Change Your Image
bigverybadtom
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
You've Got Mail (1998)
Not "The Shop Around The Corner"
This movie has the same core idea of the 1940 movie, namely a man and woman corresponding romantically with each other, but they are not friends in the flesh, neither knowing who the other actually is. But the 1940 movie was not simply about the couple, but also dealt with the gift shop's other employees and the boss who has a dark secret that the others worry about.
In this movie, Meg is the owner of a mom-and-pop small bookstore she inherited from her mother, and Tom is bringing in a big box bookseller to a nearby space which inevitably will put Meg's store out of business. The resolution to this story is perhaps Hollywood but not exactly credible. The performers do what they can, but you'll definitely prefer the 1940 movie.
Ulisse (1954)
No, This Is Not An Epic
The movie, which I saw in high school, shows a simplified telling of the story of the Odyssey, where Ulysses, after having destroyed the city of Troy, ends up looting a temple-and the gods are NOT pleased. In fact, they punish him by delaying his return on his ship for ten years and losing his men in the process.
The movie still covers the major events of the story, though one surprising part is when he has himself tied to the mast to hear the sirens' song, he hears his family call out to him, hoping to lure him off the ship, perhaps a greater play on his emotions than any song could do. And we are made sure that Ulysses is the hero and not any of the people who invade his home. Long enough to cover the story without being too long, and fine for light entertainment.
Almost Famous (2000)
Almost Decent
Cameron Crowe's semiautobiographical story of how, as a child prodigy who graduated high school early, but had a strict mother who prevented him from listening to rock music-though he would learn of his older sister's secret stash of such music after she left home to become a flight attendant. Rolling Stone magazine would hire him to do an article, then later would have him be an embedded reporter with the fictional Stillwater band, travelling with them and their crew.
A little problem: even a child prodigy is subject to child labor laws, and a major magazine publisher would hardly want to run afoul of them. Same story with a rock band-would they want to risk having a young teenager among them? This rather spoils the story's credibility. Also as another reviewer pointed out, there is no feel for the period-no background of the social and political discord or economic crisis of the era. Just a boy among some rock musicians and some groupies with delusions of grandeur.
Production-wise, it is easy to see why the movie flopped. Besides the problem just mentioned, the acting was mediocre and the story moved too slowly and unexcitingly, except for the airplane scene. There are undoubtedly better movies on rock musicians to check out.
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Great Dancing, Not So Great Characters
John Travolta is Tony, a 19-year-old paint store employee in NYC who has an unhappy life with his family and a lowlife group of friends, and who goes to a disco every Saturday night with said friends, where he shines while dancing and basks in glory while he is there. He meets other dancers, including a girl who also can dance well, but she rebuffs him.
That is the theme of the movie, of course, that Tony is only happy on the dance floor and is not happy otherwise, not even having adventures with his clique. Not without cause; his religious mother is stifling, and his friends conflict with other ethnic gangs like themselves. Tony can dance, but can he find happiness?
The story is a microcosm of mid-'70's New York City and its culture and inhabitants, not all sympathetic. You can enjoy the dancing and the music if nothing else.
The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
Not Worth The Hype
The movie has beautiful cinematography and is based on a Rudyard Kipling adventure story from the nineteenth century. Two British ex-soldiers go to a remote place in the region of Afghanistan where no white people have gone since Alexander the Great. They hope to find a lost treasure there, and after a lot of rigmarole, they find a native to take on as a companion and reach the area, where they are viewed as gods there because of their religious symbols and success in fighting off hostile neighbors. Question is, will our heroes want to take away any treasure, or prefer to be gods in this exotic land?
Unique that the movie was made in 1975, long after the idea of explorers finding a long-isolated but rich land has gone out of fashion. Mildly entertaining, but long and not as wonderful as all that.
The 2000 Year Old Man (1975)
A Comedy Schtick Animated
This is a comedy schtick by Mel Brooks with the title character and a modern interviewer set to animation. The animation itself is nothing special, but the point is what someone who is 2000 years old is supposed to be like, and what he could remember.
Jokes include how many wives he had over the millennia, as well as all his children, and not one of them write to him. Also, how Robin Hood really didn't give to the poor, that was just good publicity for him. And things such as how he had to escape lions and other big hazards people had to face thousands of years ago that modern people don't have to worry about.
Not really one of Mel Brooks' movies, but still amusing.
Brian's Song (1971)
Made For TV Tearjerker
You cannot expect too much from a made for TV movie, but I felt the subject matter should have been better developed.
And the idea is intriguing. Based on an autobiography by professional football player Gayle Sayres, it talks about how he joined the Chicago Bears in the late 1960's, a time of high racial tensions, and how he was given Brian Piccolo as his roommate. Brian plays a joke on Gayle by falsely claiming the coach was deaf in one ear and did not want to admit it, and when Sayres realizes he was tricked, he gets back at Brian by placing food on his seat and Brian sits down on it. The Bears's management admits to Sayres that he would face hostility both from white people for his race, and fellow blacks for associating with whites.
