Paddington in Peru (4 Stars)

This is the third film in the Paddington series. Can it be considered the final part in a trilogy? Yes and No. It doesn't round off any open threads from the previous films, which is a No. But it goes back to Paddington's origins, which is a Yes. So make your mind up.

Paddington has settled into his new home in London. He even has a British passport, although he has no reason to leave the country. One day he receives a letter from the Home For Retired Bears in Peru, telling him his Aunt Lucy wants to see him. I don't remember her being mentioned in the previous films, but a flashback tells him that she's the bear who rescued him when he fell into a stream as a child. He was separated from his parents, so she brought him up as her own child.

Paddington sets off to visit her with the Brown family. If you don't know who they are, go back and watch the first two films! On arriving in Peru, he's told that Lucy has gone on a journey. This is suspicious, because she's left her glasses behind. Foul play is suspected.

Together with the Reverend Mother who leads the Retirement Home, Paddington and his friends head into the jungle after hiring a boat from a devious sailor.

Olivia Colman looks like the role as Reverend Mother was written for her. I've tagged the film as a musical because she occasionally breaks into song, leading the other nuns to dance around her.

I had difficulty rating the film. The scenery is spectacular. It was filmed in Colombia, not Peru itself, but it looks realistic enough. I can't tell the difference. Can you? Despite frequent slapstick sequences, I didn't find it particularly funny. I glanced sideways and saw that Oliver also didn't laugh much, although he told me later that he'd enjoyed the film.

This was my first visit to the Metropol cinema since it changed owners. It used to belong to the Innenstadt cinemas, but it closed in December 2020 due to the Corona pandemic. It reopened in October 2024 as part of the Traumpalast group. When the cinema closed it wasn't expected to reopen as a cinema, so the building's owner demanded that the seats be removed. This was unfortunate, because it delayed the reopening while new seats were installed. The Traumpalast made the most of it by installing luxurious seats, better than the old seats.

Evita (5 Stars)

I'm continuing my top 100 films with "Evita", which is currently in 45th place. It's a film that hits me hard emotionally every time I watch it. The story is framed between the two funerals, of Eva Peron's father and Eva herself. This gives the film a gloomy nature, even if there are happy moments.

Eva genuinely loved Juan Peron. I don't doubt that. He wasn't like the many men she'd had before. She was attracted to him because he loved Argentina. They both loved Argentina. Was their love for Argentina genuine? That's a difficult question to answer. They wanted to do good for the country, but they were corrupted by wealth and power. In her early years Eva spoke out against the middle and upper classes, but as the president's wife she adorned herself with diamonds and opulent clothing. She said it was what the people wanted to see, but this was a poor excuse. It's what Eva wanted to see in the mirror.

Juan Peron comes off lightly in the film. Apart from his suppression of the press, we don't see him acting badly. It's mentioned twice that he modelled himself on Mussolini, but we don't see much of this in the film. "Evita" is a film about Eva Peron; if we want to know about Juan Peron we have to read the history books.

I wouldn't say that I feel attracted to Eva Peron or the way Madonna portrays her. There's too much in her life that's negative. She slept her way to the top, and once she was at the peak she pretended to be a saint. The film shows her collapsing when taking communion in church, as if God is striking her down.

What I'm attracted to is the film's atmosphere and its dramatic backdrops. 40,000 extras were used, which isn't a record, but it was probably the last ever film that was made with thousands of extras. Nowadays computer software creates large crowd scenes for a much lower price.

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (4½ Stars)

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the cinema.....

I arrived early, so I was sitting on the steps opposite the cinema eating an ice cream. A beggar came up to me, holding his hand out to ask for money. In an attempt to be sarcastic I held my hand out to ask him for money. He gave me three cents, and then he threw the rest of his money on the floor and stormed off in a rage, saying something I didn't understand. What was he doing? If it was an attempt to give me a bad conscience, it didn't work. As soon as I finished my ice cream I gathered up his money from the floor, another 12 cents. It's possible that it was more money, because the coins might have rolled away. The net result of this encounter is that I became 15 cents richer.

I said it was an attempt to be sarcastic, because I don't understand sarcasm. It's happened several times in my life that someone said something to me, I replied, and then the person said "I was being sarcastic".  So I gave the wrong reply. I should have interpreted the statement as meaning the opposite of what was said. But how was I to know that it was a false statement?

