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Cabin Pressure
Full Cast, John Finnemore, Benedict Cumberbatch and Stephanie Cole
Book
Cabin Pressure is set in the wing and a prayer world of a tiny, one-plane charter airline; staffed...
Cabin Pressure: Series 1: The Complete
Full Cast, John Finnemore and Stephanie Cole
Book
Cabin Pressure is set in the wing and a prayer world of a tiny, one-plane charter airline; staffed...
Alan Turing: The Enigma: The Book That Inspired the Film, the Imitation Game
Book
This is the official book that inspired the film The Imitation Game, which stars Benedict...
Star Trek Into Darkness
7.5
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Book
The official movie tie-in novelization of the highly anticipated sequel to 2009’s blockbuster...
star trek science fiction sci-fi space benedict cumberbatch alan dean foster
Erika (17788 KP) rated The Current War (2017) in Movies
Oct 29, 2019 (Updated Oct 29, 2019)
I believe I have finally reached Benedict Cumberbatch fatigue; all I asked myself during the entire movie was... No other actor could have played Edison? No one else?
First, this movie was supposed to come out in 2017, but was held up because of something to do with Weinstein. This movie hit theaters in the US this past Friday as The Current War - The Director's Cut.
Well, the director didn't cut out enough, in my opinion. It was one of the longest hour and 41 minute movies of my life. Cumberbatch's Alan Turing, sorry, Thomas Edison, was fine. My main issue with the film was that, I didn't know what the point was, it just kept going. I found out at the end, the point was who was going to light The World's Fair in Chicago. That probably should have been introduced a little bit earlier in the film.
I was mostly looking forward to Nicholas Hoult's Tesla. The movie needed more Tesla, and probably shouldn't have sidelined him for the majority of the movie. Shannon's Westinghouse and Macfayden's JP Morgan were both good too.
If anything comes out of this movie's release, hopefully it's that people stop thinking we use the current Edison used.
First, this movie was supposed to come out in 2017, but was held up because of something to do with Weinstein. This movie hit theaters in the US this past Friday as The Current War - The Director's Cut.
Well, the director didn't cut out enough, in my opinion. It was one of the longest hour and 41 minute movies of my life. Cumberbatch's Alan Turing, sorry, Thomas Edison, was fine. My main issue with the film was that, I didn't know what the point was, it just kept going. I found out at the end, the point was who was going to light The World's Fair in Chicago. That probably should have been introduced a little bit earlier in the film.
I was mostly looking forward to Nicholas Hoult's Tesla. The movie needed more Tesla, and probably shouldn't have sidelined him for the majority of the movie. Shannon's Westinghouse and Macfayden's JP Morgan were both good too.
If anything comes out of this movie's release, hopefully it's that people stop thinking we use the current Edison used.
Nick Beaty (70 KP) rated The Grinch (2018) in Movies
Dec 8, 2019 (Updated Dec 8, 2019)
Unnecessary to say the least...
Where to start with Illuminations take on this classic Christmas tale. It felt very uninspiring, underwhelming and unnecessary.
From the get go the narration from Pharrell Williams was very poor and don't get me started on the music. Every time I felt like I could get into this movie the next awful track came on and ruined the moment.
There were very few likeable Characters, with the exception of Max the dog and a screaming goat that had my 3 year old laughing, I believe this is very much their target audience though.
It is very hard not to compare it to Jim Carrey's version or even the 1966 original short which are much darker, creepier and grumpier, all of the things you would expect from The Grinch. This version looks too clean cut, the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch is too friendly in my opinion and the whole thing just feels like a sugar coated version aimed at very young children.
I personally believe there was no real need for this movie to have ever been made other than to cash in on a brilliant Christmas story, that has already been told in much better ways than this.
From the get go the narration from Pharrell Williams was very poor and don't get me started on the music. Every time I felt like I could get into this movie the next awful track came on and ruined the moment.
