Over the past couple of years, I’ve made with reviewing a number of films I’ve seen. A bunch of classics and some newer ones. Some reviews contain spoilers.

How to Murder Your Wife (Jack Lemmon)

The Lemmon movie was pretty good. Thought the courtroom scene should have been a daydream… otherwise funny with a nice end. 8/10

Boomtown (Gable / Tracey)

Boomtown continues to show me that marriage must of been a joke back in the “good ole days". Gable meets Tracey’s girl and in three hours, they are married. This movie was a see saw of ups and downs where the plot would allow just about anything to happen. The poor hapless wildcats weren’t poor and hapless for long. 6/10

I will say that Sands’ (Tracey) remarks in the courtroom scene for that film was a bit funny, when he applauds McMaster (Gable) for conservation of not trying to overproduce the wells because there is only so much oil in the ground. We musn’t leave it stuck in the ground because of haste.

Les Visateurs (Christian Clavier (sp?) and Jean Reno)

Awesome comedy and a less than typical formula for the plot. 8 of 10.

Spiderman 3

I didn’t like Spiderman 1 or 2. Spiderman 3 was worse than the first two combined. The only redeeming value this movie had was a few moments of awesome bass sound effects my system got to make. This movie’s flaws were similar to the first two, however, things were even less undefined. It was as if they had four scripts written a fourth of the way through, tossed those scripts into a blender… dumped out the remains and made a movie from the grunge remaining in the blender. Sandman and Venom were just tools in this film. I never liked Tobey Maguire as Spiderman. And Grandma… well, gee, how many unnecessary scenes could they plop her in to ram the moral of the story home. That and the movie just kept going on. After 55 minutes, I looked with bewilderment that almost 90 minutes was needed for the rest of the film. I rarely fast forward a film I haven’t seen. I couldn’t bare to watch a few of the scenes at all. 1 of 10

The Wrong Man

Alfred Hitchcock film starring Henry Fonda. Interesting movie, though with an anti-climatic text ending. The musical score could have been a little better at conveying the emotion, though most of the shooting was done very well. Hitchcock lagged some scenes for a while, to give the impression of time slowing down in the situation Fonda was in. I thought that was well done. I’d score it 7 of 10.

Advise and Consent

It was a good movie, though oddly starring Henry Fonda, he wasn’t in it that much. If you like Government, you should like this film. 8 of 10

Battle of the Bulge

Historic epic, though cheapish. This movie could have done better with the local languages being spoken. So much more suspense could have been added to the film. For nearly 3 hours, it was a relatively quick film, it did not lag at all. 9 of 10 for a movie, though 7 of 10 as a good war movie. The movie scrimps on factual info, though probably what made it more interesting. Of course, Martin Hessler is fictional as the real guy was alive and unapologetic.

Bringing Up Baby

A comedy doesn’t get much better than this. Despite being made in 1938, this movie starring Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn just completely rocks with some unbelievably funny one liners that hit you out of no where such as when the Leopard gets loose in Hepburns home, Grant’s character says she needs to leave the apartment… Hepburn’s character responds, I can’t, I’m under a lease. Hepburn sells this film the most. While Cary Grant’s character is funny and awkward, it is Hepburn who just continually plays her role as perfectly as can be done. 10 of 10 easily as a movie, even if not judging against just comedies. Also you get the bonus thrill of Grant’s character putting together a brontosaurus.

The Philadelphia Story

The classic with Hepburn, Grant, Stewart, etc… A dramady and a successful one at that. This is rated one of the best movies ever. With that cast, it would of been hard to miss. 10 of 10

Holiday

Hepburn and Grant together again in this comedy. The charisma between Hepburn and Grant isn’t as steady in this film as it was in Bringing up Baby. However, the movie carries a little more drama weight than slapstick comedy that Bringing up Baby was. If nothing else, one should watch this movie to see Cary Grant do a backflip. Lets see Hugh Grant do that! 7.8 of 10

How the West Was Won

Huge budget, huge cast, huger screen. Yep, it was the Independence Day of the 1960s. What the movie had in star power, it lacked in an actual coherent script. You’ll watch it and wonder, did my DVD just skip? Pretty good stunts and filming for what was an action movie of its time. 6.5 of 10 if not just a chance to see Fonda, Reynolds, Cobb, etc… on the same screen.

