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8
good ol ' Cold War comedy
Comedies like " Dr . Strangelove " and " Spies Like Us " make one long for the Cold War , when they could actually make such comedies . In the latter , government employees Emmett Fitzhume ( Chevy Chase ) and Austin Milbarge ( Dan Aykroyd ) are recruited for something . They think that they're going to be spies , but t...
364,052
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sweet and not sour
In one of filmdom's many biopics , Jessica Lange sinks her teeth into the role of country singer Patsy Cline . We see her go from a bored housewife to a national phenomenon over the period of a few short years before tragically getting killed in a plane crash in 1963 ( although the movie focuses more on her personal li...
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Rock ' n ' roll forever !
Elvis Presley's movies weren't masterpieces by any stretch , but " Jailhouse Rock " was certainly fun ! The King plays Vince Everett , who accidentally kills a man in a fight . In jail , he meets country bumpkin Hunk Houghton ( Mickey Shaughnessy ) , who helps him hit it big as a rock star . Sound too simple ? Well , t...
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a great look at the personality cult of celebrities today
S1m0ne is only one of two movies with which I'm familiar from Andrew Niccol ( the other being " Gattaca " ) . I must say that I'm impressed with his resume so far . This one portrays director Viktor Taransky ( Al Pacino ) simulating a starlet ( Rachel Roberts ) so as to become famous again . But will he be able to co...
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that Ringo is something else
Okay , so " Help ! " isn't quite as creative as " A Hard Day's Night " , but the Beatles always were able to do something good . In this case , Ringo happens to have a sacrificial ring belonging to a religious cult . So , the cult sets about trying to get it back . When they fail , they decide to sacrifice Ringo . Mean...
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tail-spin takes on a new meaning
When I took a class about Alfred Hitchcock's movies , we talked about how a really good device in movies is when you can tell a story without words . While Chuck Jones's " Go Fly a Kit " has some narration , it consists mostly of imagery , and not surprisingly comes out very well because of that . The cartoon tells the...
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Hot diggity !
In 1998 , with the conjunction of " The Opposite of Sex " and " Buffalo 66 " , Christina Ricci cemented her reputation as America's indie queen . In the former , she plays foul-mouthed teenager Dede Truitt , who moves in with her gay uncle Bill ( Martin Donovan ) . Then , one of Bill's students " outs " him ( without a...
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Don't mess with Annette !
Seemingly , all movies about rich people in 1930s England should be boring , but " Being Julia " isn't boring at all . In an Oscar-nominated role , Annette Bening plays Julia Lambert , a well-respected stage actress in 1938 London who risks getting replaced by a " more desirable " woman . But Julia is one person who ca...
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8
once again , I see the spoof before I know that there was an original
When I watched Tex Avery's " The Village Smithy " , I assumed that it was an original idea created by the Termite Terrace crowd ; I was more than a little surprised when I read on IMDb that it was based on a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem ! But no matter whence it came , it's quite a funny cartoon , as Porky Pig works...
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music to my ears and eyes
Le violon rouge ( called " The Red Violin " in English ) uses a masterful violin as a conduit to show various parts of history - such as Renaissance-era Italy , 19th-century England , and the Cultural Revolution in China - right up to a 20th-century auction in Montreal . It's beyond amazing how they do the movie and ...
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There are some things that we just can't get over .
Omar Sharif remains indelibly associated with Dr . Yuri Zhivago , a Russian physician-poet who participates in the Bolshevik Revolution , only to have political history affect him against his will . Julie Christie is beautiful as ever as Lara Antipova , Zhivago's true love . " Doctor Zhivago " certainly pulled off a co...
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interesting insight into Il Duce's life
Most people remember Benito Mussolini simply as Hitler's ally in WWII . " Mussolini and I " shows his family life during his years as Italy's leader . Starring Bob Hoskins as the Fascist himself , Susan Sarandon plays his daughter Edda , who married Count Galeazzo Ciano ( Anthony Hopkins ) . Among other things , the mo...