I've looked up definitions of sarcasm online, but I still don't get it. In order to understand sarcasm, I've tried to be sarcastic myself. If I understand correctly, I have to tell a lie, but it has to be a lie that the other person knows is a lie. Should that make people laugh? For instance, I told a friend that I like Donald Trump. She knows that I don't like him, so she should have laughed. Instead of that she just said "I thought you didn't like him". I replied, "I was being sarcastic", and she just looked at me as if I was being crazy. That's the same way that I react when people are sarcastic with me. Is that the intention? Is sarcasm supposed to be a joke that nobody understands? So what's the point of it?

Today I pretended to be a beggar. That was my way of being sarcastic. Was it successful? It made the man angry, so yes, maybe that is what sarcasm is supposed to achieve.

So I proceeded to Gloria, where I was greeted by Indiana Jones himself. That was my first impression. A closer look told me it was my fellow film fan Thomas Daake dressed up as Indiana Jones. It's an amazingly accurate costume. The only inaccuracy is that there's no gun in his holster. Thomas told me that he has a fake gun as part of the costume, but he chose not to wear it because it looks too genuine. I understand. He's standing in front of a poster of Barbie. I wonder if he'll dress up as Ken next week.

The film starts in 1944, when Indiana Jones is attempting to steal the Antikythera, the Dial of Archimedes, from the Nazis. It's rumoured to be able to predict fissures in time and allow limited time travel. In 1969, a former Nazi who's become an American wants the Dial so that he can go back in time and change the result of World War Two.

The film is an enjoyable adventure romp, despite not being directed by Steven Spielberg. It's supposed to be the last film in the Indiana Jones series. Never say never.

Evita (5 Stars)

"Evita" is a film that I watch again and again. There's a diminishing return: the more often I watch it, the less I'll be able to write in my new reviews without repeating myself.

The more I watch "Evita", the more fascinated I become with the unnamed character played by Antonio Banderas. In the credits he's listed as Ché, but I call him unnamed because he isn't given a name in the film itself. He's an abstract Voice of the People. He's an incorporation of the unbiased thinking man. He's not anti-Evita, but he's not pro-Evita either. He judges her positively or negatively from case to case, depending on what she's doing.

I can relate to that. I like to think of myself in the same way. So many people, including my friends, blindly follow one school of thought or another. They see the world in terms of black and white. The best example is the 2016 Brexit referendum. Some of my friends wanted to leave the EU as if it were the only logical step to take, while others were just as extreme in seeing remaining in the EU as the only sensible decision. The country was divided into Brexiteers and Remainers. I was one of the few people who weighed up both alternatives impartially. When I finally decided to vote to remain in the EU it was because of many hours spent weighing the pros and cons. Was my decision right? I can't say whether I was right or wrong, but it was the best decision I could make based on the limited amount of information offered to me.

The months leading up to the referendum and the following years until Brexit took place were an ugly time. People were insulting one another. The ones who were the most guilty were the Remainers. Unable to discuss with the Brexiteers, they resorted to polemics. They called the Brexiteers racists or stupid. This didn't do anything to persuade the Brexiteers, it hardened them in their beliefs.

It's now six years since the referendum and two years since the accomplishment of Brexit. The subject still hasn't died on the Remainer side. They're still in a state of shock that they lost the vote. Whenever something negative happens they're fast to shout "I told you so". When something positive happens they remain quiet. What they don't understand is that it wasn't the Brexiteers who took Britain out of the EU, it was the British people. It was a close vote, 52% to 48%, but that's the way democracy works; the majority decides, even if it's by the slightest of margins. We, the British people, decided to leave the EU, and now we have to live with the consequences. It's irrelevant that I voted with the minority. As soon as the results were announced in June 2016 the discussions were over, as far as I was concerned. I'm not an anarchist who shouts "Not my President", or equivalent statements. The people decide, and I'm one of the people. In the case of an unwanted president (or prime minister) there will be another chance for the people to vote differently. In the case of Brexit, the EU feels burnt and will probably never accept another membership bid, whatever the British population votes.

