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573,734 | 4,532,636 | 67,309 | 7 | Fonda and Sutherland Better Than the Movie They're In | Jane Fonda plays Bree Daniels , lonely New York City call girl , who becomes one of the key informants in the investigation surrounding the murder of one of her tricks . Detective John Klute , played by Donald Sutherland , who leads the investigation and gradually wins Bree's trust , ends up as her lover and protector ... |
573,948 | 4,532,636 | 49,470 | 7 | Unambitious Hitchcock , But a Good Time | The Man Who Knew Too Much falls into that Hitchcock middle ground that characterized many of his films during the 1950s : not a masterpiece of suspense by any means , but an awful lot of fun nonetheless . James Stewart and Doris Day play a vacationing couple who get caught up in a plot heavy on foreign intrigue . The... |
573,869 | 4,532,636 | 324,133 | 7 | A Mostly Effective Erotic Thriller | Makers of erotic thrillers need to be careful , as that is a genre that , if not handled carefully , can quickly fall prey to silliness and excess ( think " Fatal Attraction " ) . " Swimming Pool " is a thriller in the style of " The Deep End , " and more than once I was struck by similarities between the two in their ... |
573,517 | 4,532,636 | 25,164 | 7 | Perfectly Watchable , But Astaire and Rogers Would Make Better | I don't know that I've ever seen a film that has less plot than " The Gay Divorcée . " It's like one of those " Three's Company " episodes where everything revolves around a misunderstanding , except with even less substance . I don't know why I'm surprised though , given the other Astaire / Rogers films I've seen . Th... |
574,470 | 4,532,636 | 38,109 | 7 | Overwrought Story Told with Typical Hitchcockian Flair | The style is pure Hitchcock , but the story is utterly ridiculous in this psychological drama . Gregory Peck plays a psychiatric patient tormented by something in his past that he's buried in his subconscious ; Ingrid Bergman plays the noble suffering love interest who stands by him . It's all very over-heated and over... |
574,439 | 4,532,636 | 48,728 | 7 | The French Riviera Is the Star Here | This movie is certainly gorgeous to look at , as are the stars in it , but Hitchcock fans looking for that bit of macabre tomfoolery the master nearly always includes in his films may just be disappointed . In fact , if you don't think Grace Kelly was God's gift to mankind , you'll probably be disappointed , as this mo... |
574,297 | 4,532,636 | 445,922 | 7 | Imagine There's No Heaven , Just People Loving One Another Here on Earth | A fresh breeze sweeping away the cloud of gloom that has descended on Hollywood this fall , " Across the Universe " is a nice antidote to all of those grimy , dour films currently filling movie theatres . The point of all of those seems to be that we live in a crappy world . The point of " Across the Universe " is that... |
573,564 | 4,532,636 | 71,562 | 7 | Oh , Those Corleones . . . . | No American filmmaker has had a more disappointing trajectory to his film career than Francis Ford Coppola . To have directed four of the most influential films of the 70's ( the first two " Godfather " films , " The Conversation , " and " Apocalypse Now " ) and then to spend the last two decades churning out one stink... |
574,367 | 4,532,636 | 58,155 | 7 | Beware the Gorgon | Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing star in this surprisingly atmospheric horror film . Cushing is the villain , a doctor who holds the key to a series of unsolved murders plaguing a European village . Lee is the hero , a professor who comes to investigate at the behest of the son and brother of two of the murder victims... |
573,805 | 4,532,636 | 82,533 | 7 | Will Do as the Werewolf Movie Against Which to Judge Other Werewolf Movies | Probably the definitive werewolf movie . When looked at as a whole , " The Howling " isn't one of the scariest films ever made , but there are individual moments in the film that certainly rank among some of the scariest from other films . Most notably is a scene in which a reporter is just on the verge of uncovering t... |
573,392 | 4,532,636 | 486,576 | 7 | Flame On , Guys ! ( Wasn't That a Song by the Village People ? ) | 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 ... |
573,498 | 4,532,636 | 46,816 | 7 | Dutiful Film Adaptation Never Really Takes Off | This all-star screen adaptation of the Herman Wouk novel is forcefully acted , but it has a by-the-numbers feeling to it , and the drama never really takes hold . I can aim much the same criticism at the book , which I thought plodded along rather dully and went on for far too long . The movie is actually a pretty dece... |
573,693 | 4,532,636 | 75,005 | 7 | Gregory Peck , What Hath Thou Wrought ? | I usually prefer my horror to be of the psychological , creepy variety , but even though the approach taken in " The Omen " is to bludgeon you with shock effects , it's still one damn scary movie . Gregory Peck classes up this movie mightily just by being in it , and he does tremendous work as Roger Thornhill , a U . S... |
