The Hoax

What are you going to believe about a movie made from a book written by one of the biggest liars of the 20th Century? Clifford Irving was damn good at it, and it’s a pleasure to see him putting a world-class snow job on some supposedly smart, savvy New York publishers, never backing down from his ridiculous assertions, always upping the ante. The first half plays light-hearted, and I think ... Read more »

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

When I first heard this would be no less than three movies, I wondered how they could possibly do it. I mean, first Peter Jackson took The Lord of the Rings, a massive trilogy, and made three massive movies out of it … and still had to leave out a lot. Now we have this one, and in 2013 we will be getting The Desolation of Smaug, and in ... Read more »

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

At the end of my review of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug I made two observations: That I would see the third and final movie, and that I was not looking forward to it. So I’ve fulfilled my promise now, and I enjoyed it about as much as I expected to, which is not very much.

The title should have clued me in, but somehow I didn’t expect Read more »

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Another hobbit movie. What can you say? Well, the escape down the river in barrels with orcs and elves on both banks was well-done. If you like that sort of slam-bang action. The giant spiders were pretty creepy. (I read somewhere that Peter Jackson is so arachnophobic that he can’t even look at footage like that. He has to have someone else edit those scenes.) The dragon was good, voiced ... Read more »

Hobson’s Choice

Directed and co-written by David Lean, starring Charles Laughton. What more could you possibly ask for? It’s based on a 1916 play set in the late 19th century. Hobson is a blowhard tosspot of the kind Laughton can do better than anyone. He has three daughters, who pretty much run his boot shop for him, and he’d be happy to keep it that way. But the eldest has other ideas, and she’s Read more »

A Hole in the Head

In the 1930s Frank Capra owned Hollywood, along with a handful of other directors. No less than three Oscars for best directing, and his movies made tons of money. In WWII he made some of the best war documentaries ever. Then it all sort of stopped. Though he was never called before the treasonous HUAC, his association with blacklisted writers made him a little ... Read more »

Holes

A very odd little film. I enjoyed it. Sigourney Weaver is the nasty warden of a desert work camp for wayward or just awkward boys.

The Holiday

Cameron Diaz makes a really good living making trailers for movies, but she has just broken up with her philandering boyfriend. She lives in a fantastic, huge house with a pool and all the other trimmings of Hollywood success. Kate Winslet works for a newspaper writing wedding notices, and the asshole she has been hopelessly in love with for years just blindsided her by announcing his ... Read more »

Holiday

This is the second time a movie was made from the stage play by Phillip Barry. The first time was in 1930, and it starred Mary Astor, Anne Harding, Hedda Hopper, and Edward Everett Horton. Horton reprised his role in this one, with Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Doris Nolan, and Lew Ayres. Cary is a happy-go-lucky guy who while on vacation in Lake Placid meets Julia, the younger of two ... Read more »

Holiday Affair

Robert Mitchum plays against type as an ordinary, amiable fellow who works in a department store. He catches single mother Janet Leigh doing “comparison shopping,” which back in the days of writing up sales tickets and eagle-eyed floorwalkers, meant buying stuff so competing stores could find out what the prices were. (Why they couldn’t just walk though and take a look escapes me, but ... Read more »