Reviews

This is a movie about animal cruelty. Under the guise of a marathon race, we see depictions of extreme animal abuse, including literally running a horse to death IN SLOW MOTION. The guy who did this then has his conscience spiritually cleansed by the flames from the burial/burning of the horse, which of course is still dead, having been tortured to death. This is one of the sickest, slimiest movies I've ever had the displeasure of viewing. As Gene Hackman and James Coburn near the finish line on their DYING animals, we're supposed to admire their spirit for finishing the race. I'd like to put the producers and director in a marathon race; I'll decide when they're finished, probably about 20 minutes after they stop breathing.

Hollywood at its worst. No story, no script, wooden (Glenn Ford, Inger Stevens, and George Hamilton) or over- (Max Baer as Jethro on angel-dust) acting, even the "comic" relief is embarrassing. This leaves you with only violence and photography. Zion National Park looks good. Flick looks bad.

Dean Stockwell extremely mis-cast as the Kipling's colonial boy raised as a native Indian. The whole thing is utterly lacking in excitement or pace; Flynn looks more tired than heroic. I think there is a good movie to be made with this material, but this version proves that it cannot be done on a soundstage.

If this is film noir, then noir must be French for glacially slow. Take a cast of completely unlikeable characters, give them nothing to say, punctuate the whole thing with gratuitous ultra-violence, and you've got the formula for an aggravated Dash. Could be subtitled "Sleazy Hollywood types attempt to make money from Chinatown rip-off". Bruce Dern's one minute part is orders of magnitude better than anything else in this flick. By the way, I didn't like the film.

Why hurt your brain trying to understand all the meanings behind all the images Fellini gathers into his films? Just enjoy the overwhelming flow from the master of the cinema, who gives you more things to look at and think about later than just about anyone else. A lot of it is weird and kinky and even unappealing, but why else go to the movies? I can see real life at home.

Classic screwball (almost) comedy with a message, still very funny especially in the first half. What shines through to us more than 60 years later is the class of William Powell, and the perfection of the character actors Eugene Pallete, Alice Brady, Franklin Pangborn and Jean Dixon. A must-see to complete your collection of 1930's upper-class-acting-silly (i.e. screwball) comedies.

Great cast, many of the same bunch from the funnier Murder by Death, who attempt to parody a combination of Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, with some Chinatown thrown in. Some cute and clever stuff, but this one never manages to slip into hilarity. Best thing is Ann Margret, but then she always was.

Good cast (Aykroyd gets the best lines), but the implausibilities keep stacking up until they over-techno-whelm the techno-plot in this techno -thriller. It finally comes down to a shoot-out, like any other action flick. And who can believe Gandhi as the bad guy?

The movie version of Highlander is better than you might think it's going to be. Chris Lambert is strangely effective as McLeod, and the flashback story meshes quite well with the present story, which gimmick is continued successfully in the TV series. There are places where tighter writing and /or editing could really have improved the flow and dramatic tension, and there must have been a way to get more Connery into the flick. I gave it a 7, which means I only channel-surfed during the commercials and once during the film.