Category: Based on a book or true story
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Themes On A Christmas Carol – Blackadder’s Christmas Carol (1988)
I know that a lot of people outside of the UK only think of Mr Bean when they hear of Rowan Atkinson but, trust me, he is far funnier than that character. As has been alluded to many times, I am getting on a bit and can remember him in Not The Nine O’Clock News…
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Indie Movie Review – The Pilot: A Battle For Survival/Летчик (2021)
Last week I got to review my first ever Kazakh film (Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It/Жаным, ты не поверишь!); both as a viewer and as a reviewer. I said something about previously thinking of foreign films coming from either Europe or the Far East. Getting one from somewhere in between was a bit of a…
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Movie Review – The Tragedy Of Macbeth (2021)
I don’t think there is anyone out there who is unaware of William Shakespeare. You might not have actually been to a theatre to see a production but, paradoxically, that isn’t the only place to see Shakespeare’s words being performed. I don’t think it’s over pushing the point to say that most people haven’t necessarily…
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Movie Review – Redeeming Love
I went into this thinking it would just be work and that I’d watch Spider-Man: No Way Home again afterward for my reward. To my great surprise and pleasure, Redeeming Love is a wonderful film about the Wild West, the Gold Rush, and women’s agency. It’s never boring, the characters are well-drawn and acted, the costumes are perfection,…
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Non-Christmas Christmas Movies – First View Review of First Blood
Whenever you hear of a film with Rambo in the title, you’ll no doubt think of wall to wall violence, tidal waves of blood, and a soundtrack consisting mainly of gunshots, screams, and explosions. You may also think of bulging biceps as Rambo hauls back on the string of a bow so he can pick…
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Christmas Classic First View Review – A Christmas Carol (1938)
Over the years I’ve seen a fair few versions of A Christmas Carol, or Scrooge as it’s sometimes called, but this 1938 version is a new one on me! There’s no point going too deeply into the story because, as both Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes and Simply Red said, “If you don’t know…
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Christmas First View Review – An American Christmas Carol (1979)
Here we have an attempt to prove the ubiquity and relevance of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol by taking it from Victorian-era London and plonking it down in Depression-era Concord, New Hampshire. I don’t if there’s any significance in the location but the time has obviously been chosen as one of widespread poverty, debt, and hardship.…
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Vintage Christmas Film Short – Scrooge: Marley’s Ghost (1901)
Let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start… Before I get going, here’s a thought for a series of articles. How about first-time viewings of wildly popular films that I haven’t seen? I say this because I’ve never actually seen The Sound Of Music, Saturday Night Fever, or Citizen Kane. Anyway,…
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Christmas Classic Rewatch Review – Scrooge (1951)
Elsewhere I wrote about how and why A Christmas Carol was written and how it’s been adapted many times on screens both large and small. It’s the most often adapted of all of Dickens’ works, with over thirty film outings. Oliver Twist comes second with a mere eighteen. It’s been faithfully followed from the original,…
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Documentary Review – The Beatles: Get Back
The Beatles: Get Back is, quite simply, the edited highlights of The Beatles rehearsing for a new project centred on their latest album. After a disastrous tour of the Far East in 1966 and the infamous “we’re bigger than Jesus” kerfuffle they decided to give up touring and performing live. This leads to them developing…
