THE HELP – I think the tagline shown on the altered poster (below) may be more correct; “White people solve racism. You’re welcome, black people.” There’s nothing really wrong here, but this is a film that seems made for The Oscars. It has simple characters and simple solutions. – found in the story “If 2012′s [...]
Read more →STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER – The crew of the Enterprise gets religion and they go looking for God, and find that God exists, and he’s an asshole. He’s also not much of a believable character. The crew start STAR TREK VI: UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY – Kirk and Spock Go To Prison Planet. I’m starting [...]
Read more →HOPSCOTCH – Miles Kendig (Matthau) decides that he’s had enough of the political bullshit from his clueless CIA minders. Rather than passively accept an assignment to a desk in the basement file room, Kendig has a more interesting idea – he’s going to write a book, and threaten to publish it. Naming names, he sends [...]
Read more →THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU – Pervy dolphins spying, rich playboy scientists, bizarre action sequences, and claymation. It’s basically real life… Part cartoon, part music video, part parody. I popped this DVD in shortly after I picked it up, and I was interrupted before I actually watched it… unfortunate; I think this might be [...]
Read more →INDIANA JONES AND THE RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK – I haven’t seen the fourth film in this series of films yet, but if I understand correctly, at the heart of many complaints is that the film relies on aliens to explain everything away without much thought to story or logic. If time permits, I’ll [...]
Read more →BLITZ (Netflix) – Junkie cops, bad cops with hearts of gold, a serial killer going after cops… and yet somehow it was so very boring. I couldn’t care about Statham’s hard ass cop character or the WPC in rehab. Nothing compelling. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (Netflix) – Not really a Western film in [...]
Read more →PLANET OF THE APES (Netflix) – This original holds up nicely; I’d forgotten how much intro there is as the astronauts land and explore. The only thing I could think when they landed though; 4 member crew, one woman (dead on arrival) and three guys to repopulate a world “3000 years’ travel away from Earth”… [...]
Read more →SPARTACUS (Lightbox) – Of the three 70mm films I’ve seen at the TIFF Lightbox, this one was the one I knew most of the story – beyond even the standard “I AM SPARTACUS” scene toward the end. I don’t find it to be an overly moralistic film; maybe a bit naïve in the way films [...]
Read more →LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (Lightbox) – T. E. Lawrence (O’Toole) stumbles into quite the adventure; he is sent to Arabia to advise and monitor the situation with the Bedouin tribes for the British Army. Lawrence unites the warring tribes to drive out the Turkish army. An amazing story that’s nearly beyond belief… except that there was [...]
Read more →THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX (1965) – New meaning to being stranded on a desert island, but with lots of real desert. I can’t believe anyone actually sounds like Stewart in real life – even Stewart. THEY LIVE (Netflix) – Still the record-holder for the dumbest fight scene ever in a movie. Seriously – just [...]
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