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...

  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...

  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...

  I watched this Christmas film in August so I may not have been totally in the Christmas spirit at the time of viewing. It was OK, with a couple of laughs but I think Seth Rogan’s stoner persona is getting a bit old. The film opens with a book opening and a lot of rhyming couplets giving is the backstory of the three main characters. For a horrible moment I thought the whole film was going to be in rhyme but thankfully that was reserved for the preamble only. Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s parents are killed in a car accident and following their burial on Christmas eve his friends Seth Rogan and Anthony Mackie take him out. This becomes a tradition (the going out, not the burying the parents) and we get a trip through the ages as the lads have good festive fun in Christmas jumpers. One year they hear of ‘The Nutcracker Ball’ an exclusive and secretive party. They want to go but as the years pass they never get close to the fabled event. We then hit the present day with Mackie a late bloom...

  If you look up ‘nice’ in the dictionary you wouldn’t find this film as that’s not how dictionaries work, but you would get a definition that would aptly describe this gentle and slightly affecting comedy drama. Kate Hudson plays an English professor who is organising a literary festival for her small university. The festival is in trouble as the lack of a star guest has threatened their funding. In desperation she invites reclusive writer CP Shriver, who wrote one book and disappeared from sight. No one has a picture of the writer who is talked about in similar tones to JD Salinger. The invite letter lands in the mailbox of a lonely handyman also named Shriver. He lives alone with his lovely orange cat and as he has a whisky with his dinner we know he’s a total drunk. He takes the invite to show a friend at the pub and, despite realising it’s a case of mistaken identity, Shriver allows his friend to accept the invite on his behalf. Soon Shriver is on the plane to the...

  If you crossed ‘Training Day’ and ‘The Grifters’ you’d get something similar to this film. John C Reilly plays Richard, a small time con man who makes a few bucks by carrying out confidence tricks and other scams. We meet him in a casino as he observes a young Mexican man, Rodrigo, attempt to scam some waitresses using the familiar ‘I gave you $100, and you give me $30 and I’ll give you $50’ type con. He’s quickly rumbled and only escapes arrest when Richard steps in pretending to be a cop to get Rodrigo off the premises. Richard lets Rodrigo know he’s a trickster and offers to show him some scams by way of an audition. Richard has recently parted ways with his partner ‘The Jew’ and is looking for a new henchman. The two work some low level scams which involve conning old ladies and restaurants out of a few bucks. Rodrigo, who Richard renames ‘Brian’ as Anglo names are more trusted, needs some money for his father’s medical bills. Richard meanwhile has some expensive legal b...

  Some more early Michael Shannon now, with this offering seeing him far down the credits and listed as ‘Mike Shannon’. It is a reasonably sized role although he doesn’t get a lot to do and is mainly seen as part of a wider gang. The film was written and directed by John Waters and is basically a satirical swipe at the film industry and cinema goers in general. Stephen Dorff plays the titular film director who has yet to make a full feature. He’s against everything that makes up the film industry these days from crappy sequels to films made about video games. You can tell that Cecil is really just Waters who is using the platform to vent. Cecil has a cult like group of film lovers and students and among their number is Shannon's ‘Petie’ who is first seen as a chauffeur and later as a delivery driver complete with a brown uniform. Petie is gay and looking for love. All of the gang have the names of famous directors or other film crew tattooed on their person, with Shann...

  * On the day that I post this blog Michael Shannon celebrates his 50th birthday! Happy Birthday Michael, I'm sure you're reading as usual! This must be the first film made that was based solely on a photograph. The photo is of Elvis shaking hands with Nixon, and the film seeks to discover what went down when the two men met. It says at the start that the meeting took place before Nixon started recording his Oval Office meetings, so you can be assured that everything is totally made up. If you go in with that in mind it’s a pretty fun ride – at no point does the film purport to be a documentary. Elvis is played by our man Shannon in what has to be some pretty left field casting. He looks nothing like Elvis and that takes you out of the film somewhat, given that Elvis is one of the most recognisable people on the planet. Shannon is also a lot skinnier than Elvis was at the time and 4 inches taller – there is a nod to this when a woman says ‘He’s a lot taller than I expected’. E...

  I had avoided this film when it came out, and even when it appeared on Netflix, as it looked like a dull Brad Pitt vehicle set on a train which was somewhat unappealing to me. Having watched it for this project I’m glad that I did as it was good fun with plenty of action. Brad stars as a hitman codenamed ‘Ladybird’ who is on a mission as a substitute for another killer. Brad is getting out of the murder game and took this job as it was a property snatch only. His breathy voiced handler (later revealed to be Sandra Bullock) keeps him on track as he navigates through the streets of Tokyo and on to the eponymous Choo-Choo. The film is flashy and a neon blaze with each character introduced with a caption and some backstory. Brad picks up a few items from a locker but leaves behind the offered gun – this is a straightforward baggage pick up after all – huge mistake! He quickly finds the briefcase he’s after but getting off the train is another matter. We soon learn that the t...

  A bit of an oddity now with a mafia hit movie that has a taking, rapping CGI kangaroo in it. The backstory to the film is that it was initially a violent film filled with nudity and swearing but the test audiences only liked the kangaroo. Showing the usual Hollywood integrity, the producers re-cut the film to put the kangaroo to the front and to market it as a kid’s film. Wise move – the CGI kangaroo can’t demand a trailer and a percentage of the box office. The film follows Charlie and Louis, played by Jerry O’Connell and Anthony Anderson. Think of them as a poor man’s Jason Bateman and Martin Lawrence and you won’t be far off. The lads are childhood friends since Louis saved Charlie from drowning at the beach. Years later Charlie is a hairdresser and Louis, the black character, is a hapless criminal. No affirmative action here! Charlie is related to Christopher Walken’s mob boss character who phones in his ‘one day on set’ performance with lots of stereotype Italian/Ame...

  Here we go with another unrequested and unnecessary film blog. After seeing all of the IMDb 250 and all films by Michaels Caine and Fassbender, we move on to the third Michael, Mr Shannon. Why Michael Shannon? Well, he’s a recognisable actor who is usually the best thing in any production that he appears in. Born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1974, Shannon first came to prominence, to my mind at least, in ‘Boardwalk Empire’. As the creepy and disturbed Agent Van Arlen he was a standout turn in an excellent show. I will re-watch this series as part of this process in half season chunks and will report accordingly on Shannon’s part, which I remember expanding as the show wore on. I have allowed nine entries for Boardwalk Empire ( eight half seasons and one for the shortened Season 9), giving Shannon a nice round 100 credits to consider. This number includes two 'in production' entries and a final one for shorts, music videos, TV guest spots and the like. I have seen many o...