Anna - A Review of the 2019 Luc Besson Film on BLU RAY starring Sasha Luss, Cillian Murphy, Helen Mirren, Luke Evans and Lera Abova...

"...Pawn Takes Queen..."

"Anna" is a stiletto of a movie – long-legged, elegant and you definitely don’t want to mess with that girl's pointy ending.

French filmmaker and Director LUC BESSON has been here before with "Angel-A" (2005) and "The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blonc-Sec" (2010) – two cracking little films that bristle with his style, clever story lines and a flawed but ultimately beautiful and brave female lead (see reviews). Theorists, plagiarists and in fact anyone with an '...ist' in their bonnet will go on about yet another Atomic Blonde type movie - leggy girly with guns and lipstick and bruises and nude scenes (the staple for such films) engages in protracted battle sequences with dodgy unaccountable State forces and so on to a gore-fest finale – and deep down I'd concede they probably have a point. There have also been rumours flying around about on set shenanigans while "Anna" was being made which has meant it may have slipped through the nets in this horribly woke world we're presently in.

But I think Besson is different. I get the impression that he likes women, adores them even. And I'd say that it makes a genuine difference here. When most of the other films depicting such characters have the feel of a user, Besson actual likes his creations and his female leads may start out sappy or even ordinary but they never end up that way. The actresses are given real meat to work with. They are always strong, do their own thing on their own terms and men - though they might like them to be nice or even half-decent and humane on occasion - had better keep their hearts, underpants and wits about them.

What also makes "Anna" work and so entertaining is the superb quad of leads: for the ladies there's the ludicrously beautiful Cillian Murphy and his f-yeah eyes (an absolute crush for many of my lady friends) playing CIA maverick Lenny Miller - a suit who is a lot smarter than the by-the-book company man he first appears to be. On the other side of his morally murky world are the ruthless yet possibly might–have-a heart duo of Helen Mirren and Luke Evans who recruit the young street junkie Anna into the Russian Secret Service. Mirren eats this stuff up – her old, smoke and be-damned Olga is stony faced and precise. Olga has only survived in this vicious man's world by being equally quick with a Bowie knife, Bear Trap or a poison ink-nib. Moreover, Olga will not let her bright new recruit Anna lapse for even a second into mistakes that will get her killed - whilst at the same time having to appear to tow the line for corrupt males officials who give her orders to eliminate supposed enemies of the state and not ask too many questions about the validity of such appraisals.

And then there's the Russian model Sasha Luss playing the lead role of Anna – the kind of sleek trophy totty that adorns the arms of drug dealers by swimming pools or Bond villains in biotechnology labs or the love interest in Kingsmen movies who carry a machine-gun umbrella in London's Saville Row. Only this time in real life our Sasha has actually trained in ballet and that elegance of movement shows in every scene. Sasha Russ is genetically gorgeous for sure - but Besson also knows that she has to be riveting in the role and at the same time exude a tremble of fragility and humanity – and Russ achieves all of it. This is an actress you want to watch. Plus our Sash gets to have fun in and out of expensive dresses, popping off baddies with silencers, skewering bodyguards in fancy restaurants with steak knives or a broken dinner plate, fighting Soviet soldiers in sewers, binning wigs – the usual slow Tuesday stuff for an International espionage agent.

So, beautiful but drifting Anna Poliatova realizes she has a chance to escape a world of user boyfriends and bedsit dime-bag deprivation if she goes with her new handler Alex Tchenkov (a superb Luke Wilson) and commits to years of espionage training. This will eventually turn her into a sort of bloodier version of Killing Eve machine Villanelle – same great outfits but without the jokey psycho streak. On graduation, promises are made of five years service and Anna soon adopts a cover in a Parisienne apartment with the gorgeous Lera Abova playing Maude, Anna's lesbian lover who is in love with Anna but also oblivious to where or what Anna is as she disappears for days on end for business trips. 

