Penny.............at the movies

Hitchcock

This was a nice movie. It would have been incredibly dull if it hadn't have been for Helen Mirren and Anthony Hopkins acting together. It's worth a look as its not a bad movie, its just not fantastic either. I had to admire the make-up skills of who ever did the make-up on Hopkins. I had read how many hours it took each morning (Hitchcock was a large man) and it was flawless.
Basically the movie tells the story of the incredible leap of faith Hitchcock took when choosing to make a film called Psycho about a real life serial killer. Given that we are still fascinated by the movie today - it clearly paid off!
On a good note the film is funny in places, entertaining and Hopkins is brilliant. On a lesser good not, it bored on a little dull from time to time. It could have been more entertaining and it relied heavily on the chemistry between two large names.


Not Fade Away

I just started watching this and already, I'm bored. It should be my thing entirely given that it is set in the 60s, about 60s music and has a great deal of historical clips acting as a backbone. However, the film relies too heavily on this and you get the feeling that the characters are secondary to the storyline of great 60s music and history.
Even the conversations between  the main characters is weak and ungripping and the story moves very rapidly through the 60s so it can be quite hard to see where one year ends and another begins.
I am still quite disapointed in this one. It had some serious potential but I feel a bit let down! I have to say, avoid.
The problem with films like this is that there are so many brilliant examples already out there (like Almost Famous or The Runaways for example) so when a band/60s/70s story is done badly.....it comes across as a lot worse then it actually is.  Although this, is seriously not good.