Blu-ray: Burn After Reading (2008)Written and directed by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, Burn After Reading features an ‘A’ list ensemble cast and is as funny now as it was in 2008.CIA analyst, Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) has ‘a drinking problem’ and is sacked. Osbourne is married to Katie (Tilda Swinton) who wants to leave him […]
Blu-ray: Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)Directed by Charles Jarrot a year after his huge success with Anne of a Thousand Days, and written by John Hale who was responsible for the first episode of the 1971 BBC series Elizabeth R (also starring Glenda Jackson who reprises her role as Elizabeth in this film), the time […]
Digital: Clean (2021) Working through the night, Clean (Adrien Brody) is a garbage man on the streets of America. He picks up the odd interesting discarded machine, repairs it, then sells it for pocket money at the local Pawn shop. He spends his time quietly and only really has any contact with a young girl […]
Dual Format: The Razor’s Edge (1946)Based on W. Somerset Maugham’s novel of the same name, The Razor’s Edge stars all the big hitters from 1946: Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, John Payne, Anne Baxter, Clifton Webb, and Herbert Marshall (who plays Maugham), with a bit part for Elsa Lanchester.The Razor’s Edge tells the story of Larry Darrell (Power who in real life was a […]
Blu-ray: Murphy’s War (1971)A very different story from the Max Chatto novel, Murphy’s War starring real life married couple Peter O’Toole and Siân Phillips and directed by Peter Yates, is a showcase for O’Toole’s acting.Set in South America, filmed in Malta and Venuzula, it tells the story of the last survivor of a UK WW2 Nazi torpedoed ship, who […]
Blu-ray, DVD & Digital: High Crime (1973)High Crime is one of Italy’s more famous Poliziotteschi films, made during a period of socio-political turmoil in Italy and high crime rates.They were infamous for their graphic violence, rape, organised crime, car chases, and corruption, with cops and criminals normally tough working class loners, who act outside a corrupt bureaucratic system.This one stars my […]
Blu-ray, iTunes and Amazon Prime: The Last Metro (1980)The Last Metro, made in 1980, written and directed by François Truffaut, and starring Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu and winning nearly every award going, is a classic of cinema that passed me by.It follows the actors and workers of a theatre in Montmartre during the Nazi occupation of Paris in […]
Blu-ray: Wild Things (1998) Alas, they don’t make film like this anymore. What’s that? NO sigh of relief from Tina? No feminist outburst? Nope, just a genuine lament at the loss of ‘sex-thrillers’ such as Basic Instinct, Fatal Attraction and director Jon Macnaughton’s Wild Things. Apparently star and producer Kevin Bacon said this script was […]
Blu-ray: The Men (1950)During World War II, U.S. Lieutenant Wilocek (Marlon Brando in his first cinema role) is shot in the back, severing his spinal cord. We next see him alone in his own room, away from the other injured soldiers in a VA hospital and refusing to see his fiancé Ellen (Theresa Wright). Cared for […]
Cinema: Wild Men (2021)Lumbering towards a local shop dressed in furs, a Viking enters and fills his shopping basket full of biscuits and crisps. On getting to the checkout he can’t pay because he has no money, and offers the cashier his axe in payment. This isn’t a time traveller, it’s a man called Martin […]
