Last Movie You Watched.

Oh, yes, Canon Films. I've seen clips of this one Blunty and it did look horrific. Can't believe Sharon Stone was cast accidentally. After they did so, did Sharon Stone turn up on set one day and everyone goes: "That's not Turner" and were too embarrassed to send her home.

Nice write-up Blunty. I must check it out on a 'so bad it's good' basis.

It was on Paramount yesterday, and on a lazy lockdown Sunday afternoon when a movie that one seemed to remember enjoying back then appears on telly what's a guy to do?

A sharp reminder that one's critical faculties were not the same at 14 as they are at 49.

Ah, I don't have Paramount. I'll see if it's on YouTube. Not paying for the thing,

I know the feeling Blunty, my critical acumen was naff at 14 to what it is at nearly 35. I mean I'm pretty sure I had TSWLM top of my Bond films in those days.

Sneakers - Robert Redford's team of 'ethical hackers' are recruited by the NSA to nab a 'black box' (ah, McGuffins) created by a genius mathematician that is able to decrypt the coding of pretty much every one of the world's computer systems. They do, but naturally the plot thickens ...

This amusing and 'twisty' caper movie is tremendous fun. Cast also boasts the likes of Sidney Poitier, Ben Kingsley, Dan Aykroyd and River Phoenix.

^^ Ahh another film only available on Youtube. I'd much rather not watch them on my laptop.

I gave Frances Ha a watch the other day. Noah Baumbach really is the spiritual successor to the 80s comedy-drama film directors. And his CV is really quite something. But back to Frances - he captures so much about early adulthood so beautifully. I'm still not sure if I love or hate Greta but I suppose that's a testament to the very human writing and acting of her character.

Timecop - as an actor Van Damme makes a great kickboxer, lol. Still, this bit of sci-fi action guff passed a couple of hours on a Monday night and at least the mid-90s was the period during which they could still rope in the likes of Ron Silver and Mia Sara in support of him.

The Ritual - on the same night that a group of friends plan their next trip, one of them is tragically killed. So by way of tribute, they do what he wanted (hiking in Sweden) but it's not long before things take a sinister turn when they reach the woods ...

Decent enough horror, starring Rafe Spall.

After watching CR/QOS last night I went onto

The Admirable Crichton

Curiously credited as Paradise Lagoon on my DVD, the American title. It's a bit of fluff this film. Our Bond connections are primarily Lewis Gilbert (directing) and Peter Hunt (editing). Does this mean Kenny More is involved in jerky cuts? No. The film features one of my favourite 'should've been in Bond' actors, Cecil Parker. It features Diane Cilento who married Sean Connery in 1962. Amongst the cast is the beautiful Sally-Ann Howes (such a crush on her watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as a child).

Bit of fun in these times of lockdown. Gilbert never seemed complimentary of More as an actor and said as much for this film (though I believe More saved Cilento's life when filming a swimming sea). However, even More knew his limits. He once turned down Hamlet on stage as he said A) no one would take me seriously and B) I know I can't give a good performance. His breed of character died when the 1960s started. War films started to change into anti-war or statements, his marriage to Angela Douglas shred him of most of his friends and opportunities (Roger Moore looks to have stood by him in this dark time). So, Gilbert is annoying. More is my favourite actor for many reasons and amongst them is that as a child of about six or seven, he struck me as a good sort, heroic and charming. Sure his private life was, er, messy (the man womanised like no other it seemed) but he was Kenneth More.

Darkest Hour - stirring WW2 drama with an Oscar-winning turn from Gary Oldman as Churchill. Winston seeking the opinions of a packed Tube carriage essentially on whether or not to enter into peace negotiations with Germany is admittedly on the far-fetched side, but it's forgivable overall.

Airplane! - a classic, relentlessly joke-delivering machine of a comedy.

The Man Who Never Was

you suspect the upcoming movie about Operation MINCEMEAT will go about this in a much more different way. In 1955 much of MINCEMEAT remained highly classified and it wasn't until Ben McIntyre's book "Operation Mincemeat" that a great deal was revealed. The film benefits though from a top cast that even includes Robert Brown (with hair which took me by surprise). Also gets to use the same submarine, Seraph, that was involved in delivering the body (Seraph's war service alone would make a good book). Curious nugget is that when the motor cruiser is taking crew to Seraph it passes a ship that is still bearing the fake pennant number it carried for The Cruel Sea. The ship being HMS Portchester Castle.

