JUST FOR FUN

 

American publicity poster for Just For Fun (© Gordon Flemyng/Amicus Productions/Columbia Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 22 November 2022, I watched one of those quite numerous early 1960s British juke-box-style teen musicals in which a minimal, largely incidental storyline links together a sizeable number of pop performances by big music stars of the day. I have a fair few of these nowadays largely-forgotten movies in my DVD collection, and the one that I watched last November and am now reviewing here today is Just For Fun.

Directed by Gordon Flemyng, and released in 1963 by Columbia Pictures, Just For Fun is an 85-min-long b/w film (segments from it have subsequently been colourised) whose story, such that it is, is about how Britain's dissatisfied teenagers (is there any other kind??) launch their own political party, the Fun Party, headed by Mark Wynter's lead character, Mark, in order to win the forthcoming general election – which, incredibly, they do!

But like I say, in typical teen movie musical style most of the film consists of song performances (presented in lieu of dull speechifying as the Fun Party's bright and breezy election campaign, and with the movie's title song serving as their campaign song!), by notable UK acts, including the afore-mentioned Mark Wynter, plus The Tornados, Jet Harris & The Jet Blacks, Joe Brown & The Bruvvers, Brian Poole & The Tremeloes, The Springfields (featuring Dusty), Cloda Rodgers (she later changed her name's spelling to Clodagh), Kenny Lynch, Lyn Cornell, and Karl Denver. There are some big-name USA singing stars appearing here too, such as Bobby Vee, The Crickets, Ketty Lester, Johnny Tillotson, and Freddy Cannon.

Aptly, Just For Fun also features some lively turns from a number of great British comedy actors and actresses, including Irene Handl, Richard Vernon, Hugh Lloyd, and Frank Williams (the vicar in Dad's Army, not the F1 boss!). A stand-out, laugh-outloud performance is provided by the ever-wonderful Dick Emery, who plays four different judges on the panel in a hilarious Juke Box Jury spoof, including a young proto-punk memorably named Neil Sadistic, whose nomenclatural similarity to Neil Sedaka was entirely coincidental, I'm sure...

This movie musical's presenter/narrator, who also features extensively throughout it, is none other than famed DJ Alan Freeman (who still spoke in such a posh accent back then that when he introduced Cockney rockers Joe Brown & The Bruvvers, he insisted, amusingly, upon pronouncing 'Bruvvers' as 'Brothers'!), with fellow DJ David Jacobs appearing too (Jacobs was the host of the real Juke Box Jury TV show, and gamely did the same in best poker-faced manner within this movie's spoof version). But speaking of DJs… the only downside to a very enjoyable, relaxing 1960s music medley of a movie is the mercifully brief appearance of a third DJ, a certain white-haired cigar-chomping unmentionable & unspeakable freak in the role of compère at a party event – but I'm sure that a little careful editing could remove his loathsome presence from future releases of this film.

 

Australian publicity poster for Just For Fun (© Gordon Flemyng/Amicus Productions/Columbia Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

So yes, except for that, Just For Fun certainly lives up to its name, and showcases a very starry array of performers, as well as some fine, tuneful songs – but which for the most part were apparently specific to this movie rather than being released for the pop charts. One notable exception, however, consists of Bobby Vee performing his smash hit 'The Night Has A Thousand Eyes', which had reached #3 in the UK Singles chart in late 1962.

A video clip featuring him singing this song appears prominently on YouTube, but I'd never realised until now that it had featured in this movie (I think I'm right in believing that it had actually originated as a Scopitone promotional video for this song). So click here to watch said video of Bobby Vee, and here to watch an official Just For Fun trailer on YouTube.

Moreover, at the time of my posting this review here at Shuker in MovieLand (but for who knows how long afterwards?), if you click here you can actually watch Just For Fun in its entirety on YouTube for free! So do so while you can! Or, if you'd prefer simply to view (and listen to!) the song performances, here are links to some of them currently accessible on YouTube:

Click here for Mark Wynter & co performing this movie's title song (colourised).

Click here for Mark Wynter performing 'Vote For Me' (colourised).

Click here for Mark Wynter (with Cherry Rowland) performing 'I'm Happy With You' (colourised).

