Script review - "Love Actually" by Richard Curtis

  Curtis said he restructured this in the edit maybe he did but it feels very close - Nicole Kdiman referenced instead of Claudia Schiffer and there's the African sequence which was filmed but cut.

There's a sub industry of hot takes about the flaws of this film, many from the US who I think are annoyed their country is described as a bully. And the fat jokes clunk and they could've jettisoned Colin in Wisconsin and yes flaws flaws.

But it's very sweet - grieving widow and step son have a lovely bond and satisfying pay off, the Prime Minister plot is (fat jokes aside) charming, the married woman stuff is great, no it makes no sense Sarah doesn't schtup Karl but it works, the flabby friend-in-love-with-mate's-wife story is redeemed by the cards at the end. So many iconic moments.  

Book review - "The Billy Bob Tapes: A Cave Full of Ghosts" by Billy Bob Thornton and Kinky Friedman

 Entertaining memoir from Thornton told in the form of conversations and chats from friends such as Robert Duvall. Angelina Jolie wrote the intro. Doesn't talk much about his early marriages. The stories of growing up are vivid as are those of him being a young man in Arkansas then trying to break in Hollywood. Generous and spiritual. The last third is full of a lot of rants about how the world is going to hell and the internet is horrible - turns into middle aged white man ranting. Always interesting though as we don't often get an insight into Thornton's mind.

Written when Ang was with Brad and Thornton endorses them. Goes up until Jayne Mansfield's Car. Talks a lot about music.

Movie review - "The Grey Man" (2022) **

 Tired. A tough agent with a moral code. A female agent with a moral code. A psycho agent. A tough boss. Two tough bosses. A cute kid who is sick. Big titles indicating different locations.  Very familiar action sequences. No one has a character to play everyone is a type. Torture. Dull action scenes.  Unsatisfactory resolution.

Movie review - "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" (2016) **** (warning: spoilers)

This wasn't a box office hit which is a shame because there are so many good things about it: the script is bright, smart and funny; Tina Fey is very good and ideally cast in a role that pushes her; there's impressive production details; it has a fresh take on the war in Afghanistan.

The casting of some of the support roles jarred. Maybe in real life Martin Freeman is suave and charming but to me he came across as Martin Freeman wearing a beard and a fake Scottish accent trying to be suave and charming. Margot Robbie felt too young, too pretty and too fake-English-accent for her part (which really required someone who looked as though they'd Been Around). I really wish the parts played by Alfred Molina and Christopher Abbott had been played by real Afghanis. I know (or at least can guess) why they weren't, but for this film I wish things had seemed more authentic.

I had no problems with Billy Bob Thornton, or Steve Peacocke - my main gripe for the latter was the reveal that he was Canadian... but they don't follow it up (it felt as though it needed a few other lines or something).

Still, it was a first rate movie, another impressive effort from the teams of Fey-Robert Carlock and Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (who directed).

Movie review - "Entourage" (2015) **

The not-eagerly-awaited film version of the TV show plays out a lot like an episode from the later dud seasons: one or two moments but basically underwhelming, with seemingly little understanding about why the series was a success, despite being under the stewardship of creator Doug Ellin.... which leads one to surmise that the behind the scenes X factor must have been Rob Weiss. It was Weiss who was heavily involved with the strong first couple of seasons before heading off for other pastures, after which the show went downhill - he's credited with helping on the story for this film, but the blame has to lie with Ellin.

Like the later seasons, unlike the first, it's very easy being a movie star in Entourage - money just gets thrown at Vinnie Chase and he never lacks adoring women or fans. The "challenge" here is him turning director, but so there's no stress the film skips over that, and deals with post production - he needs another $30 million or so to finish it, and head of studio Ari Gold needs to get it from financier Billy Bob Thornton. Thornton sends his idiotic son Hayley Joel Osmet to Hollywood to supervise - this plot is the best thing about the film, but even that's undercooked.

Under-developed subplots abound - E's character has totally changed: instead of being the monogamous old fashioned guy who was devoted to Sloan, he's separated from her even though she's pregnant with his baby and is having random sex with hot women who can't act; there's a terrible scene where two of them meet up and turn out to have known each other that has no impact on the plot. Turtle is now so rich he doesn't have to work (they invoke the terrible tequila story several times); he has an OK romance with a fighting champ girl but it doesn't have any interesting developments/complications. Lloyd is getting married though we never really get to know his fiancee; there's a nice moment where he asks Ari to give him away but nothing much is done with that. Mrs Ari whinges a lot yet again despite their happy ending at the end of the series. Drama is always fun though again I wish more could have been done about his storyline. Vinnie just sort of glides through the film never seeming to care that much about his movie - he's never convincing for five seconds as a director; we get no sense of the passion that say drove Kevin Costner and Mel Gibson to make their films.

