Movie Reviews
Titles starting with M
The Millennium Trilogy
1. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Män som hatar kvinnor) (2009) Apparently I was one of the last people in the literate universe to hear the sad story of Stieg Larsson, the Swedish journalist who wrote and sold a trilogy of books, then promptly keeled over dead. Since then, the books have sold 27 million copies in 40 countries, making ... Read more »
Miller’s Crossing
The gangster picture. I didn’t like this one much the first time through, but I must have been in a bad mood or not paying attention. This second viewing worked very well. In an unnamed city (it was shot in New Orleans) in the 1920s, two gangsters battle it out. They are Albert Finney and Jon Polito, both of them very good in their very different ways. Caught in the middle and with his ... Read more »
Million Dollar Arm
I have maintained for a long time that no true American can ever really understand cricket. I’m kidding, of course … but not completely. Several times in my life I have tried to figure cricket out, reading the rules and the object of play and so forth, and once in a while I’ve thought I’ve actually got it. But ask me about it a week later, and I come up with a ... Read more »
Million Dollar Baby
The best movie of the year, for my money. (Lee disagrees.) Okay, we haven’t seen Sideways yet, but hope to in the next few days, and we’re probably going to wait for the DVD of Finding Neverland. If I change my mind, I’ll let you know.
There’s really not much I can say about the film, cinematically. Everything worked. But there ... Read more »
The Million Dollar Hotel
We were lured into this one because it was directed by Wim Wenders, who I have liked in the past. It stars Mel Gibson, and I wondered why I hadn’t heard of it. The answer is simple: It was barely released at all. With a budget of $8,000,000, they got a little over $50,000 back. Sometimes this means it’s a neglected movie, sunk because of studio politics, but not this time. This is a ... Read more »
A Million Ways to Die in the West
Sometimes it can be hard for me to put my finger on exactly why a comedy film isn’t working. With this one I came up with two.
This Seth MacFarlane’s second directorial effort, after the sweet little sleeper Ted, about a living teddy bear. In that one he pulled off a very difficult thing to do: blending raunchy humor with a sentimental story. Here he ... Read more »
Millions
A couple times a year a movie comes out of left field and delights me so much that I’m almost at a loss to explain the magic it makes. This is from Danny Boyle, one of the last people you might have expected it from. His previous films included the extremely hairy drug comedy/drama Trainspotting, the film that made Ewan McGregor a star, and the post-Apocalyptic ... Read more »
Min and Bill
This was one of the big movies of 1930, and the one that made Wallace Beery the biggest star at MGM. No kidding. Until Clark Gable came along, Beery had a clause in his contract that said he would always be paid one dollar more than anyone else on the lot! It was so successful that a sequel was made, Tugboat Annie, which many people believe was even better than ... Read more »
Minions
Redbox didn’t have Goosebumps, so we rented this. It’s a prequel about those little yellow fireplugs who got most of the laughs in the Despicable Me movies. They are trying to find a villainous master to lead them, in 1968. The best thing about the movie is the music, but that’s because it’s by artists like the Beatles, the Rolling ... Read more »
Miracle
This film is rescued from being just a piece of rah-rah chauvinism by placing it firmly in its historical context, and by Kurt Russell’s excellent performance as Herb Brooks, architect of one of the biggest sports upsets of all time, the gold medal won by the American hockey team at Lake Placid in 1980 against a Soviet team that was basically the best the Red Army could provide. If a ... Read more »