Viewed September 25, 2006
The Reluctant Astronaut is another Don Knotts vehicle that features Knotts as the hapless, but loveable, loser who finds himself in over his head. This time, he’s Roy, the timid son of an ex-army man. His father wants him to do great things, so signs Roy up for the space […]
Viewed September 24, 2006
What dooms Catwoman is straying from the source material. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times (and will say it a thousand times more): stick to the source mateial and you’ll be fine. There’s a reason that characters like Catwoman have stood the test of time. […]
Viewed September 23, 2006
I really wanted to like writer/director Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown. When he’s on his game, there are few actors better than Sean Penn and everything seemed to point to a solid performance here as fictional guitar great Emmet Ray. But it’s not from Penn that the great performance comes.
It […]
Viewed September 22, 2006
Happy New Year is a strange little film. Starring Peter Falk as Nick, a jewel robber, it shifts between whimsy and drama with such abandon, it’s easy to get lost in its wake.
Nick and his partner Charlie (Charles Durning) plan elaborate heists that involve complicated impersonations (and impressive makeup). Their […]
Viewed September 21, 2006
There are three reasons I bought Brother Bear. First, I’ve been buying a lot of Disney films lately and this one popped up during by searching. Second, it features songs by Phil Collins. Even if I didn’t like the film, there’s a good chance I’d like the songs. […]
Viewed September 20, 2006
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride wants desperately to be The Nightmare Before Christmas. But it isn’t, not by a long shot. The story is less engaging and the songs are forgettable, a pale shadow of the ones in Nightmare.
And that’s probably the biggest problem with Corpse Bride. The songs in […]
Viewed September 19, 2006
Connie and Carla is actress/writer Nia Vardalos’ follow-up to her surprise hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It’s not as solid as her first film, but it still packs plenty of laughs and is well worth seeing. The big time movie studio pitch would go like this: “Some Like It […]
Viewed September 18, 2006
It’s A Wonderful Life (aka Daai foo ji ga) has little in common with its much more famous namesake than the fact that both are set in and around Christmastime. But this Hong Kong family comedy is surprisingly fun and heartfelt, rarely straying into the over-the-top nonsense seen so often in […]
Viewed September 17, 2006
Definitely the most dissapointing day of Donald cartoon watching so far, The Fox Hunt starts things off on the wrong foot with a poorly executed “comedic” fox hunt. Donald is again paired up with Goofy and, again, they spend most of the film apart from each other. Goofy is participating […]
Viewed September 16, 2006
Daredevils of the Desert is one of the “Young Indiana Jones” TV movies. Now, I can’t be sure if it’s an episode of the TV show expanded into a film or a film that was later condensed into an episode, but creator George Lucas refers to it as a “film”, so […]
Viewed September 15, 2006
This will seem like heresy to some (perhaps many) of you. I was utterly bored by Fargo. Now, I always seem to blow hot and cold with the Coen brothers. I either love ‘em (Miller’s Crossing, The Hudsucker Proxy) or hate ‘em (Barton Fink). This time, however, I […]
Viewed September 14, 2006
Okay, that’s two overrated Bill Murray vehicles I’ve watched this year. (I’m sure you understand that dissapointing though it may be, Garfield cannot be considered overrated by any means.) Despite the best efforts of the cast, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou lacks any kind of cohesion that could make […]
Viewed September 13, 2006
The history of the production that resulted in The Emperor’s New Groove is, by now, almost legendary. It began life as a sweeping epic film entitled “Kingdom of the Sun” and told the story of a selfish prince (voiced by David Spade) who switches places with a peasant named Pacha (voiced […]
Viewed September 12, 2006
Following the sudden passing of Steve Irwin, I decided to watch The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course as something of a tribute. Honestly, I think a better tribute would have been to watch his show or the “Confessions of a Cocodile Hunter” special, as this sad excuse for a theatrical film neither […]
Viewed September 11, 2006
Classic Albums: Pink Floyd - The Making of ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ does a fine job of digging into Pink Floyd’s creative process, while displaying how connected to their work the members of the band have remained over the years.
There is plenty of the classic music of Dark Side of […]
Viewed September 10, 2006
Bholi Bhali Ladki is a story of love and loss. It is, in many ways, a typical Bollywood film, full of drama, music and themes of faith. Although filled with all the standard elements of many of the Bollywood films I’ve seen, Bholi Bhali Ladki is at least able to […]
Viewed September 9, 2006
So, one day after the Star Trek anniversary, I wound up watching a film on TCM that starred the ultimate Trek villain, Ricardo Montalban. Mystery Street is a typical B-movie, but a really good one. Solid performances and a better-than-average script make this little-known film worth the while of any […]
Viewed September 8, 2006
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the airing of the first episode of Star Trek, I watched the only theatrical film that I had not yet seen: Star Trek: Nemesis. Now, I’m not a big fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation (sorry, Earl), so I didn’t have high expectations. […]
Viewed September 7, 2006
Looking at Lisbon is one of a series of travelogues created by James A Fitzpatrick that give quick, but informative overviews of various parts of the world.
One of the interesting thing about watching old travelogues is noting how much has changed since it was made. In the case of Lisbon, I’m […]
Viewed September 6, 2006
I treid. I swear I tried to go a week without watching an animated film, but I just couldn’t do it. I needed a relatively short film to watch (it ws late and I was tired) and there was a DVD of Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers just sitting […]
Viewed September 5, 2006
OK, right off the bat, twenty points to Martin Short for kicking off his film Jiminy Glick in Lalawood with an impersonation of David Lynch. I mean, who does David Lynch? Who knows film well enough to know what David Lynch is like? Martin Short, that’s who. In […]
Viewed September 4, 2006
Cards on the Table is a recent TV Movie featuring David Suchet as Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. Now, I’ve read plenty of Christie (and seen a lot of Suchet’s Poirot on his show and other TV movies), but I’m not familiar with Cards on the Table. A bit of digging […]
Viewed September 3, 2006
The idea behind Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda is a simple one. Depending on the teller, the same story can be a tragedy or a comedy. It all depends on the point of view.
Allen frames this conceit with a device he has used before: people sitting around talking. He […]
Viewed September 2, 2006
Note: Click here for the full image.
Viewed September 1, 2006
Who Killed Doc Robbin? is an attempt by Hal Roach Studios to capture the feel of the “Our Gang” comedies for a new era. Unfortunately, the story isn’t that strong and the kids just don’t have the personalities to spark the kind of interest that the original kids did.
The kids are […]
First off, my total count on seeing Cars has reached five, thanks to it opening in the local discount theater. I can’t say how many times I will ultimately see it before it leaves, but if I had to hazard a guess, I’d say at least twice more.
Also, I got myself a Sony PSP […]
Viewed August 31, 2006
Tomorrow Never Dies is the second entry in the James Bond series to star Pierce Brosnan (and the third I’ve watched - I’m going backwards, remember?). Although the story and villain are quite weak for a Bond film, excellent performances from most of the major cast are able to elevate this […]
Viewed August 30, 2006
Garfield attempts to bring the classic comic strip character to the big screen in live action form. And that’s where the troubles start. The biggest problem with Garfield is the visualization of the animals. Now, Garfield’s world is filled with talking animals, but the only one in Garfield that […]
Viewed August 29, 2006
Donald’s Nephews introduced audiences to Huey, Dewey & Louie, Donald’s nephews who would become a Disney fixture from then on. In this one, they are much more true troublemakers than they would later come to be. They seem to really want to cause trouble for Donald, rather than accidently causing […]