Brian's Thoughts on Movies

I just saw the film Destroyer which stars Nicole Kidman, who plays an LA cop named Erin who as a young deputy goes undercover with a gangs and suffers an experience which affects the rest of her life.   About three quarters of the film focuses on Bell about 17 years later, which is more age appropriate for Kidman, who is 51.   At this stage Bell is weathered and very disillusioned and obsessed with catching the head of the gang who had gotten away.   There have been many films and shows about male cops who have been beaten down by life but this is the first time I have seen it from a female perspective.   Kidman is equally convincing playing Bell in both time periods without the digital de-ageing process used in the Marvel movies. As I watched the film I started thinking about Kidman’s career and how she, despite her leading lady looks and talent, often gravitates toward challenging material.   For many years she was known as Tom Cruise’s wife and the accompanying stardom may hav

“Only the Second James Bond thriller Film can be more exciting than than the first”  So said the tagline of the release trailer for From Russia With Love.   If you have not seen the film I recommend you skip it, along with the all the trailers of the early Bond films.   They express great enthusiasm but show all of the movies’ set pieces without cutting in from other scenes so, even more than today’s spoiler filled trailers, you are watching a highlight of the film.   The trailer for From Russia With Love is especially offensive as its opening shots reveals how Bond gets out of his most precarious predicament in the film. Nonetheless, I utterly agree with the trailer’s tagline.   Dr No, the first film in the series, is a more low key (and budget) introductory adventure that establishes the Bond, M, and Moneypenny characters and has a memorable villain and, leading lady, but is dated with obvious backscreen projection during a car chase and a melodramatic score by Monty Norman