Patriot Games

I am about to give you some sad news and you have to be very strong now...Sean Bean dies.

Cause of death: impaling by anchor, followed by explosion (for good measure).

Now to the actual story of the film.

A group loosely affiliated with the IRA is making an attempt to kidnap one Lord Holmes, cousin to the Queen of England. What they did not factor in is that ex-CIA agent Jack Ryan would leisurely stroll by and throw himself in the middle of it all to not only save the Lord and his family but also take out a few bad guys while he's at it. One of them is little Patrick Miller, whose brother Sean (this is Sean playing Sean) is right there to witness his baby brother killed.

He is incarcerated, he swears revenge, his friends get him out of jail and while they still have their sights set on Lord Holmes, Sean has his eyes set on Jack Ryan. Yes, one of the members of the group of IRA guys going rouge is about to go rouge.

Shoot-outs, training camps in North Africa, a few explosions, cars forced off the road, a boat chase and the ultimate fight to death on a speeding, burning boat in the middle of a storm (because it wouldn't be an action sequence without there being a storm, obviously).

Yes, this is mostly standard action fare. Only, this has a way better cast than your random action movie. The original Jack Ryan is Harrison Ford. You also have James Earl Jones, James Fox, Richard Harris, Samuel L. Jackson, a very young Thora Birch - and those are just the supporting players. And of course there is Sean Bean and his brother in arms (until he falls victim to Sean/Sean's blinding revenge) is Patrick Bergin (whatever happened to him, I wonder).

6/10

Colditz

All is fair in love and war. And when the two coincide, then all bets are seriously off.

Colditz is a town in Saxony, where the local castle was used as a prisoner of war camp during WWII. But this was not just any old POW camp. This was rather for the very special cases, that had previously escaped from elsewhere.

The film begins with four British soldiers escaping through a tunnel, making their way to the neutral Switzerland. One of them makes it, two get caught and end up in Colditz and the forth gets shot.

The one that made it is one Nick McBride, rather reluctant in serving his home land and generally not the most ambitious person. Nevertheless, he made it out and receives accolades for that alone. He is promoted and starts work for the secret M9, who's job it is to assist other British POW's in escaping, establishing safe houses and transport back home and such.

The two that got caught are Willis and Jack Rose. Willis ended up caught in a barbed wire fence and Jack twisted his ankle. Before McBride departed, Jack asked him to look up his sweetheart back home, Lizzie. This he does and falls in love with her. When Lizzie keeps refusing his pursuit of her, McBride fakes an official correspondence telling her that Jack died when he was shot while trying to escape Colditz. This paves the way for his own romance with Lizzie.

Jack and Willis, meanwhile, plan and try one escape plan after the other (as do many other prisoners) and almost make it every time. Some do make it out, however, and it is through the escape of two individuals that McBride's betrayal is discovered.

This kicks off a series of events.

First, Sawyer, a former inmate writes to Jack to inform him that his Lizzie believes him to be dead and that the one that stands to gain from this can only be McBride.

Jack, as a consequence uses an escape plan that was devised for Willis, breaking Willis at last. This results in the poor guy simply trying to walk out of Colditz and getting shot in the back.

When M9 gets word that Jack is on his way to a safe house, McBride gets understandably nervous. When Sawyer tells him that Jack knows about him and Lizzie, the two start a shuffle that leaves Sawyer dead (this more or less accidental).

McBride then sells out the safe house Jack is in to the Germans and everyone there is shot and killed with Jack the only one getting away.

As a last ditch effort, he tries to whisk Lizzie out of the country for the New World, but Jack arrives just in the nick of time for Lizzie to realize that she has been lied to. As the two men fight (of course they do), the M9 is hot on the heels of McBride and shot him.

All this takes over 3 hrs. total but is actually so well make and played that time flies by.

7/10

The Double

The Double is Richard Ayoade's second feature film after Submarine (2010) and even though the tone and pace is similar, this is infinitely darker. It has the look and feel on 1984 and the work place could be another room from John Hurt is about to enter at any moment. In comparison with this, however, The Double is almost light in topic.

Simon James, the main protagonist, has been working at the same, dingy place for 7 years but has made barely an impact. One of his co-workers actually refers to him - quite fittingly - as "a bit of a non-person". He has been pining for Hannah and spends his evenings looking at her through a telescope from the house right opposite where she lives.

One day his lonely existence is shaken by the arrival of his doppelganger, James Simon. James is everything that Simon is not - self-assured, charming, noticeable and a go-getter. After Simon's initial shock and bewilderment of why nobody appears to be fazed by the two looking exactly alike, the two seem to be getting along. But soon Simon is doing chores that get attributed to James and Hannah, of course, falls for the wrong guy.

