Movie Reviews
Titles starting with D
Down With Love
I’m sort of surprised at how much I liked this movie. I mean, the main thing it has going for it is the perfect way it replicates those awful Doris Day-Rock Hudson oddities of the early ‘60s, with their gigantic Technicolor sets with no shadows, the costume changes in every scene, and the coy sexual humor. They weren’t very good even at the time, and they haven’t aged well. However, it is ... Read more »
Downfall
The story of Hitler’s last days in the Berlin Bunker. This story has been fictionalized at least once before in 1973 with Alec Guinness playing Der Fuhrer, in Hitler: The Last Ten Days, and in countless documentaries, and though the reviews were way beyond excellent (it currently sits at an astonishing #59 on the IMDb’s Top list), I kept wondering: What new could ... Read more »
Downhill Racer
We’ve been watching the Vancouver Winter Olympics the last two weeks, so it seemed logical to take another look at this film, which I believe is a classic. Michael Ritchie made two terrific films with Robert Redford early in his career, films that went behind the scenes to tell it like it really is: The Candidate, and this one, which I think is one of the best ... Read more »
Downhill (When Boys Leave Home)
What a load of crap this movie is. I can’t imagine why it was made. Aside from a few camera experiments that show the Hitchcock touch, there is really nothing of interest here, except maybe a lesson in how not to write film. Roddy (Ivor Novello) is from a rich family and is the star rugby player at Oxford, playing for the “Old Boys,” whoever they are. His best pal and roomie is Tim, who is ... Read more »
Downsizing
I’d call this one a missed opportunity. Matt Damon and Kristin Wiig are a couple who decide to avail themselves of a new technology that can shrink you down to five inches high. There are several advantages to this, such as becoming no more a drain on Earth’s resources than a gerbil, but the one that appeals is that the cost of living would be very small. You could live in a mansion that ... Read more »
Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox
Does anyone remember Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap? Actually, it’s still around, so it’s possible you use it. Back in my hippie days everyone bought it. Bronner claimed that you could use it for practically anything. Wash the dishes, wash your hair, wash your body in the shower, brush your teeth, wash your car, your dog … anything that needed washing. We always had ... Read more »
Dr. No
Sean Connery, still the best Bond, died recently, and we have been watching his films. This is the one that started it all. Not just the twenty-seven films in the James Bond oeuvre, but a torrent of lesser spy movies in the ‘60s and ‘70s. I read all the Ian Fleming novels at one point in my life, and enjoyed them. This was not the first book, that was Casino ... Read more »
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
DIRECTED by Stanley Kubrick
PRODUCED by Stanley Kubrick, Victor Lyndon & Leon Minoff
SCREENPLAY by Terry Southern, Stanley Kubrick & Peter George
BASED ON THE NOVEL Red Alert by Peter George
ORIGINAL MUSIC by Laurie Johnson
CINEMATOGRAPHY by Gilbert Taylor
PRODUCTION DESIGN by Ken Adam
Stanley Kubrick is the only great director who, in ... Read more »
Dr. T and the Women
Robert Altman was one of my favorite directors. He labored in the television chain gangs for many years, and then broke out with one of my Top 25 films: M*A*S*H. After that he skyrocketed with one popular and/or critical hit after another … for about a decade. After that, his record became a bit spotty. We all remember Nashville and ... Read more »
Dracula: Dead and Loving It
This was the last film Mel Brooks made before switching over to the very, very, very successful and lucrative business of converting his earlier movies into Broadway musicals. And it was a good thing for Hollywood, and a good thing for Broadway. The movie just isn’t any good. He makes the fatal mistake of sticking quite closely to the book by Bram Stoker, with the same characters and the ... Read more »