But soon Anna begins to realize that she may have traded one life of servitude to drugs for another serving the equally treacherous State and that there is always one more job, one more misery, one more heartless using of her skills that will never end. So as a child prodigy Chess Player, she begins to plot out minnow-moves that none of the bigger fish will see coming. Or will they? Is Olga always one step ahead of her and everybody in fact or is she a Ruskie patriot through and through to the point where Anna is just collateral damage?

If this all sounds a bit complicated for a Spy Action Thriller then actually it is. Besson frames his spiky tale in a series of flashbacks and flash forwards and replays where you begin to realize and see what is really going on. It's a clever and thrilling way to keep the story and action moving. The set pieces/fight sequences are suitably brill and cool and have of course silly body counts that no one seems to notice as they chow down on their oysters and linguini. Then as Anna begins to outplay or even break the hearts of her American and Russian men – you're more and more invested – rooting for her to win...or not...

In March 2020, the BLU RAY is clocking in at about £10 new, but will undoubtedly fall in price as these sort of titles always do, and the picture quality on it is spot-on.

I know many have been derisory about "Anna" - but damn I enjoyed it a bunch even if it isn't quite "Leon" or "Lucy". Top cast, clever story, great set pieces and Daddy's smart girl gets to play Chess too. 

 "Anna" can have my spy bra strap any day of the week...

"The Professor And The Madman" - A Review by Mark Barry of the 2019 Farhad Safina Film starring Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Stephen Dillane, Natalie Dormer and Eddie Marsan - Now on BLU RAY...

"...Fly...On The Wings Of Words..." 

- The Professor And The Madman on BLU RAY -

As you sit through the engaging real-life-story movie that is "The Professor And The Madman" - you might well think - where was this fabulous film in the 2020 Oscars? Why was the entire world told that fatuous tut like Tarantino's "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" was worthy of our attention or even an Oscar for Brad Pitt? There are just so many choice roles in "The Professor And The Madman" that on any other year, it would have been garnished with nominations galore. Is it that in Hollywood, Mel Gibson is still a persona non grata? Well, be that as it may, this is without question the Australian actor and director's most accomplished work in decades...

Shot in Ireland and especially the older parts of Dublin (the truly gorgeous library inside Trinity College is featured to fabulous effect), I suspect that for many viewers, this beautifully realized movie is coming out of left field. Few have heard of it, let alone went to see it in a cinema. Based on a true story - principled Scotsman and Professorial multi-lingual scholar James Murray (Mel Gibson) is charged with forming an English Language Dictionary chronicling every word along with its history, meaning and literature reference - a task that has defeated snooty Oxford and Cambridge dons for decades - possibly even driven some of them stark raving mad.

But James Murray is different. He has armour and secret weapons. His wife Ada is his rock and their many children fill James with wonder, strength and even purpose (Ada is beautifully played by Jennifer Ehle of Pride and Prejudice TV Series fame). Murray is also in love with language and words to the point where he feels they may even be a route to the divine, love and that most difficult of all emotions in the mid 19th century - forgiveness.

Used on one third of the earth as a 'mother tongue' - Murray goes at the impossible task of finding and defining 'every' word and permeation of the English language with aid from his team of researchers led by Henry Bradley (Iain Gruffudd). But it soon becomes obvious why others have been driven to tears with such a task - smashed up every time against the rocks of 'proof' for even the simplest of words like 'art' or 'approved' - and that's just the 'A's'. But help comes from an unlikely source and a parallel story.

Possessed of a demon-infested and yet brilliant mind, Dr. William Minor is also drawn to the healing of literature. But while he was once a respected surgeon in the American Civil War, conflict and actions he was forced into (maiming a soldier deemed to be a deserter) have left his mind shattered to the point where in a frenzy of voices and illusions - he shoots dead a young man called Everett. This has left his young wife Eliza and her five children to destitution (Natalie Dormer excelling in a genuinely great part for the Games Of Thrones star). Dr. Minor (a seriously brilliant Sean Penn) is easily convicted and sent to prison – Eliza Everett initially glad to see him suffer.

