The Remains of the Day

This is based on the novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro.

The story is set between the two world wars at Darlington Hall. Mr. Stevens (Anthony Hopkins) is the butler of the house, serving Lord Darlington (James Fox), who fancies himself a sort of mediator between his home country and Germany. Although a well-intentioned man, Lord Darlington will later be remembered as a friend of Nazi Germany.

The political discussions in the film, however, are merely the backdrop to the story of the servants and workers of the house, mainly Mr. Stevens and the housekeeper Miss Kenton (Emma Thompson), and their relationship...which could have been more than professional, were it not for the distant air of Mr. Stevens, who values his duties and loyalty above all else. Eventually, Miss Kenton leaves the house to marry.

Years later, after receiving a letter from her and after his Lordship has passed away and the house sold to an American congressman (Christopher Reeve, only a few years before his disastrous accident), Mr. Stevens takes a trip to meet with her to possibly arrange for her to come back into service at Darlington Hall.

The cast is impressive, to say the least. Along with the before mentioned Hopkins, Thompson, Fox and Reeve, it also features Hugh Grant and - in minor roles - Ben Chaplin and a young Lena Headly as a shy maid (a far cry from her turn as the scheming Queen Cersei on Game of Thrones).

A wonderful, wonderful film.

9/10

Spider Baby or, The Maddest Story Ever Told

The beginning credits may be reminiscent of 1960's comedies - with a lovely song set to various cartoon images - but, make no mistake, this is not a comedy. It is a disturbed horror film...inbreeding, deserted house, cannibalism and all.

Caretaker Bruno cares for the Merrye children - Elisabeth, Virginia and Ralph - afflicted by an illness that reverts their mental development when they reach the age of 10. So, however old they may appear, mentally they are children. The illness is named after their family, since this is the only group of people that appear to suffer from it - Merrye Syndrome.

Brone cleans up their messes, including games getting out of hand that result in peopel dying. Their situation becomes considerably more difficult when an onslaught of relatives arrives with a lawyer, eyeing the family property. This, unsurprisingly leads to a night of horror for the newcomers.

Mental illness and other afflictions have always been fascinating subjects for the horror genre and, I imagine, will continue to drive the stories of many-a film to come. I'll gladly watch them.

The film has become somewhat of a cult and sports its own 'Official Home' on the web.

3/10

People Like Us

After his estranged father dies, selfish hot shot (with money and possibly pending legal problems) Sam finds out he has a sister he never knew about. He is supposed to get in touch with her and give her and her troubled 11-yr. old son Josh $ 150.000,--. Sam, needing the money and generally upset, wants to keep it for himself but is still curious about this unknown family branch.

He starts stalking her, basically. He worms his way into her life and of course she mistakes his brotherly feelings for something different until he eventually spits out the truth. They clash, she throws him out, takes the money, moves to a new house.

Thanks to precocious little Josh, however, they manage to reconnect and make peace.

...and they all lived happily ever after. You know, just like in real life.

3/10

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer

This film is a quasi biography loosely based on real-life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, who claimed to be responsible for some 600 murders (he wasn't).

Henry, who spend some time in prison for killing his mother, shares an apartment with Otis, also a former inmate. The story kicks off with Otis' sister Becky coming to stay when trying to get away from her husband.

Actually, the film starts with close ups of dead people, killed in different fashion ever time. The idea behind this is that the crimes are harder to connect if there is no clear modus operandi recognizable (Henry's words).

For a thriller/horror film it is relatively uneventful, with only very few killings on show. The ones we actually see involve Otis, who becomes Henry's sidekick after the two have two prostitutes in the car and one gets a little too loud for Henry's taste and he breaks her neck. Initially, Otis is shocked. He gets over it pretty quickly though and has no qualms about killing along with Henry.

The situation between the siblings is difficult, as they come out of a unloving family (including incest and all). When Henry one day walks in on Otis raping Becky, he kills and dismembers him and throws the remains off a bridge. Becky, convinced that Henry will take her to safety, doesn't make it much longer than her brother.

It is all very bleak and has a distinct 1980's feeling about it. Michael Rooker is great, though.

6/10

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Normally, I don't like musicals. That is, unless they are either very funny or hilariously ridiculous, which is to say that I like this. Also, it is about 42 minutes short. That helps, too.

Dr. Horrible, aspiring super villain, wants to to join the Evil League of Evil. Unfortunately, when he is in the middle of earning his place by committing a crime he gets stopped by his arch nemesis, Captain Hammer. Not only does Captain Hammer beat him off, he also gets Penny, the girl Dr. Horrible is in love with but was previously too shy to even talk to.

Captain Hammer is quite a tool (pun intended), who is basically in love with himself and only wants Penny because he knows Horrible is in love with her.

Penny's goal is to get the city to donate a building to be used as a homeless shelter. When Hammer gets the mayor to grant the request, he gets lauded as the hero. During the opening (and revelation of a Captain Hammer statue) of the center comes the big showdown between the two rival, from which Dr. Horrible walks away the winner, gaining entry into the Evil League of Evil but losing Penny, who dies in the shoot-out.

5/10

The Interrupters

This documentary shows a year in the streets of Chicago, among some of the desperate youths and the people trying to talk them down when they are about to erupt into violence.

The task the members of the CeaseFire initiative (aka Violence Interrupters) put upon themselves is a heroic one - and a constant uphill battle. Nearly all of them know what it is like to be in these young people's shoes and nearly all of them have done prison time, for crimes varying from hold ups to murder. So when they speak to the kids, they absolutely know what they are talking about. They get right into the middle of arguments that threaten to turn violent and possibly deadly and try to talk sense into everyone involved.

But that is not where the job ends.

They help out and speak at vigils and funerals, using all platforms to transport there message of non violence, telling potential killers to be the bigger person and walk away. The group is respected in the community and kids will listen to them at times. They get in touch with families of murdered youths to mourn with them or provide a shoulder to cry on. They assist with community projects that provide healthy environments for children and are simply there when someone needs to talk.

Such bravery and dedication.

The film was directed by Steve James, who also made the lauded Hoop Dreams, that many people believe was robbed of a best documentary Oscar. This strong piece of film making wasn't even nominated, which raised a lot of eyebrows.

I watched this with a lump in my throat throughout. It ends with a Solomon Burke song, very fittingly called 'Don't Give Up On Me'.

9/10

Film Quote

from Beasts of the Southern Wild

About 'Room 237'

Interesting (very short) article on the Vulture:
Stanley Kubrick's Shining Assistant Thinks Room 237 Is 'Pure Gibberish'

...and it's not actually Room 237 in the book.

10 Rillington Place

This is the true story of serial killer John Christie (portrayed by Richard Attenborough) and a case of miscarriage of justice involving Timothy Evans (played by John Hurt).

Between 1943 and 1953, Mr. Christie strangled 8 (known) victims, including baby Geraldine Evans. The film details the time of Geraldine's parents short stay in a rental apartment at the title giving address.

After Christie murdered Beryl Evans he tells her husband Timothy, who by modern standards would be considered mentally challenged, that she accidentally died while he helped her terminate an unwanted pregnancy. He urged Evans to leave town until the investigation about his wife's death had died down. The unfortunate Geraldine gets left in the 'care' of Christie.

Evans was apprehended and as a result of a false confession was then tried for the murder of his daughter and sentenced to death by hanging. He was executed in 1950. This enabled Christie to murder a few more women, including his wife Ethel. He was later detected and finally hanged in 1953.

The argument that Evans was in fact innocent of the crime he was accused of was brought forward in a book by Ludovic Kennedy, which lead to a revision of the case. Evans was officially pardoned in 1966.

Very well acted by both leads.

6/10

Submarine

Life is difficult for Oliver Tate.

He needs to get a girlfriend to lose his virginity to, preferably his schoolmate Jordana, while at the same time trying to resurrect his parent's marriage, that appears to be in shambles. His mother's former 'friend' Graham (Paddy Considine with one of the worst mullets in recent history) moved in next door.

Oliver himself moves through life in insecurity and wide-eyed desperation. He gets Jordana, but having a girlfriend brings a lot of complications with it, for one her family including a mother sick with cancer and a dead dog. His covert operations to keep his parent's marriage intact don't seem to do a lot of good either. Eventually, however, some things sort themselves out.

It's weird and dorky and very funny. I love this!

Great soundtrack, too!

8/10

Wreck-It Ralph

A cute little film about video arcade games. And you don't have to know arcade games to enjoy it.