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like Gordon Gekko said : greed is good
Having escaped from a zoo , the Tasmanian Devil gets paired with Daffy Duck , as the latter learns that there's a $5 , 000 reward for Taz's capture , and that Taz becomes docile at the sound of music . " Ducking the Devil " is sort of a one-joke premise , but it keeps coming up with new ways to make the premise work . ...
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I agree : let's go back to our roots !
Looking back on it , " Human Nature " sort of reminds me of " I Shot Andy Warhol " , the way we slowly but surely get exposed to a gritty ( but somewhat funny ) topic . In this case , a man ( Rhys Ifans ) raised in the wild is getting interviewed by a congressional committee about why he murdered a scientist ( Tim Robb...
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Maybe one day , I'll do what Miles did with the spit jar . . .
In " Sideways " , novelist Miles Raymond ( Paul Giamatti ) and his friend Jack ( Thomas Haden Church ) drive up to California's wine country the weekend before Jack is getting married . Not only are both men middle-aged and single , but they're both oblivious to their own flaws . Once they arrive at their destination ,...
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take dark to the next level
From Hell presents something not seen in movies since the old Sherlock Holmes movies . It tells the story of an inspector ( Johnny Depp ) investigating the Jack the Ripper murders in 1888 London , but it suggests that the decadent aristocrats in a way aren't much better than the murderer himself . Of course , the set...
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a long , long , long , long time ago , in a place possibly far away , possibly not . . .
One of the relics from the days when Warner Bros . usually confined Porky Pig and Daffy Duck to the black and white Looney Tunes , Bob Clampett's " Prehistoric Porky " portrays cinema's most famous swine in the Stone Age - one billion , trillion years BC , apparently - doing the sorts of things that most people in 1940...
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9
cold and warm at the same time
Cold Comfort Farm has a familiar plot , but is very well done . Portraying young Flora Poste ( Kate Beckinsale ) moving in with her backwards relatives in 1930s England and trying to change everything , the movie has the perfect pacing . It's the sort of situation where her relatives sort of irk you , but you can't h...
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Why did such a great movie flop ? !
Having seen most of Ron Howard's movies , I know that he's a director who has a tendency to try and tug at people's emotions . Maybe after playing Opie Taylor and Richie Cunningham , he wanted to show people that he could be more than " silly " ; thus , " Cocoon " showed hope for senior citizens , " Backdraft " showed ...
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not to be confused with Robert DeNiro's lame movie from some years ago
What's really interesting about Michael Radford's " Flawless " is how it crosses two political issues , although it only focuses on them briefly . The whole issue of diamonds of course brings to mind the fact that South Africa's apartheid government used diamonds to sustain itself . But what Michael Caine talks about a...
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don't look down
You understand " Vertigo " better once you know the word's definition . It refers specifically to dizziness , not acrophobia as some people mistakenly believe . Dizziness plays a major role in the movie . Jimmy Stewart plays San Francisco Det . John " Scottie " Ferguson , who gets uncomfortable in high places . Hired t...
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almost like a prequel to " Blade Runner "
A Scanner Darkly portrays Orange County in the near future , where many people are addicted to a drug called Substance D , the government is scanning everyone to see whether or not they are using it , and someone announces that the government is going after terrorists pushing the drug ( Philip K . Dick wrote this lon...
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Martin Scorsese's grand ambition .
Gangs of New York is everything that we would expect Martin Scorsese to deliver . It's like all his movies rolled into one hard punch . Portraying young Amsterdam Vallon ( Leonardo DiCaprio ) looking to take revenge on crime boss Bill " The Butcher " Cutting ( Daniel Day-Lewis ) in 1863 New York , the movie shows wha...
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9
not cheesy at all ; quite funny actually
We all know what happens in cartoons when cats try to catch mice , but what happens when the mice want the cat to eat them ? That's just what happens in " Cheese Chasers " . Wise-guy rodents Hubie and Bertie have just eaten way too much cheese and feel that they can't eat any more of the stuff . With nothing left to li...
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9
being everywhere
There have been many existential stories , but few so interesting as " Being There " . It stars Peter Sellers in his last role of note , as mentally retarded gardener Chance , who occasionally utters what he heard on TV . After his employer dies , he wonders the city and eventually gets picked up by wealthy Ben Rand ( ...