It is all very bleak with moments of hilarity and scenes that could be right out a David Lynch film (the elderly band performing at a mandatory company event!). The film is peppered with Japanese (?) lounge music and a perfectly fitting orchestral score.

I admit that I am not a fan of Jesse Eisenberg, because I argue that he has been playing the same role in pretty much every film he is in (or, that I have seen him in). Here, at least, he gets the chance to play two characters with very different characteristics. Still not convinced that his acting chops are up to scratch, though.

Anyway, the film just keeps getting weirder and weirder (in a good way). Not many films these days are this interesting.

7/10

A Passage to India

Rarely ever do stories told in really good books translate well to the big screen. I have not read the novel A Passage to India by E.M. Foster but from the reviews I have seen, here this seems to be the case. The film was universally lauded and nominated for a staggering 11 Academy Awards (winning 2).

Visually, it is beautiful, showing India in gorgeous landscapes. The story is set within the difficult reign of the British in India. The relationship between the locals and the Brits is strained, to say the least. It is in this environment that young Adela Quested and Mrs. Moore travel to meet up with Ronny Heaslop, fiance of the first and son of the latter. Ronny is the magistrate in Chandrapore.

The British have made quite a comfortable life for themselves, practically bringing everything they enjoy with them, arranging themselves in a Club. Indians are invited to their gatherings, but are mere decoration used to show off their kindness towards the lesser classes. Adela and Mrs. Moore have no reservations toward the local population and want to meet Indians and also request to see 'the real India'.

They meet Dr. Aziz, who appears to be happy with any bone the British may through him and always acts incredibly honored when they come to call, and Professor Godbole (played - in a very un-PC move by Sir Alec Guinness), a Brahmin in the house of school superintendent Mr. Fielding. To return the favor of the invitation, Dr. Aziz suggests a picnic at the Marabar Caves, which will need a lot of preparation and a strenuous journes, but he is embarrassed by his own dwellings and cannot invite them to their house.

When the day of the picnic arrives, the party travels by train. Fielding, however, does not make it in time as he has been delayed by Godbole's prayer. He is given a ride by Mrs. Callendar, wife of Major Callendar, both archetypal of the arrogant British population who believe that the Indians need to be governed by the British and are really more of a nuisance to their daily existence.

After an unpleasant experience by Mrs. Moore, who is claustrophobic, inside the caves she decides to rest and Dr. Aziz, Adela and one guide move on the the higher lying caves alone. This is where the incident, that changes the tone of the film, occurs. Adela is stumbling down the hill and chances upon Mrs. Callendar, who is on the way back to Chandrapore after dropping of Fielding. The two women go back together, leaving the rest of the party to wonder what has happened.

Upon arrival at the train station, Dr. Aziz is arrested on charges of attempted rape. Adela, sporting cuts from falling into a cactus and delirious from the sun (one assumes), has been left in the car of the Callendars and their sort, who all pressure her into confirming the accusations they have spun. The only two Brits convinced of his innocence are Fielding and Mrs. Moore, the latter leaving India for England before she can give an official statement, a decision strongly supported by her son.

At the trial, the defense alleges that Mrs. Moore has been sent away because she would have attested to Dr. Aziz' innocence and chants of "Mrs. Moore!" are alternating with her having a heart attack on her boat to England and being buried at see.

Adela changes her story and admits to not being sure anymore about what actually happened. She retracts any accusations, setting Dr. Aziz free and becoming a local hero. Not surprisingly, he has become disillusioned by the experience and now embraces his nationality in a new way, ditching his English Sunday best for Indian attire. Declaring Adela his enemy for having put him through all this. When he sees Adela leave with Fielding he also recants his friendship with him. Fielding, the obvious good guy in all of this, feels obliged to get Adela out of the Moonsoon and off the streets, as he believes a riot could break out any minute.

A few years later, Fielding returns to India and tries to get in touch with Dr. Aziz, who believes he shacked up with 'his enemy' and refuses to answer his letters. In the end, Godbole has told Fielding where to find Dr. Aziz and tells him - contrary to what the doctor believes - he is not with Adela, but rather has married Stella, daughter of Mrs. Moore. The two make up and Dr. Aziz waves Fielding and his wife off as they leave.

The film explores the fine balance of the two very different nationalities living together, with misunderstanding and suspicion coming from both sides. There is also a critical undertone towards the British Raj as such. There are, ultimately, only very few Brits depicted than can be considered 'good' - Fielding and Mrs. Moore.

Despite the dark subject matter, the film also offers a few lighter moment, some - especially those including Professor Godbole - are downright funny.

