Saturday, April 30, 2016
Obsession (1976)
A wealthy New Orleans businessman becomes obsessed with a young woman who resembles his deceased wife.
Masterful exercise in Hitchcock style clearly referencing Vertigo; atmosphere and tension are well are finely recreated, and the plot has some slight twists without being too complex.
Halliwell*: "Hitchcockian adventure with a few unwise attempts at seriousness, a la Don't Look Now. Generally entertaining, skilled and quite rewarding."
Maltin**1/2: "Viwers who don't remember VERTIGO might enjoy this rehash...Holds up until denouement."
New Stuff: Prince with Miles Davis
This cd contains the only actual Prince/Miles Davis collaboration, "Little Red Riding Hood" (also known as "Can I Play With U"). Most of the other tracks are outtakes and demos from Prince's late 80s period.
Friday, April 29, 2016
The Jungle Book (2016)
The man-cub Mowgli flees the jungle after a threat from the tiger Shere Khan and, guided by Bagheera the panther and the bear Baloo, he embarks on a journey of self-discovery, though he also meets creatures who don't have his best interests at heart.
Highly entertaining updated version of Kipling's classic, mixing excellent CGI animation with a real (good) actor playing Mowgli, resulting in more realistic and in parts dark and upsetting sequences for a child audience.
First Lines: Keith Richards - Life
Why did we stop at the 4-Dice Restaurant in Fordyce, Arkansas, for lunch on Independence Day weekend?
Contre toi (2010)
An act of revenge takes an unexpected turn when perpetrator and victim get to know each other.
Intense idiosyncratic psychodrama with a superb cast manages to suprise but leaves the audience bepuzzled.
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Detective Sherlock Holmes and his stalwart partner Watson engage in a battle of wits and brawn with a nemesis whose plot is a threat to all of England.
The classic Victorian detective downgraded to contemporary cinema blockbuster standards; the sets are quite spectacular, though.
On second view: I still stay with my initial evaluation and must add the movie is quite boring despite all the spectacle.
On renewed viewing: still not thrilled about it, bit it's watchable.
Maltin**: "Murky, noisy, overproduced claptrap ...Annoying in the extreme - and unintelligible at times - the film gets better in the second half as an actual story emerges, but the overuse of Ritchie-branded editing and CGI effects is deadening."
New Stuff: Little Annie
I helped finance Little Annie's new album via PledgeMusic and got an autographed copy.
