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Reviews
The IT Crowd: The Red Door (2006)
The Rise of Richmond
I was starting to doubt the recommendation of a colleague about the comedy chops of The IT Crowd until Jen boldly opened the Red Door, previously unnoticed by her and then out of bounds after her discovery. She finds Richmond, the friendly Goth, in a room full of electronic equipment with blinking lights. We learn how Richmond was once a sprightly fellow before embracing his Gothicness and a favourite of the MD, Denholm Reynholm, until a falling out results in Richmond's banishment to the basement. Richmond's plight is too hard for her to take and she encourages a reconciliation. What lies behind the Green Door?
The IT Crowd: The Work Outing (2007)
This one is funny funny funny
I started watching the series yesterday after a colleague recommended it. The first episode of the first series was so-so, but each one thereafter got better. So I made it to a reward-episode one of series two with Jen's crush on a co-worker whom the IT boys think may be a gay. He invites them all (well, Richmond won't go) to a musical called "Gay! A Gay Musical," which elicits a variety of responses. Jen is tolerant but confused. Roy is antagonistic. Moss is intrigued. And the co-worker is simply over the moon with excitement, laughing at every gay joke and reference. The intermission offers a break and when the boys are too nervous to urinate with with the toilet worker observing, Roy chooses the disabled toilets and Moss the staff toilets. Both of them are sucked into situations that they didn't intend. Jen is horrified at it all! Great comedy, it had me in LOL territory multiple times. Definitely will be watched again-and I'm not even gay!
Alan Partridge Live: Stratagem (2022)
Inventive, witty, a bit long, but great Partridge
I had the good fortune to see Stratagem live in Leeds, UK, in May 2022 during an overseas business trip. The recording available from the London show in April is consistent...and funny!
First, who other than the character of Alan Partridge can still be funny after close to 30 years? No, he's not the same as the oft-repeated "cringeworthy" Alan of Armando Iannucci and Peter Baynham. Instead, he's the brilliant recreation of Neil and Ron Gibbons. Instead of being the failure trying to bounce back, he's arrived at a level well below his dreams. We can thank the brothers Gibbons for giving us Scissored Isle, This Time, the truly excellent From the Oasthouse podcast, the book I, Partridge, and more. They're brilliant, end of.
Second, who other than Alan Partridge is self-centered enough to launch a national tour of his self-help brand for two solid hours, being met with the harsh reality of his continued fruitless pursuit of success and fame. He's accompanied by Lynn, Martin Brennan (hands down the best character introduced in years), and the astute will notice the Irish guitarist is our old friend Glenn Ponder from KMKYWAP.
Third, this is LIVE. For TWO hours. You really have to be your character to be in character for that long in a live performance. No one can be more Partridge than Steve Coogan.
To be fair, the 120-minute time is more generous than it needed to be as there are some segments that drag (the Stratagem testimonial in particular and the bit where he has a participant from the audience who ends up giving him life advice) but the good parts, of which there are many, far outweigh any of the weak spots.
Nathan Barley (2005)
Vulgar. Offensive. Brilliant.
How amazing (or pathetic) is it to be tragically hip? Let the cast of Nathan Barley show you. I'm not going to summarise the plot any better than others-self-obsessed culture mavens provide each other with circular reference to their amazingness-but I can tell you that the feel of the show lacks the smugness that the characters themselves have in spades. It is brilliantly annoying, camp, and shallow while at the same time the definitive look at the hipster movement, an incisive critique of the idiocy that is modern culture, dictated as it is by Facebook and TikTok and Instagram. This show is brilliant. Just brilliant.
Four Lions (2010)
Brilliant satire with a strangely endearing human touch
Chris Morris is best associated with shocking, disturbing, and absurdly funny work-Brasseye most notably and even more notably the Paedogeddon episode of 2001 that is out-of-this world brilliant. Can he do it for a full-length film? Well...he doesn't and instead serves up a different type of brilliance-poignant, yet shocking, earnest, yet idiotic, and compelling from start to finish. It is good on so many levels-you almost root for the "bad guys" because of their enthusiasm while you know that they're terribly misguided, innocently evil, and should be serving time at Belmarsh. Give it a watch and then watch it at least twice more to get all of the important dialog and understanding. And laugh yourself silly that this isn't real.
