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Catherine called Birdy
Kermode lauded this film in one of the final Film Review slots on BBC (pity they’ve ‘been ceased’), and I noticed it was available on Amazon Prime. It’s a comedy, with some coming-of-age elements, and some sharp observations on the way of life back in... whenever exactly it was set. We enjoyed it. It’s good, harmless fun and I particularly remember one line, when the rather ineffectual father gets drawn into a duel and says rather anxiously, ‘Go and get my, er, duelling accoutrements’, clearly not much knowing what they were. Well worth a watch.
Knives Out
We watched Knives Out the other day, and it was jolly good. Daniel Craig’s accent is a thing to marvel at, but that apart, it was very nicely done. One of the problems of this type of mystery is that characters can be confusing. You forget who exactly relates to who, and how. This suffered from this problem initially, but I soon became confident that I recognised how the various characters connected with each other. The plot (and the solution to the mystery) are also nicely done. There are no messy loose ends, and I couldn’t immediately detect anything that seemed false or over the top. Very satisfying. We watched Knives Out on Amazon prime. If you have access to that, it’s well worth the £2.49 or however much it cost.
Godless
Godless is a made-for-tv noir western that I discovered on Netflix. If you get the opportunity to see it, I recommend that you do just that. It is beautifully shot (no pun intended) and the main characters are really well shown. There’s some blood and gore, so be warned. But it’s been a long time since I enjoyed a series so much, even allowing for Sandman. I can’t praise it more highly than that, can I?
The terminal list
This is a tv series starring Chris Pratt. Its premise is fine and it starts of reasonably well. But essentially, it’s all about Pratt’s ability to survive what we would all find unsurvivable, and his ability to kill off all baddies. The ‘reveal’ at the end is entirely predictable. I wouldn’t say ‘avoid at all costs’, but I don’t recommend you go looking for this to binge watch, either.
Darkman
Darkman is a 1990 ‘superhero movie’, starring a very young-looking Liam Neeson. I’m guessing it’s a movie he’s trying to forget, because it’s awful. In fact, give it a leavening of one-liners that are notably missing from the actual film, and it could easily pass as a parody. Yes, it’s that bad. Avoid at all costs.
RRR
RRR is a ‘Tollywood’ film recommended to me by middle son. MS hardly ever recommends anything, so we gave it a watch. It’s a very long film (3+ hours) so we watched it in two sittings. And we’re glad we did. It’s totally over the top, terrific plot is based very loosely on two Indian heroes who stood up to the British Raj, with lots of clever special effects, music and colour. Watch it if you can We found it on Netflix.
Top Gun Maverick
We went to see TGM on an IMAX screen, because it seemed the sort of film that deserved it and we felt like a treat. I’m old enough to remember the first TG, which I thought was okay, although Tom Cruise wasn’t then my favourite actor. Perhaps I’ve mellowed. I can stand Tom Cruise a bit more now, having learned about his tremendous work ethic, and after reading the story about when he landed a helicopter in someone’s back yard. But did that make the film worth watching? Well, yes and no. It’s one of those films where you can stop watching after about five minutes and recite the entire subsequent plot without ever seeing it. The fighter jet sequences are really well done (especially in IMAX format), and the characters all seem well cast. I quite enjoyed it, certainly more than the original TG, but I don’t think it’s quite the classic that reviewers and critics are claiming. So by all means go and see it - on IMAX if you possibly can.
Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
I grew up reading weekly comics that featured Thor, the Hulk, the Avengers... and my favourite, Dr Strange. I don’t know why he was my favourite, as basically all he did was face some terrible off-world, possibly off-universe, threat and wave his arms about chanting strange words until they went away. But favourite he was. So I was looking forward to this film, despite mixed reviews. Well. I can see why the reviews were mixed. Frankly, it isn’t a great film. Some of the special effects are amazing; there are a couple of good lines. But overall it felt fragmented and forced, and I was disappointed.
Dune
Like a lot of sf enthusiasts I was all agog to see what the latest version of Dune was like. I went with 16 yo Dylan, so it was going to be a real test. We both thought it was great... Dylan said it was the best film he’d seen for ages... and now we can’t wait to see Part 2. The characters, with one exception, were pretty much as I’d imagined them. The scenes played out in pretty much the way I’d imagined them, too. And the director made a brilliant job of turning the story into a film - not least because so much of the book is told via the thoughts of the characters. Notoriously difficult to film, of course. Ten out of ten. Looking forward to the conclusion.
Black Widow
I was looking forward to seeing this once it was available on dvd (as I didn’t fancy watching a full-length film wearing a mask during Covid). It had good reviews and the trailers looked okay. Did it live up to expectations? Alas, no. It was firmly in the category of ‘all right, but nothing special’. Some of the humour between the characters was quite good. But the plot was even flimsier than usual for this type of film, and many of the action pieces were so far over the top I’m surprised they fitted on the screen. If you get the chance to see this for nothing, well, okay. But I don’t recommend actually paying to see it.