ርልዪረ
CARLBRIANCOOMBES
- Due South
What can I say. I watched this as a kid and fell in love with the wolf/dog and the charismatic truth telling Mountie, recently rewatching this on DVD after a charity shop find and I binge watched it over the last week. Shame the show got cancelled after season 2 making it harder for ray to come back for seasons 3-4 when it was picked up again but what a ride. Love the whole genre of buddy cop shows and movies and keep saying we need to bring them back The other thing I love about this show is the slapstick double meaning convos and the fact the main character is so innocent that he doesn't pick up on social queues. Let's not forget the odd cameos of late Leslie Nielsen.Due South - Minority Report
Minority Report - Song Sung Blue
🎶The events in Song Sung Blue really happened. I was there as a fan in the '90's and it was crazy. Crazy fun, crazy entertaining and, off-stage, crazy tragic at times. The real "Lightning and Thunder's" performances were uplifting - you left singing and dancing and in a great mood. The movie brought back that time and feeling. Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson were mesmerizing. They skillfully captured the spirit of Mike Sardina/Lightning and the still feisty Claire Sardina/Thunder. I had no idea Kate Hudson was so musically talented. The supporting cast nailed it. The director, Craig Brewer, and production team told this complicated and bittersweet story with grit, laughter and energy. I laughed. I cried. I danced in my seat. I am still unapologetically cranking Neil Diamond songs days later and I plan to for a long time (& I'm not a "boomer" but I'm old enough not to care whether someone thinks Neil Diamond music is cool or not) (spoiler - it is!) Like real life, Song Sung Blue was heartbreaking at times. It was also joyful and inspiring. This couple experienced really high highs and really low lows. These were "regular people" like most of us. Well... no one is quite like Lightning/Mike or Thunder/Claire... and maybe it's partly because, unlike most of us, despite all the obstacles they faced, they went all-in after their dream. They brought a lot of people joy doing what they loved and if that's not a fulfilling and beautiful life, I don't know what is. Give this movie a chance (& check out the documentary it's based on, 2008's "Song Sung Blue" - yes, these events really happened). It's hard to explain, you just have to experience it.Song Sung Blue - Green Street Hooligans 2
Despite a few Dick Van Dyke cockney accents and one or two unintentional comedy moments, the first green street was a generally enjoyable film. Green street 2 on the other hand was just plain awful, for starters the whole film is set in what seems to be an American prison, this combined with acting that made the original look like Shakespeare I found myself wondering why I was still watching. The director tries to make up for this pathetic attempt at a plot with lots of mindless and pointless violence, don't get me wrong I'm certainly not oppose to a good punch up, this was mainly why I enjoyed the original there were some fantastic fight scenes that basically made the film, but no amount of hooligan action could save this tripe. I'm sure like me many will watch this because of the original, and I'm sure like me they will be left shaking their heads right up until the pointless football match finale.Green Street Hooligans 2 - Drive
Drive - Hanging Up
OK, so, a lot of people are saying that they were disappointed, that it looked funny but wasn't, that there was more drama than comedy etc etc etc. BUT, I just have to point out, this movie isn't just listed as a COMEDY but also as a DRAMA, therefore, it is to be expected that there is a fair bit of drama involved in this movie. Just a forewarning: if you don't like flashbacks, don't watch this flick, it's full of 'em! This movie really amused me, and if you get it on DVD, watch the cutouts! I laughed myself silly.. the cast of this movie is brilliant (even if you're like me, and aren't the biggest fan of Diane Keaton). You have Meg Ryan, with another of her light comedies, Lisa Kudrow with another ditzy roll (lol), Diane Keaton in a role I would expect her to play in a comedy/drama and Walter Matthau, who always puts in a very amusing performance.Hanging Up - Futurama
Futurama - Robin Hood
🏹 This is not exactly Robin and his merry men, nor is this Errol Flynn swashbuckling and laughing his way through merry old England as he gets his jollies battling the sheriff of Nottingham. No, this particular take on the story of Robin Hood is very different - like none you've ever seen before. Even the historical setting is changed from what's usually offered. Here, rather than waiting out the evil regency of Prince John and his minions until King Richard returns from the Crusades, Richard is already dead. His death comes very early on in the movie in battle in France. John is the King of England in this movie, and rather than an unselfish "robbing the rich to give to the poor" type character, Robin (actually in this movie Robin Longstride, who finds himself impersonating Robert of Locksley and becomes known as "Robin of the Hood") is a more complex character. I wouldn't say exactly noble - especially in the beginning - and his battle is not so much for the poor as it's a battle for the "rights" of the English people, as he eventually takes on what seems to be the fight to get John to sign what I assume is Magna Carta, and at least temporarily has to ally himself with John to help lead the defence of England against a French invasion. The different historical setting is a bit disorienting to be honest - especially