Archive
SIRENS – Rachel Portman
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Sirens is an Australian comedy-drama film written and directed by John Duigan, starring Hugh Grant, Tara Fitzgerald, Sam Neill, and supermodel Elle MacPherson. It is loosely based on the life of artist and author Norman Lindsay, who was one of the most prolific and popular Australian artists of his generation, and is set in Australia in the 1920s. Grant plays Anthony Campion, an Anglican priest newly arrived in Australia from the United Kingdom, who is asked to visit Lindsay (Neill) by the church, who have concerns about a blasphemous painting of a crucifix that the artist plans to exhibit. When Campion and his reserved wife Estella (Fitzgerald) arrive at Lindsay’s home they are initially shocked to discover just how sexually free and uninhibited Lindsay, his wife Rose, and their beautiful ‘models’ are. However, as the days pass Estella finds herself increasingly intrigued by their relationship, which leads to her beginning to embrace her own sexuality in unexpected ways. Read more…
THE PRIMEVALS – Richard Band
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The story behind the new fantasy adventure movie The Primevals is quite fascinating. In the late 1960s filmmaker David Allen set out to make a movie paying homage to his beloved Edgar Rice Burroughs adventure stories, and he originally envisaged a film about an unevolved Viking society that was threatened by a race of malevolent lizard-men. As the years went by Allen had to repeatedly abandon and return to the project, due to lack of funding and various other issues, until eventually he teamed with low-budget filmmaker Charles Band and his production company Full Moon Entertainment. Finally, in the summer of 1994, Allen shot his film – now entitled The Primevals – but he was unable to finish the complicated post-production due to yet more financial difficulties. Allen tinkered with the special effects for almost five years, but then in 1999 he died of cancer, and the unfinished film sat dormant for nearly two decades afterwards, despite Charles Band and Allen’s protégé Chris Endicott repeatedly trying to raise enough money to finish the film. Eventually, in 2018, an online crowdfunding campaign was successful, and the film was completed – although, even here, much of the final FX work was done by Allen’s former colleagues donating their time for free. The film finally premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival in Canada in July 2023, and is now being released to the wider public, almost 55 years since it was first put into production. Read more…
HANGOVER SQUARE – Bernard Herrmann
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Actor Laird Cregar saw opportunity for a film adaptation of the popular 1941 novel “Hangover Square,” a murder melodrama by Patrick Hamilton. He convinced 20th Century Fox executive Darryl F. Zanuck to purchase the film rights, Robert Bassler was assigned production with a budget of $1.145 million, Barré Lyndon was hired to write the screenplay, and John Brahm was tasked with directing. A fine cast was recruited, including Laird Cregar as George Harvey Bone, Linda Darnell as Netta Langdon, George Sanders as Dr. Allan Middleton, Faye Marlowe as Barbara Chapman and Alan Napier as Sir Henry Chapman. Read more…
DUNE, PART TWO – Hans Zimmer
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The first true blockbuster of 2024, Dune Part Two is the continuation of director Denis Villeneuve’s epic adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction novel. I’m not going to recap the plot of the first film – if you’ve seen it, you know it, if you haven’t, go watch it – but it essentially picks up immediately where the first film ends, with young Paul Atreides, having survived the attack on his family that killed his father, heading into the desert with the Fremen, the native inhabitants of the desert planet Arrakis. Meanwhile the Harkkonens – the sworn enemies of House Atreides – have taken back stewardship of the planet and resumed mining the valuable ‘spice’ that is only found in Arrakis’s vast sand dunes. However, as Paul begins to adopt the Fremen ways, and falls in love with Fremen warrior Chani, his mother Jessica is subtly manipulating events in the background to bring about the prophecy that has followed Paul since his birth – that he is both the kwisatz haderach and lisan al gaib, a messiah figure across different cultures. Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, and Javier Bardem reprise their roles from the first film, while Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, and Christopher Walken, join the ensemble cast. Read more…
GOLDEN GATE – Elliot Goldenthal
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Golden Gate is a romantic drama written by acclaimed playwright David Henry Hwang, and directed John Madden. The film is set in San Francisco in the 1950s and stars Matt Dillon as FBI Agent Kevin Walker, who is sent with his partner to investigate potential links between the residents of San Francisco’s Chinatown and the emerging communist ‘threat’ posed by Chairman Mao’s China. His investigation leads to the prosecution and eventual imprisonment of several local residents on trumped-up charges, one of whom – Chen Jung Song – is clearly innocent. A decade later, Song and his cohorts are released, but Song has never recovered from his ordeal, and Walker watches as he jumps to his death from the Golden Gate Bridge. In the aftermath of this, Walker meets Song’s daughter Marilyn (Joan Chen), and the two of them unexpectedly embark on a torrid love affair – an affair which eventually causes Walker to begin to question his ethics and morals, and the part he played in her father’s death. Read more…