Click here for Bobby Vee performing 'All You Gotta Do Is Touch Me'.

Click here for Brian Poole & The Tremeloes performing 'Keep On Dancing'.

Click here for Cloda(gh) Rodgers performing 'Sweet Boy'.

Click here for The Crickets performing 'My Little Girl'.

Click here for The Crickets performing 'Teardrops Fall Like Rain' (colourised).

Click here for Freddy Cannon performing 'It's Been Nice (I Gotta Get Up Early In The Morning)'.

Click here for Jet Harris & The Jet Blacks performing 'Man From Nowhere'.

Click here for Joe Brown performing 'Let Her Go'.

Click here for Joe Brown & The Bruvvers performing 'What's The Name Of The Game' (colourised)

Click here for Johnny Tillotson performing 'Judy Judy Judy'.

Click here for Kenny Lynch performing 'Monument' (NB – no visuals from movie)

Click here for Ketty Lester performing 'A Warm Summer Day'.

Click here for Lyn Cornell performing 'Kisses Can Lie'.

Click here for The Springfields (featuring Dusty) performing 'Little Boat'.

Click here for The Tornados performing 'All The Stars In The Sky'.

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

Colourised still from Bobby Vee's performance of 'The Night Has A Thousand Eyes' on Just For Fun (© Gordon Flemyng/Amicus Productions/Columbia Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

SKYWHALES

 

Publicity still from the closing scene in Skywhales (© Phil Austin & Derek Hayes/Animation City/Channel 4 – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

They say that good things come in small packages, but rarely has this been more effectively demonstrated in the movie world than via a truly spellbinding animated sci fi/fantasy short film, just 11 minutes long, that I first viewed on TV one Sunday tea-time way back in the mid-1980s. Its title? Skywhales.

Directed (and also written) by Phil Austin and Derek Hayes, produced by Animation City for Channel 4 (a UK terrestrial TV channel), and first shown by the latter on Christmas Day 1983, but several times thereafter too, Skywhales packs an inordinate amount of visual detail and storytelling into such a short screen time.

Although not stated in the film itself, the name of the alien planet high above which all of the action takes place is Perle, and its lead character, a hunter, is named Nilbul (both facts ascertained via my background reading re Skywhales here). Perle's citizens, the Perlians, inhabit large floating Laputa-like islands of vegetation in the sky. They are a race of bipedal, superficially humanoid entities, but instantly distinguished by way of their green skin and their long-muzzled horse-like heads, which sport a range of distinctive Mohawk hairstyles.

The Perlians communicate via a whistling/burbling language vaguely reminiscent of that of the titular little aliens in the beloved 1960s/70s children's TV series The Clangers. Although unintelligible verbally to the viewers, it is rendered sufficiently coherent by the characters' attendant facial expressions and body language for us to follow the gist of what is being said by them during their conversations with one another.

The Perlian island featured in this movie is a fascinating land replete with the most bizarre, extraordinary-looking fauna and (especially) flora, which draw comparisons in my mind with the likes of Frank Frazetta's illustrations, the landscape in the surreal 1973 French animated movie La Planète Sauvage (=Fantastic Planet), and the artwork of  Rodney Matthews. Its marvels are a particular joy to behold during one scene where Nilbul is making his way through it to reach one of the three hunting sky ships currently docked on the island's easternmost rim.

 

The luxuriant jungle full of surreal flora and fauna through which Nilbul is making his way towards his ship on this island's easternmost rim in Skywhales (© Phil Austin & Derek Hayes/Animation City/Channel 4 – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

For Nilbul is not just a hunter, he is also the captain of that selfsame ship, which is due to set forth in the company of its two brethren sky vessels in a bold, fraught annual quest to seek out and harpoon a specimen of the most spectacular Perlian species of all – the enormous manta-like skywhale. Many of these long-necked aerial behemoths soar effortlessly through the vast heavens above Perle and its floating islands, their huge lateral wings lifting and lowering with genteel gracefulness, languidly propelling them through their empyrean empire.

