Myrtle Devenish Movies
- 1988
There is certainly nothing wrong with this remake of the Basil Rathbone, Peter Cushing mystery of 1939. The question, however, is why one would want to substitute others when the original was so superlative. Jeremy Brett, however, does a fine job as Sherlock Holms as he investigates strange happenings at the Baskerville Hall--all of which seem to prove that the family is being haunted by the ghost of a dog. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeremy Brett
Brazil constitutes Terry Gilliam's enormously ambitious follow-up to his 1981 Time Bandits. It also represents the second installment in a trilogy of Gilliam films on imagination versus reality, that began with Bandits and ended in 1989 with The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. To create this wild, visually audacious satire, Gilliam combines dystopian elements from Orwell, Huxley and Kafka (plus a central character who mirrors Walter Mitty) with his own trademark, Monty Python-esque, jet black British humor and his gift for extraordinary visual invention. The results are thoroughly unprecedented in the cinema.
Jonathan Pryce stars as Sam Lowry, a civil servant who chooses to blind himself to the decaying, drone-like world around him. It's a world marred by oppressive automatization and towering bureaucracy, and populated by tyrannical guards who strongarm lawbreakers. And Lowry is stuck in the middle of this nightmare. Whenever real life becomes too oppressive, Sam fantasizes (to the tune of Ary Baroso's 1930s hit "Brazil") about sailing through the clouds as a winged superhero, and rescuing beautiful Jill Layton (Kim Greist) from a giant, Samurai warrior. The omnipresent computer that controls everything in the "real" world malfunctions, causing an innocent citizen to be arrested and tortured to death. When Sam routinely investigates the error, he meets - and pursues Jill , literally the girl of his dreams. But in real life, she's a tough-as-nails truck driver who initially wants nothing to do with him. It turns out that she is suspected of underground activities, in connection with a terrorist network wanted for bombing public places. The price Sam pays for his association with her is a close encounter with the man in charge of torturing troublesome citizens (Michael Palin). He is rescued - at the last minute - by maintenance man Harry Tuttle (Robert de Niro) who moonlights as a terrorist, but that only represents the beginning of his plight, for now the "system" is onto him.
Gilliam ran into enormous problems with Brazil. Universal - which produced the picture - originally slated it for release in 1984, but the studio - intimidated by the film's whopping length of 142 minutes - demanded that Gilliam trim the film to bring it in under two hours and alter the pessimistic ending. Gilliam refused; Universal shelved the picture for a year. In response, the director took out a full page ad in Variety asking studio president Sid Sheinberg when the film would be released. Sensing tremendous pressure, Universal bowed to Gilliam's insistence on fewer cuts but still demanded a happy ending. Gilliam trimmed only eleven minutes and altered the conclusion just slightly (instead of cutting to black, it fades into puffy white clouds on a blue sky, with a reprise of the title tune). It was thus released in early 1985 at 131 minutes, and of course became a seminal work; many critics regarded it at the time as the best film of the eighties. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Jonathan Pryce stars as Sam Lowry, a civil servant who chooses to blind himself to the decaying, drone-like world around him. It's a world marred by oppressive automatization and towering bureaucracy, and populated by tyrannical guards who strongarm lawbreakers. And Lowry is stuck in the middle of this nightmare. Whenever real life becomes too oppressive, Sam fantasizes (to the tune of Ary Baroso's 1930s hit "Brazil") about sailing through the clouds as a winged superhero, and rescuing beautiful Jill Layton (Kim Greist) from a giant, Samurai warrior. The omnipresent computer that controls everything in the "real" world malfunctions, causing an innocent citizen to be arrested and tortured to death. When Sam routinely investigates the error, he meets - and pursues Jill , literally the girl of his dreams. But in real life, she's a tough-as-nails truck driver who initially wants nothing to do with him. It turns out that she is suspected of underground activities, in connection with a terrorist network wanted for bombing public places. The price Sam pays for his association with her is a close encounter with the man in charge of torturing troublesome citizens (Michael Palin). He is rescued - at the last minute - by maintenance man Harry Tuttle (Robert de Niro) who moonlights as a terrorist, but that only represents the beginning of his plight, for now the "system" is onto him.
