Movie Reviews

Underworld

(2004)

Underwhelming.

Under the Yum Yum Tree

(1963)

You expect a bit of a cultural gap when you watch movies from the ‘30s and ‘40s, but seeing one from my own youth and realizing how long-gone—and unlamented—those days were is a bit of a shock. Think of It Happened One Night, with Clark Gable erecting “The Walls of Jericho” (a blanket on a rope stretched across the room) when he’s spending the night with ... Read more »

Under the Tuscan Sun

(2003)

Part one of a Diane Lane double feature, alphabetically. This is the better of the two. Not great, but watchable.

Beowulf

(2007)

I don’t know why they chose this title. It’s really the story of a poor, abused young man and his mother. We don’t get a lot of his back story, but from appearances he was horribly burned at some point. He seems to be profoundly retarded. He has no genitals, and not much is left of his face. His body is twisted, whether from deformity or mutilation it’s hard to say. (I wouldn’t be ... Read more »

Under the Dome

(2013)

I wasn’t greatly impressed by the book by Stephen King. I’m a big fan, but I didn’t think it was his best. The idea is very simple: One day without any warning, an invisible dome appears over a small town, shutting it off from the outside world. Anything that straddled the line where the dome appeared is cut into two pieces. (To show how movies almost always make things bigger than the ... Read more »

The Box

(2009)

In the beginning was the short story, and the short story was called “Button, Button,” and it was by Richard Matheson, and it appeared in Playboy in 1970. And in those days I read Playboy (for the stories and interviews, naturally), and I read the story, and it was okay. It went like this: Guy gives a couple a box with a button on it. ... Read more »

Under Seige

(1992)

Most action movies are so bad that I become grateful for one that makes at least a nod toward believability. The whole premise is preposterous, naturally, but that needn’t stop me enjoying it, if the hero uses his head instead of just his muscles. Unexpectedly, this one does okay in that regard. Some seriously screwy people hijack the USS Missouri on its way to ... Read more »

Under Capricorn

(1949)

Alfred Hitchcock was just coming off his experiment with Rope, where he tried to make the whole film in real time with as few camera cuts as possible. He was limited by how many minutes a camera of that time could film, which was about ten minutes. He later called that a stunt. But he was still interested in the idea of long, long takes. And there are a lot of them here. Such long takes ... Read more »

Unconditional Love

(2002)

Excellent little gem starring Kathy Bates, who is never bad, and Rupert Everett. When her husband leaves her she takes off on a wild adventure, attending the funeral of a gay singer she worshiped. She gets involved with his lover … and the movie gets a little wild here, but it kept me going. A great performance by one Meredith Eaton (4’ 3″), as a kick-ass midget.

The Blind Side