Trumbo (2015)
Jan31

Trumbo (2015)

The Blood-Spattered Oscar: Trumbo (2015)   “…Congress has no right to investigate how we vote; how we pray; think; what we say or how we make movies. “Hello.  I’m Dalton Trumbo.”   I recently re-watched the 1960 Kirk Douglas film, Spartacus.  Despite Stanley Kubrick disowning it as one of ‘his’ films, it stands up well and is one of the few from that overrated director that I always enjoy. I had idly noted during the lovely...

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Ripper by Isabel Allende
Jan25

Ripper by Isabel Allende

Ripper by Isabel Allende     To which I can only say: What the bloody Hell was that? I’ve always felt – vaguely and without exactly worrying about it, it must be admitted – that I have been missing out on something through never having read the Peruvian-born writer, Isabel Allende.  I don’t know what it is, but I just had this impression that she is considered to be one of the contemporary greats. Well, maybe she is; but her...

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The Big Short (2015)
Jan18

The Big Short (2015)

The Whole System is a Lie: The Big Short (2015)   “Average people are the ones who will have to pay for this; because they always do.”   If, like me, you’re one of those average people whose eyes glaze over and Zzzzz’z begin to march through your head at the mention of such esoteric phrases as ‘hedge funds’ and ‘sub-prime loans’ then you may not think that director Adam McKay’s take on the credit/housing bubble crash of 2007 —...

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The Hateful Eight (2015)
Jan10

The Hateful Eight (2015)

The Hateful Eight (2015)     As usual, I’ve been avoiding reading reviews of the writer and director Quentin Tarantino’s latest outing until I get my own down; but someone yesterday couldn’t resist mentioning to me that a couple of people have spoken of it as comparable to the work of Sam Peckinpah. And OK, I shouldn’t judge without knowing the context; but in my opinion whoever came out with that should be bloody ashamed of...

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The Girl in the Spider’s Web
Jan10

The Girl in the Spider’s Web

The Return of Lisbeth Salander? The Girl in the Spider’s Web       She is the woman who hates the men who hate women. She is the last word in antisocial behavior and the possessor of genius-level computer skills as well as a photographic memory that helps her in her chosen field of ‘hacking’. She’s tough; she’s relentless; and boy, does she like to eat Billy’s Pan Pizza. She is, of course, Lisbeth Salander — one of the...

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