Movie Reviews
Titles starting with M
Make Mine Music
Another package film, the Disney Studio marking time until they could afford to produce another feature-length story. The two previous ones, Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros had a theme: South America. Two films to come—Fun and Fancy Free and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. ... Read more »
The Makeover
Julia Stiles is Hannah Higgins, David Walton is Elliot Doolittle. She is cultured, educated, he is blue collar. There are other clues if you haven’t already got it that this is a take-off on Pygmalion with the genders reversed. It goes along fairly well, then gets a little overboard as he becomes a viable candidate for mayor of Boston. Naturally romance gets ... Read more »
The Making of Miss Saigon (The Heat is On)
The Making of Miss Saigon (The Heat is On) (1989) Here is one of the Broadway smash hit musicals I’d most like to see. No movie has ever been made from it (nor Sunset Boulevard, as well), unlike The Phantom of the Opera and The Producers. I recently saw a story that suggested the investors are waiting to see ... Read more »
Maleficent
I have always been drawn to Disney villainesses. I’m not quite sure why. Maybe it’s because the bad guy is just about always more interesting than the hero. Madame Medusa, Ursula the Sea Witch, Queen Grimhilde, and especially my darling Cruella De Vil, they’re all fascinating to watch. And way up there on the list has always been Maleficent. So when I heard they were making a movie told ... Read more »
Malta Story
I’m a sort of WWII buff, but I hadn’t known much about the siege of Malta. The little island is smack dab in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and thus, in wartime, was a vital place for airfields used to attack convoys coming from any direction The British held it, but it was a very tenuous hold. The British troops and RAF pilots and the Maltese people were hammered every day by ... Read more »
The Maltese Falcon
First I’ll make a confession. I am a big fan of mystery novels, including the classic hard-boiled ones from the ‘30s and ‘40s. I think Raymond Chandler is one of the great American writers. But I am not a fan of Dashiell Hammett. It’s not that he couldn’t spin a good tale (this is a very good one), I just don’t much like his style of writing. That’s just me. Most mystery fans adore him. ... Read more »
The Maltese Falcon
It was a lot of fun to see this, probably the greatest hardboiled detective movie of all time, right after seeing the original version, also released as Dangerous Female. In my review of that one, I mentioned the static camera, the noisy sound track, and the old-fashioned silent movie acting. Watching this one now, I realized that the most important thing the ... Read more »
Mama’s Little Pirate
Somebody discovers pirate treasure, so the gang wants to go out looking for some. But Mama won’t let Spanky go. He splits in two and his devilish side says he should sneak out, which he does. They find a cave and tie a long string to Buckwheat so they can find their way back. Naturally, she follows them. They find a gigantic treasure chest and fill their pockets with gold until they can ... Read more »
Mamma Mia!
I don’t know much about ABBA. I know a few of their songs, ones that got so much play that you could hardly have missed them, like “Dancing Queen” and “Take a Chance on Me” and something about Hernando or Fernando or Orlando (I’m terrible at hearing lyrics). I also know it’s hip to look down your critical nose at them, like the Bee Gees and John Denver and Neil Diamond. I don’t care about ... Read more »
Mammoth
Since I recently published a book with the same title, I felt it was my unpleasant duty to watch this. So I recorded it while we watched The West Wing and The Sopranos, then watched the tape the next night.
Very soon I was making a lot of mental notes, various nasty things to say, really vicious cuts and overhand chops and knees ...
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