Wreck-It Ralph, the title character, is the bad guy in Fix It Felix Jr. Basically, he spends his time beating down on a building that Felix and his friends live in. Felix, with his magic hammer, fixes it all up again and gets a medal and has cake with all the friends he saved. Ralph, however, lives in a dump all by himself, dreaming of getting a medal himself one day. Then everyone would love him...or at least invite him to the party celebrating the 30th anniversary of the game he is in.

When he takes matters in his own (huge) hands and gets a medal in a game called Hero's Duty he starts total chaos in the game he went rouge in, as well as his own. Felix sets after him to keep them from getting unplugged, along with the tough blond chick from Hero's Duty.

In another game, called Sugar Rush, he encounters a loner, Vanellope, who is kept out of the regular races for being a 'glitch'. After a bad first meeting, that has Vanellope stealing and misusing Ralph's medal, the team up to resurrect Vanellope's avatar and save Sugar Rush from the drones that made it over from Hero's Duty.

Sounds complicated? It's not. It's lovely.

7/10

Moonraker

Hugo Drax, an eccentric billionaire (and aren't they all eccentric?) steals a Moonraker space shuttle, that his own company built and that was on loan to the UK. Yes, yes, it is hijacked in mid-air! Why would he steal his own shuttle, you ask? Because he 'needed it', due to some malfunction in one of his own shuttles, he builds for his personal use (one assumes). He needs it to shoot a nerve gas - deadly to humans, harmless to animals - into the earth's atmosphere to get rid of all humanity.

The idea is to spend some time in a space station together with a number of genetically perfect young men and women. Then, after life on earth is deemed safe again (probably Wall-E will report on that) they shall return and repopulate the planet.

The henchmen sent after the inquiring James Bond are one Chang, Asian and therefore expert in martial arts, and the indestructible Jaws, who in pursuit of Bond and one Dr. Holly Goodhead (an astronaut) bites through a cable holding a cable car, among other unpleasantries he showers on the good guys. However, he will take 007's side eventually, because he realizes he is not a member of the master race.

Bond has at this point also survived an attempt on his life by centrifugal force and a rather mundane sniper, he takes out with a hunting riffle. Also, he has jumped out of airplane without a parachute before we even got to the beginning credits (the title theme the third and weakest by Shirley Bassey). Also we have witnessed the demise of one of Drax's unwitting minions who gets chased down and killed by two dogs.

Anyway, the final showdown this time takes place in - drumroll! - in outerspace! With lasers! And villain ejected into the universe!

What nonsense!

3/10

Manos: The Hands of Fate

This is widely believed to be one of the worst films ever made. It is currently third from the bottom on imdb's 'bottom 100' list - only, uhm, beaten (?) by Disaster Movie and The Hottie & the Nottie (both feature star power that Manos can simply not keep up with).

Where to begin? The acting is as bad as the script is stupid. The dialogue the poor people have to work with is as shallow as it gets. After all, this was only made because of a bet that director/star (?) Harold P. Warren made with a screenwriter who was in his hometown to scout for locations.

The story is of a family (parents, daughter, dog) that gets lost in the middle of nowhere, coming among a deserted farm house deserted but for the limping caretaker Torgo. Torgo, apparently a metaphor for a satyr, makes ominous remarks about a 'master' that is initially only present on a strange and fear inducing painting.

When we finally meet him, he is clad in black and red and surrounded by women dressed in nightgowns. The master, who may or may not be dead, comes to life and decides he must sacrifice poor Torgo to the deity "Manos". Torgo is tied to a stone bed and attacked by the women in nightgowns (the 'wives' of the master or something), but he escapes, wounded.

When the master comes upon the family, the father shoots him into the face from close range, but to no avail. The master applies some hypnotic power which turns the mother and daughter into 'wives' for the master and the father into the new caregiver, who at the end of the film welcomes another unfortunate group of lost travelers.

Needs to be seen to be believed (and cannot possibly be judged in mere numbers).

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane

Every boy in the high school wants to get into Mandy Lane's pants. She's allegedly still a virgin and got hot over the summer (their words, not mine).

A group of her class mates invite her out to Red's (the stoner) parent's farm, along with two cheerleaders (Chloe and Marlin) and two jocks (Bird and Luke). The only other person around is the farm hand Garth. During a night of drugs and alcohol, Mandy's former best friend Emmett - shunned because he made a boy jump off the roof towards a swimming pool (and, unfortunately, not quite making it) - starts killing them off one by one.

