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10/10
An unappreciated film
8 August 2007
Warning: Spoilers
"The First Deadly Sin" is one of my favorite films. I think it was much better than the book. There are two serial killers, not one. The other one is Sinatra's wife's doctor. I'm surprised that the other posters didn't mention this. The cast was excellent. Sinatra was perfect for this part. Faye Dunaway made the best of hers. Martin Gabel was charmingly eccentric. David Dukes turned in an excellent performance as the homicidal maniac. You should keep in mind that this film came before the Hannibal Lecter craze and the film "Seven" when actors were truly eager to play the worst kinds of serial killers. The musical score by Gordon Jenkins was truly fine. I really don't understand the lukewarm reviews here. This is the kind of film someone new to film-making should really study.
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Sell This House (2003– )
1/10
A Really Obnoxious House Show
16 June 2007
This is a really obnoxious show. It is in fact an example of how low television has fallen since 'reality' got in style. Tanya is pretty but she is also extremely rude and has awful taste. Is a house show the place for sex appeal? Apparently some males like the show because they find Tanya attractive. The other boss is not pretty but he's fully as rude and also has awful taste. It is unfortunate that so many houses have to be shown while someone is still living in them. Most of the people who are allegedly viewing these houses before changes are made should be moving into brand new houses or completely empty ones so they will not be insulting anyone. Most of them ..like the 'crew'..need to be taught manners. I can imagine how awful the British show is since the British reality shows tend to be even worse when it comes to manners and taste.

What happened to the Arts and Entertainment channel? When it started out (and for some years afterward) it was filled with treats. Now it's one big trash machine.
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Not as good as the British version but could be in the future
15 June 2007
I was looking forward to this new version and I am disappointed. Some very charming creatures are in it but they don't seem to be getting loving attention. The little bird with the unusual eyes is adorable. (Would make a great toy if only Aardman would license really nice fake ceramic (plastic) versions of the creatures..)The birds in the cage are very American. The male bird voice is very familiar! Unfortunately, the voices are often not funny enough, and some of the creatures seem to be lacking when it comes to coloration. (e.g. the bull dogs..even the horses..)One of the problems is that the American voices that have been chosen are not as funny as the British ones.. The fake Chong..is not as funny as Cheech and Chong..but could be with a little work. The Alfred Hitchcock cat voice in the British version is wonderful..as is the cat. Why aren't the American pair (two cats) as interesting and as funny as the Hitchcock cat and funny little dog pair? The dachshunds are wonderful..and need more attention.

There are also too many commercials on American TV for this kind of program.
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The Thief (1952)
10/10
A Neglected Classic
21 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Possibly because it was made in 1952 during the height of the McCarthy period, certain aspects of the plot seem to go unmentioned in the descriptions of the film that you find in Film Noir books. It is not just that the protagonist has become unwilling to go on spying. It is apparent from indications of his aversion to women that he is homosexual and is being blackmailed because of this. The lack of dialogue helps to keep this plot in line with the mentality of the 1950's. He was certainly not doing it for money or because of his political beliefs. It is a brilliant film in every way. I think that it has gone unappreciated to some extent because it has been classified as an anti-communist propaganda film. This is particularly ironic since the FBI agent pursuing him later in the film does a very stupid thing. (Not the kind of thing J.Edgar Hoover would have liked to see in a film.)

(Comment by June of JoeJune)
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Munich (2005)
3/10
Shallow Thinkers Make Shallow Films
7 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Apparently the film "Sword of Gideon" was not enough when it came to depicting the Israeli response to the terrorist attack on the Israeli Athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Mr. Spielberg had to make his own version with the help of talentless gay playwright Tony Kushner. Spielberg's version is anti-Israeli to the core and usually can be counted on to pay homage to any unpleasant trait any Jew might have (and share with the rest with the human race). There is an excellent documentary ("One Day in September") on the events at Munich but many of those who see Spielberg's "Munich" may not have seen that documentary .Things that should have been emphasized about what occurred in Munich get lost in the run-through that Spielberg has provided to begin the film. That no one among the geniuses of the police and media was capable of thinking that the terrorists might have television sets is frankly even now beyond belief. (There were even battery TV's that terrorists could carry with them in those years.)Roone Arledge and his wide world of sports helped kill the Israeli wrestling team in a way few would think possible.

Spielberg's "Munich" trashes everything in a similar way. There is no sense of what is being shown and who is watching it. Shallow thinkers make shallow films..and Spielberg and Kushner are very shallow thinkers.
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10/10
Questions Regarding the Origin of Aids
11 December 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This is basically an excellent documentary. It is certainly the case that it shows that the scientists lied about their vaccine. However, that does not mean that this is what caused the epidemic to begin. One question is how it is that the native nurses or laboratory assistants who took care of the chimpanzees and operated on them and did autopsies on them...did not themselves get AIDS. Did they have a special immunity? You have to consider that although the sure way to get AIDS is through injection or transfusion, it is also the case that close contact with blood is extremely dangerous. I somehow doubt that they were dressed in space suits when they worked on the Chimps. I will assume that the non-natives involved had the Salk vaccine before embarking on their project. At any rate you can have a group of Nazis involved in something, but they might not have caused what you think they did. I think it would be a good idea to start compiling reliable data on all the medical and biological research done in Africa from 1920 through 1978. It would also be a good idea to get better data on substances used by native witch doctors in those areas in which AIDS first surfaced.