I'm the Vox Populi, the Voice of the People. That's my position, and I'm proud of it. By taking a middle position I'll make enemies on both sides. That won't stop me standing up for the truth as I see it. I emphasise the words "as I see it". I'm not infallible. I may be wrong, but I'll still stand by my opinions until someone proves me wrong with logical arguments.

Success Rate:  + 0.6

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Evita (5 Stars)

True Stories #21

Name: Eva Peron

Lived: 7 June 1919 – 26 July 1952

Film dates: 1926 to 1952 (death), mostly 1936 to 1952

Film made in 1996

"Evita" is a film that overwhelms me every time I watch it. It does everything right: the music, the emotions, the grand events. Was this the last film to be made with a cast of thousands? 40,000 extras may not be a record, but it's a lot. Modern films use CGI when large crowds are needed. It saves money, but it doesn't look as realistic. "Evita" begins with a large scene, and the effect is breathtaking.

The film is a true rags to riches story. Eva Duarte grew up in a poor family, but after moving to Buenos Aires in 1934 she rapidly climbed the ladder of success. She worked first as a model, then a radio host, then a film star, before she finally met Juan Person, the future President of Argentina. Rather than being a passive first lady, hiding behind her husband, she campaigned for workers' rights and women's rights. This made her popular with the people, or at least the lower classes. The upper classes in Argentina resented her for being an actress, which was an unfavourable career at the time.

The leading male character isn't Juan Peron, it's an unnamed man played by Antonio Banderas. The credits list him as Ché, suggesting that he represents the Argentinian rebel Ché Guevara. When "Evita" was performed on stage, Ché wore army fatigues, further suggesting a connection with Ché Guevara, but Alan Parker chose not to do this; in my opinion correctly. He appears in each scene in different clothing, fitting in with his position. Effectively, he's a different person each time he appears. He's a critical observer among the people. When everyone else is praising Evita, as Eva Peron was known, he points out her failings. He's the voice of reason.

The film is remarkably accurate, considering that it's only a musical. It doesn't tell the complete history of Juan and Eva Peron, but what it does tell is correct. A few years ago I checked for myself. Many characters are shown briefly, less than 30 seconds of screen time each, without being named. The film's credits name them, and you can look them up on Wikipedia.

As an incomplete history, the film isn't the best place to learn about Eva Peron. There are books that will give you many more details. "Evita" the film is meant to entertain, and it's a majestic success.

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Evita (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #51

This is a film that ticks all the boxes to make it a film that I like.

• It's a musical.
• It's a true story.
• It has a cast of thousands.

There are certainly many other things in the film's favour, but these are three factors that bias me in its favour. According to Wikipedia, 40,000 extras were used. That's not a world record – "Ghandi" had 200,000 extras – but it's still an impressive number.

Does the brilliance come from the musical score or the film director? I'd say both. Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote an amazing musical, initially only intended for vinyl release. Alan Parker, who had already directed three other musicals, did an amazing job bringing it to film. Can it be faulted? I think not. It's a perfect musical that stands head and shoulders above all other musicals.

The three main actors are ideal for the role. Madonna is the tragic woman from a poor family who rises to become a president's wife. Antonio Banderas is the Vox Populi, unnamed in the film itself, who critically watches her rise to fame. Jonathan Pryce is the stoic, silent president who shows his affection only through small gestures.

The film doesn't give a history lesson. Much is left out, particularly concerning President Peron himself, but whatever's included is correct. The amount of research that must have gone into the original musical is phenomenal.

Earlier today I wrote a post about mistakes. I omitted a category. I'm sure that there are many mistakes in my top 100 film list. I finalised the list before I started my countdown in January, but as I climb up the list I'm regretting placing some films too low. This is one of them. It's too difficult to decide between films when my choices are so subjective. If I watch a horror film and a comedy, how can I say which is better? There's no comparison. It depends on my mood. I shan't do another countdown after this one, but maybe I'll have a rolling top 100 that I'll continuously update. Let's see.

Success Rate:  + 0.6

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As promised in a recent post, I've now daisy-chained my top 100 film posts to assist those who want to read all my reviews. If you click on the header at the top of this post you'll skip to the next film, and from there to the film after it, etc.

Evita (5 Stars)

Some films are so good that they're worth watching many times. Sometimes I think that I should give up watching new films and only spend time re-watching my old favourites. I most commonly think this after watching a few disappointing films in a row.

