Michael Shannon Movies Blog

  I thought I’d seen this one before but having sat through it I don’t think I have, but I’m not sure. There was something similar to this that I watched on Netflix but there is so little to distinguish this film from many others in the genre that I can’t be sure. It was decent enough though, although I doubt I’ll remember it when it next appears on my watchlist.   The film opens with a montage of various terrorist atrocities committed against the USA by Bin Laden, culminating in the 9/11 attacks. The military has had quite enough and decides to send troops to Afghanistan. Rather than use current soldiers they get recent retirees Chris Hemsworth and our friend, Michael Shannon to head a team being sent to support the Northern Alliance. The Alliance is ostensibly the good guys and the Americans need to assist them in stopping the Taliban and Al Qaeda taking over the country before the Americans can gain a foothold.   They get to base and boss William Fichtner, who ...

  We’re nearly up to date with this offering which came five years after the original Waco miniseries, which I have previously reviewed. This one is a bit leaner at five episodes compared to the predecessor’s six, and is less satisfying too.   The series takes up the story straight after the end of the Waco siege and we get various threads that show us the origins of the Branch Davidians as well as the fall out in the FBI and the consequences of their actions, which the series suggests gave rise to more Patriot style militias who were distrustful of the government.   There are three main threads with the origins of the cult getting the most attention initially with a courtroom drama then playing out along with Shannon’s character trying to work out what the promised ‘Payback’ will take the form of – spoiler – it’s the Oklahoma City bombing.   We see the cult in its early days in 1981, with Koresh joining under his original name of Vernon. The cult is led ...

  Here’s another relic from my fabled ‘W’ Movies Blog. Michael Shannon has provided many offerings for both this and my other ‘Definitive Movies’ blog and for that I thank him. I think it was my exposure to these random films of his that set him up as the candidate for my next blog, the one that you are reading here. As with the others I’ve ported over my plot synopsis from my earlier blog but have added a few extra Shannon focused lines too. The film is a family drama about the onset of Alzheimer's in the elderly mother. Don’t run away - at least that’s what they should have told the old girl who goes for a wander in the middle of the night in a Chicago snow storm. Her husband Robert Forster calls his local bar owing son Michael Shannon who in turn calls the daughter Hilary Swank. They manage to find the old lady but realise that they have problems to address. Shannon wants the old bird moved into a home as he bears the brunt of looking after his age ing parents and is...

  Time for a dysfunctional relationship now as the titular couple fall in and out of love on a regular basis. The film opens with a sex scene with the couple teasing each other as to whether they should save themselves for later. Michael keeps his pants on but Imogen Poots is more devoted to her art. We get various out of sequence snapshots of the couple’s relationship including an awkward meeting with Lola’s mother. Frank (Shannon) is a talented chef but is a bit jealous and overbearing towards the younger Lola. He gets upset when Justin Long chats her up in a bar as he looks on, and more so when he offers her a fashion design job. He’s nothing but nice, and a bit miscast, and even helps Frank to get a leg up by suggesting him to head a new Las Vegas restaurant. The relationship hits the rocks when Lola gets caught out having slept with another man. Frank leaves her but later reconciles with her when she reveals that she was raped by a man who was wooing her mother. S...

  When this film came up on my list I thought it was a stoner comedy so wasn’t too jazzed about watching it. It is in fact a military legal drama and although that sounds somewhat dry it was decent albeit with a dubious ending. The film opens with news footage of some dead El Salvadorians. We then cut to Ashley Judd and Jim Caviezel having some quality time. They are keen to have a child and Judd manages to find time for some foo-foo before heading off to court to win a big case. Their happy times are interrupted however when following a break in at their home Jim is arrested. It turns out he’s living under an assumed name and the finger prints taken by the cops have flagged him up as an AWOL soldier, and one who has been tagged for those El Salvadorian deaths we saw at the start. Despite this being a military case Judd takes up JC’s defence, assisted by Adam Scott’s young military lawyer character. To complete the team, and why not, they also get onboard with Morgan F...

  I watched this show when it came on Amazon TV last year. I wasn’t going to re-watch all 8 episodes for the purposes of this blog as I wasn’t that impressed by it, but I did skip through the series again to refresh my memory. The series starts with a pile of fruit and ice in a blender which then switches on. It’s reasonable to assume that this serves as a metaphor for what is to come. The blender in question is a tranquillity retreat, run by Nicole Kidman’s character, Masha. She takes in the titular group of strangers with the plan being to aid them with their own struggles. As you’d likely have guessed they all have secrets and the invitees are not as random as you’d been led to expect. The first guests we meet are Michael Shannon and his family. He plays a high school teacher called Napoleon, and he and his wife Heather are struggling following the death of their son. They bring along their daughter Zoe, who is a twin to the dead boy. The rest of the group are a col...

  This is another film that I’d previously reviewed for my Definite Article Movie Blog. I’ve adapted my summary below and added some additional Shannon thoughts based on my re-watch. I enjoyed it more the second time around with my IMDb rating soaring from a 6 to a 7! ‘ The Iceman’ isn’t a spin off from ‘Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends’ instead it’s a bio-pic of mob hit man Richard Kuklinski, splayed by this blog’s subject Mr Shannon. It has a ‘Based on a true story’ caption at the start so it’s certain that some things have been added to the tale we’re being told. The film opens with an aged and beardy Shannon being asked if he has any regrets. Before he can answer the film morphs back to 1964, with a younger Shannon on his first date with soon to be wife, Winona Ryder. She admires his tattoos and slow drawl, and even believes his story of being employed as a voice actor for Walt Disney. In fact he has a slightly seedier job copying porno films. He later plays pool for ...