574,159 | 4,532,636 | 42,953 | 7 | Repellant Protagonist in a Cynical Crime Film | In " Shakedown , " Howard Duff plays a photographer who will stop at nothing to climb his way to the very top of the success ladder . On the strength of his sheer tenacity , he gets a job with a major newspaper , and it's not long before he's made a name for himself by charming a notorious crime boss ( Brian Donlevy ) ... |
574,458 | 4,532,636 | 473,444 | 7 | Will Exercise Your Eyes But Not Your Brain | Zhang Yimou's latest is a glorious freak-out of a movie . You can cut the melodrama with a knife ; the whole thing is hopelessly over-emphatic , like a parody of Shakespeare . But it works a kind of spell , and it won me over , lingering in my head for a few days after I'd seen it . Those who have become used to Yimou'... |
573,640 | 4,532,636 | 55,499 | 7 | Typical Bergman , Meaning Nihilistically Depressing | This Biblically named Bergman film falls into the category of those that make you want to jump off of a bridge after watching them , but of those , it's one of the best . In typical cheery Bergman fashion , all of the action takes place on a desolate sea coast , all craggy rocks and biting winds . The whole thing is ab... |
573,905 | 4,532,636 | 11,841 | 7 | Gish Suffers Nobly | Way Down East will probably be a hard pill for many filmgoers to swallow , as it's a silent and very long , but I would recommend you give it a try , as it's also pretty entertaining . Lillian Gish gets put through her melodramatic paces by the granddaddy of modern cinema , D . W . Griffith . Griffith was a master at... |
573,697 | 4,532,636 | 104,257 | 7 | Stand Up , Mr . Cruise . . . . Jack Nicholson's Passin ' | Square military courtroom drama from that squarest of square directors , Rob Reiner . Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson challenge each other to a yelling match , with Nicholson squeaking by for the win . Demi Moore practices her ability to look pensive and concerned . Kevin Bacon pops up and proves that there's life after ... |
574,017 | 4,532,636 | 42,530 | 7 | Fine Precursor to " Bonnie and Clyde " | The original title of " Gun Crazy " was " Deadly Is the Female , " and they ain't kidding . If you thought Faye Dunaway's Bonnie Parker was the more ruthless member of the crime duo that gave Arthur Penn's 1967 film its name , wait till you get a load of Peggy Cummins's Annie in this little known cheapie from 1949 . I ... |
573,963 | 4,532,636 | 33,870 | 7 | Birth of a Genre | It probably didn't know it at the time , but when " The Maltese Falcon " debuted in 1941 , it was inventing a new film genre , one of my personal favorites : the film noir . Films noir got better later in the decade and throughout the 1950's ; they got seedier , starker and more psychologically twisted . And if you can... |
573,357 | 4,532,636 | 25,586 | 7 | Notable for the Early Bette Davis Performance | When I saw that this film was only 80 minutes long , I thought we were in trouble . Condensing the gigantic W . Somerset Maugham novel down to a movie that clocks in at under an hour and a half seemed like a disaster waiting to happen . But you know , the movie's not half bad , and it even manages to retain much of wha... |
573,559 | 4,532,636 | 461,770 | 7 | It's Nice to See That Disney Can Make Fun of Itself | A cute and diverting Disney film that pokes fun at other Disney films . Amy Adams does fine work as a cartoon princess named Giselle who is banished to that frightening , sinister world otherwise known as New York City by an evil queen ( Susan Sarandon ) who doesn't want her marrying her dashing stepson , Prince Edward... |
573,886 | 4,532,636 | 51,201 | 7 | Laughton and Lanchester Make This One Worth Watching | It's no surprise that Billy Wilder , the man who gave us the ghoulishly funny " Sunset Boulevard , " would be drawn to this macabre but witty Agatha Christie play . " Witness for the Prosecution " is very minor Wilder , and would probably go unremembered today if not for the wonderful performances of husband and wife t... |
574,410 | 4,532,636 | 824,747 | 7 | If You Want to Ensure Your Film Won't Be a Masterpiece , Cast Either Half of Brangelina | Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are perfectly matched , as both boast beautiful faces and a painful lack of serious acting ability . However , in an acting face off , I'd put my money on Jolie . She did much better with her 2008 Oscar-bait outing , " Changeling , " than Pitt did with his , " The Curiously Boring and Point... |
573,685 | 4,532,636 | 44,706 | 7 | Film Editing 101 | High Noon is a text book on how to edit a film brilliantly , but it's awfully cold and impersonal as a movie . It creates a tremendous amount of suspense , but the whole movie is gimmick , and the suspense is empty . As most people know , it takes place in " real time , " so there are lots of cut aways to clocks unde... |
