Review: First Trip to "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" Was Quite Lovely

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 16 (of 2015) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United Kingdom
Running time:  124 minutes (2 hours, 4 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sexual content and language
DIRECTOR:  John Madden
WRITER:  Ol Parker (based on the novel, These Foolish Things, by Deborah Moggach)
PRODUCERS:  Graham Broadbent and Peter Czernin
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Ben Davis (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Chris Gill
COMPOSER:  Thomas Newman
Golden Globes nominee

COMEDY/DRAMA with elements of romance

Starring:  Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Maggie Smith, Ronald Pickup, Celia Imrie, Dev Patel, Tina Desai, Lillete Dubey, Paul Bhattacharjee, Neena Kulkarni, Rajendra Gupta, and Lucy Robinson

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a 2012 British comedy-drama from director John Madden.  The film is based on the 2004 novel, These Foolish Things, from English author Deborah Moggach.  The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel focuses on a group of British retirees who travel to India to take up residence in a newly restored hotel that is not quite ready for prime time.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel opens in present day Great Britain and introduces a group of British retirees and AARP types.  Recently widowed housewife, Evelyn Greenslade (Judi Dench), is forced to sell the home she shared with her late husband in order to cover the huge debts he left.  Jean and Douglas Ainslie (Penelope Wilton and Bill Nighy) are searching for a retirement they can afford; they lost most of their savings through investing in their daughter's Internet business.

Muriel Donnelly (Maggie Smith) is a retired housekeeper who is need of a hip replacement operation.  Her doctor informs her that she can have it done far more quickly and inexpensively in India than she can in the U.K., but Muriel hates Indians (as well as every other person of color).  Madge Hardcastle (Celia Imrie) is searching for another husband.  Aging lothario Norman Cousins (Ronald Pickup) still wants to have sex with young women, but now, he needs to find a new place to try and re-capture his youth.  These six people decide to spend their retirement at a hotel in India, based only on the pictures on the hotel's website.

Meanwhile, high-court judge, Graham Dashwood (Tom Wilkinson), spent the first eighteen years of his life in India; he suddenly decides to retire and return there.  When these Brits arrive at The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, they find it dilapidated.  The hotel's energetic young manager, Sunil Indrajit “Sonny” Kapoor (Dev Patel), promises that he will make the hotel look like what the website promises.  Now, everyone has to deal with the unexpected, and some are better at that than others.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is simply frothy feel-good entertainment – nothing more, nothing less.  The characters are interesting, but not especially well-developed.  There are so many of them that screenwriter Ol Parker cannot really develop them in the amount of the film's running time that actually involves storytelling, which is less than its stated 100 minutes running time.

But, boy, did I enjoy this movie anyway.  The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is sweet and charming, and its cast of veteran (some would say “senior citizen”) actors makes it a rare treat in a landscape of movies about children and 20-somethings saving the world.  Loving and wanting-to-be-loved are not exclusively the domain of lovelorn teens and the newly-turned middle-aged.  Yearning and striving for the good life:  well, old folks can want that, also.  That is why I am glad that this funny, heartwarming, and sometimes heartbreaking film is here to be enjoyed again and again.  The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a good place for movie lovers to visit or even to stay.

7 of 10
B+

Friday, March 27, 2015


NOTES:
2013 Golden Globes, USA:  2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” (Judi Dench)

2013 BAFTA Awards:  1 nomination: “Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film” (John Madden, Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin, and Ol Parker)

The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

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Ashley Wood's "String Divers" Arrives in August 2015

STRING DIVERS LOOM LARGE AT IDW

Team of Micro-Bots Launches in August In Partnership with Ashley Wood’s 3A Toys

Acclaimed artist/designer Ashley Wood is preparing to launch his latest comic-book project at IDW this summer with String Divers, a comic series blending a team of robot adventures and string-theory physics! String Divers, directed and overseen by Wood and written by Wood’s Zombies vs. Robots co-creator Chris Ryall, features stunning artwork by Nelson Daniel and a concept that grows bigger the smaller it gets!

Spun out of Ashley Wood’s 3A Toys’ line of titular figures, String Divers incorporates string theory as threats to our universe at the sub-microscopic level have dire and lasting repercussions in our universe and across all dimensions.

    A chance to combine high adventure on a scale both bigger and smaller than what I’ve done before is appealing enough, but a chance to again work with Ash Wood and Nelson Daniel on a series packed with crazy action, mis-applied theoretical physics and micro-scale intrigue that affects the larger universe being built here is about as fun as comics gets. – Chris Ryall, Writer/IDW Chief Creative Officer

Ashley Wood will be providing story direction, concept design, art direction and covers for String Divers. Wood and Ryall are joined by Nelson Daniel, fresh off a long run on IDW’s Judge Dredd, on art. Daniel, who previously partnered with Ryall on the Stephen King/Joe Hill project, Road Rage, will again be providing art and colors on both interiors and variant covers of each issue.

“It’s always a pleasure to work with IDW and Chris,” said String Divers creator and toy designer Ashley Wood. “String Divers is just the first in a series of comics that sees IDW and 3A combine forces!”

String Divers #1, a 32-page, $3.99 comic, launches in August!

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Signeersessie Scott McCloud 15 april bij Lambiek

Woensdag 15 april om 18:00 komt Scott McCloud bij Lambiek zijn nieuwe boek De Beeldhouwer signeren.

