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Rest in Peace, Miss Moneypenney

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Lois Maxwell, 1927-2007. Her credits include: Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Diamonds are Forever, Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy and A View to a Kill.
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Death Sentence

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Halfway into Death Sentence , grieving father Nick Hume, played by Kevin Bacon, leads a group of gang bangers on a rather uninspired foot chase though city streets, alleyways and a parking garage. The scene was shot in downtown Columbia, South Carolina, the location where I once shot a student film, and this was the sole reason I saw this sometimes thrilling but mostly uneven mess. Death Sentence is a riff on the Charles Bronson thriller Death Wish , but this time it’s Kevin Bacon seeking revenge against an urban drug gang for the murder of his favorite son. There are some nice moments here, and theme of what an everyman is prepared to do to avenge the brutal murder of someone he loves is worth exploring on film. But it is never completely clear how Bacon transforms himself from a white collar executive into a gun-toting vigilante. We understand his motivation is simple revenge, but this is thin and leaves more questions than it answers. There is also the problem of the police detecti...
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The Scoop on Scoop

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I saw Scoop this week, the new Woody Allen film starring Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman, and both Allen and the film felt tired. Although there were a few laughs, I did not find the film particularly funny, and I wonder if the 70-year-old actor/director still has a comic touch. Allen's one-liners seem familiar and the plot is not particularly imaginative. Set in London, Allen's new cinematic home, Scoop seems like an afterthought to his 1993 film Manhattan Murder Mystery . That one, with Diane Keaton, Angelica Huston and Alan Alda, was a much better comedy. Scoop suffers from familiarity more than anything, Allen's performance as magician The Great Splendini included. Johansson is fine as the young student reporter investigating a millionaire she suspects (with help from beyond the grave) to be a serial killer. Hugh Jackman, as millionaire Peter Lyman, holds the film together with his breezy and convincing performance. But it's not enough.
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