Grow Your Own

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I watched this on BBC 2 a few weeks ago, and made a note to review it.

The movie turned out to be a quality low-key small-budget British drama, this time about a group of people on a Merseyside allotment of which a number of plots have been earmarked for asylum seekers who have experienced trauma on the way to their new lives.

Thrown into the mix are a mobile phone company which wants to install a mast on the site, a bit of racism, plenty of love and allotment rebel Kenny.

Grow Your Own 2007

Grow Your Own 2007

Benedict Wong is brilliant as Kung Sang, who has withdrawn into himself so much that he now longer speaks and his two young children are his only voice.

Allotment boss John is keen to ensure the mast goes on the site of one of the asylum seekers, but as the characters interact and get to know each other, the balance of power begins to shift.

Partly based on a genuine project undertaken in Liverpool, this film was produced by former bassist with The Farm, Carl Hunter, who, as was not always the case with his former band, does an excellent job.

Richard Laxton’s direction is sympathetic and allows the change in the relationships to slowly unfold in a story that — be it set in a school, the workplace or on a sports field — we more or less witness in some form every day.

Benedict Wong … Kung Sang
Eddie Marsan … Little John
Omid Djalili … Ali
Alan Williams … Kenny
Philip Jackson … Big John
Pearce Quigley … Eddie
John Henshaw … Charlie
Olivia Colman … Alice
Joanna Scanlan … Barbara
Sarah Hadland … Carla
Roland Manookian … Mike
Diveen Henry … Miriam
Mel Raido … Nick
Sophie Stanton … Debbie
Sophie Lee … Phoenix

Movie time

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Watched a couple of movies the last few evenings, 2012 and I love you Phillip Morris.

2012 :

In 2009, American geologist Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) travels to India to meet his friend Satnam, who has discovered that neutrinos from a massive solar flare have penetrated the Earth and are causing the temperature of its core to increase rapidly. Adrian returns to Washington D.C. to inform White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt) and US President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover) that this will instigate a chain of events that will bring about the end of the world. At the 36th G8 summit in 2010, other heads of state and heads of government are made aware of the situation. They collaborate to begin a secret project intended to ensure the continuity of human life, strategically choosing 400,000 people for admission on a series of gigantic arks to be constructed in the Himalayas. To help fund the venture, additional individuals are allowed to purchase tickets for one billion euros apiece.

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In 2012, micro-quakes have started to occur causing small cracks in the earth’s surface. Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is a writer in Los Angeles who works part time as a limousine driver for Russian billionaire Yuri Karpov. Jackson’s ex-wife Kate (Amanda Peet) and their children Noah and Lily live with her new boyfriend, plastic surgeon and amateur pilot Gordon. Jackson takes Noah and Lily on a camping trip to Yellowstone National Park, where they find their usual camping spot fenced off while government scientists, including Adrian (now a White House science advisor), monitor the situation. While in Yellowstone, Jackson meets Charlie Frost, a radio show host and conspiracy theorist. Charlie supports a theory that suggests the Mayans predicted the world would come to an end in 2012, and claims he has knowledge of the ark project and possesses a map of the arks’ location. Jackson believes he is a rambling drunk and leaves.


Great special effects, and a decent story line, though Woody Harrelson was very good in it.

I love you Phillip Morris :

Based on a true story.

The story begins with Russell, played by Jim Carrey, on his deathbed recalling the events of his life that led him there. He begins with his life in Texas as a happily married police officer who plays the organ at church, prays every night with his wife (Leslie Mann) and spends his off hours searching for the biological mother who gave him up as a child. That, and hes gay. But after finding and being handily rejected by the mother who gave him up as a baby, Steven leaves his life and family behind to go out into the world and be his true, flamboyantly gay self. He moves to Miami, finds a boyfriend (Rodrigo Santoro) and begins living the high life.

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He realizes quickly though, that a life of luxury is expensive, leading this resourceful former cop to turn to a life as a conman. But when his con work finally catches up with him, Steven is sent to prison where he meets, and almost instantly falls in love with Phillip Morris, played by Ewan McGregor. From there the story becomes a Don Quixote-esque story of a forlorn lover who cannot bear to be separated from his soul-mate. He will go to any lengths to be with Phillip, including but not limited to breaking out of jail on multiple occasions, impersonating Phillips lawyer and fraudulently becoming the CFO of a major corporation.

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