Lady on a Train (1945)

This slightly obscure forties film stars Deanna Durbin as a young woman who witnesses a murder - from her seat on a train. Naturally proving what's happened may be a little tricky, and with Mr Haskell (Edward Everett Horton, who earlier apeared in The Lost Horizon) trying to keep her out of trouble, it's a good job that she's both inventive and persistent. Lady on a Train is a comedy thriller that has a good plot and delivers a lot of laughs along the way. A bit difficult to get hold of but if you can it's well worth watching.

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

The Lost Horizon (1937)

This 1937 movie starring Ronald Coleman has had many changes over the years - the film was considered far too pacifist for the war years, and nearly half an hour was cut. The latest DVD release had had as much as possible reinstated, though one or two scenes are made up of still as no archive footage could be found.

The story revolves around a British diplomat (Robert Conway - Coleman) and a few others fleeing war in China only to end up stranded in Tibet., However they are stranded in a Paridise - Shangri-La - where many of the things Conway has dreamt of and written about are a reality - no war, no crime, no poverty, bi sucjbess. However not everyone is happy about being there - most notably Robert's brother, George (John Howard).

The Lost Horizon is a masterpiece, still fascinating today and full of great cinematic tricks (including some amazingly realistic mountain climbing and avalanche scenes). Frank Capra didn't get an Oscar nomination as Director, but the film did win 2 Oscars (Best Art Direction and Best Film Editing), and it was nominated for 5 more, including Best Picture.

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Movie Review - The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

What happens when an alien visitor parks his flying saucer in the middle of a park and walks out with a message of peace? Why, shoot him of course! This is the basic concept of The Day The Earth Stood Still, set among a climate of fear and mistrust among earth's nations, and the visitor - Klaatu (Michael Rennie)

A true sci-fi classic, The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) is very much a product of its generation and yet still very relevant to today's world. Klaatu is, despite being an alien, very much like a human - in fact you wouldn't know he was an alien at all if you met him - but Michael Rennie's performance is full of subtle nuances, the slightly superior attitude when confronted by what to him is earth's primitive technology, the bemused disbelief at certain attitudes he encounters, etc. Klaatu particularly forms a friendship with a young boy named Bobby (Billy Gray) and his mother Helen (Patricia Neal). In Bobby Klaatu sees what humanity could and should be - innocent and untainted by political intrigues and suspicion. Helen also shows herself capable of more empathy than most of the people around her - while most relate wild stories about a fearsome, gigantic alien who should be destroyed for the safety of earth, Helen actually dares to suggest that maybe it's the alien who's scared and uncertain of his surroundings.

After a failed attempt to get representatives of all the nations together to hear the message he's come to earth with, Klaatu turns to the scientific community. Professor Jacob Barnhardt - looking a little like Einstein put through a tumble dryer - may be the key, but Klaatu needs to resort to drastic measures first to get his attention, and then to convince the whole scientific community that he truly is who he says he is. This demonstration, perhaps predictably, causes even more panic among earth's inhabitants... Apart from those in the know (since Klaatu has to escape the authorities to properly examine the people of the planet he's visiting) Helen's fiancé, Tom Stevens (Hugh Marlowe) is perhaps the only human to be suspicious of Klaatu - but only because of jealousy. Still, this leads him to pay more attention to Klaatu (travelling under an assumed , more normal-sounding name, of course), which could cause problems for the alien later on...

Klaatu seems to be a bit of a paradox at times - he preaches peace but has enormously destructive technology at his disposal - but the reason for this is (mostly) adequately explained near the end of the movie. Robert Wise's direction moves the film at a thoughtful pace, too slow for some maybe but it creates enough questions in your mind to keep you occupied without lots of action. What I really hadn't remembered about The Day the Earth Stood Still is that it's very funny - there are some priceless little gems in the dialogue which you could easily miss if you weren't paying attention. There's a robot called Gort, who never says anything, but somehow the way he just stands there motionless almost all of the time is strangely menacing - and of course when he gets angry, nothing can stop him...

The special effects look pretty impressive for the time (1951), but they're not especially important to how enjoyable the film is. I guess it all comes down to human nature - essentially that remains the same throughout the ages, so despite the post-WWII paranoia that's depicted in the film, the reactions of the people in the movie - from politicians to people on the street - are believable. It's widely recognised as a sci-fi classic and at the time of writing this resides at #234 in IMDB's all-time Top 250 movies list (and #27 in the all-time Sci-Fi Top 50), proving that its appeal has stood the test of time.

Okay so it's a little slow, the plot elements don't always make perfect sense, and the ending is a little inconclusive; everything considered though, The Day the Earth Stood Still remains a truly great movie. If you don't like slightly cheesy fifties sci-fi you may not enjoy it, but otherwise you should definitely watch it.

