Dibot’s blog

The China Syndrome focuses on two journalists, Jane Fonda ("Georgia Rule") and Michael Douglas ("King of California"), who try to expose the dangers of a nuclear power plant in California. Jack Lemmon ("The Odd Couple II") works in the plant and helps them when he becomes convinced that safety standards are not being met. The film is a bit slow starting off, but when it gets going, the paranoia and cover-ups are easy to buy into. The ending is also very good. Definitely worth checking out.

I haven't seen a film as moving as Talk to Her in quite awhile. Written and directed by Pedro Almodovar ("Volver"), the story follows two men who become friends while caring for the women they love, both of whom happen to be in comas. But it's so much more than that. There's love, of all kinds, morally questionable actions, beautiful cinematography, haunting music, crying, laughing, general amazement on my part. This is what movies are all about.

Grand Hotel was the Best Picture Oscar winner in 1932, and thought it took me a bit to get involved in the story, once I did, I was thoroughly hooked. The film shows the events in The Grand Hotel in Berlin over the course of 24 hours. The intrigues, friendships, love affairs and agonies of the people staying in the hotel, give us plenty of drama. Also, according to the TCM guy, this was the first film with an all-star ensemble cast, composed of brothers John ("Playmates") and Lionel ("Lone Star") Barrymore, Greta Garbo ("Two-Faced Woman") and Joan Crawford ("Journey to Murder"). Very entertaining.

Roman Holiday stars Audrey Hepburn ("Always") as a princess who just wants to have some fun. So, she shirks her duties for a day, and ends up touring Rome with Gregory Peck ("Cape Fear"). Only she doesn't know that he's a journalist planning to write a story about their adventures. But then they start to have feelings for each other, and Peck faces a moral dilemma. Very funny and sometimes heart-wrenching. Peck and Hepburn have great chemistry. I really enjoyed this.

The Red Shoes is a film by director Michael Powell and writer Emeric Pressburger ("Ill Met by Moonlight"), whose names I have always heard, but work I had not seen. The story has a fairytale quality. It's about a ballerina who wants to be a great dancer. A director takes her under his wing, promising to make her a star, but when she falls in love with a composer, the director tries to crush both their careers. The film starts slow (I seem to be saying this alot. Maybe I'm the slow one.). There's also quite a bit of ballet, so be aware of that going in. I really enjoyed the use of color and the examinations of career versus life, art verses love. I'm not sure I'm sold on this duo's genius, but am definitely interested in seeing more of their films.

Shapeshifter has a group of people trapped in a jail with a man who can turn from human to beast at will. Poor acting, terrible dialogue, dumb editing, sub-par effects. Avoid.

Rescue Dawn pairs Christian Bale ("The Dark Knight") with Steve Zahn ("Strange Wilderness"). It was like a little party just for me. Writer/director Werner Herzog ("Encounters at the End of the World") helms a narrative film based on his own documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly, the story of a guy who wants to fly so badly, he joins the Air Force only to be shot down over Laos and taken prisoner, during his first mission. In the camp, he meets several men who have been there for years, and he tries to organize them in an escape. The really cool thing about this film is that Bale plays upbeat and quirky, and Zahn plays serious. Plus the compelling story and horrors of POW life. The lush jungle shots. A little cheesy at the end, but, all in all, very good.

Written and directed by Pedro Almodovar ("Volver"), The Flower of My Secret, follows the emotional life of a writer, Marisa Paredes ("Ana's Way"), as she deals wit her crumbling marriage, a new love interest and an aging mother. The colors and music are gorgeous. I felt Paredes' pain, even when I didn't care for her that much. It's beautiful, humorous and mesmerizing.

I don't have much experience in the martial arts genre, but Enter the Dragon seems to have influenced everything I have seen. Bruce Lee ("Game of Death") stars as an undercover agent infiltrating a martial arts contest on a private island owned by a crime lord. It's dubbed, so sometimes the voices are ridiculous. But the fighting is awesome. The story is a bit cheesy, and there are definite James Bond moments, but I see why this is considered a classic. And why Lee is revered.

I've heard alot of people say that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is ruining their childhood. I am not in that camp. I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent watching Harrison Ford ("Firewall") chase the bad guys, be reunited with Karen Allen ("When Will I Be Loved") and discover he has a son (Shia LaBeouf, "Transformers"). The effects were mostly good, and though there were some cheese moments, a good time was had by both me and my mom.

