Viewer Reviews
Recent Reviews By SCORPIO6
 | Albert Nobbs (Film)A little flat... - scorpio6I know that this has been a pet project for Glenn Close for the past fifteen or more years ;she wrote and directed it and also wrote a song for it but for me,this film just seemed slightly colourless and flat. The cast is simply stellar,as are the costumes and sets but like Glenn Close's make-up which evens out her face so that it is almost like a death more ... |
 | The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Film)Exuberant and exhilirating - scorpio6The exuberance and colour and vibrancy and all the noisy,chaotic charm of India is captured in this splendid film.It is a feel-good film that will, I think, appeal to all ages. A group of British people, in their prime (or past their prime, whichever way you want to look at it!) decide for various reasons that they are going to escape Blighty and move to more ... |
 | Moneyball (Film)An old-fashioned movie with heart and soul. - scorpio6This is the sort of film which will appeal to everyone,young ,old,sports-mad or sports phobic;it has something for everyone. Brad Pitt really is at the top of his game here, producing and starring in this film which is based on the true story of Billy Beane whose controversial take on hiring players in baseball changed the game.Pitt is brilliant as the more ... |
 | Ballymun Lullaby (Film)Outstanding - scorpio6This for me was the outstanding success of the J.D.I.F.F 2011,a joyous and glorious testament to how the enthusiasm and dedication and far-sightedness of a few people can change the timbre and tone of a community. Ron Cooney is one such person,working in schools in Ballymun to develop a music programme.He has a charismatic and warm personality and kids of more ... |
 | Las Acacias (Film)A slow but sincere film. - scorpio6When nothing much had happened in this film for perhaps twenty minutes,I was tempted to leave the cinema but slowly and surely,the slow pace drew me in and I watched a very curious love story evolve. Las Acacias begins with the whirr of a chainsaw and the felling of the acacia trees of the title.We watch an unkempt Ruben perform some perfunctory more ... |
 | My Week With Marilyn (Film)Light,frothy and effervescent - scorpio6Just like Marilyn Monroe's onscreen persona,this film is wonderfully bright and dazzling,engaging and warm.It tells the apparently true story Of Colin Clarke(brother of the lothario,Alan) who was desperate to get into the movies and manages to blag his way onto the set of the movie,"The Prince and the Showgirl",which is going to star Laurence Olivier and more ... |
 | Midnight in Paris (Film)City shines but nothing else! - scorpio6As with Allen's last film,Vicky,Barcelona the real star of this film is the city of Paris;it looks majestic and magnificent,even in the rain.It is obvious that Woody Allen adores this city and the film is the obvious way in which he can indulge his love of the place with us.However,aside from the sheer beauty of this wonderful city ,I did not find a lot of more ... |
 | One Day (Film)A faithful adaptation of the book - scorpio6I went to see this film with some trepidation as whilst I had liked the book,I had not particularly liked the two main characters.So I approached the film somewhat cautiously.I am delighted that I much preferred the on-screen Dexter and Emma to the two somewhat cliched characters in the novel. The "One Day" of the title is the 15th July,Saint Swithins more ... |
 | The Guard (Film)A bracingly unguarded view of life - scorpio6Adopting the same unconventional viewpoint as his brother,Martin in his film "in Bruges"John Michael Mc Donagh's film is equally irreverent and possesses the same willful and stubborn refusal to obey rules of political correctness.When one gets over this slight stumbling block,it is a tremendously funny film. The part of Sgt Gerry Boyle has been made for more ... |
 | Henrietta Game - Black Ship (CD)Startlingly,thrillingly different - scorpio6At a time when so many young artists'work is largely derivative not to mention pure plagiarism,it is refreshing to listen to this young band's debut album. From the opening tinkles of the glockenspiel,contrasted with the beautiful tonal depths of the cello,this album soars with energy and vitality and a musical freshness that is incomparably good. Christy more ... |
 | The Green Lantern (Film)A lavish yawnfest! - scorpio6With a gargantuan budget ,a pretty powerful cast and a storyline dating back to 1940 and the era of the D.C. comics,people were going to have huge expectations of this film.Sadly,I think they will be disappointed;this film is nothing if not derivative ,it is a hotpotch of styles and stories with nothing really new added. It tells the story of the Green more ... |
 | Cedar Rapids (Film)A good old-fashioned movie - scorpio6This was the surprise film of the Jameson International Film Festival and it was a feel-good,laugh aloud,old-fashioned film and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It tells the story of Tim Lippe.an introverted insurance salesman who is on a mission to win a major award at an insurance convention in Cedar Rapids. Prior to going he has a final" jump the bones "with more ... |
 | Source Code (Film)Intriguing - scorpio6This second film from Duncan Jones is assured and sophisticated.There are plenty of nods and references to older films and different genres but with this film,Jones has ensured that he has a place with the best of them in Hollywood. It tells the story of Colter Stevens(Jake Gyllenhaal) who wakes up on a train hurtling into Chicago but the girl sitting more ... |
 | You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (Film)Charmingly funny - scorpio6I was so disappointed with Woody Allen's last oeuvre that I was not looking forward to this one at all.I have to say I was pleasantly and deliciously surprisedThis is a warm,human,delightfully funny piece from a director previously known for his cynicism. From the moment the scene opens on a London lit with a tantalisingly golden glow,I could feel myself more ... |
