Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  Contests usually have momentum. You meet the contestants early on through a series of heats. You decide which one to root for. Then that contestant is up against the seemingly unassailable competition, someone whose reputation precedes them. You hope that your contestant can overcome them though skill and good manners - I’m not a fan of winning ugly. Then the result and the release of pent-up genuine emotion. Applause, hugs, tears. Cup of tea? The televised Miss World contest isn’t like that. You meet the contestants, young women of a certain physique (what used to be called ‘vital statistics’) who are paraded in three different outfits for our appraisal. We choose, but we also exercise nationalism, hoping that ‘our’ contestant will win. For the most part, they don’t. We might not listen to the winner’s speech out of disappointment. TV switched off. Cup of tea? The 1970 Miss World contest was slightly different. It was disrupted by members of the Women’s Liberation Movement, ...

  There is a critical orthodoxy that films about filmmaking don’t make money at the box office. This doesn’t stop them from trying. Admittedly, director Robert Altman’s The Player (1992) got rave reviews and earned $28.2 million on release – cameos from Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis didn’t hurt.  But it is not a reliable genre. For the record, the top eleven types of film likely to make money are:  Superhero movies Action adventures  Science fantasy (or just plain fantasy) epics  Horror films (frequently a good return)   Suspense thrillers (off-shoot from the above)   Buddy cop movies  Romantic comedies   War movies (front line)  Sports movies (winners only) / Dance movies (e.g. Step Up )  Biographies featuring a star transformed for the leading role Run a list of the top-grossing films in almost any country - I would rule out India and Nigeria - and these genres will appear again and again. (Should have stuck to ten, I know.)...