574,341 | 4,532,636 | 387,131 | 7 | A Not Completely Successful Thriller | Thinking back on " The Constant Gardener " the day or two after having seen it , I found much about the film to admire ; however , my primary feeling while actually watching it was one of exasperation . This film is all rush , rush , rush from one scene to the next , barely giving the viewer time to catch his breath , ... |
574,238 | 4,532,636 | 443,543 | 7 | A Thinking Man's Pot-Boiler | The Illusionist is a nifty but rather strange film . It's a mystery whose central mystery , once revealed , isn't all that mysterious , yet the film manages to build an exciting amount of suspense anyway . It's success , I think , lies in the fact that it builds a great deal of character development and character-dri... |
574,436 | 4,532,636 | 71,269 | 7 | Altman's Warm Up to " Nashville " | Robert Altman returns to one of his favorite subjects - - men behaving badly - - in this rather slight 1974 effort . George Segal and Elliott Gould play chronic gamblers who meet by chance in a gaming room and embark upon a friendship founded entirely on each man's desire to seek out the next sure thing . They head to ... |
573,857 | 4,532,636 | 49,096 | 7 | Danny Kaye Jests and Jousts | A supremely wacky and delightful Danny Kaye comedy . Kaye plays a court jester impostor who infiltrates a king's court in order to put in motion a plan hatched by a scrappy band of Robin Hoodesque rebels who want to depose the tyrant and put the rightful heir on the throne . Unfortunately for Kaye , but fortunately for... |
574,164 | 4,532,636 | 40,366 | 7 | Good But Not Great Crime Picture | I saw a coming attraction for this movie one day on TCM . I'd never heard of it , but the clips they used for the preview made it look like a terrific noir , and I couldn't wait to see it . It didn't live up to the expectations . It's a good movie , but it's not even one of the more memorable noirs from the 40s . In fa... |
573,819 | 4,532,636 | 78,966 | 7 | Jane as a Red Head , Douglas with a Beard , and Lemmon as a Man Who's Off His Rocker | The China Syndrome launched a whole string of films about the potentially devastating effects of misused nuclear power , a black cloud of paranoia that would hang over America for much of the Reagan years . It's a well-made and effective drama , given an extra punch by its high-power stars , notably Jack Lemmon who p... |
573,579 | 4,532,636 | 473,308 | 7 | Strengths Mostly Outweigh Weaknesses | This hit and miss comedy has an inherent poignancy because of the fact that its writer and director , Adrienne Shelley , was murdered before the film was released . Not knowing all of the details about her life or death , I can't help but wonder if this story about an insecure waitress who dreams of a life away from he... |
574,408 | 4,532,636 | 758,774 | 7 | Solid Action Thriller Set Against the War on Terror | The war on terror has provided seemingly endless fodder for all manner of movies . Most of them have been earnest and thoughtful and have felt the need to say something important about the issue ; unfortunately , most of them have also been dull and plodding and have quickly faded from memory . Ridley Scott's " Body of... |
573,584 | 4,532,636 | 82,894 | 7 | A Criminally Neglected Film Musical | This not very well known and dismissed musical surprised me with how good it was . Under the glossy production design and snappy musical numbers , there's a very dark center to the film , as its characters struggle through the Great Depression and their own desperation . It put me in mind of the depression-era musicals... |
573,864 | 4,532,636 | 419,749 | 7 | Found Me Liking Vin Diesel | Sidney Lumet aside , I never thought in a million years I would like a movie created almost exclusively as a star project for Vin Diesel . So the fact that I not only liked the movie , but thought its greatest asset was Diesel himself , left me floored . In " Find Me Guilty , " Diesel plays real-life gangster hood Jack... |
573,696 | 4,532,636 | 75,148 | 7 | The Ultimate American Success Story . . . . Just in Time for America's 100th Birthday | Rocky is one of those quintessential " right place / right time " movies . Movie-going America , beleaguered by bleak and cynical tales of everything their country was doing wrong , were ready for this underdog success story , which illustrates that living in America ain't so bad after all . But come on . If people w... |
574,002 | 4,532,636 | 94,332 | 7 | Who Knew Witches Could Be This Hot ? | I might watch this film now and think that it's terrible , but my memory of it is that is was pretty decent . Cher , Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer play three smokin ' witches , and they gang up in tormenting Jack Nicholson . I saw this when I was fairly young , so there's no doubt a lot of adult humor that went ... |
