Movie Reviews
Titles starting with S
Surrogates
The idea of people staying perpetually at home and interacting through television is not a new one. Neither is the use of remotely-controlled robots as stand-ins. Many science fiction stories have dealt with these themes, and I think there have probably been movies about it, too, though I can’t bring one to mind just now. There are all sorts of possibilities here, and this movie manages to ... Read more »
Susan Slept Here
Dick Powell’s last film, the 11th for Debbie Reynolds. About the only thing that caught my interest was in the first ten seconds, when the RKO Radio Pictures logo came up. I’m sure I’ve seen it a thousand times, but always in black and white. It was a real shock to see it in color. Other than that, this is a lame story about an older screenwriter (Powell was 48) who gets involved with a ... Read more »
Suspect Zero
This could have been a decent thriller about a serial killer except for its insistence of bringing in the hogwash known as “remote viewing.” Look it up if you don’t know what it is. There is a DVD extra where the director, E. Elias Merhige, a true believer, conducts an “experiment” wherein someone returns astonishing results. It is laughable. The leader of the exercise uses methods of cold ... Read more »
Suspicion
I think this could have been one of Hitchcock’s greats if he had been allowed to shoot the ending that he wanted, the one that was faithful to the book. But as it exists, it is fatally flawed by a totally stupid ending that was forced on him.
It was based on a book called Before the Fact by Francis Iles, a pen name for Anthony Cox. Cary Grant (I’ll refer ... Read more »
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher
There are four series of this: The Murder at Road Hill House, The Murder in Angel Lane, Beyond the Pale, and The Ties That Bind. Jack Whicher was a real cop, back in 1860 when the idea of a detective division was a new one. He was the inspiration for a Charles Dickens character, among other authors. The first series is based on a real ... Read more »
The Swarm
What a cast! Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Lee Grant, Patty Duke, Slim Pickens, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Jose Ferrer, Bradford Dillman, Fred MacMurray, and Henry Fonda! And by the end, only the first four are alive. It was clearly a paycheck movie for most of these stars. And don’t forget, trillions and trillions of super-smart African killer ... Read more »
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
It’s probably been a year since I first heard that Tim Burton was directing this, possibly my favorite musical of all time. That was okay, he’s certainly weird enough to handle it. Then I heard about the casting. Johnny Depp? Helena Bonham-Carter? (Who just happens to be Burton’s girlfriend?) What the fuck is this? Both terrifically talented people, no question, but my question was ... Read more »
Sweet and Lowdown
I was soon reminded of Zelig, in that this is about a fictional character, a jazz guitar player whose music sounds like Django Reinhardt—and in fact, some of the music is by him—and is interrupted from time to time by commentary by the likes of real people like Nat Hentoff and Woody Allen himself. But it can’t be a bio of Django, because Emmett Ray (Sean ... Read more »
Sweet Charity
Lyrics by Dorothy Fields, music by Cy Coleman, book by Neil Simon, from the film Nights of Cabiria by Federico Fellini. This is one of my all-time favorite musicals. It doesn’t hurt that I saw it on Broadway in the 1986 revival starring Debbie Allen, once again choreographed by Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon. She was superb. The show was superb. I laughed and I cried. ... Read more »