Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Compelling direction leaves little time to be take note of the falsity of the exercise. Everyone is tres tres cool. The alterations to the original tale are very smart given the shift in setting to contemporary France, but the point is much muted now by that same shift.

Colossus: The Forbin Project

One of the pillars of my childhood TV-watching. It's no Andromeda Strain but I love it. That the DVD is pan-and-scan should be a source of profound embarrassment for everyone involved.

Lego Duplo Star Trek Captain's Chair

From Duplo

I think it's a reasonable facsimile given the context. The other pictures in the set are of a Duplo fig that accompanied the chair. He reminds me of Tripp from Enterprise. I do not care to be reminded of Enterprise.

Long John Silver

Disappointing not-Disney remake of Treasure Island with Robert Newton and a crowd of Australians. Not terrible. The DVD mastering screwed up the ratios. I had to tinker with the settings to unsquash the picture. Stupid technology.

A Mighty Wind

So much more emotional than I expected. The parody of the folk-music scene is less send-up than re-creation. Really humbling talents on display. Eugene Levy is forgiven for the Cheaper by the Dozen movies.

The Simpsons Movie

Not so good. Julie Kavner's big scene is touching but the tone is unsupported by the rest of the movie.

The Legend of the Shadowless Sword

Not complete crap. Colorful. Too much wire-fu. Acting was pretty good for the genre.

Living Room

From 20090414_livingroom

Unconquered

deMille gives pre-Revolution colonies the epic treatment. Mis-casting is beyond ludicrous and approaches the sublime. Henry da Silva is in the George Sanders role, Paulette Goddard is in the ... Paulette Goddard role, and so on until we arrive at Boris Karloff as the Indian chief. No, seriously. Peter Lorre as Charlie Chan is more plausible.

Yellow Sky

Anne Baxter in dungarees elicits rude comments from saddle bum bank robbers. Body count escalates. Awesome. Gregory Peck's acting chops under visible strain.

Buccaneer's Girl

Yvonne deCarlo so-called comedy vehicle doesn't get off the ground by the end of the first act. Low-rent everything. Didn't finish.

Against All Flags

Errol Flynn's swash has seen better buckling. Maureen O'Hara in what has to be one of her worst performances. I suspect that there was inadequate rehearsal. Also the writing stinks. Color wasn't too bad, I guess.

The Little Mermaid

One of my more obvious movie-going lapses. "You've never seen the Little Mermaid?!" I know! I'm surprised that they let me into Disneyland. It's pretty good. Amusing songs. Kenneth Mars could have been given a bit more to do as Triton, but there you go. My only criticism is that everyone's eyeballs are just too, too huge. Not Power Puff Girls huge, okay bad example, but too darn big.

Superman (Fleischer Studios)

All the subsequent Superman incarnations need to sit down and shut up. What an achievement this series is! Totally, fantastically awesome and amazing. There is nothing about it that I don't completely love.

The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell

Ponderous telling of harrowing history of air pioneer's career-death. Depressing, really. Some real good speechifyin'. Rod Steiger storms in for one scene, seems a bit embarrassed.

Treasure Island

The Treasure Island with the Long John Silver. All others are just also-rans. The Charlton Heston Treasure Island's Blind Pew is superior, however. Robert Newton astounding.

Boomerang

Elia Kazan indicts small-town America hypocrisy and smallness of mind. Pretty effective, too. Excellent performances by all although Jane Wyatt's character is apparently the template that she will be typecast into for the rest of her career. Ed Begley never disappoints.

The Professionals

To the credit of the characters none of them seem unduly distracted by Claudia Cardinale's outrageous costuming. That they could act around her line delivieries adds extra "pro" to "Professionals." The difficulties of acting in a second language are duly noted. Overall, good not great.

The Odessa File

Weird accents eventually are just part of the milieu. Pretty good overall. The Simon Weisenthal "police procedural" stuff was a bit stiff, but it was also brief. Above average fight scenes. Disappointing resolution.

Pocahontas

I did learn that the English really were looking for gold in their early Virginia settlements. Man, that must have been disappointing. Oh, and that Pocahontas was a runway model. The hell!?

The Changeling

I am a sucker for anything with George C. Scott. This is not a groundbreaking entry in th e ghost story genre by any means and has some long dull stretches and is pretty obvious to boot. Good performances carry it along well enough. In the TMI department, Scott's character weeps in almost the same way as I do. Who knew?

The Day of the Triffids

Really awful print on a bad transfer does nothng to improve this very creaky but earnest monster movie. Mostly inept. Some small charms.

Sunset Boulevard

If shame was one of the elementary forces of the universe this movie would have collapsed Hollywood into a singularity. I'm not sure that the process isn't still working its way through the atomic fabric of Tinseltown. Very close to the top of the list of Greatest Movies of All Time.

Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer

As stupid as the first FF movie was, this one exceeds it in every way conceivable. There is no weakest link - the whole thing is a matrix of weak links. The flying car was good. OK, the design of the Silver Surfer was satisfactory.

Cars

I avoided this because I didn't think I'd appreciate the trappings. Yep.
Looks cool, but I just can't care about some Hotwheels with eyes sliding around on the windshield. Also, it is freaking hyperkinetic.

Journey To the Center of the Earth

Childish but fun. Physics purists will not be able to watch.

Spartacus (bonus materials)

Peter Ustinov interviews are extremely droll. Includes alternative Alex North tracks.

Black Narcissus

Atmospheric and ultimately disturbing. Nice matte paintings!

The Road to Hong Kong

Bottomlessly stupid but has some moments of amusing weirdness. Apemen in spacesuits were unexpected.

Eragon

Handsome production is so perfectly completely derivative and unoriginal that it is more an anthology of fantasy tropes than a script. Famous youthfulness of the author is no excuse.