2009 Films XL-XLVIII
Catch up time
XL: The Andromeda Strain (Robert Wise, 1971)
Sf from the man who brought us The Sound of Music (and Star Trek: The Motion Sickness). Ultra-realist adaptation of a Crichton novel, in which a satellite crashes to Earth with an alien virus, which kills everything in its path, and is investigated by anonymous scientists. There's a little bit of anti-authoritarianism tacked on (the base has military uses), the epilepsy subplot fails to convince and there's a thrillery bit tacked on the end but - worthy but dull
XLI: Jumper (Doug Liman, 2008)
Rewatch for research - nothing much to add but surprisingly different from the book, and much duller work than Swingers and Go
XLII: Futureworld (Richard T. Heffron, 1976)
Rather limp sequel to Westworld, in which a repaired leisure park reopens for business. Rival journalists Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner sign up, the form to expose, the latter to puff, and get caught up in a conspiracy to replace people with robots. Yul Brynner, the killer cowboy droid from Westworld surfaces as a girl fantasy. Yeah.
XLIII: Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976)
Watched on plane. TV news satire, in which Faye Dunaway parlays Peter Finch's onscreen breakdown and suicide threat into ratings winner. By Paddy Cayevsky, author of Altered States.
XLIV: Casino Royale (Val Guest, Ken Hughes, John Huston, Joseph McGrath, Robert Parrish, 1967)
Watched on plane. Non-franchise Bond movie played as British sex comedy. Despite the talent (Sellers, Niven, Allen, Wells, Huston, Holden, er, Andress) it sags rather, and it ends up distracting to see Bernard Cribbins and Ronnie Corbett in minor roles.
XLV: Murder by Numbers (Barbette Schroeder, 2002)
Dodgy Sandra Bullock vehicle, with a young Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt as the Ubermensch (jock and geek) who conspire to commit the perfect murder by dropping misleading evidence. Bullock is no Porfiry, but I confess I hoped the kids would get away with it. There's a lot of moody shots of a house on a cliff, ruined by very dodgy compositing.
XLVI: Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road, Satyajit Ray, 1955)
Classic Indian slice of life: a family subsist as the husband/father wants to be an actor, orator or speech writer, and their daughter steals fruit. There's an increasing amount of art in this film - and only toward the end might it dawn that this is the twentieth century - with telegraphs and trains as alien incursions. One of the Top 100 films
XLVII: Coraline (Henry Selick, 2009)
Beautiful if faintly dull stop motion animation of the Gaiman story - Coraline crawls through a tunnel in her new house to find another mother and father and horrific events. Stay all the way through the credits - it is a stunning experience - but I find wearing the specs exhausting, especially over normal glasses. A lot of the kids found it very scary.
XLVIII: In the Loop (Armando Ianucci, 2009)
Big screen outing for The Thick of It - the Yes, Minister for the noughties, with Peter Capaldi rather differently eloquent from Sir Humphrey, and not meant to be Alistair Campbell, honest. When overseas minister Tom Hollander makes a gaff about the possibility (the unforseenness) of war, he is sent to Washington DC where a hawkish politician is looking for an excuse for war and doveish but an ambitious politician (Mimi Kennedy) and a general (James Gandolfini) are looking to stop it. Before you can say "dodgy dossier", the peace loving but witless Hollander is used as a pawn by both sides. Very sharp, and utterly convincing - aside from the rather too familiar Steve Coogan who belongs in a different film.
Totals: 48 - [Cinema: 14; DVD: 31; Television: 3]
XL: The Andromeda Strain (Robert Wise, 1971)
Sf from the man who brought us The Sound of Music (and Star Trek: The Motion Sickness). Ultra-realist adaptation of a Crichton novel, in which a satellite crashes to Earth with an alien virus, which kills everything in its path, and is investigated by anonymous scientists. There's a little bit of anti-authoritarianism tacked on (the base has military uses), the epilepsy subplot fails to convince and there's a thrillery bit tacked on the end but - worthy but dull
XLI: Jumper (Doug Liman, 2008)
Rewatch for research - nothing much to add but surprisingly different from the book, and much duller work than Swingers and Go
XLII: Futureworld (Richard T. Heffron, 1976)
Rather limp sequel to Westworld, in which a repaired leisure park reopens for business. Rival journalists Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner sign up, the form to expose, the latter to puff, and get caught up in a conspiracy to replace people with robots. Yul Brynner, the killer cowboy droid from Westworld surfaces as a girl fantasy. Yeah.
XLIII: Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976)
Watched on plane. TV news satire, in which Faye Dunaway parlays Peter Finch's onscreen breakdown and suicide threat into ratings winner. By Paddy Cayevsky, author of Altered States.
XLIV: Casino Royale (Val Guest, Ken Hughes, John Huston, Joseph McGrath, Robert Parrish, 1967)
Watched on plane. Non-franchise Bond movie played as British sex comedy. Despite the talent (Sellers, Niven, Allen, Wells, Huston, Holden, er, Andress) it sags rather, and it ends up distracting to see Bernard Cribbins and Ronnie Corbett in minor roles.
XLV: Murder by Numbers (Barbette Schroeder, 2002)
Dodgy Sandra Bullock vehicle, with a young Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt as the Ubermensch (jock and geek) who conspire to commit the perfect murder by dropping misleading evidence. Bullock is no Porfiry, but I confess I hoped the kids would get away with it. There's a lot of moody shots of a house on a cliff, ruined by very dodgy compositing.
XLVI: Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road, Satyajit Ray, 1955)
Classic Indian slice of life: a family subsist as the husband/father wants to be an actor, orator or speech writer, and their daughter steals fruit. There's an increasing amount of art in this film - and only toward the end might it dawn that this is the twentieth century - with telegraphs and trains as alien incursions. One of the Top 100 films
XLVII: Coraline (Henry Selick, 2009)
Beautiful if faintly dull stop motion animation of the Gaiman story - Coraline crawls through a tunnel in her new house to find another mother and father and horrific events. Stay all the way through the credits - it is a stunning experience - but I find wearing the specs exhausting, especially over normal glasses. A lot of the kids found it very scary.
XLVIII: In the Loop (Armando Ianucci, 2009)
Big screen outing for The Thick of It - the Yes, Minister for the noughties, with Peter Capaldi rather differently eloquent from Sir Humphrey, and not meant to be Alistair Campbell, honest. When overseas minister Tom Hollander makes a gaff about the possibility (the unforseenness) of war, he is sent to Washington DC where a hawkish politician is looking for an excuse for war and doveish but an ambitious politician (Mimi Kennedy) and a general (James Gandolfini) are looking to stop it. Before you can say "dodgy dossier", the peace loving but witless Hollander is used as a pawn by both sides. Very sharp, and utterly convincing - aside from the rather too familiar Steve Coogan who belongs in a different film.
Totals: 48 - [Cinema: 14; DVD: 31; Television: 3]