[Clive]
Over at Cinematical, they’re mulling over the largest turkeys of the year, "Basic Instinct 2" chief among them, and inviting readers’ suggestions. Having been burned many times in the past (the hype business seems to be getting worse and worse) I’ve become a very reluctant cinema-goer. I’d really rather watch at home. But I did venture out to see "Casino Royale", and was duly punished. I really should have taken the advice of my colleague, Cosmo Landesman, and given it a miss. Unfortunately, as a hard-core fan of "Goldfinger", I fell for the claims that this was a return to the golden era. No such luck. Daniel Craig is very good, though. "The History Boys" was an even bigger dud. (I say that as a long-time Alan Bennett admirer.) I’m amazed to see it getting such good write-ups in the States. Proof that the concept of the snob hit never dies? One other recent let-down was the French thriller, "The Page Turner", which attracted the kind of breathless reviews that slightly pretentious, under-nourished French films invariably get.
Meanwhile, my expat American friend, Jo, has been going on so much about how she loathed "Children of Men" that I was thinking of suggesting therapy. Yet it’s one of Cinematical’s picks of the year. I think I’ll play safe and wait for the DVD. On the brighter side, I enjoyed "The Queen" and "The Squid and the Whale", not forgetting the harrowing but excellent German film about the ill-fated anti-Hitler campaigner, Sophie Scholl. (I think it was actually released at the end of 2005, but I caught it late at my local art-house.)
The Dish 