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9
Take " Carrie " one step further . . .
If you thought that " Carrie " made incredible use of conflagrations , you ain't seen nothing yet ! In Stephen King's other combustion-themed story , " Firestarter " portrays the daughter ( Drew Barrymore ) of a experimental guinea pig ( David Keith ) using her ignition abilities to get her way . When the government ki...
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9
Watts on second ?
Man , nothing was sacred to Abbott and Costello ! In the wacky " Who Done It ? " , they play soda jerks who pitch an idea to a radio station , and then find themselves in the middle of a murder case ! This of course is an excuse for a series of hilarious gags ( namely Alexander 2222 and the ledge of the building ) . On...
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9
Jewish guilt
Jewish guilt is not a topic that I see portrayed much in movies , but " Leon the Pig Farmer " does a good job with it . Leon Geller ( Mark Frankel ) is a Jewish estate agent in London who one day discovers that he was the product of artificial insemination ; his real father is a pig farmer . Going off to meet his " oth...
365,505
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well done , even if it didn't quite equal " Schindler's List "
In what I assume was Roman Polanski's most personal movie ever , he tells the story of Polish-Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman ( Adrien Brody ) doing everything possible to survive the Nazi occupation . As is the case with all of Polanski's movies , there are some very harrowing scenes , namely when the Nazi planes fi...
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9
One step beyond " The Great Dictator "
I remember that I first heard Johannes Brahms's " Hungarian Dances " in " The Great Dictator " , when Charlie Chaplin is shaving the guy to the tune of that song . For " Pigs in a Polka " , the Termite Terrace crowd continues its tradition of mixing classical music with wacky images , and they do a great job with it . ...
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9
Alcatraz = Abu Ghraib
Obviously , we can't tell how much of any historical movie is accurate . But what " Murder in the First " portrays will freeze the blood of any sane person , whether or not it's accurate . Henri Young ( Kevin Bacon ) is sent to Alcatraz for theft and put in solitary confinement . When he comes out , he has turned into ...
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And to think that I'd never heard of Iris Murdoch before this movie came out .
Judi Dench gives the performance of a lifetime as author Iris Murdoch , who eventually developed Alzheimer's disease . She really gets into the role , as she's done with every one of her performances with which I'm familiar . Jim Broadbent won Best Supporting Actor playing her husband John Bayley , who loves her but of...
364,905
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9
The first movie that I ever saw with my college friends .
Macaulay Culkin quickly became a has-been , but his brothers have taken some interesting roles , particularly Kieran in " Igby Goes Down " . The movie portrays teenager Igby Slocumb , who - although he seems really messed up - has a perfectly good reason for it : his relatives . His mother Mimi ( Susan Sarandon ) tries...
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9
fear vs . respect
Robert DeNiro made his directorial debut with the gripping " A Bronx Tale " , about a boy in 1960s New York torn between his father and a gangster . Bus driver Lorenzo Anello ( DeNiro ) raises his son Calogero to be an honest person , but Calogero also is interested in mobster Sonny ( Chazz Palminteri , who based the s...
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Betraying one's own people .
Morgan Freeman's directorial debut casts Danny Glover as a cop in apartheid-era South Africa whose son is an anti-apartheid activist . Knowing this , the father has to choose between his people and his job : he basically betrayed his people , but he has to support his family . True , this seems like a plot that we freq...
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As history goes , so go various other things .
I had actually never heard of the Weathermen before " The Weather Underground " came out . As I understand it , some people complained that the documentary glossed over some of their more violent activities ( and some people think that that may have cost it the Best Documentary Oscar ) . But the way I see it , these so...
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Africans as they see themselves
If absolutely nothing else , " Yeelen " offers a look at a society that we in the west don't often get to see . In this case , it's the Bambara people of Mali ; the movie also includes the Dogon and Fulani . Having taken a sociology-anthropology class , I already knew about them . The plot centers on a warrior having t...
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must communicate events to the world
A frequent theme in Australian movie is communication issues . Here , one might say that because Guy Hamilton ( Mel Gibson ) is a reporter , it's his job to communicate to the world the events going on in Indonesia . As for Pete Curtis ' ( Michael Murphy ) racist comments towards Guy's half-Chinese dwarf cameraman Bill...
