reviewId int64 363k 588k | userId int64 33.9k 15.9M | itemId int64 1 1.42M | rating float64 1 10 | title stringlengths 1 10.9k ⌀ | content stringlengths 81 11.6k ⌀ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
574,201 | 4,532,636 | 61,184 | 10 | A Harrowing , Disturbing Film with a Dazzling Performance from Liz Taylor | I've heard many reports that the screen version of Edward Albee's Pulitzer-Prize-winning play greatly dilutes the content and language of the original text , blunting some of its emotional impact . Well , if this is the blunted version , I don't know if I'm prepared for the original . Richard Burton ( who I've never re... |
573,323 | 4,532,636 | 32,553 | 10 | Chaplin's Plea for Peace | I know many people prefer Charlie Chaplin when he's silent , but I have to rank this as my favorite Chaplin film , sound and all . This is one of those movies chock full of one memorable scene after another : Chaplin's hapless soldier trying to load and fire a giant gun ; his goofy dictator cavorting with an inflatable... |
574,476 | 4,532,636 | 36,868 | 10 | Unbelievably Honest Movie for Its Time | It's been a long time since I've seen " The Best Years of Our Lives , " and I'm sure I was way too young when I did see it to fully appreciate it , but even then I could tell it wasn't quite like other old black and white movies I was used to . This film came out during a period in which Hollywood was interested in pro... |
573,908 | 4,532,636 | 68,327 | 10 | A Perfect Film About One of History's Darkest Hours | Bob Fosse's most accomplished film is one of the most accomplished films ever made , period . Fosse understood that the days of the old-fashioned Hollywood musical were over , at least as of 1972 , so he gave audiences a musical that doesn't feel like a musical . Based on Christopher Isherwood's fine collection of nove... |
574,508 | 4,532,636 | 112,818 | 10 | Exceptional Examination of the Death Penalty Issue | A stunning film about a nun ( Susan Sarandon ) enlisted to comfort a death row inmate ( Sean Penn ) in the days leading up to his execution and the tentative friendship the two develop . Sarandon and Penn are at the top of their game , as is director Tim Robbins , who uses his film not as a liberal diatribe against the... |
573,537 | 4,532,636 | 32,599 | 10 | Roz Russell Is on the Case | Every good thing you've heard about this movie is true . It may very well be the fastest paced movie I've ever seen . Jerry Bruckheimer's most hyperbolic action movie ain't got nothing ' on this one . Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell were a brilliant screen pair ( indeed , it seems that no one was bad casting when paire... |
574,346 | 4,532,636 | 95,705 | 10 | Knee Slappin ' Funny | Movies just don't get much funnier than " The Naked Gun . " From the people that brought you " Airplane ! " comes a comedy in a similar vein , stuffed with one-liners and sight gags . Leslie Nielsen is perfect for this kind of comedy . He's droll and oblivious to the absurdity around him . He takes everything completel... |
574,025 | 4,532,636 | 433,383 | 10 | Best Film About American Media Since " Network " | Every once in a while , a character actor who has made a living popping up here and there in mostly unmemorable roles , is cast in a film and does such an amazing job that everyone starts immediately wondering why he or she isn't more famous . However , if you think about it , this sort of makes sense . Character actor... |
574,265 | 4,532,636 | 41,959 | 10 | Heaven for Graham Greene Fans | Is there any greater entrance in cinema history than Orson Welles's in this movie ? His character , Harry Lyme , supposedly dead , is hiding in a dark doorway . His American friend , Holly Martins ( Joseph Cotten ) , who came to Vienna to see Lyme and instead has gotten wrapped up in trying to solve the mystery of his ... |
574,009 | 4,532,636 | 65,214 | 10 | Sam Peckinpah's Bloody Wild West | Sam Peckinpah's sensational , elegiac western did for that genre what " Bonnie and Clyde " had done for the lovers-on-the-lam genre two years earlier . William Holden , Ernest Borgnine , Edmond O'Brien and Robert Ryan - - all throwbacks to an earlier , more traditional style of Hollywood film-making - - star in this re... |
574,363 | 4,532,636 | 266,697 | 10 | Kill Bill Is a Killer | I keep waiting for Tarantino to stumble , but he hasn't disappointed me yet . The first installment of " Kill Bill " is sensational from start to finish and shouldn't disappoint anyone who expects Tarantino to meet the bar he set with " Pulp Fiction " and " Jackie Brown . " I don't know if there's another director out ... |
574,521 | 4,532,636 | 405,094 | 10 | A Beautiful Statement About Humanity Triumphing Over Oppression | This superb , gripping film tells the story of a celebrated playwright , Georg Dreyman ( played subtly by Sebastian Koch ) living in the stifling oppression of the German Democratic Republic in the early 1980s , who is put under surveillance by a cabinet minister who loves Dreyman's girlfriend , the ill-fated Christa-M... |
