Movie Reviews
Men in Black II
I would say this is a reasonably entertaining sequel, though it has all the flaws that sequels usually have. There is simply no way to re-capture the delight you get when you see an original idea, like the original Men in Black. Illegal aliens! Real aliens! Aliens posing as humans: Sylvester Stallone, Steven Spielberg, Al Roker, Dionne ... Read more »
THX-1138
I remember seeing this at the old Embassy Theater on Market Street in San Francisco when it was about a year old. (The Embassy was not a first-run theater. They specialized in triple features, and every day you could play Ten-O-Win for swell prizes!) It was totally unexpected, and this old SF fan was delighted. Nothing I’d seen was remotely like it. Even though ... Read more »
The Last Unicorn
The Last Unicorn (1982) (US, UK, Japan, West Germany) This weekend (5/26/16) we will be meeting our old friend Peter Beagle at Balticon 50 in Baltimore. We are looking forward to it, even though Peter is involved in some awful litigation with his former manager who seems to have stolen all his money and his copyrights. It might be a little awkward, as I used to be friends with the former ... Read more »
Rush
The Indy 500 is coming up this weekend, and as usual I won’t watch it. I like auto racing okay, but I never seek it out. It’s all pretty boring until someone crashes, isn’t it? And it’s kind of ghoulish to watch just for that.
I know even less about Formula One racing, which is much bigger in Europe than in America, where NASCAR “stock car” racing is king. Two of the best racing ... Read more »
Taxi Driver
I can still recall how slowly the tension built in this movie as we saw Robert De Niro become Travis Bickle, a cab driver who is rapidly sinking into insanity in reaction to all the ugliness he sees every night in his taxi. And back then, the shoot-out at the whorehouse was shockingly bloody and violent. I’d never seen most of a man’s hand blown off by a .44 Magnum before, and I don’t ... Read more »
Airplane!
(Second review) (Very much like the first one!) Every once in a while a movie comes along that changes everything. The Birth of a Nation was one. It changed the very size of movies. This one, I think, changed what comedy movies could be. There were many imitators after it, including Airplane II: The Sequel, ... Read more »
The Zero Theorem
I didn’t know how a Terry Gilliam film could have come and gone without me even being even aware of it. Then I went to Box Office Mojo, and the answer became apparent. Domestic gross: $257,706. Foreign gross: $513,000. Total earnings: $770,706! The total profits from popcorn in a Star Wars movie would be a lot more than that. I couldn’t ... Read more »
The Fisher King
Of all the films Terry Gilliam has made, this is the least Gilliamish, to coin a word. Usually he writes his own scripts, or at least contributes to the final draft. This one was written by Richard LaGravenese, who has penned some really fine movies. Gilliam’s films usually involve fantastical beasts and caricatures of humans, not something you can be emotionally involved with. This one ... Read more »
You Can’t Take It With You
A lot of people don’t like the films of Frank Capra, finding them to be too simplistic and sentimental, among other failings. Well, it’s a cynical age, but I am a big fan of most of them, such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Arsenic and Old Lace, and of course It’s a Wonderful Life. The man won three Best Director Oscars in five years, ... Read more »
The Final Girls
Here is an interesting premise, and for once they didn’t totally screw it up. I think it could have been better … but first, here’s what we got:
Max (short for Maxine, I guess) is the daughter of Amanda, a washed-up “scream queen” from the ‘80s, who starred in one cult slasher movie, Camp Bloodbath. Mom died in a car crash three years ago, and now Max is ... Read more »