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574,274 | 4,532,636 | 402,399 | 6 | Malick Stumbles | It gives me no pleasure to report that the fourth film in nearly eight times as many years from that most roguish of Hollywood's rogue directors , Terrence Malick , is mostly a failure . Give the guy a break , though . When the first three movies you make are unequivocal masterpieces , you're allowed to stumble . All of the devices Malick has employed in previous films to turn what would be sweeping epics in the hands of any other director into feverish internal character studies are present here . But in " The New World , " they curiously have the reverse effect . Instead of drawing us into the minds of his characters , Malick keeps us at a distance , and his film remains too enigmatic for us to fully appreciate . The biggest problem with this movie is its non-committal tone . According to history ( though granted , there are many different accounts of the Pocahontas story ) , John Smith was pretty much an ass , who left Pocahontas behind because he didn't really want her - - - in another account , he's forced to leave America because of a severe injury . Malick turns the Smith / Pocahontas story into a star-crossed lover's tale , with Smith the smoldering hero who turns away because he wants to protect Pocahontas from a world that won't accept her . Except that once she is taken in by the colonists , she's treated just fine , which makes one wonder what the big problem was to begin with . Malick uses his usual ruminating voice overs to draw us into the minds of Smith and Pocahontas , but this time around their thoughts don't communicate anything of much importance . Malick's version of the tale feels tidied up and sanitized , lacking in any dramatic conflict . When Smith meets Pocahontas again in England after a long absence , something about their exchange brings closure for her , and she is able to forget Smith and commit herself to her husband and child - - - but what that something is remains a mystery , for neither the screenplay nor the performances convey it . And Pocahontas's death feels rushed through ; surely Malick could have trimmed one or two meandering scenes of tree and sky earlier in the film to give it a better sense of symmetry . The performances really disappoint too , but I'm not so sure that's the fault of the actors as much as it is the writing . They're not really given robust characters to play , so no one registers all that much , not even Q'orianka Kilcher , who's supposed to be a lifeforce to which everyone is drawn . " The New World " probably warrants a second look , and I suspect I may come away admiring it more after I see it again . Malick's films aren't easy , and that's what I like about them . It's just that he's been on such firmer ground before that this movie fell way below my expectations . Immediately after leaving the theatre after seeing " The Thin Red Line , " I knew that I had just witnessed a masterpiece in real time . Leaving the theatre after " The New World , " I knew that I was just leaving . |
574,358 | 4,532,636 | 371,724 | 6 | So Long , and Thanks for All the Fish | I had the exact same feeling watching this film version of Douglas Adams ' cult classic novel as I had reading it , so I guess in that regard you can say the movie is a very faithful adaptation of the book . I thought much of it was clever , and I laughed at individual lines , images and concepts , but overall I felt my attention drifting . Anyone who's read the book knows that its plot is an afterthought , and that utter absurdity is the flavor of the day . You're not supposed to really get involved in the story as much as you are supposed to bask in Adams ' absurdity ; in that way , reading " Hitchhiker " is like watching a Monty Python skit . The movie is at a disadvantage , because that kind of storytelling doesn't come as easily when you have to work in images rather than words , so the film makers do their best to create a linear story that makes basic sense . But they're fighting a losing battle , and as a result , the movie turns into a furious assemblage of one-liners , special effects and booming sound that comes rushing at you but never really engages you . All of the actors are decent , and some of them , notably Sam Rockwell , even have some inspired moments of comic kookiness . But by and large the performances are lost amid the frenzy . The film does have a splendid opening sequence , during which a catchy song , " So Long and Thanks for All the Fish , " plays while dolphins cavort , and this , more than anything else , is what I came away from the movie remembering . If there's any justice in the world , the tune will get a Best Song Academy Award nomination , and maybe at the actual ceremony , they can have a big pool of dolphins on hand to perform it . Take that Beyonce . This movie's o . k . , takes absolutely no brain power to enjoy , and looks great , so you could do worse . However , it's not at all memorable and isn't one I would recommend you go out of your way to see . |
574,007 | 4,532,636 | 366,551 | 6 | Harold and Kumar Come Close to Making a Classic Comedy Team ( But Just Fall Short ) | Perfectly enjoyable and appropriately stupid , " Harold and Kumar . . . " isn't good enough to be a comedy classic , but it's much better than the average boys-behaving-badly flick . It aims for smart satire rather than easy gross out jokes , which made me appreciate its efforts even if it doesn't always succeed . The filmmakers try to be clever , but they're not quite up to the task . Neither are the two actors who play Harold and Kumar , who are passable , and come close to displaying the kind of chemistry that buddy comedies like this need to completely score , but don't quite make it . I found myself laughing at situations and the minor characters that come in and out of the film , but rarely at Harold and Kumar themselves . I'd recommend this , though , if you're looking for something you don't have to think about . |
573,318 | 4,532,636 | 459,666 | 6 | Some of These Times Are Better Than Others | The three times mentioned in this film's title are " A Time for Love , " " A Time for Freedom " and " A Time for Youth , " each a separate segment set in a different time period ( 1966 , 1911 and 2005 ) in Taiwan , but featuring the same two actors . In " A Time for Love , " the best and sweetest segment , a soldier and a pool hall hostess strike up a timid and shy romance ; in " A Time for Freedom , " a brothel madame yearns for a political activist for whom she's not allowed to articulate her feelings ; and in " A Time for Youth " angst-filled 20 somethings navigate the tricky waters of both same-sex and opposite-sex relationships . All of the segments focus more on the female characters than they do the males , especially the second and third . The director uses clever devices to tie the three segments together , like the use of letters as the primary method of communication in the first and second segments , which morphs into cell phones and e-mails in the third . The whole movie has a languorous feel , as if the director is in no hurry to tell his story . However , this makes the movie feel unnecessarily long , especially given the slight plots that the three segments anchor themselves around . Indeed , the first segment is so touching and poignant , that the final two left me somewhat cold . An interesting Taiwanese film that's worth a look , but not an unequivocal success . |
574,151 | 4,532,636 | 59,712 | 6 | Grand Hotel with Nazis | Ship of Fools reminded me of " Grand Hotel " : take a bunch of big-name stars , fit them out in a screenplay full of romantic melodrama , and watch everyone go to town . Unfortunately , the formula doesn't work so well when the backdrop for the story is pre-WWII Germany ; it makes the melodrama seem not only irrelevant , but also somewhat tasteless . I couldn't find much to care about in this film , despite its solid production values and talented cast . The doomed love affair at the center of the drama seems tailor made to bore one to death - - other plot lines , like the one involving George Segal and Elizabeth Ashley , get short shrift by the screenwriters . There are three reasons to see " Ship of Fools " : 1 . ) Michael Dunn , who gives a winsome and entirely winning performance as the diminutive narrator and speaks directly into the camera in a gimmick that shouldn't work but does 2 . ) Lee Marvin , giving a pleasingly unlikable performance as a belligerent American 3 . ) and Vivien Leigh , whose morose character at one point in the film breaks into a five-second spirited Charleston , which by itself makes the film worth sitting through . |
574,258 | 4,532,636 | 29,162 | 6 | Kinda Creepy | In " Lost Horizon , " a change of pace for director Frank Capra , a charter plane carrying a group of character actors crashes somewhere over Asia , and they stumble their way into the forgotten city of Shangri-La , tucked cosily away amid the snowy mountains , where the cadaverous H . B . Warner prowls around in bare feet and a kimono . Shangri-La seems like an ideal place to while away one's hours , not the least because of its groovy art-deco production design , but before long everyone starts to get bored with how nice and bland the inhabitants are , and creeped out by Warner's ability to materialize out of nowhere at the most inopportune moments ( he's definitely what " Seinfeld's " Elaine would call a sidler ) . " Lost Horizon " is actually sort of poky and dull , and I was fairly disinterested in what happened to the characters by the time the movie was over . There's a love story between Ronald Colman and a pretty young thing who gets a hankering to leave the peaceful place - - her storyline contributes to the movie's overall creepiness - - is she being held there against her will ? But ultimately this love story is same old , same old , all melodramatic swooning and fuzzy closeups . My favorite performance came from Thomas Mitchell , who excelled at playing loud-mouthed obnoxious Americans , and does the same honors here . Kudos to Capra for trying something a little different ; too bad the result was a rather hum-drum movie . |
574,124 | 4,532,636 | 482,571 | 6 | Fine Looking Production Wasted on an Incoherent Script | Christopher Nolan's latest puzzle movie is like a big heaping plate of spaghetti : when taken together , it looks like a complete and satisfying meal , but if you pick up any one noodle individually , you find that it's not connected to any of the others and just trails into nothing . I felt like a complete moron walking out of this movie , because I completely missed the big surprise twist at the end . My wife had to explain it to me on the way home . But in thinking back on the movie , I decided that the fault did not lie with me ( or so I'd like to believe ) . Christopher and Jonathan Nolan have written a muddled and confusing screenplay , in which every single plot detail ( and there are many ) gets equal weight and nothing takes central focus . The ending doesn't feel so much like a creative twist as it does a cheap trick . The performances are fine , though none of the characters ever comes alive . There's so much intricate plot to race through that no one has time to develop any nuance into their roles , and all of the characters serve as ciphers for the plot rather than as psychologically believable and consistent individuals . Christian Bale comes off best ; Hugh Jackman is as bland as ever ; Michael Caine is just kind of there ; and Scarlett Johannsen may as well not even be in the movie for the importance placed upon her . Movies like " The Prestige " bug me . They spend all of their time trying so hard to trick and mislead that they never get around to telling a compelling story that I care anything about . Five minutes after you walk out of the theatre , the plot starts unraveling like wet Kleenex , because the film doesn't build its plot from the character level up ( which the other magician film from this year , " The Illusionist , " did and which is why that's a better movie ) . " The Prestige " is a magic trick that leaves you wanting your money back . |
573,471 | 4,532,636 | 31,047 | 6 | Whodunit ? Who Cares ? | What the creators of the original " Thin Man " film didn't seem to realize is that the appeal of the series was in watching the witty banter between Powell and Loy , not the murder mystery plots themselves . " Another Thin Man " has an elaborate plot and drops a boatload of hints along the way , summarized neatly by Nick in the film's last scene as he exposes the killer . But all these plot machinations serve to do is get in the way of giving us what we really paid to see : Powell and Loy . Is it any wonder that the most memorable scenes in this film are those in which the charismatic pair take time out from sleuthing to trade a sarcastic insult , or a smile , or a kiss ? When Powell approaches a table in a nightclub surrounded by a group of men , and then realizes as the men pull away that the object of their attention is his wife , the smile Loy flashes him as she sits there looking adorable is alone worth sitting through the movie for . But this sequel , like " After the Thin Man " three years before it , isn't able to recapture that quality that made the first " Thin Man " film a totally unique cinematic experience . |
574,106 | 4,532,636 | 90,830 | 6 | Well-Acted Drama Carries the Faint Aroma of After School Special | Solid if unremarkable screen version of the Broadway play , starring Marlee Matlin before anyone knew who she was and William Hurt at the height of his mid-1980s popularity . The film is sensitive and well-acted , but it never completely sheds its stage origins , and it has that faint whiff of school assembly lecture that many movies preaching tolerance for minority groups have . Matlin delivers a brave performance in her screen debut as a deaf student who falls in love with a professor ; Hurt is said professor and delivers what he's asked to . Also with Piper Laurie as Matlin's over-protective mother . |
573,650 | 4,532,636 | 448,157 | 6 | Original Ideas Stranded by Chaotic Script | Hancock may be many things , but it's certainly not a traditional superhero movie . That's either a good thing or a bad thing depending on your point of view . I appreciated the many original ideas swirling around the perimeter of this movie , but it's a shame that no one idea ever fully takes hold . The script feels like the product of a brainstorming session before anyone has had a chance to make sense of the notes . And not only is the script somewhat of a mess , but the tone veers all over the place as well . The movie gives the impression of having been directed by several different people . About an hour into " Hancock , " the script throws in a surprise twist that director Peter Berg handles deftly , and the movie , that had already been ticking along pretty enjoyably , gets an extra jolt of energy and fun . But that sense of fun drains immediately from the film as the entire tone turns nasty , unpleasant and extremely violent . Bad guys come from nowhere , plot developments don't make a lot of sense and back story is apparently made up as the film moves along . The movie itself is only 90 minutes , so I don't know why the filmmakers felt compelled to rush through to an ending without tying things together in a way that made sense , but on the other hand , I'm glad it wasn't any longer because I was tired of the arbitrariness of the whole thing . It's hard to talk about what could have been without revealing the plot twist , but let's just say that the film could have gone in any number of interesting directions that it chooses to ignore . Due to what it reveals about one of the major characters , the script could have given Hancock either an ally or a compelling villain , but it does neither , and all of the actors - - charismatic as they are - - feel somewhat stranded . Jason Bateman alone keeps things buoyant for as long as he can on the strengths of his goofy charm and comic timing . |
573,551 | 4,532,636 | 82,158 | 6 | Stiff Upper Lip , Old Man - - It's Only the Olympics | Very British , very proper and very dull movie about two English athletes competing in the 1924 Olympics . It's one of those inspirational stories that undoubtedly had audiences on their feet cheering at its end , but now the only thing memorable about it is its theme song . " Chariots of Fire " came out at a time when Hollywood was beginning to fall in love with British films , and for a while there in the 1980s and early 1990s , everyone equated tasteful film-making with good film-making . If movies perfectly recreated an historical period and did it with reserve , they won awards , no matter how embalmed the final product might have been . I'll be generous because it does have good music . |
574,425 | 4,532,636 | 120,915 | 6 | Necessary But Inert Installment in the " Star Wars " Series | George Lucas , what hath thou done to " Star Wars ? " Alas , only die-hard " Star Wars " fans will be able to enjoy this first prequel , and even they may be hard pressed to muster up an ounce of interest in this inert story about trade disputes and underhanded politics that doesn't make an ounce of sense until you've seen episodes II and III . Admittedly , " The Phantom Menace " gets better after you've seen the rest of the series , but on its own merits it's a pretty shaky effort . Lucas proves that he has virtually no skill in directing actors , as normally good performers like Liam Neeson and Natalie Portman sink like lead weights under terrible dialogue that no one could do anything with . ( And don't even get me started on Samuel L . Jackson , who looks like he would rather be doing his laundry than appearing in this film ) . Lucas gives his actors no help either , as " Menace , " and indeed the entire second trilogy , may as well be animated , and more often than not an actor is stranded in a sea of computer-generated graphics with nothing to react to . This computer-generated world looks nothing like the world created in the first trilogy , and that inconsistency is one of the most distracting things about the prequels . There are things about this movie I do like , though . I like the scenes with Anakin and his mom ; I like Darth Maul ; and I liked the pod race scene . Everything else feels like what it is - - necessary but unengaging set up for the REAL story that doesn't pick up steam until parts II and III . |
