Posts Tagged ‘Christopher Plummer’
Friday, March 19th, 2010
Review:
Two former sergeants in the British Army in India decide to stay there and try their luck with a series of frauds. Their latest idea: march to Kafiristan and conquer it with 20 guns by showing the people their superiority. Once one of them is King, take the treasure back to England to become rich. Naturally, things don’t quite work out this way, but the adaptation of a short story by Rudyard Kipling is surprising in how it doesn’t work out. The film, finally made in 1975 after many unsuccessful attempts, works largely due to a larger-than-life tale and two lead actors that ooze charisma and easy-going joy, Sean Connery and Michael Caine. An entertaining adventure movie of the kind that are just not made anymore.
Random Observations:
The Man Who Would Be King at the IMDb
The story is told as a flashback by a slightly older and much prematurely aged Caine, who, in his aged voice, sounds exactly like he regularly sounds today. Quite amazing.
The first idea of director John Huston was to make the film in the 1950s with Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart. Later the idea resurfaced several times, with Robert Redford and Paul Newman attached at one point. It was Newman who then suggested Connery and Caine.
In many ways, the film is also a condensed portrayal of European (or more specifically British) colonialism.
Tags: 1975, adventure movie, Albert Moses, American Film, book adaptation, British Film, Christopher Plummer, Clark Gable, Doghmi Larbi, english, Gladys Hill, Graham Acres, Humphrey Bogart, Jack May, John Huston, Karroom Ben Bouih, Michael Caine, minute movie review, Mohammad Shamsi, movie review, Movies, Paul Antrim, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Rudyard Kipling, Saeed Jaffrey, Sean Connery, Shakira Caine, The Man Who Would Be King
Posted in Minute Movie Reviews, Movie Reviews, Movies | No Comments »
Saturday, March 6th, 2010
Award Season is Crazy Season. If you follow these things at all, you have been bombarded by information about the superiority of one film above another for months now. If you blissfully ignore all that stuff, you might even not have heard that a producer on The Hurt Locker is in trouble for trying to convince Academy voters to vote for his film instead of Avatar. His crime: sending an e-mail to his friends. Yes, things are crazy. So it is a good thing that with the Oscar telecast on Sunday, Award Season will be over. Until May or so, when the first discussions for next year’s favourites and winners will begin once more.
But before the Oscars, the most important of all the meaningless awards, are handed out on Sunday, it is time for my annual Oscar predictions. Last year, I picked 19 of the 24 winners. This year, let’s try to improve on that. But unlike last year, this year I actually feel like I am entitled to my own opinion, having seen 20 of the 58 animated films, 18 of the 38 feature films, and actually having seen all nominated films in three categories. So not only will I now predict the Oscar winners as promised, I will also tell you who should win. (Yes, my opinion constitutes objective truth in these matters.) The following list is ordered rather randomly and incomplete, an alphabetical and complete breakdown of all categories and predictions follows at the end.
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Tags: 2009, 2010, A Matter of Loaf and Death, A Serious Man, A Single Man, Aardman Animations, Ajami, Alessandro Camon, An Education, Anastasia Masaro, Anna Kendrick, Armando Iannucci, Avatar, award season, Bob Peterson, Carey Mulligan, Caroline Smith, Christoph Waltz, Christopher Plummer, Coen Brothers, Colin Firth, Coraline, Crazy Heart, Das Weisse Band, Dave Warren, Disney, District 9, El Secreto de Sus Ojos, english, Ethan Coen, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Faubourg 36, Gabourey Sidibe, Geoffrey Fletcher, George Clooney, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Helen Mirren, Henry Selick, In the Loop, Inglourious Basterds, Instead of Abracadabra, Invictus, James Cameron, Jason Reitman, Jeff Bridges, Jeremy Renner, Jesse Armstrong, Joel Coen, Kathry Bigelow, La teta asustade, Lee Daniels, Logorama, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Marion Cotillard, Mark Boal, Matt Damon, Mauro Fiore, Meryl Streep, Mo'Nique, Morgan Freeman, Movies, Neill Blomkamp, Nick Hornby, Nine, Oren Moverman, Oscar, Paris 36, Penélope Cruz, Pete Doctor, Pixar, Precious, Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire, Quentin Tarantino, Randy Newman, Sandra Bullock, Sheldon Turner, Sherlock Holmes, Simon Blackwell, Stanley Tucci, Star Trek, T-Bone Burnett, Terri Tatchell, The Blind Side, The Door, The Hurt Locker, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The Messenger, The Princess and the Frog, The Secret of Kells, The White Ribbon, Tom McCarthy, Tony Roche, Un Prophète, Up, Up in the Air, Vera Farmiga, Wallace & Gromit, Wes Anderson, Woody Harrelson
Posted in Movies | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Review:
Famous Russian novelist Tolstoy has grown old and his followers, having formed a sort of cult around his teachings, quarrel with his wife, a countess, over his will. Caught in the middle of this is his young new secretary, who adores Tolstoy, but also understand how his wife feels. Around this premise the film develops, but it focuses much more on the characters and their relationships than on the plot. Central to this is the relationship between Tolstoy and his wife, which delves between love and despair. The film is expertly made, yet still often feels somewhat clumsy. The secretary as the anchoring point for the story often seems to be pushed to the side, instead focusing on yet another hysterical outburst from the countess or the sinisterly communist plans of the novelists followers.
