Reviews

I recently watched 'The Pink Panther' on TCM, and I was a bit surprised. Unlike later 'Panther' films, there is less focus on Clousseau's antics, and greater focus on the other characters. Seller's moments are hilarious; there just aren't enough of them. The scene with David Niven and Claudia Cardinale sipping champagne by the fire is overlong and positively unbearable. It's an absolute relief when Peter Sellers re-enters the picture. I LOVE the later 'Panther' films. But, sad to say, I would advise anyone to give this debut film a miss. It's a difficult viewing experience in 2024; start with 'A Shot In The Dark' and go forward from there.

...when I read that there was going to be a comedy show about Blockbuster Video. Ah nuts. What a disappointment.

There's nothing worse than watching 'comedy' that isn't all that funny. I get the weirdest feeling when watching unfunny comedies -like vomit rising in the back of my throat (sorta like the feeling I got when watching the movie 'Beethoven' -about a St. Bernard -in the '90's, after reading a review that said it was "uproarious").

Successful comedy shows have a certain magic about them - the writing, the acting, the cast- that makes them easy to watch -and funny -time and again ('The Office' comes to mind). This, sadly, is not one of those shows.

If you enjoy tepid 'comedy' films where women are portrayed as hollow, gold-digging sex objects, and men are reduced to the level of leering, grabby, opportunistic womanizers, this lightweight movie should be right up your slimy alley.

That being said, Dolores Hart and Lois Nettleton are standouts in this trite film. Lois and Dolores are cleary much better than the material they've been handed here.

Same goes for Karl Malden!

...or take A stand, actually. This idiocy ran for the umpteenth time on Comedy Central or some such cable channel, or TBS or something. Sorry, not sure.

I can just picture the cast, or writers, or whoever thought up this drivel, high-fiving each other when they thought, HEY!!! LET'S MAKE THE FINALE A TRIAL!!! WE CAN BRING BACK EVERY SINGLE WACKY CHARACTER THAT EVER APPEARED ON THE SHOW!!!

I loved Seinfeld. My co-workers and I would reference it, quote it, talk about it the day after each episode aired. It was so good.

But what a terrible way to sign off - with wretched excess. This bloated, overblown finale managed to do something that Jerry and the gang never did throughout the entire run of the show ( okay, maybe except for the 'circumcision' episode. That guy who played the rabbi managed to take unfunny overacting to a new level)- TRYING TOO HARD to be funny.

Maybe you remember this finale fondly. Just watch it again if you have the chance. It's terrible.

I'm sure that mom and dad thought they were taking my younger sister and I to another 'Mary Poppins' when we saw this awful film.

I was thirteen years old, and wanted to be ANYWHERE but going to a movie with the folks -especially a children's movie.

We saw 'CCBB' on a weeknight. Dad was tired after a day at work, and just wanted to stay home, I'm sure. I remember how upset he was by the 'special' admission price of $5.50 each -a hefty sum for a movie in 1968.

We got there early and took our seats in the empty theater. The theater, incidentally, REMAINED EMPTY except for the four of us.

No surprise there- word had gotten out long before what a STINKER this movie was.

A stinker indeed- Dick VanDyke trying to make an unfunny script funny, his female co-star forced to sing unmemorable songs, a variety of 'wacky' characters who weren't funny at all.

NOTHING IS WORSE THAN COMEDY THAT IS NOT FUNNY. I don't know about you, but unfunny comedy makes me feel like the vomit is rising in my throat. Strange but true. I don't really know what causes that- embarrassment, I guess. And 'CCBB' is EMBARRASSING.

I got up from my seat at some point and hung out in the lobby (still not sure how dad put up with my absence). I struck up a conversation with an usher who was maybe sixteen and told me he had plans with one of the concession girls later that night. He even showed me the 'ounce of prevention' he had in his wallet. Remember, I was only thirteen and hadn't quite figured things out yet. So maybe the night wasn't a total loss. I got an education of sorts.

Yes, I find this entry into the 'Star Wars' universe to be a crashing bore. The plot: "Meh". The aliens: "Meh". The title character: "Meh". Only the special effects keep this trite 'saga' afloat.

Here's a little paradox about 'Star Wars' that I've never figured out: A civilization that's advanced enough to have light sabers and land speeders, but the inhabitants live in stone huts and ride elephant-like creatures.

In 'The Mandalorian', our hero rides over a frozen planet in a land speeder that has NO TOP on it. So they've created this amazing vehicle that floats over the ground, BUT HAS NO TOP OR HEAT for the passengers.

I loved the original 'Star Wars' trilogy (Well... except for those teddy bears in episode vi).

I was told by a fellow fan that 'The Mandalorian' was "the best thing to happen since the original!!!" Ummm...NO.

I subscribed to Disney Plus with 'The Mandalorian' in mind. THANK GOD for Peter Jackson's Beatles documentary, 'Get Back', which makes my Disney Plus subscription worth the price.

I enjoyed 'Cecil Hotel', the first installment of the 'Crime Scene' Netflix series, and looked forward (for what...6 months?) to the next installment.

Unfortunately, 'The Times Square Killer' doesn't measure up to the first series. It's chock full of gore and porn; more an expose' of Times Square's 1970's XXX porn industry

• and prostitution- than a murder mystery.

If a documentary about the seamier side of Times Square's past interests you, 'The Times Square Killer' should be right up your dark alley.

I've only watched 'MacArthur' in bits and pieces on tv, but I've seen enough to agree with others on this website: Good acting, boring script.

What I'd really like to review here is Gregory Peck's appearance on Johnny Carson's 'Tonight Show' to promote 'MacArthur'.