574,223 | 4,532,636 | 97,239 | 6 | Don't Be a Back Seat Driver , Miss Daisy | Driving Miss Daisy is so quiet and genteel that it threatens to evaporate right off the screen . The source material is well written and carries with it a certain poignancy and power , but one suspects that it carried even more power on stage . The impression left by the film is that director Bruce Beresford had trouble filling out the screen . He does get nice performances from his actors , though , especially Jessica Tandy as the title character , a privileged white woman through whose unique perspective we see the gradual changes wrought by the civil rights movement . Morgan Freeman is her chauffeur , and he does the gentle sage routine that seemed fresh at the time because we hadn't yet realized that that's all he would do for the next twenty years . And Dan Aykroyd takes an uncharacteristic stroll through more dramatic terrain as Miss Daisy's son . " Driving Miss Daisy " is a pleasant enough movie , but the fact that it won the 1989 Academy Award for Best Picture , more than emphasizing the quality of this particular film , points out the lack of quality of everything else that year . |
574,155 | 4,532,636 | 457,939 | 6 | A Holiday Soufflé | The Holiday ( as the name implies ) is that unique animal : the holiday film . You know , the one that comes out a few weeks before Christmas , intended to counter program against all of the serious ( read " depressing " ) Oscar contenders . The one that takes not an ounce of concentration to follow , that goes down as smoothly as a cup of hot chocolate , and is as quickly forgotten . Well , there's a time and place for movies like that , and if December isn't exactly that time and place , I don't know where or when is . All I know is that my wife and I ended up at this on opening weekend because our other two choices for new movies were " Apocalypto " and " Blood Diamond . " ' Nuf said . As for the movie ? Oh , what's the point . It's too long , the pacing is all over the place , it has some good moments and a lot of flat ones . But the cast is gorgeous , the settings are fun , the conclusion is warm and fuzzy . I could be a Scrooge and say " bah humbug " to the whole thing , or I could just sit back and enjoy it for what it is , which is what I did . And let's face it - - no movie with Kate Winslet , a superb actress who makes anything she's in better by virtue of her sheer talent alone - - can be entirely bad ( well , except for maybe " Titanic . " ) |
573,800 | 4,532,636 | 34,798 | 6 | The Movie's So-So , But Veronica Lake Is Va-Va-Voom | A fairly minor entry in the noir canon , " The Glass Key " doesn't have the striking visual daring of some of its noir contemporaries , like " The Maltese Falcon , " " Murder , My Sweet " or " Double Indemnity . " Also , since it came out early in the noir cycle , it doesn't have that sense of rotting cynicism that pervaded the late 40s and 50s noirs . What the film does have , though , is Veronica Lake , who , even if she wasn't much of an actress , was certainly fascinating to look at ; and Alan Ladd , who looks like he wants to strip her clothes off of her and throw her down on the coffee table in the scene when their two characters first meet . The film also boasts Brian Donlevy , in yet one more of the thuggish clod roles he always played , and the hulking William Bendix as a sadistic henchman who enjoys beating Ladd up while calling him pet names like sweetheart . Much has been made of the homoerotic subtext centering around this part of the film ( homoeroticism is frequently a calling card of film noir ) but I just didn't see it in this one . Ladd's loyalty to Donlevy felt more like that of a buddy rather than that of a lover , and he certainly is willing to take off with Lake the moment Donlevy gives him his blessing . I know I'd certainly do the same . |
573,678 | 4,532,636 | 53,779 | 6 | Beautiful Looking But Profoundly Hollow | A triumph of style over substance . One can't overcome the feeling while watching " La Dolce Vita " that Federico Fellini thinks he's being terribly intellectual and profound , but there's precious little going on in this film's head . It's telling that on a second viewing , when I thought I would discover nuance and detail I missed the first time around , I was instead bored and found myself counting down the minutes until the film was over . Fellini seems to be criticizing a decadent , empty modern society in which ideas have died . Fair enough . But if he's going to make that point - - and drag it out for over three hours , no less - - perhaps he would have been wise to choose someone other than the rich , privileged class to make the point with . The grand conclusion he comes to in his film is that money , wealth and status aren't enough to give a life meaning or purpose , and don't offer anything to offset the void of boredom that they create . This isn't news . Has there ever been a time in history when the privileged classes haven't been bored ? I thought the strongest sequence in the film was that depicting the media frenzy that erupts when two children see the Madonna in an empty field . It reminded me of a news story that occurred just a few months ago here in Chicago when a similar frenzy erupted over a water stain in the shape of the Virgin Mary that formed on the wall of an Interstate overpass . Fellini beautifully caught the utter absurdity of people trying to convince themselves that what they want to believe is true , and the sadness that this need is necessary in the first place . In the film's final sequence , Marcello Mastroianni's character tells the people he's partying with that they're the most boring people alive . I second that . Too bad that a movie about boring , vacuous people makes for a boring , vacuous movie . |
573,478 | 4,532,636 | 279,113 | 6 | So-So Dramatic Vehicle for Aniston | The Good Girl was heavily touted as the film that would help Jennifer Aniston break from her Rachel persona and make the leap to dramatic film actress . There was even talk ( however brief ) about an Academy Award nomination for her when this film came out . Surprise , surprise , but that didn't happen . And where has Aniston's film career been since ? " The Good Girl " is leaps and bounds better than any of Aniston's other ventures into film - - bland crap like " Picture Perfect " and that other movie whose name I can't even remember - - but it's not a great movie in and of itself . Aniston does a pretty good job , but you still can't escape the suspicion that she's just playing Jennifer Aniston , albeit a drabbed down version of herself . This movie's greatest asset is its supporting cast , particularly Zooey Deschanel in a very funny , dead pan role as a fellow worker at the Wal-Mart-esquire store Aniston's character works in , and Jake Gyllenhaal , who had begun his trek to stardom the year before in " Donnie Darko . " The gods were being kind to Gyllenhaal in 2002 , as he got to make out with both Aniston and Catherine Keener ( " Lovely and Amazing " ) in the same year . " The Good Girl " is certainly worth watching . It captures that nowheresville feeling of small-town America perfectly , the antithesis of every Frank Capra movie on the same subject . Instead of a cosy town where everyone knows your name , these towns are instead full of bored , restless people sitting around waiting for something , anything , to happen . |
574,027 | 4,532,636 | 489,281 | 6 | Another Forgettable Entry in the Iraq War Movie Mill | Kimberly Peirce becomes one of the latest directors to try and only marginally succeed in making a compelling film about the Iraq conflict . Peirce takes on as her subject the military's stop-loss clause , essentially a back door draft by which the military can use fine print in recruits ' contracts to prevent them from getting out once their time is up . Peirce obviously feels strongly about the policy , but what should be a hard-hitting drama feels instead like a rather preachy after-school special . She coaxes a nice performance out of Ryan Phillipe , as the soldier who goes AWOL when his stop-loss clause is activated , but she doesn't fare as well with the rest of the cast . The film suffers from confusing editing , that doesn't always make it clear where characters are or how events are related to one another , and the writing at times is weak as well , with character motivations not coming across as clearly as they should . I don't know what it is about the Iraq conflict that makes it so hard for filmmakers to make good movies about it . Maybe it will have to be over for a while before anyone can begin to approach it with any success . |
574,497 | 4,532,636 | 346,336 | 6 | Only Reviewing First Half , Because I Have No Intention of Watching Part II | I'm sorry to be doing this , and I won't blame you if you disregard my review because of it , but I'm basing my comments only on the first half of this six-hour film . Expecting much from this acclaimed and obviously beloved made-for-Italian-television miniseries , I instead finished the first half absolutely mystified at what people are responding to . The movie follows the stories of two very different but very close brothers whose lives take quite different directions : at the end of part I , one was a doctor dedicating himself to psychiatric institutional reform while the other was a military police officer . The film absolutely races through its plot ; I'm not exaggerating when I say that if you leave the room for a minute without pausing the film you may come back to find that years have passed while you were gone . The storytelling is completely one-note ; all incidents and events are told with the same uniform tone , so that the drama has no peaks and valleys , and none of it is compelling . Sure , a lot happens in terms of story , but I wasn't remotely engaged in any of it or in these characters . I'm sending the second half back unwatched , because there are too many other movies out there I want to see to muster up the energy or time to watch three more hours of this . I will give " The Best of Youth " the benefit of the doubt that it views better in its original format , as installments on T . V . Maybe the story would seem like it was taking its time a bit more if it were coming at you across a longer period of time , and maybe the static and boring film-making would come across better if you were watching it as a T . V . movie and not as a feature film . But that still doesn't make me like it any better . |
573,777 | 4,532,636 | 38,650 | 6 | Life's Not Always So Wonderful | My apologies to all of you " It's a Wonderful Life " - ers out there . Please believe me when I say that I've tried multiple times to develop warm feelings for this movie . But it's just not meant to be . I've seen this film a couple of times , and I never want to see it again . I want to beat James Stewart's George Bailey about the head and shoulders every time I watch the movie . Perhaps the most passive-aggressive hero in motion picture history , George Bailey spends half of his time sacrificing his own happiness for the sake of others , and the other half whining about his hard luck . No , George , it's not hard luck . . . it's the result of your own decision making skills . Either be selfless and stop complaining , or be a bastard and screw everyone else . But make up your mind , and don't take two hours to do it . Ahhh , perhaps I now live in too cynical and jaded a world to tolerate George's namby-pamby indecision . But maybe that's a reason better than any other to keep this film around . Character aside , however , the one thing I can unequivocally praise about this film is the performance of Stewart . He provides a welcome bitter edge to combat Capra's sugary-sweet corn . His breakdown scene in a bar , where he desperately prays to God to help him keep himself together , is a tour-de-force . Drag it out every Christmas and enjoy . . . I won't begrudge you that small pleasure . Just don't expect me to join along . |
573,915 | 4,532,636 | 68,732 | 6 | An Awkward Attempt By Altman to Tackle the Psychological Thriller | Robert Altman applies the same widescreen canvas he had previously used to capture the chaotic communities of a Korean War MASH unit and a primitive Pacific Northwest mining town to the quieter but no less chaotic internal workings of a troubled woman's psyche in this unsettling and uneven psychological thriller . Susannah York plays Cathryn , wife of a distracted husband ( Rene Auberjonois ) , whose affairs with two men ( one a family friend ) and her inability to have children become obsessive memories that haunt her and drive her over the brink of insanity during a stay at a quiet country home ( the country is never identified , though the movie was filmed in Ireland ) . She begins the film as a wounded and hunted animal , jumping at every sound and image she hears or sees . One of her past lovers appears as a ghost , the other arrives at the country home with his daughter and gropes Cathryn when her husband's back is turned . The two lovers are vaguely threatening and abusive ; her husband is dismissive and treats her like a child . Cathryn realizes that she can take control and kill off her unpleasant memories - - but at the same time she loses the ability to distinguish between reality and her own feverish imaginings . On a first viewing , " Images " is absorbing and oddly fascinating , but it doesn't hold up well . For one , Cathryn isn't a compelling character , and that dooms the project from the start , since there's barely a scene in the film that doesn't revolve around her . She begins the film unhinged and really has nowhere to go from there except more unhinged . We don't learn much about her , and her illness isn't placed in any context . Susannah York delivers a shrill performance , all screeches and irrational outbursts ; the male characters all come across as asses . Altman seems to be trying his hand at a feminist text , but he goes about it in the clichéd way that male artists too often address " female " issues . I think he's making some point about the way movies objectify women , turning them into " images " for the consumption of male viewers . After all , Cathryn is little more than something for the men in the film to enjoy , and cameras figure prominently in the film's mise-en-scene ( Cathryn's husband is an amateur photographer ) . At one point , she fires one of her husband's guns ( that universal symbol of male sexual power ) at the ghost of her dead lover , and finds that she has instead destroyed her husband's camera . Nice try Altman , but awfully heavy handed if you ask me . I'm a champion of Robert Altman's films , and he's never failed to fascinate me with any of his experiments , but such is the nature of experimenting that some are going to succeed more than others . " Images " came on the heels of a marvelous trio of films ( " MASH , " " Brewster McCloud " and " McCabe & Mrs . Miller " ) with which Altman announced his arrival as an important figure in American cinema , and he would follow it with four more ( " The Long Goodbye , " " Thieves Like Us , " " California Split " and " Nashville " ) that would reinforce that claim , but " Images " itself is a weak link in the chain . The stars of " Images " are the mesmerizing production design and the sterling cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond . |
574,001 | 4,532,636 | 92,890 | 6 | Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner | Welcome to a more innocent time , also knows as 1987 , when movies about kids grinding their hips together in their parents ' basements qualified as scandalous subject matter . " Dirty Dancing " is the film that kick-started Patrick Swayze's brief time as a major star , though all these years later , it's Jennifer Grey's failure to go on to anything after this movie that I regret the most , as she is the most appealing thing about it . As with so many films released during that decade , the soundtrack is the real star . |
573,565 | 4,532,636 | 411,195 | 6 | Tries for Whimsy , Settles for a Great Soundtrack | With " Breakfast on Pluto , " Neil Jordan attempts a whimsical picaresque tale but creates instead a pale and glaringly underdeveloped movie . Cillian Murphy tries with all of his might to inject some vitality into the character of Patrick Braden , an effeminate boy who grows up to be a cross-dressing gamine , a sort of modern-day Scarlett O'Hara who wants to prance through life without getting his feet dirty in any of the world's messiness . Instead of the Civil War , the backdrop here is 1970s Ireland and the constant threat of violence posed by the IRA . Patrick leaves his home to search for his mother , who abandoned him when he was a babe , and inadvertently finds himself mixed up with the terrorist group . From there he flees to London and has all sorts of what we're supposed to think are nutty adventures , until a happy ending finds Patrick at peace and all right with the world . None of this really works . Neil Jordan , a filmmaker whose repertoire suggests political preoccupations , does not seem at any moment convinced by the fantasy or optimism of his own film , so everything rings false . Nothing that happens to Patrick , good or bad , seems to have any significant consequences , and we don't ever really learn much about him or about what he himself has learned on his journey . I believe Jordan intends for us to believe that Patrick has grown as a person over the course of the film , but I only believe that because of the conventions of picaresque stories , not because I saw any growth in Patrick's character . The screenplay works double time to race through all of the plot points - - it feels as if the screenwriter were adapting an 800-page novel to the screen but didn't want to leave anything out . The story introduces a character in one scene only to send him packing two scenes later without having made any tangible impact on the story . " Breakfast on Pluto " is not a bad movie , and despite its flaws still offers a moderately enjoyable ride . The awesome pulsing soundtrack helps greatly , and often does much of the work that should have fallen to either Jordan or his actors . I found myself at times responding to nothing but the music , which does not make for a whole-hearted recommendation of the film , but I'll take what I can get . |
