The Conformist

Cast
Jean-Louis Trintignant
Stefania Sandrelli
Gastone Moschin
Dominique Sanda
Screenwriter
Bernardo Bertolucci
Director
Bernardo Bertolucci
Running Time
113 minutes

Set in Rome in the 1930s, this re-release of Bernardo Bertolucci's 1970 breakthrough feature stars Jean-Louis Trintignant as a Mussolini operative sent to Paris to locate and eliminate an old professor who fled Italy when the fascists came to power.

This I guess is where my review blog falls down because I didn't like this. It looks great, Vittorio Storaro's cinematography is striking and beautiful but I really didn't think it was any good and the problem is that it's an acclaimed masterpiece. If someone criticises a great work of art it doesn't damage the artworks reputation but that of the critic. I'm not going to give this a score because clearly I misunderstood it entirely. It has a very slight story, the main character being driven to the assassination of his former professor reflects back on his life including joining the fascists, meeting his wife, being attacked as a child through to meeting the professor and his wife in Paris. It's just very drawn out, long, ponderous, dull. It looks great I say again but I just didn't like it which is a problem on my part I guess.

Horton Hears A Who!

Cast
Jim Carrey
Steve Carell
Carol Burnett
Seth Rogen
Will Arnett
Isla Fisher
Dan Fogler
Amy Poehler
Screenwriters
Ken Daurio
Cinco Paul
Directors
Jimmy Hayward
Steve Martino
Running Time
86 minutes

Based on the beloved children's book by Dr. Seuss, this is the tale of an imaginative elephant named Horton who hears a faint cry for help coming from a tiny speck of dust floating through the air. Although Horton doesn't know it yet, that speck houses an entire city named Who-ville, inhabited by the microscopic Whos, led by the mayor. Despite being ridiculed and threatened by his neighbors, who think he has lost his mind, Horton is determined to save the particle...because "a person's a person, no matter how small." (20th Century Fox)

Dr. Seuss' stories are probably better suited to 20 minute shorts but the extra material added here is fine, it's just that some magic is lost when the dialogue doesn't rhyme.

Son Of Rambow

Cast
Neil Dudgeon
Jessica Hynes
Bill Milner
Will Poulter
Eric Sykes
Ed Westwick
Screenwriter
Garth Jennings
Director
Garth Jennings
Running Time
95 minutes

Summer, 1982. Will Proudfoot (Milner) is a quiet 10-year-old with a fierce imagination and a member of the ultra-religious Plymouth Brethren. Lee Carter (Poulter) is a school outcast, forever in trouble. Unexpectedly, the pair connect over their love of First Blood, which spawns an attempt to make their own sequel and enter it into TV’s Screen Test competition…

Fun and fast moving with some early eighties fashion thrown in.