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Reviews
Miracle Mile (1988)
It grows on you
If you want to see a real mind bender, check this one out. The premise is scary, if a bit unbelievable. A guy answers a pay phone (wrong number) and finds out the US is launching Nukes at the Soviets. If you can get past that, it is a roller coaster ride. Denise Crosby (Star Trek The Next Generation) is beautiful as always. Her character just happens along in time to verify that the threat is real from the nukes. As Harry tries to contact his girlfriend to save her, things get really strange. Everybody wants to find a way to escape the impending holocaust. There are a few who think it's just a joke, and that's where the interest lies. Eventually each person in the diner gets scared and tries to find a way to get out of town. This would happen in LA, if the scenario were real.
Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977)
I Saw This In The Theater
This is one of the few films I saw in its original release in the theater where the audience actually applauded at the end. Burt Lancaster and Richard Widmark were excellent, and the cast of actors is incredible. The film uses an innovative split screen effect throughout. The viewer sees what is transpiring in two, three and even four places simultaneously. This heightens the suspense, as we see approaching threats that the characters cannot. Lancaster's Dell character is superb. He basically dominates the entire film, if one can believe how he got stuck in prison in the first place. The end shocked most in the theater, but one can see it coming and understand that it could really happen, under the circumstances. Another governmental cover-up.
I'm not sure if it is a spoiler, so I checked the box, just in case.
The Killing (1956)
Excellent Film, But Heist Not Well Planned
When the group can't get together towards the end of the film, to divide up the money, Sterling Hayden's character has not planned very well at all for such a contingency. He is not prepared with something to carry the money around in, just in case. The idea that he would buy a crummy old suitcase from a pawn shop is pretty lame. Once he sees it won't lock, he should find another way to transport the money. This is still a very fine effort by Kubrick, with all the cutting back and forth in time and in aspect of the different characters. The viewer can still keep up with the plot, as complicated as it is. Interesting to note that he cast Hayden again a few years later as General Jack Ripper in Dr. Strangelove.
I'm not sure if that's a spoiler, so I clicked the box just in case.