Today, however, one will soon cease to do so, because Nilbul, albeit somewhat aged and having overslept, is determined not to allow his ship to set sail without him under the leadership of an underling. So despite his wife's attempt to keep him at home with her and their still-youthful son, Nilbul is having none of it, and when he reaches his ship he gives short shrift to his too-eager would-be replacement and takes command at once.

Prior to arriving at his ship, however, Nilbul experiences a decidedly odd happening in the jungle. Suddenly, two Perlians appear, both of them deathly white in colour with sunken black eyes, staring sightlessly ahead as they plod forward in eerie zombified fashion, heading towards the open doorway of a large round temple. Instantly, Nilbul shields his eyes with one hand, not looking at them and not continuing his journey to his ship either until they have passed by. What is happening? The astonishing answer is revealed a little later.

Aboard ship, Nilbul's vessel and its two cohorts are travelling through some thick mist when suddenly their crews hear the loud sonorous cry of a skywhale, and see a couple soaring close by. One of these mega-monsters succeeds in knocking two of the three ships out of the sky, but Nilbul's ship remains undamaged, and he successfully harpoons the skywhale. When a second harpoon hits it, the beast gradually tires, and is finally dragged down from the sky to the floating island below, where its entire body is butchered for its meat that the Perlians eat and for its hide that they use to construct their huts, until only its colossal skeleton remains.

That evening, Nilbul is sitting outside their hut with his wife and child when suddenly he feels chilled, and is horrified to see that his skin has turned white. Moments later, he stands up, his eyes now black, sunken, and unseeing, exactly like the two zombified Perlians he had encountered that same morning, and just like them he plods off, heading towards the large round temple that they had entered. His child tries to stop him, but is held back by his mother.

 

The floating Perlian island that is the setting in Skywhales (© Phil Austin & Derek Hayes/Animation City/Channel 4 – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

When Nilbul reaches the temple and steps inside, it is seen to contain a huge circular hole at its centre, with four guards standing around it, all of whom shield their eyes when they see Nilbul enter. Standing in the temple's doorway, not attempting to enter but watching with great sadness, are his wife and child, as Nilbul walks up to the edge of the great hole. Wisps of a gaseous substance rise up from his body as he tumbles downwards, down into the hole, and is gone. Nilbul's horror-stricken child buries his face in his mother's arms for a moment, and then they leave.

Nilbul's body falls down, and down, and down through the hole, down and down for what seems like hours upon hours, but as it falls it begins to be encapsulated by thick strands of gossamer-like material until eventually it is entirely cocooned. Still it falls, down ever further, but now, as it continues to plummet, something stirs inside the cocoon. Suddenly, a head and a long neck push forth from out of the cocoon, followed by a pair of large broad wings, and finally, having now reached the root-bearing underside of the floating island, where at last the hole opens out, a fully-formed skywhale soars forth from the hole and up into the sky, flying high above the clouds and onward through the bright sunlight of a new day, watched far away from the balcony of their hut by two silent Perlians – the widow and son of Nilbul, the erstwhile humanoid Perlian who is now a newborn airborne skywhale.

Watching this extraordinary film for the first time, I was mesmerized by its finale's completely unexpected twist, which revealed the astonishing secret of the Perlian life cycle, regarding which even the Perlians themselves seem entirely unaware. Just like here on Earth where a caterpillar eventually enters a resting phase (the chrysalis in butterflies, the cocoon in moths) during which it undergoes a dramatic metamorphosis before emerging in totally transformed state as a winged butterfly or moth, so too on Perle's floating islands does each bipedal humanoid Perlian eventually enter a cocooned resting state during which it undergoes a dramatic metamorphosis before emerging in totally transformed state as a winged skywhale.

Whether the butterfly or moth has any memory or knowledge of its prior existence as a caterpillar is unknown, but the fact that the Perlians actively hunt, kill, and consume skywhales seems to make it apparent that they have no concept that they all eventually become skywhales, that these vast aerial entities are their own future forms. So they are in a very real sense both murderers and cannibals! However, the beauty, wonder, and extremely surprising, revelatory climax to Skywhales are so captivating that such literally unappetizing contemplations as these remain mercifully unconsidered – at least they did for me! – until after the film has ended.

