junkmail-48566 Reviews

Music of the Heart (1999)

Simply one of the best movies few people have seen!

[10/10 · 16 March 2024]

Meryl Streep carries this film almost by herself, but as the story unfolds, the viewer completely forgets that it's Meryl and becomes immersed in Roberta Guaspari, the real-life character Streep is portraying. She is accompanied by Angela Basset, Aidan Quinn, Cloris Leachman, Gloria Estefan, Kieran Culkin, and a bevy of the finest violinists known to mankind! Trivia: Meryl Streep studied the violin for 3 to 4 hours each day to be able to actually play it in this film. Now, THAT'S a dedicated actress! A tip of the hat is also due to director Wes Craven, who stepped outside his usual "slasher and horror" genre with "Music of the Heart." In this viewer's opinion, THIS is Craven's best work!

Romeo and Juliet (1968)

This is STILL mono?

[10/10 · 4 July 2022]

Why this film is still mono, especially on home video is inexplicable, considering that Capitol Records issued the complete soundtrack in stereo in a 4-LP box set! C'mon CBS/Paramount! You spent a ton of dough restoring "War of the Worlds," so spend a few bucks and restore this with a 5.1 DTS mix or a 7.1 Atmos track!

A Night in Heaven (1983)

Critics hated it, but...

[5/10 · 8 March 2022]

...it's not totally bad and it had a certain naughtiness to it before the "me too" movement. It seems that Christopher Atkins' body is the focus of criticism about this flick, but nobody seems to comment on Lesley Anne Warren's performance, which is credible, considering the weak screenplay provided by Joan Tewkesbury. The film could have been better if Rick wasn't the only one of Faye's students moonlighting as a stripper, particularly if another student was PASSING in her class! Still, "A Night in Heaven" isn't as bad a film as other attempt to make it appear. It's on a par with Carl Reiner's 1987 film "Summer School," starring Mark Harmon.

The Dare Project (2018)

What was the point?

[3/10 · 22 February 2022]

If Salky had a purpose for making the second part of "Dare," it got lost somewhere. Ben and Johnny should have either rekindled their relationship where it left off in the first part, or it should have ended. The way the second part played out, everything remained as unsettled as it did when they were in high school, and the feature film version left everything between Ben and Johnny equally as unsettled. If a filmmaker needs to tell a story, he shouldn't let every conclusion leaving the viewers hanging, hoping for a finite resolution, which obviously Salky cannot bring himself to create.

Reach (II) (2018)

Every high school student must see this!

[10/10 · 4 February 2022]

This is about two high school seniors, both of whom have issues, that needed a true friend and found one in one another. The point here was how far out on a limb one was willing to go to protect the other. The flaws can be overlooked if the message is received!

Local Boys (2002)

We need more films like this!

[10/10 · 18 November 2019]

This is a film about people, and in films about people, the cast has to act which this cast does admirably. Those looking for glorified special effects have to look elsewhere, as this film deals with character development that advances the plotline. Mark Harmon is excellent in his role as a surfing "grease monkey," who has designs on the mother of the two main characters, one of whom is played to good advantage by a young Eric Christian Olsen. "Local Boys" is a terrific coming-of-age film that shouldn't be missed!

Psycho (1960)

The greatest thriller of them all!

[10/10 · 26 July 2018]

