Movie Reviews
Three Days of the Condor
Based on a really good novel by James Grady, called Six Days of the Condor. That sounds about right for a movie made from a book. You always have to cut something.
This was a damned innovative movie at the time Sydney Pollack made it. These days we would call it a techno-thriller, and this was one of the first. Computers were still largely mysterious to ... Read more »
Rust and Bone
This one is a strange sort of mix of different elements. It sort of pops in and out of the story of these two people and when it reaches a certain point, it just stops.
The most dramatic part concerns Stéphanie (Marion Cotillard), who is an orca trainer at a French Marineland. There is a terrible accident and she loses her legs. It’s too chaotic to see what actually happens, if the ... Read more »
A Boy and His Atom
First there was The Kiss (1896). May Irwin and John C. Rice cuddle, snuggle, then he grooms his huge mustache and plants a great big smackeroo on her lips. Total elapsed time, about forty seconds.
Then there was ... Read more »
Silver Linings Playbook
The credits began to roll, and I found myself thinking, What was the big deal? I mean, it’s a perfectly fine little romantic comedy, about as light as cotton candy, and just as sweet. I had a good time, except for the first half hour when I wasn’t expected to. And this qualifies for a Best Picture nomination?
Bradley Cooper is bipolar, just getting out of an institution after ... Read more »
Headhunters
Aksel Hennie is Roger Brown, a corporate headhunter, a man who finds the perfect person for any upper-level job. He’s real good at it, but he’s a little guy married to a Norwegian Valkyrie easily a head taller than he is, and he feels compelled to provide her with the life-style he assumes she feels she is entitled to. His job isn’t enough, so he has a sideline of going into houses and ... Read more »
The Citadel
Robert Donat seems to me to be severely underrated these days. He’s best known for The 39 Steps and Goodbye, Mr. Chips, for which he won an Oscar. Quite an accomplishment in the year of Clark Gable and Gone With the Wind, which swept nearly everything else. I never saw him in anything where he was less than ... Read more »
S1m0ne
A b1t 0f a pr0blem dec1d1ng where t0 alphabet1ze th1s 0ne. 1 guess we’ll f1gure 1t 0ut. 1t stars Al Pac1n0 and Cather1ne Keener. It als0 starts Win0na Ryder and Evan Rachel W00d, aged 15, wh0 f1ve years later w0uld star 1n Acr0ss the Un1verse. 1 will n0w revert t0 the regular alphabet as the Romans 1ntended.
Pacino is a producer/director who is being ... Read more »
Fire Over England
Fire Over England (1937) This is the first time Lawrence Olivier and his lover, Vivien Leigh, appeared together in a film, and is rumored to be the film that landed her the plum part of all time: Scarlett O’Hara. It’s a swashbuckler, taking place in the lead-up to the Spanish Armada. Larry is sent to spy on the Spanish. He only got fourth billing, since Flora Robson as Queen Elizabeth was ... Read more »
Defiance
EPISODE ONE: Pilot.
A new series on the SYFY channel, so we decided to take a look at the 2-hour pilot. It seems we are to learn most of the back story piecemeal, as only a little here and there was revealed in this episode. That’s cool, no need for huge expository lumps (though we do get one). But the Wikipedia article has an EXTENSIVE summary of What Came ...
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
When I first heard this would be no less than three movies, I wondered how they could possibly do it. I mean, first Peter Jackson took The Lord of the Rings, a massive trilogy, and made three massive movies out of it … and still had to leave out a lot. Now we have this one, and in 2013 we will be getting The Desolation of Smaug, and in ... Read more »