The first one to get it is Marlin, gravely wounded but not quite dead when Luke, heavily intoxicated, finds her by the lake. Luke is the first one to go, death by gun. Passed out Marlin gets the butt of the gun in the face (repeatedly), which leads to

DEAD CHEERLEADER ALERT!!!

The four others are at this point unaware of their friends being recently deceased. Bird then runs into Emmett and starts hitting him, before Emmett produces a hunting knife...

In the morning, Grant and Mandy have a heart to heart and we learn that nice, goody two-shoes Mandy is an orphan and that is why she is 'different' from her group of idiot friends. Awww! Then Grant gets lured away by a noise coming from upstairs. Mandy, asleep with her head on the table gets stroked by Emmett's bloody hand, so when Grant returns and sees the blood on her hair and the fridge decides that 'we need to get out of here'. As soon as the door opens, Grant gets shot in the shoulder.

Red and Chloe flee out the back door and find Luke and Marlin's bodies in a field. This leads to some making out (obviously) during which Red gets shot in the back. Chloe runs off into the fields, where she comes upon Bird's body before being chased by a car by Emmett and running....straight into the hunting knife, now held by Mandy herself (who was in on it all along). And again:

DEAD CHEERLEADER ALERT!!!

It was all really a suicide pact. But Mandy has one more surprise in store and planned to get rid of Emmett instead of dying with him. The bitch!

2/10

Goodbye Mr Snuggles

Performance

Sadistic thug Chas (James Fox) has to lie low for a while after an unplanned hit. He hides in the guest house run by the eccentric Turner (Mick Jagger), who is initially all but happy about the new house guest.

Chas finds his new surroundings rather laughable and doesn't approve of the bohemian life style he considers degenerate. While waiting for his new passport so he can leave the country, he gets caught up in Turner's strange world. Turner himself is a performer that has 'lost his demon' and now lives as a reclusive.

The film also includes a quasi Rolling Stones music video for the song "Memo from Turner" which is really kind of cool and actually fits right into the film.

Mick Jagger basically playing himself (I imagine) and James Fox puts in one of his best performances (IMO).

Awesomely weird.

Weirdly awesome.

9/10

The Spy Who Loved Me

In the year of 1977 the James Bond Travel Agency suggests a journey to Egypt, to experience the grandness of the pyramids and adjoining monuments.

While among the aforementioned monuments, Bond and his rival/associate KGB agent triple X (Barbara Bach) spend a while chasing after Jaw (yes, yes, the guy with the metal teeth) among the vast monuments - before getting chased by him in return. The objective is to retrieve a microfilm. Jaw and his assistant henchman Sandor (a rather short role) were sent by Karl Stromberg (the great Curd Jürgens) to search after said microfilm and kill everyone that comes in contact with it.

What does the villain want this time? Trigger a global nuclear war, of course. Don't they always? There is yet another train trip (a recurring Bond theme), during which Bond and triple X get attacked by Jaw again (What? You thought dumping an entire scaffolding including stones on him would get rid of him? Or even throwing him out the window of a moving train?).

The big showdown takes place in a much more elaborate venue. No, not an island. That is getting rather old and we'll get around to it again in later Bond films (Skyfall anyone?). On a big-ass ship, that captures submarines in its belly. Oh, and don't worry. There's a car chase, too.

Despite all the ridiculousness and repetitiveness, the showdown is awesome.

6/10

The Man with the Golden Gun

Roger Moore's second James Bond adventure unfortunately has nothing on his first one. The story just doesn't hold up to Live and Let Die, despite the villain in this being the great Christopher Lee, which makes it doubly sad. What a waste of talent.

Lee plays Scaramanga, a contract killer, aided by his dwarf Nick Nack (!). The female (of course) assistant Bond has at his side is called Goodnight (*eye-roll*). And as if that weren't comic relief enough, JW Pepper, the dorky small town sheriff from the previous film, is forced on us again. He is still not very funny.

The touristic adventure takes us to Asia again - this time to Hong Kong and Bangkok, where Scaramanga works for one Hai Fat. And yes, we get Asian martial arts - an entire school of martial arts students. They get knocked out by two teenage girls in school uniforms. And with that we have probably covered every cliche conceivable about the Asian continent, no?