573,371 | 4,532,636 | 63,688 | 6 | Checkmate , Ms . Dunaway | One of those harmless caper films where the only point is how good-looking the two leads are . But with Faye Dunaway as one of those leads , somehow that's enough . Only a year after her luminous performance in " Bonnie and Clyde , " she had already begun to lose that gauzy feminine glamour ( or maybe she was just lit extremely well in that film ) and acquire that sharper , diamond-jawed and intimidating haughtiness that would make her such a great ball-buster in later films ( and which made her kind of scary as well ) , but she was still knock-out enough to make this film easy enough to sit through . And the ladies get Steve McQueen , not too hard on the eyes himself . I wasn't even born when McQueen was at the peak of his stardom , but I have a feeling that if I had been old enough to care about such things , I would have wanted to BE McQueen , because he got to get it on with actresses like Dunaway and Natalie Wood in his films . Otherwise , this film doesn't have much to make it memorable , except for an erotic chess match ( ! ) and its famous theme song , " The Windmills of Your Mind , " that plays over and over and over and over again . They had a budget big enough to pay two superstar salaries but not enough to write a couple of additional songs for the soundtrack ? |
574,440 | 4,532,636 | 48,140 | 6 | A Disappointing Adaptation of a Nearly Perfect Musical | I saw the 1992 revival of " Guys and Dolls " on Broadway when Nathan Lane and Faith Prince were playing the roles of Nathan Detroit and Miss Adelaide . That show was so colorful , vibrant and pulsing with energy , that it made Joseph L . Mankiewicz's screen version pale greatly in comparison . Mankiewicz replaces Damon Runyon's cartoon world of stylized sets and goofy gangsters with what passed for realism in the 1950s . Much of the original musical's score is gone ( even the well-known " A Bushel and a Peck " ) , in some cases replaced by forgettable tunes written expressly for the film . The stunt casting of Marlon Brando in the role of Sky Masterson works better than you might expect ; Brando displays a humorous and charming side to his personality that he hadn't yet shown on screen . Frank Sinatra is too smooth and collected for the addled Nathan Detroit ; Jean Simmons is bland as missionary worker Sarah Brown . Vivian Blaine nails the role of Adelaide - - every ditzy blonde role since owes at least a trifle to her performance . The film never comes alive . You would think Mankiewicz would be a perfect choice for directing screen adaptations of stage material ; his films always felt more like plays anyway , and his strength lay in directing actors through long passages of witty dialogue . But he's not up to the task of directing a musical - - the numbers just sit on the screen ; there's no snap to them . A worthy effort , but one that doesn't meet its potential . |
573,665 | 4,532,636 | 26,778 | 6 | Wanted to Like It More Than I Actually Did | Marx Brothers movies are hard to review , because you can't apply the same criteria to them as you can to other movies . The Marx Brothers created an entire method for delivering screen comedy ; they created the rules and the logic , and you either accept that logic or you don't . I have to base my opinion on " A Night at the Opera , " therefore , on whether or not I laughed , and I didn't , much . I smiled and chuckled here and there , but I just didn't think this movie was that funny . I had a phalanx of film scholars on one of the DVD's special features telling me how funny certain classic bits in this movie are : the " sanity clause " routine , the stateroom scene , etc . But as actually played out , these scenes are moderately amusing but not much more . They have the feel of those Saturday Night Live skits that would be funnier if they were only about 5 minutes shorter . Supposedly , " A Night at the Opera " was the first of a new kind of Marx Brothers movie , more structured and with more dramatic conflict . The only other movie I've seen by them to compare this to is " Duck Soup , " and I say give me the anarchic Brothers any day and dramatic structure be damned . There is one sequence in this movie that I loved , and that's when Chico and Harpo step out of character and display their skill on the piano and harp , respectively . These musical interludes are a much-needed respite from the atrocious , warbly songs performed by the film's male and female love interests . I would recommend any Marx Brothers movie for the same reason I would recommend Charlie Chaplin , Buster Keaton or Astaire / Rogers films . They're part of cinematic history , and they played a large role in defining the art form at a specific point in its development . But that's not to say you will necessarily enjoy them as much as audiences at the time did . |
573,741 | 4,532,636 | 89,941 | 7 | I Should Have Known Better Than to Mock Joe Buck | A movie I thought I'd be able to make fun of ( I just couldn't see myself taking Jon Voight seriously in the photos and brief snippets I'd seen ) and ended up liking quite a bit . Voight and Eric Roberts play escaped convicts who end up on the runaway train of the title with a female train worker ( Rebecca DeMornay ) as a kind-of hostage . It's primarily a straight-up action movie , but it pays more than usual attention to characterizations than films of its sort , and it's as good as it is thanks to the acting of Voight - - who proves himself to be quite up to the tasks of this role after all - - and Roberts , who's about as good here as he ever was in anything else . |
573,888 | 4,532,636 | 88,011 | 7 | Not Indiana Jones , But a Pretty Good Runner Up | A terrific action adventure film obviously modeled after the Indiana Jones films . Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner have boatloads of chemistry together as a cocky diamond hunter and a pampered New York writer , respectively , trekking through the jungles of Colombia in search of treasure . The film has all of the requisite battle of the sexes scrapping between Douglas and Turner - - they hate each other at first , but then of course fall in love . In between , there are quite a few memorable set pieces , including mudslides , a car chase that ends up in a raging river , and a climactic showdown that takes place over a pit of hungry alligators . Followed by a not nearly as good sequel , " Jewel of the Nile . " |
574,395 | 4,532,636 | 372,784 | 7 | Second Best of the Series | It still doesn't beat Tim Burton's first film , but " Batman Begins " is better than the rest of the Batman movies to date . Christian Bale makes a terrific Bruce Wayne - - he may be the best actor to have played him so far . And top-tier actors like Liam Neeson , Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine , while maybe not greatly challenged by the material given them , still make the most of smaller roles . My biggest problem with this film was its structure . The first 20-25 minutes of the movie are actually quite boring ; there's so much plot exposition and back story to work through that the film grinds to a halt trying to slog through it . However , once Bruce Wayne begins his actual transformation to Batman , it's as if someone flicked the power switch on and the movie takes flight . From that point forward , it's a lot of fun , dark and brooding , as Batman should be , but also full of that cheeky brand of humour common to comic books . There are many times when I wish the fight scenes had been more visible ; director Chrisotpher Nolan shoots everything so close and edits everything so fast that you can't really see what's going on , a shame since there are plenty of opportunities for sensational fight choreography . But there's enough in this movie to like to make criticisms like this seem like afterthoughts . |
573,763 | 4,532,636 | 78,199 | 7 | Good Vehicle for Burstyn and Alda | This two-person play is transferred to the screen without being able to escape its stage origins , but it offers a great opportunity to see two fine actors give two fine performances . Ellen Burstyn and Alan Alda play lovers who meet once a year at the same time and place for a weekend together . In between , they live their separate lives with their respective families , and they spend as much time catching each other up about the goings on in their individual worlds as they do fooling around during their yearly trysts . Burstyn and Alda are a joy to watch , and they handle the evolution of their characters well . The movie itself gets better as the two principals age - - the early scenes don't come off as well ( the worst segment is one in which Burstyn's simple housewife experiments with hippie-dom while Alda's uptight Republican struggles with the death of a son in Vietnam ) , but the later scenes are simply wonderful , full of a poignancy that resists sentimentality . And I love the theme song to this movie . My wife and I had it played at our wedding . |
573,386 | 4,532,636 | 105,107 | 7 | See for the Lovely Performances of McDonnell and Woodard | Mary McDonnell had a brief spate of success in films in the early 1990s before disappearing from the scene and reemerging recently on the television series " Battlestar Galactica . " First she came to major attention in " Dances with Wolves , " for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress , and then she graduated to the lead category in 1992 for her performance in " Passion Fish . " McDonnell gives a lovely performance as a bratty soap opera actress who's confined to a wheelchair after an accident , and who must rely on a no-nonsense nurse ( Alfre Woodard , lovely as well ) for help . The film follows all of the requisite trajectories you'd expect from a movie like this , and the fish that give the film its name serve a heavy-handed symbolic purpose that seemed too much for me even at the time ( and I was only seventeen ) . But the film does have a relaxed indie vibe to it , and I can see why people like it . |
573,841 | 4,532,636 | 462,504 | 7 | Ending Is Uncharacteristically Flawed for a Herzog Film | Director Werner Herzog revisits his favorite theme - - Man going mad in the wilderness - - in " Rescue Dawn , " the fictional remake of his own documentary , " Little Dieter Needs to Fly . " Christian Bale plays Dieter Dengler , an American pilot shot down while on a covert bombing mission in Laos in 1965 . He's tucked away in a prison camp but plans and executes an escape with the other inmates . Most of the movie is utterly gripping ( much of it is also extremely grueling ) , and Herzog tells the story with his customary lack of editorializing . What I always like about Herzog's films is that he never tries to tell us how we should feel , but rather approaches his stories , whether fictional or no , with an almost journalistic objectivity . However , his instincts fail him in the film's final scenes , and he falls prey to a bombastic Hollywood ending that's at complete odds with the rest of the film or anything else he's ever done , for that matter . For that reason , my mostly positive review of the movie has to come with qualifications . Bale is remarkable , as usual , as Dengler . He's incapable of giving an ordinary performance , and no matter how good or bad the movie he's in is , you can always count on him to give you something interesting to watch . Steve Zahn plays a hollowed out fellow prisoner who escapes with Dengler and accompanies him on his frantic and nightmarish journey through the jungle , only to meet a shocking end . And an unrecognizable Jeremy Davies gives an off-the-wall performance as a prisoner resistant to Dengler's plan and convinced that they will all be saved by the Americans at any moment . The jungle settings look stunning . As usual in a Herzog film , the environment is as much a character as any of the actual people on screen , and as Zahn's character says at one point , represents more of a prison to these men than the actual walls and buildings of the prison they're in . |
574,166 | 4,532,636 | 436,078 | 7 | Amusing , But Not Much More Than That | A fairly humorous documentary about the world's dirtiest joke . This isn't a very meaty film , and there was a lot of potential untapped by its creators . This could have been an interesting investigation into what makes comedy funny , and how the exact same material presented in different ways can be either hilarious or horrifying . But the directors weren't interested in doing that , and so they simply fill 90 minutes with a huge ensemble of some of the most famous comedians working today either telling the joke or talking about the joke . Actually , the biggest problem with this film is that there's too much of people TALKING about the joke and not enough of people TELLING it . Much is made of the fact that this particular joke almost more than any other depends so much on the style of the comedian telling it , yet we rarely see someone tell it from beginning to end uninterrupted . The funniest versions of the joke are , not surprisingly , those that bring some off-the-wall creativity and don't rely merely on scatological humour . Whoopi Goldberg does a hilarious version in which foreskins figure heavily , and Mario Cantone made me laugh out loud when he did his as delivered by either a very good Carol Channing or a very bad Judy Garland ( I'm still not sure which ) . Kevin Pollack does a dead-on impersonation of Christopher Walken that is priceless , and even the Smothers Brothers tell the joke memorably . Others , like Bob Saget , see only how disgusting they can be , and can't stop laughing at their own outrageousness . And still others , like Steven Wright and Sarah Silverman , deliver disturbingly dead-pan versions that don't end up being jokes at all . " The Aristocrats " is an entertaining diversion at best . I imagine it loses a lot not being seen with a large audience , yet at the same time I'm glad I didn't spend $10 on it . |
573,499 | 4,532,636 | 499,448 | 7 | Prince Caspian Lands with a Slight Thud | This disappointing follow up to " The Lion , the Witch and the Wardrobe " had the unfortunate disadvantage of being based on a book that just doesn't tell as good a story as its predecessor , but even with that it could have been a better movie . I liked the intensity Andrew Adamson brought to the previous Narnia story , and I thought it nicely matched the tone of the book . Though " The Chronicles of Narnia " series was written for children , they were dark and adult in their themes ; they were about kids who were being forced to deal with adult complexities before they themselves were of an adult age . However , in this second installment , Adamson ratchets up the intensity a bit too much . The result is a movie that thunders and pounds along when it should be bewitching us with its fantasy . There's a feeling of sameness to the whole movie - - with the exception of a couple of excellently executed moments ( the appearance of Reepicheep , for example , or the initial infiltration of King Miraz's castle ) , there are few images I remember . I don't remember the book " Prince Caspian " that well , so I'm not sure how closely the film adheres to it . I know it gets the basics right . But I don't remember the book spending quite so much time with the evil Telmarines and their political intrigues . I think the back story of Prince Caspian is told as one long flashback , with the rest of the narrative sticking closely to the four Pevensie children and the Narnians . Here , Adamson moves back and forth between the stories , I guess under the impression that this approach works better cinematically ; but because of this , the film never takes focus . Is this the continuing story of Peter , Susan , Edmund and Lucy ? Is this movie about Prince Caspian ? Is this movie about the Narnians ? Edmund is practically nonexistent ; the actor who portrays Peter isn't likable enough to root for ; again , it falls to little Georgie Henley as Lucy to carry the film , and she does so ably . " Prince Caspian " is well put together , no doubt . Adamson knows how to make an action film . But the story loses some of its magic and its steam in this installment . Let's hope that the next two films ( if they get made ) , which are based on two of the strongest installments in the series , get both that magic and that steam back . |
573,464 | 4,532,636 | 256,276 | 7 | Not the Novel , But Enjoyable on Its Own Terms | The supremely literary and ambitious novel by A . S . Byatt has been streamlined into a more conventional love story for two beautiful Hollywood actors in this screen adaptation directed by ( of all people ! ) Neil LaBute . Aaron Eckhart and Gwyneth Paltrow play scholars of a Victorian poet and poetess , respectively , who discover that their two subjects were romantically involved and find themselves in a race with rival scholars to prove it and change the face of scholarship forever . The film intercuts modern-day scenes of Eckhart and Paltrow falling cautiously in love with flashbacks to the two poets , played by Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle . I found this literal and conventional approach to be the film's biggest failing , and couldn't help but think how much more interesting the film might have been if we had never seen actual reconstructions of the past and were left to visualize it along with the two scholars . However , to be fair , I don't know how that could have been done cinematically , so it seems churlish to hold the writer and director of the film to task for not doing it . Lovers of the book will undoubtedly find much to criticize in the film , as it leaves much plot and several characters out entirely , and is more interested in intrigues romantic than literary , but I thought it was decent . Eckhart is an extremely likable actor , and Paltrow is well cast , if a bit too conventionally beautiful for the role , and the two have quite a bit of chemistry . If one insists on holding the film to the same standards as the novel , it's bound to pale in comparison , but taken on its own terms , the movie is quite enjoyable . |
574,429 | 4,532,636 | 70,510 | 7 | A Father / Daughter Con Team Played by a Father and Daughter | A charmer . Ryan O'Neal stars with his real-life daughter Tatum in this story about a father and daughter con team scraping together an existence in Depression-era America . Along the way , the dad picks up a brassy floozy , played by the expert comedienne Madeline Kahn , which doesn't go down well with the precocious kid . The entire success of " Paper Moon " relied upon the performance of the child actor , and Peter Bogdanovich did well to cast Tatum , as she plays the role without any of the self-conscious cutesiness that makes other child actors unbearable . Ryan was never more relaxed or likable in a role , maybe because he was working with his daughter . And Kahn of course is a delight , though one wishes she had a bigger role . As with " The Last Picture Show , " Bogdanovich shoots in nostalgic black and white , but this project is much more light-hearted than the other . |
