Reviews

There is probably no actor who could have brought Edward D. Wood Jr. to life better than Johnny Depp. But my special kudos are reserved for Martin Landau and his portrayal of Bela Lugosi ("Shit! I lost my transfer!").

A fond look back at the freewheeling auteur days of Hollywood - before the bloodsucking corporate grave robbers took over.

I loved the production values that gave the behind-the-scenes story of Wood look like one of his pictures. Sarah Jessica Parker was well cast as Delores. Jeffrey Jones brought us a surprisingly compelling Criswell (I still remember his newspaper column from the 1960s and 1970s).

The closing "Whatever Happened to...?" recaps are the perfect ending to this great flick.

No one who likes movies should miss this one.

If not for Clive Owen, Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Spike Lee and the soundtrack, this one would have gotten a much lower rating from me.

No need to worry about spoilers. In order to put in a spoiler, you have to know the "surprise ending" of the movie. This one had a surprise ending, I ... think ... but you can turn me upside down and shake me and still get no intelligent guess as to what it was.

The feeling of having wasted two good hours that could have been better utilized rearranging my sock drawer overpowers the experience of enjoying the great looks and acting of Clive Owen and trying to follow the little plot twists in the hope of getting a decent payoff at the end.

It's watchable, heck yes, but if there's anyone out there who comes out of this thinking "Eureka," I'd love to hear what it was you found. There are little bits of cleverness scattered here and there, but if they were birdseed and I were a pigeon, I'd be one skinny bird.

I'm just grateful it was a Netflix rental and not an evening of overpriced tickets and popcorn.

Basically, I love this movie and was delighted to rent it from Netflix recently.

But my, how the cinema has changed in 30 years. William Goldman's screenplay is fine, the cinematography is excellent, the direction great, the acting wonderful. Still -- it could have easily been trimmed by at least 20 minutes. Everything up to the point where Babe is kidnapped and brought to meet Szell is atmosphere and suggestion. The awkward library scene with Marthe Keller is one in which I found myself making the "speed it up already" hand gesture at the screen. That and similar scenes dragged to the point of annoyance. Had I not been watching with someone who had never seen the picture before, I would have been using the fast-forward button. I now believe that the backstory of Babe's father as a victim of Senator McCarthy and House Un-American Activities Committee was superfluous and largely irrelevant to the audience, either now or then. And lastly, the entire convoluted story (especially as set in Paris) of Szell, the diamonds, and the questionable loyalties of the covert-ops crew is so muddled as to be little more than what Alfred Hitchcock called "The Maguffin" - the supposed "secret" that serves only to keep the audience on the edge of its seats.

Enough for the criticism. What I did like were : the scenes where Babe is in training for the marathon...how he keeps the image of Jesse Owens in his head for inspiration. This serves him well when he has to literally run for his life. Like 1997's THE EDGE, you have an unlikely hero. A peace-loving individualist who finally gets to the point of having to fight, and proves his own strength. I love the portrait of a scrappy New York City that is steadily fading away, especially after 9/11. I enjoyed the plot device wherein Babe enlists the aid of his punkish Puerto Rican neighbors and finally earns their respect.

Two other sequences stand out and stand the test of time: In the Diamond District where Szell is recognized by two former camp survivors, and of course, the final confrontation inside the pumping station, where Szell tries to call upon the evil within himself and is ultimately defeated by it. (I don't think that's a spoiler!...) Yes, it's a great movie...needs a bit of trimming, but worth a viewing, for sure.

I really liked this much more than I ever expected, given the lukewarm reviews. As the plot unfolded, I found it more & more absorbing. Kept me guessing right into it. I think the pacing could have been better -- once the "maguffin" was revealed, the storyline seemed to step back a bit -- you wanted things to speed toward a conclusion at that point and I think they added some pointless thrashing about just to adhere to a 2-hour time. I also didn't care a whole heck of a lot for Jodie Foster in the lead. I'm quite a fan of hers, but this was like "Panic Room at 37,000 Feet." Been there, done that. Also didn't much like the scenes at the beginning with Kyle and her husband. They made no sense and were obvious red herrings, especially once you reached the end. Still, all in all, quite satisfying. Very much like an M. Night Shyamalan thriller.

