An old favourite that still keeps on rollin'!

Not seen this since I was about 12, when pretty much every year before that it seemed to be on tv, and I used to watch it every time... I thought it was great back then, but in the intervening years, if you'd asked me what the point of the whole movie was - the plot - I'd struggle to say anything more than a bunch of truckers decide to make a, well, convoy, and the cops don't like it.

(And that, upon rewatch, is still basically the plot :)

...However, since then, I now know who Sam Peckinpah is, and what he is known for as a director, including the overly highlighted violent scenes (occasional ultra slow-motion shots of a punch, or a shot, or other dramatic moment), and I get the whole metaphorical subtext etc.

But it still is fun, and very enjoyable, and sits alongside those kind of movies of the time like Any Which Way But Loose and Cannonball Run, being a kind of working class rebel outlaw movie in the style of a western set in a modern world.

It's sits tonally between Smokey And The Bandit, though not as goofy, and consistently light-hearted... And Vanishing Point, though not as serious and straight faced.

Not bad for a movie based on a song!

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this is the edition yr hmbl srppnt. first read - in 1967 - it kept the teenage me up all night reading it in one go - and yes, it was written to be a work of propaganda°, and an educational work†, as well as a thunderingly fine, truly gripping novel. i have read it again since - a couple of times, over the decades.

yr hmbl srppnt. does not like leon uris' altering some parts of known & fully-documented historical events, such as the children & crew of the blockade-running ship were in fact returned by the british authorities to a/ displaced persons' camp/s in europe: i can appreciate he did this to improve the novel as a work of fiction, "but..."; however, his portrayal of racist characters and the language these characters use does not make this a work advocating racism nor racist behaviour: such criticism is ill-founded, no matter how sincere.

"exodus" remains a major novel, a gripping "must-read" - and one that does not excuse nor justify violence & murder by anyone at all - including by modern israelis possessed of racist opinions & beliefs. - not that all by any means are (clarifying to forestall charges...).

° - promoting several causes, not simply zionism (in the sense of arguing for both the movement to further creation of a modern jewish state, historically, and supporting its continued existence in the form of the country of israel)
† - detailing much of the history of jewish people, and of judaism, through snapshots and more extended chapters in characters' lives, as well as enlightening people about the existence of the holocaust that the nazi regime had inflicted upon so many millions including many of the peoples of eastern europe, and upon homosexual men, and upon others - but so overwhelmingly against the jewish population of europe (and anyone "tainted" with "jewish blood") - about which many people - and most people in the usa - were totally ignorant.

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One of the best Stephen King adaptations, and again, it probably has something to do with the director: Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile).

A pretty creepy and haunting analogy for human behaviour as a result of despair in the face of unknowable terror... Although the story was written some years back, the movie was doubtlessly produced to be timely in the wake of 911.

...Still, perhaps even more applicable than ever.

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Aaaarrghhh...Puberty!!!!!

Not anywhere near as good as the first, but that's because, I think, that one will have a broader appeal age wise, in evoking a lot of "stuff" for older audiences about their youngest years... In a more poetic, and heart-breaking way, whereas this will probably mean more to an audience specifically contemporary to the age of the lead character Riley.

This moves a lot quicker, and is more busy.

Very good though.

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This is really rather brilliant.

It's a short movie, running at only an hour and a half...

(A full two minutes of which, are occupied at the start by the seemingly endless production company idents... seriously, I think there's at least eight!)

...And it's a pastiche / homage to both the kind of late night seventies talk shows that felt a bit ropey, and a bit dodgy and dangerous, as well as the several attempts at live TV broadcasting of "spooky" goings on at Halloween over the years, where they pretend that it's all actually happening, but much to the consternation of those making the show, it actually is.

So it's a desperate gambit of a show gone wrong, framed as a kind of "found footage" horror, where we are supposedly witnessing the original master-tape of the original live broadcast...

...Except I think this has actually exceeded the now traditional, and perhaps worn trope of the found footage thing, and is perhaps better thought of as a kind of stage play.

In fact, my abiding thoughts at the end were exactly that: "This would make truly brilliant stage show!" - Broadway or West End adaptation anyone?!?

