5 out of 10 – alan williamson

Mr. Holmes (2015)

Now this is a wonderful premise. Take a famous literary character, and let him live out his years and explore what would happen if a once world famous detective started to have dementia and amidst his failing health.

Ian McKellen takes on Sherlock Holmes wrestling with a retirement that is not going terribly well as he is losing his memory and his once powers of deductiveness starts to fail him.

A reluctant house keeper with her young son take care of him, with his usual grumpiness and general impatience feeding into an atmosphere that doesn’t make him the easiest of people to live with.

We are told a story of a case, that has perplexed him in his final years, as he tries to piece together his memory to recall a clue he maybe missed. Along side this he teaches the young boy all about bee keeping and the process of making honey.

The movie goes along at a very slow pace, but this lets us marvel at the great acting of McKellen. While not a young man in real life, this movie has him looking 20 years older and very frail. What is shocking, is the believable state he is in.

Now, the length of the movie could easily have had 30 minutes chopped out of it and not lost anything. There was large pieces that just didn’t make any sense and you are left wondering if the director had cut maybe a crucial scene that made sense of what was left in.

Overall it was ‘ok’ nothing great and you could be forgiven for overlooking it.

#106 in the series

Viewing Date
Wednesday, 2nd December 2015 (Richmond)

Rating
5/10

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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 route as they drove past the 5 mile radio my biscuit tin setup would reach. Happy days.

Burt Reynolds defines the genre wonderfully with his first outing as the Bandit, in this classic cops’n’robbers chase across state lines. The premise for the story is so woefully thin, that it quickly falls apart with any close inspection. We have 2 wealthy business men, who for a bet, want to bring a truck load of Coors beer from a state where it is illegal to run it across. So Reynolds, the Bandit, takes up the challenge with his truck driving friend, Cledus (Jerry Reed) to go and fetch the beer and bring it back.

The idea being that the Bandit will be the lead car, in a black trans-am, to give the truck a clear run to the prize.

Along the way though, they pick up a runaway bride, in the guise of a very beautiful and young

Sally Field. Reynolds has recently spoke about his regret of letting Field slip through his fingers and it was the one true love in his life that he lost.

There is no doubt about it, their on screen chemistry is perfect as they fall in love with each other and you can easily see how this was translated to the real world.

The real star of the movie is

Jackie Gleason who plays the Texas sheriff that chases the bandit across the state lines. Field’s, Frog, turns out to be his would-be daughter-in-law had she gone through with the marriage to his dimwitted son, who is also along for the ride.

I really don’t want to pick apart the story line, because that is like pulling back the curtain and realizing Santa isn’t real and there is no tooth-fairy. Some things should just be accepted on face value and be played along with.

Smokey and the Bandit is a perfect father-son movie for a wet weekend afternoon. No fancy special effects, no obscenities just car stunts and witty one liners. The followup movie, was actually a little better in my view, but I’ll do that one at a later date.

Good senseless fun.

#89 in the series

Viewing Date
Sunday, 15th November 2015 (Richmond)

Rating
5/10

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The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

I was really looking forward to this

Guy Ritchie remake of the 1960′s TV series of the same name. I caught this movie in preview back when it was released before I was to depart on a plane to Scotland the next morning. I then went back to it, watching it with others, to see if my first impression was right or wrong.

The Cold War setting, we have an American CIA agent working with a Russian KGB agent on a special inter-agency mission to track down a gang of criminals hell bent on acquiring nuclear weapons. A lot of the intended humour is suppose to be around how different these two agents are and how different they deal with situations. They try to continually one up one another – each failing in their own way.

We have Superman (Henry Cavill) playing the suave American CIA agent, who while doing his best James Bond impression, doesn’t quite feel convincing. Though, he is nothing compared to his counter part the Lone Ranger (Armie Hammer). The Russian accent does not quite work, nor does his look.

The movie actually got a little better on the second run through, allowing me to enjoy the style, feel and colour of the movie. It is beautifully shot and some of the set pieces are entertaining in their own right, but just don’t flow at all well together. There is one particular setup that see’s them trying to escape together using boats, but Superman gets separated and ends up in a truck eating cheese drinking wine while observing the whole chase/guns without any sense of urgency. It is no where near as slick as what it probably looked on paper.

An aging Hugh Grant pops up as the inter-agents main boss and has some of the best lines, but never given enough screen time in an attempt to save this movie.

You see the problem is simple – it never lived up to the hype of the trailer and pedigree of Mr Snatch/Rocknrolla. This movie should have knocked it out of the park and been as witty and as sharp as Richies previous outings. But it comes no where near even the slickness of Sherlock (let us not talk about the second Sherlock which was meh).

