Saturday, September 22, 2012
Earth vs. the Spider (2001) (TV)
A shy, obsessive comic book fan gets injected with an experimental serum giving him superpowers.
A pulp reimagination of David Cronenberg's The Fly.
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Friday, September 21, 2012
A Global Affair (1964)
As an employee at the United Nations building in New York City, Bob Hope finds himself in charge of an infant abandoned at the UN.
The original idea notwithstanding this is a pedestrian and quite unfunny comedy.
Halliwell (no stars): "Flat sentimental farce which embarrassingly tries to say something about the UN."
Maltin**1/2: "Unwitty Hope vehicle..."
The Petrified Forest (1936)
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A waitress, a hobo and a bank robber get mixed up at a lonely diner in the desert.
Talkative, not particularly exciting and very stage set melodrama.
Halliwell**: " Rather faded melodrama (it always was), which is important to Hollywood for introducing such well used figures as the poet idealist hero and the gangster anti-hero, and for giving Bogart his first meary role.
Otherwise, the settings are artificial, the acting theatrical, the development predictable and the dialogue pretentious."
Maltin***1/2: "Stagy, but extremely well-acted and surprisingly fresh. "
Thursday, September 20, 2012
New Stuff: Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Karen O sings on one song on the new Swans' album, and I thought I'd finally check out her band.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
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First Lines: Arthur Conan Doyle - A Scandal in Bohemia
(art: Sidney Paget)
To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
The Passionate Friends (1949)
Passionate Friends were in love when young, but separated, and she married an older man and then they meet again.
Meticulously made but cooly told Ménage à trois.
Halliwell**: "A simple and obvious dramatic situation is tricked out with flashbacks and the inimitable high style of its director to make a satisfying entertainment."
Maltin**1/2: "Predictable love triangle among the upper classes, enhanced by strong cast and Lean's craftmanship."
The Island (2005)
A man goes on the run after he discovers that he is actually a
"harvestable being", and is being kept as a source of replacement parts,
along with others, in a Utopian facility.
Watch an interesting premise degrade into a mediocre mainstream mayhem action thriller.
