Brian's Thoughts on Movies

                                                    12 Years a Slave   Please note this essay does discuss the entire film so please avoid until after seeing the film if you do not want the end or key scenes spoiled 12 Years a Slave is Steve McQueen’s film adaptation of Solomon Northup’s memoir about a free black musician in 1841 who lived in Saratoga Springs, New York who was kidnapped, sold into slavery and sent to work on various plantations in Louisiana where he remained for 12 years until he was able to prove his status as a free man and secure his release.  The film is pretty faithful to the book, which is told in the first person.  I have not seen Hunger or Shame, Steve McQueen’s other two films.  The cast includes: Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Michael Fassbender, Luipta Nyong’o, Sarah Paulson, Alfre Woodard and Brad Pitt. I knew prior to seeing this film that it would be uncomfortable at times but one scene, in particular, to b

Please note this posting discusses the entire film (and the story behind it) so if you are not familiar with the story it will be discussed in full here. When I high school I read the book  Mutiny on The Bounty  by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall about the famous mutiny that took place on the HMS Bounty in 1789.  After seeing the movie the class saw the 1935 film starring Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian and Peter Laughton as Captain William Bligh.  In both the book and the film (I never saw the 1962 version with Marlon Brando) Fletcher Christian is presented as righteous, since Bligh is portrayed as monstrous.  Bligh redeems himself with his leadership of his officers during the trip across the Pacific in a rowboat but I left both feeling more sympathy for Christian.  Recently I saw the 1984 version with Anthony Hopkins as Captain Bligh and Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian.  This version is more daring and according to more than one source, a little closer to the truth of

                               Man of Steel Please note, this posting discusses the entire film so if you want to remain spoiler free I would avoid this until after seeing it. I recently watched Zack Snyder’s film Man of Steel.   To give some perspective I have only glanced at one or two Superman comics, but was a young child when the first Christopher Reeve movie came out.   I saw all the Christopher Reeve films in the theatre and loved the first two, disliked the third and thought Superman IV: The Quest for Peace had subpar effects and an underdeveloped plot but had some good character moments.    When Superman Returns came out I loved it.   Someday I will do an analysis of it but I thought although perhaps it worked too much from the template of Superman The Movie it was exciting and well-cast and I was thrilled that director Bryan Singer used the old John Williams score. When Man of Steel was announced, which I think was at one point a possible title for a sequel to

Pierce Brosnan’s fourth James Bond film turned out to be his last, though no one knew it at the time.   It was the biggest financial success of his films, earning over $400 million worldwide but was also widely disliked, due to the overreliance on bad visual effects and a story that had an excess of science fiction elements.    Bond films have often stretched technology to some degree but the second half of Die Another Day could be planted into a Star Trek film quite comfortably. Spoilers abound below so be warned:  Die Another Day was released on the 40 th  anniversary of the Bond films and inserted countless references to the series long history, such as having Halle Berry come out of the sea in a manner similar to Honey Ryder in Dr No and her subsequent dialogue with Bond has lines lifted from when Tatiana first met Bond in From Russia With Love.    There were also a lot of gadgets and stunts that directly referenced previous entries which I thought to be excessive.    Skyf