And again about the visuals....

from Roger Ebert's review: Lean places there characters in one of the most beautiful canvases he has ever drawn [...]. He doesn't see the India of travel posters and lurid postcards, but the India of a Victorian watercolorist like Edward Lear, who placed enigmatic little human figures here and there in spectacular landscapes that never seem to be quite finished.

8/10

Doomsday Gun

The film is based on the true story of the so-called Project Babylon, which had Dr. Gerald Bull build a "supergun" for the Iraqi government.

It also details the involvement of both, the British and US Government, who aided (directly or indirectly) the building of the gun and another, smaller one, referred to as Baby Babylon.

The give it more validity, the voices of (among others) George Bush, Margaret Thatcher and Al Gore are played over the last few moments. Ultimately, the project was more or less financed by the US tax payers while the Brits looked on, profiting from the export of the components of what they officially referred to as "oil pipes".

The telling is very factual and somewhat sterile, not making any of the characters too sympathetic, which keeps them at an emotional distance. The cast is brilliant and the story itself is stirring, though.

Dr. Bull was assassinated in 1990, practically ending the supergun project. However, his technology was later used by the Iraq in SCUD missiles.

5/10

Bunny and the Bull

Recluse Stephen, who hasn't left his apartment in a year, relives a road trip through Europe he took with his friend Bunny a while back.

And it is just plain weird.

4/10

King Rat

British soldiers, together with a handful of US Americans and Australians, are incarcerated in Chengi prison, Singapore. They move about relatively free but are kept in check by the ocean and jungle.

The POWs are gaunt and wearing tethered clothes, except for the US Corporal King who has established quite the florishing black market business. The soldiers he shares his hut with cater to his every whim, as they do profit off of his sense of business and survival. King pays off a number of other soldiers and gives them cuts of his earnings.

When he spots a British soldier, Marlowe, who is quite adapt in communicating with the enemy soldiers, he offers to employ him as a translator. Marlowe is not interested at first but eventually succumbs to the charms and the slightly better life offered to friends of King. The one trying to keep everyone in check and make sure that each soldier gets his fair share of rations is British Lt. Grey, who is almost too straight for his own good.

One way that Marlow profits from his friendship with King is that when he gets severely injured and is in danger of losing his arm to gangrene, it is King that pays for the medication needed to prevent the amputation.

But the end of the war also puts an end to King's reign. He - like the rest of them - has to go back to his real life, where his position is surely not as special as in the camp.

Not too spectacular but very well acted, I thought. King is played by George Segal, Grey by Tom Courtenay and Marlowe by James Fox (who I have been seeing quite a lot of lately....).

8/10

The Chase

A small town in Texas is in upheaval because Bubber Reeves escaped from jail. He was sitting in for one of a string of felonies. On the run, the prisoner he broke out of jail with kills someone and takes of with their car. So now the authorities also want Bubber for a murder he did not commit.

A handful of people in his hometown want to help him. There are Anna, his wife, and Jake Rogers, son of the rich man that practically owns the town. The two have been lovers for a long time (and everyone except old man Rogers knows) and now want to help Bubber by providing him money and a means to make a run for it.

The local Sheriff, who doesn't quite believe that Bubber had anything to do with the murder does his best to try and return him safely to jail because quite a few of the town's inhabitants have been drinking through most of the night and are out for blood. Sheriff Calder takes a beating from an especially anxious trio.

Eventually, a lot of the town folk make it out to Lester Johnson's junk yard by the wharf, where Bubber is said to be hiding out. Various drunken parties have relocated there and the people start throwing Molotov cocktails into the yard and singing songs asking Bubber to come out. It all gets out of hand and an explosion severely injures Jake. He dies some time later.

Bubber finally surrenders to the Sheriff, who takes him calmly to jail but on the steps, the idiotic trio cause one last ruckus and one of them guns Bubber down.

Good film with a fiery finale and a great cast.

7/10

The Russia House

I'm confused. But this is a John le Carré story, so that was to be expected.

What I gather is this: Barley, a British publisher, is recruited by the Secret Service to spy on the Russians, as he has been contacted by a Russian publisher, Katya, regarding a scientific book by one Dante (not his real name).

From then on, he wears wires seemingly everywhere he goes in Moscow and Leningrad. He meets with Katya, later with Dante and some sort of deal is struck, that would have him hand over what everyone refers to as 'the shopping list' (written in invisible ink, no less).

By now, the Brits have teamed up with the US Secret Service as well and people from both sides wearing more or less appealing suits sit in a room together listening in with headphones. Then the British liaison to Barley, Ned, gets suspicious and wants to call the final handover off. But the Americans push on (of course). Words are exchanged, the go ahead as planned and of course Ned was right all along.