Entourage had a tentative relationship with reality which this throws out the window - Vinnie wanting to direct; not wanting to show anyone his film. Even small things ring false like the two hookers in Osmet's room when Ari storms in - there was opportunity for comedy/poignancy there, or at least some sort of reality (they could complain, ask Ari to join, offer up a head shot to Ari) but they just keep doing their thing.

Many cameos including lots from American sports I didnt recognise. Some of the funnier ones included Liam Neeson at the traffic lights, Kelsey Grammar walking out of therapy. A lot of other ones seem random and kind of pointless like Arnie Hammer.

The actors are mostly lethargic except for Jeremy Piven, who is always good. A lot of the male leads seem to have had plastic surgery and/or hair transplants. There's lots of product placement, few good gags, some impressive photography and groupings of extras and I liked the credit sequence. There's no decent drama or character work.

TV review - "Fargo Season 1" (2014) **** (warning: spoilers)

A very satisfying mystery, which is a real page turner - I couldn't pick what was going to happen for the most part and the filmmakers cleverly play with expectations (introducing a character with a pregnant wife and heaps of backstory then killing him, setting it up as if Keith Carradine is going to die but then not doing it). Full of fresh touches - a deaf hit man and so on. Some brilliant suspense is created - I can't recall a series that had more tension, except maybe Game of Thrones.

Some drawbacks  - it never made sense for me why Martin Freeman's character decided to take it to Billy Bob Thornton at the end; the scene where Freeman is bullied by the truck guy and is kids was far too over the top (the kid characters were done too broadly); Billy Bob's character was a bit too much of a superman at times (wiping out 23 mafia members at one time? being a dentist for six months to get close to a contact? really?); and that Australian mafia character in Minnesota was really annoying. Can Hollywood please stop putting Aussie characters randomly in things?

But overall this was excellent and I liked it a lot.

Movie review – “Armageddon” (1998) ***

Silly, over the top action/sci fi film, which has a terrific central idea – oil riggers sent to help blow up an asteroid – and benefits from a typically excellent Jerry Bruckheimer cast, including Steve Buscemi, Will Patton and a young Owen Wilson. Liv Tyler is nothing in a nothing role but I did enjoy the schmaltz at times and it moves along at a fair clip. Michael Bay has to hype every sequence and that gets irritating.

Movie review - "Bad Santa" (2004) ***1/2

Billy Bob Thornton in a role made for him - a drunken red neck who uses his Santa act to rob stores. Because he's such a low down varmint you know he's got to come good one day - it's a movie, right? And he befriends a fat kid and you go "here we go". But the filmmakers manage to keep sentimentality at bay (although surely the ending was re-shot?It feels tacked on). Occasionally the concept of "this guy's Santa but he's really foul" does get a bit tiresome.

Movie review - "The Bad News Bears" (2005) ** 1/2

Hollywood's recent obsession with remakes of the 70s - that also saw Amityville Horror, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Assault on Precinct 13, The Longest Yard, etc - continues with this un-needed redo of the 1976 Walter Matthau-Tatum O'Neal hit.
The film should really have been called Bad Santa Meets the Bad News Bears, as star Billy Bob Thornton reprises his Bad Santa persona (and the Bad Santa writers worked on the script). Actually maybe it's more Bad Santa Meets the Bad News Bears Meets School of Rock, as the director is Richard Linklater.
In School of Rock Linklater showed a good eye for kid casting and he's done that again here as well. Everyone turns in professional work but you can't help the feeling that everyone is slumming it - slumming it professionally, but still slumming it. It really is the same old crappy sports movie (recruitment then thrashing then low point then turn around then improvement montage then obstacle then climax) with a couple of really funny gags and moments inserted. The kid in the wheelchair is pretty funny, as is Thornton's taste in women and his habit of dumping rats in eskies.
The sort of movie I would have enjoyed more if I'd watched it at a hotel or on a plane. Greg Kinnear is a good villalin opponent coach.