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Post by Marwood on Feb 10, 2024 21:10:09 GMT
I finally got round to seeing Casablanca tonight and I was pretty damn impressed: the cast was great across the board and it had a script packed full of quotable lines: the credits at the beginning says it was based on a play, I’m surprised no one has tried to put on a production of it in recent years (although this was quite ambitious with the amount of scene changes so who knows what was added for the films screenplay)
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Post by Marwood on Feb 9, 2024 23:27:00 GMT
Yes there is, through the link in the plays website that was linked at the beginning of this thread: they sent me an email earlier saying the resale goes live next Tuesday (the 13th) from 8 a.m until noon: I’ve seen how many people liked this when Tom Holland shares he was doing it on his Instagram the other day so they won’t have problems selling tickets for this, I want to see who is playing Juliet first though.
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Post by Marwood on Feb 6, 2024 23:06:33 GMT
Well, you would have thought so, especially 20 minutes before it started. Really! Unless he has his own P.A. whose job would that be? A stage hand/manager or just someone working in there: he had his pictures all over the place, it’s not like some random that wandered in off the streets.
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Post by Marwood on Feb 5, 2024 23:42:23 GMT
I saw Andy Serkis in the foyer of Ulster American, in the queue to buy some sweets. As he was one of the stars of that, could he not have asked someone working in there to go and get him some? 🥴
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Post by Marwood on Feb 3, 2024 23:50:09 GMT
Saw American Fiction at the BFI tonight, introduced by Cord Jefferson, Sterling K. Brown and Jeffrey Wright (although as the screening didn’t start until gone 9, I missed the Q&A after or I wouldn’t have got home much before one in the morning): I enjoyed it, it’s not quite the out and out comedy I had been expecting from the trailer as there are quite a few moments of melancholy sewn into it with great performances across the board, although the BFI being what it is, certain members of the audience were guffawing and clapping stupidly loudly without realising that the jokes aimed at privileged white folk were aimed at people just like them 👀
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Post by Marwood on Feb 3, 2024 9:51:19 GMT
Frank Skinner- 30 Years of Dirt at the Gielgud on Tuesday
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Post by Marwood on Feb 2, 2024 22:05:57 GMT
I’ll wait to see who is announced but I’m not over excited about this (mainly because I could only name one Chaka Khan song if anyone asked me and didn’t know she was still going)
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Post by Marwood on Feb 2, 2024 21:11:56 GMT
I booked to see The Cherry Orchard earlier today after seeing it an ad for it in the back of the BFI March programme (they’re showing bugger all that I have any interest in during March): it will be first time I’ve been to the Donmar since Gemma Arterton was in Saint Joan which I’ve just seen was seven years ago 🫤
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Post by Marwood on Feb 2, 2024 21:06:02 GMT
Saw Argylle at BFI IMAX earlier this evening: I didn’t realise it was financed by Apple Films but I’m glad I got to see it on a big screen rather than in my laptop: the film itself wasn’t that great and seemed to take ages to find its groove but it was likeable enough by the time it ends: certainly the best thing either Sam Rockwell or Bryan Cranston have done in ages. If you do go and see it in a cinema, don’t bother hanging round for the scene in the end credits (one of the reviews I read said it featured a major character in the film but it was a couple of nobodies 🤣)
I’ll give this 3 stars, but wouldn’t want to see it again.
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Post by Marwood on Feb 2, 2024 12:32:37 GMT
Paul Nicholas as the Major : 🥴 I’ll pass on this one, the whole thing sounds dreadful 🤦♂️
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Post by Marwood on Feb 1, 2024 8:00:03 GMT
I also wasn’t impressed: I’ve spent all my life in Croydon and there has never been anything in the Whitgift Centre you would go to for a treat, let alone a diner (a crap pub that got demolished about 30 years ago and a cheap Thai restaurant that closed down about ten years ago is about it) so that ‘emotional’ scene just didn’t land for me, and I just felt detached (and bored) by the time it finished.