Good God. When Peck was introduced by Johnny, he walked onstage with that BIG, DUMB MacArthur PIPE clenched in his teeth.

Shoulda been a red flag in his mouth, cause that's what it turned out to be.

I always loved Peck's movies- still do. But here was a case of an actor being way too wrapped up in his character (Imagine Sean Connery wearing nothing but tuxedos in public back in the day). This is just the impression I got, of course, based on his appearance that night.

Peck could have spent a few minutes talking up the film, and that would have been fine.

But instead he took over the show and went ON...AND ON...AND ON...about Douglas MacArthur. Way too much, when you consider that 'MacArthur' was no 'Patton', as it turned out. All I could think was, "That poor audience! He must be putting them to sleep!"

Gregory Peck had a long and distinguished career. So many great movies...so much to talk about. Too bad he spent so much time and energy promoting- and playing-'MacArthur'.

Was 'Marooned' a best-selling novel? Maybe.

I don't remember. What I DO remember was dad took my older brother and me to see this LONNGG LONNGG movie on a weeknight in 1969. Poor dad! I know he'd probably worked hard at the drafting table that day, and would rather have stayed home. But of course he was just trying to be a good dad and take bro and me to a movie.

Just like BORA! BORA! BORA!, this film is a painful exercise in waiting...and waiting... and waiting...for something exciting to happen. And when it finally does, you just don't care anymore.

A good cast wasted. And considering the groundbreaking special effects in '2001' two years earlier, the special effects (as I recall)in this movie are just BAD.

Welp! We already know the end of the story, don't we. Now all we have to do is sit through the long, talky, boring hours leading up to it.

Wanna see a good Pearl Harbor movie? Watch 'From Here To Eternity' instead. Or maybe the Ben Affleck 'Pearl Harbor'.

-Prophetic words from William Bendix to Dennis O'Keefe in 'Cover Up', a B-Grade noir film. Prophetic because O'Keefe, a heavy smoker, would die from lung cancer in 1968.

Average thriller with O'Keefe is a good time- filler, but I enjoy anything with O'Keefe in it.

Great support from William Bendix too. Enjoy.

On the advice of friends, my wife and I watched 'Ted Lasso'. We enjoyed the first few episodes, but then, around episode 6, it lost our interest. Suddenly, there was more drama than comedy. The 'comedy', incidentally, has a more British feel to it - in other words, a little dry, and not all that funny.

...that's a very bad sign. Or maybe it's because I'm a big fan of 'Blade Runner'. I don't really know. There are movies I just saw once, some dating back 30-40 years ago, that I remember vividly. But this 'sequel'? I watched it less than a year ago and I don't remember a single scene. Not recommended.

This madcap comedy holds a special place in my memory as I saw it with my family on the big screen in 1963 at the Golf Mill Theater in Niles, Illinois.

No need to give a synopsis of the film as others have done here; just suffice it to say it still holds up in 2021 (My girlfriend will agree; I shared it with her over the weekend since she had never seen it, and apart from thinking it was a bit overlong, she loved it).

Sad to say that racist overtones were alive and well in 1963: A Black man and his wife, in their overloaded pickup truck, are sent tumbling down a hill as he gapes wide-eyed in 'Step'n Fetchit' fashion; Rochester falls from the fire escape at the film's conclusion and right into the lap of a large statue of: Abraham Lincoln! As I recall, the 1963 audience roared with laughter at these scenes. Not so funny today, for sure.

In any case, this is a fascinating time capsule of comedy. Yes, a bit overlong, but well worth the crazy trip if you stick with it.

I was sitting in Dublin airport in late Summer of 2010, waiting to board my flight back to Chicago after a 10-day trip. Shortly before boarding time a woman sat down to my left, about ten seats down. It was Frances McDormand. She had her 'game face' on ("I've got places to go, please pretend you don't see me."), so I kept my distance. I've never been much of an autograph hound, anyway.

If I'd had the chance to speak with her, though, I would have told her how much I enjoy 'Blood Simple', her first movie. What a great movie; what a terrific cast.

No need for a synopsis of the film, as others have done here, just take my word for it: this is first-rate entertainment. Definitely one of my Coen brothers favorites. Watch it!

...because it doesn't know what it wants to be -drama or comedy. Spy Thriller or comedy, or whatever it is, 'Silver Streak' will entertain you, but is ultimately forgettable - just like 'Foul Play'.

...so we were walking thru Chicago's Loop Theater district with mom (me, age 12, little sister, age 9), when I saw the poster for 'Dark of the Sun' outside one of the movie theaters(1968). The poster had a motorized feature that made the chain saw spin.

"Look, mom!" I said, "Cool! Can we see this movie?" Mom knew best when she said "No".

Violence Personified in this mercenary tale with 'Time Machine''s Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux, near the waning days of Rod's career (We still had the short-lived 'Bearcats' to enjoy on tv, but that was about it for old Rod). The final showdown is brutal.

What's happened to our world? It was never perfect, I know. When this musical was made, a madman named Hitler was taking over Europe and sending Jewish people to their deaths in cattle cars. Soon, our boys would ship out to fight for the soul of the nation -and the world.

I grew up in the 1960's. When we thought about the 21st century, we envisioned a perfect, crime-free world of gleaming cities and amazing public transportation - with monorails and flying cars.

Think about the Miami of 2021. Maybe it never was the perfect, technicolor city pictured in this film. But if we hadn't lost our way -if not for Vietnam, poverty, or gang violence, would we be enjoying a 'technicolor' world today? Hard to say. Sorry. Just longing for a world that never could have been.

Anyway, on the lighter side...this fluff is worth a watch. Betty Grable was quite a beauty. And in her own way, she helped to win the war.