573,679 | 4,532,636 | 61,418 | 10 | One of the First , and Still Best , Movies About America's Obsession with Violence | Every time I watch " Bonnie and Clyde " I'm convinced that this time it won't shock me . And every time I'm proved wrong . " Bonnie and Clyde " was one of the first American movies to acknowledge that Americans are turned on by violence . People blame this movie for ushering in the increasingly graphic content of movie... |
574,506 | 4,532,636 | 41,859 | 10 | Robert Ryan Gives a Sensational Forgotten Performance in a Perfect Little Movie | A nearly perfect small B movie from director Robert Wise . Robert Ryan beautifully plays an aging boxer aching for a win , whose manager has so little faith in his abilities that he hasn't even told him he agreed to a fixed fight , so certain is he that Ryan will go down without having to lay down . Audrey Totter is Ry... |
573,992 | 4,532,636 | 41,587 | 10 | Exceptional Whodunit | This superbly written and acted soap opera brought writer / director Joseph L . Mankiewicz Best Director and Best Screenplay Oscars the year before he repeated the exact same wins with " All About Eve , " to my knowledge the only time that's happened . Jeanne Crain , Ann Sothern and Linda Darnell play three friends who... |
573,747 | 4,532,636 | 110,912 | 10 | Where to Begin ? | What more is there to say about " Pulp Fiction . " Released in 1994 , the film was an adrenaline shot to the heart of the film industry . Though the movie payed homage to a variety of film genres and styles ( film noir , gangster film , French New Wave ) , it managed to be unlike anything seen before . Whether you love... |
573,724 | 4,532,636 | 23,622 | 10 | No Trouble with This Lubitsch Comedy | That rare thing : the perfect film comedy . " Trouble in Paradise , " Ernst Lubitsch's sparkling 1932 comedy , stars Herbert Marshall and an adorable Miriam Hopkins as con artists in love , while Kay Francis plays the woman who comes between them . The film is fast , sexy , effortless and absolutely charming . People a... |
574,056 | 4,532,636 | 85,794 | 10 | One of Scorsese's Best | This hugely underrated film is one of Martin Scorsese's best , and further proof that as a director he has much more range than many might give him credit for . Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis deliver pitch-perfect performances as a stand-up comic wannabe and a popular T . V . personality , respectively , when their wor... |
573,663 | 4,532,636 | 63,462 | 10 | Don't Be Stupid , Be a Smarty , Come and Join the Nazi Party | Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder aim Mel Brooks ' bawdy jokes at the third balcony , and the result is one of the funniest movies ever made . As anyone who doesn't live under a rock by now knows , Mostel and Wilder play Max Bialystock , failing Broadway producer , and his hysterical accountant , Leo Bloom , respectively . W... |
573,424 | 4,532,636 | 83,866 | 10 | I Will Always Watch This Movie As a 7-Year-Old Boy | There are some movies it's simply impossible to review with a critical eye , and " E . T . " is one of them . Come on - - I was seven when this movie came out . I belonged an E . T . fan club , for God's sake ! Let's just say that Steven Spielberg is in his element when working on movies like this , and it's only when ... |
573,321 | 4,532,636 | 32,904 | 10 | Royal Wedding - - Just Not the One You Expect | The stars were aligned during the shooting of this film , and the results gave us one of the most perfect films in screen history . Katharine Hepburn gives the best performance of her career as Tracy Lord , uppity society heiress who's about to be married to a stuffed shirt . James Stewart and Ruth Hussey play an acerb... |
574,281 | 4,532,636 | 54,632 | 10 | Alain Resnais ' Haunted Hotel | A man and woman wander around the baroque corridors of a fancy hotel . He keeps insisting that they met the previous year and that she promised to run away with him . She keeps insisting that she doesn't remember him and made no such promise . There are other people at the hotel , notably a man who may be this woman's ... |
573,451 | 4,532,636 | 39,192 | 10 | A Hypnotic and Dazzling Film | This spellbinding movie from that spellbinding film-making team ( Powell and Pressburger ) is another entry in the long line of literary and film stories that revolve around British restraint and repression unraveling under the force of mysterious foreign cultures ( usually Eastern and frequently Indian ) , and it's on... |
573,907 | 4,532,636 | 68,473 | 10 | A Terrifyingly Disturbing Man Against Nature Tale | Deliverance is the kind of movie that gets in your mind and stays there forever . I will never forget this movie , nor the haunted feeling it left me with after seeing it for the first time . Four men from the city go on a fishing trip somewhere in the wilds of Appalachia , and are attacked by a couple of psychotic h... |