Shrooms was the big surprise of Friday the 13th. It was really good. The cover box looked terrible, the description - a group of kids go to Ireland just to eat Mushrooms and then don't know whether or not they are hallucinating ghosts - sounded pretty lame. But the effects were very creepy. The acting believable. And the story, especially the ghost part, was quite good up until the twist ending. And even that didn't ruin it. Very nice surprise.

Crazy Eights was not such a good time. Frankly, I was bored. Old friends reunite when one of their group dies and then they end up following a map which leads to the corpse of a child. Then weird stuff happens. Ghosties and flashbacks. Confusion and no clear "good guy" for whom to root. I can't recommend it.

Suddenly, Last Summer is based on a Tennessee Williams ("Night of the Iguana") play, so it's emotionally disturbing. Katharine Hepburn ("Love Affair") is trying to have a lobotomy performed on her niece, Elizabeth Taylor ("The Flintstones"), because the niece made some disturbing comments about the circumstances surrounding the death of Hepburn's son. Montgomery Clift ("The Defector") is the brain surgeon caught in between these women's monologues on relationships and human behavior. Very good.

The Shop Around the Corner is a sweet little romantic comedy starring Jimmy Stewart ("The Magic of Lassie") and Margaret Sullavan ("No Sad Songs for Me"), who love each other through anonymous letters, but can't stand each other in person. The banter is good, and there are some excellent comedic moments. I really enjoyed it.

Anatomy of a Murder started a bit slow for me. But once it got into the courtroom, I got really involved. Jimmy Stewart ("The Magic of Lassie") stars as a small town attorney defending a man who killed the man who raped his wife. There's some comedic moments between Stewart and his assistants, but mostly this is a tense back and forth between lawyers and witnesses. Director Otto Preminger ("The Human Factor") doesn't really go into the right and wrong, but just let's us think about the evidence and what the jury's decision means. Very good.

I haven't read the Chronicles of Narnia, nor have I revisited the first film sine it came out. So, Prince Caspian seemed a little disjointed to me. But I did enjoy the story of a young prince trying to retake his kingdom from his evil uncle, with the help of those four kids from the first movie. The action was very good, as were the special effects. The message got a bit heavy-handed at the end, but I liked this better than the first, despite the special-needs bear. "For Aslan!"

Coming Home stars Jane Fonda ("Georgia Rule") as the wife of an army captain who begins volunteering at the Veteran's hospital when her husband goes off to Vietnam. There she meets Jon Voight ("National Treasure: Book of Secrets"), who has returned from the war wounded and angry. He opens her eyes to the darkness and love. Voight is amazing, totally earning his Oscar with a couple of outbursts and an inspirational speech. All in all, I enjoyed the movie, but felt it moved a little slow. Good examination of how war affects people.

Adam's Rib is worth seeing if only for the back-and-forth between Katharine Hepburn ("Love Affair") and Spencer Tracy ("Guess Who's Coming to Dinner"). The two star as married lawyers who end up on different sides of the same case. While much of it is amusing, the court case raises some interesting issues about morality and sexism. Tracy and Hepburn also explore how professional life can affect personal. Very good.

I found Flawless to be quite boring. Demi Moore ("Mr. Brooks") plays an executive in a diamond company in the 1960s. She's bitter about getting passed over for promotions because she's a woman. So when the janitor, Michael Caine ("Sleuth"), proposes theft, she agrees. But the heist isn't that exciting and the puzzle of what happens to the diamonds isn't that interesting. Then there are the bookends with Moore in the future. Not really needed for the story and a bit cheesy.

P2 was part of my Friday the 13th bad horror movie tradition and it was awful. A not-very-nice, nor very interesting woman gets trapped in the parking garage by a whiny, lonely, deranged parking attendant on Christmas Eve. He tries to teach her to be thankful while tormenting her, and she continually does stupid things. Just skip it.

I'm probably spoiled on Robin Hood movies, having seen too many darker versions to really appreciate the technicolor spectacle that is The Adventures of Robin Hood. Errol Flynn ("Cuban Rebel Girls") is very charismatic and the Merry Men have a joviality not even matched by the Disney version. The film has all the familiar legend highlights, including the archery contest, and everyone is into their parts. Maid Marian's handmaid brings in some excellent comic bits. But no one will every be as good as Alan Rickman in the Sheriff of Nottingham role.