It is a tolerable and enjoyable action romp, but failed to live up to its true potential.

#81 in the series

Viewing Date
Saturday, 7th November 2015 (Richmond)

Rating
5/10

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Clear and Present Danger (1994)

The 3rd outing in the Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan series, sees Harrison Ford reprising the role for the second (and his last time). Ryan dealt with the Russians in the first one outing, under the sea with the Hunt for Red October and then we had him fighting the Irish in Patriot Games. Here we have him after the drug lords in Columbia after the Presidents close friend is murdered under suspicious circumstances.

Anne Archer reprises her role as Ryan’s wife, which sadly had most of her scenes not making the final cut. Archer has this continual soft-focus look that gives her an air of classic screen icon. We have a very young

Thora Birch playing his daughter which is fun to see.

Of course we have the voice that can make any woman’s ovaries jump up and down in excitement,

James Earl Jones, playing the Admiral that gives Ryan all the fatherly mentor-ship he needs to complete his mission and take over his leadership. There is a great scene when Ryan, now head of the CIA, is in Columbia and buys a helicopter with a CIA credit card realizing he does have the power to do this now.

Sadly, even with the sterling cast (including

Willem Dafoe) this movie does not come anywhere near the level of the first outing of Ryan in Hunt for Red October (then played by

Alec Baldwin). This movie has not aged terribly well. There is a fun game you can play, which is spot the now famous actor getting their big break. A number of faces pop up that were far from top billing at the time.

There are so many flaws with this movie that you simply can’t keep up. James Bond we accept is very far from reality and we accept that universe. But Clancy had managed to position Jack Ryan in a much more believable world. For example, The Hunt for Red October, (the only I will admit to actually reading the book) was rich in detail and depth. This movie sadly, jumps the shark, as they say and fails to deliver. If this was Bond, then this could be only referred to as the Roger Moore period (Moonraker anyone?!?!?!).

All in all, one of the poorest outings for Jack Ryan and one Ford should have stepped away from. Worthy of a watch, only to appreciate just how further downhill

Ben Affleck

took the character.

Viewing Date
Monday, 26th October 2015 (San Francisco Marriott)

Rating
5/10

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Shanghai Noon (2000)

Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson team up together in this comedy western to rescue the kidnapped Chinese princess played by the beautiful

Lucy Liu. With Chan not knowing any English, or anything about the West is your classic fish out of water setup. Not dissimilar to the usual Crocodile Dundee story.

Chan plays pretty much the exact same role in all these types of movies, the humble, karate/kung fu fighting side kick who enlists a local handler to aid him finish his quest. Lots of wonderful elaborate fight scenes that involves much bending and twisting, and considering that Chan was 46 years of age at the time of this movie the man can move.

Wilson’s role is the smart wise cracking wannabe outlaw who is upset that Chan has been given a cool handle, The Shanghai Kid, and his ransom is higher than his.

There is absolutely nothing spectacular about this outing, the odd funny scene (see Chan/Wilson breaking out of prison by peeing on a shirt), and funny lines, but the formula is well known and you will definitely second guess where everything is going and not be disappointed when it arrives.

It is a perfect background movie that you can dip in and out of without losing much.

Viewing Date
Tuesday, 20th October 2015

Rating
5/10

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The Age of Adaline (2015)

This is a rather sweet romantic thriller built upon the premise that the leading the lady never ages after getting into a road accident in her early 20′s. Therefore she never wants to fall in love because she knows she will out live any partner. She also moves around a lot, both to avoid detection, but also to rekindle a new identity and for people not to become too suspicious that she is never aging.

So of course you know she is going to eventually find someone who she would love to tell her secret too and try and carve out a life with.

Blake Lively plays Adaline, the main lead, who looks a dead ringer for a young Jane Seymour.

The person she falls in love with is Michiel Huisman playing Ellis. Now he is introduced as a bit of a greepy character. At first I thought he was going to do very bad things, and if he did indeed approach her like this in main life, I am sure she would run a mile from.

There is an interesting twist with a character from her past coming in which I won’t spoil but it is done in a very nice way. This is when

Harrison Ford comes in, looking very stately.

The movie has a great story but is very light on details. There is so much that could have been explored here and dive deeper into some of the problems forever staying young would be. At first it sounds great, but there are a huge number of logistical problems that come along that would make it for a very sad story.

It is an okay movie, not an epic by any stretch, with a very predictable ending that you can see coming nearly at the start.

Viewing Date
Monday, 12th October 2015

Rating
5/10

IMDB YouTubeTrailer