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rock , mock , and doc
With " Zelig " , Woody Allen took a completely different approach to everything . It's a pseudo-documentary - maybe the first one ever - in which he plays Leonard Zelig , a human chameleon in the 1920s : he literally changes his personality and physical appearance to accommodate the people in his surroundings . Mia Far...
363,093
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9
trusty water stick . . .
This time , Robin Hood ( Daffy Duck ) tries to convince Friar Tuck ( Porky Pig ) that he really is Robin Hood , but the circumstances keep working against him . Maybe " Robin Hood Daffy " isn't the greatest cartoon from the Mel Blanc / Chuck Jones crowd , but it's still great . With some of the things that happen to Da...
363,681
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there's a lot to be said about movies with " sleep " in the title
Contrary to how it may appear , " Sleepaway Camp " is not just another litany of guts getting torn out . For starters , there's the ending ; I sure as hell didn't see that coming ! But beyond that , you do actually get a feel for the characters throughout the movie - particularly after what happens at the beginning - a...
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there's gold in them thar varmints
As is the case with many of the classic Warner Bros . cartoons that I've seen recently , it's a good thing that I saw " 14 Carrot Rabbit " now , when I'm old enough to understand what it portrays . Of course , even if I didn't know about the Gold Rush , the cartoon would still be a riot , with Yosemite Sam being his us...
365,065
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show biz can't satisfy anyone
One thing that I've always wondered is why no one looks at Hollywood more negatively than Hollywood itself . But whatever the reason , " The Bad and the Beautiful " pulls no punches in looking at its topic . The movie portrays some people explaining how they used to be friends of producer Jonathan Shields ( Kirk Dougla...
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here comes the . . . something
Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn have frequently co-starred in the past few years , and now they can add " The Wedding Crashers " to that list . They play John Beckwith and Jeremy Grey , who go to weddings so that they can have sex with the women there . But then everything gets out of hand when they follow one family home...
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someone should separate Florida from the rest of the country
When I saw the title and first minute of " Rebel Rabbit " , I sort of assumed that it would be a Robin Hood-style story . Boy was I wrong ! It portrays Bugs Bunny getting insulted when he finds that the government has placed exorbitant bounties on foxes and bears , but only 2 cents on rabbits ( after all , rabbits are ...
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the bird , cat and dog who knew too much
While most of the Tweety-Sylvester cartoons have Tweety brutally inflict pain on Sylvester or see the putty tat attacked by Hector the bulldog , " Greedy for Tweety " throws a wrench in the works by having all three get injured at once . When the trio runs into a busy street and each member ends up with a broken leg - ...
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for anyone who's ever had to meet in-laws
We all know that meeting one's future in-laws can be an unpleasant experience , but none can be more unpleasant than what Greg Focker ( Ben Stiller ) and Pam Byrnes ( Teri Polo ) go through . Planning to get married , they go to meet Pam's parents Jack ( Robert DeNiro ) and Dina ( Blythe Danner ) . Maybe it's the R-rat...
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I hope that at least most movies from England are somewhat like this .
England has released many films about people living a grim existence : " Poor Cow " , " Kes " , " The Full Monty " , " 24 7 " , " Billy Elliot " and " Children of Men " , to name a few . Shane Meadows's " This Is England " has a similar concept , but takes a different approach . Set in 1983 , the movie focuses on young...
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Don Knotts , RIP
Don Knotts's death yesterday brings to mind his various roles . " Pleasantville " probably wasn't his most famous movie , but it's one that I would recommend to everyone . It portrays real-life teenagers David ( Tobey Maguire ) and Jennifer ( Reese Witherspoon ) getting transferred into a 1950's " Leave It to Beaver " ...
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When are the star creatures going to kidnap me ? !
I stopped short of giving " Invasion of the Star Creatures " due to some cringe-inducing scenes involving Indians . Other than that , it's pure corny sci-fi fun . In this case , a pair of loopy soldiers find a cave housing two sexy women sent from another planet to colonize earth . Naturally , the soldiers try to stop ...
