Reviews

the comedy of this film falls entirely flat (hurr durr divorce edgy hurr) there are a few moments which make this worth the watch. van dyke of sitcom fame plays rob petrie, corrupted, and seems terribly comfortable in the role. debbie reynolds is interesting in her own way, as the slightly daffy housewife. jason robards, jean simmons and van johnson are also very entertaining and darkly funny in their respective roles. as a character study it's great, as pseudo-experimental 60s film with nifty camera tricks, it's a failure. all of which makes you wonder if they had put all these great actors in a room with one another, with a script, a rolling camera and no direction, there might have been a happier result.

I enjoyed watching the various characters, especially the men, walk a moral tightrope of sorts; curiously, van dyke's character seems to maintain an air of decency despite it all. i wondered briefly if it were purposeful that the problems the characters identified in their marriage weren't the true ones after all; debbie on one hand seemed to have entirely unrealistic expectations about human behavior, while her husband seemed somewhat unimaginative and even intellectually stunted. "women need to stop crossing the lines between the sexes," what??

seems to work best when it lets the story tell itself; otherwise unbearably clever, with a touch of hubris even.

competent film making with more former, current, and future a-list stars than you can shake a stick at. seriously, everyone's in this movie.

one of the other reviewers quipped, "I didn't think it would be possible to make a boring film about dororthy parker, but here it is". i agree; judging from the source material this should have been a slam dunk. i think the problem is jennifer jason leigh's diction; her character speaks very slowly and self-importantly in a faux-British accent, which i suppose is to either give the impression that is a Great Writeress or deeply unlikeable. this is rendered even more frustrating as ms parker delivers some pretty sweet dialogue which i deduced from the appreciative laughter of the other characters and not leigh's unintelligible mumbling.

was extremely impressed to learn that ms parker had been a co-writer for the original A STAR IS BORN, which if you are not aware is one of the Great Films and Great Screenplays; its myriad remakes attest to this. of course her sex life was very interesting but i wonder if the filmmakers could have better impressed us with a sense of time and place as well literary chops by emphasizing this Hollywood milestone.

this is one of those movies which doesn't quite come together as it ought, but has some decent and compelling moments which render it finally watchable. to be brutally honest, i'm not particularly enthralled with any of the work ringwald has done, even her famous collaborations with john hughes; but i think they last because they're convincing, character-driven stories. this is another one of them.

i liked the on location shots of a place that was neither new york or SoCal. they made an nice effort to root the story in reality. people live in real houses and drive old cars.

i'm really digging these 80s films, they have like dialogue and cinematography and stuff. it's also not some effing remake.

this is not a terrible film, and probably even a good one, but couldn't help but question the ethical issues of translating this particular novel into film. charbrol seems all too ready to exploit his underage actress, which does tell the story effectively, but then begs the question, why tell this story at all? probably such concepts as "age of consent" are somewhat arbitrary, but then again most very young women who have sexual experiences with older men as young teenagers don't exactly appreciate it, and appreciate it even less in hindsight.

had to delete from my hard drive for obvious reasons, won't be watching again in the foreseeable future.

a bunch of annoying child actors who aren't killed dead by the movie's conclusion. every now and again i'll enjoy a kiddie flick, but only those realistic & gritty ones which deal with serious issues like abuse and abandonment ('matilda' is maybe a bad example which is in turn redeemed by its prevailing themes).

as far as i can tell these kids are well and alive at the end and what's worse get to fulfill their narcissistic childish fantasies. they also scream a lot. in unison. loudly.

how was this ever popular, i couldn't even make it five minutes thru this shite.

I can't decide.

I will say this: Precious' mom isn't unique to Harlem or the black community. as someone with a significantly different background, I found myself nodding and shuddering at turns.

some will say that it is too much bad to happen to one person. but it's the vulnerable ones who are most open to this sort of abuse.

I read around the internet such opinions as, "the inner cities are beyond repair, there is no hope for them, for the people who live there". this is some sort of political statement I imagine. but I would assert Precious' experience is a quintessentially American one; the America I know, after all, the America of enormous racial and economic inequality. Hollywood doesn't like to focus on this aspect of our society considering it not very interesting or likely to induce guilt in the upper-middle class folk most likely to buy movie tickets. but watching precious helped me feel vindicated: "here, at last," I said to myself, "is someone telling my story".

what *is* inaccurate is the portrayal of social workers as generally helpful or even moderately well-meaning people. this is blatantly false. the role of the social worker is that of an auditor; my experience with them is that they have nothing but contempt for the people who they are hired to help.

of course precious was right in the end. what could the nice lady do for her? but at least her heart was in the right place.

the problem with America isn't the inner cities but an utter lack of love, compassion, understanding.

although I'm sure I could have never been so obnoxious.

three young adults drone on about music and the meaning of life. despite the global recession, glasgow is a pretty peachy place to live; there's a distinct lack of food insecurity, job scarcity, impossible rent and heating bills. that guy who chats you up at the gig isn't a total skeeze. maybe this is is all on purpose; maybe it's supposed to be a fantasy.

