Movie Reviews
Titles starting with S
Scrooge
I knew that A Christmas Carol had been made a lot of times, but I hadn’t realized just how many. The IMDb lists 32 feature-length movies. There are dozens of shorts, dating back to 1908. It has been made in many languages. Ebenezer Scrooge has been played by Fredric March, Ralph Richardson, Jim Carrey, George C. Scott, Alastair Sim (in 1951 and still the best, in ... Read more »
Scrooged
This was our Christmas Eve movie this blessed year of 2008, the last year the chimpanzee from Texas will defile our White House. I’ve always had a soft spot for this one, and don’t really understand why so many critics were so harsh with it. I loved the character of Frank Cross (Bill Murray), who would have horrified Ebenezer Scrooge if they’d ever met. I loved the updating, with the Ghost ... Read more »
The Sea Hawk
Nobody could buckle a swash as well as Errol Flynn, and this is one of the very best swashbuckling sea adventures. It was directed by Michael Curtiz, who may be the most under-rated guy in Hollywood from this era. Maybe it’s because there is no trademark “Michael Curtiz” film. Yes, he is well known for directing classics like Casablanca and action movies like ... Read more »
The Sea Inside
Based on a true story of a quadriplegic poet who fought for 30 years for his right to die, and when he was unable to convince the legislators and courts, was helped by friends.
I believe in the absolute right to die, not only for the physically disabled but for anyone who finds life intolerable. Any other point of view means you believe the state, or the church, or your neighbors own ...
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The Sea is Watching
The movie takes place in a geisha house, and is taken from an unproduced script by one of my two favorite directors of all time, Akira Kurosawa. But it’s a minor piece.
Sea of Love
I tell you, by the time this was over I was pretty sick of hearing that song. The plot is that some crazed killer is shooting naked guys in their beds, and he leaves a “Sea of Love” platter spinning on the Victrola. Al Pacino is an alcoholic cop, and quite an asshole. He’s one of those guys who drives his wife to divorce, and then won’t let her go, tormenting her and her new husband with ... Read more »
The Sea Wolf
A really good sea adventure which relies for its power almost totally on the performance of Edward G. Robinson as Wolf Larsen, a fascinating figure who is a self-taught scholar and philosopher, a smuggler, a sadist, and many other things. He rolls right over this movie and completely overshadows Ida Lupino and John Garfield. This Jack London novel has been filmed no less than 13 times, but ... Read more »
Seabiscuit
A big Hollywood movie in the best sense of that term, based on a story that could have been imagined in Hollywood, but happens to have been true.
The Seafarers
There’s no way to describe this other than “awful.” It’s not even a documentary, was probably never shown in theaters. It’s a thirty-minute commercial and recruiting film for the Seafarers International Union. Somehow the title led me to think I’d be seeing some ships, maybe sailing ships. Actually, there are only about two or three minutes of shipboard activity, all aboard tankers and ... Read more »
Sealed Cargo
I’m a big fan of movies produced by the studio system from the ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s, but I’m also the first to admit they can be more than a bit formulaic. They discovered what the audience wanted—romance, even if it’s implausible or unnecessary, good-looking people in peril, and most of all, a happy ending, even if it made no sense—and they gave it to them, year after year. So when I sit ... Read more »