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Why didn't anyone challenge Derek when he became a racist ?
My rating is because " American History X " is very well done in every way , except that it seems that when Derek Vinyard ( Edward Norton ) started spouting out the anti-Semitic diatribe , they should have asked him what became of his humanity . Then again , maybe they wouldn't know what to say in such a situation . Bu...
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one of Bugs's trips down south
I understand that " Mississippi Hare " got censored for showing black people picking cotton , but most of the cartoon has nothing to do with that . In fact , most of the cartoon nearly made me die laughing , as Bugs Bunny plays every kind of trick to avoid getting shot by an aggressive riverboat gambler whom he beats a...
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Geraldine Chaplin's father grew up in one
I didn't figure that any movie could equal " Pan's Labyrinth " , but " El orfanato " - " The Orphanage " in English - comes close . When a family moves into a former orphanage in which the mother ( Belen Rueda ) grew up , the adopted son starts making imaginary friends and feeling very detached from his parents . And t...
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Might there be more dodo birds in Madagascar ?
I stopped short of giving " Dough for the Do-Do " just because the whole idea of Darkest Africa doesn't exactly sound PC in this day and age . But other than that , it's a hoot , with Porky searching for the last do-do bird , worth four trillion dollars . He has to enter Wackyland , and as the Wackyland sign affirms : ...
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dictatorships
Raul Julia and William Hurt play Valentin Arregui and Luis Molina , cell-mates in a South American jail . Valentin is a political prisoner trying to keep his sanity , and Luis is a gay man with fantasies of Nazis and their beautiful women . These two men are opposites in virtually every way , but are forced to grow to ...
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Painte Blanc
As always , Penelope accidentally gets painted white , and Pepe Le Pew thinks that she's a female skunk ( note : he doesn't say " belle femme skunk " in this one ) . One thing that I saw in " Touche and Go " that may or may not have been an in-joke was the paint that gives her that white stripe : the can is called " Pa...
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an interesting perspective
The Gods Must Be Crazy is basically two stories that end up colliding . On the one hand , Kalahari Bushman Xixo ( N ! xau ) brings a Coke bottle to his village , and its presence proceeds to wreak havoc . On the other hand , South African reporter Kate Thompson ( Sandra Prinsloo ) goes to Botswana as a teacher , to a...
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this cartoon was not a dog
I'll admit that I don't really know anything about dog races , but you don't need to know anything thereabout to enjoy " The Grey Hounded Hare " . Bugs Bunny stumbles upon a dog race , and quickly learns that the contestants don't like rabbits . But what truly riles him is the fact the dogs are chasing the female rabbi...
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this movie never gets " lost "
Why not take an adventure to get to know one's country a little better ? That's exactly what David ( Albert Brooks ) and Linda Howard ( Julie Hagerty ) do . After David loses a promotion that he's been anticipating , he quits his job and gets Linda to quit hers . The two proceed to travel across the United States , loo...
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never underestimate Chevy Chase's power
In what may have been the high point of Chevy Chase's career , he plays Irwin " Fletch " Fletcher , a reporter who writes a column under the name Jane Doe . When a man hires Fletch to kill him , Fletch decides to investigate the man . As you might imagine , in the process , he gets more than he bargained for . And ther...
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dogmatic , but true
In talking about Cuba , people often forget about how things were under Fulgencio Batista . The Cuban-Soviet co-production " I Am Cuba " shows how things were . Throughout four vignettes , we see a Havana prostitute struggling to make ends meet , a humble farmer whose livelihood is destroyed by landowners , students fi...
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Believe it or not , I can find one unrealistic thing ( but it doesn't drag down the film at all ) .
I knew loosely about Loretta Lynn before I saw " Coal Miner's Daughter " . When I saw the movie , I not only got a sense of her personal life , but also of the culture out of which she grew . We see how her family was one of the most destitute imaginable , with more children than they could handle , and so Loretta's pa...
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Even though I didn't catch the whole thing , it was still great .
When I read that " The 79th Annual Academy Awards " started at 5 pm , I assumed that the lead-in started then . When I turned the channel on at about 5 : 50 , I saw that they were well into the ceremony . Criminy ! But no worries , I saw most of it , and I really liked it . I especially laud them for FINALLY giving Mar...
