In the pantheon of Bond, James Bond, there are shots that strike from a golden gun and others that leave one neither shaken nor stirred. One film often regarded as being among the latter is 1969’s “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” infamously featuring George Lazenby as 007 who never returned to don the tuxedo. Despite…
The story of Danish painter Einar Wegener’s transition into Lili Elbe seems tailor-made for cinematic examination. There’s a physical aspect that can be attended to visually as Lili (Eddie Redmayne, Oscar winner for “The Theory of Everything”) comes to the external forefront when Einar begins wearing dresses and wigs. And there’s a deeply internal aspect…
With In the Heart of the Sea, director Ron Howard, despite his Midwest Oklahoma roots, decided to be the umpteenth moviemaker to take on the epic (and almost unconquerable) tale of “Moby Dick,” Herman Melville’s world famous novel about a 100-foot white bull sperm whale that simply will not be captured. He follows such other…
A long time ago in a business meeting far far away, Clint Eastwood was offered the role of James Bond. He turned it down because he believed that Bond should only be played by an Englishman (Albert Broccoli obviously thought an Australian would do as George Lazenby was ultimately chosen as Sean Connery’s replacement). Eastwood,…
Cinema has the ability to document, dramatize, inspire and educate. Suffragette succeeds in doing all of these things, while also being hugely engaging and entertaining. Writer Abi Morgan and director Sarah Gavron, along with a committed cast including Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne-Marie Duff, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whishaw and (very briefly) Meryl Streep, deliver…
Driving is an androgynous slob. Could be a woman, a man or a mime — she actually looks like Marcel Marceau without makeup. It’s raining, drizzling over her windshield, drops that produce a mud the wipers intermittently splatter onto her sight. When she arrives where she was going to, we watch her leaving her car,…
I’ve said it before, I like Christoph Waltz as a bad guy. His smooth cadence and deliberate actions make all he does that more ominous. I also like Daniel Craig as Bond. So together they should make, Spectre, the 24th installment in the James Bond series something special. And from this latest trailer, I’d say…
