Movie Reviews
Titles starting with S
Skyscraper
If you’ve seen The Towering Inferno and Die Hard, you really don’t need to see this one, because it is exactly like those two much superior films. I think it’s kind of sad to notice how CGI has changed the action movie … and not always for the best. To me, the huge and totally unbelievable effects in a movie ... Read more »
Slam Dance
When somebody does stupid things in a movie I always ask myself if I would have done better in the same situation. I mean me, not some James Bond or Sam Spade or Jack Reacher. In other words, an ordinary guy thrown into a perilous situation not of my making, and me never having had to face life-or-death decisions outside of a book I’m reading or movie I’m seeing. If I’m honest with myself, ... Read more »
Sleeper
I find I’m much more likely to enjoy a funny science fiction movie than a “serious” one. The serious ones too often get solemn and usually go off the rails at some point. It’s so much more fun to see something that takes the tropes of real SF and plays with them, movies like Idiocracy, or Paul, or Galaxy ... Read more »
Sleepers
It’s 1966 and four boys from New York’s Hell’s Kitchen pull a “prank” that goes horribly wrong, almost killing a man. The judge sentences them to 6 to 18 months in a juvenile detention facility. This is entirely appropriate; the little fuckers need to be taught a lesson, and have time to think about the harm they have caused.
Nothing else that happens to them is appropriate at all. ... Read more »
Sleeping Beauty
When I think of the finest of the Disney classics, this one has seldom come to mind, but looking at it again, I think it ranks right up there with the greats. It is radically different in visual style from anything Disney had done before, but only if you consider just the feature-length movies. All through the ‘50s there was innovation in animation from many smaller studios, and Disney ... Read more »
Sleepless in Seattle
Nora Ephron co-wrote and directed this charming trifle of a romantic comedy. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are not really together enough to develop a lot of “chemistry,” as the relationship between cinema lovers is known, but there is a special bond that develops because of the efforts of Tom’s young son to bring them together. Believe it or not, I’ve never seen An Affair to ... Read more »
Sleuth
On a recent trip to Portland I was digging through old VHS tapes and LaserDiscs (yes, I have a working LaserDisc player, and quite a nice collection of those big old silver platters!) in the cobwebbed confines of the Varley Vault in Mom’s basement. I came across a copy of this, which for some reason has become quite the rarity. It seems there was a DVD release, but it must have been quite ... Read more »
Sleuth
I was so excited when I heard about this project. The original Sleuth (see above) is one of my favorite movies. It is a funny and tense battle of words and wits between Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine, played out in a mansion that is a wonder to behold. It was so good that, normally, I would have thought a re-make would be a terrible idea … and then I heard ... Read more »
A Slight Case of Murder
Donald E. Westlake was one of the best writers who ever lived. Not just one of the best at hard-boiled crime (under his pen name of Richard Stark), not just the best comic writer ever, with his John Dortmunder series and others. One of the best writers, period. He had a fair number of his stories made into movies, and almost always they fucked it up. Of the Dortmunders, at least six movies ... Read more »
Slither
No, not the 1973 Slither, a seriously weird and delightful film starring James Caan and Sally Kellerman. This is yet another of several “horror comedies” we have seen lately. I have no idea why the 1973 film was called that, it’s one of the mysteries. It is clear why this one was so titled. It’s the slimiest movie I’ve seen since Read more »