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bridge over hilariously troubled water vs . a potential " Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers "
I think that I'd heard of Steve Brody before I'd seen Arthur Davis's " Bowery Bugs " , but I wish to call this cartoon the coolest way to know him . The plot has Brody suffering a bout of bad luck , so he decides to find himself a rabbit's foot . While we should immediately be able to guess which rabbit he tries to get...
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Believe it or not , some links to " Bewitched " .
More than anything , what I saw in " Sergeant York " is that competent people ran WWI , as opposed to what we see today . But as for the movie itself , no one can deny that Gary Cooper did quite an impressive job as simple Alvin C . York , suddenly thrust into a situation against his religious principles and ironically...
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The Kiss of the Spider Woman : the flip side
While " The Kiss of the Spider Woman " cast Raul Julia as a political prisoner in an unidentified Latin American country , this time he works for a dictator in a fictional Latin American country . Specifically , the dictator suddenly drops dead , so Julia replaces el presidente with a Broadway actor ( Richard Dreyfuss ...
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a thriller in the real sense of the word
Dr . Malcolm Crowe ( Bruce Willis ) is a Philadelphia psychiatrist meeting with Cole Sear ( Haley Joel Osment ) , a boy who can - OK , I'll say it this one last time - see dead people . While too many horror flicks have relied on gore , this one relies on the subconscious , and other things that we don't realize . And ...
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Anyone familiar with US foreign policy won't be a bit surprised .
Elizabeth Montgomery spent much of her life trying to break from the " Bewitched " reputation . I would say that " The Panama Deception " , which she narrated , marked her full success . The documentary exposes the real reasons for Bush Sr . ' s invasion of Panama : it was not to stop Gen . Manuel Noriega from drug tra...
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I'm PROUD to be a nerd
I first saw " Revenge of the Nerds " when I was ten ( that's right , ten ) . Some people at school had been making fun of me , calling me a nerd . After I saw " ROTF " , I was finally proud to call myself a nerd ( albeit not one who wears glasses , has buck teeth , and has his pant legs halfway up his calves ) . It's e...
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this is what courtroom movies are all about
Most movies make it clear throughout who's good and who's bad . " Anatomy of a Murder " , on the other hand , keeps you guessing . Jimmy Stewart plays Paul Biegler , a lawyer hired to defend Lt . Fred Manion ( Ben Gazzara ) , charged with murdering a man who allegedly raped his wife Laura ( Lee Remick ) . Fred wants to...
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passion all the way
John Sayles never disappoints as a director , and " Passion Fish " affirms that . After a car accident paralyzes soap opera star May-Alice Culhane ( Mary McDonnell ) , she returns to her childhood home in Louisiana , bitter about everything . After rejecting several caretakers , she befriends Chantelle ( Alfre Woodard ...
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great on every level
Rabbit-Proof Fence tells the story of how the Australian government used to steal Aboriginal children from their families and put them in reeducation camps to become servants for white people , and how three girls escaped and found their way home by following a fence erected to keep rabbits out of the farms . One thi...
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A great relic of the " thaw " .
After Stalin died , Khrushchev denounced him in started allowing more artistic freedom ( this era was known as the " thaw " ) . Probably the two best results film-wise were " Letyat zhuravli " ( " The Cranes are Flying " in English ) and " Ballada o soldate " ( " Ballad of a Soldier " in English ) . The latter portrays...
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Hollywood endings and non-Hollywood endings
After many years of semi-obscurity , Robert Altman made a full-scale comeback with the blistering satire " The Player " , about Hollywood . Tim Robbins plays producer Griffin Mill , working in a studio . He gets pitched thousands of scripts every year , but has to choose twelve . Day in and day out , he hears ridiculou...
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Samantha , do you see what has resulted from your marriage to that mortal ?
Vincent Price scores another cool one with " The Bat " , about a bunch of people staying in a mansion where a serial killer known by that name is taking people out one by one . There's plenty to throw you off , and I doubt that you'll see that ending coming ! One other thing about this movie is something not exactly re...
