Movie review - "Nuns on the Run" (1990) ***

 The last film, I think, from HandMade Films, at least its George Harrison-Denis O'Brien iteration, saw the company go out on a hit - and it was the type of movie the company probably should have made through the late 80s instead of all those quirky American pieces: a solid comedy with a former Monty Python. Eric Idle is the guy here, though the prime creative mover was Jonathan Lynn who wrote and directed it. 

Idle teams well with Robbie Coltrane and the jokes are obvious but funny. There's various plot machinations, a really sweet romance for Idle, Janet Suzman impresses as mother superior (but feels as though she needs a big scene or something the way Maggie Smith got in Sister Act  - that film felt as though it learned from this one). The pacing is occasionally off and some scenes feel re-shot. But it wants to entertain, the music is great, it's unpretentious. 

Movie review - "Cold Dog Soup" (1990) *

 One of the films that killed HandMade it's a little like After Hours though based on a novel published 1985. Frank Whaley wants to sleep with Christine Hamos so agrees to bury her mother's dog and winds up having a series of adventures mostly involving wacky cab driver Randy Quaid. 

A culty type movie it doesn't quite click - the adventures don't make sense, Whaley is fine, Hamos is mysterious and enigmatic and comes along for the ride in the second half but doesn't bring much to the party, Quaid is large as you expect him to be.

This was developed for Sam Kinison who would've been better.

There's a voodoo ceremony at the end which splashes the cash. Why did they make this? Why so much quirk? 

Nice to see some old vets like Sheree North, Seymour Cassell and Nancy Kwan turn up. But this film was annoying.  

Movie review - "Goldeneye" (1995) **** (re-watching)

 Splendid theme song and romancing tune. Lousy action score. Pierce is very handsome and plays it well - he fits right in. Strong script. Memorable pieces. Why no Felix Leiter?

Book review - "The Egos Have Landed: Rise and Fall of Palace Pictures" by Angus Finney (1997)

 Most "zeitgeist" film production companies have a similar trajectory - scrappy beginnings, have a hit, then another hit, then become red hot, and some flops send them crashing to earth. Occasionally they last longer if bought out by a studio (eg Miramax) or the mangers are particularly stingy/brilliant (Working Title, New World).

British cinema is littered with crash and burns, from the bigger scale - Ealing, Korda, Hammer, Thorn EMI, Rank - to smaller, like Goldcrest, Bryanston and Palace. Palace was a distributor/cinema chain that had success in the early 80s moved into production. Run by Steve Woolley and Nik Powell they were very cutting edge - distributed Evil Dead, Diva, etc - and moved into production via a close relationship with Neil Jordan which resulted in The Company of Wolves, Mona Lisa, and The Crying Game - by which time the company was bust.

Their actual run was very small - from hits like Mona Lisa and Scandal, they did a bunch of flops (The Big Man, Dust Devil) which they couldn't afford - that and over expansion so they went under.

Powell and Woolley went out on The Crying Game though so were still attractive to investors and came back as Scala. This was good for Britain but means the book doesn't have that epic "if only" quality of say My Indecision is Final, about Goldcrest, or National Heroes.

Still it's an entertaining read full of lively characters like the two leads, plus people like Richard Stanley and (alas) the Weinsteins. Palace's record really was amazing.

Book review - "Solid Ivory" by James Ivory

 Not a straight up memoir more a collection of pieces - essays on people Ivory has known (Lillian Ross, Raquel Welch, George Cukor plus of course Ruth and Ismail) and places (Venice, India), plus a long memoir section of growing up with a lot of gay content in it. Not a lot on the films though there are bits - a far wack on Shakespeare Wallah, getting Vanessa Redgrave on The Bostonians (it was almost Glenn Close), the development of Call Me By Your Name, working with Raquel Welch on The Wild Party. I would've liked more on the movies - the Weinstein dramas on The Golden Bowl, and the high points of Howards End and so on. The best bits are the chapters on Ruth and Ismail Merchant. I would've liked a different book, more film orientated, but this was interesting.

Movie review - "The Commitments" (1991) ****1/2

 Wonderful film. Better with age. So authentic. I assume. Captures a time and place and even people that has gone, I guess. Some stuff is universal. The banter, the struggle, the romance of being in a band.

