The Golden Compass

I saw this this afternoon after having listened to Dr. Mark Kermode's review. The review didn't bode well, but I absolutely loved the Golden Compass. I didn't read the books, but want to now and understand that the books are much deeper and denser in characterisation than a 117 minute movie will ever be. I understand the need for plodding along in the beginning especially when you're talking about a parallel universe, you need to get the audience to understand. Granted most of the children already understand as they have read the books. The same thing happened in the Harry Potter movies, the first one was tedious, but helped set the scene even though most people would have read the books. The exception to this is Lord of the Rings which went galloping off from the word go and was an exciting, stimulating three movie rollercoaster from start to finish.

I am certain that subsequent Golden Compass movies will be much more action oriented, as this one left no doubt that there would be more. All I can say is that Daniel Craig is going to be very busy with Bond moves and Golden Compasses. Christopher Lee turns up in the Golden Compass briefly - loving his comback, he deserves it.

Yet again the debate of being faithful to the book rears its head. Should you read the book before it is made into a movie?

What books have made fantastic movies:-

Jaws, most books by Jane Austen, the French Connection, Gone With the Wind, The Devil Wears Prada, The Godfather, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Breakfast At Tiffany's, Goodfellas, to name but a few.

The Guardian list is here.

My favourite from that list is Jaws. I read the book when I was nine - my stepfather gave it to me. It didn't give me swimming nightmares until I went to see Steven Spielberg's film. A big part of what made Jaws great was the score by John Williams. His music has turned many a so-so film into a moving experience.

I also saw previews for P.S. I Love You (want to see), I am Legend with Will Smith - I'll see anything with Will Smith in it and Enchanted - looked like it could be entertaining.

Marie Antoinette

I just saw Marie Antoinette on Sky+ Anytime. What a dreadful movie. I cannot believe it was directed by Sophia Coppola as she directed the Virgin Suicides which Kirsten Dunst also starred in, and I was bawling like a baby over that one. But then she was also Mary in Godfather III. Godfather III contains one of my favourite quotes from Al Pacino as Michael Corleone "just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in." Now whilst I loved Andy Garcia as Vincent Corleone, Sophia's Mary Corleone was from the Ikea school of acting.



There was a different take on this, as all the music was so 20th century (the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, New Order). Just as an aside, I went to see the Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees in concert in 1986 in London. The worst concert I ever dragged my ass to was The Smiths (still love the music) on the Pier in NY in 1986. There was almost a riot they were so bad.

I read the review on Empire and the reviewer must have seen a different film than I did, otherwise I wasn't chemically altered. The costumes were beautiful and the food and drink made me wish I had eat-o-vision. I cannot even muster up the enthusiasm to review it any further.

Enough said!

Movie Quotes

"What are you going to do, bleed on me?" - Monty Python and the Holy Grail

"Do or do not, there is no try!" - Yoda - The Empire Strikes Back

"Consequences monsequences, as long as I'm rich." - Daffy Duck to the genie in the lamp

"Being that this is a .44 magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and it will blow your head clean off - you have to ask yourself a question - do I feel lucky? Well do ya punk" - Clint Eastwood (Dirty Hary) to punk in Dirty Harry

"I'm your father Luke. Search your feelings you know it to be true." Darth Vader to Luke - The Empire Strikes Back

"I don't believe it." - Luke to Yoda - The Empire Strikes Back
"And that is why you fail." - Yoda to Luke

"Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life son!" - Dean Worme, Animal House

"What the fuck happened to the Delta I used to know? Where's the spirit? where's the guts, huh? "Ooh, we're afraid to go with you Bluto, we might get into trouble." Well just kiss my ass from now on! not me! I'm not gonna take this. Wormer, he's a dead man, Marmalard, dead! Niedermeyer - " -Bluto - Animal House
"Dead! Bluto's right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these bastards. Now we could do it with conventional weapons but that could take years and cost millions of lives. No I think we have to go all out. I think this situation absolutely requires a really futile gesture on somebody's part." - Otter
"We're just the guys to do it." - Bluto
"Let's do it!" - D-Day
"LET'S DO IT!" - Bluto

"Come to Daddy." - Mr. Smith
Whacks him around the head
"Who's your daddy now?" - Mrs. Smith

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

This is my first blog about the movies or cinema in the UK. I recently acquired a Cineworld Unlimited card which has given me the ability to go the movies every day, all day if I wanted to or had the time.