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Thank you , Bruce Campbell , thank you very much !
When I give " Bubba Ho-Tep " stars , I of course assume that the only people who will even opt to read my review are the types who have decided that they like the movie even before they've watched it . Such people should already know the plot : Elvis Presley ( Bruce Campbell ) and John F . Kennedy ( Ossie Davis ) are b...
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Martin Scorsese shines a light on the Rolling Stones ' continuing greatness
After I saw " The Last Waltz " a few years ago , I figured that it would be hard for Martin Scorsese to top that . Well , he at least comes close with " Shine a Light " , about the Rolling Stones ' tour promoting " A Bigger Bang " . And let me tell you , this is a GREAT one . Don't let the first few minutes fool you : ...
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Walter Salles is a great director .
In the past year , Brazilian director Walter Salles has gained much recognition in the United States for " The Motorcycle Diaries " and " Dark Water " . " Central do Brasil " ( called " Central Station " in English ) shows his work before these movies . It focuses on former schoolteacher Dora ( Fernanda Montenegro ) , ...
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walking into cinematic history
What's really good about " Dead Man Walking " is that it shows Matthew Poncelet's ( Sean Penn ) side of the story , but it never portrays him as a hero . We understand that , and Sister Helen Prejean ( Susan Sarandon ) understands that . Sarandon definitely deserved her Best Actress Oscar for this movie ( I can't belie...
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10
What's cookin ' , varmint ?
Bugs Bunny is cooking some carrots , which Yosemite Sam smells ( where there's carrots , there's rabbits ) . But when Sam attempts to blast the flea-bitten varmint , things always go haywire ! Even when Sam gets Bugs back into his house , it's still not as easy as it looks to deal with him . Is this Sam's eternal doom ...
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never try to undermine someone's integrity
In the first of three Bugs Bunny / Daffy Duck / Elmer Fudd combinations , Bugs and Daffy perpetually try to get Elmer to shoot the other . Sure enough , through various tricks , Bugs gets Elmer to shoot Daffy ( well , his bill at least ) . And this one had a most unusual ending . What was always great about these combi...
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in dreams or out of them
The rating of course applies only to those who've decided that they like the movie before they watch it ( others will find it totally tasteless ) . This one has Freddy Krueger ( Robert Englund ) using some girl's dreams to attack people while they're still awake . Yeah , how far out can they get ? If you've seen # 5 , ...
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no matter what you call it . . .
No matter what you call it - " Rocky and His Friends " , " The Bullwinkle Show " , " Rocky and Bullwinkle " , or something else - you can't deny how great this show is . A total parody of the Cold War , they hit everything right on the mark . Equally as great as the parts where Rocket J . Squirrel and Bullwinkle J . Mo...
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it wouldn't be make believe . . . and it isn't
Peter Bogdanovich - who turns 68 today - created a troika of nostalgia pieces in the early ' 70s with " The Last Picture Show " , " What's Up , Doc ? " and " Paper Moon " . The last one puts an interesting spin on things . I remember when I saw it , I had just seen " The Sting " and noticed that the two both dealt with...
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this truly packs a punch
Calling " Million Dollar Baby " a boxing movie would be like calling " Star Wars " a space fantasy . Only " Rocky " has ever reached this quality . Hilary Swank gives a performance beyond what anyone could ever imagine as destitute waitress Maggie Fitzgerald , trying to make something of herself as a boxer . Clint East...
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10
music to anyone's ears
Like " The Commitments " and " O Brother , Where Art Thou ? " , " Songcatcher " focuses on music in a way that you shouldn't miss . It tells the story of musicologist Lily Penleric ( Janet McTeer ) who travels to an isolated village in the Appalachians and gets to hear the music of the Scottish-Irish people there in th...
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Not only does he share a name with Jeannie's master , but Helen Keller appears !
Ah , the ' 50s . When we could always find a cool sci-fi flick in the local cinema . Whether it was " Them ! " , " Godzilla " or " Forbidden Planet " , there was no shortage of neat movies ( never mind that they usually starred really hot women ) . And we had the Cold War to thank . One of the lesser known flicks is " ...
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Only Leslie Nielsen could do this !
