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The King’s Speech starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter & Guy Pearce

Posted on February 8, 2011 Written by ripitup

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The King’s Speech starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter & Guy Pearce.
The King’s Speech starring Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter & Guy Pearce. Image via bscreview.com

1925. King George V (Michael Gambon) is a little worried about England’s future. After all, his two sons Albert George (Colin Firth) and Edward (Guy Pearce) aren’t exactly king material.  The articulate and charismatic Edward is more interested in women than his country where as the happily-married, family man George is a stammer who freaks out at the possibility of a public speech.

But even as a Prince, George needs to make public appearances and speeches so his wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) tries to help him as much as he can by seeking all kinds of doctors and speech therapists. But nothing works and George is left frustrated and even with lower self-confidence.

Elizabeth finds speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) as her last resort. Lionel has firm principles, a friendly, no-BS attitude and he is highly confident that his unconventional methods can help anyone. With Edward taking the crown, George still needs to get rid of stammer so involuntarily decides to work with Logue. He would easily fire Logue, only he realizes that his methods are in fact working.

As Logue’s and George’s friendship develop and George makes some slow yet substantial progress, his worst nightmare comes true: the parliament wants to overthrow Edward and make George their king since Edward’s private life is against the Constitution.  Edward unwillingly becomes the King and the pressure -to make both his friendship and patient-therapist relationship with Logue work – gets even higher. Can George handle being a King and all the expectations that come with his position?

**

If I need to use just one word to describe The King’s Speech, I’d use “delightful”. This movie is a total joy to watch: it is emotional, sweet, humane, well-acted, well-designed, well-written, funny and heart-warming. I absolutely adored both Geoffrey Rush’s and Colin Firth’s performances. Everybody else is really good too but it is the characters of Firth and Rush make this movie a sweetheart of a masterpiece.

You see, it’s rare to see a movie with such lovable, flawed England King- who is more than aware of his flaws. It is so easy to empathize with him. As wealthy as he is, he has no other friends than his wife and apart from his wife and kids, he really hasn’t been loved and respected. Now he has to be King because of his bloodline, a symbolic position that gives him no real power but just difficult responsibilities he hates.

Logue is a great character. His success is self-made. And as much as he likes his profession, he actually wants to be an actor but isn’t really considered leading role material. Which is funny, since we have been watching and enjoying Rush himself in both leading and supporting roles for years.

This movie is a must who loves to go back in time through travel movies, watch fine acting and get to like a King and feel bad for his problems, even he sometimes acts like a total jerk and risks the only real friendship he has.

8.5 on IMDB. Nope, I don’t think it is overrated. The absolute lowest rating I could give this film is an 8.

Directed by Tom Hooper, written by David Seidler. Colin Firth won Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama for his performance and Geoffrey Rush was also nominated for Best Supporting actor. The King’s Speech is nominated for 12 Oscars, including Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Director, Supporting Actress (Helena Bonham Carter),Best Screenplay and more.

Fun notes:

*This is Colin Firth’s second Oscar nomination. Last year, he was nominated for his performance in Tom Ford’s A Single Man. He was also nominated for Golden Globe, two awards he lost to Jeff Bridges.

*Jennifer Ehle, who plays Geoffrey Rush’s wife, is Colin Firth’s ex-girlfriend. They starred as Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy in 1995’s TV Series Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen adaptation) and dated for a while.

*Geoffrey Rush isn’t a stranger to Oscar nominations. He won Oscar for Best Actor in 1997 for his role in Shine. He was nominated for Best Actor for Quills and Best Supporting Actor for Shakespeare in Love. King’s Speech is his 4th nomination.

*This is Helena Bonham Carter’s second nomination. Her first was in 1997 for The Wings of the Dove, for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

*Helena Bonham Carter is with director Tim Burton and a frequent star of his movies. They have 2 kids together.

*Just like his character, Rush is also Australian.

 

Also on Colin Firth

Colin Firth Trivia

The Last Legion starring Colin Firth

Trauma starring Colin Firth and Mena Suvari

The British Actors We Love feat. Colin Firth, Daniel Day Lewis, Rufus Sewell and Ralph Fiennes

St. Trinian’s starring Colin Firth

Apartment Zero starring Colin Firth

The Accidental Husband starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Uma Thurman &Colin Firth

The English Patient feat. Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Kristin Scott Thomas & Colin Firth

Hollywood’s Tall Actors feat. Colin Firth, Keanu Reeves, Gerard Butler & More

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: Colin Firth, David Seidler, Geoffrey Rush, guy pierce, helena bonham carter, Jennifer ehle, kings speech, kings speech movie, michael gambon, the kings speech, the kings speech cast, the kings speech movie, Tom Hooper

Coming in May: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides starring Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush & Ian McShane

Posted on December 23, 2010 Written by ripitup

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Pirates of the Caribbean 4- On Stranger Tides - starring Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane & Geoffrey Rush
Pirates of the Caribbean 4- On Stranger Tides - starring Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane & Geoffrey Rush. Image via filmofilia.com

Pirates of the Caribbean 4 starring Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush & Ian McShane

And Captain Jack Sparrow is back!

The first movie of the Pirates of the Caribbean Series, The Curse of the Black Pearl came out in 2003, starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush & Jack Davenport (Steve of Coupling). I find it to be one of Johnny Depp’s best movies. It was a perfect combo of adventure, romance & comedy – with great actors and impressive visual effects. It was huge hit with the audience and we had 2 more movies, pretty much with the same leads.