Inside the correctional facility/lunatic asylum for the criminally insane that is Broadmoor in Berkshire, he meets Dr. Richard Brayn - a caring physician played by the stunning Stephan Dillane - also of Games Of Thrones and cruelly robbed of an Oscar for his exceptional work in the Churchill film "Darkest Hour". Determined to methodically help inmates rather than let them rot in cells, Dr. Brayn gives the mad but clearly intelligent American leeway that may indeed lead to his salvation – space, paper and books. And after a letter is found inside a book that has called on the entire English-speaking world to supply words and their meanings, the strange relationship with the Scottish Professor James Murray and the convicted-of-murder American Civil War surgeon William Minor begins – over an English book from Oxford.

Both Gibson and Penn are magnificent in this movie - not just good - but towering. Throw in the genuinely awesome humanity that Eddie Marsan of "Ray Donovan" fame brings to everything that he does (Eddie plays a guard called Mr. Muncie who takes pity on the madman and is instrumental as a liason) and a fantastically good Steve Coogan as an establishment friend to James Murray who can oil and circumnavigate the cogs of Oxford snoots malicious and vindictive towards the Scotsman (Anthony Edwards and Laurence Fox leading the doubters) - and you get an inkling of the kind of quality ensemble cast that is on offer here. There are at least six or seven more names I could mention...

Good as they all are though, the cast excels because the story and the writing that depicts this unusual tale is simply beautiful - a gorgeous script by Director Farhad Safina (credited as P.B. Shemran) and Todd Komarnicki (Safina wrote large swathes of both seasons to a Kelsey Grammer Mayor-of-Chicago TV Series I loved called "Boss"). Based on a 1998 book by Simon Winchester called "The Surgeon Of Crowthorne", the 2019 film "The Professor And The Madman" has heart and compassion and delights in language and its power to diffuse and even heal. And on it goes to the credits where photographs and achievements give further insight into these odd but earnest men and their achievements – Bear McCreary’s music lifting proceedings all the way to the end.

I loved "The Professor And The Madman" and I suspect many others will too. As the damaged man, Dr. Minor says, "...I can fly out of here...on the wings of words..." Good advice, I think. A really, really good movie and well done to all involved...

"The Prisoner: The Complete Series In High Definition" – A Review of the Limited Edition BLU RAY Box Set released 28 September 2009 by NETWORK of the UK - Versus The '50th Anniversary Edition' from 2017 (reissued in 2019) – A Review by Mark Barry...

The September 2009 Issues - Standard and Deluxe

The 2017 '50th Anniversary Edition' Issues - Standard and 'Village Editions' Deluxe 

The 2019 Reissue of the 2017 Standard '50th Anniversary Edition' 

"…We Have A Citizen's Advice Bureau Up There…They're Very Good Apparently…"

When the 1st episode of "The Prisoner" was aired by ITV in September 1967 in the UK (June 1968 in the USA by CBS), "Sgt. Peppers" was still at number one and the Summer of Love was in full swing. All things seemed possible - and at the same time, with the Vietnam War, Race Riots and the escalation of Government control over personal lives - many things seemed slightly sinister too...

Enter into this volatile soup the cocky and charismatic actor Patrick McGoohan fresh from his global TV success as John Drake in "Danger Man". The distinctly voiced actor (born in New York, but raised in Ireland and Britain) had a mind-bending idea for a new "spy" TV series limited to only 7 episodes. "The Village" would be a self-contained world where no one had a name but a number and would act as a sort of containment home for retired secret agents that big-brother Government wanted to control and keep an eye on. Each week would see a new Number 2 trying to crack Number 6 (McGoohan) through ever more elaborate means. Escape was curtailed by a moving floating blob called "Rover" – this giant boob chased, cornered and then suffocated its victims up against a wall or into the sand (nice). The futility of even 'trying' to escape was reinforced by the insidious repetition of phrases like "be seeing you" - an early version of wordplay and spin-doctors playing us. It was a brilliant pitch and Lew Grade (head of Independent Television) thought it was "...crazy enough that it might just work...". But come February 1968 when the 17th truly-out-there "Fall Out" episode was finally aired (some saying it made little sense), McGoohan was on the defensive and practically being run out of his own country by angry and confused fans... How utterly cool! Now let's get to its transition on HD BLU RAY...

