Great Train Robbery [First Great Train Robbery] (1978)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://bloodymurder.wordpress.com/)

As usual with Michael Crichton, the research overrides the story and gets in its way.

A realistic depiction of Victorian London is the backdrop for a crime caper with class that crackles with sexual wit but is decidedly lacking in thematic content or context or interesting characterization.

Dickens could have made something smart and sociological with this material but Crichton simply is not up to the task.

Good escapist fun, with a thrilling finale, but essentially disposable.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Fair Game

(2010)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	DVD

(www.theguardian.com)

An amusing movie about how Whites cannot trust each other and about how they will sell each other out in pursuit of Manifest Destiny. That Whites subscribe to such a polity is testament to both their cupidity and their lack of any viable alternative since non-Whites can never trust Whites either. This is the political correctness that attempts to make facts fit the most economically-profitable theory – rather than the other way around.

A movie also about the alleged treason of not agreeing with democratic governments - as if lying for your country were patriotic - and the delusion that war implies a temporary suspension of civil rights; permanent war, a permanent suspension of same.

Even better than Bourne.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Babylon (1981)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.gaite-lyrique.net/)

A great British film taking an impressionistic look at Black South London life that still perfectly-resonates today in suggesting the necessary impossibility of social cohesion.

The film’s lack of Political Correctness means the story is told realistically and without self-indulgence. Given that Whites made this, it is a surprisingly-astute vision; albeit one lacking first-hand experience.

The filmmakers are lucky with their actors – all of whom are excellently-expressive of their roles because their performances come from direct experience of the White Babylon – especially endemic UK police White supremacy. This is an all-too-eerie prediction of the Brixton riot that exploded soon after it was made, this movie encapsulates the reasons for the troubles and the fact that White supremacy proves a culture unhappy enough with itself to seek scapegoats.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Boots! Boots! (1934)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(https://uk.pinterest.com)

Dated, though an important historical document of a great music hall turn. The sheer cheek of the man is quite infectious and he even gets away with abusing his own boss.

Much of it is quite funny despite being shot in master shots and broad performances that mimic the experience of being a member of the audience of a proscenium theatre. Essentially a series of comedy sketches with little coherence. A typical example of the material: ‘Have you been cutting hair long?’ ‘No. Short, as a rule.’ There is also some good physical comedy and the women are suitably spunky in the face of exceedingly gormless males.

George “Goofy” FORMBY is a loveable fool and the women like him despite the fact that he is not the handsomest of males. This successfully matches the theme of a young poet finding the woman of his dreams in the real world.

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Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Boy Eats Girl

(2005)

RATING:	40%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://outnow.ch/)

A film that cannot quite decide what it is and, like the average schizophrenic, moves in different directions simultaneously. Not funny enough to be a true comedy; not scary enough to be a true horror, it relies on buckets of blood for its impact. The plot is inconsistent and merely serves to provide excuses for the increasing bloodshed.

The cast struggle as best they can with underdeveloped stereotypes instead of characters. The script is happy to avoid the kind of figurative associations with sexual appetite and flesh-eating zombies that would have made the mayhem a useful metaphor for adolescence. It, thereby, also avoids being emotionally involving since the love story does not really come to life – only the zombies do.

Still, it is all good fun and only lasts an hour and a quarter so will not take up too much of your valuable time.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Banlieue 13 (2004)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.nt1.tv/)

[District B13]

An interesting response to racial tensions implicit in White-dominated cultures like France. Endemic White supremacy here has produced ghettos (banlieue) which are then - themselves - blamed for the very social tension that created them.

In this science-fiction movie, the government decides to withdraw all social services from these districts and build a wall around them before destroying them with “clean” nuclear weapons.

However, these important thematic concerns are not dramatically developed in favor of very impressive stunt work from actors taking their own risks in jumping over, through and around buildings. The free-running action is impressive - and cleverly choreographed - primarily because no special effects of any kind are utilized. Nevertheless, these stunts are the tale wagging the dog in this tale of institutional fear of dark-skinned immigrants.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Farewell, My Lovely

(1975)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://nuovocinemalocatelli.com/)

Faithful to both plot and style to the original Chandler novel, this is perhaps the finest version of any of his works.

