The Good German - A Movie Review

****

(George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Tobey Maguire)

Set in Berlin shortly after the end of the war, with the 1945 Potsdam conference as a backdrop, this is a fairly standard thriller, with the Americans and Russians scrambling to get their hands on the Germans behind the V2 rocket program.

But what earns this movie four stars is the look and feel of the movie. The director, Steven Soderberg, has filmed it as if it was actually filmed in 1945. I have read that he only used film techniques that were available to the filmmaker of 1945 to give the film an authentic look. And he succeeds brilliantly. Think of watching 'Casablanca' and you'll get the idea.

Cate Blanchett is, as usual, very good as the downtrodden Berliner ; she really is a chameleon as an actor. Tobey Maguire is very creepy, and Clooney doesn't have to work too hard in his role. Jack Thompson also stars and is great, but boy has he stacked the weight on!

I love movies that try something different - 'A Scanner Darkly', 'Sin City' - and The Good German, whilst not pushing cinema to new heights, stands out from the current crop of movies on offer.

Scoop - A Movie Review

***1/2

(Woody Allen, Scarlett Johansson, Hugh Jackman)

First up, I am a Woody Allen fan, so this colour my judgement to an extent on this film. I am predisposed to like any Woody Allen film, especially the ones he also appears in.

Scoop is a lighthearted murder mystery set in London. Scarlett Johansson is Sondra Pransky, a wannabe journalist, on holiday in London. Allen is 'Splendini', an American magician performing in small halls in London. They are both visited by a recently departed famous journalist who tells them of a journalistic scoop - Lord Lyman (Hugh Jackman) is the serial killer known as the Taro Card killer. He pleads with them to follow up the story and bring Lyman to justice.

What follows is an enjoyable comic romp as the intrepid Pransky and the bumbling Splendini set about solving the mystery of who is the Taro Card killer. Is the highly respected Lord Lyman really the killer? And complications arise as Pransky and Lyman fall in love.

Woody Allen is as funny as ever with, as you'd expect some great one liners (in response to Pransky's taunt that he only ever sees the glass half empty, he replies ' no I see the glass half full, but full of poison'). Scarlett Johansson is great as the slightly nerdy Pransky, but Hugh Jackman is rather wooden ( as one reviewer put it and I agree) as Lord Lyman. Why they could not get a British actor to play the suave British aristocrat I'll never know.

All my family (two of whom are not great Allen fans) enjoyed this movie. One and a half hours of fun. Go see it!.

Hollywoodland - A Movie Review

Rating ****

(Adrien Brody, Ben Affleck, Diane Lane, Bob Hoskins)

Maybe I was just in the mood for some film noir, maybe it was the atmosphere of watching the movie in Luna's tiny cinema four, maybe it was getting in to see the sneak preview, whatever it was I loved this movie.

Adrien Brody stars as the private eye investigating the suicide of George Reeves (played by Ben Affleck), the man who was the TV series Superman (unfortunately I'm old enough to say I enjoyed that show). Set in late 1950's the movie tells the rather sad story of what happens when an actor becomes typecast. The movie perfectly portrays a seedy underbelly that lays under the glossy surface of LA, similar to the way James Ellroy's books do.

OK so Adrien Brody is the typical PI; a broken marrigae, battle with the bottle etc etc, but he plays the role to perfection. And what a hairstyle! Ben Affleck is great, and Diane Lane fits pefectly into the role of his older lover. Perhaps Bob Hoskins as the studio boss is slightly miscast.

Shades of Chinatown about this movie. Go see it if you like your film noir!