Love the different types. Everyone has their moment in the sun. The two buskers. The three girls, all foul mouthed - I love how one just wants to sing country and western. The guy who wants to play jazz. The shy doctor. The psycho dummer. The awful singer. The hottest girl in class who'll just get married. The old guy who roots the women but who gets the poetry of failure.

The swearing, the violence, the banter, the grime. It's wonderfully done. Some of the acting is raw but everyone is well cast. One of Alan Parker's best films.

Movie review - "Prisoner of Honor" (1991) **

The Dreyfus Affair is intrinsically interesting but I feel Richard Dreyfus was miscast - I get he wanted to play a different sort of role but he just feels so jewish, so contemporary... I didn't buy him as  a French Catholic officer who comes to believe Dreyfus is innocent. He didn't feel like someone in the army, or a Frenchman or a non Jew. Sorry, Richard - I know this was a passion project.

It's directed by Ken Russell for some reason - they presumably wanted to give the piece some oomph - but there's no real Russell flourishes. It looks handsome.

There's a bunch of English actors being Frenchmen - the actors all look like boozers: Oliver Reed, Jeremy Kemp, etc. You never really get a feeling of France at the time, or the mood of the army or the anti Semitism that was prevalent.

The film actually isn't bad when Dreyfus isn't in it - when the generals are being anti Semitic pricks, and another soldier is forced to kill himself... The compositions feel bolder, as if Russell was empowered in Dreyfus' absence.

I think telling the story from his character's point of view was a mistake... It starts with Dreyfus being convicted there's no excitement of him being busted and going to prison and the discovery of the culprit is off screen.

The device of having some Englishman narrate it in 1923 feels pointless.

TV review - "The Secret Life of Arnold Bax" (1992) **

Ken Russell got to make a film a year for The South Bank Show - all directors should be so lucky.
Some of this is amateurish - all the time Russell/Bax throws down whisky, some of the acting and playing. It's great when Jackon is on scene less so when it's Russell and the girl. The plot has him live with Jackson then go away and lech after a young woman. I didn't know much about Bax so it was a bit interesting - fascinating to see Russell in the lead. Not that flamboyant. There is a woman doing a strip scene/fan dance.

Movie review - "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (1994) *****

Just finished rewatching "Four Weddings and a Funeral"... has it been 25 years? Gulp!
Some random thoughts
- ADR terrible
- It's great the Carrie (Andie McDowell) is sexually liberated and everything but to have sex with a guy you know really likes you while you're engaged to someone else, and then to turn up on that guy's wedding day... it's a little self centered and I'm not sure how long she and Charles would last... but I know in my heart that Charles and his friends (the real romance of the film) will still be ultra tight
- it's fun to rewatch knowing Hugh Grant was closer IRL to his character in Bridget Jones' Diary and I would totally watch a remake of this film with that character in the lead
- the set up, structure, and pay off of this screenplay is an utter, utter marvel, as is the fact it balances so many characters and subplots and tones and if you think that's easy try writing it yourself - even Richard Curtis himself never topped this
- I don't think there's any movie where so many actors/characters got a moment in the sun... everyone remembers Charles, and Carrie, and Tom and Fiona, Gareth and Matthew, Scarlett, and David the deaf brother... but also the married couples, Bernard and Lydia, and anxious Angus and drunk Laura, and Henrietta and her dumb brother, and the lecherous guy who tries to pick up Carrie, the girl who romances David, the old man who snaps at Charles, the old man who scowls at Father Gerald, and Father Gerald, and the woman who asks Fiona if she's a lesbian and all the ex girlfriends... they all get at least one moment to really shine and I can't think of any other which matches it...
- "is it raining I hadn't noticed" retains the power to horrify

Movie review - Bond#19 - "The World is Not Enough" (1999) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

An odd mix of a Bond film, full of confusing decisions. Like:

*a pre-credit opening sequence that falls into two parts - a small little action sequence in Spain then a big spectacular one on the River Thames (apparently the first sequence was meant to stand alone but was felt to be not strong enough... honestly they should have known that at script stage, and instead we have this long-feeling two parter);