I've been following b&s for quite a while, despite the twee label. reading thru old interviews many of the events of the fiim are in fact quite autobiographical; there's a depth to the music which has been earned. I got the distinct impression that ms browning did not have quite that same depth, furthermore she seemed to struggle to relate to her character. this is fine is mr murdoch's intention was to create a light romantic-comedy-musical, but if so, why include the darker elements? it's possible that I'm entirely too close to the subject matter. a painful watch, and, what's worse, poorly acted.

**edit** let's face it; this really wanted to be a film about ME but murdoch was either frightened of being so honest or didn't think it would sell tickets. as someone who had ME, I know what he is trying to say but won't say. it doesn't work! I can totally understand the compartmentalization at stake here: the need to exist in a state of semi-bourgeois lightheartedness; to lie; but the script betrays itself.

maybe some day someone can write a feature film on what it's like to have your life totally stripped away from you before age 20; to exist in a twilight zone of the barely living; to have to pretend that it's not happening to you and you are "only" anorexic and depressed. this wasn't it!

like everyone else of my generation I was a huge fan of the books, but as they fade from my memory it's easier to enjoy the films on their merits alone. I'll say this for the harry potter series: they're entertaining. of course, so were the books; jk rowling's success is all the more extraordinary when one considers what a thing of the past reading has become; even in the 90s I remember the majority of my friends being more interested in the Disney channel.

but I digress. this is a film which stands on its own merits: the characters are fully-fleshed; exposition is done efficiently and skillfully; there's an excellent balance of (actual, real, old-fashioned) acting, suspense, and humor. the visuals are done tastefully and care is taken not to bring undue attention to obvious cgi work; the camera lingers long enough to let of enjoy those exotic shots which undoubtedly required hundreds of hours of manpower all for a few seconds of screen time, then quickly brings our focus back to bear on the that which is most important: the characters, and their story.

I remember seeing this film in theaters as a teen and being frustrated with my peers for actually being able to sit all the way thru, but that's what I get for having grown up with the great American cinema classics. several years of dark knight clones later, I'm beginning to feel a little spoiled.

and of course I appreciate seeing maggie smith, alan rickman, and others. I even really, really liked michael gambon's dumbledore, whose coy quips are the highlight of the latter films.

Oh, those halycon days before the wars in the Middle East, massive income inequality, the Great Recession and the NSA watching our every move. When I think back to 1999-2002, there's just about nothing I didn't like. I was a hipster in Chicago back in 2007, and I remember the el, the relaxed fashion, listening to Belle and Sebastian and looking down on the preppy kids for their shitty music taste. The film takes a somewhat sardonic view of hipsterdom, but it's obvious, especially with hindsight, that Rob and his friends are onto something, and their love of music seems so much less pretentious than their highbrow counterparts (a particular chicago music publication comes to mind). There is nowhere like Chicago: the city is clean, the people are friendly, and nowhere else in the world is the sky such a glorious shade of periwinkle blue.

What a lazy show this is. I read somewhere that it's entirely ad-libbed, and this must be true, as the dialogue is so bad it's a discredit to its nonexistent writers. Or at least I hope they're nonexistent.

It's self-important schlock like this which makes me feel so alienated from the rest of society. A bunch of rich people strut around in front of a camera and do nothing and say nothing. Larry David starts fights for no reason at all. His manager makes icky misogynistic comments. Is this entertainment? I skipped around a bit waiting for it to get good, but it didn't.

The top review for this show assigns numerical rankings to each episode, rounded to the closest 0.5/10. I suppose there were some which were too good to be 8's, but not quite 9's. This same self-indulgence saturates everything on TV right now, and I'm sick of it.

Billy Wilder was supposedly influenced by Ernst Lubisch. I can see this a little bit as they have the same general approach. However, Billy Wilder was one of the greatest film makers of all time, while Ernst Lubisch was a talentless hack.

"But!" you cry, "dailyshampoo48, how can you make such an outrageous claim when everyone knows what a witty, intelligent and acclaimed film this is!" "But!" I will respond, "you are mistaking faux-highbrow small talk for well-written dialogue! You are are mistaking energetic gesticulation for quality acting!" "But!" you will exclaim, "look at all the lengthy, sophisticated reviews here on IMDb! All the smart people know it's a good movie. Why don't you?" "But!" I will tell you, "I am a smart person too. However, I am a smart person with taste. And I am an honest smart person. When I watch bad movies (and I hardly ever do) I never shy away from stating my opinion. And here I tell you, THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES." "B-b-but!" you stutter, "but sophistication! But elegance!" "But wrong! Also, Miriam Hopkins and Kay Francis are the two most obnoxious actresses to ever grace the silver screen. Lubisch had a real gift for picking terrible acting talent but these two take the cake." "B-but!" "But no! You lose! Good day, sir! I SAID GOOD DAY!"

