Views from the Sofa’s 100 Greatest Scenes is a list of the 100 greatest moments in the movies. This could be long introductions, moments of action or great dialogue between characters. The scenes are in no particular order and come from … Continue reading Oscars Month: 100 Greatest Movie Scenes Number 40 – Red Coat
The Holocaust has been covered in film so often that it is difficult to touch upon the subject in an original way. Life is Beautiful gave us the inside of a concentration camp, as did the more recent Son of Saul, … Continue reading The Pianist (2002) Review
In my “real life” I am a History teacher. Although this hasn’t got anything directly related with movies and TV, it does offer me the chance to use movies as teaching devices sometimes. History has been such a ripe source material for movies that … Continue reading Using films to teach… Life is Beautiful
Ask anyone to name their favourite directors and many people could reel off at least one or two names, probably including Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone or even Michael Bay. In the world of movie-making, the director is the key and quite … Continue reading Why do directors get more credit than writers?
Career Peak – The point in an actor, actress or director’s career when they have given their best performance, reaching a point they will probably never match again! The idea is to examine a person’s film or television career and … Continue reading What was their Career Peak? – Liam Neeson
The Holocaust is an event that has been covered in many different ways in various movies. It is an event that lends itself to different approaches; consisting of various individuals, pieces and moments that make up the complete picture. That means that we can get a dark, starkly realistic portrayal, like Schindler’s List or a more mystical, fantastical view like that in Life is Beautiful. It can be at the front of the centre of the movie – being the main strand that ties all elements together or be in the background, playing out behind the scenes as another story unravels. … Continue reading The Book Thief (2013) Review
Life is Beautiful is the best film about the Holocaust because it doesn’t show the atrocities so openly and graphically. In fact for the whole first half of the movie, you wouldn’t even know it’s about the Holocaust. It is such a sweet, … Continue reading Life is Beautiful (1997) Review
Real Steel both surprised me and annoyed me. It surprised me because for the first half of the film, maybe even three-quarters, I was genuinely impressed and really enjoyed it. It disappointed me because it suddenly seemed to become a ultra-kids film for the last half an hour and seemingly undid all the positives that had gone before. I say it surprised me because I watched it thinking it was going to be a light, Hugh Jackman vehicle, with him “phoning it in” and getting to act alongside cool, huge robots, with CGI doing most of the heavy lifting. While there are … Continue reading Real Steel (2011) Review
It’s easy to forget that Liam Neeson is a really good, Oscar nominated actor who has starred in some really heavyweight films, the pinnacle of which is probably Schindler’s List. He is doing a fantastic job of developing into an action star, Taken, Unknown, A-Team and The Grey are all films that I really enjoyed. Kinsey is one of the movies that bridged that quiet gap between his heavyweight, acting roles to something slightly more “mainstream.” It’s the perfect type of film for any actor to show off their acting skills. Neeson plays the real life professor, Alfred Kinsey, who pioneered the investigation … Continue reading Kinsey (2004) Review
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