Oh yes, there is also a flying car.

Scaramanga invests in solar energy, so he's not really that bad a guy, is he?

4/10

Live and Let Die

The first (real) post Connery Bond (let's forget about Mr. Lazenby, shall we). I know, I know, everyone says that Sean Connery is the best Bond evah. Personally, I believe people say that because he is the original Bond. I am quite happy with Roger Moore.

For me it is thusly:
Sean Connery - like
George Lazenby - meh
Roger Moore - like
Timothy Dalton - I'll get back to you once I have seen him as Bond. My expectations are low.
Pierce Brosnan - *argh* Noooooo! Why? Why? WHY?
Daniel Craig - LOVE

Anyway, Live and Let Die. It starts off with one of my favorite Bond themes performed by Paul McCartney and the Wings. As a rule, the opening credits of any Bond film are great - very artsy and mysterious (usually with naked women).

Three MI6 agents get killed - in New York, in New Orleans and in the Caribbean island of San Monique, the dictator of which is the villain in this part of the franchise, one Dr. Kananga. There is also a mysterious Harlem drug lord named Mr. Big, that eventally turns out to be Dr. Kananga himself. Bond follows him from New York (where he ventures into a Harlem before the time when a white person would want to be caught alone there) to San Monique. There, 007 meets - and loses - his CIA associate Rosie Carver, who dies too early to be referred to as "Bond girl". This title goes to Jane Seymour as Solitaire - the virginal (until she gets bedded by 007) tarot reader employed by Dr. Kananga (the original Mr. Big).

On to New Orleans, where Bond is captured by Mr. Big's minions. He learns that the culprit uses his fellow countrymen's fear of voodoo and the occult to protect his poppy fields and keep the heroin coming. His plan is to distribute drugs for free (!) through his restaurant chain "Fillet of Soul" to increase the number of addicts and, consequently, paying customers.

Dr. Kananga's plan for Bond is that he be thrown to the crocodiles by his henchman Tee Hee (yes!) Johnson (a name that beats Solitaire, and there is also a Baron Samedi). Our hero escapes by running over the backs of the crocodiles. How about that?

Back in San Monique, Bond rescues Solitaire, who is supposed to be sacrificed, as she is no longer useful for Tarot (not being a virgin any longer and all). They have to survive a shark tank and - even after Dr. Kananga is dead - Tee Hee (who gets thrown off a moving train) before riding off into the sunset (sort of).

9/10

The Croods

This film about a pre-historic family having to flee its home cave is not officially out yet. I saw it today as a (free) preview.

The Crods consist of the - even now - traditional ingredients: the over-protective father, a somewhat modern mother, the rebellious teenage daughter, the scared son, the aggressively biting baby and the 'still alive' mother in law. When an outsider, Guy, come in and warns them of the coming 'End' they have to follow him towards the sun, where 'tomorrow' lies.

The dimwitted father has the biggest issue with this. His standing as head of the family is threatened when the family starts listening to this newcomer and his daughter is totally smitten with him, as well. After they live through many an adventure together and survive (!) mostly thanks to Guy, they end up on a wonderful beach where they - presumably - live happily ever after, with Guy now firmly implanted in the family and a few pets to boot.

Cute.

6/10

The Twilight Zone: Where Is Everybody?

This is the very first episode of The Twilight Zone. Ever.

It launches with an intro by Rod Serling, in which he addresses potential buyers of commercial time. He relates what the show is about and gives a glimpse of some of the episodes to come, showing off some of the props to be used. He also boldly predicts that this is a high quality products. He turned out to be right, of course.

Where Is Everybody? is about a man walking down a country road and into an empty diner in which the music box plays at full volume and the coffee is still on the stove but nobody appears to be around. He assumes that somebody must be in shouting distances, so he gives his order anyway and starts talking away. One thing he announces is that he is not sure who he is, but he knows he is hungry and has a bit of money to pay for coffee and breakfast. He helps himself to a cup, throws a coin onto the bar and heads off down the road again.

The town he comes into is as deserted as the diner was. He tries and fails to find anybody in the shops. At one point he thinks he sees a woman sitting in a car and starts talking to her immediately, before realizing that it's a mannequin.

Not only does the man not know who he is, he also does not remember waking up. All he remembers is walking. Also, he feels he is being watched.