I hate Godard. I think that he's cold and pretentious and relies too often on technique and shock value to see his films through. Sometimes this works out well. Sometimes it doesn't. I am probably the only cinephile on the planet to think that Breathless was a steaming pile of crap, although I found both Alphaville and Masculin Feminin satisfyingly artistic and absurd. This one isn't bad either, and, apparently, unlike Godard's contemporaries, I found that Cinemascope suits his style very well. If this is selling out, I'm all for it.

I was quite pleased to see Brigitte Bardot as I've always enjoyed her work. Other points of interest include the long panoramic shots of the Capri landscape and that really lovely string movement which kicks in about the same time. I'm not much of a fan of Jack Palance, but I was impressed that he was able to portray such a thoroughly unlikeable character so well. Fritz Lang was mildly annoying as the put-upon film director, and his character seem to exist solely of advancing the entirely wrongheaded notion that the director is the true and only auteur, and producers and writers and script-girls and cinematographers are all roadblocks between the director and his Art.

One reviewer mentioned that this film is "difficult". It is not difficult. Good films shouldn't be difficult, they should be enjoyable. Symbolism, and imagery in particular, should exist to facilitate understanding of the themes, not to merely propel the work into highbrow territory. I found the symbolism in this film to be both clear and effective, and was therefore never confused. This is art film done right.

My absolute favorite film of all time. Capra did a number of films which are rightly considered classics (as well as a number of challenging if flawed pieces at both the beginning and end of his directing career). Every single scene sends me into paroxysms of joy. Gary Cooper was probably the sexiest man to have ever lived, and I could be content to watch him eat a bag of potato chips -- but oh the dialogue! I am a sucker for good dialogue. And how simply and elegantly the ideas are presented! Capra refrains from becoming too heavy-handed here; there are melodramatics, of course, but only when it's absolutely appropriate, and it absolutely is, every time.

Jean Arthur is great as always; thoughtful but not overbearing, emotive without the ham. She has an excellent understanding of exactly what is needed in each scene, and she delivers.

So completely wonderful and satisfying in every way. Absolutely the best!

I really enjoyed this movie. Typically, I hate remakes, but this one isn't so bad. Was Bing Crosby a better actor in the 30's and 40's? You bet your boots. Then again, I've never liked him in anything he's done, ever, and at least in 'Anything Goes' he doesn't try to act, and sticks to the crooning instead.

Also, I love Donald O'Connor, and he is at the top of his form here. I didn't know who Mitzi Gaynor was, but now that I do, I really like her. She's a good dancer with a pleasant screen persona. Jeanmaire is okay. I liked her wardrobe.

The art direction is good (I especially like the number where Donald and Bing sing the same song from two adjoining rooms) and the film hasn't been 'overproduced', as was the somewhat comparable 'White Christmas'. I hate it when musicals take themselves too seriously! The story is silly, but worrying about that sh*t is missing the point entirely.

Don't believe these over-critical snobs. They're missing out, and they don't even know it.

I tracked down 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' after seeing Danny Kaye in 'White Christmas'; for some reason I thought there was something more to this smiling, charismatic second banana who could sing and dance with the best of them.

I was right; although he's forgotten today, Kaye was extremely popular in his own time, and especially in the post-war era leading up to 'White Christmas'. No offense to his fans, but there's probably a reason his movies don't often make it onto TCM prime time; most of them weren't very good at all! 'Walter Mitty' is, unfortunately, probably his best work. There was some behind-the-scenes drama in the production of Mitty; Kaye's wife, Sylvia Fine, insisted on tinkering with Thurber's script in order to insert some of her custom-made patter songs. Personally, I think the songs are one of the highlights of the movie, but as a result, the story sometimes struggles to make much sense all. I still don't understand why Virginia Mayo's character disappeared at the police station, but maybe we're not supposed to think about it that much.

The dream sequences are all very good and surprisingly clever and funny and fresh. I laughed out loud to the punchline of the song, "Anatole of Paris". In fact, if you pay close attention you'll notice that many of what seem like throwaway lines are in fact all part of a cohesive lampooning of women's fashions.

The production values are great. Usually, films which are overproduced annoy me to no end, but spending a lot of money on costumes seems to work here.

I love Danny Kaye and wish he'd made some better movies. This one isn't so bad, however.