A
new chapter in the world of the ratings and critically hit series has been made
for the cinema screen. The big house
people, upstairs and downstairs return to see the King and Queen of England and
their entourage pay a visit.
Most of the cast of Downton Abbey is back for the movie of the same name. Maggie Smith was probably the star of the
series and the movie and she played the Dowager, Violet Crawley to perfection
yet again. The cast of the tv series
are joined by actors, Imelda Staunton, Max Brown, Mark Addy, Lesley Nichol and
many others playing new characters.
Simon Jones and Geraldine James play King George V and Queen Mary.
Maggie Smith had a good sparring partner with Imelda
Staunton, who played a cousin of the family, who was also a lady in waiting to
the Queen. She is the subject of one of
the many subplots in the movie.
It’s got a few interesting themes in there, like
republicanism versus monarchy, inheritance and class, and a gay character
exploring his sexuality in 1920s England.
Highclere Castle in Hampshire, England is again the
setting of Downton Abbey and the production bears up the world of 1927 quite
well, writes David Flynn. The costumes, furniture and city streets are
all designed with the good style that was in the series. The writer, Julian Fellowes wrote a good
script, albeit not as good as his Oscar winning 2001 movie script, ‘Gosford
Park’.
‘Downton Abbey’ is simply another episode of the
television series, and fair play to the production team for that, because as a
screen story it works, albeit not for cinematic audiences. It would have been a good Christmas special
on ITV instead of a movie feature, but it will be in future years.
Quentin
Tarentino threw the kitchen sink at this production which re-created Hollywood
in spring and summer, 1969.
Tarentino, who wrote and directed ‘Once Upon a Time
….in Hollywood’ had the power to get the double male leads of Leonardo Di
Caprio and Brad Pitt together in one movie.
Leo plays a struggling TV star, Rick Dalton and Brad plays Cliff Booth,
Rick’s stunt double.
The two characters have a deep friendship and equal respect
of each other, which developed when they worked together on Rick’s 1950s black
and white hit TV western. Throughout
the 1960s, Rick has to work on spaghetti westerns and bit parts on TV shows,
while Cliff works as his driver and house-sitter.
The house in the Hollywood hills is coincidentally
next door to the rented home of director, Roman Polanski and his actress wife,
Sharon Tate. History buffs will know
that in real-life a terrible murder happened in that house in August 1969.
The Tarentino script and direction of the movie
deals with the lead-up to the murder, and features many of the characters
involved in the atrocity. The movie’s re-creation
of Los Angeles in 1969 is done to a high-level, showing the movie theatres and
street design of the era. The ambience
of the movie shows the mood of the time, with the flower power parties and the
feeling of the Vietnam War in the air.
The lives of Rick and Cliff remain on the periphery
of the stench of evil that is brewing with a murderous gang, as they live in a
movie farmyard on the outskirts of Hollywood.
Rick and Cliff, almost in a ‘Forest Gump’ sort of way fizzle in and out
of the lives of the movie elite and the evil gang.
The double male leads of Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio
gave brilliant performances which were interesting to watch. Leo twisted
himself in two with energy to play Rick, while Brad was more subdued in his
performance of Cliff, which was totally effective. One of these guys will take the Best Actor Oscar
next March.
Margot Robbie played Sharon Tate to such a great
degree that the family of the 1960s movie star was reported to be very pleased
with the performance. Footage of the
movies which starred Sharon Tate were featured in ‘Once Upon a Time…..in
Hollywood’, but it didn’t shake the moviegoers view of Robbie’s performance -
if anything it enhanced it
It was nice to see some high-profile cameos from
Bruce Dern, Kurt Russell, Al Pacino, Luke Perry and Damien Lewis. They all added to a very good movie, writes David Flynn.
On
paper it must have seemed like a great idea to remake The Lion King, with new
computerised animation, which has been developed since the original film was a
smash hit twenty-five years previous.
The movie is set in Africa, in a desert community of
a pride of lions. The lion cub Simba is
the son of the King and Queen of the doman.
He is groomed to take over from his father, but Simba enjoys playing
like a cub and getting into all sorts of young devilment. However the cub does have respect for the
traditions of his family, including the ‘circle of life’ which connects all
living things on the vast land.
After Simba is fooled by his evil uncle, Scar, his
life takes a turn which includes death, and a new life in the jungle
forests. Here he meets new friends, and
builds a new life, but a visit from a love interest, Nala, (voiced by Beyonce) reminds
him of home. A new battle and frontier
awaits Simba when he decides to return to his past.
The movie is enjoyable for those who have not seen
the 1994 Lion King original, although much of the emotion that was shown in the
earlier movie is missing here.
Interestingly the new movie is around 30 minutes longer than the
original. There is still a feeling of the
story being rushed, particularly after Nala finds her old love. However the movie picks up in the last half
hour and reaches a nice climax, which will be found satisfying by most viewers,
writes David Flynn.
