TV review - "Path to War" (2002) ***1/2

 I love how Frankenheimer ended his career as it started with TV plays. This is a dramatised documentary really but with a knock out cast - Michael Gambon as LBJ, Felicity Huffman as his wife, Sarah Paulson as his daughter (love the mention of her sister dating George Hamilton), Alec Baldwin as Macnamara, plus Donald Sutherland, Frederic Forrest, Bruce McGill, Philip Baker Hall and other hey it's that guy actors.

Story is a tragedy - a man who did so much good but also undone by Vietnam. That was idealistic but he didn't have the courage to walk away. 

Long but engrossing. Good one for Frankenheimer to go out on.

Play review - "Martin Guerre" (2026 performance in London)

 Fantastic direction and performers and sets. Story has good meat but there's an element of uncertainty about it. Why do it? Les Mis, Hairspray etc have something underneath it. This doesn't. It's like they cant make up their mind. I read they keep changing aspects of the story - who lives, who dies, what the wife knows. Pick a lane. Fabulous presentation but there's a hole at the core.

Play review - "Stranger Things: The First Shadow" (seen 2026)

 Excellend. Theatrical. Wonderful production values. Had a vision - origin story of many characters - and also a point of difference - being set in 1959. Loved the shout out to Bucket of Blood. Making central relationship a black white thing gives it more resonance.

Play review - "What the Animals Say" by David Ireland (2008, review 2026 performance) (warning: spoilers)

 Excellent production of an interesting play. About two Irish school friends - one a champion soccer player the other an actor, so it has a showbiz feel. Has violence but doesn't build to a death. On the night I saw it the mention of Mel Gibson made me and the other Aussie in the audience laugh loudly and no one else.

Musical review - "Jane Eyre" (2026)

 The musical was fine, sometimes splendid. Too many cast members. Nice how they were faithful but... what was the point? What's the underlying reason? They cast a pretty girl as Jane who is a great singer but couldnt act. She's just pretty. Rochester was good.  Maybe too faithful to the text. Best appreciated as a straight up romance.  The show I saw was full of school girls who gasped with shock with the reveal that Rochester had a wife - that was fun.

Play review - Ayckbourn #34 - "Henceforward" by Alan Ayckbourn

 Really enjoyed this. A bit sci fi but not too mucy. Ayckbourn takes himself ot task for being a vulture on the emotions of others. I would have liked to have seen the actress character back again. Loved the decaying world with the threat of gangs outside and the violence implied. There is humour and darkness. Very well done.

Radio review - "Unmade movies - Mary Queen of Scots"

 Famous unmade script by Jay Presson Allen which almost got shot by Alexander Mackendrick starring Mia Farrow before being cancelled in the great British film crisis of 1969. It was famous because Mackendrick pretty much retired soon after to go into teaching and because it sounded better than the 1971 Hal Wallis movie that was made on this queen.

The result actually isn't that great. It's fine. But it doesn't fix the problems in the story - Mary's state of mind. She gets knocked around too much - Rizzio gets killed, her husband hits her, her husband gets killed, Bothwell goes away, she winds up in prison.

I think Mary is one of those characters too complex to be a lead she might be better off as a support character. She feels real here and it's a good gutsy drama but it's unfocused. 

Radio review - "Unmade movies - Victory"

 The BBC do an adaptation of Harold Pinter's unfilmed script of Conrad's Victory. It's fine, nothing amazing. A bit rape-y. Vanessa Kirby plays Lena which is cool. Richard Eyre adapted it and directed. 

Play review - Ayckbourn#35 - "Man of the Moment" (1988)

 Really enjoyed this. It's "the one with the swimming pool" - set at a villa in Spain where a Ronnie Biggs style crim is reunited by someone who stopped his robberty. Based on Biggs' sidekick Buster Edwards. The satire of the media is a bit whatever now but I loved how the crim was still violent and threatening and it ended with a death, and how the "good" man exploited the robbery to get the traumatised and injured woman no one was interested in.

Play review - "You Never Can Tell" by George Bernard Shaw (1897)

 Shaw in a very light mode - shenanigans by the sea with a dim dentist falling for one of Shaw's sensible women. Main plot involves the woman and her siblings encountering their long lost dad. Comedy of errors and mistaken identities. Nothing solid underneath it but amiable enough.

Play review - "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller

 Listened to audio version with Stacy Keach and Richard Dreyfus. So powerful. Yes, Abigail is a bit conveniently evil she just wants to shag John Procter. There's another lying woman upset her children have died. But the torment of Procter is well done, the fantacism and legalities skifully conveyed and it has a knock out finale.

Play review - "Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller

 Listened to an audio version of this starring Stacy Keach. Very good. Tormented. Long. Biff and Happy are terrible names. The wife worries, gets great speeches but isn't much of a character. But the piece has such power - what's the point of a life? What do you do when you sell and not make? Gut punch.

Movie review - "When Time Ran Out" (1980) * (warning: spoilers)

 One of the movies that killed the disaster movie cycle despite writers including Carl Foreman and Stirling Sillipant and a genuine all star cast - Paul Newman as a rugged oil rigger, William Holden as a hotel owner, Jacqueline Bissett as Holden's secretary, Burgess Meredith as a guest, James Franciscus as a rich man, Veronica Hamel as his girlfriend. There's also Ernest Borgnine, Pat Morita, Barbara Carrera, Alex Karras, and others.

The original book was based on a real volcano eruption on Martinique which would have been far more interesting. I guess they had a failure of nerve.

Instead Allen pulls from his other hits - Paul Newman redoing his tough Toweing Inferno stuff, Fraciscus playing Richard Chamberlain in Inferno, a reprise of the crossing the gangway scene in Poseidon Adventure, a reprise of most of the people refusing to come along with the escapees in Poseidon, a reprise of Shelley Winters' death in Poseidon, the fact most of the film concentrates on a small group of refugees like Poiseon.

It's poorly directed and structured. I enjoyed people panicking and trashing the helicopter but it made no sense so many would stay in the hotel. And when they stay in the hotel it's unforgivably dull... everyone hangs around doing nothing and they're killed at the end. The opening location shots of Hawaii are nice but the volcano stuff looks cheap and studio bound. The action is dull - mostly walking over things and falling. Too many perms. Holden seems drunk, Newman looks bored, Bisset is trying. The only ones giving their all all the old character types like Meredith. 

Movie review - "Crack Up" (1946) **1/2

 Good tough Pat O'Brien noir directed with enthusiasm from Irving Reis and a confusing plot with an art element - I'Brien is an art critic. Decent cast including Herbert Marshall and Claire Trevor.

Movie review - "Gigli" (2003) * (warning: spoilers)

 A famous bomb. Ben Affleck tries and Jennifer Lopez has never looked hotter which is saying something. Some problems

- there's a lot of hanging around a flat, with a kidnap victim, so the movie has no pace

- Lopez is a lesbian but we spend a lot of time with Affleck and Lopez flirting and then they fall in love.

- kidnap victim Justin Bartha is a Simple Jack character

- there is no pooint to the kidnapping, they do to help Al Pacino then Al Pacino comes along and says "we don't do that" so all the threat was removed.  

I can't see how the film was ever going to work with Affleck falling for a lesbian... and her wanting to be with him. I know why they did it but it was wrong. 

Bartha is never going to get together with the girl at the end. Not really. And she has a terrible Australian accent. 

Martin Brest was not a writer.

A story without stakes, a tricky subject (man falls for lesbian) not dealt with, another tricky subject (intellectually disabled man is kidnapped) poorly handled. 

Movie review - "Studio Affairs: My Life as a Film Director" by Vincent Sherman (1996)

 Highly entertaining book. Sherman was a good director with a second-tier career. This book explains why - he was constantly given "go" projects that weren't always the best and it seems he wasn't too crash hot on script but he was excellent with actors. He would be called in to help on troubled projects.

The book is enjoyably non-discrete - he had affairs with Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis.  He did one of Errol Flynn's best movies and I wish they'd worked together again. He was blacklisted. Admits he was a shit to his wife.

Book review - "The Mad Emperor" by Henry Sidebottom (2022)

 Exhaustive. Very well researched. A more linear approach may have been better. A bit academic-y in that it takes a historiagraphy approach a lot of the time instead of getting into character. A serious work though.

Play review - "Misalliance" by George Bernard Shaw (1909) (re-reading)

 Lots of jolly japes and zingers among the rich at a house. Not a lot of plot but fun.

Play review - "The Devil's Disciple" by George Bernard Shaw (1897)

 A cad in revolutionary America redeems himself via an act of bravery to impress a sensible woman. The British officer at the end is fun.

Book review - "Roll the Calls" by Ari Emmanuel

 Starts off brilliantly, written in a pulpy, brief stacatto style, and Emmanuel is full of energy. As it goes along it gets tiring. The feuds. The persistence. The varying moral stances. A person of great ability and tenacity and the book gives you a sense of that. But it began to drag. At least he has a sense of humour. 

Play review - "Arms and the Man" by George Bernard Shaw (1894)

 I can see why this is popular as the idea is great - a mercenary soldier winds up in the bedroom of a woman engaged to a idiot soldier. The mercenary has business like attitudes to fighting which is funny and the romance is well developed.

Play review - "Mrs Warren's Profession" by George Bernard Shaw (warning: spoilers)

 A first rate dramatic situation - daughter finds out mum owns a brothel - leading to lots of sensible chat from Shaw's sensible women. The piece probably lacks a crazy puritan to livens things up. The daughter starts and ends the same way - she's a bit of a bitch to reject her mother.

Play review - "The Highwayman" by John Godber

 Interesting take on the life of a highwayman, which has strong moments - gags about death, songs, effective use of three people. I enjoyed the use of a small cast and bare stage it worked well. The actors were efficient when more passion and ham would have been ideal.

Play review.- Ayckbourn#20 - "Just Between Ourselves" by Alan Ayckbourn (1976)

 Second tier Alan Ayckbourn because the family stuff hasn't aged well - the women making cups of tea, jokes about female drivers. It was presented in 1976, to be fair. As a drama this is fine - all set in a garage, the tale of two couples, one man tries to sell the other a car, both have marriage troubles, a woman has a nervous breakdown. This was written in a few days and feels like it - there's a lot of chat. It would be a decent night at the theatre.

Play review - "View from the Bridge" by Arthur Miller (warning: spoilers)

 I remember seeing this play with a girlfriend who wasn't a theatre fan normally but the piece really spoke to her - the overprotective dad figure. Here he's a uncle, excellently played in the audio version by Ed O'Neill, who is perhaps incestuously attracted to his niece but he also kisses the niece's boyfriend. The piece builds logically to his death at the hands of the Sicilian, and the Greek chorus device of the lawyer works well - who admits he envies the uncle in a way because he shows his real self instead of fifty0fifty.

Movie review - "The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart" (1970) **

 This film is wild. Don Johnson was plucked off the stage to star as a fboi college student rich enough to have his own apartment who wants to be a film director and sleeps around. He has sexual fantasies but real life is pretty good - he gets virginal Dianne Hull into bed, in part by really heavy-ing her in a rapey way, then sleeps with her chubby friend Holly Near via using the filmmaking dodge, and hooks up with a hippy Linda Gillen and the beautifuul Victoria Racimo but is still hung up on Hull.

There's some nudity, four letter words, and plenty of sex but the public didn't like it.  I wonder if this was meant to be a set in the queer world? Maybe life was like this. There's no real characters to hook into. Michael Greer comes off best as Johnson's friend.

There's a Hollywood mantra that characters need to be good at their jobs. If Johnson's character was into some decent cause like the anti war movement or was at least a decent filmmaker it would help. 