Gilliam ran into enormous problems with Brazil. Universal - which produced the picture - originally slated it for release in 1984, but the studio - intimidated by the film's whopping length of 142 minutes - demanded that Gilliam trim the film to bring it in under two hours and alter the pessimistic ending. Gilliam refused; Universal shelved the picture for a year. In response, the director took out a full page ad in Variety asking studio president Sid Sheinberg when the film would be released. Sensing tremendous pressure, Universal bowed to Gilliam's insistence on fewer cuts but still demanded a happy ending. Gilliam trimmed only eleven minutes and altered the conclusion just slightly (instead of cutting to black, it fades into puffy white clouds on a blue sky, with a reprise of the title tune). It was thus released in early 1985 at 131 minutes, and of course became a seminal work; many critics regarded it at the time as the best film of the eighties. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jonathan Pryce, Michael Palin, (more)
Ray Davies, leader of the group The Kinks and one of the most well-respected songwriters in the history of British rock, made his directorial debut with this film produced for British television. A man (played by Kenneth Colley) boards a commuter train and reads his newspaper, glancing at a story in which a man who looks just like him is wanted for a brutal rape. As the miles roll by, he wonders about the fate of his missing daughter (Dominique Barnes) and the sad state of his relationship with his wife (Valerie Holliman). He also banters with an attractive women (Gretchen Franklin) sitting nearby, watches a group of businessmen cheerfully singing about their careers, and observes a group of older people wondering what became of their lives and the world they once knew. Davies himself has a small role as a singer in a tube station (he wrote several original songs for the project). Also, keep an eye peeled for Tim Roth in a small role as a punk rocker. As a bonus, the DVD release also features eight music videos by The Kinks, including concept videos for "Come Dancing," "Predictable," and "State of Confusion," and live clips of the band performing earlier hits such as "Lola," "You Really Got Me," and "Celluloid Heroes." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kenneth Colley, Valerie Holliman, (more)
- 1984
Dale (Clio Goldsmith) is a married, expectant mother who holds down a job as a radio announcer and when a Frenchman, Maurice (Roger Hanin), telephones the station one day to correct a mistake she made in reference to the cinema, the two eventually end up agreeing to meet. Dale is part-French and this is one of the reasons for their first rendezvous. After the divorced Maurice sees Dale, he is attracted by her personality and charm, and the two become good friends, getting together whenever they can. Soon Maurice's son Bob (John Moulder-Brown) also meets Dale and is smitten by her just like his father. This adds a wrinkle to the already unstated feelings that pervade each meeting, feelings complicated by the fact that Dale does not have a very happy marriage but is unwilling to face up to it. Then one day, she goes into labor while her husband is away and in a series of comic sequences, Maurice is faced with seeing her through to a successful birth in the hospital (barely) -- an event that begins to finally resolve the many underlying countercurrents in the romantic tendencies of the protagonists. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roger Hanin, Clio Goldsmith, (more)
- 1983
- R
- Add Monty Python's The Meaning of Life to QueueAdd Monty Python's The Meaning of Life to top of Queue
The Meaning of Life is without a doubt the most tasteless of the Monty Python feature films; it also happens to be one of the funniest. Life's questions are "answered" in a series of outrageous vignettes, beginning with a pre-credits sequence at a staid London insurance company which transforms before our eyes into a pirate ship. One of our favorite bits involve the National Health doctors who try to claim a healthy liver from a still-living donor, pointing out that there's nothing in his contract preventing this. And of course, there's the scene with the world's most voracious glutton, who brings the art of vomiting to new heights before his spectacular demise. Be warned: though hilarious, this may be the grossest bit of comedy filmmaking ever conceived (there aren't enough words in the world to describe it in detail!). Loyal Pythonites Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin star in The Meaning of Life and share writing responsibilities, while Jones is in the director's chair this time out. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Graham Chapman, John Cleese, (more)
A young boy joins a group of renegade dwarves on an unpredictable journey through time in this humorous fantasy. Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam mostly achieves a tricky balancing act in his second feature as sole director, creating a dark, irreverent comedy disguised as a family adventure. Particularly amusing are the boy's encounters with various historical figures, including an entertainment-starved Napoleon (Ian Holm), a powerful Agamemnon (Sean Connery), and a surprisingly stuffy Robin Hood, embodied by Gilliam's Python cohort John Cleese. Episodic by nature, the film is less successful when dealing with the larger narrative, which concerns the pursuit of the dwarves and their time-traveling map by the Supreme Being. However, the combination of Gilliam's visual exuberance and the witty script (by Gilliam and Michael Palin) ensures an entertaining, if erratic, journey. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Cleese, Sean Connery, (more)
