Reviews

This movie cries out for Cary Grant, not Gary Cooper as the infamous Lothario. Once you can get past the miscasting in the vital role, the dialogue, the writing, the photography, the direction, and the supporting acting are all wonderful, most especially McGiver and Chevalier. Audrey Hepburn is equally impeccable, and the music is magnificent. With Cary instead of Gary, this would be an all-time classic. Instead, it's merely a whimsical delight.

The Paul Sorvino sequence itself is classic. Timothy Hutton makes a fine hero for this ultimate feel-good movie. I've seen this 3 times, and enjoyed it more each time. Robert Culp is perfect as the mayor. Darren McGavin and Peter Boyle are both wonderful in their supporting roles, as are Robert Urich and David Wohl -- even though they are given less to do. I see a couple people referring to this as a turkey, and I'd like to know why. I thought the characters are very true to themselves, and the relationships were well-thought out, well-paced and well-executed. Forget the critics, just watch and enjoy.

Not all movies are serious pieces of art. If you are in the mood for a sexy movie to enjoy with your boyfriend on a special night, this will make you laugh and turn you on, and is not as degrading to women as the majority of the genre. There were some good lines and all three actually was some real acting going on in the non-nudie scenes, much better than I expected. I thought the reporter was the best of the three, but the three of them had the appropriate chemistry together. My biggest criticism is that with the exception of the actor who played the agent, none of the men could act, and none of them had exceptional bodies either. Regina Russell's boyfriend, in particular, had a terribly scrawny body, and looked like he was reading word-for-word. The one playing the movie star wasn't too bad though. Have fun.

Ryan O'Neal was so clever and seductive in this movie, I wanted to go to bet with him too. The focal point of the movie is the fascinating love story -- not between O'Neal and Bisset or between O'Neal and Jill Clayburgh -- both of which were quite entertaining, but the cerebral symbiotic linkage between Warren Oates and O'Neal. This has to be Oates' best performance of all time. Young Ned Beatty and Charles Cioffi are very good --leading a quite capable supporting cast. Very enjoyable movie.

I was surprised to learn this was a Sydney Pollock movie. It has a sharply sardonic sense of humor with which it tries to balance, only semi-successfully, the ultra-realistic horrors of war with Ionescoesque theatre d'absurd. As the movie wavers, so does Lancaster's lead performance between buffoon, brute, and student-of-life. Peter Falk and Patrick O'Neal provide excellent supporting assistance, but cannot rescue this lost cause of a movie.

What can be funny in 25 minutes can be excruciatingly mind-numbing in quadruple that time. A few decent gags, but it is a sorry reflection on IMDB's constituencies to have this throwaway ranked in the top 250 movies of all time! I will refrain from calling the roll of at least 1000 better movies. Today's comedies too often confuse ridicule with wit, cynicism with insight, derision with revelation, and misanthropy with humor. Putting together never-ending scenes of nasty people saying nasty things over and over again does not constitute a classic comedy.

Once again, Michael Mann illustrates clearly that has a film director, he sure knows how to do videos and car chases. Some great performances -- Crowe & Plummer are standouts -- are wasted in this holier-than-thou docudrama which uses distance as a deadly weapon against its own characters. Disappointing because there were some excellent moments here, but far too much detached misanthropy.

Yes, it is still possible to make a great film noir. Superb acting, directing, dialogue, make-up, and score combine to cast a magical spell. Kevin Spacey is used perfectly, but the entire cast is spot-on. De Vito has never been more naturally cast. David Straithairn is superb in his bit. This should not be missed.

Fans of repetitive blood and gore will have a field day with this pretentious epic-scaled spectacle. Sentient human beings (read women) will simply be bored -- although Mel's body has seldom looked better. In fact I would have been less outraged at Mel winning best actor for this mess than best picture and best director. The camera techniques and art direction ARE excellent. But the gaffing, sound mixing, editing, and most of all the interaction of the strengths of the performances were strictly amateurish. Nowhere was restraint exercised. If this is the 63rd greatest movie of all time, then I am the 63rd stupidest women who has ever lived. It's a shame that fans of an historical epic such as this have no sense whatsoever of cinematic history. If you are female and over 30, do NOT waste your time on this drivel.

Many better anti-westerns have hit the screen than this lumbering, unnecessarily violent film. But, it apparently was time to give Clint his career achievement award. The acting is uniformly good, some classic scenes, but mostly one-note: ugly and depressing. I lost interest after awhile.

Some of Cat Stevens' best tunes highlight this marvelous serio-comedy of a romance between a young neurotic and an old philosopher. Ruth Gordon hits the pinnacle of her illustrious career with this take-no-prisoners performance. Bud Cort, fresh off Brewster McCloud and M*A*S*H seemed to be well on his way to establishing himself as one of cinema's top comic artists (If anyone knows what derailed him, please let me know). An excellent supporting cast blends absurdity and reality with great aplomb.

Norman Jewison, Sterling Siliphant, Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger combine to form an American masterpiece. The sound track and supporting cast, especially Scott Wilson and Beah Richards, are also devastatingly dead-on. Murder mysteries just don't get any better than this. Of course, this is much more than a mystery, combining social commentary, satire, intrigue, angst with complex characters and expertly filmed location shots. Simply put, this is one of the best 10 American movies of all time.

Hollywood in the '40's excelled at finding the ironic humor of the city slickers stuck in the country. MacMurray, Colbert, Kilbride, and Main are all excellent in this saga of urban sophistication torn asunder amidst bucolic realities. Just watch and enjoy.

Do NOT confuse this comedic gem with Warren Beatty's 1977 film of the same name -- that was actually a remake of a different 40's classic, "Here Comes Mr. Jordan." But, this is much better, and even more imaginative. Ameche is brilliant, versatile, and amazingly handsome as the protagonist. Laird Creagar is excellent as Lord Satan, and Allyn Joslyn and Eugene Palette head a great supporting cast. One of the wittiest comedies ever made. Don't miss it.

Julie Waters is always marvelous but Adrian Pasdar is a positive revelation in this wry gender-bent comedy about a transvestite who cannot suppress his obsession, and the changes he goes through when he's discovered. Unerringly eschews the vulgar, raucous easy jokes for genuine wit and true insight, and has an absolute ball while doing it. A very nice, low-key, feel-good, comedy

This quiet film has some very witty things to say and says some of them very cleverly including some marvelous scenes with Melvyn Douglas and Shirley McLaine. But it takes much too long to get started and Ashby allows Sellers to get carried away with his own cleverness too much. Perhaps this had been built up to me as a classic for too long because i did not watch it for the first time until 1989 and just now watched it again, but some of its purported wisdoms are too cliched to dwell upon as long as Ashby did. Overall, still worth watching -- just don't expect a classic. This was touted to me as the best comedy of the 70's. I prefer The Ruling Class and The Sting.

Powell/Pressburger was a remarkable directorial duo -- and five of their films are among my top 10, but my all-time favorite movie is A Matter of Life And Death -- known in the US as Stairway to Heaven. This is the most romantic, wittiest, most clever, and altogether the most enjoyable movie I have ever seen. David Niven is at his most drop-dead dashing, and Roger Livesey is the doctor and friend all of us would love to have. This movie makes me laugh, cry, and most of all swoon. I just love it.

You will never find a better time capsule of 1933 than Bring 'Em Back Alive. This spectacular and horrifying documentary gets you inside the world and mind of one of the most celebrated hunters (and anthropologists!) of all time. This should be seen as one of the few surviving cinematic treatises on the state of wildlife in 1933 and also as a very telling piece of history.