574,131 | 4,532,636 | 25,464 | 7 | Melodrama with a Bite | Melodramatic , yes , but this movie has some meat to it that I wasn't expecting . Clark Gable and William Powell play childhood friends who grow up to be a hood and a respected judge , respectively . Both have a thing for Myrna Loy , but the expected rivalry for which this plot would seem to be tailor made never comes ... |
574,211 | 4,532,636 | 10,146 | 7 | Down But Never Out | In this enjoyable Harold Lloyd comedy , our boy Harold ( playing a down-and-outer whose acquaintances include a scrappy little beggar girl and her lame dog ) finds himself coming to the aid of a pretty heiress whose inheritance is in danger of being weasled away by a shyster lawyer in cahoots with a gang of thugs . Eve... |
573,302 | 4,532,636 | 107,653 | 7 | Mike Leigh Misfire Is Still Worth Watching for David Thewlis | Mike Leigh movies are never exactly laugh riots , but even with that " Naked " is one of the most dismal and surly films I've ever seen from him . Actually , the whole movie was a bit too one note for me , that one note being nihilistic . Leigh only diffuses his relentless tone of gloom in the film's last few moments ,... |
573,488 | 4,532,636 | 406,158 | 7 | A Genial Film Carried by Moore's Marvelous Performance | Julianne Moore is a wonderful actress . In " The Prize Winner of Defiance , Ohio , " she gets no big showy scenes , no moments where she acknowledges her own talent by ACTING . There are no breakdowns , crack ups , manias or histrionics . The movie goes down easy and , once the DVD player has been turned off , is just ... |
573,620 | 4,532,636 | 315,733 | 7 | 2003 : The Year of Revenge | With the 2003 movie year behind us , it's clear to me that a major theme film makers explored in that year's releases ( most certainly - induced ) is that of revenge and , more importantly , the inability of revenge to right committed wrongs . " 21 Grams " is a bleak , sober story about a grief-crazed woman seeking rev... |
573,965 | 4,532,636 | 121,791 | 7 | Gasp ! A Documentary with a Point of View | This is one of those fascinating documentaries that came out during WWII that made no attempt to be anything other than war propaganda . It's so funny now to see people get all hot and bothered by films like " Fahrenheit " and crucify Michael Moore for pushing such a blatant agenda . They act like before Moore came on ... |
573,739 | 4,532,636 | 88,763 | 7 | I'm Not a Big Fan of the Series , But This One Is Harmless Enough | The kind of comedy / adventure / sci-fi hybrid that the 1980s did very well , and which you just don't see anymore . " Back to the Future " solidified Michael J . Fox as a bona fide movie star , and featured a deliriously wacky Christopher Lloyd playing a scientist who invents a time travel machine . Robert Zemeckis ke... |
574,424 | 4,532,636 | 121,765 | 7 | Blows " Phantom Menace " Out of the Water - - Though That's Pretty Faint Praise | This second installment in the " Star Wars " prequel trilogy is leaps and bounds better than " The Phantom Menace , " and there are moments in the film , unlike " Phantom , " when it begins to FEEL like a " Star Wars " movie . The little kid Disneyland quality that figured heavily in the first film for the most part gi... |
573,449 | 4,532,636 | 84,865 | 7 | Gay Paree | 1982 was a gender-bending year for Hollywood . Dustin Hoffman dressed up as a woman ; Julie Andrews dressed up as a man . How fitting that the very next year Linda Hunt would win the first Oscar ever given for playing a member of the opposite sex . " Victor Victoria " is a solidly-crafted , old-fashioned musical that f... |
574,204 | 4,532,636 | 60,086 | 7 | Takes the Swing Out of Swinging London | Michael Caine plays Alfie , a hipster swinger in 1960s London whose attitudes and actions we abhor even as we warm to the twinkle in his eye . Caine plays the role just right . The movie would go nowhere if he wasn't able to make us understand what about Alfie attracts women despite his treatment of them . The film has... |
574,173 | 4,532,636 | 53,619 | 7 | Cinematic Ennui | I have to change my opinion about " L'Avventura , " and post a revised comment here . I had posted before based on a single viewing of this film on video years ago . I just saw a screening of it again at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago as part of its summer retrospective of Antonioni , and had a different enough... |
573,631 | 4,532,636 | 371,746 | 7 | Downey , Jr . Creates an Inspired Superhero | In much the same way that Ron Perlman's inspired performance made " Hellboy " better than it would otherwise have been , Robert Downey , Jr . helps " Iron Man " be something beyond the standard superhero junk fests that become popular every year around this time . Downey is perfectly cast , though I never would have th... |
573,782 | 4,532,636 | 35,896 | 7 | Solid Romantic Drama | I've not read the Hemingway novel on which this film is based , nor will I spend any time summarizing the plot , as others here have already done a fine job of that . Let me just add my voice to those who have praised this film as a very good romantic adventure of its time . It of course has one foot obviously placed s... |