Related Reviews:

The Day the Earth Stood Still (inferior 2008 remake)

Silent Running (1972 sci-fi classic starring Bruce Dern)

My Top Ten Science Fiction Movies

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Movie Review - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The sixth Harry Potter movie - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - started somewhat at a disadvantage for me, in that it was based on my least favourite book of the series. This didn't of course mean that I would automatically be unimpressed with the film, so I went with an open mind. For the record, at the time of writing this I still haven't seen the first three Harry Potter movies; I thought Goblet of Fire was pretty mediocre, and loved Order of the Phoenix.

Directed by David Yates, who was also at the helm for Order of the Phoenix and has signed on for both Deathly Hallows films, it began weakly, grew in momentum and then faded again. There are some changes and additions to the book, though obviously it sticks mainly to the book; it starts out with Dumbledore and Harry going to meet an old friend of Dumbledore's and progresses into the school year at Hogwarts. The feeling of menace and attacks from the Voldemort's supporters grows, Draco Malfoy is clearly up to something, Severus Snape is clearly up to something, Albus Dumbledore is either being extremely stupid or amazingly wise, and lots of teenage angst exists between Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermoine and some other kids. Oh, and lots of snogging - very important, the snogging, try not to forget that.

With the familiar cast members all there, I found the acting for the most part good or very good. Unlike some I really liked Michael Gambon's portrayal of Dumbledore, and the regular crew of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint as Harry, Hermoine and Ron all give solid performances; albeit Harry's attempts at humour in the first 20 minutes or so of the film almost invariably fell flat, and sometimes they struggle to look as young as the characters they're portraying. Most of the other characters manage only a cameo appearance - Neville, Luna, Remus, Tonks, the other Weasleys, even to a large extent Snape and McGonagall. Even given the book is mainly about Harry & Dumbledore / Harry, Ron & Hermoine, considering the film has two major scenes not in the book, there was surely space to get these characters some more screen time. However there were a couple of flashbacks featuring a young Tom Riddle, and I thought these were very well done.

The addition of Jim Broadbent to the cast in the role of Professor Slughorn, a former teacher at Hogwarts who has a secret that must be found out, was a great move. Broadbent has always been one of my favourite actors and he's is extremely good in this role. Helena Bonham Carter is genuinely unsettling as the insanely evil Bellatrix Lestrange; but then, she always gives me the creeps a bit. For some reason I found Bonnie Wright as Ginny rather annoying in every single scene she appeared in. Jessie Cave as Lavender was quite scary for a different reason - she was all over Ron every time she saw him. She certainly was an enthusiastic kisser... sorry, snogger.

The movie seemed to be so focused on a small handful of characters though that everyone else was there merely to make up the numbers; for me the acting itself wasn't a disappointment, but the use of characters definitely was.

The plot itself was okay... it had lots of visual spectacle, but little emotional impact. The mystery of Draco and his strange obsession with a cupboard was rather too drawn out and there were few parts of the film where I felt what was going on was actually interesting. A couple of things seemed a bit contradictory - I can't really remember whether I got the same impression from the book or not. While it's all done quite stylishly and the special effects are (mostly) extremely good, it just didn't have the right mix of characters, action, suspense and humour that made Order of the Phoenix so enjoyable. The music score was quite fun, but more effective in the jolly scenes than the dramatic - then again the film was much more effective when it was poking fun at teenagers than trying to create a serious fantasy backdrop. There just isn't enough storyline here to make the drama work.

That's not to say that I didn't enjoy any of the film - while most of it left me unmoved though not actively disliking it, I really, really enjoyed Rupert Grint's performance as Ron this time round. The scenes of him playing quidditch and when he'd fallen under the influence of a love potion were often hilarious, easily the best parts of the movie for me. There were some other good comedic moments involving Gambon, Radcliffe, Watson or Broadbent as well.

The whole "Half-Blood Prince" aspect was kind of washed over entirely; when the revelation of who the self-styled prince actually was came, it might as well have had the words "So what?" appear in large letters on the screen. Even though I can't remember the book all that well, it felt as though important plot elements had been cut out in favour of a few more scenes of angst.

Overall I enjoyed some parts of The Half-Blood Prince immensely, but most of it left me rather unmoved. Whatever anyone says isn't going to stop it from becoming one of the biggest-grossing films of all time, of course, but it really felt like a missed opportunity. I actually wouldn't particularly recommend this one overall, but I don't suppose that's going to stop you from going to watch it! I'm hoping that the Deathly Hallows will be more along the lines of Order of the Phoenix... we shall find out next year.

FILMS:

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

BOOKS:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

PC GAMES

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Well, we watched this tonight... and it was okay. The book was my least favourite of the series anyway, but while the film has a lot of visual spectacle and a very enjoyable second quarter (thanks largely to the effects of Ron drinking a love potion), the film failed to be anywhere near as gripping as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - at least to me. They seem to have changed quite a few key elements and, according to my wife, left out a lot of things.

Full review tomorrow, but basically, despite some good moments, this is an uninspiring movie based on an uninspiring book.

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

They Call Me Mister Tibbs!

