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chazgeary03
Reviews
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Nice effects, good story, Godawful script.
Fellow movie-goers, Like the subject line says. The animated effects were just beautiful, Robby is one of the coolest robots ever, some of the set pieces look great even to my jaded 21st-century eye, the planet's lone woman wore a breathtakingly short skirt, and the idea of a man unconsciously projecting the foulest impulses of his id into reality, creating a terrible invisible monster, was really cool.
But the script ... oh, dear God.
Turgid. Florid. Overly expository, and full of unconvincing pseudo-scientific jibber-jabber. And I know this was released in 1956, but the crew's boorish, panting overtures to the planet's lone woman were just embarrassing. And for no good reason, there were Earth animals running around the planet. All I can figure is that the producer pulled the director aside one day and said, "My little girl loves deer and tigers. Put some deer and tigers in there somewhere." They could have cut this down from ~100 minutes down to about 80, easily. Felt like a good (original-series) Trek episode, but deliberately, clumsily padded out to feature length.
Maybe this is when Leslie Nielsen, who plays the ship's captain, decided to get into spoofing. If you're going to make movies that are sort of goofy, why not do ones that are *deliberately* goofy? Sort of like "The Andromeda Strain," this movie was more about sci-fi gee-whizzery than about effective storytelling.
If you haven't seen it, rent it some afternoon, enjoy this little bit of "the history of the future," but get ready to roll your eyes a few times.
-- Chaz.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
*Great* film.
Fellow movie-watchers, Put this one on my list years ago, finally saw it a couple days ago.
There were a few eye-rollers, to be sure, such as an obvious 50-year-old playing a lollipop-scarfing schoolboy (and Stewart obviously past middle age, but apparently playing a character that was supposed to be probably 25); the fat, whiny sheriff; and adding nothing to the film, a stuttering ranch-hand. But, considering that this is a 40-year-old picture, such doozies are rare.
Overall, this is an absolute classic that has aged remarkably well.
Teaming the nerdy, decent Jimmy Stewart with the commanding, decent John Wayne for this story was *perfect.* So many great quotes, but probably my favorite is when Pompey, Tom Doniphan's black servant (?), apologizes to his teacher, Stewart's Stoddard, for forgetting during recitation the line in the Delcaration that all men are created equal.
"That's OK, Pompey; a lot of people forget that part," Stewart wryly quips -- in a movie released just as the civil rights movement was on the rise (1962).
And John Wayne, as usual, is just THE MAN. When Doniphan asks Valance to pick up Doniphan's steak (after Valance had tripped Stoddard, who had been serving it), and one of Valance's toadies bends down to pick it up instead, Doniphan just kicks the toady square in the face and knocks him on his a**, barely even exerting himself or breaking stride.
Later, the same toady (I think) draws a gun on Doniphan from point-blank range, and Doniphan simply TAKES THE GUN AWAY with one hand and knocks the dork down with the other, in one move.
Also, the newspaper editor was a nearly-constant hoot, and the town doctor summed up my feelings whenever a (to borrow a phrase) towering b*stard dies. Rushing to the scene of Valance's shooting, he snaps, "Whiskey, quick!" He takes a big drink, eyes the bleeding, inert Valance, half-shrugs and says, "Dead." Then walks away.
See it if you haven't. And pray God that they don't re-make this one.
-- Chaz.