at first - but it also gives a degree of unpredictability to what's going to happen, and once you get a sense of where you are, when you are and what the fight is about it's easy enough to understand what's going on. Russell Crowe did a commendable job, I thought, in this alternate portrayal of Robin, and Cate Blanchett was most certainly a different kind of Marion. She's not the Maid Marion of legend. She's tough, she's a fighter, she goes into battle with the French - although not leading the battle, there's almost a Joan of Arc quality to her (minus the voice of God.) I was quite taken with Oscar Isaac as King John. He took the part and made it real. John came across as I would expect him to from the historical record - shifty and conniving, untrustworthy, quite willing to make and break whatever alliances are necessary at any given moment to ensure his survival as King and sometimes quite befuddled by his responsibilities. Perhaps a weakness was the fact that there was no real focus on Robin's men. Really only Will Scarlett (played by Scott Grimes) and Friar Tuck (played by Mark Addy) were significant elements in the story, and even they weren't particularly important. The sets and setting were good. This felt like I imagine England in the late 12th-early 13th centuries would have felt like. Rough, brutal, dirty. It worked for me. The battle scenes (and there are a lot of them) are very well done. Since the movie ends with the caption "And so the legend begins" one wonders if a sequel might be in the works, perhaps detailing the struggle leading up to the actually signing of Magna Carta? If so, I'd definitely watch it. This was quite good!Robin Hood - Not Without Hope
I went to see Not Without Hope mainly because I've been on a Zachary Levi binge lately and wanted to check out more of his filmography. I also went in pretty blind - I knew it was a true story, but I actually knew nothing about the real accident since I was around six years old when it happened. That made the movie hit harder, because everything unfolded as a complete surprise instead of something I already knew the outcome of. The film is based on the real-life story of Nick Schuyler, a former football player who goes out on a fishing trip in the Gulf of Mexico with three close friends. A sudden storm causes their boat to capsize, and what starts as a normal day quickly turns into a nightmare. As time passes, the group becomes separated in the open water, and the movie focuses heavily on the physical and mental toll of survival - dehydration, exhaustion, fear, and the constant fight to stay conscious and hopeful. You can tell the movie was made on a smaller budget, but it's used smartly. The ocean feels endless and uncomfortable rather than cinematic, which makes the situation feel more real. The pacing is slower, but it works because it puts you in the same mental space as the characters. Zachary Levi does a strong job carrying the film, especially during the more internal moments once he's alone. Josh Duhamel and the rest of the cast don't have a ton of screen time, but they help establish the friendships enough that the losses actually land. Overall, I'd give Not Without Hope a 8 out of 10. It's not a flashy survival movie, but it's grounded, emotional, and respectful to the true story it's telling. If you like real-life survival stories or you've been following Zachary Levi's work, it's definitely worth watching.Not Without Hope - Dad's Army: The Lost Episodes
The overwhelming justification for remaking these 3 episodes is because they are genuinely unavailable. I don't know whether anyone with primative video equipment ever pointed it at the telly in 1968. If there IS any footage it must be unusable (unlike the episode which was discovered, restored and colourised some years ago). Some of the writing in Episode 1 of this series has some really good moments and gags which I remember from watching it about 50 years ago. I avoided the newish movie because I don't feel (as with the first movie version) that the format is not as charming outside the studio and dreamy woodland lanes of the TV environment. Cast is much better than hoped for and the reason I can't agree with the previous reviewer is that these are the original scripts - so the comment is nonsensical.......Dad's Army: The Lost Episodes - 21 Jump Street
This was a top notch series that featured youthful looking police officers who would infiltrate high schools to investigate crimes like.drugs and prostitution. The episodes were top notch and well written and timely to watch. I always enjoy watching them. It was a good concept, and if you get the chance, definitely watch some episodes It did wonders for the FOX network and Johnny Depp's career!21 Jump Street - Disturbia
It's watchable and entertaining and very simple, no super twists. Perhaps, ok to watch one time. After I was done watching i just forgot about this movie and did not want to discuss with my friends. Later, observing Viola Davis's filmography I remembered that she was in it as detective. I love this actress and see her starting in such movies is funny.Disturbia - Hunger