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Overrated toss
If you are watching looking for either realism of training or combat, you'll not find much of it. That's ok-you can suspend belief because you're really watching for the incisive political commentary on what was a long and pointless war to save South Viet Nam from the commies. But then you can't find much of that either. This movie is a vehicle for the excellent profanity and vulgarity of R. Lee Ermey in his defining role-well done-in the first half of the film. His abuse results in a predictable outcome, which doesn't have much meaning for the storyline. Toss in some juvenile nicknames and the same Vietnamese prostitute diversion twice and you get the puerile view of ground combat against what proved to be superior enemy to the world's most technologically advanced military force. I can't believe the Marine Corps allowed itself to be featured for this.
The Little Foxes (1941)
Brilliant and vicious treachery
The blood runs cold in the Giddens family. It's hard to tell which of the Giddens siblings is most treacherous-Bette Davis as the gold-digging wife and erstwhile heiress to her husband's hard won fortune, Herbert Marshall as the emotionally abusive gold-digger of his deflated wife's family fortune, or Charles Dingle as the master schemer and orchestrator of the greed that leads to the crime. It's a beautifully tragic tale of jealousy and greed that ranks among Davis' best!
The Disney Holiday Singalong (2020)
Did anyone else notice?
Spoiler alert-K-Pop supergroup BTS clearly is not singing or even lip syncing "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." They cover their mouths with the microphones so you can't read lips. Terrible.
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
Sheer comic brilliance that shall never be eclipsed
No film has ever assembled this much talent, unless you consider the MGM spectaculars of "That's Entertainment" and sequels (which is no fair) and no film ever shall. It has all the star power of (the original) Ocean's Eleven, the cinematic splendor of Lawrence of Arabia, the suspense of Witness for the Prosecution, and the side-splitting, belly aching, rolling on the floor laughs of 1,000 Mel Brooks' movies.
If you were born after 1980--and that's stretching it--then you've been reared on the mediocre products that pass for entertainment and likely haven't enjoyed what has come before. If I see one more review that proclaims the genius of Adam Sandler or the idiots who wrote "Clerks," then I'll write Congress to ban movies forever.
Some of the funniest moments of American cinema are present in this film--Lennie Pike's (Jonathan Winter) destruction of the desert gas station; the airplane crashing through the Coca-Cola billboard; Phil Silvers driving his Ford into the fast moving waters of a mountain stream--and have spawned countless copycat scenes.
To be fair, there are many versions of the film out there ranging from 154-192 minutes. Shorter versions could leave you feeling shortchanged. With a cast like this, they can't have enough minutes into the film.
Rachel, Rachel (1968)
Much in little
It's amazing to me how far and how fast we've fallen in the realm of cinema. I caught this movie midway and was gripped by the intense emotion Joanne Woodward conveys with her distraught portrayal of an emotionally inexperienced "middle-aged" woman (35 years old and middle-aged!). Naturally, the acting was so compelling that I found the film and watched it through.
The direction is wonderfully simplistic and the portrayals deep and rich with emotion and confusion. There's not a film that's been made in the past 25 years, perhaps with the exception of The Apostle, that captures the emotion of a common person with such depth.
Les femmes de l'ombre (2008)
An important and unique contribution to recent WWII films
Films abound regarding arguably the greatest tragedy of mankind--World War II--and so many focus on the heroic sacrifices of men. What makes "Les Femmes de L'ombre" shine is that it features the typically unsung contributors to the war effort--the heroines who shared the same audacity and love of country and liberty as the men.
Aside from its cast of four gorgeous French women (and an equally delightful Italian), it features a simple, but clever agenda--the actions of a cell of saboteurs and assassins working for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in occupied France. There are no fantastic stories here--no plots to kill Hitler or to sabotage atomic research. Instead, the story narrows its focus to the extraordinary efforts to keep secret the particulars of the inevitable invasion of the European continent by the Allies. This is no small order, and there is much suffering in keeping what must remain secret.