So fading talk show host invites a supposedly intermittently possessed girl on as a guest, with her rescuer / carer, in order to try and coax the devil out for the benefit of live TV (and therefore, good ratings), along with a now professional sceptic / debunker, and a psychic medium, all infront of a live television audience... what could go wrong? :)

It feels very stagey throughout the first half, but I think, done with a wry smile, albeit, played brilliantly deadpan... and I do think it might have been more effective without the "special" effects, later on, which feel a bit too "Ghostbusters" CGI, and does kill the immersion a little, but the finale really redeems it, with the "In The Mouth Of Madness" surreal, horrific mind bending sequence, which takes it up to another level of weird.

All cast are excellent, primarily David Dastmalchian, of course, who, finally given a chance at a lead role, knocks t clean out of the park, as we always knew he could, and it's nice to see Ian Bliss (Bane in: Matrix Reloaded) again - need to see more of this dude! - as the debunker, and especially praise goes to Ingrid Torelli as a truly creepy kid!

A great, short, late night horror watch, and as I said, an absolute potential gold mine for a possible stage play adaptation!

(Has anyone ever done a genuine horror movie on the stage before)

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Fun, un-pc modern Cheech and Chong-esque stoner comedy that eventually turns into a kind of slapstick Die Hard / videogame shooter style bonkers shoot-em up.

Really quite good actually.

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Flórez sounds as handsome as he looks, and has star status in Peru. Here he sings some operatic favourites, beautifully recorded with the excellent orchestra under Paulo Vero. As an example, the popular solo from Handel's Messiah:

[YouTube Video]

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Watched this last again night, it was set in 1845 and you'd swear it was made shortly after that.
It is tense, with a sense of menace as father, mother and son argue in the family apartment. Patricia Neal's character Nettie is deeply unlikeable, which I take as a sign of a superb performance. She looks deeply haggard, as she would in real life following her recovery from stroke. Martin Sheen (Timmy) is a good facial match for his 'mother', and he and Jack Albertson (John), were also difficult to like.

The instrumental music, used sparingly, was scored by Lee Pockriss, and there are two songs, "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" written by Sandy Denny, and "Albatross", another Denny favourite, were sung by Judy Collins.

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This set shows us Tavener at his most intense, and, yes, Thunderous. My copy has just arrived in the post, so I have been listening to it, one track at a time because it is not something you can have on in the background. The dynamics of the title track, for instance, take the organ and choir from pp to fff.

By complete coincidence, I opened YouTube to look for this track and was greeted with a tribute upon the death of tenor William Kendall a week ago. Let this track also serve as a tribute to Kendall.

[YouTube Video]

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"Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories..."

Yup, it's that one... heavily, not only influencing, but in many ways informing, if not actively helping create Sleepless In Seattle - The whole: Empire State Building scenario and so forth.

But it's a pretty odd movie, as much as it is a classic romance movie, in that the first half is pretty tedious, and dull, not only due to the limited expressive capabilities of Cary Grant (better at the comic stuff than the dramatic I feel), but also the rather empty "banter" and back and forth between him and Deborah Kerr, who has quite a stiff, school-matronly thing going on here, which mostly feels flat, and not quite as crackling as they were perhaps aiming for... Not good in a dialogue driven, two person focused movie; Especially when the lack of musical score for much of this makes it seem like you're on set, without all the production added, so it seems odd. In addition, many of these individual shots go on way too long, making it feel all the more awkward, like they should have cut to something else several seconds previous.

(There'a one scene in a small chapel where they are both praying silently to themselves, where I'm not entirely sure if she's reciting a prayer to herself, or the whole bloody bible!).

All of this is not a good mix, and as well as highlighting the dull clunky feel of it all, is apt to make you nod off.

And from this alone, I would have scored this a 5 out of 10 (5 being my baseline score of: "meh" - less than this represents a negative score in my book)

...Oh, and their respective "others", whom they are in relationships with, seem to be taking they news that they each love another in an altogether nonchalant, bordering on indifferent manner, which does lessen the dramatic stakes considerably .

But...

