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Reviews
The Prodigal Planet (1983)
A bit slow..bit in 2022 not so dated ..now
A few people race across the New Mexico desert, hiding to escape their Enemies, and work to solve a coded message.
Their goal..to use the solved code to disable the World computer network of the evil One world government.
But...there is a Traitor amongst them!
..
Prodigal Planet is a bit long. But pro actor William Wellman Jr, who also helped write the script, brings a professional touch to this otherwise rather low budget production.
Prodigal Planet draws on some of the World End ancient prophecies of the Bible. Where a one world government is...indeed predicted.
Plagues and world disasters occur...
And Christians are persecuted.
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Fine Actors..Dreary Drama
Watched some of this movie. Have seen the lead actors and actresses do fine work in other movies.
But the best actors can only do so much with such a creepy dreary storyline.
The rich and uncommitted play in Rome and elsewhere. Damon's character is an amusing hanger on..until he is not. Trouble happens...
Story of the 2 prime narcissists...played by Jude Law and Matt Damon...pushed 1950s Lifestyle of the Envied Rich Guys into a Dreary Sameness.
Even deceit..suicide..murder seems only dreary.
Poirot: The Labours of Hercules (2013)
Wonderful...bizarre blend of Hercules Labors into One Episode
Nigel Lindsay oozes Corruption as the seedy too-smooth Manager of the soon snowbound mid 20th century vacation hotel.
Poirot...and a collection of women...and men with secrets...are snowed in at the Hotel...one winter.
Of course bodies fall...jewels...valuable artwork...are at risk...and Marrascaud...an exceptionally Sadistic Criminal...is at the Hotel...
A couple individual stories from The Labors of Hercules...are woven together.
It's a bit complex to follow the different story threads, but that makes the repeat watching even more fun.
My second favorite character is Ms EleanorsTomlinson...who plays Miss Cunningham, grown daughter to Hercules' friend Countess Rossakopf.
You will have to watch the episode twice...to appreciate her nuanced "out of the top drawer" performance.
Amazing that in 2013...she also played lovely simple Georgianna Darcy in Death comes to Pemberley!
Screen Two: Persuasion (1995)
Good acting; great leads...slightly substandard costume/makeup of Amanda Root
The 2 leads are fine and the story is reasonably representative of this fine novel. That gets my good score...downgraded only because of my production/wardrobe/makeup related comments...below.
Amanda Root's "Anne" starts out looking like the Poor Relation. She shows stringy hair, a dull complexion, dreary clothing colors...and looks 35 in the beginning...LOOKS like the poor spinster cousin who sits in the corner while older sister (dressed...always...in nicer clothing and with better done hair) scorns her.
Yes I KNOW the character undergoes a small transformation for the better as she comes to realize Capt. Wentworth still cares...but the beginning is too unbelievably old...and the initial light blue day dress looks more like a maid's pleasant day dress than a well-off single woman's day dress.
Yes I KNOW the character Anne is in a funk after a close family friend talked her into sending away then-poor fiancé' Wentworth 8 years ago.
But, since she's cast "against" two young actresses (playing the 2 Musgrove sisters and obviously much younger), she looks like the maiden aunt till about near the movie's end.
So while I am happy to see a man who is not shallow -- only looking for a 20 year old to marry...it's hard to believe Wentworth passes over the much younger looking Musgrove sisters for the middle aged-looking Anne.
I was SURPRISED to see Amanda Root in another film where she looked so much better...The film was from the mid 2000s where Root was actually 10 years older than in this film. She looked moderately pretty and actually younger than the beginning 'Anne'.
But the movie is worth seeing...and I know not everyone will care about my fussy concern for better costuming of the daughter of Sir Eliot.
Poirot: Sad Cypress (2003)
Agatha is...Elinor Carlisle...adding DEPTH to this mystery!
The other reviews do a good job summarizing this fine movie. So I'm "casting" this book with actual people from Agatha Christie's own real-life romantic tragedy...
Fickle Fiancé' Roddy Winter...could be played by Agatha Christie's charming but unfaithful first husband Archie Christie.
Elinor's aunt Madame Wellman could be cast as Agatha's late mother. Like Elinor Carlisle, Agatha Christie faced a double loss of two beloved people. In Agatha's case, it was her recently deceased beloved mother and -- soon after --the departure of her fickle husband Archie.
Hercules Poirot...does not have a direct counterpart in Agatha's real life marriage breakup.. His advice to Elinor is wisely given... Perhaps he represents various unnamed friends who gave her support.
