Last Chance Harvey (2008)

I recommend seeing this one sometime; it was a very good film. The performances by Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson are reason enough to see this. But, it has a touching and sediment ally sweet storyline to follow along with. Perhaps this is a bitter sweet comedy type of a film which would best describe it. London native Joel Hopkins directed and also worked on the screenplay for this, he has only a few other films under his belt so far which include Jorge (1998) and Jump Tomorrow (2001). I think he captured something relatively unique with Last Chance Harvey and it turned out to be a gem of a film.

These two characters Harvey Shine (Dustin Hoffman) and Kate Walker (Emma Thompson) are attracted to one another yet they both seem to have previously failed at relationships in the past. Harvey is a divorced man who happens to write jingles for television commercials by trade. He meets up with a single woman named Kate Walker who gathers information about passengers at airline terminals.

Together, there is a certain amount of chemistry between them; however their relationships with family and friends have seriously put a burden on their dating lives. You will have to watch this to see how things play out, but it has a lot of solid scenes between both of the leading characters and a good supporting cast to boot.

What was rather brilliant was seeing these two interact with one another, it takes special talent to pull off performances like this and this certainly added quite a bit to this film and bringing the story out making it a better film overall. Emma Thompson’s character seems to bring out the best in Harvey, and she reads him like a book it seems.

The main story is about Harvey going to London, England for his daughter’s wedding while trying to get away from his job. He has a lot of pressure on him. A much younger upcoming employee is closing in on him threatening to take his job away from him. His ex-wife has since remarried and he has lost touch with his daughter somewhere along the way of things in his life.

It helped to have some other talents in there which include veteran actress Eileen Atkins as Maggie Walker, Kathy Baker as Jean, Liane Balaban plays Susan, James Brolin plays Brian, Richard Schiff plays Marvin, Tim Howar plays Johnnie, Wendy Mae Brown plays Aggie, Bronagh Gallagher plays Oonagh, Jeremy Sheffield plays Matt, Daniel Lapaine plays Scott, Patrick Baladi plays Simon, Adam James plays Josh Hillman, and Michael Landes plays Peter Turner.

Catch this film when you can, you won’t be disappointed at these fine performances wrapped inside of a fairly uniquely played out storyline. Two thumbs up for Harvey and his last chance.

Last Chance Harvey

Post from: Chewypopcorn.com
Written by: Terry Larch

Last Chance Harvey (2008) Review

Night of the Living Dead (1990)

I guess it’s fitting to do a review about a horror film the night before Halloween. So, I figured I’d review a classic. This is actually a remake of the original Night of the Living Dead (1968). It is director George A. Romero’s claim to fame. Tom Savini directed this version, but it was based upon the writing and story by both Romero and John A. Russo. There is nothing complicated about the premise of this movie, it helped to inspire a number of other zombie films.

This was the tagline that was used: “There IS a fate worse than death”. The casting for this film was excellent, and there are some hidden messages in the story if you read between the lines including racism and religion as well as morale values. The undead return to life through an accident, and start to crave the flesh of the living. This theme has been used a number of times over the years. The zombies in this one move rather slow, but they certainly creep up on you after a while.

The cast (aside from the zombies) deliver very convincing character types you find in modern day society. Tony Todd stars as Ben who was brilliant in his performance. He meets up with Patricia Tallman playing the role of Barbara who also delivers a wonderful performance as well. Some people might not know she was the Possessed Witch in the Sam Raimi movie Army of Darkness (1992).The setup starts off with Barbara finding her way from a graveyard to a white house in the countryside. Once she is there she discovers the absolute madness that follows. This was Katie Finneran’s first film appearance as Judy Rose her character Judy is the girlfriend of William Butler who plays the role of Tom. Tom Towles plays a snobby jerk named Harry Cooper. He was very convincing in the role. His wife was played by McKee Anderson as Helen Cooper. She constantly tries to reason with his as he is very demanding and forceful. Johnnie is played by Bill Mosley, David W. Butler plays Hondo, Zachary Mott is Bulldog, Pat Reese is The Mourner, William Cameron is The Newsman, Pat Logan is Uncle Rege, Berle Ellis is the Flaming Zombie, and Bill ‘Chilly Billy’ Cardille plays a T.V. Interviewer.

There have been a number of sequels in this series of films and an upcoming release starring Tony Todd is already in the works and in production titled Escape of the Living Dead (2009).  Perhaps it will be in limited release sometime next year. John A. Russo will be directing and he also wrote the screenplay.

Night of the Living Dead

Post from: Chewypopcorn.com
Written by: Terry Larch

Night of the Living Dead (1990) Review