October 21, 2013

Week Of New & Old

NEW TO ME:

The Long Night (1947) Henry Fonda, Barbara Bel Geddes, Vincent Price, Ann Dvorak.  Great cast in a murder story and why he done it.   7/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039581/combined

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack.  Showing on IFC this month, I decided to give it a try.  Really quite boring.  But does have the two stars at their most gorgeous.  See he is a doctor and she is an art something or other.  They go to parties all dressed up and she gets hit on by dancing partner and then he goes to see patients and then they have an argument or something and he walks the streets and gets involved with a costume whatever, and then he returns the costume he rented and then he goes home and he and wife talk and go shopping and and and, Jaysus in a handbasket!  I guess the nudity and sex scenes are what every one gets off on, but it is sooooooooo boring.  Really??   4/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120663/combined  

The Beach (2000/I) Leonardo DiCaprio. Tilda Swinton.  
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0163978/combined

Somewhere (2010) Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning.  Sofia Coppola directs a film about a successful actor in Hollywood who suddenly is visited by his young daughter.  They do stuff together.  The eat ice cream in the middle of the night.  They visit Italy where he is getting an award.  But she goes off to camp and he is sooooo bored that he takes his great car and parks it beside the highway in the desert and goes walking off into ------?  5/10  ww.imdb.com/title/tt1421051/combined

This Means War (2012) Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, Chelsea Handler.  7/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1596350/combined

Silver Linings Playbook (2012) Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Robert Di Nero, Jackie Weaver.   Lawrence won Best Actress Oscar, and practically everyone and every other thing was nominated.  My question is why?  I sat a waited for the good stuff and waited and waited.  A film about mental illness should at least be real and interesting.   Pat (Cooper} has been in an institution for eight months and diagnosed bipolar, and having an episode in which he almost beats a guy to death.  Like a lot of mental illness patients, he stops taking his meds as soon as he is released.  We see his manic side at the beginning of the film.  Just as suddenly he is into a relationship with a strange woman (Tiffany-Lawrence) he meets at a dinner with his best friends family.  She  is also a mental wreck and she agrees to act as a go-between and deliver a letter to his ex-wife in exchange for him acting as her partner in a dance contest.  They have practice sessions and then are at the contest and do quite well.  The End.  Mental illness looks like fun and it is not.  It is devastating to families.   My score - 6/10.  Ordinary and untruthful, in every way.   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1045658/combined

ENCORES:

The Littlest Rebel (1935) Shirley Temple, John Boles, Bill Robinson, Karen Morley, Jack Holt.  Shirley and Bill dance up and down the stairs and win our hearts.  7/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026641/combined

Confession (1937) Kay Francis, Ian Hunter, Basil Rathbone, Jane Bryan.  The great Kay suffers wonderfully and goes to prison for her child.  8/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028737/combined

Die Hard 2 (1990) Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia.  John McClane is at it again, this time at the air port in a snow storm.  8/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099423/combined

Pride And Prejudice (1995) Jennifer Ehle, Colin Firth.  Four part mini-series on TV.  Great version of this classic story.  9/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112130/combined

Gladiator (2000) Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Neilsen, Oliver Reed.  Great film and great score.  9/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172495/combined

The Ugly Truth (2009) Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler.  Enjoyable battle of the sexes comedy.  8/10  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1142988/combined

No comments: