[I review "Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale," "Spinal Tap II: The End Continues," and the new Mathew McConaughey movie "The Lost Bus"]
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (2025)
This British television series, "Downton Abbey," set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV in September 2010 and in the United States on PBS in January 2011. The show ran for fifty-two episodes across six series, including five Christmas specials. The series, set on the fictional Yorkshire country estate of Downton Abbey between 1912 and 1926, depicted the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their domestic servants in the post-Edwardian era, and how the great events of the time effected their lives and the British social hierarchy. The TV series ended ten years ago but there have been two movies since, the last one in 2019.
The series was a huge success and had many fans. Now the characters are all back so we can say goodbye and not wonder what happened to them.
NOTE: This review is aimed at fans who have watched the series. If you have never watched the show and are planning to start at the beginning or you are still watching, this not only could have some spoilers but probably wouldn't make much sense to you, so come back when you have gotten caught up.
When we last saw the Crawley family and their servants, Violet (Maggie Smith) had died (sadly, Smith had also died in real life); Barrow (Robert James-Collier) had resigned as butler and accepted a job with the actor and lover Thomas Dexter (Dominic West); Andy (Michael Fox) had moved up as head butler; Lady Mary's (Michele Dockery) marriage to Henry (Matthew Goode) was in trouble; Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) was running a magazine; and Robert Crawley, Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) and Cora, Lady Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern) were worried about the future of Downton Abbey, as finances were tight and running a big estate wasn't cheap. If you remember, Robert married Cora, an American heiress, which helped him keep his stately home - Downton Abbey. It was a thing in England in those days. English aristocrats with no money married wealthy American women to keep up the facade. The men liked the money; the women liked the title and the English accent didn't hurt.
Now as we catch up with the characters in this finale directed by Simon Curtis, it's 1930.
Barrow is still with Dexter who is appearing in a Noel Coward play in London. The Crawleys, minus Mary, have come to London to see the play. Later, at a party the news breaks that Lady Mary and husband Henry Talbot have divorced and a huge scandal ensues making Mary a pariah in their aristocratic society. In those days in Britain, a divorced woman was not allowed into society. And let me say that it was not just a British thing. I remember growing up in the Midwest when my parents would tsk tsk about divorced women too. They grew up in that Downton Abbey era (they were old when I was born) and it was still alive and well in the 1950's and 1960's.
Meanwhile, Robert and Cora are still concerned about the future of Downton and whether or not they should turn over management to Mary. This was a time when only males inherited but Robert and Cora have no male heirs, so what to do about Downton?
It doesn't help that Cora's American brother, Harold (Paul Giamatti), has arrived from America with his financial adviser, Gus Sambrook (Alessandro Nivola), and it turns out, after the death of their mother, Harold has lost all of Cora's money that he had been entrusted with. Sambrook had supposedly saved Harold from complete financial ruin and now Harold wants to invest Downton's remaining assets to recoup his losses and repay Sambrook. Sambrook and Mary have a bit of a dalliance which results in his blackmailing her when she leads the family in rejecting his proposal to invest Downton's income. Meanwhile, Tom Branson (Allen Leech) arrives with daughter, Sybbie (Fifi Hart), and reveals that Sambrook is a bit of a fraudster.
Mary's divorce causes Downton neighbors to shun the Crawleys, and they all decline a dinner invitation but when the Crawley's decide to invite Noel Coward (Arty Froushan) to dinner as a way to rehabilitate Mary's reputation, the neighbors can't resist. And plucky Lady Merton (Penelope Wilton) is involved with organizing the annual county fair with the help of Daisy (Sophie McShera) and isn't taking any crap from traditionalist (and chauvinist), Sir Hector Moreland (Simon Russell Beale).
Meanwhile, downstairs, Anna Bates (Joanne Froggatt) is expecting a second child; both Carson (Jim Carter) and Mrs. Padmore (Lesley Nicol)are retiring, though Carson just can't help himself from meddling upstairs despite his wife's, Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan), attempts to reason with him; and Molesley (Kevin Doyle) has become a playwright and is excited that Noel Coward is coming to a dinner party at Downton.
This film is less about a dramatic storyline and more about little moments with the characters, the ensemble actors, and wrapping up the series. Not a lot happens in this final installment, but it's wrapped up nicely, it's absolutely beautiful to look at, the actors deliver, and at the end, we get to enjoy some nostalgic moments from the past, my favorite part seeing Mathew Crawley (Dan Stevens) again, who we lost in early episodes, and who went on to make a name of sorts for himself in horror films. But I always did love that Matthew Crawley.
And there is a beautiful upward pan shot of Downton Abbey as Cora and Robert walk away. That was especially nostalgic for me as I have been to Highclere Castle, where Downton was filmed. I walked the grounds and touched everything in that main room where the family would congregate. It will always be a high point of my trips to England.
At the end, be sure to watch the credits because halfway through we see all of the characters happily moving on.
Rosy the Reviewer says...I can't say this was my favorite "Downton Abbey" get together, but it was a satisfying ending to a beloved show. (In theatres and for rent on Amazon Prime)
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (2025)
It's been 40 years since the first Spinal Tap film (feel old yet?) and Martin "Marty" DiBergi (Rob Reiner, who directed the first film as well as this one) wants to do another documentary, a reunion and final show of the legendary rock band, Spinal Tap. Marty discovers that Hope Faith (Kerry Godliman), the daughter of Spinal Tap's original manager, Ian Faith, has inherited a contract requiring Spinal Tap to do one more concert so that fits right in with Marty's documentary idea.
So what have the original members - Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) - been doing these last 40 years?