A curious factor is Gloria Grahame. Mostly famous for her turn in It's a Wonderful Life, she plays the girlfriend of a RAF pilot. She seems a little out of place in this film. Aside from the three Bond alum, you have the M that never was, Michael Hordern, Robert Flemying and top of the pile, Clifton Webb (does a good job convincing as a Britisher).

Of course Ian Fleming was involved with the operation and the ins and outs are fascinating from beginning to end. Sadly the film falters a little introducing the fictitious attempt by the Germans to find out if the man's ID is real -Stephen Boyd playing an IRA chap who goes in for the Germans.

Should still be on the iplayer.

The McIntyre-fronted docu based on his book was on Beeb 4 last night, gave it a rewatch. Extraordinary story.

It is a rather fascinating story. Macintyre has a knack for this -Agent Zigzag, Double Cross and A Spy Among Friends all are intriguingly entertaining and very real stories of course.

The Dead Pool - Dirty Harry 5, and by now Inspector Callahan is as comically indestructible as Moore's Bond. The deeply silly car chase involving a remote-control toy car demonstrates just how far from the brilliant first film we've drifted.

Still ... there's a definite curiosity value to a movie that's got Eastwood, a wandering-accented Liam Neeson, 'James' Carrey AND Guns 'N' Roses in it.

Personal Services - amusing Julie Walters-starring comedy directed by Python's Terry Jones inspired by the story of Cynthia Payne, the (in)famous 'Luncheon Voucher Madam'.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

the same year that James Bond is messing about underwater laden with gadgets, the spy genre went quite the other way in comparison with this version of Le Carre's novel. Burton is on fine form as the spy Alex Leamas and there is a gritty, realistic feel to this film that works throughout the film (though I had little idea the Berlin Wall scenes were in fact done in Dublin) and there is a sparse soundtrack which aids it all greatly.
Far as I know this is the first film to show George Smiley on screen but he is not the main draw of the film of course compared to the Tinker Tailor adaptations.
In the midst of this cast is Bernard Lee as a shopkeeper (who inevitably is duffed up by Burton's drunk spy). Shows the world of cinema of course, the same year he appears as M -helping to fight Blofeld's mad scheme, he plays a gentle shopkeeper.
Film also features as a judge the distinctive-looking white-suited millionaire from OHMSS' casino scene. Credited as Steve Playtas (in turn credited as 'Greek Tycoon' in OHMSS).

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

I know chaps but bear with me. I've not seen this film in probably ten years now and as a child it was a near constant fixture, usually around Christmas (they showed it once on Christmas Eve and when my mum was phoning my aunt, my two cousin's had gone screaming upstairs at the sight of the Child Catcher!) or Easter. But hold on chaps, the Bond connection is unbearably strong.

Acting wise you immediately have Desmond Llewellyn doing more acting wise than he ever got to with dear ol' Q and you of course have Gert Frobe as the madcap idiot king. The film is of course based on a Fleming story (a gift to his only child, Casper...this was part of my tour funnily enough), Richard Maibum worked on the dialogue, Roald Dahl co-wrote the screenplay and Broccolli produced it. John Stears who worked on the GF DB5 worked on SFX.

All the film lacked was a John Barry score and Ken Adam sets.

As a child though I had a crush on Sally Ann Howes' Truly Scrumptious -a crush aided in later years by her turn in Admirable Crichton. It also made me a fan of Lionel Jeffries, whose appearance reminded me of my grandad but he plays the role with such charismatic charm.
And of course it features James Robertson Justice. Even Benny Hill for the ride.

In this age of coronavirus, it's a nice little piece to take your mind off things (like how Dick Van Dyke wisely avoided a British accent for this film).

And the Child Catcher is still creepy as hell.

