Drama > Redgrave, Vanessa Drama

Bean 'n Gone

Advantages: Disc would make a nice Frisbee
Disadvantages: Too many to count.

...and since this, I wonder? Jack (Costello) gets a job babysitting a young prodigy-cum-brat, and Abbott plays his manager. The prodigy-cum-brat is basically a… well… brat. In an attempt to settle the boy down, Jack reads the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. We leave their black and white world and, very ‘Wizard of Oz’ like, we appear in a colourful world where Jack lives with his mother. The story is pretty much the fairy tale story that everyone ...
...the gist? However, when Jack starts to climb the beanstalk, along with Abbott – who plays a butcher (Jack swapped his cow for the beans with the butcher – was basically conned, but the giant takes the cow and Abbott wants it back; plus the giant has a goose that lays golden eggs… added incentive for Abbott), the village below bursts into song. This surprised me somewhat as I did not expect that. A bit of ‘filling in,’ I suspected at the time. But ...

Borg 04.07.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Jack And The Beanstalk - The Real Story (DVD)

"I didn't try to kill myself...I had a headache"

Advantages: Acting, characters and soundtrack
Disadvantages: Some parts could be a litle disturbing

Girl, Interrupted, (1999) Columbia Pictures This is a film only review. This film, set in 1967, is based on actual events in the life of author Susanna Kaysen, and is based on her book of the same name. The book chronicles the two years of Kaysen's life spent in a mental institution shortly after her graduation from high school. THE PLOT Susanna Kaysen, played by Winona Ryder, is a weak-willed, languid and self-pitying middle-class ...
...is just a typical teenage girl, a bit moody, t unclear on what she wants out of life and lacking in confidence. After a pretty unoriginal attempted-suicide (a bottle of aspirin with a bottle of vodka), Susanna signs herself into a rather high class mental institution called Claymoore, just outside Boston, a place where girls in trouble are given therapy and medicated (and sometimes electro-shocked) back into normality. Susanna is diagnosed with borderline ...

oldchem 17.09.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Girl, Interrupted (DVD)

The Bella Side of the Mafia

Advantages: As far as mafia films go - quite enjoyable
Disadvantages: Story quite far-fetched in parts

INTRO/CAST/CREDITS Bella Mafia is a Lynda La Plante novel and screenplay. It was originally made as a TV mini-series but was so popular it was released as a film/DVD. I've seen it a couple of times and, personally, enjoyed it on both occasions. Starring Vanessa Redgrave, Nastassja Kinski, Jennifer Tilly, James Marsden and Illeana Douglas, Gina Philips, Tony Lo Bianco and Dennis Farina), Bella Mafia was released in 1997 in the USA and 1998 in the ...
...be someone else. Do Bella Mafia (the Luciano women) find out who caused them so much heartache? How do they wreak revenge on the men responsible for the death of their loved ones? Does Sophia discover her secret child Luka is the cause of her pain? MY THOUGHTS This was quite an entertaining film for me. It was quite sad in parts, too much death in general, but the way the grieving women come together in their sorrow and unite to get revenge on ...

anonymili 05.02.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Bella Mafia (DVD)

The Gathering Storm - Finney's finest hour

Advantages: Amazing acting, strong story
Disadvantages: None to speak of

The Gathering Storm charts the course of events from Winston Churchill's Wilderness Years during Baldwin's National Government in the mid-to-late 1930s, until his return to office as First Lord of the Admiralty at the outbreak of the Second World War. = PLOT SUMMARY = Winston Churchill has become a backbencher, increasingly ridiculed as yesterday's man, a man of no-judgement and a war-monger. It is the mid-1930s, and no-one seems to have ...
...Churchill desperately seeks solace during his Black Dog moods at Chartwell, writing prolifically to pay the bills, while casting around for ways to draw the public's attention to the very real danger he senses. This film charts Churchill's struggles through these dark times, where he gets assistance from well-placed people inside the civil service in Whitehall. It shows how Ralph Wigram (a foreign office official) struggles with his conscience and ...

lobourse 13.12.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Gathering Storm (DVD)

Oh, you please me.

Advantages: Well-acted, moving and interesting film, makes you think a little.
Disadvantages: Slightly slow-paced, if that's not your thing.

Venus is a film about an aging actor, Maurice, played by Peter O'Toole, who lives a fairly quiet existence with the occasional minor role in a film or TV series, and meets with an actor friend, Ian, to talk about the old times. The film follows Maurice's relationship with Jessie, Ian's teenage niece, who arrives to stay at his uncle's place to help him around the house. To Ian's horror, Jessie turns out to be very different than he expected, but ...
...The encounter transforms them both to an extent, at least for a moment. Maurice appears a stereotypical pensioner when with Ian, bumbling around the house with trivial tasks. In contrast, when in Jessie's company, he seems revived into a younger man with the urges of a younger man. Jessie in turn transforms from a chavvy, ignorant teen into someone more aware of what she wants from life, and also becomes more aware of her womanhood, if you like. ...

Vaula 08.08.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Venus (DVD)