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A slow start
I: On Dangerous Ground (Nicholas Ray, 1952)
Film noir featuring a stunning Ida Lupino performance. Searching for a murderer, a cop visits the suspects sister, and persuade her to give him up. He then beats up a suspect. As penance he is sent to Alaska, where a murderer seems to be hidden by his sister. There's a dark tragic twist, and the sister is visually impaired, but things end remarkably well. Lupino is vastly underrated, and also directed nine movies.
II: Sherlock Holmes (Guy Ritchie, 2010)
I went into this thinking it'd be shit. I like Robert Downey - Holmes - and Jude Law - Watson - has had his moments over the years (Gatacca, say). I am agnostic over Guy Ritchie, altough he's the Primark Martin Scorsese. It is I guess, a little Lock Stock and Two Smoking Meerschaums. In fact, this was rather good, although novel length Holmes narratives usually dispense with him for about half the action (in three cases a back story featuring neither Holmes nor Watson, aka infodump, in one case he claims to be staying in London). There's a preposterous free mason fake ritual magic plot - few Holmes stories invoke the supernatural - with Mark Strong as an excellent villain (and looking rather like the offspring of Jeremy Brett and Basil Rathbone). The screen lights up when Downey and Law play off each other - it has jyst the right amount of slashiness. The climax is maximum bollocks and dodgy green screen (and dodgy geography), and the path is laid wide open for the sequel, which I suspect will never happen.
III: Welt am Draht (World on Wires/World on a Wire, Maria Werner Fassbinder, 1973)
Okay, technically tv but... First adaptation - and largely faithful if less sfnal - of Counterfeit World, and glacially slow in the first part, more action orientated in the second. Paranoid virtual reality thriller whose soundtrack, acting and pace has not aged well. Interesting failure.
IV: Johnny Got His Gun (Dalton Trumbo, 1971)
Difficult to watch but moving adaptation of Trumbo's 1939 antiwar novel - a soldier is a multiple amputee and survives in a shell. Can he manage to communicate what he wants? Feature Donald Sutherland as Christ. Obviously.
V: Falsche Bewegung (Wrong Move, Wim Wenders, 1974)
Second of Wenders's road movie trilogy: a would be author travels to Berlin, gathering together an actress, a former Olympic athlete and his daughter or granddaughterand a would be poet. Nothing quite happens, revelations aren't quite made, but there's guilt and ennui a plenty.
VI: Up In the Air (Jason Reitman, 2009)
Curious and conflicted film about a corporate downsizer. George Clooney is Ryan, whose job is to fire people on behalf of corporations. When a new employee suggests that this could be done by video conference, not by flying to venues, he demands she goes on the road (in the air) with him. Are we meant to side with him, even though he puts people out of work. Is he, in the words of the film, a prick? He's George Clooney though - although JK Simmonds steals the film.
Totals 6 (Cinema: 2; DVD: 2; Television: 2)
I: On Dangerous Ground (Nicholas Ray, 1952)
Film noir featuring a stunning Ida Lupino performance. Searching for a murderer, a cop visits the suspects sister, and persuade her to give him up. He then beats up a suspect. As penance he is sent to Alaska, where a murderer seems to be hidden by his sister. There's a dark tragic twist, and the sister is visually impaired, but things end remarkably well. Lupino is vastly underrated, and also directed nine movies.
II: Sherlock Holmes (Guy Ritchie, 2010)
I went into this thinking it'd be shit. I like Robert Downey - Holmes - and Jude Law - Watson - has had his moments over the years (Gatacca, say). I am agnostic over Guy Ritchie, altough he's the Primark Martin Scorsese. It is I guess, a little Lock Stock and Two Smoking Meerschaums. In fact, this was rather good, although novel length Holmes narratives usually dispense with him for about half the action (in three cases a back story featuring neither Holmes nor Watson, aka infodump, in one case he claims to be staying in London). There's a preposterous free mason fake ritual magic plot - few Holmes stories invoke the supernatural - with Mark Strong as an excellent villain (and looking rather like the offspring of Jeremy Brett and Basil Rathbone). The screen lights up when Downey and Law play off each other - it has jyst the right amount of slashiness. The climax is maximum bollocks and dodgy green screen (and dodgy geography), and the path is laid wide open for the sequel, which I suspect will never happen.
III: Welt am Draht (World on Wires/World on a Wire, Maria Werner Fassbinder, 1973)
Okay, technically tv but... First adaptation - and largely faithful if less sfnal - of Counterfeit World, and glacially slow in the first part, more action orientated in the second. Paranoid virtual reality thriller whose soundtrack, acting and pace has not aged well. Interesting failure.
IV: Johnny Got His Gun (Dalton Trumbo, 1971)
Difficult to watch but moving adaptation of Trumbo's 1939 antiwar novel - a soldier is a multiple amputee and survives in a shell. Can he manage to communicate what he wants? Feature Donald Sutherland as Christ. Obviously.
V: Falsche Bewegung (Wrong Move, Wim Wenders, 1974)
Second of Wenders's road movie trilogy: a would be author travels to Berlin, gathering together an actress, a former Olympic athlete and his daughter or granddaughterand a would be poet. Nothing quite happens, revelations aren't quite made, but there's guilt and ennui a plenty.
VI: Up In the Air (Jason Reitman, 2009)
Curious and conflicted film about a corporate downsizer. George Clooney is Ryan, whose job is to fire people on behalf of corporations. When a new employee suggests that this could be done by video conference, not by flying to venues, he demands she goes on the road (in the air) with him. Are we meant to side with him, even though he puts people out of work. Is he, in the words of the film, a prick? He's George Clooney though - although JK Simmonds steals the film.
Totals 6 (Cinema: 2; DVD: 2; Television: 2)