...Then, something remarkable happens, as the last half hour picks it up a couple of points for me, and makes the whole thing more worthy of it's "Classic" status... And better than this, the final five minutes (literally the last five minutes) are truly exceptional, even brilliant.

That final scene is probably one of the most inspired, and brilliant pieces of screenwriting in any romance movie, using the genius device of having him apologise to her for something she (apparently) has done to him, until she gets the point and the subtext is apparent to all of us in the audience. Masterfully done.

So this last scene is probably a 9 out of 10 (pushing towards a 10) and redeems the whole thing somewhat, and is worth watching for that alone.

One odd little thing that stuck in my head after the movie was over, was that it occurred to me that they meet on a boat when kerr's character finds his lost cigarette case....I'm pretty sure he doesn't smoke a single cigarette in the whole movie!

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For Tom Brennan's review (dated 27 October 2013) of this two-CD reissue, see here.

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Great lawyer turns sleuth in defence of his client movie, culminating in a courtroom drama, set against a noir-ish intrigue / corruption background setting, with a dash of Silence Of The Lambs about it.

...It's great, until the credits roll, and you start thinking about the plausibility of it, and what comes after (and even before), and it breaks down a little under too much scrutiny.

So my advice is: Don't nit-pick, or try to consider the whys and wherefores, just sit back and go along for the ride, and then it's a great movie.

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I agree this is one of Johnnie's best but we shouldn't underestimate the effect of Ray Conniff's backing on many recordings around this time.
His "chop guitar" sound (more noticeable on the B side) together with some echo contributed to the hit sound for Johnnie and many others at Columbia.

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This is one of my favourite discs from Johnnie, both sides are two of my favourite records. I also own this as a white label Philips 45. This is the record that introduced me to Johnnie, back in 2016, I was 18, and blown away by Look Homeward, Angel. Now, at 26, I've acquired many records from this era, and will always choose them over the music that gets made today.

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Entertaining twaddle with plot holes you can drive a ship through. Violent and sweary. Right up my street! 8/10

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The man who almost wasn't there.

This is what I am looking to find when I buy a stack of DVDs... a little lost gem, a real treasure of a movie, which this absolutely is!

This is one of those from the noughties which has that quirky, slightly off kilter humour redolent of an indie flick.

It is in tone, and feel, a lot like Lost In Translation: total understatement, and under-playing, for maximum effect, which, though the name of this movie has come in and out of my consciousness on and off throughout the years, it was the involvement of Zach Braff that always put me off, due to his character in (of course) Scrubs... I didn't think he was capable of such a brilliantly subdued, even supressed performance as he gives here, let alone, that he could both write and direct such a minor masterpiece as this, which he has.

He takes the lead as a minor struggling actor returning home for the funeral of his mother, amidst unresolved issues between them as well as his father, which is what set him to going away in the first place, and he has, over the intervening years, become so overly medicated in order to deal with the presumed psychological impact them, that he is numb to the point of blankness.

While at his Mother's funeral, for which he can feel little, to no emotion, much less express any, he meets up with some old school friends who now have jobs digging the graves, they invite him out to a party, and being barely a participant in his own life, just goes along with it. He also comes across the rather oddball, delightfully naïve, yet open and friendly Natalie Portman, and so his journey back to the land of the living, and to being a fully functioning human begins.

While the relationship with Portman's character does for the main part, class this as a rom-com, it's actually more of a tragi-comedy focused more on Braff's character, and his route back to being someone.

The comedy is light, witty and perfectly judged, the tragic elements equally light and well judged, and this is overall a wonderfully warm film, that gets warmer as it goes, and even becomes, at times sublime, and even beautiful.

So if you like the "vibe" of Lost In Translation, and wished there was at least another movie, near identical in tone and humour, that make you feel that same way, then here it is.

On the strength of this, give Zach Braff all the money he can carry, and let him go make more of the same!

Brilliant.

(I'm keeping this DVD!)

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The first of my Christmas movies.

