One of the greatest joys of movie watching occurs when a sequel is as good or better than the original, and such is the case with DreamWorks new animated movie, How to Train Your Dragon 2. I never quite connected […]
Continue reading »Month: June 2014
Million Dollar Arm (2014) ☆ ☆ ☆
I’m a big baseball fan, but I had never heard of the “Million Dollar Arm” contest, in which cricket players in India were given the opportunity to win baseball tryouts for major league teams. According to the movie, anyway, this […]
Continue reading »Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980) ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Our tenth classic of 2014 is the dramatic musical biography of country and western singer Loretta Lynn, which shares the same title as her famous autobiographical song, Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980). The film stars Sissy Spacek as the singer, and her […]
Continue reading »Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980)
by Barb Lentz. The five movies Bob provided for me from which to choose were these: Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980) The Great Escape (1963) The Killers (1946) On the Beach (1959) They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969) I […]
Continue reading »Maleficent (2014) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Although this isn’t really my kind of movie and I will probably never see it again, I must admit that I enjoyed Maleficent. If its inconsistencies could have been avoided it would be well worth watching; as it is, it’s […]
Continue reading »Shirley Jones: A Memoir (2013)
Shirley Jones: A Memoir 2013, Gallery Books. 291 pages. $27.00 Shirley Jones, with Wendy Leigh. Singer and actress Shirley Jones has written, in collaboration with Wendy Leigh, a candid memoir regarding her life and career. It is, by turns, […]
Continue reading »Ida (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆
This Polish drama from Pawel Pawlikowski is about as far removed from a Hollywood movie as can be produced. It is slowly paced, made with long, static camera shots using only natural light, about a character who rarely talks or […]
Continue reading »The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) ☆ ☆
It’s taken me about a month to get around to seeing this blockbuster action movie because I just couldn’t get excited about it. I liked Sam Raimi’s trilogy with Tobey Maguire and just don’t see the point of “re-imagining” the […]
Continue reading »Ernie: The Autobiography (2008)
Ernie: The Autobiography 2008, Citadel Press. 256 pages, $24.95 Ernest Borgnine Ernest Borgnine recounts the highlights and important episodes in his long career in his new autobiography titled, simply, Ernie. It is an easy read, for Borgnine is a […]
Continue reading »The Dream Factory (2002)
The Dream Factory 2002, Mira Books. 384 pages. $22.95 Janet Leigh Leigh’s final work, published just two years before her death, is another fictional exploration of Hollywood. This time her protagonist is a woman, young Eve Handel (formerly Handelstein), […]
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