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Post by Marwood on Jan 27, 2024 23:29:56 GMT
The advertising blurb is a very specific about the summer of 1976. I remember walking across a dried up reservoir. It was a hot, dry summer with drought conditions over most of the UK I only saw that the new play from Jez Butterworth and Sam Mendes was going on sale in October last year and seeing the mad rush there has been for the previous plays, I just booked a ticket and left it at that (I was in Vegas at the time tickets went on sale, it was done unholy hour when I booked it) but sometimes it’s good to see shows only knowing the bare minimum of what it’s about, only who write it and/or who produced it.
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Post by Marwood on Jan 27, 2024 23:16:30 GMT
In the absence of a programme, I wasn’t sure what time period this was supposed to be set in (going by some of the comments the latter day parts are set in the mid 70s) and it took until the second act to put things into place: to tell the truth, I only had a vague idea about what this is about prior to sitting down to watch it and the first half an hour or so were the total opposite of The Ferryman (I never saw Jerusalem and the price of tickets on its last run out me right off it) and the first half an hour or so seemed like some generic TV programme set in the North like Where The Heart Is or Peak Practice so it took me a while to get involved with the characters but it then builds and builds and I was impressed by the end (it never seemed to drag):the last few scenes are a punctuation of the whole music scene of the American West Coast being some kind of artistic dream with a big portion of Me Too thrown in as well. I won’t say anything more as I could easily go into spoiler territories but I really liked the performances and singing from the younger generation of girls playing the sisters and I was impressed that for a play running well over three hours, there was no obvious flubbing of lines on its first performance.
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Post by Marwood on Jan 27, 2024 18:51:34 GMT
No programmes in yet (although there are cast lists available) and a planned running time of three hours and twenty minutes according to the people on the door.
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Post by Marwood on Jan 22, 2024 13:12:41 GMT
Thanks for the heads up : also got myself a front row seat to see it.
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Post by Marwood on Jan 21, 2024 11:22:32 GMT
The Hills of California at the Harold Pinter on Saturday
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Post by Marwood on Jan 20, 2024 20:34:40 GMT
Saw Poor Things earlier today and while it has some good performances that have already received serious awards buzz (and particularly brave ones from Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo in the nudity stakes), I thought it went on too long, tried to fit too many ideas and characters in and eventually just seemed a bit mean spirited: I’ll say 6 out of 10 from me.
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Post by Marwood on Jan 20, 2024 20:24:23 GMT
I don’t know if he is mentioned on the posters for the film but Christopher Abbott turned up towards the end of Poor Things with a fairly decent English accent (miles bettter than Willem Dafoes Scots one anyway), he’s been getting some serious buzz about his career since this started and he’s about to make The Wolf Man- he could be a big star in the future (not sure if this will transfer to a bigger theatre on Broadway or come over here though, but I read it made its money back prior to closing).
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Post by Marwood on Jan 19, 2024 20:26:52 GMT
Saw Scala!!! At the BFI last night, preceded by a conversation with Barry Adamson, Jah Wobble, Mark Moore, Douglas Hart and Caroline Catz (who all feature in it): I was too young to be aware of it when it closed and a lot of what they put on wouldn’t have been my cup of tea anyway but an entertaining way to spend 90 minutes.
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Post by Marwood on Jan 17, 2024 20:18:11 GMT
I saw 5 shows in New York last year and all of them were enjoyable: I’ve seen some right rubbish in London in the last couple of years so I don’t think NYC is in any kind of slump, if you’re expecting to see Hollywood A graders you might be disappointed but I’m sure some more of them will come along at some point.
