On the Waterfront

Marlon Brando in a black and white movie. It's about union violence and corruption but other than that I have no real idea what is going on in this movie. This movie is boring.

I found it a hard film to follow. The preacher was the best character, he was strong and determined but with all the focus on Brando, I really felt like Brando didn't live up to the expectation that people like me, who grew up with his name as legend, have come to put on him. Behind him was a character that had everything his character didn't and I didn't see enough from Brando to convince me that he was worth being in this film. When the movie is in black and white you don't even need to cast someone based on looks because as long as they look relatively okay then it doesn't matter. You can't really determine their beauty in these movies.

The message from this movie is clear; no matter how hard it may be, you can't stay quiet over corruption and violence. This movie also covers the ongoing issues that are still apparent in the world today which is that sometimes if you speak up then it is difficult to come to work everyday and see the faces of people that who you know are doing things wrong. At this period in time it was a necessary topic because there was a lot of it going around and it really needed to be dealt with but they could have made it so much better than they did. Some black and white movies I have found almost impossible to look away from but this wasn't one of them.

As far as my recommendation goes, don't add it to your list. There are better Marlon Brando movies and there are better black and white movies.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Kingsman was one of the best films that had been created a few years ago. It took 'The Secret Service' to another level and limits don't seem to exist for these guys. There should be insane violence but they cover it up with weird explosions of fireworks to make it look more colourful.

This movie is just another level that we weren't expecting. Teaming up with Americans and taking that which is typically British and combining it with that which we consider to be typically American makes for a fantastic movie. Psychopaths and a few other things made it a little harder for me to watch and enjoy but I still enjoyed it. You've all seen the adverts so I can talk about Colin Firth and how fantastic he is. Mark Strong really stole the show. His singing and the music in this film is just insane. 

Kingsman: The Golden Circle leads the way for the series to continue but with a few different people and a different turn. The next film is going to be genius. The tools and gadgets just get cooler in each film. I have to mention that I loved the country version of 'Word Up' by Korn. I was sitting there in the Imax mouthing along to the song and just loving the scene that it was accompanying.
this film is all about Mark Strong. Everyone can watch and enjoy this film. Channing Tatum is going to make a fine Kingsman but it will be interesting to see how they rebuild the organisation. Now that Channing Tatum has stopped being cast as a romantic hero he is doing a lot better in films. He wasn't bad in 21 and 22 jump street but he cannot pass for being a sixteen or even 22 year old and it is good that everyone has started to accept it.even Halle Berry is good in this movie. This is the way that she should go. Her career is better when she is not the center of attention in a movie.
love this film and everything about Kingsman.

Underworld Blood Wars

The fifth and currently last instalment of the trilogy. During a previous year I watched all four films and reviewed them and I had to admit that it was someone else who drew my attention to this film as it had managed to escape my attention.

Kate Beckinsale is back on her quest to kill werewolves. This is a familiar story but in the previous film she abandoned her vampire clan for this werewolf called Michael and she had a child with him. That child is now sought out by the werewolves, who are lead by a man named Marius. As always, our leading lady cannot handle the entire film by herself so in walks Theo James to help her out. This guys eyes are full of integrity and strength. He looks like her is going to stay by her side and persevere and he is strong and silent, prepared to do what he needs to do for the greater good and that is needed.

So it's the same kind of plot as in all the previous films and it almost has a similar feel to Blade about it except that this is Kate Beckinsale and she is running from everybody and not hunting anyone this time, until the end. This is a typical science-fiction film and you know what to expect with it. She killed Victor in the previous movie and ended her war with her people but this time she has to fight for something bigger than herself and she is a skilled warrior. This role has always played to her strengths and the darkness and almost Gothic feel that accompanies this film works well for her. She's not in it for the looks, she's in it because she is the perfect choice for this character. There is hunger and determination in her eyes every time that she wields a weapon in this film. There is calculation and understanding. This is the perfect chance to see a more 'human' side to her and she doesn't go too over the top with it. She is very much supported by Theo James, who is once again the strong, determined and controlled type of character but this time he has a character who isn't totally dependent on him. He takes the war by the scruff of the neck and does what he thinks is right, he doesn't ask and he makes his own decisions.

