Movie Reviews
This Land is Mine
Charles Laughton is a quiet mama’s boy, a school teacher in occupied France (well, it says “somewhere in Europe,” I don’t know why, but it’s obviously France). He don’t get no respect, not even from his students and frankly, he doesn’t really seem to deserve it. But when the chips are down, when the Resistance begins hitting at the Nazis, he turns out to have more spine that most of his ... Read more »
This Is the End
God, I hated this movie. And I was stunned to see how many critics thought it was great. The premise is that James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogan, and a couple people I don’t know, playing themselves, hole up in Franco’s ugly, pretentious hillside home after Los Angeles is hit by some Biblical Armageddon. And act like total assholes. ... Read more »
Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic
Sarah Silverman (hereinafter, SS, for brevity) recently got in trouble for using the word “chink” on network TV. The network apologized. SS didn’t. Here’s what happened: She said a friend told her how to get out of jury duty. Just write something really inappropriate on the form you fill out. So she wrote “I hate chinks.” But ... Read more »
This Is Spinal Tap
Best rockumentary ever, and it’s not even real. The members of Spinal Tap, the band, toured for years on the strength of this movie, and I’m not sure all the audience was in on the joke.
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
Actually, it is, the infamous NC-17, the kiss of death because no studio will distribute it, very few of the enormous chains that run 90% of the screens in America will exhibit it, and few newspapers will advertise it. The process of getting this rating is part of the film, and it’s one that would have delighted Stalin or Hitler. You go in knowing nothing, and you come out with a ... Read more »
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
One of the very best WWII movies, made during wartime. Pretty much everything about the Doolittle raid on Japan is accurate, and a lot of the nuts and bolts are shown, which makes it all the more realistic. They of course had actual B-25 Mitchell bombers to work with, and though the Navy couldn’t loan them a carrier, the set designers and SFX people made those scenes convincing, too. The ... Read more »
Saps at Sea
This was the last movie Laurel and Hardy made for Hal Roach, before their disastrous move to MGM and the domination of that massive studio, where they never had much input into their movies again. It’s not one of their best. The music seemed intrusive to me, hammering home the comic points like it was the Three Stooges. Music in an L&H two-reeler was always subdued, just something ... Read more »
Things To Come
Alternate title: 1936: A Space Odyssey. This film must have looked as revolutionary in its day as Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 masterpiece. There are stunning images that I don’t think any previous science fiction film had even come close to achieving. There are big sets, huge crowds of extras, magnificent glass shots, and a huge amount of very detailed model work. The ... Read more »
The Saphead
This was Buster Keaton’s first feature-length movie, and it’s important mainly because it was a hit, and cleared the way for his graduation from two-reelers into marquee billing. Other than that … huge Keaton fan that I am, I have to admit that this one is not very good. It was adapted from a novel and a play, and is hardly a comedy at all, except for some comic bits of business that look ... Read more »
They Were Expendable
PT boats weren’t very sexy until JFK’s wartime service on one became a big story during the 1960 election. PT duty wasn’t a glamorous assignment in the Navy, though it sure was dangerous. The boats were fast and agile, but they were made out of plywood and it didn’t take many hits from a Japanese vessel or airplane to blow them apart. But the men who served on them believed in them, and ... Read more »