Stephen Fry in America

I have often envied Michael Palin in his second career, after Monty Python. He has traveled the world, going around it, from pole to pole, and around the Pacific Rim. (I didn’t envy him his trip around the Sahara, that looked unpleasant, but I’m glad he did it so I don’t have to.) Now Stephen Fry has set himself the task of visiting all 50 of the United States, driving a London taxi. (And, ... Read more »

Stephen King’s Silver Bullet

Based on a Stephen King novella, “Cycle of the Werewolf.” He wrote the screenplay, too, and it stinks. I know he is capable of better work than this and I wonder what went wrong. It’s not helped by very amateur directing and shooting. We turned it off after about thirty minutes.

Steve Jobs

When I was getting my first computer (and I was a late adopter) I was faced with the choice we all still have to face: Mac or PC? I chose PC for several reasons, one of which is that I can say all these years later that I have never given so much as a nickel to Steve Jobs. I have never owned an iMac, an iPod, an iPhone, an iPad, or an iSpy. Seeing this movie reinforces my self-satisfaction ... Read more »

Stick It

… right up your balanced beam! I said one of the great reasons to go to the drive-in is the second feature. There is also, sometimes, a big drawback, and that is … you guessed it. The second feature! The good news is that, if it really, really sucks, you can get your ass out of there …

We lasted about 15 minutes. Seldom have I disliked two protagonists as quickly ... Read more »

Still Alice

Of all the horrible things that can happen to a person in this vale of tears, the scariest one to me is getting burned over ninety percent of my body … and surviving. In second place is Alzheimer’s. (Third place is getting eaten alive by a shark, but I think I have that one solved. Just don’t go in the water. No matter what happened in that movie Sharknado, I ... Read more »

Still of the Night

Robert Benton has written some of my favorite movies, including Bonnie and Clyde, What’s Up, Doc?, The Late Show, and Places in the Heart. He directed and wrote this one. It’s a neat little thriller starring Roy Scheider and Meryl Streep, two of the best in the business. Roy is a ... Read more »

The Sting

I have long been fascinated by movies about con games and heists. The first heist movie I saw was probably Topkapi, in 1964, but another biggie was The Hot Rock, 1972, from a great book by Donald E. Westlake. Then comes this one about the Big Con, within a year, and both of them starred Robert Redford.

SPOILER WARNING. This has ... Read more »

Stoker

Sometimes it just all goes wrong. The director, Park Chan-Wook, was going for a Hitchcock suspense movie, but he paced it horribly. It was never quite clear to me what was going on until near the end—and that’s okay, I don’t mind trying to figure it out—but this was just a lot of too-slow dialogue, mysterious expressions on the part of all concerned, and just plain annoying people. ... Read more »

A Stolen Life

Bette Davis plays two roles, twin sisters, one of them evil. The good girl falls in love with a simple lighthouse keeper (Glenn Ford), and the bad one takes him away from her. She next falls for a truly detestable “artist,” the kind of asshole who doesn’t think anyone else’s work is any good. When we get a glimpse of his stuff, it is laughable knockoffs of Picasso and Kandinsky. And he has ... Read more »

Stone

Robert De Niro is a burned-out probation officer and Edward Norton is a convict trying to bullshit his way into an early release, with Milla Jovovich the con’s girlfriend who may or may not be helping him out. It is a battle of wits, I guess, and the acting is good, but I lost interest pretty fast. It’s hard for me to get involved when I really don’t like any of the three players, and ... Read more »