Change Your Image
niel
Reviews
An Unmarried Woman (1978)
A well-kept secret...
Having seen this film when it was released, remember thinking how good it was, Then seeing it last night and thinking it was sensational. Glancing at the vote demographics for this flick helped me see why I liked it so much more now. It's because I've been around more.
With sensational performances by Ms Clayburgh and Mr Bates one is drawn into the feelings and yearnings of someone who is only just awaking from a dream to find out how daunting life can be after a dissolved marriage.
Some people would dismiss this as just a women's picture, and it is that, but I found a lot to relate to in her situation. Yes, there is a lot of drama here, but there is a lighter side too. If this film were a book, it would be a great read!
Forget Paris (1995)
Side-splitting humor and warm, human romance
We've got a lot of grumps out there who are panning this flick and I can't figure out why. I just saw it for the 4th or 5th time and I still love it. Crystal is marvelous, the jokes are fabulous, the cast is wonderful and the script is great.
Okay, Crystal pays homage to Woody Allen, he could do a heck of a lot worse.
If you want to see Billy falter, go see Analyze This or his go around with the tall Eastern European basketball player. But this Forget Paris is golden. I may rent it again down the road.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Overrated!
Boring overrated piece of special-effects junk. Only redeeming point was the acting which was okay. Maybe if they had some dialog the actors could have done something. The fight scenes were clumsy. Ian Mckellen was totally wasted and looked like a perfect dunce. I hope he was well paid.
Jamaica Inn (1939)
Not Such Great Hitchcock
To think this movie was made 4 years after he made the 39 Steps a year after he made The Lady Vanishes does give this movie some historical significance but not much else. It does mark Maureen O'Hara's screen debut (she does very well here). Charles Laughton does not show very well here and the rest of the cast is just okay.
This film does show some of Hitchcock's enduring themes. His love of the misunderstood hero and his romantic involvement with a reluctant heroine, the evil erudite villain. But all of these things are done so much better in his other efforts. It's as if he didn't really have his heart in this one. I understand he was becoming disillusioned with film making in England and he may have been on his way to the US in his thoughts at least while making this one.
His best works come just after he came to America, Foreign Correspondent and Saboteur and later North By Northwest.
See this only if you're a devoted Hitchcock fan and see it for the history.
Zoolander (2001)
This might have made the 100 worst movies except for the wonderful cast
I can understand Ben Stiller using his father in this. But if he didn't think this movie unworthy for him he should have considered his father's career. Ben Stiller is a fine actor but this makes me wonder about his directorial talent. He took a fine cast and made a movie without much of a script. There are very few yuks in this. How he can squander his father's great comedic talent is a mystery. Even more mysterious is his skill at wasting the talents of Milla Jovovich. One can go the entire movie and not realize that she's even there. What a waste. If they only had a script and a few jokes. I expect to see something of Owen Wilson in the not too distant future.
Goodbye, New York (1985)
A fairly low-budget effort and quite enjoyable
Yes, I know it wasn't the most profound of films nor the funniest, but it was emmenently enjoyable. I liked how it depicted Israeli life and life on the Kibbutz and in Jerusalem. I was there a few years before this film was made and it was very accurate, based on what I saw. The performances were also believable. So what if it didn't have the special effects of Jurrasic Park. It certainly had a lot more humanity and believable charactors.
Used People (1992)
A real skin crawler
How bad could a movie be with such a cast? Well, used people is very bad! For one thing the charactors are all charicatures. Not that good actors can't play charactors that are not like themselves, they can. But such acting talent could not overcome stereotypes of New York Jews. Not only are their accents terrible but the dialog is awful too.
Bamboozled (2000)
Great Idea Rushed Ending
This is a film worth seeing and worth making. Mr lee sheds a great deal of light on issues surrounding race in America and we should take notice.
The lead charactor was very well played by Daman Wayans who as a very cultivated Afro-American sheds a great insight on the ambivalance Afro-Americans must have towards American culture and it's history and attitudes towards Blacks.
All this is very well done and the many different charactors exemplifying different veins in Black-America today. Though I think Mr. Lee went just a bit beyond his depth with his "Mau-Maus". As they seem almost as 2 dimensional as he sees white America's attitudes towards Afro-Americans.
Now the script goes well almost to the end when it runs out of steam. Once the picture is drawn and drawn in some detail, Mr. Lee doesn't know what to do with it. The faux television show and the movie seem to have the same dilemma, where do you go from here? Well. the script's solution is to kill the principle charactors. But I didn't buy it. It was just too easy, as if death resolves anything. After all, we've got some very big issues shown here and Mr. Lee doesn't seem to want to want to take them anywhere but to say, "here it is, now deal with it". Sorry, it wasn't enough for me.
A Lesson Before Dying (1999)
Noble Effort
This would have been a very good movie if the acting were better. The script could have used some help also. The ideas are good. First of all Mr Cheadle was not believable and his romance was not too plausable either. This was a movie that counted on the audience to add up the pieces and take a lot for granted. It didn't really show the transformations depicted. We knew they were supposed to happen so they did but I really didn't feel the charactors making the changes I just new what would happen and it did.
Deterrence (1999)
See any installment of West Wing
Depicting the president and the people around him/her is not an easy thing and it's pretty easy to tell when it doesn't work. Though this movie seemed to have a lesser budget than West Wing I guess it did pretty well considering, but the seams did show a bit too much.
Seams showed not only in the production values but also in the script. Where I didn't buy for a moment the major premise of the plot that the president would publicly threaten nuclear devastation and then carry it out without so much as a blink and then the major twist that Iraq had bought dud nuclear missiles from the USA via France. Not to mention that tow people could get shot dead and that the presidential entourage would stand around with all the bloody bodies hanging around. It's too implausable to be believed.
Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)
Good Comments on Love, Obsession and Fairness
This movie tackles some very great issues and does it very well. It has beautiful cinimatography. I would have cut it differently but I could see why they did it as they did. There were some very real emotions depicted here and once a person has been around a while one can appreciate how real they were written.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
A pretty good flick
Oh Brother is not a bad flick but the Coen Bros. Have to go a long way to top Fargo. See it for the sound track and the jokes. Though the audience I saw it with did not seem to even giggle at a single joke, like the one-eyed mask of John Goodman or the funny faces made by the two fellow travelers at the siren scene. This is a fun romp with some good stuff it just doesn't achieve greatness though it does comes close.
La nuit américaine (1973)
This movie has one of the penultimate scenes of all time.
It's been a very long time since I saw this film but there is this one
scene
that I will always remember. It takes place as all the controversy of the
cast and crew has been portrayed. Out of all the turmoil and without any
fanfare, the faux camera is shooting the faux actors and it crains back
and
so do we to reveal the entire set and everyone in it. I believe it's the
ending, it's so godlike, beautifully perfect and understated, it almost
makes you cry. See this film, if just for this.
La nuit américaine (1973)
This movie has one of the penultimate scenes of all time.
It's been a very long time since I saw this film but there is this one
scene
that I will always remember. It takes place as all the controversy of the
cast and crew has been portrayed. Out of all the turmoil and without any
fanfare, the faux camera is shooting the faux actors and it crains back
and
so do we to reveal the entire set and everyone in it. I believe it's the
ending, it's so godlike, beautifully perfect and understated, it almost
makes you cry. See this film, if just for this.
Girl, Interrupted (1999)
A sobering glimpse at mental illness.
This is a sincere and caring look at a mental institution and mental disease. We're glad it's not us and sobered by the fact that it could well be. The movie makes it all too clear that these are real people just like you and me.