Movie Reviews
The Killers
This is about as noir as it gets. It stars Burt Lancaster (his first film, and the star quality is obvious), is from a story by Ernest Hemingway with a script by Anthony Veiller, Richard Brooks, and (uncredited) John Huston. Ava Gardner is the bad, bad girl, and Edmond O’Brien is the insurance investigator trying to unravel Lancaster’s murder. He is killed in the first few minutes, ... Read more »
Kill Bill Again
Actually, Kill Bill Vol. 2, but who’s counting? As I said above, I went to see KB1 reluctantly. It was so astonishing that I was really looking forward to KB2. And what I got was a deflating balloon. A very severe disappointment after the pyrotechnics of the first one. There are good ... Read more »
Kill Bill, Vol. 1
I have never been so conflicted about a movie. We passed on it on the big screen, and kept putting off renting it, looking at it like a visit to the dentist; something you gotta do but you don’t look forward to. You got to see it because Quentin Tarantino is an amazing filmmaker … but such an annoying one. Pulp Fiction, outlined and organized in the regular ... Read more »
The Kids Are All Right
Lots of Oscar nominations here, and all of them well-deserved. Annette Bening and Mark Ruffalo got Oscar nominations and Julianne Moore deserved one. Mia Wasikowska was very good, and Lisa Chodolenko, the director, got a screenwriting nomination, and it was up for Best Picture. I have no quarrel with any of that. I enjoyed it greatly, but I have to say that, when it was over, I realized ... Read more »
The Kid Stays in the Picture
One of the most fascinating Hollywood biographies ever made. Robert Evans was a wonder boy brought very, very low, and he narrates his rise and fall. Wonderful movie.
The Kid Brother
Harold Lloyd’s next-to-last silent movie. I’d have to say it’s a routine entry in his canon, but as always there are some bits worth seeing. He’s the youngest and weakest of three brothers and their he-man father. They all treat him with contempt but, of course, he’s also the smartest, and brains win out in the end. He ends up saving the day and getting the girl, as he always does. The ... Read more »
Kelly’s Heroes
Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, Don Rickles in a WWII action movie. What could go wrong? Well, plenty, as we all know, but this time it didn’t. If you want a lot of action in a movie before the CGI era, this one is for you. I had a great time. I counted no less than six major battles before we even get to the big one, with a bunch of distinctly ... Read more »
In the Loop
Here is a script that was nominated for an Oscar, and had no less than four writers, plus the director, which is usually a disaster. But this time it seems to have meant that they used the best stuff each of them wrote. I doubt that any group of humans have ever been as articulate and funny and wicked and literate and obscene as the people shown here … but in a better world people’s ... Read more »
Keeping Mum
Forty years ago a sweet and pretty young woman killed her husband and his lover, stuffed their dismembered bodies into a steamer trunk, and boarded a train for the seaside, blood leaking from the trunk into the baggage car. She’s judged insane, but now she’s paroled, and working as a housekeeper for the distracted vicar (Rowan Atkinson) of Little Wallop (pop. 57, but it looks ... Read more »
In the Electric Mist
(Second Review) The original title continued to say With Confederate Dead. I’ve been a fan of James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux novels since the very first one. I grew up in the area he writes about, Cajun country, but just across the state line in Texas. He sure handles the settings well. This was not actually my favorite of the books, but it’s good enough. One ... Read more »