For sheer goof-ball exuberance , you needn't look any further than " The Naked Gun : From the Files of Police Squad ! " . Leslie Nielsen remains forever associated with the role of inept Lt . Frank Drebin , who always tries to do the right thing but always makes a mess of everything . Here , he's trying to foil an assa...
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What an empty life we live !
Watching " Repo Man " , one gets a sense of just how empty our modern world is . The movie has disaffected punk Otto Maddox ( Emilio Estevez ) becoming a repo man , meaning that he repossesses cars of people who missed payments . Through this , he gets to know the wacky punk world even further . But there's one car tha...
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down here . . . ( but up with the cartoon )
Maybe there's nothing particularly new in " My Favorite Duck " , but how can you not like to see Daffy irk Porky ? True , we see this so many times , that this may come across as boring , but Daffy's antics - ranging from zany to sadistic - and Porky's reactions more than make up for it . In my opinion at least , the h...
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Jon Stewart is the best host ever !
It's not often that I give the Academy Awards ; after all , what is it except self-congratulation ? But Jon Stewart was the perfect host . He was exactly right in his question to Steven Spielberg when referring to " Schindler's List " and " Munich " : what will happen to us Jews next ? The only problem this year was th...
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sequel . . . good . . . pompous remakes . . . bad
Bride of Frankenstein is one of those rarities : a sequel that actually ends up being worth something . It portrays that Dr . Frankenstein ( Colin Clive ) and The Monster ( Boris Karloff ) are still alive and still doing their stuff . The Monster continues unintentionally scaring people , while the doctor wants to ma...
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This shows that movies can be stupid and funny at the same time .
Okay , so " Police Academy " is probably the ultimate manifestation of the word " witless " . But it doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is : nice , silly fun . The plot basically has a series of goof-off misfits enrolling in the police force and turning it topsy-turvy . Steve Guttenberg , as Cadet Carey ...
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One of the few sequels that equals the original's quality .
With the fellowship in splinters , Frodo Baggins ( Elijah Wood ) and Samwise Gamgee ( Sean Astin ) continue on their quest to destroy the corrupting ring . Meanwhile , Aragorn ( Viggo Mortenson ) has his own duties to attend to , as does Gandalf ( Ian McKellen ) . Peter Jackson's midpoint of the trilogy is as great as ...
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Let's stop beating around the bush and just admit that the USA and USSR were the same .
Even with all the recognition that " Das Leben der Anderen " ( called " The Lives of Others " in English ) has received , I would say that it deserves even more . The movie depicts the spy network in East Germany and how it targets a group of people including a state-approved playwright . One issue that the movie bring...
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3rd time's the charm ( don't get me wrong ; the first two were equally good ) .
It all comes down to this . The humans and hobbits now have their final battles to fight with the forces of evil . I can't actually say anything about " The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King " that does it justice , except to say that it is a great movie in the true sense of the word . Everything that we've aw...
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Franz Kafka , meet French cinema
La cite des enfants perdus ( called " The City of Lost Children " in English ) is a movie that I will probably have to describe in several ways . The movie is set in an ultra-surreal French city and the plot involves elderly scientist Krank ( Daniel Emilfork ) kidnapping children to steal their dreams so that he won'...
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Fight the power !
1967 may go down in history as the year that really changed movies , what with " Bonnie and Clyde " , " The Graduate " and " In the Heat of the Night " . With the younger generation growing displeased with authority , it made sense that " Bonnie and Clyde " should identify with the title characters running from the law...
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Don't shave this one off of the list of movies to see .
This time , Wallace and Gromit take in a lost sheep named Sean , and get drawn into a sheep-rustling conspiracy . As always , there's a plethora of wacky inventions ( namely the motorcycle sidecar ) . I think that my favorite scene was when Gromit was reading " Crime and Punishment " ( check out the author's name ) . N...
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I never would have guessed .
Narrated by Lily Tomlin ( herself a lesbian ) , " The Celluloid Closet " looks at how gays and lesbians have been portrayed in movies over the years . Featuring a careful balance of interviews with actors and actresses , and footage from various movies , the documentary does a very good job giving the viewer an impress...