Certificate:

Director: Phyllida Lloyd

Release Date: 10 July 2008

Tagline: Take a trip down the aisle you’ll never forget.

Main Cast:

Meryl Streep … Donna Sheridan

Pierce Brosnan … Sam Carmichael

Plus many others including Colin Firth, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski

OK, all you’ve heard about Mamma Mia! is true. It’s a delight for ABBA fans, a chick flick and a gay man’s dream. However, if you are none of the above then please don’t rule it out, because it’s an absolute riot!

I loved the West End production, and, I have to say, had my reservations about a film version. I should never have doubted them. Yes the singing is at times somewhat ropey, but it’s the very fact that it is totally honest is what makes it so right.

Mamma Mia! is an unadulterated feel good film. Probably the best ever. Carling don’t do feel good movies, but if they did…  ;-p

Heterosexual males – abandon your machismo for 108 minutes and just enjoy yourselves (only with your wives or girlfriends, of course… Just to preserve your image). After all, neither you or your mates are ever going to admit it to each other!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

P.S. Look out for a fleeting cameo from Benny Andersson. I didn’t know he was in it so I had to do a double take!

Certificate:

Director: John Patrick Shanley

Release Date: 6 February 2009

Main Cast:

Meryl Streep … Sister Aloysius Beauvier

Father Brendan Flynn … Philip Seymour Hoffman

Amy Adams … Sister James

Doubt is an undoubted masterpiece! A truly brilliant performance by Meryl Streep (no surprise there though, as she is one of, if not the best actresses of all time). A (main) cast of three with one setting makes for a very powerful film, and at no point did I find myself anything other than totally engrossed. If only there were more films like this.

Sadly though, Joe Public just doesn’t want to pay good money to see excellence. I went to my local Vue the first Sunday after release and they had relegated it to the back of the cinema in a screen that holds less than 100 people. I had a private screening too – nobody else bothered to go and see it. Shame.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Certificate:

Director: Robert Altman

Release Date: 5 January 2007

Tagline: Radio like you’ve never seen it before.

Main Cast: (many more than mentioned below)

Meryl Streep … Yolanda Johnson

Kevin Kline … Guy Noir

Ah… If only they were all more like this. Sadly though, this kind of film just doesn’t get made all that often because the majority of cinema goers are happy to watch dross. APHC is movie making at its best. The ensemble cast are perfect. There are clearly no egos vying for the most lines, the scene stealing moments etc. Robert Altman’s brilliant direction combined with the brilliant acting makes it all look so effortless.

I’m not going to bother to give you a synopsis. If you love films like I do then all you need to know is that it’s fantastic and that you won’t be disappointed.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Certificate:

Director: Mike Nichols

Release Date: 13 April 1984

Tagline: On November 13, 1974, Karen Silkwood, an employee of a nuclear facility, left to meet with a reporter from the New York Times. She never got there.

Main Cast:

Meryl Streep … Karen Silkwood

Kurt Russell … Drew Stephens

Cher … Dolly Pelliker

Silkwood is based on the true story of Karen Silkwood, a chemical technician at the Kerr-McGee nuclear power plant in Oklahoma, USA who was contaminated with plutonium and died in a car crash in mysterious circumstances.

The acting is very good all round and Meryl Streep is, as usual, brilliant. The film concentrates on just telling the story. It never degenerates into preachy moralising, and does not attempt to provide any answers.

Wikipedia has some very good information on Karen Silkwood, and can be found here:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Silkwood

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Certificate:

Director: Brad Silberling

Release Date: 17 December 2004

Main Cast:

Jim Carrey … Count Olaf

Liam Aiken … Klaus Bordelaire

Emily Browning … Violet Bordelaire

Jude Law … Lemony Snicket (voice)

First of all, I know I said that I’d rather gouge out my own eyeballs than watch a Jim Carrey film, but I chose to watch this as it not a typical Jim Carrey vehicle (in fact, I’d go so far as to say that he should have third billing behind the two child leads), and also because Meryl Streep is in it.

I found this a disappointing film on several levels. Firstly, Count Olaf is an evil, murderous character, but Carrey hams it up so much that he comes across as more silly than sinister. At the start of the film, much is also made of how Violet is a brilliant inventor, and Klaus a voracious reader who can remember everything he’s ever read. These elements of the characters are sorely underused (although I have to confess that I have never read the books, so it may be that this is, in fact, as it should be).

Sadly, my attention was lost about a third of the way through, and I kept checking how much longer it had left to go, so that I could move on to something better.

A plus point though, are the children. Both Liam Aiken and Emily Browning are very good, and carry the film well.

As an adult who enjoys many chidren’s films, I found this strangely dull and tedious when it should have held my attention. I’m not even sure that the target audience will be enthralled by it.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars