From Big to Small Screen.

Hi to everyone,

As there is not much happening in the movie world this week I thought I would take a look at the latest television shows that are coming to the small screen this autumn and which of them I am most looking forward to.

Now that Breaking Bad has ended after five terrific seasons all my hopes are on the upcoming season of Sons of Anarchy, which is also in its last season.

This has taken over as my  most anticipated show on TV at the moment. Created by Kurt Sutter, it is by far the most gripping of dramas around, with brilliant writing and actors who portray such incredible characters. I was a late comer to the show, and while on holiday two years ago I binged watched seasons 1-3 and never looked back. Like all good things I understand it has to come to an end but I hope they create a spin off as they have done with Better Call Saul which follows a probably the funniest character from Breaking Bad, my choice would be to build a show around Bobby Elvis Munson as he tries to resurrect his Elvis tribute career, unless of course he is killed off in the last season.

My next choice has to be the absolutely gripping Boardwalk Empire starring one of my favourite actors Steve Buscemi.

Set in Atlantic city during the American Prohibition era. This upcoming season will be the fifth and final season in the series, a series that has gone from strength to strength and has been nominated for many Emmy awards but alas has only collected three, shockingly no best actor award for Buscemi, due in part to the popularity of Brian Cranston in Breaking Bad. Maybe in this final season Buscemi will finally get his reward. The show is broadcast on HBO so the graphic content is definitely for adult viewing only which makes it all the better as the scenes are not meant to be sugar coated in anyway.

When I was a youngster in the '70's I remember my mother watching a British show called Upstairs Downstairs which followed the lives of a rich family and their servants all living in a London based house in the early 20th century. What I remember is being so bored having to sit through the weekly episodes, as we only had one TV, and in those days there were no computers so there was not a lot else to do. Fast forward to the present time and we have a similar show, but on a far grander scale, called Downton Abbey and I'm completely hooked as I know millions of people are.

I love it and I'm sure my dearly departed mother would also have been a fan. But I'm sad to say my teenage son is not into it, but luckily he does have other things to do as I'm engrossed in the lives of all the wonderful characters. Created by Julian Fellowes and having an ensemble cast of superbly talented British actors. Downton is now into its fifth season with Christmas specials and I have heard rumours that the creator Fellowes is planning a prequel special following the early relationship of Lord and Lady Crawley.

The two best American channels HBO and FX seem to have the monopoly on the best shows on TV at the moment when you consider that FX will put out their fourth season of the critically acclaimed American Horror Story: Freak Show, but there is also Netflix which has announced that after the success of House of Cards They will now be venturing into the superhero field, in conjunction with ABC studios, with a series of individual Marvel hero stories including DareDevil, which will conlude in a super team up series. I sincerely hope that they do a better job than the terrible Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D  which was so bad that producers ABC should have cancelled it after the first season, but instead have renewed it for a second season. The hugely popular DC comic character Arrow is returning for a third season and there will also be a premier season for The Flash who had a cameo in Arrow. Even though Marvel are well and truly ruling the movie world it would seem that DC are leading the way in TV shows at the moment.

On the comedy front you certainly can't go wrong with the hilarious Modern Family, which like my favourite comedy Veep, just gets funnier and funnier. It will be the shows sixth season, which just shows the talent of the writers that they are still able to come up with fresh material for the actors. The Big Bang Theory is returning for its eighth season with another three seasons scheduled up until 2017, so be prepared for a lot more wanting to punch Sheldon in the face.

So in general the upcoming shows should brighten our dark nights.

Until next time.

Miles Dunton.

His name's Bond, Sean Bond.

Hi once again everybody and welcome to my latest movie thoughts.

With the Scottish public going to the polls this week to vote YES or NO for a Scottish independence I thought I would take a look at probably the most famous of the great Scots that have made an impact on the movie world. That has to be the one and only Sean Connery a true Scot and a staunch advocate of his country. Now aged 84 and reportedly retired from acting, I would like to take this opportunity to take a short look at some of his films that made an impact on me and I'm sure millions others.

The original and some say the best of the Bonds. Even though I am a fan of his in the role of James Bond they are not my choice of his best work.  The three films in which I believe he gave his best performances were The Untouchables which came out in 1987. Directed by Brian De Palma and also starring Robert De Niro and Kevin Costner, in it Connery played the Irish veteran beat cop James Malone, who is both guide and mentor to Costners' character Eliot Ness to such great effect that he quite rightly collected the best supporting Oscar and the Golden Globe in the same category. His death scene was the best scene in the movie and he also had by far the best lines in the script that gave the film a slightly comedic lift at dark times of the movie.

Connery as Malone

Up next is the 1975 adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling short story The Man Who Would Be King in which he starred alongside Michael Caine as Daniel Dravot. Directed by the great John Huston it tells the tale of two men who travel to a remote area of the middle east known as Kafiristan, now Afghanistan, in 1888, and once there the two comrades become "gods" but at the end lose everything. Connery gives a brilliant performance as Danny, as his character increasingly develops delusions of grandeur as he truly enjoys the adulation he receives from the locals, which towards the end of the film runs out of control with terrible results.

Connery as Danny Dravot

My last choice of his films is the 1990 The Hunt for Red October in this Connery plays a Russian submarine captain, Marko Aleksandrovich Ramius. The film is based on the novel by Tom Clancy and directed by John McTiernan. This is the first of many films portraying the character of Jack Ryan, in this instance actor Alec Baldwin plays the lead, but Connery is so good in it that he totally steals the film and the movie poster. The film is a little claustrophobic at times as it's based inside a submarine but Connery, through his performance never makes you feel closed in at all.

In Hunt for Red October

I suppose the most interesting aspect of Connery's performances in all of his movies is that it doesn't matter where his character is from, he could be playing an Irish cop, an English gentleman, a Spanish Immortal or even a Russian captain his accent never changes, he still has that distinctive Scottish accent that is so recognizable. But he gets away with it due to the quality of his acting and screen presence. Their are not many other actors who could get away with that, the only other one that springs to mind is Michael Caine, who apart from in the film Zulu in which he tries to put on an upper class English accent, uses the same cockney accent in all of his work. The one phrase of Connery that sticks in my mind is when as Bond he pronounces Miss Moneypenny and when he uttered the phrase "My name's Bond, James Bond" it still sounds better than all the actors who followed in his larger than life 007 footsteps. Talking about Bond it would have been great for Connery to have played the character Kincade, Bonds gamekeeper in Skyfall actually played by Albert Finney, but sadly it wasn't to be.

Most famous as 007

So it's a shame that we won't be seeing him on the big screen in the future but thankfully his films can still be watched and admired by all.

So whatever the Scots decide in the referendum I'm voting a big YES for Sir Sean Connery to have an enjoyable and golf filled retirement, he has certainly deserved it.

Until next week have a great week at the movies.

Miles Dunton.

Remakes why bother?

Hi everyone and welcome back.

There is currently talk about a new movie that looks to be have given the green light, it is a remake of the 1960 classic western "The Magnificent Seven" which in itself is a remake of the superb Japanese film "Seven Samurai" released in 1954. This news got me thinking about movie remakes and should they happen and if so how many years should they wait before attempting to give them a fresh look? or in fact should they not remake a film and leave the original alone? These are interesting questions as in the last few years there have been various remakes that have not been anywhere as good as the originals.

I would say that as with "The Magnificent Seven" 50 years is a long enough period to have elapsed as most of the younger generation of movie goers wouldn't remember the originals, there were a further 3 films made in the franchise including "Return of the Seven" "Guns of the Magnificent Seven" and lastly in 1972 "The Magnificent Seven Ride"  So if the new remade film is handled correctly then I don't foresee any problems and I believe it could work as there are too few westerns being produced. The original was a remake of a Japanese film which even now seems to be a popular trend in Hollywood of copying Asian films, especially in the horror and action genre the likes of "The Ring" "Oldboy" "The Grudge" and many more. There is even talk of an American version of the best action movie of not only 2011 but for many a year "The Raid" which was directed by Welshmen Gareth Evans and made in Indonesia, if so please let him be the director.