Movie review - "Year of the Gun" (1992) ** (warning: spoilers)

 Andrew McCarthy is an amiable leading man who could've had a longer stint as a semi-star. He's not a real star - Sharon Stone is. It's bizarre this film was made - an account of an American in 1970s Italy dealing with the Red Brigade. John Frankenheimer wanted it shot in black and white which would have made it more interesting. He also wanted a different leading man

Valerie Golino is very good and often nude as McCarthy's girlfriend.  They should have cast an Italian rather than John Pankow as an Italian lecturer.

It never answers the question why do we care. McCarthy sleeps with Golino, writes a novel, the Red Brigade think he's got inside information, kidnap him, but let him go. He's very passive. At least Stone has a proper job, taking photos etc

Sex scenes between McCarthy and Golino quite hot though him and Stone feels awkward. 

Maybe this would've worked if from Stone's point of view. 

Book ereview - "Montgomery Clift: A Biography” by Patricia Bosworth

 Excellent deep dive on Clift's life and careers. So many people on the record  - lovers, friends. Often harrowing reading. Everyone says Clift was smart, brilliant, funny. But also weak, addictive, whiny, annoying. Given great advantages that he threw away, kept blaming other people (his mother, Hollywood).

Play review - "Incident at Vichy" by Arthur Muller (1964)

 Excellent play about a group of men held by the Germans in Vichy France. Miller at his best - a lot of angst and argument. Builds to a memorable end.

Theatre review - "Merry Wives of Windsor" by William Shakespeare

 Saw this in Exeter. The best actor played Falstaff. The play really should be about the women Flastaff is a supporting character. Feels very quickly written

Theatre review - "Letter to Brezhnev" (2026)

 The film on stage basically. Needed more of a reason to make it. Like songs, or tell the story of the making of the film (its gay writer picking up Russians and passing a script to an heiress passed out on his couch whose brother financed it). Still entertaining to watch. The lead girls were great.

Movie review - "Letter to Brezhnev" (1985) ***

 Sweet, simple, fantastic idea, lots of nightclub scenes, from the heart. You want to see what happens when she goes to Russian. Acting is fine - the girls have authenticity, if the guys are putting on accents that's understandable and the film's not really about them.

Movie review - "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) **** (warning: spoilers)

 Wacky, imaginative, scary, funny. Frank Sinatra looks conspitated, Janet Leigh slightly camp, Laurence Harvey effective, Angela Lansbury sublime. Kicks up when Harvey kills his very nice bride and her father.

Sinatra's character is a bit of a dill, letting Harvey go, failing to stop assassinations. Sinatra's torment strong at the tend. Woman very sexually aggressive here - Leigh and Harvey's girl and Lansbury. Lansbury so good. 

Movie review - "52 Pick Up" (1986) ***

 One of the better films from Cannon Picture it's pretty grim. Roy Scheider is a businessman blackmailed by three genuinely interesting villains over an affair he's having with Kelly Preston. Scheider refuses to go to the police and as a result Preston dies, wife Ann Margret is raped, and both almost die. He doesn't get much come uppance to be frank.

Nice to see Ann Margret in a decent film but her part isn't much. Scheider is fine, John Glover and Clarence Williams are superb, Robert Trebor good too. I love how Glover is into the financial books.

Movie review - "Shine" (1996) ***1/2

 Hadn't seen this since it came out. Has aged quite well esp in its depiction of neuro diversity. Stunning acting from Geoffrey Rush, Noah Taylor and Armin Mueller Stahl. I forgot Sonia Todd was in this. Such a clever script - every section has a character who is nice to David (the music teacher, Googie Withers, John Gielgud, the old ladies, Sonia Todd). 

Play review - "Darkling" by Titas Halder (warning: spoilers)

 Great set. Moving topic. Lead actor played it in one note. Text maybe needed to use names for characters we don't see. A lot of description and repetition and I zoned out a bit. The final section is strong but you can't go wrong with disaster and a dead baby.

Play review - "The Children" by Lucy Kirkwood

 This was really strong once it got going - but it took about 30-40 minutes for the plot to kick in i.e. that Kerry Fox wanted the other two to come with them to the nuclear plant. Once it did it was fine. Three well defined characters, a decent dilemma.

Play review - "Affluenza" by Andy Sandberg

 Knew nothing going on. Enjoyed it a lot. Felt there was more to be mined about the defence of affluenza, but maybe they figured the Ethan Crouch case was sufficiently well known. It kept me guessing. Noah Schapp's first appearance was silly, walking in and drinking wine and walking out. The play wasn't that well directed - transitions bad, the ending confusing. 

Musical review - "Thelma and Louise" (2026)

 A half success. Great leads and some first rate songs but doesn't quite click. Needed to set up their existing lives more. Why give songs to the detective? Also why give the song during Thelma's first proper sex to the guy and not her? The musical number with the pool is silly. The one about Texas is brilliant. This needs more work and less silly dancing but it has a lot of potential and emotion.

Play review - "Table 17" by Douglas Lyons (warning spoilers)

 A relationship in flashback at a dinner - we get to know the couple and various people played by the one actor (a secretly romantic gay waiter, a scene stealing character; a sleazy bartender who I would have liked to have seen more of; a sleazy airline guy). Nothing super new but a fun night out and I liked the open ending. 

Play review - "The Doctor's Dilemma" by George Bernard Shaw (1906)

 Strong dramatic situation - doctor torn whether to let useless artist husband of a woman he loves live. Lacked a little something for me. Maybe too smarty pants about medicine which does do a lot of good.

Play review - "Saint Joan" by George Bernard Shaw (1923)

 I loved this because it had all the smart arguments about religon and politics but also an emotional core because Joan is prosecuted for being competent and smart and her death is horrible. 

Play review - "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw

 Funny. Clever. All that. Show stolen by Eliza's dad. Shaw loves these feisty women and asexual men.

Movie review - "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" (1973) ***1/2

 Watched some version of this. I think the preview. So much great stuff - James Coburn brilliantly cool and tormented, notwitstanding the gag of him in bed with four hookers, Kris Kristofferson brilliant. Love the music. The look. The male actors. Female characters a disgrace but it's Peckinpah. I liked Bob Dylan's appearance.

It's a movie of great scenes. But it doesn't quite hold. It should - it's Coburn tracking Kristofferson. Builds to latter's death. But there's no real build. You can see why it was cut. Cutting didn't help. But there's a central problem with the film.

Wonderful scenes I stress - like Slim Pickens dying. Jack Elam dying. But we barely know them.  

Movie review - "The Breach" (1970) *** (warning: spoilers)

 Solid Claude Chabrol. Stephanie Audran is an ex stripper whose useless husband hits their kid so she whacks him with a frying pan. His rich parents seek to get the kid. The story is solid, plotting keeps you guessing. Most of the story is carried by Jean Pierre Cassell as the dodgy prat hired by rich dad to spy on Audran.

I thought more was going to happen with the nice doctor and nice lawyer who helped Audran. I loved the boarding house of odd types - the three old gossips who eventually help her, the actor who comes through, the landlady Annie Cordy, her boozy husband, their simple daughter.

Quite a full on plot where Cassell arranges for his nude model girlfriend Catherine Roubel - always topless and gagging for sex - to sexually assault the simple daughter while watching porn.

A little silly in places but fun. It helps it's based on class so the conflict is powerful and inherent.

Movie review - "The Bride" (2026) ***

 Bold, imaginative and very watchable, anchored by two dynamic performances - Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale. Doesn't quite build and nail the emotional core but there's always something going on. Maybe I was distracted by other films this could have been eg Buckley as Mary Shelley. Also some things didn't feel quite 1930s - 3D movies and drive ins feel more 1950s.

Movie review - "F1" (2025) ****

 Like Housemaid, throwback to another time - big fat star vehicle, uses the widescreen has a solid story, the filmmakers embrace the genre. Brad Pitt channels Steve McQueen, the female role feels well integrated (always a challenge in race car movies traditionally).

Movie review - "Housemaid" (2025) ****

 Good old school psycho/gaslighting thriller with stars, nice decor, twists, sex and violence. Not terribly original but but put together well. .Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried are an ideal team.

Movie reviwe - "The Gypsy Moths" (1969) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 John Frankenheimer really loved making this movie, good for him, but it doesn't quite work. Burt Lancaster is in a role that neesd a Steve McQueen - once they cast Lancaster they should've rewritten it to make it more lively. Scott Wilson is a good actor but that part needed a star.

It's a movie of interest. Gene Hackman is excellent. Nice midwest atmosphere. It's pervy - the three skydivers go to a strip club and watch a long topless dancing scene. Deborah Kerr goes topless in her love scene with Lancaster (while wearing a perm and pearls) and shows her backside. She was 47! Go Deb! Sheree North works at the club. Bonnie Bedelia is very young and pretty but it's not much of a role.

The film falls down in two areas. It didn't convey why Lancasster woud kill himself, there's no build. Also the relationship between Wilson and Lancaster didn't work. It was... I'm not sure.  

Movie review - "Threads" (1984) *****

 The greatest TV movie ever made? Powerful. Uncompromising. Important. Starts as gritty British drama (shotgun marriage, squabbling family). Torn apart. So many terrifying things including this - the government do a lot. Tries to keep order, gets involved in planning. It's not enough.

Movie review - "Journey into Fear" (1943) (rewatching) ***1/2

 I read an interview with the author of a book on the production of this movie, so decided to re-watch it. Norman Foster directed as opposed to Orson Welles but it is full of Welles touches like the magic show and it is a Mercury Production.

Laurence Olivier did this on radio in 1946.  It was also filmed for TV in 1956. Ben Hecht did the original script.

It's a lot of fun. Everyone's trying to kill Joseph Cotten. Cotten is a whimp. Welles hams it up. Dolores del Rio is enjoyable. Jack Moss is great. It's not a masterpiece but has some nice style.

Movie review - "The Extraordinary Seaman" (1969) *

 MGM took some big swings in the late 1960s - sometimes it hit, other occasions missed, this being a case in point, a film that brought John Frankenheimer's hot streak to an end - he never really got it back.

Four lost American seamen (including a young Alan Alda) come across a disgraced British naval officer (David Niven) trying to redeem the family honour.

It's set in the Philippines but was shot in Mexico. Faye Dunaway is a local woman who owned a garage and fires a gun which I think is supposed to be Frankenheimer being progressive.

These sort of anti war comedies are hard to do. Frankenheimer can't do it. The film was shot in 1967 and not released for two years.

May as well have been a TV play. It's only 80 minutes and feels padded. Intercutting with documentary footage is annoying. The whole movie is annoying. The music score. David Niven always drinking. The antics. 

This movie sucked. 

Movie review - "The Fixer" (1968) **

 This was given a lot of money because John Frankenheimer was "hot" and the novel was a big deal in its day. Its day has passed.

This starts off lively with a good old progrom in 1910s Russia  then becomes bogged down as handyman Alan Bates goes to work for Hugh Griffith whose daughter Elizabeth Hartman is horny for him - this is a basic stock situation but takes around 40 minutes to get us there. 

At heart this is a television play - a man is falsely accused of a crime he didn't commit, because he's Jewish. There's some fancy production values at the beginning but the guts of this takes place in prisoin cells and interrogation room.

Fine acting from Bates, Dirk Bogarde (tortured official),  Ian Holm (prick), David Warner (aristocrat), Carol White (ex wife). It has views of sixties in that women are bitches - Hartman fakes a rape claim, White is a harlot. The characters say the word "Jew" in dialogue a lot.

