Movie Reviews
Titles starting with P
The Pink Panther
Imagine you made a Marx Brothers film, and spent two-thirds of your screen time following Gummo and Zeppo. Looking at this film—which I really liked when it was new—after many years have passed, I realize that no one involved had the slightest idea what they had here. Top billing went to … Robert Wagner? I had entirely forgotten he was even in the film. Second ... Read more »
The Pink Panther
This was what they call a “troubled production.” We started seeing the trailers more than a year before it finally came out, so I assume they were working in the cutting room trying to assemble something funnier than the test audiences saw. You know you’re in trouble when the best thing about a movie is the music, and that music is 44 years old. (By Henry Mancini, and still as good as the ... Read more »
Pinocchio
Of all the early Disney animated features, I think this is the best. (I put Fantasia in a class by itself.) Oddly, at least from today’s perspective, it wasn’t a big success at the time. Some of that had to do with the War, which prevented an overseas release. But the reviews were mostly mixed. It took a while for Walt to recoup his $2,289,000 investment. With ... Read more »
Pirate Radio
Very loosely based on Radio Caroline, which operated in the mid-60s from a ship anchored in the North Sea and broadcast to Great Britain as an alternative to the BBC, which had a monopoly on British airwaves. The writer/director, Richard Curtis, has taken the basic story and altered it greatly to make it a metaphor for the little guys up against Big Government. The actual situation was far ... Read more »
The Pirates of Penzance
If you don’t know what a Savoyard is, then you aren’t a fan of the comic operas of Sir W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan. The operas are over 100 years old, and they don’t speak to everybody today. But I am a Sayoyard, big time. I have seen them all, and though the last ones were not prize-winners, most of them are. And the best of the lot are The Mikado, ... Read more »
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
Read my reviews of #1 and #2 (it won’t take you long), add a lot of dittos, especially the part about not remembering much about brainless action pictures I saw 4 years and 1 year ago, respectively. Do any of you actually recall the plots of those movies, unless you’ve seen them multiple times? We sure didn’t. I had no idea what the ... Read more »
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
I may have been a bit too unkind. There were a few other delights besides Johnny Depp’s performance, so I hereby upgrade my rating just a little bit.
I considered renting the first movie before seeing this one, but didn’t get around to it. Mistake. I hadn’t realized how much this one would rely on the back story, so much of what was going on here was a puzzle to ... Read more »
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Thinking back on it, it seems reasonable to say that this movie was rescued from mediocrity by the insane performance of Johnny Depp. Nothing else about it was in the least memorable.
The Pit and the Pendulum
Me and two or three other guys used to borrow my father’s 1953 Hudson and go to dusk-to-dawn shows at the Don drive-in in Port Arthur, Texas. One or two of us would get in the trunk (it was a big trunk) and we would watch four or even five usually trashy movies until the sun came up. We saw the previews of this movie, and we thought it was Read more »
Pitch Perfect
I was lured into this one by an Internet meme about what they’re calling “The Cup Song,” which I understand is actually a cover of “Cups (You’re Gonna Miss Me)” by a group called Lulu and the Lampshades, which in turn is a new version of “When I’m Gone” from the Carter Family all the way back in 1931. Whew! Quite a history. I just took a look at Lulu and they seem to be a nicely quirky ... Read more »