Anthony McG

Peter Graves died today. His performance in Airplane! is legendary. RIP:

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Saw the Fisher King again last week in the IFI for Jeff Bridges season. This is one of my favourite bits from the film and it’s the ending so if you haven’t seen it, you may not want to watch:

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Yeah I know the title is dodgy but it’s got John Cusack:

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It’s almost a role that George Clooney was born to play. Ryan Bingham is a corporate downsizer, a man whose job it is to break the life changing news to people across America that their “positions are no longer available”. Although the story that this script is adapted from was written a few years ago, the current economic environment has lent a new weight to it. Bingham’s home is in the air, chasing a target of air miles that only six other people have ever achieved. He packs like a ninja and is turned on by platinum cards. It’s that particular encounter in which we are introduced to Alex who is almost a carbon copy of Bingham, at one point uttering the words “Just think of me as you but with a vagina”.

Bingham finds himself developing feelings for her and relationships are not this man’s strong point. Complicating matters for him is the fact that he has a cocky new colleague in the form of Natalie Keener, whose determined to introduce a new video conferencing way of firing people. This threatens Bingham’s entire way of life and the sparing between the man who considers it an art form and the woman whose determined to push through change is fantastic. That brings me to the script. Written by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner it develops fantastic characters and is sharp throughout. Reitman, who also directs, is going from strength to strength after the success of Juno.

I honestly can’t recommend this film enough. Clooney is sensational, embodying a man who goes through a sea change in how he deals with others. I’ve seen it twice now and will probably see it a third time when it’s released here this Friday 15th. The closing monologue will stick with me but I won’t quote it here.

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- Visually stunning. The CG convinces you from minute one and is as big an achievement as Gollum was in LOTR. He’s created a whole world of creatures, plants, mountain ranges etc that will blow you away.
- The story is decent but not something your gonna remember for years to come.
- See it in 3D if possible. It’s the best use of 3D I’ve seen bar IMAX.
- Sam Worthington really is the next big action star. He was a standout in Terminator 4 and he dominates proceedings here.
- When the action kicks off, and there’s a good bit of it, you know it’s Jim Cameron. He just does action sequences better than anyone else.

Overall: Well worth seeing, especially on the big screen.

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