Change Your Image
jfff7773
Reviews
Diary of a Hitman (1991)
80's had good movies!
Good 80's flik-a classic actors flik before conglomerate studios, w/ original music + real artists on soundtrack. 1 of the last b4 cookie-cutter movies became the norm and original stories/good actors, real film-making, still got promo. Whitaker and Fenn are excellent. Her best work and his emergence as Oscar winner. A shame that 2days flix need a kid starring to get a greenlight. I hate to say it, but I miss the 'studio system'- professional writers,directors,crew,timelines,productions, from top to bottom. Actors were labor like everybody else. Most of them were from stage or were multi-faceted entertainers. Where are modern Elvis, Sammy Davis, T. Curtis, L. Ball, Gleason, M.Rooney, D.Kaye, G.Kelly, Bogart,Cagney, etc.?
Laserblast (1978)
A Real Blast! oh.. am i shouting.sorry.
OK, I'm gonna qualify the following w/ this: I saw this flik like, 27 times as a kid. I. LOVED. THIS. MOVIE.It's not well made-drug dealer film student quality-it's a '70's double feature throw-in devoid of quality, tech skill or excellence. BUT THIS MOVIE IS D.O.P.E.!!!! If you've ever once in your life felt like the outcast, geek, nerd, outsider, picked on, inferior, low on the Totem Pole, a Non, been randomly assigned as having 'Cooties", been the new guy, the runt, the whupped, the persecuted, the unsure, or generally uncool, have ever had a revenge fantasy, know that the plot line of EVERY KUNG FU FLIK is basically the same, but love them anyway(because desire for revenge may be a vestigial instinct in man, is the reason that Shakespeare is a genius, and is, oh, oh ,so sweet), and don't take yourself too seriously, you'll gas on this flik. It's not remarkable, except for someone like me that thinks that the 'B' and 'C' flix are the lifeblood of the film-making profession. The music is like that creepy John Carpenter stuff and worth the $1.50 price of admission for 2 movies back then. And they didn't kick you out of the theater if you weren't a troublemaker and wanted to (shhhh!)quietly roam from screen to screen within the Hawthorne Mall THeater. I AM FOR SURE DATING MYSELF, but movie going' ain't what it used to be. In the pursuit of ever greater profit from the least effort and even less creativity has given us... AVATAR. Which is an avatar of real filmmmaking, a sham that Barnum and/or Ripley would love. This is not the bigness and grandeur of CBDeMille, DWGriffith(HAVE YOU SEEN 'RED CLIFF' 1&2?), But I digress... I'll take low-budget fare like LASERBLAST for its elements(maybe closeness?) and '70's schlock over Seizure-inducing, Whizz-Bang,BLABLABLA, Whuh?-material any day. For SAT buffs:
Laserblast is to low budget film-making
as Avatar is to crime.
Mister Ed (1961)
I Can't help it: Mr. Ed is funny!
I gotta admit that even as a grown man I find Mr. Ed super funny. I'm a kid of the 70's and growing up watching TRUE family fare like Mr Ed, Brady Bunch, etc. B&W TV was common in those days, so I have a certain appreciation for TV in it's Golden Age. There's no replacing the sheer genius of good physical comedy. Lost in the discussion over Mr Ed is the fact that Allan Young, Ed's 'sidekick' Wilbur Post was a masterful physical comic and really made the show. One thing that I like about classic TV/Movies is that the stars were most often accomplished in other areas; stage, music, dance, the professionalism and competence-the timing, I guess-was excellent. Just saw an episode where Edna Skinner, that played Neighbor Kay Addison, sang a song in preparation for a talent show in which she sang a song so beautifully. Again, she'd been an accomplished songstress b4 TV, and the characters were always easy to like.
And Mr. Ed himself!: All willful but loyal equine best friend perfectly characterized by Allan"Rocky"Lane, again a cowboy star of the 40's&50's that found a perfect role as the voice of Mr Ed in the 60's after his film career was all but over. HE SOUNDED LIKE A HORSE WOULD SOUND IF HE COULD TALK! Mr Ed is a gas on late nite TV. I gotta tell y'all, I miss this stuff and look forward to being an old guy watching 100 year old episodes on American TV. DO you think people in the MidEast would be so serious and angry if they'd grown up watching senselessly fun, unserious American TV shows like Mr Ed? I know, a talking horse would surely offend someones moral/religious sensibilities(what doesn't) so that's probably my decadent, blasphemous American mind working against me. Whatever, dude.
The Bishop's Wife (1947)
Huge Holiday Classic
The regal David Niven with a chair stuck to his ass is the height of comedy! and why the art of film-making is so great when done well.Stupid me, I almost didn't watch this one because I'd gotten too big for this kind of sappy holiday fare. The ghost of Christmas future visited me and shewed me what life would be like if I let adulthood, cynicism, real life and all other provinces of man take away nostalgia, rose-colored memories and my childlike quality of hoping the best for all. Sometimes,by force of collective Will, even in the face of fear and doubt, Man's better nature overtakes us, almost subconsciously. The fight or flight mechanism installed in Man reveals itself in mysterious ways. Sometimes films are the actors and there is a certain wisdom and fung shuie(?) about collective experiences like watching holiday movies. I would submit that we should not forget. Happy HOLIDAYS.
Tell-Tale (2009)
"Yeah, that's one helluva ticker"
This is a very good flick on many levels. First of all, Josh Lucas is great in the lead role and this is the 1st time I've seen him as the main man in a flick. He does a more than credible job as the man with the transplanted heart. Lena Heady and the always fantastic Brian Cox round out a great cast. Second, Tell-Tale recalls the best of Asian thrillers,like "The Hand" and "The Eye" that also had great remakes. Thirdly, the storyline has enough twists and turns in it to distinguish itself from story lines of a similar nature like the aforementioned flix and others. This is the kind of material that it's easy to get carried away with, but everyone ,from Director Cuesta on down, underplays it just enough to make the movie a highly enjoyable watch.