Couple of St. Trinian films off the iplayer (you surely couldn't get away with some of the stuff nowadays) and then:

The Lives of Others

A film that is beautiful in its way. The Stasi showed if anything they were the Gestapo but with different name and uniforms, in how they worked or kept an eye on people (immediately postwar, many Gestapo men did end up in the Stasi). Well acted, quietly scored and authentic in its history, its appearance and locations. I had seen Sebastian Koch in the German Stauffenberg (Operation Valkyrie was the UK title) and I maintain it takes the Germans to do their own history. We've had a crack, the Americans and others have but Das Boot, Lives of Others, Downfall and others show how it should be done.

Tackling the spy genre, Hilly? Good choices with In From the Cold and The Lives of Others. Sebastian Koch is an an excellent actor. Only a matter of time before he pops up in a Bond film.

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has made 3 films, according to Rotten Tomatoes: The Lives of Others, The Tourist and Never Look Away. We all know about The Tourist's reputation (perhaps a little unwarranted, to be honest), but he bounces back to form with Never Look Away - a 3 hour+ epic that was one of the best experiences I've had in a cinema.

I'm always dabbling in the spy genre, well if I can Ipcress File, some other stuff along the way. It's fascinating to see 'serious' spy fare during the Bond-era of the 60s. Sure we've had it after 1970, but the sixties had this feel to them and largely of course down to Bond-mania.

I've seen the Tourist, I can't remember much of it so probably need to revisit it. Koch is a great actor, he was in one of the Homeland season's -so he can speak English quite well for a Bond. His take on Count von Stauffenberg in Operation Valkyrie/Stauffenberg is unique. You feel the emotion and determination more than Tom Cruise.

I think The Spy Who Came In From The Cold is as bleak as a spy film can get, and fascinating to think that it came out the same year as Thunderball, as you say. Keen to see the 70s Tinker Tailor - I love the 2011 version.

Highlights of Tourist is perhaps Angelina Jolie at her most superbly photographed, the Venice locale and the involvement of Steven Berkoff and Timothy Dalton. It's a messy film and supposedly not the film Henckel von Donnersmarck wanted to make due to rewrites and the such, but it's a bit of fun.

Indeed, Ipcress was the same year as well. So in one year you have two decidedly serious, authentic feeling spy films (Ipcress has the delicious admin' details. Requesting a SP77 and instead a SX61 or some such) and one, seemingly outlandish spy film in comparison.

Spy Who Came in from the Cold has no happy ending and in that respect is a top film.

The TV Tinker Tailor is as good as the film. Guinness is his own Smiley just as Oldman is his.

I'll have to check out the Tourist again soon. Any excuse for Berkoff and Dalton (imagine them in Octopussy. "Against whom?
-"Of course...you bastard."

Quite - two decidedly serious films and yet it's Thunderball that has resonated and endured, despite the other two perhaps being even tighter films (well, perhaps not Ipcress).

Dalton opposite Berkoff in Octopussy would have been excellent. Though it allows Moore the opportunity to finally gives us a little of the old Bond back that was missing in the 70s.

The Martian - Matt Damon is currently on lockdown in Dalkey in the Irish Republic, but 5 years ago he was stranded on Mars!

This Ridley Scott-directed sci-fi adventure is very enjoyable, as Damon's botanist puts his knowledge to good use in order to survive while the NASA bods back on Earth scramble to put together a rescue plan. The script has humour and heart, the visuals are often a treat, the effects are impeccable and the likes of Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels and Sean Bean (he actually survives this one!) provide sterling support.

I enjoyed The Martian. Still amuses me that the Golden Globes nominated it in their 'Comedy and Musical' category.

It's the studios that submits which films goes into a particular category, so Fox thought THE MARTIAN would strategically stand a better chance there than in the dramatic section. I haven't seen it since it came out, but I remember it being a very quippy film. A definite crowd pleaser.

Ah yes, it is the studios. Serves me right for posting before my morning espresso.

A crowd pleaser for sure, but a comedy? Eh...

A Walk In The Woods - amiable comedy adventure with Robert Redford as travel writer Bill Bryson who decides to hike the 2000+ mile Appalachian Trail and Nick Nolte as his buddy along for the journey. Plenty of 'there's life in the old dogs yet' chuckles to be had, along with some spectacular landscapes.