PADDINGTON TWO (2017) D- Paul King
When everybody’s favourite CGI-rendered bear falls victim to false allegations of theft by evil (but delicious) Hugh Grant, he finds himself doing hard time. But his irrepressible nature wins the hearts of even the most hardened recidivists on the inside, and a prison break is planned so that he might clear his name. What’s not to like?
Not a lot, apparently. The film followed on the critical and public success of the first Paddington movie, though some, like me, found it took a long time to get going, with too much emphasis on the perfect middle class existence of his adopted family. Still, as a foil to the unrelenting violence of John Wick 2, it’s hard to beat. Premier league Christmas movie fodder.
THE BEGUILED (1971) D- Don Siegel
THE BEGUILED (2017) D- Sophia Coppola
A wounded confederate soldier stumbles into a girl’s school where he is taken in and his wounds tended to. Soon the teachers and pupils begin to become beguiled (geddit?) by their unusual charge. Some of the older pupils fancy the hell out of him; the younger ones think he’s just great, while the teachers, well, they daren’t admit what they feel, even to themselves.
I group these two films together because in many ways, the second is almost a shot-for- shot remake of the first. The Coppola version had the virtue of a much bigger budget, allowing it to have a remarkably authentic feel. Much of of the money went on the women’s costumes and general look, making them appear exactly like photos from that era. Both films convey a strange, claustrophobic atmosphere which certainly draws the viewer in but, I found myself asking, does the new film really add much to Siegel’s original? I don’t think so, and I think it a shame such a talented director as Sophia Coppola didn’t find an original project on which to exercise her abundant talent. Oh well...
LIFE (2017) D- Daniel Espinosa
The crew of the ISS discover the first evidence of life outside the Earth. Then it starts evolving at an alarming rate, from a single-called organism to something resembling a remarkably vindictive octopus in mere days. First one astronaut, then another is strangled, and they begin to think, screw the ground-breaking discovery aspect of this thing, we’ve just got to kill it. Which proves a lot harder than they might have hoped...
You may remember Ivan Reitman’s hilarious film Evolution featuring David Ducovny. Well, with Life, just think that minus the laughs. Throw in a touch of Ridley Scott’s Alien and you’ve got the whole film, right there. Yes, it’s well made with sound performances, and yes, it is very scary, but I couldn’t help thinking, hey, it’s been done before. Try harder people! There’s no shortage of quality sci-fi novels out there waiting to be filmed.
Friday, 29 December 2017
December 2017 movie review part 1
CRISS CROSS (1949) D- Robert Siodmak
Received wisdom tells any prospective bank robber that you can’t rob an armoured car. Unless you’ve got an inside man. Enter Burt Lancaster, who just happens to work for a security company. Problem solved. Or is it? They might still have to shoot a guard, an idea Burt isn’t fond of, but then he owes the gang leader a big favour.
To me this film is the very definition of film noir. It’s beautifully shot in black and white, and carries a plot line so dark I’m surprised it got through the producers, who in those days would often insert a happy ending, regardless of the writer’s and director’s wishes. Sometimes it was the censors who would insist, fearful an innocent public might be corrupted by a plot line suggesting that crime pays and that murder is part of the game when it comes to robbery. Times have changed a lot, as we shall see later on in this review. But here it is clear that even nearly 70 years ago, some courageous film makers did not shy away from depicting the darker aspects of human behaviour. Brilliant.
JOHN WICK PART TWO (2017) D- Chad Stahelski.
Hitman John Wick (Keanu Reeves) would retire, but a Mafia boss makes him an offer he cannot refuse: kill the boss’s sister. Having achieved this difficult task (she is surrounded by tough guys 24/7), the boss, showing a remarkable lack of gratitude, puts out a contract on him, and the price on his head: a cool 7 million bucks. Suddenly every hitman in New York (and there appear to be hundreds of them) is anxious to collect the fee. With every assassin in the world now out to kill John Wick, how can he possibly survive even one day?