What is actually happening is he is an astronaut in training, confined in an empty room to test whether he can potentially stay sane locked inside a tiny aircraft. As he gets carried away on a stretcher, he starts talking to the moon he was supposed to travel to.

7/10

The War of the Worlds

Ah, 1950s science fiction films! How I love them! The (retrospectively) cheap-looking special effects, the dashing hero - so often a non-dorky scientist, the bad ass military, the girl that needs saving, the psychedelic 'alien' noises.

In the 1953 film adaption of the H. G. Wells classic you get all of the above.

First, however, a spoken intro set to paintings of planets and stars before the real action starts. About 50 minutes into the film, as we make a jump from the early days of the war to vast devastation, this voice of authority will give as the gist of what happened.

What is thought to be a meteor lands near a small California town, witnessed by many town folks and a group of scientists fishing in the area. Everyone and their grandmother comes out to have a look and they are nearly celebrating, already counting money that can be made out of the event. In sweeps the dashing hero, a handsome, if bespectacled, scientist by the name of Dr. Clayton Forrester. The first person he encounters at the scene is the girl that will soon need saving. She is scientifically interested and well aware who he is. Her bravery in the face of the mounting danger diminishes over the course of the film and she turns into a hysterically shrieking little girl frequently.

Anyway, the meteor is not a meteor but a spaceship that brought enemy forces with it - weird looking machinery and three-eyed aliens that have a mind to kill everything and everyone that stands in their way. This first spaceship is followed by many others across the globe and the title-giving war of the worlds begins.

No bombs, no tanks, not even the A-bomb have any effect on the invaders.There is no chance but to evacuate the destroyed cities as all hope dwindles. In the end, it is not humans that defeat the enemy, but rather the enemy falls out of the sky (literally) and dies because it cannot handle the earthly microorganisms.

Whereas the outline of the film is very close to the original text, it adds in some religious pathos, with a heroic priest and a church as shelter, which do not appear in the book.

5/10

Diamonds Are Forever

Ah, yes, Sean Connery is back. Phew! Glad that Mr. Lazenby was replaced again (I am not a fan).

We start off with the wonderful Shirley Bassey singing the title track. And then...Blofeld dies! Or does he? Of course he doesn't. He is, once again, the über-villain. This time around we are following a diamond trail. Everyone that comes into contact with the stones tends to die of unnatural causes.

The bad people come in twos. First, the dorkiest ever villains in a James Bond film, surely. A gay couple. Not sure what message it sends that you make the first gay people in the franchise overly comical. And while we're at lack of political correctness - very much a sign of the times, of course - again a black woman is likened to a primate. Whereas the black Angel of Death in the previous film ate nothing but bananas, here we go even further. A black woman that turns into a gorilla. Nicely played. (*sarcasm*)

Anyway, back to the villainous duos. Then two beauties beat up James Bond for a bit, before he gets the upper hand on them (literally). They are called Thumper and Bambi, along with Plenty O'Toole yet more specimen of strange names for women in Bond films. The two try to keep Bond away from the missing and illustrious gazillionaire (one assumes), Mr. Whyte, whose properties and general wealth have been used by Mr. Blofeld to start off a nuclear war (yet again).

And speaking of twos: There is more than one Blofeld, thanks to the wonders of plastic surgery. Having a double has, however, not made him any smarter. He lets Bond slip through his fingers yet again when he has the chance to shoot him. He should by now know better than to keep him alive as a possible bargaining chip (or whatever).

In the end, 007 saves the day and the diamonds - now part of a satellite - revolve in space.

6/10

Mrs Henderson Presents

This is based on real events.

Mrs. Henderson, after having lost her son in the first World War, is bored after burying her husband as well. Her well-meaning friend's suggestion of taking up a hobby leads her to purchase a run-down theater in central London. With the help of Mr Van Damm, she puts on a revue that initially is very successful, but only until all the other theaters in town do likewise.

To get back on top, Mrs Henderson decides to put nude women into their sing-and-dance productions. This causes quite the stir and - of course - quite the success. The theater continues to run its shows throughout WWII. Although it is underground and therefore relatively safe from the German bombs, it does suffer its tragedies.

Dame Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins are wonderful in a sort of love-hate relationship. This also features Will Young (singing, of course) and Christopher Guest, who adds a few laughs to the film.