*casting one of the best Bond girls in the series - Sophie Marceau, who is beautiful, smart, exotic and sexy as hell, everything you want in this universe - then one of the worst, Denise Richards. Now Richards was a fine looking woman in the late 90s and looks terrific in boots, shorts and tank top... but as a nuclear scientist no way. She seems more concerned with her tousled hair and lip pout than acting, and seems young enough to be Pierce Brosnan's daughter. Although her character is okay (brave, spunky, smart), she's got some terrible dialogue eg after almost being blown up in a pipe her first question to Bond is "what's this about you and Elektra?". It's like someone suggested casting Richards as a joke and the next thing everyone knew they were filming. It's also a shame they give such a wonderful character as Elektra such a dull death (being shot on a bed) before the big climax.

*continually giving Pierce Brosnan one liners to say when it should have become clear for whatever reason he's lost the ability to do so.

*The Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? style domestic scene between Elektra and Renard (Robert Carlyle) showing their weird domestic relationship - he's jealous of Bond's ability as a lover, he can't feel anything; Renard is far more sympathetic and touching than actually scary. (Though I did like the idea he was eventually dying of a bullet in the brain. NB What happened to 009 who put that bullet there?)

There were some good things in this movie - it is very exotic (Kazakhstan, Istanbul... maybe that's why they wanted an American Bond girl), Marceau is wonderful, Robbie Coltrane has a great death, and I liked the nod to Bond history with the title.

The action sequences are surprisingly un-involving, certainly not as good as Tomorrow Never Dies... I came away with this memory of lots of crash boom bang (boats driving through restaurants in London, spiky wheels destroying cars in the Caspian Sea, a big clunky sub falling to the bottom of the sea) rather than anything thrilling; it even does a rather dull ski chase, which I thought would be impossible. You couldn't say it was a bad Bond movie, but I couldn't help feeling underwhelmed.

Movie review - Bond#17 - "GoldenEye" (1995) ****

You've got to feel for Pierce Brosnan - when Daniel Craig came along as James Bond, such was the excitement over him that it's almost as if Pierce never existed, which is a shame because he did some fine work, and more importantly helped shepherd the "franchise" (for lack of a better word) back to success after a long spell on the bench.

Brosnan had of course been signed to play the role in The Living Daylights but lost out when NBC insisted he still make Remington Steele; he probably didn't think it at the time, but the gap turned out to be something of a blessing in disguise because the extra decade gave him some more lines and experience, made him a more realistic secret agent. He's a bit uptight in some scenes, lacks the humour of Moore or Connery (which wasn't a problem in Remington Steele, interestingly enough), and is not as good an actor as Dalton, but he's handsome and dashing, does the quips okay and is strong on action.

The movie has a whiff of 90s political correctness - Bond is called a sexist misogynist, Moneypenny accuses him of sexual harrasment, Bond admits sending some Cossacks back to Stalin after World War Two was not Britain's finest hour (this line has always annoyed me - why were the Cossacks dumb enough to think Britain would fight their wartime ally straight after peace?) - but I guess these things needed to be said at some stage.

The script is strong - although not based on a Fleming novel, it is very much in the spirit of them: there's a villain who is getting revenge on England for the wrongs done to his people rather like Hugo Drax in the novel of Moonraker; a Bond girl who is integral to the story (Izabella Scorupco, who has a nice Three Days of the Condor type subplot of her own); a decent plan, a funny ally (Robert Coltrane as a former Russian agent), some witty lines. It's a great idea to have the villain a former 00 agent (these had popped up sporadically in previous films, usually as corpses or mentioned as going to take over Bond's mission), although I was frustrated why they didn't have Felix Leiter instead of some random CIA guy Jack Wade. And the opening action stunt is silly and unbelievable - it pushes it too far.

Locations wise I felt too much of it was set in Russia, which tends to be overly brown, overcast and dull; there are also scenes in Monaco and Cuba, and the movie could have done with more of this colour. There were also a surprisingly large amount of two hander action scenes as if the budget for extras wasn't large.

Brosnan is surrounded by a superb support cast: Sean Bean is a solid head villain; Famke Janssen is a superb henchwoman, one of the best (as a killer who gets orgasmic at the sight of blood); Coltrane, Gottfried John and Alan Cumming are fun as Russians; Scorupco isn't an all time leading Bond girl, but is pretty, brave, likeable and sensible; Judi Dench makes an outstanding M, utterly believable and compelling.

