 Movie
Reviews
with Andy Gough
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Directed by Peter Jackson
 Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) leads the men of Gondor to battle, and triumph, with a little help from his friends.
What can I possibly say about this final installment in Peter Jackson's epic trilogy except - pure genius!
Of course by now the film has been out a few weeks and we die hard fans have already raced out to see it at least once.
I went in having not yet finished reading the third of Tolkein's Rings books (I wanted the ending to be a surprise), so I'm not sure how faithful the film is to the book, but what a ride!
Jackson has not let us down and Return of the King is absolutely spectacular cinema, cementing his place as a filmmaker par excellence.
The only excuse for not going to the cinemas to see this film is if you have been in a coma for the last three years and not seen the first two yet.
The big question now is - will Jacko do The Hobbit next? In the meantime we can all hold our breath for the extended version DVD of Return of the King and see what scenes were cut for length.
Rating: 
Love Actually
Directed by Richard Curtis
 Bill Nighy as Billy Mack - outrageous and hilarious.
Not the usual sort of film I race out to see, I approached this film with some trepidation, expecting a rather bland and trite romantic comedy from writer/director Richard Curtis of Four Weddings and a Funeral fame.
Much to my surprise and relief, I had a great time and a good laugh.
Love Actually features a huge ensemble cast of great actors, some of whom only have tiny cameo appearances.
Curtis' script is very refreshing, especially his angle on reclaiming airports (scary places since Sept 11) as happy places, and politics - with British PM (Hugh Grant) telling US President (Billy Bob Thornton) where to shove it.
It's light and fluffy fare, sure, but the characters all feel real and believable, and each of the plot threads tread interesting ground about the diversity and chaos of relationships, and love, actually.
Rating: 
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