Movie Reviews
Home Front
Originally titled The Scoundrel’s Wife. The director, Glen Pitre, is an actual Cajun who has made several good movies in the region, some of them in Cajun French. So why does nobody in this film sound like a Cajun? (I grew up in southeast Texas, I know what they sound like.) It starts out interesting, but gets more and more unlikely, and finally loses it ... Read more »
Home From the Hill
When I was looking up the film career of Luana Patten, who starred in some Disney films when she was a child, I found that she had a part in this movie. I had never seen it, which is odd, because the book it was based on was written by a relative of mine. William Humphrey, author of this story and The Ordways, among at least a dozen other books, was Dad’s cousin. ... Read more »
A Home At the End of the World
A rather unusual movie made from a novel by the author of The Hours, and quite a departure for Colin Farrell, an Irishman we had just seen playing a tough guy in Intermission. Before this he’s done mostly action pictures, much more macho things, including Oliver Stone’s Alexander, which we haven’t seen yet. ... Read more »
Hollywoodland
Here’s a film that tries to connect on several levels, and doesn’t work on any of them. It’s two movies, really, one about George Reeves, who took the part of Superman for a paycheck and then got typecast and blew his brains out. The other is about a two-bit private eye hired by Reeves’ mother who says she thinks he was murdered. We cut back and forth, so we only ... Read more »
Gold Diggers of 1937
The plot here is even sillier than usual, and actually quite dull. I almost FFed through it. It’s only at the 90 minute point that we get what we came for, the lavish Busby Berkeley musical number, which is “Love is Just Like War,” and involves a lot of blondes (what else) marching and counter-marching with drums, bugles, and flags, and for some reason a lot of really huge rocking chairs.
Gold Diggers of 1935
As usual, this is worthwhile only for Busby Berkeley’s insane musical numbers, but it is well worth it just for that. Unfortunately, you have to wait until the very end to see them. The only real saving grace before that is the hard-working, ubiquitous, versatile Adolph Menjou (and I just recently realized all those things about him; the man was good!). Here he is a manic impresario. There ... Read more »
Hollywood Homicide
Totally blah Hollywood formula. A waste of Harrison Ford. Ron Shelton has written and directed some of the best sports movies of modern times. He should stick to sports.
Gold Diggers of 1933
Like many musicals from this early in the sound era, this one could have used more fabulous Busby Berkeley choreography and less plot. But those numbers were expensive and the other stuff wasn’t, and besides, you do need a plot. Still, this one is so standard it’s not really worth repeating much of it. It’s the Depression, and shows are closing before they open. Four chorus girls—Joan ... Read more »
Holes
A very odd little film. I enjoyed it. Sigourney Weaver is the nasty warden of a desert work camp for wayward or just awkward boys.
Godsend
One of the dumbest movies of the year. Nothing makes sense. The DVD includes no less than four alternate endings, none of which make any more sense than the idiotic one they went with. When a DVD offers alternate endings, beware. It means they didn’t have a clue as to what they were doing in the first place.