The Reckoning

A touring troupe of actors in 1380 come to a village where a deaf-mute woman is about to be hanged for murder. They begin to suspect she is innocent. The movie is well done, and reminds one a little of Hamlet (“The play’s the thing, wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king!”), and a little like Agatha Christie where Poirot gets everybody together to explain the murder, and something ... Read more »

Recording “The Producers”: A Musical Romp With Mel Brooks

Exactly what it sounds like. Cameras were brought in to the recording session for the Original Cast album of Mel Brooks’s huge Broadway hit. I’m fascinated by this sort of thing. I’ve seen several of them. The one for Sondheim’s Follies got rather heated before the end, but it turned out to be worth all the berating and bad feeling as Stephen S. kept demanding more, more, more from Alexis ... Read more »

Rectify

The Sundance Channel has been doing original series programming lately. We watched one of them, Top of the Lake, and liked it, so we decided to give this one a try. We’re three episodes in just now, and I’m still not sure if I want to continue.

Dan (played by Aden Young, who looks a little like Aiden Quinn to me) was convicted of raping and murdering a ... Read more »

RED

Sometimes an action movie can be completely ridiculous and I can still have a lot of fun. This is one of them. It alternates between over-the-top but fun action scenes and comic releases of tension. Most of the humor comes from Mary Louise Parker, who is very good as a government worker Bruce Willis has been talking to simply because he is terminally lonely, and ends up fleeing for her ... Read more »

Red 2

Red 2 (2013) The first one was fun, the second not so much. It had its moments, but mostly it coasted on the reputation and situations of the original. However, it was nice to see once again that Varley’s First Law of Movie Violence still applies. It states that “No hero in any movie has ever been or will ever be harmed by a fully-automatic weapon.” In this case, among many others, it’s ... Read more »

The Red Balloon

I hate the phrase “instant classic,” but if there ever was such a thing, this little 35-minute film is it. Right from the very first, everyone with any sense could see that this was one for the ages, a film that would appeal just as much in 2019 (and probably 2119, if we live that long) as it did in 1956. It was the only short film ever to win the Academy Award for Best Screenplay, even ... Read more »

Red Dawn

Here’s one I watched when I was in the hospital recently, because the choices were pretty bad. And the movie is pretty bad. North Korea (North Korea!) has launched a takeover of the American West Coast. Why doesn’t the US Army, Marines, Navy, and Air Force move in and kick some Korean butt all the way back over the Pacific, and then clean out that pesthole known as North Korea? Some ... Read more »

Red Dragon

A remake of Manhunter with the part of Lector brought up front to capitalize on Anthony Hopkins’ Oscar win. In spite of that, it’s not bad.

Red Dragon

Red Dragon (2002) Most remakes suck. It’s just a rule of the game. But a certain percentage don’t need to hang their heads in shame. This is one, a pretty faithful new take on Manhunter, with Edward Norton as Will Graham and Ralph Fiennes as Francis “Tooth Fairy” Dollarhyde. Emily Watson is the blind girl who touches Dollarhyde’s diseased heart, and Philip ... Read more »

Red Eye

So Rachel McAdams can play the charming ingenue in the Wedding Crashers. In this one she gets her teeth into something completely different, and much more to my taste: a take-no-prisoners, no-nonsense businesswoman. She manages a swanky hotel in Miami and finds herself on a night flight from Dallas, heading home, sitting beside a man who says her father will be ... Read more »