Movie Reviews
Titles starting with R
Ralph Breaks the Internet
I was quite enthusiastic about Wreck-It Ralph, and this sequel is even better. Sarah Silverman is back as Vanellope, and Jane Lynch as the super-soldier. Vanellope is glitching, turning into static now and then, and still obsessed with winning the races in her game, Sugar Rush. It is all wonderful, but two things stand out over all the ingenious stuff. One is the ... Read more »
Rampart
This is one of those movies you’re probably not going to love, but can easily admire. The script by James Ellroy and the director, Oren Moverman, concerns a bad cop, Dave “Date Rape” Brown, brilliantly played by Woody Harrelson, who has been busting heads and, now and then, shooting people for a long time, and now it’s all coming home to roost after he is videotaped whaling on a black guy ... Read more »
Random Harvest
James Hilton is best known for writing the books Lost Horizon and Goodbye. Mr. Chips. This wildly unlikely story doesn’t measure up to those, but the acting of Ronald Colman and, even better, Greer Garson, almost make it believable. I mean, here’s a man who loses his memory not once, but twice. Amnesia is a beloved story device to ... Read more »
Rango
Here’s one of the better CGI animated movies of recent years. Johnny Depp is a chameleon who was raised alone in a terrarium, and he has a rich fantasy life. When he is accidentally released in the desert, he finds his way to the little town of Dirt, where his posturing and lying convince the townsfolk to appoint him Sheriff. It’s all an homage to any number of old westerns—near the end ... Read more »
Ransom
Glenn Ford and Donna Reed in a pretty good kidnap drama. It was based on a “United States Steel Hour” episode called “Fearful Decision,” which was a rarity at the time, making a movie from a TV show. It was re-made in 1996 with Mel Gibson, directed by Ron Howard. Naturally, since this first version is entirely psychological with no more violence in it than Donna Reed picking up a fireplace ... Read more »
Ratched
This is an interesting concept. The character of Big Nurse in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was a control freak who couldn’t tolerate a free spirit like Randle McMurphy, and eventually has him lobotomized. This series tells the story of her early days, in 1947, and reveals that she is not actually a nurse at all, having lied about her credentials. ... Read more »
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
Here’s one of the stranger little movies you’ll ever see. It is set in rural Finland and most of it is in the Finnish language. It seems a group of Americans has determined that what everyone thought was a mountain is actually the world’s biggest tomb/prison, dwarfing the pyramids. Prison, because what’s under it is not completely dead, just frozen. And what’s under it? Why … Santa Claus. ... Read more »
Rashomon
Rashomon (1951) (Japan) In 1964 I went to the only theater in Port Arthur, Texas, that occasionally showed movies that didn’t star John Wayne or Doris Day. That’s where I saw 8½ and a few other foreign films. This one wasn’t foreign, but it was not quite like anything I had ever seen. It was called The Outrage, and it starred Paul ... Read more »
Ratatouille
Ratatouille (2007) Here is a movie that is exactly what I’ve come to expect from Pixar … and that’s a good thing. I wonder if ever, in the history of motion pictures, a studio has had a string of hits like this:
Worldwide Gross (rounded off)
Toy Story
$362,000,000
A Bug’s Life
$363,000,000
...
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