Reviews

This adaption of Charles Dicken's Bleak House is the best. BBC has done a great job with it. Gillian Anderson is wonderful as the tormented Lady DedLock. There is no one like Dickens for portraying The common people of England. I am thinking specifically of Mr. Smallweed, who is a small weed indeed. Every time he says, "Shake me up, Judy," I wanted to laugh The villain, Mr.Tulkinghorn, is evil personified. The two young actresses who play Esther and Amy strike just the right note. They are not conventionally beautiful, but both very sweet.

The squalor of 19th century London jumps off the screen at the viewer. The poor truly lived wretched lives, which Dickens portrays so well in his novels.

Anyone who enjoys British period pieces will love "Bleak House."

Mostly forgotten western filmed in 1960 is a good story. Based on the book of the same title by Alan LeMay, The Unforgiven pulls no punches in its depiction of life in post Civil War Texas.

The Zacharys run cattle from the soddy working and praying for the big cattle drive which will spell success. There are three brothers, a mother, and Rachel, the only girl. Rachel is not the Zachary's natural daughter. She is suspected of being an Indian. In those times there was no politically correct view of "Native Americans." The white settlers hated and feared them. Post Civil War Texas was largely unregulated and ignored by the federal government which had its hands full with other matters.

When the Kiowa demand Rachel back, all hell breaks loose. The Zachary's are fiercely protective of her. Their neighbors turn against them.

I thoroughly enjoyed "The Unforgiven," with one exception. The music soundtrack is sometimes intrusive and too loud.

Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn do a great job in this iconic Western.

Very well done and well acted. Kevin Costner and Jennifer Garner do a great job as General Manager and his assistant of the Cleveland Browns. I am not a football expert but that didn't keep me from enjoying every minute of Draft Day.

Costner is playing a weak hand as he tries to revive his football team. He has a chance to get a first draft pick from the Seattle Seahawk but has to give up a lot to get him. That is far from the end of the story. As the day progresses deals are made and unmade. We get to know some of the football players, their agents, and the nail biting stress they feel as their future careers are on the line. This is an authentic, riveting and enjoyable glimpse of American pro football.

Great acting and directing plus an ingenious plot line make "Angels and Insects" a movie worth watching. Returning to civilization from the Amazon, Mark Rylance is taken in by a wealthy, aristocratic family. He falls for the oldest daughter of the house, Eugenia, who is lovely but troubled. He thinks she is the most beautiful creature he has ever seen.

What he discovers about the Alabaster family is a dark secret which shatters his world.

The movie is beautiful to watch and a real thought provoker. I highly recommend it.

Great acting by Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Pena, Matthew McCounaghy, and Kris Krostofferson help make this movie into the fine viewing experience it is.

Chris Cooper, playing Sam Deeds, is seeking to know how a skeleton found on a old firing range is connected to his late father, Buddy Deeds. Buddy is a legend in the Southwestern Texas town.

The atmosphere with Mexicans, blacks, illegals, white townspeople all in the mix, is great. You feel like you are there experiencing the tensions and clash of cultures good and bad.

The mystery builds and with it a fantastic love story with an unexpected plot twist.

Highly recommended. John Sayles has created a masterpiece here.

"Lone Survivor" does not disappoint in its depiction of a group of Navy Seals who fight off scores of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. Confronted at the beginning of their mission with the dilemma of letting three goatherds go and risking the compromising of their mission or killing them - they let them go. The subsequent loss of all of the four Seals but one, Marcus Lutrell, and the killing of 16 of their comrades in a helicopter crash trying to rescue them is the crux of the movie.

The movie is fast paced and well acted. It is very difficult to become a Seal. They put to use all of their special training trying to survive. The physical wounds of war are excruciating to watch. Mark Wahlberg is good as the Texan, Marcus Luttrell, who grittily clings to life after being given sanctuary by a group of friendly Afghan villagers and who is still pursued by the relentless Taliban.

Adults and adolescents will like the film, but small children would be well advised to give it a pass.

Tom Hanks is perfect at Mike Sullivan, enforcer for Paul Newman, playing an Irish American crime boss in an Illinois town during the Great Depression. This film has great atmosphere. It is not easily classified as either a thriller or a crime drama.

When Newman's son, Conner, murders his wife and younger son, Sullivan takes off with his older son Michael in a determined quest to avenge his family's death.

Michael Sr. and his 12 year old son are on road for six weeks. Sullivan teaches his son to drive. Michael Jr. loves his father very much.

The direction by Sam Mendes is very good. The low key music in the background, the rain, the midwest landscape, all contribute to an unforgettable film.

Fantasy lovers will have a hard time disliking Peter Jackson's newest Hobbit film. I have read the books and seen all the LOTR movies. Loved them all. I have to say this newest one is a disappointment. There are mega special effects, all very well done, but little characterization. It seems there is just one battle scene after another. I don't have a problem with Jackson straying from the actual Hobbit story line. But there is very little story here.

