Change Your Image
Norrin Radd
Reviews
Swimming to Cambodia (1987)
WORTH HUNTING DOWN
Spalding Gray is an amazing orator. They way he can interweave various story aspects into a narrative patchwork is riveting. As you can tell I'm a big fan of his work and this is probably his best. Directed by Jonathan Demme in a no frills to the bone style. The star of this concert isn't demme or gray, it's the elocution.
Slackers (2002)
I'M SORRY BUT I LIKED THIS MOVIE
is it high art? no. but this movie will definitely find an audience on video. i had extremely low expectations for this movie, but wanted to see it for jason schwartzman. it starts with a symphonic version of Baba O'Reily which pretty much immediately won me over. this is definitely a guilty pleasure movie and it has a horrible title. but i think history will be kinder to it than most of it's other contemporaries fare. plus james king is smoking.
Collateral Damage (2002)
A NOTE TO ARNOLD
i'm a huge Arnold fan. the good news is he looks better in this movie than he has since true lies and the cast is great. the bad news is the action sucks and the plot holes in this script make battlefield earth look like american beauty. i really want to like andy davis as a director, but besides fugitive and perfect murder he's hacking out. as far as arnold goes, it infuriates me when movie producers can't figure out what to do with him. arnold is an action movie icon we go see his movies to see him kick ass and shoot off one liners. arnold is not an everyman. he's the terminator. i hope that with him doing t3 and conan the king that he also revives true lies and predator and rides out the rest of his career on a high. he's survived at the top of his game for over 20 years, ride the nostalgia into greener pastures. how great would it be if he hooked up with clint eastwood and took eastwood's place in front of the camera?
Coogan's Bluff (1968)
YOU COULD TELL HE WAS BLUFFING
i'm a big fan of Clint Eastwood and Don Seigel and somehow this movie has always alluded me. well last night i finally got the chance to check it out and man do i wish it had been a little more slippery. The movie starts off promising enough with eastwood tracking a crazy indian sharpshooter in the desert, but once he goes to new york and the fish out of water story begins nothing can really save the tedium (not even the great Lee J. Cobb). Now back in the day i'm sure this was a huge hit and a great movie. but it just doesn't hold up anymore, which is surprising coming from this duo. for a real treat check out their far superior work on "Beguiled"
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
YOU REALLY CAN'T GO WRONG WITH CARY GRANT
Cary Grant is one of the greatest movie stars of all time. Though this doesn't rank up there with his work with hitchcock or howard hawks. the movie is still a lot of fun. Cary plays mr blandings, a very well to do, well meaning husband and father of two who gets in a bit over his head when he decides to move to the more relaxing country away from the big city. my only quibble with the movie would be that they give Cary a straight man to play off of in his accountant best friend uncle bill. for my money he throws off grant's comedic mojo. all in all a cute flick.
In a Lonely Place (1950)
BOGGIE AT HIS BEST
i think the thing i like the most about humphrey bogart is his sense of danger. he's just got that weathered look of a tough guy. for me that's the key to his best movies like "casablanca" and "to have or have not". the tortured soul aspect of his persona makes him the ultimate film noir hero. and never is this more prevalent than in "in a lonely place". here bogart plays fast and loose with the law as a screenwriter accused of a brutal murder.
Chain Lightning (1950)
HEY IT'S BOGGIE, IT CAN'T BE THAT BAD.
this is a by the numbers boggie romance. Seems like humphrey phoned this one in knowing it was a watered down casablanca rip off. bogart's the jilted lover who gets a second chance with the girl. but this time the claude rains character is the one who makes the sacrifice. pretty tepid and only for fans of mr bogart who've already cycled through his classics.
Charley Varrick (1973)
DON SIEGEL AT THE TOP OF HIS GAME
A dated but surprisingly fun cracker jack thriller from the king of 70's tough guy cinema. this movie is worth seeing alone for walter matthau's and joe don baker's amazing performances. extremely violent for it's time and still packs a significant shock factor, especially if consideration is given for the time it was made.
Ehi amico... c'è Sabata. Hai chiuso! (1969)
watered down leone-esque spagahtti western.
a convoluted plot that tries to rip off and add to the far superior "fist full of dollars". good luck if you can follow it and a scratch and sniff sticker if it makes sense to you. basically this rips off every leone made western from "my name is nobody" to "once upon a time in the west". instead of charles bronson's harmonica character from "west" we get the enigmatic banjo (he's actually the best part of the movie). this is strictly for die hard fans of the subgenre of italian westerns or lee van cleef buffs.
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941)
ALL I CAN SAY IS WOW.
quite a find for any fan of the marx brothers, buster keaton or the three stooges. this is "the singing in the rain" of vaudville comedies, re: a movie about making movies. surprisingly the gags are still fresh and field's often imitated but never duplicated barbs still pack a whallop.