573,944 | 4,532,636 | 72,271 | 10 | A Deeply , Deeply Scary Movie | I don't know that I've ever been more scared on a purely gut level by any horror film as much as I was by Tobe Hooper's grisly 1974 cult classic . The current batch of torture porn crap passing as horror films obviously owe much to this film , and they've borrowed certain characteristics wholesale : the fetid , rotten ... |
573,945 | 4,532,636 | 63,350 | 10 | The Zombie Movie to End All Zombie Movies | Perhaps the premier example of how low-budget restrictions can work to the advantage of a film . George Romero's 1968 grindhouse shocker is the granddaddy of every zombie flick made since , and it remains by far the best . A scrappy group of survivors hole up in a deserted farmhouse to take a stand against a horde of r... |
573,301 | 4,532,636 | 118,111 | 10 | Guest's First Ensemble Comedy Is Perfect | Waiting for Guffman may just be that rare thing : the perfect comedy . It's brilliantly ( and I don't use that word lightly ) written and acted . I think it would be easy to dismiss the talent that went into this film , because it looks so effortless on screen , but you would have to be a wonderful actor to make mate... |
574,026 | 4,532,636 | 55,018 | 10 | One of the Best " Ghost Story " Movies | The Innocents begs comparison with Robert Wise's " The Haunting " from 1963 . Both films were made in the ' 60's , in the then popular ' Scope technique of photography . Both feature a female protagonist through whose eyes we see events and who may or may not be entirely reliable . And both feature a big , spooky hou... |
573,494 | 4,532,636 | 65,571 | 10 | One of the Most Visually Hypnotic Films I've Ever Seen | Bernardo Bertolucci's stunning early-1970s classic looks absolutely beautiful nearly forty years later . It tells the story of a fascist in 1930s Italy who is assigned to root out and assassinate anti-fascists . As the story develops , we learn that a childhood event played a large role in shaping this man's perception... |
573,845 | 4,532,636 | 401,383 | 10 | A Phenomenal Movie About a Phenomenal Story | After hearing the numerous critical accolades heaped on this film , I thought there was no way it could live up to its hype . I was wrong . What a sensational , beautiful movie . Julian Schnabel , whose past efforts have left me cold , tells this amazing story with a nearly perfect directorial approach . It's about Jea... |
574,014 | 4,532,636 | 91,877 | 10 | Be Ruthless - - It's Good for You | Ruthless People has one of the best premises in film comedy history . Spandex miniskirt millionaire Sam Stone ( Danny DeVito ) plans to kill his battle axe wife ( Bette Midler ) for her inheritance . However , his plan is put on hold when she is kidnapped and held for ransom . The kidnappers threaten to kill her if S... |
573,453 | 4,532,636 | 39,628 | 10 | Natalie Wood Is Adorable | By and large , child actors of the 1940s were a nauseating bunch , so how wonderful that we have Natalie Wood's performance in " Miracle on 34th Street " as a document of just how adorable a child actor could be . Natalie joins hands with Edmund Gwenn ( who just IS Santa Claus ) and runs easily away with this holiday f... |
574,239 | 4,532,636 | 449,059 | 10 | A Movie That Will Make You Proud to Be Ordinary | Much of " Little Miss Sunshine " shouldn't work , yet almost all of it does . One of the best ensemble casts in recent memory delivers this outrageous material with a tremendous amount of heart and conviction and , as a result , a screenplay that threatens to stretch the bounds of credibility comes across as believable... |
573,437 | 4,532,636 | 60,827 | 10 | It's Movies Like This That Earned Bergman His Reputation | Ingmar Bergman made films like " Persona " ( and " Wild Strawberries " and " Cries and Whispers " ) that make me forgive him for making other films like " Hour of the Wolf " and " Winter Light . " In " Persona , " a nurse is charged with taking care of a mentally deteriorating actress , and through a series of enigmati... |
573,344 | 4,532,636 | 53,198 | 10 | One of the Best Non-English Films Ever Made | This marvelous film from one of my favorite foreign directors , Francois Truffaut , remains one of the best foreign-language films ever made . To many , the word " foreign " as it applies to movies means difficult , but " The 400 Blows " is actually a very simple tale simply told about a young man who turns to a life o... |
573,883 | 4,532,636 | 51,036 | 10 | A Cookie Full of Arsenic | Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster play against type in this unapologetically but delightfully nasty film about the desire to be " known " in the New York social scene , and the lengths to which people will go , or the depths to which they will sink , to achieve fame . It's rare to come across such a blisteringly pessimist... |
573,755 | 4,532,636 | 32,138 | 10 | This One Takes Me Back | It's nearly impossible for me to write objectively about the quality of " The Wizard of Oz , " so bundled up is it with associations from my childhood . It's like trying to do a critical analysis of " Star Wars . " Sorry , can't be done - - - at least , not by me . " Oz " is such a strange movie , in some ways so creak... |