There were very few likeable Characters, with the exception of Max the dog and a screaming goat that had my 3 year old laughing, I believe this is very much their target audience though.
It is very hard not to compare it to Jim Carrey's version or even the 1966 original short which are much darker, creepier and grumpier, all of the things you would expect from The Grinch. This version looks too clean cut, the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch is too friendly in my opinion and the whole thing just feels like a sugar coated version aimed at very young children.
I personally believe there was no real need for this movie to have ever been made other than to cash in on a brilliant Christmas story, that has already been told in much better ways than this.
Cabin Pressure: A-Z: The BBC Radio 4 Airline Sitcom
Full Cast, John Finnemore, Benedict Cumberbatch and Stephanie Cole
Book
Every episode of the hit BBC Radio 4 airline sitcom is collected together in this special box set,...
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated The Courier (2020) in Movies
Aug 16, 2021
Cumberbatch is brilliant. (1 more)
Great real life history lesson
A peerless Cumberbatch and a miscast Buckley.
It's not to be confused with the Olga Kurylenko / Gary Oldman 2019 movie of the same title. But with a fresh Berlin current-day Russian spy scandal in the news this week, seeing the cold war spy drama "The Courier" is a timely thing to do.
Positives:
- Benedict Cumberbatch is outstandingly good in this. He could have been born to play the slightly bemused English gentlemen of the time. All golf, tweed suits and gentlemen's clubs. No spoilers, but there is a physical transformation as well that's impressive to observe. The film would have been decidedly so-so I think without that core central performance.
- The film is based on a true story. As someone who was born in 1961, it's a good reminder to count our blessings that you, me and everyone else are still around to live our lives at all. The world was on the brink of a precipice and learning the story of Wynne's part in this was insightful history.
- There's a nice catchy Russian-themed score by Abel Korzeniowski.
Negatives:
- I'm a big fan of Jessie Buckley. Really, I am. And to be fair to her, her performance is really good. I particularly liked a scene where she dismissed on the doorstep a local busybody. But I just didn't see her as Wynne's pearl-neckless-wearing wife in this part. Perhaps the problem is that although there's a 13 year age gap between the leads, I always imagine Buckley as being much younger that her 31 years. For whatever reason, the casting didn't work for me.
Summary Thoughts on "The Courier": As a true-life spy story, the movie is interesting and Cumberbatch's performance is brilliant. But I can't say that I was 100% grabbed by it. While having a few moments of high drama and tension - particularly one on a plane - I never felt that to be maintained for enough of the movie. Director Dominic Cooke has a limited filmography (with the Saoirse Ronan movie "On Chesil Beach" being his only other feature) and writer Tom O'Connor is the guy behind the more flippant "Hitman's Bodyguard" films. Perhaps a more experienced writer/director team would have elevated this to a higher level.
So it's eminently watchable but not memorable. Just a marginal hit in my book.
(For the full graphical review, please check out onemannsmovies on the web, Facebook and Tiktok. Thanks.)
Positives:
- Benedict Cumberbatch is outstandingly good in this. He could have been born to play the slightly bemused English gentlemen of the time. All golf, tweed suits and gentlemen's clubs. No spoilers, but there is a physical transformation as well that's impressive to observe. The film would have been decidedly so-so I think without that core central performance.
- The film is based on a true story. As someone who was born in 1961, it's a good reminder to count our blessings that you, me and everyone else are still around to live our lives at all. The world was on the brink of a precipice and learning the story of Wynne's part in this was insightful history.
- There's a nice catchy Russian-themed score by Abel Korzeniowski.
Negatives:
- I'm a big fan of Jessie Buckley. Really, I am. And to be fair to her, her performance is really good. I particularly liked a scene where she dismissed on the doorstep a local busybody. But I just didn't see her as Wynne's pearl-neckless-wearing wife in this part. Perhaps the problem is that although there's a 13 year age gap between the leads, I always imagine Buckley as being much younger that her 31 years. For whatever reason, the casting didn't work for me.
