E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

James Bond was, up until a day ago, always produced by the Broccoli family - all of the many canonical films since the early 1960s... for better and worse. Their control was legendary, and often, usually, yielded good or superior results. Their choices for Bond have been a few times inspired, and their attempts to select villains who had won Oscars was notable. They also tended to be loyal to British writers, directors, and actors, and kept the franchise stable, ongoing, and reliable. The worst James Bond is still worth a telly rewatch on a lazy Sunday afternoon; the greatest are some of the best action movies ever made. Now, it is in the hands of Amazon MGM - an American company not known for its quality control... it has hits and misses, but plenty of cash. Fans are anxious; I am, as a fan, very concerned. I am unsure the new films will remain firmly-rooted in the canon, or be as British - with all the eccentricities and potential flaws that entails. Lee Child has gone on record as...

  The other day I thought it could not get worse, when this blog commented on Trump's almost-first-month in office for 2.0. Then, he apparently sided with Russia, claimed Ukraine had started the war (it hadn't), that its leader was a dictator (he isn't), and later that evening, called himself THE KING on social media. Since then, he has continued to berate the Ukrainians, discuss the idea of getting rid of income tax entirely, and numerous other unsettling things. The main concern for the world, now, is that we have a totally ignorant madman at the helm, who feels comfortable lying about the most momentous historical facts, insulting allies, and allying himself with dangerous enemies. It is, to say the least, bleak. At least Canada won the hockey game against the USA, eh?

Everyone can google IMDB and Metacritic, in about a second, or Variety or Den of Geek or Sight and Sound , and find other lists of the best movies of 2024. The films  listed below were on many end of year lists. At least four have a good chance of winning the Oscar for Best Picture - an asterix indicates the three I currently believe have the best shot. A COMPLETE UNKNOWN - charming, well-acted tale of a young genius growing up *ANORA - heartachingly sad, side-splittingly funny, sometimes scary, often sexy, it's uniquely potent A REAL PAIN - some will find it slight, but this Holocaust tour/buddy film has heart and soul and wit BLITZ - a beautifully filmed revisionist take on the Blitz Spirit by Steve McQueen CHALLENGERS - a witty, erotic highly stylised play on the tennis as love theme CIVIL WAR - Jesse Plemons steals the show as a MAGA-like madman *CONCLAVE - Ralph Fiennes never better in a clever Christie-adjacent thriller with big twist ending DUNE 2 - I still prefer L...

In the ten days since the last post here, the world has only gotten more chaotic, and the political climate worsened, in the US and globally, due to the Trump regime. The bizarrely authoritarian speeches and statements in Munich of all places, from top US officials, like the VP and Secretary of Defence, have managed to essentially dismantle the entire "rules-based order" established after WW2. As former British PM John Major observed today on the BBC, hundreds of thousands of Americans died to keep Europe free from fascism, but Mr Vance ignored the democratically-elected leader of Germany, in Germany, to seek out, meet and support, the leader of an extreme far-right party with ideological roots in the Hitler era. Meanwhile, Ukraine, an ally, was thrown under the bus, when Trump appeared to side with the Russians, in terms of negotiating an end to the war against Ukraine. VP Vance also attacked European nations for their lack of freedoms, while failing to mention or critici...

It isn't funny, and it hasn't really happened since the 1930-1945 period (so 80 years ago), and really one needs to go back to Napoleon to get a better flavour of the arrogance, swagger, and sheer vast enterprise of the imperial vision, that sense of divine purpose... but really, it's never happened before, because the US Constitution was supposedly designed to stop tyrants from taking power... and because the US in 2025 is the single strongest nation that has ever existed, economically, and militarily; and, given the dominance of its language and technology, probably culturally and technologically. Geographically, it is also probably the most various and widespread, from Hawaii to Alaska, touching on tropical storms and Arctic blizzards. So, whoever is King of America, is truly the most powerful person alive. And this time, for the first time, that person is insane, seemingly either stupid or evil or both, or worse, simply very very venal and dishonest and corrupt, without...

I am incredibly inspired by Canada's governments for coming together to oppose the entirely unfriendly and aggressive Trump Tariffs, an economic warlike attack on their closest ally, neighbour, and friend for 150 years of peace and prosperous co-operation. Trump's sociopathic transactionalism has shown total disregard for anything like civility, diplomacy or mutual respect. This action is even more serious as a cultural signal - America is currently turning back the clock - there are no real friends, just those to be used, crushed, intimidated, forced. It's ugly, and shameful. The impact on tens of thousands of cross-border friendships and community alliances will be large. Canadians are already boycotting American goods. Make no mistake, this Trump war on Canada will put our country into recession, cost tens of thousands of jobs, and cause immense anxiety and sorrow. The way this president was behaving you'd think he'd been hired to destroy the global community of ...