The Notorious Bettie Page

First, in reviewing this movie, I feel a need to make a declaration of my own sexual proclivities … but only to the extent of revealing what does not turn me on. I am uninterested in ladies’ undergarments of the ‘50s. Girdles, garters, hose, bulky bras; they all bore me. Leather, latex, rubber, six-inch heels … I might as well be watching the mating dance of the emperor penguin. ... Read more »

The November Man

Pierce Brosnan is a CIA agent on an assignment to impersonate an American ambassador and draw the fire of an assassin so his trainee sniper, Luke Bracey, can kill the hitter. But it all goes south and a child is killed. Pierce hangs up his 00 license to kill. Five years later, he is summoned out of retirement … yes, that old story. You know that he will be ... Read more »

Now You See Me

I am a big fan of magic, that is to say, illusions. I don’t believe in the hocus-pocus kind, and neither should you. This is one of the better movies about stage magic, and I didn’t believe much of it … which is okay because, beyond the implausibility of pulling off such a wild succession of stunts, the principles behind each one of them are good, and taken as bits and pieces, most of them ... Read more »

Now You See Me 2

Wouldn’t you think it would make more sense to call this sequel Now You Don’t? It just seems such an unimaginative way to name a film, sticking a number on the back. But I guess they want to make sure you know this relates to a previous hit.

If anything, I liked this one a little better than the first. As before, the tricks are based on real principles of ... Read more »

Nowhere Boy

The boy is John Lennon, and this is the story of the formation and early days of the Beatles. Or I wish it was. It does cover that, but spends entirely too much time on his relationship to his Mum who abandoned him and his Auntie Mimi, who raised him. This is interesting, though I’m often dubious about such depictions, feeling they are probably grossly simplified. The parts that fascinated ... Read more »

Nude Nuns With Big Guns

A while back Netflix announced that you could have unlimited streaming of movies direct to your TV for only $7.98 per month. It sounded great. I mean, we had the one-DVD-at-a-time plan, for the same money, but it takes a while for the DVDs to get back to Netflix and another while before the ones they send out get to you. With this streaming deal, you could watch a movie every night! We ... Read more »

Nude on the Moon

Science fiction cinema can truly be said to have come of age with this movie. Years before 2001: A Space Odyssey, while Stanley Kubrick was still wasting his time with half-hearted erotica like Lolita, the great Doris Wishman was hard at work on this little masterpiece that would revolutionize the genre, and also show a lot more tits ... Read more »

The Number 23

The trailer for this was intriguing, so I was surprised when it came out that it was almost universally savaged by the critics. Metacritic: 24. Rotten Tomatoes: 8%. Could it really be that bad? Answer: Yes. It’s that bad. The pace is slow, the setup unbelievable, and the development tedious. The shock ending didn’t shock. I know it’s possible to make a good movie ... Read more »

Number One Fan

The title translates as “She Loves It.” We have been lucky lately in stumbling across several small movies that surprised me. Surprise is such a rare thing in movies these days that I treasure them like a miser. This is one. Sandrine Kinberlain plays Muriel, a superfan, someone who pretty much devotes her life to obsessing over a super-pop singer, Vincent LaCroix, played by Laurent ... Read more »