johnlmodra Reviews

The Strange Woman (1946)

Don't you just love a plot that takes you down to the depths

[9/10 · 11 March 2023]

Even the most beautiful women in the world, like Hedy Lamarr have to be strong to ensure they don't think looks are everything and their gift of the gab and the grabbing of attention means they know things and can control the world.

On the other hand , great to meet those many weak weak man , who have to remind themselves that he has the great opportunity to observe and learn how shallow people are and get on with his life and calling.

Enjoy the toughness in the characters in these stories and you doing the important things.

And you wonderfully strong women who have been my dear friends, I say -- God give you strength!!!!!!

The real risk for ALL of us IS that we can be distracted our whole life long by worrying about what people think.

Sword of Honour (2001 TV Movie)

Good if you want to explore the poverty of minds in war

[8/10 · 19 July 2022]

Worth watching for the solid character and moral challenges ( bad luck if you no longer believe we have them ) even though for many, the caricature and patheticness of the big boys and girls in the play make us less than warm to them in the film version.

Waugh has taken on the tough job of telling the truth from the inside and its not nice, good or even very inspiring. Unfortunately that's what we are like .Ultimately its these truths , not fantasy ,that sets us free .

The son ,father and growing men figures whose bouts of courage to do the right thing, give the play a gritty guts that make this drive through the sordid and mad mess of war really worthwhile . Because its so punchy, and even funny, if you a boy yourself , about stupid men, it should be shown in all public schools.

Death Rides a Horse (1967)

The tension between the heroes gives this a truly tough realism

[9/10 · 21 February 2021]

The formulae for frontier drama maybe predictable , but when ittakes the tension of revenge and inexperience as close as it is in the heroes . the drama is powerful .Loved the closeups , the chorus music- and the closing duststorm- very memorable .

Beyond the Law (1968)

You are never too old for this -- even if the evil ones in it are.

[9/10 · 8 February 2021]

What a fresh and funny crime drama made most enjoyable by the 3 amigos and the real tensions played out in the key characters. This story is such an antidote to the boring; predictable dramas on now Its both serious and funny by not being boringly politically correct about real human tensions . a great night night out in the war zone .

The Robe (1953)

Best post election therapy ever

[9/10 · 15 November 2020]

Richard Burton did indeed give a wooden performance with the lovely choirs and orchestra too grand for this exquisitely alive story that could never be contained by the very best of filmmakers. The best artisans of the time prove that the practical effect of a few courageous believers can, at any time in history, be enough to threaten the most powerful men and in presenting its impossible challenge ,change that world in a mighty good way . Enjoy it because the next leader of Your Senate may just be another weak and blind tyrant who is still willing to ruin the life of good citizens in the name of brute power and his ideas of what we need .

The Last Czars (2019)

The authors mislead badly about history and ideas

[2/10 · 20 October 2020]

Managed to get through the first episode of trite and shallow speculation by nearly everybody on set. The work is totally convincing and predictable with shallow modern dialogue forced onto the lips of people much more intelligent and well rounded that the commentariat who loved to project anger onto every body they want us to hate . Don't bother .

The Patriot (2000)

Grasps the nettle and makes us hold it

[9/10 · 20 August 2020]

The truth is that you can't alway tell the whole truth and we would all go to sleep if someone did cause it takes too long . Rodat has done a great job to put great characters on both sides into the scene who add all the weight needed to carry us with grace through this horrific poetry of attached history . Nobody wins except the hidden heroes . Yet in true wonder the French get an honorable mention with Gibson reminding us of Henry's "last night' at Agincourt So much to recommend it including the music

Tightrope (1984)

stay away

[1/10 · 18 August 2020]

The script is shocking nonsense forget it This is not the life, but a sus paint job The children are totally unbelievable as are the most of the relationships

Cosi (1996)

You beauty Louis and the team

[10/10 · 3 August 2020]

The great poets of old would be ,over bowled by its brassy and beautiful forms They are people you see just as God wants us to be happy and free on the stage

Jedda the Uncivilized (1955)

Unconvincing dialogue

[4/10 · 6 October 2016]

Found this cinematic delight hard to watch for long because i felt the couples relationships too much of an artificial construct; lacking the sort of hard one unity that would make them adopt the child and the compromised lifestyle their child would inevitably face. The stiff painted portrait and dialogue is one of inevitable failure instead of the inevitable challenge all aboriginals and remote desert cattle growers and their families face. Dad being anything but helpful and far too theoretical and impractical to be credible as a partner friend and confidant . Instead of an ongoing tension that would characterize her growing up there is the overwhelming sense from the start that this fictional and overly unwise woman will lose the child .Doomed by a decision to cast the white woman carer as stupid- i don't find it a convincing story even though the intercultural tensions are and always would be tough .An opportunity lost?

