Movie Reviews
Titles starting with A
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
And so we come to the last of the six package films. Next up: Cinderella!
I like all these films, and this is no exception. It begins with Mr. Toad, taken from Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. It is narrated by Basil Rathbone. It was the second movie Disney made from one of Grahame’s books, the first being Read more »
The Adventures of Mark Twain
I guess this is about normal for a biopic of this era. Get some of the basic facts of a man’s life right but don’t let it bug you if you don’t because no one cares. Get a lot of it wrong. Fill it in with the standard nice-guy episodes that could apply to Abe Lincoln or Robert E. Lee or George Armstrong Custer or Thomas Edison as well as Samuel Clemens. I mean, really, there is hardly a ... Read more »
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Terence Stamp, Guy Pearce, and Hugo Weaving are raging drag queens from Sydney who set out in an old bus for Alice Springs, 1723 miles away, through some of the most desolate land on Earth, every mile of it populated mostly by lizards, insects, and homophobes. (Aside: I think that most male actors relish the idea of playing a gay cross-dresser and really camping it up. Sometimes this is a ... Read more »
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Until Richard Lester’s epic The Three/Four Musketeers films, this was my favorite of all swashbuckler movies. I had a high school friend, Jan Reynolds (sadly taken into that Great Reunion in the Sky) who was a rabid fan of Errol Flynn. He had practically memorized My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Autobiography of Errol Flynn he had read it ... Read more »
The Adventures of Tintin
Computer-animated movies really can’t continue getting better and better, because there’s simply not much more they can do. (I’m speaking of technically; the stories can still be dumb.) I suppose that eventually I’ll be jaded to the incredible levels of complexity we can see these days, and I suppose a lot of people who see more of these animated ... Read more »
Advise and Consent
What a different world it was. There is a scene where the Junior Senator from Utah boards an airplane (tourist class, no less) in Boston, and who should be getting aboard right behind him but the Vice-President (of the United States!) and his little wife. Just the two of them! Now, the IMDb has a note under GOOFS that notes the VP was entitled to Secret Service protection starting in 1954, ... Read more »
Aeon Flux
Very pretty to look at, but rather dumb. Charlize Theron is the main reason I wanted to see this, as she’s very pretty to look at just sitting there, unless she goes to extreme measures as in Monster. And she doesn’t disappoint here. She gets to wear a lot of really sexy clothes, and makes them all look better. She moves like a big cat and jumps and spins like an ... Read more »
The Aerial
A movie that is unlike anything I’ve ever seen is occasion for great joy for me. And I guarantee that you’ve never seen anything like this one.
Having said that, there are several movies it reminded me of, in one way or another. First there is Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, with its 1940s and ‘50s machines. Then there is Read more »
Africa
Our beloved David Attenborough tackles the exciting and mysterious continent. This time he only appears a few times in scenes establishing the five regions he divides Africa into: Kalahari, Savannah, Congo, Cape, and Sahara. A sixth hour considers the future of the continent and its wildlife, which is not encouraging, though there are rays of hope here and there. Throughout, as usual, we ... Read more »