Everything That Dies, Some Day Comes Back

This is the third variation on ‘The Lady Vanishes‘ theme which I have watched (the others being 'Flightplan' and 'Fractured'. This one is set in 1889 Paris at the opening of the Great Exhibition.  One of the strengths of the film is the period detail and costumes so that one definitely feels one is there. Another plus is the central performance of Jean Simmons as Vicky, a tourist whose brother Johnny, and room (!), mysteriously disappear overnight.  To add to her distress the somewhat sinister Madame who owns the hotel, together with all the staff, claim that Vicky was alone when she arrived the previous day. The following scenes in which, among other things, she tries to enlist the help of the British Consul and a Chief of Police, and occasionally collapsing into tears, might have been tedious with another actress but not here. The white knight who comes to Vicky's rescue is George (a perfectly cast Dirk Bogarde), a Brit trying his hand at this new-fangled Impressi...

This, the fourth instalment, is generally reckoned to have reinvigorated the franchise after a couple of missteps. Fair enough, but this film is far from perfect, even if it does provide the template for the two much better films to follow. It divides very clearly into three acts, set in Moscow, Dubai, and Mumbai, and without the middle of these and the gobsmacking stunt work up the Burj Khalifa, the film’s problems would be much more evident. For starters, the IMF team here is rather lacklustre.  Luther is scarcely present, and instead we have Jeremy Tenner and Paula Patton.  Neither brings much to the party notwithstanding that the latter does look stunning in a green dress in Mumbai.   The villain is deadly dull (especially compared with Philip Seymour Hoffman in the previous outing), and it’s beyond ridiculous that Ethan has so much trouble overcoming him physically. This is director Brad Bird's live-action debut, which perhaps explains why the action sequences a...

Sometimes translating a literary classic to the modern day ends up simply being gimmicky but in this case transplanting Jane Austen’s Emma to a US High School works a treat. Emma is now Cher, the spoilt and self-confident daughter of a wealthy litigator who has very strong views on everything, especially in respect to the fripperies of life such as fashion.  The outfits she and her friend Dionne wear are a constant delight. Cher (right) and her friend Dionne (dig that hat) Dionne is a character for which there is no equivalent in the so urce novel but who rightly has been added for extra comedy value and to give Cher someone to bounce off.   It’s a skilful adaptation from writer-director Amy Heckerling which generally aims to streamline  the novel by removing characters such as Jane Fairfax and Miss Bates.  Making the Frank Churchill character gay is a nice touch.  For the first half of the film Cher's shallowness is in danger of making her an irritating ch...

This is one of Buster Keaton's last short films, made in 1923.  Disappointingly he doesn’t spend much time in the balloon.  Even more disappointingly there’s not much of a story to it, just a collection of sketches, mainly of Buster and a female character trying to get by in the wilds, which aren’t very funny or inventive.  And there’s an unsettling moment where Buster seems to shoot dead a big grizzly bear.  And in the viewing I attended, a heavy rock music soundtrack (by a Brazilian composer Amon Tobin) had been added which seemed inappropriate; I would have preferred something gentler and more pastoral for the outdoor scenes. 'The Balloonatic' was supporting something entitled 'REM x Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr' which combines my favourite Buster Keaton film with a soundtrack comprising REM tracks from the 'Monster' and 'New Adventures in HiFi' albums. Some thought had clearly gone into the sequencing of the tracks so that although I’m not convinc...

About a third of the way in I was feeling that this Jane Austen adaptation was OK but all a bit lightweight. Emma is happily arranging everyone’s lives to her satisfaction, absolutely confident that she is always right. In the case of her recently acquired best friend, Harriet, who is new to the area, Emma’s influence is potentially disastrous, causing Harriet to turn down an offer of marriage from a suitor, Robert Martin, whom Emma considers to be too low on the social ladder. Other than this though there was not a lot to report.  Bill Nighy was being Bill Nighy as Emma’s dad and Johnny Flynn was hovering in the background as George, a childhood friend of Emma's (I think - his status was rather unclear to me) who disapproves of her haughtiness and interfering ways. Thankfully though things pick up with the introduction of several new characters, notably Frank Churchill who Emma has her eye on, and the mysterious Jane Fairfax who is annoyingly accomplished and opaque. I’m not sure ...

This 1965 film couldn't be made now.  Imagine asking an American audience to sit through 150 minutes of assorted characters on an ocean voyage doing nothing much, other than performing some sort of allegory as to the nature of human existence, where the two biggest roles go to an Austrian actor and a French actress! Even in the 1960s it can't have seemed a very commercial proposition, except that it is an adaptation of a 1962 bestseller.   Given that it takes place in 1934 on a German passenger ship going from Mexico to Germany, via Spain, I was expecting Nazism to crop up, and indeed it does. There is a German salesman, Lowenthal, who is Jewish, so naturally he is excluded from sitting at the captain's table at mealtimes.  Prominent among the German passengers who do enjoy the honour of sitting there is a businessman, Rieber, played by  José Ferrer, who dominates the conversation, loudly  extolling the virtues of nationalism and eugenics.   The c...