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I'm not posting my reviews every week now since the site traffic is so low. I'll just post a few together maybe each month or so. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) dir George Roy Hill The first of two films watch the weekend after the death of Robert Redford. Probably Redford's most famous role, and the one that gave the name to the film festival he founded. Paul Newman and Robert Redford star in the title roles, loosely based on the true story of two wild west outlaws in the 19th – early 20th century. After a series of train robberies they find them selves on the run from a team of lawmen with an expert tracker. The decide to go to Bolivia, with Sundance's Spanish speaking girlfriend played by Kathrine Ross, who for me outshines the two highly talent male leads at times. It's a great story, light-hearted at times, and with plenty of the sort of shoot-outs you expect in a Western. There's a very good score by Burt Bacharach, including the song Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head and some impressive cinematography with the opening and some later scenes shot in a very old-style black and white. The story is in some ways reminiscent of that between Arthur and Dutch in RDR2, they even mention wanting to go to Australia after they've done with Bolivia. 9 / 10 The Great Gatsby (1974) dir Jack Clayton. The second Redford film, this watched with my wife so one more to her liking, but one I remember seeing manty years ago and it always seemed another iconic role for him that he was very well suited to. He plays the tile character in an adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald tragic novel of the same name. Jay Gatbsy is a mysterious, reclusive, millionaire living in his New York mansion where he throws lavish parties throughout the summer, sometime in the early 1920s. The story is told, mainly, from the point of view of a young Wall Str. banker, Nick (Sam Waterson), who is renting a normal sized house next to Gatsby's estate. His cousin Daisy (Mia Farrow) is Gatsby's long lost love and now lives with her husband Tom (Bruce Dearn), also a millionaire, in another estate nearby, across the bay that separates the fictitious Long Island villages of West and East Egg. The story of what happened in the past between Gatsby and Daisy, before the then Lt. Gatsby went off to fight in the First World War, slowly unfolds. It implies Daisy only married Tom for his money which Gatsby, at that time, did not have much of, and now she may be regretting it. In fact how Gatsby acquired his money is never really clear and he tells different people contradictory stories about it, but given this is the time of prohibition there is a strong suspicion he may not have acquired it all legally. There is also a connected plot line about Tom's mistress, Myrtle (Karen Black), something he barely bothers to try and hide, who is the wife of local mechanic / gas-station owner, played by Scott Wilson, who to me puts in the best acting performance of a very good cast, as a troubled, poor, man lacking in self-confidence and knowing he is powerless against the likes of the ultra-rich Tom and Gatsby. Having said all that, I should make it clear the story definitely portrays Gatsby as the good guy to Tom's villain. It has some very stylish sets and costumes and good Jazz-era music (which it got Oscar nominations and wins for). Redford is very good, but that was par for the course with him, although he is barely in the first half hour of the film. 8 / 10 Mindhorn (2016) dir Sean Foley Julian Barratt, more well known in TV comedy, plays middle aged actor, Richard Thorncroft, who's only real claim to fame was back in the 80s when he had a hit TV show playing detective Mindhorn. He gets asked to help police with a murder investigation because the deranged killer was a big fan, seems to think Mindhorn was real and is threatening to kill again unless he gets to talk to his hero. It's all set on the Isle of Man where the TV series was set and filmed. (The Isle of Man is a part of the British Isles in the sea between Britain and Ireland with some degree of autonomy but not actually an independent country. It has bit of a reputation for people who are a bit strange. But they don't seem to mind playing up to that stereo type for comedy value.) Thorncroft goes back to the island, and being a “serious” actor, really gets back into and stays in his character, ending up trying to solve the case himself. Barratt is perfect for this role, he is the sort of person who does a funny character in a slightly weird but trying to be normal way, so either that's actually him in real life or he only does those sort of roles. There's good support from various others, including Essie Davis, Steve Coogan and Simon Farnaby, all playing people who used to be in Mindhorn but, unlike Thorncroft, stayed on the Isle of Man after the show finished. Andrea Riseborough is a good as the actual detective and Russell Tovey as the killer (or is he? - Thorncroft/Mindhorn aims to get to the truth!) Also Kenneth Branagh and Simon Callow make cameo appearances as themselves. It's obviously a comedy and not to be taken seriously at all with some moments I found very funny. It pokes fun at 70s/80s cop shows. The plot has a habit of appearing to go in quite predictable directions, but then making a twist to somewhere else, so I would say it was well written, by Barratt and Farnaby. 