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ftm2000-2
Reviews
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Did I see the same movie as everyone else?
Seeing this movie gave me that unpleasant "I must be from Mars cause everybody seems to like this movie, but I'm not getting it" kind of feeling. I have seen movies that I haven't liked but whose appeal to certain tastes I could understand. The appeal of this one eluded me, however.
Take me to your leader.
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
What did I miss?
Did I see the same movie as the people that gave it a 7.3 on the IMdb rating scale saw? The movie seemed to be about something but whatever it was about surely eluded me.
This is one of those movies the viewing of which makes me think I am from another planet.
Take me to your leader...
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
She had to learn it for herself
A couple of people have said they've wondered why Glinda would think that Dorothy would not have "believed" her that all she had to do to get back home was click her heels. I've wondered about that too, and have come up with this suggestion: Perhaps Glinda was *not* referring to clicking the shoes when she said Dorothy "wouldn't have believed me." Perhaps she was referring to what Dorothy needed to learn from her adventures in Oz.
Consider, if you will: After Glinda says, "She had to learn it for herself," the tin man then asks Dorothy what she's learned. Dorothy then makes her speech about how from now on she's going to look for "her heart's desire" "in her own back yard." She then says, "Is that it?" to which Glinda says, "That's all it is." It's only after all that's settled that Glinda says, "Now all you have to do is click your heels together three times," or something like that. The implication being--to me, anyway--that clicking her heels, while necessary, wouldn't have helped her get home if she hadn't gone through the step of learning what she learned in Oz. And, presumably, at least according to Glinda, Dorothy would *not* have believed that she needed to look for her hearts' desire in her own back yard, etc., etc., had Glinda "told her that before." .
Babes on Broadway (1941)
Great if you can skip from point to point
I recommend this movie if you can get it on laser disc. That format will allow you to jump from one musical number to another with the push of a button, while avoiding a story-line that drags, drags, drags.
Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney do their best--and their best is pretty darn good--but they are served well only by (most of) the musical numbers. Most of their spoken scenes are from hunger. Granted, the couple of musical numbers that don't work really don't work, but the ones that do really do. In addition, Mickey Rooney has calmed down from his distemper-filled early years, and Judy Garland gives a performance that shows why she inherited Mary Pickford's title of "America's Sweetheart."
C'est arrivé près de chez vous (1992)
Am I from Mars?
Do you ever find yourself asking that question when people seem to find something funny (or sad, whatever) and you just don't? That's what happened to me after reading some of the comments about this movie being funny. I can see how this movie is many things, but funny? Oh well, to each his own.
I did find it horrifying, though what I found horrifying about it was not so much that this man was doing these things or that the crew was joining in with him; rather, I found it horrifying in the way in which some of the murders were filmed. That rape scene followed by the dis-embowling (sp?), for example. Holy Toledo. Along with feeling vaguely depressed, I found myself much more interested in how that scene--and some of the others--was actually filmed than I felt in any "point" the film-makers were trying to make.
It'll be a cold day in Hades before I ever want to see this one again, Holy Moly.
Okay, I'm back to Mars now.
Pigskin Parade (1936)
Fast-paced and unpretentious
Except for a couple of seemingly endless musical numbers by a male trio or quartet--I don't recall how many there were--called the Yacht Boys, I found this movie to be consistently entertaining. I attribute this to what I found to be a charming cast, some well thought-out and performed musical numbers, and a story-line that doesn't take itself too seriously. In addition to these virtues, the movie offers some skilled comedy playing from Patsy Kelly and Jack Haley and, to a lesser extent, from Stu Erwin, as well as three stand-out musical numbers performed with an appealing vigor by young Judy Garland. Worth a look.
Floundering (1994)
9 stars
Since it's unclear to me how to vote for this movie--help me out here, imdb--I'll vote for it here. I give it nine stars. For anyone who can get it, it's worth seeing. James LeGros gets to the heart of any character he plays. He seems to bypass technique. In addition to this movie, he's more than worth watching in "Gun Crazy", "Living in Oblivion," and "Drugstore Cowboy."
Sunshine (1999)
Well-acted, well-filmed, but what was it about?
I was touched by the way in which this movie sincerely seemed to want to move me, but I was frustrated by the way in which it went about it. It couldn't seem to make up its mind what story line to take, and by the time the caption, "October 1956" came on the screen, I was exhausted. While some forty years had passed on the screen, I felt that that's how long I'd been sitting in my seat.
Okay, I exaggerate, but, overall, I felt that, while the movie had many scenes of great beauty, it was in great need of some judicious editing. The sword-fighting sequences, for example; well-done, yes, but why so much time spent on them? It seems to me that what was important at this point in the story was to establish that the character had become a great and respected swordfighter, or whatever the term is. It was *not* important to be shown *how* all this happened. We could have been given the information by the voice-over and saved a lot of time.
And the explicit, repetitive sex scenes, please...These were low points of the movie for me, mere titillation trying to pass itself off as art.
I did find I was uplifted at the end of the picture, but I think this was due, mainly, to the performances of the actors and to the beauty of the cinematography. The storyline, lofty though its subject may have been, just wore me out. Thank you.