Tuesday, December 07, 2021
Worricker The Complete Series
- Commentary: Thi series is, essentially, about international politics gone rotten through attempting to manipulate terrorism to acquire personal and national political power and monetary reward. As well, the three segments are closely interrelated. For instance, one of the key characters dies in the middle of the first segment but isn't replaced in the highly important position he occurpied until the third segment. When he is replaced, his replacement is someone who is in cahouts with another important character who is attempting to keep an explosive secret. My memory of this trilogy is dim, but not so dim that I can't remember being electrified by it. That's why I added it to my collection. The machinations and motivations can be confusing and elusive, so it's best to watch closely, perhaps with the remote in hand. Finally, many of the roles are handled by a team of top-notch British actors, which is always a thrill. As you can imagine, many of the roles and their actors reappear throughout the series. I'll attempt not to repeat too many of them from segment to segment.
I may be moved to write more later, after I watch all three shows again. Really looking forward to watching the complete series, back to back! And, then, watching it again whenever I want!
Page Eight Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Bill Nighy Johnny Worricker Rachel Weisz Nancy Pierpan Michael Gambon Benedict Baron Judy Davis Jill Tankard Tom Hughes Ralph Wilson Saskia Reeves Anthea Catcheside Ewen Bremner Rollo Maverley Felicity Jones Julianne Worricker Ralph Fiennes Alec Beasley Alice Krige Emma Baron Holly Aird Anna Herve Richard Lintern Max Vallance
Turks & Caicos Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Helena Bonham Carter Margot Tyrrell Rupert Graves Stirling Rogers James McArdle Ted Finch Winona Ryder Melanie Fall Christopher Walken Curtis Pelissier Dylan Baker Gary Bethwaite Meredith Eaton Clare Clovis Zach Grenier Dido Parsons
Salting the Battlefield Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Valeria Vereau Elisabeth Olivia Williams Belinda Kay Leanne Best Amber Page Pip Carter Freddy Lagarde Daniel Ryan Bill Catcheside Kate Burdette Allegra Betts Shazad Latif Jez Nichols Malcolm Sinclair Reverend Bernard Towers
The Wikipedia links for each of the episodes are as follows: Page Eight, Turks & Caicos, Salting the Battlefield
Release Dates: 2011, 2014, 2014
Director (all three episodes): David Hare
Labels: dramaE, dylan-baker, rachel-weisz, spy, TV3
Die Hard
- Commentary: Roger Ebert didn't like this movie very much. He only gave it two stars and a middling review. Other reviewers were equally ambivalent. They, at the time and through time, were in the minority, although a rather large minority. Audiences, however, were not ambivalent. It's a crowd pleaser, a perennial favorite and, dare I say, one of my favorite Christmas movies.
Despite Roger Ebert's dismissal of it, it's been re-reviewed and revisited twice since the movie was released: Once in 2013 by Matt Zoller Seitz and again in 2015 by Brain Tallerico when a commemoriative set of the entire series of movies was released.
Truth be told, the only movie in the series I've seen is this one. In fact, until I read one of the articles above, I was only vaguely aware that there was a collection surrounding this character. I can't imagine that I'll be catching up on the sequels, but, this year, for some reason, I wanted this movie to be a part of my Christmas celebration, and the Christmas part of my movie collection.
More later, when I watch it.
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Bruce Willis John McClane Alan Rickman Hans Gruber Alexander Godunov Karl Bonnie Bedelia Holly Gennero-McClane Reginald VelJohnson Al Powell Paul Gleason Dwayne T. Robinson De'voreaux White Argyle William Atherton Richard Thornburg Tracy Reiner Thornburg's assistant Clarence Gilyard Theo Hart Bochner Harry Ellis James Shigeta Joseph Yoshinobu Takagi
Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
Release Date: 1988
Directed by John McTiernan, Jr.
Labels: §, action3, Christmas, dramaE, popcorn-and-soda7, suspense3, thriller2