The dragon, Smaug, is very well done as is his voice. Better luck next year, Peter. I look forward to the last of your Hobbit trilogy. Middle Earth is a great place to hang out.

Enjoyable, often hilarious tale of on-the-make secretary Jean Harlow who sets her sights on the boss's son. She uses sex the way some people use bribery. Relentlessly pursuing Bill, (her first prey) Harlow intends to marry up and do it fast.

Considering the prudishness of most 1940's films, this 1932 offering is pretty frank. There is lots of sex outside of marriage and adultery within it; Jean's character enjoys being bad and doesn't apologize for it.

Harlow steamrolls her way through men, but will she get her come uppance. Watch this little gem and find out.

This is a well-made little movie with excellent performances all around. It is not exactly a courtroom drama or a comedy of manners. It shows how a crisis of honor in a family affects all its members and even the maid.

The atmosphere brings one back to Britain just before the Great War. The costumes are great, but it is the acting and the dialogue which give this film life.

Ronnie, the youngest son, has been accused of stealing a five cent postage package. His father believes in his innocence and risks his health and his fortune to pursue justice. He hires Sir Jeremy Norton, the most renowned barrister in England to take the case.

Sir Jeremy seems like a cold fish, but appearances are deceiving. Watch The Winslow Boy for some top notch entertainment.

This is a beautiful, haunting melodrama with superb acting. Although it has much music in it, the complex relationships are what drives the film. These are artists who are drained by their intense music. They are dealing with personal crises among each other.

A Late Quartet is so well done that it is a pleasure to watch and experience.

It is very touching to watch Christopher Walken as he tries to deal with oncoming Parkinson's Disease. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener play husband and wife. Every line and each scene is well thought out. This film is a welcome change from Superhero flicks and Pixar characters.

Highly recommended.

42 is an excellent movie sure to please audiences. It contains fine acting by Chadwick Boseman who plays Jackie Robinson and Harrison Ford, playing Branch Rickey.

I enjoyed the nostalgia of the early 50's ambiance so well depicted in the film. Civil Rights have come a long way since the days of "Whites and Colored Only." Segregation was much more a fact of life then than it is now.

The story itself is known to many. Jackie Robinson was the first black to break the color line in baseball. He definitely had guts because abuse was heaped upon him from all sides. Even his own Dodger teammates were ambivalent about playing with him.

He succeeded by never quitting, not losing his temper, and just being a bang-up baseball player. It didn't hurt that he was also a fine human being.

Highly recommended for all.

A British family spending Christmas in Thailand endures the tsunami which devastated much of the coastline in 2004. Based on a true story of an actual Spanish family this is much more than a natural disaster film.

The father and two younger sons are separated from the mother and oldest boy. Maria, the mother, is severely injured. She and Lucas end up in a hospital where she awaits surgery and is near death.

Meanwhile, Henry, the father, refuses to leave and continues searching for his family.

The devotion this family shows toward each other is very moving. There is also great depiction of the actual disaster. The acting is top notch including the children.

Highly recommended.

This movie is very well directed and acted. Loretta Young is beautiful as Mary Martin, hard luck case who has drifted into a life of crime. Left orphaned during the depression and unable to find a job, she takes up with a gangster.

Mary fall in love with a nice guy attorney and from thence complications ensue. She desperately wants to leave her sordid life behind. Now on trial for murder she relates her life in flash backs to a sympathetic prison clerk.

The film holds your attention from start to finish. There is some great dialogue. The black and white background is appropriate. It lends the right atmosphere.

Anthony Hopkins plays Alfred Hitchcock very well as does Hellen Mirren as his wife Alma. Hitchcock was very well respected as a film maker, but he never had such a mega hit as his "Psycho." This movie focuses on the months leading up to this production. There were problems with censors and lack of monetary backing. This is interesting, but the theme that holds the movie together is the focus on the marriage of Alfred Hitchcock and his wife Alma.

She has never gotten much attention as her showman husband garnered the headlines.

I found the movie very well acted and interesting.

I wanted to like Zero Dark Thirty better than I did. It is a good film, but it takes a long time to get started. You never really feel like you know any of the characters. Jessica Chastain who plays Maya, the CIA agent who pursues Bin Laden down the years never reveals who Maya is, what drives her, why she is so obsessed with this pursuit.

The movie didn't come alive for me until the final half hour, when the actual raid on Bin Laden's compound takes place. That is very exciting and very well crafted.

The torture scenes at the beginning of the movie are tame compared to others I have seen. Why there was so much controversy over torture which never reveals anything valuable is a mystery.

