Ron Howard did well to bow out of directing this silly-plotted heist movie.
*******
Why Stop Now? [2011]. Directors: Philip Dorling & Ron Nyswaner
5/10
Strained comedy which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and went little further..
*******
Alter Egos [2012]. Director: Jordan Galland
4/10
Poor (and very cheap) comedy about superheroes who have fallen out of favour with the public.
*******
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone [2013]. Director: Don Scardino
6/10
Steve Carrell and Steve Buscemi as a pair of old-fashioned Vegas magicians whose careers are threatened by the arrival of bewigged street magician Jim Carrey
Girl, Interrupted is a 1999 American drama film, and an adaptation of Susanna Kaysen's 1993 memoir of the same name. The film was released just as I was settling into an early retirement and a sea-change at the age of 55 in Australia's spring season, and just as I was beginning to take my own memoiristic literary activity seriously.
The film chronicles Kaysen's 18-month stay at a mental institution in the late 1960s in North America. Directed by James Mangold, the film stars Winona Ryder as Kaysen, with a supporting cast that includes Angelina Jolie, Brittany Murphy, Whoopi Goldberg and Vanessa Redgrave. I saw the film last night,1 sixteen years after its release and as I was settling into the last decade of my late adulthood, the years from 70 to 80 according to one model of human development used by psychologists.-Ron Price with thanks to 1Channel11 TV, 24/25 March 2015, 9:30 p.m.-12:15 a.m.
I had my stay, too, in a mental
institution at the same time as
was the setting for this film in
the late 1960s....My stay only
had six months, but it clearly
was enough to give me points
of comparison & contrast with
what I saw in this period-piece.
I, too, got on with my life as the
1970s unfolded, and I learned to
deal with the problems of bipolar
disorder for I was a young adult,
a boy interrupted for a time back
then in the decade after that other
film of fame1 gave its audiences a
set of ideas about what it was like
inside mental hospitals for those
who had gone beyond life's edge
of normality & coping capacity.
Both films conveniently distract us in
some ways from the inaccuracy of the
reality of both institutional life & the
life of the mentally-ill. The picture of
life in such an institution1 where shock
treatments were dispensed like aspirins
and lobotomies were prescribed as if all
those frontal lobes of patients were just
troublesome wisdom teeth was a picture
that has been improved-upon in this film,
this filmic-period-piece some 25 years later
as I was on my way to an early retirement,
and a sea change, after a fifty year student-
and-paid employment life from 1949 to '99.
1 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was written in 1959, the year I joined the Baha'i Faith, and published in 1962, the year I began my travelling-and-pioneering for the Canadian Baha'i community. In the midst of the civil rights movement and deep changes to the way psychology and psychiatry were being approached in America these two films came out. The 1960s began the controversial movement towards deinstitutionalization, an act that would have affected the characters in Kesey's novel, and Kaysen's memoirs. The Kesey novel is a direct product of his time working the graveyard shift as an orderly at a mental health facility in Menlo Park, California.
Blimey. When Christopher Lee is the good guy the villain must be quite something. Turns out to be Old Nick up to his tricks up at the Manor in this fast-moving Hammer/Dennis Wheatley outing. Splendidly creepy. 8/10
What Just Happened
Robert De Niro quietely impressive as a much-troubled producer in Hollywood semi-satire. Doesn't really go anywhere, but it's a fairly entertaining ride with a game starry cast. 6.5/10
Had a craving for Powell and Pressburger yesterday, so I decided to sate my appetite by watching The Tales of Hoffmann. This is their ballet and operatic adaptation of the 19th century opera of the same title. All I can say is it's magical and beautiful. If you're a fan of Powell and Pressburger's films, then this should be on your shortlist, particularly if you liked The Red Shoes (Moira Shearer and others in The Red Shoes are in this, too).
Grease - I do like a good musical, though I don't watch them often. I found this to be surprsingly dull however after that incredible opening number. As a supposed 'family' film, it was amusing seeing just how many innuendos they managed to shove in
5/10
The Deer Hunter - Vietnam war drama about the traumas of war. Excellent intense performances by De Niro and Walken but wow, that first hour is testing to say the least.
7/10
Empire of the Sun - I was taken aback by just how epic in scope this is considering it's one of Spielberg's less talked about films. The set pieces and the cinematography are beautiful of course but it's the emotional bits of the narrative where Spielberg suprisingly falters. A 12 year old Christian Bale gives a towering performance as a POW during Japan's occupation of Shanghai.
8/10 Not bad, especially if like me you remember Tony Wilson on Granada, liked lots of the music from Factory Records and went (only once) to the Hacienda.
The scenery was nice. The rest of it was boring and Joseph Gordon-Levitt sounded like he had severe toothache. One of those films you push yourself to watch to the end so you can make a fair judgement of it, but will happily never watch again.
The scenery was nice. The rest of it was boring and Joseph Gordon-Levitt sounded like he had severe toothache. One of those films you push yourself to watch to the end so you can make a fair judgement of it, but will happily never watch again.
One of those films that started out with a good basic idea and then totally loses it. Didn't it end up involving aliens or demons or something in the end?
Comments
5/10
Ron Howard did well to bow out of directing this silly-plotted heist movie.
