Movie Reviews
Titles starting with E
Eight Men Out
Baseball’s blackest moment was in 1919, when players on the Chicago White Sox took money to throw the World Series. This movie lays it all out as it happened, game by game, and does a swell job of it. Without in any way apologizing for the conduct of the players, it should be pointed out (and the movie does so) that the team owner, Charles “The Other Cocksucker” Comiskey, treated his ... Read more »
El Dorado
El Dorado (1966) We were getting near the end of the popularity of that durable genre film, the western. We were only a few years from The Wild Bunch and some others that gave a newer and more realistic look at what the West was really like. This is one of the last gasps of the traditional view, where it mattered how fast you were on the draw (most shooting in ... Read more »
Elephant
A very interesting but maddening film. Gus van Sant has made a documentary-like portrait of one day at a high school that ends very much like Columbine. His point, and it’s a good one, is that it was an ordinary day, and we see ten or twelve students of different types. Who will live and who will die? There is no rhyme or reason behind any of it; some got lucky and some didn’t. They ran ... Read more »
Elevator to the Gallows
(aka Frantic, aka Lift to the Scaffold, UK) Hitchcock was not the only one working in the 1950s who could make a tense thriller. In France, Louis Malle made this little gem. Maurice Ronet is having an affair with Jeanne Moreau, wife of his rich industrialist boss. They decide to kill him, and he comes up with a foolproof plan. When ... Read more »
Elf
… is a wonderful idea: a man raised by elves at the North Pole, until he grows too large and sets out to discover his real father (James Caan). Bob Newhart and Ed Asner as Santa do a good job, but the movies lives or dies with Will Farrell, who is delightfully wide-eyed, apologizing when he’s hit by a car while jaywalking, or falling afoul of the world’s nastiest kids’ book author in ... Read more »
Elizabeth I
Is there a better actress working in the movies and television today than Ilyena Vasilievna Mironov?
What’s that? Never heard of her? Try Helen Mirren. We were stunned by her presence in The Queen, for which she is certain to win an Oscar nomination, and which she stands an extremely good chance of winning, this time. (She was nominated for Read more »
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
One of the all-time most gorgeous films ever, in terms of costumes (it won the Oscar) and settings and photography. And that, plus Cate Blanchett’s performance (always, it seems), are the only good things I can say about it. Let’s not even get into the myriad historical inaccuracies here; it’s not meant to be educational (and yet, I do have to mention that, far from defeating the Spanish ... Read more »
Ella Enchanted
A thoroughly charming movie aimed at teenage or younger girls but enjoyable by anybody who isn’t a grinch. It uses the techniques of Shrek, mixing fairy tale tropes with modern references to good effect. First time we’ve seen Anne Hathaway, since we didn’t see either of The Princess Diaries movies. Maybe we should. She’s very appealing, ... Read more »
Elstree Calling
A rather odd movie, and certainly not a “Hitchcock” film, but it’s listed in his credits because he had a small hand in directing parts of it. It’s a revue film, different acts coming on rather like they would on stage. It’s all British music hall stuff, which is sort of like American Vaudeville, but in many ways even worse. I don’t think many Americans would get it. There are said to be ... Read more »
Elysium
What a letdown. From the trailers it looked like it might be interesting. The main attraction was something we haven’t really seen before in a movie: An O’Neill colony. Remember those huge space habitats, concepts that go all the way back to the ‘60s? Put some spin on them, and you’re living on the inside of a donut, or a cylinder. (I was interested because it proves something that I have ... Read more »