Gayle and Brian do become friends, but it happens too quickly to really convince, and Brian would become ill with his hereditary cancer. Emotionally effective, but it could and should have been stronger.
United 93 (2006)
Yes, This Is A Reconstruction
British movie director Paul Greengrass, who had already done movies about subjects such as the Troubles in Northern Ireland, was given the job to reconstruct what had happened on United Flight 93, the fourth passenger airplane hijacked by Muslim terrorists on 9/11/2001. Three others had been hijacked and crashed into both towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the news of this had somehow reached the passengers of United Flight 93, and they fought back against the hijackers and the plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, failing to crash into whatever its intended target was.
Purposely the movie was shot in England with little-known actors, to prevent people from bothering the production, and input from the families of the victims was brought in, and they approved the final movie, which was a critical and financial success. Also the movie avoids being rah-rah propaganda; the passengers fought because they had nothing to lose.
As for all the conspiracy theories of the passengers somehow being taken to safety, my response is Ha, and Double Ha!
All of Me (1984)
High Concept, Only Some Laughs
Steve Martin is lawyer Roger Cobb, hired by Edwina, a sickly rich woman, to change her will. The idea is that a mystic is supposed to be able to transfer human souls from one body to another, and the woman intends to have her soul transferred to a female stable hand who claims to be tired of life. The mystic is able to transfer Edwina's soul into a bowl, only for the bowl to hit Roger on the head so that Edwina and Roger end up with both their souls in Roger's body. And that is just the beginning of the complications of the story.
There are some very funny moments, such as Edwina trying to cope with being in a male body she only partly controls, and the stable hand not wanting to take in Edwina's soul after all. But this movie, while amusing, seems like it could and should have been funnier. Passable at best.
A Civil Action (1998)
Definitely Not Erin Brockovich
A legal firm is hired by several members of a small town whose children have gotten leukemia due to probable toxic waste from several large companies in their locale. Jan is a lawyer, a partner in a four-partner legal firm, who takes on the case with tenacity, running up huge expenses and threatening the existence of the firm. The dreary atmosphere shows how depressing the story really is.
Unfortunately, the firm has bitten off more than it can chew, and in the end the plaintiffs are forced to accept a settlement which displeases the families and puts the firm out of business. End credits reveal that one of the defendant companies would be closed down after having given false statements in court, but the damage was done.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988)
Mildly Amusing At Best
The scenario is about an evil scientist and his assistant having sent one of their workers into space onto an orbiting spaceship and forcing him to watch bad movies, and the worker has built several robots for company. Each episode the worker, Joel Robinson, and four robots are all watching a movie screen with a different movie, mostly old low-budget movies from the past, and they make snide remarks as they watch, as well as having interludes where they have comic interactions with each other.
But the problem is, the targets are too easy. Yes, watching bad movies for laughs is old hat, but these are mostly low budget movies that are meant to be silly entertainment rather than serious dramas. One is reminded of Dr. Demento and how he features some interesting or clever old songs and comedy recordings, but a lot of those that are simply stupid. And some of the show's jokes are clever, but plenty fall flat. The show only was successful as it was because of its novelty value, not because it was so tremendously witty.
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
Late Disney Movie That Works
The movie is about a 1920's British songwriter and his wife, female servant, and a male and female dalmatian who have just had a litter of puppies. A rich weird woman, Cruella de Vil, learns of this and tries to buy the puppies from the songwriter, but he refuses, to her displeasure. It turns out the woman has already bought a bunch of other puppies with the idea of making them all into a coat. So she has two thugs in her employ steal the puppies. But the dalmatians don't like what Cruella wants to do...
It works because the dogs are regular dogs, even if they can talk and do some humanlike things (like Sylvester the cat), and the villainess is bad enough to be scary but not overly frightening, and the kids in the theater all cheered at her comeuppance. Definitely a good movie for the kids.
The Four Feathers (1939)
The Case Against False Morality
Based on the 1902 novel of the same name, a man who is a British army officer like his father and grandfather is part of a military unit set to go to Africa to deal with a war there. The officer refuses to go, and is branded a coward by his three friends who go there, as well as by his girlfriend. He changes his mind and goes, but as an undercover commando pretending to be a mute outcast, with the idea of redeeming himself.
Basically an adventure for its time, not meant to be a morality play. Some critics say the officer was being brave for refusing to fight, but the movie fails to give the idea the man was acting out of principle-why would he be a military officer to begin with, if he were opposed to war? Also some people talk about British imperialism against poor natives. The poor natives were (and are) not all sympathetic-India with its caste system (mentioned in "Gunga Din") and many other nations with their slavery and tyranny and their own racism and subjugation of women.