Underworld will always be good. Until Kate's character reaches the point of having been shot so many times in a fight sequence, or beaten so many times that it seems a little unrealistic, they could keep going with these films. Stars are drawn to them and get to play a perfect character for them. In the previous films we had Bill Nighy and in this movie we had Charles Dance, Tobias Menzies (Game of Thrones, Casino Royale), Lara Pulver (Sherlock, Spooks, Edge of Tomorrow) and several other familiar faces. Everyone wants to have a dark character who gets a bit of action in this trilogy.

I love these movies. I can always make time for them and will happily watch them over and over again. For me these movies are the next level for 'Van Helsing', which is the movie that I watched over and over again as a teenager because I loved the Gothic (film noir) feel to it. Blood wars is just as good as any other Underworld movie.

I'm alright Jack

I promised that there would be a Peter Sellers film. This has been a little delayed and I apologise for that. On this blog we have realised that the older style of films, films that aren't necessarily silent or in black and white sometimes attract more people than the new releases. If you stumble across this blog because you want a movie recommendation or you want to learn a bit about films then reading one on a film that features Lawrence Olivier, Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Judi Dench or Maggie Smith are good ones to start with as they are world famous British actors who are considered to be 'greats'.

Until now the only Sellers films has been the Pink Panther series and that only shows the comical side to Peter Sellers instead of the full genius. To show how much of a genius he is the man is also joined by Richard Attenborough, who is deceased but had a fantastic life in film and will always be the man that I watch on Christmas Eve playing the role of Kris Kringle. It feels so good to have watched him in something else when he was younger. Now on to the film.

This film is a little weird. It starts off in a garden with a man in a suit and everyone else not wearing anything. I still haven't really worked out the significance of it except that at the start of the film he refuses to go near the naked women and at the end of the film, even though he runs away from the naked women he is in fact, naked himself. This guy manages to screw up almost every job opportunity that he has. He manages to lose his hat in a sweet factory and for it to come out looking like a large cake, he manages to seriously irritate the advertising and product company in the finance department and he manages to frustrate the construction team by driving a lifting machine badly and yet when it comes to sacking him the construction crew can't quite bring themselves to make that decision. This film is, according to Wikipedia 'a satire on British industrial life' and is a sequel to the film 'Private's Progress', which unfortunately was not included in my Peter Sellers box set because he did not feature in the film. However, he did win a BAFTA for best actor in this picture so there is a silver lining in every cloud.

I guess that this film is about the fall of one man from a slightly smug, complacent man to a hardworking man who realises that he is not above anyone else and has to work hard in order to gain anything in his life. At the start of the film he sees himself as above the naked people and he finds it to weird to be around them but by the end he has joined them and accepted this life for his own. I spent the entire movie looking out for Peter Sellers and I guess looking out for Inspector Cleuso but instead I found the same moustache but a much more hard working accent to go with a face which could have passed for being Peter Sellers. This man is naturally funny but this role wasn't intended to be as funny or as stupid and it worked really well for him. It's a comedy but I didn't find it funny at all. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention to it but something about it just didn't draw me in as much as 'The Pink Panther' series did.

Take nothing away from the acting. Watching these guys when they are young and at their prime, doing something that the British did really well is priceless. This is a way to spend an evening and Richard Attenborough and Peter Sellers were both fantastic in this movie. There were moments when I could have laughed if I had been in the right mood for it but if you do watch it in a good mood and devote your attention to it then you are very likely to enjoy it. If you are like me and have little knowledge of British comedy and some of the greats then watch this film to receive a better education.

Olympus has fallen

The sequel to this film, 'London has fallen' was released about two years ago. I got the wrong end of the stick with this film and thought that it might have something to do with mythology but I was wrong and it is just another Die Hard type of film about a terror attack on the White House.

Aaron Eckhart as the President and Gerard Butler as an ex secret service man who is trusted with the operation of saving the life of the president and his son. Morgan Freeman as the acting president whilst all this is going on. When you read those names you think that in an action film these guys cant go wrong and you would be correct to assume so. It's been a while since Eckhart featured on this blog and it has been a while since he starred in a movie.

Give Butler a gun and let him go for it. It's another great film that is well thought out. This guy knows everything about the White House, every secret corridor and every back way. It makes sense that he can work his way around, get in to the White House, kill the terrorists, rescue the son, prevent the secretary from being shot and make it out of the White House with the President still alive.