Summary Thoughts on "The Courier": As a true-life spy story, the movie is interesting and Cumberbatch's performance is brilliant. But I can't say that I was 100% grabbed by it. While having a few moments of high drama and tension - particularly one on a plane - I never felt that to be maintained for enough of the movie. Director Dominic Cooke has a limited filmography (with the Saoirse Ronan movie "On Chesil Beach" being his only other feature) and writer Tom O'Connor is the guy behind the more flippant "Hitman's Bodyguard" films. Perhaps a more experienced writer/director team would have elevated this to a higher level.
So it's eminently watchable but not memorable. Just a marginal hit in my book.
(For the full graphical review, please check out onemannsmovies on the web, Facebook and Tiktok. Thanks.)
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Doctor Strange (2016) in Movies
Sep 29, 2021
Well multiversed.
In the latest Marvel film (notably now available with the snazzy new Marvel production logo at the start) Benedict Cumberbatch (“Sherlock”, “Star Trek Into Darkness”) plays the titular hero: a neurosurgeon with exceptional skills, an encyclopedic knowledge of discographies and an ego to rival Donald Trump.
After an horrific car crash (topically addressing the dangers of mobile use while driving) Strange loses the ability to practice his craft, and descends into a spiral of self-pity and despair. Finding a similar soul, Jonathan Pangborn (Benjamin Bratt, “24: Live Another Day”) who’s undergone a miracle cure, Strange travels to Katmandu in search of similar salvation where he is trained in spiritual control by “The Ancient One” (Tilda Swinton, “Hail Caesar”, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”) ably supported by her assistant Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor, “12 Years a Slave”) and librarian Wong (Benedict Wong, “The Martian”). So far so “Batman Begins”.
As always in these films though there is also a villain, in this case a rogue former pupil turned to the dark side (have we not been here before Anakin?) called Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelssen, “Quantum of Solace”). The world risks total destruction from spiritual attack (“…the Avengers handle the physical threats…” – LOL) and the team stand together to battle Kaecilius’s attempts to open a portal (“Zuuuul”) and ‘let the right one in’.
Followers of this blog will generally be aware that I am not a great fan of the Marvel and DC universes in general. However, there is a large variation in the style of films dished out by the studios ranging from the pompously full-of-themselves films at the “Batman vs Superman” (bottom) end to the more light-hearted (bordering on “Kick-Ass-style”) films at the “Ant Man” (top) end. Along this continuum I would judge “Doctor Strange” to be about a 7: so it is a lot more fun than I expected it to be.
The film is largely carried by Cumberbatch, effecting a vaguely annoying American accent but generally adding acting credence to some pretty ludicrous material. In particular he milks all the comic lines to maximum effect, leading to some genuinely funny moments: yes, the comedy gold extends past Ejiofor’s (very funny) wi-fi password line in the trailer.
Cumberbatch also has the range to convincingly play the fall of the egocentric Strange: his extreme unpleasantness towards his beleaguered on/off girlfriend (the ever-reliable Rachel McAdams (“Sherlock Holmes”)) drew audible gasps of shock from a few of the ‘Cumberbitches’ in my screening. (As I’m writing this on November 9th, the day of Trumpagedden, we might have already found a candidate able to play the new President elect!)
In fact, the whole of the first half of the film is a delight: Strange’s decline; effective Nepalese locations; a highly entertaining “training” sequence; and Cumberbatch and Swinton sparking off each other beautifully.
Where the film pitches downhill is where it gets too “BIG”: both in a hugely overblown New York morphing sequence (the – remember – human heroes suffer skyscraper-level falls without injury) and where (traditionally) a cosmic being gets involved and our puny heroes have to defend earth against it. Once again we have a “big CGI thing” centre screen with the logic behind the (long-term) defeating of the “big CGI thing” little better than that behind the defeat of the “big CGI thing” in “Batman vs Superman” (but without Gal Gadot’s legs unfortunately to distract the male audience).
