Change Your Image
MarkPeterD
Reviews
The Super-Rich and Us (2015)
A sign for our times
I have saved this documentary since it highlights so clearly the damage unconstrained capital and the ultra rich can cause to society. Yes this is a polemic with an undisguised agenda but it make the argument well, with lots of examples of how English people are shortchanged by go government policy down many years. Every school,child should be shown this. Since this documentary was made The world has become an even more uneven place. The answer is more taxes on wealth. The alternative is violent revolution.
A Good Year (2006)
Underrated!
This sweet romantic comedy is one my family keeps returning to time and again. Perhaps Russel Crowe is hard to accept doing light romantic comedy, which someone like Hugh Grant does so well, but look past "Gladiator" and he does a good job. The supporting cast are well chosen and on top form,- Albert Finney, Tom Hollander and Archie Punjabi are especially good. The scenery and soundtrack are great too. A real feel good movie.
Kylie: Live in Sydney (2001)
Peak Kylie- makes you want to get up and dance.
This is a great concert DVD.
One of the best ever filmed of any concert. Up there with Stop Making Sense and U2 in Chicago.
Kylie is at her peak (her "Can't get you out of my head" driven comeback) . Director Hamish Hamilton does a great job in one of his early productions. Kylie is well served by a great band on form and superb musical production, and her sexiest dancers and best choreography she ever had.
The packed Sydney audience are having enormous fun and the running order starts light and frothy, moves smoothly through a nostalgic medely and then onto a harder-core disco funk note ("Butterfly" etc ) that is simply great music, well performed.
Whether you like Kylie a little or a lot I defy you not to get up and dance at the infectious energy captured on this excellent DVD.
Black '47 (2018)
Succeeds on all levels - magnificent!
I saw Black 47 in Dublin last evening with my 23 yr old son and we both loved this movie, but in different ways. I thought it was a magnificent piece of movie making -historically and sadly accurate, as well as being an exciting revenge thriller in the style of any great Clint Eastwood western. My son simply loved the action and thrill of the central characters's chase - for him, the famine was just a background to the action.
Director Lance Daly and his writers have managed pull off the difficult feat of making a film about the Irish Famine, a universal soldier's lot, and a stubborn individual set on justice for the wronged, that is both resonant, thought provoking -not all the villains are English- and yet completely, absorbingly, thrilling. Even the end feels true to life and nicely ambiguous.
Charismatic acting from the leads, the great Hugo Weaving (Hannah) and newcomer James Frecheville (Feeney), gives a throbbing heart to the action, with Freddie Fox I-want-to-smack-his-smug-gob-perfect as a by-the-book arrogant military counterpoint . I am amazed to see Frecheville is actually Australian, his red bearded look and his English /Irish accent are so spot on (a comparative rarity in films set in Ireland :-).... ). His thousand yard stare is right up there with Clint Eastwood's, and his fight scenes are convincingly violent, dirty and nail biting.
The bleak Irish land plays a big role in Black 47, well served with beautiful cinematography - many shots look good enough to hang on any wall. Language is used to great effect - showing how it could be a big handicap for the poorest, categorise and divide the social classes and even yield a few sly laughs here and there.
The rest of the actors are well cast and deliver authentic performances - notably Stephen Rea playing a jaded professional story teller, guide and sleeveen to a tee and Jim Broadbent (once again) delivering a complex but repulsive portrayal of an English landowner.
There is a lot to think about in the film - for example I never really considered that not all parts of the country were equally blighted during the famine - some made out quite nicely thank you very much. So Black 47 is a history lesson wrapt up inside a gripping action move - you can enjoy it either way. I predict this will be a big hit in Ireland.