 | Benda Bilili! (Film)Heart-warmingly brilliant - scorpio6This is just what the denizens of Dublin need to go and see and it might just give us pause to think about how our lives really aren't too bad at all.It is a joyously uplifting piece of film that will have you tapping your toes and clicking your fingers with a big grin across your face. It tells the story of a group of polio victims living in a shanty town more ... |
 | Rango (Film)Too frightening for kids!!Dull for adults!! - scorpio6It is difficult to see for whom Gore Verbinski had directed this film:it is way too dark and frightening for children and not sufficiently so for adults so it falls unhappily between two stools. The animation and special effects are brilliant and it is good to see some reality being injected into the animated characters but it is really just a western more ... |
 | Fair Game (Film)Superb performances from Watts and Pann. - scorpio6Valerie Plame was a C.I.A. agent working on covert operations in Iraq whose status was outed by White House officials after her husband Joe Wilson wrote a piece in the New York Times entitled "What I did not find" stating categorically that the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of more ... |
 | Potiche (Film)A joyous end to a brilliant festival. - scorpio6"Potiche" was the closing film of what has been a brilliant Jameson Dublin International Film Festival and a joyous and uplifting end it was too.Francois Ozon has directed a film which is uproariously funny,engaging ,intelligent and sexy(hard to find in a film ,singly never mind all together.) A potiche is (as the director explained ) a vase or more ... |
 | As If I Am Not There (Film)Bleak and harrowing - scorpio6Juanita Williams had a tough job to do here,not only is the subject matter harrowing but the script,acting,directing had all to be filtered through translators so she has achieved no mean feat here. It tells the story of Samira,a young school teacher from Sarajevo,who goes to teach in a rural village in Bosnia.Whilst there,the entire village is rounded more ... |
 | Never Let Me Go (Film)Subtle and deeply moving - scorpio6It is extremely rare that one is moved more by the screen adaptation than by the book but this was the case for me with "Never Let Me Go" a beautifully subtle,layered and philosophical adaptation of Ishiguro's deeply disturbing novel of the same name. We are introduced to children at a school in the rolling hills of Surrey,an idyllic setting where pupils more ... |
 | Brighton Rock (Film)Soul-less!! - scorpio6Rowan Joffe's motivation for this remake was his love of Graham Greene's novel and his recognition that he wanted to bring something new "to this great piece of literature" Sadly this has not come to pass.Not only does he not add anything to the technically brilliant Boulting brothers'1947 film noir ,he also crucially misses out on the Roman Catholic more ... |
 | The King's Speech (Film)Goodbye to DÃ rcy - scorpio6I think this is the film which will at last sever the connection between the wet-shirt wearing Dàrcy and the actor that is Colin Firth.He gives a mesmerising performance here as the future George the sixth,a man who is often paralysed by the physical setback of a stammer. He is aided here wonderfully by a cooly competent Helena Bonham Carter who plays the more ... |
 | Barney's Version (Film)A warm-hearted delight!! - scorpio6Barney Panofsky's timing is a little out .His first marriage is not a success,his second to a very high-maintenance shrieking Jewish Princess(played with great pzazz by a top-form Minnie Driver) is also marred by bad timing in that he meets the love of his life here,the ethereal Miriam. He bombards Miriam with roses and messages and when she eventually more ... |
 | Black Swan (Film)risible - scorpio6If looking pained for an entire performance merits an Oscar nomination,then Natalie Portman deserves it.If however,something more subtle and intelligent is required,then she most certainly does not.I am quite frankly amazed by the plaudits she has received thus far and also by the rave reviews this film is garnering. I found "Black Swan" hugely more ... |
 | Love And Other Drugs (Film)Not Typically Hollywood - scorpio6How refreshing to go and see a Hollywood movie that is atypical of your common or garden rom-com,it's not cheesy,its not schmaltzy,it's quite realistic(even the sex looks real!) and there is genuine chemistry between the two leads.Add to this a good script,some thought-provoking moments and you have all the ingredients for a pretty damn fine movie. Jake more ... |
 | Blue Valentine (Film)An emotionally charged view of the end of a relationship - scorpio6A surebly crafted and impeccably acted film with Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling giving what are probably their best performances to date,this film tells the story of the break-up of a relationship.Beginning when the end is very close,the film flits back and forth to the heady days when the young couple discovered the joys of their love and then jolts us more ... |
 | My Afternoons With Margueritte (Film)Gentle and thoughtful. - scorpio6Gerard Depardieu plays the handyman,Germain for whom life has not been the kindest.He has been cruelly treated by a harsh mother,written off as an imbecile by his teachers and derided as a semi-literate oaf by his friends in the bistro.He lives in a caravan in his mother's garden and is visited nightly by his impossibly gorgeous girlfriend Annette(Sophie more ... |
 | Due Date (Film)Implausible,inappropriate hilarious - scorpio6It is not often that you go to the cinema,watch a film where the plot is at best implausible and at worst ridiculous,where the characters are unlikeable,if not downright despicable and where the jokes are puerile and inappropriate and you still find it hilarious.But this is what happened to me with "Due Date"It is a rollicking,funny film about two charmless more ... |
 | Another Year (Film)A Mike Leigh masterpiece - scorpio6Another Year is a powerfully unflinchingly honest portrayal of lives as they are.At the heart of the film is the deeply loving,truly committed relationship of Tom and Gerry(yes,truly).They lead quietly satisfying lives together,yet also have their own careers,he as a geologist and she as a counsellor.They tend their allotment and bring home the fruits(and more ... |
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