A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Pros:  Whimsical yet touching story, wonderful voice acting and Pixar's awesome visual artwork Cons:  None! Up:  Whimsical Yet Touching   Co-written and co-directed by Bob Peterson and Pete Docter,  Up  is essentially the love story of Carl and Ellie Fredricksen, even though Ellie dies before the film's main plot about the house-and-balloons adventure that gives the movie its offbeat but effective title. Up  begins as an extended flashback in which we first meet Carl Fredricksen as a very shy young boy in a packed movie house watching an old newsreel; it's sometime in the 1930s or '40s and newsreels were the "windows to the world" in the same way that cable networks such as BBC World, CNN and MSNBC are today. In this newsreel we're introduced to explorer Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer), who's a cross between Howard Hughes and Indiana Jones.  Muntz flies all over the world in  The Spirit of Adventure,  a Z...

"Hanover Street" (1979) Written and directed by Peter Hyams Starring: Harrison Ford, Lesley-Anne Down, Christopher Plummer, Richard Masur, Patsy Kensit, John Ratzenberger David Halloran: You people actually drink this stuff? Margaret Sellinger: No we just like to put it in our cups and stare at it. David Halloran: Tastes too much like, boiled water. Margaret Sellinger: It is boiled water. David Halloran: I knew there was a reason. During World War II, London was the nerve center of the Allied war effort against Nazi Germany. From 1939 to 1945, tens of thousands of service personnel from many nations, including the United States, flooded into Great Britain's capital to plan and execute a myriad of military operations to liberate Europe from Hitler's tyranny. Inevitably, the war fostered a "live and love for today, for tomorrow we may die" attitude among the men and women in Britain. This led to a surge of sudden and passionate roman...

( C)  2008 MGM/20th Century Fox Home Entertainment “Battle of Britain” (1969) Directed by Guy Hamilton Written by James Kennaway and Wilfred Greatorex, based on the book The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster Starring: Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier, Ian McShane, Christopher Plummer, Susannah York, Edward Fox, Curd Jurgens Director Guy Hamilton’s “Battle of Britain” is an all-star docudrama that attempts to recreate Nazi Germany’s ill-fated attempt to batter Great Britain into submission by aerial bombardment during the summer and autumn of 1940. As in 20th Century Fox’s 1962 D-Day epic “The Longest Day,” “Battle of Britain” features an international cast of actors from Germany, Canada, France, and, of course, Great Britain. Also like  “The Longest Day” producer Darryl F. Zanuck, producers Harry Saltzman and S. Benjamin Fisz invested time (nearly four years) and money !$14 million in 1965 dollars) to hire a cast and acquire real milita...