Get over the concept that Hitchcock chose to film this in black and white! "Psycho" was made as a bet with Hitch's agent, Lew Wasserman, after both read an article in Variety that pointed out that an upstart company, American-International, was packing them into drive-in theaters to see low-budget horror films directed by Roger Corman. Hitch claimed he could make a better film than AIP for less money than they spent on a film, and Wasserman took him up on the bet. "Psycho" was made for $80,000 using Hitch's television crew instead of his usual cinematic crew. Hitch was always fussy about his leading ladies, and he selected Janet Leigh for the role of Marion Crane, who agreed to play the role for half her usual salary. Anthony Perkins however, as Norman Bates, is the central character of the film, and while his interaction with Marion is minimal, he will forever be remembered for his performance here. Vera Miles, one of Hitchcock's favorite actresses, plays Marion's sister Lila, creating tension over her concern for her sister's well-being. Of Hitchcock's total body of works, "Psycho" is the film that stands out in most fan's minds as his greatest. Everyone involved here did their absolute best, and the results are obvious on the screen. The only flaw in the film is the distortion heard in Bernard Hermann's music score. The score exists by itself without the film and is available on LaserDisc, LP and CD, however it's distorted on every medium. Hermann re-recorded the score as a suite for a 1969 Decca/London Phase 4 stereo vinyl release called "Music from the Great Movie Thrillers." The LP has been reissued on CD as "Great Hitchcock Movie Thrillers" and lacks the distortion of the mono recording in the film. SPOILER: Of note to trivia fans is that the sound effect of the knife used in the famous shower scene was created by using a Cassaba melon, and in no shot of the rapid 45 pieces of film fired at the viewers does a knife penetrate Marion Crane on-camera, and the effect of the blood running down the drain is actually Bosco chocolate syrup.

The King and I (1956)

The best screen adaptation of a Rodgers & Hammerstein musical!

[8/10 · 26 July 2018]

Written originally as a stage musical for their friend Gertrude Lawrence, "The King & I" originally had it's emphasis on the "I," being adapted from Margaret Landon's documentary novel, "Anna & the King of Siam." When 20th Century-Fox released the film version in 1956, the emphasis had switched to "The King" in the title, as Yul Brynner was the only member of the Broadway cast to portray the same role in the film. Deborah Kerr was an excellent choice to play Anna, although hers, Rita Moreno's and Carlos Rivas' voices were all dubbed (Kerr's by Marni Nixon). The Fox CinemaScope 55 process (only used on this film and "Carousel," made the same year) provides a wonderful widescreen experience, however the use of DeLuxe color instead of a better color process seems to have cast a blue pallor over the screen images as the negative has aged. While this could possibly be corrected electronically using today's technology, recent home video releases have not made use of it. The acting in this classic musical is terrific, and the only gripe anyone would have with the film is that "Small House of Uncle Thomas" runs too long and should have been edited instead of sacrificing three musical selections from the stage version: "My Lord and Master" by Tuptim, "I Have Dreamed" by Tuptim and Lun Tha, and "Shall I Tell You What I Think of You" by Anna. All three appear on the soundtrack album, but not in the film itself, so the film is docked two stars for the omissions. Visually, Fox spared no expense with costume and set design and construction. Anna's hoop skirts were the fashion of the period in the U.K., and with Siam (now Thailand) being an equatorial territory, the Siamese royal characters were dressed appropriately. The palace set in Bangkok was opulent, making a viewer wonder if Siamese royalty was as affluent as 20th Century-Fox, and certainly no stage production on Broadway or anywhere else could have scenery such as that which Fox used in this production. The songs are great, the acting spot-on, and the only flaws in the film were mentioned above. Even if musicals aren't your thing, "The King & I" (correct title, with ampersand) is worth seeing. See this one BEFORE seeing "The Sound of Music," as from a cinematic perspective, this studio-bound film is the better one.

Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

Avoid this at all costs! See the 1974 Sidney Lumet version instead!

