He did a great job as the love interest of Helena Bonham Carter in A Room With A View, which, if you haven’t seen it, is one of the best romantic comedy of manners.
I was completely oblivious to his death. For anyone ignorant like me who just wants the Cliffs notes: According to wikipedia, he went on a hike in the mountains Northeast of LA in January 2023 and then disappeared. Record snowfall began shortly after, preventing meaningful rescue efforts. Avalanches were also reported. Snow continued throughout the winter, reaching a 40-year high. Hikers eventually found his remains after the thaw in June of that year.
I remember him in a bunch of stuff in the '80s and '90s. He played the titular character in the Warlock movies, and of course Boxing Helena. Plus a bunch of other smaller roles. Ironically, what I most know him for is Dead Ringers, but apparently he wasn’t even in that. That was Jeremy Irons.
Still, an English actor with a verb for a last name
Just finished an Anessa Ramsey “everyone goes violently insane” double feature. I didn’t know who she was either until (re)watching these movies.
Someone on reddit warned that YellowBrickRoad (2010) was leaving Tubi soon, so catch it while you still can. I only vaguely remembered it – and not particularly fondly – from a dozen years ago so I fired it up. I enjoyed it more now than I did back then. Concept is that back in 1940 an entire town walked into the woods and disappeared, and now a group of documentarians want to retrace their path. Craziness ensues, both literally and violently. There’s only a handful of characters so the amount of violence is capped. The ending is pretty unsatisfying but the journey is moderately fun.
Very shortly into this movie I thought to myself “Who is that cutie patootie blonde actress? She looks like Julie Bowen’s sister.” Turns out her name is Anessa Ramsey, and she’s basically famous for two movies: YellowBrickRoad and The Signal.
So then I fired up The Signal (2007), also on Tubi. Note that this is not the 2014 film with Lawrence Fishburne and Olivia Cooke. Concept here is that every broadcast device starts transmitting a signal that makes people violently insane. This one is set in the middle of a city, so there is a heaping helping of violence going down. It is structured as a triptych, following the three different main characters: a wife, her lover and her husband. Again, I remember not really liking it back in the day but enjoyed it quite a bit more on this rewatch.
With both of these movies, my memory of them from back in the day includes watching them while I was tired and dozing in and out throughout both of them. But that was two separate, unrelated instances years apart. Watching them now as an Anessa Ramsey double feature elevated both. Neither of these movies are found footage, but both are around that quality level. If that sounds like your bag, I recommend this double feature.
I remember him as the spider expert from Arachnophobia
The Good Liar, (2019) with Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren. Very good performances from the leads, as expected. The plot is pretty standard stuff, though, McKellen is a conman, and has targeted Mirren as his next mark, with Mirren’s grandson distrustful of her new beau.
Ok, so a bit OT but he was a movie actor… But why in gods name would anyone go hiking in a serious mountain range in January?? As someone from overseas and visited places like Rocky Mountain Trail Ridge Road and Lassen Volcanic National Park, I’ve known that you can’t even visit such places in April, never mind January.
There are tales in Scotland of people needing to be rescued from relatively low level mountains (Ben Nevis) in December/January, and those are like 1/3 of the height.
The only thing I can think of is being suicidal, and wanting a long slow painful death fighting off predators…
It was Mt. Baldy. That area is pretty accessible for day hikers year round and a short drive from civilization. It’s only an 11 mile hike to the top and back to the trail head. There’s even a ski area close by. There are usually enough people on the trail to make solo hiking safe but something like an incapacitating fall that puts you off the trail could do you in when night or snow falls.
I really liked Parenthood, largely because it leavens Steve Martin’s wacky comic scenes with the more serious elements of how challenging being a parent is. And the whole cast is stellar, including Keanu in usual “whoa” mode (which works extremely well here). Would very much recommend.
And I just watched We’re The Millers which I’d also recommend with the aforementioned caveats - it’s a goofy comedy with a good cast, but don’t overthink it.
