Articles + Quotes on Film & TV

It has been some time since I first ventured forth on this subject and since then a lot more audio commentaries have been listened to and thought about. Which makes it high time that this topic is re-opened and discussed once more. In the previous article, I made my own definition of this special feature, and listed, from the least to best favourite, a top eleven. Here, I will go further and outline what defines a great commentary. First off, number of people on the commentary itself. Here's the thing, a single comedian can keep a collective audience entertained for a good hour, telling jokes and stories and generally being, well, entertaining. Unfortunately, the same principle doesn't really apply here. I have listened to many commentaries, since before this article and the first, and no, despite being the producer, director whatever title you have, if you are the only person to speak on a commentary, it becomes pretty boring very quickly for the poor soul listening, wi...

We have always known Ralph Fiennes to be a great actor. Its one of those things we take for granted and so when he puts forward a typically consistent, multifaceted, award deserving performance, regardless of the character, "baddie or good guy" we are predictably blown away. Be it Harry in In Bruges, Lord Voldemort, Christopher Marshall or M Gustave, he commits to each and every role. So it must have been maybe a little disconcerting for his co actors in this film, for them to be dealing with a reincarnated Charles Dickens one moment and Ralph Fiennes, working also as the director of this film the next. That is another thing that comes to you when watching The Invisible Woman, the direction in this is flawless. Move over Ben Affleck, you're not the only one who can do both acting and directing in one film and be brilliant at both. The story of this film is also a shock to the system. Charles Dickens had an affair with a young actress much younger than himself, E...

With one great film, you get many others trying desperately to emulate the style, or humour, feeling of that one film. Sometimes its the same makers, whenever they make a sequel. Or try to. One obvious example of a great one, is Shrek. One of the reasons this was so well loved and its style copied, was because of its humour and its focus. It took the mickey out of fairy tales, but cleverly. It didn't do too much and topple under the weight. This film, has heart. It is a great comedic story, if you ignore the opening scene and has the added bonus of being set in, for the most part - space. Its a movie to watch with friends, as its a fun movie to do that, and that is the main theme of the whole story, something that is strangely missing from most films these days. Shrek fans, rejoice, someone has not copied, but has been inspired by one of the greats. Chris Pratt's character, Peter Quill, also known as Star Lord, a nickname he is desperate to have stick, introduces us to ...

There have been many adaptations of Alexandre Dumas's classic tale. IMDb claims two hundred, including this most recent addition, created by Adrian Hodges. The production design is beautifully realistic in all its drab and dirty reality of Paris in 1630. The Musketeer regiment were soldiers, an elite force of men. The action scenes are there to tell the story, nothing more. They have their fights, with various weaponry and its always clear and understandable to the viewer. Mr Hodges wrote the screenplays for My week with Marilyn and Labrinyth, both book adaptations, but for this series, has said in an interview that he would only adapt the characters from the novel, not the book: " I decided, very early on, that although we’d be influenced by the book and aware of the book, and the characters are based on the characters in the book, we wouldn’t adapt the book.  It’s all new stories.  That’s really the way we looked at it, and that’s the challenge and fun of it.  We ...