It's not dumb, it tries to be decent, it has some moments but it's a slog. Kind of like Birdman of Alcatraz. 

I think it needed a plot witith someone on the outside. 

Movie review - "The Young Stranger" (1957) ***

 A nepo baby movie in a way - based on a TV play Deal a Blow by Robert Dozier, son of William Dozier, and starring James MacArthur, son of Ben Hecht and Helen Hayes. When William Dozier became head of RKO he greenlit a film version and got the director of the TV version, John Frankenheimer, to do the job again. Frankenheimer later the experience - he was younger than the crew, who grumbled and fought with him,

It's still basically a TV play. A solid one. MacArthur is a middle class kid, his dad thinks he's done a decent job providing which he has but he hasn't spent any tme.

David Shipman the critic loved this. I'm not sure why - maybe it was personal. MacArthur has a close friendship with a fellow male teen. 

I liked that the mum and dad had a relationship that was wobbly but feel this could've done with more scenes outside, in high school, with a girlfriend. 

Interesting autobiographical touch in that the kid's dad is a film producer - I was reminded of the Rob Reiner film about his sin. 

Movie review - "The Train" (1964) ***1/2

 Burt Lancaster called in John Frankenheimer to replace Charles Crichton on Birdman of Alcatraz and did something similar after he booted Arthur Penn from this movie. It's has a fabulous concept - the Germans are trying to take French art works from Paris as the Allies approach and the French resistance is trying to stop them. Burt Lancaster is the leader of the French.

It's smart. Looks great in black and white. Long. As French as it can be. Lancaster strong star, Paul Scofield ideal. I would've liked more of a character relationship with Lancaster and someone. I know that was tricky. 

Movie review - "Seven Snipers" (2026) **

 Starts strongly, then gets more and more wobbly as logic holes emerge (why do they stand around so much? why don't they call for help). The film really should've been about seven snipers after Radha Mitchell. There is some Bondi casting when using more authentic military types might've been better. Some effective moments. Tim Roth looks as though he's about to fall asleep.

Book review - "Elizabeth and Monty: The Untold Story of Their Intimate Friendship" by Charles Cassilio

 Montgomery Clift comes out of this badly - bitchy, self pitying, smart, whining about his loss of beauty, a junkie, a pain. People loved him though. And even people he annoyed worked with him again. Liz Taylor comes out of this wonderfully. Brave, funny, loyal, smart.

Gossipy but done with scholarship. And you know something? The small size of Clift's manhood is not insignificant. 

Each film the two made together were iconic in their way - Place in the Sun, Raintree County, Suddenly Last Summer and (in planning) Reflections in a Golden Eye.  But sorry Clift was a bit of a loser.

Movie review - "Grand Prix" (1966) *** 1/2 (warning: spoilers)

 MGM's big roadshow made some money but I don't think recouped its cost. Director John Frankenheimer had a great time as he should with Bob O'Brien (very talent friendly) as the studio head, a large budget and European locations.

The movie was meant to star Steve McQueen, who turned it down, as did Paul Newman and Robert Redford, despite the latter not being famous yet. They got James Garner who was trying to be a movie star then. He doesn't quite work - the head is too big or something.

Two other big movie stars are in it - Toshiro Mifune and Yves Montand, who are comfortably cast (not always the case in their English language pictures).  Mifune's role is not that large and he is atrociously dubbed - I wish he'd been a race car driver. Montand is one of the four main stars. The other two are Brian Bedford and some Italian guy, Antonio Sabato.

The racing sequences are superb - justly famous. The land stuff is bland. It didn't have to be - it's not that interesting, that's all. The romance between married Montand and Eva Marie Saint is just... whatever. Saint is a great actress but wasted in the part. Who cares? Why have him married? At least Saint gets a chance to emote with Montand dies. 

Garner's plot is alright - seeking redemption after an accident. Ditto Bedford's.   I just wish more attention had been paid for it.

I'd love to see this on the big screen. 

Movie review - "Linda" (1960) **1/2

 Engaging B picture from Independent Artists/Bryanston directed by Don Sharp. It focuses on young people in love - Carol White, eventually to be legendary, and Alan Rothwell.

White was cast by the producers after working for her in Never Let Go. She was just seventeen. She and Rothwell genuinely seem young - I mean, they are, but seeming it is a different thing to being it. 

The plot has Rothwell hanging around with a Bad Lot (milk bars, table tennis, juvenile delinquency), on the verge of being a criminal, to the worry of a smug, friendly local vicar. He romances local girl White - they have a nice day trip (pleasing location scenes), then he paws her, she says no, she goes on a date, he thinks she's putting out, he sulks and acts possessive and controlling, then they get together, and agree to get married. So it's a film of it's time.  The structure is solid. You just sense he's going to be bashing her in a few years.

White hadn't grown into her looks let, she seems to be a kid. Rothwell is fine - everyone can act.

Don Sharp directs quite well. 

For a long time this movie was considered missing.  It's not a msterpiece or a gem, it feels like a television episode with decent production values, but ti's not bad.

Movie review - "The Challenge" (1982) ***

 John Frankenheimer action flick which had to be rewritten at short notice by John Sayles to change it from a Chinese setting to a Japanese one. Scott Glenn was being trialled in a few leads around this time (eg The Keep) and he's quite good as a boxer. The Macuffin is a sword.

This is a decent movie - it tries to be good. There maybe could be more action. A fair bit of character stuff - Glenn complained more was cut out, but actually I'd rather more action. Not enough Glenn-Mifune.

The villainous henchman who's playing video games was effective. Pretty production values. 

Movie review - "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962) ***

 Famous Burt Lancaster movie with a troubled history - original director Charles Crichton was fired during filming and replaced by John Frankenheimer.

Frankenheimer wanted to make it for TV. The story does suit it but the director is glad he didn't because of the issue with birds. 

A good movie - serious, intelligent, well made and all that. Lancaster brilliant. But a hard slog. Such a hard slog.

It doesn't deify Stroud at all, it's fairly clear he's a brute. It shows how dehumanising prision is and I think people felt guilty so lashed out at the film "glamourising" Stroud. 

Movie review - "Interrupted Melody" (1955) ***1/2

 Decent biopic which has terrific source material - Aussie girl seeks to become opera singer, falls for doctor, they argue over career versus marriage, she gets polio, makes a comeback singing to troops.

Eleanor Parker is a little dull just playing ordinary but comes alive in opera scenes and when she emotes in wheelchairs and considers suicide. Roger Moore is okay as the brother - probably needed to be more of an atagonist. Glenn Ford is strong - has something to play. Cecil Kellaway as dad.

Aussie touches are limited - opening scenes up until around 10 minutes, and with Lawrence/Parker singing 'Waltzing Matilda' to Aussie troops. 

Movie review - "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma" (2026) ****

 There's a lot going on - satire of Hollywood, feminism, queer text, blood, silliness, camp. Takes bold swings, loves its genre.

TV review - "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis - Pilot" (1958) ***

 Famous sitcom arrived fully formed. It helped that it was based on pre existing IP, the stories of Max Schulman, but the producers cast it beautifully - Dwayne Hickman coming off years on The Bob Cummings Show in the lead, Bob Denver full of energy as his beatnik friend, and Tuesday Weld as the materialistic Thalia... but her materialism is well motivated because her sister married a deadbeat.

Production values are fine, the jokes are solid albeit of their era - Hickman's dad continually talks about wanting to kill his son, Hickman stalks Weld even when she says she's not interested. The device of talking to the screen works a treat.

Movie review - "Rally Round the Flag Boys" (1958) **

 George Axelrod complained he and Leo McCarey came up with a bold plan to adapt this novel but Fox backed out and so Axelrod left. Maybe his approach would've been better. But it's hard to see even that working with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in the leads. Both are attractive and obviously talented actors but their comic timing is a mess and they seem too young - as does Joan Collins. Newman's trying to be Cary Grant but he doesn't seem like a family man especially one with an itchy eye. Maybe Tom Ewell? 

Joan Collins is better - too young as well but she's hugely fun. She would've been better a decade older but I liked her. She's stronger than Jayne Mansfield (the original choice vetoed by the Newmans) would have been.

Tuesday Weld is perfect as their yappy babysitter. She is involved in a very funny love triangle with Dwayne Hickman as a Marlon Brandon worshipper and some yokel soldier. This is funny. Jack Carson is funny too as a bombastic soldier.

But Newman wrecks it, basically. 

Movie review - "Blowing Hot and Cold" (1984) **

 Rosa Colosimo was a produced who figured out 10BA enough to finance a batch of films including this. It's a buddy flick about a colourful Italian (Joe Dolce) whose car needs fixing by a mechanic (Peter Adams) - Dolce can't pay so Adams makes him work it off and Dolce gets drawn in to Adams' life which includes shagging married Elspeth Ballantyne and chasing after adducated daughter Kate Gorman.

The cast is of interest - Dolce was iconic because of his song, and Adams because of his performance as JJ in Cop Shop. There's also Denise Drysdale, Mary Coustas, Ballantyne, people like that. 

The culture clash doesn't really work - boorish Dolce is a little too similar to boorish Adams. Some more conflict would've worked - like I don't know a soccer versus Aussie rules thing, or paying cash or concrete.  

Nothing wrong with a subplot involving gangsters - Ken G Hall would do that all the time - but they took their eye off the comedy. 

Briab Trenchard Smith was going to make this at one stage. 

Movie review - "Roadhouse" (1948) *** (re-watching)

 I was in the mood for this - some low rent melodrama with Ida Lupino in a Joan Crawford role hooking up with Cornel Wilde despite Richard Widmark. Everyone is young and hot Lupino wears a swimsuit and sings off key. Celeste Holm impresses though her character should've done more. Wilde teaches Lupino how to bowl.

Movie review - "Android" (1982) ***

 Roger Corman helped finance but didn't want to distribute. I can see why, it lacks nudity, pace and gore he would've liked, but it's a shame. This is smart, well acted, made by people who care. A little lackadasical. I think Corman would've preferred the main android to be female - there is a female but she doesn't come in until the end. Also Don Keith Appor maybe isn't handsome enough for a leading man. Good actor though. I really liked Brie Howard.

Klaus Kinski adds some class. Really solid movie. 

Movie review - Fast#9 - "F9" (2019) ***

 Slick, fast, Justin Ling directed. This is the one where they go into outerspace. That's sort of tossed away - it's very easy. Lucas Black is back, briefly. Er... yay? I do like the continuity.

The key plot has Vin Diesel clashing with brother John Cena. This does give it some emotional undercurrent. They do try to give Jordana Breswter something to do. They do try.

Big and loud. Feels tired. Han coming back is... um, yeah, yay? Natalie Emmanuel is given stuff to do but isn't much. Michelle Rodriguez and Charlize Theron needed to be given more to do. Helen Mirren is fun.

Look, there's a lot going on. 

TV review - "Playhouse 90 - For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1958) ***

 Hemingway's novel adapts quite well to the small screen because you can focus on relationships and use close ups - Jason Robards and Maria Schell (the earth moves! quite frank!), Maureen Stapleton and Eli Wallach, Stapleton and Roberts, Wallach and Robarts.

Very serious in that style. Intense.  

Movie review - "Ronin" (1997) ***1/2

 Not a huge hit but much admired - slick script, John Frankenheimer in fine form, a genuine "look", European action movie, with some stars in excellent form: Robert de Niro before these parts became caricatures, Nathsha McEllrone so beautiful and perfect for the world, Jean Reno, Sean Bean. Jonathan Pryce maybe not a scary villain.

I enjoy these cramped European action movies. 

Movie review - "Wrong is Right" (1982) **1/2

 Charles McGarry was a spy novelist in the 1970s - this is one of his books which got a satirical treatment from Richard Brooks, not known as king of comedy but full of outrage and spirit.

Connery is a swashbuckling journalist who  gets involved in some terrorists who steal nukes. The guts of the story is a procedural - who killed Katherine Ross - but the movie is mostly done in a Strangelove style that doesn't quite work. Brooks displayed little flair for comedy in his career. 

Connery commits - it's the sort of movie you can imagine he enjoyed making because it's so random. George Grizzard is the president, Leslie Nielsen a nutbag politician, Robert Conrad a nutbag general, John Saxon a nutbag CIA op, Hardy Kruger an arms seller, Rosalind Cash the vice president, Jennifer Jason Leigh as a girl in a reality TV show who wants to kill her parents.

The movie takes a big swing though. Not dumb. Would've been better played straight I think though.

TV review - "Playhouse 90 The Last Tycoon" (1957) ***1/2

 F Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished novel at one stage meant for Humphrey Bogart and Bacall but he died so they wound up with Jack Palance and Lee Remick. Palance's performance is fascinating - intense, empathetic, strong.

Support cast is amazing - Peter Lorre as a burnt out director, Keenan Wynn is an exec, achingly pretty Lee Remick is a nubile thing hot for Palance (shock).

Story ambles and kind of ends - I think he dies at the end. But then the novel was unfinished. Has that late 50s TV seriousness. 

Movie review - "Forbidden World" (1982) **1/2 (re-watching)

 Enjoyable trashy Alien knock off with Jesse Vint as a stud pilot, June Chadwick hamming it up perfectly, Dawn Dunlap having a nude sauna which I'm assuming was written by Jim Wynorski, decent pacing and violence, production values high.

Movie review - "Looking for Mr Goodbar" (1977) ****1/2

 A final hit for Richard Brooks - it had a perfect star (Diane Keaton) and subject (woman murdered for having too much sex).

This was a surprise - Brooks' direction is energetic, smart, and empathetic. His script is excellent - full of nuance, humour and taste. Keaton is outstanding. Superb support from Richard Gere (fboi), William Atherton (perfect guy who is controlling), Tuesday Weld (hot mess sister), the deaf kids, William Berenger.

The film is structured around various relationships - Keaton and her dad, Keaton and her sister, Keaton and Gere, Keaton and  Atherthon.

The ending is shocking, powerful, exploitative, effective. 

TV review - "Days of Wine and Roses" (1958) ****

 Legendary television script from JP Miller, turned into a film by Blake Edwards, here directed by John Frankenheimer. This was a landmark in the careers of Frankenheimer, Piper Laurie and Cliff Robertson. Laurie and Frankenheimer had an affair before and during filming which she writes about in her memoir - a lot of high brow melodrama. Resulted in some great acting.

Laurie is terrific - Robertson matches her. Charles Bickford also strong as Laurie's dad. 

Movie review - "The Young Savages" (1961) **

 Feels like it should be a TV play - some hoods in New York kill another hood. They're teens so it's West Side Story without songs, as someone commented. The story isn't involving. The hoods kill someone in the opening scene, so we know who did it so there's no mystery. Lancaster is a prosecutor, so he's just putting people in prison.

It's kind of interesting he's downtown and his wife Dina Merill is uptown. But nothing much is done with that - he should have slept with ex Shelley Winters, mother of one of the accused. That would've been drama. Or the mother of the dead kid. I kept waiting for Lancaster's daughter to be threatened. Didn't happen. 

John Frankenheimer directs his backside off though. It's gloriously shot, well acted - Telly Savalas is in it, Shelley Winters. He didn't want Dina Merill but accepted her as a trade off to not have Paul Anka! Sydney Pollack was dialogue director and impressed Burt Lancaster so much the actor helped Pollack's career.

Frankenheimer wanted to make the best film he could. But it's just not interesting.

The gang members are irritating. Well acted but still stock types - cocky or secretly disabled. 

Movie review - "There was a Crooked Man..." (1970) **

 Joseph Mankiewicz's comedy heist Western with some old stars (Kirk Douglas, Henry Fonda) and new writers (Robert Benton, David Newman). He's not a director particularly associaated with Westerns - the movie was originally written for Don Siegel which makes more sense.

I glimpsed this as a child and always remember Michael Blodgett having sex with the girl on the pool table (female parts not amazing in this). 

It's not much of a movie. Douglas wears glasses which is novel but he's mostly smug. There's a lot of prison tropes - riots, some gays, people hot for Blodgett, cross and double cross.

The characters aren't that compelling. There are introduced in interesting ways but then gets bogged down. Henry Fonda is dogged. Him turning crook at end feels unmotiavted. Douglas is one note.

I think maybe if had been a woman's prison, maybe it would've had more life.  

The cast is special - there's Burgess Meredith, Warren Oates, Lee Grant, etc.

But I didn't like it. The music is awful - those stings. Why did Westerns use these? 

Movie review - "Cape Forlorn" (1931) **

 Frank Harvey play adapted into a film with Harvey in the lead. He's an old soak whose wife is havin it off with one man, then another (skinny Ian Hunter). EA Dupont directed. He throws in some funky visuals every now and then - tracking shots, dissolves - but the acting is stagy.

Movie review - "Sleuth" (1972) ***1/2

 Entertaining version of the famous play. The surprises are harder to pull off on film but they do well enough. It has splendid leads both willing to go full ham, with the young bull and old bull. Mankewicz is an ideal director with his love of literature. The set is amazing.

A little long and would be better on stage. 

Movie review - "Showgirl's Luck" (1931) **

 Not good. Erratic acting. Dodgy scripting. Fascinating. Musical about putting on a musical only there's hardly any songs. They were too ambitious.

Play review - "After the Fall" (1964) by Arthur Miller

 A recording of the 1964 New York production from Elia Kazan, who directed a character based on him played by Ralph Meeker. It's got Jason Robards and Barbara Loden and Faye Dunaway. Fascinating.

Kazan only liked the Marilyn Monroe stuff. He was right. It's the strongest. The informing friend could have worked - needed to connect him with the Marilyn part, made it a love triangle. The first wife - dull, cheated on - is dull. Ditto the third wife - concentration camp and all. it's wife two, Marilyn, that makes this worth watching.

The making of this play would be a great movie/play. 

Book review - "The Andromeda Strain" by Michael Crichton

 Admire it. Never been huge fan. Great opening - the town wiped out - and ending - ticking clock. In between it's a medical drama, trying to figure out what caused the illness. Tremendous sense of realism though. You can see why it was a sensation.

Movie review - "The Big Heat" (1953) ****

 Everything clicked for Fritz Lang - Glenn Ford in a great performance, a strong story, very good script from Sydney Boehm. Simple story - Ford investigates murder of cop - has punch from the all to believable depiction of corruption in society particularly the higher up cos who are always encouraging people to give up.

Ford's wife is sappy and the kid an annoying boomer but the wife's death has real kic and the minor parts are superb - the slimy bar owner, the mob boss, the sad hooker. Most of all there is Lee Marvin and Gloria Grahame - who I was surprised to see don't really appear much til the last act. 

But the relationship between Grahame and Ford is powerful and I loved how Ford's army veteran mates helped. 

Movie review - "I Walk the Line" (1970) **

 One of that trilogy of Tuesday Weld films she made when she turned down Bonnie and Clyde etc.

This should be good. Greg Peck as a sheriff in the south tempted by hot little Tuesday Weld, whose family are moonshiners. That's easy to grasp - it needs to be about his temptation, corruption, fall.

But it doesn't quite work. There's no sex. Weld's got plenty but not Peck - he's too solid. It needs to be about the temptation and corruption of a man. Needs more sleaze and crime.

Ralph Meeker brings it, as her dad. Ditto Charles Durning. They know what movie they're in. But Estelle Parsons is too white trash as the wife - the only contrast is she's old and less attractive, when it really needed to be she was lady like. Peck is never believable as someone new to town. They should have rewritten the movie for him - played it as an out of town liberal snob who gets seduced, wrecks his life.

The film really needed to be made in the late 1950s when it would've been properly sleazy.  Also Peck needed to have his life destroyed more at the end - to die, or go to prison or something. The movie pulls its punches.

Weld is good but she'd been playing these roles for too long and was getting older. The film could've been more rejigged for their ages and personas. 

Book review - "Roddy McDowall" by Samuel Bernstein

 Bernstein does another very good biography of an underrated queer actor Roddy McDowall, on top of the one he did for Caesar Romero. The two actors had many things in common - foreigners who flourised in Hollywood, seem like genuinely nice people, hugely long careers, Batman villains. McDowall had more long term romances and possibly better luck with movies - every decade he managed to appear in a classic. How Green Was My Valley, Compulsion, Camelot, Cleopatra, Planet of the Apes, The Poseidon Adventure. It's incredible. 

Worthy book for a person who deserved it. 

Book review - "Cesar Romero: The Joker Is Wild" by Sam Bernstein

 Loving look at a man who sounds like a genuinely terrific person - underrated actor, handsome, polite, hard working. Never seems to have been linked to a romantic relationship, although something may have happened with Tyrone Power. Well researched, fun - half the book is the filmography!

Movie review - "A Private's Affair" (1959) **

 I didn't realise Mardi Gras went so well that 20th Century Fox decided to do another three-boys film about chaps in the army. This is set up to be a musical - the three men are enlisted to appear in a show - and would've seemed a natural for Pat Boone, Elvis, Fabian, Tommy Sands. But instead they've got Sal Mineo, Gary Crosby and Barry Coe. The women are Christine Carere, Barbara Eden and Terry Moore. Raoul Walsh directed.

The plot has politician Jessie Royce Landis marry Coe under anasthetic so she can adopt a Dutch girl for surgery. WTF.  This is the core issue. That's not a bad story if Landis is a genuine romantic threat - but they don't play that. Terry Moore could've played this. Or Barbara Eden. Play out a lovel triangle.

Do proper songs. Cast singers.

Not rocket science.

Fun to see Mineo in this. Coe isn't bad. 

Why did they make it? 

Movie review - "The Amusement Park" (1975) **

 "Lost" Romero movie - an industrial film about elder abuse. A lot of imaginative flair. Interesting. But it's an industrial film. Only 50 mins. For completionists.

Movie review - "Play It As It Lays" (1972) **

 One of those movies that you watch and go "the novel on which is based is probably quite good". I haven't read the book but since Joan Didion co wrote the script with her husband whose brother producer it's probably faithful. Tuesday Weld is outstanding in the role as is Tony Perkins. Confusing. Smart. I didn't get into it at all.

Movie review - "A Safe Place" (1971) **

 Henry Jaglom's best known movie because it features Tuesday Weld, Orson Welles and Jack Nicholson. All bring their considerable charisma - Weld has rarely been more gorgeous or captivating. But there's no story here not even a short film's worth. There's a lot of hanging around Weld and Orson Welles hangs around Central Park and the Zoo, Weld and Philip Proctor hanging around, all the while songs play on the soundtrack. The best bits are Weld and Nicholson.

This was once a play. A play! JFC.  There's no story.

Weld is beautiful. Nicholson has charisma. So does Orson Welles. I would have preferred 90 minutes of them just talkign.

The photography is nice. 

Movie review - "Money Shines" (1988) **1/2

 Interesting rather than gripping. Paralysed man has a pet monkey who becomes homicidal. The cast don't feel quite up to it - Jason Beghe as the guy, Kate McNeil as the sexy nurse, Jon Pankiw as a mad scientist (Stanley Tucci  should have played this role).

