Philomena (12A)

This is a strange movie of a true story about a serious topic, yet having great comedy, that no comic script-writer would really be able to create, unless it was based on fact.

However Steve Coogan’s hand was in the script, which makes sense.  He also produced, and is the male lead in a role, which while is not Oscar material, certainly brings him far away from his Alan Partridge creation.  He put up a good show as the former political journalist down on his luck, who by chance happens upon the story of Philomena, an Irish woman searching for the son who was long ago taken from her by nuns.

Philomena, played by Judi Dench had her son taken away from her in the mid-1950s, after she got pregnant outside wedlock, and went to live and work around a convent laundry.  Philomena, like Coogan’s character, Martin Sixsmith is quite a quirky character, and almost a literary creation.  However this movie is about real people, with real and tragic stories to tell.  

The movie begins in Philomena’s old age in the UK, and she and Sixsmith take the quest for Philomena’s son, from the convent in Roscrea, Ireland to Washington DC.

It is an enjoyable journey to follow the duo on, despite the sadness and pain they encounter along the way. 

Interestingly a photo of 1940’s Hollywood star, Jane Russell is shown on the wall of the convent office.  Eventually it is revealed why this is so, which only adds to the scenario that was going on in the convent in the 1950s.

The production of ‘Philomena’ is superb, with real-life footage of home movies from the real people involved.  It’s a cliché to say Judi Dench is one of the best actresses around, and they were lucky that she accepted the script.  It is her first movie since she was last featured in the James Bond franchise almost a year ago.

There are not many supporting actors, and Dench and Coogan run the show throughout, and never disappoint.  However a powerful later scene with actress, Barbara Jefford is one worth waiting for.  It is also obvious that Dench will take the BAFTA for ‘Philomena’, and a few more awards with it.

The true story of Philomena is a horrendous indictment of the abuse the poor women suffered in the convents.  The movie is more powerful than 2002’s ‘Magdelen Laundries’ because of all the information that has since come to light, and this is also a real woman’s story, and not a tale about an imaginary person. 

Let’s hope those seeking family connections and answers find their searches come to a positive end soon.

David Flynn

Gravity 3D (12A)

A unique movie, even by today’s standards, where you have a sci-fi action two-hander, done with two of the biggest names in the movie industry. 

The unusual movie has to be viewed in 3D, because it is the very best of its 3D kind.   The movie manages to moonwalk the audience up around the various space stations, and keep them there. 

George Clooney and Sandra Bullock were much bigger stars ten years ago than now, but they were excellent choices for the roles, particularly Bullock, who rarely disappoints.

Bullock plays Dr. Ryan Stone, a medical engineer on a shuttle mission in deep space, along with astronaut, Matt Kowalski, played by George Clooney.  Clooney’s character is a retiring, but upbeat astronaut, while Ryan has some personal demons, and uses her job to struggle through them.  Their space mission seems normal, until debris starts flying, and they lose control of their positioning.  The duo are forced to help each other, when they end up alone floating in space, with few resources and with no contact with Earth.

It would seem at first that this is Clooney’s movie, because of his authoritive characteristics, but a turn of events occur, and Ryan is left attempting to preserve life. 

 

The movie is a work of genius by director, Alfonso Cuaron, who also wrote the original screenplay.  It couldn’t have been easy to direct actors at zero gravity, while they float on a black background.  However the movie appears totally realistic, obviously helped by its great 3D effects.

The storyline is interesting, particularly where it deals with Ryan’s back story, and resigned view of life.  The movie is also not without its messages.

David Flynn

Life's A Breeze (12A)

A simple Irish tale set in the very modern age, is not what you would imagine Pat Short appearing in. However it is a good comedy, with laughs intentional and unintentional in almost every scene.

Pat plays Colm, a fortysomething lad, with no job, living with his mother in a big Dublin townhouse.  The mother, played by the brilliant Fionnula Flanagan has the house like a timecapsule from around two decades ago.  Colm and his three siblings get the mother, with the help of his niece, Emma, out of the house for the day, while they clean up the place as a surprise to her.  Emma is played by a remarkable teenage newcomer, Kelly Thornton.

