Coming attractions / Shots on the Blog

The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the temperature is high and the weather is glorious. Time for a season of cutesy, romantic, feelgood movies ... on some other blog!Here on The Agitation of the Mind, summer means one thing: crime. Shots on the Blog 2012 kicks off on Friday. Here's a small taster of what to expe...

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The Offence

Financed by United Artists as part of the deal Sean Connery cut in return for resuming the mantle of James Bond in ‘Diamonds Are Forever’, Sidney Lumet’s ‘The Offence’ is, variously, a psychological portrait of a man cracking up under the pressures of the job, a two-hander that explores duality and the transference of guilt, and cynical commentary on the nature of authority. All packed into 108 minutes, without any real set-dressing, and against...

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Pam Grier

Happy 63rd birthday to Pam Grier - ic...

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BOND-A-THON: Diamonds Are Forever

‘Diamonds Are Forever’: in which the director of ‘Goldfinger’ is back at the helm, Sean Connery is back in the lead role, God is in His heaven and all is right with the world. Carlsberg don’t do movie reviews …Joking apart, ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ is – it has to be said – a frustrating and ultimately pretty mediocre outing for 007. It’s a film of two halves: part one is basically How The Diamond Smuggling Operation Works, while part two is What The...

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"Music?" "Yeah, I use Wagner, scares the hell outta the slopes!"

Happy 199th birthday to Richard Wagner, from Colonel Kilgore and the bo...

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BOND-A-THON: on Antagony's secret service

For anyone who's enjoyed my humble offerings so far on all things Bondian, get ready to rejoice. Tim of Antagony & Ecstasy - film blogger of excellent standing and a long-time supporter of Agitation - has just launched his own Bond retrospective, kicking off with a review of the 1950s American TV adaptation of 'Casino Royale'. It sets the tone for what promises to be an edifying, insightful and eminently readable seri...

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BOND-A-THON: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

There are those, including people for whom I have infinite respect and whose judgement I trust implicitly, who have a lot of time for ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ – who, in fact, consider it one of the high points of the series. If anyone of said inclination is reading this review, it’s probably best that you exit The Agitation of the Mind and I’ll see you in about ten days’ time for ‘Diamonds Are Forever’.For anyone still reading, you might...

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BOND-A-THON: first Skyfall poster

So: stark, moody and playing on some classic iconography. Okay, I'll admit it: the fanboy in me has been unleashed. I am officially all kinds of excit...

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Mini reviews: for when 800 words and half a dozen screengrabs just isn't worth it

DARK SHADOWSThe cast is great but the narrative slumbers;Like ‘Alice in Wonderland’, it’s Burton-by-numbers.BOOGIE WOOGIEGreat cast, great concept (the art world laid bare)But blandly directed, no reason to care.RED RIDING HOOD“From the director of ‘Twilight’.” The cineaste baulks.Oh dear fucking Christ, the werewolf tal...

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Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated

Late last week, I came down with a bad case of connectivity issues ... or at least my computer did. Fast forward to mid this week and the problem has only just been resolved.I've had five days cold turkey from the internet. Man, it takes an enforced break just to make you realise how much time you waste on the internet! So, what have I been doing during this hiatus? Watching shitloads of movies and stockpiling reviews so that content on Agitation could resume forthwith? Er, no. I've mainly been reading. And sketching out a structure for what might...

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The Good, the Bad and the Multiplex

I have been to the cinema exactly twice in the last six months: ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ in November last year, and ‘Avengers Assemble’ (to give it its stupid fucking UK title) a couple of weeks ago. It’s not that there haven’t been plenty of movies out during that period that I’ve wanted to see, it’s just … well, it’s two things really. Firstly, ticket prices have become prohibitive. For me and Mrs F to see a film together is an outlay of...

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BOND-A-THON: You Only Live Twice

The first four films collectively established most of the tropes: the girls, guns, gadgets and globetrotting; the pre-credits sequences; the big ballad theme songs; and the evil genius villains in their fabulously appointed lairs. ‘You Only Live Twice’ slotted in place one more Bond benchmark. While ‘Dr No’, ‘From Russia with Love’, ‘Goldfinger’ and ‘Thunderball’ are reasonably faithful adaptations of Fleming’s novels, the narrative of ‘You Only...

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