A Film for all ages?

Unsurprisingly a lot of film blogs are focusing on Christmas movies at the moment, with folk discussing the best, the worst, the funniest and the most random.

While I love Christmas films as much as anyone, these conversations do often frustrate me because there is an assumption that you can watch whatever film you want at this time of year. For many people, including myself, it's simply not true.

For example - My Christmas is celebrated at my mother's house by 4 generations of our family. There are no children (yet!) but our ages range from 27 (me) to 94 (my great-grandmother).

As wonderful as it is to have the whole family in attendance at this time of year, have you ever tried finding a movie to suit everyone's tastes? It's a nightmare!

For a start you can forget Die Hard or Leathal Weapon because the oldies don't like them. They also don't like comedies like Uncle Buck or National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (my personal favourite) because they're too silly. You can get them to watch White Christmas, which is fine with me, but then some of the other younger folk get bored. I'm OK with a lot of the Christmas classics but there are a lot of musicals that I just can't stand.

Where does that leave us? Well you can forget regular TV becuase, here in the UK, it's all repeats and dreadful Christmas specials. In fact the only watchable programmes or films that they put on the TV always have a surprise sex scene thrown in just to embarrass you in front of your Grandmother when you least expect it!

So I need help people. What films can I put on at Christmas that will entertain me as much as the rest of my family? It doesn't have to have a Christmas theme, just anything that really appeals to all ages.

Please help, my sanity depends on it.

I've never read a Sherlock Holmes novel, so I can't claim to be a real fan of the great detective. However, the purist that lurks within me is more than a little shocked by the first screen shots of the new film directed by Guy Ritchie.

This first one is OK...

But I'm a little concerned by this one...

Sherlock Holmes fighting with his shirt off? It doesn't seem quite right to me. Surely he could beat his opponent into submission using only his remarkable intelligence and cunning wit without needing to resort to physical violence.

I have never been overly confident that Ritchie is a good enough film maker to do Sherlock Holmes justice. However, I am more than confident in Robert Downey Jr's talent as an actor, so perhaps this might just work.

Wolverine Trailer

From what I understand this went live just a couple of hours ago, so is the closest thing to a scoop we've ever had here at Films and Things and I think it looks like a lot of fun.

I'm very excited to see Gambit finally show up - he was a glaring omission to the X-Men films. Maybe he would have been entertaining enough to prevent X3 from being one of the most disappointing films of the last 10 years, but I doubt it.

But I digress, check out the trailer for 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' for yourself...

The Straw Men

It says here that Benderspink, the production-management company run by Chris Bender and JC Spink have picked up the rights to Michael Marshall’s book The Straw Men.

Michael Marshall is one of my favourite authors and while I prefer his earlier, more sci-fi books, the Straw Men series is probably the only story that will transfer to the big screen.

The first and third books in the series are good but, from what I remember, the second one was a bit poor so I’m hoping they’ll do something good with it when transferring the story to film.

If you are ever looking for some really crazy and quite disturbing books, I can highly recommend some of Marshall’s work. Only Forwards, Spares (both as Michael Marshall Smith) and The Intruders are my personal favourites. But be warned, they will mess with your head.

Then, if after reading those you have the stomach for it, check out What You Make It, one of his collections of short stories.

Gone Baby Gone

This weekend my truly delightful girlfriend brought me another DVD to watch. While it wasn’t a horror, it was probably far more harrowing due to the subject matter.

The release of Gone Baby Gone was delayed for a long time in the UK because of the Madeline McCann case. At first I thought the decision to pull the movie just before its release was an over-reaction, but quickly realised why it was done. The resemblance between ‘Maddy’ and the girl that goes missing in the film is striking. An unfortunate coincidence to say the least.

However, Gone Baby Gone was eventually released over here and I am very happy to say that, thanks to the gorgeous woman in my life (in case you’re wondering I’m still paying for my earlier Horror Movie post), I was finally able to see what all the fuss was about.

Now I’ve always rated Ben Affleck as an actor more than most people. What he has been guilty of, in my opinion, is accepting roles in too many bad movies. Matt Damon has made far better choices since Good Will Hunting, but that doesn’t mean that Affleck is a poor actor. Plus I don’t care what anyone else says, Daredevil was awesome.

Regardless of this, when I’ve heard people talking about Gone Baby Gone the consensus seems to be that Casey is the better actor of the Affleck brothers and that Ben should stay behind the camera. While I thought this might possibly be a back-handed compliment, having seen the film I now know what they mean, and it is in no way insulting.

This is the first time I’ve seen Casey in a lead role (I still haven’t watched The Assassination of Jesse James - careless I know) and he is excellent. I always liked him in the few movies I’d seen him in previously, and always thought he was the most under-rated character in Good Will Hunting, but this was the first time I really got to appreciate what a great talent he is. His performance is subtle but extremely believable and it is him that makes the film so uncomfortably real.

While it’s not something that people seem to appreciate these days, but Ben Affleck is a pretty good writer – he won an Oscar for it and everything. Not only did he help write another excellent film with Gone Baby Gone, but he also did an excellent job of directing it too. The bleak, depressing story is made all the more real for the world that Ben creates and you could be forgiven for thinking that the film was lead by a far more experienced director.

I realise that there is nothing new or insightful about what I’m saying here. Most people have written the same thing about this film and the Affleck brothers 18 months ago. However, I feel I can get away with it as I don’t think many people in the UK have really discovered this one yet and, if they get the chance, they should watch it as soon as possible.