Wasn’t that the plot of Stephen King’s Cell (and the first Kingsman film)?
I was going to say this until I saw your post. I love this movie and have watched it a bunch of times. It’s a comfort film for me. And so many great performances! Apart from Sand and Bonham-Carter, there’s Daniel Day-Lewis, Rupert Graves, Maggie Smith, Judy Dench, Denhom Eliot etc.
We watched Black Bag , a spy caper with Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender. Nothing too taxing, and entertaining enough for a Friday evening .
Yes, though The Signal doesn’t delve into the cause or source or anything like that.
It well predates the spoilered title, but it does appear they could have ripped off the book. The Cell was published in January 2006, and google says The Signal went into production February 2007. I can’t find a source for when the script was written, but I would assume before February 2007.
As far as I’m aware the movie does not mention the book or Stephen King at all, but I did not study the credits.
The Conversation
Not really recommended.
I know, consider me shocked. I thought the final 20-25 minutes of this movie(starring Gene Hackman) were quite good, but I found a lot of the movie to be rather boring.
A private audio recorder realizes two people are about to be killed and has to decide whether to get involved or not.
I was surprised to find this so dull. I’ve always heard great things.
I did love the very ending…where we are left to wonder along with Hackman where the heck the bug was in his private quarters/apartment.
Fear Street: Prom Queen
Not recommended.
Very cheap and disappointing.
Hey, I liked the three Fear Street movies they made a few years ago. This movie, however, is rushed, cheap, and offers very little of interest. Even the way the 80’s songs are laid into the movie just feels lazy.
I suppose a middling slasher, not completely useless. Nothing much to see here, though.
I think they should have leaned into comedy like Evil Dead 2 and 3, but they didn’t and it feels pretty lame.
For complicated reasons I just had to watch Heart Eyes , a romance slasher movie. Not much to say other than it wasn’t as completely terrible as I thought it would be, but the bar was low.
Tonight I watched The Pink Panther (1963). I was familiar with some of the later movies but never saw the original. First, I was surprised that David Niven was top billed and Peter Sellers had much less screen time than I expected. Second, the story involving his wife and her infidelities was interesting. I will admit that the scenes with her trying to keep her three men from finding each other was quite entertaining. Also, the ending was a bit of a surprise, which I don’t think any later films addressed.
I was also surprised that this film did not have Inspector Dryfus or Cato. I understand why the series continued with the focus on Cloueau. Sellers was definitely the break out. And I will say, I loved the music.
Double feature!
Thunderbolts - Good movie. Impressive amount of pathos for a Marvel film. I found it genuinely moving. And fun. And funny.
B+
Sinners - Holy shit what a great movie. I don’t know what to say without spoiling the experience. Everything about it works. Go see it in theaters and enjoy the ride.
A+
I remember when they first announced the Pink Panther movies with Steve Martin, which was met with “Nooooo, please don’t!” They both turned out to be harmlessly mediocre, but I saw someone suggest what they should do is not focus on Clouseau, but instead on the Pink Panther diamond. Have a series of different genre heist movies about the diamond, with each movie having it change hands.
Finally got around to watching A Complete Unknown on Hulu. Thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m a fan of some (not all) of Dylan’s music and know only a bit about his professional life. The period that this movie focuses on was very interesting. I lived in NYC from 1991 - 2000 and many of the music spots shown were familiar to me (Cafe Wha! and the West Village area.) The scene where Dylan goes looking for Joan in the Chelsea Hotel was particularly nostalgic, as the apartment I lived in was directly across 23rd street. I thought Timothy Chalamet did a great job, as did Edward Norton.
If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend the Coen brothers’ notable film Inside Llewyn Davis. For me, it has much of the same vibe of the 60s-70s folk music scene, and even though it’s largely fictionalized, it’s loosely based on Dave Van Ronk, a contemporary of Dylan’s.