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Atonement [2007]

starring: Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, James McAvoy, Romola Garai, Vanessa Redgrave
directed by: Joe Wright

February 04, 2008
Reading reviews on Amazon always bemuses me. Why some people seem to get so angry about a film, its diversion from the book or one or another actor confuses me. Anyway no anger here.

I have always been an enormous fan of Ian McEwan and think that atonement is one of his greatest novels. But, like all great tragedies (and believe me this is a tragedy), it leaves you with an empty feeling. The book manages to convey the deep erotic and almost painful love of C and Robbie in a way that was always going to be difficult to convey in a mainstream movie. So maybe that's where it falls down.

But. This is a beautifully shot movie with gorgeous backdrops, wonderful cinematography and a marvellous score. There are those who seem ... Read More:

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Atonement [HD DVD] [2007]

starring: Keira Knightley, Saoirse Ronan, James McAvoy, Romola Garai, Vanessa Redgrave
directed by: Joe Wright

March 10, 2008
I think you have to look past the hype and see the film for itself. In that regard, James MacAvoy was as usual superb, and brought his character (Robbie) to life. Saoirse Ronan as the young(est) version of Briony, showed us all of the intensity of a 13-year-old on the cusp of adolescence. Her motivation is clear - she has strong feelings for Robbie, feelings which she cannot express, does not know how to express, but somehow must do; and then she catches her sister and Robbie together, intimately, and it is the resulting bottled-up rage that destroys all three of them.

And what of Keira Knightely? I thought she was convincing. In the first part of the film her dialog is mainly cliches, but that would have been the way her character would have ... Read More:

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Wilde [1997]

starring: Stephen Fry, Jude Law, Vanessa Redgrave, Jennifer Ehle, Gemma Jones
directed by: Brian Gilbert

April 27, 2006
I kept watching this film as I found it extremely fascinating. All the actors were noteworthy, but Jude Law as Bosie was easily the star of it. I especially liked the sulky, spoilt attitude he depicted when Bosie declared he was bored of living in the country and later when Oscar was ill in bed!
Jude Law is superb and he is truly Britain's finest export as an international actor. Surely he has cupboards full of statuettes after this film's main character's namesake?
I think there are many ways one could portray Oscar Wilde. Instead of focusing solely on his famous `wit', this film allowed his personal life to be the area of interest and it worked brilliantly.
We rarely get to witness raw maleness in the media; that emphasis in my humble opinion, ... Read More:

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Deep Impact - Special Edition [1998]

starring: Robert Duvall, Tea Leoni, Vanessa Redgrave, Morgan Freeman, Elijah Wood
directed by: Mimi Leder

April 04, 2005
This is such a fantastic film, unfortunately with a semi identical plot to armageddon, but far more the superior of the two! It doesn't have the stupid unrealistic hollywood love story and it isn't so comercial. I always bawl my eyes out at this film, it's so touching. And unlike other disaster movies - Day aftr tomorrow, i'm looking at you! It's not ridiculous!

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Blow Up [1966]

starring: Vanessa Redgrave, David Hemmings, Sarah Miles, The Yardbirds
directed by: Michelangelo Antonioni

July 04, 2005
A strange film by Michelangelo Antonioni. It is a whole period of our life that is coming back. 1966. They dressed bizarre in those days. They behave slightly crazy too. The world was entering the new phase or virtuality. The cold war was a virtual war secreting a virtual peace. The long dreamed for well-off comfort was coming up for the few, the happy few who could follow a track that took them away from the factories. Cars were introducing virtual independence. The new generation of records and turntables and record players was bringing some quite acceptable sound home: virtual music. And real music was not better with all the amplifiers and the loudspeakers: virtual music again. Even life itself was becoming virtual due to the new cameras and the new photography, so fine that ... Read More:

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Evening [2007]

starring: Patrick Wilson, Glenn Close, Meryl Streep, Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha Richardson
directed by: Lajos Koltai

February 18, 2008

'Parked uneasily between sensitive indie and studio chick flick, Lajos Koltai's Evening makes star-studded hash of Susan Minot's beautifully written, if emotionally constricted, novel about a terminally ill woman trying to wrestle meaning out of the shards of her memories. Floating in and out of delirium in her Cambridge, Massachusetts, home, Ann Lord -- a former singer, twice married to men she didn't fully love and vice versa -- is cared for by her two daughters, played in the movie by the world's least likely siblings, Natasha Richardson and Toni Collette." Ella Taylor

Something is missing from this film. We are left searching for a memory that will organize the fragments of Ann Lord's life. Vanessa Redgrave plays a woman dying. Her two daughters, Natasha Redgrave ... Read More:

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The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Vol.1 (12 Disc Box Set) [1992]

starring: Vanessa Redgrave, Elizabeth Hurley, Corey Carrier, George Hall, Lukas Haas
directed by: Jim O'Brien

February 25, 2008
Basically Young Indiana Jones meets every famous name from the first quarter of the 20th Century. However, there seem to have been a few very basic historical blunders made. For example in one scene of Episode One we see Indiana and parents crossing the Mediterranean in 1908 on what appears to be the Queen Mary. In another scene at Port Said, there appears to be a large aircraft carrier in the background. Thats just episode one, so I'm looking forward to other cockups in later episodes.
The remastered picture and sound are very good, but the acting is iffy, the scripts badly written, and the storyline plods along at snails pace. I remember watching the series in the 1990s, and some of the episodes were pretty good. Maybe time has dimmed the memory somewhat. As previously mentioned ... Read More:

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Howards End [1992]

starring: Emma Thompson, Helena Bonham Carter, Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Samuel West
directed by: James Ivory

September 17, 2007
Basically Young Indiana Jones meets every famous name from the first quarter of the 20th Century. However, there seem to have been a few very basic historical blunders made. For example in one scene of Episode One we see Indiana and parents crossing the Mediterranean in 1908 on what appears to be the Queen Mary. In another scene at Port Said, there appears to be a large aircraft carrier in the background. Thats just episode one, so I'm looking forward to other cockups in later episodes.
The remastered picture and sound are very good, but the acting is iffy, the scripts badly written, and the storyline plods along at snails pace. I remember watching the series in the 1990s, and some of the episodes were pretty good. Maybe time has dimmed the memory somewhat. As previously mentioned ... Read More:

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The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones Vol.2 (9 Disc Box Set) [1992]

starring: Corey Carrier, Vanessa Redgrave, George Hall, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Elizabeth Hurley

March 24, 2008
Volume Two is all about the World War One years. They have some interesting historical characters, such as Charles Du Gaulle, Sigfried Sassoon... As well as some well know famous British Actors.

This is a must have collection for Indiana Jones fans.

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Yanks [1979]

starring: Richard Gere, Lisa Eichhorn, Vanessa Redgrave, William Devane, Chick Vennera
directed by: John Schlesinger

June 07, 2004

Every other person you meet in Keighley over the age of 40 seems to have been in this excellent film. The acting is suberb except for American actress Lisa Eichhorn doing a really bad Yorkshire accent which almost spoils every scene she is in. Were there no Yorkshire actresses available ?

Richard Gere was not a star when he made it but was when it came out. Everyone who worked on the film said how friendly he was, unlike some other other American actors, all of whom seem to have not made it.