574,143 | 4,532,636 | 37,558 | 10 | Powerfully Romantic | Quite simply , the most intensely romantic movie ever made . Plain Jane Celia Johnson meets dashing rogue Trevor Howard in a train station cafe . She has a loving husband but is obviously bored with a life that doesn't fill her time . He's a successful doctor having marital problems . They reach out to one another and ... |
573,585 | 4,532,636 | 82,971 | 10 | THE Ultimate Adventure Movie | The 1980s were a dark time for cinema - - they didn't give us much to remember them by , unless you have a love of stuffy British dramas . However , the 80s DID do two things very well : adult-oriented comedies and adventure movies . " Raiders of the Lost Ark " is THE ultimate adventure movie . There had never been one... |
574,269 | 4,532,636 | 378,194 | 10 | Vol . 1 Was Dessert - - This Is the Main Course | Kill Bill Vol . 2 is the second half of one large story , and it creates a cohesive whole with the first part , but in many ways it's a completely different movie from Vol . 1 . The first half was all about movement - - it was almost balletic in its merging of images and music . Vol . 2 slows down , WAY down , to cre... |
573,342 | 4,532,636 | 50,986 | 10 | Stunning Bergman Masterpiece - - Maybe His Best ? | Wild Strawberries profoundly moved me . The theme - - an old man coming up fast on death and wondering if his life has had any meaning - - is an old one for Bergman , and one which he explored ad nauseum throughout the subsequent decades . But here Bergman approaches the question with an uncharacteristic optimism and... |
574,505 | 4,532,636 | 80,678 | 10 | One of Lynch's Most Mainstream Films Is Also One of His Best | This lacerating film about John Merrick , a man in 19th century England who suffered from a terrible physical deformity and was treated as a circus sideshow by a public who did not understand his condition , proves that David Lynch is as adept at mainstream , linear storytelling as he is at putting miraculous fever dre... |
573,920 | 4,532,636 | 80,684 | 10 | The Boy Who Loves " Star Wars " | A long time ago , in a galaxy far , far away . . . . . There was a boy who was only two years old when the original " Star Wars " film was released . He doesn't remember first seeing the movie , but he also doesn't remember life before it . He does remember the first " Star Wars " themed gift he got . . . a shoebox ful... |
573,653 | 4,532,636 | 910,970 | 10 | One Little Robot with One Gigantic Heart | Mesmerizing . This little film about a little robot has one of the biggest hearts I've ever seen in a movie , and its message , about the responsibility humans must accept in changing their own lives and the life of their planet for the better , is perhaps the single most important message film as an art form can be co... |
573,432 | 4,532,636 | 206,634 | 10 | Left Me Speechless | I'm nearly at a loss for words . " Children of Men " took my breath away with the sheer visual audacity of its storytelling and the deep strength of feeling contained in it . Alfonso Cuaron , adding his voice to the many other directors who have made post - films about the grim state of a world governed by terror and h... |
573,921 | 4,532,636 | 76,759 | 10 | The Boy Who Loved " Star Wars " | A long time ago , in a galaxy far , far away . . . . . There was a boy who was only two years old when the original " Star Wars " film was released . He doesn't remember first seeing the movie , but he also doesn't remember life before it . He does remember the first " Star Wars " themed gift he got . . . a shoebox ful... |
574,263 | 4,532,636 | 29,947 | 10 | Pure Craziness from Start to Finish | This is probably the craziest of all 30s screwball comedies , and it seems almost impossible today that it could have bombed when first released in 1938 . I'm not sure Katharine Hepburn was ever much of an actress - - I think she was good at picking roles in which she could just be Katharine Hepburn . But when she set ... |
573,602 | 4,532,636 | 274,558 | 10 | Stunning Film ; Why All the Hate ? | I'm really amazed by all of the spiteful , vitriolic insults hurled at this film from other users . Why all the anger ? If you don't like the movie because you think it's boring , or because you think nothing happens , or whatever , fine . . . but there are reviewers who are actually dismissing it because it's " femini... |
573,884 | 4,532,636 | 50,825 | 10 | A Brilliant Indictment of the Military Institution | Before indulging in the ponderousness that could mar his otherwise exceptional later films , Stanley Kubrick directed this terse , no-nonsense account of a group of men tried for mutiny during the horrific trench warfare of World War I . " Paths of Glory " exists mainly as a scathing indictment of the bureaucracy behin... |
574,138 | 4,532,636 | 39,689 | 10 | The Best 40s Noir | There's nothing wrong with " Out of the Past . " It is hands down the best film noir to be released in the 1940s ( even better than " Double Indemnity , " high praise indeed from me ) , and it rivals " Sunset Boulevard " and " Kiss Me Deadly " as my favorite noir of all time . Robert Mitchum plays a regular Joe , quiet... |
