Of the two well-known baseball musicals (1958’s Damn Yankees is the other), I prefer this frothy MGM vehicle. To me, Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949) has better songs, livelier humor, a better feel for the national pastime and, most […]
Continue reading »Month: November 2011
History is Made at Night (1937) ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
One of my favorite films from 1937 is the comedy / drama / romance/ adventure History is Made a Night, with Charles Boyer and the incomparable Jean Arthur. It’s a movie that cannot easily be pigeonholed because it does so […]
Continue reading »I Don’t Buy Kisses Anymore (1992) ✰ ✰ ✰
Soon after Jason Alexander found fame as George Costanza on the wacky TV series “Seinfeld,” he made this charming romantic comedy in which he portrays overweight shoe salesman Bernie Fishbine, who falls in love with a pretty Italian psychology student. […]
Continue reading »The Onion Field (1979) ✰ ✰ ✰ ½
The vast majority of movies about murder concentrate on the crime and / or the resolution of the case, which is quite understandable. Few, however, go past the crime to depict with any depth the disruptive aftereffects which always follow. […]
Continue reading »Attack (1956) ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰
U.S. military services usually aid movies with military themes and situations, even if those agencies object to particular elements in the script (the best example of this is The Caine Mutiny; the Navy demanded and received a prologue stating that […]
Continue reading »The Hot Heiress (1931) ✰ ✰ ✰
Handsome riveter Hap Harrigan (Ben Lyon) falls in love with beautiful society girl Juliette Hunter (Ona Munson) in this early talkie from Clarence G. Badger. Since this was made soon after the sound era began, The Hot Heiress, like many […]
Continue reading »Anonymous (2011) ✰ ✰ ✰
Was Shakespeare a fraud? That is the tagline for Roland Emmerich’s new drama Anonymous, which supports the theory that Edward De Vere was really the genius known as “William Shakespeare.” The truth will probably never be known, as it has […]
Continue reading »In Time (2011) ✰ ✰ ½
From Andrew Niccol (writer of The Truman Show, writer-director of Gattaca, S1mOne and Lord of War) comes another high-concept film, this one involving time and the aging process. In Time presents a future where people stop aging at 25, but can only […]
Continue reading »Footloose (2011) ✰ ✰ ½
While this is yet another unnecessary remake, it is fairly engrossing and effective, partly because it recycles many of the songs from the original. This time around, Kenny Wormald plays the youngster who can’t believe that a town would outlaw […]
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