But the story is really about a man who realizes he was being a coward, and has to redeem himself.
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (1964)
One Vietnam Veteran I Knew Hated This Show
I don't know if he was in the USMC, but he did hate this show. And he was not a flag-waving patriot, he wished we never were in Vietnam to begin with. As for the show itself, it was a "fish-out-of- water" trope, namely a sweet bumpkin from Mayberry, originally an auto mechanic, somehow got into the United States Marines. (The real Jim Nabors was never in the military.) The humor of the show depended on his interaction mainly with his sergeant, though with other people as well. Though a bumbler, oftentimes he DID win out, such as using a captured skunk to punish another sergeant who did Carter wrong or winning an exercise maneuver contest by doing various crazy things.
The irony is that the basis for this show was the novel "No Time For Sergeants", about a bumpkin who has knowledge about the countryside which made him more knowledgeable about things than other military people, such as how to interpret an aerial photograph properly or how to survive in the wilderness. But the same principle alas is not part of this show.
Cast Away (2000)
Works For The Most Part
The story is basically simple: a FedEx executive whose job it is to travel to different locations is living with his girlfriend, with the idea they will marry, though his constant traveling puts a strain on their relationship. The jet plane he is on crashes as a result of a storm, and he ends up on an island, the sole survivor. Nobody knows he is alive and he has to ensure his survival on the island. But after several years of being there...
The story moves at a slow enough pace to show the man's uneventful life and how he goes through changes over the years. He does escape eventually and return to civilization. The problem is, the man seems awfully normal after his long isolation, and the very end is too "Hollywood", perhaps to offset any tragedy, but it really doesn't work. Fortunately the rest of the movie does.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Could Have Done Without The Profanity
Other than that, the movie works. Some space aliens are harvesting small plants in a wooded area. Some people arrive and they are scared off, flying back to their mothership. But one gets left behind and finds a boy who befriends him. The boy lives with an older brother and their mother, and the boy reveals his new friend first to his brother, then several other skeptical people. It turns out this alien can heal wounds and make bicycles fly. Two problems emerge-the alien's physiognomy isn't too suited for living on Earth and he wants to rejoin his own people, and Uncle Sam eventually finds out about the new arrival.
There are crass product placements for Reese's Pieces candy and the phone company, yet the movie is still amusing and charming, such as the scene where E. T. and the boy are mentally linked together and the embarrassing ways this results for him in school. Also, as humorist Dave Barry put it, he couldn't hold his beer. Still, this movie is more for older children than little ones.
Death Race 2000 (1975)
This 1975 Period Piece Still Holds Up
I saw this movie on television where the blood and guts were censored, but the spirit of the movie remained intact. This is a deliberately campy movie about a dystopian future in the year 2000, where the dictatorial President holds an annual cross-country race of five cars travelling from one coast to another, the idea being that the cars not only have to complete the race but to run down pedestrians for points.
The contestants for 2000 include Calamity Jane, Matilda the Hun, Nero the Hero, Machine Gun Joe Viterbo (Sylvester Stallone) and Frankenstein (David Carradine), each with a navigator and decorated car with a theme, such as Nero's car decorated to look like a lion. Frankenstein is the favored contestant, having been the sole survivor of the previous years' races. But there is a resistance movement led by Thomasine Paine, descendant of Thomas Paine, whose intentions are to scuttle the race and discredit the President.
An all-around dark satire of politics, repression, revolution, violence, themed entertainment, and it does its job.
Ator 2: L'invincibile Orion (1983)
Perfect Mystery Science 3000 Theater Fodder
I never even heard of that show and turned it on by accident. My late father used to watch ridiculous old movies for laughs, and MST3K was a show with a human and three puppet characters doing the same thing, where they make snide comments about the stupid things in whatever movie they happen to be watching, usually cheap grade Z movies.
And this movie has plenty of ridiculousness. Ator, our barbarian hero, with several companions fight "invisible" enemies, somehow is able to make a hang glider from primitive materials and fly it, somehow can make hand grenades, and the big enemy somehow has nuclear weapons. (None of this I am making up.) And the puppet characters point out ridiculous elements that made it to the movie, such as one character caught wearing sunglasses, and tire tracks on one field. If you're into that sort of entertainment, you might enjoy it.
The Muppet Movie (1979)
They Got It Right
TV shows converted into movies, or vice versa, don't always work. The idea here is that now you see the various Muppet characters, instead of behind a stage as on the TV show, with whole bodies instead. This takes some special effects beyond what you saw every week on the small screen, but they got it right. I loved Kermit riding the bicycle at the beginning, for example.
