The Ritz

Richard Lester was one of my all-time favorite directors. From A Hard Day’s Night in 1964 through Robin and Marian in 1976 I loved each of his 12 movies. I liked this one, too, and then he completely collapsed. He made 5 really bad movies, including two in the first Superman series, and one okay one, }}Cuba,}} then retired entirely in ... Read more »

River

Here we have a six-part mini-series from England that follows the investigation into the drive-by murder of the partner of John River, a homicide detective in London. He is played by Stellan Skarsgard, who is demonstrably crazy. He not only hears voices, he sees dead people, including some he never even met. He carries on a lot of conversations with them, considerably creeping out those ... Read more »

Rivers and Tides

RENT THIS DVD AT ONCE!!! Andy Goldsworthy is a weird Scotsman who is an “environmental sculptor.” And what the hell does that mean? Well, he’s not like Christo, who I love, whose works are all outdoors because they are so goddam big.

What he does is, he goes someplace, and he makes something. He uses no tools except what he finds there; for him, a rock or ... Read more »

Riverworld

Riverworld (2010) Philip Jose Farmer’s novel To Your Scattered Bodies Go won the Hugo award in 1972. I read it, and was not greatly impressed. Later there was The Fabulous Riverboat, set in the same puzzling world. I was even less impressed. When the third one came out I didn’t bother. The series went on for five books and several short ... Read more »

Rize

I guess I’m probably the last to hear about the clown dancers of South Central Los Angeles and Watts and Inglewood, places most white people never go. Also about “stripper dancing,” and “krumping.” My understanding is that this sort of dance is in a lot of music videos these days, but since I never see music videos …

This movie was a revelation to me. Briefly, a guy who later ... Read more »

The Road

Somebody got a bright idea: “Let’s make another ‘Road’ picture!” You know, those seven zany Bob Hope/Bing Crosby/Dorothy Lamour pictures of the ‘40s and early ‘50s full of ad-libbing, comic asides, inside jokes, and other hijinx. Chris Rock was going to be the Crosby character, Will Ferrell would be Hope, and Jennifer Lopez would be Lamour. They got a script and were all ready to go with ... Read more »

Road to Bali

The first and only one of the seven Road pictures to be made in Technicolor. Bali is a good place for it, too, with all those colorful sarongs and lush tropical vegetation … all on the Paramount sound stages, of course, but a lot of landscapers got a lot of work renting out potted plants. I thought this one started out a little slow, but it picks up after the first half hour. Some good ... Read more »

The Road to Guantanamo

I really hated this film. It’s about four guys from Tipton, England, of Pakistani descent, who go to Pakistan for the arranged wedding of one of them. (That’s insane, in my opinion, and a good illustration of how very far many Muslims have to go to attain civilization, but it’s their business.) Trouble is, it’s October of 2001. While there, they get the idea to go ... Read more »

Road to Hong Kong

And so the seven Road pictures end not with a dud, but a bit of a fizzle. All these movies were take-offs on one genre or another—jungle adventure, Arabian nights, tropical island, etc.—and this one is said to spoof the James Bond spy movies, though I don’t see how that’s possible since Dr. No was released the same month. I guess there were other secret agent/mad ... Read more »

Road to Morocco

I always get a kick out of running gags, inside jokes, anachronistic references and self-references, and breaking the “fourth wall,” and in this third Road movie Hope and Crosby really hit their stride. Hope is visited several times by his dead aunt (himself, in drag), and they twice refer to “Mr. Jordan,” the head angel in the comedy Here Comes Mr. Jordan. In ... Read more »