573,873 | 4,532,636 | 296,166 | 7 | A Well-Done Coming of Age Film | I saw this movie in the same weekend I watched " Bend It Like Beckham , " and the two movies are very similar in theme . " Real Women " is somewhat darker ( but not much ) and takes itself a little more seriously , but it's still a very good movie about a girl coming to terms with her family and herself in working-clas... |
574,371 | 4,532,636 | 800,308 | 7 | Ed Harris Sticks to Tradition with This Modest Western | Pretty much the definition of a solid " B " effort . " Appaloosa " was clearly Ed Harris's baby , as he directed , co-produced , co-wrote , and starred in it , as well as sang the song that plays over the end credits ! Given that , I'd love to report that I thought the film was a masterpiece , but it's far from that . ... |
574,400 | 4,532,636 | 86,637 | 7 | Woody Allen's Mockumentary | After scoring big with " Annie Hall " and " Manhattan , " Woody Allen had a bit of a dry run in the early 1980s with the forgettable " Stardust Memories " and " A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy . " " Zelig " found him back on track , and feels like a return to the screwball hijinks of his early 1970s films . Allen films ... |
573,423 | 4,532,636 | 83,987 | 7 | Serviceable Rather Than Inspired | Actor turned director Richard Attenborough helmed this biopic about the famed pacifist and , as frequently happens with biopics , especially when they're about noble and revered figures , turned it into something perfectly respectable and ever so slightly dull . The film won just about every Academy Award it was nomina... |
573,821 | 4,532,636 | 79,638 | 7 | Sally Field Wants You | One of those rousing films in which a blue-collar normal Joe ( or in this case perhaps we should say normal Joan ) stands up against the big boys in the corporate office for what is right and just . Movies like " Erin Brockovich " wouldn't exist today if movies like " Norma Rae " hadn't existed first . And " Norma Rae ... |
574,392 | 4,532,636 | 36,855 | 7 | Enjoyable If Not Memorable | A fairly effective little thriller that one can't help but feel would be far more effective if it wasn't quite so glossy . I don't particularly like the leads ; I've remained immune to the charms of Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer hits me like a toothache . But Angela Lansbury is a riot as the cheeky maid and Joseph C... |
573,629 | 4,532,636 | 1,060,277 | 7 | Godzilla for the YouTube Generation | This monster movie tries hard to be " Godzilla " for Generation Y , but it doesn't quite make it . It's a terrific looking film and it's capably acted - - when you watch the special features on the DVD and realize that most of the time actors were interacting with nothing but green screens , it makes both the acting an... |
573,487 | 4,532,636 | 425,321 | 7 | They Make Melodramas in Egypt Too | The Yaboubian Building reminded me of those over-heated Spanish soap operas that air nightly on Telemundo . The sweep and size of the film ( not to mention its length ) may fool people into thinking it's a more important picture than it actually is , when really it's not much more than one big soapy melodrama that ma... |
573,699 | 4,532,636 | 817,544 | 7 | Farmiga Shines in a Solid Drama | Vera Farmiga plays an affluent woman whose life and marriage is unraveling . She and her Korean husband have been trying without success to get pregnant . Her suicidal husband has given up on the idea , but it's become an obsession with her , the one thing that will fix everything that's broken . She makes a propositio... |
573,929 | 4,532,636 | 110,478 | 7 | Fun and Charming | A fun movie that doesn't try to be anything more than what it is - - an amiable comedy . Mel Gibson can actually manage to be tolerable when he's playing charming , which he does here . James Garner is perfectly cast for quite obvious reasons . And it's nice to see Jodie Foster lighten up and play a feminine character ... |
573,576 | 4,532,636 | 359,203 | 7 | A Glance at the Second Golden Age of Cinema | Easy Riders , Raging Bulls is an orgy for movie lovers . How can anyone who loves film not be in heaven at the constant parade of landmark films and key industry figures that charges across the screen in this fast-paced documentary ? If you've read the book , the movie will feel cursory , and one will find himself wi... |
573,339 | 4,532,636 | 110,475 | 7 | One of Jim Carrey's Better Comedies | Combining Jim Carrey with a bunch of giddy special effects seems like a redundancy , since Carrey himself IS a special effect . But that's just what this film does , with mostly entertaining results . Carrey plays a nerd who finds a mask that transforms him into a superhero when he wears it . Cue lots of intentionally ... |
573,394 | 4,532,636 | 478,311 | 7 | A Comedy Classic ? Not Quite . . . . | As with " The 40-Year-Old Virgin , " I thought " Knocked Up " was funny and a I had a good time with it , but it didn't warrant the rapturous response it has received from critics , or the inexplicably high rating it has received here at IMDb . Frankly , the joke about adult men refusing to grow up has worn thin , and ... |
