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Appointment with Death (1988) - TCM.

The one-line description of this in the listings was "Rather stale Hercule Poirot mystery." Sounds about right.

It certainly isn't a patch on Peter Ustinov's earlier outing as the detective in "Death On The Nile". The plot isn't one of Christie's best imo which doesn't help.
It tries to replicate the formula of that earlier movie and the Albert Finney "Murder on the Orient Express" flim; with some well known supporting cast - Gielgud, Lauren Bacall, Carrie Fisher, ...err...David Soul ?(OK I know, but I guess it was the 80s and he was big on TV in Starsky and Hutch in the...err.. 70s?).
A lot of the other younger suspects are completely unmemorable, which then makes it hard to care which one of them might have bumped off their harridan of a mother/step-mother in the desert with a hypodermic filled with poison.
Set in 1930s, the movie is inexplicably plastered with terrible 1980s music.
Not electronic music, but just terrible blaring saxophones. What IS it with 1980s films soundtracks and saxophones ?

Makes we want to go and hunt out the David Suchet TV version to see how it handled the same story.

Contact (1997) In the wake of the recently released Arrival, it was interesting to compare it with this film in which Jodie Foster plays a scientist trying to contact aliens. The main similarity is a strong lead performance and a very strong back story for this leading character, both involving family traumas. Foster is spot on as is the younger version of her, played by Jena Malone and the ever excellent David Morse as her father. The script is literate especially involving the debate between science and faith, and the only real drawback is the romantic subplot between Foster & Matthew McConaughney( he plays a spiritual advisor, the rest of his role is fine). The ending is suitably open ended and satisfying.Also starring James Woods, Tom Skerritt,Max Martini,Angela Bassett,John Hurt,Tucker Smallwood & Jake Busey. 7.5/10

The Angry Birds movie - 6/10.

A bit of fun, it's weird that it worked really, considering it's based on an app. lol.

(28-11-2016 23:37 )greenray Wrote:  Contact (1997) In the wake of the recently released Arrival, it was interesting to compare it with this film in which Jodie Foster plays a scientist trying to contact aliens. The main similarity is a strong lead performance and a very strong back story for this leading character, both involving family traumas. Foster is spot on as is the younger version of her, played by Jena Malone and the ever excellent David Morse as her father. The script is literate especially involving the debate between science and faith, and the only real drawback is the romantic subplot between Foster & Matthew McConaughney( he plays a spiritual advisor, the rest of his role is fine). The ending is suitably open ended and satisfying.Also starring James Woods, Tom Skerritt,Max Martini,Angela Bassett,John Hurt,Tucker Smallwood & Jake Busey. 7.5/10

It's a surprisingly thoughtful (as opposed to CGI/actioned-up) and faithful version of the novel (by astronomer Carl Sagan) given that it has to condense quite a lot into a standard movie running time.

There was a lot made at the time of its release, I seem to remember, of the splicing in of real footage of Clinton as then President doing a press conference about NASA discoveries on Mars - a bit gimmicky imo; I think the director was still hooked on this kind of thing after making Forrest Gump.
John Hurt is good as the ecccentric / shady billionaire inventor who lives entirely on a plane (on the advice of his doctors).
But generally there's some very effective moments, the flashbacks to Jodie Foster's childhood work well ; the big radio telescope array in the desert looks really impressive in many shots, as well as the surrounding landscape.

The opening is suitably atmospheric with all the radio noise from Earth gradually fading and fading as the camera pulls back further and further into space and the music/speech broadcasts that you can make out get noticeably older and older in time until they fizzle out... I saw it in the cinema when it first came out, and it works really well, if perhaps going a bit self-consciously for the "2001 Space Odyssey" kind of gravitas at times.

Saving Private Ryan (1998) Tom Hanks plays a US captain in post D Day France who's platoon have to find Ryan( Matt Damon), who's three brothers who have all been killed in the war, so he can be brought back to the USA.Much is made of the start of the film, pre finding Ryan involving the D Day landings on Omaha Beach, the sequence lasting just under half an hour and is full on realistic carnage. But the rest of the film is excellent, asking such questions as the validity of the mission,the shooting or not of prisoners, the bad things that men do in war, the reality of almost hand to hand warfare in bombed out towns.Indeed, the battle in the French town near of the film is as good as the opening scene. Hanks is superb, Damon does well in the small time he is on screen, while Barry Pepper (as the God praising sniper) & Jeremy Davies(as the scared/pacifist/cowardly soldier) also stand out. Also starring Tom Sizemore & Harrison Young. 8/10

I saw it in the cinema when it first came out, and it works really well, if perhaps going a bit self-consciously for the "2001 Space Odyssey" kind of gravitas at times.

Need to revisit this, saw it a long time ago, didn't really get my head around it at the time.

Frequency(2000) A sci fi tale in which a cop in contemporary New York, played by Jim Caviezel, makes contact with his father (Dennis Quaid), thirty years in the past, via ham radio. He is able to prevent his father's early death, but this leads to unforeseen circumstances. Once you get over the initial implausibility,(this radio link is caused by freak atmospheric conditions), this turns into a heart warming film, with plenty of inventive twists, nicely acted by the leads and other cast members, including Elizabeth Mitchell, Noah Emmerich, Shawn Doyle & Andre Broughier. 7.5/10

Star Trek Beyond - 8/10.

Another cracking adventure from the crew of the Enterprise. The villain was underused, but still good. Loving Jaylah too.
I think Simon Pegg should be very proud of himself. As has been mentioned...Sabotage
Clip (spoiler if you haven't seen the film) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdtwX6oRDSo

Mighty Joe Young(1949)

A young woman brings her giant silver back gorilla from Africa to California to escape poachers.Trouble of a different kind besieges them after they start their new lives.With good work from Terry Moore,Ben Johnson and Robert Armstrong(who was also in King Kong).Wonderful escapism with groundbreaking stop motion from Ray Harryhausen.

7/10

Dragonfly (2002) A grieving doctor(Kevin Costner) starts to believe his late wife(played by Susanna Thompson)is trying to contact him through childrens' near death experiences. I didn't really buy the supernatural basis of this film, although its a fairly good drama about grief with Costner turning into a convincing performance. The last 20 minutes of this film are pretty unbelievable, but the ending itself is moving. Also starring Joe Morton, Ron Rifkin, Kathy Bates(a fine supporting role), Robert Bailey Jr, Linda Hunt & Jacob Vargas. 6.5/10