Skywhales is an absolutely magical, visually arresting, and highly thought-provoking mini-movie – once seen, it is rarely if ever forgotten. So if you would like to view it – and I strongly recommend that you do – be sure to click here to watch this animated masterpiece on DailyMotion (where there are also links to several additional uploads of it).

 

A couple of skywhales soaring through the misty heavens far above Perle and its floating islands in Skywhales (© Phil Austin & Derek Hayes/Animation City/Channel 4 – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

Also: I have always been fascinated by the concept of sky beasts, both in fiction and, at least putatively, in fact too.

So click here to read my review of a superb sci fi novel entitled The Wind Whales of Ishmael, set on Earth but in the far-distant future when the oceans have long since dried up and their erstwhile leviathans the whales and sharks have evolved into vast airborne beasts of the sky.

And click here to read my detailed documentation on my ShukerNature cryptozoology blog of the exceedingly thought-provoking sky beast hypothesis: i.e. that at least some UFO sightings are not of alien spacecraft as popularly believed, but are instead of exceedingly large, highly-specialised, and still-undiscovered yet bona fide native creatures that have evolved to exist exclusively in Earth's higher, rarefied, atmospheric realms far beyond normal human detection, only occasionally descending low enough to be observable by us.

In addition, I have devoted a very detailed chapter to the history and investigation of alleged sky beasts in my book Dr Shuker's Casebook: In Pursuit of Marvels and Mysteries, so be sure to check that out too.

 

My copy of the Quartet Books paperback edition, published in 1973, of The Wind Whales of Ishmael by Philip José Farmer, which was originally published in hardback in 1971; this Quartet Book's spectacular artwork is by Bob Habberfield (© Philip José Farmer/Bob Habberfield/Quartet Books – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial  Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

My book Dr Shuker's Casebook: In Pursuit of Marvels and Mysteries, featuring a couple of sky medusae on its front cover, created by Philippa Foster (© Dr Karl Shuker/Philippa Foster/CFZ Press - reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

SHAPE-SHIFTING BATTLEDOGS, NIGHTMARES IN SLUMBERLAND, COWBOYS & ALIENS, SEA BEASTS APLENTY, AND WHO KNOWS WHAT ELSE BESIDES??

 

Publicity posters advertising Battledogs, Slumberland, Cowboys & Aliens,  The Sea Beast, Upside Down, and The Adjustment Bureau (all © as given in these movies' respective second images below)

Time for another sizzling six-pack of movie mini-reviews, methinks, so here we go!

 

 

Face to (very close!) face with one of the werewolves in Battledogs (© Alexander Yellen/Infectious Films/The Asylum Productions – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

BATTLEDOGS

On 17 March 2023, I watched a werewolf movie with a difference – Battledogs,  directed by Alexander Yellen, and released in 2013 by The Asylum Productions. For a werewolf movie, Battledogs has an unexpectedly scientific premise – namely, a devastating modern-day NYC-originating virus (no medieval, superstition-inspired Ruritanian setting here!) , which turns anyone who contracts it (by being bitten by someone already infected) into a shape-shifting werewolf. While the medical world attempts to counter this malicious microbe before it can attain pandemic proportions and infect humankind on a global scale, the military is more interested in how its terrifying effects could be weaponised to yield an army of invincible werewolf soldiers – Battledogs. Bearing in mind that Asylum movie budgets are not known for their largesse, I feel that the werewolf transformation scenes are acquitted very satisfactorily, and the werewolves themselves are suitably distinct in appearance from normal wolves, as they should be, to denote that these uncanny entities, albeit outwardly canine, are intrinsically human. (A criticism of mine concerning the 1981 movie Wolfen, whose titular forms constitute a hitherto-undiscovered species of human-paralleling canid, is that they are simply played by visually-unadulterated wolves, which thereby diminishes the wolfen's supposed separate taxonomic identity – click here to read my review of this film). No blockbuster stars appear in Battledogs, but it makes thrilling viewing nonetheless, and offers an interesting twist upon the more typical lycanthrope movie theme. Click here to view on YouTube an official trailer for this movie or here to view the entire movie free of charge.

