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Daisy Jones & The Six (2023)
This is so bad, i cannot find the words to express my disappointment
Ok. The only reason i was curious to watch this was to see the grand daughter of you know who, act and sing. The discovery was ok. The rest of it... take the sappy music and somewhat vintage clothing out of the show and you have a cookie cutter Hollywood formulae story like i have seen so many times over the past 10 years. Originality is dead in Hollywood. Its either remakes, reboots, sequels, adaptations of best selling novels (not Pulitzer level stories) and exhumations of old pop culture stereotypes for the fake sake of nostalgia. But a young viewer cannot experience nostalgia, only people who experienced first hand the era. And those people have make a more educated and true judgement of this period piece full of pretention.
Hunters (2020)
Most party poopers here missed the point
This is just a TV show, fantasy.
Why do some people expect everything on TV to be either a documentary, a cinéma vérité, a reality show or a historical drama ?
This is very much a televised comic book, nothing more. I can feel the campy vibes in parts. But really, watching this is like reading a Captain America comic book from the 40's. (Google "Timely Comics").
Yes, most of the acting is over the top but i notice that a lot a modern productions offer the same delivery, as if the actors all were trained at the Marvel Comics School of Acting.
Then, the free spirit attitude toward killing here made me feel like i was watching a 007 movie...
Those who disagree with me, just relax. Life is more fun than you think.
Barbarella (1968)
An amusing treat
If you were around in the 60's, you get this movie. This reminds me of many other movies that had a psychedelic undertone, a sex soaked plot and just plain "tacky" feel....
The movie Jesus Christ Superstar makes me think it lives in the same universe as Barbarella. Well...almost.
Du Barry Was a Lady (1943)
A light musical comedy to forget the war
I bet the studio made this especially for the boys overseas. They execs prolly felt this flick would be a good uplift of morale for the soldiers in Europe...a not so serious that would cheer up the troops with comedy, popular tunes and invigorating colors, something to give hope...and for that, i give this romp a 8 out of 10.
The Many Saints of Newark (2021)
The worst
Do all Hollywood writers currently working lack talent this much?
I have not seen very many films or series with outstanding writing in the past two decades...
Good writers seem to be a rare bird in LALA LAND.
About the film: it does not deserve much of my time so here it i in point form.
-several actors dont look Italian therefore could not buy their schtick
-dialogues were horrendous
-the black riots/luting/angry black men was nothing more than a sneaky woke move (getting tired of Hollywood insulting my intelligence)
-the scenes given to the young Tony were too few and weak
-a plot line is non-existent (instead it feels like a cheap series of motifs, vignettes... a cheap writing cope out for untalented rookie writers fresh out of college
I could go on but i gotta go the bathroom
Oh and....
Hollywood is dead.
If it wasnt for idiotic superhero movies, we'd have to nuke Tinsel Town and start fresh again.
Death Proof (2007)
A nice flashback homage to what I once experienced.
First, I have to wonder how many of the reviewers here were teenagers in the late 60's and remember those Ploitation movies? If you are in your 20's or even 30's and you watched Death Proof then you most likely did not love it. Me, I know what Tarantino attempted to do here and he succeeded.
I need to be very clear with this: if you did not go to a cheap, dungy theatre downtown in the 1970 then you will not entirely get Tarantino's creation here.
To fully appreciate his movie, it is not enough to have watched several B movies and other bad flicks of the 60's. Tarantino makes many references to an era, a sub culture, a "time now passed"...
I fully experienced it.
In 1970, I had a young uncle in his twenties who got a job as an usher in a low class, cheap neighborhood theatre in the Italian quarters of Montreal. His job was to seat people with his dim flashlight, take the tickets, rip them in half and give the other half to the customers. He would do supervision during the movies, inspect the toilets to make sure people were not smoking pot, he would help the manager with what ever he needed done, refilling the CO2 tanks for the pop machines, etc,etc. The theatre itself was small but had a gigantic marquee that spelled Cinema Les Quatre Etoiles (The Four Star Cinema). Right besides the theatre's front entrance, they displayed the now highly collectible posters and lobby cards of the movies it was showing.
I remember it like it was last week: perfect example of a vintage theatre that sadly rarely exists now.
My uncle was fond of me so he asked my dad if he could take me, an impressionable 7 year old boy, to his work and I would watch the movies. Dad said yes.
I was so excited.
Every Saturday afternoon, between noon and 5PM, the theatre would show 4 movies for one price: $2.25
So, while my uncle was on the screen floor supervising the rowdy behavior of teenagers, I was upstairs, where the projectors were and I was watching four movies: monster movies: Godzilla vs Every Monster, Dracula vs Everything, The Love Bug movies, Elvis flicks, Sinbad, Italian Hercules flicks, black and white Batman movies from the 40's, cartoons between the movies, scary movies like "The Man with X-ray Eyes", Jerry Lewis flicks, Kung Fu movies , etc,etc.
The teenagers there would intermittently lose focus and start throwing popcorn at each other, would boo and cheer, it was chaos for five hours but it was some good times.