Monkey acting strong.  But the core relationship between the monkey and Beghe isn't there.

I wonder if maybe it should've been told through the POV of McNeil as Jane Eyre instead of chronoligcally.  Romero's directing not quite up to it here.

A lot of future famous people like Tucci, Stephen Root, Janine Turner (going nude). 

Movie review - "Multiple Maniacs" (1970) ***

 Overshadowed by Pink Flamingos but the vision was fully formed by this one - John Waters freaky friends causing chaos, lots of bitchy lines and insane encounters, melodrama with a twist. Goes too long - really this should be a tight 30 minutes. But it's fun to hang out with Waters and his mates - Mink Stole, Divine, David L, Cookie, Edie. You feel like you're over at their house as they play dress ups.

Movie review - "Bruiser" (2001) ***

 Thoughtful. Interesting. Jason Flemyng maybe too handsome in the lead - could have used a real whimp. Attractive women - Romero liked a bit of toplessness. Peter Stomare hams it up. The mask is wonderfully effective. The big flaw-  lacks a central love story. Phantom of the Opera had that. A person for us to identify with who's not a killer. Like Martin we spend a lot of time identifying with a killer

Confidently directed. 

Script review - "Female Trouble/Desperate Living" by John Waters

 Getting through these audio readings by Waters of his scripts. Both are crime-ish melodramas - like most of these early Waters films he takes a series of wacky characters and haves some way-out exchanges. For me Desperate Living worked better - the insults felt funnier, an "innocent" in a trash town, though Female Trouble is fun too

Movie review - "Survival of the Dead" (2009) **

 George Romero's last feature. It looks ugly, shot in bland digital, the acting isn't much, the encounters tiresome. It's about some National Guardsman who stumble on a feud. Lots of Irish accents and people being shot in the head. There's a decent amount of action and no character I cared about or found interesting.

Movie review - "The Dark Half" (1992) **1/2

 Solid. Steven King wrote an interesting book based on his own work as Richard Bachman, and the voices in his head. Tim Hutton isn't convicing as a writer. A really great star would've made this sing. Amy Madigan must be so sick of playing wives. Michael Rooker solid as a cop.

Not sure they got the POV of this right. Maybe better via Rooker? Or be upfront about Hutton? 

Good story though. 

Movie review - "Day of the Dead" (1985) ****

 Tight. Music propels it. Well acted. Tries to be different. They're studying zombies, in a bunker. Builds logically. Enjoyable crazies. I liked it. Solid gore. Love that it's on film.

Script review - "Pink Flamingo" / "Forever Flamingo" by John Waters

 I listened to Waters do an audio version of these. They have similar structure. I enjoyed the first more than the movie - Waters is so fun doing the voices. The second was fine, just repetitious. The cast would've made it work.

Movie review - "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" (1974) ****

 Really fun. Smart. Funny. New York-y. The four robbers have different personalities. Walter Matthau and Jerry Stiller are hugely entertaining. Shows how it's done.

Movie review - "Robocop" (1987) *****

 Just a wonderful film - tough, violent, gutsy, political, well acted (right down to the bottom). Ronny Cox, Peter Weller, Kurtwood Smith... all so good. Nancy Allen a little dull.

Book review - "Disclosure" by Michael Crichton

 I appreciate all the research that went into creating the computer program and it's not Crichton's fault it was about CD Roms which became obsolete. But I hated all the characters. 

Also Meredith the baddy - I get she wanted to bring Sanders on side. But she's a psycho - to try to seduce him then assault him. Here she's seducing him for leverage but she also does it at other firms, is that right.

I'm not sure middle aged white men who've been divorced a bunch of times and are multi millionaires shouldn't write books about sexual harassment. 

The book does hold as a story, just a regular corporate melodrama. It's long - a lot of the interrogations, cross examinations and editing could have been trimmed. As per the editorial about how tough it is men can't pick up kids in the bath. 

Script review - "Hairpray" by John Waters

 Audio version of the script read by Waters himself. Lots of fun, he's an engaging performer, the dialogue is bright. The story of thing is stronger. All Waters' work is political, this is more accessibly political (with integration). But very enjoyable.

Movie review - "Masters of the Universe" (2026) **

 I can see what they were going for - tongue in cheek a la Guardians of the Galaxy. But there's no heart here and the actors aren't up to it at least not the leads. 

Movie review - "Last Night in Soho" (2021) ***

 Edgar Wright's love letter (well, a letter) to swinging sixties Britain has some wonderful moments and a mangetic lead in Anya Taylor Jones (who is so perfect) plus a charismatic Matt James. Thomasin McKenzie is a little dull. Slow start but satisfying at the end.

Movie review - "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" (2018) **1/2

 Look, not a great movie - as pointed out by Honest Trailers it copies the structure of The Lost World, continually references back to film #1 (and the Alien franchise), and the characters are just types. Also it's not as fun to see dinosaurs running amok in a mansion as opposed to an island or a city.

But the action is well staged and consistent; it doesn't pause. I found the subplot about the girl realising she was cloned quite effective. 

I wish they'd kill some of these raptors with poisoned eggs, like in the book. 

Book review - "Jurassic Park" by Michael Crichton (1990)

 Crichton's masterpiece. It's got everything - a big concept, a world that is well thought out (he fleshes out the theme park more than he could do in Westworld), fantastic sequences. Crichton's description of action wasn't always the best in his novels but it is here - it must be because he wrote it first as a screenplay. The initial attack of the T Rex, the aviary sequence, Grant poisoning eggs to kill raptors...

The violence is quick, brutal, terrifying. The films were so jokey in comparison.  I wish they'd do a film with the violence and terror of this, and the intelligence. You can't aruge with success though.

Movie review - "China Passage" (1937) **

 I only watched this because it starred Jocelyn Howarth, here retitled Constance Worth. 

It's a not bad B from RKO about shenanigans on a boat from China, searching for a missing jewel. It's a great part for Worth - she seems to be a shady lady but is revealed to be an agent, and has to bust the mystery with the lead guy Vinton Haworth. She gets to round up the suspects at the end and be active.

He's a little dull. Worth isn't that amazing it must be admitted. She's fine. You can see why she couldn't get out of B pictures. 

There's a drunk character who keeps thinking the boat is going to Sydney. That has novelty. 

Movie review - "Jurassic World" (2015) **1/2 (rewatching)

 I respect the money this film made. It passes the time. Decent effects. But it's silly. So light. Dinosaurs on a rampage and no one seems to care. Chris Pratt camps it up as does Bryce Dallas Howard. Lauren Lupkus and Jake Johnson play it too light. That kid Nick Robinson is a sulky teen.

I just didn't like it. 

Good to have the park up and running though. 

Movie revie - "The Nice Guys" (2017) ***1/2

 Fun, easy, loved the period detail. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling in fine form, ditto Angourie Rice. Maybe it would've been more popular had Crowe and Gosling been more different - they are both tough guys.

Movie review - "Project Hail Mary" (2026) ****

 Warm, clever, fun, positive. Lord and Miller really have the goods. Ryan Gosling is fine. Love a sci fi movie that doesn't talk down to its audience but is still broad appeal.

Movie review - "Desperately Seeking Susan" (1985) ****

 Wonderful movie. A tight script from a mysterious writer Leora Barish (what happened to her) directed with life, joy and flavour by Susan Seidelman. New York is a wonderland, full of colour and characters - magicians and their sidekicks, hunky cinema operators, MCs, blonde assassins. The macguffin is Egyptian artefacts - how cool is that?

Many talented people at the beginning of their careers including Steven Wright, Will Patton and Jon Turturro. Aidan Quinn is the perfect male romantic lead, Rosanna Arquette was never better as the innocent wife, Madonna is electric in the perfect role.

Movie review - "There's Always Vanilla" (1971) **

 Romero's least known film? A story of an fboi (Raymond Laine) who drifts around post-army, trying different jobs, annoying his dad, sleeping around, writing. He sleeps with Judith Laine, who is lovely (she was in Night of the Living Dead); she gets pregnant, he's tempted to sell out, can't do it.

This wasn't bad. It's the sort of movie that might play with a super charismatic star - Laine doesn't have that, he's not good looking enough for Laine.  

The movie has an intelligence, talks about big issues. It's indulgent but not terrible. It just lacks a charismatic star. 

Movie review - Maisie#5 - "Ringside Maisie" (1941) ***

 Maisie winds up at a boxing camp where the boxer's manager George Murphy assumes she's a tramp which is fun, as is Maisie jitterbugging at the top.

I liked the third act melodrama and Maise having more of a sex drive. Maybe the presence of Robert Sterling, Ann Sothern's husband as the boxer?

Murphy is a prat for forcing Sterling to box and the film doesn't redeem him - it sets up a Southern /Sterling clinch at the end which would've worked. Still, this was strong.

Movie review - "Jurassic Park 3" (2001) **

 Written a few weeks before filming and you can tell. No characters are intresting. No relationships. Sam Neill is professional but his relationship with Alessandra Nivola is dull, as is Nivola (with a backpack, come on). Tea Leoni and William H Macy never seem like they were married or parents, the kid is dull, no support characters. Why no decent villains?

They could've just had Laura Dern looking for Sam Neill or vice versa.

Decent effects. You can see the money on screen. 

Movie review - "The Sheep Detective" (2026) ****

 Lovely movie. Made with heart. Excellent effects and acting. Everyone seems like a nice person - Emma Thompson, Molly Gordon, Hugh Jackman, the sheep.

Movie review - "Amongst Friends" (1993) **

 Almost a caricature of Gen X indie cinema - genius auteur, gangsters, Scorcese, misogyny, characters talkin tough and hard to differentiate. Mira Sorvino is sweet. I liked the tubby guys. But I wanted the film to end sooner than it did.

A better movie would be the story of the making of this and Rob Weiss going full Hollywood - but I guess they did that with the Billy Flynn arc on Entourage. 

Movie review - "Anaconda" (2025) **1/2

 Starts strong - I loved the filmmaking stuff. Doesn't quite manage the shift to killer monster movie. It's no Piranha, say. Paul Rudd and Jack Black have a high old time. Thandie Newton and Steve Kahn feel underserviced as do the baddies. 

Movie review - "Possession" (1981) ***

 Balls to the wall insanity with Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill going toe to toe. He's a spy, she's his wife, she leaves him for another guy, he goes nuts, she goes nuts. Hard to follow. Mostly interesting.

Movie review - "Spirited Away" (2001) ****

 Bold, imaginative, gripping, all that stuff.

Movie review - "Minecraft" (2025) ****

 A wonderous movie full of imagination and genuine flair. The spirit of Terry Gilliam in the best way. Some of Hollywood's top hams - Jack Black, Jason Mamoa, Jennifer Coolidge - having the time of their lives.

Movie review - Maisie#4 - "Maisie Was a Lady" (1941) **1/2

 MGM offered up a blockbuster cast for this one, which has a strong idea: Maisie has to go to work as a maid for a rich family, where the heir (Lew Ayres) is a drunk and the sister (Maureen O'Sullivan) is engaged to a love rat (Edward Ashley) and the butler is played by C. Aubrey Smith.

The best thing  is the plot about O'Sullivan, who is excellent as a woman driven to suicide. 

But other plots the film doesn't lean into the potentials of its concept. Ann Sothern clashing with rich boy Lew Ayres should be fun but Ayres does his Holiday drunk act which is wearying. I didn't want them to get together. Ayres should have had a woman after him and be a snob and Sothern should impress him. Aubrey Smith should be a snob who melts but he isn't. The dad Paul Cavanagh is neglectful and comes back.

So mixed batch. 