...For I have now promoted this to it's proper place as a Christmas movie, not just a rom-com, and in fact, it foes that same thing that Moonstruck does for the summer: It's not just a two person rom-com, it's as much, if not more a family rom-com, in the sense that it is a family romance, about a lonely train ticket booth worker who falls in love with the man she saves from the tracks one day, but, being in a coma, he is unable to clarify things for his family, who visit him in hospital, about the fact that she is a total stranger to him, and so they mistake her for his fiancé, and the rest of the movie is about her being welcomed into their family, and she falling in love with the family vibes.

Very warm, cosy Christmas themed farcical gem that gets better every year, and so it is the first one I watch in the season.

(And it has Sandra Bullock.... :)

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Big stupid fun!

I really enjoyed this piece of polished, B-movie, creature feature nonsense... I think, because, as with the likes of Sharknado etc. I couldn't be disappointed, as I knew what I was going to get going in: It ain't Shakespeare, and it is not trying to be so, and you feel everyone involved is entirely aware if just what it is they are making... very self aware, and unapologetically so.

To sum up:

It's Jurassic Park, grafted onto The Abyss, doing a "mega" riff on the obvious inspiration of Jaws.

(Jurassic Shark?:)

Billionarie bonehead funds deep see exploration into an Abyssal trench, beyond the apparent sea floor, discovers massive shark-a-lodon thing, that then follows them to the surface, and commences eating everyone and everything in sight.

Only uber-gruff stereotypically chiselled and troubled hard-man Jason Statham can save the day!

(The movie itself is his saving grace here, as for once, he's not taking himself too seriously)

There are pretty much all of the key scenes / beats from Jaws played out here, but overtly so, and not pretending it's thought of these ideas itself, and oddly, given the carnage going on, there's actually not much gore in this, thanks to the judicious use of the timely spray of water, or a plume of bubbles at the most timely of moments, that obscures the majority of the blood and horror, and so like any good horror movie, allows the audience to imagine what would otherwise have been seen.

It took care of my Saturday night's entertainment, with a light piece of hokum fluff, that I didn't have to think too much about, but could just sit back, relax, and be very amused with a nice ale and some dry roasted peanuts.

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I concur with Dr D. on this one.

...It's fun, but if played straight, and all the zany, wackiness and random - out-of nowhere-for no-reason-plot-elements etc. were ditched , this could have been an all time great, set alongside the likes of L.A. Confidential, Chinatown, and the like.

(Having seen Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang a while back, it's seems this confirms what I wrote in my review of that movie, about Shane Black: He seems obsessed with those two movies, but doesn't have the courage to play it straight up, and feels compelled to drench it in wry humour, and make jokes all the time because he feels he needs to apologise for himself... You feel like these two movies, more earnestly treated, could have been dripping with Oscars!)

The obsession of his with L.A Confidential is more all but confirmed here, due to the presence of both Russell Crowe and Kim Basinger.

This is, however, more even, and coherent than Kiss Kiss, and does have a couple of genuine laugh out loud moments, but is mostly, at best, mildly amusing, and only light fun... and altogether a wasted opportunity to do a brilliant, retelling of a seventies set L.A. Confidential.

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Wow!

...A whole lot better than I'd imaged it would be... and definitely better than the movie.

The movie is one of the great vampire movies of it's time, and possibly ranking as one of the best vampire movies ever, but that seems to lean into the Hollywood idea of the vampire, as a fetish-fest, of overly romanticised, achingly beautiful people in a posing and posturing competition... for want of a better word..."sexy".

This though, fills in a lot of the blanks in the story, and lean away from that, more into the genuinely tragic, truly horrifying in concept, and perverse sense of morality, and lack thereof... And definitely more away from the more supernatural / "superpowers" vampire model.

It's much more philosophical in tone, and tragic in that way, and the hypnotic, and beautifully poetic language used to tell the tell has a suitably hypnotic quality to it, like a long languid, hallucinatory fever dream aspect, which make this incredibly dark tale very, very affecting.

It deals a lot with the sense of detachment from humanity, and alienation, and a sort of being outside of the world, and times in which one lives... And these factors show how a corruption of moral sensibilities creates perversions of relationships, and twisted notions of family.

