Quantum of Solace

I suppose it got started when a cowboy in a silent-movie saloon fight broke a balsa wood chair over another cowboy’s head, and the stricken wrangler didn’t fall down dead with a cerebral hematoma, but got up to fight some more. It wasn’t helped when Tom Mix or Gene Autry shot a pistol out of a bad man’s hand, and the baddie just said OUCH! and shook his hand like ... Read more »

Quarantine

A remake of a Spanish film of 2007 called REC that got very good reviews at Rotten Tomatoes … and one of the worst films I’ve ever seen. For that reason I’d like to see REC (not yet available on DVD) to see what could be made of the promising premise that this movie totally wrecked. The idea: A super-rabies ... Read more »

Quartet

Quartet (2012) Way back in 1978 Dustin Hoffman began directing a nice little film called Straight Time. But he found it too demanding to both direct and star in the picture, so he handed it off to Ulu Grosbard, a Belgian. Other than that, he has directed no movies until this one. It’s not bad, and considering he’s now a senior citizen like me, even the choice of ... Read more »

The Quatermass Xperiment

This was listed as The Creeping Unknown, which was the US release title, but when the film started it used the original title, so I’m going with that. It’s much better than the US title would lead you to believe.

I have seen one of the Bernard Quatermass movies, Quatermass and the Pit (US title: Five Million ... Read more »

The Queen

First, we must always remember that a movie is not historical truth. Never is. A conscientious movie may try to be a close approximation, but that’s all it can be. Sometimes they don’t even try. I believe they tried here, what I know of events seem to have been presented accurately, and it rings true, but you know certain choices were made for dramatic purposes. But we ... Read more »

The Queen’s Gambit

I know two things about chess. (1) I know how each piece moves. (2) I know that I totally suck at it. Many years ago I walked right into a Fool’s Mate, and I haven’t touched a chess piece since. So believe me, you don’t even have to know (1) to enjoy this seven-part series from Netflix. It is not really about chess, it could have been a story about almost any sort of competition. ... Read more »

Quick Change

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Bill Murray comedy where he didn’t make me laugh, even the few I didn’t like. This is a good one. It’s really in two parts: an ingenious bank robbery, and then the attempt to make a getaway, which is foiled mostly by the city of New York. It reminded me of Martin Scorsese’s only comedy, After Hours. These bank robbers just keep ... Read more »

The Quiet American

One of those movies that I quite enjoyed at the time, but now I can remember very little about it. Must have been too quiet.

The Quiet Man

Though John Ford is best known for his classic westerns, he did other stuff, too. He made The Informer, Young Mr. Lincoln, The Grapes of Wrath, How Green Was My Valley, and Mister Roberts. He won the Best Director Oscar four times, which is a record that will probably never be broken. The Quiet Man is a movie ... Read more »

A Quiet Place

You know what I hate even more than a movie that obviously was a piece of stupid trash before the cameras even rolled? A movie that shows some potential for being something different, something original, something surprising that we haven’t seen before … and then blows it at the end. I hated, hated, hated this film because it blew it bigtime. I am going to reveal ... Read more »