Movie review - "Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues" (1972) **

 Annoying. Dull. What's the point. Is it a comedy, a drama? Not much story.

The highlight is Barbara Hershey taking her top off. But she's a manic pixie dream girl. Robert Lyons is one of those early 70s leading men who got chances because they looked counter cultural. 

John Lithgow is fun as a drug dealing Harvard musical theatre director. 

Perks up at the end when corrupt cop Charles Durning comes in and Cubans and violence. 

Utterly weird Michael Crichton co wrote this original novel but he was actually a little counter cultural around this time with his pro Choice Case of Need and X rated Extreme Close Up. 

Movie review - Maisie#3 - "Gold Rush Maisie" (1940) **

 Maisie gets dropped into a not terribly interesting world - a ghost town in Arizona. Maybe if crooks/spies had been there but it's just grumpy Lee Bowman, another imitation Clark Gable.

The most fascinating thing about it is the presence of some dust bowl refugees courtesy of the lefty screenwriters.  But the movie lacks pace - and villains. There's no love triangle for her to bust up or even romantic rival. She's not even into Bowman going off on her own at the end - which is feminist but feels unsatisfactory.

Maisie digging for gold, literally, should have been fun - colourful characters, conmen, thieves, rogues. But there's none of that just grump Bowman and these perfect peasants. The girl who sang in the cafe instead of her should've been a rival. It needed a murder. Dull.

Book review - "Congo" by Michael Crichton (1980)

 Fast paced, exciting, silly: talking gorillas, killer gorillas, great stuff. There's a mercenary role for Sean Connery, a hard tough talking woman, a nerdy guy, some porters to be killed. Plenty of science gobbledygook. Entertaining.

Movie review - Maisie#2 - "Congo Maisie" (1940) ***

 Even closer to Red Dust and lots of fun, albeit racially sensitive as you'd expect. Maisie gets stuck in the Congo, stumbles upon another love triangle - John Carroll (imitating Clark Gable but ont bad) is a swashbuckling rubber man/doctor who falls for Rita Johnson (who had a colourful private life IRL) despite being married to Shepperd Strudwick.

Maisie runs around after Carroll, ordering people around, being moral despite her white trash background. She quells an uprising by singing a song, which is funny, although racist. 

Full of high spirits. 

Movie review - "The Andromeda Strain" (1971) **1/2

 Starts brilliantly with tremendous design and style. Don't mind lack of stars. Making one of the scientistists a woman was a good move especially as she has a sense of humour. But then it bogs down in chat - it's too faithful. Staring at screens. Chat, chat, chat. 

Terrific last twenty minutes. But the film is over two hours. I felt sorry for that baby crying all the time.

I wonder if this movie is why Sphere the film was so faithful - "well The Andromeda Strain did it and that worked well." 

Movie review - "Maisie" (1939) **1/2

 Curious to see this as it sounds so fun - the adventures of showgirl Maisie (Ann Sothern). Striking in that it was so influenced by Red Dust - Maisie gets stranded somewhere exotic (here, a Western ranch), falls in love with hunky foreman (Robert Young) gets involved in a love triangle involving a married woman who is cheating on her nice husband. Only here the woman is cheating with another person not Maisie's love interest - Hays Code!

Clearly meant to be a Jean Harlow film. Sothern is fine. Young fine not terribly macho. Ian Hunter is the wet cuckold. 

There is a murder and a trial. Strong female lead - female screenwriter.  

 

Movie review - "Rising Sun" (1993) **

 Stylishly directed by Phil Kaufman, who likes a bit of female nudity in a good cause and that's on display here. Michael Crichton didn't like the changes Kaufman made to his book - I haven't read it for a while. It's a whatever mystery with some nudity and 90s silliness (Wesley Snipes shakes Japanese by escaping to the hood).

Snipes and Sean Connery bring a lot of star power. Ray Wise is entertainingly sleazy and Tia Carrere is sweet. Kevin Anderon's bouffy hair is entertaining. Cary Tagawa is always reliable.

The mystery isn't very involving. The stuff on the Japanese take over of the economy has been stripped so there's not much point. The film got dumber as it went on. It was as though Kaufman was a little too cool for school adapting this. 

I didn't really like it. Connery and Snipes are both genuine stars though. That helps. 

Book review - "Eaters of the Dead" by Michael Crichton (1976)

 Brief, tight, fascinating, clever. I wonder if influenced by Flashman. Not good at action. Strong on atmosphere. A lot of raping. The vikings can get rooted really.

Easy to see how to adapt - make more of the characters of the Arab and a few Vikings, use the kingdom political subplot, have some women. These weren't done. 

Movie review - "Timeline" (2003) *

 Awful. Two main problems (a) an awful ensemble acting job, led by hey dude Paul Walker, and (b) completely unbelievable depiction of the medieval period. 

For (a) - there's all these talented actors running around in medieval gear going "hey hey hey" as if they've improvised. Walker plays it completely surfer dude, not that interested going back in time just looking for his dad.

For (b) the middle ages just look like... a theme park. And we're meant to go for the French? I'm sure the French did.

Michael Sheen camps it up. Frances O'Connor goes down with the ship, as does everyone really except maybe Lambert Wilson.  Billy Connolly seems absurd. So does Ethan Embry. Could they have not found a French actor to play Anna Friel's part?

Awful. 

Movie review - "Sphere" (1998) **

 The movie that kicked off Barry Levinson's cold streak which he never really got out of. It's a too faithful adaptation of Crichton's decent novel - far too much chat and chapter headings, not enough plain old spookiness and thrills.

Too much computer screen - why not make Jerry a voice? 

Everyone is trying to do a professional job. There is money spent. Production design neat. I'm glad the actors got their full fee.

But it's so dull. 

Chat, chat, chat, chat. 

Movie review - "The 13th Warrior" (1999) **1/2

 Michael Crichton's hot streak in the 1990s - which included Jurassic Park, Disclosure, The Lost World, ER, Airframe - came to a halt with this big budget flop. In hindsight they made a mistake throwing too much money at this story which didn't have to be done on a large scale.

I'm not a fan of slow movies but this one moves along too fast - for instance, it would have been ideal to spent a bit of time with Banderas in Persia before setting out on his journey (why not dramatise him shagging the married woman that led to his exile?). Him being enlisted to go on the journey with the vikings is skirted over - why not dramatise it? Why not have some variation in the characters of the vikings? Why not flesh out the character of the slave girl Banderas sleeps with? 

Decent action. Gorgeous production design. Banderas ideal.

Movie review - "Strange Intruder" (1956) **

 Based on an Australian novel (by Helen Fowler) which was about a returning POW - this one updates it to the Korean War. It confirms Edmund Purdom was too bland to be a star.  He's given a meaty role as a traumatised POW to seeks out the wife and kid of his dead mate. The role is completely beyond Purdom's abilities.

The tension comes from Purdom promising to kill his mate's kids because the mate's wife has been unfaithful. That's terrifyying , but it works if Purdom is a psycho - and he is a psycho and we need to think he's going to kill the kids.

The movie should have been told from Ida Lupino's point of view, so we play the mystery of this guy and have her fall in love with him and investigate what happened. But it's told from Purdom's point of view and we never really feel he's going to kill the kids.

Purdom is embarassingly bad. Jacques Bergerac isn't much better as Lupino's new squeeze. Lupino watches on, no doubt aware she should have played Purdom's role. They could've made the POWs some nurses in Korea. 

Movie review - "The King's Thief" (1955) **

 The theft of the crown jewels by Thomas Blood has the material for a fun swashbuckler. This one shoehorns that episode at the end uneasily to a tale about a highwayman in Charles II era fighting to defend the Crown against villainous noble David Niven.

The movie is mostly notable for George Sanders playing Charles II - if he'd depicted the hero or villain the movie might've been fun. Niven is hilariously miscast as the baddy - I'm not sure he would've suited the hero part either but he would've been better than Edmund Purdom.

The movie has all the excitement and humour sucked out of it. Purdom is dull but he has no character to play other than "brave". His group of men lack any individuality or character - they include Roger Moore, but just try telling them apart. 

Dore Schary oversaw so many badly made  "commercial" films in the 1950s. This is so bland. Dull script, doesn't dramatise things like the death of Ann Blyth's dad. Blyth does little. Just rips off Robin Hood.

Nice production values - it's an "A" picture. That's about it. 

Movie review - "Disclosure" (1994) **

 So 90s. Sexual harasment. Michael Douglas. Demi Moore. Hair. Political correctness. Big Clothes. Open plan offices. Tech that has aged badly (CD-roms!)

It's meant to be about sexual harasment but really it's corporate intrigue - the same way Airframe was about the media but really corporate intrigue. 

It has two perfectly cast stars - Douglas and Moore - doing specialised things - white man attacked by predatory female and a strong willed woman. Dylan Baker and Donald Sutherland are superb slimebags. Roma Maffia is good as Douglas' lawyer. Caroline Goodall does what she can in a hopeless part as the wife.

But it's talky and daggy. The best bit is when Demi Moore tried to seduce Douglas. There'a reference to their skanky past which sounded fun.

Generally this film sucks though. 

Movie review - "Lost World: Jurassic Park" (1997) ***

 Gets a bad wrap but I quite liked it - it's a stripped back B picture version with everyone doing it for a pay cheque. There's fast pace and excellent action movies with a last act in San Diego for Spielberg to do his Godzilla homage.

It's fun in a way to see two excellent actors, Vince Vaughan and Julianne Moore, so awkward in Spielberg world, Goldblum gets to be heroic, Richard Schiff dies gorily. we miss out on a death for Vaughan and Pete Postlethwaite.

Spielberg's Blondes Top Ten

 He has a type

1) Sugarland Express - Goldie Hawn

2) Jaws - Lorraine Gray

3) Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Teri Garr and Melinda Dillon

4) ET - Dee Wallace

5) Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom - Kate Capshaw

6) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - Alison Doody

7) Hook - Catherine Goodall

8) Jurassic Park - Laura Dern

 9) Schindler's List - Catherine Goodall

10) The Fabelmans - Michelle Williams 

Movie review - "Bad Man's River" (1971) *1/2

 In his memoirs, Bernard Gordon said this was the worst Phil Yordan production he worked on - claimed it didn't make sense, Yordan didn't care. He's not wrong - it's not very good.

Lee Van Cleef is in colourful cowboy mode as an outlaw who is conned by Gina Lollobrigida and then tries to steal some money. 

Confusing. Dull. 

Movie review - "A Master Builder" (2013) **

 This movie was so annoying. Wallace Shawn lying in a hospital bed having scenes while a machine goes beep. Everyone has strong articulation. 

 

Movie review - "The Girl from Rio" (1969) **1/2

 Harry Alan Towers kind of sequel to Sumuru with Shirley Eaton again in that role although she has a slightly different name. It's like a lot of Towers/Franco films - it looks good, has a dreamlike state, is confusing, continuity is weird. Lots of nudity.

Eaton makes a splendid villain. Sanders is looking old and only a few years away from suicide but that has its own appeal now the years have gone on.

Someone called Richard Wyler is the hero, I guess, who is kidnapped by Eaton. 

Book review - "Death of a President" by William Manchester

 Got into this reading a Vanity Fair account of its writing. I'd actually never heard of it but it's renowned as a classic of reporting, made with Kennedy involvement only they backed off.

Exhaustive, feels accurate. Powerful. So believable. I began to get angry reading it at the conspiracy theorists. Maybe that was just trauma dealing. Of course it was. The truth too uncomfortable but we see it so clearly now. Hostile press. Mad city. Anti-commie rhetoric. Incel with a gun. Trained by marines. Wants to kill someone. Hates his wife. Looking for a place in a world. Wife leaves him for another woman (I totally didn't know this.)