If you’re asking that question you clearly don’t know how John operates. In the first film, someone asks a gang boss if he is the ‘boogeyman’. The boss replies: “John Wick isn’t the boogeyman. He’s the man you send to kill the boogeyman.”
Despite all this violence (we see John, personally, kill 128 people; it was only 84 in the first film) there is a strict ‘assassin’s code’ which must never be broken. Referee of the code is a mysterious man called Winston, (played with suitable gravitas by Ian McShane), to whom everyone defers. We don’t know why, and it’s probably best not to ask.
I enjoyed this film enormously, and it went down well with critics around the world too, which begs a question: what’s so fun about watching a man murder so many people, with knives, guns (he favours the head shot, obviously, as you tend to stop being a threat after that) and even, in three cases, a pencil? Well first, he only kills people who are trying to kill him. Second, the whole thing is done with such style and panache it is almost balletic in its beauty. Directed by a man who was principle stunt co-ordinator for The Matrix movies, this film takes the phrase ‘killer movie’ to a new level.
SOPHIE’S CHOICE (1982) D- Alan J. Pakula
In post-war Brooklyn, an aspiring writer improbably named ‘Stingo’ (Peter McNicol) makes friends with the girl upstairs, Sophie (Meryl Streep), who has a rather nervy boyf (Kevin Kline). The 3 become inseparable, though they have to cope with Kevin’s bizarre and sometimes terrible mood swings. Turns out Sophie has some sort of past, perhaps something that happened in the war, but it is not until near the end do we hear what this ‘choice’ thing is about, and when we do find out it almost seems peripheral, though of course it isn’t.
Merry Streep has never been more beautiful, or acted better, than in this movie, which rightly won her the best actress Oscar that year. But the other 2 players are also strong, even if the ‘Stingo’ character is a little contentious. Does he need to be there at all? I found myself asking. But writer William Styron, whose novel the film is based on, clearly thought so, and Pakula agreed. The result is a very special, if sometimes annoying, movie, which has failed to date despite the 30 year interim. Give it a go.
Received wisdom tells any prospective bank robber that you can’t rob an armoured car. Unless you’ve got an inside man. Enter Burt Lancaster, who just happens to work for a security company. Problem solved. Or is it? They might still have to shoot a guard, an idea Burt isn’t fond of, but then he owes the gang leader a big favour.
To me this film is the very definition of film noir. It’s beautifully shot in black and white, and carries a plot line so dark I’m surprised it got through the producers, who in those days would often insert a happy ending, regardless of the writer’s and director’s wishes. Sometimes it was the censors who would insist, fearful an innocent public might be corrupted by a plot line suggesting that crime pays and that murder is part of the game when it comes to robbery. Times have changed a lot, as we shall see later on in this review. But here it is clear that even nearly 70 years ago, some courageous film makers did not shy away from depicting the darker aspects of human behaviour. Brilliant.
JOHN WICK PART TWO (2017) D- Chad Stahelski.
Hitman John Wick (Keanu Reeves) would retire, but a Mafia boss makes him an offer he cannot refuse: kill the boss’s sister. Having achieved this difficult task (she is surrounded by tough guys 24/7), the boss, showing a remarkable lack of gratitude, puts out a contract on him, and the price on his head: a cool 7 million bucks. Suddenly every hitman in New York (and there appear to be hundreds of them) is anxious to collect the fee. With every assassin in the world now out to kill John Wick, how can he possibly survive even one day?
If you’re asking that question you clearly don’t know how John operates. In the first film, someone asks a gang boss if he is the ‘boogeyman’. The boss replies: “John Wick isn’t the boogeyman. He’s the man you send to kill the boogeyman.”
Despite all this violence (we see John, personally, kill 128 people; it was only 84 in the first film) there is a strict ‘assassin’s code’ which must never be broken. Referee of the code is a mysterious man called Winston, (played with suitable gravitas by Ian McShane), to whom everyone defers. We don’t know why, and it’s probably best not to ask.
