Movie Reviews
Titles starting with T
Thirteen Conversations About One Thing
I never did quite get what one thing the thirteen conversations were about, and I’m not going to venture a guess. This is one of those movies where several stories are interconnected by the characters involved, though they may not even be aware of each other. That can work poorly or well, though I have to say most of them feature high-quality acting and writing. They are done as labors of ... Read more »
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
One of the very best WWII movies, made during wartime. Pretty much everything about the Doolittle raid on Japan is accurate, and a lot of the nuts and bolts are shown, which makes it all the more realistic. They of course had actual B-25 Mitchell bombers to work with, and though the Navy couldn’t loan them a carrier, the set designers and SFX people made those scenes convincing, too. The ... Read more »
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
Actually, it is, the infamous NC-17, the kiss of death because no studio will distribute it, very few of the enormous chains that run 90% of the screens in America will exhibit it, and few newspapers will advertise it. The process of getting this rating is part of the film, and it’s one that would have delighted Stalin or Hitler. You go in knowing nothing, and you come out with a ... Read more »
This Is Spinal Tap
Best rockumentary ever, and it’s not even real. The members of Spinal Tap, the band, toured for years on the strength of this movie, and I’m not sure all the audience was in on the joke.
This Is the End
God, I hated this movie. And I was stunned to see how many critics thought it was great. The premise is that James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogan, and a couple people I don’t know, playing themselves, hole up in Franco’s ugly, pretentious hillside home after Los Angeles is hit by some Biblical Armageddon. And act like total assholes. ... Read more »
This Is the End
God, I hated this movie. And I was stunned to see how many critics thought it was great. The premise is that James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogan, and a couple people I don’t know, playing themselves, hole up in Franco’s ugly, pretentious hillside home after Los Angeles is hit by some Biblical Armageddon. And act like total assholes. ... Read more »
This Land is Mine
Charles Laughton is a quiet mama’s boy, a school teacher in occupied France (well, it says “somewhere in Europe,” I don’t know why, but it’s obviously France). He don’t get no respect, not even from his students and frankly, he doesn’t really seem to deserve it. But when the chips are down, when the Resistance begins hitting at the Nazis, he turns out to have more spine that most of his ... Read more »
This So-Called Disaster: Sam Shepard Directs the Late Henry Moss
I love the theater, and movies about backstage at the theater. This is a real backstage movie, in that it follows the rehearsals and re-writes of a play by Shepard called The Late Henry Moss. The cast includes Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Woody Harrelson, Cheech Marin, and James Gammon. The play is autobiographical, in a metaphoric way, and concerns Shepard’s relationship with his alcoholic ... Read more »
Thoroughly Modern Millie
I saw this in Hollywood at the Cinerama Dome when it first came out. I was enchanted, and still am. I’ve always loved Julie Andrews, even in that sappy The Sound of Music. Films like The Americanization of Emily, Mary Poppins, and Victor/Victoria show her range, but she is best when she is singing and dancing ... Read more »
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, Or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes
I loved this movie from the fist time I saw it, in Detroit where I was working during the summer after high school graduation. Right from the jaunty little tune at the beginning, and the old footage of insane would-be airmen coming to grief in amusing ways, and the fantastic artwork of Ronald Searle, which I hadn’t seen before, it had me. The plot is negligible and some of the running ... Read more »