When my daughter was born on the 14th floor of the Guys Hospital tower, I took her to the window and in my best Bob ‘Oskins voice said “Laandan - greatest city in the world “
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Secret Seven meet Pennywise in IT.
Bill Skorsgard is a remarkable clown and the kids are suitably brave and frightened.
Well photographed with a decent score and quite a few whiz around the room sound effects.
Bluray.
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Quintet.
Directed by Robert Altman.
Despite the poor ratings I quite like this film. Starring Paul Newman with a great cast including Fernando Rey, Bibi Andersson and Nina van Pallandt.
The Fourth Protocol on DVD. I was surprised that this hasn’t ever been released in the UK on Blu-Ray, but luckily the DVD transfer is a good one. I read the book back in the day and also saw the film years ago, and was delighted that it still holds up well. Michael Caine playing our hero John Preston dusts off his Harry Palmer character, and Ian Richardson puts in a performance of delightful sang froid, but it’s a pre-Bond Pierce Brosnan who steals the show as the ruthless Russian agent.
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Had a friend over for a film night on Friday. We were discussing how we might need to reverse engineer society, and somehow ended up watching:
Genevieve (1953)
He had never even heard of the film, being a youngster in his forties 
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Delightful film about to friends obsessed with classic cars, the Brighton-London rally, and their long suffering other halves.
Followed on with:
The African Queen (1951)
An excellent piece of cinema. My wife has always tried to avoid it, disliking Katherine Hepburn, apart from Bringing Up Baby. As we had a guest she managed to stay awake, and now grudgingly agrees that it is, ‘alright’.
Last knocking I put on:
Blood: The Last Vampire (2009)
The original anime is on YouTube, and the movie opens up with a beat for beat repeat. There is a lot to enjoy hear, with a good lead and some good fight wire-work. Unfortunately, they padded out the original narrative in a less than effective and engaging way. Better if they had stuck closer to the original anime.
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Mosquito Squadron (1969)
My wife saw I had uploaded this on the system and asked to watch it.
I confess it was a lot better than I had expected.
The film opens up with V1s hitting London. A family friend always claimed he could remember hearing one cut out whilst in his pram, I would always sit on my skepticism.
The special effects are second rate, but this doesn’t damage the narrative strength, which balances two threads well: A high risk attack on a V3 development facility; and, a rather delicate flowering relationship in the high octane environment of high attrition rate airmen.
Not top drawer, but rather better than Sunday afternoon fodder.
The High Ball Barnes Wallis bomb in the film was real, as was the footage shown of it in tests. However, it was never used in combat.
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They nicked a fair bit of 633 squadron footage for this one, but somehow got the aspect ratio screwed up, which makes it look most odd.
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I recall having Mosquito squadron on DVD some years ago and although a minor entry in the war film genre it is rather a good film actually and with an excellent score by Frank Cordell which I used to have on CD. This makes a change from the almost ubiquitous Ron Goodwin scores in British war films of the day - which are also excellent. Must get it on Blu ray one day.
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Telefon
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep.
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The Wrestler Mickey Rourke.
A tale of loneliness and despair.
MR is a professional wrestler that learns he has a serious heart problem.
He tries to make a new life with his stripper girlfriend and reconnect with his estranged daughter.
But he can’t manage it and goes back to what he knows and the probable consequences.
There is a bit of wrestling rough and tumble,more by way of education.
Generally available to stream £3.49
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Oh the ham slicer scene. 
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and that’s just not true. We get the theft over quickly ( for a Kelly Reichardt direction) and then watch slowly as the mastermind’s scheme and life fall into total disrepair.
Josh O’ Connor is our well acted feckless hero .Reichardt’s direction best described as observational.
Agree with critics. Excellent if you know what to expect.
I watched on MUBI stream. Apple TV dumped.
Finally got round to Sinners on Blu-Ray.
While superb, it’s not quite as original as claimed. Very much The Color Purple meets From Dusk Till Dawn. In many ways, the narrative structure is a rip off of the latter.
- Starts of with ex criminals and their plan to start over.
- Midway though ends up in a juke joint,
- Amazing soundtrack
- Instantly turns from serious drama into a vampire flick right in the middle with no warning.
- Sun comes up
- The End
Is the summary of From Dusk Till Dawn. Sound familiar? 
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Exactly this, is why I am not interested in the movie (apart from the lead role actor).
I think that would be depriving yourself of something with rich texture and a whole subtext about what musicians give up for success. The survivor ultimately still became a creature of the night in a poetic way.
While the structure is the same, one is an irreverent comedy, the other isn’t.
Fair enough, thanks. Perhaps I’ll give it a try someday. I would have to try real hard to neglect my dislike of Jordan’s acting still.
And tonight have enjoyed this.
Caught Stealing.
Another film that carries its style on broad shoulders. Good though.
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Long time since I watched this one. A wonderful direction by Spike Jonze of another Charlie Kaufman piece of lunacy.
Cusack discovers in his office a portal into John Malkovich’s brain. He and Keener turn it into a money making scheme. A Cameron Diaz you wouldn’t recognise falls in love there but not with Malkovich.
Leave normality for a couple of hours.Nothing strange going on here.
Watched on MUBI but generally available.
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