The emotions in the film are well played by the actors and actresses. During the few brutal, but necessary scenes, the cries of anguish and pain are real and powerfully emotive. Louise (Sophie Marceau) is convincing as a vengeful widow who works alongside her dedicated brother, Pierre (Julien Boisselier). Jeanne (Julie Depardieu, daughter of the famous French actor Gerard Depardieu) plays a callous whore motivated at first by remission of her prison sentence, then by money, then by revenge. Gaëlle (Déborah François) portrays the naïve, religious girl who is seemingly the only true French patriot of the group. Maria (Maya Sansa) is a driven, Italian Jew whose family met its fate in a concentration camp. The most reluctant member is the lovely Suzy (Marie Gillain), whose questionable past allied her with the most unlikely of characters, Colonel Heindrich (Moritz Bleibtreu) of the Wehrmacht and the film's major antagonist. Unexpected support comes from local profiteer, Eddy (Vincent Rottiers), whose connection to Colonel Heindrich enables the saboteurs to get close to him to fulfill their mission.
If there's a noticeable weakness to the film, it is Bleibtreu cast as a Nazi colonel. He's neither evil nor intimidating. He lacks the sinister persona of Colonel Landa (Christoph Waltz) of "Inglourious Basterds," a decidedly less serious film of the genre. Where Colonel Heindrich should have been clever and cruel, his performance instead is wooden and uninspiring. Bleibtreu may be a little out of his realm in a role so serious.
Les Femmes de L'ombre is a solid contribution to the WWII films of the last decade. I hope it inspires more stories of the Resistance to be told with attention to the incredible sacrifices and dedication of normal people confronted with the horrors of Nazism.
Le battement d'ailes du papillon (2000)
Every action has a reaction...and my reaction to this film is--BORING
A missed train. A wrong phone number. An extra cup of coffee. What happens to those around you when you make a seemingly innocuous decision? Most people don't give it a thought as they absorbed in their own thoughts and actions.
"Happenstance" tells the story of the interrelations and cause-and-effect of the mundane as it pertains to a group of normal Parisian folk. It has all the components of what passes for contemporary theater, with the full cast of the dysfunctional and disillusioned.
There's a cheating husband, an illegal immigrant, a classic slacker, a pickpocket, a crazy grandmother, an annoying girlfriend, a selfish roommate, and a homeless man. Audrey Tautou serves as the erstwhile protagonist (in the sense that she's on camera as much as anyone else and opens and closes the film) and normal girl who just can't seem to find the right rhythm in her life.
She learns at the beginning of her day from a stranger on a train what her horoscope holds for her. What happens to her in the course of the day is told through various characters. Does the prediction come true? The concept is good, but the storytelling is flimsy. The connections from one event to the next are weak. There's better storytelling in 15 seconds of the Liberty Mutual insurance commercial where one person sees a good deed and passes it along to another than there is in two hours of Happenstance.
If you enjoy Audrey Tautou, then you certainly can sacrifice the time for this film, but you'll finish it dissatisfied and wondering what this same storyline could be if it were handled by a better producer and director.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)
Perfume? It stinks...should've been called "Scent of a Woman"
Here's the recipe for one of the stinkiest scents of all...Take one abused orphan gifted with a powerful olfactory nerve, add one dozen murdered, pubescent girls, blend, and let rest for two hours.
Then, turn the story upside down, and finish with an ending that makes you wonder why you forced yourself to watch for so long.
Perfume is a disappointing film about a man so consumed by his sense of smell that he murders to capture the essence of scent. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, abandoned at birth, discovers his sense of smell and is enveloped by the various scents and odors around him. After years of abuse in an orphanage, he is sold to the owner of a tannery. While on a delivery in a crowded marketplace, Grenouille notices a young girl, beautiful to him by scent rather than sight, and in his passion, smothers her.
Later, and by chance, Grenouille meets a famous perfumer in Paris and becomes his apprentice. The perfumer profits from his apprentice's work, but reaches his limits of what he can teach. Grenouille departs for Grasse, a city in Provence, where he can learn the art of enfleurage.
Using his newly developed skills, Grenouille begins to experiment at capturing the scent that cost him his innocence. He captures and murders young women, seizing their essence to create a master scent that will give him extraordinary powers.
However, when Grenouille murders the beautiful daughter of a French nobleman, he is caught and brought to justice. He unveils his master scent renders the executioner and the angry mob hellbent on his destruction powerless in the wake of the captivating smell. Grenouille escapes their wrath, returns to Paris to the fetid place of his birth, and disappears, mobbed by the filthy urchins who were drawn to the last ounces of his master scent.