COVER GIRL – Jerome Kern, Ira Gershwin, Morris Stoloff, and Carmen Dragon
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Columbia Pictures wanted to showcase their star Rita Hayworth, the most popular pinup girl for American soldiers in WWII, and chose a musical romantic comedy to be adapted from the story “Cover Girl” by Erwin Gelsey. Arthur Schwartz was assigned production, Charles Vidor was tasked with directing, and Virginia Van Upp was hired to write the screenplay. Gene Kelly was on loan from MGM and was given creative control and would also manage choreography. Rita Hayworth would star as Rusty Parker. Joining her would be Gene Kelly as Danny McGuire, Lee Bowman as Noel Wheaton, Phil Silvers as Genius, and Jim Falkenburg as Jinx Faulkenberg. Read more…
MASTERS OF THE AIR – Blake Neely
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Masters of the Air is the latest TV mini-series from executive producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks looking at the American military experience in World War II. It serves as a companion piece its predecessors Band of Brothers (2001) and The Pacific (2010), as well as the 2020 movie Greyhound, and is based on the 2007 book of the same name by Donald L. Miller, which follows the actions of the 100th Bomb Group, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber unit in the Eighth Air Force in eastern England during World War II. Led by Gale ‘Buck’ Cleven and John ‘Bucky’ Egan, the group embarks on a series of dangerous missions to bomb targets inside German-occupied Europe. The series stars Austin Butler and Callum Turner as Buck and Bucky, with support from Anthony Boyle, Nikolai Kinski, and Saltburn’s Barry Keoghan. Read more…
MR. SKEFFINGTON – Franz Waxman
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Executive Jack L. Warner of Warner Brothers decided that the popular American Book of The Month Club novel “Mr. Skeffington” (1940) by Elizabeth von Arnim could be successfully adapted to the big screen. He purchased the film rights and would manage production along with the Epstein brothers, Julius and Philip. A $1.521 million budget was provided, the Epstein brothers would write the screenplay, and Vincent Sherman would direct. Casting was a challenge in that studio stars Merle Oberon, Hedy Lamar and Paul Henreid all turned down offers. Eventually Bette Davis accepted the role of Fanny Trellis Skeffington. Joining her would be Claude Rains as Job Skeffington, and Richard Waring as Trippy Trellis. Read more…
ON DEADLY GROUND – Basil Poledouris
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
An action thriller with an environmental protection theme, On Deadly Ground marked the directorial debut of action star Steven Seagal, who was hot off the unexpected critical and commercial success of his previous film Under Siege in 1992. Here Seagal plays Forrest Taft, an expert firefighter who gets involved in a conflict between an unscrupulous Alaska oil company and a local indigenous tribe, whose lands are being damaged by the oil company’s drilling methods and poor safety record. Things escalate when the head of the oil company orders his henchmen to eliminate anyone who knows about his company’s indiscretions, and the tribal leader is murdered; angered by the injustice, Taft teams up with the tribal leader’s daughter to take down the company. Despite an excellent supporting cast that included Joan Chen, John C. McGinley, R. Lee Ermey, a young Billy Bob Thornton, and Michael Caine chewing the scenery as the despicable head of the evil oil company, the film was unfortunately a critical disaster, appearing on many end-of-year ‘worst’ lists; much criticism was leveled at Seagal’s ham-fisted and amateurish direction, as well as the preachy tone of the film’s screenplay. Read more…
AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER – Takeshi Furukawa
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
I want to start this review by saying that, for the most part, I am coming to it from a place of complete ignorance. I am aware that there is a very well-loved and popular animated TV show called Avatar: The Last Airbender, which aired on Nickelodeon for three seasons between 2005 and 2008. This show was very loosely adapted into a live-action movie, The Last Airbender, by M. Night Shyamalan in 2010, which was a critical and commercial flop. There was also a sequel TV series, The Legend of Korra, which also aired on Nickelodeon for four seasons from 2012 to 2014. While I did see the Last Airbender movie, I have never seen any episodes of the original animated show, and while I very much liked James Newton Howard’s score for the movie, I have absolutely no experience with the scores for the animated shows, which are by Jeremy Zuckerman and Benjamin Wynn. Read more…
THE UNINVITED – Victor Young