573,713 | 4,532,636 | 386,032 | 7 | Moore Documentary Is Entertaining as Always , But Leaves a Lot Unanswered | Michael Moore's documentaries are always compulsively entertaining , but they also always leave me feeling miserable about being an American . " Sicko " is about the sorry state of our health insurance industry , and it forces us to face some very uncomfortable truths . However , what I frequently DON'T like about Moor... |
573,595 | 4,532,636 | 455,824 | 7 | So I'll Admit It - - The Latest from Baz Luhrmann Is Pretty Good | After inflicting the tortuous " Romeo+Juliet " and " Moulin Rouge ! " on an unsuspecting America ( a crime for which I've never and never will be able to forgive him ) , Baz Luhrmann takes us down under in this shameless yet pretty damn entertaining epic . Chalk it up to expectations that couldn't have been lower , but... |
574,509 | 4,532,636 | 114,388 | 7 | Did I Accidentally Change the Channel to PBS ? | Solid if uninspired adaptation of the Jane Austen novel . There's absolutely nothing wrong with this film , but it's all a bit dull , a Masterpiece Theatre version of the story that would be as at home on PBS as on a big movie screen . Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet play the two sisters , one with sense and the other w... |
573,983 | 4,532,636 | 354,899 | 7 | A Charming , Sad Examination of the Inadequacy of Dreams | Michel Gondry wrote and directed this melancholy little film about a young man , Stephane , who , unwilling to cope with the realities of grief and loneliness , would rather escape into a vivid dream world over which he maintains much more control than he does in real life . He has never completely dealt with the death... |
574,481 | 4,532,636 | 30,993 | 7 | Capra Lite | So it's not like Frank Capra was known for making especially gritty films , but even at that this film is light stuff for him . It's entertaining enough but not very memorable . And the chunk of plot that was added for the movie version - - the lengthy courtroom scene - - attempts to open the movie up and give us some ... |
573,705 | 4,532,636 | 842,929 | 8 | The Paranoia of Adolescence | In Gus Van Sant's quietly disturbing " Paranoid Park , " teenagers look , sound and act like teenagers , with all of the awkward inarticulateness that comes with the age . I mention this because it places this film in bold relief against other current movies about teenagers , where teens are self-assured , beautiful an... |
574,032 | 4,532,636 | 105,151 | 8 | So This Is What Altman Thinks of Hollywood | Leave it to Robert Altman to announce his return to Hollywood with a scathing indictment of it . After a decade of working in virtual anonymity , Altman made a comeback with this dark comedy , scoring his third Academy Award nomination as director and his first since " Nashville " nearly 20 years earlier . It's instant... |
573,743 | 4,532,636 | 89,881 | 8 | Grand Kurosawa Film Still Falls Short of " Seven Samurai " and " Throne of Blood " | Director Akira Kurosawa takes Shakespeare's " King Lear " and sets it in feudal Japan . What I love about Kurosawa films is true about " Ran " as well : he was capable of making popcorn entertainments that were infused with an art-house intellectualism . He made thinking man's action movies . " Ran " is right up there ... |
573,376 | 4,532,636 | 63,227 | 8 | A Glorious Royal Feud | After " A Man for All Seasons , " " The Lion in Winter " is perhaps the best costume drama that came out of the 1960s , a decade rife with them . Peter O'Toole dons the garb of King Henry II for the second time in four years ( see " Becket " ) and commands the screen as ably as he always did . It's not a command he's a... |
574,248 | 4,532,636 | 268,690 | 8 | Terrific Ensemble in a Provocative Conversation Starter | My wife and I launched immediately into a conversation about this film before the end credits had even finished rolling . It's the kind of film that makes you want to apply some of its ideas and themes to your own life and experiences . At first I was worried . When the film began , I thought it was going to be an epis... |
574,105 | 4,532,636 | 91,167 | 8 | One of Woody Allen's Five Best | A splendid ensemble dramedy from Woody Allen's mid-1980s period , at the time easily the best film he had made since Manhattan in 1979 . This is Allen when he's at his best - - he assembles a sharp team of actors , puts them in situations he knows like the back of his hand ( i . e . intellectual New York society ) , an... |
574,206 | 4,532,636 | 41,958 | 8 | So Much for the American Dream | Richard Conte plays a hot head recently returned from the Navy , who jumps in on a business deal out of personal vengeance when he finds out that a crooked produce dealer ( played in a characteristically tiresome performance by Lee J . Cobb ) not only cheated his father , but also caused him to lose use of his legs in ... |
