recently I watched:
The Toast Of New Orleans (1950) Mario Lanza, Kathryn Grayson, David Niven, J. Carrol Naish, Rita Moreno. The second film Lanza made, with Grayson as his costar. Another huge hit for MGM so they hurried scripts for their new star. This one is about a fisherman in the bayous who is discovered when the impresario of the New Orleans Opera comes for a visit. He brings his star, Suzette, and when she sings at the festival, the brash Pepe jumps up and joins her on stage. Which makes her furious. From there we have the taming and 'civilizing' of Pepe so he will be suitable as an opera costar. The Technicolor and music intervals are marvelous and the finale scenes from "Madame Butterfly" are beautifully sung and funny as well. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043053/
The Wild Bunch (1969) William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan. Not a hero in the bunch. All are mean, ornery, dirty and have no honor - not even among thieves. The opening scenes of the children poking at a scorpion that is being attacked and devoured by hundreds of ants, while they watch and giggle, is all you need to know about the next two hours. By the end of all the mayhem only Deke (Ryan) is still able to wryly reckon he'll move on. Which is what all the cowpokes had to do. Robbing trains, banks, stagecoaches, etc., were mostly over. The lawmen, with former thieves as their intelligence agents or surrogates (as Deke was) would make the west safe for merchants and families. And the myths would take over the west. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065214/
Picture Perfect (1997) Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Bacon, Jay Mohr, Olympia Dukakis. Jen is really very pretty and cute but I hate the clothes. Kevin is his usual smirking, fun self. Mohr is - questionable. A womanizer or a bland duffuss. Let's see? Which one? Well, it all works out, I guess. 6/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119896/
Jane Eyre (2011) Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Judi Dench. Charlotte Bronte's Gothic romance is filmed once again, with an all English cast and terrific locations and old dark mansions on the moors. Once again we have a very pretty girl attempting to look plain as Jane. For Mr. Rochester we have a guy who is slight and almost a dandy. Not the way he is described in the novel. The pacing is very deliberate and the scenes that should be exciting and scary are bland. Not my favorite filmed version of this story. 7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1229822/
No comments:
Post a Comment