I enjoyed this film enormously, and it went down well with critics around the world too, which begs a question: what’s so fun about watching a man murder so many people, with knives, guns (he favours the head shot, obviously, as you tend to stop being a threat after that) and even, in three cases, a pencil? Well first, he only kills people who are trying to kill him. Second, the whole thing is done with such style and panache it is almost balletic in its beauty. Directed by a man who was principle stunt co-ordinator for The Matrix movies, this film takes the phrase ‘killer movie’ to a new level.
SOPHIE’S CHOICE (1982) D- Alan J. Pakula
In post-war Brooklyn, an aspiring writer improbably named ‘Stingo’ (Peter McNicol) makes friends with the girl upstairs, Sophie (Meryl Streep), who has a rather nervy boyf (Kevin Kline). The 3 become inseparable, though they have to cope with Kevin’s bizarre and sometimes terrible mood swings. Turns out Sophie has some sort of past, perhaps something that happened in the war, but it is not until near the end do we hear what this ‘choice’ thing is about, and when we do find out it almost seems peripheral, though of course it isn’t.
Merry Streep has never been more beautiful, or acted better, than in this movie, which rightly won her the best actress Oscar that year. But the other 2 players are also strong, even if the ‘Stingo’ character is a little contentious. Does he need to be there at all? I found myself asking. But writer William Styron, whose novel the film is based on, clearly thought so, and Pakula agreed. The result is a very special, if sometimes annoying, movie, which has failed to date despite the 30 year interim. Give it a go.
December 2017 book review
REPORTER by Trevor Fishlock
Our Trev (yes, I know him. He is one of the few people who has made the transition from patient to friend) has spent his entire life in journalism, from humble beginnings in his local rag to roving correspondent, first for the Telegraph and latterly with The Times. Hence he is one of those people who, on hearing of trouble flaring in any given location around the world, does not, like most of us, cross it off their list of holiday destinations, but rather gets on the next plane there. Kosovo, Afghanistan, Haiti, he has been there on the front line as great and terrible events are taking place, sometimes putting his life in danger to do so.
“My goodness, Mr Fishlock, you have led an interesting life!” Is the sort of thing he must hear all the time, and it’s true. This book, however, is not as well written as one might hope. We find ourselves constantly shifting locale, paragraph by paragraph, as he takes us on a sometimes bewildering ride around the world’s hotspots over the last 40 years. The result is a very uneven piece of writing, fascinating in parts but frustrating in others. I have read several books by Trevor, and they are usually a lot more coherent than this. Pity.
PALIMPSEST, by Gore Vidal
Being the life and times of one of America’s most urbane, sophisticated and insightful political observers. Born into privilege and modest wealth, cousin to Jackie Bouvier and hence on the inside of the Kennedy Camelot (though Bobby, apparently, hated him), Gore has been well placed to comment on the American political scene since his early years. Finding success through writing in his early 20s, he has written a number of highly respected novels and pieces of nonfiction, he has never made a secret of his sexuality, mainly gay with a touch of bi-. He likes anonymous sex, though has had a long standing partner, with whom he does not have sex; indeed he attributes his success in this relationship to the fact that it is a non-sexual union.
This book is a beautiful piece of writing, always articulate and elegant and not infrequently vitriolic when it comes to describing people he doesn’t like, such as Truman Capote, with whom he has enjoyed a long-running feud. It is here we find that deep down he has only been in love once, with a school-mate who died in the fighting on Iwo Jima in 1945. And how nothing and no one has been able to equal the joy he felt being with ‘Jimmy’ for just a few months in his teens. Moving and enlightening.
MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN, by Salman Rushdie
An Indian man happens to be born at the exact same moment the new Indian state comes into being: Midnight, August 15th, 1947. He then discovers he has a psychic link with the 500 or so other children born within an hour of him, and learns they, like him, seem to have special powers of their own. Meanwhile, the newly free nation of India grows up with him, both undergoing sometimes agonising growing pains in the process.
