Archive
THE LION IN WINTER – John Barry
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Producer Joe Levine had a contract with Peter O’Toole and was looking for a film to again showcase his talent. He found the vehicle in the Broadway play “The Lion In Winter” by James Goldman that offered dramatic dialogue, which would play to O’Toole’s thespian strengths. Anthony Harvey was brought in to direct the film and they hired an amazing cast to support Peter O’Toole (King Henry II), which included Katherine Hepburn (Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine), their three sons, Anthony Hopkins (Richard), John Castle (Geoffrey), and Nigel Terry (John). Also joining was Jane Morrow (Henry’s mistress Alais) and Timothy Dalton (King Philip II of France). Hopkins and Dalton were both making their screen acting debuts. Read more…
GUARDIAN OF THE SPIRIT [SEIREI NO MAMORIBITO] – Naoki Sato
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Guardian of the Spirit is a 4-episode live-action Japanese television miniseries which aired on the NHK network in March and April 2016. Directed by Keiji Kataoka, it is an adaptation of a popular series of historical action-fantasy novels by author Nahaoko Uehashi, and tells the story of a mysterious spear-wielding warrior named Balsa who, shortly after arriving in the New Yogo Kingdom, saves the life of Prince Chagum from a thinly veiled assassination attempt. When it is revealed that the attempt was ordered by Chagum’s own father, Emperor Mikado, Balsa is hired to protect him; as they travel together, Balsa’s complicated past begins to come to light, and they uncover Chagum’s mysterious connection to a legendary water spirit with the power to destroy the kingdom. Read more…
10 CLOVERFIELD LANE – Bear McCreary
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A ‘spiritual successor’ to the 2008 film Cloverfield, 10 Cloverfield Lane is the directorial debut of Dan Trachtenberg. It stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Michelle, a young woman who, after breaking up with her boyfriend and then crashing her car, wakes up in an underground bunker, chained to the wall, and with a broken leg. The well-stocked and surprisingly comfortable bunker is owned by Howard (John Goodman), a survivalist and doomsday prepper, who gradually explains that some sort of ‘attack’ has occurred outside, rendering the atmosphere toxic, and that he brought her to his bunker after finding her crashed car, saving her life. Michelle also meets Emmett (John Gallagher, Jr.), one of Howard’s neighbors, who fought his way into the bunker after the supposed attack occurred. Over time, the three of them learn to coexist in their tense proximity, despite Howard’s paranoia and unstable personality, but soon events cause Michelle to wonder whether Howard’s claims about the outside world are true. Read more…
F/X – Bill Conti
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
F/X is an action-thriller directed by Robert Mandel, starring Australian actor Bryan Brown as Rollie Tyler, a Hollywood movie special effects expert. Rollie is approached by the US Justice Department to fake the death of a Mafia informant (Jerry Orbach), so that he can enter the witness protection program and, later, testify against his former mob bosses. Of course, as generally tends to happen in films like this, Rollie gets double-crossed by the people who hired him, and he must exploit his unique talents to clear his name and unmask those behind the conspiracy. The film co-stars Brian Dennehy, Diane Venora, Cliff De Young, and Mason Adams, and was enough of a critical and commercial success to allow for a 1991 sequel, F/X2: The Deadly Art of Illusion, and a short lived 1990s TV spinoff. Read more…
EDDIE THE EAGLE – Matthew Margeson
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The 1988 Winter Olympics are the first ones I remember consciously watching. Four years after Torvill and Dean stunned the world in Sarajevo, Calgary’s snowy spectacle gave us indelible memories of the Jamaican bobsled team, Katarina Witt and the Battle of the Brians on the skating rink, the all-conquering Alberto Tomba “La Bomba” on the ski slopes, and of course Eddie the Eagle. Michael “Eddie” Edwards was a fairly decent downhill skier, but it was his efforts in ski jumping that brought him to the attention of the world; despite a desperate lack of funds, terrible nearsightedness which forced him to wear thick bottle-bottom glasses when he jumped, and the disapproval of the sport’s governing body, Edwards took part anyway, competing as the only British ski jumper at the games. He finished dead last in his two events, a significant distance behind the athletes who finished second last – Bernat Sola of Spain, and Todd Gillman of Canada, for trivia fans – both of whom had more than double his score. In most other countries, Edwards would not have been a sports star, but the British love a plucky loser almost as much as they love a world champion winner, and so he was taken to their hearts, and for a brief time became a genuine celebrity, a true example of the Olympic ethos that it is not the winning, but the taking part, that counts. Read more…
THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE – Elmer Bernstein
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Julie Andrews was the toast of Hollywood in the 1960s and her success in Mary Poppins (1964) and The Sound of Music (1966) made her the most popular and highest paid actress of the day. Universal Studios and producer Ross Hunter sought to capitalize on her popularity and so decided to adapt the British musical “Chrysanthemum” (1956) for her next musical. Richard Morris was hired to write the screenplay and George Roy Hill tasked with directing the film. Hill brought in a fine ensemble to support Julie Andrews (Millie Dillmount), which included Mary Tyler Moore (Dorothy Brown), James Fox (Jimmy Smith), John Gavin (Trevor Graydon), Carol Channing (Muzzy van Hossmere) and Beatrice Lillie (Mrs. Meers). Read more…
DAD’S ARMY – Charlie Mole
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
“Who do you think you are kidding, Mr. Hitler, if you think we’re on the run? We are the boys who will stop your little game, we are the boys who will make you think again. ‘Cos who do you think you are kidding, Mr. Hitler, if you think old England’s done?”