Very thotough.

Movie review - "Aliens versus Predator: Requiem" (2007) **

 A respectful sequel - picks up immediately after the events in Aliens versus Predator with the ship crashing and the escape of a predator-alien hybrid which isn't bad. It has the guts to kill off a kid in the opening sequence.

The cast is full of really not well know people. Couldn't they afford one more than Robert Joy? I guess John Oritz has been in a few things.

Book review - "Rumpole and the Angel of Death" (1994) by John Mortimer

 These stories weren't based on scripts.

• "Rumpole and the Model Prisoner". A different setting always works well - here Rumpole defends a prisoner accused of attacking a guard. Some lively satire of prison theatricals.
  
• "Rumpole and the Way Through the Woods"- Rumpole at the world of hunting foxes. Some comedy with a dog. I like it when Rumpole figures out the real killer and tells them.
  
• "Hilda's Story" - from Hilda's POV.
  
• "Rumpole and the Little Boy Lost"
• "Rumpole and the Rights of Man"
• "Rumpole and the Angel of Death"

Movie review - Aces of Action#3 - "Legion of Lost Flyers" (1939) **

 Only Angels Have Wings type vehicle with Andy Devine and Richard Arlen among various flyers at an isolated outpost in Alaska (cue comic Eskimos). It's got a pilot with a Mysterious Past (Arlen) and some slangy bantering dialogue.

The support cast is strong: William Lundigan, Big Boy Williams, Anne Nagel, Leon Ames.

Movie review - "Centrespread" (1981) *

 Weird Aussie film, shot in South Australia, a sort of futuristic-ish sex movie. Some of the visuals are quite impressive. The plot is about a photographer who does various photo shoots. 

I watched a TV version so I think the sex and violence were tamed.

Movie review - "The Iceman Cometh" (1973) ***

 Feels like a throwback to live TV - a super faithful adaptation of the classic play with some old gnarly actors only in colour. The boozeheads include Frederick March and Robert Ryan. Lee Marvin is the born again drinker.

It's meaty stuff, a strong play, but it goes for so, so long. Almost three hours. 

TV mini series review - "The Last Outlaw" (1980) **1/2 (Ep 1-2)

 Ian Jones and Bronwyn Binns had a huge hit with Against the Wind so Channel Seven ponied up for another historical miniseries... the tale of Ned Kelly. It didn't do as well ratings wise -but then Ned Kelly stories are never that popular. The material is too problematic - he's too half-good half-bad I think.

This has Crawfords factor all over it - the same old actors (Gerard Kennedy, David Bradhsaw), the bad Irish accents and beers, the on the nose dialogue... but quite skilled story telling.

Ep 1 - a slow ep, with Ned (John Jarratt) going to work for Harry Power (Gerard Kennedy). A lot of women with Irish accents putting their hands on hips. Cornelia Frances in Man from Snowy River 2  -- that sort of vibe. Elaine Kussak is Kate Kelly. It's clear Kelly had a knack of getting into trouble - being apprenticed by bushrangers, getting involved in passing messages and scuffling with cops.  Hall, the cop who arrests Kelly, was played by Steve Millichamp, who was the tubby cop at the beginning of Mad Max. Paul Mason has charisma as George King. It's also clear the authorities like giving him a hard time. It ends after the famous Kelly fist fight.

Ep 2 - Kelly meeets his gang. There's lots of greeting people. This builds up to the massacre at Stringybark Creek. The Kellys suffer and also bring a lot of it on themselves. Steve Bisley always looks as though he's going to do something interesting as Joe Byrne but never does. He's stuck with the same accent acting as the rest. Kaarin Fairfax has X factor. Sigrid Thornton has the beauty but is more conventional.

Omar Sharif Top Ten

 (I recognise this article is very English language focused)

1) Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

2) Dr Zhivago (1965) 

3) Genghis Khan (1965) - no kidding! Surprisingly good.

4)  Top Secret! (1984) - small role but he's very funny.

5) The Tamarind Seed (1974) - decent thriller. 

6) The Burglars (1971) - excellent as a villain in this Belmondo movie. 

7) Funny Girl (1968) - his third hit.

 8) The Last Valley (1971)

9) Mackenna's Gold (1969) - not a good film but he's strong. 

10) Oh! Heavenly Dog (1980) - look, I remember this fondly. 

Movie review - "Jurassic Park" (1993) ***1/2

 I've never been a huge fan of this. I recognise it's loved. Just seems to be Spielberg going through the motions - stock angles, John Williams. Laura Dern shows her legs, Sam Neill wears a hat, Jeff Goldblum adds some life.

It picks up once the TRex goes on the rampage - a genuinely strong sequence. The ending with the raptors is a little underwhelming. Pulls punches for Richard Attenborough who is too cuddly.

Fine effects. Bob Peck a little campy. Jeff Goldblum doesn't do that much he gets knocked out quite quick. The kids offer stakes. 

Book review - "Airframe" by Michael Crichton (1996)

 Entirely decent mystery-thriller investigating an airplane accident - only a few people died which feels relatively tame so the stakes are raised by having the airline wanting to sell to China and a woman must investigate what's going on. Plenty of authentic seeming research into airlines - wings and stuff and what goes wrong. Crichton seems more alive in bagging the media who are doing a hit piece on it - they're doing their job, mate, but he's obsessed with the old days when the media supposedly reported what happened and didn't rush to judgement or something. Well, things weren't going to get better, Mike! And the plane company does have dodgy people in it.

The baddie is a female producer - who like the female hero has a fuck buddy. I guess this is Mike being progressive?

It moves at a fast pace, the corporate intrigue is clever, it's a solid yarn.

Movie review - "The Great Train Robbery" (1978) ***

 Unsurprisingly faithful to the book although there are a few changes - things that were worked out on the page have to be brought into dialogue, there's a bigger part for the mistress of the hero, less reference to sex with twelve year olds and Victorian slang, the final capture is accelerated, there's less analysis of the society.

Because Crichton's characters were so weak his films depended on casting more than others - he was lucky to have Sean Connery here as the arch thief. Lesley Anne Downe is sexy as his girlfriend though her role is pretty much just "sexy". Donald Sutherland does his best as the second lead. 

There is pleasing period detail, decent production value and that's really Connery at the end on the train, ducking his head under. The cleverness of the story worked better on the page - this has some of the life drained (could not Crichton have done more with Connery's minion, Barlow? I wish George Lazenby had played this part)

Still, totally fine. 

Movie review - "The Terminal Man" (1974) **1/2

 Michael Crichton hoped to direct this adaptation of his novel but Warners decided not to, giving the job to the more experienced Mike Hodges. Hodges is clearly a better director than Crichton - his work is full of style and confidence.

I had read Crichton's original adaptation was not faithful enough so they changed it - this isn't that faithful. It completely downplays the character of the handsome male doctor who tries to chase the killer at a hanger and gets wounded (a memorable sequence). Also the ending bit in the book,  a terrific sequence in the hospital, becomes one where George Segal falls in a grave and the lead lady is never in danger.

Joan Hackett is okay as the physiciatrist - a better part in the book. Segal is excellent - his manic quality works well. Other characters from the book who were vivid - the scientis behind the whole thing who had various ailments, the whiz kid computer nerds - are not here.

It's like an interesting cover version of the novel rather than a faithful adaptation. not as good as the book. 

Movie review - "Physical Evidence" (1989) *

 Started as a sequel to Jagged Edge though not written by Joe Eszterhaus. Instead of Glenn Close and Robert Loggia there's Theresa Russell and Burt Reynolds - who aren't quite the same. Reynolds is very good, though this was one of the series of flops that killed his career. Russell tries and is okay - she's beautiful, poised, all that, but doesn't have Close's warmth. Maybe if Sally Field had played it...

The film has little sex in it. Russell lives with bond salesman Ted McGinley who we meet stripping down to take a nude jacuzzi. 

The movie is directed by Crichton without inspiration - there's no style, flash, power. The blocking is ordinary.

But the most crucial problem is the story. Jagged Edge had two core relationships - Close was in love with her client Jeff Bridges, and had a father-son relationship with Robert Loggia. There's no core relationship here. Some flirtation. That's it.

I got confused who was a suspect. 

I didn't care. No sex. Dull violence. No atmosphere. No wonder Crichton gave up directing.

TV episode review - "Insight - The War on Eggs" (1971) ** (warning spoilers)

 Saw this because it was written by Michael Crichton. Insight was a TV anthology series - one set, three actors, shot on video. The plot has an injured two year old brought in, doctor James Olson (who was in The Andromeda Strain) becomes suspicious the parents (Bill Bixby, Elizbeth Ashley) did it. He cross examines them  as a psychiatrist - I assume Crichton took this from a real case. Turns out mum did it - highly strung with a highly strung dad. Bixby is uptight. Very good actors. Not bad. No twists. A lot of chat. Entirely decent low budget effort though a little dodgy the woman did it. Lamont Johnson directed.

Movie review - "Coma" (1978) ***1/2

 Hugely fun thriller. Crichton wasn't great at creating characters but here he's got an ace cast - Genevieve Bujold as the investigating doctor, Michael Douglas as her boyfriend, Richard Widmark and Rip Torn as possible villains. There's appearances by Ed Haris, Lois Chiles and Tom Selleck. The hospitals are creepy the director's experience with them helps sell it. He's better at suspense than action.

Some camp - the love interlude, Bujold attending dance class and hopping in the shower. 

Book review - "Sphere" by Michael Crichton (1987)

 Second tier Crichton. Very easy to red, smart. More esoteric. Not that scary despite a decent death toll. There's a black man and a woman among the scientists and they are always referring to it while the day is saved by the straight white man. Cleverness in its depiction of aliens. I spent a lot of time wondering how to adapt it. I'd add a fourth character for the main scientist to explain thigns to.

Book review - "The Terminal Man" (1971) by Michael Crichton

 Crichton's take on Ffrankestein - a computer programmer has turned violent after an accident so they trt to plug a computer into his brain. Lots of research and detail to sell the concept - starts slow then builds up, with a memorable antagonist because he was paranoid anyway. Three memorable set pieces - doctor in shower met by the man, another doctor tracks the man to a deserted hanger, and the final confrontation in the hospital.

Book review - "The Great Train Robbery" by Michael Crichton (1975)

 Crichton having fun. Really loves slang from the era. Maybe too much. Still can't create characters - Pierce is just a part for a movie star, his girlfriend is paper thin, etc. But the detail is wonderful, the research entertaining, the twists clever - sourcing keys, dressing as a dad man to get on the train, etc.

Also while Crichton makes a point that sometimes people just want money it's very clear that a lot of the crime committed by people in this are driven by society. 

Movie review - "Looker" (1981) **

 The best Michael Crichton works have a clear concept backed by clever pacing and hugely clever research. This one has a muddy concept. Models are dying because... something to do with subliminal advertising. The hero is a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, un-interestingly played by Albert Finney. He's invested because some of his patients were the models. So? Why not have him framed for the deaths? Or just have a cop do it.

James Coburn is the big baddy. Susan Dey is winning as the model whose life is in danger I'm not sure why.

Crichton's direction of action-thriller scenes is at times laughably bad - the opening bit where a model dies. A dull car chase. Finney and Dey poking around a facility. Finney in a cop's uniform. 

There's some style and clearly some brains - it's just confusing. Would've been better as a book.

Some nudity including Dey is the highlight. Finney feels miscast. 

