Movie Reviews
Captain Horatio Hornblower
I read all the Hornblower books some years ago, tracing his progress through the ranks of the Royal Navy from seasick midshipman to Admiral of the Fleet. They are great books, though not quite as wonderful as Patrick O’Brien’s Aubrey/Maturin sea stories. This movie combines the plots of the first three Hornblower novels, and it’s a rip-roarin’ swashbucklin’ show indeed. It even seems ... Read more »
Once Upon a Time (TV series)
Season One. The premise was interesting. In Fairy Tale Land (or something like that), Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) marries Prince Charming (Josh Dallas), which enrages the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla). She puts a curse on everyone there, and banishes them to a land where there are no happy endings: Our world. They all live in Storybrooke, Maine (actually British Columbia), and none of them ... Read more »
The Public Eye
Arthur Fellig was probably the best news photographer who ever worked. He was known as “Weegee,” after the Ouija board, because of us uncanny ability to be where the sensational news was happening, sometimes even before the police got there. He had a complete photo lab in the trunk of his car, so he could be selling printed pictures while his competitors were still heading to their ... Read more »
“I Know Where I’m Going!”
Here’s a good example of how a good but fairly standard romance can be elevated to greatness by good cinematic technique. The script is good, if predictable, the acting is competent and in the case of Wendy Hiller, even excellent. But I think the movie would have been forgettable if not for the cinematic touches by The Archers, the brilliant long-time team of Michael Powell and Emeric ... Read more »
The Grey
It wasn’t reviewed all that well, but with Liam Neeson in it I just had to take a look. The first half hour was very, very good, with one of the best and most harrowing plane crashes I’ve ever seen. It’s a terrible one, into some remote region of Alaska, and most of the load of oil workers die on impact. A few more die later, and we are left with seven who have to figure out how to ... Read more »
Callaway Went Thataway
Oh, my, how TV has changed. Are any of you old enough to remember when it was a rounded little screen—maybe a whole fifteen inches!—with a fuzzy image in black and white? In those days pitchmen and women spoke directly to the camera, selling refrigerators, like Betty Furness, or Vitameatavegamins, like Lucy Ricardo. Or any number of other products, such as breakfast cereals. (In the ... Read more »
Prizzi’s Honor
I must confess a bit of prejudice regarding this movie. It was produced by John Foreman, my best friend during my Hollywood years. I thought it was a great movie even before I met John. It was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Picture, which would have meant an Oscar on his mantle. But it was the year of Out of Africa—which I thought was a ... Read more »
A Shock to the System
Michael Caine is an executive with a wife (Swoosie Kurtz) he no longer loves, and soon he discovers that he’s been passed over for the job, which he needed to maintain his lifestyle, for a younger man. In the basement one day, trying to repair a short circuit in his house’s wiring, he gets a shock that knocks him on his ass … and seems to work a change in his outlook on life. It’s a “shock ... Read more »
Nude Nuns With Big Guns
A while back Netflix announced that you could have unlimited streaming of movies direct to your TV for only $7.98 per month. It sounded great. I mean, we had the one-DVD-at-a-time plan, for the same money, but it takes a while for the DVDs to get back to Netflix and another while before the ones they send out get to you. With this streaming deal, you could watch a movie every night! We ... Read more »
The Prince and the Pauper
What the U.S. distributor thought was wrong with Mark Twain’s original title I can’t imagine, unless they thought it sounded like a children’s film. But they changed it. It was not very successful in either incarnation.
I’ve been reading a Hollywood memoir by the screenwriter, George MacDonald Fraser, who scripted two of my Top 25 films: The Three/Four ... Read more »