Movie Reviews
Titles starting with M
A Man and a Woman
Here is one of the fairly small number of “important” films that, for no real good reason, I just never got around to seeing. I think part of me thought, “Well, it’s a love story about a racing car driver. How special could it be?” The answer is, very special indeed. It was a groundbreaking film in terms of technique, and it holds up very well. There is a lot of use of hand-held cameras. ... Read more »
The Man From Earth
Here’s a rare thing. A true SF story that has not an ounce of violence or special effects. It is so talky and static, in fact, that it could easily have been presented on the stage. This is not a complaint. It is a movie of ideas, and intelligent discussion among smart people. The premise is that a man is 14,000 years old, and for the first time in his life is telling his story to friends ... Read more »
The Man From Elysian Fields
An undiscovered gem. Andy Garcia is a novelist who wrote a good first novel and a bad second one. He meets Mick Jagger, of all people, who runs an escort service for rich women. Complications ensue. James Coburn is very good, too, as a Hemingway figure.
The Man From Planet X
If you read every issue of magazines like Famous Monsters of Filmland and others like it back in the ‘50s, the critter from this movie will be very familiar to you. All those magazines suffered from a real shortage of images to use. It’s not like today, where every other movie is a creepy slasher or bad SF or monster or vampire movie and there are endless ... Read more »
The Man From U.N.C.L.E
I had forgotten just how popular this series was. According to Wiki it lasted only four seasons, and for some inexplicable reason they decided to tamper with it after the second season, turning it into more of a comedy than a drama. Fans stayed away in droves, and it was cancelled. I can’t recall ever seeing it, but one of my best friends was just obsessed with David McCallum as Ilya ... Read more »
The Man in the High Castle
No science fiction writer has had as many movies made from his novels and short stories as Philip K. Dick. No one else even comes close. There have been at least a dozen movies and several TV shows, and a few more are in the pipeline. Many billions have been made from them, and he got almost none of it during his lifetime, since he died shortly after the sale of rights for “Do Androids ... Read more »
The Man in the White Suit
The Man in the White Suit (1951) Another of the classic Ealing comedies, once more starring Alec Guinness. This one has more of a political message than any of the others I’ve seen. Sidney Stratton is an eccentric, obsessed chemist who invents a fabric that is pretty much indestructible, and never gets dirty. At first a mill owner is eager to produce this stuff and get it on the market. ... Read more »
Man of Steel
Hey, listen. Isn’t it about time we put these superhero assholes out to pasture? When does it end? Every year brings us Superman or Batman sequels, prequels, spinoffs, and the worst of all, the dreaded reboot. It’s emblematic of the total lack of originality in Hollywood these days, or at least of the studios. Independents do produce smart, original movies every year … and nobody goes to ... Read more »
Man On Fire
Denzel Washington apparently wants to be an action film leading man. I got no problem with that, I hope he gets very, very rich. But if he keeps making routine shoot-em-ups like this he’s going to lose my respect as one of the finest actors we’ve got. The first half is good, the little girl is amazing. The second half is unbelievable. Pretty much like Denzel’s last three or four films.
The Man On Lincoln’s Nose
This was the working title for North by Northwest. This film is a 40-minute documentary about Robert Boyle, who did the art direction for that movie and half a dozen other Hitchcock films, and was the production designer for many more movies. (He’s still alive, and if he makes it to October he will be 100 years old!) Since we’d just seen NxNW I thought it might ... Read more »