 

 

A second publicity poster for Slumberland (© Francis Lawrence/Chernin Entertainment/Netflix – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

SLUMBERLAND

My movie watch on 22 February 2023 was the fairly recent fantasy film Slumberland (inspired by the early 20th Century comic strip Little Nemo In Slumberland). Directed by Francis Lawrence, and released in 2022 by Netflix, Slumberland features a motherless girl named Nemo (but a boy in the original comic strip), played by movie newcomer Marlow Barkley, who loses her lighthouse keeper father Peter (Kyle Chandler) at sea, so has to go to live with her uncle Philip (Chris O'Dowd) in the city. When asleep, however, she enters the dream world of Slumberland where she meets a bizarre piratical outlaw named Flip (played by Jason Momoa in typically restrained, understated mode – yeah, right!), sporting a pair of cat's fangs, goat's ears, and ram's horns (in the comic, conversely, he was a circus clown). Flip takes Nemo in search of magical pearls in the Sea of Nightmares, whose wish-granting properties may help her see her father again. Flip himself is trapped, albeit not unhappily, in Slumberland because he no longer remembers who he is – but I'll leave you to work out his waking alter ego from what I've written above – and is being sought by a dream cop named Agent Green (Weruche Opia) decked out in groovy 1970s outfits of retina-ravishing emerald. It's a strange film, no doubt about that, but is visually sumptuous, if oddly uninvolving, I felt. The most eye-popping scene for me takes place in a dream ballroom, where a closer look at the dancers reveals that each one is actually a human-shaped multicoloured mass of fluttering butterflies – Salvador Dali would definitely have approved! Click here to view on YouTube an official trailer for this movie.

 

 

One of the aliens from Cowboys & Aliens (© Jon Favreau/Dreamworks Pictures/Reliance Entertainment/Relativity Media/Imagine Entertainment/K-O Paper Products/Fairview Entertainment/Platinum Studios/Universal Pictures/Paramount Pictures– reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

COWBOYS & ALIENS

On 17 February 2023,  I watched the Dreamworks sci fi/Western mash-up movie Cowboys & Aliens. Directed by Jon Favreau, co-produced by Ron Howard, featuring Steven Spielberg as its executive producer, and released in 2011 by Universal Pictures (in the USA)/Paramount Pictures (internationally), this film has a nothing if not apt title, because that is exactly, and entirely, what it is about – cowboys and aliens. However, it swiftly specializes into cowboys vs aliens after alien ships start attacking a 19th-Century New Mexico frontier town and abducting its inhabitants. Amnesiac outlaw Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) and ornery cattle baron Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) establish a reluctant alliance in order to rid the land of these extraterrestrial varmints, aided by a very different but no less extraterrestrial alien in the very lovely shape of mystery woman Ella (Olivia Wilde), and further assisted by a devastating alien weapon strapped to Jake's arm when he was earlier albeit only temporarily abducted by these selfsame ETs. Cowboys & Aliens takes a while to get started, but once it does finally enter into its stride this is an entertaining if somewhat oddball action movie, featuring some seriously good SFX and some seriously badass aliens! Click here to view on YouTube an official trailer for this movie.

 

 

Battling the brickleback, from The Sea Beast (© Chris Williams/Netflix Animation/Netflix – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

THE SEA BEAST

My movie watch on 19 February 2023 was the superb animated movie The Sea Beast, directed by Chris Williams and released in 2022 by Netflix. This is a true cryptozoological cartoon feature film if ever there was one, brimming with spectacular sea monsters, including one, the brickleback, that reminds me of the cryptozoological con rit or sea millipede (click here to read all about it on my ShukerNature animal anomalies blog), but with added pincer-terminating tentacles. The principal monster featured, however, is the red bluster, an enormous mammalian entity with a rhino-like nasal horn. The story is all about how generations of hunters have gone to sea to slay and slaughter its multitude of marine monsters, inspired by their rulers' longstanding dictum that such creatures are deadly, causing wanton destruction of human lives and livelihoods. But what if it has all been a lie, a sea monstrous lie, in fact? Brave monster hunter Jacob Holland (voiced by Karl Urban) and determined young orphan girl Maisie Brumble (Zaris-Angel Hator) encounter the greatly-feared red bluster, and discover it to be very different from how the histories portray it, which in turn changes their beliefs, and lives. At a minute short of 2 hours long, The Sea Beast is a lengthy watch for an animated movie, but the story's pace never flags, the action is intense, and the animation so scintillating that this truly magnificent movie was deservedly an Oscar nominee for Best Animated Film at the Academy Awards ceremony held earlier this month (but lost to another superb animated feature, Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio – reviewed by me here). Click here to view on YouTube an official trailer for this movie.

