Movie Reviews
The Vanishing
What an odd story there is here. The director, George Sluizer, made a film in Dutch and French in 1988 called Spoorloos. It was odd, and intriguing, and I liked it. Then in 1993 he re-made it, in English, with Jeff Bridges … and it’s a piece of shit. He turned it into a routine thriller … actually, dumber than usual. The ending is stupid, everything ... Read more »
Van Helsing
If ever there was an object lesson proving that eye-popping special effects are not enough to make a movie, this is it. Gorgeous to look at, and hollow at the core. Stupid. Pointless. And long.
The Valley of Decision
Gregory Peck and Greer Garson in a severely shortened version of what sounds like an epic book. The novel spanned four generations, with Garson figuring in about 75 years of service to the Scott family, steel mill operators in Pittsburgh. She falls in love with the oldest son, Peck, but for a variety of reasons they are unable to consummate their love. This is the story the movie tells, ... Read more »
Valkyrie
This movie faces the same problem that was handled so brilliantly in The Day of the Jackal (the original, not the putrid Bruce Willis re-make): How do you build tension in an assassination attempt that you know, going into the theater, is going to fail? Jackal did it by the meticulous, step-by-step planning, creating, and execution of the Jackal’s ingenious plan. ... Read more »
Valentín
This is a little story that you should avoid like the plague if your favorite directors are Ingmar Bergman, Todd Solondz, or Lars Von Trier. If you are like me and Lee, though, and enjoy a quiet little fable about a cross-eyed 8-year-old boy with Coke-bottle glasses who wants to be an astronaut, from a broken family with a terrible father and an abused mother, living with his not-so-nice ... Read more »
V For Vendetta
The best thing I can say about this movie—and I’m not really damning with faint praise—is that it’s head and shoulders above any other adaptation of a graphic novel I’ve ever seen. I have nothing to say about its faithfulness to the source material (the author has disowned the movie) as I have not seen it … indeed, I’ve never managed to finish Read more »
Pawn Shop Chronicles
Carl Hiaasen created some characters in one of his books, white racists who called themselves the White Clarion Aryans. One of them had been so traumatized by the hide-tanning his liberal parents gave him when he spoke a certain word (which we are no longer allowed to utter aloud, either, not even to quote or make a point) that he was not able to say the word “nigger.” They were the Read more »
Jackie Brown
Quentin Tarantino made this after his success with Pulp Fiction, from the novel Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard. The story is that he was very worried that Dutch Leonard would hate what he did with the screenplay, so he gave it to him with much trepidation. Not only did Leonard like it, he said it was the best adaptation of any of the ... Read more »
Spy Game
This is a doozy of a spy film, dealing more with the dirty, amoral, back-stabbing real side of espionage than the Bourne or Bond type of action. More of an American John le Carré novel, I would say. And as such, it is insanely complicated. Several times it left me struggling frantically to catch up. It is at its best when demonstrating old-fashioned tradecraft, the kind that doesn’t need ... Read more »
Make Mine Music
Another package film, the Disney Studio marking time until they could afford to produce another feature-length story. The two previous ones, Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros had a theme: South America. Two films to come—Fun and Fancy Free and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. ... Read more »