McGilligan. Nothing really new or fresh. A lot of reviews. A few smart arse comments. I get the feeling Levy wrote it because he could turn it out in a short time though I might be wrong.
Eastwood's career meants this was easy enough to read but it's a recap really.
Most interesting characters are Eastwood daughters who come across as hot messes who get involved in escapades.
Gorgeous to watch. Helen Mirren is perfect. James Mason's Australian accent isn't the best. Varying support work - I quite liked Neva Carr Glynn. The dog is terrific. Beautiful photography and locations.
Mirren looking old means the the dodginess of the plot is minimised.
Great moment where Ingrid Pitt is busted nude having a blood bath. But that's the one memorable scene. This lacks energy and excitement. It should be great - Pitt worried about ageing, killing peop.e Undercast the actor who plays her lover. Nigel Green doesn't have the star power of a Cushing or Lee. Not enough sex, violence, nudity. Needed to be more full throttle.
Fun. Bright. Fantastic music. Tommy Kirk and Deborah Walley ideally cast. Others are too. Not enough story. Needed a few more subplots. Stephanie Rothman has nothing to be ashamed of.
I resisted seeing this - I felt it would be a well observed excellently acted slice of life drama that wasn't that interesting, at least not to me, and I was right. Maybe it means more if you're into country music or alcoholics. I would rather have seen a film about Robert Duvall on the piss, slapping around singer wife Betty Buckley, or more of hot mess daughter Ellen Barkin and her deadbeat bloke. Her death and it's impact is the strongest section of the film.
This is good and all that I just didn't care and there's a reason no one much talks about it.
* Alex Korda - I Claudius (started filmin), War and Peace (with Orson Welles!)
* Hammer - I am Legend (yes, more but that's the main one)
*Kubrick - Napoleon, The Aryan Papers
* Hitchcock - No Bail for the Judge, Greenmantle
* Alistair Maclean - HMS Ulysses
*Mistress of the Seas
*Mary Queen of Scots from Alexander Mackendrick
*Tom Paine by Richard Attenborough
*The Knight by Ridley Scott
*Barnado Boys, Feathers of Death and The Long Loud Silence from Bryan Forbes at EMI
*Nat Cohen - the Nat King Cole Story yes, remake of Kind Hearts and Coronets with Dick Emery no
*Lawrence of Arabia from Terence Rattigan
*the Lewis Collins Falklands film
Tony Garnett produced a lot for Ken Loach. He directed this but it feels like a Loach movie - or, more accurately, a Garnett movie! It's a look at gun culture in the US. Karen Young is lovely and heartbreaking as a school teacher who gets raped by a walking red flag, but it was the times back then.
This is extremely well done. Karen Young is sensational - heartbreakingly naive, then traumatised.