However the well-meaning siblings throw out the mother’s mattress, which is supposedly full of around €1 million cash. 

A search begins by Colm and company for the mattress in a sometimes hilarious journey.  Poignancy comes into the story many times, and the sadness of Colm’s and the mother’s situation come to the fore a couple of times.

Pat Short is quite a good actor, and showed expressions of frustration quite well, and definitely showed another facet to his comic being.  Eva Birthistle who starred around two decades ago in tv’s ‘Glenroe’, was the straight-woman comic to her mother and brother. 

Fionnula Flanagan is always a joy to watch whether it be on tv’s ‘Lost’ or on Irish movies like 2004’s ‘Man About Dog’.   Here she plays the mother, who may or may not be senile.  She is a treasure of an actress, and plays the elderly woman to a tee.  She even has a hip problem when she walks, that is so genuine, it can only be done by a method actress.

Kelly Thornton is the granddaughter, and through whose eyes the story unfolds.  You get the feeling there is more going on in this young girl’s mind, than is shown.  However Kelly does an amazing job, with a limited script.  While the script is great at displaying what is going on over the mattress, and the reactions of the mother and Colm, it should have done more than merely hint what was going on in the young girl’s life and mind.

The movie makes great use of the Irish media, with RTE, TV3 and some daily newspapers used to great effect, showing the authenticity of the story, and for that, you would feel as if you were watching a reality programme, albeit one with substance.

World War Z (15A)

It has been reported that Brad Pitt is hopeful of there being many sequels to this movie.

The storyline of ‘World War Z’ is based on the novel by Max Brooks and Pitt plays a UN expert, Gerry Lane, who following a world disaster, is brought out of early retirement, to race against the clock to stop a Zombie world domination, which threatens to destroy the human population.  However, all that being said, it’s not a bad movie, despite it sounding like a bad 1950s B movie.

The action is non-stop, and begins on an American city street with buildings exploding, and a rampant spread of ‘Zombisim’ among the general population.  The zombies act like they have done in every movie from ‘Shaun of the Dead’ to ‘The Dawn of the Dead’, so there is nothing new here.  However terror is continued on throughout every scene as Gerry crosses the world to South Korea, Israel, Wales and Canada hoping to find a way to stop the zombies.

Along the way he is helped by a former UN employee, played in a cameo by David Morse, a brilliant character actor, who has a long acting  history going back to tv’s ‘St. Elsewhere’ in the 1980s.  Unfortunately this actor is very underused in the movie. 

Brad Pitt does his best with the movie, and is also credited with being one of the producers as well as being the main star.  His wife, Karin is played in a lovely subdued way by Mirelle Enos, and she shows well the terror of being separated from her husband, with her children, on a ship off the coast of America.  However her safety is put in jeopardy not just by the zombies, but by the ones who is supposed to be protecting her and her family.

It’s an ok thriller, and Brad Pitt does a good job of playing the family man trying to save the world.  The ending of the movie, at first seems like a cop-out, but Brad’s statement this week that he is hopeful of some sequels makes sense now.

‘World War Z’ is an enjoyable film, and gripping in places, but it has its lulls as well.  However there were many worse films made about zombies.

Man of Steel (12A)

The reboot of the Superman story, ‘Man of Steel’ takes the whole Clark Kent saga that cinema audiences have known since the 1940s, and turned it upside down, and back again.  The story is basically the same, although it is told in different time stages.

Henry Carvill is probably the best actor to have played Superman, certainly the best since the late Christopher Reeve left the role after shooting four movies in 1987.  Here, Clark Kent is portrayed in the main as a tortured soul who can’t understand or control his superhuman powers.

His spiritual foster father is played by Kevin Costner, and his understanding mother is played by Diane Lane.  This Superman story has biblical similarities, with Clark being 33 years old before major happenings in his life and in the world come about, just like Jesus Christ.

The movie is available in 3D, but I’d say it wouldn’t be a big deal to just see it in the 2D version.  A lot of action is thrown in here, but more than in past versions, the story of Superman is paramount.

The influence of Batman producer, Christopher Nolan in the production of ‘Man of Steel’ is evident, with the darkness on the theme of the story in the script. 

