Bye, Bye, Braverman (1968) ***
Director Sidney Lumet didn’t have an easy time of it in the late 1960s. Like The Appointment (1969), this went missing in action. And you can see why. While The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) was straightforward in mixing fantasy with reality, this is more tricksy – in a contemporary way. The fantasy elements…
Danger Has Two Faces (1967) ***
Doppelgangers don’t come any luckier. In this instance the swap is with a married billionaire. Cue you’d think for a romcom, especially if the wife has her own reasons for welcoming a replacement. Except this was made at the height of the espionage boom, so it’s quite a slick thriller, not a laff in sight.…
Guess Who?
Every now and then I come across a book and think this would make a good film. I’ve just finished this particular book and already I can see four movies in it. A fellow, mostly what these days we’d term a nerd – physically awkward, doesn’t have a girlfriend – a farmer’s son, but not…
The Driver (1978) ***
Blasphemy I know but I went to see this back in the day not because of director Walter Hill, certainly not for star Ryan O’Neal, but for the wonderfully edgy Bruce Dern (Smile, 1975). You never knew what Dern would do next. Even his hairstyles tended to be offkey. Without having the choleric demeanor of,…
Behind the Scenes: The “Coming Soon” Business
I used to buy a British monthly movie magazine called Films and Filming, a cut above Photoplay and ABC Film Review but not as hoity-toity as Sight & Sound, and the first pages I always turned to were two particular sections. One was called “New Productions” and the other was “Premieres.” Unlike now when movies…
Behind the Scenes: “Supernova” (2000)
With both Walter Hill (48 Hrs, 1982) and Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, 1972) involved, you wouldn’t have expect this to emerge under the directorial aegis of one Thomas Lee. For the simple reason that Thomas Lee, at least in the movie directorial world, doesn’t exist. The name superceded that of Allan Smithee, the name…
Supernova (2000) ***
Under-rated for sure but still light years ahead of such sci fi nonsense as The End of Oak St (2026). Doesn’t hang around either, story told in 82 minutes flat. And instead of wasting time and stretching credibility just comes straight out and says the crew on this space ship and the audience for that…
The End of Oak St (2026) ** – Seen at the Cinema
Truly terrible. When your standout scene is two dinosaurs humping each other or having their snouts covered in ice cream or a slithosaurus slithering through a house your picture is in dire trouble. Basically, it’s like a random selection of Steven Spielberg offcuts – the dazzling overhead light from Close Encounters of the Third Kind…
My Five-Star Picks, 2020-2026
Since I’m in celebratory mode and let’s face it everyone doing a blog has an educational bent, wanting to push subscribers into favoring the movies I favor, I thought I would crave your indulgence a little more and remind you of the films I think you should see. I was going to add, “if that…
Three-Quarters of a Million Views… and Counting – You Don’t Mind, I Hope, If I Give Myself A Pat On The Back
It took me five years to reach the half a million mark and less than a year since then to hit the 750,000 mark. Add to that another 110,000 from referrals to various of the social media – primarily X and Facebook – that have also come completely out of the blue. For my first-ever…
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The Magnificent 60s 