What the film shows about the use of the chimpanzees is about as horrifying as most of us can imagine. You literally see the life being taken out of the living chimpanzees whose organs are being removed. That's enough to make anyone consider that medical science needs to be rebuilt on new foundations.
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Kadosh (1999)
10/10
Kadosh is accurate
8 December 2006
It is obvious that those who dislike this film are quick to say it is an inaccurate portrayal of Ultra-Orthodox Judaism. This is somewhat like the way that many Moslems are quick to defend Islam at its worst. Apparently too many Jews (and non-Jews worried about being called anti-semitic?) feel that criticism of this most fundamentalist form of Judalism is a terrible thing. It's a good thing and the more criticism there is the better it is. There are other forms of Judaism. There are also many Jews who are not fans of religion (as in my case). There are too many films by Jews and non-Jews that tend to equate being Jewish with being Orthodox and Ultra-orthodox. This includes the obnoxious use of Hassids at the beginning of the credits for "Schindler's List". Then there is the silliness of "A Stranger Among Us". "A Price Above Rubies" was an improvement. "Kadosh" represents the next step. Well done technically. Beautifully acted. It's harrowing but certainly not boring. (This review is by June of joejune.)
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The House Next Door (2006 TV Movie)
3/10
It should have been made into a film in 1980
12 November 2006
Warning: Spoilers
It would help to know why it took so long for a book as movie-ready' as "The House Next Door" to be adapted for film or television. The book was copyrighted in 1978. One reason could be problems designing 'the house'. The house in this Lifetime film is really so ugly that I can't imagine anyone buying it. In fact it's so ugly that someone would probably have come and destroyed it as soon as it was built.

I'm not crazy about horror genre books, but this one was hard to put down when I came across it around ten years ago. The main characters are not the kind of people to look for anything occult in life, and this is one of the book's strengths. They are not people who would conclude that the architect was some type of demon..(or the devil personified) without witnessing and analyzing the events described so well in the book. However, it is a downbeat book for the most part, and I don't think that appeals to the people who run Lifetime. Maybe someone will come up with another version of the book in years to come. A better house..better music..a better screenplay and darker lighting...would certainly help.
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2/10
Terrible film with good plot elements(by June of Joehune)
29 September 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This is one of those films that has plot elements that someone like Hitchcock and the right script adapters would have made into a classic. The idea of someone being declared mentally incompetent in order to shut him or her up is by no means a new idea, but there is a small twist on it in this film. Fertig, the accountant played by Ben Kingsley, knows too much about the kind of ecological disaster that kills..and would ruin those responsible. It's really handy to have him kill the creeps who failed to give his little son even slightly adequate medical attention in a New York City emergency room. And frankly you will love it that he kills them. The trouble is that religion is mixed in here where it's entirely unnecessary. Someone also forgot that "Death Wish" was a very popular movie. Religious orientation wasn't necessary there.His wife(played by Amy Irving) is a boring character which is not a plus in a film like this..The attorney who is to get Fertig locked up in a mental institution (played by Alec Baldwin) is only slightly interesting as well. The soundtrack is terrible. There is one wonderful goof, however, - a scene in which Baldwin is at the reservoir talking about how nothing is alive there...except a wonderfully irreverent pigeon who suddenly very casually sits down near him. It's worth seeing this trashy film because of the pigeon.

