Movie Reviews
Titles starting with V
Veronica Mars
Every once in a while a show comes on the TV that I hear good things about, but I am never able to find the time to watch. Shows that I think I may like. There’s only so many hours in the day, and I have to write. So I missed Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I think I might have enjoyed. There are several others I won’t bother to list. Having seen this movie I ... Read more »
Vertigo
What a deeply disturbed, horrific, perverse, alarming and thoroughly wonderful film this is! Though it is not my favorite Hitchcock film (that would be Rear Window), I have no problem with the majority of critics, who label this one Hitchcock’s greatest masterpiece. It is. It’s just not a film I will ever have any affection for, sort of like Scorsese’s Read more »
A Very Long Engagement
The French title translates literally (the only way I can translate, with an online program) as “A Long Sunday of Engagements.” I wonder if an idiomatic translation might be something like our expression “A month of Sundays”?
This is the second collaboration between director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who is one of the most exciting guys working today, and Audrey Tautou, maybe my favorite ... Read more »
Vicky Christina Barcelona
(NEW REVIEW) This is one of Woody’s better ones. The title really translates to Vicky and Christina in Barcelona. It tells of two friends who are summering with other friends—in their palatial villa; Woody’s characters always have friends like that—and become involved with a handsome artist who is still involved with his mercurial ex-wife (Penelope Cruz, who won the Oscar). The dialog is ... Read more »
Victim
Some people today apparently find the treatment of homosexuality in this film rather timid, and Dirk Bogarde’s lifelong refusal to “come out” a betrayal. They should remember that, until 1967, it was illegal in England, as it was in most US states and Canada. This was not an unenforced law. Men regularly went to prison for it. Thus, 90% ... Read more »
Victor Frankenstein
We seem to be inadvertently having a Daniel Radcliffe Film Festival. The last one we saw was the deeply weird Swiss Army Man, where he played a dead body. This time he is an ex-hunchback. Igor, to be precise. The concept is an interesting one. There have been at least fifty movies and such that have stolen Mary Shelley’s idea of a man creating life, but none have ... Read more »
Victoria and Abdul
We start out with a title: “Based on real events … mostly.” I take this to mean that at least 51% of the story is true, but up to 49% is bullshit. It seems that for the last 15 years of Victoria’s reign her court favorite was a Muslim who had managed to enchant her. Naturally, the rest of the court was not happy, even scandalized by some of the things she did with him. He got the title of ... Read more »
Victory Through Air Power
I waited for this film for a long time. I’d begun to accept that I’d never see it. I started collecting Walt Disney animated features pretty much as soon as they started issuing them on VHS tape. Over the years the Disney folks brought out all their feature-length movies, a few at a time, except for Song of the South. I doubted they would ever release this one, ... Read more »
The Vietnam War
We are great fans of the documentaries of Ken Burns, have seen just about all of them. This is his latest, ten parts, eighteen hours of film that can be very hard to watch. I guess no male of my generation should review this series until after he has answered the question, What Did You Do in the War, Daddy-O? Short answer: Hell no, I didn’t go. And I’ve never been ashamed of it for one ... Read more »
View From the Top
Might have worked if it had been set in the ‘60s, which is what the airline hostesses costumes look like, but I couldn’t buy it as present-day. And besides, it was pretty dumb.