Change Your Image
Kevin1963
Reviews
The Vanishing Shadow (1934)
This Was A Lot of Fun
In the middle 1970's, the Dade County (Miami, FL) school system, in an attempt to get kids to read, gave 7th grade students (which I was one), the script to the Vanishing Shadow. One of the TV stations broadcast all 12 episodes, which we were required to watch and read along with the script.
The show was a real blast for a 12 year old kid. I still remember the vanishing belt and the cornball dialog (which we had to act out in class the following day). I remember Ada Ince, who played Stanley's love interest, was a real babe and I remember the Stanley was my hero.
I would recommend this serial to anybody who enjoys the low-tech attempts to create high-tech effects in the 1930's. A must!
Assassination (1987)
Kids, You'll Have to Retake Geography Class If You Watch This!
I had to laugh when I read the review by another commenter for Assassination that mentions the palm trees in Washington D.C. When I think of this movie (which isn't often), I always think about the "Kokomo Mountains" that are shown in the background when Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland are supposedly in Kokomo, Indiana on their nationwide jaunt. I lived near Kokomo when this movie came out and I never recall seeing any mountains, nor did I remember Kokomo being a one stoplight town as it is portrayed here.
It is glaring errors such as this that make Assassination one of the poorest movies I have ever seen. My guess is that Jill Ireland, who was waging a courageous, but losing battle against cancer at the time, wanted to make one more picture with her husband Bronson and took whatever came her way. It is listed as her last film on IMDb and it is a sad conclusion to her career.
One star out of ten (and I'm being generous)
Any Given Sunday (1999)
A Long Movie With No Story
Like many of the other commenters have already mentioned, the Oliver Stone syle of movie-making continues with "Any Given Sunday". Each scene is interspersed with quick film edits that can give one a headache. But I wouldn't have minded that if there was a story to tell. Basically, it is 120 minutes of football action mixed with about 30 minutes of non-football action. There really isn't any story told here and what is told is not unique. You've seen the controlling female owner before in the old HBO series "First and Ten". You've seen drug use in "North Dallas Forty". You've seen dirty and rough play and mangy characters in "The Longest Yard". And each one of those shows was more entertaining than "Any Given Sunday".
Al Pacino is sorely miscast as the maligned head coach, probably his worst role in his first-class acting career. My guess is that he wanted to work with Oliver Stone again (they did Scarface together) and took the first thing that came along. I also thought Cameron Diaz, who has actually become a fine actress, just goes through the motions in this one. But I will say that I was very impressed with the NFL Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor's performance in this film as the great linebacker in his last days on the gridiron. He isn't on screen that much, but he is convincing.
There's great camerawork in the football action scenes as Stone put cameras on players to get as close to the action as possible. But if he could have put an interesting story to it, I'd give it more consideration as a great film. But it is only about a 2.5 out of 5 for me.
Zapped! (1982)
I Know It's A Bad Movie, But I Love To Watch It!
I just bought a copy of Zapped for $5 and watched it for the first time in several years the other day. All the reviews you will read for the movie here sum it up. It's a bad story, with bad actors, with bad acting, with bad special effects and I enjoy it every time I watch it. I don't know why because I've never liked Scott Baio or Willie Aames in anything else they did, but they click here. I also think Felice Schacter was a cutie in the picture. I always make the comparison to WKRP in Cincinnati when I watch this picture. Felice is Bailey Quarters and Heather Thomas is Loni Anderson's Jennifer (and I preferred Bailey by far). I always got a kick out of Scatman Crothers and he has some great lines in this movie as does LaWanda Page (from Sanford and Son fame). And don't forget the movie industry's biggest geek, Eddie Deezen, who makes an appearance.
As another reviewer put it, watching Zapped is a guilty pleasure. if that's the case, I probably belong on Death Row! If you want to clear your mind of all thoughts and don't want to do it with chemicals, pop in Zapped and enjoy!
Best in Show (2000)
Has Its Moments, But Not Particularly Memorable
I am a dog-lover and always look forward every year to the two days in February when the Westminster Kennel Club dog show is broadcast on TV. It was with that anticipation that I went to see Best in Show, which is set around the fictional Mayflower Kennel Club dog show in Philadelphia.
I thought that the first half of the movie, where the characters and the dogs are introduced was just downright boring. I think that the storyline with Christopher Guest (as Harlan Pepper) and his bloodhound was particularly uninteresting. I think that there were probably too many characters to really develop a story for each and you don't get too involved with them. I think the story should have been about two of the dogs and their owners (I probably would have chosen the gay Shih-Tzu owners and the ultra-yuppie Weimaraner owners to focus on, they had the most potential).
Fred Willard as Buck Laughlin steals the movie as the TV announcer who obviously gets assigned the dog show because he's annoyed somebody at the network. He knows nothing about dogs and dog shows and doesn't hesitate to ask his sophisticated and knowledgeable British co-host the most stupid and embarrassing of questions. Buck just roles off one hilarious one-liner after another. It finally got to the point where the audience I watched the movie with laughed before he opened his mouth because they knew he was going to say something very funny. This is Fred Willard's finest moment in a long career.
Overall, Best in Show is OK, but not that great. It isn't in the class of This is Spinal Tap, Guest's masterpiece about an aging heavy metal band. Probably worth waiting for the video to come on this one.