anthony_imdb Reviews

The Book of Eli (2010)

Good idea, great actors, poor execution.

[7/10 · 20 May 2023]

The great idea is that the Bible might have something to do with civilising a society that has survived an apocalypse. The great actors are all of them. The poor execution is a mixture of Mad Max, The Road (Cormac McCarthy), Equaliser etc. It is a pastiche of an apocalypse movie.

If you want to trudge through a dangerous post-nuclear world armed only with a crossbow, try The Road. If you want to encounter mad bad bikers, try Mad Max. If you want a bad sheriff, try The Quick and The Dead. If you want vengeance, try The Equalizer.

Great idea, great actors, just needs a different execution. That's it.

Empire of the Sun (1987)

Difficult subject to get right

[4/10 · 7 March 2021]

It's not a great movie, and I am not sure the material ever could be. I think the problem is that it is trying to be an epic, and yet these episodes were minor facets of a much larger and more appalling history. It is just not very interesting, either as a personal story or as a backdrop for the bigger drama. My aunt was in Shanghai at the time. She was evacuated on a hospital ship and exchanged for Japanese citizens. My father in law was a POW. My father fought in Burma. The father of a good friend was in a POW camp near Hiroshima when the bomb went off. The experience of all of them was so awful that it is difficult to see this movie as of significant interest. The acting is good, the cinematography is good, the music is good. It just needed a better storyline.

Red Joan (2018)

The storyline did not work

[4/10 · 20 April 2019]

It is an interesting idea: explore the motives of someone who gave nuclear secrets to Stalin during the Cold War. But the storyline of this movie did not work for me. Stanley is supposed to be a first class nuclear physicist. We imagine she is very bright and capable of acting rationally. While at Cambridge, she becomes friends with some people who are openly Communist. Nothing strange about that. Lots of people were, at the time. She gets a job in developing the UK atom bomb. When she sees the devastating effects on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, she decides to give the plans to Stalin, to even things up. Two problems with the story. Was she persuaded by friendship? It seems not, since she rejected Leo's attempts to use his friendship to get the secrets. Was she acting out of a sense of moral duty, to even things up? Well, you would have to have a distinctly favourable opinion of Stalin, and unfavourable opinion of the US, to give Stalin the bomb. She gave no sign of being a Communist sympathiser. Giving Stalin the bomb did not prevent a nuclear war: instead it condemned Eastern Europe to Soviet domination for 50 years because of the threat of nuclear war. By the time she was arrested you would think she might have worked that out, instead of relying on it as a defence. So, unfortunately, my impression by the end was that the director (Trevor Nunn) or script writer (Lindsay Shapero) thought it was self-evident that Stalin having the bomb was a good thing, and so did not feel the need to explain the motivation.

Phantom Thread (2017)

Seriously good movie

[9/10 · 9 February 2018]

This is a seriously good movie. It does not follow the conventions. The main character is a couturier, but we see more of the workshop than we do of frocks and balls. The acting is extraordinary. I found I completely believed in the characters, and wanted to understand what they were thinking. The cinematography and music are wonderful. For example, we see the seamstresses coming to work in the morning. What was it like to work in a London fashion house? Were they well paid? Was it cold? How did one couple - Reynolds and Cyril - manage to build the business? There is no big plot development. But we see how Reynolds, Cyril and Alma adapt to living and working together.

Le Week-End (2013)

Good idea but...

[6/10 · 13 October 2013]

It is a good idea for a movie, and it starts promisingly. We all know the experience of a weekend trip that should be special but the nature of the relationship intrudes.

The actors are terrific. Lindsay Duncan is gorgeous. Jim Broadbent is like most middle aged men, you wonder why any woman would find them attractive. And Jeff Goldblum adds a bit of glamour.

The trouble is that, like most marriages, it is indeed private but boring. We don't really want to hear their little arguments, their failings, their history. We just want to know what is going to happen, and the answer is, not much. Anything would do, but it doesn't.

It should have been a TV drama, not a full length movie.