But it takes more than special effects to make a good movie. The story is basically standard, Kermit singing and getting the idea he could make it in Hollywood. Then travelling there, meeting Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Miss Piggy, and other Muppet characters along the way and having them join him on his journey. There is also a villainous restauranter who wants Kermit to do advertisements for his frog legs restaurant chain, which Kermit refuses on principle to do, but the restauranter doesn't give up easily.
The story itself is nothing special, but that is not the point. You enjoy seeing the Muppets doing their thing, all outside their traditional TV theater setting. Good family fun.
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
E. T. Has Arrived, But He Wasn't What We Anticipated
A military satellite has crashed in a small Arizona town, and of course the military goes to retrieve it. But when they arrive, they find the town intact, but most of its inhabitants dead, save a crying infant and an old souse. They determine an alien virus has infected the satellite, and it is brought to a top secret secure laboratory for some scientists to determine what this virus is and how to stop it from doing more harm.
Except for a disappointing silly ending, the movie shows a proper scientific procedural, following the Michael Crichton novel it was based on. The scientists are normal and not superhuman, nor do they have magic equipment besides the equipment and tools of the era. Certainly a lot better than other sci-fi movies of the era.
Air Bud (1997)
Air Dud
An awful professional clown has a pet golden retriever he treats cruelly and ends up losing. The dog meets a boy who has just moved into town and the boy fosters then keeps him, and it turns out that the dog is able to "play" basketball, or rather can knock basketballs into the basket utilizing his snout. (The credits for the movie say that the dog did it for real.) The boy joins his new school's basketball team, and so does the dog, first as a mascot, then he is called in to play when several human players are injured
Basically a cookie-cutter "boy and his dog triumphs" story, though suspension of disbelief is required, namely the fact that the dog can put basketballs into a basket but cannot genuinely play basketball, as he can only carry the basketball in his mouth rather than dribble it as basketball players are supposed to do during a game. One former basketball player in the movie gives a decent performance, but everyone else just goes through the motions. Even the villainous clown is so inept he isn't even minimally scary. Some more movies were made using a golden retriever playing various sports, but this movie failed to make me want to watch them.
The Muppet Show (1976)
An Unlikely Smashing Success
A scenario modelled on the variety shows of the era, with Kermit the Frog from "Sesame Street" hosting episodes with a group of other puppet/marionette characters (where the name "Muppet" came from), both human and animal, and a different human guest each week, major stars of the day such as Jim Nabors, Randy Newman, Diana Ross, Sylvester Stallone and others.
The idea was undoubtedly considered crazy when it was taken up, as this was a show more for older people rather than small children a la "Sesame Street". Yet all the guest actors worked well enough with the Muppet characters, and clever writing kept the show amusing without degenerating into ridiculousness. Perhaps a period piece, but it was fun when I and my family watched it.
Captains Courageous (1937)
The Book Was Reportedly Better, But The Movie Works Too
The movie was said to have been made on a Hollywood soundstage, but it is the performances that count. Using major stars of the day, the story is about a spoiled rich boy who is taken by his father from his boarding school onto an ocean liner where he is expected to learn more about life. But the boy sticks to his old mentality until he happens to fall off the liner into the ocean, then being picked up by a fishing trawler full of poor sailors. And the boy finally learns how he cannot compel people to obey him anymore but has to follow what the crew of the trawler tells him to do.
Basically predictable, but interesting for the kiddiewinks. Hopefully I can find the book someday.
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Problems In A Gift Shop
The basic plot is about a man and a woman who are fellow clerks in a gift shop who dislike each other when they are together in person but who are in love with each other as pen pals, and neither of whom who know who the other one is in person.
But there is more than that to the story. There are other clerks and a delivery boy, with conflicts among them, including one clerk who is unlikable and possibly worse. The proprietor of the store is friendly with the male pen pal, but there is something bothering him greatly, and nobody knows what or why. Also, there is the Christmas shopping season about to arrive.
The story has a predictable ending, but it is not all sweetness and light, especially when you find out what was bothering the proprietor. Still good as a story.
Ordinary People (1980)
As Great As All That?
I saw this movie as a teenager, when my church's youth group was taken to a movie theater to see it. The story is based on a novel about an upper-middle-class family in turmoil after a tragedy. There is the weak father, the furious and stone-hearted mother, and the surviving teen son, the older one having died in a boating accident. The surviving son is secretly seeing a psychiatrist, and not one in a fancy office either.
I would find out this was Robert Redford's directorial debut, but this seems, as other reviewers have pointed out, more like a TV movie than a big screen accomplishment. The mother hates the younger son and has the feeling the wrong one died, though the reason why is not explored. There are arguments when the grandparents come to visit and on a golf course, where the family cannot even temporarily stop fighting. The real problem is that we never learn why the mother feels as she does about everyone else, making this movie unsatisfying.