573,675 | 4,532,636 | 24,034 | 7 | A Whole Lot of Heart and a Whole Lot of Ham | If your knowledge of " 42nd Street " comes from seeing the stage musical , you'll be surprised to find how much less of a musical the film actually is , and how much darker it is than its stage counterpart . The spectre of the Great Depression pervades every frame of the film . These Broadway hoofers never once look like they're enjoying themselves ; instead , they look like any other group of factory or assembly workers , desperately holding on to the job they have no matter how miserable it may be . Busby Berkeley's groundbreaking choreography bursts on to the screen late in the film in a couple of dazzling production numbers . Though actually there is something disturbing about his obsession ( and the entire film's obsession ) with objectifying women until they are nearly indistinguishable from one another . To the producers of the musical within the film , the women are nothing more than pairs of legs . In the audition scene we are privy to , they select the chorus by asking them to hike up their skirts so that their legs will be more easily visible ! ! If there are any auditions to actually find out if the women can sing or dance , we don't see them . And again , in Berkeley's dance numbers , the women become little more than individual body parts , swirling around in kaleidoscopic images that blur one into the next . These early Depression-era musicals are known for launching the career of Ruby Keeler , but I was quite taken aback by how awful she is . She can't act , and her dancing is atrocious . She clomps around and flails her arms like a chimpanzee impersonating a human . Of the actors , Ginger Rogers makes an impression in a small role as the acerbic Anytime Annie ( and get a load of the scene where she insists that Ruby Keeler take on the lead role in the musical , because she can dance rings around poor Ginger . . . . yeah , right ) . Bebe Daniels and George Brent do well with their parts , and Warner Baxter serves up the ham and gets to deliver the film's most famous line . I know this review sounds more critical than positive , but I actually enjoyed this film very much . It's corny , silly and melodramatic to be sure , but it's also earnest and well crafted . It's a fascinating slice of film history and one that any serious film buff should see . |
574,296 | 4,532,636 | 21,885 | 7 | Norma Shearer Plays a Daddy's Girl | A Norma Shearer soap opera about a free-spirited woman and her alcoholic attorney father ( Lionel Barrymore ) who stand together against the disapproving snobbery of their family . Shearer falls in love with a thug who her father defended in court ( Clark Gable ) , and finds that her father's talk about the second chances due to troubled souls does not extend to them when they're dating his daughter . The pair enter into an agreement : she'll stop seeing the thug if he'll stop drinking . Things take appropriately outlandish and melodramatic turns when Shearer's former fiancée ( Leslie Howard ) gets involved , kills Gable , and finds himself being defended in court by who ? . . . . . you guessed it , good old Barrymore , who just has time to finish an impassioned plea for the man's life before dropping dead . Whew , that's a lot to pack into a 90 minute film . There's not much of note about this movie except for the good performances of Shearer and Barrymore ( though she was better in the previous year's melodrama , " The Divorcée " ) and its frank treatment of alcoholism . Had this come out a few years later , after the Production Code was firmly in place , the film would not have even been able to admit that alcoholism existed . |
574,158 | 4,532,636 | 43,879 | 7 | Fascinating But Uneven | On Dangerous Ground is a strange , schizophrenic film that straddles the fence between film noir and romantic melodrama , managing to be both and neither at the same time . It has the same otherworldly quality that director Nicholas Ray frequently brought to his films , but ultimately I'm not sure whether it's successful or not . The first half of the film finds brutal cop Robert Ryan stomping around the mean streets of a dark , brooding city , his abusive approach to meting out punishment keeping him only one small step from becoming the kind of criminal he spends his time tracking down . These early scenes are the most fascinating ones in the film , though ( or maybe because ) they have really nothing to do with the film's main plot and are all about developing the character of Ryan . He cruises around dark streets , the camera placed in the back seat of his car , filming the passing street as he is seeing it , his eyes reflected in the rearview mirror ( Martin Scorses borrowed this kind of shot for " Taxi Driver " perhaps ? ) What emerges is the portrait of an isolated and lonely man barely maintaining a grip on his sanity in the midst of an insane world . But the second half of the film dissipates the claustrophobic tension of the city environment by sending Ryan out into the country to investigate the murder of a young girl . He stumbles into the home of a blind woman ( played by Ida Lupino looking like Loretta Young ) and strikes up a timid romance with her , her gentleness and trustworthy nature providing just the antidote his jaded sensibilities need . Will their romance work , or are the two worlds they're from too different ? There's much of interest about the portion of the film set in the country . The idea that the kind of crime traditionally reserved for the back alleys of city slums could be working its way into the great nowhere had to have been an uncomfortable idea for post-war America . And the crazed , vengeful father of the murdered girl is a far cry from the simple , kind souls we like to think people the American heartland . And Ray creates a visual interest in the country scenes as well . The harsh , barren landscape looks like the surface of the moon , no more inviting than the sinister , shadowy city streets to which it's juxtaposed . But I got bored with the romantic plot line , and felt it was out of place in a film like this . And the ending especially didn't sit well with me . It seemed much more likely that Ryan would return to the streets he knows so well and continue his lonely existence , rather than come back to the love of a good woman in a cozy cottage in the middle of nowhere . I felt cheated , and wished that the ending could have had the guts that the rest of the film did . A fascinating film in its own right , but a flawed one . You can't watch it and not think of the opportunities missed . |
573,434 | 4,532,636 | 41,954 | 7 | A Noir with a Sense of Humour | Actor Barry Sullivan kicks things off in " Tension " with a pre-credits monologue spoken directly into the camera , in which his police detective character explains his method for getting criminals to trip up and give their crimes away - - he applies pressure to them slowly and steadily until they have no choice but to snap , just like the rubber band he plays with as he speaks . The self-awareness of this opening sequence carries over into the entire film , making this one of the more humorous entries in the film noir cycle . Richard Basehart plays a man tromped on by his floozy wife ( Audrey Totter ) , who gets so fed up with his inability to stand up for himself that he decides to create an alternate identity and use it to create the perfect murder , killing his wife's new lover . At the last minute , he can't do it , but the guy turns up dead anyway , shot by Totter , and now Basehart's in a fix . How can he explain to the police that he had planned to murder this guy , and had gone through all of these deliberate preparations for doing so , but didn't actually do the deed ? Basehart plays his role well , nimbly managing the leap back and forth between the nerdy drug store manager and the mysterious cosmetics salesman that comprise his two identities . But the film is hijacked right from under his feet by Sullivan , who gets most of the film's funniest lines , and Totter , who plays Basehart's wife as the quintessential femme fatale . She's so appealingly sexy , sharp and lurid , especially when compared to the wholesome , bland Cyd Charisse , who plays Basehart's new love interest , that you almost end up rooting for her to come out on top . This film noir is no big deal , but it's an awful lot of fun . |
574,381 | 4,532,636 | 75,860 | 7 | Sci-Fi with a Heart | It's impossible to recreate the feeling audiences at the time of this film's release likely had watching it . Special effects and movies about alien visitors have become so commonplace as to make this one quaint . But one of the things I admire most about " Close Encounters " is its hypothesis that aliens could possibly be friendly , and that a visit from them could be an occasion for awe and delight . Up to then , most alien visitor movies ( and really alien visitor movies still today , for that matter ) positioned aliens as beings to fear and kill as quickly as possible , before they had a chance to strike at us . As for the rest of " Close Encounters , " I have to admit that I don't remember it that well , as I've only seen it once a long time ago , but what I do remember is finding it ever so slightly dull , whatever else its other merits . |
573,995 | 4,532,636 | 33,152 | 7 | Psychedelic Trip Through the Arabian Nights | A colorful and downright trippy version of the Arabian nights tale about a street urchin who stumbles upon a magic lamp and is granted three wishes by an all-powerful genie . Actually , that's only part of the story as presented here , but it's the part of the film that provides the craziest and most spectacular special effects . The rest of the film concerns a king who seeks revenge on the evil sorcerer who steals his throne , in the process taking back his true love . This is a fun and engaging film , awfully cheesy but in a good way . Disney ransacked bits and pieces of it for their animated hit " Aladdin . " |
573,943 | 4,532,636 | 493,459 | 7 | Entertaining , But Not as Scathing as It Could Have Been | Kirby Dick's expose of the MPAA's ratings process only confirms the suspicion that motion picture ratings are virtually worthless , arbitrarily assigned by an elite panel who purport to have our country's children's best interests at heart , but who seem to think that an exposed breast is more harmful to them than seeing a gunshot to the head . It's absolutely infuriating that the country's churches have a seat on the ratings boards and a say in what content is or is not suitable for consumption . It's infuriating that an NC-17 rating exists at all ( the board is essentially usurping the judgement and decision-making abilities of parents ) , but doubly infuriating that it's used as a punishment to " encourage " filmmakers to alter their films so that they're more palatable for mainstream film goers . For a while I was kind of sad that home video and the Internet seems to be supplanting movie theatres as the preferred venue for watching films , but now I appreciate the democratizing effect of companies like Netflix and Blockbuster , who have made great filmmakers less reliant on corporate theatre chains to get their films distributed and seen . As a documentary , " This Film Is Not Yet Rated " is rather disorganized . Dick has good points to make , but their impact is blunted by tangents and off-topic tirades . Dick hires a private detective to track down the identities of the ratings board , and spends far too much of his 96 minutes following the details of that investigation . On the plus side , it's great to see directors and actors like Kimberly Peirce , Maria Bello and John Waters given a venue to vent their frustrations at the ratings practice . One of the main points Dick makes , and one I heartily agree with , is that the ratings board focuses far more energy on censoring sex in films than they do violence , a point that is unintentionally driven home by none other than the ratings board chairman herself towards the film's climax . Dick asks why his documentary received an NC-17 rating and she cites the sexual content that appears in some of the clips of films that have received NC-17 ratings sprinkled throughout the documentary . She seems to have no problem with some of the very violent content included in clips from some of those very same movies . What an idiot . |
573,866 | 4,532,636 | 87,892 | 7 | Can't We All Just Get Along ? | I read the E . M . Forster novel between viewings of " A Passage to India , " and found that my impression of the film was somewhat diminished the second time as a result . But there's an old-fashioned splendor to David Lean's style of film-making that I love , and so I very much admire this film despite its faults . Judy Davis and Peggy Ashcroft play two English ladies , one young , one old , who travel to India in search of a true Indian adventure . While exploring the mysterious Marabar caves with a doctor who both ladies befriend ( Victor Banerjee ) , something enigmatic unhinges both of them , and the doctor is accused by Adela ( Davis ) of attempted rape . The resulting trial brings the already simmering tension between the English and Indians to an angry boil . Forster's novel is deeply complex and psychological . The film only skims the surface of the inner lives of its characters , and focuses instead on the more tangible plot points . As a result , the movie doesn't make as much sense as the book , mostly because we never fully understand Davis's character , and it's on the inner workings of her mind that the whole story hinges . But the film does successfully ask the same question as Forster's novel , which is not how can the English and Indian cultures integrate , but rather whether or not such a thing will ever be possible . " A Passage to India " does have all of the elements that immediately identify a film as being of David Lean's canon : the exotic locales , the traditional Hollywood feel , the glorious Maurice Jarre score , and even if less than in the novel , a level of character development that is frequently lacking in big-screen epics . |
574,096 | 4,532,636 | 37,055 | 7 | Peter Lorre Puts His Unique Mark on This Story of International Intrigue | Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet star in this atmospheric noir from 1944 . Lorre plays a writer who becomes fascinated with a criminal known as Dimitrios , who's cut a path of thievery and murder across the Mediterranean . He's approached by Greenstreet , a mysterious stranger , about hatching a scheme to blackmail Dimitrios with information each has separately and that would be highly incriminating if put together . These shady dealings take Lorre , and the audience , to all manner of exotic locales , from Istanbul to Austria . " The Mask of Dimitrios " isn't that different from any number of international intrigue stories from the same time period , but what does give it a touch of the unique is the relationship between Lorre and Greenstreet , two men who form a kind of tentative friendship even though neither much trusts the other . Lorre in particular gives a wonderfully engaging performance , full of character and wit . He's fascinating just to watch and listen to - - it doesn't ' much matter what he's even doing or saying . |
573,988 | 4,532,636 | 56,541 | 7 | Good Acting Makes Up for a Cop-Out Ending | This well-acted screen version of the Tennessee Williams play makes for entertaining viewing , but it's hopelessly marred by an overly-censored ending that dilutes the story of much of its power . I've never seen or read the original stage version , and I didn't know how the film's ending differed from the original until after I'd watched it ( I only knew that it had a happier ending imposed on it ) , but even I could tell that the film didn't end the way Williams had originally intended . Paul Newman plays Chance Wayne ( how's that for a subtle choice of name ? ) , a small-time loser who has dreams of making it big in Hollywood . He's returned to his home town with a zonked out famous actress in tow ( played by Geraldine Page ) . His plan is to blackmail the actress into giving him a movie contract , and then take off for Hollywood with his long-lost love , Heavenly ( more subtlety ) , played by Shirley Knight . Heavenly's father , however , the monstrous political boss Tom Finley ( Ed Begley , repulsive ) , wants better things for his daughter and will stop at nothing to prevent Chance from having his way . This is Tennessee Williams , not exactly the go-to playwright for happy endings , so we know all of these personalities have to be heading toward some sort of tragic conclusion , with a few skeletons jumping out of closets along the way , except that in this version , nothing really all that bad happens : Chance gets to run off with Heavenly , and Begley is told off in the film's final scene by one of the film's minor characters . Oh well . . . . I shouldn't have been surprised . Other than Elia Kazan's " A Streetcar Named Desire , " I haven't yet seen a filmed version of a Tennessee Williams play made at the time Williams was actually writing that comes close to doing his work justice , making me wonder why Hollywood wanted to make movies out of his plays at all . This film's not a total wash though . To compensate for its cowardice , it does offer a number of superb performances , many of the actors recreating the roles they originated on stage . Page is probably the standout , no surprise given the juiciness of her role . Her turnaround near the film's end , when this helpless , wasted actress transforms into a more than capable beast of the Hollywood jungle , is one of the movie's highlights . Newman is very good too as Chance . I always respected Newman for his willingness to play unflattering characters and not take the easy route of the glamorous pretty boy . Shirley Knight and Ed Begley are serviceable . Begley , as usual , is nearly unwatchable , but that's appropriate for such a gross character . Rip Torn , Madeleine Sherwood and Mildred Dunnock appear in smaller roles . Richard Brooks provides the capable if undistinguished direction . |
574,291 | 4,532,636 | 95,497 | 7 | As Usual , the Protesters Got It Wrong | As is typical with religious-themed movies , the broo-ha that greeted Martin Scorsese's " The Last Temptation of Christ " was completely unnecessary . The controversy all stemmed around the film's last 30 minutes or so , when Jesus imagines what it would be like to skip out on the crucifixion scene and live the life of a normal man . I don't know what everyone got so hot and bothered about - - though I'm no Bible expert , wasn't the whole point of Christ's story that he suffered the same pains and was tempted by the same sins as mankind so that his sacrifice meant something ? Well , whatever . As a movie , " The Last Temptation of Christ " is pretty good , and yet further evidence that though Scorsese is known for gangster movies , he's a quite versatile director . It's probably a little too long , and a tad sluggish , but it's well acted and directed , and well worth watching , whether you're religious or not . |
