‘THE TEN COMMANDMENTS’ (1956)

‘THE TEN COMMANDMENTS’ (1956)

March 3, 2023 Alan Royle 6

  THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956)       Readers of this blog may recall my scathing assessment of the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger, in which I described it as the most ludicrous, far-fetched story in movie history. I still insist it is woefully inadequate, yet when compared to C B DeMille’s 1956 […]

‘SINK THE BISMARCK!’ (1960)

‘SINK THE BISMARCK!’ (1960)

February 16, 2023 Alan Royle 0

   SINK THE BISMARCK! (1960)                  One thing the British have always been very good at doing, is making World War Two movies about actual events, particularly those that have anything to do with the Royal Navy, pictures such as In Which We Serve (1942), The Cruel Sea (1953), The Man […]

‘MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY’ (1962)

‘MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY’ (1962)

February 4, 2023 Alan Royle 2

  MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1962)           This particular version of the happenings aboard the British ship Bounty in 1787; starring Marlon Brando as the mutinous Lt. Fletcher Christian and Trevor Howard as the irascible Lieutenant/ Captain Bligh, had to be one of the most unhappy movie sets in the history […]

‘STAKEOUT’ (1987) & ‘THE WINSLOW BOY’ (1999)

‘STAKEOUT’ (1987) & ‘THE WINSLOW BOY’ (1999)

January 14, 2023 Alan Royle 4

             STAKEOUT (1987)               This is a pretty slick action/comedy directed by John Badham, the man who gave us Saturday Night Fever (1977). Most red-blooded males would probably agree that if you were a cop given a two-week stakeout assignment that required you to spy on someone, if that someone […]

‘MAMMA MIA!’ & ‘MARY POPPINS’

‘MAMMA MIA!’ & ‘MARY POPPINS’

December 27, 2022 Alan Royle 6

  MAMMA MIA! (2008)                                                                                  It will probably come as a shock to readers (it certainly did to me) to learn that this bloody awful musical became, in December 2008, the highest-grossing movie in UK history, surpassing Titanic (1997)! It has, however, since been passed by Avatar in 2009. […]

MAGIC MOVIE MOMENTS

MAGIC MOVIE MOMENTS

December 15, 2022 Alan Royle 0

  MAGIC MOVIE MOMENTS                    Few people who know me, family included, would describe me as particularly emotional, especially when it comes to the movies. An understandable assessment, of course, given my disillusionment with the industry and many (but certainly not all) of its employees and employers. However, every once in […]

‘LIFEBOAT’ (1944) – ‘THE PHANTOM’ (1996)

‘LIFEBOAT’ (1944) – ‘THE PHANTOM’ (1996)

December 12, 2022 Alan Royle 0

  LIFEBOAT (1944)                This Alfred Hitchcock directed drama focuses on the aftermath of a confrontation in the Atlantic between a merchant ship and a German U-Boat during World War Two. Survivors from various walks of life are left adrift in a lifeboat on the ocean and the tension heightens considerably […]

MOVIES – ‘Hidden Figures’ & ‘The Little Mermaid’.

MOVIES – ‘Hidden Figures’ & ‘The Little Mermaid’.

November 30, 2022 Alan Royle 0

  HIDDEN FIGURES (2016)             This is a fine film, although considerable liberties have been taken throughout with the truth and the facts. The movie focuses (with some exaggeration) on the issues that faced African-American women involved in the early days of the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA), at a […]

HOLLYWOOD: DO YOU AGREE?

HOLLYWOOD: DO YOU AGREE?

November 18, 2022 Alan Royle 4

  WOMAN IN GOLD (2015)               This is a fine historical drama about the efforts of a Los Angeles lawyer named Randy Schoenberg (played by Ryan Reynolds) and an octogenarian Jewish refugee from Austria named Maria Altmann (Dame Helen Mirren) to sue the Austrian Government in an endeavour to reclaim five […]

LGTTM – ‘A CLOCKWORK ORANGE’ (1971)

LGTTM – ‘A CLOCKWORK ORANGE’ (1971)

November 6, 2022 Alan Royle 1

  A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)              Stanley Kubrick directed only sixteen movies in his lifetime. I unreservedly admired two of them – Paths of Glory (1957) and Spartacus (1960), the rest I could take or leave. I remain at a loss, however, to understand the […]