Eric Serra's music score is fascinating, containing some dreadful electronic tunes and a wonderfully romantic theme, "We Share the Same Passions". The title song, by Bono/the Edge/ and Tine Turner, is awesome.

Book review - "Icons in the Fire" by Alexander Walker

Very considerate of Walker basically finishing this book prior to his sudden death as it forms a neat trilogy of books about the British film industry.  This one covers from 1984-2000 and could be subtitled "nothing is ever good enough". Walker is a bit of a whinger - mocking Thorn EMI and Rank for having too much control, for not making films, making bad films; then bagging Cannon for buying into the industry (he feels this stuffed everything). Even Polygram and Lotto money seem to do nothing but the wrong things - their hits aren't adventurous enough, then when they go out of business that's wrong too.

I always associated British cinema of the 80s as a vibrant, exciting time - that's how it seemed to us in Australia, getting movies like My Beautiful Laundrette, Wish You Were Here, Room With a View. Even Absolute Beginners was an exciting flop. To be fair we only got the popular films in Australia not the dross and Walker does say nice things about some movies, he's just determined to say the business models are bad and get worse. You can just tell this is written by a grumpier old man than in his first two books on the industry.

Script review – “Notting Hill” by Richard Curtis

This was a bigger ht that Four Weddings and a Funeral but it’s no way near as good, and is full of flaws – the characters of the friends are too underdeveloped, the romance between Spike and Honey comes out of nowhere, ditto the stuff about the wheelchair girl not being able to have a baby (apparently there was more friends stuff in the original draft but it was cut out), Spike is funny but a complete caricature, Anna isn’t a character at all, just a pretty smile. But it has an engaging charm and a wonderful wish fulfilment idea – stalkers around the world must love this film. (Sweet natured stalkers that is – the more serious ones are likely to be into Taxi Driver.) It’s also not afraid to go dark – William Thacker has been battered about my life (divorce, dud business), as have his friends: infertile, crippled due to an accident, struggling with work, in bad relationships, etc. Very simple and incredibly cast dependent but very sweet too.

Movie review – “The Full Monty” (1997) ****

This holds up very well. The humour and warmth haven’t dated a jot, nor has what it says about masculinity. Maybe I also relate to it more as I’ve gotten older with it’s concerns of aging, finding work and being a man. The final dance is a delight – it’s like watching good friends do it. (It helps that the song is ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’.) Tom Wilkinson and Mark Addy are stand outs especially.

Movie review – “Billy Elliot” (1998) ***1/2

Enjoyable dance movie that was brilliantly sent up by Urban Tales in “Born to Dance”. Jamie Bell is excellent as the title character; the actors who play his brother and father seem to overact at first but you get used to them after a while. Interesting structure which removes Julie Walters for the last section.

Movie review - "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997) ****

Top notch Pierce Brosnan Bond which has several of the most memorable moments of the Brosnan era: M's comeback about "balls", the motorcycle going under the helicopter, and the kiss at the end. There are many other enjoyable bits too: deserted South East Asian islands, tearing up Saigon, the remote control car, Jullian Fellowes as a camp seeming Minister of Defence, the final Rupert Maxwell reference.

Pleasantly non-American in flavour, with an enjoyable imperial throwback as Bond tries to stop a war between China and Britain over Hong Kong (ever notice how captains of ships that sink in the opening reel are always played by the same sort of dashing middle aged actor?), a crack at Americans not being up on intelligence.

Pierce is in decent form, as the mission is serious business - I don't think he's as interested in nookie as other Bonds, but its an attitude that suits here. For instance, I believe he and Michelle Yeoh have an attraction for each other, and a great deal of respect, but you kind of get the impression they only go to bed together (or seem to be about to) out of convention. Yeoh is a star, Terri Hatcher fine, the evil German henchman Gotto Otz suitably nasty (perhaps too nasty - I wished he had more of a come uppance).

I wasn't quite in love with Jonathan Pryce's villain - I love him as an actor, he seems to be hitting all the right buttons, but it's not quite there. Don't know why - maybe he's physically a bit too small, he needed something else - a steel claw, a natty outfit, something. Ricky Jay's computer genius is too cuddly for a baddy. Dud theme song - really awful, wrecks some very fine credits. But it was sweep, excitement, romance, intrigue - a superior Bond.

