Twelve Films At Christmas - 3 & 4

The first of today's movies has afforded me an opportunity, as the old examination questions used to do, to compare and contrast. The Day of the Jackal (1973) is an excellent adaptation of Frederick Forsyth's compelling novel. Even those (and I was one) who came to this film having already read the book, could applaud its cool examination of the machinations of the hired assassin. This is not merely a police proceduaral but also a killer's procedural. Even as you know the wrinkle that spares the target (de Gaulle) you still engage with this film. 73/100.

Now for that contrast, for we have (on Sky at present) a modern borrowing from Forsyth's text (fully credited so I assume/ hope that Frederick is profiting) with Eddie Redmayne as the cool English gun-for-hire. Most striking is the hyper-inflation in what you have to pay for someone to be bumped-off! That aside the technology of murder has moved on but, all in all, this a fair updating of the tale. 

And now for something completely different. Planes, Trains and Automobiles makes no pretensions to depth. It is a two-handed farce (Steve Martin and John Candy both excellent), an able successor to the best traditions of Abbott and Costello and (now I come to think of it, this is the greater compliment) of Laurel and Hardy. It is silly, wild and, above all else, it is funny. 69/100.