Movie Reviews
Titles starting with D
The Depahted
Well, that’s how they pronounce it in this movie, set in Bahstin. Everybody tahks like that. We’ve all seen stories about cops infiltrating the mob—the Irish mob in this case—but you add a level of complexity when you also have a mole in the police depahtment. It makes for some amazing twists and turns in the plot. Matt Damon and Leonahdo DiCaprio ah the twin rats, and their ... Read more »
Departures
The Japanese are a sentimental race, and they love their rituals. I mean, who else could make such a giant magilla about pouring a cup of tea? This movie is about a failed cello player who returns to his hometown and sort of accidentally gets a job as an “encoffiner,” a profession for which there is no American equivalent. (The ad said he would be assisting in departures, and he thought he ... Read more »
Derailed
Clive Owen is a more-or-less happily married man with a daughter who needs a super-expensive kidney transplant. He meets Jennifer Aniston on a commuter train to Chicago, and a romantic spark is kindled. They go to a seedy hotel and are about to get it on, when a mugger breaks into the room, beats him up, and rapes her repeatedly. He thinks it is over, but the mugger calls him up and ... Read more »
Dersu Uzala
Dersu Uzala (Дерсу Узала) (デルス·ウザーラ) (Japan, USSR) (1975) There never was anything that could be characterized as “A Kurosawa Film.” Yeah, he made some samurai movies and other films from Japanese history. But he also did several adaptations of Shakespeare, such as Ran from King Lear and Throne of Blood from ... Read more »
The Descendants
Matt King (George Clooney) opens the movie narration by pointing out that, though they may indeed live in paradise, the citizens of Hawaii face all the headaches, hardships, and heartaches everybody else has. Quite true. When your wife or mother is comatose and will never get better, it sucks no matter where you are. But as the movie goes on and they lounge on white beaches, canoe out in ... Read more »
The Descent
A truly scary movie is a pearl beyond price. That’s because there’s so few of them. I, myself, have only been truly frightened at the movies three times: with Psycho, Jaws, and Alien. Oh, I’ve jumped now and then, when the pet cat leaps out of the darkness, the sign of a true asshole ... Read more »
Designing Woman
The film came from an “idea” by costume designer Helen Rose, and exists mainly to show off thousands and thousands of fabulous outfits. It is a sort of Tracy/Hepburn comic war of the sexes, only with the new cast of Gregory Peck and Lauren Bacall. I didn’t know what to expect of Peck in a comedy, I only recall seeing him in more serious roles, but he does an ... Read more »
Despicable Me
CGI animation is such a crowded field these days that I often don’t even see the movies unless they get very good reviews. That’s because such a high percentage of them are nothing but sound and fury and movement, frenetic action for the sake of action. 3D animation can be the worst, because they are forever thrusting things in your face. Will they ever get tired of that? This one was ... Read more »
Destination Moon
We recently watched the godawful Project Moon Base, and I was reminded that I hadn’t seen this one, Robert A Heinlein’s good movie, in many years. As I said in the PMB review, I recalled that DM was an honest attempt to show a trip to the moon in as scientifically accurate a manner ... Read more »
Destroyer
Edward G. Robinson is the salty of veteran who helped build a destroyer and is now sailing on it, and mightily unhappy at the new ways of the officers and crews. The fact is that the destroyer is a piece of shit, falling apart almost before she slides down the timbers and into the water. But through pluck and luck, they manage to operate the leaking old tub, shooting down six Jap planes ... Read more »