Movie Reviews
Titles starting with F
Frankenstein
A quick estimate at the IMDb informs me that there have been no less than 143 movies working some variation on the title Frankenstein, and at least 85 TV appearances. That includes six versions released or to be released this year of 2013, and seven in various stages of development for 2014 and on, including one starring Daniel Radcliffe.
Many don’t have ... Read more »
The Frankenstein Chronicles
This British ITV series easily sustained us through two six-episode series, the second one coming in 2017. It seems unlikely there will be a third, as things wrap up pretty neatly at the end. I will issue a SPOILER WARNING, because at the end of the first series there is a considerable surprise.
The premise is a good one. It is 1837 and William IV is dying, soon to make way for ... Read more »
Frankenweenie
I never saw the original 30-minute live action short Tim Burton made before he was well-known. He must have had a lot of affection for it, because he made this version, three times as long. Both films concern a boy who brings his pet dog back to life. There are a lot of visual sight gags involving his tail falling off, and so forth. The story is not bad, but I might have wished for a ... Read more »
Frankie and Johnny
Al Pacino is a recent parolee and Michelle Pfeiffer is an emotionally repressed waitress in a Manhattan diner. The original play by Terrence McNally was called Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune. You want to know how much they changed the movie version from the original? Try this: In the Off-Broadway production the parts were played by F. Murray Abraham and ... Read more »
Frantic
Roman Polanski at his best. Harrison Ford and his wife check into a fine hotel in Paris, and a few minutes later she is missing. Gone in a puff of smoke. The rest of the movie is his frantic search for her, and it’s a dilly. There is a lot of Hitchcock-type paranoia and doubt, the small touches that make it all seem so real, so believable. The end may be a little over the top, but I didn’t ... Read more »
Freaks
Reviewing this one will be a little difficult. I don’t know if there is a generic and politically correct name for the people we used to call freaks. (Unusual people?) If I knew what it was I’d use it, but to save time I’m going to use the words we used when I was a lad, and assure you that I don’t mean anything nasty by it.
I’m old enough to remember freak shows at the Texas State ... Read more »
Fred Claus
What’s that? The sound of jingle bells, this early November? That must mean it’s time for Hollywood to start dropping its latest bunch of reindeer turds marketed as “Christmas movies.” We’ve been getting them regular as vegan bowel movements for many years now, sometimes only one, sometimes, in a year when the creative laxative is really working, as many as two or three. Mostly I haven’t ... Read more »
Free Eats
Two midget pickpockets disguised as infants infiltrate a charity dinner at the home of a rich woman, and steal all their jewelry. Only the gang know these “kids” can talk, and are packing heat. They aren’t believed at first, but eventually they expose the bad guys.
Free Wheeling
The prop department at Hal Roach and MGM always outdid themselves in these little two-reelers. Here they create a donkey-powered taxi, a typical Rube Goldberg machine with ingenious linkages, cobbled together out of scraps and covered with misspelled words. The plot: A rich kid with a hypochondriac mother who is convinced he is sickly just wants to go out and play with Stymie and the gang. ... Read more »