Movie Reviews
Guardians of the Galaxy
I decided to make an exception to my No More Goddam Comic Book Movies! rule just this once, because the reviews were good, and they were good for reasons that appealed to me. It was supposed to be witty, self-aware, full of snappy dialogue and non-solemn characters. I enjoyed those qualities in the first Iron Man movie. Maybe this one ... Read more »
The Equalizer
Inspired by the 1985 TV series starring Edward Woodward. I remember watching it, and recall it as pretty good. The premise: He was a guy you went to when you were facing bad guys you couldn’t handle. He would equalize the playing field … or, actually, since he was so good, he would gain the advantage. This is the same deal, a sort of origin story, where he came from and what got him into ... Read more »
Blue Ruin
This is the kind of movie I really love. It stars no one you know. Jeremy Saulnier wrote, directed, and shot it. (Most of his credits at the IMDb are for cinematography.) He is so new he doesn’t even have a Wiki page. It is very low-budget; he funded it through Kickstarter. It won a prize at Cannes, and now that he has gotten some notice, he’s working on a larger film, Read more »
Arlington Road
There’s a bomb that’s about to go off under the FBI building in D.C., and Jeff Bridges is in a race to stop it. We’re all familiar with the scenario, and the last-second arrival of the hero and subsequent prevention of a huge disaster. But this one is a little different. I can’t say more without a spoiler warning, and I don’t really think it’s worth it. This is an extremely paranoid and ... Read more »
Top Secret!
I must have seen well over a thousand comedy films in my life, from clever, understated British Ealing movies to the Three Stooges. I’ve seen a lot of bad ones, and a lot of mediocre ones, and quite a few really good ones. I figure I’m ahead of the game if I get a dozen chuckles and a handful of guffaws in a movie. But the list of films where I literally laughed until my sides hurt is ... Read more »
Heaven’s Gate
I have heard that Erich von Stroheim was such a stickler for detail that, when he had extras in Prussian uniforms in one of his films, he insisted that they wear authentic Prussian Army skivvies. This is a classic example of violating the prime principle of movie-making: Put your money up on the screen. If it ain’t in the shot, it doesn’t exist. If those Prussian ... Read more »
Jersey Boys
There’s a lot of guys who can sing falsetto. (I’m not one of them.) But for most of them, when they hit those upper registers the tone becomes a little hollow, a little less powerful than their regular singing voice. Not Frankie Valli. His voice seemed to become even stronger when he reached for the stratosphere, which was most of the time. He was the person, his was the freakish voice ... Read more »
Rudy
When I was growing up in Texas, our home was not really a hotbed of sports viewing. Dad followed college football and some pro, liked to watch baseball with Dizzy Dean calling the plays, and that was about it. It being Texas, all my Friday nights were spent either at Bulldog Stadium or at an away football game, but I was there because I was in the band. Those were the days! I must have ... Read more »
Into the Woods
Shortly into the New York run, the original cast made this excellent recording of the stage play for PBS. (I was there to see the play with the original cast. The marquee was draped with a giant pair of inflatable legs, for the dead giant.) I loved it, as so many people did. The play is about as audience-friendly and accessible as anything Sondheim did in his later career … which is to ... 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 »