Movie Reviews
The Women
We get a kick out of watching remakes and original versions of movies close together, so they’re easier to compare. We watched all four versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers within a month. (The first one is still the best.) Every once in a while a remake (Sorcerer, 1977) is as good as or better than the original (Read more »
Buck Privates
This was Abbott and Costello’s second movie, but the first where they got top billing. They were big stars on radio, and had been big stars in vaudeville, and with this picture they became big movie stars. It was a huge hit, one of the top-grossing films of 1941. And it’s really not much of a movie … in movie terms. But if you look at it as a vaudeville show, it’s damn good.
There ...
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A Woman in Berlin
In the early spring of 1945 the Russians had fought their way into Berlin. The Nazis were still fighting in some parts of the city; nerves were on edge. The Russian troops set about doing what soldiers have been doing since long before the Sabine women: looting, pillaging, and most of all, raping. In 1959 a book was published anonymously by a woman who had lived through it. The book caused ... Read more »
Bubba Ho-Tep
See, Elvis Presley, in an aluminum walker, and JFK (played by Ossie Davis) are in a nursing home in Mud Creek, East Texas, when it is threatened by an ancient Egyptian mummy who sucks souls. He can suck them from any bodily orifice, but prefers to take them out of the asshole. It being a nursing home, the souls are small, practically used up, so he needs a lot of them. Elvis and the ... Read more »
Brute Force
This is one of the better prison escape movies. It’s quite a big production, with huge sets filled with hundreds of extras. It was written by Richard Brooks, who went on to a career as a writer, director, and producer of some great movies. It was directed by Jules Dassin, an underrated guy in my opinion, whose career was interrupted when he had to flee to Europe to avoid being called ... Read more »
Bruce Almighty
I’m not a big Jim Carrey fan. I’ve liked about half his movies. This one is in the good half. Some great sight gags. I laughed.
The Brothers Grimm
Reduced expectations: The reviews were so bad I didn’t expect much, so I enjoyed it more than I might have. Which is not to say it’s good. Terry Gilliam is the master of the stunning visual, he’s miles ahead of most of the idiots out there trying to amaze us. But his weakness has always been story and, to some extent, character. He’s best when he is completely over the top, so we don’t ... Read more »
Broken Wings
I couldn’t dislike this movie. It deals with an harassed family, mother and 4 children, dealing with the death of the father 9 months before, from a bee-sting. They react in different ways, and in the end are somewhat drawn together by a near-disaster. But it wasn’t all I’d hoped. Maybe it was just too much suffering, or maybe some element I can’t put my finger on was missing. Not bad, but ... Read more »
A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop
Wow! This is not quite on the level of Gus Van Sant’s infamous shot-for-shot remake of Psycho (for one thing, I mostly liked this one), but it’s close. The famous director Zhang Yimou, who has done a lot of good movies and who put together the gigantic Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, decided to remake Blood Simple, and set ... Read more »
Broken Flowers
There’s not a lot I could say about this without a spoiler warning, so here it is: SPOILER WARNING
An “aging Don Juan” (Bill Murray) gets a letter from an ex-lover who says he has a 19-year-old son he hadn’t known about, and the son may be seeking him out. He doesn’t want to get involved, but his nosy neighbor pushes him to the ...
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