Movie review - "The Dark Corner" (1946) **1/2 (re-watching)

 Some pleasures. Photography. Noir atmosphere. Clifton Webb. Too close to Laura. Mark Stevens trying to be Dana Andrews. Lucille Ball full of life though miscast. William Bendix fun.

Movie review - "Diary of the Dead" (2007) **

 George Romero tries to keep up with the times with a found footage zombie movie which ages worse - being on video or whatever rather than film. Maybe the years will be kind. Some comic bits like the Amish killing zombies - which might've made a decent movie on its own. Ditto the black survivors who want to create a black world. Either plot would be better than focusing on "hmmm... why do you want to film everything." It's the end of the world. Of course you want to film it.

Unwise voice over. Ditto the old character spouting English. Uneven acting. Some decent kills and moments.

But this feels like well worn territory.  

Movie review - "Voicemails from Isabelle" (2026) ***

 Winning rom com with a heavy slice of drama and a typically strong lead performances from Zoe Deutch. Nick Robinson's male lead is fine - though, a real estate agent...? Very polished. A lot of heart and love for romantic comedies.

Book review - "Electronic Life" by Michael Crichton (1983)

 A non fiction book about computers - an A to Z on various aspects of computing. It shows its age at the time but Crichton writers cleanly, smartly with common sense; much of what he did ages well, and still applies. The last few chapters are programs for IBM and Apple; they're a little dull.

Movie review - "Micro" by Michael Crichton and Robert Preston (2011)

 Thrilling, exciting, a great read. I don't know who did what between Crichton and Preston. I'd rank this book higher than many later Crichton works. The villain is just Bad and maybe the toy aeroplanes are too much but it's such a page turner, a silly concept - shrinking people - leading to a series of fantastic set pieces. Tremendous action and a decent sized cast of characters so they are always getting knocked off - by ants, birds, wasps. Many memorable encounters. I would make a fantastic film although an expensive one. I like how the group of scientists included a coward and a whiny guy who became hero.

Really liked it. 

Movie review - "Tombstone" (1993) ***

 Lots of people love this movie. Respect that. Feels cut down from a longer work, as indeed was the case - full of interesting people who don't get enough screen time. Looks fabulous. Some excellent performances. A solid movie.

Book review - "A Murder in Hollywood" by John Lange (Michael Crichton) (warning spoilers) (2026)

 Written in 1973, published in 2026. I wonder why? Maybe Crichton was worried about lawsuits. Story seems inspired by The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing - a death during a film shoot in the West. Here it's a screenwriter. Crichton has digs at the macho star (Burt Reynolds?), the horny female star (Sara Miles?), an idiotic critic who pitches his story ideas (who was he?), a director who flew planes (surely George Roy Hill). Technical details about making a film. A Sherlock Holmes like super investigator. The unit publicist is Watson, which is cute.

Not a bad mystery - about a TV episode standard. Decent twists - they figure out who did it but then it turns out to be someone else.  A read it very quickly, had a good time.

Movie review - "The French Connection II" (1975) **

 The first film set it up for a sequel - capturing Fernando Rey - and this had the decent idea of turning Popeye (Gene Hackman) into a junkie. So he's blundering around France when he's kidnapped and injected. 

The film thus doesn't have the legenday New York touch of the first movie but it has scuzzy France and a director who'd lived in that country, John Frankenheimer. 

Look, I appreciate they tried to do something different with it being in France. By having Popeye be a fish out of water meant there was no fleshing out of his character not really - he's mostly befuddled. He has a French cop he clashes with (Bernard Fresson) though that feels like squabbling.

There's some action - chases (one on foot at the end - not as exciting as a car), gun fight, a flood. I just didn't much like it. Felt padded with chases, scenes of Hackman being given drugs and going into detox.

Fun to see Cathleen Nesbitt as a druggie old lady. Nice location filming.

Not sure what else they could've done. More interaction with French people definitely. More Hackman and Fresson. Maybe another American in there, to give Popeye someone to talk to. 

Movie review - "One on Top of the Other" (1969) **

 Hitchcockian thriller from Lucio Fulci with lots of nudity - sleazy doctor Jean Sorel is married to Marissa Mell but having an affair with Elsa Martinelli. Mell dies but then a lookallike stripper turns up and cop John Ireland leads an investigation.

The story isn't bad though it feels padded - fifteen minutes could be sliced off (especially the whole "appeal for 24 hours" sequence after we know who dunnit. Sorel is handsome, Mell is gorgeous and seen from many different angles, Martinelli pretty, there are strippers. Faith Domergue pops up as Mell's sister and there's some scenes shot in  San Francisco.

Movie review - "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) ***1/2

 Where does this sit with audiences today? Gorgeously directed. A lot of standing around open jawed in wonder. Very sweet. Teri Garr excellent and Richard Dreyfuss amiable.

Movie review - "Major League" (1989) **1/2

 Amiable crowd pleaser. The subplot where Tom Berenger stalks Rene Russo is of its time and probab ly encouraged a lot of similar behaviour IRL. Berenger is ideally cast as is Corbin Bernsen, Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes (wish he'd do more comedy). 

It was dumb in the original script to have the showgirl villain be revealed to be doing it to motivate them. That was silly. Cheapens the stakes. Better to change.

I love that it's about a Cleveland team that's very charming. 

I'm not sure if the dates for this work out but the movie feels influenced by Bull Durham. 

Movie review - "Two Years Later" (2026) **

 Feels like a decent feature rom com dragged out over eight eps - instead of subplots it adds banter. Also feels like a Melbourne show, with its lockdown trauma. Nice photography and a genuine sense of catharsasis at the end. No chemistry between the leads who seem bored.

Movie review - "Some Like It Hot" (1959) ***** (re-watching)

 Just fun. Sexy. Cynical. Broad. Marilyn worth the hassle. Tony Curtis should've worked with Wilder again.

Movie review - "Black Sunday" (1977) ****

 The suits thought this was going to be bigger than Jaws and the public didn't come, at least not in the numbers they expected. Maybe audiences were awkward with an Israeli hero - driven Robert Shaw, given a scene of backstory where he explains his wife and sons are dead, after terrorist Marthe Keller, who also has a scene of backstory (raised in camps, etc).

It moves at a decent pace, there's plenty of story. Bruce Dern has a high old time as Keller's associate, Keller is very effective. They have a fascinating relationship - manipulative, doomed, twisted.

The bomb - steel projectiles - is genuinely terrifying.

Some great terrorism movie heads like Steven Keats (Shaw's offsider), Fritz Weaver (FBI man), Bekhim Femui (Keller's boss). Movie maybe lacks someone with a little warmth who is a goodie - a Roy Scheider in Jaws type. The warmest characters are Dern and Keller.

Maybe too much football stuff. But fun, rollicking movie. 

Simon Wincer Top Ten

 1) Lonesome Dove (1989)

2) Free Willy (1993)

3) Snapshot (1979)

4) Phar Lap (1983)

5) DARYL (1985)

6) The Last Frontier (1986)

7) Against the Wind (1978)

8) The Lighthorsemen (1987)

9) Harlequin (1980)

10) Into the West (2005) 

Robert Lippert Top Ten

 1) I Shot Jesse James (1948)

2) The Fly (1958)

3) The Baron of Arizona (1949)

4) The Steel Helmet (1950) 

5) The Last Page (1952) 

6) Witchcraft (1964)

7) The Last Man on Earth (1964)

8) It Happened in Athens (1962)

9)Five Gates to Hell (1959)

10) Battle of Bloody Beach (1961) 

Movie review - "Booksmart" (2019) ***** (re-watching)

 Warm, funny, bright, stunningly well cast and put together, the cameos work, so does the sense of insanity. Olivia Wilde directors superbly the script is a dream. 

It's a love letter to theatre in a way as well. 

Movie review - "Midnight Run" (1988) ***** (re-watching)

 Just perfect. Astonishingly great script full of strong characters, revearsals, logic, bits of business. Everyone is allowed to be smart. Also dumb. But dumbness is motiviated. Perfect score. Perfect casting - all the little roles (people in diners, etc). Heartbreaking moments like the stuff with the daughter and the ending.

Yaphet Kotto Top Ten

 A great actor

1) Midnight Run (1988)

2) Alien (1979)

3) Blue Collar (1978)

4) Truck Turner (1974)

5) Live and Let Die (1973)

6) Across 110th Street (1972)

7) The Running Man (1988)

8) Raid on Entebbe (1976)

9) Fighting Back (1982)

10) Bone (1971) 

Movie review - "Backrooms" (2026) ***1/2

 Solid horror. Creepy setting (rooms adjacent to furniture store), excellent actors, logically developed. Slow burn but big bang in the middle. Very confident. 

Movie review - "Big Trouble in Little China" (1986) ****1/2 (re-watching)

 Fun. So Howard Hawks. Wonderful teams. Engaging. Can't believe it wasn't a hit. Kim Catrall so funny. Ditto Kurt Russell. Everyone.

Movie review - "Let's Make Love" (1960) **

 The dud credit for Marilyn Monroe among her latter movies - this actually had some decent people on it, like Norman Krasna and George Cukor, not to mention marilyn, but it's a vehicle for Yves Montand, who struggles with English.

I don't like this movie. Don't believe Yves Montand as a millionaire, don't enjoy him, or his deception - a Frenchman in America is fish out of water enough. In Norman Krasna's defence he said he wrote the script for someone like Charlton Heston or Gregory Peck. There's no sense of Montand's world - Wilfrid Hyde White and Tony Randall don't feel like they come from it.

It's not a bad idea but there's not much development. No sense of why doing this deception will help make him a better person. Or why he likes Marilyn. Montand doesn't deserve his money.

I remember the awkwardness of scenes like a gag writer attacking Montand. 

It has studio production values, and Marilyn, who clearly doesn't want to be there but it the best thing about it. There's novelty of an off Broadway musical but too much Frankie Vaughan.  

The film is packed with people having an off day - Montand, Monroe, Krasna, Cukor. 

Maybe it would've worked had Montand be surrounded by French and it had been about the French falling in love with America. That would've worked. 

Movie review - "Letter from an Unknown Woman" (1948) ****1/2

 Beautifully made by Max Ophuls and producer John Houseman and writer Howard Koch. Joan Fontaine just gets in under the wire age-wise as a young girl infatuated with pianist Louis Jourdan (the quintessential Louis Jourdan role).

I'm not always wild about old Vienna tales but it's done very well. Heartbreaking in that the kid dies of typhus and she dies, having wasted a lot of potential. I like the husband character who avenges the woman.  

Gene Wilder Top Ten

 

1) Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

2) The Producers (1967)

3) Blazing Saddles (1974)

4) Young Frankenstein (1974)

5) Silver Streak (1976)

6) Stir Crazy (1976)

7) Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex (1972)

8 ) Thursday's Game (1974) (TV movoe)

9) The Woman in Red (1984)

10) okay, alright... Willy Wonka (1971)

Movie review - "An American Werewolf in London" (1981) ****

 John Landis' classic? A fresh, energetic take on werewolf movies, where the horror is straight but it loves the legacy, and has plenty of humour. David Naughton is so likeable in the lead it's a wonder he didn't have a bigger career - Griffin Dunne also very winning, and Jenny Agutter is magical as the perfect fantasy nurse.

I enjoy how Landis keeps the tension and pace going via violent dream sequences. Transformation is extraordinarily well done. 

Movie review - "Female Trouble" (1974) ***1/2

 John Waters' got his Pink Flamingo gang back for his hugely enjoyable spoof of crime pictures. Divine has the time of her life in the lead role. Plenty of shock and nudity, Divine in a dual role. Hits all the beats - origin story, trial, electric chair.