For Brits of a certain generation, the lyrics to the theme tune from Dad’s Army will have a warm, nostalgic appeal. A massively popular sitcom which began airing in 1968 and ran until 1977, Dad’s Army was set in the small English coastal town of Walmington-on-Sea at the height of World War II, and followed the comic adventures of the members of its Home Guard, a volunteer force made up of men too old to perform standard military service, but who would provide the first line of defense in the event of a German invasion. The show’s characters and their catchphrases have become part of the British cultural lexicon, including the pompous and officious Captain Mainwaring (“stupid boy!”), the laconic Sergeant Wilson, the naïve Private Pike, the dour and pessimistic Private Frazer (“we’re all doomed!”), the sweet and introverted Private Godfrey, and the brave but habitually accident-prone Lance Corporal Jones. Read more…
HIGHLANDER – Michael Kamen
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Despite only being a modest hit when it was first released during the early months of 1986, Highlander has gone on to be a cult classic, and is now considered one of the most influential and well regarded sci-fi action movies of the decade. Directed by Russell Mulcahy, the film stars Christopher Lambert as Conor MacLeod, born in Scotland in the year 1518, who gradually discovers that he is an ‘immortal’, one of many such men who are destined to fight one another across time, and who can only be killed by complete decapitation. When one immortal decapitates another, the survivor receives a transfer of power called a “quickening,” and eventually, after all the immortals have battled until there is only one left alive, the last survivor will receive “the prize” of immense knowledge about the nature of the universe. After receiving training and education from Spanish nobleman Ramirez (Sean Connery), a fellow immortal, MacLeod gradually battles his way to 1980s New York, where he lives under the assumed identity of an antiquities dealer named Russell Nash. However, a string of beheadings in the city brings MacLeod into contact with NYPD detective Brenda Wyatt (Roxanne Hart) and – worst of all – the evil immortal Kurgan (Clancy Brown), who will stop at nothing to claim the Prize for himself. Read more…
BORN FREE – John Barry
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Producers Carl Forman, Sam Jaffe and Paul Radin came across the book “Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds” (1960) by renowned naturalist Joy Adamson, and believed her heart-warming tale could be brought to the big screen. They purchased the film rights and hired screenwriter Lester Cole to forge the screenplay. For the cast, Director James Hill brought in veteran British actors Virginia McKenna (Joy Adamson) and Bill Travers (George Adamson) to lead an ensemble, which included Geoffrey Keen (John Kendall), Peter Lukoye (Nuru), Surya Patel (the Doctor) and Geoffrey Best as (Watson). Read more…
THE WITCH – Mark Korven
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
One of the most unexpected critical successes of 2016 is The Witch, a supernatural horror film set during the earliest days of the colonization of North America. The directorial debut of young filmmaker Robert Eggers, The Witch stars Ralph Ineson and Kate Dickie as William and Katherine, who despite their exceptional devoutness, are banished from a Puritan Christian plantation in New England circa the year 1630. Months later, William and Katherine and their five children – including a newborn baby – are eking out a meager existence on a farm at the edge of a vast forest; one day, the baby is abducted by a mysterious figure while in the care of the eldest daughter, Tomasin (Anya-Taylor-Joy), adding more strain to the already desperate family. As time goes on, the almost fanatically religious family comes to believe that supernatural forces are at work, and the spectre of witchcraft comes to the fore, with the family’s two youngest children suspecting Tomasin of dabbling in the dark arts… Read more…
THE DELTA FORCE – Alan Silvestri
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Action movies were box office gold in the 1980s, and in the wake of the success of films starring the likes of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger a number of B-movie action-heroes enjoyed their own moment in the sun. One of those heroes was Chuck Norris, a Korean War veteran and martial arts grand master, who began making a series of action-adventure films in the late 1970s and early 1980s with the Cannon Films studio, and enjoyed a slew of moderate box office hits including 1983’s Lone Wolf McQuade, and 1984’s Missing in Action. The Delta Force, which was released early in 1986, remains the most successful film of Norris’s career; directed by Menahem Golan, it stars Norris as Major Scott McCoy, the leader of an elite commando unit tasked with rescuing the passengers of a commercial airliner taken hostage by Lebanese hijackers. The film co-starred Lee Marvin, Robert Vaughn, Robert Forster, and Martin Balsam, and had an original score by the then 35-year-old Alan Silvestri. Read more…