573,794 | 4,532,636 | 106,977 | 7 | A Thinking Man's Action Thriller | Harrison Ford runs and Tommy Lee Jones chases after him in this big-budget film adaptation of the popular television series . This is a Hollywood action movie for the thinking man , where you can tell that at least as much thought went into characterizations as into the numerous technical stunts . One of the film's strongest ingredients is the chemistry between Ford and Jones , all the more remarkable since the two actors don't actually appear physically together on screen very often . Jones , especially , steals the show , and I remember sitting in the movie theater at the time of this movie's release thinking that he would at least be nominated for an Oscar ( which he was , and which he won ) . So , good movie for its genre . . . . but an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture ? I don't know about that . . . . |
573,826 | 4,532,636 | 414,055 | 7 | All Hail Queen Blanchett | A history lesson dumbed down so much that 7-year-olds could understand what's going on , " Elizabeth : The Golden Age " is nevertheless a wholeheartedly entertaining film . It reminded me of the fluffy , goofy historical epics Hollywood used to make back in the 1930s , when the emphasis was on romantic swooning rather than historical accuracy . Cate Blanchett could play a milk pail and keep me riveted , and she's dynamite once again as Elizabeth I , leading her country against the onslaught of the invading Spanish , who are intent on bringing the Inquisition to England . Blanchett is too good for material like this , but she gives it her all like a pro , and no amount of production design ( and believe me , there's plenty to spare in this movie ) , could induce me to take my eyes off of her . Geoffrey Rush reprises his role as Francis Walsingham , Elizabeth's right-hand man , but he's mostly relegated to the sidelines . Stepping up to front and center this time around is Clive Owen , who plays either explorer Walter Raleigh or Errol Flynn , I'm still not sure which . All I know is that by the end he's swinging on ropes like Douglas Fairbanks , carefully groomed chest hair blowing in the breeze , as the English navy takes its stand against the Spanish armada . Actually , the silent film reference could apply to the Spaniards as well - - they're so deliciously evil that you half expect them to start twirling their villainous mustaches . I hope all the Catholics out there have a good sense of humour . By the end , all attempts at realism have been swept aside , and the movie has descended into pure camp , Elizabeth practically calling down God's wrath to defeat the Spanish . And you know , Blanchett is such a good actress , I almost believe she COULD call down God's wrath if she wanted to . All I know is that when she shouts out the film's best line , " My bitches wear my collars ! " I sure as hell sat up and took notice . |
574,390 | 4,532,636 | 37,017 | 7 | Hitchcock Light | This Hitchcock film , made soon after he burst into prominence in America with films like " Rebecca " and " Suspicion , " is a lot of fun , but it's ultimately more of a technical experiment than it is a satisfying narrative film , much like " Rope " would be 4 years later . The suspense here comes more from wondering how Hitchcock is going to sustain interest in a film shot entirely within the confines of a small boat rather than through any dramatic tension . Still , any Hitchcock fan should see it , and Hitch works in his trademark cameo in a particularly clever way . Tallulah Bankhead is sexy and vampy in the lead role . She has the glamour and acerbic wit of a Bette Davis , and it's a shame she didn't do more film . |
573,893 | 4,532,636 | 87,921 | 7 | Of Tornadoes and the Ku Klux Klan | A solid dust bowl soap opera that stars Sally Field as a weary widow struggling single-handedly to keep her cotton farm running . Director Robert Benton's ( " Kramer vs . Kramer " ) strengths are his ability to get great performances out of his actors ; stylistically , there's nothing distinguished about his films . The same is true here . He's assembled a good cast , and he stands back and just lets them act . The movie is a like a checklist of every bad thing that could possibly happen to people living on a cotton farm in the 1930s , so we get a big tornado that wipes out the town and a special appearance by the Ku Klux Klan . It's probably authentic but it's also rather grueling . The movie is anchored by Field's fierce performance , and it's her that keeps the potential runaway melodrama in check . The fine cast of at the time mostly unknowns includes John Malkovich as a blind drifter ; Danny Glover as a slave ; Lindsay Crouse and Ed Harris as Field's sister and brother-in-law . I should hate the sentimental ending , but instead I'll be damned if it doesn't work . |
573,322 | 4,532,636 | 32,701 | 7 | Solid If Uninvolving Davis Vehicle | Bette Davis won her fourth Best Actress Academy Award nomination for this moody William Wyler melodrama , made previously in 1929 as a vehicle for stage actress Jeanne Eagels ( who also won an Oscar nomination for the same role ) . The movie gets a high ranking at IMDb , but it's not one of my favorite Davis films . There's nothing exactly wrong with it , but it just left me a bit cold and uninvolved . The story begins with Davis gunning down a man outside her plantation home in a sweaty tropical country . From there , the film unravels the mystery of what led up to that moment . Is Davis's character a victimized heroine who was acting in self-defense , or is she a lethal femme fatale and a great faker to boot ? I'll leave it to you to find out for yourself . The film has all the stylistic panache one would expect from a William Wyler movie ; it has the look of a film noir before film noir was even a recognized genre . It put me in mind a little bit of something Graham Greene would write , given its tropical setting and moral ambiguity . And however indifferent I may be toward the movie as a whole , I do have to admit that it has a remarkable ending , and if Gale Sondergaard doesn't give you the creeps , you're a better man than I . |
573,493 | 4,532,636 | 47,647 | 7 | These Cowboys Sure Know How to Use Their Guns | Robert Aldrich's smart-ass take on the western stars Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster as white hat / black hat cowboys , respectively , who sign on with Emperor Maxmillian in post-Civil War Mexico to escort a countess to the port of Vera Cruz . Unknown to the cowboys , at least at first , is the fact that what they're really doing is helping to protect $3 , 000 , 000 in gold , and that the countess is just a front . All of the requisite dirty dealings you would expect from such a situation follow , with everybody double crossing everybody else in an effort to get his hands on the money . " Vera Cruz " is refreshingly funny and cynical , with none of the trading in mythical heroes that had characterized screen westerns up to that point . Indeed , Aldrich is credited with inspiring a new kind of western , populated by mercenaries , where the good guy / bad guy dichotomy no longer exists , mostly because there aren't any good guys . We're used to thinking of Gary Cooper as a benevolent hero , but though his character here is quieter and more reserved than Burt Lancaster's hot head , and the final scene does suggest some redemption for him , he's a far cry from John Wayne's lily white saviors . Lancaster is quite good , flashing his megawatt smile and exuding a dangerous sexuality . The movie is full of unsubtle sexual context , mostly having to do with mens ' guns and how good they are at using them . |
573,454 | 4,532,636 | 235,198 | 7 | Has Much More to Say Than Hype Would Have You Believe | There are about 15 minutes of " Audition " that everyone remembers and talks about , and about 95 minutes of movie that you'd think didn't even exist if you listened to others ' comments . But this is the director's fault ; when you set out to shock your audience as much as Takashi Miike does in this film , you can't blame the audience if all they remember about your film is the shocking part . Which is a shame , because " Audition " is quite a bit more than a mere horror movie . It's really more of a feverish psychological drama along the lines of a David Lynch film . In fact , in structure and tone , this film reminded me of Lynch's " Mulholland Drive , " and if Lynch didn't have his own unique style and brand of film-making , I might wonder if he was inspired in part by this film when he made his own . What other comments here have done nicely is summarize what " Audition " is " about . " A man ( Shigeharu Aoyama ) mourning the loss of his wife looks to find the perfect woman to replace her , and he holds bogus auditions for an ostensible film role in order to find her . But the girl who catches his interest ( Asami Yamazaki ) turns out to be a much better actress than he bargained for . What other comments DON'T necessarily convey , however , is how much of this film takes place in the world of dreams , and how blurred the line between reality and fantasy is . This dilutes the violence of the film's final moments , because there is a strong suggestion that this violence is taking place in the protagonist's nightmares . Is " Audition " a critique of the confined roles women are forced to inhabit in Japanese society ? Is it about Aoyama's guilt in feeling the need for a woman to replace his dead wife ? Is it about his fear of finding a girl that actually can replace her , thereby diminishing what he had with her ? Is the film about the extent to which all relationships are " auditions , " where each person involved makes him / herself vulnerable and exposes him / herself to acceptance or rejection at the whims of another ? A case can be made for its being about all of these things . When the violence comes at the end , it's not as graphic as the hype would lead you to believe . Even so , I wish Miike hadn't pushed the envelope quite so far . One has to wonder if the emotional impact of the film would have been any less just because the violence was less graphic , and I suspect the answer to that is no . The violence feels gratuitous and cheapens slightly everything that comes before it . It mars the film , but fortunately it doesn't ruin it . This is far more of a thinking man's film that its reputation would lead you to believe . Those who come to it for the titillating shock of its gore are bound to be disappointed . |
574,168 | 4,532,636 | 441,909 | 7 | Ghosts of Mothers Past | With " Volver , " Pedro Almodovar gives us a sweet and warm film about the ways in which women can be care givers for one another , and the responsibilities that go along with that . He also examines the impact that the actions of parents have on their children , while at the same time cautioning children about making hasty assumptions about those actions . As is typical in an Almodovar film , there's a lot to chew on , but unlike some of his most recent efforts ( like the superb " Talk to Her " and " Bad Education " ) I didn't find myself that affected by " Volver " or even thinking much about it after I left the theatre . It goes down easily while you're watching it , but it doesn't linger . Penelope Cruz has been receiving raves for her performance , but I suspect that's more because people are comparing this to other performances she's given and less on the merits of this performance alone . She's completely serviceable as Raimunda , the struggling mom saddled with a lump of a husband who must decide what to do when he dies in an unexpected and shocking way , but Raimunda never came fully alive on screen for me , and I blame that on Cruz's limitations as an actress . She looks ravishing , and she's good at being saucy , but she's less at home with the emotional depths of the script . I had much more fun with Lola Duenas , who plays Sole , Raimunda's sister , who takes in their dead mother ( Carmen Maura ) when she returns from the grave and then hides her from Raimunda . And I was somewhat disappointed that Marua herself gets little to do , and that the movie comes to a close just as her character begins to take shape . There's a lot of back story to all of these characters and their stories that Almodovar handles with an uncustomary lack of grace . One regrets that important details informing these womens ' patterns of behavior has to be communicated to us through scenes of clunky plot exposition . And Cruz's big scene , in which she sings a song at a party and is supposed to be exorcising some of her demons in an emotionally intense moment , is silly , partly due to Cruz's poor job of lip synching . So " Volver " is a qualified success . I don't know that Pedro Almodovar is capable of making a bad movie , and he certainly seems incapable of making a film that isn't at least interesting , but this isn't one of his best efforts . |
573,874 | 4,532,636 | 138,524 | 7 | A Hit for the Coen Brothers | The Coen brothers are a very hit-or-miss film-making team . Either I love their movies ( " Fargo , " " Blood Simple , " " The Man Who Wasn't There " ) or I hate them ( " The Big Lebowski , " O Brother , Where Art Thou ? " ) . O . k . , so I didn't necessarily love " Intolerable Cruelty , " but it does qualify as a hit for me . It's a refreshingly unpredictable comedy , sort of a dark homage to the screwball comedies of the 30's and 40's . I could see Cary Grant and Irene Dunne doing this film , or William Powell and Myrna Loy . I think George Clooney is a pretty bland actor , but I can admit that he's got charm , which is all this role really calls for . Catherine Zeta-Jones will probably reveal herself to be a fairly limited actress by the time all is said and done , but she's sexy as hell , which is all HER role really calls for . So , these two work together just fine . The only quibbles I have with the movie are the one or two instances where it falls back on that slapstick humour that the Coen brothers tend to overdo , but these are minor quibbles . Overall , this one is a winner . |
574,418 | 4,532,636 | 54,331 | 7 | Good for a Hollywood Film ; Ehh for a Kubrick Film | Far , FAR better than " Ben-Hur , " which came out the year before , " Spartacus " still doesn't quite shake some of the same epic movie shackles that made William Wyler's film such a dismal bore . The point of this film is the sets and costumes ; the studios denied Kubrick the freedom to direct this movie in his instantly recognizable style , so while it's certainly solidly enough crafted and easy to sit through , it also feels anonymous , which wouldn't be so bad if you didn't know that someone as distinctly NON-anonymous as Kubrick helmed it . Can you imagine how much better " Spartacus " would have been if Kubrick had been able to direct it in the same style as that other piece of eye candy he created , " Barry Lyndon ? " Best not to think about such things that can never be . |
573,566 | 4,532,636 | 47,673 | 7 | One of the Best Bad Movies Ever | Pour yourself out a nice big boatload of gravy to go with this gigantic slice of holiday ham . . . . I love this movie , and I'm not ashamed to admit it . I don't even feel like doing a critical analysis of it , or talking about the acting , or anything of the kind . It's not even a good movie , really , and it suffers from that ugly 50s look from which so many movies from the decade suffered , when they thought the way to compete with television was to build enormous screens and cram them full of saturated color . . . Michael Curtiz and company make only the barest attempt at adhering to anything resembling a plot , and what plot there is could hardly be called coherent . This film was one of the last gasps of the " Let's put on a show ! " genre , as well as one of the last shameless attempts to tearjerk a WWII recovering audience into submission . This movie contains more corn than Nebraska , and God love it for that . |
573,700 | 4,532,636 | 870,111 | 7 | A Consummate Ron Howard Film , Which Means It's Not Remotely Artistic | Frank Langella is getting heaps of praise for his performance as Richard Nixon in this Ron Howard film , but it's Michael Sheen , who delivers a spunky performance as David Frost , the lightweight British talk-show host , who deserves the most acclaim . The film chronicles the famous Frost / Nixon interview that occurred a few years after Nixon's resignation . Both sides went into the interview like it was a boxing match , the Nixon camp seeing a chance to exonerate the infamous political figure in the public's eye , the Frost camp seeing an opportunity to get Nixon to admit publicly that he broke the law . The showdown should have been exciting ( and by all accounts was , though I was far too young at the time to know about any of it ) , but events in the film only reach a moderate simmer when they should boil . Both Langella and Sheen give excellent performances , and they're backed by able actors ( like Oliver Platt , Sam Rockwell and Kevin Bacon ) , but the film remains staunchly unexciting . The film could have gone in any number of interesting directions . Frost , an Englishman , clearly doesn't understand the passion with which his American aides want retribution from the encounter with Nixon , and I was interested in the role this difference in cultural perspective played . Also , the screenplay early on mentions the impact of television on the proceedings , positing that Frost ultimately won because he knew the medium while Nixon didn't . But this is just told to us , not shown . Rather than develop either of these engaging ideas , director Ron Howard instead decides , typically , to charge straight down the middle and deliver a consummate Ron Howard film . Therefore , it's solid , professional , slick and not remotely artistic . |
573,610 | 4,532,636 | 97,757 | 7 | Under the Sea with Disney | The Little Mermaid revitalized Disney's animation department and would make it a force to be reckoned with over the next several years , before Pixar came along and picked up the mantle . " Mermaid " isn't one of my favorites ( I prefer " Beauty and the Beast , " " Aladdin " and " The Lion King " over it ) , but it is a beautiful and now nostalgic throw back to hand-drawn animation , and it does boast one of the best scores written for a Disney film . It kicked off the trend of show-stopping production numbers that every Disney musical must have ; in this one it's " Under the Sea . " |
