Movie Reviews
Tanner ’88
This was a six-hour HBO mini-series, a one-hour pilot and then ten half-hour episodes. The idea was to follow a fictional presidential campaign at the same time the real campaigns were going on, and it works quite well. It was scripted by Garry Trudeau (did you know that Doonesbury is still running in newspapers? Or … somewhere, anyway, because who can find a ... Read more »
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
Every once in a while one gets a pleasant surprise. I never would have dreamed that Herman Wouk is still alive, but he is. As of today, 11/5/17, he is 102 and almost six months. And he published a book last year: Sailor and Fiddler: Reflections of a 100-Year-Old Author. Long may he write!
His novel The Caine Mutiny was a ... Read more »
The Outrage
As I said in my review of Rashomon, this is a much-maligned remake of that Japanese masterpiece by Akira Kurosawa. And it’s really not all that bad. Paul Newman plays the outlaw, here a Mexican bandito with maybe a little too much of an accent. Claire Bloom and Lawrence Harvey are the woman and her murdered (or was he?) husband. The three gathered at the Rashomon ... Read more »
Rashomon
Rashomon (1951) (Japan) In 1964 I went to the only theater in Port Arthur, Texas, that occasionally showed movies that didn’t star John Wayne or Doris Day. That’s where I saw 8½ and a few other foreign films. This one wasn’t foreign, but it was not quite like anything I had ever seen. It was called The Outrage, and it starred Paul ... Read more »
The Gift
The problem with reviewing some thrillers is that you can’t say much about them without revealing things that would be better left as surprises. This is one of those. It leads you down a certain path, never cheating at all, and then turns your head around. The plot, briefly, concerns a thirty-something couple who move from Chicago into a to-die-for house in the Hollywood Hills. Couple ... Read more »
Monsieur Vincent
The second Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film went to this little gem of a biopic. The Vincent in the title is Vincent De Paul, who became a saint in 1737, seventy-seven years after his death in 1660. I’m not much of a fan of the Catholic Church (please don’t accuse me of prejudice against Catholics; it’s the Church I don’t like, not the parishioners), but sometimes they hit the ... Read more »
O.C. and Stiggs
Even the most devoted fans of Robert Altman (and Lee and I count ourselves in that number) admit that this was a mis-fire at best, a total disaster at worst. Hell, even Altman himself admitted that it didn’t work, though he was careful not to blame the actors for the failure. It’s pretty clear that he never should have signed on to this turkey. It’s based on an extended story that appeared ... Read more »
Shoeshine
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has given out their Oscar Awards since 1929, but until 1947 no film made in another country had been honored. Then they started giving out Special Honorary Awards to films that were “primarily non-English-speaking.” They were not competitive, there was no slate of five nominees. The Academy members just selected one. It wasn’t until 1956 that ... Read more »
The Killer Elite
Sam Peckinpah directed this movie about a private company that offers assassinations to order for clients like the CIA. And I liked many things about it. The movie refused, for a while, at least, to stick to the tried and true story arc of films like this. James Caan and Robert Duvall are good buddies working for this company. And then within the first ten minutes Jimmy is shot in his ... Read more »
Ready to Wear
Many people, critics and everyone else, seem to really, really hate this film, and I’m not sure why. Just take a look at some of the user reviews at the IMDb. It is Robert Altman once again trying to re-capture the magic of Nashville, with its multiple story lines, very large cast, and lack of a real plot. He tried it earlier, with varying degrees of success, in ... Read more »