Shameless Self Expression

A bunch of singing cats introduce themselves as they vie for some kind of honour bestowed upon them by a revered, geriatric cat named Old Deuteronomy (Dame Judi Dench, in a role originated by Brian Blessed, of all people). Meanwhile, the dastardly Macavity (Idris Elba) is lurking about trying to get an edge in the competition by kidnapping his rivals. Other cats on show include weepy Grizabella (Jennifer Hudson), comical and portly Bustopher Jones (James Corden), chubby Jennyanydots (Rebel Wilson), Rum Tum Tugger (Jason Derulo), theatre ham Gus the Theatre Cat (Sir Ian McKellen), Growltiger (Ray Winstone), and the vixen-ish Bombalurina (Taylor Swift), an associate (or moll?) of Macavity. Our audience surrogate of-sorts is newcomer Victoria (Francesca Hayward), who gets welcomed into this weird little society by Munkustrap (Robbie Fairchild).   Y’all know I don’t like movie musicals, hell the only stage musical I’ve ever seen is the infamous flop “Starlight Express” (Zero memory of

Paul Massie stars as Dr. Jekyll, a recluse who is obsessed with experimenting with the dark side of human nature. He wants to see if there’s a way to separate the good and bad sides of ourselves, and wonders whether or not eradicating one’s darker side is actually a  good  thing. It’s a dangerous territory he’s wading in, and his experiments do lead to bringing out his darker side, a completely different personality named Mr. Hyde. Where Jekyll is a dull, pasty-faced recluse, Hyde is the dashingly handsome life of the party. Hyde also allows Jekyll to eventually indulge his darker urges free of restraint, including plotting revenge on his duplicitous, frequently-in-debt best friend Paul Allen (Christopher Lee) and cheating wife Kitty (Dawn Addams). Jekyll still lurks inside of the same body that contains Hyde, but will he ever want to suppress his evil side or is he too far gone for that? Francis De Wolff appears late as a Scotland Yard detective. With a cast that includes Christophe

  Cops (Denzel Washington, his partner Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Emergency Services guy Willem Dafoe) are pitted against master robber Clive Owen and his crew, who have stormed a Manhattan bank and are holding hostages but don’t entirely work from the usual bank robbing manual. Jodie Foster (at her iciest) is somewhere in the middle, as an extremely well-connected ‘fixer’. She has been hired by the wealthy and powerful bank head honcho (Christopher Plummer), to find out what the robbers want, and more importantly to retrieve something important of his that is stored inside the bank. Meanwhile, detective police Washington – a skilled hostage negotiator – is also currently being investigated by Internal Affairs over some missing money on a previous case.   Well-respected filmmaker Spike Lee (whose best film is still “Malcolm X” by a landslide) gets his head out of his own butt and proves that he can make a piece of entertainment, putting the social commentary in the background instead.

Looking for his missing brother, Mark Eden heads to Craxton Lodge in Graymarsh, where he is politely greeted by its owner (Christopher Lee), who says he’s never heard of the brother. Nonetheless, he cordially invites him to stick around for at least the night, and he quickly hits it off with Lee’s niece (Virginia Wetherell). However, it’s not long before Eden starts to suspect that there’s something not quite right at Craxton Lodge. This is especially so when he starts to have nightmares about a witch (a blue-skinned Barbara Steele, though some seem to think she looks  green ), who centuries ago was burned at the stake and swore revenge on her persecutors. The very same incident that the village of Greymarsh is currently celebrating the anniversary of. Oh my, what on earth has our hero gotten himself into? Boris Karloff plays a wheelchair-bound professor who is currently writing a book about witchcraft, and who is eager to show off his collection of torture devices (!). Michael Gough p