Cast: Keira Knightley (Georgiana, The Duchess of Devonshire), Ralph Fiennes (Duke of Devonshire), Dominic Cooper (Charles Grey), Hayley Atwell (Bess Foster)
For complete info, see IMDb's The Duchess page.
I really like Keira Knightley & Ralph Fiennes and enjoy period pieces, so I was looking forward to The Duchess. The cast is amazing, the costumes and sets are wonderful, and the story is very interesting. If you like period films, I highly recommend The Duchess. If not, I doubt you'd even consider it, but you should probably stay away. It's really amazing when you think about what women had to go through back then. Movies based on true stories are always interesting to me and this one is very well done. If you missed it in a theatre, I highly recommend renting it.
Grade: B+
Labels: 2008, Dominic Cooper, drama, Hayley Atwell, history, Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes
Reviewed by Kat at the 8:00 PM show | 0 screams
Cast: Ralph Fiennes (Justin Quayle), Rachel Weisz (Tessa Quayle)
For the complete cast, see IMDb's The Constant Gardener page.
The cast is most of what attracted me to this movie. The story looked good, but the title really didn't interest me. In spite of the title, The Constant Gardener is a great movie.
Even after my husband and I saw it and we tried to tell friends to see it, the title is always what held them back. Trust me, the title works with the movie and I enjoyed the movie enough to buy the book.
The cast in The Constant Gardener is wonderful. They really get you involved with the characters and to care about what happens to them and finding out the truth behind the mystery.
Grade: A-
Labels: 2005, drama, movie, Rachel Weisz, Ralph Fiennes, thriller
Reviewed by Kat at the 1:20 PM show | 0 screams
Cast: Jennifer Lopez (Marisa Ventura), Ralph Fiennes (Chris Marshall), Natasha Richardson (Caroline Lane), Stanley Tucci (Jerry Siegel), Tyler Posey (Ty Ventura)
For complete info, see IMDb's Maid in Manhattan page.
As with any movie that uses Manhattan as a back drop, part of me was sold on this movie before I saw it. I think it's a cute version of the Cinderella story. Not unique, or believable, but cute. The cast does a really great job. I'm not a big fan of Jennifer Lopez generally, but I think she did a good job here. Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson were wonderful as always and the rest of the cast was great, too.
Definitely sappy romantic comedy, but sometimes those can be fun. If you enjoy the occasional romantic comedy with a totally predictable story line, you could definitely forget about thinking for a while with this movie. Worth the time to watch the rental.
Grade: B
Labels: 2002, comedy, movie, New York, Ralph Fiennes, romance, Stanley Tucci
Reviewed by Kat at the 2:10 PM show | 0 screams
Cast: Ralph Fiennes (Count Laszlo de Almasy), Juliette Binoche (Hana), Willem Dafoe (David Caravaggio), Kristin Scott Thomas (Katharine Clifton)
For complete cast, see IMDb's The English Patient page.
A nurse tending a badly burned plane crash victim at the end of WWII as his past is shown in flashbacks, revealing his involvement in a love affair. I know this movie is only getting raves. And I enjoyed it, but at times it really dragged. At over 2 1/2 hours, there were some points that I thought could have been trimmed to make the story move a bit faster. Of course, when you're being taken care of and badly burned, all time seems to take an eternity, I'm sure. Perhaps that was part of what they wanted the audience to experience in the movie, but I would have enjoyed it more without that aspect. The love story was well done, though, and clearly the movie won a lot of awards, so it's well worth renting if you haven't seen it already.
Grade: B+
Labels: 1996, Best Picture, drama, Juliette Binoche, Kristin Scott Thomas, movie, Ralph Fiennes, romance
Reviewed by Kat at the 12:20 PM show | 0 screams
Cast: Liam Neeson (Oskar Schindler), Ben Kingsley (Itzhak Stern), Ralph Fiennes (Amon Goeth), Caroline Goodall (Emilie Schindler)
For complete cast, see IMDb's Schindler's List page.
Wow - what a movie. I had a migraine when I left... not sure if it was from the crying or the black and white images or the writing on the dark screens, but it all got to me. Clearly, from the subject matter, there were going to be many depressing scenes. This is an amazing movie, but not one I could imagine owning or watching a ton of times. It blew me away, but overall it was so sad to see realistic portrayals of the horrors the Jews faced during WWII.
I can't even imagine what it would be like to have been through even half of what they had to deal with. This movie brought the struggle close to home and was very depressing, but amazing at the same time. It definitely deserved the best picture Oscar and every other award it received!
Grade: A
Labels: 1993, Ben Kingsley, Best Picture, drama, Liam Neeson, movie, Ralph Fiennes, war
Reviewed by Kat at the 2:30 PM show | 0 screams