To remake a film or even try to reboot a popular franchise after only ten years on from the original is too soon and the biggest example of this is the 2012 reboot of Spider-Man. "The Amazing Spider-Man" starring Andrew Garfield and directed by Marc Webb was released exactly 10 years after Sam Raimi had made his version "Spider-Man" starring Tobey Maguire as the webslinger. I loved the original trilogy and would have liked Sam Raimi to have continued with his vision of my childhood hero but it wasn't to be. Now we have the new version of the same story told in a slightly different way but how many times can an origin story be told?  Also, the new films didn't grab me in the way the originals did, I don't know if it's the actors, the story or the overkill of effects, there is just something that doesn't seem right. In the latest movie "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" the action sequences felt very much like a computer game. Also, Garfield doesn't do it for me as Peter Parker.

There are plenty of examples of terrible remakes, too many for this blog, but I have chosen a few of my pet hates, lets see if you agree.

Let's start with the criminally awful 2001 "Planet of the Apes" directed by Tim Burton and starring Mark Wahlberg. This film was not a patch on the original 1968 classic starring the late great Charlton Heston, and in it they even changed the ending, which was so iconic in the original when Taylor, played by Heston, finds the ruins of the Statue of Liberty on the beach therefore realizing that he had in fact been on the future earth throughout the whole film and which must have been a shock for all the audiences at the time, but in the remake Wahlbergs' character escapes in a spaceship back to earth, which was now controlled by apes and crash lands at the feet of the statue of Abraham Lincoln in Washington, only to see that it was in fact replaced with the statue of the ape Thade, who was the character played by Tim Roth. Unlike the original which was a pure sci-fi classic hit the remake was a bumbling mess which is best not remembered. Thank heavens for the new reboot of the last few years "Rise" and "Dawn" of the "Planet of the Apes" which instead of trying to remake the original have in fact brought back to life the franchise with a new fresh take on the origins of the story and of course brilliant skills from Andy Serkis and his motion capture performances.

The next on my list is a remake of the 1987 "RoboCop" starring Peter Weller and directed by Paul Verhoeven. It has been well documented that this film was a nightmare to make with many production problems along with disputes between director, writers, actors and the demand of the production company, but in the end they made a movie that is one of the best of that decade. Peter Wellers' portrayal of police officer Murphy both as a human and robot is pure genius. Fast forward to 2014 and the remake of the same name but nowhere near the same quality. Directed by Jose Padilha and starring a relatively unknown actor Joel Kinnaman as RoboCop. This attempt at bringing the franchise back to life failed so badly that no amount of surgery could ever resurrect it no matter how hard they try. The appeal of the original was that the main character Murphy was brought back to life only being able to function as half man, half robot and with no chance of being reunited with his wife and son, this was an emotional part of the story mixed in with terrific action pieces. But in the remake they changed the story so that Murphy was back with his his family who accepted him without question although he was basically 99% robot. This change in the story totally took away the feeling of emotion that the original had created. I believe that the producers and director just didn't get what the original was about maybe they had never even watched it!

The last example of remake hell is "Total Recall" originally made in 1990 and remade in 2012. The original director and star were Paul Verhoeven and Arnold Schwarzenegger respectively, the remake was directed by Len Wiseman and starred Colin Farrell, need I say more?

There are many other examples of when remakes have failed "Robin Hood" 2010, "Alfie" 2004, "Get Carter" 2000,"The Karate Kid" 2010, "A Nightmare on Elm Street" 2010, "The Omen" 2006 and many, many more. It's a shame as a movie fan that it's easier to recall the bad apples as opposed to the good, but this is the reality. The only worthwhile remake that's fresh in my mind is 2012's "Dredd" which was a vast improvement on the dire 1995 "Judge Dredd" starring Sylvester Stallone.

