Reviews

I have only one thing to add about this movie, which I just watched for the first time. It has the MOST PERFECT ending of any movie ever! Those who say detracting things about the ending must not get it, must not have been paying attention! The director has been building up, so expertly, an incredible sense of tension whether or not Birdy's old neighborhood buddy will be able to reach his shattered mind. In the last split second, we find out. The abruptness is not a "gag"; it sums up the tale perfectly. Jeesh! Just think about it, would ya?...

What a great, realistic, thoughtful, touching flick! AND WHAT A GREAT ENDING!

Now I'm sorry I raced through this movie last night and told the DVR to go ahead and delete! I thought it was quite hilarious, in a screwball, self-referential, meta-fictional way! You've gotta love a film that continuously refers to how much Tony Curtis looks like Jack Lemon. I just never thought the studios allowed such tongue-in-cheek buffoonery on screen! Yes, Natalie Wood here is the most beautiful & desirable woman in the world. Henry Fonda does his gravitas routine to brilliant comic effect. Lauren Bacall is timeless & ageless in the role of a justifiably paranoid wife.

I keep thinking: who was the wit who concocted such a script? Joseph Heller, the author of catch-22, one of the most highly-acclaimed novels of the 20th century. This film is amazingly & woefully under-appreciated!

I saw this in Detroit in what must have been its original run. I literally rolled into the aisle of the theater. It was that funny. I haven't seen it since, but would love to. Where do you get a copy? Anybody saying anything about it being dated or overdone are, for my money, just a bunch of poseurs. Each skit is either wickedly, erotically or perversely hilarious. Each one! There is not a weak one included. The opening sequence, for instance, which parodies 2001, features gorilla go-go-dancers with pendulous breasts. Felinni would have filmed it had he the wicked wit... If you come to this film with an open mind and a blithely sneering heart, you'll pencil it right into your very best list.

To me this is the best sci-fi thriller of all time. Aliens is good too, but this is the best. I won't spoil the ending, but it is the most chilling of all time! I love the original; it was a touchstone of my youth. We used to refer to it often in my family & in the neighborhood. Pod people... There is a brilliant simplicity in the original, low budget but tight & effective. This remake shows you what can be done w/ money. Everything hinted at is seen in '78. Yet the plot & the tension take on commensurate sophistication and artistic ambiguity. Nimoy's gobbledygook explanation of why this horror is not really happening is one of the greatest things in the movies. It's a brilliant satire on self-help and feel-good pop psychology. Lord, do I wish Hollywood would come up w/ something so brilliant again...

I bought this movie in the $5 bin at Wal-Mart & did not know what to expect. Well, I found it charming! I have read Kipling within the last few years and cite the Jungle Books as an example of children's books that are of absorbing interest to adults, as well. I do not find that true of, say, the Harry Potter series. Kipling is a surpassing genius; he did not pander to the reader or to children. He tells a heartfelt naturally symbolic tale that is pure and powerful. As to this movie: it is a hodge-podge of Kipling's plots. But, man, is it beautiful and that little kid is so good and believable as Mowgli. Without being true to any one of the books, it seems to me perfectly true to the spirit of Kipling. The cinematography and the beautiful animals are, in themselves, worth the price of admission. I loved it!

Amazing! I didn't think a "comic book" movie could get better--more coherent, compelling or intelligent--than Spiderman I. But it can, and it's called Batman Begins. Like all great sci-fi creations, this Batman movie has serious and poignant comments to make on the real world. Batman, a fantasy character, has very real moral, psychological and even existential decisions to make, decisions that have a correlation to ones we all face in society. How far will we go to do the right thing? Batman could have easily rationalized the excesses he was externally and internally tempted to take, but he chose to "do the right thing" in the face of overwhelming misunderstanding and criticism. In other words, he didn't attack or kill just because he could. He tried to be measured; he tried to help a bleak situation, not just exercise his machismo. Who'd a thought that nowadays we'd get a movie in which the effects and the carnage were truly subservient to the narrative? Glory, glory hallelujah. Have I lived long enough to see a new era in intelligent film making?

What can I say? I have driven two families ( and especially two wives) nuts by pulling out first a home-made copy then a VHS copy of this movie upon the slightest provocation. Most of the time I don't even want to get to the action scenes. I'm totally enamored with the charming images of Victorian Britain that open the film. When I do make it to the action, I have two preoccupations: Yvette Mimeux, of course, not being a pansy Eloi myself, and ruminations on the thrilling conceptual notion that time changes everything much more than anything else. Just think, all those fantastic, truly mind-boggling events take place just a few hundred yards from the time-traveler's laboratory. The novel and movie are H.G. Wells's reflections on the implications of evolution. As a matter of fact, in the novel, Wells rounds out his musings by setting a final scene way, way into the future, when "man" has "evolved" into something so loathsome that the Morlocks look like Olympians in comparison. Oh, for the glory days of sci-fi movies! The special effects and voice-overs serve something so beautiful in this film, so rare nowadays: an idea!