Scott McCloud geniet wereldwijde bekendheid als strip-goeroe. Hij heeft niet alleen een aantal standaard naslagwerken over strips geschreven (Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics en Making Comics) maar bedacht ook de 24-hour-comic-day, een inmiddels wereldwijd fenomeen waar honderden tekenaars en instellingen aan mee doen. Natuurlijk maakte Scott McCloud al eerder
verhalen als Zot! en Destroy! Nu is daar de Beeldhouwer. Kom dus woensdag langs om je eigen
gesigneerde exemplaar te bemachtigen of stuur ons een mailtje als je niet aanwezig kunt zijn maar wel graag een gesigneerde 'Beeldhouwer' in je kast wilt. Tot woensdag.

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IDW Sends Godzilla To Hell in July 2015

Godzilla Faces The Fiery Inferno Of Hell Itself

Abandon All Hope…

In over six decades of battles and triumphs, Godzilla has never faced a challenge as great as what’s coming his way this July, when Godzilla goes to hell! In Godzilla in Hell, a five-issue miniseries launching in July, Godzilla will storm through the gates of hell itself, proving that the towering behemoth is King Of The Monsters both above and below.

With no warning and no sign of salvation, Godzilla is plummeted to the deepest, darkest bowels of the infernal kingdom. The mystery of what led to Godzilla’s damnation, and what it will face, will take readers on a dark and twisted journey unlike any Godzilla story before.

A rotating creative team will each take Godzilla through a new and more dangerous layer of Hell, beginning with none other than writer and artist James Stokoe, who is returning to the character for the first time since his haunting stunner of a miniseries, Godzilla: The Half Century War.

“Drawing Godzilla must be my comfort food, because it feels really great to come back and work on pages with IDW again,” said Stokoe, writer and artist on issue 1. “Also, the list of amazing creators they’ve tapped for this series beyond my issue feels equally great as a fan, especially with the theme everyone gets to play with. You can’t get much bigger than Godzilla versus Hell!“

Successive issues in this five-part series will feature talents familiar to the Godzilla franchise, including the multi-talented writer/artists Bob Eggleton; and Dave Wachter; Wachter most recently wrapped up the apocalyptic take on Godzilla in Godzilla: Cataclysm.

New to the world of Godzilla will be writers, Ulises Farinas and Erick Freitas, together on issue #3 and Brandon Seifert, tackling issue #4; artists will be announced on these issues at a later time.

“I’m very proud with the level of quality we’ve brought to all of our Godzilla mini-series,” said editor Bobby Curnow. “Godzilla in Hell will prove no exception. It’s been incredibly fun seeing the creator’s imagination stretch to fully utilize this otherworldly premise.”

This explosive new series will join a number of other major debuts in July as part of the Five Featured Firsts program, which launches a brand new title each and every week in July. Additionally, the debut issue will feature an EC Comics homage variant cover by Godzilla: Rulers of Earth artist Jeff Zornow as part of EC Cover Month.

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Unlock "Terminator Genisys"

Unlock the new TERMINATOR GENISYS trailer with #TerminatorUnlock


Click the "Tweet to Unlock" link on the Terminator Genisys Twitter page to release the new trailer and more exclusive content. The first photo is already revealed!

Direct links:
https://twitter.com/Terminator
https://twitter.com/Terminator/status/587374640827240448
#TerminatorUnlock

"Terminator Genisys" in theaters July 1, 2015

When John Connor (Jason Clarke), leader of the human resistance, sends Sgt. Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) and safeguard the future, an unexpected turn of events creates a fractured timeline. Now, Sgt. Reese finds himself in a new and unfamiliar version of the past, where he is faced with unlikely allies, including the Guardian (Arnold Schwarzenegger), dangerous new enemies, and an unexpected new mission: To reset the future…

Directed by Alan Taylor

Official Site: http://terminatorgenisys.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerminatorGenisys
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Terminator
Instagram: http://instagram.com/TerminatorGenisys
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TerminatorGenisys

"Avengers: Age of Ultron" Reveals its "Vision"

Marvel Studios presents “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” the epic follow-up to the biggest Super Hero movie of all time. When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for an epic and unique global adventure.

Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” stars Robert Downey Jr., who returns as Iron Man, along with Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk and Chris Evans as Captain America. Together with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and with the additional support of Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine, Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, Stellan Skarsgård as Erik Selvig and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, the team must reassemble to defeat James Spader as Ultron, a terrifying technological villain hell-bent on human extinction. Along the way, they confront two mysterious and powerful newcomers, Pietro Maximoff, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen and meet an old friend in a new form when Paul Bettany becomes Vision.

Written and directed by Joss Whedon and produced by Kevin Feige, Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series “The Avengers,” first published in 1963. Louis D’Esposito, Alan Fine, Victoria Alonso, Jeremy Latcham, Patricia Whitcher, Stan Lee and Jon Favreau serve as executive producers. Get set for an action-packed thrill ride when The Avengers return in Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” on May 1, 2015.

More on Marvel.com: http://marvel.com/news/movies/24410/witness_vision_in_new_marvels_avengers_age_of_ultron_poster#ixzz3X6SlMfek

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"Gotham's" Penguin Champions Free Comic Book Day 2015

Comic book fan and actor Robin Lord Taylor, a.k.a the Penguin from the TV show "Gotham" wants everyone to celebrate Free Comic Book Day.

You can see Robin’s video about Free Comic Book Day here:  http://bit.ly/RobinLordTaylor_FCBD2015

·    On May 2nd, over 2,300 participating comic shop across the US, Canada and worldwide will be giving away free comic books

·  There are 50 designated FCBD titles available to choose from

·  Over 5.6 million comic books will be given away for free making this year’s event the biggest yet!

·  During FCBD, comic shops host special events such as costume contests, guest signings with comic book writers and artists, raffles, giveaways, store-wide sales, games and more for the whole community to enjoy

·  To find a participating comic shop, enter your zip code into the store locator at www.freecomicbookday.com.

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