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moviemaniac2002
Reviews
Ratched (2020)
Why isn't the Bernard Herrmann music credited?
So far, I've heard excerpts from "Psycho", "Vertigo", "Cape Fear", "Marnie" and "North By Northwest".......if the Herrmann estate isn't getting a credit, there should be a major lawsuit coming. Plagarism.
Mirage (1965)
Ahead-Of-Its-Time Thriller- One Of The Best
I've always had great affection for this film, ever since seeing it in a theatre as a teenager.
First, a major innovation in thrillers - flashbacks done as direct jump-cuts into the actual flow of the film (no wavy lines or warped visuals to announce to the audience that they're seeing a flashback) This movie demanded that you keep up with what was unfolding and trusted you to figure out what was past and present.
Peter Stone's script - sharp, thrilling and funny, very much like Ernest Lehman's work on "North By Northwest" and Stone's own work on "Charade" and "Arabesque".
The villains...priceless...the grumpy, elderly hit-man who accosts Peck in Central Park...brilliant idea. Jack Weston's wisecracking hit-man..(a seemingly jolly joker, who lets his mask drop briefly in a pivotal scene with Peck) And of course, George Kennedy as Willard, a rampaging psycho who nurses grudges against victims who dare to defend themselves. I almost forgot Kevin McCarthy as the quintessential sniveling corporate toady.
A true classic....and a total crime and injustice that it's not on DVD yet.
The Assassination Bureau (1969)
Sharp Funny Satire-Astounding Production Design
Have always loved this movie - an almost perfect combination of Victorian Toy-Store sets and costumes, dry, black humor with witty priceless dialog ("You're not an assassin, you're a critic!") Add the perfect cast..well, I personally think it's a minor classic. I could be wrong, but I think this the only time Oliver Reed had anything close to a traditional, dashing-leading-man role. Awesome Diana Rigg seemed to be channeling both Glynis Johns and Julie Andrews roles in "Mary Poppins" at the same time.
Best of all, Michael Relph's production design...take a second and remember his incredible designs...the French bordello, the assassination bureau's meeting hall, the Zeppelin interiors...and I couldn't even stop humming the idiotic Faux-Henry Mancini theme song ("Life Is A Precious Thing") This may have been one of the last movies that you could apply the adjective "frothy fun" to.
Gwok chaan Ling Ling Chat (1994)
Very funny...until
Caught this on DVD the other day...and I was laughing and smiling until the shopping mall sequence...where it abruptly shifted gears and positively reveled in cruelty and heartbreak...and then went back to being a goofy(but still blood-soaked) spoof. Well , I guess that 's part of the craziness of Hong Kong cinema that we all love....and I'm still smiling about the hilarious weapons and gadgets...the "solar flashlight" is priceless. Well worth seeing. Bond fans will love the riotous imitation of Maurice Binder's main title visuals...opening action sequence is as good as anything you'd see in a Bond film and Anita Yuen makes an adorable foil/adversary/partner for Chow. (But as I said, it is pure Stephen Chow nutball fun...like the guys who made "Shaun Of The Dead" and "Hot Fuzz", Chow takes no prisoners when he's out to bend a genre inside out and backwards.)
Them! (1954)
Brilliant 50's Atomic Sci-Fi Fear & Loathing
I'm a child of the 50's who has seen this film dozens and dozens of times. Of all the similar films of the era, this is the only one that for me achieved a state of perfection, a state of movie grace. I watch my DVD copy at least several times a year, and always end of up watching it if it pops up on AMC or TMC...
Greatest moments...
Opening credits...the deathly low pounding chord heard during the Warner Brothers logo. Then the music....Bronislau Kaper hushes down his ominous score when his own name pops up!
The child actress, Sandy Descher....the moment when she breaks her catatonic state after Gwenn gives her a whiff of formic acid...one of the most stunningly scary sequences in 50's cinema...still chills me to the bone every time I view it..the look on her face as she shrieks "Them!", then the cut to the adults shocked reaction while the score swells up.
The pitched battle in storm drains between the army and the ants. Some of those individual camera shots are the closest 50's movies came to depicting hell on earth.
And I've heard that Jack Warner was perpetually angry and embarrassed by the thought of his studio producing "Them!", even after it outperformed all other Warner movies that year at the box office.
Anyway..."Them!" will always be, for me,a landmark film, a pivotal moment in the atomic-scare pop culture of the time. One's thing's for sure...you couldn't "duck and cover" if giant ants were coming at you.
Because I Said So (2007)
Ignore the film critics, they're 100% wrong
Saw this today with my 20 year old daughter - and I have never witnessed a better example of the total disconnect between movie critics and audiences then this movie. Funny, funny adorable little movie, and the very crowded theater audience laughed long and loud from the beginning to the very last minute. The so-called film critics have been roasting it alive, but I'm telling you it's a just a damn hilarious, heartwarming little movie...perfectly cast, too. Diane Keaton and Mandy Moore worked some real magic in this movie....it's no wonder the crowd I saw it with responded so warmly to it. So just skip the critics reviews on this one...they're as wrong on this as "American Idol" was to Jennifer Hudson.
Casino Royale (2006)
Neat cameo in CR-anybody notice?
Okay, bond fanatics ( or even casual fans), anybody notice one of the Casino Royale card players is Tsai Chin, who, almost 40 years ago, lolled in bed with Sean Connery during the "You Only Live Twice " pre-credits sequence...just before she pushes the "up" button on the lethal murphy bed, arranging 007's fake death. ("Darling", she coos,"I'll give you very best....duck") About the movie....Craig is Connery's equal in sheer toughness...he just needs more of a sense of humor...(not that they have to go back to the lame quips, but a little more wit would help...otherwise, Bond is no different from Rambo or all the faceless lunks played by Steven Seagal. Lumpy screen writing, which is why the movie seems to re-start into a whole other movie after the torture scene...but I can't wait to see where Craig takes the character in the next one....
Failure to Launch (2006)
If Only Female Roles Were Reversed
Would have been an enormously better film if the cute, funny and adorable Zooey Deschnell had been given the lead role and the massively overrated charmless Sarah Jessica Parker was relegated to the "best friend" role with limited screen time. The entire premise is weird and unbelievable....Handsome, dashing "chick-magnet" guys don't live at home with their parents until they lose their jobs and they have no other choice. Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer Aniston are virtually the same person - only slightly talented, slightly attractive but both wildly overrated and media-overexposed due to their long-running successful TV shows....movie executives and have annointed them as Princesses of romantic comedy, but they'd be more suited to play the ugly stepsisters.