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2025 in review
With the 1st of January now rolling us into 2026, it’s time for my annual review of the year that has just closed. Another beautiful sunny day here in Virginia, warm and blue skies as I sit down and reflect on some of the stats and journals I have maintained this year.
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The Runner (2015)
Here we have Nicolas Cage trying to prove he can be a serious actor by taking on the role of a politician who is trying to walk the line between personal and professional morality. Set just after the BP oil spoil in the Gulf of Mexico, we have Cage playing a saintly congressman who is fighting the fight for the local businesses and people who’s lives have been destroyed by…
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Momentum (2015)
If I was to tell you that this movie took in a whopping £46 in its opening weekend in the UK, you would start to get a feel for the quality of this movie. We have ex-Bond girl, Olga Kurylenko playing the mouse to James Purefoy cat, in a heist goes wrong sort of movie. Set in South Africa, we have all the usual setups, corny and cliche as you could possibly…
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Get Low (2009)
This was one of those Netflix finds, that with its heavy weight cast of Robert Duvall and Bill Murray should have popped up on my radar a lot sooner. After watching it, there is a reason it didn’t pop up – it isn’t very good. The story centers around Duvall’s character, a 1930′s Tennessee hermit who has lived by himself in near isolation for 40 years. Apparently the story has a pixie…
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Gravity (2013)
Take a Sandra Bullock, throw in a little George Clooney, bake in space for 90 minutes and you have an Oscar (7 of them!) winning combination. The movie starts off with them fixing a satellite as part of a scheduled EVA. They then get word of a Russian satellite that breaks up, sending debris at 22,000 mph toward them. Naturally this rips through their mission, killing everyone but 2 from…
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Stone of Destiny (2008)
This is the true story of the daring robbery by 4 Scottish students, in 1950, to return the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey in London, to Scotland. The Stone of Destiny is a big hunk of stone that was used for hundreds of years in the ceremonies when kings were anointed in Scotland. It was stolen by the English in 1296 and built into a chair that has…
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Sam Whiskey (1969)
This another one of those movies that only hit your radar if you find yourself couch bound, ill and you are at the mercy of the day time TV programming. This is exactly how this little comedy western hit my radar when I was much younger. Burt Reynolds plays a very ‘Maverick’ like character who is hired by a beautiful widow to retrieve sunken gold bars from the bottom of…
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Sunshine on Leith (2013)
I resisted this movie for a long time. A musical based on the songs of the Scottish twins, The Proclaimers. It just sounded like it could be naff and I really didn’t their music spoiled. However, I resisted, and with a due sense of caution and trepidation I pressed PLAY. Within the first 5 minutes, I knew I was wrong in my reservations. That feeling never ended until the…
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Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
This period of cinema was a golden age for a young boy growing up who was fascinated with cars and the first ever social network, the good old CB radio. How many of you like me, pretended to be the Bandit or the Rubber Duck when out on their bikes? I even had a CB radio in my bedroom and would talk to the truckers doing the Ireland-Europe…
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Titanic (1997)
James Cameron takes on the infamous Titanic story, the greatest maritime disaster of its time and one that still holds a fascination for the public, even though, by today’s standards, we’ve had bigger ships. Part of the mystic around this particular sinking, is the hubris of man, and the claim that the ship was unsinkable. The story starts off with a treasure hunting salvage crew attempting to locate a…
the leg-end that is, Alan Williamson.
For over 20 years, I’ve shared my thoughts whenever the muse strikes. It’s unpredictable, honest, unedited, and occasionally witty. I’m living the best years of my life, working harder than ever, and enjoying every second.
Alan Williamson 