White House Down

A very weird situation here. This movie was released in June of 2013, and it was preceded by Olympus Has Fallen in March. Both movies concern takeovers of the White House, and in both the building is pretty much destroyed. And frankly, I’m having a hell of a time remembering which one was which. In one of them Jamie Foxx was the president. In another it was Aaron ... Read more »

White House Down

A very weird situation here. This movie was released in June of 2013, and it was preceded by Olympus Has Fallen in March. Both movies concern takeovers of the White House, and in both the building is pretty much destroyed. And frankly, I’m having a hell of a time remembering which one was which. In one of them Jamie Foxx was the president. In another it was Aaron ... Read more »

White Oleander

Astrid (Alison Lohman) is fifteen and living with her single mother, Ingrid (Michelle Pfeiffer), just about the most toxic mom I have ever seen in a film. She totally dominates her daughter, but then murders her boyfriend. She is sent to prison, and poor Astrid bounces around between the nightmare of juvenile housing and the uncertainty of a series of foster homes. The chief attraction ... Read more »

The White Ribbon

Here is a very mysterious film shot in black and white, about a little German village on the eve of WWI. Outwardly all seems fairly normal, but underneath all sorts of nastiness is seething. Awful things happen and you wonder why, but if you think your questions will be answered, you are watching the wrong film. I was glad I saw it, but I can’t say I recommend it unless you like this sort ... Read more »

White Sands

A fairly standard noir whodunit involving dirty FBI and CIA agents and a small-town deputy sheriff who gets in over his head. This is not a bad film, but it’s not good enough for me to recommend it, either. Its best feature is probably the New Mexico scenery. I rented it to see what kind of work Mickey Rourke was doing before his long meltdown. He’s pretty good. By the way, Willem Dafoe is ... Read more »

Whiteout

Canada stands in for Antarctica. Well, why not, Canadian snow is just as cold as any. We see lots of snow here, which makes sense, but the director did not solve the problem of how to distinguish among three people in huge parkas fighting in a blizzard, as in the climactic scene. I had no idea who was doing what to whom … and the sad thing is, I didn’t care much. It’s just not much of a ... Read more »

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

I would have sworn there was a question mark at the end of this title, but there isn’t. That got me to wondering, why not. It’s based on a novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf: who knows how to punctuate? I came up with three possible explanations;

1) It’s not a question, it’s the solution. ... Read more »

Who the Fuck is Jackson Pollock?

Okay, the title they put on the box finessed the vulgarity with #$%#, which I think of as the Beetle Baileying of language. Remember the Sarge, when he was cussing out Beetle, always used those symbols? Who are we kidding, folks? “Fuck” is as deeply embedded in the language now as the verb “to be,” and almost as commonly used, and bleeping it only draws attention to it. It’s high fucking ... Read more »

The Whole Shebang

It’s sad when a small movie that looks like a labor of love, with a nice cast (Stanley Tucci, Bridget Fonda, Anna Maria Alberghetti), and sets out to be a charming little quirky romantic comedy … lays an egg. But this one does. The scenes go on way too long, there is a lot of overacting, and the story is clichéd and badly told. What is really too bad is that it’s the only film I can ... Read more »