Change Your Image
phasermuse
Reviews
Favorite Son (1988)
Puzzled
I don't give a rating to this VHS film, not because it isn't a high-calibre thriller with excellent performances by the cast, but I saw the original Television series and I was puzzled after watching the tape. I bought the VHS because I remembered what a stunning (not perhaps by today's standards) series it was and wanted to see it again. It had a lot of holes in it--the VHS version. I was happy to read the comment by Peter22060 - February 25, 2007. I knew there had to be at least an hour of material missing because the film on the tape version gave no reasonable idea of how or why Sally Crain was a nut-case. Some idiot(s) got the rights to copy the series and even though it retains the remains of an excellent film, it had the guts removed. Thus we have a central character manipulating the highest agencies and politicians in this country with no real idea of what is driving her. Thank you Peter22060. I wish I had copied the original.
Man on a Tightrope (1953)
A modest but very fine picture.
I am commenting on the comments I have just read and I salute all of them. This modest movie stirred my heart and soul. It has been a very long time since I saw it for perhaps the third time and I have looked in vain for a VHS never mind DVD (although that would be great).
Of course, this is purely sentimental (I suppose) but the most rending moments are when this little rag-tag circus is approaching the guard house on the border, announcing themselves, "This is the Circus Cernik This is the Circus Cernik" while the few musicians play the "Moldau."
The film is well done with a perfect cast and a satisfying conclusion.
Judging by the small number of comments, I can only guess that not too many people have seen this wonderful film. I think I will write to TurnerClassicMovies and see if they won't find a way to get this movie on their TV view-list.
Dancing at Lughnasa (1998)
I do not know if this comment contains what are called spoilers.
This is a lovely film with a simple story line: the day to day lives of a family (all women, though one brother who very much counts at least in his ruined optimism) and a (love) child and a father. I found the group very loving and burning deep inside for life to bring them something each wanted. The terminal sadness lay in the fact that none of them were able to rise to a powerful and charismatic persona that conquers the world, which has so often been used in other films (Seldom in plays. They are too real and difficult.) to satisfy our need to live through the character(s) and become a force to be reckoned with.
I never read the play (to my chagrin) nor did I see the Broadway show which I recall received much praise, but though I too was saddened as the family structure unravels, I felt it was so true that I had to accept the way the story comes to a close.
I didn't view the film with the thought of this family being staunch Catholics, with the fervid strictness imposed on the lives of believers (in that country, particularly). Nevertheless I found the dance (where Danny tries to overwhelm Rose, and thanks to her brother does not succeed) alarming and disquieting, whereas the dance performed by the five sisters was alive with joy and desire-- abandon--which when the music stops, they each fall into self-consciousness at the revelation of their deep feelings.
I give the movie a 9 only because I do not have the technical, critical, artistic knowledge to give it the 10 I believe it deserves.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
No magic, no fun
I saw HP and the Order of the Phoenix when it opened in theaters last year and now I have just finished watching the DVD of the film. I found the film quite disappointing. The script and the direction reminded me of old TV series. The ones where everyone stands around while the main character carries the load. Yes, there are fine actors in the movie and I am thankful for the few lines they spoke. This far down on the list of comments, I don't imagine anyone will be reading my remarks so I can babble on for a bit.
Many of the previous comments were disappointed with Michael Gambon as a substitute for Richard Harris. When he appears in the third film, I too, was disappointed because Richard Harris made an indelible impression as Professor Dumbledore. Michael Gambon is, however, a fine actor and I soon got past rejecting him as the Professor. There is a lot to ponder if (though unlikely) a viewer has not read the book(s). The editing was a bit jarring, but then I remember the book was difficult. It is the pivotal book in the series and the characters, who after all, are the most important part of the tale were not presented with any imagination and I did not get a picture of a young person moving closer to the age of serious and (frightening) responsibility.
I love Harry Potter and J. K. Rowling wrote a remarkable series. I dread that the same people are involved in the making of the Half-Blood Prince. I would have liked the films to live up to the books. Not that I expect word for word. Nothing like that. Just the marvelous revelations that took us with Harry Potter and company on the wonderful quest for adulthood.
