Movie Reviews
Titles starting with S
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures
The IMDb lists 16 screen credits for Kubrick, but three of them are short subjects, not worth mentioning. Of the remainder, Fear and Desire (1953) is basically not available for viewing. That leaves 12. I have seen Killer’s Kiss (1955) once, and Eyes Wide Shut (1999) once. I have seen all of the others ... Read more »
Star!
In the late 1960s 20th Century Fox wanted to repeat the smash box-office performance of The Sound of Music, so they made three huge musicals, just in time to perfectly coincide with the death of movie musicals: Hello, Dolly!, Dr. Dolittle, and this one. All of them lost money to one degree or another, and this ... Read more »
A Star Is Born
As soon as I heard that this third remake of a movie was in the works, I just knew that I would have to go back down Memory Lane and see the others again. So we went on an ASIB binge.
1937. Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker, Alan Campbell and director William Wellman came up with a hell of a story, about an alcoholic, formerly great movie star on his way down, and his relationship with ... Read more »
Star Trek
This movie answered a question I’ve wondered about for a long time. What was Spock’s first name? For a while I thought it was “Mister,” but then I realized a lot of other crew members of the Enterprise also answered to Mister. But at one point in this movie Spock says, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the ... Read more »
Star Wars
We were planning to go see The Force Awakens, and then had the idea to see all the previous ones again, in order, to get up to speed on the history. Neither of us are exactly Star Wars fans, though we enjoyed the series well enough. It turned out to be a good idea, as neither of us recalled much at all about the three prequels. Great ... Read more »
Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
Gosh. Wow. Gee whillikers. And that’s about it.
But I guess I can’t just leave it at that. They’re saying this is the best of the series since The Empire Strikes Back, and they’re right … but then I realize I didn’t really like Empire that much. Star Wars, the original, was one of the most ... Read more »
Stardust
(Second review: I’m going to leave the first one in place, because it just goes to show you. I didn’t remember seeing it, didn’t remember not being impressed. And THIS time through, I liked it a lot. It’s at least partly the result of how you’re feeling on a particular day. I must have been in a sour mood the first time. And so, here’s the new review:)
I don’t know how I missed this ... Read more »
Stardust Memories
Sandy Bates is a successful movie director who, against his better judgement, goes to a retrospective of his films in a slightly seedy seaside resort. He used to make funny films, but now he is making more serious ones, and the studio wants to re-cut his most recent bleak endeavor and add a new, happy, ending. We see scenes of odd people on a train, and wandering around a garbage dump. Not ... Read more »
State of Play
(This is not the 2009 remake with the same title, starring Russell Crowe.) I am tongue-tied, I literally can’t find enough good things to say. How about this: What Lonesome Dove was to westerns, what Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was to espionage, this 6-hour BBC mini-series is to newspaper movies. Think Read more »
State of Play
Here’s an oddity. This is a pretty damn good movie … and I’m going to recommend that you not see it. It is a 2-hour remake of a 6-hour British television miniseries, and the original is so very, very much better than the copy that it would be a crime to see this one and not the other. And, of course, if you did see this one, it would spoil the myriad surprises in the original.
I ... Read more »