Film Reviews by CM

Imagine Solaris filleted of real feeling & mystery, & that's a rough impression of this film. Sagan & Druyan's names drew me to it, it got rave reviews, but it's tedious & fudged on the science, with no real vibe or mystery, which ought to be present considering the subject & author. Great cast, but none is credible or able to bring it to life.

For all its faults - lack of character portrayal, Omar Sharif looking a bit Semitic for a cop in Nazi-occupied Poland, annoying fast sweeps with the camera, rather dry script - the tale is well-told, & brings its surprises. Strong points in showing continuity of characters' lives post-war, survival of Nazi ideology & comradeship decades later (horribly relevant to today), amazing scenes of destruction as General Tanz goes full on Teutonic efficiency in flushing out Warsaw partisans, stellar cast.

Solid performances from Morton, Roth, & all, but the work is spoiled by hideous sound effects, especially the slowed-down raspberry one used to convey an ominous feeling.

It's hard to find out how accurate the portrayals are - was Ethel actually complicit in Christie's crimes? Was she racist? Not knowing makes me wonder whether it's valid to attribute faults or virtues to deceased people in order to flesh them out.

A gripping plot, good performances, great locations, with some intrinsic comments on 'free market' economics, but unfortunately it gets bogged down toward the end with a shovelful of sentiment & gushy music.

Jennifer Hudson gives a terrific performance as Aretha, with superb musos & backing singers, but the first 1/2 hour has too many inconsequential vignettes, & misses out too much of the important biographical details which it merely touches on. The story starts to flow better when Franklin meets Jerry Wexler, who brings some dry humour to his part.

Brilliant footage of rivers is made tedious by a commentary of many generalisations about rivers; some individual stories of rivers would have made it interesting.

Shelley Winters steals it as the neurotic Momma whose son makes a break for freedom & gets into some minor pickles, in a credible recreation of 50s New York.

I'd like to give this film two & a half stars, but the clunky scoring system doesn't do fractions.

The story held my interest, but the plot has far too many tired old tropes (Coming Back To The Old Town, The Gal He Left Behind) & sentimental touches, + gooey music, that the cast are wasted on it. Could have been better if it was made closer to comedy, maybe starring someone more waspish, like John Cusack or Jake Gyllenhaal.

An almost unknown British film, undeservedly so, with influences from European Realism, film noir, & a foretaste of kitchen sink drama; no heroes & villains, but an atmospheric slice of working-class life in the East End of London, with many of its inhabitants longing to escape somewhere else, given a sudden dash of drama as a housewife's former lover turns up suddenly, having escaped Dartmoor Prison.

Funny & at times touching, though not as clever as expected, & in need of editing - it could have had 20 minutes cut without much loss - the script touches on philosophical questions in a similar way to good sci-fi, eg, Red Dwarf.

A gripping story & some excellent performances, particularly from the lead, Dayo Okeniyi, but the intro needs to make it clear that a great deal of it is invention (mostly of necessity, since little is known of Green outside of his participation in John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry) & its ending is what ought to have happened to Shields Green a la Tarantino, & not factual.

I give this horrible farrago one star because the dog was good & it had some great cars. Vulgar, witless, unleavened by any hint of cleverness or intelligent humour. Now I like 'Blazing Saddles', but Mel Brooks manages to put some commentary & smarts into the general vulgarity; this is just dross.

The story was engrossing, well-acted, the scenes all well-presented, but continuity a bit jumpy, & the sound was very poor; lacking subtitles for the English speech, a lot was missed.

Smartly written, funny & witty, but still easy to watch; the two leads, Mays & Graham, as a pair of London detectives keep the story taut by having hidden secrets from each other which affect their partnership & investigations. Someone also has a great eye for architecture, & the action takes place around some impressive London buildings.

Excellent actors, costumes, & sets, intriguing plot, but absolutely ruined by annoying superfluous loud dramatic sound effects, constant thunder, slamming doors, hissing apropos of nothing for effect . One scene is wrecked when a couple step down from their carriage to walk, & a sound like a jet airliner is applied to 'dramatise' it.