Director James Gilbert’s 1972 Australian romantic comedy drama Sunstruck stars Harry Secombe, who is ideally cast as Stanley Evans, an amiable but reticent Welsh teacher who acts on a poster he sees offering work in Australian schools – ‘teach in the sun’ – and ends up running the local school in the small town of Kookaburra Springs.

Naturally the new immigrant finds that there are troubles out in the blazing hot Outback and that the path to happiness is far from smooth before he has formed a choir and got the Aussies singing.

Sunstruck is gentle, rather cosy but nice and fairly appealing stuff, with a sincere original screenplay by Stan Mars, and decent acting from likeable stars Secombe, Maggie Fitzgibbon as Shirley Marshall, the down-to-earth woman he takes a shine to, and ub...

Richard Gere does a good piece of star character acting as small-time operator New York fixer Norman Oppenheimer, who makes friend with a young Israeli politician Micha Eshel (Lior Ashkenazi), who becomes an influential world leader three years later.

Writer-director Joseph Cedar’s 2016 real-life drama thriller starts off a bit hard going as you try to fathom out what the heck’s going on, and who everybody is, and what they are  up to. Then it gets a bit boring and sleep inducing in mid section. But it finally pays off reasonably well toward the end of its long-seeming two-hour running time, building to a satisfactory conclusion.

Ashkenazi is also very good, and so is Charlotte Gainsbourg as Alex Green, a woman Norman tries to get a fix on to, but soon gets the better of him...

Shirley Henderson is sensational as troubled but determined social worker Kate Linton, who inspires young female offender Jamie Harrison (Letitia Wright) to use and develop her remarkable singing voice.

Set in the wake of the London 2011 summer riots, the heart-warming and moving Urban Hymn is pretty great, an extremely well-meaning and likeable film with, good ensemble acting, a strong script by Nick Moorcroft and dedicated direction by Michael Caton-Jones.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Movie Review

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

Marie Bell plays Christine Surgère, a newly widowed middle-aged woman obsessed with the memory of a ball she attended at the age of 16.

When she finds the dance-card of her youth, she decides to track down the men she danced with that night of the ball, revisit her old friends and discover their fates.

Cue co-writer/ director Julien Duvivier’s famous 1937 French episode film, with bright star cameos from Louis Jouvet as crooked lawyer Pierre ‘Jo’ Verdier, Raimu as the mayor Francois Patusset, Fernandel as the hairdresser Fabien Coutissol, Françoise Rosay as the bereaved mother Marguerite Audié, Harry Baur as the monk Alain Regnault, and Pierre Blanchar as an epileptic doctor, Thierry Raynal.

Duvivier’s handsome, alluring film, with its beautiful waltz music score by Maurice Jaube...

Director Emile Ardolino’s 1992 blockbuster comedy Sister Act stars Whoopi Goldberg as Las Vegas showgirl Deloris, who sees her mobster lover Vince LaRocca (Harvey Keitel) kill a stoolie and becomes a nun on the run from his hitmen, hiding out in a convent under a witness protection programme. While Deloris coaches the church choir in swinging singing, Vince sets out to track her down.

The laughter is simple and Joseph Howard’s screenplay is only moderate in Ardolino’s affectionate, gentle and funny comedy. But the performances of Goldberg and Maggie Smith as the convent’s Mother Superior turn it into something special.

Best of all are the musical numbers, with Goldberg doing a Supremes-style act and later teaching the nuns to sing gospel versions of 60s hits like ‘My Guy’ (retit...

Garrett Wareing plays Stet, a troubled and angry 11-year-old orphan from a small Texas town, whose single mom dies and he needs help. His rich real dad (Josh Lucas) has remarried and will pay for stuff for him but doesn’t give a stuff about him. He’s got a new life and new family, and they know nothing about Stet.

Luckily Stet gets the help he needs when he is befriended by social worker Ms Steel (Debra Winger), who detects his vocal musical talent and assists him to end up at a posh East coast Boy Choir school, run by Kathy Bates.

Completely out of his element, the boy finds himself locked in an edgy battle of wills with the demanding Choir Master (Dustin Hoffman), who recognises a unique talent and pushes the boy to discover his musical heart and soul.

Director François Girard (m...