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Reviews
The Sting (1973)
On my "Endlessly Watchable" list.
"The Sting" is high on my personal list of movies that I can watch anytime, anywhere, and at any point in the movie! Of course, it's more fun to catch it from the opening credits, but it's just SO good, it really doesn't matter. The cast, the score, the script, the direction; everything mixes perfectly. I saw it in the theater when it came out and have loved it ever since, and I'm not even a big fan of Redford or of Newman. We need another "Sting" type film for this decade...we've got enough hard times to go around. If you haven't seen it...and I can't imagine that, unless you're in elementary school...rent it, buy it, con it off of your best friend.
Pasqualino Settebellezze (1975)
One for the ages.
I would challenge any serious film lover to view this movie and not have a very strong opinion of it. My own opinion is that it's one of the best films ever made, period. The story is harrowing, the score is so haunting you'll never forget it, and you'll think about scenes from it years later. Once you viewed it, most other domestic stuff won't even make it into the ballpark with it, much less compare with it. It's a masterpiece, plain and simple. This is real film making.
Anaconda (1997)
Sssssssssssss!
A 2-ton stinker of a movie, only worth watching to see Jon Voight getting his paycheck for attempting a heavy Spanish accent as the Paraguayan(!) snake hunter, Sarone. The "snake" is TOO computer-generated to be very scary, but the acting is certainly frightening! I will give 4/5 stars to JLo's ample derriere, though. I don't think the anaconda could have swallowed her.
Boy Meets World (1993)
Minority Report
If there was ever a "poster show" for self-absorbed and unfunny young people, "Boy Meets World" is it. Only Fred Savage surpasses Ben Savage in sheer obnoxiousness, but only by a hair. The only redeeming point to this miscarriage of a program is that it's currently residing on The Disney Channel, where it certainly should stay, along with all the other "hits" that Disney gags up regularly.
Babe: Pig in the City (1998)
Non, Je ne regrette rien
A VERY unusual film, especially since (by accident) I hadn't viewed the original "Babe" before seeing this sequel. Absolutely surreal in every aspect. I knew I was in "Oz" when Edith Piaf's unmistakable voice broke through during the Fugly Floom catastrophe scene! NOW, I must see the original to tie up a few loose ends! Watch this one and enjoy. No regrets. 8/10
North by Northwest (1959)
Great from Frame #1
I pulled this one out last night and popped it in the machine. In five minutes, my 4 kids, aged 13 to 8, were watching it with me. The Bernard Herrmann score pulls you in right away with the opening credits, then Cary Grant and Hitchcock, along with a fantastic supporting cast, propel you from scene to scene...the film just flies. When the "love theme" begins while Grant and Eve Marie Saint are traveling on the train, I couldn't believe how moving the scene was, and the actors were completely clothed, and either standing or seated. Amazing. As for the story in general, the screenplay is nothing less than superb. I can pick this film up anywhere in the story and it still captivates me. The tension is finely tuned, and the sets are perfect. To "tedg", who has a problem with this movie, I say: you take yourself too seriously. Hitchcock, Grant, James Mason and many of the cast are dead now, but this fine film lives on and on, and for many very good reasons: directing, script, score, acting, acting, acting, sets and great chemistry all around. This, to me, is Hitch's best. 9/10
Mary Poppins (1964)
A Jewel in the (old) Disney Crown, but "Dangerous"!
I was old enough to have seen this film when it first was released, but didn't have any interest in a silly musical! So, after years of life and experiences, I came to it while my own children were in elementary school. For me, it was not only masterfully crafted and cast, it was like the same wake-up call the George Banks gets at the end of the film! I mean, I almost quit my job, if you can believe it, and I had a very good position, too! The film's message of putting the REALLY IMPORTANT things first in one's life hit me like a hammer! I try and have as many "kite flying" moments as I can with my children AND with my wife! I don't really believe that Disney was attempting to expose the "dark side" of patriarchy, per se, but that adults need to keep strong roots in their childhood, or else they'll become withered and (almost) humorless, like the old bankers in the movie! But even THEY end up flying kites!!
I said this film was "dangerous" only because it MIGHT make you reconsider your whole life!!
SOAPBOX: The sad fact is that today's corporation, "Disney", shares virtually nothing with the enterprise that Walt Disney founded and fostered so many years ago (the one that produced "Mary Poppins"). The real losers are today's young children who only associate Disney with the television channel, and the simply awful shows that inhabit it, OR the "films" that ooze out of the Michael Eisner Disney factory. My words to Eisner: "Go fly a kite!"
Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962)
A True Classic
I first saw this on the night it debuted way back in December of 1962. I was a kid then, but the memory of the experience stays with me to this day. The animation was primitive, but had its own style; but the songs were the best! Maybe it was a Christmas special from a more innocent, less crude, time. A lot of events in the U.S. hadn't happened in 1962. I'll always cherish this one, probably for the things that were lost in the 40 intervening years.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
An inspiration
I really loved this movie. And a word to the many Tolkien fans out there who were "somewhat disappointed" by the film: Remember, movies are always limited, but if this film stirs interest in a few thousand new readers of the original novels, then it's succeeded. I think I've already read where the "Ring books" are selling better than ever lately. A great book and a great film are often different, but both remain great.