Movie Reviews
The Life of David Gale
Dumb, dumb, dumb, da dum dum. Dishonest, unbelievable, stupid. What more can I say?
Life of Pi
I had wondered about the name of this Tamil boy from Pondicherry. Mystery solved. His father was a swimming pool enthusiast, swimming in every one he came across. In his opinion, the Piscine Molitor in Paris was the most beautiful one in the world. (Piscine is French for swimming pool.) So he names his son Piscine Molitor Patel. So from the moment he started school, everyone called him ... Read more »
The Life of Mammals
What are you gonna say about a guy like David Attenborough? What a scamp! He has to be the most egregious camera hog in the world except for Geraldo Rivera, but unlike Geraldo, he’s a class act. He will do anything to get in the shot. We have seen him riding a swimming elephant, squeezing himself into the basement of a gigantic termite mound in Africa, ... Read more »
The Life of Emile Zola
Paul Muni (Birth name: Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund) was surely the best American actor of his generation. Most movie stars have only one character they can play: themselves, or at least their screen image of themselves. Muni delighted in changing his appearance and voice, and dug into each role obsessively. He is best remembered for his “biography” pictures, including this one and others ... Read more »
The Life of Birds
The very last available (The Private Life of Plants is not yet on Region One DVD) David Attenborough series we hadn’t seen, and I can’t think why we waited so long. Birds, as a family, are pretty good contenders for the most interesting animals on the planet, and many of them are certainly the prettiest. As always, David shows us some very unusual ones, as well ... Read more »
Life in the Undergrowth
Our favorite nature guide, Sir David, takes us down below ground and sometimes into the air with insects and other creepy crawlies in the fifth of his “Life” series. We’ve seen all of them except The Life of Plants and Life in the Freezer, and intend to see those, because they are simply the best thing going, miles ... Read more »
Life in the Freezer
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!! You really should watch this three-hour series in the summertime. Lee and I felt colder than we actually were, watching the emperor penguins huddled in the –70 degree, 120 mph weather. Wind chill must be somewhere around absolute zero, but they survive. But we toughed it out, and now there is only one more of these to see: The Private Life of ... Read more »
Life in Cold Blood
The last of David Attenborough’s “Life” series, and the first to be filmed entirely in high definition video. David is 83 now, and though he looks as hale and hearty as ever, it’s probably time to hang it up. Besides, what is there that he hasn’t covered? (We’ve seen and loved all of them but “The Private Life of Plants,” and that’s only because for some inexplicable reason it isn’t ... Read more »
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
One reviewer said you’re going to love or hate this movie. I disagree. There’s not enough here to hate, and very little to love. I has a nice look to it, but at 45 minutes we were so uninvolved that we paused it and just didn’t have the enthusiasm to start again. So if the last hour and a quarter was a masterpiece, I guess we missed it … and so what? If you’ve fucked up the first ... Read more »
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
An HBO movie. Biopics are hard. Hollywood used to make them with little regard for actual facts. The subject was usually portrayed as a pure hero, all warts forgotten. He would usually rise in his chosen field, meet a crisis, and then recover at the end. Consider Night and Day or Words and Music, which never mentioned that Cole Porter ... Read more »