Movie Reviews
Titles starting with B
Beautiful Creatures
At first I thought this might be that early movie by Peter Jackson, about the two girls who murder the mother of one of them in New Zealand (and one of them goes on to become the best-selling novelist Anne Perry), but that was Heavenly Creatures. That one starred Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey. This one stars Rachel Weisz and Susan Lynch. They are two strangers ... Read more »
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
I’m not the first one to say it, but if Jesus came back today we would nail the bastard up again. (Jesus is a probably fictional character in Christian mythology, written about in manuscripts by four men who almost certainly never met him.) The cross would be constructed by Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, Mike Pence, and the Reverend Jerry Falwell, Jr. Our Goon-in-Chief would congratulate ... Read more »
Beauty and the Beast
Though I have a personal preference for The Little Mermaid, there is no doubt that this movie is the masterpiece of the Disney Renaissance of the 1990s. It continues the Broadway structure pioneered by The Little Mermaid, and also has songs by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. (Sadly, Ashman died of AIDS before he could see this film. It ... Read more »
Beauty and the Beast
When I heard of Disney’s intentions to remake some of their classic animated features as live action films, I thought it was one of the worst ideas I ever heard. Then I saw The Jungle Book, and now I stand corrected. The original Jungle Book was far from Disney’s best, in my opinion. It had some good music, but the animation was ... Read more »
Because of Winn-Dixie
What a crock! It’s the damn neo-cons again, out to get us! You think you’re going to see a movie about a dog. Maybe Benji, or Lassie. But no, this is another thinly-disguised metaphor, this time in favor of the Bush administration’s “faith-based” bullshit. There’s this preacher and his little daughter. The mother has run away (worthless welfare cheat, probably), so God sends a scruffy ... Read more »
Becoming Jane
The problem, for me, with a romance story about an historical figure like Jane Austen is that we know going in that it will come to naught. She never married, so the only question is, what will screw up the great love of her life? In this case it’s class and money. The worthless aristocracy of the day never seemed to consider that they might do some actual work ... Read more »
The Bed Sitting Room
There is a short and happily diminishing list of movies I’d like to see but are very hard to find. They are not necessarily great movies—some of them are, but some are not even very good—but I saw them once, and would like to see them again. (There are also a few, like Kubrick’s Fear and Desire, that have hardly ever been seen by anyone, but have recently popped ... Read more »
Bedazzled
One of my favorite comedies of all time. Peter Cook—who died much too young—co-wrote it with his comedy partner Dudley Moore. Cook is the Devil, and Moore is a schmuck who can’t get the girl he loves to notice him. The Devil gives him seven wishes, each of which he screws up, naturally. (When he’s made a wish, the Devil says the magic words: “Julie Andrews!”) In ... Read more »
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
This is the 26th film we’ve watched in our marathon Disney animation festival, and the first one I hadn’t already seen. It will be 23 more until we reach another I haven’t seen: Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
It was based on two books by Mary Norton—The Magic Bedknob; or, How to Become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons, and Read more »
Beetlejuice
This was such a disappointment. It started out so fresh and funny, and then got stupid. What I could not abide was that there was a book, a guide to the afterlife, and if the couple had simply read it, as everyone else did, they could have avoided everything that happened to them. Known in the trade as the ... Read more »