Restored classic western ‘High Noon’ in UK debut on Blu-ray

Posted on September 10, 2019 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Fred Zinnemann’s Oscar-winning 1952 western ‘High Noon’ will be released for the first time on Blu-ray Disc in the United Kingdom on Sept. 16 by Eureka Entertainment. Continue reading →

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BAFTA to keep theatrical eligibility and add casting prize

Posted on August 7, 2019 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – BAFTA announced today that, following what it calls a “broad consultation”, eligibility rules regarding the theatrical release required for a film to qualify for the EE British Academy Film Awards will not change for 2020. It also said there will be a new award for casting and the Original Music award will be renamed Original Score. Continue reading →

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FILM REVIEW: ‘Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood’

Posted on July 26, 2019 by admin

 

By Ray Bennett

Quentin Tarentino’s ‘Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood’ is a lazy, self-indulgent and violent story about the unrequited love of a movie stuntman for a two-bit action star. Set in 1969, it’s a laboured bromantic comedy in which Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt, swans about trying to catch the eye of his employer, Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), who is too self-involved to see. It’s as if Richard Gere doesn’t notice Julia Roberts in ‘Pretty Woman’. Continue reading →

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TIFF19 announces first galas and closing film ‘Radioactive’

Posted on July 24, 2019 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Working Title’s 19th-century biopic “Radioactive”, starring Rosamund Pike (pictured) as Nobel Prize-winning scientist Marie Curie, will have its world premiere at the closing gala of the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 14.

Organisers announced a first raft of 18 galas and 38 special presentations including 29 world premieres and six international debuts for the 44th TIFF, which runs Sept. 5-15. Continue reading →

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Robbie Robertson and The Band doc to open TIFF 2019

Posted on July 18, 2019 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – The documentary feature ‘Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band’ will have its world premiere at the Opening Night Gala of the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 5, TIFF announced today. Continue reading →

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Sidney Lumet on high comedy and great acting

Posted on June 25, 2019 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – American filmmaker Sidney Lumet, who was born 95 years ago today and died in 2011, made a series of fine and gripping social dramas from the 1950s through the 1980s but he was a big fan of high comedy and the performers who could carry it off.

He told me, “I think there’s a large underestimation of high-comedy. For years, they kept saying, oh, Cary Grant, he’s charming but he can’t act but, by Jesus, that’s acting, let me tell you. It’s very hard acting, it’s wonderful acting. People equate seriousness with quality and that isn’t so.” Continue reading →

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‘Under Fire’ with Nolte, Cassidy and Hackman new on Blu-ray

Posted on June 17, 2019 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Great news! Roger Spottiswood’s excellent  1983 political thriller ‘Under Fire’ starring Nick Nolte, Gene Hackman, Joanna Cassidy,  Ed Harris and Jean-Louis Trintignant is out today on Blu-ray Disc in the U.K. from Eureka Entertainment. Continue reading →

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That time with a lobster on a boat off New Brunswick

Posted on May 11, 2019 by admin

By Ray Bennett / The Windsor Star / Feb. 19 1972

When eating a lobster, don’t break open its body on a boat in the Bay of Passamaquoddy, you may never eat lobster again.

Don’t misunderstand, the lobster in New Brunswick is as fine you’l get anywhere. There were members of our party, as we gently rode the Atlantic waters off southern New Brunswick in the the good ship Bo-peep, who devoured their lobsters with the nonchalance of a galloping gourmet. Continue reading →

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FILM REVIEW: Natalie Portman in ‘Vox Lux’

Posted on May 3, 2019 by admin

By Ray Bennett

TORONTO – Just as in ‘Jackie’ two years ago, Natalie Portman gives a scintillating performance of a driven and complicated woman in a not very successful picture. Director and screenwriter Brady Corbet’s ‘Vox Lux’, which opens today in the United Kingdom, tells of a pop superstar named Celeste who survived a mass murder as a teenager, is a bit of a mess but even though she enters the picture late, Portman is mesmerising. Continue reading →

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Cheers to our Will, not sorry old George

Posted on April 23, 2019 by admin

By Ray Bennett

Today is St. George’s Day named for the patron saint of several places  such as Aragon, Catalonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal and Russia. Oh, and England. We English, of course, don’t mark April 23 in the boozy way the Irish do on St. Paddy’s Day. That would never do. It happens also to be Shakespeare’s birthday and we’d much rather honour our Will. Continue reading →

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