Waitress

A decently charming film starring Keri Russell and Nathan Fillion. I think I enjoyed the movie a bit only because of Fillion’s nervous character. Nothing special about this kinda cliche script, though it was based loosely as a true story (the writer/director/co-star). 5.5 of 10

Harry Potter - Order of the Phoenix

Less disappointing on a second view for me (having had read the book). The movie holds together well, doesn’t slow down (despite the book lagging the longest). The special effects shine late in the film once the main battle scene begins. 7.5 of 10

Beauty Shop

Certainly a lot better than I thought it’d be. Maybe it’s because it had that black guy from The Gladiator in it. Perhaps it was cutie Alicia Silverstone. Or perhaps seeing Kevin Bacon playing a different role than normal. This movie is about fun, not about any sort of special revelations. It’s a cliche, but cute. It’s decent in the sense it could have been a bunch worse. How’s that for an endorsement!? 6 of 10

Being There

It was one of Peter Sellers’ last films. It’s a good film with a funny premise. The movie won’t make you laugh out loud. But the movie is held in high regard. 8.0 of 10.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3

Yeah. The movie sucked. Everyone loves everyone else. Oh what to do?! Typical Jerry B. movie, loud, long and boring. The main battle sequence just continues and continues. And everyone seems too clever. All the backstabbing or unbackstabbing seems to just be happenstance in the movie, not genius. This movie does better than the second mainly because there was a lot more Johnny Depp. However, the movie bored me to tears. And the ending ending, at the end of the credits? Had they no money left for the final shot and just did it using photoshop? Oy vei. 4 of 10.

Transformers

I’ll sum up this movie in a brief phrase. What the …?!

Yes, if you are a teenager (or younger?), this movie is for you. It has all the glitz and flash and is quite free of any hassles that comes from having to pay attention to a plot. Sure, some people will say that “it’s a movie, deal with it". To those people, “blow off!” The movie lacked any potentially interesting drama (Optimus Prime was wasted), I wanted the main human character to die after just two minutes, wait… one minute.

This movie was a waste. The transformers were overly complicated in design (battle scenes made it impossible to know who was fighting who). Sound effects only had one or two particularly interesting effects. Plot was terrible. Characters were annoying… it had all the decency of a movie of a Speed 2.

3 of 10

Die Hard - Live Free or Die Hard

I’d say this film reminds me of 24 Season 5. It’s got good parts, it’s got bad parts. It isn’t as bad as other action films, it certainly isn’t as good as the better ones. To me, the film tried too hard to be apocalyptic. All the things the bad guys could do kinda made the plot almost a folly. I love to be able to ignore reality to an extent, however, the problem solving skills of some of these Government people seemed to be very lacking. Oh no! They are crashing the market… gee what do we do? Closing the market just seems too hard of a solution. And John McClane seemed Jack Bauer, later 24 seasons, invincible. No where near the can get harmed person he was in the first movie.

That said, the movie did have it’s moments. The co-star was no where the annoying bastard that the Transformers star was, so at least I wasn’t hoping he’d be killed.

5 of 10

The Fortune Cookie

Matthau and Lemmon in it together again. Surprise surprise, Matthau plays the weasel. This movie holds together real well, with some moments of script genius. I liked this film as much as I liked The Front Page. And it’s based in Cleveland, with actual Cleveland references. Keith Jackson appears in the film for a brief “sportscaster” role. I know, I know… what a stretch!

7.5 of 10

The Bachelor and The Bobby-Soxer

I shouldn’t be surprised I liked this. It has Cary Grant in it and he just plays his role so perfect. It was different seeing Shirley Temple playing a teenager instead of the can-do 8 year old. The script is pretty unoriginal, however, the dialogue is pretty good, and this movie has it’s moments of genius as well.