The Honourable Wally Norman (2003)

Be proud you blokes -its very good

[9/10 · 3 April 2013]

Something about this apparently "too good to be true, victory for the battlers" made me realize how much I hate the cynical reviewer who might deny us its brilliance and good humored trip to the public bar. Its not "the Castle" but its deeper and more deadly in its comedic twists .Our 18 YO loved it. Comments from the participants (on the DVD) tell it all- an opportunity to say a lot of things and say them well .Its a classic in the funny serious Aussie tradition of great films. Sure the elements are understated( and the frame a bit small) but this is us ; If it doesn't bring us all back to where we found home,anyone of three fair go blokes show us how it can happen. Can't recommend it highly enough. Mate ship is not only in the script, its in the actors and the stage atmosphere as they work to make this more than the many trite "shy bloke does good " stories we have seen .Its almost like some of these people are playing themselves . Kevin Harrington is brilliant and Ted Emery's flair adds spades to a great rural story (That deserves wide appeal) our 1

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

Light and Darkness

[9/10 · 6 January 2013]

The wonder of a good walk is the wonder of these stories about our shared journey. It may not always look like the places we have been, but it sure feels like it on the journey. We begin at home with the visitors and their strange ways and nagging demands on our time . What a fun individual crew they will turn out to be . We are surely, like them , destined to enjoy our differences and celebrate our uniqueness. This scene though breaks up and we find ourselves alone again ; longing to be in a place that's just like home. We like to be together , but we need our day of rest . God bless them mums; they do the dishes ; this Hobbit home maybe only ever just a flighty fantastic fantasy, but its sure serious fun to be there at such times of sharing. The formed and fashioned friendships too remind us too of what we can do together in the toughest of times by being strong in ourselves. Who would ever forget Golon and his lonely, precarious life and reasoning; Naked and exposed, he's us all over. I hope Peter and the team will capture the real blackness of some of the remaining dark tunnels in the next edition by telling the story as Job does in his chapter about the mine. If there was one thing I missed in all the action in the Hobbit - it was "the words" . Galdalf says a few powerful things - his power is not much in the magic but in his understanding - when he says "the world can change if we all spin the moment" he's pointing to really big picture positive stuff that the kids of today really need http://dogood.blogspot.com. Yes we are all creatures who dig, but we dig differently in diverse places and spaces . We get different amounts of "gold" and we all get distracted by " fools gold", forgetting that Gold is always a gift and can be found just about anywhere . The tangible and real adventure for all of us is to find gold in places we have personally discovered deep in in our own lonely journeys into dark places . The films limits? At times I think the re-creators are too busy with lights, mirrors and action to push the punchy place of the words that really powerful men speak. Peter Jackson has done very well to bring us these wonders . I wish the team well as they send us down again into the depths and the darkness. The wonder of these journeys and their potential to motivate is that,just like even in Plato's cave ,the light is ever present, despite the darkness and the depth of trauma .With light and understanding out there, there is no reason to stay at home in a cave all the time. Peter you have done very very well to both take us there and bring us home again. The West sure needs to re-find that place of rest again.

Parental Guidance (2012)

Good family therapy

[9/10 · 6 January 2013]

Ustinov said that comedy is just a fun way of being serious .This film is seriously good fun . Don't be put off by those who refuse to go there. We all need to go there so we can really enjoy the rest ( the rest ) of the holidays and each others incomplete adventures. http://dogood.blogspot.com. Keeping it powerful and pointed is the raw passion and the pain it creates . Billy's first love in his job is lost and his wife is at a loss to replace it .We share on screen the reality that the things we love cost us more to keep than they pay . With time and space though yet they can form the buds of passion for a new generation . Buds of passion that run deeper than "a more efficient household" and some unrealistic germ free and risk free predictability. Living with our adrenalin, anger and denial means recognizing that it doesn't come in off the screen, but that we bring it in with us every time we open a door.

Enemy of the State (1998)

One of the best action movies because its so seriously funny in places

[19 November 2011]

Edgey, novel and fast moving,full of great original gags around well framed personal and political struggles. A great achievement, the authors hold the accelerator right down well when moving and take it right off to build creative pace for some personal moments. The film is notable for its many well bound creative sequences and screen shots like the incomplete dialogs between Smith and Hackman and the uncertain case for the object of the chase. One of the most convincing and engaging sequences is the rapid and convincing way the team are able to follow the carrier using satellite - mirroring in practice the reality of the extensive future use of GPS, as it develops now.

This film is well worth watching by a wide range of people. For those sensitive to violence and bare body moments there is nothing gratuitous with the normal level of both for that genre . Some of the sexual references are, like the one raised by a child at the end, really funny serious moments. While the orange moggy should take an Oscar for setting one of the unexpected scenes of clever pace craft and character, our little moggy would have done just that bit better lying upside down in Hackmans lap while he set the time bomb off in his own home . What a clever twist (" I told you not to use the phone!")

Songs of Praise: Medway Towns (2008) Season 48, Episode 6

You should have to pay for something this tangibly good

[14 August 2011]

Popular in Australia this repeat came to us in the week after riots in London. The celebration of a basis for racial unity,sports support and an outreach to the streets was powerful genuine warmth from an isle like our own where talk is cheap and the trouble of the day is enough to make you cry (rather than sing )through the day. What a welcome way to start your day. The many tens of thousands of people of isolated Australians who watch this program each Sunday are familiar enough with the formalities but love the chance to singalong. Meeting in person the man who made the sandwich and who now who make their home in the buildings after a life on the streets is the most tangible antidote I know for the temptation to despair over the huge forces that tear at our "eco" equilibrium.