Lois Lane is played by prolific actress, Amy Adams, and throughout the movie the whole father/son bond and controlling evil and anger is used to great effect. 

The new Superman movie is all about action, special effects, and the familiar story, with a modern storyline influenced by the plot of the first two Christopher Reeve movies from 1978 and 1980 thrown in.  It uses biblical events in a modern fashion, and the internet and social media also have their place here.

There is just a hint of the Superman name coming into the movie, but it is stopped in its tracks before Amy Adams’ Lois Lane attempts to say the name.

Henry Carvill portrays a dark and problematic Superman, but he could have been given a better storyline to work with, although he did his best with the script on hand.

Kevin Costner as his foster father, Jonathan Kent, brought his best to the role of the earthly spiritual advisor, as did Russell Crowe, who had a much bigger part as the birth father.  Both actors are improving with age, although Costner had the edge. 

‘Man of Steel’ is a worthy successor to the successful series of movies of Superman, and is the best one since 1980, but not as good as Christopher Nolan’s Batman series.

After Earth (12A)

It’s hard to see what the point of this movie is and why it was really made unless it was to give a vehicle to 14 years old Jaden Smith. 

The young fellow is the real life son of his co-star, Will Smith, and Jada Pinkett, who acts as producer of ‘After Earth’.  The main attraction of the science fiction movie is that it was directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who also worked on the screenplay.  Shyamalan wrote ‘Sixth Sense’ back in the 1990s.

The story of ‘After Earth’ began promisingly by detailing how one thousand years previously, people escaped from the planet earth following a serious upheaval of sorts, to live on Nova Prime.

A moody looking Will Smith plays Cypher Raige, who returns to Nova Prime from a military tour of duty, to his son, Kitai (Jaden) and his wife, played by Sophie Okonedo, who almost a decade ago was nominated for an Oscar for her work on ‘Hotel Rwanda’.

Father and son decide to go on another tour of duty, and manage to be the remaining survivors when an asteroid storm damages their craft.  They land on a dangerous and hostile Planet Earth.  Cypher is seriously injured and the young Kitai must head across the landscape to retrieve the craft’s rescue beacon.    While the boy has some military training, he didn’t manage to make the grade at his academy.

While there are special digital effects etc., the story does take a nosedive, throughout Kitai’s search.

There was little evidence of M. Night Shyamalan’s influence or work in the movie, considering he has worked on the unexpected and the surprise in his own movies.  There are no surprises here, and a sub-plot about Kitai’s dead sister doesn’t really fit into the movie.

The movie lacked a lot, mostly an engrossing plot.  A better script could have seen justice done by Will Smith, but it’s too early to see if Jaden has any screen presence.  Although the young fellow made a few movies before ‘After Earth’, this movie wasn’t a good one for him.

Western Actor Steve Forrest Dies

A prolific actor, who began his career with much going for him, but who sadly made a few bad acting choices, died on May 18^th last, at the age of 87 years.

He is probably most noted for his role in1950s westerns, and that was a time when mostly ‘B’ westerns ruled cinemas.  In the 1960s, he mostly guested on tv series, but he did relocate with his wife and family to Britain to appear as the lead on a British crime series, ‘The Baron’, which lasted one season. 

He also played Elvis Presley’s half brother in a western, ‘Flaming Star’, and also appeared with John Wayne in ‘The Longest Day’.

In 1969, he guested on the western series, ‘Gunsmoke’, playing the bad guy, Will Mannon.  The character was one of the nastiest on the series, because he assaulted the female lead, Miss Kitty, played by Amanda Blake.  Steve returned to the role of Mannon eighteen years later, when a reunion movie, ‘Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge’ was filmed.  The movie became a huge ratings winner on American tv.  In the 70s, Steve starred in the lead role on an action series, ‘SWAT’, which despite its popularity, was cancelled after one season.

A handsome actor, who unfortunately didn’t achieve the success of his better known actor brother, Dana Andrews, he nevertheless was rarely out of work for almost fifty years.

He won the Golden Globe in 1954 for most promising newcomer, for the movie, ‘So Big’, and a Razzie worst actor award in 1981 for playing opposite Faye Dunaway in the Joan Crawford biopic, ‘Mommie Dearest’.  However that movie cleaned up at the Razzies that year.