WarGames is a really fun thriller from the '80s with the lovable Matthew Broderick ("Bee Movie") and a surprisingly cute Ally Sheedy ("Steam"). Broderick is a computer geek who stumbles upon a military computer and gets it started playing a nuclear simulation "game." The computer is so huge it takes up a room, and Broderick has a telephone line especially for his modem. It's so cute. Anyway, despite the outdated technology, the story is very tense. Broderick and Sheedy are adorable together. Lots of fun. And a good moral about the misuse of technology with personality.

Room 6 seemed promising. A woman's in a car crash and her husband gets taken away in an ambulance. Then she can't find him in any local hospitals. Weird dreams, visions and creepy little girls ensue. And boringness, unbelievability and ridiculously twist endings. Lame.

I also thought The Hamiltons would be good. But it wasn't. The style was very film school. One of the annoying main characters even carries around a hand-held camera, so we get those shots, too. Great. Weird family keeps hostages in the basement where they drain the victims blood and feed it to something mysterious in a cage. I just didn't care. Avoid. Avoid.

Mira Nair's ("Vanity Fair") The Namesake was amazing. I loved it. I feel in love in the beginning of the film and just stayed there all the way through. The story follows and Indian family over the course of about 30 years. It focuses on their family relationships and the struggle of the son (Kal Penn, "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay") with his heritage and the modern American world. I enjoyed the earlier part of the film with the parents, Irfan Khan ("The Darjeeling Limited") and Tabu ("Fanaa"), more than the later half. The film had so much going for it that I ignored any flaws. I bawled like a baby more than once. And I thought about the movie for days. See it now.

Never Cry Werewolf is a Sci-Fi Channel original movie, so, my expectations were fairly low. And then, I was pleasantly surprised. A mysterious man, who looks like a creepy-child-molesting version of Hugh Jackman, moves into a new house and attracts the attention of the two kids next door. The oldest, a teen-age girl, finds herself having some inappropriate dreams about the new comer and then notices that women keep disappearing into his house. Cheesy effects, but an alright story. Terrible werewolf transformations. But then Hercules (Kevin Sorbo, "Meet the Spartans") pops in with some comic relief.

I caught Beneath Still Waters late one night on Sci-Fi. From director Brian Yuzna ("Rottweiler"), it's got some cheesy acting, but a really interesting story. The plot involves a town being flooded for the building of a dam, demons and scary zombie-type creatures. I thought it was really creepy and fun.

Sabrina, the original (hopefully, everyone's forgotten the remake by now), is bot comic and tragic. Audrey Hepburn ("Always") is difficult to make unnoticeable, but director Billy Wilder ("Buddy Buddy ") and costumer Edith Head ("The Last Married Couple in America") do an excellent job. Hepburn plays the daughter of a chauffeur and is hopelessly in love the boss' playboy younger son. After a stint in Paris, she comes back glamorous and catches the eye of both the young playboy and his older brother, a Mr. Humphrey Bogart ("the Harder They Fall"). Hijinks and heartaches ensue. I loved it. The costumes, the brooding of Bogie. All of it.

Torn Curtain, an Alfred Hitchcock ("Family Plot") staring Paul Newman ("Cars") and Julie Andrews ("Enchanted"). Newman is a scientist who has seemingly defected fro the US to East Germany during the Cold War because he lost his funding. He tries to live his fiancee/assistant, Andrews, behind before he enters Germany, but she follows him. I found this to be very suspenseful, and, of course, well made. But not Hitch's best.

Mildred Pierce is a fabulous noir with Joan Crawford ("Journey to Murder") doing everything she can to make her spoiled daughter happy. It, of course, ends in tragedy, but not before Crawford does some fine acting and we're gripped to our seats wondering how this murder really played out. And who's going down for it.

OK. The internet has crashed on me twice while I was working on this review. So please forgive any spelling or other errors as I am going crazy trying to get this posted.

At the beginning of Love Story, I wasn't sure I felt the repartee between Ali MacGraw ("Glam") and Ryan O'Neal ("Waste Land"). Then a young Tommy Lee Jones ("No Country for Old Men") popped up out of nowhere. Then there was some hockey. Then the banter got better. The passage of time was handled pretty well. And by the end of the film, I was crying like a baby. So take that as you want it.