Book review - "Rowan Atkinson" by Bruce Dessau

Probably the best biography that could have been written on Atkinson, considering the constraints - it was written in 1999 and has been done without the co-operation of its subject. Actually, come to think of it, one gets the feelings maybe a there could have been a bit less reliance on press clippings.
But it offers a solid concise analysis of Atkinson's life and career: well-off rural upbringing, decent school, three years at uni in the north, then Oxford and stardom very quickly. Atkinson's face has been his fortune but he also worked very hard and was fortunate in his collaborators (esp Richard Curtis).
I remember first seeing him in Never Say Never Again - he was obviously a star. I also remember seeing him in a short film A Moment in Time which ran at some cinemas. They were planning vehicles for Atkinson on tv out of uni - how different had he been Australian.
Little of the real Atkinson comes through - he's shy, retiring, serious, likes to break things down economically like the engineer he is. Some useful reminders, like the fact that the first Blackadder was a bit of a flop and he flopped on Broadway.

Book review - "Ken Branaugh" by Mark White

Like a lot of people I occasionally found Ken B irriating in the 90s - not a lot but a little. He certainly didn't deserve the shellacking the Pommy press gave him - I mean they really poured it on. They should be ashamed. Ken sort of came out of nowhere on an international scale with Henry V; I first heard of him when I saw him on the cover of Time. Henry V, Dead Again and Much Ado About Nothing got his career off to a flying star; there was also a lot of affection for Peter's Friends though there was that awful long tracking shot near the end which made me realise that he mightn't be my favourite director. That was confirmed by the enormously disappointing Frankenstein - what we hoped at last would be a faithful adaptation of the novel sunk into irritatingness with all that swooping camerawork and buffed up Ken. But no one deserves what he went through - divorce, ridicule, even dud films for Altman and Woody Allen.

He kept his head down and is still turning out good work. Hopefully he will continue to be able to make Shakespeare films. And he shouldn't give up on the acting. This is a well-written and researched biography, very enjoyable - I read it almost straight through.

White makes a strong argument, well supported with facts, of Branagh's shabby treatment at the hands of the English press. My own addition to why the press hated him so: he had the field of genius to himself. Olivier had Richardson and Gielgud running around, Ken B had the young genius field to himself.

Book review - "Adventures of a Suburban Boy" by John Boorman

John Boorman has always been an interesting director since he burst on to the scene in the 1960s – he had a distinguished background in television, along with many top British directors of the time, made a name with a Dave Clark film, then enjoyed a splash with Point Blank. His career has varied wildly – from the highs of Deliverance and Excalibur to the erratic bombs of Zardoz and Exorcist II. Hope and Glory was his last film to really make a whack, I think, though he is still turning them out – I wish his films did better.

I had read Boorman’s writings in the Projections series and also his diary on the making of The Emerald Forest and his screenplays for The General and Hope and Glory. Many of the same stories turn up again in this memoir but there are enough fresh ones to make this incredibly worthwhile – the stuff on Hell in Pacific is hilarious (Boorman’s relations with Mifune broke down – he directed through an interpreter whom Mifune ended up hitting), although he has an ego like all directors he is frank about the faults of films like Zardoz and Where the Heart Is – the book essentially cuts out after this, which is a shame because I would have liked to know more about his post 1990 films.

He is hazy, too, on his marriage – he mentions infidelity and divorce but this is sketchy (presumably because his former wife is still alive). He is a lot more open on his relationship with Lee Marvin and Jon Voight. I always thought Burt Reynolds should have starred in The Emerald Forest (though Powers Boothe is very fine he wasn’t the same sort of star) – it could have revitalized both careers.

Movie review - "Antonia and Jane" (1991) ***

Lovely sweet British film about the friendship between two women over the years - its told from the point of view of both, and we see the different ways they see each other. A simple idea well done, with some lovely writing and memorable performances from Imelda Staunton and Saskia Reeves. Nice ending. Seen it twice - didn't enjoy it as much the second time round, perhaps because it wasn't as a nice a surprise.