Viewed April 23, 2006
Hero has a lot going for it. There is exciting action and strong drama, good characters and beautiful camerawork. Unfortunately, somehow it never quite comes together as well as it should.
The story is actually pretty simple: a nameless warrior (Jet Li, actually called “Nameless”) has apparently defeated three deadly assassins. […]
Viewed April 22, 2006
Back Stage is wonderful because it gives us an inside view (albeit an over-the-top comedic one) at the goings-on behind the scenes in vaudville. By the time this film was made, vaudville was already dying. That one of its great practitioners, Buster Keaton, had moved exclusively to film is an […]
Viewed April 21, 2006
The Last Man On Earth has no business being as bad as it is. And for most of its length, it really isn’t. In fact, for the first fifty of it’s eighty-odd minute running time it’s a fairly tense film of isolation and horror. Vincent Price plays Dr. […]
Viewed April 20, 2006
Okay, it had been a while since I had seen an honest to goodness wacky, cheesy movie, so I chose to watch C.C. and Company, which stars none other than “Broadway” Joe Namath as biker C. C. Ryder. (Yes, you read that right.) To add the the early 70s vibe, […]
Viewed April 19, 2006
The Importance of Being Earnest is the first filmed adaptation of the famous play of the same name by Oscar Wilde. Earnest has always been one of my favorite plays, ever since I saw it when I was in high school. I even played the lead role of Jack Worthing […]
Viewed April 18, 2006
Quigley Down Under is the story of Matthew Quigley, a sharpshooter (a sniper, really) brought to Australia by Elliot Marston (Alan Rickman), a landowner who wants Quigley to use his skills to take out the aboriginies who are giving him trouble. When Quigley refuses (rather violently), he finds himself dropped in […]
Viewed April 17, 2006
The Ripper is an interesting take on the Jack the Ripper story that follows on Inspector Jim Hansen (played by Patrick Bergin) as he tries to track down the killer, while being drawn to one of his potential victims, Florry (played by Gabrielle Anwar).
The focus is not on discovering who the killer […]
Viewed April 16, 2006
A Trip to the Moon is the oldest movie I have seen so far this year. Made near the dawn of cinema, it is a breakthrough film, utilizing special effects in a way not before seen.
The plot is very simple: scientists decide to built a rocket to visit the […]
Viewed April 15, 2006
Gidget is a cute little film and may just be the progenitor of the entire “beach” film genre. It tells the story of young Francis Lawrence (played by squeeky clean Sandra Dee). Unwilling to shamelessly chase boys like her friends, she becomes interested in surfing and is “adopted” by a […]
Viewed April 14, 2006
What About Bob? is a type of film I have never really liked, so it’s not surprising that I was not particularly thrilled with it. It’s the story of the wacky stranger who bursts into the lives of a family, is more fun/caring/understanding than (usually) the father and ultimately leads the […]
Viewed April 13, 2006
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (LWW) is the best fantasy film I’ve seen in a long time. Perhaps ever. Regardless of whether you are a fan of the original C.S. Lewis novels or not, LWW entertains on every possible level: heartfelt drama, lighthearted comedy, […]
Viewed April 12, 2006
My Favorite Spy is the third and final of Bob Hope’s “My Favorite” movies (after 1942’s My Favorite Blonde and 1947’s My Favorite Brunette) and probably suffers somewhat from comparisons to those films.
My Favorite Spy is a classic example of an impersonation comedy. In this case, Hope’s Peanuts White, a burlesque […]
Viewed April 11, 2006
What a surprise 13 Going On 30 turned out to be. While I was hoping to find it mildy amusing, I certainly didn’t expect to see such a strong, well though out film. It wasn’t marketed as anything more than “Big with a girl”, but I think it’s somewhat deeper […]
Viewed April 10, 2006
Bonnie Scotland finds Laurel and Hardy at the height of their powers, clearly demonstrated by how easily they elevate this otherwise simple material. They aren’t even the main focus of the film, as the plot is mostly driven by the stoyr of two young lovers.
As it is, Bonnie Scotland gives Laurel and […]
Viewed April 9, 2006
Jurassic Park III is the first of the Jurassic Park series to not be directed by Steven Spielberg, the first not to be based on a novel by Michael Crichton, the first not to feature original music by John Williams and the first not to feature Ian Malcolm. Now, not having […]
Viewed April 8, 2006
Good Night, Nurse! is a somewhat wackier entry in the Arbuckle / Keaton canon. It’s story is looser than other entries, but it piles on the jokes and slapstick enough to make up for that.