574,459 | 4,532,636 | 61,407 | 7 | Burton and Taylor Don the Boxing Gloves Once Again | Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor apparently hadn't had enough of each other the previous year in " Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? " so they re-teamed in 1967 in this Shakespeare comedy for round two . Once again , Taylor gives as good as she gets , and claims a decided victory . There's not much to say about this film . If you like filmed Shakespeare , you'll probably like this , because it's a fairly strong adaptation . I'm not a huge fan of Shakespeare films , so you won't get any sort of ringing endorsement from me , but that's not necessarily because of anything wrong with the way this material is presented . So watch and enjoy . |
573,507 | 4,532,636 | 870,090 | 7 | Inheriting the Sins of Our Fathers | City of Men is a companion piece to Fernando Meirelles ' 2002 film " City of God , " but it's a much different animal from the earlier film . Both are set in the slums of Rio de Janeiro , and both are about young men fashioning lives for themselves out of the only resources available to them . But whereas " City of God " was kinetic , angry and immediate , " City of Men " is more reflective and conventional , and it comes to a much more hopeful conclusion than the earlier film . " City of Men " is by far the weaker of the two . The carefully crafted screenplay was full of the heavy themes and plot twists of a Shakesperean tragedy , but I found myself missing the unscripted , documentary-like feel of Meirelles ' film . " City of Men " is about the absence of fathers , and about two friends who find themselves fighting on opposite sides because of deeds committed by their own dads - - sons literally inheriting the sins of their fathers . But the script is too often heavy handed , and the director , Paulo Morelli , chooses to communicate too much about the lives of these people through blunt exposition . We don't learn about them from what the actors playing them do or how they act , but rather through the lines they read , and we're almost always aware that they're reading lines . Nevertheless , the acting is strong enough that I found myself caring for the two leads and fairly engrossed in how their stories turned out . Morelli isn't as accomplished a director as Meirelles , but the film is still well directed on its own more modest terms . If I didn't already have " City of God " to compare it to , I might have liked it even more . |
573,771 | 4,532,636 | 422,720 | 7 | A Piece of Candy | Those who want to learn the history of Marie Antoinette will not find it in Sofia Coppola's film . This movie raised more questions than it answered for me . I didn't know much of anything about this famous French monarch , other than that she was eventually beheaded ( which is not shown in the film ) and that Norma Shearer starred in a 1938 version of her story . I did a little bit of reading about Marie Antoinette after seeing Coppola's movie and decided that Coppola took much too frivolous an approach to the material . Many of the details about Marie Antoinette's life as first wife of the dauphin and then queen are present , but if you don't know her story before watching the film , they may slide right past you without notice , even some quite significant ones . Coppola doesn't provide an historical context in which to place the film's action ; therefore , we understand that certain things are important without understanding why . Why , for example , do the French end up hating her and Louis XVI so much ? What mistakes do they make as leaders that drives their country to such a desperate point ? The film ends with the king and queen fleeing the palace of Versailles - - there's a heck of a lot of story left to tell after that event , but it's not recorded here . I suspect Coppola was trying to put us in the queen's place - - she was a young , immature girl who was thrust into a position for which she was not emotionally ready . In the film , politics bore her , and she would much rather buy clothes and gossip . The job of running a country remains a vague nuisance pushed into the background . But this point of view approach backfires . We don't learn enough about what's at stake to ever feel especially concerned about Marie Antoinette or what happens to her , and the character itself isn't vivid . So why am I ultimately recommending the film ? Because it's lively , colorful and extremely well directed . It reminded me of Kubrick's " Barry Lyndon " : there's no substance to the movie , but it's so meticulously detailed in its production design , and it so faithfully recreates the rituals of 18th Century France , that it's absolutely fascinating on those terms alone . I enjoyed the anachronisms Coppola brings to the film : Kirsten Dunst , playing the title role , and Jason Schwartzman , as Louis XVI , speak in a slangy American dialect that doesn't even attempt to convince us that either of them is European ; in one scene , during a flashy montage showing Antoinette and her female cohorts enjoying the frivolity and excess for which she was so notorious , we get a glimpse of Converse sneakers discarded in the background ; and most notably , most of the soundtrack consists of contemporary pop tunes that comment on the action , and if they frequently take the burden of telling the story away from Coppola and her actors , they're also a lot of fun . Ultimately , " Marie Antoinette " resembles one of the many gooey , decadent candies that the queen consumes throughout the film - - completely lacking in substance , but lovely to look at and perfectly suited to satisfy a craving for something sweet . |
574,305 | 4,532,636 | 427,470 | 7 | There's a Lot to Be Said for Movies Like This | The Lookout is the kind of film there needs to be more of . It's a pleasant , simple genre piece , unambitious , but solidly crafted with strong writing and good acting . That's a formula that is hard to find in current Hollywood movies , and it's woefully under-appreciated . Gordon Joseph-Levitt has proved himself as a very good young actor , and on the strengths of this movie and last year's " Brick " has shown a flair for picking original projects . In this movie , he plays Chris Pratt , former king of his rural Kansas high school , now a janitor and night watchman in a dead end job at a bank after a car accident leaves his brain addled . A group of small-time hoods convince him to join their plan to rob the bank at which Chris works , preying on his need for friends and his feeling that control of his own life has been taken away . But things go badly , Chris finds out he's been used as little more than a dupe , and he gets a chance to take control when he ends up with all of the stolen money that the hoods desperately want back . This movie belongs to that genre of films about the kinds of hopeless crime that occur out in the wide open spaces of Nowheresville , U . S . A . It's a movie whose impact relies on good plotting , pacing and suspense rather than graphic violence , and unlike so many of the films Hollywood has been producing lately , it doesn't leave you feeling awful and gloomy . Jeff Daniels , who in recent years has become one of my favorite actors , does more fine work as Chris's blind friend Lewis , who , despite his handicap , sees more than anybody else in the movie . |
574,117 | 4,532,636 | 56,687 | 7 | High Camp , Low Art | A kitsch lover's wet dream . Bette Davis prances around wearing pancake makeup and Little-Bo-Peep dresses while her invalid sister , Joan Crawford , quakes and cowers upstairs . Jane is mad , you see , that her sister is ( or was , before an " accident " ) the more popular actress of the two , and Jane's mission in life is to torment her sister by serving her dead rats for lunch . Better than live rats , I guess . So began the period of Davis's and Crawford's careers when they appeared in one schlock-fest after another , the juicy legitimate roles for actresses their ages having disappeared ( or never existed ) . Crawford was always better in these star vehicles than Davis was ; one could sense that Davis couldn't ever quite get over the knowledge that the roles were beneath her , while Crawford committed herself to her's wholesale . " Baby Jane " would have been an eerie case of life somewhat imitating art ( if the feud between Davis and Crawford indeed existed ) except for the fact that in real life Davis was by far the more successful of the two , and by most accounts would be considered to have had the more acclaimed career . |
574,104 | 4,532,636 | 91,530 | 7 | Feast for the Eyes and Ears | Roland Joffe's period film is breathtaking to look at and listen to , but it's directed with a heavier hand than his breakout film from two years earlier , " The Killing Fields . " I had trouble with the casting too . Jeremy Irons feels right for his role , but it's tough to accept Robert DeNiro in period films - - he's such a remarkable contemporary actor , and he's created such iconic representations of modern urban life , that he feels out of place in something like this . The film is a feast for the eyes and ears though , with Chris Menges , who had won an Oscar for photographing " The Killing Fields " , adding a second trophy to his mantle for his work here ; and Ennio Morricone providing an instantly classic score . |
574,079 | 4,532,636 | 63,374 | 7 | Winning Pair in a Slight Neil Simon Effort | There's nothing really to dislike about " The Odd Couple , " and it's no surprise that Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau make a hugely winning comedic team . But there's something so underdeveloped about Neil Simon's adaptation of his hit stage play as to make it seem more like a skit on a sketch comedy show than a full-bodied film . I have not seen the play , but have to assume that the screen version is fairly faithful , since Simon wrote it , so the defects cannot be blamed on a stage-to-screen adaptation . There are some interesting ideas in this story - - two recently divorced men who fall immediately into traditional married roles when they become roommates because neither knows any differently - - that Simon never fully fleshes out . Still , there are many worse ways to kill a couple of hours . |
574,452 | 4,532,636 | 32,798 | 7 | Fun for Film Buffs | This short film purports to be about the intricacies of sound technology , but it's really more of an excuse to showcase a batch of big-name MGM stars and some coming attractions . But either way it's fascinating . We go behind the scenes for the filming of a scene featuring Jeannette McDonald and Nelson Eddy , and get a glimpse of the massive technicolor camera being used . There is also a scene featuring Clark Gable and Hedy Lamarr , in which we see their voices represented as sound waves . But this is all surface-level stuff and a prelude to an extended preview of coming attractions . And what a preview it is ! Clark Gable , Greer Garson , Myrna Loy , William Powell , Judy Garland , Joan Crawford , Lionel Barrymore , James Stewart , Katharine Hepburn , one right after the next . There's a nostalgic thrill in seeing a preview for " The Philadelphia Story " before anyone knew that that movie would become one of the most beloved of all time . Fun stuff . |
573,766 | 4,532,636 | 77,928 | 7 | Parker Directs with an Iron Fist , But the Results Are Fascinating Anyway | Alan Parker's pitch-black and bizarro account of Billy Hayes , a young American who was caught trying to smuggle drugs out of Turkey and was thrown in a harsh Turkish prison , where he remained while his family fought for his release . The movie unreels like a series of outrageous indignities , each meant to top the one before until by the end all threads of reality have been lost and the whole thing is being filmed like a German Expressionist horror show . Indeed , it's all clearly meant to be horrifying , but it gets so grim that things actually start becoming funny , like a scene in which Billy's girlfriend comes to visit him and presses her bare boobs up against the panel of glass separating them for poor Billy's sex-starved gratification . Randy Quaid and John Hurt pop up as two of the loonies locked up with Billy . The whole thing is never less than fascinating even if it is crude and heavy handed . |
573,702 | 4,532,636 | 41,546 | 7 | Not the Comedy Masterpiece So Many Claim | Those who come to " Kind Hearts and Coronets " because of the reputation of Alec Guinness's performance ( or rather performances ) may find themselves disappointed in this dark comedy from Britain's Ealing studios . Not because Guinness's performance is bad , but because there's much less of it than admirers would have you believe . Guinness has nowhere nearly as much screen time as Dennis Price , who plays a vengeful family outcast who decides to murder the eight other family members standing between him and a dukeship . Though Guinness plays all eight of the doomed relatives , he doesn't get much time as any of them , and he doesn't give them the colorful characterizations I was expecting . The film is humorous at times , but quite slow and even rather boring at others . It's capped by a clever ending , but overall the movie is not the masterpiece it's been hyped up to be . |
574,075 | 4,532,636 | 45,943 | 7 | Solid If Not Groundbreaking Shakespeare Adaptation | As film adaptations of Shakespeare go , Joseph L . Mankiewicz's " Julius Caesar " is a pretty good one . In general , the stunt casting approach works , even in some of the most dubious cases ( Marlon Brando ? Greer Garson ? Louis Calhern ? ) . Brando , against all odds , makes a fine Marc Antony . I had expected to find his high-pitched mumble sound ridiculous reciting Shakespeare , but his is quite a compelling performance . However , the actor who shines the most , and who I never hear anyone talk about in relation to this film , is James Mason , giving a superbly effective performance as Brutus . He is completely at ease with the language , but unlike many of the other cast members , does not let the stately poetry do his work for him , and invests Brutus with a great deal of emotional depth . The film looks marvelous ; director Mankiewicz sends his camera prowling around sumptuously designed sets , and sheds a chilly black and white glow on the action . However , despite the mostly strong acting and terrific production design , I never really warmed to the movie , just as I rarely do to any filmed version of a Shakespeare work . There are so many wonderful stories to tell cinematically , that I just don't get the point of rehashing over and over properties that so clearly belong on the stage . Give me Mankiewicz's " All About Eve " over yet one more filmed Shakespeare play any day . |
573,457 | 4,532,636 | 87,800 | 7 | Still Very Frightening | Wes Craven's horror classic holds up remarkably well , and remains a truly scary movie . Freddy was always a more chilling villain than Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees . Whereas the other two went about their ritualistic killings like zoned-out zombies , Freddy delights in his , and enjoys the fear his victims feel as he toys with them before he murders them as much as he enjoys the murders themselves . And he's just physically scarier as well : he runs , darts around , can pop up anywhere as anything . Wes Craven's genius in this entire series was the plot hook that has Freddy only able to murder in his victims ' dreams . This allows Craven fantastic , surreal set pieces , that really do manage to capture the feelings that nightmares have in actuality . One of the best in the horror genre . |
573,361 | 4,532,636 | 66,327 | 7 | Santa Claus as Che Guavera | Just watched this on T . V . last night - - I didn't remember this one all that well from my childhood years . So basically Santa became Santa because he was a revolutionary leader who had to go into hiding . O . k . who knew ? He gets kudos from me for bagging Mrs . Claus though , who was exceptionally hot when younger , like a cross between Marian the Librarian and a brothel madame . I probably enjoyed the character of Meisterburger Burgermeister the most , who declares a moratorium on toys and jails any offenders . Keenan Wynn also does nice work as the voice of the Winter Warlock , who requests that people just call him Winter after he gives up his warlock ways . The nostalgia attached to these films are always going to make them special in a way that today's state-of-the-art animation will never match . Do you think any kids today have the patience for these creaky movies ? I hope so . . . . |
573,526 | 4,532,636 | 89,715 | 7 | I Expected the Worst , But I Liked This One | Perhaps it's because I came in with bottom-of-the-barrel expectations for a movie I've heard absolutely nothing good about , but I found myself enjoying " O . C . and Stiggs " quite a lot . I know from experience how bad bad Altman can be , so I expected the worst . But if you share Altman's smart-ass sense of humor , as I do , I can't help but think that you'll find this movie pretty funny . The very nominal plot has something to do with two adolescents ( the O . C . and Stiggs of the title ) spending one summer terrorizing an affluent , middle class family because the patriarch ( played with just the right amount of buffoonery by Paul Dooley ) , head of an insurance company , has denied insurance for O . C . ' s grandfather ( played uproariously by Ray Walston ) . But let me stress the word " nominal . " This narrative loosely holds together what can otherwise only be described as controlled chaos . In typical Altman fashion , the film is an assemblage of barely choreographed scenes in which actors wander around ad-libbing to their hearts ' content . This is not an insult . This style has resulted in some dreadful bombs for Altman , but it's also been responsible for some of his inspired classics . " O . C . and Stiggs " is nowhere near the latter , but it's certainly not the former either . Altman said in interviews that he intended " O . C . and Stiggs " as a satire of all of those naughty " boys behaving badly " comedies popular in the 1980s . I don't know that it's so much a satire of those films as it is on people in general . It's full of a sneering disdain for a sort of vapid , bourgeois lifestyle that rears its head in much of Altman's work . Scottsdale , Arizona is depicted as a bland land of lawn ornaments , plastic furniture and man-made nature . We don't learn much about O . C . and Stiggs , and they're not even necessarily that likable , but neither are the Schwabbs , the family they torment , and anyway Altman doesn't really ask us to root for anyone but rather just enjoy the silliness . The funniest thing about the film is that the Schwabbs seem to be completely unaware that they're being tormented and instead wander around in a self-absorbed daze . The rest of the cast includes Jane Curtin , as the boozy matriarch ; Martin Mull , as a designer of African fashions ; Cynthia Nixon , as a love interest ; Jon Cryer , as a dweeb ; and best of all , Dennis Hopper , reprising his role from " Apocalypse Now , " and who features significantly in the film's climax , a shootout in the Schwabbs ' bomb shelter . It would appear that time has been kind to this utterly dismissed film from the mid-1980s , and you could do much worse from Robert Altman's canon alone , let alone from other films in the same genre . |
