Movie Reviews
Titles starting with G
Ghost Town
The reason for ghosts, it is said, is that the spirit of the dead has unfinished business to attend to and thus is unable to move on to whatever comes next. This was explored in the rather sappy but fun Ghost (which was saved from ordinariness by Whoopi Goldberg). Bertram Pincus, DDS (the brilliant Brit, Ricky Gervais), an irritating misanthrope, dies for seven ... Read more »
The Ghost Writer
The reviews were very good, and this was even more disappointing because of that. Ewan McGregor goes to the house where ex-PM Tony Blair (oh, okay, “Adam Lang,” but it’s so obviously Blair) is writing his memoirs. His job is to make the turgid stuff more readable. The perfectly awful house where the ex-PM and wife and staff live and work must have been designed by the same sadistic ... Read more »
Ghostbusters
With the all-female “reboot” opening just a few days ago, we figured we ought to take another look at this one to see how it holds up, and compare it to the new one, which we will see when the DVD is released. The reviews have been mixed, but I take that with a large grain of salt, since a lot of the howling came before anyone even saw it. And it came from the miserable fanboy types who ... Read more »
Ghostbusters
Is there something strange in your neighborhood? It’s probably the all-female remake of Ghostbusters. If you are a pathetic fanboy terrified that your penis might be on the small side, this has probably upset you a great deal. You feel like you’re getting slimed, right? So you have lashed out at it, just as you did at women playing online games, and the growing ... Read more »
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Maybe it’s because it followed the gigantic (but not unexpected) letdown of Terminator Salvation, but I enjoyed this movie a lot more than the bad reviews led me to believe I would. Goes to show you; don’t put too much credence in reviews, especially of romantic comedies. There were those who liked Zack and Miri Make a Porno and then ... Read more »
Giant
I never much cared for James Dean. Though he did a lot of TV in the early days, he only made three movies. I thought Rebel Without a Cause was ludicrous. I wasn’t much taken with East of Eden. Dean’s agonizing, his mannered and phony-looking screen presence … hell, just about everything about him irritated me. It’s no different here, in ... Read more »
The Giant Behemoth
In England where it was made, it was titled Behemoth, the Sea Monster, which makes a bit more sense than the rather redundant American title. But I guess it’s better than The Super Colossal Gigantic Titanic Behemoth. One will soon notice the resemblance to The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, and in fact it seems ... 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 »
Ginger and Rosa
It is 1962 and these BFFs are seventeen. Ginger’s father is the worst sort of “idealist:” one who rejects all the rules of society, especially the ones that are inconvenient for him. Iconoclast, non-conformist, pacifist, he went to gaol rather than even drive an ambulance or be a medic in the war with Hitler, which is admirable in my book. But when Rosa begins to fall for him, he lets it ... Read more »
Gingerbread Man
A bit of an odd history here. Robert Altman had never done a straight thriller before and wanted to try it. The screenplay is credited to “Al Hayes,” which is John Grisham. Seems it was based on a novel he abandoned, and then sold as a screenplay. But he didn’t like Altman’s insertion of profanity, so the pseudonym. It got fairly good reviews from the critics, not so much from the ... Read more »