Change Your Image
brianwalker-341-207399
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Super tactic!
Raiders Of The Lost Ark was the first installment in the Indiana Jones film franchise to be released, though it is the second in internal chronological order. The story is filled with the standard elements, (good v's evil, old lovers reunite etc) but the movie is anything but standard.
I'll admit from the start of this review that I am bias. Raiders Of The Lost Ark is in my top 10 movies of all time. The opening is in my Top 5 movie openings of all time (only Jaws, Saving Private Ryan and Cliffhanger are above it) and the score is one of my favourite soundtracks. I love it.
It pits Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) against a group of Nazis who are searching for the Ark of the Covenant, which Adolf Hitler believes will make his army invincible.
I can't praise the cast enough of this movie enough here, Harrison Ford is perfectly cast as Indiana Jones. Karen Allen, Paul Freeman as Indy's nemesis, John Rhys-Davies and Denholm Elliott all deserve special credit.
The action set pieces are superb, the humour hits the mark and the score is another valuable asset to the movie.
Raiders Of The Lost Ark is a highly professional piece of work, swift and suspenseful, with a good sense of pace and atmosphere it makes for perfect entertainment. To put it bluntly, it is quite simply one of the best movies ever made.
Raiders Of The Lost Ark was the highest grossing movie of 1981, considering 'Superman 2' and the insanely popular Burt Reynolds led 'Cannonball Run' was released that year it's an even greater achievement.
Perfect entertainment
The Terminator (1984)
Relentless, heartless
Now to talk of it as great film, to compare it with American Beauty might seem idiotic--it's an almost unrelentingly dark, violent, frightening action movie, after all--but strip away the relentless action, strip away the technophobia, strip away the blatant dislike of cops and modern youth, strip away the poignant love story and, at its core, it's about an immature, essentially mindless girl becoming a strong, determined woman. That's a theme more movies should have if we want girls to have strong role models.
In the course of a few hours during which Sarah Connor realises that she is running for her life from a soul-less machine in human flesh that is implacably and violently determined to kill her, she transforms from a girl who can't balance her cheque book to a woman who can order a wounded, beaten man to "get on your feet, soldier." She is clear-headed, not panicky, focused in crisis and incredibly courageous. And it's not that she has lost her essential femaleness but that she's grown up.
It's relentless, heartless violence appals and fascinates me. It's gritty depiction of our society as a prelude to an even more horrific one in 2023 darkens my heart. It's quickly developing love story touches me. Its humor makes the dark places in me smile. But most of all I am touched and fascinated by Sarah's precipitous transformation. As a good life exercise, ask yourself this: Would you have the courage to do what she does?
Slamma Jamma (2017)
Very Moving.
This was and is truly one of the most outstanding basketball movies of all time. I would urge anyone, anyone at all, regardless of their background relating to sports, to sit back and watch this movie, and to try to see it, feel it, through the eyes of the protagonists. It is unforgettable.
Summer and Smoke (1961)
Great actress
In my opinion, Geraldine Page was the greatest American Actress in the 20th Century. I believe that had she not spent much of her time on the New York Stage, she would have won several more Oscars, but was considered somewhat a Hollywood outsider.
She should have won for Summer and Smoke, and Sweet Bird of Youth. She carried these movies by her great acting skills and hard work.
All of her movies need to be on DVD. It is particularly surprising to me that Summer and Smoke has not been converted to DVD.
Does anyone know if any of her Stage Plays have been captured on video, and if so, where such videos could be obtained?