The modern cinematography seems out of place with the 18th century French setting and the dialogue is too contemporary. I must give credit, however, for the director's (Tom Tykwer of "Run, Lola, Run" fame) careful depictions of the murders. He didn't make a bad movie worse by showing gratuitous violence.
Le château de ma mère (1990)
A beautiful glimpse of the author's nostalgia
Yves Robert offers a second delightful story of Marcel Pagnol's innocent youth of the early 1900s in the sunny, rocky landscape of Aubagne in Provence.
After "My Father's Glory," an equally charming tale of the halcyon days of the author's childhood, "My Mother's Castle" concludes the tale with the author's entrance into adolescence and his triumphant return to Marseilles as a successful adult.
Not wishing to wait through the long term at school, Marcel's mother declares her affinity for the countryside of Provence, and the family begins making weekend visits, much to the delight of young Marcel.
Pagnol revisits his beautiful hills in Aubagne, just outside Marseilles, rekindling his friendship with the local boy, Lili, and meeting what he considers to be the young woman of his dreams, only to reaffirm that youth is best spent frolicking with his chum. Marcel's charming and loving mother, his wise and benevolent father, his impish brother, and his gregarious "Oncle Jules" return in their wonderful roles.
The film is reminiscent of the masterpiece of "Cinema Paradiso," where a tale is told through the eyes of a film producer who fell in love with life while watching films in his small Italian village.
"My Mother's Castle," coupled with "My Father's Glory," make for four hours of triumphant, genuine cinema. Don't miss them.
Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
I can't write enough good things about it.
This brilliant film adaptation of the Broadway and London musical is one of the finest silver screen musicals and is a triumph of the cinema.
Fiddler on the Roof is somewhat different than the blockbuster musicals of the 1940s and 1950s, lacking flash, but making up for it in emotion. It has great vitality, though of a different kind than one would experience with a musical such as Oklahoma! or Singing in the Rain. The memorable songs don't have the flair of Rodgers & Hammerstein or Cole Porter, but they have deep meaning and evoke poignant reminders of both the wonderful traditions of the old world and the hateful, destructive behavior of man. Favorite numbers include "If I Were a Rich Man" and "Sunrise, Sunset," but the emotive "Do You Love Me?" and the wistful "Matchmaker" are great songs as well.
Chaim Topol's big screen reprise of Tevye (Topol played him in London, but the character was played on Broadway by the great Zero Mostel) is superlative. It seems as if he were born for the role.
The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
Unfaithful adaptation of a pièce de résistance of literature
SPOILER ALERT For anyone who has enjoyed the writing of Alexandre Dumas, this movie is certain to disenchant. There are better film adaptations of the book out there with much better actors. Try the 1934 version with Robert Donat and Louis Calhern instead.
While it would be difficult to express the intricacies and passion of the book in a two-hour film, director Kevin Reynolds didn't even bother, electing instead to trash Dumas' work by making it into an 1990s American-style movie with violence, sexual overtones, and a typical Hollywood happy ending.
In comparison to a reasonably good translation of the book, the movie's dialogue is too modern, the characters too transparent, and the fire of the Count's revenge is nonexistent.
Perhaps the best example of the terrible dialogue is the exchange between Danglars and the Count, now revealed as Edmond Dantes, where Dantes retorts that things are "complicated," a one-liner à la Schwarzenegger that American action film fans would appreciate, but that leaves those of us with a higher expectation of the cinema sharply disappointed.
There is no thought into the revenge exacted by the Count in the movie. Gone are the skillful maneuvers that set up each villain to meet the Count, the final, dreadful revelations of the Count's true identity, and the grim, liberating satisfaction of destroying those who conspired against young Dantes.
The movie's end is the biggest insult to anyone who has read The Count of Monte Cristo. In the book, Dumas redeems Dantes after his revenge through sparing the lives of Mercedès and her son and providing for them for their futures. The movie, of course, trounces these noble notions in order to complete the story with the Count riding off into the sunset with the girl.
Rules of Engagement (2000)
This film is anything but engaging.
After reading glowing review after glowing review, I thought I would be in for a treat. This movie cheapens the spirit of the Marine Corps with its ham-fisted approach to the ideas of personal courage and honor. The idea of a vindictive government out to silence those with a sense of duty is not foreign, however, and for that reason the film deserves some merit.