Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines; Or, How I Flew From London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes

(Second Review) I vividly recall seeing this for the first time. It was the summer after my graduation and I was working for my Uncle Chuck in Detroit, earning money for incidentals to be used at Michigan State, where I would start in September. (I blew most of it going to movies.) It was a roadshow engagement, at the Cinerama theater, with reserved seats and an intermission. It had me ... Read more »

A Thousand Clowns

I think this one has been around long enough now to qualify as a classic. I loved it when it was new, and I love it now. Murray (Jason Robards) is a pain in the ass, but I like him. In fact, pretty much everybody likes him, because he is amiable, he’s funny, he enjoys life, and he does exactly what he wants to do, when he wants to do it. They like him in spite of ... Read more »

Three Ages

The schtick is that Buster Keaton plays out the same story of frustrated love in three eras: The Stone Age (where there are dinosaurs; holy shit! Sarah Palin was right!), The Roman Empire, and the Modern Era. It’s fun to see how the same story works out in different ways, but it’s not really one of Buster’s best.

SOUR NOTE: There have been several Keaton ... Read more »

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

This is the second time Tommy Lee Jones has made a long, difficult journey with a dead body to honor someone’s wish. Years ago it was Augustus McCrae; this time it’s this guy whose name I can’t pronounce. And take it from me, Tommy, that was your only mistake as a director, but it was a big one. Never use something hard to pronounce in a title. People won’t talk ... Read more »

Three Days of the Condor

Based on a really good novel by James Grady, called Six Days of the Condor. That sounds about right for a movie made from a book. You always have to cut something.

This was a damned innovative movie at the time Sydney Pollack made it. These days we would call it a techno-thriller, and this was one of the first. Computers were still largely mysterious to ... Read more »

Three Days of the Condor (Second Review)

One of my favorite thrillers. It is taken from a book by James Grady, Six Days of the Condor. Cutting the time in half works well for a movie. Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway have good chemistry together. My one caveat is that Redford is really too pretty to play a bookworm working for a small CIA operation. Dustin Hoffman might have been an easier sell in that ... Read more »

Three Kings

They didn’t make all that many movies about the First Iraq War, the first one I can recall that had a sexy nickname: Operation Desert Storm. I guess it was over before the screenwriters could really tackle it. This is a damn good one. It starts out like an updated version of one of those wacky post-WWII service comedies crossed with Kelly’s Heroes, where the crew ... Read more »

The Three Penny Opera

I have seen this play performed on stage, and this very early sound movie by G.W. Pabst ain’t it. In fact, it’s pretty tedious and completely unconvincing. Pabst pretty much ruined it. The music isn’t performed well, and the characters are outrageously overplayed, even for 1931. And there is something very comical about these Teutonic folks pretending to be Londoners. The only pleasure is ... Read more »