Also in the 80s, he played an aging male sex symbol in the tv adaptation of Jackie Collins ‘Hollywood Wives’, a series which was panned by the critics.  However his most bizarre role was as a character originally called Ben Stivers on the tv series ‘Dallas’.  At the time ‘Dallas’ was massively popular across the world, and Steve was to have played a character, who may or may not be patriarch Jock Ewing, returned from the dead.  He did three episodes of ‘Dallas’ in 1986, and after the series returned from its summer hiatus, the previous season was revealed to a dream or figment of imagination of another character and all that season’s plots were scrapped.  However the producers decided to keep Steve on board and reignite the Jock Ewing plot.  However they had to rename Steve’s character to become ‘Wes Parmalee’.  He continued playing Wes for another twelve episodes, but viewers were confused and the plot proved to be unpopular.

A movie version of ‘SWAT’ was filmed with Colin Farrell and Samuel L. Jackson in 2003, and for homage to the old series, Steve was asked to appear in a cameo role.

Steve Forrest is survived by his wife of 65 years, and three children.

 

REMEMBERING THE RIORDANS

Biddy White-Lennon who played Maggie Riordan

(pictured in 2011)

The power of its simplicity, humour and light drama made ‘The Riordans’, Ireland’s favourite family, and a ratings success on RTE television for 15 years throughout the 60’s and 70’s.

The trials and tribulations of Tom (the late John Cowley) and Mary Riordan (the late Moira Deady) and their sometimes troublesome offspring, Benjy, (Tom Hickey) Michael (the late Chris O’Neill) and Jude (Rebecca Wilkinson) in the fictitious village of Leestown, Co. Kilkenny, was an important part of the week for the Irish at a time when there was only one television station in the land.  At this time, most people weren’t recieving the British stations and the only satellites people talked about was in NASA. 

For 30 minutes each week the nation could switch on to Leestown and switch off their problems of the Oil Crisis of the 70’s and the idea of money belts being tightened.

Rural Ireland could always identify with the family being the centre of a community or a business or farm and that is exactly what the theme of ‘The Riordans’  was, a family living and working on their farm in rural Ireland. 

Streets emptied and no one uttered a sound when all black and white sets in the country were turned on to watch ‘The Riordans’.  Punters in pubs stayed silent for that half-hour because they would be glued to the set to see characters, very like themselves, drinking and socialising in Mickey Mac’s pub.

The friends and neighbours of the Riordan family in Leestown added an extra dimension to the drama.

Viewers in pubs, homes, hospitals and community centres sat together and watched the courtship of Benjy and Maggie (played by Biddy White Lennon) and listened to the hilarious tales told by the village gossip Minnie Brennan (played brilliantly by the late Annie D’Alton).

Minnie once uttered a description of  the youngest Riordan son, Michael, to express the fact that he wasn’t  overweight. “There is more skin on a tinker’s stick after a fight than there is on Michael Riordan!”

Humour was a big part of ‘The Riordans’ drama series just like it is with today’s UK soap opera, ‘Coronation Street’. 

Television in Ireland was new when ‘The Riordans’ began in the mid-sixties and there wasn’t any other regular rural Ireland drama series on the air.

The good and bad of farming life was part of the theme of the series.  Tom Riordan could be identified with by many middle-aged farmers trying to make a living on a small farm, while his wife Mary became a figure that was identified by farmers wives throughout the length and breath of Ireland.

The theme of love was as central to ‘The Riordans’ as was farming.  Benjy and Maggie’s courtship lasted a number of years letting people wonder if marriage would  ever happen.  Eamon Maher, played by Joe Pilkington, was a settled traveller who lived with his sister Delia and his uncle, Francey in Leestown.  Eamon was one of the programmes favourite characters and his many love affairs were discussed throughout Ireland.

Fr. Sheehy (played by the late Tony Doyle) was always on hand to give a sympathetic ear to his Leestown parishoners and he played the part to perfection. However Ireland’s favourite priest hit controversy (at a time when Irish priests were not hitting controversy) in the early 1970’s when he sympathised with Maggie when she told him she was on the pill.  Letters of protest poured into RTE, but the much loved Fr. Sheehy and Maggie weathered the storm and remained viewers favourites.