I loved the child in this movie. Eckhart plays the controlled character who half attempts to save the lives of his coworkers but understands that there are more important things such as keeping a world safe. The control is something that we have often seen from this guy but the child playing Connor (Finley Jacobsen) is fantastic. This is by far the best thing that he has done and even though he wasn't a solid feature in this movie he held the line, he didn't complain, he didn't panic and he was the type of child that any parent would want in a situation like that. He could have been the next Bruce Wayne and probably should have been considered for the role in 'Gotham'.

This is one of the better action movies that they have made within the last four years. It wasn't comical and it was trying to be serious but not science fiction. There was a plot, they stuck to it and they worked to everyone's strengths. Watching something like this helps to convince me that they can make good action films, with a plot and a strong cast that don't need the comedy.

GI Blues

Elvis. I promised a coworker that I would watch more Elvis films months ago- something closer to six months ago and have finally obtained a box set of his films and started to watch them.

I forgot that Elvis could act as well as sing. I had forgotten that they were free to actually make movies in which there were strong characteristics and a steady plot. It was refreshing. I particularly liked the scene with the baby because it showed how sometimes, a young man in the army will only know the code that he was given and will not have a clue about dealing with babies or young children.

This time he's in the army. It works out well for him but instead of being on the front he is instead making bets over women and naturally, being the gentlemen who wins more than a bet. What I like the most about him in this film is that he is a gentlemen, he is attractive but he isn't playing on it. He has honour and respect but he works for it. He's in Germany and he takes the bet to raise the money that he needs for it which is to have one night alone with a German dancer but instead he does the honourable thing and calls the bet off because he actually falls in love with her. This is the 50's. Show dancing has just become a big thing and this girl is a fantastic dancer in a bar that feels a bit more like 'Ric's' from 'Casablanca', in that there seems to be dancing, music and various other things taking place. Like all Elvis films, you watch it for the music and for Elvis. The plot could be rubbish and you would still watch it because it has him in it.

If you don't like Elvis then there is no point in watching this film and if you do then you need to look no further for a movie to watch this evening. It's not difficult to follow or keep up with and it's not something that requires a huge amount of concentration, it just needs you to pay attention and appreciate the singing and the actual movie. The director could have created a rubbish plot which just revolved around Elvis singing and dancing for a living (after all, they managed it very well with Fred Astaire) and we would still love it but they haven't because they have tried to give everyone a reason to go and see it. Just over an hour and a half, in this day and age it is shorter than the normal length for a film so it is hardly spoiling and evening. There is something wonderful about watching Elvis on the screen and for those of us who didn't get the pleasure of seeing it when it was released we will have to settle with DVDs.

The Philadelphia Story

This movie was remade with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly. Louis Armstrong and his band narrated the remake and they turned it in to a musical, my favourite musical, 'High Society'. This black and white movie starred Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn and James Stewart so it's just replacing stars of one type with stars of another.

I've said many times that I am not a fan of James Stewart and certainly I feel that Frank Sinatra played this role a lot better than James Stewart does but the original character of 'Mike Connors' has more of a story to him. Apart from that, there is hardly any difference to the story. Instead of Spy Magazine attempting to release an article on Seth Lord they are instead attempting to publish pictures of Tracy Lord and C K Dexter Haven on their honey moon two years ago which neither Haven nor Lord want. Tracy has a fictional brother called Julius, who doesn't actually feature and that is the difference, minus the songs.

Some of the moments that I found to be funny in the musical just weren't funny. Stewart didn't change his voice enough to make it funny or the characters just didn't make it work. I never really felt like the characters were in love with each other but I did feel like Cary Grant as C K was a good choice. You can compare him to Bing Crosby and they are similar in character and the way that they play the role of the jealous lover. In some respects I felt like there was less to this film because there wasn't the on going theory of the musicians being in the house or the other houses that were available to them.

It's a great principle and another classic film of how some people can afford to live and how the lives of certain classes can be more difficult and more entertaining than the lives of our own but at the end we all want our privacy and our freedom. The musical is better and having Louis Armstrong in a film will always make it better but this is a film that anyone should watch before watching 'High Society'.

Logan

This is the start of a few days of frequent film watching. The Philadelphia story, Olympus has fallen, an Elvis film and a Peter Sellers film are on the way so keep watching this space and sorry for the delay.

