Daily Movie Reviews
Here are some quick reviews of all the random movies I’ve been watching. I’m in grad school now, so, sadly, I probably won’t be able to watch as many movie as I normally do, but I’ll still update this page with my reviews of what I watch as I watch it! Movie titles are clickable links.
September 6
- Hondo (1953) - Wayne gave a nice understated performance (as he played the stuff from which men are made) in this very satisfying Western that put few feet wrong. Hell, if you want the truth, I even liked it better than Shane.
- Pride and Prejudice (1995)- Mostly excellent casting (though a few of the minor characters were a bit broad) in this very faithful (and yet, at 5 hours, still engrossing) adaptation. It also did a great job of realistically depicting the slow turnaround in the feelings of the two leads (perhaps because with 5 hours to play with it was able to take its time).
- Pride and Prejudice (2005) - Parts of it felt a bit rushed/crammed in and I wondered how clear things would have been were I not familiar with the book. Still, it was a handsomely filmed movie that, to my delight, focused a bit more on the romance side of the story…though it still couldn’t move away from the hallowed text enough to work an actual kiss into the proceedings.
September 3
- Hud (1963) – The great cinematography and an excellent cast (including Newman in a magnificent performance as a villain so charismatic you catch yourself rooting for him half the time anyway) were just a few reasons to like this excellent film. Still, the uniformly fine performances weren’t quite enough to completely hide the slight stink of pretension.
- The Ghostwriter (2010)- A really masterfully done slow burn thriller that was about as close as we are likely to get to Hitchcock this day and age. If I had a complaint it was that the big reveal didn’t really seem all that shocking and made me wish it had all added up to just a little be more (or that the MacGuffin would have been more compelling).
- Hard Luck (1921) - The plot was perfunctory, even for a short silent comedy, but the gags were really quite clever. Nothing really special compared to Keaton’s best work, just a lot of things that will make you giggle (including one of my favorites, a hilarious version of the old “necktie mustache” trick).
September 2
- The Man with the Movie Camera (1929)- Vertov really pulled out all the stops with this “city symphony” as he ran the gamut from stop motion to slow motion in his chronicle of a day in the life of a Soviet city. The energy on display was enough for ten movies and, impressively,Vertov had the artist’s genius to assemble it all into something even greater than its parts.
hmmm… didn’t you also watch short cuts? What did you think of that gem of a movie
Your sarcasm is noted and unappreciated. But since you asked (and if “got to the finals of the Kumite” isn’t good enough):
Shortcuts (***½) – Flawlessly crafted, Altman is working at the top of his game here. Still, the overly dramatic nature of some of the stories bring this down a notch compared to the more thematically restrained (and much better) Nashville.
Three and half stars!!! The same amount of stars you gave slumdog? Who are you? Flawlessly crafted indeed! How close was this movie to his actual short stories I ask you?
Hey..
What did you think of the ICE PRINCESS? Didn’t you watch that after listening to Madonna’s new CD?
Why are you the way you are?
I love that Nick Fury TV movie…it’s one of the few VHS tapes I still own. I like telling comic book noobs that it was made, then show it to them after they call me a liar. Never gets old.
And the villain chick is hot.
Ok…she was pretty hot…though she might have been overplaying things a bit
the reason “within our gates” is such a mess is that the surviving print had been censored in each of the states that it had been exibited in. It helps to know what was missing.
I did hear that…sometimes I’m not so sure when people claim movies would have been brilliant if only you could see the original version (I really doubt adding even more footage to Metropolis would make it a tighter movie for instance).
And, I know that saying it was 5 years behind the times isn’t really fair either since it was made on such a low budget.
Gonna put this out there: Review the Underground Comedy Movie. You will hate it, but then you’ll realize you liked some parts of it… then you will hate yourself.
You missed “romantic comedy month” Shawn (July). I already hate myself after all those positive reviews…
I’m impressed . . . you actually did it. (I’ll have you know, I also had to clean my keyboard upon finding this, as I was in the middle of breakfast, and was not expecting to laugh quite that hard)
Glad you enjoyed it…as soon as I started Barbie Fairytopia I was like “Ugh…I’m not sure this is worth it for the joke!”