Benjy and Maggie’s wedding was one of the most  popular episodes of the series, but  some of the sadder episodes also got high viewing figures, like in 1978, when Young Brendan was bit by a dog and rushed to hospital suffering from a suspected rabies infection. Viewers were on the edge of their seats watching the child’s trauma and were relieved to see him get the all clear.

Tom Hickey left the series at the end of the fourteenth season and his portrayal of Benjy Riordan was sadly missed.  Benjy was written out by leaving the farm and going away to be a lay missionary in the Third World.

A new man was needed to help with the farm work, so Pat Barry, a sheep farmer from the Wicklow mountains came to live with the Riordan family.  Gabriel Byrne, in his first screen role, played Pat. 

Another big change hit ‘The Riordans’ in its fifteenth season when it was screened for one hour every week.  However this was to be its final year and the last episode was screened in May 1979.

Irish viewers were disappointed at the loss of ‘The Riordans’ from their screens, so RTE responded by screening in January 1980 a six part follow-up series called ‘Bracken’.

‘Bracken’ was created by Wesley Burrowes who had also written for ‘The Riordans’. 

The new drama concerned Pat Barry returning to his Wicklow home to farm his late father’s land.  ‘Bracken’ starred Gabriel Byrne, Niall Toibin, Joe Lynch, Mick Lally and Hollywood veteran Dana Wynter. 

‘Bracken’ was a smash hit with Irish viewers and another six episodes were planned, but were not screened until January 1982.

It was realised there was a major gap in the RTE drama schedule as a result of ‘The

Riordans’ cancellation, so plans were put in place for a new rural drama.

Wesley Burrowes started to write a new series with the working title of ‘The Blow-Ins’, but it was changed to ‘Glenroe’, with Joe Lynch and Mick Lally reprising their ‘Bracken’ roles of Dinny and Miley Byrne.

John Cowley turned up in ‘Glenroe’ playing a judge and Moira Deady played the hilarious role of the travelling woman, Nellie Connors in several episodes.

 

 

 

 

 

Oblivion (15A)

The first five or so minutes of this sci-fi thriller would remind you of a 1960s tv series, where you get a ‘story so far’ delivered by a lead actor off camera.  That was a bad start for a modern movie yet the back-story does sound interesting.   However when you hear Cruise is in a movie, alongside Freeman, you think it can’t be too bad, and you stick with it.
Cruise plays Jack, one of the last technicians left on earth after decades of war with aliens.  He lives on a space station with his life partner, Victoria, played by Andrea Riseborough (star of tv series ‘Being Human’).  She is overlooking his work, and keeping him safe from the alien enemy, by placing help onside with him, whenever he goes on a repair job.  The plan is to prepare for them both to leave earth to go live on a new star.  However Jack is reluctant to leave and despite the devastation of war which has happened in America, it still doesn’t cloud his view of the planet as being his home.
He finds a crashed spaceship, with a beautiful passenger Julia, (played by Olga Kurylenko).  Olga was a Bond girl in the movie, ‘Quantum of Solace’ in 2008.  Julia reminds Jack of the many dreams which he has had, as long as he can remember, where she has appeared.  It makes him question the whole existence of his time on earth, and his life with Victoria.  Along the way he also meets a group of rebels, led by Morgan Freeman’s ‘Beech’.
Cruise does his best with the role, and although he is getting on, still manages to play the Die Hard type of hero with gusto.  Olga and Andrea were equally good in acting terms, and wouldn’t have disappointed their director, Joseph Kosinski.  Morgan Freeman is….well Morgan Freeman, and doesn’t disappoint.
The art-direction of ‘Oblivion’ is quite good, and the props of a post-apocalyptic New York will satisfy the viewer.  The lighting is also good, and portrays an earth that is open, bright, although full of mystery.   Twenty minutes less of the movie wouldn’t have hurt it though.
The action in the movie is a pre-requisite of a Cruise film.   However, a little more story and a little less action wouldn’t go astray, because as said earlier, the backstory, which is told at the beginning, did sound interesting.
On the whole, ‘Oblivion’ is good escapist fare, and worth a look