Then at five, they would all leave. That is when the crew would clean the aisles, sweep the popcorn, quickly mop the soda covered floor. I would often help with the clean up. I loved it.
Then at 6PM, the theatre would reopen for the adults. That was then the time for those movies: mild "x" rated flicks, blaxploitation flicks, police thrillers; the films that no teenagers were allowed to see.
But for about an hour, I got to experience these grindhouse and Ploitation flicks until the time my dad came to pick me up and take me home. I always wanted to stay there all night and see more women undressing, more car chases, more masked killers slashing throats: but I was only 8 so bedtime was coming soon for me.
Now, both in the afternoon and in the evening, the films would always assuredly fail: the film strip would come off its sprokets and get jammed and start burning. People would then boo until the projectionist would fix the strip and roll the film again. But these films were used by many theatres over and over so they often would miss chunks of strips so the film would skip badly and sometimes so badly, it would jump from one scene to another...very jerky at times.
And then, the films would sometimes lose sound and then play normal again.
And then, sometimes the film would stop completely and the viewers would be left in the dark for several minutes. Lots of booing then.
So, Tarantino did well what he intended: a sort of revival, nostalgic piece to bring people like me back to our days of youth when many of the "dime" movies made hardly any sense, showed mindless actions, badly dubbed flicks, jumpy editing, showed ridiculous "special effects" ...but I loved all these movies, whether because I was laughing at them or because an 8 year old was in awe watching Godzilla fight King Kong in 1970.
And when the "mature" films started at 6, my young eyes saw the same things: jumpy editing from cutting too much film strip, dust infested film strips that would move around, so visible on the screen. Etc, etc.
To me, being close to Tarantino's age, I relate to what his creative mission was for this film: simply a flashback to what used to be, with all the flaws and silliness we remember.
To write a critique of this movie without having experienced the smells of a filthy small theatre with ripped seats and sticky floors, the emptiness of the pop cultural phenomenon of the "70's teenhood", the sense of revered tackiness of the mindless flicks played in my childhood theatre, the uncaring of what is on the screen because "I am with my friends on a Saturday afternoon" is to approach Tarantino's creation with only one foot.
I could go on explaining how the "experiencing the authenticity of the message" is vital with the experiences of the old Drive-In when the snack shop was bustling with non viewers and the viewers were distracted by the social element of being in a Drive-In...the movies at the drive-in had no
more meaningful content as Tarantino's piece: it is a homage, no more.
Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)
Inspired or a rip off ?
When i see this movie, i keep thinking of the mad race from telephone booth to telephone booth in Dirty Harry. One creator in this Die Hard must have watched Dirty Harry more than once...right? And then... how many movies, years after Clint's movie, created their own take on the ''i got this girl buried alive with limited oxygen'' plot scheme.
Se7en (1995)
Best ending for a modern thriller.
The desert scene and the parcel delivered to Freeman's character....
nice and more original than most garbage I have seen in other murder/police thrillers.
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
All that was to be said was said here. So, its a must see.
A must see. Top 50 Movies to see. It will not be a waste of time like it is the case with so many current movies.
A Ghost Story (2017)
A film for the film connaisseur, not for the ordinary Joe
I can deduce by the numerous low ratings that most people cannot handle ''art cinema'', that is designed for the brain, not the gut or the genitals. This film somewhat reminded me of a movie by Chantal Akerman. If anyone went to see this film expecting a scare fest (like the Conjuring), i am sure you were disappointed. This film is a study of human nature, existentialism, not a cheap matinee, drive-in scare flick. For those who thought this movie was slow, try watching ''Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles"...
But i will wager that most ordinary minds will not likely ever learn how to appreciate movies like ''A Ghost Story''....
By the way, the pie eating scene is not at all about eating a pie.... Indeed, viewing movies does not require an advanced education but viewing movies lie this one requires something more than just a pair of eyes.
Cloverfield (2008)
2008 reviews vs 2018 reviews
I get a kick out of reading the early reviews of 2008... interesting to read the sensitivities people expressed here when comparing the movie to 9/11.
Things are different in 2018.
Let the Good Times Roll (1973)
Iconic duo makes the movie
I will keep it simple. Best parts: seeing Little Richard fighting for his piano to be closer to his audience(true showman right there), Chubby's face showing how intensely he was taking his moment of glory in, and the best: historical footage of two Big Icons together on the stage; Chuck and Bo, gives this movie an epic ending. Young people who will view this movie should know that many of these performers are still alive and some have left us (RIP Fred Parris and Bo). This movie shows us the originators in raw form, live, with no lip synch and with the audio equipment of the times and yet it still sounds like rock n roll heaven. I am not surprised that the big studios don't offer DVD's of movies like this: no money in it for them.
