Simon Maltman Blogs

Was having a wee think about my favourites from 2017- here they are!- Music- The Afghan Whigs- In Spades Books- Stuart Neville/ Haylen Beck- Here and Gone T.V- Mindhunter Film- Manchester by the Sea  -Loads of great stuff this year :) 

The Snowman... or Snoreman? Snoreman - as you may well fall asleep in this confusing and drab adaption, but more to the point- were the makers asleep? It seemed so promising that Jo Nesbo's bestseller was being made into a film with a great cast, led by Michael Fassbender, and directed by the director of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy . What went wrong? The film sadly makes little sense and characters turn up at seemingly random places throughout, for no obvious reasons. Some characters start to be developed and then just disappear altogether. It's as if someone has dropped a few canisters of film somewhere. It's also such a shame that no motivation is shown much for the main characters and there is little or no suspense at all, when it is meant to be a 'thriller' movie. What is a mystery is why much of the drama is left out that was so rich in the novel. Often movies can be accused of dialing up the action too much, but instead those 'thrillin...

Free Fire: Movie Review A shootout, a shootout and er a shootout Free Fire is a tricky one. It is not a bad movie. Part of the problem is though, that perhaps it doesn’t know quite what to be. It’s very, very funny in places; but it’s not a comedy. It’s got all the elements of a thriller; but not particularly thrilling. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good enough movie, but it could have been better, perhaps if the tone had been altered. It doesn’t manage to be a belting black comedy as successfully as Very Bad Things for instance, or more recently, The Nice Guys . The set up is that we have various parties coming together, to carry out an arms deal. Chaos ensues, along with many double crosses and many, many Mexican standoffs. To be fair; the majority of the movie is one protracted shoot out. In saying that- it is handled well and it is hilarious in places. Some of the best lines were given to Sharlto Copley and Michael Smiley. The cast in general are good, and it is an ...

Love, Drugs, Death and... Jazz I'm just back from seeing this as part of the Belfast Film Festival. It's a very good documentary and it isn't necessary for you to be a 'jazz head' to enjoy it. It's a biography of Lee Morgan, a jazz legend indeed, though not a household name perhaps; like a Miles Davis or a Louis Armstrong. He was probably best known for being part of the classic Jazz Messengers line up of the 50's and 60's and for playing on the likes of Blue Train for John Coltrane. He's one of my favourite trumpeters and one of the key players in the Hard Bop movement.   The movie also follows the life of his common law wife and a chance encounter where in the 1990's, she told her story, shortly before her death. The pivot of the film is the well known tragic tale of how in 1972, Morgan was performing in Slugger's club in New York. The night ended with his wife entering the club and shooting him during his set. There was a hea...