Reviews

Her early soprano was a clear bell, and Peter Schickele, aka PDQ Bach, knew exactly how to make that bell ring.

If you haven't heard their Christmas collaboration, called "Noel," you are in for a rare treat. Baez was a rare soprano, and Schickele knew how to make it work exquisitely. It is a holiday tradition in our house.

The movie itself is an incredible coming together of focused people working on a tight budget and schedule who weren't afraid to close their nose, shut their eyes, and jump in with both feet. I highly recommend the DVD with all the extras. You won't regret it.

It's not bad enough to be an example of how *not* to make a movie, but it's not good either. It really succeeds at mediocrity, which some consider the greatest sin of all. It tried to find a satisfying reason for ending, but just ended -- or rather, trailed off. My biggest question at the end of the movie was: "How did Martin Sheen get 2nd billing for a couple of shots of him lurking in the background, and basically one speech?" Not "for shame," as another reviewer says -- more like "Nice work if you can get it."

Definitely a movie with an agenda. I feel as though its money wasn't well spent. They should have cut down on the vignettes and extras and sprung for a really good writer and a decent director who could have turned this into a truly suspenseful story with a cliffhanger ending, instead of the sappy try at "We're a family again."

There are worse ways to spend 90 minutes, and the movie was intriguing enough to get me to Google Jesse Marcel. Almost 4,000 hits. Check it out.

If you've seen Roger Moore as The Saint, as 007, as any other character, even if you haven't liked him, you'll enjoy him as "ffolkes," the cat-loving misogynist of this movie. Even though I'm very much a feminist I loved this character. I don't think that the casting of Anthony Perkins was too obvious, I think he brought complications to a simply drawn character. The supernumeraries on either side are just complicated enough to be slightly confusing and still enjoy their conflicts.

This is one of my favorite movies. Of course, so is "Eating Raoul."

Anne Bancroft has one of my favorite "renowned actress who really wants a great part" stories regarding this movie. She wanted the role, but Sidney Lumet wasn't going to give it to her. He'd just seen one of her husband's (Mel Brooks) lesser known, but still good movies, "To Be or Not To Be," and told her he was looking for someone older, less glamorous, less beautiful.

And she said, "Look, in that movie, I was carefully photographed, I was lovingly lit, and I was sleeping with the producer!"

So she got the part. And did such a good job.

My father got me hooked on this series, after he mentioned how much he enjoyed it. A local PBS station was running it, and I just fell in love with the three old men and their antics. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Peter Sallis is also the voice of Wallace, as in "Wallace & Grommit" -- another personal favorite. My biggest frustration is that our PBS station stopped running it, the BBC has only released one set of tapes, and that is criminal for a show that's been on the air for 30 years! For gentle, character driven comedies, this show cannot be beat. Also, the scenery is beautiful. All those rural, rustic shots of the English countryside are gorgeous.

This movie, and Vincent Price's "Theatre of Blood" ought to be required viewing for every would-be movie or theatre critic ever born. Anyone who has ever worked in, or for that matter seen, any theatrical production, could see this and laugh. The scene where Max Bialistock reads the line "Gregor Samson awoke to discover he had been turned into a giant cockroach" and then says "Nah, too good!" predates and is much funnier than Woody Allen's "I should have been a pair of silent claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas --- too sentimental!"

And on a much more personal note, all the little old ladies are wonderful. To this day, when caught in an embarassing situation, I say "Just say 'OOPS!' and leave..."

My husband and I have had entire conversations consisting of dialogue from this movie, "Eating Raoul," and "Spinal Tap." Who needs more? Well, "Earth Girls Are Easy," but that rounds up the list! Maybe........