Actually, Dr. Lord, who has admired Elinor from afar, I'd definitely cast as Max Mallowan, Agatha's beloved and faithful second husband. Dr. Lord radiates loyalty and good character. He brings in Hercules Poirot and (partial spoiler) Hercules Poirot...ultimately saves Elinor from execution for the murders of Madame Wellman and Mary Garrard.
Mary Gerrard, the new love of Fickle Roddy Winter, represents the actual young woman who captured her husband's heart while she, Agatha, was away settling her late mother's estate.
I think it unsurprising that Mary is...murdered. However, Mary is shown as a pleasant young woman who accepts Roddy's attentions but declares "I did not lead him on." Elinor feels guilty because she wanted dead...but she will learn...there's a difference between desire...and action.
The actual murderer is, of course, eventually revealed. However, Elinor's resignation at her murder conviction almost keeps Poirot from getting from her...the key info needed...to find the actual murderer.
So...this is a very human drama with love/loss as a repeated theme...Madame Wellman's lost love; Elinor's lost Roddy Winter; Roddy's soon-murdered new love..Mary Gerrard.
Christie does not make simple good/bad characters. I hope writing this book helped her work through her personal pain. This book was published over 10 years after her marriage broke up. Her second marriage...to Max Mallowan...was a success.
I "imagine" Elinor Carlisle and the kind Dr. Lord in a similar good marriage...
Marple: By the Pricking of My Thumbs (2006)
Charming, slightly edgy adaptation. I liked the Tuppence/Jane detective duo
I liked this adaptation. No, Miss Marple is not in the original story. But to me...the Marple/Beresford duo basically works! Now I don't remember about the local clergyman...and all that. It seems a bit far-fetched...a clergyman carrying on with another woman for years and years and no one... in a small village...figures it out? (Wonder if the adapting writers lived in a small village. Not too many secrets...and clergy are scrutinized especially closely.) It does strike a wrong note...Perhaps the writers were unfamiliar with clergy. If such an affair were happening it's likely either the clergyman would have voluntarily left his post...or the affair would have been discovered. Gossips are blood hounds.
Other that that false note, the adaptation is, to me. a realistic post World War 2 view of The Beresfords as an empty nest couple, who must adjust once more to each other.
My favorite scenes are when Tuppence and Jane are running around...solving the puzzle...in a village where lots of people have their secrets.
Conspiracy (2001)
Teens, college students should see this movie!
Other reviewers herein will give you a good summary of this chilling movie.
Subject: the meeting held January 20, 1942 in Wannsee, Germany. Purpose: To persuade, coerce all needed upper management German Nazis to do their part to set up and run the transportation and death machines for the gathering and murdering of all Jews living in lands under Nazi control.
Parental Advisory: There is a little crude conversation about sexual things. However, the conversation only reinforces the coldbloodness of many of these Nazi leaders.
Advice: Suggesting you first give the teen/college student a quick background (including film clips) about the Holocaust. Do NOT assume they know much about it.
And then...ask "How do you think they got others to help transport and then kill the Jews?".
And then...show this film!
Poirot: Appointment with Death (2008)
Mixed feelings on this adaptation
The lush Middleeast setting does add to this rather grim story of an evil woman who abuses her kids...and who later is murdered when her children are adults...
But as some have said, maybe they overdid the rewrite.
If I were revising the script, I'd lose the bizarre nun (fake nun???). Again, a writer feels a need to have a vastly evil person apparently worship God but also seek to destroy, enslave someone else.
There are good actors...good scenes. Tim Curry is great as Lord Boynton is the obtuse but loving husband (the only one on the planet who loves his wife...our murder victim).
The movie is somewhat interesting...I personally don't care it changed some aspects of the plot. And Cheryl Campbell portrays the evil Mrs. Boyington quite well! But...it's not for Christie purists.
Poirot: Murder on the Orient Express (2010)
Better....and WORSE than the Sidney Lumet Movie
The struggle Poirot goes thru...before he puts forth his "solution to the murder of Ratchett"...is complex. He is torn...as he is asked to do something he has never ever condoned nor done...in his long life of crime solving. Thus, this movie corrects a flaw in both the book and in the 1974 movie. Poirot would not come to such a decision...easily.
Despite my "spoiler" check, I'm trying to not give away the solution to the crime which is perhaps being avenged here (the original crime is based on a real life crime of the 1930s which horrified the world).
---------------- But this movie is WORSE because...(listen up playwrights) Some do NOT really understand the protestant/catholic Christian faith. So some errors and UNREALISTIC behaviors show through...like the scene where Ratchett is "praying" and where Poirot is praying.
