Change Your Image
filmfanaticNorCal
Reviews
The Physician (2013)
a fantastic movie
Best movie I've seen in quite a while. Great acting. Great scenery. Historical. If you are at all interested in history, medicine, or want to be, watch this movie.
Jack Taylor: Shot Down (2010)
very touching story
This episode of Jack Taylor, the Irish rake ex-cop, is stolen by an eleven year old girl "traveler" named Rosie. She's tough, but tormented, but a sweetheart and Jack and Rosie make a connection that is very touching. And Rosie sings like an angel. I highly recommend this episode mainly because of Rosie. The other episodes lack someone you can warm up to so this is why this episode is special.
The Trip to Italy (2014)
boring and obnoxious
A couple of very boring and obnoxious Englishmen driving around Italy. One of them likes to do bad, very bad impressions of Al Pacino and Woody Allen. All they talk about is themselves, make jokes, try to pick up women, and now an then quote Shelly or Lord Byron. I guess they had a nice free holiday but it isn't worth wasting my time to listen to their banter. If one is going to all the trouble to travel around Italy and make a movie, at least put some effort into knowing where you are and the history of the place and the people, which is not so much English but Italian. Those two morons believe that English poetry is the pinnacle of culture, or maybe that's all they know and they don't want to put in the effort to learn about anything else because they might even look ignorant, which they are.
Gunsmoke: Chato (1970)
the Indians lose again
Even the good Indian, Chato, who loves his woman and fights for his people has to die and so does his woman. Chato is obviously a hindrance to the white settlers and has to be eliminated. Dillon in the end, upholds "the law". In the process, he gets Chato's woman killed and Chato.
Dillon, played by James Arness, the worst actor to ever put on cowboy hat, has two expressions; disappointment (when he misses a shot), and a reluctant grin. At least John Wayne, another bad actor, had swagger. Arness had nothing but a big frame. But that said, watch the episode if you get a chance. Ricardo Montalban does a great job as Chato, as does his girl friend played by Colon.
Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Simply awful
The movie stinks on many levels, but I think it is even more sinister than the mere fact that as a comedy it doesn't work. I believe the message was an anti-union anti-communist message, that poor people are poor because they don't know any better, and that all we can do for them is let them laugh a little. The butler in the beginning sums up the whole movie; poverty is not a lack of riches, it is not a negative, it is a disease. Well there you go. This film could have been written by Ayn Rand. And maybe it was.
This is a movie Mitt Romney would love.
Veronica Lake, the witty blond, is a good actress but the script doesn't do her justice.
Cadillac Man (1990)
interesting movie
This movie is funny, insightful, and alarming all at the same time. This is a synopsis of mostly Italian American life in working class burroughs of NY (Queens, Long Island, whatever). Joey (Robin Williams) is juggling two neurotic girlfriends and an ex-wife while struggling to keep his job as a smooth talking car salesman. The movie starts off with a shot of a cemetery in Queens, the biggest damn cemetery I have ever seen. It gives you the feeling of crowdedness, that even in death people are crowded and are probably still arguing over elbow room. Joey is desperate and even tries to sell a car to a widow as she is burying her husband. Eventually, a distraught and somewhat deranged husband of the car dealer's secretary takes over the dealership with a machine gun, convinced that somebody there is screwing with his sexy wife (which is true). It isn't Joey, but he takes the rap and tries to talk the guy down, doing a pretty good job. Car salesman becomes psychologist, and he does an amazingly good job, along with help from a phone call from both his wife and his mother to the distraught man. This is the best part of the movie. You see Joey and Larry (Robbins) play out this scene with both humor and fright. Larry is trying to prove his manhood to his wife. You understand his plight and feel his pain, and at the same time you see the mans compassion, especially with the phone calls from Joey's ex-wife and mother. There is something very real about this scene and I would think that someone who has to talk down a hostage situation might gain something from watching how Joey makes connections with Larry on a personal level. Eventually Larry sees what a mess Joey's life is and starts to see that actually his situation isn't that bad. This movie is as much about the alienation and frustration of modern life as anything else. The movie is loud and frantic and might put you off in that respect, but hang with it.