Iron Man was a pretty good comic book movie. Robert Downey Jr. ("Charlie Bartlett") is perfect (as always) as Tony Stark. He and Gwyneth Paltrow ("The Good Night") have excellent chemistry. Jeff Bridges ("Surf's Up") is kind of thrown away in the you-can-see-it-coming-a-mile-away bad guy role. The suit was amazing, and I think director Jon Favreau ("Zathura") handled it with the right light touch. I will see the sequel. Cause you know it's coming.

The Orphanage is a gloriously atmospheric ghost story. I wasn't scared, but definitely enthralled the plot follows a young boy who disappears in an old house his parents were planning to turn into a school for special needs kids. But his mother also has some past connections to the place and it doesn't really go exactly where you think it will. Compared a lot to Pan's Labyrinth, it's different, and yet, has a similar fairy-tale quality.

Sicko really made me think about America's health care system. Director Michael Moore ("Fahrenheit 9/11") sort of toned down his brazenness and tried to let the subject speak for itself. Of course, he doesn't quite manage it, but then,  he wouldn't be Moore if he didn't get all up in your face. Good food or thought.

Fanny and Alexander - Wow. Ingmar Bergman ("Saraband") really is one depressing SOB. Yes, I know, you'd think I'd realize that by now, but I'm a little slow on the uptake. I really did love this movie. It's breathtaking in its cinematography and the despair it explores. I saw the theatrical version and there's a part of me that wants to see the original, longer, television version. The rest of me is still fighting to urge to slit my wrists. The story follows two children, Fanny and Alexander (though the focus is more on Alexander) and their extended family. The children deal with the death of their father and their mother's remarriage to a very stern priest, played perfectly by Jan Malmsjo ("Goodnight, Irene"). He will, most likely, haunt my dreams for life. See this as soon as you feel happy enough.

I really enjoyed Dark Victory. Bette Davis ("Wicked Stepmother") stars as a young socialite diagnosed with a brain tumor. She then must decide how to live out the last days of her life. I couldn't take my eyes off Davis, she just lights up the screen, even when she's dying. Humphrey Bogart ("The Harder They Fall") has a cameo as a horse trainer and his scenes with Davis are some of the best. Though the plot description sounds depressing and I did end up crying, it's not necessarily a sad film. There's a lot to think about here. Also, a young Ronald Reagan ("The Killers") puts in an appearance.

Jezebel is another Bette Davis film, and though this is directed by William Wyler ("The Liberation of L.B. Jones"), Davis won an Oscar for her role and the film was nominated for best picture, I had some real problems with it. I know it's set in the Pre-Civil War South and Davis plays a Southern Belle, but really, the racism was hard for me to take. I know that slavery was not even part of the story, but it kept distracting me. It's really a love story/character study of Davis' character Julie and how she looses the man she loves and does many horrible things trying to win him back. Some of it was interesting, but in the end, this is just one of the classics that doesn't live up to it's reputation.

Little Children is one of the most perfect looking films. Each shot is well composed and lit and feels right. Good job director Todd Field ("In the Bedroom"). It's also well acted, I especially loved Kate Winslet ("The Holiday") and Jackie Earle Haley ("Semi-Pro"), one of the creepiest child molester characters ever. The stories just seemed a bit off. I know everything was supposed to tie together and make us uncomfortable and think. And I was uncomfortable, several times, I just didn't think the whole added up to the sum of it's parts. It seemed like I had seen this movie before.

I always hear people say that Zathura is just another Jumanji, and that may be true. But is it really a bad thing? Director Jon Favreau ("Iron Man") has a knack for creating a bright, vivid, fun world and still not skimping on the emotion. Brothers Danny (Jonah Bobo, "Choke") and Walter (Josh Hutcherson, "Firehouse Dog") fight constantly, and this continues throughout the film in a very realistic, amusing style. But the game brings them closer together, of course, in the end. I really enjoyed this film. It's not new, but it's a good way to pass a dull evening.

The biggest reason to see The Big Sleep is the chemistry between Humphery Bogart ("The Harder They Fall") and Lauren Bacall ("The Walker"). They are just burning up the film. It's also a really interesting story that's impossible to follow. I can't really even break it down except to say that Bogart plays Philip Marlowe, a detective investigating the involvement of a society girl in the death of a pornographer. (Thank you TCM). Just see it. I plan to watch it again. And possibly even again.

I found this old review from when I used to work at a newspaper. Dated 9/7/2000

There Can Be Only One

Unless it's a movie, and then there can be as many as you can imagine.
The fourth Highlander movie, "Highlander: Endgame," represents the changing of the guard for this series. It combines the original movie character, Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) with the television show character Duncan MacLeod (Adrian Paul).