7 / 10 The Thursday Murder Club (2025) dir Chris Columbus My wife's choice of film, and one I was happy to go along with since this was adapted from the novel of the same name by Richard Osman. I haven't read that, but I enjoy his wit and intelligence in his TV appearances, e.g. quiz/game shows he presents. So I expected a decent plo, but I was disappointed and a little bored at times. I don't know how closely the plot follows the novel of course, but I can only comment on the film. This has a very good cast that seemed wasted on the material they had to work with. Helen Miren, Celia Imre, Ben Kinglsey and Peirce Brosnan play residents of a retirement community who get together each Thursday to play at being detectives and try to solve some real police cold-cases that they get access to via a previous member of the club who used to be a detective. Then there is a real murder following an argument between the community owner, David Tennant, and a builder, Geoff Bell, who did much of the development work, linked to a mysterious gangster played by Richard E. Grant. The Club befriend a real police woman, Naomi Ackie, somehow managing to get her assigned to the murder case along side the chief detective, Daniel Mays, so she can keep them informed and they can assist using their detective skills which appear to be far superior to those of the actual police. That aspect of the plot was the first thing I found a bit hard to take. If this was much more of a comedy with a bumbling, complete incompetent of a detective then it would have made sense. But although this is not to be taken too seriously, it definitely seemed more light hearted drama with the occasional laugh than an actual comedy to me (maybe I just did not get the jokes?). The detective there to be poked fun at and he makes mistakes, but they don't do it enough to make it that sort of comedy. There were some other plot elements I won't go into that also just seemed too implausible as well. Even my wife said it was the sort of thing that seemed better suited to an episode of a TV detective show, like Midsomer Murders, than a 2 hour film. It's a bit overly sentimental for me as well, with side plots about the elderly main characters and their friends and relatives (including Jonathan Pryce as Mirren's husband), some of whom are suffering from dementia and other conditions associated with ageing. I don't have anything against that, but to me they are subjects for a more serious film than this. And again there were plot elements drawn from this that just did not make sense to me. It's almost like it didn't know whether it wanted to be comedy or drama and ended up not doing either that well. 4 / 10 Freaks – Du bist eine von uns (2020) dir Felix Binder (English; Freaks – You're One of Us) An interesting German film about a young mother, Wendy (Cornelia Gröshel), who discovers she has super powers. It's not a super hero film, nothing like the many recent such Holywood films. There's not that much in the way of special effects, and although one of Wendy's fellow “Freaks” wants to use his powers as super hero, that is not what happens. It's more about how it would change your every day life, if you did suddenly get the power of super human strength, become invincible or have the power to create and harness electricity from your finger tips. For example in one scene Wendy is playing football with her son and kicks the ball too hard, sending it soaring up into the sky at immense speed, travelling far, far away from their back garden, clearly relieved he did not try to catch it! And when she tries to think of ways she could make some desperately needed money from her powers, she realises that other than using them illegally, e.g. for breaking and entering, there isn't really anything. There's a secretive organisation that have been monitoring Wendy and the others since childhood, giving them drugs supposedly for mental health problems that are actually to cancel out their powers and holding some against their will in a psychiatric hospital. It's after an encounter with a homeless man who recognises that Wendy, like him, has superpowers, that she stops taking her prescribed medicine and unlocks her powers. She then does the same for a work colleague she recognises is one of them and all three of them try to rescue other Freaks from the hospital. It's a decent enough, low budget film. The acting is OK, but nothing more was required. The script was a little repetitive at times and I felt it ended at the right time, after about 90 mins. Had they tried to make it longer I think I could have lost interest. It does seem like the ending is a setup for a sequel or maybe a TV series, but as far as I can see neither of those have been made. 6 / 10

It's been a while since I posted here, and I've watched too many films to be bothered to review them all, so here's a selection of the best of the best that I've seen over the past couple months. I'll post a few of these until I've caught up. I log and give a rating to every film I watch on my letterboxd account if you're that interested in all the random stuff I watch (Spermageddon was a highlight). https://letterboxd.com/LimeGreenLegend/ The Lion in Winter dir. Anthony Harvey/1968/2h14m Henry II (Peter O'Toole) has his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katharine Hepburn) taken out of imprisonment for the Christmas period so they can trade barbarous insults whilst discussing which of their sons is to be heir to the throne. The chemistry between O'Toole and Hepburn is incredible here, they really love hating each other and hate that they love each other and that tension really elevates what is already a brilliant script. The supporting cast is small - most of the film is confined to Henry's castle over a short period of time - but just as good as the leads, and it features in their first film roles both Anthony Hopkins as Prince Richard, Eleanor's preferred heir, and Timothy Dalton as the French King Philip II. This domestic drama is both intimate and epic at the same time, with the stakes feeling appropriately high. Watching this is like being on a bus and overhearing a couple having a really juicy argument that makes you stay on for a couple of extra stops because you need to see how it ends. 10/10 Hayao Miyazaki and the Heron dir. Kaku Arakawa/2024/2h1m This documentary takes an unprecedented look behind the scenes at the legendary Studio Ghibli as we follow the equally legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki over the period of seven years as he comes out of retirement (not for the first time) to make The Boy and the Heron, released in 2023 it was his first film for a decade. As a subject Miyazaki comes across as very guarded and closed off, but you soon realise that everything you need to know about him is in his art, that is how he communicates. You get the feeling that working gives him energy and purpose and he can't really do anything else. When he's in work mode he is very single minded, occasionally having a negative impact on his personal relationships. But there is a warmth to him, and a love for humanity and nature and it's all in his incredible films. 