Actors are supposed to draw upon their own experiences while pretending to be someone else on stage or on screen. This reinforces a script’s sincerity and verisimilitude, if the performer can plumb the depths of his or her own past […]
Continue reading »Month: October 2014
The Two Faces of January (2014) ☆ ☆
This mystery, based upon Patricia Highsmith’s book of the same name, reminded me of the movie made from another of her books, The Talented Mr. Ripley. Indeed, the pedigree behind this new movie includes Max Minghella, son of director Anthony […]
Continue reading »Fury (2014) ☆ ☆ ☆
Movies set in confined spaces — submarines, rocket capsules, and in this case, tanks — must necessarily define that space and use it visually to enhance their stories. The greater detail they can provide, the more the audience can identify […]
Continue reading »Dracula Untold (2014) ☆ ☆
I thought the preview looked terrible so I was not looking forward to the newest interpretation of the Dracula legend. Thankfully, the film is better than its preview suggests. It still isn’t what I would judge as “good,” but it […]
Continue reading »Executive Suite (1954) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Our fourteenth choice of 2014 is the all-star big business melodrama Executive Suite (1954). How all-star? The cast boasts no less than seven previous Academy Award nominees (of whom three had won, one of them twice; and one, Shelley Winters, who […]
Continue reading »The View from the Bridge (2009)
The View from the Bridge 2009, Viking Press. 263 pages. $25.95 Nicholas Meyer This book intrigued me for many reasons, some having to do with the Star Trek movies written and directed by author Nicholas Meyer (the best of the […]
Continue reading »My Old Lady (2014) ☆ ☆ ☆
Regular readers of my comments will recognize a familiar refrain when I complain that too many modern movies — especially action adventures — have a failing when they depict actions without consequences. Sure, movies are fantasy, but realistic consequences always […]
Continue reading »The Maze Runner (2014) ☆ ☆ 1/2
Yet another science-fiction oriented young adult series debuts from 20th Century-Fox, the studio that has specialized in science-fiction epics since the 1960s. This one has amnesiac young men trying to survive in a glade surrounded by a huge stone maze. […]
Continue reading »The Equalizer (2014) ☆ ☆ ☆
It used to be that some television series (and later TV movies as remakes) were derived from hit films. That still occurs, but more often now movies originate on the small screen, then migrate to the big screen as big […]
Continue reading »Executive Suite (1954)
by Barb Lentz. The five movies Bob provided me from which to choose were these: The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) Executive Suite (1954) Panic in Year Zero! (1962) The Talk of the Town (1942) Who is Killing […]
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