574,111 | 4,532,636 | 25,878 | 10 | An Unbeatable Pair | Watch out Fred and Ginger , Hepburn and Tracy , Bonnie and Clyde , because Nick and Nora ( or should I say Powell and Loy ) are hot on your tails as all-time great screen couple . " The Thin Man " was the first film to team up William Powell and Myrna Loy as famed sleuthing team , not to mention husband and wife , Nick... |
574,116 | 4,532,636 | 22,100 | 10 | Unforgettable | I can't begin to imagine what audiences made of this film upon its release in 1931 . The idea of having your protagonist be a child killer , and one the audience is meant to feel pity for , would be a tough sell TODAY let alone then . But that's exactly what director Fritz Lang gives us , and in Peter Lorre he found th... |
573,949 | 4,532,636 | 47,478 | 10 | There's Not One Thing Wrong with This Film | If you think a three-hour Japanese movie from the mid-50s about an ancient time in history sounds like one big snoozer , you'd be right . It SOUNDS like a snoozer . But just sit down to watch this film , and you'll realize how wrong you are . " Seven Samurai " is one of the most exciting , suspenseful films I've ever s... |
573,750 | 4,532,636 | 33,467 | 10 | A Reputation Deserved | There's not much to say about " Citizen Kane " that hasn't already been said . I know there are people who don't understand why this film is considered to be one of the most brilliantly made films ever produced , but I propose the reason for that is this : the film and narrative techniques on display in " Kane " have b... |
574,069 | 4,532,636 | 47,472 | 10 | A Flawless Musical Comedy | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers just may be my favorite splashy MGM musical from the 1940s and 50s , and holds a place up there with my favorite movie musicals of all time . " Brides / Brothers " bursts on to the screen with the energy of a cheerleading squad on amphetamines , and that energy never dissipates . But i... |
574,068 | 4,532,636 | 47,396 | 10 | THE Ultimate Hitchcock Movie | Rear Window represents Alfred Hitchcock at his most playful . This is Hitchcock's most fully realized comment about the obsession with voyeurism that reared its head repeatedly throughout his ouvre , an obsession not only of his , but one shared by the characters in his films and the audience watching them - - for wi... |
573,572 | 4,532,636 | 317,248 | 10 | Visceral and Fabulous | City of God is an adrenaline jolt of a film that for once manages to find a balance between stylistics and substance . The director , Fernando Meirelles , stuffs his movie to the brim with machine-gun editing , swirling cinematography and pounding music , but while this reliance on fancy tricks has ruined other films... |
573,657 | 4,532,636 | 388,795 | 10 | Ang Lee's Last Picture Show | Perhaps the saddest thing about " Brokeback Mountain " is that , though the story begins in 1963 and ends roughly in the early 80s , Ang Lee's film could have been set in the present day and not much would be different . Homosexuality has become almost stylish in America's urban areas , but out in the heartland , where... |
573,971 | 4,532,636 | 43,014 | 10 | One of the Few Perfect Movies in Existence | On the one hand , it seems pointless to add yet one more comment to the numerous comments already here testifying to the greatness of this film , but I love this movie so much that it seems just wrong to not have it included in my index of reviews . There are only a few movies I've seen that I would be tempted to label... |
574,203 | 4,532,636 | 60,665 | 10 | Perhaps the Best Costume Drama Ever Made | A Man for All Seasons is that rare treasure : a costume drama that actually feels alive and lived in , rather than like a meticulously detailed museum exhibit . Paul Scofield plays Sir Thomas More with tremendous dignity and without an ounce of actorly self-consciousness . Never once will you catch him Acting with a ... |
574,469 | 4,532,636 | 80,437 | 10 | An Excellent War Film | A magnificent film . Samuel Fuller adds his voice to the countless others who have recorded WWII stories , yet manages to create a movie that's completely original in its vision . The largely autobiographical story follows the Big Red One , the nickname for an infantry rifle squad , through many of the war's major batt... |
573,358 | 4,532,636 | 25,316 | 10 | Colbert Can Catch a Lift with Me Any Day | It Happened One Night is an example of what happens when everything in a movie works just right . This movie probably had low aspirations when it was first released in 1934 , but everything clicked so well that it's now considered to be the supreme example of screwball comedy , one of the best movies of the 30s , and... |