9/10 Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem dir. Kazuhisa Takenouchi/2003/1h5m Interstella 5555 tells the story (5tory) of a superstar band on an alien planet who bring peace and love with their awesome funk, but during a concert they are abducted and taken off world, their memories erased, their appearance changed and they are brainwashed into performing corporate pop made just to sell products. Shep, a space pilot in love with the beautiful bass player Stella, goes on a mission to rescue them. This film has no dialogue and was made as a visual companion to Daft Punk's Discovery album, much like The Who's Tommy or The Wall by Pink Floyd. The animation is gorgeous, crisp and colourful thanks to a recent 4k remaster, and it goes without saying that the music is amazing with songs like One More Time, Digital Love and Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. Discovery is one of my favourite albums and in my opinion this is the best way to experience it. 10/10 It's Such a Beautiful Day dir. Don Hertzfeldt/2012/1h2m It's Such a Beautiful Day is a simple animated film - stick figures against plain white backgrounds - that tells the story of an unremarkable man, Bill, who has a mundane life and suffers from a neurological problem and mental health issues. This feels incredibly personal, thanks in part to the fact that is was basically made by one person, and deeply moving. I found myself caring more about this stick figure than most characters in every film I've ever seen. Don't be put off by the style, this is an incredibly profound film that will make you appreciate your life a little bit more after watching it. 10/10 Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes dir. Junta Yamaguchi/2020/1h11m Kazunari Tosa plays Kato, a cafe owner who discovers on day that the TV in his flat and the TV in his cafe downstairs have somehow become linked and can communicate with each other, the kicker being that the cafe is two minutes in the future. This leads to a series of ever more complicated complications as he and his friends try to work out a way to make some money off of it. This is a brilliantly ingenious film with a really clever and original take on time travel that doesn't sacrifice character depth or charm. What makes this film really stand out is that it's all shot in one take with some really intricate choreography that sees us travel between the cafe and the flat and back again several times as well as have the characters interact with multiple past and future versions of themselves on the TV screens. It's like a magic trick or a beautifully complicated bit of clockwork. All credit to the actors for being able to do all this and still give great performances. I only watched this because it's short and has a cool title and I'm glad I did, I don't know why this isn't already a cult classic. Honestly, I think this is the best time travel film I've ever seen. 10/10 Superman dir. James Gunn/2025/2h10m James Gunn reboots the DC cinematic universe with a new take on Superman (David Corenswet). I'm not really a fan of superhero films, but I have to say I loved this. Right off the bat, it's not an origin story, which we really never need to see again. I also like how Superman feels and acts like a kid from the midwest who was raised right, he's not been turned into a cool guy who makes jokes all the time like Tony Stark. He's a boy scout who says stuff like gosh darn it, and that's how it should be. Lex Luthor is played here by Nicholas Hoult, and he's also great. He's petty and fuelled by jealousy and he's totally self aware of that and he hates it. I appreciate that this is a bright colourful film, but Gunn hasn't just copied the neon soaked aesthetic of his Guardians of the Galaxy films, here it's a natural brightness fuelled by Earth's yellow sun. The score uses the classis John Williams Superman theme, but sparingly and just for the epic moments, with the original music blending with it perfectly. This is a great film that left me feeling good, and isn't that what Superman's supposed to do? 9/10 All About Eve dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz/1950/2h19m This classic drama stars Bette Davis as aging Broadway star Margo Channing and Anne Baxter as Eve Harrington, an aspiring actor who insidiously worms her way into Margo's life by playing the fawning fan. Over time she is able to push Margo out of the spotlight whilst also nearly destroying her personal relationships. The only one who can see through her lies is theatre critic Addison DeWitt (George Sanders). The film opens with Eve accepting an award before flashing back to the start, showing us how she got there, and ends not long after the ceremony with the cycle beginning all over again as Eve's biggest fan shows up, ready and willing to take her place. This is a sharp film with a script full of cutting one liners, mostly given to the always excellent Davis. The real tragedy of the film is that Margo gets everything she deserves in the end, and Davis plays that perfectly. Baxter is equally impressive as the parasitic Eve, all sweetness and smiles at the start but when she flicks that switch to reveal the fame hungry monster inside it's almost scary. 1950 was a good year for showing what fame can do to a person as Sunset Boulevard was also released, that would make a brilliant double feature. 9/10