Just came back from seeing this movie. Still trying to figure it out. Because I've always loved Barry Levinson's work, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. But this one seemed like an "almost-but-not-quite" all the way through. Not quite a comedy...not quite a romance (although the chemistry between Williams and Linney was the best part of the movie); not quite a political parable and not quite a good suspense thriller. I got the distinct impression that several writers were sitting around a table, tossing out ideas that were then cobbled together to form little "scriptlets." Given the trend toward increasingly trashy, gross films coming out of the studios, this one stands clearly above most, but... why, exactly?

Watched most of the DVD, read some reviews here just to see if my impressions were way off, then finished watching the DVD.

My first impression of the movie was formed within the first 5 minutes, and it barely changed after that. My first impression? "These kids are terrible actors!" Nia Long, pretty -- NOT gorgeous. Ice Cube? Cookie-cutter performance. See Sinbad in "First Kid" or Shaquille O'Neal in "Kazaam." My favorite character by far was the Satchel Paige bobble-head. There were less than half a dozen lines that got so much as a pseudo-laugh from me, and I am certain that those were just happy accidents.

Throughout this clumsily scripted and directed feature (I just can't bring myself to call it a "film"), the idea of "standards" kept running through my head. It annoyed me that the people in charge of this thing were confident that there was an audience out there who would appreciate it, and also that there apparently IS an audience out there who would settle for such lackluster, ham-handed, clichéd, and low-budget crap, especially with the price of a movie ticket these days! I also do not appreciate it being made a "vehicle" for the dubious singing talents of the young actress who played Lindsay. People, get a grip. If you truly think this movie has any merit, you really need to broaden your horizons and see some real films.

I finally got a chance to see, well, most of this movie. I missed the first few minutes, but now understand what all the acclaim has been about.

It's easy to look at Frances McDormand's performance and draw the superficial conclusion that this is going to be some silly comedy, especially if you saw her in Raising Arizona. But there's a much deeper story here, some very profound collaboration in terms of the "meaning" of the story and the way it is brought to the screen.

There are plenty of comedic elements, including the "dumb and dumber" kidnappers and William H. Macy as the desperate loser. Some of the dialect may or may not be laid on a tad too thick -- endless streams of "yah...yah...yah...". Still, the essence of the movie is felt in the scenes where McDormand is patiently driving her police "prowler" through the never-ending snow. Especially at the end, when she remarks, "...and it's a beautiful day." For the moviegoer who is unfamiliar with the colder, quieter parts of the country and the people who inhabit it, it can take awhile to sink in. This story is about the decent folks all around us, the ones we never see on Entertainment Tonight, who live quiet, unassuming lives and still manage to elevate themselves to lofty heights by virtue of their simple understanding of what is right and what is wrong. McDormand's Marge Gunderson is 7 months pregnant, and yet she slogs uncomplainingly through the snow to examine crime scenes. She risks her neck daily; yet, she cheers on her painter husband when his portrait is accepted by the Post Office to be depicted on a 2-cent stamp. She is listening to an old boyfriend's sob story one afternoon, and shooting a wood-chipper murderer in the leg the next.

This really is an awesome film. Take away the bombast and testosterone in CSI or 24, and this is what police work is really all about.

CR04

After catching bits and pieces of this enduring comedy over the years, I finally sat down and viewed it whole on TCM. Monty Woolley portrays the unscrupulous Sheridan Whiteside with the same type of relish and crackling abandon seen in Margaret Hamilton's "Wicked Witch of the West" in The Wizard of Oz. Take no prisoners, pull no punches...

Bette Davis was utterly charming as the long-suffering personal assistant. By turns, she is a woman incapable of shock or surprise (with Whiteside), a joyful and sensuous woman (with Jefferson), and vulnerably insecure (with Lorraine).

The script has a surprisingly contemporary flavor, such as when Whiteside makes a reference to the Stanleys being "arrested for peddling dope." It's breezy, never stuffy, with surprises at every turn. Enjoy!

