Movie Reviews
Titles starting with M
Mexican Werewolf in Texas
Okay, I confess, I only rented this one because I wanted that title in my movie list. With Netflix, it doesn’t cost you anything except the trip to the post office. And there was always the chance, microscopic but measurable, that it might be fun. After all, would you think a movie about giant, speedy, radioactive earthworms (called “graboids”) terrifying a small Nevada ... Read more »
Miami Blues
The wonderful Charles Williford wrote four books about Hoke Mosely, a sometimes inept cop, and then died. After seeing this one, I had hoped there might be more, but so far there hasn’t been. Damn! They would be worth making for the titles alone: New Hope for the Dead, Sideswipe, and The Way We Die Now. Are those great titles, or ... Read more »
Miami Vice
Blame Netflix. I’d never have rented this for $4.68 or whatever they charge at Blockbuster, but with the Flixter you don’t lose money taking a chance on probable crap. Just mail it back. And this is one great big turd, browning slowly on the crystal white beaches in back of the Fontainebleau. If there is any chance you want to scoop this one up and study it for a while, stop ... Read more »
Michael Clayton
Here is the first directing effort by Tony Gilroy, who wrote the very smart scripts for all three Bourne movies, and this one is super-sharp, too. Aside from one moment when a man gets out of a car at a moment that turns out to have been a very lucky one for him, without any reasonable motivation that I can see, it all hangs together. How nice to see a movie with ... Read more »
Michael Palin: Great Railway Journeys
This BBC series had 8 episodes in the ‘80s, then it shut down, only to reappear in 1994, ’96, and ‘99. The format: various people were picked (I don’t know how) to take a trip on a train. Cameras followed, and the footage would be edited into a one-hour show. Michael Palin (no relation to Sarah) made two of them. I would go anywhere with Michael Palin—we have already gone with him around ... Read more »
Michael Palin: New Europe
Poor Michael Palin! Imagine, traveling to some of the world’s most remote and fascinating places with an advance crew to book your transportation and lodging and hire expert (and in this case, at least, often beautiful and female) guides and interpreters. Imagine the nuisance of having to stop off for a little chat with people like the Dalai Lama or Lech Wałęsa on your travels. Imagine ... Read more »
Michael Palin’s Hemingway Adventure
One more (and, sadly, the last we hadn’t seen) long trip with Michael. This time it’s a theme instead of a place or a route. Palin has liked Hemingway since he first read one of his novels in grade school … or whatever they call it in England. Now, I’ll admit that I don’t much care for the Great White Hunter and all-around macho man, neither his prose nor his person. But there’s no denying ... Read more »
Micmacs
Jean-Pierre Jeunet is one of my favorite directors. His record is damn near perfect, with Delicatessen, City of Lost Children, A Very Long Engagement, and most of all, Amélie on his rather short list of films. (Let’s forget all about Alien: Resurrection, which was obviously done for the paycheck.) His films ... Read more »
Midnight Cowboy
The first and probably only X-Rated film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. Nobody’s making them anymore, because no theater chain will show them. And it’s hard to see where the X came from. (It was changed to an R in 1971, without any changes being made.) We see movies more hardcore than this every day in the 21st century. But, we must remember, this was pretty damn ground-breaking at the ... Read more »
Midnight in Paris
(OLD REVIEW) This movie is a sheer delight from beginning to end. It’s the best from Woody Allen in a long time, and that includes some pretty good ones lately. Briefly, Owen Wilson (in the sort of Woody part) finds that at midnight he can return to what he thinks of as the Golden Age, the Roaring Twenties in Paris. He is a writer who aspires to better things than the movies he has been ... Read more »