Drama > A Drama > 1999

Advantages: Great storyline, fantastic acting and good action shots
Disadvantages: Will not please die hard King and I fans

...Killers) - Jodie Foster as Anna Leonowens (Panic Room, Contact, Nell, Silence of the Lambs) The Film is based on the diaries of Anna Leonowens, who died in Canada, Quebec from a stroke in 1915. I think this is better than the original (King and I) despite my fondness of musicals. The acting is superb and there is a huge cast of extras. I can't imagine how difficult this was to make a film with the costumes (that are superb) and locations involved. ...
...Fiesty teacher, recently widowed who travels to Siam to teach the children of King Mongkut. There she learns that Siam is very different from all that she knows back in England. The film is set in the 1860s and the relationship between the Teacher and the King develops from a cold respect for each others values, into a love interest/ sparring contest. Chow Yun-Fat is magnificent in the title role of the King and plays a philosophical Ruler with ... Read review

Advantages: Powerful. poignant, moving, funny
Disadvantages: None that I could find

...but promises to tell him all when they get home. However, as Huma leaves the theatre and Esteban runs after her for an autograph he is tragically and shockingly run over and killed. Manuela is devastated and she reads in Esteban’s notebook how much he wanted to know his father. So Manuela sets off to Barcelona to find Esteban’s father and tell him about the son he never knew. On arrival in Barcelona Manuela chances upon an old friend Agrado (Antonia ...
...not acting as mothers. Nearly all of the characters in the film are women, except Esteban who dies early in the film and Agrado and Lola who act and behave like women. Without men to interfere Almodovar freely explores the interactions between this fascinating set of “females”. The result is a highly emotional and richly woven tapestry. The performances are masterful. Cecilia Roth is excellent as the strong willed Manuela who though devastated by ... Read review

Advantages: great dramatic movie with so much realism.
Disadvantages: none at all

Director: John Singleton Producer: Steven Nicolaides Writer: John Singleton Stars: Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding jr, Morris Chestnut, Laurence Fishburne, Nia Long and Angela Basset Released in the summer of 1991 this brilliant hour and forty minute movie takes a look into the lives of the gangs who struggle to survive in the ghettos of South central Los Angeles… **BRIEF PLOT** When a bright student, Tré Styles, (played by Desi Arnez Hines), moves ...
...until he is reunited with his old friends, Ricky Baker, (played by Donovan McCrary), who is a up and coming American football player, and Darin "doughboy" Baker, (played by Baha Jackson), who is spends his time selling cocaine in the ghettos… Years later, and set in 1991, Darin, (now played by Ice Cube) spends most of his time hanging out in the "hood" after being released from prison with no real hope for the future… Ricky, (now played by Morris ... Read review

Advantages: Enthralling story telling, mixing a very serious story with charming humour
Disadvantages: The movie has dated rather a lot

...some really old fashioned qualities, Don't Talk To Stranger's is actually a far superior offering than the movie it accompanied. The movie offers a very serious message, padded out with a lot of quirky 60's British humour; Jean's younger sister Ann for example is carrying out a single handed campaign against hunting, citing her father as one of the very people she protests against "Mummy do you know how many innocent defensive foxes are slaughtered ...
...over 20 years ago. Don't Talk To Strange Men is a marvellously well crafted piece of low budget film-making directed by Pat Jackson who later went on to make The Prisoner and Enid Blyton's Famous Five TV serial. Despite the dated aspects of the movie, I feel this is an amazingly pertinent story because the link initially is created by a wrong number, and now 46 years on there are more telephone numbers than ever before, and more young people owning ... Read review

Advantages: Wonderfully real and well written
Disadvantages: None

Believe the hype. This is possibly one of the best TV programs ever made. On the face of it The Wire will come across as a Hill Street Blues or St Elsewhere type of well written and realistic piece of programming, but it seems to take that trend one step further which I didn't believe could be possible. Before I wax lyrically about this first series I have to warn you that The Wire isn't for easy watching. It makes 24 seem like watching an episode ...
...but a programme like The Wire shows up other TV shows for being the pure entertainment that they are. The Wire truly makes you think and as I said it doesn't make for easy viewing. Some friends of mine enjoy spending an entire weekend watching 24 in real time (i.e. a whole series in one sitting), but it's difficult to do that with The Wire as you want to sit and contemplate what you are watching. The main theme of the first series is drugs. But ... Read review