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
During WWII Hollywood began to explore a new genre – paranormal or supernatural themed films. When Irish author Dorothy Macardle’s 1941 novel “Uneasy Freehold” was published in the United States as “The Uninvited” producer Charles Brackett believed he had found a story that needed to be brought to the big screen. He sold his vison to Paramount and would oversee production, Lewis Allen was tasked with directing, and the team of Dodie Smith and Frank Partos would write the screenplay. For the cast, Ray Milland would star as Roderick “Rick” Fitzgerald, joined by Ruth Hussey as Pamela Fitzgerald, Donald Crisp as Commander Beech, Cornelia Otis Skinner as Miss Holloway, and Gail Russel as Stella Meredith. Read more…
STORMSKERRY MAJA – Lauri Porra
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Stormskerry Maja is a new Finnish drama film directed by Tiina Lymi based on the acclaimed and famous ‘Stormskärs-Maja’ novels written by Anni Blomqvist in the 1960s and early 1970s. The film is set in the 19th century on the remote Åland Islands between Sweden and Finland and stars Amanda Jansson as the titular protagonist Maja. At the age of seventeen she is placed into an arranged marriage with a local fisherman, Janne, and immediately has to adapt to her new life as a fisherman’s wife, coping with her husband’s long absences at sea and taking care of her family alone. However, over time, Maja steadily grows into a strong-willed and independent woman who faces whatever life throws at her with strength and determination; the film follows the various hardships of her life, her triumphs and her tragedies, all against the atmospheric backdrop of this barren cluster of rocky islands in the Baltic Sea. Read more…
SHADOWLANDS – George Fenton
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Shadowlands is a British romantic drama film which looks at the profound personal and intellectual relationship between C. S. Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia fantasy books series, and the American poet Joy Gresham. The film is set in the 1950s and finds Lewis, a reserved, middle-aged bachelor teaching at Oxford University. He meets Gresham and her young son Douglas while she is on an academic tour of England; she is unhappily married, but does not reveal her troubles. What begins as a formal meeting of two minds slowly develops into a feeling of connection and love, and after Gresham divorces they marry – but their relationship will be tested when Joy is diagnosed with cancer. The film is directed by Richard Attenborough from a screenplay adapted from the stage work by William Nicholson, and stars Anthony Hopkins as Lewis and Debra Winger as Gresham. The film is one of those quiet, reserved, impeccably well-mannered British costume dramas, but it was nevertheless an enormous critical success, receiving Oscar nominations for Best Actress and Best Screenplay, and winning the BAFTA for Best British Film of 1993. Read more…
ARGYLLE – Lorne Balfe
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Having already given the world a series of spy comedy/action-thrillers in the Kingsmen series, writer/director Matthew Vaughan is back with a new take on the genre with his latest film, Argylle. The film stars Bryce Dallas Howard as Elly Conway, the introverted author of a series of popular espionage novels featuring the protagonist Argylle. While on a train journey to visit her parents, Elly is saved from an ambush by an actual spy, Aidan Wylde (Sam Rockwell), who explains to her that a shadowy organization known as the Division is targeting her because her novels seemingly predict the future. The film co-stars Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, and Samuel L. Jackson, as well as Henry Cavill, John Cena, and Dua Lipa as the ‘film within a film’ protagonists of the Argylle stories, and it starts out as a fun, breezy, enjoyable action comedy – but as the film drags on, with plot twist after plot twist, double-cross after double-cross, some unexpectedly ropey special effects, and a large number of action set pieces which become increasingly ridiculous, it all falls apart. There is a really great film lurking within the mess that Argylle turned out to be, and it’s a shame because with this cast, and this director, it should have been so much better. Read more…
FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO – Miklós Rózsa
GREATEST SCORES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Director Billy Wilder conceived of WWII film adapted from the 1917 play Hotel Imperial: Színmú Négy Felovonásban by Lajos Bíró. He sold the idea to Paramount Pictures, and secured the film rights. B. G. DeSylva was assigned production with a budget of $855,000, Wilder would direct, and he and Charles Brackett would write the screenplay. Casting was problematic as Wilder’s choice of Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman failed to materialize. So, he cast Franchot Tone as Corporal John Bramble/Davos, Anne Baxter as Mouche, Akim Tamiroff as Farid, Erich von Stromheim as Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, Peter van Eyck as Lieutenant Schwegler, and Fortunio Bananova as General Sebastiano. Read more…
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