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Reviews
The Good Karma Hospital (2017)
Standard plot and theme made excellent by the quality of the acting and direction
The acting is very good and the direction allows the actors time to show complex emotions. Without it, the series would be ordinary fare. Well, the beauty of the setting helps.
And the switch back and forth between different scenes in different places - very nicely done - the emotion ramped up in one setting, then a switch to the other setting and we can breathe out. Cleverly and sympathetically done.
Becoming Jane (2007)
Rough around the edges but it moved me.
This is a film that is rough around the production edges. The lighting in two of the outdoor scenes are harsh and contrasty; the shadows block up and there is a distinct blue tinge to the colour values.
Perhaps it was the print we saw, but the sound was often muffled - again particularly so in the outdoor scenes and the crowded scenes.
And that is a pity, because it interfered with hearing some of the exchanges between the characters.
And yet..
I liked this film very much. It got through to me. Instead of every last drop of period authenticity being wrung out of the scenes in order to show the film's mastery over them, the essential honesty of the emotions - love, naivety, experience, pain - is there.
There is great interaction between the lead characters.
The Long Goodbye (1973)
And it happens every day.
Who is Marlowe? Marlowe is down to earth in a crazy world - his reaction to what goes on opposite his apartment and in the jail cell with David Caradine show that.
Marlowe cares - his search for cat food and his search for Terry Lennox after the 'story' has ended, show that.
Marlowe is pure steel under all that clowning and loose walk - the ending shows that.
But the sound of the doorbell at the Wade's house is the sweetest sound.
Accept this film for the rapier it is; leave all conceptions of what detective stories should be like, behind. Sit back and enjoy. It is a hugely memorable film.
The Specialist (1994)
Taciturn meets Vengeful and make sweet dreams
Sylvester Stallone is the same hurt, private, taciturn, powerful character he plays in Rambo and Cliffhanger. Sharon Stone is the same gutsy, flashing-eyed grown-up woman bent on revenge that she will play in The Quick and the Dead.
The plot is simple. She wants revenge but is compromised. She wins through because she has Stallone and his skills. He achieves a kind of redemption through it.
it's full of implausible action.
And to dismiss it as a second-rate action film is to miss a cinematic experience. It is not brash - it is mystical. The music is wistful and ever-present. The scenes are welded like a dream sequence. James Woods' over the top cop breaks it up until even he is caught in the dream.
Great direction -