The Nutty Professor (1963)
Another work of art from the Master
OK. Beyond writing a straight, common review of how funny or not so funny this movie is, i would like to make some points. Yes, i am a 60's child that grew up watching Lewis, Clint Eastwood and his spaghetti westerns, corny TV shows like Lost In Space, The Time Tunnel; enjoyed watching Elvis gyrating with babes on the beach, and was enthralled with the rudimentary art of the TV cartoons in the 60's. But here is one point: today, the youth understands humour as something that is wide open and that has no bounderies. That means anything goes in comedy nowadays: sex, drugs, perversion of all kinds, profuse swearing, strong condescending attitudes, acidic cynicism, manic depressive characters that will sometimes spit out a funny joke attached to a body part, a sex act or followed by a huge toke from a huge joint. Well, i am old enough to know that humour is not limited to what today's media dish out. There are many kinds of humour; of course some types of comedy originated from way back and because it was from a somewhat distant past, lots of youths will quickly dismiss it as UNfunny. What is funny is like " Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder": what is funny to one may not be funny to another. But what I find disappointing is the trend, the current, the direction comedy takes today. It seems to ignore the value of physical comedy, satire, slap stick, Vaudeville and so on. In the past, some of the best comedy was seen in duos, on stages of variety shows, etc. Mainstream TV still offers in modest ways those comedy styles (SNL of the 70's, 80's, SCTV, In Living Color) but nothing like Martin's Laugh In or The Carol Burnett Show delivered. Back then comedy was for the whole family, now comedy has a parental guidance warning. If someone like me dares to surf the channels to find and enjoy cleaner comedy, I will certainly hit a brick wall. That is the sad part of this issue: the present offers very little options in terms of a broad choice to comedy types. So, aside from this essay approach to my take on Comedy, this movie is one of many good comedies Lewis created. Many of his movies showed creative comedy that did not need fancy special effects or CGI to be funny. In fact, when people mention that Eddie Murphy's version is comparable and that his scenes with multiple characters he portrays "at the same time" is false. The effect seems to have Murphy doing the characters all at once but of course, they were each filmed then edited and CGIed to look as one event. Well, Lewis did not have CGI and advanced special effects with which he could play. But despite that technological absence, he pulled it off masterfully, with the techniques typical of the times. And then there are those small moments, details that express a subtle humour that is not loud, obnoxious or full of disrespectful attitudes. The scene where you see Lewis sitting deep inside a chair, chatting with his university chair person. The timing is classic, the sound effects support the comedic moment and, best of all, Lewis' expressions are what makes for a curriculum of comedy worthy of any college. His movies show us many examples of his unequalled talent in physical comedy, his ability to play with his voice, his face, his limbs and his admirable talent to portray many different personalities, characters with comedy that points out the humanity in even the least likable of characters (like the gangster in The Family Jewels). I agree that many of the films he directed were filled with flaws of all sorts but so are many, many other movies directed by other people (Clint, Spielberg and Hitchcock among others). The scripts were not always the best in Jerry's movies but they held their own and they survived because of Jerry's humour. we also do understand that Jerry had the habit of building his movies as series of skits, strung together with light hearted script. His movies were pure entertainment of the joyous kind, like most comedies of the past. They were not depressing, full of nudity, graphic sexual acts, scenes of death, gore and vulgarities of all sorts. They were light, happy, unpretentious and only wanted to make you laugh, that is it. If today's youth views his movies and fail to laugh when viewing, then i cannot help them, I cannot cure them, and i must move along with my generational differences and take to my grave what I enjoyed during my childhood and throughout my whole life. Call me old fashioned and that is more than fine with me. If i was to try redemption for our modern society, i could say that one of the last physical humorist of our times, who saw it fit to make movies almost comparable to Jerry's, would be Jim Carrey. In the 1990's, we saw him perform a similar type of comedy as Jerry's and it was refreshing to me. But by then came a huge wave of comedians that thrived on the F word and bodily functions to make people laugh, and that is when I stopped laughing.
Columbo: Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo (1990)
A near perfect episode
After seeing this episode, i felt surprised and delighted at the same time. My reaction was quickly followed by this idea: i wished i had an old black and white television properly rigged for viewing the episode again but this time with no colors. But why? Because this episode is reminiscent of many classic film noir movies from the 40's. It is that good, despite its flaws. Unlike Columbo, I have seen many police mysteries that were so bad, they looked like the adventures of a police detective shopping in a Cosco on a Sunday afternoon. Many of them feel pre-fabricated, glazed over with slick, unlikely characters and no vision for mood, meaningful lighting or genuine dialogue. Columbo is one of the very few series that succeeded in creating a multi faceted character that we slowly connected with during the long journey this series puts us (the viewers) through while giving us a nice feeling that we are respected as viewers. This episode should be included in many categories, including Film Noir. Many film noir elements are present: narrators taking us through the plot, flashbacks, an undertone of sadness ans despair pushing the plot through, close ups, the "dame" crying and full of hatred and revenge, the "dame's" red dress and scarf, the funeral scene that is quite dark, wet and dreary..... I bet there was a much more visionary approach in this episode's script and directing... i almost suspect the film noir feel of this great episode was maybe a salute to the great crime movie of an era gone by and a hint for us fans to put Columbo's legacy on the same shelf as movies with Tierney, Bogart and all the others. And the last scene, as surprising as the reveal is, Shaver's teary reaction and slap are just the elements needed to make the ending perfect.