thirdlady

I would agree with you there about the 2 men it was highly erotic

A.S.Carroll
"Happiness isn't sold in bottles you have to achieve it in your own lifetime!"

harryfielder

Duel In The Sun yesterday afternoon, a couple of beers and a quiet house......

BLISS.....

Aitch,

http://www.turnipnet.com/aitch/aitch/gallery.htm

Jim

Right on there Aitch - did the same, only had to have tea, as I was driving later that night!

Good morning boys.

DB7

The Weapon
Post-war Val Guest thriller set around the bombed-out ruins of Aldergate. Jon Whiteley discovers a hidden Luger whilst playing amongst the London ruins and during a scuffle with some other kids the gun goes off injuring a youngster. Whitely goes on the run, pursued by the police who realise from ballistic reports that the gun in a crime years earlier; also on the child's tail is George Cole in one of his few baddie roles.

Jim

Loved that series 'Black Books' - the permanantly drunk shop keeper and old Bill Bailey - brilliant!!

Good morning boys.

tvden

I watched this comedy in the early hours on tv, as Spike Milligan was playing the lead role, I thought it would be a very silly film its all to do with crooks and the Post Office, but as it turned out I was very pleasantly supprised to find that is was a very watchable film with performances by Arthur Mullard, Lance Percival, and Warren Mitchel

smudge

Similarly screened in the early hours by TCM, have you seen KILL OR CURE Den ? I'd guess so, from your avatar of T-T...

I grabbed this again the other day, as a back up copy, and couldn't resist it. Cracking laughs from T-T as Barker-Rynde, perfectly matched by Sykes and more than ably supported by Lionel Jeffries and Ronnie Barker. Love the opening sequence where B-R is getting ready for a night job and is only interested in his snacks, "Slip in a slab of Fruit & Nut would you Fred ?"

As we had the In-Laws over last night, rewatched OH, MR PORTER & ASK A POLICEMAN for their delectation and delight ; I don't think I could ever tire of these.

SMUDGE

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

tvden

yes a great film to watch now and then with an excellent performance from TT, I just love these late fifty's and early sixty's films, I always grab them if I can something about b/w films that makes them more real, but then I am biased as a 405 line tv buff

Hackett

Had the last of my Christmas prezzies last night by being taken to see "THE 39 STEPS" at the Criterion Theatre Piccadilly Circus. It was a very good parody of the 1935 film. It even had Hitchcock doing his usual cameo. Only four in the cast and they gave it thier all. Highly recommended.

DB7

A few Hollywood films. The noir pastiche Brick which like Gumshoe moves the Sam Spade scenario to a different setting - a schoolyard. United 93; odd to think this was partly shot in the UK but it's a good (almost tv movie) lacking in the sentimentality or jingoism that Oliver Stone injects into WTC. Finally, a conventional bank heist thriller directed by Spike Lee, Inside Man, with confident robber Clive Owen vowing to cop Denzel Washington that he will walk out of the front doors to make his escape... and so he does. Throw in a subplot involving Jodie Foster, Christopher Plunmmer, and Nazi profiteering during WWII and you've a neat little film.

smudge

Mr. DB7's current avatar film : THE SPARE TYRES, starring Terence Alexander - courtesy of DB7 himself . What a surreal little film....

Presumably made on the back of the success of THE PLANK ? Felt more continental that British to me - a touch of the Monsieur Hulot, perhaps... ?

SMUDGE

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

ChristineCB

I had a hard time giving any positives to BRICK. I felt the choices in dialog as well as conniving was too old for high school students. I wondered if I'd have been more accepting of this film had it been set among college students. Something about it put me off, or seemed wrong.

Nick Dando

They may have been Continental tyres. But did you check to see if they weren't Avons?

Nick

penfold

Strange double bill at the local multiplex; Hot Fuzz and The Queen.
Hot Fuzz is an unpretentious comedy, doing for action flix what Shaun Of The Dead did for Gorefests...celebrate and poke fun at the same time; plots that you would let slide past you in a Hollywood flick stand out as preposterous in an English setting; and no setting is more English than Wells, Somerset (Doubling for an interbred Gloucestershire village, Sandiford - that's a nice bit of intercounty enmity !) wherein mysterious dealings and goings on ensure this quiet village is just a little too quiet to be true......
Good performances by the leads, but it's the starry cameos you cherish....Edward Woodward as the head of the Neighbourhood watch, Billie Whitelaw as the hotel receptionist, Jim Broadbent as the local Inspector, Timothy Dalton as the manager of Somerfields...and David Bradley as the local farmer so incomprehensible it takes two locals working in a chain to translate him...the editing and camerawork is of the modern action flick choppy and blurry, but it would look wrong otherwise...it's part of the send-up, but you might want to spend an hour in a darkened room later. If you liked Shaun of The Dead and you like to see English Values subverted occasionally, and can take a joke against the SouthWest rural accent, it's recommended.....
Well, I didn't have an hour in a darkened room, I was straight into the next screen, for The Queen; whatever acting awards this film receives will be richly deserved; Mirren is outstanding, Michael Sheen as Blair is exceptional, Cromwell as Philip, Alex Jennings as Charles and Sylvia Syms as the Queen Mum....all are more than just impersonations, you get the complexities of real human beings...how accurate of course, it's impossible for us oiks to judge...
...but the film itself left me with a raging headache...archive low-definition newsfootage, real and fake, makes up a large chunk of the film, and seen on a big screen.....awful. I can see why it was used, but it was overused, and while it would have been fine on TV (as originally intended) cinematically it's a disaster. This is one film I would recommend seeing...on the telly.

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

theuofc

I always enjoy your reviews, Mark. You dig in and discuss the film, in this case two films, in depth and explore the content, the characterization, and whatever technical points are relevant. Yours is the first I've read to point out the overuse of newsreel footage. Excellent. While some actors might not rise above impersonations, Helen Mirren would make a character come alive whether a two-minute blip on the screen or the main focus as in The Queen. I'm glad to hear you confirm that.

The delight for me will be to see Hot Fuzz. I've never heard of it, but I will look for it since it was shot in Wells, Somerset, a lovely town, and has Edward Woodward and Timothy Dalton, whom I've liked since The Lion in Winter and his documentaries on endangered species.

All the best,

Barbara