This is certainly in my top-10 favorite movies. It is so filled with poetry and smart humor that the only possible weakness could be that it's too good! I mean, it's so funny and touching throughout that I worry I'm being manipulated by a master of narrative so powerful that I'm overwhelmed. When every scene seems classic then surely it's a cliché, no? Well, anyway, that's my irrational worry. The only lapse in its logic and flow that I can see is that Johnny says he can't get married now because his mother will die. But, wait a minute, didn't she get better because he was getting married? Riddle me this, my friends. That's always bothered me. On the other hand, you can take Nick Cage's speech outside of his apartment and set it to verse and it's a work of passionate art! "We are meant to love the wrong people, etc., etc. " Wham! Beautiful! The ending is my fave, the reconciliation, the links to history & family. Beautiful! Who doesn't wan't to be an Italian (or at least a member of an Italianish family) after seeing this movie? I've been moonstruck for almost 20 years over this flick. Only a smack across the kisser by Cher could snap me out of it. I should be so lucky...

I don't really see this movie as science fiction at all. Science fantasy, maybe. How does this time machine work? Marty asks. Well it's the good old flux capacitor, Dr. Brown "explains." In the original "Time Machine" movie, scientific explanations are even lamer. How does it work? Push the lever forward you go into the future; push it back and you go into the past! Why, thank you! It's perfectly clear now. No, no. There is no real science in "Back to the Future." The technological premise is a mere excuse to ruminate on the vicissitudes of fate and the possibility of doing something very difficult but crucial: changing your history. Marty learns that, maybe--just maybe--if you go beyond yourself and do something beyond what you think you can, beyond what you have seemingly been set up by fate to do, then you can change history--fate--not only for your self but for others as well, for your progeny, your family. Thus the real hero of this morality tale is not Marty but the old man. With Marty's help, he eventually stands up to Biff, something he never did the first time around and everything changes! The family is now hip and smart, classy, loving and cool! When I first saw that last scene (and when I still see it today), a tear of humanistic joy comes to my eye. The whole family is redeemed for at least a generation, because George learns a Hemingway lesson: a coward dies a thousand deaths, but a brave man only one. If Biff had killed him in the parking lot, then, at least, it would have been "The Short, Happy Life of George McFly." Sweet, sweet, sweet redemption. I love it!

For me this is one of the few movies of recent vintage that could be called a writer's story. It's wonderfully thematic! Phil has so much to learn and takes a long time to learn it, but what he learns is so encouraging and humanistic. He learns that by developing his artistic side he will learn to love and be loved. He learns to sculpt and play the piano beautifully. And, it seems to me, finally, that he chooses to do it for the right reasons: the pure joy of expression, the pleasure of bringing beauty and truth to the world. My wife asked me in wonder how I could love this flick so much; it's so unrealistic. But, ah, the theme is so strong that I want to suspend my disbelief. It functions ultimately as an allegory. We must all learn to try to forget ourselves and concentrate on the moment, live each day not as if it will be our last, but as though it will be our only day! When we learn that lesson, then we can begin to live again...

I saw this movie last night at a local theatre, after having viewed it many times on TV. It was better than ever! I just read through some of the comments and noted how some people say they don't get it...don't understand the Cold War

era...don't see the humor. Since I love this movie so much, I would like to help if I can. First of all, to really like this movie I think you have to like the characters. I must say I really do like Gen. Buck Turgidson. He's a regular guy, kinda horny, but I'm a flaming heterosexual myself! Buck, like Lionel and Bat and Col. Kong and the President are really trying to do the right thing in a terrible, nightmarish situation. Heck even Jack D. Ripper thinks he's on the right side of life! You see, if you don't see real people (presumably like yourself) in the movie, then you can't see how wacky and absurd contemporary life really is! Heck, half the time I feel like Lionel Mandrake trying to jolly the boss along as he leads me and everyone else to our doom. The true genius of this movie is that it's almost entirely believable, in all its total insanity. These crazy people act competently and even valiantly most of the time. The perfect ending says it best: we'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when. But probably in Baghdad!...

The poor reviews of this movie just baffle me! I can only think it's a matter of assuming something is bad because it gives off a poor vibe: Eastwood singing, a musical of the gold rush? But I loved it the first time I saw it and it was the first movie I taped when VCR became popular in the '80s.

I still quote great lines from it, like Lee Marvin saying when you learn to lie a whole new world opens up to you... Maybe the disdain for this movie is reflected in the new Puritanical attitude of this country. This flick is so disdainful of foolish civilization that perhaps the casual viewer has his delicate sensibilities offended. I dunno, but for me life is a goldrush at best and it makes as much sense to share a wife with a buddy as anything else, especially if she's good to go...

I don't get it. I don't get it. Watch it with an open mind. Maybe you'll recognize me. Why hey, I'm Schermehorn...