So if the movie heads are considering a remake at least wait long enough until the time is right. Give the public enough time to let the originals pass through their consciousness or at least until they can find the right director who will show respect to the original and actors who can pull off the same quality if not better performances than the original actors. I'm not against remakes I just believe that most classic films are a hard act to follow, so why try? For example there is only one Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford, so don't bother. Create a new updated "Raiders" with a different character so the new actor is not competing with Ford, or don't go near it.

Aside from remakes there are now reboots which attempt to resurrect a past franchise, these are done with the sole purpose of keeping the original movies alive and fresh in peoples minds and also to rake in money from the box office on the back of their popularity. Because of the growing interest from the fans of them they seem to be welcomed and the anticipation for the new films is very high, the biggest examples of these are the upcoming "Star Wars", "Star Trek" and one of the films that I mentioned before the "Planet of the Apes" series. These reboots are at least attempting to come up with fresh story lines and are generally successful as they are not infringing on the originals and are being handled in a way that won't upset movie fans like me, as they are respecting the originals.

Until next week don't watch the remakes enjoy the originals you won't regret it I promise.

Miles Dunton.

Hollywood leave TV alone!

Hi everybody and welcome back to my latest blog.

This week I am looking at the reasons why television shows should not be made into movies.


These days there are so many attempts to take a popular television series and turn it into a movie, and many of those attempts just do not succeed, which there is in my mind many reasons for. The first of them being the fact that a Tv series that has been on air for a long period of time, maybe 2 or more seasons cannot possible grab the audiences attention in 90 minutes as it does over several weeks. The viewers of the Tv series build a liking and a genuine concern for the characters that they see week in week out and I’m not sure they have the same empathy for the characters in a one off movie. Secondly, the small screen allows more intimacy between the characters and the viewers, an intimacy which is not the same on the big screen. Lastly, many Tv shows' storylines are constructed around a season long arc, ranging from 8-20 episodes, which is difficult to cram into a shortened version for the cinema.

As I write this blog I know of many Tv shows that are in production as movies, shows such as “The Equaliser” which was a great series in the 80’s, and will star Denzel Washington as the lead. As much as I admire Denzel Washington in my mind there is only one actor who is The Equalizer and thats the star of the show Edward Woodward. There are many instances of this where no matter how hard Hollywood try and no matter how famous the movie star is they cannot compare to the original show or lead actor.

Of course there have been some successful and popular transitions from small to big screen these include the obvious. “Star Trek” 12 films so far and still more to come “Mission: Impossible” now filming it's 5th installment and as a one off "The Fugitive" starring Harrison Ford, but for every hit there are maybe 2 or 3 misses for example the dreadful “Starsky and Hutch” the recently failed attempt of “The Lone Ranger” and one that really makes me red with rage “The Green Hornet” with the inept Seth Rogen who ruins about everything he touches. The main thing that those three films have in common is they have taken dramatic Tv shows and for some reason turned them into slapstick comedies.

These days, of course the standard of Tv shows is at it’s highest it’s been for many a year with outstanding shows like “Boardwalk Empire” Game of Thrones” the brilliant “True Detective” and “Homeland” shows that have movie stars as it’s leads. This is because of studios like HBO and Showtime who recognize the true pulling power of Tv compared to the cinema. That’s why actors like Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Steve Buscemi and Claire Danes are being paid attrative sums of money to front the shows that reach millions of homes world wide every week. Having seen the actors in these roles the audience becomes more familiar with the them and are more likely to go and see them in a movie as long as it’s not a film of their Tv show! Having said that, I know a lot of people, who very rarely go to the cinema if at all but when we talk about various actors they know them from the television show they are in and not the latest film.

My belief is that television is and will forever be a powerful medium, the quality of the shows are improving each year and I still get a buzz when something new comes along that will keep me entertained for 20 episodes, a show that I look forward to the next week with anticipation. Whereas, a film release at the cinema should be a new and fresh idea not something that has been recycled from an old Tv show. So come on Hollywood leave Tv alone and use your zillions of dollars into looking for scripts that are original and a best served by the big screen.

Thats all for this week, next week I will be discussing whether films should be remade or not.

Have a great movie week.

Miles Dunton.