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Two Seconds (1932)
What a performance
Like some other reviewers here I was expecting a melodramatic, cliché-ridden love/murder story. How wrong I was. Robinson's performance was as close to perfect here as anything he ever did. He drove his character from an ambitious, positive working man through depression to insanity, and every step was believable and gripping. Just about everyone in the cast gave worthy performances as well, particularly his roommate Bud who tries to save him from the dance-hall grifter. Tthe novel plot structure worked perfectly as he looks back on his mistakes.
Forget the occasional hackneyed line or situation. Robinson's performance in the last few minutes is so over the top, yet you believe it all. It works and absolutely gave me chills. A rare 10/10 for me.
Interstate 60: Episodes of the Road (2002)
Could've been SO much more
This movie is odd in so many ways. Big-name actors like Michael J. Fox and Ann-Margret on screen just longer than a cameo but in forgettable, throwaway roles. Laughably silly dialogue but an interesting concept, kind of like "Donnie Darko" written by a 9th-grade English student. I like this type of film so I probably stuck it out longer than most would, but really, anybody with much less patience than me would've probably changed the channel before the halfway mark. But I'm glad I did. The ending was satisfying if predictable and overall a decent pick for somebody that has a week off due to Covid.
Americana (1981)
Wish I hadn't trusted these reviews
I usually put a fair amount of stock in the star ratings of tiny films like this. The people who watch these and rate them are generally film lovers, and as a lover of small films I tend to gravitate toward ones like this. However, this time you guys really let me down. I have seen high school 8 mm films that were better directed, had better sound, better acting, and better stories than this. It was a total waste of 90 minutes of my life.
First, I'd estimate maybe 30% of the dialogue was clearly audible. This is probably just as well as the ridiculous script made little sense, and the actors made Ed Wood's worst movies look like blockbuster classics. No motivation is shown or given for almost anything Carradine's character does. Random scenes are thrown together with no sense of flow. And the final scene vaporizes the one interesting plot line in the entire film, the drifter's abhorrence of violence, in a completely senseless and shocking killing of a dog.
I hope I can save you the agony of watching this abomination. You're welcome.
Let Us Live (1939)
I'm a patient man but...
... I just could not keep from laughing. And that's something I rarely do at a movie that tries to be sincere. I love Henry Fonda and I love a movie where the good guy wins, but the writing, acting and direction were SO hokey and unbelievable, even for this era, I couldn't stop myself. The police chief with his head trembling with rage, the DA whose only job is to convict people, the lieutenant screaming at the DA and the chief, Maureen Sullivan's intermittent accent, etc, etc. Just couldn't take it. There are far better films in this style.
The Emperor's New Clothes (1953)
What was that last line??!
This is a delightful and droll short from UPA. The adaptation is great, the jokes are funny, the animation amazing (as with all UPA films). How I wish they'd been more commercially successful.
But the last line, the punch line of the whole film, is unintelligible! What did he SAY??!!
The Mad, Mad, Mad Comedians (1970)
Odd and awful
Just watched this weird comedy blasphemy on YouTube. The small galaxy of stars in this abomination must have been either very gullible or very desperate in their old age to lend their voices to it. It takes a lot more skill than R/B were apparently willing to devote to match spoken comedy routines with animation effectively. The animation looks cheap and rushed, and the spoken routines are out of sync literally but also in terms of style and tone. Poor Jack Benny gets roughed up by a cop while George Burns does nothing, not even a reaction.
But the worst part is the blaring laugh track after every sentence, funny or not (usually not). How people have rated this 7/10 is beyond me!
Insect to Injury (1956)
One of best Famous Popeyes
This is a unique cartoon in so many ways. First, as has been mentioned, none of the other series characters are in this one, just Popeye vs. the bugs. But besides the very inventive story and fun gags, we see some beautiful backgrounds and colors and slick animation. This is the last great cartoon from Famous before the franchise went down the toilet the following year.
Starman (1984)
Hasn't aged well
I loved this film when it first came out, but it has aged terribly. Jeff Bridges' jerky alien speech patterns and movements look unintentionally laughable now. I can forgive the weak special effects and the grainy photography, but the acting and writing are so stilted and predictable I lost interest pretty early on.
The Stranger (2020)
Horrible waste of time
Do yourself a favor and DON'T waste precious hours of your life with this rot. It will lure you in, for sure. The premise is interesting and the characters relatable. The acting is decent. But the more you watch the more ridiculous it all gets. There are plot holes big enough to drive a lorry through. The final episode was like a car wreck where you know it's going to end horribly but you can't stop it. There are SO many loose ends that are just completely left hanging. The central character kills his best friend and then what? No investigation? What did they do with his body? What about Corinne? Didn't anybody bother to look for her?
The (unintentionally) funniest line in this whole botched abortion of a series was "Katz's gun ties all the deaths together." WTF does that mean?! Corinne wasn't even killed with a gun! They might as well have said it was all a dream! There should be a law against endings like that.
Le retour de Martin Guerre (1982)
Beautiful film that could've been perfect
I so wanted to love this film and I fell in love with it within a few minutes. The scenery, costumes, and music were so authentic that I felt I was in 16th century France. The story was intriguing and the actors believable... until the last 15 minutes. Then it all fell apart.
I really felt cheated by the ending. The "faux Martin" Depardieu showed absolutely no sign whatsoever that he was lying or that he might have an ulterior motive, good or malevolent. That is a cheat. Even when he is exposed, he shows little emotion and no regret. Also a cheat. If he really was doing it because he cared for his "wife", he would have shown some more emotion and given a much better explanation and rationale for it. This would've been a perfectly opportunity for us to sympathize with this altruistic man. Instead he comes off as wooden and we have no clue what his real motives were. And the ridiculous last-second appearance of the real Martin to bust up the trial? Straight out of a TV movie. Very disappointing ending to what was building up to a perfect, thoughtful film.
The Bill Cosby Show: Brotherly Love (1969)
One of the funniest sitcom episodes I've ever seen
Thank heavens for IMDb. I have been trying for 43 years to remember the details of this episode, and IMDb has found it. This was really a great series. It was not one of those "message" shows like "Julia" or "Room 222". It was often hilarious, sometimes poignant, but never boring.
I watched a lot of TV in the 1960s/70s (there wasn't much else to do then when you were 10 years old), and I never remember laughing as hard as I did with this episode. I don't remember a lot of the plot details, but I particularly remember Chet laying awake ranting while his brother was making some kind of noise snoring, I think). Hilarious! Now I'm off to see if I can find it on YouTube...
56 Up (2012)
Fascinating, poignant, frightening
56 Up - hard to believe. I've watched 3 or 4 of these over my 53 years, and each one becomes harder for me to watch as I get older. I was suddenly a little scared when the titles for this one started; I almost walked out of the theater. What has become of this group of kids that director Apted has been following since he was 22 years old? What new tragedies had befallen them? Whatever became of the homeless guy? Would any of them finally blow up at Apted on-camera?
Probably the most unnerving thing for me was that the film would just be unbearably poignant. It seems almost god-like to be able to see how a group of 14 people's lives have progressed over a 49-year period. (Yet, as one of the men complains, viewers can't possibly know these people, even though many in Britain presume to (since this was shown on TV there, many British people have watched all 8 films).
Fortunately, however, the film isn't overly sentimental or maudlin. Still, the film is very touching and can't help but make you think about your own life and trials, what advantages you may or may not have had compared to these people, and how you would have fared given their circumstances.
One of the sadder aspects of these films is to see how life seems to have "beaten down" so many of these people. Some of the kids with bright, shiny eyes who seemed to have so much energy and hope now seem to be dejected and defeated adults. Yet this isn't true for all of them - some of the reserved, quiet kids turned out to be reserved, quiet adults. And it's not all sad - there are some good laughs and some inspiring successes. And two subjects who had dropped out returned for this segment - one to promote his band!
There are plenty of clips from earlier segments, so you don't need to rent any of the earlier ones, but I'd recommend it. You get a more profound sense of the flow of their lives by seeing at least one other one. But whatever you do, see this one.
The Tree of Life (2011)
I really wanted to love this - I really did.
There is much in this film that is beautiful, but as a two-hour-plus experience, it's like watching a beautiful painting dry. I loved all of Malick's previous films and wanted to love this one, but it was one of the most boring, pretentious films I've ever seen. As it dragged on, I prayed ever more fervently that it would get better, but...
Most of the first third of the film consists of random images, some lifted almost directly from "2001". Picture the Stargate sequence, only with no thematic context or introduction. This just drags on and on and on, with audible sighs of frustration from the small audience and several people walking out. I was begging Malick to make this end.
The rest of the film is slightly more interesting, but Malick never connects the "real world" events effectively with the metaphysical junk that precedes them. When I read in the Trivia section that an Italian cinema mixed up the first two reels for a week and no one noticed, I had to laugh. There is no structure of any kind. This mad it impossible to relate to any of the characters, adding to the waste of time.
Just awful - recommendation is to stay home and rent Badlands or Days of Heaven.
Forgotten Babies (1933)
Absolute classic short
The greatest Our Gang short ever. 4 year old Spanky gets stuck babysitting with 6 toddlers - need I say more? It's nothing short of miraculous how Robert McGowan was able to get this on film. Included are scenes like a two-year-old standing on a table between two teetering towers of china, putting a china cup on one, watching it fall, then saying "Remarkable" on cue as the other one falls. This all in one take without any special effects or trick photography. Or how about Spanky's near-perfect retelling of a Tarzan movie, with one baby's random reaction of falling head-first off a chair and getting up unfazed. You couldn't film this today even if you had McGowan's genius. Remarkable!!
Bella (2006)
Sweet, but a 10?
This is a sweet, small film, but there is no way it deserves the number of 10s it has received. A 10 should go to a film that, if it's trying to tell a story, has at least a semi-credible storyline. A 10 should go to a film that still tugs your heart a little after you leave the theater. To be invested in the characters in this kind of film, you at least need to be able to believe in them.
I began rolling my eyes about halfway through. Jose (I want to call him Jesus since that's obviously whom he's supposed to resemble) has a beard that almost completely obscures any facial expression. All his friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. treat him like the life of the party. Yet he practically never smiles, and even though we discover why that might be, it doesn't seem in character for him. The decisions he and others make are also out of character and, worse, unexplained (particularly his decision to adopt the girl at the end).
Also, this film is full of theatrical speeches that are unimaginable in real life. More eye-rollers.
Now I read on this page that the producers urged people to write positive reviews to help this "pro-life"/anti-abortion film. Hence all the 10s. It's well and good to support a film you like, but it doesn't deserve a 10 just for the message.
Wait for the DVD on this one.
Quasi at the Quackadero (1976)
Great short
Wonderful, psychedelic short film about a lazy guy (Quasi) who fritters his time away at the Quackadero, which is a kind of crazy carnival. I last saw it in Cambridge at a little place called Off the Wall that showed really obscure short films. As I remember it, the animation is reminiscent of The Simpsons or Jonathan Katz - sort of shaky lines. The film was very atmospheric and kind of took you back to the early 70s. One of the funnier "exhibits" was the Past Lives Pavilion, where people could go to relive things that supposedly happened to them in earlier lives. I remember one poor guy with his wife watching himself in some kinky hotel room or something and saying at the end, "That never happened to me!" And yes, Sally did make several of the Sesame Street cel animated shorts. You can get her other films on a DVD from her website, funonmars.
Still the Beaver (1983)
Not Citizen Kane, but gave me a warm feeling
I grew up with LITB in the 60s, and I always thought it was a great show. I never thought it was supposed to represent some kind of typical American family. In fact, the characters themselves said this more than once; e.g. "A lotta the guys say they wish their Moms and Dads were more like you guys", or something like it.
Anyway, this movie was a very sincere and heartfelt effort, even if it wasn't very funny. All the actors tried hard, and nobody mugged, etc. In fact, they were surprisingly restrained. I was truly moved by the flashback to Ward's funeral, shot from a distance, with Beaver's voice from an early episode praising his dad. I still get choked up just thinking about it!
After Hours (1985)
Most atmospheric NYC movie ever
This one of the most evocative films I've ever seen. Martin Scorsese's love of NY truly shines through here. Just thinking about the film, which I last saw about 10 years ago, gives me a feeling of longing in the pit of my stomach. I've never lived in NYC, but I often thought of moving there in my younger days, and this film really captures the reason why.
Griffin Dunne sort of reminds me of myself in those days. He is a typical young guy, out for a night, sampling the city. It's easy to relate to him, and we really feel for him, worry about him, and laugh at and with him. His performance is superb. Ditto Rosanna Arquette in one of her first major film roles. Even though she's not on screen for long, her performance is so memorable that you feel she was in every scene.
Do yourself a big favor and see this one. You'll never forget it.
Movie-Mania (1937)
Why haven't I heard of him before?
Just saw this on TCM and was very impressed. Apollon was multi talented. He played the mandolin flawlessly. I am a longtime bluegrass fan and don't think I've every heard anybody play that fast without a single mistake. His tap-dancing was pretty fair, too, though we didn't get to see too much of it in this one-reeler.
How do these guys not get noticed, but others with no obvious talent seem to go much further? Judging from this flick, it must have a lot to do with personality. He seems very arrogant, and I assume he was as he did not seem like much of an actor.
Thanks to Ted Turner for unearthing this and so many other interesting if not classic pictures. I can almost forgive you for the whole colorization thing.