  I have vague memories of the 1993 Waco siege and had it down as some religious nutters killing themselves when the government lost patience with them following a long stand-off. This six part TV series covered a lot of ground and looked at both sides of the confrontation. The result was that the government forces came out of it looking worse, but the cultists could have been smarter too. The series opens with Michael Shannon’s character Gary trying to end another hostage incident. This one doesn’t end well and hopefully lessons will be learnt. They aren’t! Meanwhile in Waco Texas, David Koresh is living the high life of a cult leader. Someone does correct us in the show saying that no one in a cult thinks they are in a cult but it all looks a bit cultish to me. Koresh and his right hand man Steve, the ever reliable Paul Sparks, are running a large compound full of families who believe David to be the next coming of Christ. We see him recruit one of the Culkin clan and he...

  Some festive cheer now, and despite watching this in September I was ready to be charmed by this small town tale of mischief and human kindness. Alas it’s not so much ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ as it’s a big old piece of crap. The titular town of Pottersville is facing hard times. An opening drone shot shows the town to have a lot of failed businesses and repossessed properties. One business that is struggling on is the general store, run by Michael Shannon’s Maynard Greiger, which has to offer credit to its punters which Maynard logs in a large register. His shop assistant is the lovely Judy Greer and Stevie Wonder could see that the pair will end up as a couple by the movie’s end. For now though Maynard is married and after getting some elk steaks from Lovejoy’s mountain man character he heads home to surprise his wife. As anyone who has ever seen a film ever will know he of course stumbles onto the wife’s infidelity. She’s not shagging anyone but is partaking in a ‘furri...

  Super early Shannon now in this odd film that boasts a galaxy of stars but no plot to speak of. This one was hard to locate and I eventually had to splurge a couple of quid to source a copy on DVD. The DVD release obviously came far after the cinema run as the box boats the turns of Gillian Anderson and Michael Ironside when both barely get a minute of screen time. For Anderson this was made before her break on ‘The X-Files’ so no doubt the copyright holder saw the release as a quick cash in. The film is set, as you’d expect with that title, in Chicago, in the run up to Christmas. We ride for the duration of the film with an unnamed cabbie, played by Paul Dillon who is good and best known for his role as the Irish assassin in the first Austin Powers films. They may be after his Lucky Charms but they won’t find many in this largely grim offering. The film opens on an early Thursday ,morning with a family taking the cab to church. They ask the cabbie to come along but he r...

  Here’s another film that I had previously watched for an earlier blog – in this case it was The Definite Article Movie Blog about 4 years ago. I did watch the film through again with a more Shannon focused eye, but I will recycle the plot summary here because, you know, the environment. This film has a clever title; it’s not just about someone being on the hunt for their quarry, but bits of it are set in a quarry too! A priest is driving along an empty Texas road, whilst hammering the communion wine, when he sees a body lying by side of the street. He helps the man into his car and we see that it’s familiar Shannon co-star Shea Whigham. The two don’t say much but the priest buys his new friend dinner whilst still swigging the wine. He stops at a quarry - huge mistake - to sober up before heading into town. The two argue and the priest gets killed after being bashed on the head with a bottle. Our drifter cuts his hand and bandages it with the dead man’s shirt be...

  If ever a film was less than the sum of its parts it would have to be ‘Amsterdam’. A stellar cast, big budget and some great locations can’t hide the fact that this is a dull and meandering mess. The film starts well with Christian Bale’s First World War veteran who is now a doctor being asked to carry out an autopsy. His former military commander has been found dead and foul play is suspected. Bale teams up with his friend and former service buddy Harold who is now a lawyer. They are joined by Morgot Robbie’s character Valerie who was a nurse who tended to the pair’s wounds during the war. We get a flashback to 1918 and see the men before they suffered their injuries and their periods of treatment and convalescence. Robbie is a bit strange in that she makes art out of the bloodied shrapnel that she digs out of her patients. Back to the present day (in 1933) and the autopsy reveals that the dead man died of poisoning. His daughter, Taylor Swift, is then pushed under ...

  Here’s a blink and you’ll miss it Shannon appearance with him listed as a cameo on the film’s Wikipedia page. The film is laden with familiar faces and it looks like the whole of the New York acting scene showed up to support director Peter Bogdanovich in what turned out to be his last feature. I hadn’t read up on the film before I watched it and it looked all the world like a Woody Allen effort. I guess they tread similar paths but the famous faces and unnecessary cameos smacked of a lazy effort at a last pay day. That may be a bit cynical but you do get the sense that the cast are having more fun than the viewer. The film is told in flashback with a seemingly successful actress Isabella, played ably by Imogen Poots, being interviewed about her career by Illeana Douglas. As she tells her story the film goes into flashback mode with the interview returned to periodically when a bit of exposition is required. Isabella is a wannabe New York actress who is living at hom...