The stop motion animation is too close to live action to be whimsical, but not close enough to be realistic. The end result is kind of creepy. The story isn't bad, for a kids film, but I didn't like the visuals one bit.
Probably could have been something substantially satirical or muckraking, if it wasn't produced for some illusory TV series which never happened. As it is, it's an artifact of a time when Edward James Olmos was considered a Hollywood icon.
Ah, pre-Code films, when a director could make larceny and adultery seem frivolous (or even virtuous).
Not much substance to this, but Powell and Francis, the principals, seem to have fun together, and this works very well, if you don't examine the plot too closely.
Kind of formulaic, and could have had 15 minutes trimmed from it. Still, very charming and well executed, including the stone formations of Monument Valley being transformed into vaguely automotive shapes.
The sort of film that only works (and it does work) because it's utterly unique. If a filmed conversation is going to fill two hours, you need two very interesting talkers, and you get that here.
Bar Luhrmann is a director I cannot stand. His defilement of Shakespeare in Romeo Plus Juliet was an obscenity; this wasn't much better. Someday, I'll watch The Great Gatsby so I can galvanize my hatred.
The first one was tedious, but the sequel made the first one look thrilling. The 'bickering old men' got tedious in a hurry; and there just doesn't seem to be an artistic reason for this one to exist, unless you count revenues as art.
is probably the clumsiest plot device since Othello's handkerchief. Witherspoon is good, and Baldwin plays the same hapless white guy he always plays. The movie seems lightweight, which is appropriate, since it is.
The fact that they would literally rewrite recent history to undo the unpleasant consequences of the plot made everything that went before seem trivial
Comments 1 - 25 of 259
Movie comment on Top Hat
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The plot is silly and lightweight, but you can say the same thing about most operas, or even A Midsummer Night's Dream.What matters here is Fred Astaire dancing, both alone and with Ginger Rogers. And the dances are sublime.
Movie comment on Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour
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I'm not sure it really works as cinema, but Swift is an absolutely masterful performer. This really pops with showmanship.Movie comment on The Straight Story
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Somehow manages to combine Lynchian weirdness with Disney schmaltz, and it actually works.Movie comment on Mars Needs Moms
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The stop motion animation is too close to live action to be whimsical, but not close enough to be realistic. The end result is kind of creepy. The story isn't bad, for a kids film, but I didn't like the visuals one bit.Movie comment on National Lampoon's Vacation
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99 minutes of self-absorbed characters in unpleasant situations. Mean-spirited and off-putting. Very competently made, but very nasty.Movie comment on Hollywood Confidential
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Probably could have been something substantially satirical or muckraking, if it wasn't produced for some illusory TV series which never happened. As it is, it's an artifact of a time when Edward James Olmos was considered a Hollywood icon.Movie comment on The Violent Years
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A film so bad that even Ed Wood isn't listed as a writer. It's almost like I Accuse My Parents for a female cast.Movie comment on Kings Row
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This is a movie I like more than I should. Potboiling soap opera, with Reagan, Cummings, and Anne Sheridan at the top of their respective games.Movie comment on Jewel Robbery
Duke of Omnium
Ah, pre-Code films, when a director could make larceny and adultery seem frivolous (or even virtuous).Not much substance to this, but Powell and Francis, the principals, seem to have fun together, and this works very well, if you don't examine the plot too closely.
Movie comment on Paint Your Wagon
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When Clint Eastwood is being judged after he dies, this movie will probably send him to hell.Lee Marvin, of course, is already there.
Movie comment on Barbie
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In the hands of a lesser director, this would have been a stupid 90-minute toy commercial, trying to start a franchise.Coming from Greta Gerwig, it was an incisive and brillian satire that's going to start a franchise, but only incidentally.
Movie comment on Night at the Museum
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If I were a kid, I'd find it thrilling and full of the sanitized romantic 'love' that suffuses children's literature.As a grownup, I found it trite and cheap. Still, the CGI was pretty good, compared to most other films of the era.
Movie comment on Cars
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Kind of formulaic, and could have had 15 minutes trimmed from it. Still, very charming and well executed, including the stone formations of Monument Valley being transformed into vaguely automotive shapes.Movie comment on Little Darlings
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Two girls, away at summer camp, race to lose their virginity first. Less exploitative than its premise makes it sound, but not actually good.Movie comment on My Dinner with Andre
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The sort of film that only works (and it does work) because it's utterly unique. If a filmed conversation is going to fill two hours, you need two very interesting talkers, and you get that here.Movie comment on Moulin Rouge!
Duke of Omnium
Bar Luhrmann is a director I cannot stand. His defilement of Shakespeare in Romeo Plus Juliet was an obscenity; this wasn't much better. Someday, I'll watch The Great Gatsby so I can galvanize my hatred.Movie comment on A Time to Revenge
Duke of Omnium
A celebration of silicone (or possibly saline). No actual plot to distract the viewer.Movie comment on The Rental
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Can't decide if it's psychological horror or domestic drama, and doesn't really become either.Movie comment on Jumanji: The Next Level
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The first one was tedious, but the sequel made the first one look thrilling. The 'bickering old men' got tedious in a hurry; and there just doesn't seem to be an artistic reason for this one to exist, unless you count revenues as art.Movie comment on Election
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TheMovie comment on Mahogany
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Clichéd, goes on too long, and grossly overuses its otherwise lovely theme. But Diana is certainly very pretty, and the movie has its charms.Movie comment on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
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If this is the direction that the MCU will be going in, it will die a quick but painful death.Movie comment on Spider-Man: No Way Home
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Movie comment on Se7en
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Overwrought, ponderous, pretentious, tedious, and superficial. And those are its good qualities.Movie comment on The Tree of Life
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The longer I spend as an atheist, the more I find myself unable to empathize with religious sentiments. This includes the ones expressed in this film.Visually sumptuous, but quite tedious.
Showing items 1 – 25 of 259