"Evita" is a film worth watching again and again. I forget how often I've seen it. I know I've watched it three times since I started my blog in September 2010, but I can't remember how often I watched it before then. I wish I'd started my blog sooner. Summer 2003 would have been a good opportunity, when I bought my first DVD player. From what I've read, Blogger (Blogspot) was first available in 1999, owned by Pyra Labs. Google bought Pyra in 2003 and began to update the service. Since 2006 it's looked like it does now, although I can't compare it because I have no idea what it looked like before then.

As I've mentioned before, "Evita" only missed being included in my "30 films to watch before you die" by an Argentinian's whiskers. If the list had included 31 films it would have been included. Let's hope that it will make it into my 50 favourite films list, which I intend to publish next year. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. It faces tough competition from at least 20 foreign films which weren't eligible for my first list.

Before watching the film today I read Wikipedia's pages about Eva Peron and her husband Juan. This convinced me that the film is an accurate depiction of her life. It's not a detailed depiction. Often events are only referenced in a single line of song or in a fleeting picture, but whatever is shown is correct. I have to praise the lyricist Time Rice and the director Alan Parker for their attention to detail. The film is a masterpiece on so many different levels.

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Evita (5 Stars)

When I compiled my list of 30 films to watch before you die I had to make some hard choices. I had to omit a lot of my favourite films. The first list I wrote had about 90 films in it. Every single film I removed hurt me, and each cut hurt more than the one before. In my process of elimination "Evita" plays a special role. It was the last film I removed from my list. If I added one more film "Evita" would be the 31st film. After watching it again today I had to ask myself if I made the right choice. It really should have been in my list, but if I wanted to put it back what would I remove? I have to save myself headaches and treat my 30 film list as final.

Watching the film once more today I was totally overwhelmed. I found myself crying within the first 10 minutes, and my eyes moistened again in scenes throughout the film, especially near the end.

Today I felt I could relate to the character of Antonio Banderas as the unnamed man in the crowd, the Vox Populi. That's who I am. I watch the leaders as they act. Sometimes I praise them. Sometimes I criticise them. Sometimes I criticise the people around me for wrongly judging the leaders, in my eyes. Is my opinion right? There isn't really a right or wrong, it's just an opinion, and my opinion might not even be based on accurate facts.

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Take the lead (4 Stars)

This is the true story of Pierre Dulaine, the founder of America's Dancing Classrooms project. Sort of. The film is far removed from the real events, even though it claims to be the story of Pierre Dulaine.

Pierre Dulaine had an Irish father and a Palestininan mother. In the film he says he has a French father and a Spanish mother.

The Dancing Classrooms project was started in 1994. The film shows it being started in 2005, the year the film was made.

The Dancing Classrooms project was started for fifth grade children. The children in the film are aged about 16. That's my estimate, anyway. Look at this photo of Yaya DaCosta and tell me if you think she looks like a fifth grader.

It's best if I stick to the film for the rest of this review. Pierre Dulaine, played by Antonio Banderas, is the teacher at a school for ballroom dancing in New York. One day he observes street violence by young people, and he's filled with sympathy for the plight of the young. He visits a school and volunteers to teach the children to dance. He's given an hour each day supervising the children in detention, the ones who are the lowest of the low. At first the young people make fun of his music, because they prefer to dance to hip-hop. Slowly he persuades them that classical dancing can be exciting and sexy.

There are various sub-plots, mostly a series of romances between the children. Pierre decides who dances with who. However much the children complain about who they've been paired with, when the bodies collide on the dance floor the passions run wild.

Antonio Banderas puts on a convincing performance as a man who seems old-fashioned, but is actually very modern in his attitudes. He only likes the old dancing styles because he's convinced that they're better. I admit, I have no sympathy with ballroom dancing. It seems so rigid and formal to me. Maybe that's because I never had Antonio Banderas as a teacher.

Better still, Jennifer Tilly should have been my dance teacher. As a teenage boy I would have loved to glide around the dance floor in her arms. That would have made my blood pump harder in my veins and made me a ballroom dancer for life.

Femme Fatale (3½ Stars)

If you saw the future in a crystal ball, in a palm reading or in a dream, would you change it?