Music is by Michael Giacchino, and his suitably bombastic Strange theme is given a very nice reworking over the end titles. By the way, for those who are interested in “Monkeys” (see glossary) there is a scene a few minutes into the credits featuring Strange and one of the Avengers (fairly pointless) and a second right at the end of the credits featuring Pangborn and Mordo setting up (not very convincingly I must say) the potential villain for Strange 2.
Not Shakespeare, but still an enjoyable and fun night out at the movies and far better than I was expecting.
After an horrific car crash (topically addressing the dangers of mobile use while driving) Strange loses the ability to practice his craft, and descends into a spiral of self-pity and despair. Finding a similar soul, Jonathan Pangborn (Benjamin Bratt, “24: Live Another Day”) who’s undergone a miracle cure, Strange travels to Katmandu in search of similar salvation where he is trained in spiritual control by “The Ancient One” (Tilda Swinton, “Hail Caesar”, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”) ably supported by her assistant Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor, “12 Years a Slave”) and librarian Wong (Benedict Wong, “The Martian”). So far so “Batman Begins”.
As always in these films though there is also a villain, in this case a rogue former pupil turned to the dark side (have we not been here before Anakin?) called Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelssen, “Quantum of Solace”). The world risks total destruction from spiritual attack (“…the Avengers handle the physical threats…” – LOL) and the team stand together to battle Kaecilius’s attempts to open a portal (“Zuuuul”) and ‘let the right one in’.
Followers of this blog will generally be aware that I am not a great fan of the Marvel and DC universes in general. However, there is a large variation in the style of films dished out by the studios ranging from the pompously full-of-themselves films at the “Batman vs Superman” (bottom) end to the more light-hearted (bordering on “Kick-Ass-style”) films at the “Ant Man” (top) end. Along this continuum I would judge “Doctor Strange” to be about a 7: so it is a lot more fun than I expected it to be.
The film is largely carried by Cumberbatch, effecting a vaguely annoying American accent but generally adding acting credence to some pretty ludicrous material. In particular he milks all the comic lines to maximum effect, leading to some genuinely funny moments: yes, the comedy gold extends past Ejiofor’s (very funny) wi-fi password line in the trailer.
Cumberbatch also has the range to convincingly play the fall of the egocentric Strange: his extreme unpleasantness towards his beleaguered on/off girlfriend (the ever-reliable Rachel McAdams (“Sherlock Holmes”)) drew audible gasps of shock from a few of the ‘Cumberbitches’ in my screening. (As I’m writing this on November 9th, the day of Trumpagedden, we might have already found a candidate able to play the new President elect!)
In fact, the whole of the first half of the film is a delight: Strange’s decline; effective Nepalese locations; a highly entertaining “training” sequence; and Cumberbatch and Swinton sparking off each other beautifully.
Where the film pitches downhill is where it gets too “BIG”: both in a hugely overblown New York morphing sequence (the – remember – human heroes suffer skyscraper-level falls without injury) and where (traditionally) a cosmic being gets involved and our puny heroes have to defend earth against it. Once again we have a “big CGI thing” centre screen with the logic behind the (long-term) defeating of the “big CGI thing” little better than that behind the defeat of the “big CGI thing” in “Batman vs Superman” (but without Gal Gadot’s legs unfortunately to distract the male audience).
Music is by Michael Giacchino, and his suitably bombastic Strange theme is given a very nice reworking over the end titles. By the way, for those who are interested in “Monkeys” (see glossary) there is a scene a few minutes into the credits featuring Strange and one of the Avengers (fairly pointless) and a second right at the end of the credits featuring Pangborn and Mordo setting up (not very convincingly I must say) the potential villain for Strange 2.
