Brian's Thoughts on Movies

Thunderball and Never Say Never Again are unique pair of films.  The latter is a remake of the former and both star the same actor, Sean Connery.  It is not uncommon for a remake to feature an original cast member in a different role (a la Michael Caine in Sleuth in which he played one of the two leads in the  first film version and then the other one in the -far inferior- second one).  The remake of Cape Fear, which I like more than the original, features the original stars Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum in small but crucial roles.  In my post for Vanilla Sky I discussed that Penelope Cruz played the same role in both the Spanish language original and the English language remake a few years later, but she was the second lead.   Generally remakes cast different leads either because they are made many years apart or in a different language.  Never Say Never Again curiously takes the original James Bond, pairs him with different behind the scene...

Superman The Movie was one of my first movie going experiences and then as now I ate it up.  As I have mentioned before I do not read many comic books, (though I did read “The Death of Superman” when it came out in 1992), so my exposure to Superman has mostly been on the big and small screens.  Unsurprisingly Christopher Reeve is my favorite Superman but my affinity for the Bond films has prepared me well for casting changes.  The other actors all have found their own approach to the role in their respective mediums. In anticipation of my discussion of Batman v. Superman; Dawn of Justice film, I want to take a brief look back the other Superman films.  I was pretty mixed on Man of Steel, liking Henry Cavill’s portrayal and the alien discovery elements of the story,  but did not appreciate the excess of destruction and some of the horrible dialogue.  I have never rewatched it in full through I have seen a few moments on cable once or twice.  A...

“Spectre (is) a particular treat for 007 nerds and a businesslike blast for everyone else” (Variety, November 2015) SPECTRE was the criminal organization that served as the primary antagonist in the 60s Bond films (and three of the Fleming books), and was headed by Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who became James Bond’s archenemy.   Despite several casting changes (in the Eon films four different Blofelds faced off with three different Bonds) Blofeld still had the greatest impact.   Blofeld’s offscreen performances in from Russia With Love and Thunderball (in which viewers did not see his face) were the most terrifying.   Of his onscreen performances I thought Telly Savalas (in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service) was the best. After the title was announced in December 2014, I expected the return of Blofeld since the Eon producers recently recovered the rights to the character and Spectre after several decades (I am not sure they ever really lost them but Kevin McClory s...

“I never should have got out of the car.” Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) in Cast Away Cast Away is my favorite Tom Hanks film.   Hanks’ second collaboration with director Robert Zemeckis tells the story of a Federal Express system engineer named Chuck Noland who is stranded on a desert island in the South Pacific.   I am naturally drawn to survival stories that show normal people who confront unexpected situations. The Edge, All Is Lost, Life of Pi, and The Martian have some similar themes that I also enjoy. As always I will be discussing the third act of the film in detail so please consider this a spoiler alert. Time is a key theme of the film.   Except for the opening shots in the Texas panhandle, the first act of the film is swift as Chuck rushes from a Fedex hub in Moscow (one of his first lines is “tick-tock, tick tock”) lecturing the employees on increasing productivity, to Red Square, then through Paris to Memphis for an all too short Christmas dinner,...