The Skeleton Key (2005)
But
I was interested in the number of very favorable comments this picture generated. I too thought it was well written and acted. It gets down to business right away and creates an atmosphere of uncertainty and suspense. As Caroline (the young caregiver) goes about caring for the seriously invalided old man (wonderful old John Hurt) she is affected as the mistress of the mansion (beautiful Gina Rowlands) drops tidbits of odd information here and there. She is young and feisty and much braver and daring than I would have been under those circumstances and she sets about discovering why the old man had a stroke, why there are no mirrors in the house.And going places she shouldn't go. There is a young lawyer who handles the couples' affairs and is kind of creepy and behaves like a kid when Caroline tries to get any information from him about the couple who live in the house. It is a good, old- fashioned thriller and the chills are done well. But
I didn't get the ending. Certainly did not quite know what was coming and yes, I can imagine the multiple meanings. I think the ending, although I know it was set up as the picture goes along, was faulty. It did not conclude with the certainty of a "Rosemary's Baby." This is not high art so I think the writers could have done a little better by us. I need to have it spelled out so that I don't have to puzzle who is who and why. Maybe I wasn't paying attention when I should have been.
Isle of the Dead (1945)
Great atmosphere.
I saw this movie when I was a teenager and totally dedicated to being scared by most horror films I saw. This movie, I well remember, gave me some great chills which built to the end.
I bought the DVD recently, especially for Halloween--which of course, it arrived 3 days after. Anyway, I was not disappointed with the movie. It moved along nicely from somewhat sinister settings and a mismatch of people who become isolated due to the threat of plague. The man in charge, a Greek general (well played by Boris Karloff) takes over when he suspects the possibility of passing the illness to his troops on the mainland. What interested me most was not that the picture wasn't as well done as I originally thought, but that the characters had so much more depth than I imagined. The general was not an evil tyrant and the housekeeper was not an old witch egging him on out of her envy toward the lovely, young woman. She still seems like an old witch, but this time around I felt her belief in the supernatural and understood her fears which she passed along to the general who had been brought up with the same superstitions. As the first victim succumbs to a mysterious illness and then his wife apparently dies of the same the general's mind becomes affected by the old ways and he falls prey to imagination.
It was not the all-out scary picture I remembered, but it was certainly well done (good old Val Lewton and company). It moved along smoothly and swiftly and built to a very rational and chilling end. I enjoyed it immensely.
La vergine di Norimberga (1963)
Who done it?
I would have to rank this movie as perhaps one step above an Ed Wood cult movie. Actually, when the final 15 or so minutes arrived, the story became interesting, but the movie wandered around the castle following Rossana Podesta looking brave and uninteresting in a doughty dressing gown so I did not care when she learned the monster was not her husband and the old man finally got peace.
I take horror films (excepting slice and dice genre) as seriously as all the people who wrote good reviews for "Horror Castle" but the direction was below amateurish and the film editor could have lobed off a good hour with no loss. Very disappointed. What did I miss? Oh, and by the way: the music was absolutely ridiculous. If the movie had even a little bit of rhyme and reason it was destroyed by the fakey bebop opening, and Glen Miller-backed love scenes and stock suspense music which made the score seem like a satire. But on what?
Night of the Demon (1957)
the music score is awful
"Curse Of The Demon" aka "Night Of The Demon" might have been a pretty good fright picture, but the music score is so awful--very silent movie-ish and heavy handed, giving everything away--that I am not able to appreciate the fine hand of the director, Jacques Tourneur.
There was an awful lot of dialog where there should have been more action. That tended to make the picture rather dull. Although there were some unexpected scary moments, they were not enough to compensate for the generally slow pace. I never felt involved with the characters and certainly not the plot, although I must repeat that the music detracted greatly from possible old-fashioned "scary movie" pleasure. Perhaps if Val Lewton had produced this picture, that might have made a difference. The movie certainly had possibilities which were missed.