For those who know nothing about Highlander (shame on you all) here's a bit of back fill. Some people living among us humans are immortal. Once they are killed in their regular lives, they revive and begin their lives as immortals, never aging and never dying. The only way an immortal can be killed is if someone cuts off his or her head. If one immortal kills another, then he/she gets the dead immortal's power in a surge of lightening called the Quickening, which usually destroys large buildings and blows up nearby cars or trees.

So the immortals are all fighting each other in this big game, usually good verses evil, to be the last one left alive. Hence, there can be only one.

There's also a big set of rules that goes along with being an immortal, like you can't fight on holy ground, only one immortal can challenge another immortal and so on.

In this film, one of the evil immortals, Kell (Bruce Payne), gets a group together and they jointly attack other immortals. (Evil guys are always breaking the rules.) And he has a personal grudge against Connor from like 600 years ago and since that time, he has been tracking Connor and making his life a living hell by killing off all the people he loves. Thus, Duncan becomes a target.

For those who are confused, Connor and Duncan are from the same clan, so they're both Highlanders, but Connor's several hundred years older. He found Duncan when Duncan first became an immortal and trained him and taught him all the rules.

Watching this movie was like watching a really long episode of the show, which is cool if you like the show. If you don't, you probably won't like the movie.

I, however, enjoyed it immensely. Except for the excess flashbacks. I know the director was just trying to tell the story in an interesting way, but I would have liked fewer flashbacks.

There was one weak spot in the plot, but not too bad. Otherwise, I give it two thumbs up for being a really long episode. Think "The X-Files" movie.

spoiler alert: It's a little bit sad. Something had to be done to keep the movies going, and since Lambert is starting to show his age, it's hard to believe that he's immortal. I don't want to spoil it, but think "Star Trek Generations" where they bring the new crew in to join the old crew.

You can't have two captains.

I can't believe that they let me do this. And paid me. I think I got better at writing reviews as time went on. I'll have to wait until I come across some more.

Okay, round two for today.

The Awful Truth wasn't terrible, nor was it good. Irene Dunne ("It Grows on Trees") and Cary Grant ("Walk Don't Run") have good chemistry and Grant is gorgeous as always, but I just didn't feel the repartee. The two star as a married couple who have suspicions about each other and so decide to get a divorce. Then they interfere into each other's new romantic attempts. It's a screwball comedy. And I've shown before that I don't always "get" this genre. And since it's 89% fresh here on RT, it probably is just me.

Insatiable is an After Dark film and it represents on of the worst of the bunch. A really lame guy witnesses a hot vampire chick killing a homeless man. He becomes obsessed with her and attempts to capture her and teach her to feel. Boring. Poorly acted. Ludicrous plot. Please avoid.

The Raven is a strange Roger Corman ("Searchers 2.0") film about warring wizards, starring Vincent Price ("Edward Scissorhands"). It's a B-movie in all its glory. There's overacting by Price and costars Peter Lorre ("The Patsy") and Boris Karloff ("The Fear Chamber"). The plot is silly. The dialogue too. The colors are over the top, and a very young Jack Nicholson ("The Bucket List") wanders around too. I quite enjoyed it. Plus, it has Price reading "The Raven" in that awesome voice.

Five Easy Pieces stars Jack Nicholson ("The Bucket List") as an classical pianist who abandons his upper class life and starts working on an oil-rig. When he receives word that his father is ill, he goes to visit the life he left behind. Bringing along his somewhat trashy girlfriend, Rayette (Karen Black, "One Long Night"), he confronts his old life. This is definitely a character study, and a good one. Nicholson is very revealing as he wars between his desire to rebel and his talent. I need to see this again, but enjoyed this first viewing.

I took my four-year-old nephew to see Nim's Island and he mostly enjoyed it. Though he got bored a few times, I think those were the times I was most interested. Jodie Foster ("The Brave One") plays an adventure writer afraid to leave her house. She receives a S.O.S. email from a young girl, Abigail Breslin ("Definitely, Maybe"), who thinks Foster is the hero from her books. Breslin is wounded and alone on a secluded island trying to survive storms and invading tourists. Foster tries to brave the world and save her. It was amusing, especially Foster's bits. And Breslin's interactions with the island animals were really sweet. Take the youngsters.