(An advisory note here should be that, not only with the child vampire Claudia, there are a few disturbing relationships between adults and the young... which, as with the idea that this is meant to be some kind of LGBTQ tale in it's depiction of male relationships, is, I am quite certain, not the point of the book, or what Anne Rice was showing us... but rather, as I say, how a lack of time and humanity can affect a person, and alter them... but a misreading of these elements might disturb some)

And it is actually not the usual blood suckery that is the true essence of the horror here, but as with The Wicker Man, it's the normalisation, and the casual nature of what these vampires do, and how they go about it, and how they view it, that is the most disturbing factor.

One of the best books I've read in a long time.

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Player one was born ready!

I finally gave in, and ordered this DVD from Amazon, as it never turns up on telly, and for some reason, is really rare on DVD here in UK...

(A recent Blu-ray / 4k seems to be available, but the DVD editions are pretty hard to come by, and are slightly elevated in price)

...And it's odd, as it seems to be one of those movies who's impression that it made on memory is much greater than how good the movie actually is, watching all these years later.

This is mostly I think, due to a couple of factors: Firstly, being of it's time, and like near contemporary movie: Tron, was way ahead in terms of visual effects for that era, and like Tron, tapped into the early arcade game culture which would massively appealed to us kids at the time. Secondly, the sweeping, majestic, and truly memorable score, which complements the aesthetic presentation, is very reminiscent of a kind of John Williams / Indiana Jones (possibly Superman too) adventure style, giving it a real sense of grandeur and scale.

But... strip away these factors, this tale of a kind of Superman in reverse - where Alex Rogan, a normal smalltown kid from a trailer park at the ass end of nowhere, is recruited via an arcade machine which tests his abilities to pilot a Stargun starfighter, and is whisked off to fight an alien scourge an save the universe in the depths of the Galaxy - is actually a lot thinner than I remember, with only a couple real space combat scenes, and the alien scourge is not so numerous or intimidating as all that. Switching back and forth between his recruitment and engagement with the good aliens, and his trailer park family and friends, where a robot body double has been left to cover for him, this isn't as epic as the music etc. would suggest.

Not that it isn't great fun, and is still a very good film, worthy of the cult-classic status it has attained in the intervening years... I just see now how the presentation does a lot to cover it's short-comings, and leave a bigger footprint that the foot alone can make.

The effects, as viewed form this distance of time, are oddly, and paradoxically, simultaneously painfully dated and stunningly impressive, even now... the computer generated modelling: The shapes and geometry of the images are still incredible, on occasion, making even newer CGI look a little shonky in this regard, not to mention the tracking and movement through space, as the virtual camera see these objects, is truly astounding... but the surface rendering - absence of textures, reflections, and other window dressing is sorely lacking, and shows the severe limitations of the time (There's only e few such rendered objects on screen at any one time too)...

...But, fortunately, using my pre-millennial upbringing, I am able to use that estimable faculty of the "Imagination", so that mind can envision what the eye can't necessarily, literally see, by what is merely suggested by what is actually shown, so I can forgive these dated effects.

Still great fun though.

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

The booklet notes say that Kellaway has recorded more than 250 albums, so let's make a start with this CD. They also call him a 'musical chameleon, and he certainly takes each composition into his own world. The title track here is as a new number with passing quotes from Fats Waller.

[YouTube Video]

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Rewatched, finally, after several years... sometimes through my fingers!

I was all about this movie back in the day, but this must have been on the cusp of my coming to know what a good movie looked like...

...I always knew this was one to file under: "So bad it's good", but now I see it's so bad it's... yeah, still pretty bad, in retrospect.

It has a great central premise, that still captures my imagination: Demonic witch-man Julian Sands, captured by witch hunter Richard E. Grant (Dressed and performing as a Scottish caveman, for reasons best known to himself :) back in the 17th century, before Sands is swept up by some sorcerous jiggery-pokery, and swept forward in time to the 1980's, along with Grant, where they will do battle anew in the future... Grant trying to stop Sands getting all three parts of the devil's bible in order to unmake creation.

...Taking up, and Tagging along with grant is Lori Singer who has an ageing hex put on her, which only catching up with Sands' witch-man will fix.

