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jayb
Reviews
Victor/Victoria (1982)
Warm, witty, old fashioned muscial comedy
What a wonderful movie. The performances are dead on accurate, the comedy ranges from subtle to slapstick, the songs are memorable. Leslie Anne Warren was deservedly nominated for an Academy Award. Only two quibbles: first, it's a shame Blake Edwards chickened out and put in the scene in the hotel bathroom. Second, no matter what the IMDB trivia for this movie tells you, the opera attended by King and Victoria is Madama Butterfly, which IS NOT about a man masquerading as a woman.
Norbert Smith, a Life (1989)
Excellent Parody
Highly recommended. The parodies are dead on accurate; the performances are first rate. (Favorite moment: when Lady Norbert interrupts Sir Norbert during the suitcase story.) Put together with great attention to detail. (Watch for the editing and continuity errors in the Richard Burton war film parody.) I only wish it were available on video. I had a copy once and lost it.
The Haunting (1999)
Proof that More is More
I left the film feeling a little beseiged by the relentless onslaught of special effects. Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton strapped to a railing with a twister roaring down the staircase would not have been out of place. What was an unsettling and creepy psychological study in both the novel and the Robert Wise film has been blown up into a Disneyesque theme park attraction of a movie. The movie stayed with me about as long as it took to walk out of the theater...the book, however, has passages that I can still recite in my mind and marvel how unsettling they are. Wait to see it free on cable, if you're curious, but don't waste your money.