7 of 10

Gone With the Wind

This long forgotten and relatively unspoken about film was based on a novel written by the guy who wrote The Hunt For Red October. Amazingly long when the movie was originally released, it had to be constantly shown so people could remain awake throughout all the parts of the movie (falling asleep made many have to come back again). There are people to this day who have only seen half the movie, even after trying to watch it 10 times or more! The plot, centered around the time of the French and Indian War, the stories protagonist and extraordinary pervert Rhett Butler comes into the scene gawking at girls half his age. The heroine of the story Scarlet, a chaste woman who does no wrong, was terribly duped by her best friend Melanie, as Melanie married Scarlet’s true love (Ashley), by faking her death numerous times. Despite being so terribly wronged, Scarlet continued to love her beau, but from a respectable distance. Meanwhile men tried to take Scarlet’s family money away by marrying her, without her notice or consent, but as fate would have it, they died for different reasons. Penniless and starving, Scarlet went back home, while taking Melanie who was faking being sick and Scarlet’s new born daughter back as their current living place in Charleston, West Virginia was destroyed by the British, the French, Native Americans and the Dutch. Arriving home, she finds that Melanie has sold Scarlet’s daughter for twenty gold coins. Distraught, Scarlet finds her resolve weakening. But despite this, she builds a casino by her bare hands. The casino is run by Melanie’s husband, but those two people steal most of the profits leaving Scarlet only with the tatters of clothing on her.

Heart broken, she meets Rhett Butler who asks her to marry him, under the condition that she lives in a haunted mansion for a whole week. After the most grueling and life changing week in the haunted mansion, Scarlet meets Rhett to marry him, only for him to slip on a banana peel, killing himself as he smacked his head in a mistakenly laid out iron stake, while marching up to the alter. With no where to turn, because Mammie ate the entire plantation and family… threatening to eat Scarlet herself!… Scarlet has no where to go but a nunnery, where she spends the rest of her life in quiet solitude, caring for the wounded veterans of the wars that followed. The final words of the movie were surreal in predicting the coming of a Civil War. “We are mad, as mad as we can be. So fucking mad, to the fiddle dee dee!”

A classic!

9 of 10

Okay, that wasn’t the actual movie.

Grand Canyon

It’s like real life (despite Kevin Kline and Steve Martin starring in it). In fact, the cast is quite impressive. It’s rather simple. The story is about cliques of people somehow interacting together from nothing.

The story isn’t over the top. The characters aren’t over the top. Kinda real, kinda tragic. It’s a simple plot, but you actually care what happens. You can find yourself liking or empathizing with them. It’s simple, it’s good.

7 of 10

Radio Days

It’s a Woody Allen film, without him actually in the film, as a main character. Seth Green is in it! So are a bunch of other actors. When you watch this, you think to yourself… do all Woody Allen films have that same feel? Yeah… they do. The story takes you through the lives of a large family. As usual the story is character based and Allen goes into a bunch of Radio stories.

It’s fun, it’s neat. It’s only 90 minutes… it’ll keep your attention.

7.0 of 10

Stardust

I really didn’t see all of it. I ponder whether the only reason DeNiro was in it was so he could prance around like a homosexual. Otherwise, nothing particularly interesting about this, other than the fact that Michelle Phieffer and Claire Danes are in it. Actually Danes stars in it. This movie won’t have you guessing how it ends. You already know about ten minutes in.

4 of 10 (that’s only because of Danes being in it)

Gone with the Wind

It’s a classic. I think this movie managed to do what Lawrence of Arabia didn’t. It was edited brilliantly. The movie was just long enough to capture enough of the spirit, where as Lawrence could of had 10 to 15 minutes cut from it. Leigh and Gable are stars in this movie. Gable stretches his acting abilities and plays the role of the lovable scoundrel (unlike all his previous movies ). He plays the role well. The movie is well shot and I think everyone won an Oscar, including the gaffers.

This film not only had a black woman in it, I believe she even was credited for being in it. She even won an Oscar for the role. Hattie McDaniel. I think it’d take almost 25 years for a black person to win a Best Actor/Actress award.

