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TheBrownees
I am an entertainment blogger
Originally from Ireland. I’m a medical doctor. However, I am also a passionate movie lover and have been as far back as I can remember. Growing up in Ireland, I devoured every movie that would come my way, often over a year after it had opened in the US. During my decade of medical studies in Galway, I managed to get a job writing about movies for “In Dublin“ magazine and later, I started writing articles for “The Irish Times”, which I continued to do after I moved here in 1992. My favorite director is Hitchcock and, fittingly, ”Vertigo” is one of my two all-time favorite movies; the other is Polanski’s ”Chinatown”. I recently started working less hours as a doctor, so I thought that I might try my hand at a Blog.
The blog was born under COVID-19 isolation and has spread it's wings, I think.
@TheBrownees is obviously a play on my name.
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I am also, a proud member of BAFTA.
Reviews
Chinatown (1974)
One of the Greatest Movies Ever Made and My Personal Favorite.
Robert Towne based his masterful screenplay on the William Mulholland - Owens Valley - Los Angeles Aqueduct events of the early teens - the LA Aqueduct was completed in 1913 emptying into the Van Norman dam in the northern part of San Fernando Valley - and Towne transported those events forward in time to 1937. To a time when the LA on film is recognizable as the LA of the seventies and the LA of today. Roman Polanski, like Hitchcock, was a great director who was born to work in Hollywood. A genius behind the camera, when he was working with the greatest technicians on the planet as he was here - cinematographer John A. Alonzo lovingly using a palette of yellows and browns in the desert heat, Richard Sylbert's production design, Anthea Sylbert's costumes, and Sam O'Steen's editing - he captured the FEEL of LA better than anyone before or sense. Having experienced some horrific personal tragedies he gave the film a preordained feeling of doom and melancholy and, in the process, gave us the greatest color Film Noir.
Jack Nicholson (arguably the greatest actor in the history of Hollywood) gives his greatest performance here as J. J. " Jake" Gittes, a private investigator who gets in way over his head when he starts to investigate the business dealings of water baron Noah Cross (a brilliant John Huston) and may, inadvertently, be responsible for the death of the woman he loves, the film's femme fatale Evelyn Mulwray, magnificently played by Faye Dunaway.
As if this wasn't enough, the film is bathed in the notes of the greatest movie score ever written - Jerry Goldsmith's haunting trumpet-based masterpiece.
Patrick.
Birdies (2022)
"Birdies" is an amiable trip down the fairway
Things are not looking too good for Twin Pines golf club and the manager Charlie Conroy (Zach Hanner) knows it. They are badly in need of a cash infusion, there's an important tournament in the offing and the elitist crowd over at Magnolia Point want to put them out of business. And they got roaches! Then, before you can say deux-ex-machina, the new exterminator Jake (Ryan O'Flanagan) turns out be a former golf prodigy. Although he is forbidden to play by his girlfriend (Aerli Austen) - something happened in college - he turns pro for Twin Pines without needing too much persuasion. From that point on "Birdies" is an amiable trip down the fairway!
Director Troy Carlton is good with both a punchline and sight gag. There is a hole-in-one shot that had me laughing out loud! And in O'Flanagan, he is blessed with a lead who is both handsome and has a way with comedy having earned his chops in stand-up. He has a certain confidence about him. The relaxed charm of a Cary Grant. Meanwhile, Zach Hanner plays Conroy with a nice "Que Sera, Sera" attitude. In fact, even the guys over at archrival Magnolia Point find it hard to get worked up about anything. And that's part of the movie's appeal.
However, the mediocre gag-saturated script (credited to four writers including Carton) drags the movie down and, ironically, there isn't enough to go around. The movie is padded to the max. The scenes are held together by too many montage sequences accompanied by mostly uninspired pop/rock songs.
In fact, the funniest thing in the movie happens during the closing credit crawl when all twenty eight songs are presented as incriminating evidence, verifying what we suspected all along. It must be some kind of a record! Clocking in at 1h 45m, "Birdies" would work better if it was trimmed to just sixty minutes and then re-released as a short film.
As things stand, "Birdies" is a pleasant diversion that requires little or no concentration and gives you innumerable opportunities to fill up on that popcorn.