It all starts with an extreme scene of Arbuckle trying to light a cigarette in a massive […]
Viewed April 7, 2006
My Best Friend’s Birthday is a very early work from Quentin Tarantino (co-writes, co-stars and directs). It was done in the late 80s with some friends and was apparently in pretty much a completed state when it was abandoned. Unfortunately, that cut does not exist, as the final reel was […]
Viewed April 6, 2006
Sense and Sensibility is another one of those films that I haven’t bothered to watch, even though I don’t really have anything against it. Jane Austen just doesn’t really appeal to me. That said, I found this adaptation to be excellent.
Most of the credit goes to Emma Thompson, who not […]
Viewed April 5, 2006
Not to be confused with the 1989 Martin Scorcese / Francis Ford Coppola / Woody Allen anthology film of the same name, New York Stories is a short film from Donna Karan clothing company. It is basically a collection of loosely connected storylines apparently designed to show off DKNY clothing.
As these […]
Viewed April 4, 2006
The Prisoner of Zenda is, of course, a classic tale of monarchy, politics and derring-do. It tells the story of Rudolf V, prospective King of the fictional country of Ruritania. Drugged (and later kidnapped) by two of his rivals, he is impersonated by his cousin Rudolph Rassendyll, who happened to […]
Viewed April 3, 2006
They say that in the years following the death of Walt Disney, the company that bears his name became listless and without direction. It, in fact, became something of a joke in the industry, unable to make any serious headway at the box office or in people’s minds. Well, if […]
Viewed April 2, 2006
I really didn’t think I’d enjoy Zoolander. I had kind of put off seeing it, as I didn’t think the character was all that funny when first he appeared on VH1. But, in the intervening time, I have become a huge fan of Will Ferrell (who appears as villain Mugatu), […]
Viewed April 1, 2006
1925’s Wizard of Oz is a textbook example of how not to adapt a great book to film. The plot and characters bear virtually no resemblance to the material on which they are based and what has replaced the original is far inferior. The only thing it does moderately well […]
Best Supporting Actor
Bobby Darin as Private Cody in Hell is for Heroes (1962)
Darin shows the breadth of his ability in this one, covering both comedy and drama effectively.
Best Supporting Actress
Merly Streep as Susan Orlean in Adaptation (2002)
I’m no big fan of Streep’s, but she’s really strong here, effortlessly riding the crazy waves of the film.
Best […]
Viewed March 31, 2006
Now that’s a Bond film! After watching the underwhelming Die Another Day (a.k.a. DAD) earlier, I had kind of held off continuing on my backwards trip through the Pierce Brosnan films. But the release of Casino Royale is only getting closer, so I needed to keep moving and sat down […]
Viewed March 30, 2006
So I had a strange realization a few days ago. I was browsing around the Wikipedia, reading stuff about Harry Potter (I’m on a bit of a Potter kick these days) and found a list of Potter parodies. Most are pretty lame (”Kill Harry” - a mishmash of Harry Potter […]
Viewed March 29, 2006
F’n genius.
I can’t think of a better way to describe Adaptation, undoubtedly the best film I’ve seen this year.
It begins with the premise. Adaptation ostensibly tells the story of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s attempt to write a screenplay adapting Susan Orlean’s book The Orchid Thief. As the film unfolds, we see […]
Viewed March 28, 2006
Anything Else is something of a return to form for Woody Allen. A hallmark of his more recent work has been a certain looseness in his style. Both his camera work and scripts have been much less precise than they were in the past. Anything Else may not stand […]
Viewed March 27, 2006
After watching and thouroughly enjoying the original Love Affair, I became determined to watch all of the remakes before the 356 Films project is over. First up is perhaps the most famous incarnation of the story, An Affair To Remember.
It’s always interesting to see how different filmmakers handle what is essentially […]
Viewed March 26, 2006
Monster Island, an made-for-MTV movie, tries to re-create the mystique of the classic B-movie. Although it hits the right marks superficially, it still falls short.
The plot is properly simple: kids brought to an island for a party start being attacked by giant insects. When someone is captured by one of […]