Film Reviews with Filmmaker on Wheels

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) Dir. Matthew Vaughn Adventure, Action, Comedy, Thriller and Crime I decide I would watch this because I’d seen trailers for when it came out and decided to watch it, especially after seeing Firth in “The King’s Speech” The first thing that I noticed was the editing particularly in the fight scenes because they’re sped up, when normally for a spy movie they would be slowed down. It’s quite simple technique when you think about editing especially as I don’t think I’ve seen it done before in fight scenes- that’s why I think it works so well.   I also found that I liked the sound design because songs that tied into certain event or feeling onscreen like when Eggsy steals a car and messes about with it to spite his stepdad’s gang. The song played is Bonkers with the lyric “ Some people think I'm bonkers, but I just think I’m free” playing at that moment to introduce Eggsy and his relationship with other character like his mum and his stepdad’s gang me...

O ne of the iconic Ealing Comedies to use a post-war London as it’s stage set for the entire Film Hue & Cry is about a gang of London kids called “The Blood and Thunder Boys” whose leader, Joe finds a copy of “The Trump” as it floats out of a church window. Joe absentmindedly wanders reading “The Trump” until he notices some of the details in the comic are happening before his very eyes. The Cinematography is by Douglas Slocombe who had a keen eye for memorable  Black and White shots, such as the roof scene in “Hue & Cry” and “The Lavender Hill Mob”.      The design of Ealing’s posters are amazing since they would be first thing you see when visiting movie theatres with their explosions of simple and effective designs in bright colours. I particularly like that the large Baddie is obviously a baddie because he’s wearing a stripey “Crook” style jumper. The second part of the poster shows others boys running into the design to correlate with a scene where an...

Today I watched the BBC version of Midsummer Nights Dream adapted by Russel T. Davies. I knew of Davies' work but instead of letting that sway me I thought about what past me thought about Shakspeare - I knew of Shakespeare because I studied Romeo and Juliet at GCSE but, I had thought of him in a love and yet hating way because my grandfather had worked in amateur theatre and would talk about nothing but Theatre, Acting, Shakespeare and the like.  In short it bored me and I thought I wanted nothing to do with Shakepeare or anything related... Since then I have understood some things which perplexed me in his work especially since Shakespeare's 400th Birthday celebration. According to the original Comedy Play of the same name, Midsummer Nights Dream is about the Marriage if Theseus, The Duke of Athens and a warrior, Hypolita who is captured and is to be forced in the marriage.  The adaptation starts has the same plot line beginning with Theseus telling his servants to have a pa...

Docudrama "Codebreaker" on Yesterday Channel based Alan Turing's Writings, Historical Records and  accounts of those who knew him. October 1952  Franz Greenbaum was Turing's Physchiatrist who fled just before WW2  because he was a German born Jew.  His Daughters, Maria Summerscale and Barbara Maher recollect that "He turned up in the most extraordinary clothes when he came, it was as though he'd been out of a rag-bag".  They mention in the interview that their father accepting Homosexualality far out during that time.  Turing's Older brother (John) had Dermot and he says that both brothers "Were sons of the empire, their father was in the Indian civil service, and with his wife being pregnant with Alan, they're sent back to England with a foster family and they don't see their parents again until his Father serves again in a years' time"  He suspects this is why Alan found it easy to disappear into his own world because of this....