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palmer_rl
Reviews
The Devil's Rejects (2005)
Junk
Horror. How is this even scary? So...a goofy clown (who isn't even scary as clowns go), a dirty old guy, and a hot chick are crazy and kill people. This isn't escapist horror, this is the evening news.
The scariest thing about this movie is the clown guy's teeth. Is there a dentist in the house? There's no intensity, no suspense, no opportunity to become invested in any of the characters.
Brutal maybe. Occasionally funny for which it gets a 2--but very occasionally. It's as if it was written by an 8 year old boy who just discovered the F-word.
Overall, a meh for the whole Zombie universe.
The Goodbye Girl (2004)
A decent television adaptation
This remake of the the 1977 Neil Simon, Herbert Ross film is effective. The performances are genuine and well done, generally, though not as well realized as those by Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason in the original. While Jeff Daniels' more subdued and slightly more attractive Elliott Garfield is appealing, Dreyfuss' over the top, oscar winning performamce is still superior in many ways. Patricia Heaton is warm, lovely, and appropriate as Paula, but never truly outstanding. Again, a more attractive actress than Mason, but she plays at it with somewhat more vulnurability and less strength than Mason.
This production robs the material of a bit of its original realism; the massive New York apartment, with its clean, modern appliances and wide open spaces takes away the charm and immediacy of the tiny two bedroom in the original film. The scene where they repaint and redo the living room does damage, where in the original film the scene was poignant for its improvement on the dusty living space they shared.
Pepsi-faced Halli Kate Eisenberg is the most wonderful surprise in the film. She approaches the material with more warmth and understanding than the rather spoiled brat take we got from the child actress in the first film. She is bright, approachable, even when she's angry she's vulnurable and believeable.
All around, this film gave me the warm fuzzies. It's well written, well performed, MOSTLY appropriately updated including its pop cultural references. Interesting cameo by director Benjamin as a, well, a director.
Orange County (2002)
Since when is Stanford Ivy League?
I'm just annoyed that with great films like Gosford Park and The Brotherhood of the Wolf opening this weekend, my theater chooses this tripe as the only new movie to open this weekend. So it has Tom Hanks' precious little boy in it. It still looks just like 18 other off to college movies I've seen advertised in the last six months that create no feel for what University life is really like. This really stinks.