7 out of 10 – alan williamson

Trumbo (2015)

This was the tale of the time back in the 40′s and 50′s where America was gripped and paranoid about communistic influences in its cultures. It went as far as public witch hunts to out those that were a detriment to the American dream. This movie focuses on the Hollywood writers and actors who were outed and forced to leave their jobs and in some cases their homes and country because there accused of being Russian sympathizers.

This movie comes at an interesting time for me. In August, I read the Kirk Douglas, I am Spartacus : Breaking the blacklist, book about his career and the efforts it took to make that iconic movie. In the book he devotes a huge amount of time to Dalton Trumbo who wrote the screenplay for the book. Trumbo was at the time on the blacklist which meant studios were not allowed to use them. There was a huge controversy around the launch of Spartacus with many demonstrations.

The movie takes us through the story of the Hollywood 10, the blacklisted writers. We see it largely from Dalton Trumbo, his motives, his drives and his passion for his work.

The movie comes at a good time for the country, as Donald Trump, Presidential hopeful, is whipping up his anti-Muslim rhetoric. Trump is using all the same phrases and sound bites as the likes of McCarthy and his supporters used 50 years ago. Trumbo highlights the absurdity and division this caused in the country.

Dalton Trumbo stood for the American core value of freedom, the freedom to think his mind without fear or prejudice from his Government. They fought their case the whole way to the Supreme Court.

A fascinating time in history and the movie goes along at a wonderful pace, even at 2 hrs, it doesn’t feel lengthy or drawn out.

The cast is outstanding, with Bryan Cranston taking the lead with an excellent supporting cast of top notch players.

Well worth the watch, though I wouldn’t necessarily make a trip to the cinema to see it, there is nothing that is big-screen worthy.

#105 in the series

Viewing Date
Tuesday, 1st December 2015 (Movieland, Richmond)

Rating
7/10

IMDB YouTubeTrailer

The Little Mermaid (1989)

One of the more whimsical Disney outings the Little Mermaid is now, after 26 years, firmly concreted as a classic. With signature tunes, such as Under the Sea and Kiss the Girl it still gets my foot tapping.

What is interesting about this particular Disney cartoon, for me at least, is that it is the first Disney animation that I watched as an adult when it first came out. Up to this point, every other outing could be considered a childs movie for a child.

The story itself is harmless enough. Spoiled teenage girl, growing up in a single parent household, with an overbearing protective father who doesn’t want her to grow up. She gains the attention of a man, an much older man incidentally, who seduces her into a whole new world. With the help of a scheming enemy of her fathers, she manipulates her way to get what she wants and is thrown into this new foreign world.

Father not too happy and goes off on one.

Throw in some musical numbers and you have yourself a great family movie about a very dysfunctional family.

Ach … Disney movies shouldn’t be looked beyond the surface. Just let yourself go and be seduced with a fairy tale.

#102 in the series

Viewing Date
Saturday, 28th November 2015 (Orlando)

Rating
7/10

IMDB YouTubeTrailer

The Transporter (2002)

It is no secret I have a man crush on our boy Jason Statham. After he was an Olympic diver, he turned his hand to movies with a help from Guy Ritchie. He quickly found himself a niche, as that ‘b’ movie action hero. Picking up where the likes of Van Dame and Seagal left off, Statham slipped into that no nonsense, never gets his butt kicked role very easily.

The Transporter is the first in the series that really cemented his arrival to this genre. Here we have him as Frank, an ex SAS hero, who has elected for a relatively simple life in the south of France, doing the odd ‘Uber’ ride for the criminal underground.

He has 3 rules that should never be broken, but of course as soon as you hear them, you know fine well they are going to be broken, otherwise where would our story line be?

Frank’s car of choice, is a heavily modified BMW 7 series. While not the most exotic of vehicles he does take on us on a number high speed chases with many a clever stunt thrown in. But Statham excels best when he’s allowed to flex his fighting muscles and takes on a whole army of thugs by himself. While we have lots of nods to the Seagal/Van Dame fighting, you can see the odd Jackie Chan thrown in to mix it up.