573,767 | 4,532,636 | 66,206 | 8 | Solidly Crafted and Smart WWII Drama | A fairly rousing WWII film that boasts a tremendous performance from George C . Scott in the title role . The movie begins famously with Scott addressing a troop of soldiers while standing in front of a massive American flag . It's a daring way to open a movie , and Scott makes it riveting . He's so good in the first f... |
573,898 | 4,532,636 | 361,411 | 8 | There's Nothing Not to Like | Unless you're just determined not to have a good time , I can't imagine how you could watch " Bride & Prejudice " and not come out of it with a smile on your face . Colorful , splashy , cheesy , and starring a bunch of gorgeous actors , both male and female , it updates Jane Austen's classic tale and tells it in the st... |
573,418 | 4,532,636 | 37,008 | 8 | Moody Mystery with Stunning Cinematography | Laura works in just about every way : acting , writing , production values . It's not an especially ambitious movie , and I was hoping it would explore the idea of obsession more thoroughly . One could have a field day reading subtext into " Laura " : the fetishizing of Laura herself as mere object ( emphasized by th... |
573,903 | 4,532,636 | 26,138 | 8 | Someone Get That Woman a Comb ! | One senses that James Whale's 1931 " Frankenstein " became a classic almost by accident . Its poignancy and artistry have lasted despite its attempts at being a throw-away monster movie . " Bride of Frankenstein , " however , feels like a movie setting out to become a high-camp classic , and it's to Whale's credit that... |
574,220 | 4,532,636 | 37,094 | 8 | Davis and Rains Work Wonders Together | Bette Davis is given a role she can really sink her teeth into in this " women's picture " from 1944 . Davis plays Fanny Trellis , a spoiled young woman who marries the boring but very wealthy Job Skeffington ( Claude Rains ) as a way to save her wayward brother from bankruptcy . When the brother dies , she finds herse... |
573,538 | 4,532,636 | 35,140 | 8 | The Melodrama to End All Melodramas | Now , Voyager is THE ultimate Bette Davis melodrama . She plays a frumpy , dowdy spinster ( they basically put some glasses on her and mess up her hair a little ) who blossoms into a strong beauty and ends the film swooning into Paul Henreid's arms as she delivers the famous line , " Let's not ask for the moon , we a... |
573,979 | 4,532,636 | 65,234 | 8 | A Dynamite Political Thriller | This feisty political thriller from director Costa-Gavras should feel eerily prescient to American audiences of today , whose government is trying to convince them that anyone critical of our country's military actions is an unpatriotic subversive . " Z " was filmed in Algeria with a largely French cast , but it's clea... |
574,330 | 4,532,636 | 93,389 | 8 | Good But Rather Mainstream | Practically custom made to win Academy Awards , " The Last Emperor " did just that in 1987 , winning every single award for which it was nominated . Bernardo Bertolucci's sprawling historical epic is beautiful to look at , but it also has a brain in its head , something rare for the usual Best Picture winner . Still , ... |
574,427 | 4,532,636 | 70,608 | 8 | One of My Favorite Disney Cartoons | I LOVED this cartoon as a kid . I was and am an animal lover anyway , so the idea of Sherwood Forest being populated by a bunch of talking animals delighted me . My favorite characters were Prince John , the hapless lion with his crooked crown , and his right-hand man ( or snake ) , Sir Hiss . I especially enjoyed Prin... |
574,144 | 4,532,636 | 35,169 | 8 | Husband and Wife Can't Hate Each Other , No Matter How Hard They Try | The Palm Beach Story is a lopsided comedy ( part of it's funny and part of it's not ) , but the movie is back-ended with all of the funniest bits , so it allows you to forget the slower parts and it sends you out on a high . After a sensationally bizarre opening credits sequence , the movie settles down into a slight... |
573,630 | 4,532,636 | 43,792 | 8 | Thelma Ritter Film Is Sitcom Light , But a Treat | An absolutely charming film from 1951 that finds working class John Lund marrying well-to-do Gene Tierney and then spending the first weeks of their marriage trying to hide his blue collar past . Things get complicated when Lund's mom ( played beautifully by Thelma Ritter ) is hired to be their live-in cook without Tie... |
573,375 | 4,532,636 | 63,385 | 8 | An Extremely Likable Screen Version of an Extremely Likable Stage Musical | The last good old-fashioned musical of the 1960s , " Oliver ! " is of course a musicalized version of Charles Dickens ' classic novel " Oliver Twist . " If the bouncy-jouncy treatment eliminates much of what is dark about the book ( and which the 1948 David Lean version nicely captures ) , it makes up for it in colorfu... |