Robert MITCHUM is excellent in the down at heel role of a private detective struggling to make a living – if a little too old – and Charlotte RAMPLING plays the sultry femme fatale with aplomb. Everyone in this film is good, in fact, and Jack O’HALLORAN is brilliant as the brave but not too bright Moose Malloy.

The undercurrent of Institutional Racism is impressive given the unusual acknowledgement of a police White Supremacy that refuses to properly investigate the murder of a Black man by a White.

The movie captures the sleazy style of the period, the geographical location and the underworld it details – an underworld that is no more than an unpleasant mirror image of the “overworld”.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Very Best of India

(2003)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	CD

(Image: http://www.amazon.co.uk)

Very good primer for the wide range of music from the sub-continent.

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Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Me and You and Everyone We Know

(2004)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://filmmedia.se/)

A community is comprised of me and you and everyone we know. Yet here Loneliness is writ large in a Western culture atomised to death with individualism - individuals who do not know how to make human contact with other - so-called - individuals.

This Caucasian self-alienation is emphasised in children sensing the adult loneliness and becoming sexualised by it in sharing childish sexual fantasises with many of those adults: Both copro- and paedophilic. We somehow sense that they'll grow up to become the same unself-aware misfits their parents are since, at a young age, they are already talking like the adults they will become.

The problem with films about boring, solipsistic, narcissistic and self-indulgent people is that they tend to make for boring, solipsistic, narcissistic and self-indulgent movies.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Mean Girls

(2004)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://interactive2010.journalism.cuny.edu/)

A good argument against the institutionalising effects of schooling - particularly as children are routinely distrusted no matter their behaviour. But, it is not this, nor an analogue for how Muslims are treated in Islamophobic cultures – so it is not as self aware as it pretends.

However, the homeschooler’s first school day (at age 16) and the teenage cliques are detailed. Here, Girl World is a warped form of Feminism where what others think of you is more important than what you think of yourself.

Witty, well written and insightfully funny, with spot on performances and characterisation. The balance of power shifts to an understanding that scapegoating others will not make you happy: ‘I don’t hate you because you’re fat; you’re fat because I hate you!’ Women would obviously run the world if they did not hate each other like this.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Mumbai Meri Jaan

(2008)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.buzzintown.com/)

[Mumbai My Life]

About any city in the world that has experienced terrorism at close hand.

The ironic title expresses love for a city riven with racial and religious tensions, along with endemic police corruption; while acknowledging that the 7/11/2006 can ultimately be seen as a uniting event.

Despite the fear of public transport resulting from shattered trains and the inevitable persecution of Muslims that results, the characters achieve emotional catharsis through realizing that everyone has the same fears: Redemptive in its limited way.

Structured around the lives of those affected by the bomb blasts, the parallel story strands do not cohere in any meaningfully-dramatic way. This conflicts with the film’s theme that citizens need to come together to beat not terrorists, as such, but their fear-of-terrorism in order to minimize the atomizing of the culture so threatened.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

5150, Rue des Ormes

(2009)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	DVD

(http://azcapotzalco.olx.com.mx)

[5150 Elm’s Way]

Although yet another serial killer film about a crazy White family of Christian Fundamentalist psychopaths, this is the best one that will ever be made.

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Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Munich

(2005)

RATING:	60%
FORMAT:	Cinema

(Image: http://thisdistractedglobe.com)

A movie with a too limited remit on terrorism and our response to it in that it does not deal with prevention: Its breast-beating moralism rings a little hollow.

Revenge does not work because the resulting tit-for-tat paranoia proves it is already too late for negotiation. Nevertheless, within its limits, this is a well balanced presentation; shot like an old-fashioned 60s Cold War thriller – especially as terrorists are not ridiculously shown as monsters. This docudrama matter-of-factness well serves an excellent cast.

Though targeted killings are justified, the film resorts to emotionalism rather than ethical or political debate – it does not develop its own issues, dramatically, save to say that the only true country is family.

As shown here, wars will continue so long as no one wishes to end the cycle of violence, unilaterally.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Queen

(2006)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://outnow.ch)

Subtle appreciation of the workings of political power in the UK with the explicit acknowledgement that it is more about image than emotional substance.

Despite the title, this is really more about Lady Diana Spencer and her affect on the British people - primarily as the result of her death.

