Michael Shannon Movies Blog

  Bulls at the IMDb Oh, this one is a shocker and definitely the lowest tier of Shannon you’ll find. I’m guessing he lost a bet to be in this or owed the director a favour, because it is a risible effort that even falls short of being entertainingly bad. The film opens with a caption: ‘Greater Manchester 1975'.  A young boy is disturbed from his darts playing to watch the World Championship of Darts final. Despite its celebrated title, this world championship seems to be taking place in someone’s basement with no crowd – maybe it was an earlier, forgotten, Covid epidemic event? Anyway, from the shadows steps up Shannon whom the commentator tells us is Alistair Whitlock, the best player in the world. He makes an arse of his first two darts and had an impossible shot for the bull to win, which of course he makes. He addresses the camera and greets the boy before disappearing for the rest of the film. We now must endure the remainder of the movie, Shannon free, with him havin...

  Death By Lightning at the IMDb   More up to date Shannon now, albeit one set in the past. This is a 4 part mini series that you can find on Netflix and I would recommend that you do. Shannon plays James Garfield, a lesser-known American president who was shot by an assassin three months into his presidency and who died of complications from the wound a few months later. His story is not well known, at least to myself, but it was an engaging and entertaining historical drama which was sumptuously staged and well-acted, by a stellar cast. The first episode opens in a contemporary warehouse as an old box splits open and out rolls a jar containing a human brain. This is labelled ‘Charles Guiteau: Brain’ and the series then dissolves into the past to see how we ended up at the brain storage facility. We meet Shannon’s Garfield as a young senator working his farm. He has the familiar trait of being a poor woodworker – we know his talents lie elsewhere! He has a long-suff...