VERSIONS:

28 September 2009 saw TWO issues – the UK standard version (Region B only) with Prison Bars artwork and a blue clip case is Barcode 5027626700348 whilst their was also a Limited Edition in a Beautiful Box with Number 6's Kit-Car on the cover (the one I've reviewed) with an extra paperback book inside. The problem/confusion for buyers arises because it has no barcode on the rear so you can only differentiate by asking the seller or checking their photos as to what issue you're buying. The Box Set variant (pictured above) as you will find out is long deleted and has acquired something of a nasty price tag – but it is in my mind the prettiest variant. There are of course US variants (there's was issued October 2009) with slightly altered artwork too and most tend to be REGION 1 only. 

30 October 2017 saw 'The Complete Series' reissued as a 50^th Anniversary Edition and again in TWO variants. I'll deal with the Standard Edition first because it's the one most people will see or try to buy because of its cheap cost. In a Network Exclusive Digipak ("The Complete Series starring Patrick McGoohan" is the title on the cover), compared to that gorgeous 2009 issue, the artwork on the Standard Edition is abysmal (Barcode 5027626804343). It has a treated profile face shot of McGoohan against the backdrop of the village – just mostly white artwork. That in itself has been reissued 29 July 2019 and it appeared again in October 2019 – same artwork (Barcode 5027626830144).

You get a flimsy card wrap on the outside that really is as unappetising as the artwork on Amazon suggests. That same crap blurry cover picture is on the fold out card inner which contains the discs and there's a foldout page that barely lists the titles - and that's your lot. With the 2009 standard Blu Ray case version on Amazon for £25 or less (with all 6-discs containing the beautifully remastered programs from the 60s cult classic) - this is hugely disappointing and a poor effort for forty quid. I couldn't stand to look at it and sent it back for a refund immediately. What a downer...avoid.

But to annoy us even further, also issued 30 October 2017, there is a Network UK '50^th Anniversary Limited Edition' that goes all bells and whistles. This variant is loosely called 'Village Editions' (because of its artwork on the front cover). It comes with a new documentary called "In My Mind" with footage from 1983 cobbled together with a reluctant Patrick McGoohan, 6CDs of Remastered Music from the show called 'Village Recordings', the 6 restored BLU RAY discs now labelled as 'Village Films', visual stuff called 'Village Books' which features the hardback book 'An Illustrated History' by ANDREW PIXLEY – and all of this is contained in an outer 'Village Editions' box (Barcode 5027626816346). They come as boxes within boxes – so the ‘Village Films’ outer contains the shitty looking standard edition BLU RAY set within. It was initially pitched at about £70 but that is of course deleted and prices now vary hugely on the auction market for this pretty looking set – somewhere between £150 and £260 at times.

But for the purpose of this post, lets review the September 2009 Box Set...

UK-released on BLU RAY in September 2009 (Oct 2009 in the USA with different packaging) - the UK packaging is a box-of-chocolates shaped cardboard box with two compartments - the first contains a near-300 page paperback book entitled "The Prisoner - A Complete Production Guide" by ANDREW PIXLEY. It was originally produced exclusively for NETWORK and their 2007 remastered DVD box and is reprinted here; the second inset has a 6-disc BLU RAY clip box (each disc features a different picture). Discs 1 to 4 contain all 17 episodes - the complete series - and each episode with its own special features. Discs 5 and 6 have staggering amounts of further extras including input from those involved, previously unseen behind-the-scenes footage, a different version of "Arrival" and several commentaries by the production crew. It's exhaustive stuff. Only the BLU RAY set itself inside the box has a Barcode - 5027626700348

While the paperback is fan-obsessed with details and a truly informative account, it is completely devoid of any photographs, which I feel is not just disappointing, but does this otherwise fantastic presentation a major disservice. While there are loads of pictures on Disc 6 (in High Def) and fabulous complimentary features too - it would have been nice to trawl over a really good book featuring photos of those superb production values. No disrespect to the author whose work here is incredible and must have taken years of research, it's just that all words and no visual make it a very dry read (it was probably too cost-prohibitive).

