Tag Archive: Michael Gambon


HAIL CAESAR! directed by Joel & Ethan Coen (USA,2016)

large_large_ux5y8qjkszufab5vsaqxhndmyt3Friends, Romans,countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Hail Caesar!, not to praise it.

We all love the Coen Brothers, and not without cause, yet I am sad to report that this is one mess of a movie.

It’s as if the siblings decided to do a cut and paste job based on ideas left over from earlier films, then phoned round all their favorite actors to see who was available for a two hour love in.

There are some clever and amusing scenes but none of them lead anywhere because there is no coherent storyline to tie them together.

Along with the equally dire Burn After Reading from 2008, it is plain that what we have here is an ensemble cast that had more fun making a movie than the audience have watching it. Continue reading

THE NOT SO FANTASTIC MR. FOX

FANTASTIC MR. FOX directed by Wes Anderson (USA, 2009)

Wes Anderson (illustration by Jame Taylor)

With Wes Anderson’s new movie Moonrise Kingdom getting a lot of publicity at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, I was alerted to the fact that I had missed his Foxy predecessor.

It’s quite a strange film because, while it  looks like a kids movie, it probably holds more appeal for an adult, arty audience. Continue reading