Dante apparently is already dead at the time he was supposed to meet with Barley, who has worked out that something is wrong thanks to Katya. He then makes his own plan to double cross his home country. All for the love of Katya.

Or something like that.

6/10

The Lost World

This BBC mini series is based on the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle. A group of would be adventurers sets out to find a plateau in Amazon, where Professor Challenger believes to find dinosaurs.

The first travel to a missionary base, run by Reverend Theo Kerr, where the hire a group of natives to carry their belongings and join them on their trip. The Reverend's niece, Agnes, sets off together with the team of explorers. The natives soon get spooked off. As soon as they disappear, Reverend Kerr joins the group, but for rather sinister reasons. As soon as they reach the plateau he blocks what they believe is their only way back down.

The professor and his team do find dinosaurs. First they encounter the friendly, plant eating ones but soon after they are faced with the more deadly variety. But the dangers of the region do not stop there. They are attacked by a group of ape men and in in the middle of their conundrum they are joined by some natives that live on the plateau.

The explorers then stay with the natives and together they face the daily perils of life among wild creatures until one day, Professor Summerlee manages to mix an explosive together, blasting a way through a blocked off tunnel.

They triumphantly return to England, but at the very last moment, in the middle of an event celebrating their discoveries, they change their minds about exposing the people and creatures living on the plateau to the so-called civilized world. They declare the stories and rumors of the dinosaur encounters a hoax.

I don't know how close this is to the actual text, but it was thoroughly entertaining and well cast.

7/10

W. E.

Oooh! What pretty clothes! What pretty jewels! And such nice slow motion shots!

Well....the acting is quite good, actually.

Overall, Madonna's vanity project (not my words, but many a critic's) is way too hectic to tell a decent story. It does try to with the current day story of Wally, neglected wife by her doctor husband. She is strangely obsessed with the love story of King Edward and Wallis Simpson, as her mother and grandmother were before her. So much so that she will eventually go to Paris to meet with Mohamed Al-Fayed because he has hundreds of letters written by Wallis Simpson that she simply must! read! The scene of the actual first meeting is somewhat ridiculous. She tells him she wants to know what she gave up for him, as everyone else was so interested in what he gave up for her. Al-Fayed then does the classic, I-never-thought-of-if-that-way line.

*eye-roll*

The story of Edward and Wallis is told so fitfully it does not even tell a comprehensive story. It only shows parties and paparazzi and desperate looking people. To me, this would have been the more interesting  tale because it has the potential of being a tragedy worth telling.

But, oh what pretty clothes!

4/10

Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes

Of the many film versions of the Tarzan story, this is probably the one honoring the original tale thought up by Edgar Rise Burroughs, whose Tarzan was a much more intelligent creature than often portrayed.

The first part of the film is almost entirely without (human) dialogue and depicts young Jean/John/Tarzan as an infant growing up around and with apes, always protected by his caring mother. The film goes through four ages played by boys before settling on young Christopher Lambert. He loses his 'mother' to a party of explorers and in a tumult that follows (explorers, natives, apes) Philippe D'Arnot (Ian Holm) gets injured and left behind. John nurses him back to health and D'Arnot in return teaches him in language and the ways of the world.

They eventually return to John's grandfather's estate in England, who is overjoyed to welcome back a part of his family, having lost his son (John's father) after his ship wrecked, leaving him and his young wife stranded in the jungle, where both eventually died, leaving their infant son to be raised by chimpanzees.

At the estate he meets Jane, a relative staying with his grandfather. He appears to be settling in rather well but falls apart again after his grandfather also dies. When he, now Lord Greystoke, finds his ape 'father' caged in town, he breaks him out, but the ape gets shot during the escape. Losing yet another member of his family, John returns to what he believes to be his real home, becoming Lord of the jungle.

An ok version of the classic material.

5/10

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

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

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

The Servant

A claustrophobic film about an upper-class English twit named Tony and his manservant Barrett. Tony's fiance, Susan, immediately dislikes Barrett, but Tony is content and ambivalent. After having worked for Tony a while, Barrett brings his 'sister' into service, who starts an affair with the master of the house.

When he realizes that Vera is not actually Barrett's sister and he starts to doubt the servants' loyalty, Tony throws them out. Some time later, however, he meets Barrett in a pub. He decides to take him on again. The two engage in foolish games (like hide and seek) and the tables turn with Barrett gradually wining the upper hand while Tony turns to drink.

Wonderfully acted by Dirk Bogarde and James Fox (both very handsome) with interesting symbolic shots aided by mirrors.

Great, great film.

9/10