574,152 | 4,532,636 | 59,113 | 7 | Suffers from Comparison to Other Lean Epics | I credit David Lean with introducing to film audiences epics that could think as well as dazzle . " The Bridge on the River Kwai " and " Lawrence of Arabia " are as fascinating to watch as intimate character studies as they are big historical panoramas . With " Doctor Zhivago , " Lean lost that intellectual edge and made a fabulously entertaining soap opera that , no matter how easily it goes down , still leaves me longing for the challenge of his earlier pictures . " Zhivago " creates a fascinating and sprawling portrait of turn-of-the - ( 20th ) - century Russia and the lives of a few characters as they navigate the tricky waters of political and socio-economic turmoil . But the central story , revolving around Omar Sharif's doctor , is not as compelling as that of T . E . Lawrence or the British military commander created by Alec Guinness in " Kwai , " and Sharif himself is rather a bland presence here , as is his love interest , played by the gorgeous but somewhat vapid Julie Christie . Without these two generating any heat , it's somewhat difficult to warm to them . I found myself more often paying attention to the sets and costumes than I did the actors . Other members of the cast do better by their roles , and make much more of an impression with much less screen time : Rod Steiger , Geraldine Chaplin and Tom Courtenay in particular . But " Doctor Zhivago " can only be as good as its doctor , which is why this film , despite all of its merits , must remain a more minor work in Lean's canon . |
573,589 | 4,532,636 | 41,507 | 7 | Unnecessary Remake , But Enjoyable on Its Own Terms | This affable film is a musical remake of Ernst Lubitsch's 1940 classic " The Shop Around the Corner . " Though actually it's not so much a musical as it is a movie with some songs added , nearly all of them performed by Judy Garland , who happens to be the best reason for seeing this movie at all . Lubitsch's film is , of course , perfect in every way and needed no remaking , but if someone had to remake it , they could have done a worse job than this . Garland is delightful in the role originated by Margaret Sullavan , and Van Johnson makes a surprisingly strong stand-in for James Stewart ( and even sounds remarkably like him at times ) . Instead of a curio shop , the action takes place in a music store , which provides more opportunities for spontaneous singing . This film is nowhere near as dark as the original , and one of the best parts of the Lubitsch version , the subplot involving the store's owner , is pretty much written right out of this version . The title doesn't make a lick of sense , since nearly the entire film is set during Christmas . I guess " In the Good Old Wintertime " didn't have the same ring to it . |
574,483 | 4,532,636 | 418,763 | 7 | As Unfocused as the Gulf War Itself | Jarhead is like a " best-of " compilation film of other classic war movies . At different times , it reminded me of " Apocalypse Now , " " Full Metal Jacket , " and David O . Russell's " Three Kings , " among others . The problem is that it never achieves a style or point of view of its own . As a narrative , it's as unfocused and messy as the war it's about . However , it does manage to send you out of the theatre remembering specific images or moments , so in that way it's effective . Director Sam Mendes obviously wants us to feel the way Martin Sheen's character does in " Apocalypse " : adrift in a surreal nightmare . However , the difference between Coppola's film and this one , and what made the former successful and this one less so , is that even among the madness of Vietnam , the protagonist of " Apocalypse " had a distinct purpose . The movie was moving toward an eventual goal , which gave the chaos of the rest of the film some foundation . In " Jarhead , " it's all chaos and no apparent goal , which Mendes seems to be saying is the point of the Gulf War in general , but that doesn't necessarily make for a compelling film . It doesn't help that the characters in " Jarhead " remain virtual nonentities . They are the stock characters of any war film , easily described in one-word summaries : the " crazy " guy , the " sensitive " guy , the " jaded " guy . We really learn nothing about the central character played by Jake Gyllenhaal , and what we do learn about him is wildly inconsistent . The entire film feels vaguely critical of American military policy in the Middle East , but it never sharpens its critique into any point that has impact . This isn't the first time Mendes ( a British director ) has pointed his criticism at American values and left me wondering what point he's trying to make . David O . Russell does a much better job in " Three Kings , " because he introduces an opposing point of view to American actions . " Jarhead " is so insular , so focused on a bunch of kids that don't have any point of view , that we don't really have a point of view either . But as I said earlier , there are some very memorable sequences in this film , and even if they never really coalesce into anything of substance , taken on their own they have their own emotional impact . I particularly liked the sequence in which the soldiers are being interviewed by American media , but are coached beforehand on what they are and are not allowed to say . That's a much-needed reminder that we at home are likely never really getting the true story of what's going on in foreign lands . Other images , like a horse covered in oil , wandering through burning oil fields ; or a highway full of charred cars and bodies , everything still frozen in the exact position it was in at the moment of destruction , come close to equaling some of the images Coppola gave us in his film . America has dug itself into a hole in the Middle East , and who knows how or when we're going to be able to dig ourselves out of it . " Jarhead " wants to add yet one more dissenting voice to our country's actions , but it doesn't really have anything new to say . If its words were as good as its images , I would say it could be a terrific movie . As it is , it doesn't have the stuff to join the list of all-time great war films . |
574,253 | 4,532,636 | 48,021 | 7 | Stylish and Thrilling | Rififi is a terrific heist movie , and one from which subsequent heist films have drawn ever since . Jules Dassin had a feel for the seedy underworld in which these thieves live - - - you will not find here the Hollywood glamour of " Ocean's Eleven . " The robbers in " Rififi " don't rob for the thrill , and they're not playing a game . They rob to survive , to pay for their children's upbringing , to prove to themselves and others that they still have something to offer the world . The much-lauded heist scene is a nail biter , filmed in virtual silence . I did have the feeling that the plot went on a bit longer than it needed to , but the high-speed race to deliver the child to his mother that ends the film is classic . Be warned - - - this movie is very bleak . But it's also very good . |
574,312 | 4,532,636 | 258,463 | 7 | I've Finally Gotten Around to Jason Bourne | I was slow in coming around to the Bourne movies , and now I'm squeezing in " Identity " and " Supremacy " so that I can see " The Bourne Ultimatum , " which is getting raves . " The Bourne Identity " is about what I expected . It's a slick action thriller that will satisfy the craving for dumb stunts , car chases and fistfights , but which also has a brain in its head . You'll have to suspend a whole bunch of disbelief , and there were a couple of instances that went so far as to make that quite a challenge indeed . Like many films of its ilk , this one doesn't know what in the world to do with female characters , so our main one screams and acts helpless , while the only other one ( played by Julia Stiles ) plays really no part at all in the proceedings . I only suspect that her importance increases later , as I see that Stiles is in the later movies as well . The men , meanwhile , do what men in these movies do , which is survive blows and falls that no mortal could actually survive , and bark out macho orders while strutting around with their hands on their hips . I recently took a trip to Paris and Barcelona , so I very much enjoyed the location filming in Paris , and got quite excited when even some shots of Barcelona made it into the film during one montage . |
573,833 | 4,532,636 | 382,932 | 7 | Not as Incredible as " The Incredibles " | Wow . Number 51 on IMDb's top 250 , huh ? I thought " Ratatouille " was cute , but I didn't like it THAT much . Pixar's latest boasts beautiful animation , perhaps the most accomplished yet , but the film as a whole never reached the inspired and dizzy heights attained by " The Incredibles , " to my mind a small masterpiece . " Ratatouille " straddles an awkward and ambiguous line : a little too cartoony to be a completely adult film , but a little too sophisticated to be dismissed as a film for kids . It tells a warm and touching story about accepting differences and overcoming our preconceived prejudices , but I kept waiting for that unique brand of Pixar humour that never ( or at least rarely ) surfaced . The best thing about this film is Peter O'Toole , who plays Anton Ego , a fearsome food critic who delivers a beautiful soliloquy at the film's climax that encourages people to embrace things that are new while still retaining the ability to discriminate between things that are quality and things that are not . The soliloquy also happens to sound beautiful as delivered in O'Toole's mellifluous voice . In a food culture dominated by total crap like McDonald's , Kentucky Fried Chicken and Taco Bell ( among others ) I appreciated " Ratatouille " ' s reminder that good , well-prepared food is a way to treat your body while so many people are poisoning theirs ' . But I just didn't see the masterpiece here that so many others seem to . |
573,742 | 4,532,636 | 89,643 | 7 | Sally Field and James Garner Make Nice | A low-key romantic comedy that pairs Sally Field with James Garner , and proves that the two actors have a great deal of chemistry together . Sally Field is a newly-divorced mom setting up house with her son . Garner is a good ' ol boy who takes a hankering to her and promises to be a positive male influence . The doofus stud of an ex-husband makes a nuisance of himself . Guess who Field winds up with ? The film rides along harmlessly enough on the personalities of its two leads . Won Oscar nominations for Garner and its cinematography . |
574,156 | 4,532,636 | 72,424 | 7 | Love Them Misers | I find this holiday made-for-T . V . movie to be one of the more charming of its kind , maybe because it's not as well known as " Rudolph " and " Frosty " and other holiday perennials . In this one , Santa ( voiced by Mickey Rooney , who also did Santa honors in " Santa Claus Is Comin ' to Town " ) decides he's had enough of Christmas and those who don't appreciate him and cancels the holiday . Mrs . Claus ( voiced by Shirley Booth ) decides it's up to her to prove to Santa how much everyone still loves and admires him , so she sends off two elves on an around-the-world fact-finding mission to compile evidence of a belief in Santa and what he stands for . From there , the plot goes all over the place and nothing makes a whole lot of sense , but it's all harmless enough . The film's biggest selling point , of course , are the miser brothers , Heat and Snow , who each get a showstopping burlesque number complete with mini back up singers . I wish these two had been given a Christmas movie of their own . |
574,218 | 4,532,636 | 97,351 | 7 | Americans Love Baseball , Even When the Players Are Dead | A surprise hit from 1989 , and one of a few late 1980s movies that launched Kevin Costner into super-stardom for a period of time during the next decade . This magical realist fable finds Costner's farm owner building a baseball diamond in one of his fields as a place for him to commune with baseball players dead and gone . The film feeds off of Americans ' nostalgic and sentimental attitudes about the sport , and it boasts a shamelessly manipulative ending custom made to wring tears from its audience , but damned if it doesn't work . |
573,412 | 4,532,636 | 405,422 | 7 | Funny But Overrated | There are many humorous moments in this film , and kudos to the creators of it for making an adult movie for adults , but I think the praise heaped on it has made it out to be a much better movie than it is . Given the desultory crop of summer movies we've been subjected to in 2005 , it's no wonder that a film that's even remotely original and fresh gets critics frothing at the mouth . This film suffers from what so many screen comedies do : some jokes and scenes just fall flat , and when they do , the whole pace of the movie is thrown off . It's not riotously funny , but there's enough to keep you chuckling through the dead parts . Probably not the stuff of a comedy classic , but there are worse ways to pass the time . |
574,399 | 4,532,636 | 86,005 | 7 | Hated It as a Kid ; Think I Would Like It as an Adult | I've only seen " Never Cry Wolf " once , during its original theatrical run . I was eight years old then and was completely bored by this film . I have a feeling that I would love it now for all of the reasons that I hated it then . Those reasons are the fact that it takes place in the Alaskan wilderness and is full of stunning visuals of the terrain and wildlife . And , it's a movie told largely without dialogue and spends large parts of its running time with one lone character . I'm fascinated by movies like that now , and so think it's worth giving " Never Cry Wolf " another try . |
573,726 | 4,532,636 | 39,208 | 7 | What Goes Around Comes Around | A priest is shot point blank in the head in the middle of a dark street . The killer gets away , despite the presence of several witnesses . A public outcry ensues when the police department can't make any headway in the case , while a rival administration that wants control of city hall milks the situation for all it's worth to make the current administration look bad . To appease the public , the police latch on to a suspect who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and force a confession from him . But the district attorney has twinges of conscience and can't bring himself to prosecute a man he doesn't believe is guilty . Such is " Boomerang ! " , Elia Kazan's quick and dirty docu-drama from the late 1940s , a period rife with films like this . The interest in " Boomerang ! " lies not so much in the drama swirling around the accused man ( played by a young-looking Arthur Kennedy ) or the sleazy politics or even the personal crisis faced by the D . A . ( played by a stoic Dana Andrews ) , but rather in the procedural details surrounding Andrews ' attempts to persuade a courtroom that the evidence massed against Kennedy is flimsy . In this way , the film is a premonition of a bigger and more famous movie , " Anatomy of a Murder , " in which the outcome of the case doesn't matter but the gritty details of poring over grisly evidence does . The film's weakest link is a superfluous storyline featuring Ed Begley that ends in an implausible dramatic twist that has not much of anything to do with the movie . The film would be dramatic enough without it . Also with Lee J . Cobb , for once tolerable as the good-guy chief of police , and Jane Wyatt , window dressing as Andrews ' wife . |
574,095 | 4,532,636 | 39,211 | 7 | Claire Trevor Is the Reason to Watch ( And What More Reason Do You Need ? ) | When this film first starts , one might think the title refers to the character played by Lawrence Tierney , a killer who hitches himself to the affluent sister of a woman ( Claire Trevor ) who happened to stumble across the scene of one of his crimes . But by the time the film reaches its conclusion , it's clear that there's more than one person who has the potential for murder . Trevor is perfectly cast as this been-around-the-block woman with a heart of ice . I think Trevor is sexy and gorgeous , and any movie with her in it is pretty much worth watching for her alone . " Born to Kill " is enjoyable , but I'm not sure I would have been as interested in it if it weren't for Trevor's presence . It's more of a melodrama than it is a noir , and I can't help but think there were all sorts of delicious opportunities missed by director Robert Wise , given the film's setting ( San Francisco , that most atmospheric of noir cities ) and its lurid subject matter . But nevertheless I would recommend that lovers of the genre give it a try . |
573,541 | 4,532,636 | 407,265 | 7 | Huffman Better Than the Movie | A surprisingly vanilla film given its subject matter , " Transamerica " would be as at home in a TV movie-of-the-week line up as it is on the big screen at your local multiplex ( o . k . so maybe a made-for-television movie on HBO - - I don't think CBS is quite ready for this ) . Duncan Tucker has taken a unique premise and turned it into a standard formula road-trip picture , tricked out with all of the obligatory touchy-feely heart-warming moments that such a film requires . The results are generally entertaining , though the film does teeter once or twice on the brink of out-and-out awfulness . THE reason to see this movie , no surprise , is Felicity Huffman's performance as Bree , the pre-op transsexual who finds out a week before her sexual reassignment surgery that she has a son . The movie wastes no time in setting up its premise , and the whole thing breezes along amiably , only hinting at the true stark and confused emotions people put in the situations these people are put into would actually have . Tucker opts for comedy instead of seriousness whenever possible , which certainly makes the film more palatable but also gives it a feeling of insignificance . Huffman , though , rises above any limitations in the script or direction to deliver a bravura performance in a role I never in a million years would have thought she'd be well cast in . Huffman is a pretty , feminine actress , so the fact that she is able to pull off this strange-looking , masculine hybrid is a testament to her acting abilities . Of course , her performance wouldn't be nearly as effective if it was focused on superficialities alone , and it's Huffman's ability to breathe full life into Bree , creating a three-dimensional , lovable , caring , yet flawed character rather than a symbol or caricature , that most impresses . " Transamerica " is a case of the material not being up to the standard of the actress delivering it . |
