Travels With My Aunt (1972) and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012)

Over the weekend I went with my aunt to see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a new ensemble dramedy about British tourists in India. The stellar cast includes Judi Dench and - in a less-prominent storyline - Maggie Smith as a stubborn guest. Five minutes before the end of the film, Dame Judi says to Maggie, "We haven't talked much, have we?" Nope, they sure didn't, and I wished Maggie was in more of the film.  She's so good you'll want to see her star in a sequel.

I watched another of Maggie Smith's travel-themed movies where she shines in the lead: Travels With My Aunt from 1972.

Travels  is a quirky comedy from director George Cukor that has a screwball tone. Dame Maggie plays an eccentric socialite whose affair with a mysterious lover forces her to travel the world. She brings along her only relative, her nephew Henry, played by Alex McCowen, a perfect straight-man to her more high-spirited personality.

The movie unfolds to reveal more of the mysterious reason for her world travels, and it all comes together in a silly, memorable way.

Co-star Louis Gossett Jr. (who plays a fellow travel companion) shares some of the neat experiences he had filming the Travels in London in his autobiography, An Actor and A Gentleman. He recalls with fondness meeting the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix, all the good food he enjoyed, and how gracious and encouraging Dame Maggie was.

Just a Cineaste blog post on Travels With My Aunt

Clash of the Titans (1981 and 2010 versions)

Fondly remembering the older version, I went to go see the new Titans over the weekend and enjoyed it. Special effects have come a long way in 30 years and the time was right for an update. I think I like this movie better than the original, when I first saw it on a black-and-white television when I was a kid.

What do I most remember about the 1981 version? Of course, the Medusa sequence. The original was pretty scary when I saw it as a kid. Even if I knew the snakes in her hair were all made out of clay (maybe seeing it in B/W added to the fear). As an adult, this new version was even more terrifying, with her long slithering tail and killer gaze.



There is a really good cover story in this week's Entertainment Weekly. I learned that the director of the remake, Louis Laterrier thought the same as I did when he re-watched the 1981 original: "It was a better movie in my memory". When I now watch the 1981 film, I can't help but think that Laurence Olivier (Zeus) and Burgess Meredith chose to do this just for the money. Other renowned actors such as Maggie Smith and Claire Bloom give the film a fragment of respectability.

The original movie is still OK with me, but it's does seem dated with its stop motion animated creatures. But before CGI, that's the best we could do.


In the new film, we also have a number of well known stars playing the gods: Liam Neeson is Zeus, and Ralph Fiennes is Hades.

Interestingly, they both were in Schindler's List. In that film, as you may recall, Fiennes also played a demonic character.



The new Titans is a bit darker, and is more intense. Some who have seen it in 3D have been complaining, saying there are no cool effects. I went to see it in 3-D and I didn't think it wasn't all bad. Plus, remember that back in the 1950s they only had paper 3-D glasses (not nice plastic ones we have now), and those kids lined up to see a matinee of "The Blob" would love to see such action like this today.

In the new version, Perseus (Sam Worthington), the son of Zeus, is motivated by revenge rather than his love for Andromeda, who is to be sacrificed to the "Kraken" monster. Worthington is OK, but I would have rather seen someone else play this. He seems like he doesn't want to be in this movie.

And instead of the chirping stop-motion "Bibo the Owl" creature that accompanied Perseus in the original, we now have a beautiful guide by the name of Io, played by Gemma Arterton.

For a great review and comparison between the two versions, check out Monty's post at his awesome new blog dedicated to TV and movie superheros, Hero Worship.