When this book came out in 1981 it proved a sensation. Winning the Booker Prize, and later winning the ‘Booker of Bookers’ prize as the best of the prize winners over a 25 year period, people were enchanted by its surreal mix of history, autobiography and black comedy, all written in a kind of ‘post magic-realist’ style which is in fact unique. I’ve certainly never read anything like it before. With its extraordinary cast of characters and compelling, if sometimes confusing plot line, this is a book well worth anyone’s time. Intoxicating stuff.
Our Trev (yes, I know him. He is one of the few people who has made the transition from patient to friend) has spent his entire life in journalism, from humble beginnings in his local rag to roving correspondent, first for the Telegraph and latterly with The Times. Hence he is one of those people who, on hearing of trouble flaring in any given location around the world, does not, like most of us, cross it off their list of holiday destinations, but rather gets on the next plane there. Kosovo, Afghanistan, Haiti, he has been there on the front line as great and terrible events are taking place, sometimes putting his life in danger to do so.
“My goodness, Mr Fishlock, you have led an interesting life!” Is the sort of thing he must hear all the time, and it’s true. This book, however, is not as well written as one might hope. We find ourselves constantly shifting locale, paragraph by paragraph, as he takes us on a sometimes bewildering ride around the world’s hotspots over the last 40 years. The result is a very uneven piece of writing, fascinating in parts but frustrating in others. I have read several books by Trevor, and they are usually a lot more coherent than this. Pity.
PALIMPSEST, by Gore Vidal
Being the life and times of one of America’s most urbane, sophisticated and insightful political observers. Born into privilege and modest wealth, cousin to Jackie Bouvier and hence on the inside of the Kennedy Camelot (though Bobby, apparently, hated him), Gore has been well placed to comment on the American political scene since his early years. Finding success through writing in his early 20s, he has written a number of highly respected novels and pieces of nonfiction, he has never made a secret of his sexuality, mainly gay with a touch of bi-. He likes anonymous sex, though has had a long standing partner, with whom he does not have sex; indeed he attributes his success in this relationship to the fact that it is a non-sexual union.
This book is a beautiful piece of writing, always articulate and elegant and not infrequently vitriolic when it comes to describing people he doesn’t like, such as Truman Capote, with whom he has enjoyed a long-running feud. It is here we find that deep down he has only been in love once, with a school-mate who died in the fighting on Iwo Jima in 1945. And how nothing and no one has been able to equal the joy he felt being with ‘Jimmy’ for just a few months in his teens. Moving and enlightening.
MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN, by Salman Rushdie
An Indian man happens to be born at the exact same moment the new Indian state comes into being: Midnight, August 15th, 1947. He then discovers he has a psychic link with the 500 or so other children born within an hour of him, and learns they, like him, seem to have special powers of their own. Meanwhile, the newly free nation of India grows up with him, both undergoing sometimes agonising growing pains in the process.
When this book came out in 1981 it proved a sensation. Winning the Booker Prize, and later winning the ‘Booker of Bookers’ prize as the best of the prize winners over a 25 year period, people were enchanted by its surreal mix of history, autobiography and black comedy, all written in a kind of ‘post magic-realist’ style which is in fact unique. I’ve certainly never read anything like it before. With its extraordinary cast of characters and compelling, if sometimes confusing plot line, this is a book well worth anyone’s time. Intoxicating stuff.
Thursday, 21 December 2017
Pelagius hates a bully
I hate individuals who use strong-arm tactics to get want they want. And I hate states who do the same even more. Great nations should know better, but considering who is in charge of one particular great nation, I can’t say I’m surprised. When Trump and his UN ambassador warned names would be taken if anyone dared to vote for the resolution to express disapproval of their recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, some countries, deeply wedded to American aid, Afghanistan and Mali to name two, had no option but to buckle. But a thumping majority of states voted in favour.
Even countries receiving substantial aid from the US bravely stood up to them: Egypt, Turkey and many others. And to our credit, the UK, normally America’s poodle, did too. Only 9 countries voted against, Israel obviously at the top of the list, while Honduras, Guatemala, Togo, and a few other vassal states are so in hock to the US the blackmail worked. Other countries, including Canada, cautiously sat on the fence and abstained. 21 delegations stayed away from the vote altogether, neatly avoiding the problem.