This movie starts slowly and builds as it goes along to a satisfying and unexpected climax. Walt Kowalsky (Clint Eastwood) is a just widowed Korean war veteran. He is a retired auto worker and has lived in the same neighborhood for 40 some years. It is a changing neighborhood with Hmong immigrants, other minorities, and some gangs. Walt has no use for any of these changes. He is an embittered man. After a visit to a doctor, he finds out he is probably dying of cancer.

Reluctantly, Walt becomes involved with his Hmong neighbors. He chases away some gang members who are harassing Thao and his sister Sue. The Hmong family is grateful; they grow on Walt in spite of himself.

Eastwood carries the movie, but the Hmong brother and sister do their part.

At the end Walt proves himself in his own way.

This was very good escapist entertainment in 3D. In the mythical kingdom of Cloister a giant beanstalk opens up all kinds of trouble. There are a captured princess and some very scary giants. The giants are pretty disgusting and funny in a weird way.

Instead of Jack being a boy, he is now a poor young man who lives on a farm. It falls to him to help rescue the princess.

The human villains are great, but it is the giants who are the real stars of this movie. Jack and the princess are very sweet and believable.

Little kids may find this PG13 film too frightening. Fantasy lovers in particular will enjoy it.

Daniel Craig as Bond is superb in this latest Bond flick. He is the quintessential 21st century Bond, cool, competent, but showing some scars from his past--physical and psychological. There may not be as many gadgets in this film, but all the other elements are there suspense, car chases,and death defying shootouts.

Javier Bardem is as evil as it gets, remorseless, relentless, and laughing at the world as he does his terrible deeds.

Judy Densch as "M" is the target this time as is MI6 itself.

Bond who has been given up for dead, must come to the rescue.

We learn a bit about Bond's past in this one. He is a little more human.

All in all Skyfall is a satisfying movie experience.

Having been a public school teacher for 28 years of my adult life, I was very interested in this movie. It didn't disappoint. The portrayal of the inner city school was accurate and true.

Maggie Gylenhael and Viola Davis playing respectively a desperate mother with a dyslexic child and a disillusioned teacher do a great job. The performances are sincere. There are no stereotypes.

The script moves right along and is never boring. There are other good performances especially Holly Hunter as a a union supporter with some qualms about her position.

Heartfelt and sincere. "Won't Back Down" is a winner.

This is so much than a glorified soap opera. The costumes and sets are first rate as is the acting.

Downtown Abbey is far above anything else offered on U.S. television.

No one does costume period dramas like the British. I look forward to it and , so far, have not been disappointed.

Don't let the naysayers scare you away from this series. Downtown Abbey is a lot of fun. It is a guilty pleasure we all can enjoy.

I have formed an attachment to most of the characters. They have changed and grown throughout Seasons 1 and 2.

I wouldn't call this "absolute drivel" as one reviewer has said. There are horrible T.V. shows. Downtown Abbey isn't one of them.

I've seen the new "Les Miserables" twice. It was a glorious experience, moving and complete. Hugh Jackman is amazing as the ex convict, Jean ValJean. Kudos to the rest of the cast especially Anne Hathaway as Fantine. Jackman and Hathaway should both get Oscars for their performances.

Russell Crowe is not much of a singer, but he does a good job portraying Inspector Javert as a complicated, driven man.

The movie makes you think you are in France during the early 19th century with authentic scenery and great atmosphere.

I never saw the stage version of "Les Mis," but I'm grateful to have had the opportunity of watching it with my daughter and two granddaughters, an 11 year old and a 15 year old.. We all loved it.

I've seen the 1954 version and this one and liked them both; although, I liked this one better.

Harrison Ford and Julia Ormond do a good job playing the uptight business obsessed Linus, and Sabrina, the chauffeur's daughter. This is escapist romance at its best.

Sabrina is totally infatuated with David, the younger son on the Long Island Larabie estate. She has watched and adored him for years from a perch in the tree near the chauffeur's quarters.

Her father sends her to Paris hoping the experience will broaden her horizons and cure her of this obsession. When she comes back, she encounter's David in all her new Paris sophistication. What will be the result? The film is beautifully directed by Sydney Pollack. The dialogue is witty, the acting very well done.

Please rent "Sabrina." You won't be disappointed.

This is one of my favorites and a very underrated Christmas movie. Susan Sarandon, Penelope Cruz, and other very distinguished actors do a great job.

There are four interconnected stories. Sarandon is a divorcée in her forties dealing with a mother who has Alzheimer's. Another guy wants to relive the happiest Christmas of his life when he was 14 and spent the day in the hospital. A young policeman is unreasonably jealous of his beautiful fiancée which is destroying their relationship. A older man lives with the guilt that he has falsely accused his wife of being unfaithful.

These stories are beautifully told. The music is nice too.

Rent "Noel." You won't be disappointed.