Sidney Poitier reprises his role as homicide detective Virgil Tibbs in this follow up to In the Heat of the Night. With a good cast but slightly too predictable plot, and a sub-plot about Virgil's family instead of the racism issues that the first film dealt with, this is a decent enough murder mystery but definitely not as good as its predecessor. Also starring Martin Landau.

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Trailer

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Movie Review - Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

I loved the first Ice Age movie and liked the second (Ice Age: The Meltdown), but really wasn't quite sure if the third movie was going to be taking a good idea too far. In the recent past two trilogies come to mind where I really enjoyed the first and second films, but the third turned out to be awful or mediocre (Spiderman and X-Men). I'm happy to say that in the case of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, after a slightly awkward start the movie was a riot right up to the end.

Basically we have three stories running concurrently in this movie: Sid, the pursuit of Sid, and Scrat & Scratte. Sid the sloth wants a family of his own, finds some apparently abandoned eggs and inadvertently hatches three baby dinosaurs (which the rest of the animals had thought were extinct), and is taken away by the real mother who is understandably a bit miffed. Manny, with baby on the way and intent on alienating himself from everyone by being a complete idiot (that's how it came across to me, anyway) and the gang go after Sid with varying levels of enthusiasm. Then there is Scrat, the little creature with his mind forever fixed on that elusive acorn... but he meets more than his match in Scratte, a female flying fox who uses her feminine wiles and more to get the acorn herself. Their story occasionally flits into the other stories, and it could well end in love... well, sort of.

There is a notable new character in Dawn of the Dinosaurs in the form of Buck, a one-eyed weasel voiced with great energy by Simon Pegg. Having lived with the dinosaurs for years, he's unshakable, jungle-savvy and seemingly impossible to kill. Without his help Manny, Ellie, Crash and Eddie (gotta love those crazy possums) and Diego could never survive the harsh environment their quest to take Sid takes them... but is he more help than harm, or does he have a more sinister motive?

The movie starts of with Scrat's first meeting of Scratte and leads up to Sid's finding the eggs without really getting up a full head of steam. I found some of the dialogue and particularly Manny's attitude problems more annoying than funny. The opening scenes therefore added to my feeling about what the movie was going to be like; once the baby dinosaurs come onto the scene, however, Ice Age 3 hurtles into top gear and never slows down. There are some great action sequences (the best being a chase scene with Buck, Crash and Eddie flying a pterodactyl), lots of humour - a slight over-reliance on slapstick perhaps but even some of that was genuinely funny), some great dialogue and a clever plot that makes you think it's predictable and suddenly springs a surprise on you. The humour worked for children and adults alike, some obviously for different reasons, but at times the kids were laughing hard at dialogue they couldn't possibly have understood, so there must have been an underlying current of humour that they picked up on that didn't require perception of the dialogue to enjoy.

The animation was amazing - the level of detail, fluidity of movement, everything was just superb. It's difficult to imagine just how computer animation could possibly get better than it is at the moment, but I'm sure there'll be new ways to amaze us in the future. We watched it in 3D and it's worth doing that if available in your area, if only to hear the reaction of the younger children in the audience. The movie will be wonderfully entertaining in 2D as well, of course. It sounds as good as it looks with a great music score by John Powell and fantastic voice acting by Ray Romano (Manny), Queen Latifah (Ellie), Denis Leary (Diego), John Leguizamo (Sid), Seann William Scott (Crash) and Josh Peck (Eddie).

There are a few slightly rude jokes and a couple of scenes that might be scary for very small children, which earn Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs a PG Rating. It lasts for 94 minutes, of which 80 are pure gold in terms of entertainment value. Somehow it feels very different from the first Ice Age film - a good decision as it would have felt stale otherwise. I'm not sure if people who didn't like the other Ice Age films will enjoy it, but if you did, you're certainly going to have fun watching Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.


Related Links:

Ice Age: The Meltdown review
My Top Ten Animated Movies
My Top Ten Computer-Animated Movies

Ice Age 3 Trailer

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Review of "The Great American Broadcast" (1941)

This is a fun film starring John Payne as Rix Martin. a former fighter pilot looking to make radio the next big thing in the entertainment worls, aided by the money of "friend" Bruce Chadwick (Cesar Romero), the technical know-how of Chuck Hadley (Jack Oakie) and the sinigng talents of Vicki Adams (Alice Faye). Of course things go sour as all three men fall in love with Vicki over time, and there are technical hitches aplenty to overcome.

There are a lot of performances by entertainment greats, including The Ink Spots and The Nicholas Brothers, and the whole thing is predictable hokum but easily enjoyable enough for you not to care. While Romero is under-used and Payne's character is difficult to like, Alice Faye shows what a good comic actress she was and Jack Oakie is always entertaining. If you like musicals from this era you're bound to enjoy it, but it's also interesting from the point of view of a society for whom the idea of getting entertainment in their own homes was a foreign concept.

Not a great film by any means, but certainly an enjoyable movie.

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CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog