ph: Rene Dupont & Sandra Benbaruk
Saturday, August 25, 2012
First Lines: Daniel Quinn - Ishmael
(art: Gustave Doré)
The first time I read the ad, I choked and cursed and spat and threw the paper to the floor.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Freeway (1996)
A teenage juvenile delinquent is on the run from a social worker and traveling to her grandmother's house and she's being hounded by a serial killer.
Brillant black comedy with a tremendously great performance by the female lead.
Halliwell (no stars): "The opening, showing a sex-obsessed wolf chasing Red Riding Hood, suggest some sort of satire is intended; but what follows is a sleazily violent, unsubtle melodrama."
Maltin ***: "Corrosive modern version of Little Red Riding Hood...Extremely violent satire...Not for the faint of heart."
Thursday, August 23, 2012
First Lines: Margaret Mitchell - Gone With the Wind
Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Body of Lies (2008)
A CIA agent uncovers a lead on a major terrorist leader suspected to be operating out of Jordan, but while he tries to capitalize on the intelligence he has uncovered he must also be wary of the double-dealings of his boss in America.
Spy drama with a complicated plot which blurs any political message.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
Charley Varrick (1973)
Charley Varrick and his friends rob a small town bank expecting a small sum to divide amongst themselves, but the loot is a fortune.
Classic tough Don Siegel thriller with a superb Walter Matthau.
Always worth watching.
Hopscotch (1980)
A CIA agent tired of his incompetent colleagues retires and dares them to stop him from publishing an embarrassing book of memoirs.
Entertaining, but quite harmless spy comedy.
Hugo (2011)
Set in 1930s Paris, an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton.
Fantastic homage to the art of traditional cinema ironically using lots of digital trickery.