Reviews

Meryl Streep very much deserved the Academy Award for her performance in this film. If you're old enough to remember Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of Britain, then you might understand how well Meryl Streep captured the persona and the essence of an extraordinary woman who one Soviet diplomat called The Iron Lady. You might also remember how utterly despised she was by the prevailing popular culture for her strong will and conservative views. But she never wavered; she instead took the UK from the brink of chaos back to its rightful place among the world's leading nations.

It is rather unusual to think of an important historical film such as this one as too short, they are most often too long. But this film omitted the mid 1980s years when PM Thatcher was at the height of her power. The film is barely 1 hour 45 minutes; it could have been 30 minutes longer, with a section devoted to the mid 1980s.

She's going a bit crazy. The house is her turf; and she knows how to take advantage of it. She will lock you out if she can, so pocket a spare key. Raquel! Let me in!

An amusing study of human territoriality and the limitations of one's ability to control what is thought as a possessed environment, the film explores irrational behaviors that can be remedied by tenderness and patience.

This Chilean film is among the best foreign origin films of the year. Sad, funny, charming and unpredictable. Nice job, Sebastian Silva. Catalina Saaverda is brilliant as the somewhat disturbed maid, Raquel. The film offers us just a glimpse at Chile; which looks like a nice place.

Had one failed diplomatic initiative during the Civil War succeeded, could it have changed all of history? Perhaps. Kevin Willmott's chilling and somewhat plausible alternate history of America was so well produced that even its exceedingly unlikely and prejudiced retelling of the 20th century passes with a bit of artistic license. It assumes, wrongly, that America is a country completely without any virtue, a view to be rejected outright. Assumptions about a Confederate Empire, chattel slavery spread unimpeded and unchallenged throughout the Americas, a ridiculous notion of a "Cotton Curtain" cold war with Canada just don't add up. It could not have evolved that way. Nonetheless, the alternate 19th century history is utterly fascinating. Had Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin succeeded in getting European powers to fight for the Confederacy, what would America look like today?

Even with its terribly cynical and often unfair view of America, I admit I couldn't stop thinking about this film.

You would think the creators of the Legendary "Dude" (The Big Lebowski) could have made this movie a lot funnier. They had plenty to work with, top talent like George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand-Coen, and John Malkovich. Yet this flick was quite unfunny. The only memorably funny item was the CIA boss (J.K. Simmons). Brad Pitt's character was mildly amusing, while the Linda Litzke character (McDormand) was just annoying and very unsympathetic. I wanted someone to blow her head off. And where was John Turturro? He was one important missing ingeredient. These actors are good, the Coen Bros. are great; so what the hell happened? No good jokes, that's what happened!

I don't care, "It doesn't matter to Jesus!" "That's just, like, my opinion, man."

This made for TV production is superb in its rendition of the story of Boudicca, the First Century CE (AD) warrior Queen of the Iceni people, a tribe of Celts living in what is now East Anglia UK. Boudicca led a revolt against the brutal Roman occupation of Britain, and is remembered fondly as one of the great figures in early British history. Production value is first rate, with what looks like historically valid interpretations of Iceni and Roman characters. Boudicca is played by the little known British actress Charlotte Comer, who gives the production her all. Computer rendered graphics recreate what seem to be accurate accounts of the carnage of large-scale ancient warfare. Roman characters speak Latin, adding to the realism.

There does seem to be a small bit of pop feminist-style historical revisionism for TV's sake in this show, but this does not seem to detract from the production and is rather understandable in the greater context of the TV business.

This production is highly recommended.

Though I bailed out of the Star Trek fan-culture many years ago, I was struck by how much this landmark film resembled the old Star Trek series. The set design, color, style, motif and futuristic premise all looked like Proto-Star Trek. One can't help but think that this film, released in 1956, almost a decade before the debut of Star Trek, influenced a young Gene Rodenberry, who was around then a Los Angeles policeman. The stark similarity to Star Trek was crystallized when a youthful Leslie Nielsen, not the goofy old guy we know today, but a handsome and serious leading man playing Commander John J. Adams, almost immediately groped the leading lady (Anne Francis) just like Captain Kirk would have done! Anne Francis, who was quite an impressive sight back then, plays the daughter of the mysterious character Dr. Edward Morbius, played by the rather stuffy but still effective Walter Pigeon.

The story has somewhat Shakespearian overtones and plenty of cheesy pathos (just like Star Trek) and even some thought-provoking sci-fi sensibility. A must-see for both former and current Trekkers.