For movie fans who want to dive into the great and heavy works of Alfred Hitchcock, North by Northwest is the first of two movies that I steer them to first.
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The film Harvey is a big dose of Jimmy Stewart. If you can't handle that warble or earnestness, this was a long hour and forty-five minutes. I, for one, can appreciate this version of Jimmy and still know that his better performances are in a dozen other movies.
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The unevenness of Savages comes from the peaks and valleys of our rooting interest for Chon, Ben, and O. For a while, we're enviously digging their cool lifestyle, the drugs, the cars, and the hot sex. Who wouldn't? Then, we're hit with the extreme violence of torture, decapitation, and dismemberment by which the cartel operates. The bad taste washes over in a hurry. We sure don't want to be those three anymore and don't have much to root for.
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Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is absolutely preposterous, but it's supposed to be.
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Co-directed and starring Gene Kelly, Singin' in the Rain is commonly regarded as the greatest Hollywood movie musical. It topped the American Film Institute's list of movie musicals and was most recently their #5 overall greatest film of all-time.
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To watch a movie like Ted, about a foul-mouthed, drug-using, sex-starved, and talking teddy bear that belongs to a guy like Mark Wahlberg, you have to check your reality card at the door.
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The Graduate is an experience to behold every time I watch it. I pick up more and more stylistic and performance notes with each new viewing.
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In honor of the passing of film and television star Andy Griffith this past week, the "Alphabet Film Club" (after I already watched and posted my piece below on the original top vote-getter The Frighteners) decided to substitute the other "F" nominee, A Face in the Crowd, starring Andy Griffith, in place of the original winner, as this week's selection as a tribute to the departed actor. Here's my "extra credit" write-up on A Face in the Crowd.
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The Frighteners is definitely a up-and-down roller coaster ride of comedy and horror. Peter Jackson, with nods to many B-movies, conveys a faster pace, a more chipper spirit, and a more domestic tone than a gloomy-yet-decadent Tim Burton feature.
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The Amazing Spider-Man, though flawed and familiar at times, succeeds in giving us a new start for this beloved character. It's not a bold new direction, but a positive one.
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For all of the strange tones, weird performances, and inherent precociousness that one associates with Wes Anderson, his latest film, Moonrise Kingdom, is an absolute winner and crowd pleaser. With a story driven by two unknown child leads, Wes has made his most accessible and approachable feature to date. As a guy who wasn't a fan of of his before, Moonrise Kingdom has changed my opinion of him.
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Safety Not Guaranteed dares to keep your attention at every turn and really succeeds. The script is brilliant and deserves the praise it has already gotten. From diving deeper into Kenneth's world to seeing the different motivations that come to light, for both our time travelers and our magazine team tailing him, more and more layers of interest keep coming into play. All the while, you feel the countdown and are driven to wonder if Kenneth and his time machine are the real deal when the time comes to leave. This pace makes the movie breeze by and, unlike some other edgy indie movies that sell you with teases, the payoff is really rich and deserved.
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