Da'ud Bob's Movie Review
for
  December 2025


39 years ago this month (good grief! Has it really been that long? Yes, I guess it has. 39 years and one wife ago. Wow! I'm feeling really old now) this movie review first saw the light of day. It was a pretty good movie based on an even better book, and even now, nearly 40 years later, Da'ud Bob still thinks you should "Check it out!"



Well, it finally happened. Da'ud Bob paid REAL (reel?) money to go see a movie. How it happened was like this: some time ago I had read The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. Then I heard that they were making a film of it, starring Sean (007) Connery. When I found out when it would be released I began thinking about reviewing it. And by the time the big weekend came (having missed out on snaring a couple of free tickets to a Sneak Preview), I actually went and laid out the big dinars (ducats to you) to go see what awful things they were going to try to pawn off on the movie-going public. Hard to believe, isn't it? Da'ud Bob actually spending money to see a movie?!! (Well, to be entirely honest, Gwenllian Sue and I went to the cheaper "before 6:00" showing [sometimes I wonder if my mother was Scottish instead of Circassian].) Anyhow, the upshot of all this is that this month, Da'ud Bob does The Name of the Rose.

Starring Sean Connery as William of Baskerville (be it ever so pun-ishing, there's no place like [Sherlock] Holmes), F. Murray Abraham, and Christian Slater as Adso of Melk. The setting is northern Italy in 1327.

Since you've all read the book already, it'll save me describing the plot for you (you HAVEN'T read the book yet??! Shame on you. Go, and do so). This is not to say that the movie followed the book all along. They monkeyed around with the ending a bit, and I wish they had stressed more the old blind librarian's love for books which wouldn't allow him even to destroy books he vehemently disagreed with.

This has got to be one of the best researched "historical" movies ever made. In fact, I heard the reviewer for the Dallas Morning Blues complained that it was too accurate. (Somebody LARGE ought to go and carefully explain real life to the boy.) One of the most fun parts of the movie was reading the closing credits. They even had an adviser on Heraldry, and I didn't see a scrap of heraldry in the entire flick! And chain mail. REAL chain mail. (I still wonder about the nose pieces on the helms of the papal guards, but I have seen some not too different on some period helms.) And they've got some wonderful manuscript paintings. And talk about realistic! In the sex scene, the dirt on the peasant girl was rubbing off onto young Adso.

Four breasts. Seven gallons of blood, one of them literal (you've heard of "The Bucket of Blood"?). Nine dead bodies. Garbage rolls. Peasants roll. Cart rolls. Trap door fu. Hot, glowing poker fu. Flaming torch fu. Gratuitous squealing pigs being slaughtered. Gratuitous groveling before the Inquisitor. Gratuitous (and fairly graphic) sex. Academy Award nomination to Sean Connery for getting yet another role where he gets to play Sean Connery and for saying "It's elementary", something Sherlock Holmes never did (read the books). An 85 on the Vomit Meter (see gratuitous squealing pigs, above, among other things). Three and a half stars. Da'ud Bob says "check it out."



Upcoming movies and miniseries to watch for!


Hamnet
December 5, 2025		 The story of Agnes - the wife of William Shakespeare, although the historical record names her as Anne Hathaway - as she struggles to come to terms with the loss of her only son, Hamnet. A human and heart-stopping story as the backdrop to the creation of Shakespeare's most famous play, Hamlet. Starring Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley, and Emily Watson.
The King, the Swordsman, and the Sorceress
December 30, 2025		 Starring Donna Hamblin, Deborah Dutch, Jeffrey Schneider, and Nick Dent, still no plot synopsis has been released. But given the title, surely it must be a Da'ud Bob kind of movie, yes? Well, maybe. AI seems to think it is a remake of 1982's The Sword and the Sorcerer, a movie which featured, as I said in my review of it, "the amazing new Ronco [three-bladed] Rocket Sword.  'It slices!  It dices!  It makes mincemeat of your enemies in minutes!')". If AI is right, we are all in serious trouble.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight
January 18, 2026		 Set a century before the events of Game of Thrones, two unlikely heroes wander through Westeros ... a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg. Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne, and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends. A(nother) Game of Thrones prequel. Streaming on Max.
Highlander
2026		 Starring Henry Cavill, Russell, Crowe, and Karen Gillan, with Dave Bautista as the Kurgan. This is a remake of the 1986 original starring Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery that no one I know of is asking for. "An immortal Scottish swordsman faces off with other immortal warriors in order to obtain a coveted ability." Director Chad Stahelski confirmed the movie will be using Queen's soundtrack from the original, but "Probably in a different way than you think, but hardcore yes." [Da'ud Bob says, "How about 'hardcore no'?"]
The Odyssey
July 17, 2026		 A new film version of the epic poem by Homer. Directed by Christopher Nolan, and starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, with Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, John Leguizamo, and more. Quite the impressive cast! I hope the script will let their talents shine forth. The plot is exactly what you'd expect: "After the Trojan War, Odysseus faces a dangerous voyage back to Ithaca, meeting creatures like the Cyclops Polyphemus, Sirens, and Circe along the way."


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