Sandra Says Blog

The Italian Job (1969) The start of this film is intriguing, but it is nice to see the men lay/roll a wreath down the mountain. So Charlie Croker (Michael Caine) is out, I mean back. And so the Italian Job planning begins to get ‘Four million dollars through a traffic jam’ genius. Sadly, it seems everyone has a price, Professor Simon Peach (Benny Hill) likes big women, so it was easy to get an expert in computers. You know what they say ‘Practice makes perfect’ but how long do you practice for? And the doors have been blown off, well along with everything else on the van. It is amusing to watch. I like how they interweaved a funeral speech by Mr. Bridger (Noel Coward) into a speech about getting the job done. The script is well done. And so the actual job begins, after a demonstration from the mafia, they don’t approve and sadly, some nice cars had to suffer. Lorna (Maggie Blye ), Charlie’s girl friend had one thing to do, just walk to the plane and not draw attention ...

  Chaos Bound ‘The Runelords ’ by David Farland Book one The book starts off slow but quickly becomes a fight for survival against the water of the sea. Although this is very much a fictional/ fantasy story it is written in such a good way, that you can picture the events happening in the real world, even including when Sir Borenson turns from a man to a beast. This story high-lights that someone can fall from being rich to no different or worse than the poor people you may look down upon. This shows you shouldn’t judge people. The descriptions of events in this book are really well done, they are in-depth and unique. At the start of chapter two I wander where the story was going, but by the end, les just say ‘It all comes together’. In this book it describes really well how a ‘Pony and a warhorse are much the same’, although this is very much set in a fictional world it is written in such a way that for me as the reader, I can relate events and creatures to here in the real ...

  White Chicks When casting this movie, the comedy element was there from the very beginning because they picked the FBI Agents and the two Wilson sisters on the very opposite ends of the looks divide, two black men and two white blonde haired women. There is a line that is scripted as ‘I like a challenge’ because of the nature of this film, let’s hope he still likes a challenge by the end. When picking up two Diva sisters from the airport, try to get them back to the hotel in one piece, how hard can it be? Answer, ‘Very hard’, and so the undercover challenge begins. It is brilliant, but maybe they ought to look in the mirror and realise that even though they are men on the inside, they are blonde women on the outside. A lactose intolerance undercover FBI Agent shouldn’t eat cheese, but it does make for some amusing, if a little, correction a lot of noisy scenes. The comedy continues when the FBI Wilson sisters go shopping. The men are out of their comfort zone, but they ...

  The Bodyguard (1992) The start of this film is slow with one exception of the explosion. We can see why the bodyguard, Frank Farmer (Kevin Costner) was hired. On his first day he gets into Rachel Marron (Whitney Houston) estate really easily, we can see he has a lot of work to do. For what he is charging Rachel is getting good value for money I believe. This film highlights the fine line between the security and safety of a home environment and maintaining a normal family life. This shows the latter can be difficult when you are a celebrity who is very much in the public eye. One of my favourite scenes is when Frank is teaching Henry (Christopher Birt ) the chauffeur to drive the limo, if there was a threat to Rachel’s life. Although fun to watch you are made aware there is a serious side to what they are doing. This film is about protecting a celebrity, so it is good to see Frank so focused on his job, even when Tony (Mike Starr) the original bodyguard tries to be the ...

  Saving Private Ryan This film starts off with the beach landings. The first approximately half hour, from the graveyard scenes until after the beach scenes, are so well done and realistic, cleverly using amputees when it needed to show limbs being blown off bodies. As a result of it being so good, I personally cannot watch this part of the film. It is heart-warming to see that the army authorities realised that three letters on the same day would be devastating. However, all is not lost hence the name of this film. There is an amusing part where the interpreter tries to carry all his equipment including his ‘Typewriter’ Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) holds up a pencil to him. An interesting part to hear is when Private Carparzo (Vin Diesel) tells Corporal Upham (Jeremy Davies) not to follow army procedure, as it makes the Captain a target. This certainly makes you think. This film high-lights the thin line between helping a family (humanity) and following orders. The horrors of...

  Warning spoilers G oodnight Sweetheart My favourite episode –When Two Worlds Collide. First a bit of background story: Gary Sparrow (Nicholas Lyndhurst) was an ordinary husband , married to Yvonne (Michelle Holmes and then in later seasons Emma Amos) living in the 1980/90s, working as a TV repair man. Until one day he walks down an alley way called Ducketts passage, and finds himself in a pub called The Royal Oak. So far, so ordinary, but Gary has stumbled upon a time porthole and has time-travelled back to the war years of the 1940s. Fast forward to nearing the end of the war a lot has changed, Gary lost his job as a TV repair man due to being caught, having had a few drinks, about to drive his van. The episode that shows Gary’s down fall also has a great line in it, where Gary says that he hasn’t had a drink for 40 years, having time-travelled back to the present after drinking in The Royal Oak back in the 40s. Ducketts passage is no more and there is a row of shop...

Thunderbirds Are Go (1966) Considering this is a, movie extension of a children’s puppet show, the set and the models are well done and are very realistic. The film is set in the 21 st century, based around the first manned mission to land on the planet Mars, it is a strong storyline. The rocket, called Zero-X, when it takes off like an aeroplane, it is very much, futuristic thinking, in the script. What could go wrong? Sabotage maybe. With it being a futuristic children’s puppet film, although, they keep it in the realms of realism, there is still the scope and free will wit h artistic licence to put in all sorts of helpful technology. We see that you cannot argue with 862 pages, so yes I agree, have International Rescue at the next launch attempt. Although it is against their rules, it is nice to see them willing to be there and do their bit. It is nice to see something being done to prevent anyone being in grave danger before the possibility they are. The cross betwe...

  Convoy At the start of this film it high-lights how dangerous a large vehicle on the road be and how reckless it is to not wear pants. It is good to see that justice is done, in the way of a stern warning only. A police man is only a man after all. It is brilliant the description Rubber Duck (Kris Kristofferson) gives to the police man in the unmarked police car ‘A bear in a plain brown wrapper’. It turns out to be Lyle Wallace (Ernest Borgnine ), he is not so lenient but is also a crooked cop, it seems Rubber Duck and Lyle have history. Not only is Lyle bent he is also evil, just because someone hasn’t got any money in their pocket he thinks he can arrest them for ‘Vagrancy’, luckily Rubber Duck saves the day and the action, resulting in the convoy begins. The fight scenes however, are amusing to watch the slow motion adds to the comedy aspect, although I don’t think the people making the film were going for comedy as such. Although the music over the fight scenes could ...