Logan was released in cinemas in early March. It is supposed to signify the end of Wolverine in his own movies because Hugh Jackman can no longer keep up the physique needed for this role. I wasn't sure about this film when I saw the adverts. He looks old, he looks weary and one of the features that has become well known of Wolverine is that he is ageless, his mutation makes it look like he doesn't age so seeing him look like this was hard for me. I missed it because of complications and I was in Austria for a part of March. When I got back to London 'Logan' was on a limited screening.

What can we say about Jackman's bow from the somewhat iconic character that has become associated with him? There is a lot more emotion to this Logan than we have ever seen before. This film shows exactly why he is an avenger rather than an x-man. It seems fitting that he shows more inner emotion in this film, more care and more concern than he has ever done before when the end is drawing close.
Dafne Keen is a name to watch out for. She has an 'Abigail Breslin' feel to her. The way that she plays this role, talking in Spanish, attacking well trained men, suggests that she could become the next child that everyone wants in their films.
The return of Patrick Stewart is very much appreciated. Not that James McAvoy didn't do a good job but he was never going to be 'Charles Xavier' when Patrick Stewart was already playing that role. If they had done it differently and started with a young 'Xavier' then we would probably be saying that McAvoy will be most people's preferred 'Charles' but they didn't so he isn't.

Richard E Grant is making a rare return to film, instead of TV. There are cameos or actors you may recognise for the odd film in this film but apart from the two I have already mentioned there is no one who carries one hell of a filmoraphy, unlike what we normally expect with a marvel film.
They have done well with this film but it did need to be the end of this chapter.

The Manchurian Candidate

You have to stick with this film. At the start it is seriously confusing because I had no idea about this plot and I got super confused by everything but I did get there in the end. It seems weird and at times a little confusing if you know nothing about the film but stay with it and everything will be okay.

Denzel Washington and Liev Schreiber star as two men who are, well, I don't really want to say 'brain washed' but they are ex army, with one guy having bad dreams and the other being a war hero and on the path to Vice President. They both served and Washington was the captain of the unit that they served in but something happened and they went missing for a few days when they were serving. Two men in their unit were killed and the others survived but one guy was also having bad dreams, came up with a conspiracy theory and then convinced Ben (Washington) of this theory. So this film is about Ben attempting to discover the truth about what happened.

Also in a supporting role is Meryl Streep. She has a very obvious and yet still secretive role in this film. We all knew that she had it in her to play that character but she hasn't quite managed to display it in any previous roles. The ending is great but slightly unexpected. She is brilliant and she is something different in this film. Hearing her voice as much as we do also opens up other option for her career.

I kinda wish that I had seen it sooner because it gave me a chance to see a different side of Denzel Washington. The serious, silent side that was obvious in 'man on fire', or 'inside man', was expected but this was different. This wasn't even the drunken and slightly angry character that I witnessed during 'fences', instead, this character was totally different and worth watching.

Son of Rambow

A comedy about Rambo. Some kids making their own film based on Rambo but I actually think that their film is a lot better than Rambo.

You may recognise the face of Ed Westwick, (the slightly questionable older brother) who made his name from the tv series Gossip Girl. Or even the face of Will Poulter (The voyage of the Dawn Treddor) but most of these faces you are unlikely to recognise, I certainly didn't.

What is written on the case is that this is a comedy, that it is hilarious but I actually didn't find it that funny until the end, when I got to see the entire film that they had made. I expected it to be more comical that it was and it was a bit of a let down for me because it didn't absorb my attention and make me laugh a lot. I felt like this was all false advertising but that doesn't make it a bad film.

Ed Westwick took on a different character and because he was one of the few of the gossip girl cast who can actually act it is a little disappointing that he hasn't had more roles. He is versatile, he could be the next Johnny Depp but no one will know because he hasn't had a real chance to show his versatility. Depp had to use all channels available to him to even get a role, let alone get to make more than one film and Westwick needs to find a way to get some more screen time because Harrison Ford is past it and Ryan Gosling is actually a terrible actor so there isn't much competition out there  between people who are young and can act, as most young  or even older actors can't actually act. There are many roles for him if he can find them.

Considering that I didn't like Rambo much, I think that I prefer this film over the Stallone film of Rambo. Most of us will be able to remember what it was like to be a child and obsessed with a film (for me it was Harry Potter). We play gsmed all the time in the playground and the park and our garden, anywhere and we all wish that we were in the film. These kids did what we all wished that we could have done and made a film and for that reason I like this film and rate it highly.