[7] It’s surprising Errol Flynn didn’t make more screwball comedies, because he’s completely at home in this ‘who’s duping who’ comedy, outrunning the guard dogs, shaking hands with people in side-by-side moving cars, and carrying on romantic telephone conversations with two women simultaneously. In Four’s a Crowd, he’s teamed with his regular leading lady Olivia de Havilland, as well as Rosalind Russell (in a newspaper …
[7] The Muppets have my blessing to reinterpret any piece of literature they want (except maybe Naked Lunch). It’s fun to see which characters are played by which Muppets, and all my favorites are featured in The Muppet Christmas Carol, from heckling critics Statler & Waldorf to gruff Sam Eagle. Michael Caine gives a faithful performance as Scrooge, and a lot of Dickens’ exact lines …
[6] This movie version of Irving Berlin’s musical is chintzy fun kept afloat by cartoonish performances from leads Betty Hutton and Howard Keel. Watching the movie at this end of the feminist movement can be frustrating. While Annie Oakley is presented as a strong, brutish character, she ultimately stifles herself to win the love of Frank Butler (Keel). The film is also considered racist for …
[5] Claude Rains is gold in all his scenes as the god-like Mr. Jordan, but I find the movie’s playfully fatalistic view of love and self-purpose too saccharine to swallow. Robert Montgomery is also good as the deceased boxer who, due to heavenly oversight, gets the opportunity to rejoin the living by possessing the bodies of freshly dead strangers. The film was nominated for several …
[7] Ryan Gosling stars as Lars, a young man who begins seriously dating a life-size doll. His friends and family are instructed by a doctor to go along with it until they can figure out why he has engaged in this suspicious behavior. I love these types of movies — the ones that take ludicrous concepts, and then treat them very seriously. This is a …
[5] Jean Harlow plays such a nasty little character in Red-Headed Woman, sleeping her way to the top of the workforce while ending marriages left and right. She’s so cold and calculating, I almost wish the movie would have been like most others of its kind and punished the slut for her wicked ways. But this time, the slut gets away with it all. I …
[5] I like the premise of this one. Cary Grant plays a beach bum who relays Japanese radio messages to the military during WWII. His life is a solitary one until a plane crashes on the island, introducing him to a school mistress (Leslie Caron) and seven little girls. As you might imagine, at first he hates this estrogen invasion, but soon comes to find …
[4] When I ask myself why I like so few Mel Brooks movies, I think the answer has to do with character investment. Even in a parody movie, I still need it. There just isn’t much to latch onto here. Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride) makes a good-looking Robin Hood, but the character doesn’t really come to life at all. I sorta chuckled once or …
[4] Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, and Adam Sandler star as wannabe rock gods who take a small radio station in L.A. hostage until they play their demo over the airwaves. As serendipity permits, news of the siege hits the public and starts enough of a sensation that the guys become bonafide celebrities… and yes, they get their record contract. There are absolutely no surprises in …
[6] John Stockwell (Christine) stars as a teenage motor head who steals a bizarre piece of alien technology from a local junk yard to try and pass off as his high school science project. Trouble is, the device keeps depleting its surrounding of any electrical charge. And the more energy it consumes, the more it begins tampering with the space-time continuum. Before long, Stockwell and …
Copyright © 2024 | Theme by MH Themes