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Post by Marwood on Jan 15, 2024 19:07:36 GMT
I’m going to see the aforementioned Tom Hanks show (The Moonwalkers) at the weekend: I’m just praying there won’t be loads of dickheads taking selfies and filming it while it happens 🫤
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Post by Marwood on Jan 15, 2024 19:03:27 GMT
The Steve Carell version is yet to come: myself, I’m Vanya’d out after the Andrew Scott version last year and the diabolical version that was on at The Other Palace about ten years ago (which was so crap it inspired me to post my first review on the old forum)
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Post by Marwood on Jan 15, 2024 18:09:06 GMT
Just finished seeing it and really enjoyed it: didn’t think the editing was particularly ‘kinetic’’ although there are a couple of bits when moments get shared on social media where the images are piled up rapidly . I wouldn’t say the soundtrack featured anything amazing but then I’m not really a musicals kind of guy but the whole thing just seemed nice and good natured (although if you’re seeing it because of Jon Hamm in the trailers, I’d hold off booking as he is in it maybe 2 or 3 minutes at most, and don’t get your hopes up of Tina Fey singing any big numbers), the perfect way to spend a couple of hours: I’m tempted to go and see the stage version when it opens in London so I can compare the two.
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Post by Marwood on Jan 14, 2024 21:50:03 GMT
I’m going to try to see it tomorrow in France: wish me luck 😝
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Post by Marwood on Jan 12, 2024 21:41:19 GMT
Soulwax at L’Aeronef in Lille on Tuesday: the forecast is -3 and I don’t think it’s going to finish much before midnight so I’m going to ensure I have at least three layers of warm clothing with me 🫤 Weather is nearly as crap here but I’m still seeing halfwits wearing shorts on the streets at night each night this week🤨
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Post by Marwood on Jan 12, 2024 21:38:00 GMT
I saw adverts for this all over buses and bus stops in Bromley when I went there last weekend but not a thing about it outside the Churchill, I can’t think it’s selling that well without anyone knowing who is going to be in it?
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Post by Marwood on Jan 12, 2024 20:34:06 GMT
Saw Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure tonight at the BFI : another one in their Scala season. I can understand Pee-Wee not being everyone’s cup of tea (if you read up on his later life without seeing anything he was in then you might not be looking forward to seeing him if it’s recommended to you)but it’s just 90 minutes of silly, good natured fun that the whole cinema seemed to enjoy with loads of classic moments (Large Marge, the Alamo and Tequila for starters 🤣)
I hadn’t seen it in about 30 years or so : my only disappointment was going on the Hollywood Warner Brothers tour in 2028 and the guide made no mention of the numerous locations on the lot that are used in this…
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Post by Marwood on Jan 7, 2024 19:03:06 GMT
Next Goal Wins: way better than I expected; really funny and feelgood and definitely one of my favourite "Sports underdogs win" films. Saw this today (had a real struggle to find anywhere in London showing it at a reasonable hour) and thought it was very poor, nothing to dislike about it but I got the impression it only got greenlit because it was from the director of Jojo Rabbit and the last two Thor films and when it was delivered, the studio didn’t have a clue what to do with it so just bunged it in a cupboard.
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Post by Marwood on Jan 6, 2024 22:30:13 GMT
Was there tonight in the Grand Circle slips (the view was pretty atrocious and my legs were complaining after about fifteen minutes or so) but I thoroughly enjoyed it: my knowledge of Sondheim is extremely limited (West Side Story, Into The Woods and Sweeney Todd was about it) but after seeing Here We Are just before Christmas I thought it would be rude not to try to see it before it’s gone.
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Post by Marwood on Jan 6, 2024 15:34:04 GMT
Saw the original version of The Evil Dead last night at BFI Southbank, part of their Scala season. First time I’d seen it in decades and I didn’t realise that the acting was the most diabolical thing on show, it’s no shocker that Bruce Campbell was the only person on screen who made a career out of acting. Hard to see how it got labelled as a video nasty, it seems like silly fun for rather than anything scary (the cackling laughter and shouts of ‘join us!’ 🤣) it’s better than the remake from ten years ago but not a patch on Evil Dead 2 that takes the silliness to a whole new level.
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