What DVD have you just watched?
Posted by: u5227470736789439 on 27 November 2005
All the best from Fredrik
Been watching this on Amazon Prime. What a find!
Very funny, great production, beautiful to look at and listen to.
Highly recommended.
Didn't think I was going to like this but I bought it anyway and I'm glad I did. Slow paced drama/thriller but what a great story and the acting is simply superb. Highly recommended!
I missed this when it was on the Beeb, but had heard good things about it so, we gave it a go. Ended up binge-watching all three episodes.
Directed by Stephen Frears and written by Russell T Davies, it's a rompingly good tale about Jeremy Thorpe, a senior British politician (a homosexual at a time when it was still illegal) and his long-running affair with a male model named Norman Scott, and Thorpe's rather farcical attempt to have Scott murdered years after the affair ended.
Hugh Grant is absolutely jaw-dropping as Jeremy Thorpe, with a wonderful supporting cast breathing life into a parade of real-life fruity eccentrics and grotesques (Peter Bessell; Leo Abse; George Carman QC; Thorpe's mother Ursula; Mr Justice Cantley; the badger-loving 8th Earl of Arran and his speedboat-driving wife; the splendidly-named pub landlady Edna Friendship; Thorpe's university chum David Holmes; would-be assassin Andrew 'Gino' Newton and many others).
It's a tale of a very different time, a very different country even, but it's handled so deftly that it's all wholly believable. I absolutely loved it, and cannot recommend it highly enough.
For those outside the UK, details of the Thorpe scandal can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorpe_affair
Watched this much acclaimed film yesterday evening. I’ll start with my negatives. First, the film covers a pretty short time frame: just before the elevation of Churchill to the position of Prime Minister to the launch but not conclusion of the operation to rescue troops stranded at Dunkirk. Given that narrowness, I was expecting the film to delve quite deeply into the issues i.e. the machinations of how Churchill came to be chosen to lead the coalition government and the pressure to consider seeking terms with Germany as it became clear that there was no means of stopping the German advance. Disappointingly, the former issue was dealt with lightly and wholly from the perspective of the Conservative party and the King. Attlee barely got a mention. The latter, and more important issue, was presented as a continuation of Chamberlin’s previous policy and then, by Halifax, as a possible means of pushing Churchill out of office. There was very little about the military analysis and diplomatic options which might have illuminated a pivotal decision in Europe’s history.
Second there were the weaknesses in factual accuracy. For example, the film presents the initiative to ask owners of private small vessels to help with the evacuation as wholly Churchill’s idea. Then the credits lead the viewer to believe that those vessels were responsible for evacuating 300,000 troops. Of course, heroic and selfless as the effort by those private vessels was, I think the truth is that they rescued only a small proportion of the troops with the overwhelming majority being rescued by the Royal Navy. Then there was Churchill’s impromptu tube journey during which he conducts a Tony Blair-like ‘focus group’ with fellow passengers as to whether Britain should seek terms or fight. I struggled to buy that. And the journey took an implausibly long time to travel one stop (Churchill seems to bail-out of his car near St James but landed in Aldgate Tube Station, and was told he was one stop from Westminster?!). I can accept some licence on such things in a fictional film e.g. Bond’s Skyfall, but Darkest Hour is a dramatisation of a well-documented piece of history and I expect them to get these things accurate.
But I should conclude with the positives. The dramatisation and screen-play is captivating and succeeds in drawing the audience into the emotional scenes. And the acting is excellent - Gary Oldman, of course, but also Kirsten Scott Thomas as Churchill’s wife.
Having bought it, I’ll probably watch it again at some point but I can’t give it a strong recommendation.
Season 1 on Amazon Prime.
James Purefoy and Michael Kenneth Williams are on top of their game here. There's great chemistry between them and it shows. Very good story line balancing between dark comedy and drama. Seasons 2 and 3 are also listed on Amazon Prime but currently unavailable, I hope it will be soon.
Three sisters live in the house of their grandparents in Kamakura, where they grew up after their parents had separated and left them. One day, they receive news of the death of their father whom they haven't seen in 15 years. At the funeral, they meet their 14 year old half-sister. As there is nobody to take care of her the oldest sister Sachi invites her to live with them.
Bought this and it arrived just in time for surgery recovery...put it on 2 nights ago thinking I would only watch part of it and catch the rest later, and literally couldn't stop watching/listening. I have probably about 40 concert DVDs and even 2 other Macca ones, but this is just outstanding - a top 5 in my collection for sure. What a show. This is the 2013 remastered version.
Musician-wise, everyone impresses (well, except Linda), but especially Jimmy McCulloch. The 9-piece ensemble with the horn section was perfect instrumentation, and Paul is still young enough (34) that his voice is still in its prime and can do anything he wants.
A huge (and entirely unexpected) box-office smash when it was released in 1970, Robert Altman's anarchic black comedy-satire is ripe for re-watching in 2018.
Set in 1951 during the Korean War, it came out as Vietnam was raging (and going rather badly for the Americans) and opposition - particularly among the young - was mounting, it was released at precisely the right time.
I've seen some criticism, especially from bedwetting identitarians, about the attitudes expressed by the main characters towards women; these are sexist and therefore the movie is "problematic" (ie, not worth watching). Given that this is very much a picture of its time; and that said time was almost 50 years ago, I can't see much wrong with it. (Certainly, a picture like M*A*S*H would probably not get made in the same way today. Hawkeye, Trapper John, Duke and the rest would probably be in touch with their feminine sides).
Anyway, in 2018, it remains bold, funny and ever-so-slightly subversive. It also has a strong anti-authoritarian streak, which I like a lot, Also, it's beautifully (as always) crafted by Altman, who draws superb performances from a then largely-unkown ensemble cast (Donald Sutherland, Elliot Gould, Robert Duvall, Tom Skerrit, Sally Kellerman, Roger Bowen, René Auberjonois, Jo Anne Pflug, etc). The use of overlapping sound is innovative too.
Binge-watched this over three nights. Amazing stuff, loved the ending (it was the final series). I will miss Saga, she is surely the greatest fictional TV/movie character this century, and Sofia Helin deserves an award, she is a quite, quite brilliant actress.
Kevin-W posted:
Binge-watched this over three nights. Amazing stuff, loved the ending (it was the final series). I will miss Saga, she is surely the greatest fictional TV/movie character this century, and Sofia Helin deserves an award, she is a quite, quite brilliant actress.
Loved all four series - just superb!
Kevin-W posted:
Binge-watched this over three nights. Amazing stuff, loved the ending (it was the final series). I will miss Saga, she is surely the greatest fictional TV/movie character this century, and Sofia Helin deserves an award, she is a quite, quite brilliant actress.
Never seen the original but the two seasons of the American version were very good also.
Drikus posted:
Drikus, what release was this?
I've had this title on my Lovefilm and then my Cinema Paradiso want list for years, but am told it is not on release so cannot be rented.
I've seen some overseas releases for sale but I'm not sure of the quality.