[1/10 · 26 July 2018]

Kenneth Branaugh receives the raspberries for this unnecessary remake of Dame Agatha Christie's classic novel. Having seen the 1974 version when first released, it was full of glamour, as a period piece set in the 1930s should have been, and each character was fully developed. Branaugh spent too much time and energy with his development of his portrayal of Christie's sleuth, Hercule Poirot, that the development of any other characters failed to occur. Branaugh focused on Poirot's obsessive-compulsive disorder to make his own character three-dimensional, leaving all of the suspects characterizations as one-dimensional MacGuffins, to use a Hitchcockian term. Another weak point in this film is the dramatic score, which contains nothing memorable other than Michelle Pfeiffer's vocal over the closing credits. Lumet's 1974 film contains a score by Richard Rodney Bennett, lushly orchestrated with hummable themes that complement Geoffrey Unsworth's beautiful Panavision cinematography. Although Branaugh's version was shot with 65mm cameras (the same ones used by Christopher Nolan for "Dunkirk"), the process was wasted here since most of the shots in the film are confined to a set, and only the exterior shots benefited from its use. Super 35mm (what was once known as SuperScope), Panavision or digital cinematography would have been just as suitable for this production. Lumet's film also made use of an all-star cast whose acting skills were well proven in advance. It's unnecessary to list the cast here, as it can be viewed on the IMDB page for that version, however this version has few recognizable names, and some will even enjoy the fact that the murder of Johnny Depp's character occurs less than halfway through the film, and that his screen time is kept to a minimum! Sitting through this poorly-done remake of what was previously filmed with style, class, and glamour in 1974 is a waste of time. If you want to view a great whodunit, beautifully crafted, with excellent characterization, see the Lumet version. Dame Agatha Christie claimed that Lumet's version and Billy Wilder's 1957 film of "Witness for the Prosecution" were the only two films that did justice to her literary work.

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Skip the 2017 Kenneth Branagh version and see this well-made production!

[10/10 · 26 July 2018]

This review comes on the heels of having just viewed the 2017 abortion directed by and starring Kenneth Branaugh and is more a comparison of the two cinematic versions than a simple review of the 1974 Sidney Lumet version. First of all, Agatha Christie's novel takes place in the 1930s. Lumet acknowledges this is a "period piece" and treats it as such. Glamour was a big thing in films set before the end of the studio system in Hollywood, and Lumet gives us plenty of it here (Branagh gives us little). The dramatic score for Lumet's 1974 film was composed by Richard Rodney Bennett, who is also the pianist on the soundtrack, which is lushly orchestrated and fits this production quite nicely. The all-star cast here is composed of well-known, proven actors, beginning with Albert Finney as Christie's sleuth, Hercule Poirot. It's unnecessary to list the entire star-studded cast here, as it's on the main page for the film, but the whole cast gives exemplary performances. The cinematography is exquisite, with Geoffrey Unsworth's excellent use of Panavision cameras and lenses. In fact, there's nothing bad to be said about the film. This was followed by several other Brabourne-Goodwin productions of Agatha Christie novels ("Death on the Nile," and "Evil Under the Sun," both with all-star casts with Peter Ustinov as Poirot and "The Mirror Crack'd" with Angela Lansbury as Christie's female sleuth, Miss Jane Marple), but none of the successors were as well-done as this one. The Kenneth Branaugh remake tells us that Branaugh's portrayal of Poirot was more important to him than the development of any of the other characters. The viewer gets the impression that Branaugh focused more on Poirot's obsessive-compulsive side than any other characterization in his film. In one word each, here's a description of the two versions: Lumet, 1974: magnificent; Branaugh, 2017: pedestrian.

The 24th Day (2004)

For once, James Marsden doesn't chew the scenery...

[10/10 · 22 July 2018]

...this time, he IS the scenery! Scott Speedman basically carries this film as the antagonist. The film is thought provoking in that after viewing it, one is forced to ask oneself, "Who is actually the victim here? Is it Dan, Tom or is the true victim Dan's late wife?" Even leaving the wife out of the equation, it's not an easy question to answer. Now, there are those who would be critical that, except for a couple of scenes, the bulk of the film takes place on a single set, making the film appear a bit claustrophobic, but then again, remember that this was adapted from a stage play and the author of the screenplay did his own adaptation. There's no sense spoiling the plot by discussing the story, as there are already enough spoilers here, but if you like drama with credible acting and at least one selfish character (what drama would be complete without one?), then by all means see "The 24th Day!"