Movie Reviews
Titles starting with D
Doctor Strange
I understand this is the fourteenth film in the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” (MCI), with many, many more to come. (Does anyone else think it odd that stories like this used to be Grade-Z serials at the movies? That they were made for adolescents who really had no life? Come to think of it, that hasn’t really changed all that much.) I broke my rule of not going to any more gigantic movies ... Read more »
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
This movie is big, dumb, over-the-top, crude, and obvious. That’s okay, so am I, sometimes. Or sometimes I’m just in the mood for something big, dumb, etc. I was predisposed to like this movie for one simple reason: I was a killer dodgeball player in high school. I was okay at volleyball, and hopeless at everything else. I can’t account for it, but in the gym ... Read more »
Dodsworth
(Contains spoilers) Walter Huston and Ruth Chatterton are a married couple from the small town of Zenith somewhere in the Midwest. He has a big car manufacturing company. They each have a lot of money. He retires, and she wants to see the world. He doesn’t, but he is used to catering to her. They leave on the Queen Mary and already the trouble begins. David Niven ... Read more »
Dog Day Afternoon
Based on a true story, and apparently more accurate than most films that claim to be true. The center of attention, a sack of shit named John Wojtowicz, was still alive, and in fact made $7500 and 1% of the profits by selling his story. I believe, or anyway I hope, that could not happen today, as laws have been passed preventing assholes from profiting from their felonious deeds. ... Read more »
Dogma
For some reason I have never seen Clerks, the well-reviewed comedy starring the characters of Jay and Silent Bob. The director, Kevin Smith, has a cult following in several media, and this is a film he made not long afterwards. It is a satire on religion. All religion, I suppose, but the Catholic church comes in for most of the jokes. George Carlin is a cardinal ... Read more »
Dogville
I was stunned to find this movie is rated #120 on the IMDb list of the Top 250 movies. It’s 3 hours long, and Lee and I could only make it through the first 60 minutes. It was so pretentious, so uninteresting, so dull … It’s a bit like Our Town, with lines drawn on the floor to represent houses and rooms, a few props here and there. The cast is fantastic: Nicole Kidman, Lauren ... Read more »
Domino
A ridiculous chunk of twaddle that was “inspired by” the life of Domino Harvey, Laurence Harvey’s daughter who took up bounty hunting for the thrills. We abandoned it after half an hour. Why did Keira Knightley get involved in this piece of crap? Paycheck, I guess.
Don Juan De Marco
The idea that craziness might be preferable to sanity goes back at least to Cervantes, and probably a lot farther. It can be a fetching trope for the movies, affording lots of opportunities for satire and wry reflection of the “Who’s really the crazy one here?” type. The cult classic King of Hearts comes to mind, where ... Read more »
Don’t Breathe
We are in Detroit (the movie was actually shot mostly in Hungary!) in one of those blighted neighborhoods where all the houses for blocks around are empty. The windows are blown out and scorch marks climb the walls from previous Devil’s Nights (a Detroit institution where Detroit residents demonstrate their love of their city by trying to burn it down every October 30th, the night before ... Read more »