The truth is there isn't ever that much that is good at the cinema IMHO. This blog is about what I like. I am not a movie snob, nor am I a movie intellectual. I have never studied cinema, but what I have done is go to the cinema for almost 40 years, and I like what I like. What I like is to be entertained. My taste varies as does anybody's. I do like a lot of mainstream movies. My favourite movies are The Empire Strikes Back and Jaws. The Empire Strikes Back because when I saw Star Wars in 1977, it was one of those OMG I never thought movies could be this entertaining, but The Empire Strikes Back was all that Star Wars was, but more and darker!

Jaws was a revelation to me. I could not believe that one movie could so profoundly affect the actions of millions of people. I used to live in the Bronx when I was a child. We used to go to Orchard Beach all the time in the summer. Jaws was released on 20th June, 1975. This was just before the children got out of school, but I was 11 and we shouldn't have been seeing the movie anyway. I talked my mother into taking us (after that she swore that she would never go to the movies with me again). My sister was nine at the time. Jaws traumatised me - in a good way - I think, and had me jumping out of my seat. I realised for the first time that a) Steven Spielberg was an amazing director b) the power of music in a movie and c) people actually believed that a great white was coming to get them in two feet of water.

We sat on the beach all summer long and no one went into the water at all. The entire American psyche was affected. Oh the power of movies - YES!

I just returned from a screening of Elizabeth: The Golden Age directed by Shekhar Kapur, who also directed the first Elizabeth movie. I loved the first Elizabeth movie, but have never seen it on the big screen. Elizabeth had a lot to recommend it, including Eric Cantona - yes he was wooden in it, but hell it's Eric Cantona ("when the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea!"). I was captivated by Cate Blanchett and the richness of the film. Whilst Elizabeth was an overview of the reign of Elizabeth I, Elizabeth: The Golden Age is about a specific period in her reign - aka when the Spanish Armada came to town. The movie also stars Geoffrey Rush who was in the first one and Clive Owen - he of the Michael Madsen imitation school of acting.

Before I went to see this, I had heard interviews with Kapur and read and heard reviews about the film (Empire and the god that is Dr. Mark Kermode). I knew this movie would be very entertaining if nothing else. Elizabeth had the obligatory 99 costume changes and wigs - attention to detail is stunning. She seemed much more human in this film - a woman scorned (she succombs to the charms of Clive Owen, but then I guess someone has to), tears behind having her nation's fate in her hands, her agony over what to do with her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots and her duty to follow the law, Spanish treachery, etc., etc.

The film moves along at a slower pace to Elizabeth until we get to the scenes near the end where the Spanish Armada comes to town and thinks it will kick England's collective ass. King Phillip II of Spain is convinced that because England is godless (Protestant), Spain must fight a holy war. Well more fool him.

Walter Raleigh comes back from the new world with presents - potatoes and tobacco (well there you go, responsible for the potato famine in Ireland and all those cases of suing the tobacco companies :-) ). He enchants Elizabeth and a member of her court with his swashbuckling looks and ways.

So the movie is full of loads of scenes at court, lots of skullduggery and intrigue and climaxes with the battle scenes. The movie is 115 minutes long which is a good time limit for it.

Oh and I musn't forget, one of the last outfits Elizabeth is wearing looks like she is going to try to catch butterflies with her head.

Well worth two hours of my time, and there were previews for a new Tom Hanks movie (I never seek out anything with Tom Hanks in it), a soppy romance called P.S. I Love You with Hilary Swank which I will probably go and see and August Rush with Jonathan Rhys Myers and Keri Russell - Felicity for those of you that remember that show and she just happens to be in Mission Impossible III which I am watching now. By the way, Mission Impossible III isn't a patch on Mission Impossible II (John Woo rocks - what's with the doves in all his movies).

I'd love to hear comments on my ramblings, and will continue to write this blog to see how many movies I can get through in a year on my unlimited cinema card. I will also review movies that I see for the first time on Sky.