Movie Reviews
Connie and Carla
Nia Vardalos and Toni Collette are a singing team who have been together since elementary school. They have been plugging away at it for twenty years, playing tiny venues with their corny Broadway revue, getting nowhere but refusing to let it discourage them in any way. Then they witness a mob killing, and have to flee for their lives. They end up in Los Angeles, where they become part of ... Read more »
Clueless
This adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Emma, updated to a high school in Beverly Hills is a lot better than I had expected it to be. Which, I guess, would have been easy since I had no expectations of quality at all. Cher is rich and spoiled and superficial, but there is a heart down beneath all those expensive clothes. When she hears of the “Pismo Beach ... Read more »
The Shallows
I have to say it took considerable courage for me to watch this movie. I have a real phobia of sharks. This is called galeophobia, or selachophobia. I realize it is totally irrational, even though I can’t swim. I mean, the last time I was in water where sharks might be present was in about 1960, and I don’t ever intend to do that again, so the only way I can get in trouble is if a land ... Read more »
The Right Stuff
For a while I was wondering if I was destined to never see this film. I went to a theater in Eugene, Oregon, on opening day, and settled down with my popcorn and prepared to be stunned. And we got to Chuck Yeager riding his horse past the X-1 sitting out on the desert, testing the engines. (Never happened. Like much in this film, the scene was meant to be symbolic of many things.) And the ... Read more »
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
If I had to choose one food to eat for the rest of my life, it would be sushi. (Or fried chicken.) (No … sushi.) I guess that’s cheating, isn’t it? It’s like saying “I’d like French cuisine,” or Cajun, or Mexican, or Swedish smörgåsbord. So sushi would be the one type of food I could eat for the rest of my life. It is incredibly varied. It’s a hell of a lot more ... Read more »
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
This remake of the 1964 movie Bedtime Story is one of those rare examples of a remake of a damn good film that is even better than the original. Way better, in fact.
Lawrence Jameson (David Niven/Michael Caine) is a suave, sophisticated Englishman living in a super-swanky town on the French Riviera. He makes his big, Read more »
For Me and My Gal
This is Gene Kelly’s first movie, and I have to say it’s weird to see him getting third billing after Judy Garland and George Murphy. Gene would soon be a star as big as Judy, and bigger than George. It’s a tired old tale of vaudeville backstage rivalries. Many if not most of the early movie performers got their start traveling the small towns of America in vaudeville shows. It often ... Read more »
Die Hard, Live Free or
This was the fourth, and the last of the watchable Die Hard movies, six years before the terrible A Good Day to Die Hard. Yes, it’s getting a little tired, and yes, most of the action scenes are way beyond preposterous, but it’s possible to have fun here if you don’t think about it too much.
The most interesting thing about it, ... Read more »
Live Free or Die Hard
This was the fourth, and the last of the watchable Die Hard movies, six years before the terrible A Good Day to Die Hard. Yes, it’s getting a little tired, and yes, most of the action scenes are way beyond preposterous, but it’s possible to have fun here if you don’t think about it too much.
The most interesting thing about it, ... Read more »
The Next Three Days
Russell Crowe’s wife, Elizabeth Banks, is convicted of a crime she didn’t commit. Or did she? He works to get her out, and finally decides that a prison break is the only thing that will work. He’s an ordinary guy, at first, but he trains well and learns fast. I liked it that he made a lot of mistakes at first. I didn’t like it that, when he manages to get in, she at first refuses to go ... Read more »