573,730 | 4,532,636 | 67,185 | 10 | A Movie That Actually Influenced the Way I Think | Bud Cort appeared in two of my favorite ( and two of the quirkiest ) movies from the 1970s : " Harold and Maude " and " Brewster McCloud . " He also appeared in a cameo at the tail-end of " Sweet Charity , " another of my favorites . Given that little resume of movie roles , he has forever won a place in my heart , as ... |
574,309 | 4,532,636 | 440,963 | 10 | Perhaps a Perfect Action Thriller | Paul Greengrass's sophomore outing as director of the Jason Bourne franchise is the best yet of the series . This is a sensational film , exciting and wildly entertaining . For what it sets out to be , it's nearly perfect . The other entries were also good , but what I came away praising in those were individual action... |
574,132 | 4,532,636 | 36,244 | 10 | A Fabulous Study of Mob Mentality | Before " 12 Angry Men " there was " The Ox-Bow Incident , " a bleaker and never less than fascinating exploration of the nature of mob violence . Unlike " 12 Angry Men , " this film has no clear-cut heroes . It takes place in a more primitive , wilder time and location , and the principal question at the crux of this m... |
573,644 | 4,532,636 | 404,203 | 10 | A Highly Unusual and Exceptional Film | Can there be such a thing as a feel-good movie about marital infidelity and suburban ennui ? If so , then I believe this haunting , powerful and superb new movie from Todd Field may be it . A feel-good movie was not in the least what I was expecting from this , based on the trailers and on Field's prior film , the astr... |
573,656 | 4,532,636 | 94,562 | 10 | Altman and Trudeau Are a Match Made in Movie Heaven | After a contentious decade for Robert Altman , during which he was pretty much shunned by the Hollywood system and made some of his worst films , it's only fitting that he should cap the decade off with an absolute triumph , this absorbing mini-series made for HBO . I don't know why it took so long for someone to pair ... |
573,433 | 4,532,636 | 34,240 | 10 | Preston Sturges Defends Mindless Comedy in a Film with a Big Brain and an Even Bigger Heart | Joel McCrea plays Sullivan , a big-time director of movie comedies and musicals , who decides he wants to direct a film with a message , and rides the rails as a bum to find out what it's like to be poor . He takes with him Veronica Lake , playing a Hollywood starlet wannabe who's just about ready to throw in the towel... |
573,523 | 4,532,636 | 31,725 | 10 | Garbo Laughs , and Makes Me Laugh with Her | The only word to describe this Ernst Lubitsch comedy is : sparkling . Tremendously sweet and funny in that gentle way that was unique to Ernst Lubitsch comedies , " Ninotchka " features a winning Greta Garbo as a Soviet envoy dispatched to Paris to check up on the work of her comrades . They have been sent to sell the ... |
573,311 | 4,532,636 | 73,486 | 10 | One of the Last Anti-Establishment Films of the 1970s | One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is about the triumph of the human spirit , but it's depressing as hell . Jack Nicholson gave the last of his great performances before he started playing parodies of himself , and Louise Fletcher plays one of the screen's greatest villains , the only role this forgotten actress was rea... |
573,363 | 4,532,636 | 60,345 | 10 | The Perfect Cartoon | Is this the perfect cartoon ? Possibly . I loved the character of the Grinch when I was a kid - - something about his cynical , jaded personality appealed to me , and I shared his annoyed scorn for the syrupy Whovillians . Some of his facial expressions are classic , especially those that he aims directly at the camera... |
574,029 | 4,532,636 | 1,045,670 | 10 | I Loved Spending Time with Poppy | Another wonderful character study from Mike Leigh . Sally Hawkins is giving one of the best performances of the year as Poppy , an inexhaustibly energetic 30-year old who giggles and goofs her way through life . When we first meet her , we wonder if she's not somewhat deranged . She pesters a book-store clerk into conv... |
574,083 | 4,532,636 | 119,396 | 10 | Foxy Grier | Jackie Brown was widely received as a disappointing follow-up to Quentin Tarantino's " Pulp Fiction , " but I think it's actually a better movie , if less obviously so . It's hard not to be blown away by " Fiction " because of it's sheer audacity ; " Jackie Brown " is a quieter film that shows Tarantino has the poten... |
573,680 | 4,532,636 | 73,440 | 10 | My Pick for Best Film of the 1970s | Nashville is a whirling dervish of a movie that comes blaring out at you from the first moment of its opening credits and never really lets up . Like much of Robert Altman's best work , it's not necessarily about any one thing , but is rather about a bunch of little things . It's a film that is as much about a genera... |
574,486 | 4,532,636 | 20,629 | 10 | The Beauty of a Butterfly | There are few moments in film history as moving as the last shot of this film , when a soldier fighting in the trenches of World War I is able to shut out the carnage around him to focus on the unlikely beauty of a butterfly that has landed only inches in front of him . The power of this image is an example of what set... |