Not Shakespeare, but still an enjoyable and fun night out at the movies and far better than I was expecting.
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Doctor Strange (2016) in Movies
Jun 19, 2019
Doctor Stephan Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), is a man of extremes. He is a brilliant and gifted surgeon who makes the impossible seem routine, but is also a self –centered egomaniac that spends money almost as fast as he makes it.
When a freak car accident deprives him of the use of his hands, his life spirals into self-pity and rage as he is no longer able to earn money at his profession nor accumulate the praise and accolades he has become accustomed to.
When one treatment after another fails to achieve any desired results and only serves to further deplete his dwindling resources, Strange heads to Nepal in search of a locale where a paraplegic was reported to make a full recovery after a visit. Although highly skeptical and arrogant, Strange is eventually taken in by The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) who leads an order who protects Earth from other dimensions that would destroy all life as we know it.
Strange begins training in spells and archaic knowledge and in time becomes skilled at his craft although highly unwilling to get behind the true nature of his order as he sees his study as little more than a means to restore his hands and regain his former career.
When a rogue member of the order named Kaecillius (Mads Mikkelsen), and his followers begin a series of attacks designed to destroy the safeguards of Earth and bring a being of evil to earth from another dimension, Strange is forced into action and soon learns that the universe and the multiverse is threatened forcing him to reexamine his life and place in the grand scheme of things.
What follows is a thrilling adventure spanning multiple dimensions and the streets of London, New York and Hong Kong as Strange battles to save the day.
Marvel Studios has once again proved they have the Midas touch when it comes to their properties. Cumberbatch embodies the Doctor so well that he is a captivating and complex character who like many of the best Marvel characters is also a deeply flawed individual at his core.
Swinton does great work in her role as do Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Benedict Wong in their supporting roles.
The film does take some time getting to the action but Director Scott Derrickson allows his characters the time to establish their history, relationships with one another, and the setting before getting to the very impressive effects and action.
There are two scenes during the credits that set the stage very well for future adventures for the Doctor as Marvel continues to weave their complex tapestry of characters into their ever expanding universe.
http://sknr.net/2016/11/02/doctor-stange/
When a freak car accident deprives him of the use of his hands, his life spirals into self-pity and rage as he is no longer able to earn money at his profession nor accumulate the praise and accolades he has become accustomed to.
When one treatment after another fails to achieve any desired results and only serves to further deplete his dwindling resources, Strange heads to Nepal in search of a locale where a paraplegic was reported to make a full recovery after a visit. Although highly skeptical and arrogant, Strange is eventually taken in by The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) who leads an order who protects Earth from other dimensions that would destroy all life as we know it.
Strange begins training in spells and archaic knowledge and in time becomes skilled at his craft although highly unwilling to get behind the true nature of his order as he sees his study as little more than a means to restore his hands and regain his former career.
When a rogue member of the order named Kaecillius (Mads Mikkelsen), and his followers begin a series of attacks designed to destroy the safeguards of Earth and bring a being of evil to earth from another dimension, Strange is forced into action and soon learns that the universe and the multiverse is threatened forcing him to reexamine his life and place in the grand scheme of things.
What follows is a thrilling adventure spanning multiple dimensions and the streets of London, New York and Hong Kong as Strange battles to save the day.
Marvel Studios has once again proved they have the Midas touch when it comes to their properties. Cumberbatch embodies the Doctor so well that he is a captivating and complex character who like many of the best Marvel characters is also a deeply flawed individual at his core.
Swinton does great work in her role as do Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Benedict Wong in their supporting roles.
The film does take some time getting to the action but Director Scott Derrickson allows his characters the time to establish their history, relationships with one another, and the setting before getting to the very impressive effects and action.
There are two scenes during the credits that set the stage very well for future adventures for the Doctor as Marvel continues to weave their complex tapestry of characters into their ever expanding universe.
http://sknr.net/2016/11/02/doctor-stange/