Lori Heuring stars as a doctor trapped in a well along with other selected victims, chosen for a madman's human behavior experiments to determine how they will contend with having no food, their bodies desire for sustenance slowly demanding nourishment. Linden Ashby, Joe Egender, Lea Kohl, and Julian Rojas round out the cast of suffering humans, Bjorn Johnson the psychopath monitoring them. Heuring explains to us in one scene, in detail, how the body will slowly deteriorate, the organs cannibalizing inside before total break down, starvation, and death. Bjorn Johnson's motivation derives from an incident when he was a child, eating from his dead mother in order to survive. Johnson will see if this group would do the same. Attempts to escape and reason how to get out of the well give way to anguish, fear, sickness, and mania. When a couple, choosing an area near the well as a make-out spot, are murdered by Johnson before they could get the trapped group help, we see that he will do whatever it takes to see that no one ruins his experiments. He wants proof that others would do the same as him in order to live(he even places a scalpel down there with them, sharp enough to skin flesh from bone). And, he is proved correct when one among them sick with a heart condition is picked to be food by the more savage ones no longer able to hunger. It gets particularly unsettling when Huering is bound by the others so she can not interfere with their din-din, and we can hear flesh tearing and chewing. Lea Kohl, as Anna, is quite chilling when she admits, in a cold and heartless manner, how she convinced Alex(Rojas) to kill Grant(Ashby) so easily, with Jordan(Heuring) having to endure her testimony restrained. HUNGER is one of those movies which reveals the true colors of those trapped bit by bit until each character is fully exposed. Again, as is often the case, it's a woman(in this case, Anna) who manipulates using sex and her allure as a tool of destruction. Alex's experienced cannibalism(and cabin fever)evolves into a psychosis as he rants about the essence of flesh while Luke(Egender) is given the keys to the kingdom so to speak(he has the scalpel). Essentially, Alex becomes an animal, his humanity all but gone, just a primal beast remaining. Luke is antagonistic and intolerable from the get-go, difficult to get along with. When Luke snaps, it's no surprise. Anna's true self emerging is rather an eye-opener, although using your beauty and look of innocence as an advantage shouldn't shock anyone watching the movie, I don't think. Besides the cannibalism and bloodletting which on their own are disturbing, Johnson's enjoyment at seeing his subjects tearing themselves apart may be even more macabre. Johnson has a wall with photographs and written information about each subject proving that he took special care in which people would be trapped in his dungeon. He underestimates Jordan, though, who retains her humanity and outsmarts her monstrous peers. It's the SAW formula made manifest once again, kidnapped characters from different backgrounds forced into a dangerous game where the one responsible for their predicament looks on from afar in a secret room as they slowly succumb to their base natures, the group trying to find an exit strategy, one by one turning on each other. "What will we do to survive," is a story arch used a lot the last seven or so years. Solid acting from a capable cast of mostly unknowns along with a twisted story give HUNGER must-see appeal for fans of the SAW films and their ilk.Hunger - Everest
I am very surprised reading bad reviews about Everest. What did you expect it to be then? I sincerely did enjoy watching Everest. Also because it's based on a true story, what makes it even better to feel the despair they had at the end. It amazes me people would pay so much money to live an experience like that, where your life is at risk all the time. Okay it's a great achievement once you've done it, but I'd rather spend that money on a lazy sunny vacation trip. The fact is the top of the Everest is a graveyard with bodies of people that tried this expedition. The movie shows perfectly how hard it must be to climb the Everest. The lack of oxygen, the altitude, the sudden change of weather, it's all too much for a normal human body. The movie itself is beautifully shot, with good actors, a lot of tragedy. I didn't get bored for one second watching this movie. It keeps you on edge the whole time, because you can feel the courage and determination it takes to climb that mountain. Good movie if you ask me. Would watch it again in the future.Everest - Target
Ex-CIA agent, now operating a hardware business in Dallas, Texas, Walter Lloyd(Gene Hackman) finds that his wife Donna(Gayle Hunnicutt)has been kidnapped during her trip in Paris and must find her. Estranged son Chris(Matt Dillon)insists on joining him as they help keep each other stay alive in the midst of gunmen, working for mysterious sources,trying to kill them. His former partner Taber(Josef Sommer), now the head CIA man in Paris seems only too willing to help an old pal out. Clay(Guy Boyd)is Taber's right hand man trying to find out who would wish to kidnap Donna. The film follows Walter and Chris on their Euro journey often escaping certain peril in some rousing action sequences and near-death escapes. The one responsible for kidnapping Donna might be seeking revenge towards Walter for a CIA operation titled "Operation:Clean Sweep" which led to a family being slaughtered of one Cold War target that got away. Popcorn espionage thriller following Hackman and Dillon I thought was entertaining even if I didn't believe what the plot was selling for a minute. Syrupy bonding sequences between Hackman and Dillon just don't seem to work. Hackman, always the versatile actor, plays the role of hero with ease. The climax when it's revealed who was really behind the slaughter of a family..the one Hackman's Walter is being held accountable for..doesn't hold up well. I do not think the one responsible for such an act, carried out the way it was, would make himself look so guilty at such an inopportune time. Crackerjack bomb-diffusing sequence at the end is quite suspenseful, though.Target