[3] Sandra Bullock gives her most offputting and peculiar performance in All About Steve, a film that sets the feminist movement back about fifty years. Bullock plays Mary, a woman in her forties who lives with her parents, tries to make a meager living creating crossword puzzles for her local paper, and who inexplicably falls head-over-heals obssessively in love with a blind date (adorable Bradley …
[5] Shirley MacLaine plays a jinxed woman whose four husbands meet tragic ends in this satirical comedy about money and passion. There are a lot of great moments in What a Way to Go, but the sum isn’t greater than the parts. The disjointed narrative is made nearly tolerable by screenwriters Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who also brought together the fractured tales of Singin’ …
[4] A young soldier (Guy Madison) struggles to find purpose to his life after returning home from service in WWII. The guy’s problem isn’t as clear as I’d like it to be. His friends (Robert Mitchum and Bill Williams) have obvious injuries, but Madison’s character seems to suffer from nothing more than laziness. The film sometimes works as a soap opera, but I hate to …
[6] A bold film for its time, A Summer Place deals with sexual awakening and reawakening. Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue play the teenaged lovers; Richard Egan and Dorothy McGuire play the adulterous middle-aged ones. The first forty-five minutes of the story are pretty strong, but once the affairs are out in the open, the script struggles to find its focus. Highlights include a terrific …
[4] Director David Slade (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night) tries to elevate the material to Lord of the Rings status, with several gratuitous aerial fly-over shots and a suitably brooding score from ‘Rings’ composer Howard Shore. But, somehow, infuriatingly, and against all probably odds, Eclipse is still an interminable snooze-fest. The first three-quarters are like New Moon all over again (ie, Chinese water torture). …
[6] Olivia de Havilland won her first Oscar for this sudsy soap opera about a woman who gives up her infant son and spends the rest of her life trying to reconnect with him. The melodrama may be an acquired taste, but no one can steal audience sympathy better than de Havilland. I went with it, happy ending and all. In a neat (and slightly …
[6] Jessica Lange and Elisabeth Shue star in this darkly comedic period piece about a bitter seamstress (Lange) who plots to ruin the lives of her late sister’s husband and daughter after they refuse to accept her into their wealthy family. Things get escalated when Lange’s character finds love in a young artist who eventually falls for her daughter-in-law. Shue plays a bawdy stage performer …
[4] Near the end of both Singin’ in the Rain and An American in Paris, there is a big, epic dance number that feels very out of place. It’s the only thing I don’t like about Singin’ in the Rain, and the only thing I DO like about An American in Paris. The later film is essentially a superb 20-minute dance number tacked onto an …
[6] Sally Field and James Garner star in this story of a divorced mother who moves to a small town and tries to open a successful horse ranch. She quickly befriends the town pharmacist (Garner) and the two strike up a surprisingly unsentimental relationship. The plot thickens when the ex-husband comes to town trying to patch things up, creating a love triangle that has to …
[6] You’ll find immense, beautifully dressed sets and breathtaking oceanside locations in the 1979 Dracula. You’ll also hear a richly romantic John Williams score. These elements go a long way in creating a mood and atmosphere that are more lush than any Dracula movie has ever had before — and are enough to warrant a recommendation. But I think the superlatives end there. Frank Langella …
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