Watching Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen dance and weave around one another in The Good Liar, was, for me, a cinematic joy. These two actors share the screen together for the first time, and Warner Brothers brings it home on blu-ray for you today. McKellen plays Roy, a conman who seems to have no scruples…
Tag: ian mckellen
The Golden Compass (2007) – Chris Weitz
The next recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film following my screening of The Fellowship of the Ring is this adaptation of the first book in His Dark Materials trilogy, The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman. It’s obvious that the film was planned as the first in a trilogy, much in the…
The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) – Peter Jackson
As I return to the Family genre of the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book I am greeted by an old friend, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the final family film recommendation. I grew up with the book. I was introduced to The Hobbit via the Arthur Rankin…
Doctor Who (Matt Smith) – The Angels Take Manhattan, and The Snowmen
Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory’s (Arthur Darvill) travels in the TARDIS come to an end this week with The Angels Take Manhattan. Written by Steven Moffat, with an airdate of 29 September, 2012, the episode sees the Doctor (Smith) and his Companions in New York in 2012. Here they are relaxing as the Time Lord…
Gods and Monsters (1998) – Bill Condon
The bio-pic, Gods and Monsters, is the next film on the What Else to Watch list, for Bride of Frankenstein, from DK Canada’s The Movie Book. The film chronicles the last days, as well as life and career of director James Whale, played brilliantly by Ian McKellen. The legendary film maker, perhaps best known for…
X-Men: First Class (2011) – Matthew Vaughn
Sometimes to go forward, you need to go back, as we learn in the next X-Men film as I journey through the Sci-Fi Chronicles book. Continuing its cue of using great actors, Vaughn recasts the characters we’ve already been introduced to as we go back to 1962 and the height of the Cuban Missile…
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) – Brett Ratner
The Sci-Fi Chronicles book continues its travels with the X-men, but this time around the mutants aren’t guided by the sure directorial hand of Bryan Singer. Taking the helm this time around is Brett Ratner, and you can tell from the off that it doesn’t have the same emotional depth, or action beats that…
X2: X-Men United (2003) – Bryan Singer
From apes, I move onto mutants with the Sci-Fi Chronicles book. Having previously covered X-Men for the blog, I leapt ahead to X2. Picking up a few months after the ending of the first film, director Bryan Singer expands on the world he helped bring to the screen in the previous film. This time…
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies IMAX (2014) – Peter Jackson
The last (or latest) trip to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth opened this weekend and, of course, being a fan of the world, I had to check it. The IMAX 3D presentation I saw, was in the higher frame rate presentation, and I was eager to see how it looked and felt. I walked out of…
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) – Bryan Singer
The X-Men are back! After the less than stellar Wolverine spin-offs and the horrendous X3, it’s good to see Fox actually giving the Marvel property some respect, viewers and critics know it can work when it’s given the proper time and attention, as illustrated by X-Men: First Class, as well as the first two films….
Trailer Tracks: X-Men (2000) – Bryan Singer
I’m off to see the new X-Men this evening, and thought today would be an ideal day to look back at the original trailer… Seeing it now, it feels overly long, and shows way too much…
Tim’s Thirteen of 2013
So ends 2013, just like that! What a year! We have continued to grow and do so much here at The Mind Reels, and we’re hoping for an even bigger year next year! So I decided to throw together a list of the movies I most enjoyed this year, the ones that got to me,…