Ratchet repentant? Really? Sounds like he's just hedging his bets with some "fire insurance". And the way he hits on a young woman and...tries to bully Poirot into doing a job for him...sounds like the old, brutal unrepentant Ratchett.
And the Swedish woman "with Jesus"? Weird. Bizarre. As she describes her religious experience, I was repelled. Persons of faith I know don't really sound like her!!!
More and more in some TV/movie scripts you can see....that Too many writers/directors/actors have either left their childhood faith training behind...or maybe were born to parents who were lightly or non religious...and the lack of basic knowledge of how persons of faith think/act SHOWS THROUGH.
Thus, while I agree with the protracted agony Poirot goes thru (surely the biggest faith/ethics/justice crisis of his life)...the movie gets a mediocre 6/10 rating for their POOR and somewhat ignorant portrayal of various persons of faith.
I'm a person of faith also. Respecting those who research this topic, even if they are not religious. A lack of research/experience with genuine persons of faith...shows thru in this partly flawed film.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016)
3 Star General recommended...We view "13 Hours"
13 Hours is the length of time this US embassy in Libya(or...diplomatic outpost) and the CIA building nearby...sustained waves of attacks from people with accurate mortar fire as well as waves of fighters. After 13 hours...finally military help arrives and the survivors and the dead --including the US Ambassador Chris Stevens) are transported out of Libya.
It was September 11, 2012...the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attack on New York City (referred to in the US as "9/11").
The director barely mentions any political info. Those who call it a "propaganda" film will be either vindicated or...more likely...proved wrong...when more than the contract soldiers are out of the military and free to talk about the truth of Benghazi.
Predictably, reviewers both pro and con are influenced by their beliefs on what the President/Secretary of State did (or failed to do) about this long attack.
I find it interesting that the "official" critics give a much lower rating (roughly 50% liking it) versus the regular users (you and me) which is maybe 70=75%.
Am predicting this film will be a "word of mouth" longterm success. Except for the character confusion sometimes, it is very engaging film. You feel you are there.
Technically, the film is said to capture the disruption...the intensity of battle. Some military reviewers agree.
I heard a general repeatedly cite 13 Hours as worth watching.
There is some confusion as to which character is which...when the real fighting is going on. Also, I wish the time stamp would have been shown more than it was already.
But it's possible 13 Hours will join...The Longest Day (about DDAY) and similar quality war films as well worth watching...particularly for our grandchildren.
Noah (2014)
great effects.....great actors...poor script---the Bible says it better!
First off, I had heard from trusted people "Noah" is not a Biblical epic. It uses portions of Noah's story...but the changes are vast. So I just looked at "Noah" as an adventure story...But it still wasn't good...
I expected great special effects with the Flood, the Animals...and was not disappointed. Whoever did the opening credits prestory visual graphics...prestory summation(with the yellow lettering similar to Minnelli's Van Gogh movie) did a fine job.
So...when friends gave us their BluRay copy, I watched NOAH...at least till near the end when I (bored) fast forwarded thru the last few scenes ...and then saw...Ham running away. OK. got it. 'yawn' Fine actors...decent special effects....poor script.
WHY use a "history" tagline--and market under "Biblical epic" if your story is obviously FAR FAR removed from the Biblical account?
Why not just market "Noah" as "a story SUGGESTED... by Biblical and other ancient sources of the Flood account"? (Other cultures have somewhat similar FLOOD stories.)
I think some Hollywood execs think many of us are stupid.
I did like the "Watchers" ...the "fallen" angels..from the Tar Pit...whom I see as Bronze Age "ancestors" of 21st century "Transformers".They have no real relation to the Biblical story but in this film they add a tiny bit of interest...and show their "creator" as forgiving...at least of them.
I did NOT like their "ark" which does not resemble the given proportions of the ARK in the Bible. Why wouldn't you follow those proportions...? At least...to draw in people who have a rough acquaintance with Noah, the Ark from the Bible, visual images??? (Hollywood execs think we all are stupid. Yeah..
The sad thing is...Noah and the Ark...from the Bible is a fine story...even if you don't believe God can supernaturally rescue people/animals in that way (like I do. And many of the past truly Biblical epics combined good actors/good effects with...a script close to the Biblical accounts. Many of those movies (incidentally) made good box office. Yes...the Dogma IS the Drama...as Dorothy L. Sayers observed.
PS...soon there will be a to-scale replica of The Ark in the US. See for yourself...the amazing boat whose proportions were given in the Bible thousands of years ago...And note...while indeed the punishment for the humans' great evil was harsh, there was much grace (And Noah's sons all had wives...or no one would be here to write...or read this note). ;)