573,580 | 4,532,636 | 433,416 | 7 | Admirable , But Suffers the Fate of Book to Screen Translations | The Namesake is an admirable film , and it offers an interesting glimpse into Indian culture , but it feels too much like what it is - - an adaptation from a novel . I haven't even read the book version , but even I could tell that the movie was racing to touch on all the major plot points , and sacrificing along the way all the nuances and subtleties that I have no doubt were in the written version . The film tells the story of the only son of an immigrant Indian couple who grows up American and doesn't learn to appreciate his heritage until a momentous life event teaches him a valuable lesson . In the hands of Mira Nair , who has made some lovely films ( " Monsoon Wedding " ) , it's a never less than sensitive and thoughtful movie , but by the film's end , I felt that everyone was racing through the plot in order to squeeze everything in , as if they knew they were running out of time and wanted to hit all the high notes . I also think the movie would have benefited from a less linear approach to its narrative . It's broken into roughly two halves , one showing the immigrant experience of the parents and the other the upbringing of the son . But blending the two stories more fluidly together would have had a greater cinematic impact , regardless of how it was told in the novel . One thing this movie definitely has in its favor , though , is the beautiful Indian actress Tabu , who gives a wonderful performance as Ashima , the mother who endures through hardship and anchors the film . She's the heart and soul of the movie , and imbues it with a tremendous amount of warmth . |
573,519 | 4,532,636 | 368,794 | 7 | Bob Dylan Film Is a Ship Without a Sail | I felt about " I'm Not There , " Todd Haynes ' tribute to the spirit of Bob Dylan , much about the way I feel about Bob Dylan himself . I like the IDEA of Dylan more than I enjoy sitting down and actually listening to him , and that's how this movie was for me . " I'm Not There " is not a biography of Bob Dylan , and for that I'm grateful . The last thing the world needs is another film like " Ray " or " Walk the Line , " bland paint-by-numbers biopics . Rather , Haynes ' film is more of a tribute to the many feelings Dylan songs can inspire , and the various personas Dylan the artist took on in the eyes of the public . Therefore , we get six actors playing different Dylanesque characters , or the kind of people Dylan might have written songs about , or characters meant simply to represent a distinct time and place in America . The first we meet is a young black boy named Woody Guthrie and played by Marcus Carl Franklin , who rides the rails with guitar in tow and sings songs that sound like they should be coming from someone much older . Ben Whishaw plays a poet named Arthur Rimbaud who appears to be testifying or defending himself in court for reasons we never learn . Christian Bale is Jack Rollins , an icon of the folk music craze who becomes a born-again Christian in later life ; Heath Ledger is an actor who made a name for himself playing Rollins on screen and whose personal life is slowly disintegrating . Richard Gere is Billy the Kid , hiding out in the old West . And in the film's most memorable performance , Cate Blanchett plays Jude , the character most modeled on Dylan himself , who struggles with success and fame in the face of a public growing increasingly frustrated with him for not playing the part they expect . " I'm Not There " is full of ideas about art and artists , and I applaud Haynes for attempting to bring something fresh and original to the screen . But I never once connected with the film on any level . The movie never stops experimenting , so it doesn't give you much to get involved with . Everything is representative and symbolic , so none of the characters feel like living breathing people . It's far too long - - I especially felt my patience beginning to snap by the time Gere made his appearance late in the film . The movie feels like it's comprised of a hundred different strands of thought that never cohere . In some ways , this is fitting , since the film is in large part about the enigmatic nature of artists , and the general public's indifference to who an artist really is in the face of who it wants him to be . But even a film about an enigma needs something to anchor it . |
573,320 | 4,532,636 | 32,910 | 7 | Animation as an Art Form | Only the second feature length animated film to be released by Disney , " Pinocchio " is not as accomplished as " Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , " but it still exists as a high-water mark of screen animation . The story and songs will probably be very familiar to you , but what this movie , and really all early Disney movies , is good for is a document of traditional hand-drawn animation when it was at its most artistic . There are moments in this film that are nearly breathtaking in their visual beauty , the most memorable of all the one when Gepetto is lovingly crafting his wooden puppet and making him dance to a wonderful film score . These early animated films seem surprisingly dark and trippy now , much more so now that Disney movies exist primarily to drive money-spinning product franchises . I have to believe that Steven Spielberg's " A . I . Articifial Intelligence " owes much to this film . |
574,197 | 4,532,636 | 43,625 | 7 | John Garfield Runs All the Way | This strange entry in the noir canon features John Garfield delivering a sweaty , paranoid performance as a small-time crook who shoots a cop during a heist gone bad and then holes up with the family of a girl he meets and desperately latches himself on to ( Shelley Winters ) . He virtually takes the family hostage , threatening to kill whichever member he has with him at the time if any of the other members try to seek help . Meanwhile , a game of patriarchal dominance begins between Garfield and the father , whose sense of masculinity is threatened by his inability to help his family . It all leads to a showdown in the street as Garfield attempts to run away with Winters , who may or may not have genuine feelings for him . " He Ran All the Way " is more about the dynamics of family than anything else . In the first scene , we see what kind of home life Garfield's character comes from . His blowsy mom ( played divinely by Gladys George , who has far too little screen time ) verbally and physically abuses him , and then refuses to come to his aid later on when he's in trouble . As a result , Garfield tries to make a sort of surrogate family of the one he's taken hostage , attempting to establish a twisted kind of domestic tranquility , with himself as father figure . The most unsettling scene transpires at a family dinner , when Garfield forces the family at gunpoint to eat the meal he's prepared for them . Throughout the film , Garfield acts with a desperate intensity you can practically smell . Unlike all of those cooler than cool crooks who populate the worlds of other noir films , Garfield is lousy as a criminal ; his own paranoia and panic give him away at moments when he otherwise wouldn't be in any danger . Shelley Winters plays his love interest as a dowdy mope , the second time that year ( see " A Place in the Sun " ) she played a frump who meets a good-looking lad and then regrets it . Wallace Ford and Selena Royle do the honors as mom and dad . " He Ran All the Way " is not one of the more ambitious entries in the noir cycle , but like so many of the lurid , low-budget films that came out around this fertile period in cinema history , it has fascinating undertones that belie its simple plot . With crisp photography by James Wong Howe and a propulsive , sensational score by that old pro Franz Waxman . |
574,453 | 4,532,636 | 41,716 | 7 | Sailors on the Prowl | An energetic and fun screen adaptation of the Broadway musical , outfitted in the grand MGM style . This acts as a kind of bridge in the career of Gene Kelly between his lightweight emerging efforts of the early to mid-40's ( " Anchors Aweigh , " " Cover Girl " ) and the artistic dance spectaculars he's most known for now ( " An American in Paris , " " Singing ' in the Rain " ) . " On the Town " is better than " American " but not as good as " Singin ' . " It feels more structured than many musical offerings of the era , maybe because it's based on source material rather than an original story . The dance and songs feel more integrated into the plot , a la a stage musical , rather than just there to dazzle . And there's a fantastic score by Leonard Bernstein to help things along . Kelly is ably abetted by Frank Sinatra and the ever-intriguing Vera-Ellen as Miss Turnstiles - - - she in particular is one of the most amazing dancers I've ever seen on screen , and it's a shame she didn't do more . |
573,393 | 4,532,636 | 120,667 | 7 | Fantastic May Be Stretching It ( Get It ? ) But These Films Are a Lot of Fun | I'm used to being in the minority when it comes to movies . But usually , I hate movies that everyone else seems to love . It's much rarer that there will be a movie almost universally disliked , but which I actually enjoyed . " Fantastic Four " is one of those . Maybe by the time I saw this I was just sick of all the brooding , psychologically complex superheroes out there and found a good old-fashioned cheesy comic book movie refreshing . What I like about this story is that the Fantastic Four have their superpowers foisted on them , and then have to figure out how to use them . They have a regular Joe quality to them that makes them easier to relate to . They don't have sinister back stories full of murdered parents , ugly childhoods , seething feelings of revenge . They're just geeky scientists who can do pretty cool things . People seem to be responding to the second installment , " Rise of the Silver Surfer , " marginally better than they did the first , but I like both of them . After the overblown mess that was the " Pirates of the Caribbean " trilogy and all of the dithery angst that filled Sam Raimi's " Spiderman " series , it's nice to sit back and let 90 minutes of fun , worry free action adventure cleanse the palate . |
574,387 | 4,532,636 | 390,521 | 7 | Convinced Me | I wasn't someone who really needed to be convinced that eating fast food was bad for you , and yet Morgan Spurlock's film managed to convince me all over again . The shocking thing about this documentary is not that a diet of McDonald's turns out to be bad for you ( wow , what a surprise ! ) or fattening ( get out of town ! ) but that it actually acts like a poison to your system . Even the doctors in the film are amazed at the detrimental effects a fast food diet had on Spurlock over the course of a month . He had as much fast food in 30 days that nutritionists recommend having in 8 years . That's a cold wake up call to those who defend themselves by saying things like , " I only have it once a week or so , so I'm o . k . " Do the math - - once a week equals 52 times in a year ; at that pace , you'll eat 8 years ' worth of fast food in under two . People also claim that this film has too firm an agenda , Morgan Spurlock is too preachy , etc . , etc . I honestly don't understand these comments . Since when are documentaries allowed to be only objective in tone ? Don't these people know that some of the best documentaries in film history have had clear agendas and clear points of view . This criticism is leveled at Michael Moore too . But if the film maker isn't allowed to have a point of view , why would he be making the film in the first place ? " Super Size Me " is almost a horror movie in the effect it has on your psyche and your stomach . How anyone can watch this and continue passively to fill their bodies day after day with garbage is beyond me . |
574,397 | 4,532,636 | 85,995 | 7 | Here Come the Griswolds | One of those movies you always remember as being better than it actually is . " Vacation " tells the story of Clark Griswold ( Chevy Chase ) leading his family across country on one of those most dreaded of dreaded events - - the Family Vacation ! It's episodic in nature , moving briskly from one disaster to another , some of them very funny ( the death of a miserable aunt played by Imogen Coca is a highlight ) to the downright disturbing ( a brief stay with some incestuous hillbilly relatives ) . Some scenes deliver bigger laughs than others , but none of them sticks around for very long , so even the dead parts move by fairly quickly . Having been on a cross-country drive myself with my family when I was a kid ( from Illinios to California ) to go to Disneyland , let's just say I could easily relate to this film . Beverly D'Angelo is smokin ' hot as Chase's wife , and a young Anthony Michael Hall is hilarious as his adolescent son . |
574,398 | 4,532,636 | 85,970 | 7 | Keaton and Garr in a Battle of the Sexes | Aw , come on folks , why the low rating at IMDb ? OK , so " Mr . Mom " ain't exactly " Masterpiece Theatre , " but it's a very good , solid comedy that holds up surprisingly well today . Michael Keaton is one of those actors who I've always found to be intensely likable , no matter how good or bad the movie he happens to be in . The material in " Mr . Mom " is mostly played for laughs , but it's not without some serious truths about the roles men and women play ( or at least played ) and the challenges each faces when he / she enters the sphere traditionally reserved for the " other . " This film nails perfectly that depressing funk it's so easy to fall into when your day consists of household chores and daytime television . And conversely , it also understands the difficulty in balancing a challenging career with home responsibilities . Teri Garr is her usual adorable self as Keaton's wife , and Martin Mull is a little too good as her smarmy boss . |
574,434 | 4,532,636 | 66,434 | 7 | A Tad Gloomier Than " Star Wars " | George Lucas's striking dystopian fantasy belongs to the same cluster of gloomy futuristic parables that includes Orwell's " 1984 " and Huxley's " Brave New World , " and that in recent years has found expression in films like " Gattaca " and " Children of Men . " " THX 1138 " feels much more like an experiment than a fully fleshed-out feature film , and that's because it is , really . Lucas cut his teeth on this film , before deciding to switch gears and make his name with a much more light-hearted treatment of the sci-fi genre with his " Star Wars " series . Featuring Robert Duvall , before anyone really knew who he was , and Donald Pleasance , in what for me is one of his most memorable screen performances . |
573,536 | 4,532,636 | 34,862 | 7 | Astaire , Crosby and a Very White Christmas | Well , Astaire and Rogers weren't drawing the audiences in anymore , so who better to be a replacement for Rogers than . . . . . Bing Crosby ? Yep , it's Astaire and Crosby headlining this one , and the females in it just have to look pretty and sit back while the boys do all the work . " Holiday Inn " is a fun , mindless musical , with some senseless plot strands connecting the real reason for watching the movie - - an assemblage of song and dance numbers each centered around a national holiday . Forgive it its corniness , forgive it its maudlin WWII propaganda sequence , and especially forgive it its nauseating black face number to celebrate Lincoln's birthday , and just sit back and enjoy it the way audiences at the time were meant to . There are plenty of showstopping numbers to make up for the movie's faults , like Astaire's 4th of July tap-dance number set to exploding firecrackers , the hilarious Washington's birthday number ( though who makes a weekend out of celebrating Washington's birthday ? Best not ask questions like these ) and the comfy-cosy final scene , set to the song " White Christmas " ( which , hard to believe , was not a song before this movie ) , and which is single-handedly responsible for keeping this film remembered as a Christmas movie when really Christmas hardly plays a role . Good innocent fun . |
574,271 | 4,532,636 | 30,287 | 7 | Look Out Tara , Bette's on the Loose | Bette Davis sashays her way through the role of a Southern spitfire belle , proving that maybe she wouldn't have been such a bad choice for Scarlett O'Hara after all . Actually , though " Jezebel " is compared frequently to " Gone with the Wind " ( understandably , since the latter came out just a year later ) , it doesn't have much in common other than its Civil War-era setting and an unconventional woman as the main character . In any other comparison of the two , " Jezebel " will inevitably lose , because if " Wind " occasionally stumbles into bad day-time drama territory , " Jezebel " plunges right in and never emerges . This is no fault of Bette's though . She can only do so much with the character given her to play , but what she does with it is a lot . The moment she bursts on to the screen wearing riding gear and brandishing a riding crop ( ! ) , she takes command of the screen and refuses to let go , putting those enormous eyes to swooning effect . The crux of the story rests on whether or not this little frivolous tart will stay true to her limp noodle suitor ( Henry Fonda ) , who drags every party down with all of his talk about politics , or whether she'll dump him . When he contracts scarlet fever during an epidemic sweeping the area , will she stay with him as he's moved to a quarantine camp , putting herself at risk , or will she instead go off cavorting in a meadow with the first beefy country boy who comes along ? What do you think happens ? Ah well , movies like this are fun even if they're silly and not very good . Old pro William Wyler does a fine job , and one suspects that the movie could have been much worse if directed by someone with less skill . Watch for Bette Davis , if for no other reason . And really , what other reason do you need ? |
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