But make no mistake: Trump has been told how the world feels about his bullying tactics: they STINK.
Even countries receiving substantial aid from the US bravely stood up to them: Egypt, Turkey and many others. And to our credit, the UK, normally America’s poodle, did too. Only 9 countries voted against, Israel obviously at the top of the list, while Honduras, Guatemala, Togo, and a few other vassal states are so in hock to the US the blackmail worked. Other countries, including Canada, cautiously sat on the fence and abstained. 21 delegations stayed away from the vote altogether, neatly avoiding the problem.
But make no mistake: Trump has been told how the world feels about his bullying tactics: they STINK.
Sunday, 17 December 2017
U.S. A New Hope
When Trump won his extraordinary victory last year, I blogged that maybe his newfound, awesome responsibility as leader of the Free World might bring out the best in him. Boy, was I ever wrong.
Since then we have seen him break his promises to the poor, while lining the pockets of his cohort, the very rich. We have seen him give succor to the extreme right, on both sides of the Atlantic. We have seen him transform the Environmental Protection Agency into the Environmental Destruction Agency. And we have seen him enjoining the voters of Alabama to ignore his favored candidate’s racism, sexism and multiple accusations of abusing teenagers, all because he knew he would support him in Senate.
But, gloriously, the voters of that deeply conservative state had an attack of conscience and told Moore, and Trump, where to go. True, he did garner 48% of the vote, but time was when he would have romped home with a thumping majority.
This gives me a sliver of hope. That maybe, just maybe, Trump will lose next time, or even be forced out before 2020 because of revelations over his connections with the Russians who helped him get elected. Hope, it seems, springs eternal in the Pelagius breast.
Happy Christmas!
Since then we have seen him break his promises to the poor, while lining the pockets of his cohort, the very rich. We have seen him give succor to the extreme right, on both sides of the Atlantic. We have seen him transform the Environmental Protection Agency into the Environmental Destruction Agency. And we have seen him enjoining the voters of Alabama to ignore his favored candidate’s racism, sexism and multiple accusations of abusing teenagers, all because he knew he would support him in Senate.
But, gloriously, the voters of that deeply conservative state had an attack of conscience and told Moore, and Trump, where to go. True, he did garner 48% of the vote, but time was when he would have romped home with a thumping majority.
This gives me a sliver of hope. That maybe, just maybe, Trump will lose next time, or even be forced out before 2020 because of revelations over his connections with the Russians who helped him get elected. Hope, it seems, springs eternal in the Pelagius breast.
Happy Christmas!
Monday, 11 December 2017
Back to the Middle Ages
Back in the first Millennium, it was Islamic scholars who set the pace for scientific discovery. They made huge advances in mathematics, astronomy and chemistry, to say nothing of their beautiful poetry. Far from burning books, as IS do, the Caliphs sent emissaries to Europe to collect ancient Greek scientific writing. It is down to them this knowledge was not lost centuries ago. Their influence continues today: many stars have Arabic names, Altair, Aldebaran and so on, while their language is preserved in names such as alcohol, algebra and algorrhythm. They came up with the concept of zero, making it possible to write huge numbers easily. The Romans couldn’t really imagine vast numbers, because it was too much of a fag to write them down.
Today, building on the terrific impetus the Islamic scholars gave us, we should be constantly striving to better understand our world and the universe in which it floats. But today I hear the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) in the US is removing all reference to climate change on its website. Perhaps they should make it all simpler and call it the EDA: Environmental Destruction Agency.
In a recent edition of Weather, the journal of the Royal Meteorological Society published a series of photos of glaciers, one set taken about 40 years ago and the the other taken in 2014 from the same position. In every one you can see how the glaciers have receded, sometimes by many miles. Some glaciers, standing tall in front of the camera 40 years ago are now hardly visible on the horizon.