573,843 | 4,532,636 | 469,494 | 10 | The Only American Masterpiece of 2007 | Once in a very rare while ( all too rarely , alas ) I leave a film instantly convinced that I just experienced an enduring classic in real time , and that's how I felt after watching " There Will Be Blood . " It is an amazing film with a performance at its center that defies description , and I haven't been as energize... |
573,542 | 4,532,636 | 33,836 | 10 | Davis at Her Evil Best | A gleefully macabre and intensely suspenseful movie based on the Lillian Hellman play . Bette Davis sinks her teeth into the role of icy bitch Regina Giddens with such relish that you can practically hear her sighing with satisfaction at getting away from the noble sufferer roles that had so recently made her famous in... |
573,422 | 4,532,636 | 84,805 | 10 | Go , Tootsie , Go | 1980s cinema mostly sucked , but one thing the 80s got right was the R-rated comedy . " Tootsie " is perhaps the premier example of 80s adult comedy at its best , and it's a dynamite film . Dustin Hoffman plays a struggling actor who lands a job on a soap opera under the guise of a tough-talking woman . Things get comp... |
573,832 | 4,532,636 | 71,360 | 10 | Does for Sound Recordings What " Blowup " Did for Photographs | The Conversation is a deeply unsettling film about a surveillance expert ( Gene Hackman ) , who becomes involved in the private lives of a couple on whom he is spying when he hears a fragment of a conversation that suggests the two will be murdered . The truth that he uncovers rocks his world to its foundations , and... |
574,433 | 4,532,636 | 69,467 | 10 | An Example of Bergman at the Top of His Game | Bergman at his best . " Cries and Whispers " vies with " Persona " in my esteem as the best film Ingmar Bergman gave us . In this one , a group of sisters gathers at a country house to care for ( or rather avoid caring for ) one of them , who is dying of consumption . It falls to the dying sister's maid to step in and ... |
574,243 | 4,532,636 | 51,411 | 10 | Big Westerns Don't Get Much Better Than This | The Big Country is not a movie that held much appeal for me before I'd seen it . I only rented it because a guy I worked with said this was his favorite movie - - given the fact that he's about as conservative as it's physically possible to be , I had my doubts . But I owe him a huge debt of gratitude for introducing... |
573,829 | 4,532,636 | 71,315 | 10 | Welcome to Chinatown ( You've Been Warned ) | With " Chinatown , " Roman Polanski did for the detective crime genre what Todd Haynes did for the Douglas Sirk melodrama in " Far from Heaven . " Polanski created something that was partly an homage to all of those delightfully atmospheric noirs of the 1940s , but went beyond that to deconstruct some of the genre's co... |
573,900 | 4,532,636 | 64,429 | 10 | This Ain't the W | An antidote to every phony show about high school ever shown on the WB , " High School " is another harrowing documentary from that most harrowing of documentarians , Frederick Wiseman . Once again , Wiseman lets his cameras roll and leaves it to the viewer to draw conclusions . But don't be surprised if the conclusion... |
573,695 | 4,532,636 | 75,314 | 10 | One Man's Terrifying Vengeance | A perfect film . Martin Scorsese displays complete mastery over his medium in this deeply disturbing 1976 masterpiece , and to my mind hasn't yet made another movie as good as this one ( no , not even " Raging Bull " ) . In " Taxi Driver , " Robert De Niro plays Travis Bickle , a Vietnam veteran who drives a cab for a ... |
574,388 | 4,532,636 | 50,083 | 10 | The All-Time Great Liberal Agenda Movie | I defy anyone to watch this movie and not be completely absorbed in the group dynamics on display . I could take points off for the overly tidy and convenient script with its TV-movie ending or some of the less subtle methods through which director Sidney Lumet drives home his points . But with a cast as uniformly exce... |
574,165 | 4,532,636 | 48,261 | 10 | Noir for a Nuclear Age | Sleazy , tawdry B-noir doesn't get any sleazier or tawdrier than Robert Aldrich's jazzy and astonishingly entertaining " Kiss Me Deadly . " This film was released late in the life cycle of the film noir genre . By 1958 and Orson Welles ' " Touch of Evil , " true noir would be just about washed up . Any noir film from t... |
574,393 | 4,532,636 | 36,775 | 10 | The First Truly Great Noir | The Maltese Falcon is generally considered to be the very first film noir , but Billy Wilder's " Double Indemnity " is the first GREAT noir . With actors that perfectly understood Wilder's penchant for black as tar humour , this film is as seedy , dark and many times funny as they come . Barbara Stanwyck is a knockou... |
574,209 | 4,532,636 | 46,187 | 10 | A Crown Jewel of 1950s Cinema | Samuel Fuller brings his customary playful and stylish direction to this seedy , pulpy story and manages to create one of the undiscovered gems of 1950s cinema . Richard Widmark plays a petty thief tough guy ( a role he perfected over the course of many movies ) , who snatches a young lady's ( Jean Peters ) wallet on a... |