(Image: http://outnow.ch)

The Royal Family is shown as completely out of touch with the British people and unwilling to accept that their position is merely the result of those very people’s voluntary acceptance of the concept of monarchy. Underlying it all is the realization that power is a chimera based upon a profound dependence upon those from whom one’s power is derived – the people – in either a monarchy or a republic.

This movie is also about what Britishness means – if it means anything – as Helen MIRREN stands out in a role that successfully humanizes the queen; while Michael SHEEN continues making a very able stand-in for Tony BLAIR (see also: The Deal & The Special Relationship).

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Ronde

(1950)

RATING:	100%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.toutlecine.com)

An utterly brilliant film about sex, with incomparable performances by an all star cast.

As usual with these Gallic gems, there is a streak of cynicism running through all the stories in this portmanteau piece - ameliorated by a profound knowingness about what people really do to obtain love and attention. One finds oneself smirking knowingly when a character does the very things one has done oneself to achieve sexual gratification.

(Image: http://www.toutlecine.com)

This is that rare thing, a genuine masterpiece and a work of art. The theme of the piece is that sexual pleasure clearly exists but, for those who have never known love, affection can seem a chimera and a delusion of the naive.

This movie that repays multiple viewings, if only for the sheer bravura of its cinematic technique and delicate structure that so closely mirrors the carousel of actual life.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Welcome to Sajjanpur

(2008)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://www.buzzintown.com/)

Tragi-comedy about moral responsibility; pitting cultural tradition with technological modernity; tolerance with democracy.

The film questions the rights of those who intervene in the lives of others, but who offer little real help in order to justify permanent intervention.

The movie also suggests that democracy does not foster tolerance since the majority can hate at will and enforce their prejudices at the ballot box.

The comedy is of the Ealing variety as it dissects the values and mores of superstitious village life. The solution presented to the inherent discrimination of the democratic process is the profound value of education as well as the sharpening of the distinction between the public and the private spheres of one’s life. In these ways, the damaging effects of others poking their noses into the dirty laundry of others are minimized.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

Anonymous

(http://www.poptower.com)

Rating:

40%

Format:

DVD

Year:

2011

Predominant Genre:

Fantasy

Plot:

Shakespeare’s plays were written by somebody else - with the same name.

Theme:

Social snobbery

Similar Titles:

Unknown

Best Performance:

Rhys IFANS

Caucasian Snobbery

The usual socially-snobbish rubbish about the apparent mystery of Shakespeare’s identity.

The English upper class - who pretend to revere the man - cannot bear to face the fact that someone not of their class could possibly be a genius. This upper-class do not have a history of producing geniuses and so here is there chance to appropriate a tradesman as one of their own, in the hope that this will confirm their belief that genes determine character.

As with Amadeus, we are presented with the all-too-obvious resentment of mediocre men who can only imagine an historical puzzle, when the real problem is their own inability to match the greatness they never see in themselves.

The ostensible solution to this non-existent problem is to pretend that a nobleman pretended to be a playwright without any good reason being given for the subterfuge. Few other great writers have felt the need to do this.

The other ploy is to suggest that because the historical evidence for the existence of Shakespeare is scant, that this, in itself, is proof of pseudonymousness; while never really considering why anyone would have such left little evidence for their ever having existed. By eliding such matters, we appear to have a real mystery, but this is only so because so much has been left out and because there is no admission that the story we are being told is a modern-day guess at why such a famous writer should be so essentially unknown - ably-supported by a profound ignorance of Elizabethan life. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence - so what the screenwriter does not know, he speculates upon.

This playing fast and loose with historical facts, of course, is to play the non-objective, politically-correct game of pretending that only the attitudes of today should form the basis of any appreciation of the past. Historians know better that this leads not to an understanding of the past, but of the present: Not so much value-free history as political propaganda. This attitude contradicts that espoused by guilt-ridden White historians who claim Atlantic slave trade, for example, is to be judged by the standards of the time, not those of the present: Not so much political propaganda as value-laden history. The truth is that history is studied precisely for what it can tell us about the present, as well as about the past, if only to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past - so both views lead to a lack of historical accuracy and factual comprehensiveness.

Well-acted fun, but this really is historical nonsense; making it somewhat dramatically unconvincing. A tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.

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Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.