But is human activity contributing? You are entitled to ask. In 1982 summer in Britain and much of Europe was almost cancelled due to the effect of a Mexican volcano called El Chicon. It pumped many cubic miles of dust and ash into the atmosphere, which cooled the northern hemisphere significantly. But carbon dioxide doesn’t cool the planet, it warms it. Today human activity is pumping 40 billion tones of CO2 into the atmosphere each year, equivalent to a fair-sized volcanic eruption, going on all the time. And you doubt that’s having an effect on the climate? When temperatures having been rising faster in the last 20 years than at any time in the last million years? It’s science, baby, and you can’t fight it, even if you don’t like what it’s telling you. Unless you’re Donald Trump, that is. Then you can just say, oh all that stuff’s just fake news, a hoax.
Burn the books when you don’t like what they say, right Donald?
Today, building on the terrific impetus the Islamic scholars gave us, we should be constantly striving to better understand our world and the universe in which it floats. But today I hear the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) in the US is removing all reference to climate change on its website. Perhaps they should make it all simpler and call it the EDA: Environmental Destruction Agency.
In a recent edition of Weather, the journal of the Royal Meteorological Society published a series of photos of glaciers, one set taken about 40 years ago and the the other taken in 2014 from the same position. In every one you can see how the glaciers have receded, sometimes by many miles. Some glaciers, standing tall in front of the camera 40 years ago are now hardly visible on the horizon.
But is human activity contributing? You are entitled to ask. In 1982 summer in Britain and much of Europe was almost cancelled due to the effect of a Mexican volcano called El Chicon. It pumped many cubic miles of dust and ash into the atmosphere, which cooled the northern hemisphere significantly. But carbon dioxide doesn’t cool the planet, it warms it. Today human activity is pumping 40 billion tones of CO2 into the atmosphere each year, equivalent to a fair-sized volcanic eruption, going on all the time. And you doubt that’s having an effect on the climate? When temperatures having been rising faster in the last 20 years than at any time in the last million years? It’s science, baby, and you can’t fight it, even if you don’t like what it’s telling you. Unless you’re Donald Trump, that is. Then you can just say, oh all that stuff’s just fake news, a hoax.
Burn the books when you don’t like what they say, right Donald?
Tuesday, 5 December 2017
Here we go: Trump goes after the national parks
In the US national parks are called National Monuments, and one of the largest is in Utah, known as the “Bear’s Ears Monument” and the “Grand Staircase Monument”. They’re huge, over a million acres, and contain unique ancient Native American wall paintings and stone built dwellings. The local Native American population regard much of the area as sacred, as do much of the Caucasian peoples who live in or nearby this beautiful place.
But the area is rich in natural resources, including shale gas, oil and precious minerals. And the news that Donald Trump has ordered reducing the size of the national monuments by 85% is good for the speculators and other capitalists, who are now free to exploit the area as they see fit.
Last week the world stood appalled as Trump retweeted the lunatic rankings of Britain First. And later it looked on agog as he said he already knew his national security advisor James Flynnn had lied to the FBI. Perhaps he is even guilty of obstruction of justice because of that, though Trump himself reckons he can pardon himself if so accused. But let’s not forget that amid all the furore about these important issues, such as his disgraceful pro-Zionist move to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, he’s busy undermining the greatest thing about America: its love and desire to protect its great, but vulnerable, wild places.
But the area is rich in natural resources, including shale gas, oil and precious minerals. And the news that Donald Trump has ordered reducing the size of the national monuments by 85% is good for the speculators and other capitalists, who are now free to exploit the area as they see fit.
Last week the world stood appalled as Trump retweeted the lunatic rankings of Britain First. And later it looked on agog as he said he already knew his national security advisor James Flynnn had lied to the FBI. Perhaps he is even guilty of obstruction of justice because of that, though Trump himself reckons he can pardon himself if so accused. But let’s not forget that amid all the furore about these important issues, such as his disgraceful pro-Zionist move to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, he’s busy undermining the greatest thing about America: its love and desire to protect its great, but vulnerable, wild places.
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