 

 

Another publicity poster for Upside Down (© Juan Diego Solanas/Onyx Films/Studio 37/Warner Bros. Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

UPSIDE DOWN

On 4 February 2023, I watched the sci fi movie Upside Down, directed by Juan Diego Solanas, and released in 2012 by Warner Bros. Pictures (et al.). Upside Down has a very unusual premise. Two planets orbit one another in such close proximity that they are deemed two halves of a single world featuring dual gravity. The upper planet (Up Top) is powerful and prosperous, its inhabitants rich and happy; the lower planet (Down Below) and its inhabitants are poor, unhappy, and cruelly subjugated by Up Top. Up Toppers can travel to Down Below if they wish, but no Down Belower is ever allowed Up Top, unless they work for Transworld, a company whose vast tower block uniquely penetrates both planets. All seems unchanging, until a Down-Belower teenager named Adam (played by Jim Sturgess) and an Up Topper teenager named Eden (Kirsten Dunst) meet by chance and fall in love... This sci fi Romeo and Juliet movie has incredible visuals, especially within Transworld, where the Down Belower workers are seen walking on the floor whereas simultaneously the Up Topper workers are walking on the ceiling. This is because all matter is only pulled by the gravity of the world from which it originates – unless matter from the other world is utilised, but that is both illegal and highly dangerous. However, these are risks that Adam is willing to take in order to be with Eden Up Top. Upside Down is a truly mind-boggling, fascinating film, unlike anything else that I've ever seen. Click here to view on YouTube an official trailer for this movie.

 

 

Cover of the steelbook version of The Adjustment Bureau's DVD (© George Nolfi/Media Rights Capital/Gambit Pictures/Electric Shepherd Productions/Universal Pictures– reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU

Finally, and going right back to 29 May 2021 when I watched it but never got round to writing about it afterwards until now, the last movie mini-review by me today is The Adjustment Bureau. Directed by George Nolfi, and released in 2011 by Universal Pictures, The Adjustment Bureau stars Matt Damon and Emily Blunt as a couple of not so much star-crossed as supernaturally-separated lovers, but what a great film it is, extremely engrossing throughout. Its intriguing premise is that from the moment of birth, every person's entire life has already been mapped out, down to the tiniest of details, yielding a supreme divine plan of inordinate complexity that is continuously monitored for any potential issues by an unseen heavenly organization or Bureau whose numerous agents are, for want of a better term, angels. Within this Bureau's grand plan, Brooklyn congressman David Norris (Damon) should never have re-encountered Elise Sellas (Blunt) following a brief chance meeting with her earlier, but thanks to one of the angels sent to prevent any such re-encounter falling asleep on the job, literally, David and Elise do meet up again, and, worse still for the Bureau, they fall in love, thereby causing havoc to the Bureau's grand plan. Some serious adjustments need to be done in order to restore it, especially when David and Elise start to realize what is happening. So one of the Bureau's leading troubleshooters, Thompson (Terence Stamp), is assigned to the David/Elise case to do whatever is necessary in order to achieve this end – whatever is necessary! I certainly recommend The Adjustment Bureau to anyone who enjoys a novel, imaginative storyline. And Terence Stamp's voice is just as suavely sinister as it's always been! My only issue is why Elise's character has to blurt out the F word – its usage is totally superfluous to the plot and in my view taints what would otherwise be a thoroughly charming, captivating, romantic movie of the highest quality. Click here to view on YouTube an official trailer for this movie.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them. 

 

Another publicity poster for The Sea Beast (© Chris Williams/Netflix Animation/Netflix – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)