For me, Clive Owen was the draw here. Without him, I think this film would have been unbearably boring. The centerpiece of the story was the rather hilarious online exchange between "Dr Larry" and the person he thinks is an insatiable nymph.

Natalie Portman held up her end of things rather well. Her character possessed an inner strength that most of the others (except Larry) failed to give her credit for. Their exchange in the strip club was fascinating and real -- an intense war of wills.

Julia Roberts really was lovely to look at, and her character had more dimension and nuance than much of her previous work.

Jude Law? His character was the self-sabotaging jerk who doesn't deserve to win anything.

Some viewers may find this film a tad confusing. The jumps in time usually move the story forward, but at times, flashbacks are put in without us knowing until much later. Some may argue that this is an artistic device. I reserve judgment.

Is this a love story? Only for some of the characters. In many cases, it's a "need" story. I think for the two who end up staying together, it is a love story, in terms of the maturity and growth that is needed to make love work and move beyond infatuation status.

If Mike Nichols had written this, I would have had to wonder "What was he thinking?" But the fact that he directed another writer's adaptation of a play gives him more credit. It's good to see that he's still active as a director.

Well, the best way to describe this is, a British hybrid of Goodfellas and Pulp Fiction.

Ben Kingsley's over-the-top performance makes it worthwhile (you'll end up saying "Mahatma Who?"). Ray Winstone as Gal gains depth and appeal as the picture progresses. Ian McShane is the British Pacino. The impression I got is that Gal's character slowly evolves from sun-worshiping hedonist to someone who knows how close he came to losing it all.

But, still....what *was* some of that, and what kind of drugs inspired it? The overall point of the story is lost somewhat. Its great strength is its ability to keep the audience guessing, and they watch to see if their questions will be answered.

/cr04

I can forgive a lot of flaws in a movie, but whew, this one was bad. I can't think of worse casting than Sandler. Everybody else was great (well, Cloris Leachman took the drunk-mom cliché about as far as it would go), but Sandler's presence here ruined it. "50 First Dates" worked a lot better for him -- the semi-goofy guy who manages to charm the lady by virtue of his imperfection. Here, he's trying to be a charming saint of a married chef, "doing the best he can," not having any idea of how attractive he is to a woman. The only problem is, he's NOT attractive. I felt no chemistry between Flor and John. The whole concept of one culture finding a common ground just gets lost here. This is mainly because Sandler is so completely inarticulate, it's very hard to believe that a woman who's barely learned English can understand anything he says. Two devices that repeat themselves over and over here are 1-Sandler suddenly shouting out something in the middle of a conversation, which either scares Flor or amuses her, and 2-Sandler yelling "Whoa, wait-wait-wait..." every time a conversation is about to reach its merciful conclusion and the other person is trying to walk away gracefully.

Leoni does a good job with Deborah, but still, her character is so two-dimensional. We get no sense of why she's so dysfunctional. Meredith Baxter-Birney did a much better job in a Lifetime TV movie about a bulimic. I think someone must have watched that movie and tried to model Leoni's character after it.

I would have liked to see more of Flor's side of town, to give it added depth. It seems as if very little thought went into any aspect of this film -- casting, screen writing, direction, anything. For me, it's nada.

Sorry, Robert Redford. "The Natural" has now been bumped to 2nd place on my list by this wonderful, moving, offbeat picture.

I first saw it last summer as a rental, in a houseful of noisy people who kept walking into the room, viewing part of a scene, asking "What are you watching?" and walking back out. I guess there are more than a few scenes (especially of the couple trying to make a living as porn-movie body doubles) that would inspire such a question, but the real treat is when you sit down with the DVD remote in hand and really watch it all the way through several times.

Every character is inspiring; every actor is top-notch. The closest thing to a "villain" is Alan Rickman's secretary, and by the end of the film, you're thinking "Aw, let her keep the stupid necklace, who cares?" I want to go out and find all these people and bring them home.

I hope Love, Actually becomes a new Christmas tradition in my home...I've seen It's a Wonderful Life enough times already.

However, you should check out The Natural, too, if you haven't yet. ;) CR04