MARY POPPINS – Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Walt Disney had long kept the book Mary Poppins in his office and was determined to one day bring it to the big screen for his daughters. The book series authored by P. L. Travers offered a series of fantastic tales, which unfortunately lacked a cohesive story. Disney tasked the Sherman brothers and screenplay writer Don DaGradi to create a cogent narrative. Robert Stevenson was tasked with directing the film and he secured a fine cast, which included Julie Andrews making her acting debut as Mary Poppins, Dick Van Dyke as Bert, David Tomlinson as George Banks, Glynis Johns as Winifred Banks, and Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber the Banks children Jane and Michael. The story tells the tale of a nanny who comes to the aid of a family in disarray. She uses her magical gifts to bring back joy into the lives of the children, but to also reconnect George with his family. The movie was both a critical and commercial success earning eight Academy Award nominations, winning five for Best Actress, Best Film Editing, Best Special Effects, Best Original Song and Best Film Score. Read more…
DEADPOOL – Tom Holkenborg
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
By far the biggest and most successful movie in the first quarter of 2016, Deadpool is an irreverent, massively entertaining super-hero film spinning off from the X-Men universe. Ryan Reynolds stars as Wade Wilson, a former special forces op and mercenary-for-hire who is tricked into undergoing a radical treatment as a last ditch attempt to cure his terminal cancer. However, Wade is betrayed by those who promised to help him, and is instead subjected to extended periods of torture on behalf of a shadowy organization attempting to create an army of invincible slaves; the ordeal awakens latent mutant genes which give him super-human powers of re-generation, and cures his cancer, but leaves him terribly scarred. Escaping from his captors, Wilson adopts a new persona as Deadpool and sets about bringing those who tortured him to justice. Meanwhile, Deadpool’s new mutations capture the attention of the X-Men, two of whom – Colossus and Negasonic – track him down and attempt to convince him to join their group. The film is directed by Tim Miller, co-stars Ed Skrien, Morena Baccarin, and Gina Carano, and has an original score by Tom Holkenborg. Read more…
Best Scores of 2015 – Asia
The sixth and final installment in my series of articles looking at the best “under the radar” scores from around the world concentrates on music from films from Asia, although all of main ones this year are from the far eastern nation of Japan, with a couple of interlopers from Iran and the Lebanon. In this article, I’m taking a deeper look at several truly excellent works, which range in scope from anime movies and prestigious TV series to fantasy adventures, small-scale dramas, and religious epics. Read more…
TOM JONES – John Addison
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Producer and director Tony Richardson drew inspiration from an 18th century English novel “A History of Tom Jones, a Foundling”, by Henry Fielding. He hired John Osborne to adapt it to the big screen and cast the film audaciously, selecting rising star Albert Finney for the titular role. Rounding out the cast was Susannah York (Sophie Western), Edith Evans (Miss Western), Joan Greenwood (Lady Ballaston), Hugh Griffith (Squire Western) and making his film debut, David Warner as the villain Blifil. The story offers a classic period piece full of drama, treachery, seduction and intrigue. Squire Allworthy discovers an infant on his bed and chooses to raise little Tom Jones as if he were his own son. Tom’s grows up to become an attractive, dashing, and very popular young man with the ladies, It comes to pass that he falls madly in love with Sophie, who returns his affections. Yet there is an insurmountable impediment – Tom is stigmatized as a bastard, and Sophie’s father forbids her to wed a man below her station. Blifil who seeks Allworthy’s estate engineers Tom’s dishonor and dismissal by Squire Allworthy. An irrepressible Tom however is not to be denied, and he travels far and wide, all the time enjoying a multiplicity of women, fine food and drink along the way! As fate would have it he ultimately triumphs, overcoming all obstacles set against him, and earns Sophie’s hand in marriage when his true identity as Bridget’s Allworthy’s illegitimate son and Allworthy’s nephew is finally revealed. The film was both a commercial and critical success, earning an amazing ten Academy Award nominations, winning four, for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Score. Read more…
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