The Little Giant

Edward G. Robinson is always good, and in this one he does a little take-off on his gangster image. He’s still a hood, but Prohibition has ended and he feels that the bottom has dropped out of the illicit beer business. He decides to move to Santa Barbara and join the upper crust. His attempts are comical, and of course the upper crust wants only his money, since the family of the girl he ... Read more »

Little Dieter Needs to Fly

Werner Herzog likes to make movies about the extremes of human behavior and endurance. This is a documentary about Dieter Dengler, a US Navy pilot who was shot down over Laos in 1968 and managed to escape after unbelievable privations. It is narrated by Herzog, and told by Dengler, and it is a truly terrifying tale. Dieter’s life even began badly, in post-war Germany where, at the age of ... Read more »

Little Children

Here’s a movie with characters so unlikable that the one I had the most sympathy with was the town weenie-wagger. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I don’t think there was anybody here we were supposed to like, as they were all self-obsessed suburbanites who seemed to have missed out on understanding what life is all about, and how to find a place in it. Kate ... Read more »

Lions For Lambs

Reporter Meryl Streep is interviewing Senator Tom Cruise (now there’s a frightening thought!) about a new, “guaranteed to work” strategy in Afghanistan. In the meantime, two grunts on the ground are getting killed implementing that strategy as it fucks up from the git-go. At the same time, poly-sci Prof. Robert Redford is trying to convince a disillusioned ... Read more »

Linda Linda Linda

I had sort of mixed feelings about this one. It gets off to a slow start, but then you have to get used to that if you’re watching serious Japanese films. Apparently they don’t mind that over there; if they want instant action they go see Godzilla. An all-girl rock group at a Japanese high school lose their guitarist and then their singer, to a broken finger and ... Read more »

The Lincoln Lawyer

Here’s something you don’t see every day. We’ve got a crackerjack story based on a good book by Michael Connelly, a writer I really like. Then there’s a faithful screenplay by John Romano, with wit and spirit, full of good dialogue and some good one-liners. Next there are good performances by all involved, from the stars down to the bit players. So I’ve used the word “good” several times ... Read more »

Lincoln

It’s just as good as everyone was saying it was … and maybe just a wee bit less. That’s not much of a put-down. I was fascinated and moved, and from time to time wished I was just a little less solemn.

Daniel Day-Lewis’s performance is one of the all-time best portrayals of an historical figure I have ever seen, right up there with George C. Scott as Patton. In spite of some of the ... Read more »

Limelight

The last of Chaplin’s films I hadn’t seen (oh, I probably missed a two-reeler here and there), and the last one that wasn’t a disaster. Which isn’t to say it’s very good. He hadn’t made a movie since the brilliant Monsieur Verdoux in 1947, and wouldn’t make another until the disastrously bad A King in New York in 1957. Right after Read more »

Limitless

I will review this movie, but first I have some other things to say, and this seems like the place to say them. You see, this is the first movie we have watched on our new Blu-ray player.

I had never intended to get one, but we wanted to stream movies from Netflix to our big 42-inch 1080 HD flat screen, and I learned that you needed either a set-top box of some sort, or a Blu-ray. ... Read more »

Like Water for Chocolate

I’ve wondered about the title of this film since I saw it the first time, when it was new. That was before the easy research of the IMDb. Here is Roger Ebert’s explanation:

“In Mexico, so I have learned, hot chocolate is made with water, not milk. The water is brought to a boil and then the chocolate is spooned into it. A person in a state of sexual excitement is said to be ... Read more »