Movie Reviews
Titles starting with P
The Purple Rose of Cairo
This is, IMHO, one of the better science fiction/fantasy movies ever made. It just makes you feel good … until the ending, which is a little too real, but certainly honest. It’s the 1930s, and Mia Farrow is a waitress living a hopeless life, married to a low-life drunk layabout blowhard abusive thug (Danny Aiello). She escapes to the local Bijou, where she watches a silly little movie ... Read more »
The Pursuit of Happyness
This is a well-done, if routine, inspirational flick that tells the true story of Chris Gardner and how he overcame incredible obstacles to become a stockbroker, while living on the streets with his young son. It’s been suitably sanitized and tweaked; Gardner was actually married but living with his girlfriend, the son was the girlfriend’s child, and younger than seen in the movie. The ... Read more »
Push
It’s kind of sad, because this could have been good, except for a basic flaw: It never should have been made. Made as a two-hour movie, that is. It’s all about people with extra-sensory powers, living among us. But the trouble is, there are about nineteen different kinds of powers here, and they have to tell us about all of them in two hours. It’s not possible. The plot involves people ... Read more »
Putting Pants on Philip
Laurel and Hardy were still not committed to their screen personas as eternal comrades. In this one Ollie is a rich American and Stan is a cousin arriving from Scotland. Naturally, he’s wearing a kilt, which for some reason is a sensation in Culver City. He draws crowds wherever they go. Ollie tries to get him into a pair of pants, with little success. There are some laughs, but it’s not ... Read more »
Puzzle
I guess it’s a given that in any activity humans do, there will be some people who compete at it. I knew there were crossword puzzle contests, in fact there’s a lot of them, just as there are contests for Scrabble, Monopoly, and probably Old Maid. I hadn’t known there are jigsaw puzzle contests. We had high hopes for this one, and it starts well, but were sadly disappointed by the ... Read more »