Movies with screenplay written by Julian Fellowes
Despite being blessed with well-designed period sets and top-tier acting, this collaboration between Downton Abbey writer Julian Fellowes and director Michael Engler fails to take flight. I’m not one who normally issues demerits for a slow p...
U.S. Release Date: 2019-03-29
MPAA Rating: "NR"
Genre: Drama
Director: Michael Engler
Cast: Elizabeth McGovern, Haley Lu Richardson, Miranda Otto, ...
If you don’t know who the Earl of Grantham is, you can probably stop here. If you don’t know Lady Mary’s tragic history, this movie may not be for you. And if you aren’t breathlessly awaiting the next cutting quip from Lady Violet, the...
U.S. Release Date: 2019-09-20
MPAA Rating: "PG"
Genre: Drama
Director: Michael Engler
Cast: Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Maggie Smith, ...
The term “fan service” is often used in association with popular genre projects: Marvel films, Star Trek, Star Wars, and the like. The two Downton Abbey films (the first, released in 2019, and its sequel, A New Era) illustrate that even Ma...
U.S. Release Date: 2022-05-20
MPAA Rating: "PG"
Genre: Drama
Director: Simon Curtis
Cast: Hugh Bonneville, Dominic West, Allen Leech, ...
Pompeii is a big, glorious, cheesy mess. A fusion of Gladiator and Dante’s Peak, it can’t decide whether it wants to be an action film about coliseum combatants or a disaster flick. Predictably, by trying to be both, it ends up being good as ne...
U.S. Release Date: 2014-02-21
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence)
Genre: ADVENTURE
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Cast: Kit Harrington, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Emily Browning, ...
A staple of high school literature classes, Romeo & Juliet has proven no less popular with filmmakers, who return to this classic on a regular basis. The problem with making a new version of Shakespeare's most read romance is that, like Hamlet, the...
U.S. Release Date: 2013-10-11
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence, Sexual Content)
Genre: DRAMA
Director: Carlo Carlei
Cast: Hailee Steinfeld, Ed Westwick, Tom Wisdom, ...
Given the screenplay for The Tourist, Alfred Hitchcock would have hired Cary Grant (or Jimmy Stewart) and Grace Kelly. Then he would have applied his particular brand of magic - the one that allowed him to sell the improbable - and an engaging rom...
U.S. Release Date: 2010-12-10
MPAA Rating: "PG-13" (Violence, Profanity)
Genre: THRILLER/ROMANCE
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Cast: Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Paul Bettany, ...
The Young Victoria, which was selected as the closing film of the 2009 Toronto Film Festival (a position that often attracts mediocrity), isn't so much poorly made as it is uninspired. It's hard to determine whether the root cause is that the earl...
U.S. Release Date: 2009-12-18
MPAA Rating: "PG"
Genre: DRAMA
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
Cast: Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Miranda Richardson, ...