But let's be frank... the effects, especially after all these years, are... yikes!

There's some pretty wonky acting on occasion, and a heap of convenient plot devices and happenings, but... the two leads are pretty great, in a hammy way, what with perhaps Sands' most iconic role, and Lori Singer is actually rather good at the deadpan comic delivery, and has some real zingers here and there...

(Why did she not do more of this in her career? She has a bit of a talent for it!)

...And overall, still a sterling piece of campy, hammy, cult-classic nonsense, that remains entertaining.

(Perhaps , though, not as entertaining as I remembered it.)

[Note: A reasonably hard one to find on DVD, this original movie, but I've noticed of late, Film4 in the UK is sneaking the odd cult movie in the dead of night, at the end of the schedule, where I got to see this one again from... so keep your eyes peeled to the listings here for some gems you might be struggling to get on disc!]

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Mostly amusing, but one of those that feels like it's trying too hard to press home the jokes... I smiled, rather than laughed.

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Despite the speal about remastering, this box set is a case of how NOT to remaster. No-Noised to buggery and any is signature 'vocal distortion' that they go on about leaving in is mushed away to buggery. Through the No-Noise process they've actually introduced pops/clicks and distortion in place.

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Usually I find motorsport boring and tedious, but this story of odd couple Matt DAamon and Christian Bale as Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles building a car (Ford GT40) under the auspices of automotive monolith Ford, in order to unseat the perpetually reigning Le Mans Champions Ferrari was very energetic and thrilling...

...A bit of a "Top Gun" style movie, and even the mechanics and engineering elements were engaging.

The central relationship, between Shelby and Miles is the focus of the story, and what propels the movie along, about hanging it all out there on the line for each other, and trusting each other to come through.

If you like cars, especially those of the period, such as these Ferraris, Fords, AC / Shelby Cobras, or even if you don't, it's a great movie to keep you entertained for an evening watch.

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A fine recording of their 1974 "Electric Adventure" tour. I only wish there was more!! This LP is very well recorded, especially Jerry Mercer's drums! This LP features 2 tracks that are not on any other AW album ("Mama' It's True" and "Druthers") "I'm On Fire For You Baby" was the latest single at the time so it is wonderfully performed here. This has always been one of my fave AW albums as a kid. A powerful testament to a band that could rock it hard, then turn around and play a sweet rock ballad. Note that the Unidisc CD remaster is edited slightly to remove some amp feedback squeals. But after hearing it for over 40 years in its original form, it's hard to NOT hear them!..

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This was a great, fun pastiche / satire of the western tropes of the times, with the hapless, bungling Gary Cooper spoofing the traditional "tall dark stranger / hard-bitten / super-tough / man of few words" type...

...Can't handle a gun for toffee, bit of buffoon, but with a good heart, who gets mixed up in the affairs of a tough outlaw, and mistaken for him, which he tries to use to his advantage, and probably wishes he hadn't... luckily, he's got his ald friend at hand to help him out various fixes, and beautiful prospective love interest / femme fatale who is entirely in control of the whole situation, being smarter than the lot of them! :)

Really enjoyed this western prototype of a kind of Forrest Gump kind of movie.

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I wrote this about "Confectionary" around a week after finally getting hold of a copy and hearing it. While it's a decent write up having now lived with this record for 10 months now I can see I was a little nervous about being too over the top about it.

With more time I can see that it's a bloody great album. If only the kids in 1994 had taken to Rick Corcoran's band Orange and their majestic single "Judy Over The Rainbow" (a re-recorded version of which appears here, I'd urge you to search out Orange's single), and subsequently the Orgone Box, as opposed to another band beginning with O around then...oh what could have been.

If you want psyche-touched pop that sounds like it should have come from Liverpool but didn't, this might just be what you're looking for.

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Wanda Robinson usually combines her poetry with jazz except on John Harvey's Blues which is spoken unaccompanied. All poems are excerpts from her book "The Daze of Wine...Without Roses".