Unfortunately for me, the second part (Dead Man’s Chest) lacked the first one’s magic and the third (At World’s End) wasn’t a pleasant experience at all. Don’t get me wrong- I am not one of those people intrinsically against all sequels. I just didn’t enjoy these ones. When I heard a fourth was in the works, I couldn’t have cared less, that is until I saw the trailer.

The 4th film, On Stranger Tides is shot in 3D and looks really entertaining: there’s flesh blood, in the shape of Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane. Keira Knightley, Orlanda Bloom and Jack Davenport are not among the cast and this seems like a bonus. Sparrow has his usual quirky manners, unique sense of humor, a potential romance and more action and challenges than he can handle, including getting through zombies and surviving Blackbeard (Ian McShane) to get to the fountain of youth.

You can watch the trailer here, and decide for yourselves.

I just can’t wait until May.

Other Johnny Depp Movies & Posts

The Tourist starring Angelina Jolie & Johnny Depp

Top 8 Johnny Depp Films

Benny & Joon starring Johnny Depp, Aidan Quinn, Mary Stuart Masterson & Julianne Moore

Public Enemies starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale & Marion Cotillard

Celebrities That Aged Really Well feat. Depp

Johnny Depp A Kind of Illusion – book on Depp

Handsome Actors to Play Villains: Johnny Depp, Keanu Reeves, James Spader, Antonio Banderas and Timothy Olyphant

Johnny Depp and Robert Downey Jr.: Hunky Actors of the 80s and 90s

10 Celebrities to Wear Flats for: Featuring Taylor Lautner, Johnny Depp, Kevin Bacon, Jon Bon Jovi and More

Other Posts on Penelope Cruz

Vicky, Cristina Barcelona starring Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem & Scarlett Johansson

3 Happy Celebrity Couples: Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Gwyneth Paltrow, Chris Martin, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: adventure, captain jack sparrow, comedy, curse of the black pearl, fantasy, Geoffrey Rush, ian mcshane, Jack Davenport, Johnny Depp, Johnny Depp movies, Keira Knightley, movies, on stranger tides, Penelope Cruz, Pirates of the Caribbean, Pirates of the Caribbean 4, pirates of the caribbean cast, Pirates of the Caribbean on stranger tides

Elizabeth: The Golden Age starring Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush and Abbie Cornish

Posted on February 4, 2010 Written by ripitup

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Elizabeth The Golden Age with Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Abbie Cornish and Geoffrey Rush. Co-starring Samantha Morton and Tom Hollander.
Elizabeth The Golden Age with Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Abbie Cornish and Geoffrey Rush. Co-starring Samantha Morton and Tom Hollander.

Elizabeth The Golden Age is truly a feast for a person who enjoys epic period pieces. It is glorious in all aspects. The fact that Cate Blanchett didn’ t win the Oscar for best actress isn’t something I can’t bring my head around. But it is not just her. Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush, Abby Cornish and Samantha Morton are all great. This is the second Elizabeth movie with Cate, the first movie – Elizabeth- was made in 1998, with Cate in the title role. I haven’t seen it but I am seriously tempted. But I am wondering if Joseph Fiennes was as good as Clive Owen?

Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Cate Blanchett as the Queen in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. This is it. I am officially a Cate Blancett fan. What can I say? I love portraits of powerful and impressive women.

Elizabeth is loved by her people. She is strong and open-minded. She cares about her people. She refuses to marry any man just to have a heir. She loves her power, country and values her freedom. Of course she has enemies. Spain wants her gone and their king is making plans with Elizabeth’s cousin Mary Stuart, who is under house arrest in Scotland.

The Queen’s right hand Sir Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush) is very worried and doing the best he can to protect Elizabeth from any possible threats.

Clive Owen as Walter Raleigh. He takes The Queen's breath away. And Bess's. What? Can you blame them? Walter also is big on his principles and principles; only two of the attributes that attract Elizabeth. I am guessing him being gorgeous plays a part too.

Things get even more complicated for Elizabeth when she meets and falls for Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen). He is a free-spirited sailor who respects his queen and is a fine captain who has pissed off many Spanish during his fruitful cruises. Elizabeth can’t exactly have a normal relationship with a man who has and wants nothing to do with royalty, can she? And although Walter seems to be romantically interested in his queen, his attention is also fixed on one of the Queen’s maids- Bess (Abby Cornish)…

Abby Cornish as Bess in Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Abby Cornish as Bess. She is just so beautiful.

It has it all: Betrayal, love, romance, passion, friendship, war, strategy, loyalty and conflicts. It has action and drama. The costumes, art direction and the lighting add to the fairy tale feel of the film. The complex relationship between Walter, Bess and Elizabeth only make the plot much more interesting. There is nothing typical about the Queen’s character and Cate Blanchett does a great job in making the movie spectacular.

Shortly, I loved everything about the movie. If you like your epic, see Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

And since I have covered many Clive Owen movies on my blog (although there are more to come), I think a poll on your favorite Clive movie is in order. Vote away.

[poll id=”2″]

If you want more of Clive Owen’s movies, click the name of the movie to go the reviews/trailers.

Shoot ‘Em Up

Duplicity

The Boys are Back

Beyond Borders

The International

Derailed

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Filed Under: Movies and Actors Tagged With: Abby Cornish, biography, Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, drama, Elizabeth The Golden Age, Geoffrey Rush, history, movies, romance

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