Well, Nigel, the former lead guitarist, now runs a cheese-and-guitar shop with girlfriend Moira (Nina Conti). David, the former guitarist and lead singer for Tap now produces music for true-crime podcasts (one was called "Night of the Assisted-Living Dead") as well as on-hold music - you know, that music you listen to on your phone when you are waiting for a customer service person? David's wife has become a nun (June Chadwick). Derek, the bass player for the band, is the curator of a glue museum and has composed a symphonic work called "Hell Toupee."
Nigel and David had been estranged and haven't played together in 15 years but they are open to performing together again, especially since there is increased interest in the band since Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood performed Tap's song "Big Bottom" and it went viral. But the band needs a drummer because, as you may remember, all of the drummers for the band, mysteriously died.
Their old manager, Bobbi Flekman (Fran Drescher), was so stressed by her experience with the band that she became a Buddhist and their old PR man, Artie Fufkin (Paul Shaffer), has become a used-car salesman obsessed with sky dancers, those blow-up balloons waving at us from used car lots, so the band hires Simon Howler (Chris Addison), a sleazy promoter who for some reason cannot comprehend music, and they all travel to New Orleans to practice. They still need a drummer and ask Questlove if he would fill in but since all of Spinal Tap's drummers have had "accidental deaths," he is not interested. Gee, I wonder why. But they are fortunate to find Didi Crockett (Valerie Franco), an enthusiastic young female drummer. Will she make it out alive?
The band lives in a "ghost house," a tourist attraction so people are wandering in and out on tour of the premises. Kind of funny. Paul McCartney and Elton John drop by. Paul sings along with "Flower People" and Elton agrees to sing "Stonehenge" at the concert. Having them in the film was actually quite funny. And it wouldn't be Spinal Tap if things don't go very wrong at the concert, right?
The original Spinal Tap, written by Reiner, McKean, Guest and Shearer, was a ground-breaking parody film of rock stars on the way down that added the word "mockumentary" to our lexicon. It was so good that we had friends who thought it was a real documentary, not a very good one, but real. We tried to convince them that it was a parody and it was supposed to be bad, but they would not believe us and we actually had a bit of a row over it. IT WASN'T REAL! But the movie was VERY funny.
As for this film, also written by the four of them...well, you know how I feel about sequels.
I always have to ask, was it necessary to do another film? And if so, does the sequel do the original justice? The answer to those questions this time is probably no and no, but I was a huge fan of the first film and love these characters, so I was willing to hang in there. It doesn't have a lot of laughs, though you might chuckle a bit. Not really any new songs, either, though there are snippets of the original songs that you can enjoy again. But Paul McCartney and Elton John were clearly having fun, and if you loved the Spinal Tap guys and were a superfan, you might have fun spending some time with them again too.
As an aside, you bibliophiles out there might be interested to know that Rob Reiner has also published a "memoir" of the band to coincide with the release of the sequel and add to the back story: how the band met, how they came up with the fictitious band idea and those quotable lines like - “Hello
Cleveland” and “These go to eleven.” You might not know that the Spinal Tap anthems (e.g. “Big Bottom,”
“Stonehenge”) were written ahead of time, but other than that, everything in
the film was improvised (It most probably was in this sequel as well). It’s a behind the scenes tell-all of the making of the film and what happened
after as well as info on the making of the sequel.
Rosy the Reviewer says...sadly this film sequel does not go to 11. (In theatres and for rent on Amazon Prime)
The Lost Bus (2025)
A real-life thriller about the worst wildfire in California history - the 2018 Camp Fire.
Matthew McConaughey is Kevin McKay, a school bus driver who has returned to his childhood home because his Dad has died. His wife has also left him and he is struggling with mounting bills and more family turmoil - his son, Sean (McConaughey's real life son, Levi), says he hates him, Kevin's Mom (Kay McConaughey, Matthew's real life Mom) is losing her grasp on reality and Kevin's boss, Ruby (Ashlie Atkinson), is giving him grief. It gets worse. His dog dies. He is not a happy man. And he has no idea things are going to get much worse as he heads into the bus ride of his life.
A fire has broken out near the town of Paradise and Kevin's boss, Ruby, the bus dispatcher, asks him to help evacuate 23 children from their school. When he arrives to make the pickup, he insists that teacher, Mary Ludwig (America Ferrara), rides along to help him with the kids.
Let the nightmare begin. The fire is already out of control and we are taken along on a scary ride through burning forests and falling live power cables.
The film plays out like a documentary with Chief Martinez, the Cal Fire Battalion Chief (Yul Vasquez), trying to stop the fire and Kevin trying to get that bus through the raging fire that turns day into night and save the children. There is great footage of our heroic firefighters and the film does a good job of recreating just how harrowing that fire, the worst in California's history, was.
McConaughey hasn't been in a major film in several years and it's easy to forget how good he is at making us care about everyman characters. It's great to see him exercising his dramatic acting chops. America Ferrera doesn't have as much to do as McConaughey but she is a consistent presence and the claustrophobic atmosphere of the bus makes for intense interactions between the two. And all of the disaster movie tropes are in play: an unlikely hero, children in jeopardy, no way out, bad guys.
Director Paul Greengrass, who is known for his true life depictions ("United 93" and "Captain Phillips") co-wrote the screenplay with Brad Ingelsby (based on the book "Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire" by Lizzie Johnson), and he has created a white-knuckle disaster movie with a "you are there" feeling. The effects are spectacular. It's like we are on that bus too.
The film ends with an epilogue about what happened to Kevin and Mary later...oh, and turns out the Pacific Gas & Electric Company was held accountable for starting the fire.
Rosy the Reviewer says...if you like disaster movies, this is a white knuckle experience that also shows the devastation that wildfires can cause and how regular people can overcome unimaginable odds and become heroes. (Apple+)
See You Next Time!
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