It’s a classic! 10 of 10

All About Eve

It’s a classic. The movie really has no dull moments and contains a few zingers (especially Margo’s line to Eve after the award ceremony) within what is an extraordinarily great film. This movie is simply an essential. It goes on that “you must watch these movies” list, not as a matter of opinion, but of fact.

10 of 10

Tin Man

This better than average depiction (Sci-Fi) of The Wizard of Oz was better than I anticipated, though it is a bit cheesy and sometimes there would be plot holes large enough to fit Oz through. The ending left something to be desired and the very ending seemed poorly scripted. Overall, it is decent… and if you don’t have to watch the commercials via DVD, makes this 4.5 hour series a decent watch if there isn’t much else on.

5 of 10

His Girl Friday

It’s got Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell… it’s the original movie based on the original play… which was remade again with Lemmon and Matthau. Honestly, I think the movie did better in the first half than the second. I preferred the much more “ethical” behavior of Matthau’s character than Grant’s character. Cary Grant’s character was almost evil and the whole idea of Russell falling back for him after the terrible stuff he does just reeks of the 30s and 40s! But the banter between the two was brilliant, though most of that was in the first half of the film.

The Front Page was more “believable” than His Girl Friday. The extents that Matthau goes to are more believable and less atrocious in the sense of it being a comedy. In His Girl Friday, they kidnap the mother who then gets into a car accident and the kidnapper leaves the scene, not knowing how the mother was. I just didn’t think that was funny. Matthau ceremoniously giving his special watch to Lemmon as a wedding gift and then reporting the watch stolen at the end of the movie… that’s comedy, typical Matthau.

People refer to His Girl Friday as the finest form Screwball comedy. Honestly, if it isn’t for the extraordinary work by Grant and Russell, I don’t like this film too much. I’ll say it is TCM worthy, but I would recommend the Lemmon / Matthau version from 1974 instead.

7 of 10

The Frighteners

It’s Peter Jackson before he becomes “Peter Jackson” of Lord of the Rings fame. It’s also Robert Zemekis. I liked this film. It’s the mid 90s version of Beattlejuice in a sense, a Comedy/Suspense. Combs (Weyoun from Star Trek DS9) absolutely rocks in the film as Milton Dammers. Personally, the characters make this movie. The plot is strong enough as well. It was a big success, but the Wedding Crashers was, so being a big success doesn’t mean much at all in Hollywood when it comes to being a good movie.

7 of 10

The Bank Job

My favorite movie reviewer reviewed the movie positively. So, I decided to give this Brit film a shot. It did deliver an honest film. It relied on plot, not action. While the robbery itself was anti-climatic… the robbery isn’t supposed to be the climax. People have complaints about this or that, but honestly, it worked for me.

7 of 10

Deja Vu

This movie was much better than Enemy of the State (another Bruckheimmer / Scott film) despite having much less violence. The idea behind the movie was a stretch, however, it was at least held within check, for most of the movie. The suspense held the movie together really well, in my opinion.

Unfortunately, the movie lost grips of it’s own sanity, defying even stuff it said to help create a terribly unnecessary plot hole. The ending resolution of the movie left me so unsatisfied. The movie forgot itself. It was doing well and then went for the Hollywood ending.

The movie was decent, though that may be simply because Denzel Washington is one of the best actors ever and can hold a film together by himself. It was a shame the “science” of the film was forgotten by the writers for the sake of simplicity. 6.4 of 10 for the first 3/4’s. 5.2 of 10 for the entire film

No Way Out

Here is an oldie… if you consider early Costner films as old. A really good twist to the movie, which looks as authentic, even more so, the second view when you know everything as it does the first viewing. Perhaps too many breasts early, which really is unnecessary in my opinion, but other than that, a good thriller with an honest twist. 6.7 of 10

Lord of the Rings (Fellowship of the Ring): Good movie. Knew really little about the story before watching it, so everything is really brand new. Peter Jackson did a good job of story telling and not, in my opinion, of letting lulls becoming boring. 7 of 10

