Some subjects seem to demand reverential treatment in movies or real life, and cancer is one of them. So a movie that dares to dilute the horror of the disease with humor seems refreshing. Even though there is nothing funny […]
Continue reading »Month: October 2011
The Big Year (2011) ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
So far my favorite film of 2011 is The Big Year. I loved it. Truthfully, I cannot say that it is a great movie — it is a rather formulaic comedy-drama that breaks no new ground cinematically — but I […]
Continue reading »The Guard (2011) ✰ ✰ ✰
American movies are notoriously short on surprises, but that isn’t always the case with global fare. The Irish film The Guard has several surprises, mostly character-driven, that make it seem fresh and original. It has the same casually profane tone punctuated […]
Continue reading »This Island Earth (1955) ✰ ✰ ½
The 1950s, as the webmaster of Filmbobbery can tell you, were the golden age of science fiction cinema. This Island Earth is an interesting effort from Universal that mixes some real cinematic strengths with glaring weakness that keep it below […]
Continue reading »Real Steel (2011) ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
Richard Matheson’s story “Steel” was first adapted as a memorable “Twilight Zone” episode starring Lee Marvin. Now it has found new life as a futuristic robot boxing feature film — and it’s very good. Director Shawn Levy has created a […]
Continue reading »Drive (2011) ✰ ✰ ½
The set-up is intriguing: movie stunt driver Ryan Gosling moonlights as a getaway driver for whoever is willing to pay for his services. He becomes attached to a neighbor woman (Carey Mulligan) with a young son (Kaden Leos) — and […]
Continue reading »The Ides of March (2011) ✰ ✰ ✰
George Clooney deserves credit for directing another film that is smart and classy without reducing its melodrama into fights and gun battles, as so many modern movies do. The Ides of March, based upon Beau Willimon’s play “Farragut North,” is […]
Continue reading »The Thing (2011) ✰ ✰ ½
Having loved both the 1951 and 1982 editions of this sci-fi classic (and written a comparison of them in Volume 4, Issue 2), I was dubious about yet another version. Especially after seeing the first preview, which I felt was […]
Continue reading »Night of the Ghouls (1959, released 1987) ½
An older couple, travelling off the beaten path, become frightened by ghosts and report their experience to the Los Angeles police. Fortunately, the cops have an expert in ghosts along with considerable experience with the supernatural, so they investigate and […]
Continue reading »Shock (1946) ✰ ✰ ½
Part of a mini-surge of psychiatric films in the mid to late 1940s (Spellbound, The Snake Pit), Shock stars Vincent Price as a psychiatrist who murders his wife and then becomes the treating physician for the only witness to the […]
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