574,053 | 4,532,636 | 332,375 | 8 | A Nifty Bit of Satire | Saved ! includes some pretty witty satire , but none of its points will be heard , because audiences will be too busy jumping on to one bandwagon or another instead of thinking about what the movie has to say . Liberals will love " Saved ! " for its attack on religious hypocrisy and the annoying tendency of the conse... |
574,150 | 4,532,636 | 59,043 | 8 | Terrence Stamp Delivers Creepy Performance in Deeply Unsettling Film | This intensely creepy film showcases director William Wyler in his intimate , character-study mode , and features a superb performance from Terrence Stamp in the title role , as the " collector " of beauty . Stamp creates a portrait of sexual obsession that is every bit as unsettling in its way as the long legacy of se... |
573,619 | 4,532,636 | 332,379 | 8 | Jack Black Scores | Jack Black is like Jim Carrey - - he works so hard at his comedy that the strain at first overshadows the humour . But like Jim Carrey , he keeps so insistently at his viewers that they can't help but be won over totally by his zaniness . I didn't think Black was very funny when this movie started , but he plays the ro... |
574,010 | 4,532,636 | 83,946 | 8 | Into the Jungle Again with Werner Herzog | Director Werner Herzog returns once more to the wilds of the jungle and yet one more protagonist who finds there the atmosphere to feed his frenzied obsessions . In this one , Klaus Kinski plays an opera lover who is determined to build an opera house in the middle of the Amazon rain forest . In order to achieve his dr... |
574,273 | 4,532,636 | 412,019 | 8 | Good Movie from an On Again / Off Again Director | I can't think of an actor better suited to play the expressionless chronic bachelor Don at the heart of Jim Jarmusch's newest movie than Bill Murray . His mournful hound-dog face , which hides any trace of what's going on inside the head on which it sits , stares blankly at the T . V . , at other people , sometimes at ... |
573,804 | 4,532,636 | 912,592 | 8 | Human Interest Story or Hoax ? We May Never Know . . . . | Meet Marla Olmstead , a cute , seemingly normal 4-year-old girl . Then see the paintings Marla creates , hailed by the art world as the works of a prodigy abstract artist . Now meet Amir Bar-Lev , documentary filmmaker so fascinated by Marla's story that he decides to make a movie about it . Then along comes a " 60 Min... |
573,556 | 4,532,636 | 912,593 | 8 | The Best Iraq-Themed Movie of 2007 | In retrospect , I suppose 2007 will go down as the year in which filmmakers began addressing the problems in Iraq . The number of Iraq-themed films has piled up and disappeared at a breathtaking pace . Maybe it's not a surprise that the best of them so far is the one that doesn't try to turn the conflict into something... |
573,570 | 4,532,636 | 342,172 | 8 | A Fine and Sad Documentary of Family Dysfunction | This compelling documentary about the Friedman family and a child sexual abuse court case that turned their lives upside down is a heartbreaking peek into the lives of one very dysfunctional family . Like most families who have painful secrets they want to suppress , the Friedmans ( except for the mother ) , act as if ... |
573,590 | 4,532,636 | 918,927 | 8 | To Doubt Is Human | Doubt can be a bond as strong as fear . If ever there was a time in our country's recent history where that line carried the force of relevance , it's now . And though it's set in the early 1960s ( roughly a year after the Kennedy assassination ) , there's no doubt that John Patrick Shanley's adaptation of his own Pu... |
573,416 | 4,532,636 | 83,922 | 8 | Almost a Masterpiece | After having seen many Bergman films , I finally got my hands on this , considered by many to be the master's masterpiece . Not really about the children Fanny and Alexander ( as the title would suggest ) so much as about the entire Ekdahl family , this film is meticulously detailed and highly autobiographical . It loo... |
574,089 | 4,532,636 | 110,932 | 8 | Redford's Fiendishly Entertaining Movie About Entertainment | Robert Redford reminded everyone what a good director he could be with this slick and supremely entertaining film about the quiz show scandals in the early days of television . The subject seems at first glance like rather feeble material for good drama - - after all , it all happened so long ago and it was just a sill... |
573,871 | 4,532,636 | 328,538 | 8 | A Gut Punch | Thirteen begins with literal punches being thrown - - best friends Tracy and Evie are slugging each other to prove how numb they are from the huffing they've been doing in Tracy's bedroom - - and continues with an unrelenting aggressiveness until its penultimate , quiet moment . I don't have any children myself , and... |
573,372 | 4,532,636 | 63,442 | 8 | Monkey Business | Charlton Heston dons a loincloth and impersonates a human in this cheezy cult classic about a future world where apes walk upright and speak in clipped British accents . What a fun movie this is , thanks mostly to Heston's inability to deliver a line in a manner that even remotely resembles the way an actual human bein... |
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