Random Observations:
The Last Station at the IMDb
The biggest disappointment of the film is Paul Giamatti. Helen Mirren is good, as usual. Christopher Plummer is decent enough. James McAvoy is simply superb, also as usual. But Paul Giamatti, in what may be his most retrained role, is boring and mostly miscast.
Both Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer are Oscar nominated, but the best actor (and only truly likeable character in the film) is McAvoy, who would have deserved the nomination.
Tags: 2009, Anne-Marie Duff, biography, book adaptation, Christopher Plummer, David Masterson, Drama, english, German Film, Helen Mirren, history movie, James McAvoy, Jay Parini, John Sessions, Kerry Condon, Michael Hoffman, minute movie review, movie review, Movies, Nenad Lucic, Oscar, Patrick Kennedy, Paul Giamatti, Russian Film, The Last Station, Tomas Spencer
Posted in Minute Movie Reviews, Movie Reviews, Movies | No Comments »
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Review:
As much as I like the work of Terry Gilliam - and I do like almost everything he’s done, even some things that are not critically adored - the advance word on his newest film was so bad that I would have skipped it were it not for the fact that this is Heath Ledger’s final performance. Here, he plays a man who was hanged and has lost his memory, but is rescued by Doctor Parnassus and his crew, who entertain people by allowing them inside the Doctor’s mind. In there, he wages a battle with the devil that has been going on for a thousand years - and when Ledger enters the imagination, he is played by Johnny Depp, Jude Law or Colin Farrell. This works surprisingly well and the film is filled with the usual array of ideas sprung from Gilliam’s overactive imagination. Nevertheless, it doesn’t quite work. The story is a bit too rambling and many of the sequences rely to heavily on CGI to be believable, creating a film that might have been great, but is deeply flawed. It’s not bad, but from the talent involved one could expect more.
Random Observations:
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus at the IMDb
Depp and Ledger look eerily similar in this film, making this transition the smoothest. It also should be said that all of the three actors played the part of Ledger they were best suited to, but that it would have been even more interesting to see Ledger transform so much throughout the story.
The female lead, Lily Cole, was completely unknown to me and after her performance here, I very much hope that will be the case once again quite soon.
Tags: 2009, adventure movie, Andrew Garfield, British Film, Canadian Film, Charles McKeown, Christopher Plummer, Colin Farrell, english, fantasy movie, Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Lily Cole, minute movie review, movie review, Movies, Terry Gilliam, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Tom Waits, Verne Troyer
Posted in Minute Movie Reviews, Movie Reviews, Movies | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Review:
In Austria in the late 1930s, a young nun is sent as a governess to retired navy captain von Trapp and his seven children. With a lot of drama and singing, they grow close and finally flee together from the Nazis, who have taken over Austria. This musical is one of the absolute classics and probably rightfully so. Despite the inherent drama, the film manages to be entertaining in parts, the musical numbers are not too distracting and the film only drags occasionally in the almost three hour run time.
Random Observations:
The Sound of Music at the IMDb
I had never thought about Christopher Plummer as a younger actor, but if I had, I would have expected him to star in Westerns more than as a singing and dancing sensation.
The film is widely known and loved in the US, but very few people in Austria (and Germany, for that matter) know about it. Good for them.
This is the last of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals I’m going to watch for a very long time. They worked wonders in curing my strange desire to see period musicals.
The film is (very losely) based on the true story of the family von Trapp, a real singing family. There was a documentary about the family included in the special features, but I just couldn’t watch another 45 minutes of this tripe, so I know nothing about how realistic the film was.
Tags: 1965, American Film, Angela Cartwright, Anna Lee, based on play, based on true story, Ben Wright, Charmian Carr, Christopher Plummer, Daniel Truhitte, Debbie Turner, Drama, Duane Chase, Eleanor Parker, english, Ernest Lehman, family film, Heather Menzies, Howard Lindsay, Julie Andrews, Kym Karath, minute movie review, movie review, Movies, musical, Nicholas Hammond, Oscar Hammerstein II, Peggy Wood, Portia Nelson, Richard Haydn, Richard Rodgers, Robert Wise, Russel Crouse, The Sound of Music
Posted in Minute Movie Reviews, Movie Reviews, Movies | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 25th, 2007
Click the link to open the special twenty-fifth door - English only.
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Tags: Adventskalender, All I Want for Christmas, Bad Santa, Billy Bob Thornton, Blizzard, christmas, christmas movie, Christopher Plummer, David Huddleston, Dick Van Patten, Ed Ivory, Edward Asner, Elf, english, Leslie Nielsen, Miracle on 34th Street (1994), Movies, Richard Attenborough, Santa Claus, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Polar Express, The Santa Clause, The Santa Clause 2, The Santa Trap, Tim Allen, Tom Hanks, Will Ferrell
Posted in Adventskalender, Adventskalender 2007 | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
Klick auf den Link, um das vierte Türchen zu öffnen. Click the link to open the fourth door.
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Tags: 2003, Adventskalender, Agnes Bristow, Blizzard, Brenda Blethyn, Brittany Bristow, Canadian Film, christmas, christmas movie, Christopher Plummer, deutsch, Dumbledore, english, family film, Harry Potter, Jan Triska, Leif Bristow, LeVar Burton, movie review, Movies, Stephanie Morgenstern, Whoopi Goldberg, Zoe Warner
Posted in Adventskalender, Adventskalender 2007, Movie Reviews, Movies | 1 Comment »
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