Hitchcock..at his best..would have known what to do. So too David O.Selznick. It's too bad..The plot had some good parts..The film is a real dud..EXCEPT FOR THAT PIGEON who should get an award.
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Technically excellent but the brats spoil it.
26 May 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I wonder why Spielberg and the scriptwriters thought viewers would enjoy bratty behavior in the midst of an invasion from 'an unknown place' film. No matter how technically excellent a Spielberg film (other than "Duel") may be, some obnoxious mistake is to be expected. In the case of War of the Worlds we have Spielberg's own statement connecting the film to 9-11 responses..and worse still..we have an obnoxious pair of brats dominating the film..especially the female one. This character is an insult to all intelligent children, especially female ones. There is also the 'silencing' of the man who gave Ray and the female brat shelter. Otherwise the musical score by John Williams is excellent and the aliens and their weapons are nicely envisioned. That is a decided improvement over the 1953 film. However, in the end..the best version is the radio version from 1938..and the story of those who believed it was..real.
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9/10
Ideas for viewers of "The Loss of Sexual Innocence"
9 May 2006
I really don't like giving this film a numerical rating. It strikes me as an experiment that has and will cause some viewers to think things that Figgis might not be happy to hear about. His film "Liebestraum" is one of my favorites, but he might find my interpretations of that one quite odd. So what I have here are a list of ideas which I think are suggested by parts of the film. As one reviewer here said, this is not a film about sex. The sex and the title are there to drag people in and to keep some of them watching. Parts of the film are certainly straightforward enough as in the case of little Figgis being treated horribly in a modern 'civilized' school gymnasium setting. The description of primitive people and how they trained (or still train..) their children to be killers and cannibals when it comes to members of other tribes that comes before the school sequence certainly tells you what's going on. Civilization hasn't come very far. However, apologists for both the cannibal tribe and the 'war on obesity'might have to think the 'apologies' over. (unless they are hopeless) When it comes to animals..the human one is one of the really low ones, especially when it's part of a group or a tribe. Of course the scenes with the characters most reviewers call Adam and Eve do in the end suggest South Africa during the apartheid period. The police and guns and dogs. The twins..are an easy part. However, not all twins are happy to be twins. (And certain cultures view twins in very vicious tribal ways..) The sequence in the desert could give a viewer something to think about when someone comes around asking for donations for starving desert tribes who wear turbans and paint themselves blue. The tribe kills the woman, one of the twins,because she offered to stay behind while the others involved in the 'accident' drove to notify the police. A child who should not have been running alone in the desert was killed by the reckless driving of a western man incapable of much thought. He's no better than the jerks who laugh at the incident involving the blind woman's seeing eye dog earlier in the film. There too the twin tries to help and is hit at by the blind woman trying to fend off the dogs in heat and maybe their counterparts. The twin is innocent but the members of the tribe think in numbers. They are incapable of any of the nuances human beings should after all this time be capable of. The reckless driver gets off free and is happy to leave the woman behind. Her boyfriend is a little upset. Of course we don't know who played the tribe in the desert... It's a nicely cynical piece of work. Sex is the least interesting thing in the movie. (This is from june of 'joejune'.)
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Fox Mystery Theater: Czech Mate (1984)
Season 1, Episode 3
10/10
A modern variation on Kafka's "the Trial"
9 March 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This is a sleeper of a film (British TV movie). Susan George is a variation on K in The Trial. Instead of someone accusing her of something, however, it is her trashy ex-husband who lures her to Prague on what is supposed to be a romantic business trip. He buys her clothes as well working on her appearance. He hands their passports to a 'clerk' in the hotel and of course both the husband and the passports disappear shortly afterwards. Eventually a dead man is found in her hotel room. There are the usual cold war spy story props but at the end..it is very clear that Vicky Duncan (Susan George) has ended up in a position like k's in The Trial. She has trusted the wrong people and put up a good fight but she has lost and lands up in a Czech mental hospital labeled a case of identity psychosis. The husband has left for England with his 'lover', a Czech agent who bears a slight resemblance to the unfortunate wife.
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1/10
Questions that go unasked and unanswered
30 January 2006
This is an awful film but it does have the outlines of a plot that Hitchcock or someone with talent would have made into an excellent film. No one here seems to have noticed the odd choice made by someone connected with this film to use parts of the magnificent Mozart Mass in C Minor as background to torture scenes in a mental hospital. (It's strange that no one here seems to have noticed the beautiful music.) As it is the film seems almost comic.Kim Cattrall's character is completely ridiculous (although not impossible in a mental hospital setting...)The cast was capable of good work..I wonder how much they knew about the film when they signed their contracts. I wonder why anyone was willing to produce it. It's sad..It could have been a good film.
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Godsend (2004)
1/10
Demonic medicine
22 January 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I have to wonder why an 'omen' type film is masquerading as horror science fiction. Clearly the doctor who does the cloning (and provides incredible perks for Adam's parents ) is the Devil. Who else would want to bring back a son like Zachery for whom not enough cells were left for a cloning? A good film about cloning would certainly need to at least talk a lot about souls and bodies..and what can be cloned. I wonder why there is so much sex in the film as well. It certainly doesn't help the script. The parents are stock characters. Of course the mother is always in the wrong..the Devil's pawn. The father is always trying to be sensible. The boy is a typical possessed creature.
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Blind Horizon (2003)
10/10
I really think this is a marvelous film.
10 December 2004
I'm surprised by the negative reviews here. It's the kind of film worth seeing many times. The fragmentation tactics and the music work really well. Nothing is ever perfectly clear and that's a plus as well. The mystery stays with you. You can't be sure you understand the motives of the people involved in the assassination plot. Like 'The Package' this film does use the JFK assassination as a reference point but it uses it in very small pieces so that you have to think about them as parts of a difficult puzzle. At the same time the mood of the film is strong enough so that you don't get the feel of just a set of puzzles. Looking forward to more good films by the talented people involved.
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