Movie Reviews
Spinning Boris
Originally made for ShowTime, this movie has no external reviews at the IMDb. But it is very, very good. It’s based on fact, that three American political consultants were hired and flown to Russia in 1996 to help Boris Yeltsin’s moribund campaign. He’s polling 2%. Stalin is polling 8%, and he’s dead. But politics is a little … different over there. They’re familiar with guns and ... Read more »
Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story
What a hoot this picture is! If you ever went to a kiddie matinee (and the excellent little sleeper Matinee was an homage to Castle, with John Goodman playing the role) or a dusk-to-dawn drive-in all-nighter in the late ‘50s or early ‘60s, you’ll know who William Castle was. My experience was mostly at the drive-in, so most of his famous prank gimmicks weren’t ... Read more »
Spiderman 3
I get awful tired of films with a 3 in the title. Sometimes a 2 is good, but that’s seldom the case with a 3. And you know if it’s gone to a 3, then a 4 can’t be far away. I’m dreading Pirates of the Caribbean 4. Number 3 was already looking a bit tired.
That said, this wasn’t all that bad. Plot and character seem to matter more in these Spiderman movies ... Read more »
Spellbound
Not the Alfred Hitchcock thriller; this film follows 8 finalists in the National Spelling Bee from their homes to the final competition in Washington DC. Tears you up because, personally, I was rooting for 5 of the 8, and you knew there could only be one winner. These were such incredibly bright kids, and they worked so hard. One girl, from a ranch in Texas, had a father who couldn’t even ... Read more »
Speed Racer
I hated, hated, hated this television show, because my youngest son loved it, and watched it all the time, and that damn song kept worming its way into my head. “Go Speed Racer! Go Speed Racer! Go Speed Racer, go!”
What can you say about a family that names their son Speed? Racing was all that existed in this world, which reminded me a lot of professional ... Read more »
Species
The only reason we saw this is that we just bought a rather unlikely DVD, a double feature with this and Alien. I guess the pairing makes sense in a way—they both involve scary aliens, and both aliens were designed by that seriously sick man, H.R. Giger. In fact, the two aliens look a lot alike, which shouldn’t surprise me, as Giger only has the one alien to ... Read more »
Spartan
Written and directed by David Mamet. This got off to an excellent start, and throughout it was miles better than your usual spy thriller, never indulging in the usual idiotic fistfights. It surprised me several times. Still, by the end it had somehow gone astray. The final revelation, which I will not spoil, would have been wildly unbelievable 20 years ago, but these days I’d believe ... Read more »