Dangerous

Old classic with Bette Davis and that guy who married Joan Crawford after Bette Davis slept with him. Davis has some magical moments in the movie. The premise is simple, the plot not as complicated as you’d think. Of course, Davis’s character lacks the subtle sense of rationality and makes a rather dumb decision, but women in movies were susceptible to such things back then. I think she was an Oscar for this movie, but apparently it was because she didn’t win it the previous year. Yeah, the Oscars have always been stupid like that. 8.4 of 10

Just Stick It

It’s a teen movie with gymnastics as the theme. I’m pretty sure the entire film was phoned in after the writers watched some other teen movie. 3 of 10

Jezebel (1938)

Remarkable film. Bette Davis plays her typical role of the straight up, honest, do anything for her man woman. The plot revolves around her fiance’s (Henry Fonda) hair. No one can quite understand what it is all about. Eventually, her fiance leaves her after he gets angry at Bette Davis’s character for being too faithful to him. A year later, he comes crawling back with a parade of hookers (some who claim to be health experts) with him, in order to storm Davis’s home. Davis, a lietenuent in the Louisiana militia easily holds him off, but doesn’t have what it takes to kill him. Then out of no where, a tree falls on him ending the film.

9 of 10

The Apartment

Finally got around to seeing this masterpiece starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacClaine and that flubber guy. It is probably on that short top 20 list of movies you have to watch. Jack Lemmon just shines in it. 9.5 of 10

Enchanted (with spoilers)

Disney decided to do a movie that looks back at its old movies and pokes fun at them… except that it decides to take the movie itself seriously. Movies seem to have a problem with accepting true growth of the protagonists as the benefit of the film. Instead of the princess helping the guy become stronger and propel his existing relationship, they make him drop that so he can be with her… and completely force the prince with his new ex.

Honestly, the characters and underlying theme is good. Its just that Disney can’t stay true to a reasonable ending that doesn’t end in their version of “happily ever after". To me, it seems completely impossible for the Princess to make it in New York City. She is too innocent, has too much trust. She will be destroyed by the city and turned into a new witch. Meanwhile the new ex gets to marry the Prince so as to morally whitewash the whole fact that the 5 years she put into a relationship are redeemed when she gets dumped.

I hate Disney films, they are crap to me, and the ending of this film continues that storied tradition between Disney and myself. The idea was good, but the execution was too Disney… but what else can one expect from Disney. I really thought the movie wasn’t going to end so Disney this time though because it was supposed to be a movie that made fun of itself… yet it took itself too seriously in the end.

5 of 10 / If you like Disney, it’d probably be a 7 of 10 because of the endless references.

Mutiny on the Bounty (Clark Gable version)

Well, this is one of those, you probably should watch films. Granted, it is mid 30’s, so the special effects will have you a bit underwhelmed, but you don’t watch a 70 year old movie for special effects. You watch it to see Franchot Tone (Judy Crawford’s 13th husband), Clark Gable and Charles Laughton completely own the screen. The movie’s pace, while not at the edge of one’s seat is definitely fast enough, even by today’s standards. The plot holds together and the suspense keeps you interested and at attention.

It won for Best Picture and lost in 7 other categories. Of significant note, the film did have 3 of the 5 nominees for Best Actor in 1935, which tells you the scope of the acting by the major characters (Tone, Gable, Laughton). I thought Tone was a bit over the top at times… honestly when I see him, I think of Zeppo Marx. Clark Gable is Clark Gable in this film, as Henry Fonda is Henry Fonda and Robin Williams is Robin Williams, but he plays the role well, making his conflicting concerns believable and understandable. Charles Laughton plays a great villan. He plays a great role such as he did in Advise and Consent, you want the guy to die, you want to crack his skull open and play with his brains. In no manner is he over the top, he plays a brilliant antagonist. In addition, what was also nice about the film is that the supporting characters had some definition as well. This wasn’t merely about the leads, they expanded with the crew too.

And of all other things, you get to see Gable without the mustache!

9 of 10