John, Paul, George and Ringo, otherwise known as The Rutles, spend their lives fleeing from screaming fans, aggravating their tour manager and generally larking about without a care in the world in this weekend-in-the-life snapshot as they prepare for a live show whilst looking after Paul’s grandfather (Wilfrid Brambell) along the way. 
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This review was originally written as part of my USA Road Trip series over at French Toast Sunday. It was also a suggestion for something I should watch from the 1001 Movies list from fellow French Toast Sunday member Nick “The Rehak” Rehak.
Josey Wales (Eastwood) is a small time farmer with his wife and young son, living a peaceful existence in their Missouri home. That is until one day when, whilst Josey is out ploughing the field, he hears a ruckus at his house and arrives to find a gang of hoodlums attacking the place. Josey is knocked out in the fray, and awakes to a destroyed home, a pair of bodies in need of burying and a mighty case of desired vengeance, prompting him to learn how to shoot and head off in search of the red-booted gang who took everything he loved in the world. Continue reading
The self-styled Goonies are a group of kids – Mikey, Mouth, Chunk and Data – who find their childhoods in jeopardy when a golf course is scheduled to be built in place of their homes. Days before the final contracts are to be signed by their parents, the kids find a treasure map in Mikey’s attic and, accompanied by Mikey’s older brother Brand and girls Andy and Stef, the kids set out in search of the treasure that could save their homes. However, the villainous Fratelli family have just busted one of their number out of prison, and they stand in the kids’ way.
Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) is something of an oil man. At least, he will be eventually. He starts out as a silver prospector in New Mexico, uncovering a seam and gradually building himself a small company. One day, he is approached by Paul Sunday (Paul Dano) who believes there is oil on his family’s land. Plainview, now with his adoptive son H.W. (Dillon Freasier) and his crew, including right-hand man Fletcher (Ciarin Hinds) head to the Sunday ranch, where Daniel plans to make his fortune.
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In the San Fernando Valley, a selection seemingly disconnected group of people are going through some fairly heavy moments in their live. Earl Partridge (Jason Robards) is dying in bed, being cared for by his nurse Phil (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who is tasked with finding Earl’s estranged son. Earl’s much-younger trophy wife, Linda (Julianne Moore), is struggling to deal with the imminent death of her husband. Officer Jim (John C. Reilly) is called to investigate a disturbance, which leads to a potential murder case. Stanley Spector (Jeremy Blackman) is a genius child contestant on the TV Game Show What Do Kids Know?, and is just a few days away from breaking that show’s record of most consecutive wins. Jimmy Gator hosts the show, and has done for decades, but has just been diagnosed with cancer, with just months to live. Jimmy’s daughter, Claudia (Melora Walters), has a difficult relationship with her father, as well as a cocaine habit and various other issues in her life, whilst Donnie Smith (William H. Macy), a former child star contestant on the aforementioned TV show, has seen his fame squandered and life thrown in turmoil when he loses his job at an electronics store. Finally, Frank T.J. Mackey (Tom Cruise) runs a self-help seminar on men who wish to be more successful with ladies. Mid-show, he gives an interview to a reporter (April Grace) that doesn’t necessarily go as he plans. All these stories, and more besides, will become interwoven over the course of the film’s next 24 hours.
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Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont (Gene Kelly and Jean Sagan) are the Hollywood power couple of their day. Audiences flock in their droves to see the latest Lockwood and Lamont pictures, back in the era of silent film making. However, with the introduction of new-fangled “Talkies” just around the corner, Lisa’s ever-growing ego and Don’s patience wearing thin, could their future be in danger of spinning off the reels?
Singin’ in the Rain will be my last solo review of 2014. At the start of the year, and up until just a few days ago, I’d regarded it as my most heinous movie blind spot (I even called it that on Bubbawheat’s FilmWhys podcast) and as such it was at the top of my Most Anticipated from the 1001 List as a film I felt I really should see, and soon. I even saved it until the end of the year to increase the anticipation to almost unbearable levels. As it stands, even with all that pressure heaped upon it, and after a viewing that, for various reasons, had to be split in two, I thoroughly enjoyed this film.
That’s not to say it’s perfect, it definitely has a few flaws, so I’ll get those out of the way first. I’ll make an effort to dance around spoilers (I’d assumed I was the last film fan to see this, but I recently discovered at least a couple more who still have it in their futures), especially seeing as I knew practically nothing about this movie going in. Avoiding spoilers may be tricky, however, as my main issue with the film was the ending. I don’t mean how it ended story-wise – that was entirely as expected, was very satisfying and enjoyable. No, I wasn’t a fan of the dreary, soppy-eyed closing number that spoiled the ending, which would have been better suited to, in my opinion, fading straight from an embrace to the billboard, skipping the song entirely.
This review was originally written as part of my USA Road Trip series at French Toast Sunday. I also reviewed the film recently for Blueprint: Review.
Five youths – two couples and the wheelchair-bound brother of one of the couples’ female halves – are travelling through Texas, first checking that their ancestors’ resting places haven’t been disturbed in a recent bout of grave digging, before spending some time at an abandoned house owned by the parents of the brother and sister. However, a creepy hitch-hiker and a very-much-not-abandoned house nearby put something of a damper onto their vacationing plans. Continue reading
Where do I begin with 2001: A Space Odyssey? It’s a film I’ve kind of seen once before, in the background whilst I worked on other things. I’d gleamed a few details from certain scenes, but for the most part I remembered very little, with various podcasts I’d listened to seemingly describing a film I’d clearly not paid anywhere near enough attention to. Thus, I championed it to be the latest Movie of the Month on the Lambcast. It won, I hosted the show (here’s a link to it) and, despite that relatively in depth conversation with Robert, Jess and Nick – all of whom have more experience with this film than I – I’m still a little lost as to how I feel about the film.
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This review was originally written as part of my USA Road Trip series for French Toast Sunday.
If you’re anything like me, before you saw it you knew Brokeback Mountain as just the gay cowboy movie, or that film where Donnie Darko and the Joker get jiggy in a tent. Technically this is true, and it’s the reason the film has such notoriety – it’s not often that such a high profile film centres around a homosexual relationship between two otherwise straight male characters – but there’s a great deal more to this film besides that one aspect. Continue reading
This review was originally written for Blueprint: Review.
John Wintergreen (Blake) dreams of being a detective, but for now is stuck on a motorcycle beat, as his short stature is literally looked down upon by his superiors. However, when he makes a breakthrough, pointing out that an apparent suicide is more likely to be something more suspicious, John is given the opportunity to work alongside brilliant detective Harve Poole (Ryan). Continue reading
Life Vs Film 