Films 2020
| Title | Rating | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Death to 2020 |  |
A take off review of the year with some celebrity actors. Some quite funny points. |
| About Time | |
A very silly time travel movie but I wanted to see Bill Nighy playing himself - he always does. Touching at the end, nothing like a portion of schmalz.. |
| Expedition Happiness | |
Documentary of a road trip on on old US schoolbus. Canada, the US and Mexico. Ruedi the Sennenhund found it all a bit much. |
| Falling Inn Love | |
Silly Romcom set in Thames, New Zealand. I knew I should have done the North Island.. |
| The Midnight Sky | |
A bit slow-moving with a simple plot. Not entirely credible even forgetting the impossibility of space travel beyond our system. Oh and not including the level of destruction we have wreaked on earth... |
| Home for Christmas | |
A silly series set in a small village in Norway. Relationships around the Xmas time. Heartwarming, but then again I am mega wet... |
| 2 Days in Paris | |
A fast moving romcom, but really quite strange. Quote: "Like dating Public Television" |
| The Pajama Game (1957) | |
Just sweet, from a different era. Loved some of the songs. I remember seeing this, well at least the song - "This is my Once a Year Day" Silly... |
| Prom | |
Hollywood schmalz, and not very good schmaltz either. Very colourful. Netflix |
| Der kalte Himmel | |
Two-part German TV programme about an autistic child with mathematical talent from a hopp farm in deepest Bavaria. Excellent acting. |
| Suburra | |
Set in Roma, criminals carving up the city, killing and manipulationg their way to riches. Well done drama, but a few script failures. Netflix. |
| The Life After | |
An excellent film, not over the top and Italy is a perfect location for the story. Very good performances and Sofia Loren still has the magic. Netflix |
| Nowhere Boy | |
Not a good film. Not sure about the storyline.Nonetheless it was a pretty bad start for John Lennon. One can understand where his anger and turmoil came from. |
| On Chesil Beach | |
Great scenery at the beginning. A very awkward film about two people getting to know each other 50 years back and then getting married. The woman then rejects him. What a hopeless, depressing situation. It actually makes me feel poorly. |
| Cadillac Man | |
Robin Williams as a car salesman, Joey O'Brian. The salesroom is taken over by a young man with a rifle. The day is saved because he manages to calm down the situation. |
| The Night Manager | |
Tense thriller with an excellent cast and script. Most enjoyable. |
| The Mandalorian | |
The Starwars bounty hunter. Watched the fist season - a delight! |
| Elisabethtown | |
Not a well thought-out film, actually a mess. Tom Cruise shows his director skills - Haha. |
| Zero Dark Thirty | |
A dramatisation of the killing of Obama Bin Laden - Some interesting scenes, humanity, what a mess. |
| Extinction: The Facts | |
Very worrying.I wonder how much this man of nature will be listened to. XR are right and must be supported. How we deal with all the right-wing politicians and their business friends is unclear to me, but there is hope in the current youngsters. |
| The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty | |
A 3-part story of the rise and fall (phone hacking) of the Empire. The fall of James and the rise of the support for Brexit and Trump. Fox and Trump become a team. This heavily right-wing, anti-government family is a blot on the media landscape. Unfortunately there is little we can do to stop them having undue influence on our politics. Murdoch has polluted the British and world press and media. |
| The Old Man and the Gun | |
Nice story with Robert Redford and acouple of other old guys. |
| A Beautiful day in the Neighbourhood | |
Not too sure what the point is, unless it's just for us to be human? |
| Last Tango in Halifax | |
The latest series - Sarah Waignwright writes good scripts. A familiy in Yorkshire. |
| Better Call Saul | |
About the antics of a failing lawyer. What a hoot! Netflix |
| I lost my Body | |
A strange animation set in Paris. A boy wants to impress a girl. This flick doesn't really come together as a story. Netflix |
| Okja | |
I could well become vagetarian. Netflix |
| The Butler | |
A somewhat disjointed film, but interesting and a host of stars. |
| Snowpiercer | |
A rather silly series about a train full of very rich people circling the planet. A statement about the inequality of our current (western) society and the influence of private corporations. Netflix |
| Sex Education | |
A series set in beautiful Wales, the Wye Valley, where a bunch of teenagers are exploring. Netflix |
| Book Club | |
Silly, with a star cast of women and men. Netflix |
| Catch the Wind Prendre le Large) |
|
A story film about a French woman who looses her job and instead of taking redundancy, accepts a transfer to Tangier. She finds friends and regains the relationship with her son. |
| The Panama Papers | |
A documentary on the revelations from the point of view of the German journalist whose life has been largely about revealing financial injustice. The biggest leak in history, supported by the ICIJ. |
| All Roads Lead to Rome | A silly movie about a woman and her daughter who arrive in Italy. It is so crappy, it's funny, and the acting... Haha. | |
| The Children Act | |
A lady judge is so busy with her cases she ignores her man. It comes to a head, in the open. Well acted by Emma Thompson, Ben Chaplin and Stanley Tucci. Based on the novel by Ian McEwan. |
| Once | |
A busker in Dublin has had a huge letdown, but a lovely woman from the Czech Republic befriends him. They sing some of his songs together. |
| Fisherman's Frends | |
A silly little movie about a gang of Cornish fisherman who get "discovered" and make a CD. Great scenery and a touching story. |
| Moneyball | |
Watched before, but Brad Pitt is good, so is Jonah Hill. A great story though I don't understand much about Baseball. |
| Private Life | |
Paul Giamatti in a well filmed flick about a couple who want to have a baby and take several routes. Kathryn Hahn is good too. Netflix |
| The Conversation (1974) | |
Gene Hackmann and a young Harrison Ford in a story of a surveillance guy who develops a conscience because he fears a couple will be murdered. |
| The Post | |
Netflix - Nice a view from inside the newspaper as the papers on the Vietnam War broke. Tom Hanks and Meril Streep. Good |
| The Highwaymen | |
Netflix - An interesting view of the end of Bonnie & Clyde from the point of view of the Texas Rangers who tracked them down and helped to kill them. Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson. Lots of nice cars. |
| Dunkirk | |
Not impressed, seems to me it's a sap to Brexiteers. |
| Blade Runner 2049 | |
I found it a bit long-winded, but quite good. The story is a bit convoluted. |
| American Factory | |
Netflix - a production by the Obamas. A look at how a US factory bought by a Chinese billionnaire progresses. SMile! My goodness we are so different, I can't really see how this experiment of having the Chinese manufacture most goods and how we cope with their new-found power is going to end well. |
| The Party | |
Sally Potter's most enjoyable black comedy. A reflection of English society. Made me smile. An all star cast including the missed Bruno Ganz. Timothy Spall, Kristin Scott Thomas and Patricia Clarkson. |
| Marriage Story | |
Also a Netflix production up for some Oscars. Exceptional acting about a marriage breakdown.
Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson.
As important today as "Kramer vs Kramer" was all those years ago. Pretty upsetting as expected. |
| The Laundermat | |
Based in a book about the Monseca Fonseca organisation and the resultung "Panama Papers" revelation as revealed by the ICIJ. Meryl Streep does a good job. Since then little has changed in spite of more scandals. Just this week ICIJ revealed the goings on with the daughter of the President of Angola. Our system is broken - it only really works for the billionnaire class. |