Off Topic The Review Thread

I think Stephen Graham played Lennon, not seen the film but heard him interviewed about it. But it may have been someone else.

 

This was one of the few films that Stephen Graham wasn't in.

 

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I saw the film.....thought it was ok for one of those sentimental sort of things they do well.
Think I know who Lennon was....
Christopher Eccleston ?

Going to bed now so will google it before I go.

NB Won’t ruin it but just googled it and now it’s obvious

 

I didn't think it was obvious. There was the briefest of moments when I thought it was actually Lennon.

I was genuinely moved.

 

Yeah, he was bewilderingly in the Irishman.

 

Totally incongruous. He's great, but not for than film, which I loved.

 

After a lot of beer and some severe arm-twisting, that's my go-to karaoke song!

 

It's Robert Carlyle for anyone interested.

 

Finished series two of American Gods yesterday. Very good, but they are now beginning to stretch out and embellish the material from the book without moving the plot on at all, realising I suppose that they have a popular programme and in typical US fashion wanting to milk it for as long as possible. Quality declining a little, in the writing rather than the performances and visuals, I hope that they use the next series to get to the end of the book and keep it moving.

Moving on the The Man In the High Castle tonight, which I know already will bear only a passing resemblance to the source material so I will try not to compare too much.

 

Well, The Man in the High Castle was just about instantly binned, gave it 15 minutes. Occupied New York and San Francisco 1962 looked good, and I wasn’t bothered by the just about instant diversion from the source book. Sadly the script and acting were so bad that it proved unwatchable. Shame, I was looking forward to it.

Now I have to wait for the next series of American Gods.

 

I have to be honest... I just don’t fancy it. You’ve confirmed that my instincts are correct.

 

It could have been good if you enjoy alternative history (I do) and if it was written and acted half decently. Just the brief bit we saw was cringeworthy, just crappy exposition ‘Look Mr Hitler has his left hand in his pocket because he has Parkinson’s Disease’. Actual line, FFS. From the Dan Brown ‘the big man sat on the wooden chair’ school of writing.

As I say a shame, as I have a nice routine with my daughter of an episode or two of something streamed about 10.00pm, and now we have to find something else. Tried Good Omens, which is at least properly acted (with the excellent Michael Sheen) but is a word for word version of the book, which was packed with fun ideas but written by two blokes showing off to each other, intolerable both on the page and on the screen remarkably quickly, virtually every line of dialogue is shouted.

 

Just finished The Wild Ass’s Skin by Balzac, surprisingly modern for a book written nearly 200 years ago, full of symbolism and social history, easy to read and constantly entertaining. Raphael was a prick though.

 

Just looked that up, I’ll give it a go. It looks like Oscar Wilde ripped it off for the Portrait of Dorian Grey. I read Balzac’s Old Goriot decades ago, I think I enjoyed it but, as is so often the case nowadays, I have zero recollection of what it was about.

 

Dorian Grey came to mind whilst reading, might try Goriot a little later, got a couple in front to read.

 

I'm afraid my only contribution to this exchange is to snigger like a schoolboy because Balzac sounds a bit like 'ball sac'.

 

Again crossed my mind to the point I made that joke before I started reading it hoping it won’t be that. I can confirm it wasn’t

 

There's a staggering volume of popular shows that I haven't been anywhere near and probably never will. I've never watched any of 'Game of Thrones', 'Sons of Anarchy', 'Breaking Bad', 'The Sopranos', 'Boardwalk Empire' and countless more. I doubt I ever will even though I'm sure many, if not all, would be decent viewing. I've just got series fatigue, I think. So many of them end up jumping the shark and you end up wondering why the hell you bothered. Both 'Line of Duty' and that female assassin show that I keep wanting to call 'Educating Rita' have just about outstayed their respective welcomes in my Snug.

A few years ago I mentioned to a work colleague that I'd never seen the 'Godfather' movies or 'Shawshank'. When I left the company those DVDs were my leaving gifts. Nice of them, but it hadn't occurred that there was a reason why I'd never seen them... I just can't be bothered and don't think I'm any the poorer for it.

It's a bit like when people try to make you listen to music. Music, much more than film, is deeply personal and certain material resonates with individuals in ways others will never understand, possibly because it can whisk them back to places and former circumstances and bring back some of the emotions felt at the time. Having some geek thrusting some Stereophonics B-side at your ears and watching on gormlessly whilst it means **** all to me is one of my most loathed experiences.

OK, and breathe out...