Reviews

My Aunt recommended we watch this, and to be nice I suffered through it. I remember making a point not to watch it when it came out nearly 14 years ago, and my instinct was right on. It is another dumb Tom Cruise vehicle failing to straddle comedy and action. This genre combo hardly ever works and this dud follows the pattern. Usually the problem occurs when there's imbalance of poor or too much comedy effectively neutors all the action scenes as meaningless and dumb. This is the common problem and a good example. Cruise is his usual self, while other actors give fair performances, but thanks to the poor direction and story, the movie misfires right away and is doomed. Give a it a miss 5/10.

Just rewatched Ghostbusters on network TV (I almost never do that for any movie nowadays, but it had been a good 10 years for Ghostbusters). I didn't realize I had never reviewed Ivan Reitman's comedy-horror classic. Still remember sitting down late to the movie (seemed to be a bad habit of my Dad's back then) at our local theater in the summer of 1984. Ghostbusters is outstanding in its originality and features a strong comedic cast anchored by Bill Murray, in what I judge to be his best comedic work of his career, edging out "Groundhog Day". The writing and story is wonderfully fun - and I think people ought to mention the great music, soundtrack, and sounds of the movie. I've probably watched this gem about 100 times over my life. Good Halloween movie too.

Bestow it a 9/10.

With a cast and ensemble of satisfactory to great actors, director Robert M Young's "The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez" is a compelling chase story featuring notable performances from a younger lead Edward James Olmos and many journeymen (some now late) actors including James Gammon, Brion James, Bruce McGill, and Rosanna Desoto. I liked the realism of the movie to a certain degree, though the music seemed a bit out of place. Cinematography was competent, and you could relate to the injustice of what appeared to happen. From a time from which no-one now lives, director Young seems to want to give a fair shake to Cortez's sad story. Olmos is is up to the task to paint a human picture of a man in fear on the run unjustly, and the movie helps solidify Olmos career earlier. Deserving of a watch and entertaining. 7/10.

A bit of a throwback movie, director David Cronenberg's well known "The Fly" has been around awhile, and I finally rewatched it again for review. It had been at least 20 years since I last watched. It runs pretty quickly and at times kinda felt absurd, but Jeff Goldblum really put a stamp on and carried this sci-fi monster flick. You can see the chemistry with the actors Davis and Goldblum,, and he is one of the few actors to make a 6 ft Davis seem shorter. John Getz is along as kind of the bad guy, but not completely. The make-up and creature feature not quite as good as An American Werewold in London but pretty close for the 80s. Give it a 7/10.

(spoilers) Director Alexander Payne and his cohort Paul Giamatti are back in a beautiful period piece, 'The Holdovers" written by keenly by David Hemingson. This movie succeeds on several levels, the cast and direction is strong, and they did a marvelous job recreating the early 70s backdrop. The characters are interesting and varied. And as usual with good movies, there's really no weak performances from the leads to the smaller roles. The movie measures well to similar predecessor genre movies like "Dead Poets Society" and "Heaven Help Us" I espeically liked the later frank distilled conversation with Giamatti and and young newcomer Dominic Sessa as Pual and Angus, both struggling. Sessas has taken whole advantage of his opportunity. The Holdovers is rightfully up for a Oscar nod. 8/10.

The other day I rewatched director Steve Lisberger's classic sci-fi fantasy, "Tron". I had loved it as a child for its look and music.

Realized I hadn't reviewed it. Detractors of 1982's Tron might argue its dated, and they might be right, but it may not be a fair argument. Effects keep getting incrementally better, and Tron is now over 40 years old. Anyway, there's a few things in Tron that stand out for me, and 'dated' effects are still beautiful as one of them. Loved the light-cycle and tank-chase as well as digital world- art come to life. Acting and direction are competent. The cast, mains to costars do a very good job. David Warner probably takes 1st prize as a great sleazy Lietinant to the Master Control Program. Bridges, Boxleitner, Morgan, on to Shores, Hughes, there's not one weak perfromance in the movie, a testament to Lisberger. Add to that wonderful 80s-ish period music that is a great enhancement to the feel and experience. Subtly though, I loved the pseudo-religous philosophy and love written into the dialog and interaction for users and programs. Its a lovely filial reverence that gives the move a unique quality. Now, I might've liked a bit more story epilogue but Tron is certainly now a classic, and I can still fondly recall my light blue Tron pajamas that I proudly wore to bed, and of course the arcade game to boot.

Director Phillip Borsos puts together a competent and handsome production of the life of turn of 19th century outlaw Bill Minor in his " The Grey Fox". Photography is outstanding, and while the story is grounded and slow-paced it features understated performances from nearly the entire cast. That points to Borsos' keen direction. One of the more interesting aspects of the movie is the emphasis on the speed of technology and changes in soceity of fast changing era late 1800s into 1900s. Indeed this must be something criminals who suffer long sentences experience not to some degree, but then it was emphatic and pronounced. Farnsworth and Burroughs create a nice romance on screen to add some depth. 7/10 - recommended.

With a pretty good production quality, strong group of actors, and referential source material, Norwegian director Ovredal seems to have all the ingredients for a strong horror movie in "The Last Voyage of the Demeter". The execution and result, however, doesn't bake into something as grand unfortunately. The pacing and lighting are not good, characters often do questionable or irrational actions given the circumstances, and there is little surprise. The movie comes out bland and fairly flat. Corey Hawkins and Liam Cunningham anchor a strong and capable group of actors, but the direction and lack of imagination can't pull the movie up into solid footing. Too bad as with better focus, pacing, and editing the movie becomes leaner and more effective - cut down on at-sea time, make the characters smarter, and add more preamble and epilogue. 6/10.

Had never watched director Jim sharmon's beloved "Rocky Horror Picture Show" which definitely feels like watching a video of a stage show musical- which is what it was based off. Although it seems to be a large part of the called story, I didn't care for the gratuitous strepteasing and black corsets. It seems to overstep its budget. Sets and costumes defeinitely showed their age. Some of the numbers were decent, while others kinda boring. By the end, the ~98min runtime felt too long. Overall a bit of disappointment. I liked Mel Brook's "Young Frankenstein" as a much better comedy from the same time period. Rocky Horror Picture Show seems to try too hard with too much 5/10.

I've seen Dirty Dancing (1987) a few times over the years, and finally getting around to reviewing....rewatched recently. The movie , written by Eleanor Bergstein and directed by Emile Ardolino is a fun watch with some dramatic flare but at times formulaic cliched. One of the problems of the movie is the director's choice of anachronistic music that doersn't reflect the picture's timeframe and setting. This isn't a deal-breaker but its distracting. The strengths of the movie are the well-done chemistry between leads Jennifer Grey and th late Patrick Swayze; there are some great dance-learning scenes that Ardolino takes the time to focus on interesting details like timing, balance, and presentation. These are important to understanding the effort and time needed to become good performers and some specifics of dancing. Anyway, the socio-economic class struggles are bit cookie-cutter unfortunately and.blase. It seems fairly perfunctory including dialog reflecting 'daddy's little girl' and 'rich vs poor'. Still focusing on Swayze's outstanding dancing and Grey's smile and charm help lift the movie to good footing. One of Swayze's biggest hits and most memorable roles, and certainly Grey's, overlooking its smaller flaws, Dirty Dancing still shows a pulse and performance energy that make it entertaining. 7/10.