But it works very well.

Personally this wasn’t my favourite Transporter outing, for that honour, I preferred the second one. This movie stands very well on its own, and does not do him any disservice.

#99 in the series

Viewing Date
Wednesday, 25th November 2015 (Richmond)

Rating
7/10

IMDB YouTubeTrailer

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 the shuttle and leaving them completely helpless above Earths atmosphere while they attempt to get themselves to the International Space Station.

The special effects in this one is simply, literally, out of this world. The vast majority of the acting that Bullock and Clooney do is simply facial, as most of the time their bodies are CGI. Yet it all flows flawlessly together without any effort at all.

The scenery with this reminds me of that time in Lord of the Rings, when they first visit Rivendell. You want the camera to simply stop on that and give you the necessary time to take the beauty all in. Gravity suffers the same. There are so many times, you just want to hit pause, and get sucked into that world and admire all the beautiful views. But the pace is fast and we don’t get time to appreciate the background as we should.

Gravity does a great job to remind us just how hostile space really is and the lengths humans have done to evolve to a point where we are moving around. Space travel is not routine and even the smallest of problems can have dire consequences.

A great movie and another one that reminds us that Bullock is more of an actor than some of her awful romantic comedies of late. It is a shame she missed out on Best Actress Oscar.

#93 in the series

Viewing Date
Thursday, 19th November 2015 (Richmond)

Rating
7/10

IMDB YouTubeTrailer

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 a lake.

The beautiful widow is played by

Angie Dickinson who is in a very suggestive sexual role. There is a couple of scenes she is trying to persuade Reynolds to take on the job, by seducing him with continuing amounts of sex. Considering this was made in 1969 they pushed the boundaries of decency of what was allowed for the time, and you still have to do a double take to see if indeed you seen a Dickinson nipple or not! for the record, you don’t!

The comedy in this movie is very genteel and gives us a hint of what Reynolds was going to be like nearly 10 years later when he started off his Smokey genre of movies. You sometimes forgot how old an actor he is.

The movie has a great upbeat score that weaves throughout each scene. No setup drags too long and is very pacy and enjoyable.

Solid outing for everyone.

#91 in the series

Viewing Date
Tuesday, 17th November 2015 (Richmond)

Rating
7/10

IMDB YouTubeTrailer

Music and Lyrics (2007)

Full confession, I am a big

Hugh Grant fan. Ever since he bumbled onto our screens in Four Weddings (I know he had roles before that hit), he has been a natural lead in the romantic comedy genre. Here we have him playing opposite Drew Barrymore.

The story is a clever setup .. Grant is playing an aging 1980s popstar who has had his best days behind him, making a living now from doing nostalgia tours of his old hits. He is roped into writing a song for a modern day teenage sensation but he gets a little writers block. This is where Barrymore comes in. She is the emergency plant watering lady that comes in to his flat and ends up helping him finish the song.

Chris Riley: Why do you have a plant lady? Why do you even have plants?
Alex Fletcher: Because, from time to time, ladies accompany me back to the apartment and one of them once mentioned that plants make women comfortable.
Chris Riley: Is that true? Plants make women comfortable? Well, maybe if I had plants I’d still be married.
Alex Fletcher: Yes, I think that was the problem; not Susan’s affair and raging nymphomania but your lack of vegetation.

The dialogue is extremely witty with Grant having some real clever lines to deliver. There is a lot going on in the background when the characters are interacting. There is a beautiful wee routine where she comes in an puts her coat on his piano and then he moves it, and then she moves it back. It was beautifully executed very natural.

Brad Garrett plays his long suffering manager with

Kristen Johnston taking on the role of Barrymore’s sister who was infatuated with Grant when she was growing up. Extremely amusing.

If you are a Hugh Grant fan and want a good laugh, then you can’t go wrong with this outing. It is flawed for sure, but on the whole it trundles along just nicely.

#83 in the series

Viewing Date
Monday, 9th November 2015 (Cary, NC)

Rating
7/10

IMDB YouTubeTrailer