Search

Search only in certain items:

Some Like It Hot (1959)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
1959 | Classics, Comedy, Drama
What a unique and interesting movie. I really loved Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon's relationship in this film. The two of them are very fun together. I definitely like this film and the way that Billy Wilder sets it up. A fun comedy film.
  
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
1959 | Classics, Comedy, Drama
The joy of Some Like It Hot is very simple: Marilyn Monroe as Sugar Kane is so utterly gorgeous you can’t take your eyes off her. Add to that the comic genius of Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis in wigs, and the fun never stops! Pre-empting film style by a whole generation, Billy Wilder gave us a film of such pace and relentless laughs that it always feels about an hour long and is over way too soon. A film with characters so good we want to be with them forever!
  
Some Like It Hot (1959)
Some Like It Hot (1959)
1959 | Classics, Comedy, Drama
Classic Billy Wilder comedy farce, starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis (doing his Carey Grant impersonation), with the latter two playing down on their luck musicians who witness a mafia murder during the Prohibition Era of the 1920s and hatch a plan to escape Chicago by joining an all-girl band (enter Monroe) in drag in order to escape.

Full of sizzling one liners/repartee such as:

"Water Polo? Isn't that awfully dangerous? "
"I'll say. I had two horses drown under me..."

(I think it was 2)

and who can forger the final line of the film ("nobody's perfect")!
  
Doctor Sleep (2019)
Doctor Sleep (2019)
2019 | Horror
Thank goodness for retro screenings. I hadn't seen The Shining before but it's one of those things that gets parodied and mentioned so often that you think you might have actually seen it. Cineworld put it on so I made the time to go, there's a review coming soon... you know I'm not logical enough to have done it first!

Dan Torrance has grown up a lot since the events at The Overlook Hotel. The Shining is still with him and his self-destructive coping mechanisms are taking a toll on him. Constantly on the move, he's running from himself as well as a cult that are hunting him around the country.

Dan finds himself in a small town where he meets Billy. Billy recognises the signs of someone trying to find themselves and takes Dan under his wing, finding him a place to stay, a job, and a way to get his life back on track.

The Shining becomes a much more productive part of his life and somehow bring him a message from Abra, a young girl with powers even stronger than his. As the cult gets closer to her he knows he has to help, but that will mean going to a place he swore he'd never go again.

Cinema is going through a very big reboot/franchise phase at the moment, this week at the cinema we were showing 8 things that are follow-ups, spin-offs or reimaginings. I don't think I can commit to saying it's a good or bad thing but it does mean I get to at least see some older films as well. With things like Doctor Sleep, Dark Fate, and Halloween last year, I became very aware that I like the nostalgic homage that these films are for their predecessors. In Doctor Sleep we've got the original locations aged up, the same scenic shots and music, and a sneaky cameo from the original Danny. With The Shining so fresh in my mind it was nice to be able to spot these things.

Ewan McGregor was a top choice for the role of Danny, he's a great actor and every moment he was on screen became very real. Dan starts his journey as a mess, an alcoholic with a severe conscience that tries to set him on the right path. You see his desperation and you get the sense he's almost lost himself. McGregor successfully portrays him from rock bottom to redemption and there's a great balance from him throughout the film.

Pitting off against our good guys is Rebecca Ferguson as Rose The Hat. Rose is the leader of the cult and she has the ability to find people who possess the Shining. She makes a pretty convincing job of the supernatural elements and has got sexy-but-sinister down to a fine art. Most of her role is fairly heavy on the evil side and that was great, but she does get one scene where she's on the other side and, like McGregor, is able to do the polar opposite state so well that it comes across entirely believable.

In support roles we have Cliff Curtis who is consistently good in everything he does (but wronged deeply by this film) and Kyliegh Curran as Abra who I thought did a magnificent job, hopefully we'll be seeing her get more roles in the not too distant future.

There weren't any characters or actors that didn't fit in, the cast overall worked really well together in that respect. There are just two choices that I had slight personal quibbles with... Snakebite Andi gets recruited to the cult after Rose finds out about her special talent, that all worked perfectly well but once she's in the character pretty much vanishes until she's needed for a plot point. That seems like a massive waste of a great thread to me. The second is the bartender, I see what they were trying to do but I honestly hated it, it felt creepily wrong.

The sets and general feel of the film are good, but there's one moment in the effects that made my eyes roll. It's a nice way to convey the power that Rose uses but it is visually terrible, had that been better this could have been a 4.5. I feel that at this point though it's traditional for a Stephen King adaptation to have something that makes me go "WTF?!"

I enjoyed the journey Doctor Sleep took the characters on, I won't be the judge of how it compares to the source material or The Shining, but if you're a new fan like me then this will hopefully come across as a great watch. There are some amazing performances on show and Curran is definitely one to watch in the future.

Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2019/11/doctor-sleep-movie-review.html