Change Your Image
KrisKochanski
I also live in the centre of Tornado Alley, as the storms are so fond of reminding me lately. Seriously now, that's enough.
Reviews
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988)
Jealous much?
The negative reviews here just sound like childish ranting. Make it nice and long and get your tantrum out. I'm sure the cast and writers are doing just fine having done what they love: laughing and making others laugh. They might even have had a good laugh at some of the things said about them here. You're offended? We think it's funny. That's why we're happier than you. A sense of humour doesn't cost much. Here's a nickel. Go buy one.
Bones (2005)
meh...
I can either take this show or leave it (mostly leave it). This isn't really a review so much as an opinion. The corpses tend to look startlingly real; so real that I've found myself either screwing up my face in disgust or yelling "eeeewww!!" at the telly. 10 stars for that.
But beyond that I can't honestly say a whole of lot encouraging things.
The lab techs all remind me of a bunch of horny high school-aged kids in adult bodies, constantly expressing their need for or complaints about the lack of sex to their fellow co-workers. To make it even better *sarcasm* they go and do it in the store rooms during lunch breaks, perfectly oblivious to the fact that they could be contaminating an entire box of test tubes or petri dishes. In an episode that I saw recently, Dr. Saroyan had video of Angela and Hodgins going to town in the store room - and she said nothing to anyone except the guilty party AND rewarded Angela for it by giving her the only copy of it. In the real world, folks that behave that way get sacked or it is quietly swept under the carpet only to be later revealed by a whistle-blower, public scandals ensue, court room drama explodes and the business is enevitably shut down. Seriously, if the writers, producers and such want to make this a better show, get rid of the childish sex antics of the characters. Too much of this leads to disappointment in viewers. We can get enough of that on another channel at any time. 1 star for that.
One would think that an anthropologist that is so inept at the modes of modern society would not have much of an idea of how to dress trendy, but ol' Tempy seems to have no problems here. Or perhaps someone sneaks into her house every night and puts wardrobes together for her. It's not very convincing that someone so beautifully dressed, impeccably make-upped and perfectly coiffed would have no idea what it means to attract a mate by way of looks, so what's the point of her looking that way? Honestly? 1 star there.
Overall, this show just isn't very believable to me. "Dragnet" with its wooden dialogue was more believable than this.
Nanalan' (1999)
Cute and hilarious
One day I stayed home from work due to an illness. I was asleep until about 9:30 a.m. and eventually turned the telly on and started surfing the channels. I finally landed on the last 15 minutes of "Nanalan'". I had seen little blips before of Mona's honeydew melon head as I cruised the channels, but this time I thought "Well, I'm getting into illustrating children's stories, so I may as well check this out and see if I can get any ideas from it." Was I glad that I did. Mona was also sick and in bed and "Misser" Wooka had come over with his puppet theatre to give her a little entertainment. I laughed so hard over it that, at least for a few minutes, I actually felt a little better. From then on I tried to catch the prog whenever I could.
The end of the show always comes with a ring of the doorbell. Mona looks at the camera and yells "Mo-o-o-my-y-y-y!!" so sweetly that it just tugs at my heart. When I watch this it reminds me of the summer days that I spent at my grandma's house. When my mom came through the door I pretty much did the same thing as Mona.
Unfortunately "Nanalan'" is always on while I'm at work and doesn't come on again until after my bedtime, so I don't get to view it as often as I would like. :( This is great entertainment for kids and, well, for adults also. The characters and backgrounds scream colour and children can relate to the stories.
The White Bus (1967)
Strange piece of work
I saw this film for the first time about a week ago. Honestly, I didn't understand most of it. If given the chance to watch it again, I would, mostly to try to figure it out. It gave my husband the creeps.
The film is done with high quality and is masterful in setting moods. It runs like a nightmare, though. Situations in it are surreal, otherworldly, loud and then suddenly quiet. It seems to me that "The White Bus" is contrasting male and female roles in the workplace and why should it be wrong for women to take on some of the jobs that men are performing. When the Girl first joins the eerie tour, she sits on the bottom of the bus but soon after moves to the top of it, perhaps as an allegory for rising up in the world, freeing herself from the restraints of roles that placed squarely on each gender. At one point, when the Lord Mayor places his hand on the Girl's knee, it is a sexist gesture and the Girl frees herself by demanding that he remove his hand and then moving to the front of the bus.
I give it five out of ten, simply because I don't understand it, although the filming of it was high quality work. If put into the context of all three of the films for which it was intended to be seen, then perhaps I would understand it better.
M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (1931)
I've seen Peter Lorre before, but for the first time I really SAW him in "M".
About three months ago I saw this film for the very first time. It was one of those "eye-opening" experiences for me. I recall being a child and seeing Peter Lorre in movies with Vincent Price and a couple of Bugs Bunny cartoons as the mad scientist. I had always thought that he was a bit creepy. But the first time I saw "M" made me notice Peter Lorre as a man.
I won't include any spoilers, but I did discover some things about this film. It was directed by the great Fritz Lang of "Metropolis" fame and was also the first film about a serial murderer. It gives a rare glimpse of the buildings and general life of pre-war Berlin, touches on the forensics of the day and, in the end, forces the viewer to take mental illness into consideration when dealing with crime in society. It's sudden cut-off at the end of the film was done before in "Metropolis", but here it leaves the audience with a different thought to ponder: what is to be done with people like this that commit these types of crimes? Peter Lorre was extremely convincing in this role that eventually earned him international recognition. At one point in the movie, we get a brief glimpse of his character observing himself in a mirror. We are made to wonder, "What is he thinking when he sees himself there? Does he know who he is or what it is that he has done?" Peter plays the character so well that it is literally the first time I really noticed him. He is young, rotund, not very attractive but something about that particular shot, even at just a few seconds, is striking to me. I noticed his character, felt a kind of disgust mingled with pity, which made me notice Peter Lorre, which made me realise his extraordinary talent to make the audience believe that he is the person that he is playing. Suddenly he becomes very attractive to me. His unusual eyes peer at his reflection and instantly he is type-cast forever in his subsequent films. Another reviewer pointed out that only liberals would have sympathy for Hans Beckert. I have to disagree strongly. Sympathy transcends all political parties. What happens in this movie is the realisation that the mentally disturbed often do NOT have control over their actions and reactions. Their brain chemistry does not function the way it does in a person that is normal. In many cases it leads them to do strange things or even what is the unthinkable. Some of these people do not know or even realise what they have done until after the action has happened. For this I pity Hans Beckert and others like him. If he knew what he was doing he would not have done it. That much is related at the end of the movie. Yet we are still left with the nagging question: what does society do with these dangerous individuals that sometimes do not know what they have done? Is it right to simply imprison them? Should they undergo psychotherapy and eventually be released again or kept in an institution where they will not endanger the members of society beyond the hospital walls? Or shall we demand the ultimate price of them? How can we punish them when oftentimes their crime is not pre-meditated but instead a reaction to their brain's unusual chemistry? The debate goes on, I suppose.
I would like very much to have seen Peter Lorre play other roles which he very much wanted to do. Would he have been as good as say, Jimmy Stewart, in "It's A Wonderful Life"? Perhaps we could never imagine him in such a role because of his great talent playing a shady foreigner. Sadly, he is gone now and we will never know how well he might have done them or what impact it could have had on his audiences.
This film is a treasure for movie lovers, particularly for people that love classic cinema, the foundational pieces of art upon which our modern movies are built. Peter Lorre is a man well loved even today and whose talents will endure in the hearts and minds of his admirers.