But that minor niggle quickly pales into insignificance once your eyes see the frame-by-frame fully restored 35mm print. Presented in 1:33:1 aspect and filling the full screen - it is ABSOLUTELY GLORIOUS TO LOOK AT - and puts many a modern production to shame. I noticed maybe only one or two occasions where the image had lines or some other stock fault - for 98% of the time, the digitally restored high definition print is faultless and a constant joy and revelation to look at.

Filmed in a real-life folly called Portmeirion in Gwynedd in Wales (fans still visit the town in Prisoner regalia), the entire seaside town was the dream of architect Clough Williams-Ellis who purchased the peninsula in 1923 and began building his own Mediterranean village there complete with an English twist. Portmeirion had in fact featured in previous "Danger Man" episodes and McGoohan and his family had often holidayed there. With a budget of £50,000-per-episode, a large uniquely clothed cast of extras and an entire town bathed in summer sunshine to play with, the extraordinary location and production values collided to produce a vision that stuns to this day.

The clarity is AWESOME... There's a scene in Episode 1 "Arrival" where McGoohan is offered a chair in Number Two's lair - a hole in the floor slides across and up pops a stool - but this time you can clearly see that the hole is cardboard - and not steel. In Episode 2 "The Chimes Of Big Ben" when Nadia Gray wakes up as Number 8, you can see her hair is immaculate and her eyelids are heavily pasted in blue makeup... (the episode also features Finlay Currie as the General who was Magwitch the Convict in David Lean's masterpiece "Great Expectations")  - and on it goes!

In the 90-minute extra "Don't Knock Yourself Out" actors, producers and editors describe McGoohan on set in 1967 as charismatic, brilliant and a visionary - while others like Leo McKern and one actress in particular loathed McGoohan the man to the point of distraction - calling him monster, maniacal, brutish and a bully. Oddjob actor Patrick was undoubtedly the whole lot.

And like William Shatner and his 'big role', Captain Kirk from Star Trek, McGoohan had an equally spiky relationship with the character and TV series that both defined and pigeonholed him for decades. Still, you can't help but feel that Patrick is up there right now (whatever mood he's in) beaming down at this wonderful box set.

Is "Number 1" that part of you that capitulates - as McGoohan seems to suggest when one of the masks is unveiled in "Fall Out"? I don't know. But that's what "The Prisoner" is like - even after more than four decades, it's still thought provoking, wildly imaginative and stunningly relevant - especially on the core subjects of individual freedom and Governmental control. And now on BLU RAY it has the box set it has always deserved, even if the paperback is a wee bit of a letdown.

I've reviewed quite a few superlative restorations before this - "North By Northwest", "The Italian Job", "Cool Hand Luke", "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning" and "The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner" (see reviews for all), but this takes the gong. "The Prisoner" on BLU RAY is bound to make many fans go weak at the knees and will hopefully draw in a new generation of lovers for one of the most extraordinary television programs ever made.

Downsides – crappy reissues - without doubt and in March 2020 – it seems amazing to me that either the lovely-looking September 2009 box or the October 2017 '50th Anniversary Limited Edition' Box Sets aren't generally available and instead we're left with that awful-looking 2017/2019 issue with its crap white artwork and an almost complete lack of physical visuals. 

Time for another reissue I think. We wait in hope. Good hunting and be seeing you...

"The Cider House Rules" - The 1999 Film Now Reissued On A 2011 Studio Canal BLU RAY - A Review by Mark Barry...

 "…She Was Killed By Secrecy…She Was Killed By Ignorance…"

Lasse Hallstrom's 1999 adaptation of John Irving's 1985 book (of the same name) is a rather lovely little film - that's genuinely been upgraded by BLU RAY. It's not note-perfect as a transfer by any means (soft focus here and there, a bit of grain and blocking too) - but when it's good (which is a lot of the time) - it's really gorgeous to look at.