*******
Why Stop Now? [2011]. Directors: Philip Dorling & Ron Nyswaner
5/10
Strained comedy which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and went little further..
*******
Alter Egos [2012]. Director: Jordan Galland
4/10
Poor (and very cheap) comedy about superheroes who have fallen out of favour with the public.
*******
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone [2013]. Director: Don Scardino
6/10
Steve Carrell and Steve Buscemi as a pair of old-fashioned Vegas magicians whose careers are threatened by the arrival of bewigged street magician Jim Carrey
Bring It On
Girl, Interrupted is a 1999 American drama film, and an adaptation of Susanna Kaysen's 1993 memoir of the same name. The film was released just as I was settling into an early retirement and a sea-change at the age of 55 in Australia's spring season, and just as I was beginning to take my own memoiristic literary activity seriously.
The film chronicles Kaysen's 18-month stay at a mental institution in the late 1960s in North America. Directed by James Mangold, the film stars Winona Ryder as Kaysen, with a supporting cast that includes Angelina Jolie, Brittany Murphy, Whoopi Goldberg and Vanessa Redgrave. I saw the film last night,1 sixteen years after its release and as I was settling into the last decade of my late adulthood, the years from 70 to 80 according to one model of human development used by psychologists.-Ron Price with thanks to 1Channel11 TV, 24/25 March 2015, 9:30 p.m.-12:15 a.m.
I had my stay, too, in a mental
institution at the same time as
was the setting for this film in
the late 1960s....My stay only
had six months, but it clearly
was enough to give me points
of comparison & contrast with
what I saw in this period-piece.
I, too, got on with my life as the
1970s unfolded, and I learned to
deal with the problems of bipolar
disorder for I was a young adult,
a boy interrupted for a time back
then in the decade after that other
film of fame1 gave its audiences a
set of ideas about what it was like
inside mental hospitals for those
who had gone beyond life's edge
of normality & coping capacity.
Both films conveniently distract us in
some ways from the inaccuracy of the
reality of both institutional life & the
life of the mentally-ill. The picture of
life in such an institution1 where shock
treatments were dispensed like aspirins
and lobotomies were prescribed as if all
those frontal lobes of patients were just
troublesome wisdom teeth was a picture
that has been improved-upon in this film,
this filmic-period-piece some 25 years later
as I was on my way to an early retirement,
and a sea change, after a fifty year student-
and-paid employment life from 1949 to '99.
1 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was written in 1959, the year I joined the Baha'i Faith, and published in 1962, the year I began my travelling-and-pioneering for the Canadian Baha'i community. In the midst of the civil rights movement and deep changes to the way psychology and psychiatry were being approached in America these two films came out. The 1960s began the controversial movement towards deinstitutionalization, an act that would have affected the characters in Kesey's novel, and Kaysen's memoirs. The Kesey novel is a direct product of his time working the graveyard shift as an orderly at a mental health facility in Menlo Park, California.
Ron Price
25/3/'15
Seen this before noticed it was on TV so recorded it for a re-watch, great film.
Edge of Tomorrow (2014) - wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did as can't really stand Tom Cruise but I thought it was pretty good.
Blimey. When Christopher Lee is the good guy the villain must be quite something. Turns out to be Old Nick up to his tricks up at the Manor in this fast-moving Hammer/Dennis Wheatley outing. Splendidly creepy. 8/10
What Just Happened
Robert De Niro quietely impressive as a much-troubled producer in Hollywood semi-satire. Doesn't really go anywhere, but it's a fairly entertaining ride with a game starry cast. 6.5/10
Had a craving for Powell and Pressburger yesterday, so I decided to sate my appetite by watching The Tales of Hoffmann. This is their ballet and operatic adaptation of the 19th century opera of the same title. All I can say is it's magical and beautiful. If you're a fan of Powell and Pressburger's films, then this should be on your shortlist, particularly if you liked The Red Shoes (Moira Shearer and others in The Red Shoes are in this, too).
5/5
5/10
The Deer Hunter - Vietnam war drama about the traumas of war. Excellent intense performances by De Niro and Walken but wow, that first hour is testing to say the least.
7/10
Empire of the Sun - I was taken aback by just how epic in scope this is considering it's one of Spielberg's less talked about films. The set pieces and the cinematography are beautiful of course but it's the emotional bits of the narrative where Spielberg suprisingly falters. A 12 year old Christian Bale gives a towering performance as a POW during Japan's occupation of Shanghai.
7/10
'I am Groot'
9/10
Divergent - 8/10
Dogma - 8/10
Magic in the Moonlight - 6.5/10
A couple of funny bits but basically a straight-to-DVD job.
5/10
8/10 Not bad, especially if like me you remember Tony Wilson on Granada, liked lots of the music from Factory Records and went (only once) to the Hacienda.
Steve Coogan was surprisingly good :-)
Finally got around to watching this, I liked it.
6/10
8/10
Not a bad adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy's bleak book. Captured most of the author's intent.
4/5
The scenery was nice. The rest of it was boring and Joseph Gordon-Levitt sounded like he had severe toothache. One of those films you push yourself to watch to the end so you can make a fair judgement of it, but will happily never watch again.
One of those films that started out with a good basic idea and then totally loses it. Didn't it end up involving aliens or demons or something in the end?