6/10

The Twilight Zone: The Mighty Casey

During tryouts for the Hoboken Zephyrs, the desperate team meets a left-handed pitcher named Casey. He has the strongest arm ever seen and pitches with unbelievable precision. The only problem is - Casey is a robot.

The coach - played by Jack Warden, who I can hardly remember as anything else than a baseball coach - and the man who built Casey decide to keep this little bit of information to themselves.

Alas, it had to come out eventually. When Casey gets hit in the head by a ball, the following check-up reveals that he is not human. A baseball official is called in and it is agreed that he would be allowed to continue playing if he is equipped with a beating heart.

When he returns to play he doesn't have the heart (Ha!) to strike out any of the opponents. He goes off to do charitable work.

5/10

The Master

I must admit that the first 30 minutes of this were rough for me. It seemed all so tedious and I was waiting for the film to get going. Not what I expect from a Paul Thomas Anderson movie. He is one of my favorite directors and has in the past spoiled us with his works. Hence, I was a bit cautious at first.

However, as soon as Philip Seymour Hoffman enters the stage (so to say) the film does become the master piece (no pun intended) it is by so many said to be. For a long while it was lauded as the best film of 2012 and groomed as a sure thing for award season. But the film year is a long one and the attention span of the members of various academies and associations is rather short. What it did get, in the end, at the big one (Oscars), was recognition for the stellar acting of the main characters. Of course, they never stood a chance and the Academy did not dish out any surprises this year.

This is the story of a lost young man named Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix), disillusioned after the war and prone to violence and his unlikely friendship and devotion to Lancaster Dodd ('The Master'/Hoffman), who may or may not be fashioned after L. Ron Hubbard. The cult (no, no, not a cult, surely) is known as The Cause and it doesn't seem to do any actual harm but enthralls the followers in regression therapy and lulls them with words spoken (made up?) by Dodd. There is some minor legal trouble of the financial kind, of course, but then there always is.

Dodd now wishes to help Freddie through his aggression by having him repeat either answers or short walks from one end of the room to the other and loudly stating what the wall or the window feel like when he touches them.

The scenes with Hoffman and Phoenix in them, mostly in conversation, are wonderful to watch and are what makes this film so special.

Joaquin Phoenix really is a gorgeous man and Philip Seymour Hoffman sings!

8/10

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or, How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours and 11 Minutes

A comedy about the early years of aviation.

Pioneers of flight from all over the world come together in England to participate in an air race from London to Paris. Like any classic 1960s comedy, it exploits ever single country cliche imaginable but - also like any classic 1960s comedy - does this in the most charming manner.

The main players are a dashingly handsome - if slightly dorky - Englishman, a daredevil American (the two also vying for the same lady as well as the prize money), a group of German military men (doing everything by the book, of course), a happy-go-lucky Frenchman, a conniving Englishman (manipulating everything and everyone whenever possible), a mysterious Japanese, an Italian with his entire overly emotional family as well as some bit players.

Have seen this forever ago and it still makes me chuckle throughout. Gert Fröbe in a bathing costume is quite the sight.

7/10

Utopia - Season 1

This thriller in six parts evolves around a mysterious manuscript of a graphic novel called "The Utopia Experiments", that is detailing a large scale conspiracy that involves a big corporation, a secretive "network", politicians, a socially awkward killer and a group of unsuspecting graphic novel fans that end up in the middle of a murderous roller coaster ride.

Initially, it follows a man who searches for the manuscript on behalf of 'The Network', killing anyone (literally) in his way and putting forward the question, "Where is Jessica Hyde?". Jessica herself has contacted a group that more or less accidentally acquired the manuscript.

They quickly realize that they have gotten entwined in a very precarious situation there is seemingly no way out of and any person they encounter on the way may be friend or foe and they have no way of knowing who to trust. What is also not clear is whether or not Jessica Hyde herself is hindrance or help. As if their conundrum weren't severe enough, they also end up having to care for a couple of young kids, Grant (graphic novel fan, the one who gets a hold of the manuscript first and is being framed for a school shooting) and Alice (hides the manuscript for Grant and witnesses her mother being killed over it).

The series is colorful and fast paced with shifting loyalties and many a twist and turn, which keeps it interesting and the audience guessing. The end then is a rather bleak one for all involved (or rather, the ones still alive). Channel 4 also put up a pretty nifty website to go with the show.

7/10