You notice the improvements especially when the story gets to the home and lands of Olive Worthington and her son Wally (great casting in Kate Nelligan and Paul Rudd). She's an estate-owning boss and he's a dashing young Airforce Pilot who is waiting for overseas action in the Second World War. Even the indoor scenes in the live-in hut where all the apple pickers live (the 'Cider House' mentioned in the title) are very clear and at times amazingly so. The faces and clothing of the actors are razor-sharp too (superb cast choices in Delroy Lindo, Erykah Badu, Evan Park, Heavy D, and K. Todd Freeman). So too when Homer Wells (Tobey Maguire's character) is out walking with Wally's beautiful and vivacious fiancé Candy Kendall (Charlize Theron) while Wally's away at war - the shots by the Sea and the nearby lobster fishing port are beautiful to look at.

Acting-wise - there is so much to savour here. A huge part of the film's heart has to go to touching performances from children - Erik Per Sullivan as the bronchial Fuzzy, Kieran Culkin as the troubled Buster and Paz De La Huerta as the young teenage girl who fancies Homer way too much for her own good. Throw in Kathy Baker and Jane Alexander as elderly nurses with an abundance of unconditional paternal heart - and it feels good the second it opens. The story then moves as Homer does away from the snowbound hills and rivers of Maine to the sunny fields of working orchards in South Carolina.

But the movie belongs to its two principal leads - Michael Caine as Dr. Wilbur Larch and Tobey Maguire as the emotionally stilted orphan boy - Homer Wells (named after a cat and someone whose deep). First up is Caine who is simply sensational. Moving like a force of benevolent kindness amid the cold wooden rooms of "St. Clouds" (a 1930's and 1940's Orphanage he runs) - he is pragmatic and practical to the visiting pregnant women who don't need judgement (dialogue above) but an operation that is illegal. Describing himself as "...a caretaker to many, father to none..." - he mother hen's over a lively cast of young children abandoned in the big house with an almost casual cruelty. Each hurt child of course longs to be genuinely wanted - to be taken away by childless parents who occasionally come to visit and adopt. The scene where one pretty girl appeals to a couple - so they take her - but leave the rest behind - is heartbreaking. Caine imbibes so many of these difficult moments with a huge humanity - he's an actor capable of conveying extraordinary compassion and anger - sometimes one after the other. The film was nominated for 7 Academy Awards and won 2 - one for Caine as Best Supporting Actor and the other for Best Adapted Screenplay by John Irving.

Tobey Maguire excels too - his performance is full of quiet acceptance at first - but then moves into a longing for a more varied life outside of his mentor's 'doctoring' requirements. Homer's journey to his own 'purpose in the world' is long but convincing. Maguire is very, very good here. As is Charlize Theron - not just a beautiful woman - but a hugely accomplished actress. Watch out too for John Irving the Author in a tiny cameo as a Station Master at the beginning (doing his Hitchcock).

The "Making Of" interviews all the principal actors - as well as John Irving on adapting his own book, Stephen King (the Author) on Irving's writing and Lasse Hallstrom the Director on shooting such a huge book. Its default aspect is 1.2:35 so it has bars top and bottom of the screen - but even stretched to full screen - it still looks great.

"The Cider House Rules" is a warm film - and one I thoroughly enjoyed re-watching. But more importantly - if you're a fan and have love for this movie's combined cruelties and charms - then you need to see it/own it on BLU RAY. 

Highly recommended.

ASPECT:

1.2:35:1 Ratio

SUBTITLES:

English for the Hard-Of-Hearing

EXTRAS:

Making Of "An American Classic"

Deleted Scenes

Trailer

PS: for other recent reissues on BLU RAY - see also reviews for:

"Amelie", "Beautiful Girls", "American Graffiti", "Bright Star", "Shakespeare In Love", "Love Actually", "A.I - Artificial Intelligence", "Bubba Ho-Tep", "Gone Baby Gone", "Michael Clayton" and "Stranger Than Fiction"