Film Friday

Do you have a favourite movie? It’s a question I sometimes ask when doing talks about film and faith. It’s a question I find hard to answer these days, I’ve …

When I first saw this in 1989 I thought it was interesting and okay. It was only years later, when life was collapsing around us, that I revisited the film …

Shrek wants to be alone. He has plans to build a wall around his swamp and keep all the other fairy tale creatures away. His life will be much easier …

The other night I caught the start of the Marvel film Guardians of the Galaxy, my wife and older daughter were watching it. I’m less of a superhero fan but …

Another moment drawing on the forthcoming Movies & Me book… ‘Today I know that the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them, become the mysterious and perfect …

For all its bangs and crashes, and there are plenty of those in this Batman epic, the most telling and chilling scene occurs after the criminals have taken over the …

There is a great moment when Liddell is about to run the 400m final. As they line up for the race, one of the American athletes hands him a piece …

This is one of those movies that reminds me a film does not have to be PG rated and squeaky clean to communicate something really powerful about compassion and sacrifice. …

When Joan Stanley gets a knock at the door one day she opens it to find a huddle of cops on the doorstep. She is under arrest. For spying. Surely …

When the brilliant Ken Miles is asked to slow down in the 24 hour Le Mans race, so that his team mates can catch up with him and they can …

There is a saying – wherever you go, there you are. And it is certainly true of father and son Robert and Jack, when they head off to Italy to …

This remarkable true story is all about keys. And the way political prisoner Tim Jenkin secretly fashioned a whole set in his cell. He and his friend were incarcerated in …

When Monica and Henry ‘adopt’ the human robot David, they are given the option to programme, or imprint, him to love them. After a while Monica does just that, and …

In the new disaster movie Greenland a comet heads for the earth, and John Garrity receives a text telling him to take his family to an airbase in order to …

There is a strange and unexpected moment in this movie about two Texas Rangers on the trail of Bonnie and Clyde. One of the rangers, Maney Gault, is hanging around …

At one point in this satirical tale set in war-torn Germany, Jojo’s mother embarrasses him by jumping on a wall and dancing. She has of course no right to do …

Captain Kidd is an unusual news journalist. An ex-soldier he now travels the far flung towns and communities of post-civil-war America telling recent news stories to those who have not …

Ralph Fiennes perfectly embodies the deferential, self-taught excavator Basil Brown, in this true story of the sensational archaeological dig at Sutton Hoo in the late 1930s. As war looms, he …

At one point in this mind-bending, reality questioning movie the hero Neo goes to visit the all-knowing Oracle, to see if he may be the one to free the earth …

In Run Fatboy Run, as Dennis attempts to run a marathon he has not really trained for, he hits a wall. And he can’t break through it. So he is …

Not a film this time, but a three part series (currently showing on BBC iPlayer) about the remarkable story of the founding of the SAS in North Africa, in 1941. …

There is a moment towards the end of Book of Eli when Eli is asked about the nature of the Bible he is carrying. He says this, ‘It’s beat up, …

There are a few surprising happenings in this bitter, brutal film about a mother crying out for justice. Not least when the local advertising guy, Red Welby, finds himself in …

In the festive favourite It’s a Wonderful Life George wishes he’d never been born, and when an angel grants him that wish, he discovers how precious life is and what …

Not exactly a Christmas film, but one that features two Christmases in it! I love the 1995 version of this tale, and find it deeply moving. Not least the scene …

When a couple of pesky burglars do their utmost to break into young Kevin’s house, our optimistic hero has to do battle with them, using any means at his disposal, …

As a group of wives and their families await the return of their loved ones from the fighting in Afghanistan they find various ways of counting the days. Homemade calendars, …

(Persian Lessons is due out soon in February 2021) In occupied France in 1942 a young Belgian, Gilles, is arrested with a group of other Jews and taken away to …

Almost two decades ago now I spotted this book Praying the Movies by Edward McNulty on a bookshelf at Lee Abbey conference centre in Devon. I was living and working …

‘I dreamt last night I went to Manderley again…’   When an unnamed lady’s companion meets rich aristocrat Maxim de Winter in Monte Carlo, it’s not long before the two …

When a busking hoover fixer meets a street flower seller, a tentative friendship begins. She needs her hoover fixing, no big deal for him, but that leads her to encourage …

Robert McCall doesn’t sleep well, so he goes to an all-night diner to read his book and drink his tea. Once there he meets Teri, a young woman being controlled …

Tyler is a loner, a fourteen-year-old struggling to find his way. He does what he can to care for his little sister but finds himself at odds with his mum …

I have been a fan of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies ever since I caught Chicken Pox back in 1987. He was nothing to do with me getting ill of course, I …

Not a reflection on a movie clip this week, but a comedy moment. I came across this classic Hi Fi shop sketch this week when watching a documentary about the …

We recently re-watched Official Secrets, a film based on the true story of Katharine Gun. Whilst working at GCHQ she saw an email about the U.S. and the U.K. attempting …

Due out in October this new film tells the true story of the network of spies established early in World War two in occupied France. ‘Spymistress’ Vera Atkins is commissioned …

Yes. Really. No kidding. This is a film that fuses two genres my daughter loves – Jane Austen romances and shock horror scary stories. In this world the Bennet girls …

I finally rediscovered this film this week. I had been trying to track it down for years, an 80’s TV movie about a near-60 year old, desperate to walk from …

When new cop Ron Stallworth starts work for the Colorado police department he decides to call up the Ku Klux Klan and ask to join them. However he neglects to …

There is a scene in this gangster comedy that I’ve always loved. Michael goes with his mobster prospective father-in-law to meet another couple of goodfellas, and in doing so he …

In the hot summer of 1976 two men kept climbing into cars, and chasing each other around a track. One was a party animal, with a hankering for the good …

There is a shocking scene in A Bridge Too Far where Major Cook leads his men across the Waal river in flimsy boats under fire from the enemy on the …

When a storm hits the planet Mars the group of astronauts exploring the place are forced to head back for their ship so they can escape. However, in the ensuing …

Peter Colt is on his last legs. Well, his last tennis legs anyway. He’s giving up after one more year at Wimbledon, expecting to bow out in the first round. …

This is the true story, based on Laura Hillenbrand’s powerful biography, of the post war struggles of a very damaged man, and his quest to find hope. When Olympic athlete …