If you knew what would happen, would you try to do things differently?

That's an interesting question. The question is more interesting than the answer. Almost everyone would answer Yes, though for different reasons, most of them selfish. If a person knew that his life choices would cause himself or his family harm he would act differently in order to avoid it. If a person knew that his life choices would bring him success he would still act differently in order to be even more successful. I can relate to this. Looking back on my own life I have made a series of wrong decisions that have wrecked my life. If I could make the decisions over again I would choose differently. But would this save me or lead to even bigger catastrophes? Maybe I needed my life to crash in order to be where I am now.

Brian De Palma's film gives no answers, but it asks a lot of questions.

Laure is part of a gang planning an elaborate jewel robbery at the Cannes Film Festival. She double-crosses her partners and keeps the diamonds for herself. She goes on the run to hide from her partners. While in Paris she's mistaken for a missing woman called Lily. After a fall she's carried unconscious into Lily's house. As if in a dream she sees the events that will unfold. She will take Lily's place and travel to America, where she will marry a politician who goes on to become the American ambassador to France. She will scheme and plot to take her husband's money so that she can leave France without him. But her past will catch up with her, with tragic consequences. She sees all of this. So she makes noble selfless decisions to avoid it.

But are the decisions so selfless? She only decides to do good because she sees that doing bad will harm her. In the same way, if she had seen that good deeds would lead to harm she would have done bad things in order to avoid them. It's a Biblical principle that a person reaps what he sows (Galatians 6:7). In the following verses this is expounded upon, in particular verse 9: "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up". That's the reward doctrine of Christianity, which appealed to me when I was younger. "Do good, because you'll be rewarded for it". Variations of this teaching exist in a multitude of religions. It's a paraphrase of the law of karma. I'm not saying that people shouldn't do good. What I'm saying is that seeking rewards in this life or the next is inherently selfish. I should do good with no expectation of a reward. This is a higher morality than Christianity.

To put it another way: If a person needs a reward as an incentive for doing good, he doesn't deserve the reward.

Evita (5 Stars)

This is a film that overwhelms me whenever I watch it. The powerful imagery and the emotional depth combine with the musical score to create an unforgettable experience. Madonna is so perfect in the title role that it's difficult to believe she was only chosen after a series of other actresses, including Michelle Pfeiffer and Meryl Streep, had turned the role down. This was the film that established Madonna as an actress after a string of poor quality flops. Or maybe it wasn't her acting abilities that helped her; as a singing performer she excels, which made her the ideal person for this role. When I first saw the film I was pleasantly surprised that Antonio Banderas was such a skilled singer. Jonathan Pryce's voice is average, but sufficient for the small number of lines he has to sing.

The film is based on a musical written by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber in 1976. It follows the path of Eva Duarte (played by Madonna), a poor girl who slept her way to the top in Argentina in the first half of the 20th Century. The film shows her repeatedly swapping lovers to get herself roles in films, but no judgement is passed. She was a poor girl in a poor country doing what was necessary to succeed. She reached the pinnacle when she became the lover of Juan Peron (Jonathan Pryce), a man with the potential to become the country's next president. While he was in power she became a symbol for the country, someone the country's poor people could relate to. The film continues up to her death of cancer when she was 33. Eva's life is presented to us through the eyes of a common man, Antonio Banderas as the "voice of the people", nameless in the film though called Che in the original musical.

The film glamorizes Eva's life, and even though it mentions the corruption in passing the darker sides are omitted. Juan Peron is presented as a "hero of the people", but he was also a Nazi sympathiser, and after the Second World War he personally granted asylum to any German war criminals able to reach South America. Argentina already had a large German immigrant community, so they were able to blend in.

The film was one of the first ever to be released on DVD. It also holds the record for the most costume changes in the film; Madonna supposedly wears 85 different outfits during the film. Maybe one day when I'm feeling bored I'll sit and count them.

On an unrelated topic... I've noticed that some people have been buying items via my blog. They're clicking on my pictures to open Amazon, then buying random items such as kitchen equipment. Thank you for this, whoever you are, because it earns me a small referral fee. I keep the advertisements in this blog to a minimum, because I'm more interested in speaking to people than making money. But if my regular readers nevertheless want to support me, thank you.