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Reviews
Dead in the Water (2002)
Watery Death
This film is so bad, on so many different levels. I do not even know where to begin. Oh! I know! I will start off with a warning. Do Not Watch This Film, unless it is like for me, 3:AM and you're unable to sleep.
The acting is not even B movie caliber. But even Olivier would have a hard time squeezing anything good from this insipid script. It really is that bad. I found it impossible to care about any of the characters. The music is painful is as the dialog, if not more so. Plot? Threadbare. Cinematography was sub-par at best. All-in-all a truly dire film.
My advice, skip this film and watch an infomercial instead.
Whistle Stop (1946)
Victor McLaghlin steals the show
George Raft and Ava Gardner seem like a surefire hit but somehow it just doesn't turn out that way. The relationship between the two seems contrived. I think there may have been screen writing problems or something. Taking a decent plot and a good idea for a story and weighing it down and forcing it. It always seemed like there was something missing. But have no fear, Victor McLaghlin saves the show. His character is not only the only one that is interesting enough to care about but McLaghlin gives a really wonderful performance and one well worth watching. I wish the entire movie had been about him with Raft and Gardner as the peripheral characters.
Without Victor McLaghlin I give the film 3 or maybe 4 out of 10 but his screen time brings it up to a fairly solid 6 out of 10.
Living with the Dead (2002)
Splendid made for television
I have just finished watching the first part of Living With the Dead. I would ordinarily never even think of writing a review until I had finished watching a movie until the credits stop rolling. Yet this film is the exception to the rule. Not since Lonesome Dove has there been a multi-part television endeavor that I actually have been excited about seeing the finish. Until now. Ted Danson gives one of the best performances of his career. Portraying the guilt ridden Catholic and stodgy bibliophile forced into facing things he doesn't want to face in a very believable and empathetic way. The rest of the cast is equal quality.
Stephen Gyllenhaal's direction is deft and workmanlike. Throw in Jeffery Jur's top notch and sufficiently creepy Cinematography and you got yourself a very worthwhile movie, made for television or not.
I have now waited a week to see the finish. I stand by my previously conclusions. While the story itself is unexceptional, the dialogue is good. Whether or not the story is true or the movie is like the book is immaterial to the quality and enjoyment for me. I watched it on CBS and even though it was interrupted with an unseemly amount of commercials and my advice is watch it uninterrupted if you can, I still enjoyed it. All-in-all, a very worthwhile movie to watch. I give it 8 stars out of 10.
The Shape of Things (2003)
I'm Indifferent
This movie was as predictable as gravity. The acting was marginal at best. I know other reviewers have mooned over the performances but to me they were given pretty poor material at best and regardless of the actual effort the actors gave, it appeared they just went through the motions. The characters in the movie acted unbelievable in believable situations. The cinematography was uninspired and workmanlike.
Watch it only if you are bored and it is 2am with nothing better on.
I'd have never watched it all the way to the end otherwise
In the end, I guess she'd give me a brace of 'fingers' as I was as indifferent as humanly possible.
Scrooge (1951)
Greatest telling of Dicken's Classic
This is the best by far of the Christmas films. The blending of British stage actors and excellent BW filming add elements to this enduring film yet to be topped. Alistair Sim is the perfect Scrooge. Portraying villainy and pathos to the Nth degree.