By Ray Bennett
LONDON – In ‘Toy Story 4’, the beloved cowboy action figure contemplates leaving the old gang to go off with a beautiful outsider. In the United Kingdom’s version, the monarchy, a much-loved prince wants to do the same.
Think of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as Woody and Bo-Peep. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – Peter Cook, who died 25 years ago today aged 57, was the funniest person I ever saw and ever met. He was naturally, effortlessly funny but he was never ‘on’ in the way some comedians seem to always be performing. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – Happy 70th birthday to Erin Gray – co-star in Ricky Schroder’s long-running Eighties sitcom ‘Silver Spoons’ and many other TV roles including Col. Wilma Deering in ‘Buck Rogers in the 25th Century’ … still busy today, she was always a great interview.
She told me she loved the sci-fi show: “I loved the stunts. I loved having to swing a gun, climb mountains, fight the bad guys.” One of the highlights, she said, was working with Jack Palance on an episode titled ‘Planet of the Slave Girls’.
“As a child, Jack Palance was always the evil man and here he was the evil Kaleel. I was charging down a corridor to come face-to-face with Jack Palance and I’m supposed to attack him and save the world. I’m going, ‘I don’t believe this. This is what it’s all about. This is Hollywood.’”
By Ray Bennett
Martin Scorsese’s puerile veneration of low-life thugs and violent sociopaths reaches its apotheosis in his leadenly dull crime picture ‘The Irishman’, available now on Netflix.
Over nearly three-and-a-half tedious hours, he takes a hoodlum named Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro, top with Al Pacino) at face value as he makes dubious and unsupported claims about the number of men he murdered including the disgraced union mobster Jimmy Hoffa. Continue reading
By Ray Bennett
TORONTO – Alfre Woodard gives a profound and memorable performance in writer-director Chinonye Chukwu’s ‘Clemency’, a moving examination of the personal tolls exacted by the death penalty.
Most such stories focus on the victim and the condemned but Chukwu takes a rare look at the people whose job it is to carry out capital punishment. In particular, it’s about Warden Bernadine Williams (Woodard), who carries out her grim duties with a calm authority that belies the increasing doubts and tumult inside her. Continue reading
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
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
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
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
‘The Go-Between’ and ‘The Criminal’ restored for Blu-ray
By Ray Bennett
LONDON – Blacklisted American film director Joseph Losey was a major force in British cinema in the 1960s and ’70s and two of his best pictures – ‘The Go-Between’ and ‘The Criminal’ – will be released on Blu-ray on Sept. 16 as part of StudioCanal’s Vintage Classics collection. Continue reading →