574,482 | 4,532,636 | 17,136 | 10 | For People Who Don't Like Silent Films | For people who think silent films are antiquated , slow , boring ( pick your adjective ) , I ask you to watch " Metropolis " and see if your opinion changes . I think too many people think of the really creaky silent films from cinema's beginnings - - like " The Great Train Robbery " or those first experimental films b... |
573,373 | 4,532,636 | 63,522 | 10 | Eat Your Liver , Rosemary | Quite simply , one of the best horror movies ever made . " Rosemary's Baby " is terrifying , and it remains terrifying every time I see it . I watch this , and then I watch what passes today for horror movies ( " The Hills Have Eyes " remake is an example ) , and I simply shake my head in awe and dismay at how far the ... |
573,466 | 4,532,636 | 383,028 | 10 | One of the Most Deeply Affecting Movies I've Seen in a Long Time | It's virtually impossible to summarize my feelings on " Synecdoche , New York . " This astonishing brain teaser from the mind of Charlie Kaufman affected me deeply , probably more than any film I've yet seen this year . I can't say it's necessarily enjoyable , because it's full of uncomfortable , brave truths about wha... |
573,470 | 4,532,636 | 365,737 | 10 | The Price We Pay | Syriana is a blistering , powerful film about the degree to which governments and corporate conglomerates place the ambition to control the world's oil supply above the well being of their citizens and employees . In this game , there are only bad guys , and what separates the villains from the protagonists is not a ... |
364,825 | 4,888,011 | 61,191 | 1 | Several movies in a blender . . . | . . . was how Crow described " The Wild World of Batwoman " when he , Mike and Servo were forced to watch it . The lame excuse for a plot involves a woman and her bikini-clad minions fighting a bevy of bad guys . HOW MANY MOVIES HAVE USED THAT PLOT ? ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! That it made such great " Mystery Science Theater... |
365,164 | 4,888,011 | 260,571 | 1 | Why study them ? So that Mike , Servo and Crow can make fun of them ! | How in the name of anything holy can " Why Study Industrial Arts ? " claim to be an educational film ? ! If this is education , then I'd rather be an idiot ! Actually , this movie could have only been created by an idiot . The only reason that it's even worth talking about is because " MST3K " once showed this drudgery... |
364,231 | 4,888,011 | 96,149 | 1 | This actually got made ? | Sometimes , you get the feeling that there are only so many movies that " MST3K " can show . " Space Mutiny " disproves that . Using the words " swill " , " garbage " , " flotsam " , etc . , to describe this movie is woefully insufficient . " Space Mutiny " quite literally makes " Plan 9 from Outer Space " look like a ... |
364,233 | 4,888,011 | 78,778 | 1 | the Skipper and Mr . Howell are probably wishing that they'd never gotten off of the island | Angels ' Brigade is about as angelic as a root canal . Seemingly produced for a bunch of men whose hormones outweigh their body mass , the movie follows a bunch of big-breasted women who set out to bring down a drug kingpin's empire . Since there's not really any plot , the movie is mainly noticeable because it stars... |
363,967 | 4,888,011 | 190,524 | 1 | The only movie that I ever found offensive | So let me get this straight : the only people who can get into heaven are Christians who take every word in the Bible literally ? According to this view , no Jews , Muslims , Hindus , Buddhists , Shintoists , Taoists , Confucians or Sikhs can get into heaven . They're all doomed to stay on Earth when the " Rapture " ha... |
363,323 | 4,888,011 | 282,562 | 1 | hired to get mocked by Joel , Servo and Crow | Hired ! is another so-called educational film where we don't learn anything . As far as I could tell , the plot involved someone looking for a job ; in my opinion , the people behind this drudge of a movie don't deserve jobs . This one is only noticeable because on " Mystery Science Theater 3000 " , Dr . Forrester ma... |
362,946 | 4,888,011 | 60,666 | 1 | hands of fate , brains of idiocy | ' Manos ' the Hands of Fate is another grade-Z litany of worthlessness . A family is on vacation and drives up to what looks like an abandoned hotel run by semi-hunchback Torgo , who can't stop talking about his " master " . When we finally meet the master , he turns out to be the Devil's servant , and he's got evil ... |
365,047 | 4,888,011 | 86,972 | 1 | this once appeared on " MST3K " , which is where it belongs | Rather than numb your mind trying to watch this half-formed tripe , rent the " Mystery Science Theater 3000 " episode where they make fun of it . The plot , if there really was one , involved a warrior trying to free his teacher from a bad guy . That could have made something good , but " The Cavedwellers " is beyond g... |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.