The Meeting Place, and all tracks from Tragedy to The Final Hour, form a segue of deep tragic thoughts about the despair she has felt in her own life. In these she is accompanied by 'The United Chair', Julius Brockington organ, piano and synth, Ralph Fischer percussion, Steve Turner alto and flute, Garry Langston guitar, Jim Wilson trumpet, and Marcell Turner bass and tambourine.

[YouTube Video]

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Are you not entertained!?!

Yes sir, very much I am!

If you go into this expecting a pretty standard Hollywood, inspiring underdog sports movie, you may be disappointed, as although the elements are there, this is not what this movie is about... not really.

In fact, it is only superficially a sports movie, let alone an Ice Hockey one.

...You could almost call those elements a "Macguffin", as this setting only serves to set the stage for a cynical, acerbic, bitingly satirical piece of social commentary. In tone, and what's clearly under the surface here, it is to Ice Hockey and sports, what M.A.S.H. is to war movies, and it has the exact same satirical humour and sensibility about it, so if you liked M.A.S.H. for those reasons, you'll like this.

And what it is satirical of, is a trend, particularly in American culture of the time where they were on the cusp of becoming more sensationalist, shallow, superficial, and indeed cynical, in moving away from the purity of ideals to chase the Yankee dollar by pandering to an ever more shallow and fickle public.

A small industrial American town, discovers that the local mill, around which it's existence is essentially built, is being closed down, and with the it, the local half-assed hockey team, pretty much the only other thing the town seems to live for, to make their lives there in any way bearable, is to fold too...

...The over the hill player / coach, senses shenanigans regarding some background, higher up exploitation and manipulation of the situation, and begins to manipulate the situation himself, to combat these predetermining forces. He does so by abandoning a more straight up, pure form of the game, and opting instead, to wind up his players, and turn it more in to a violent spectacle, (The acquisition of three semi-psychotic brothers really helps this plan!) tapping into the local frustrations, to satisfy the more basic elements of the crowd's nature... and make the team so popular that the dark financial and economic forces can't shut them down.

And so this, appropriately enough, has Paul Newman playing his patented "Hustler" role again, working the angles, playing everyone against each other, almost attempting a sport set "Sting", albeit, for the locals own sakes, and resorting to dirty tricks to do so.

This is, naturally, very cynical (the point), very violent (The necessary means to the point), and is decidedly un-P.C...

(This last point may be taken at face value by some, regarding the litany of homophobic slurs all throughout the film as the product of a "less enlightened time", but they couldn't be more wrong, as this is entirely self aware, even though it does these things deadpan, and never offers a hint that it is doing so as part of the cynicism, it is proven in the sublime and brilliant finale)

...I can only conclude that this has probably never been more relevant than now, and not just regarding sports, but even in the worlds of economics, and (heaven forbid :) politics.

This will chime more with a modern audience than the audience of the time when it was released, and it is an audacious, witty, acidly funny, subtle piece of pure brilliance.

Not just an Ice Hockey movie.

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The unfortunate child.

This is a brilliant bio of Writer and poet Janet Frame, which depicts an odyssey of a young, talented girl who's gifts and general disposition render her odd, in the eyes of the conventional world around her, in Austere pre-war New Zealand, and basically crushed by those conventions, which constantly seem to persecute her for being born different.

And while she has a loving family around her, tragedy is always present.

No greater tragedy threatens her life than the fact she, being crushingly shy, and awkward, begins to believe that there is something wrong with her, as the world she lives in convinces her that this is so... to the extent that she is committed, on the strength of an autobiography she wrote, to a psychiatric institution under the mis-diagnosis of schizophrenia... her great suffering in this period of her life sets this fragile and unprepared (now) young woman out into the world where she learns a few things about herself.

It's a long movie, divided into three parts, as the subtitle: "A trilogy" denotes, based, as it is, on a trilogy of autobiographies Janet Frame herself wrote...

...But it is thoroughly engrossing, if, at times, a hard watch... but this journey of self discovery and affirmation will resonate with many, I'm sure, who feel they have been made to believe such things about themselves because they may happen to look, think, or feel different than the rest.

And on the strength of what I heard in this movie, I think I want to seek out some of the real Janet Frame's work now, it seems truly brilliant.

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