LeinoM-2 Reviews

The Producers (2005)

Big Noisy Stage Musical...

[6/10 · 1 January 2006]

...does not transfer intact to the screen.

First, let me say that I am a big fan of Mel Brooks' kind of humor and laughed out loud a lot at this movie. However, I think the slapstick should have been minimized. Exaggerated physical shtick that is needed on stage tends to overwhelm on the screen. The sound was too loud; I should have brought my earplugs.

I liked the June 16 calendar page in Bialystock's office. Appreciators of James Joyce know that the date is that of the action in "Ulysses" and is still observed as Bloomsday. Others would not have noticed. And of course the name Leopold Bloom...thanks, Mel. Thanks too for the marvelous show titles on the posters in the office and at the end of the show.

The Ice Harvest (2005)

A dark comedy, slightly too dark

[7/10 · 25 November 2005]

On the whole, I liked this movie more than I was put off by it. I am a fan of both John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton and expected some kind of transcendent experience with regard to probing the depths of rottenness some people are capable of, confirming my generally dim view of most of the human race.

The acting of both leads satisfied my expectations of them. However, recalling Billy Bob in "Bad Santa," which I also enjoyed hugely last year, I was viscerally disappointed that his character didn't exhibit the merest drop of redeemability--viscerally, I say, not intellectually. The Cusack character, on the other hand, showed some decency, and in fact it was hard to accept that he was a "mob lawyer," working for such a monster as the Randy Quaid character, and I was pleased that he was left at the end with the money, even though he had to drag Pete along.

As for Pete (Oliver Platt), he played a wonderfully believable drunk, but one with some residual intelligence. Reviewing his filmography,I realize that I haven't seen him much before. One movie that was mentioned that he was in I had seen, but didn't recall him. This movie will bring him more jobs, I think, and I hope they aren't all drunks.

For the record, I am a 73-year-old female.

Miriam Eldridge