Shoot to Kill –Roger Spottiswoode –1988
Harv Zimmel writer
** (out of five)
Logic holes you could drive a truck through and a terribly underdeveloped sidekick and villain. You’d expect more from Mr. Poitier.
Monthly Archive for March, 2005
Shaun of the Dead –Edgar Wright –2004
Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright writers
*** (out of five)
A fun, unpretentious little horror comedy with some decent acting, some moments of better writing than you would expect and some cute nods to Night of the Living Dead. Not bad at all.
Robots –Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha –2005
Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel writers
*** (out of five)
Visually stunning but emotionally kind of empty. There’s nothing in the film that resonates with the viewer, no deep insight into character or moment of true pathos. It’s definitely a good deal better than Shark Tale but if you ask me what it was about next week I may not be able to tell you.
Not a bad film certainly but it made me appreciate Pixar all the more.
To Kill a Mockingbird –Robert Mulligan –1962
Horton Foote writer
****1/2 (out of five)
Beautiful work by all concerned. To say that Gregory Peck is wonderful would be stating the obvious but pretty much the entire cast is letter-perfect (and I lived in the South for many years so you can trust me on this). The photography is great, the music is great, the screenplay adaptation is great. From the wonderful opening titles to Robert Duvall’s appearance late in the film, “Mockingbird” is damn fine filmmaking.
The Searchers –John Ford –1956
Frank S. Nugent writer
**** (out of five)
A fine, well made picture. A good story, good acting and some of the best location photography you’re likely to find. –John Ford, John Wayne and Monument Valley are a pretty tough combination to beat.
Ice Age –Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha directors –2002
Michael Berg, Michael J. Wilson and Peter Ackerman writers
**3/4
Not bad. Not great but certainly not bad. The story’s a little too Jungle Book-y, the human characters look terrible and the spare backgrounds sometimes look like 50s-era Road Runner cartoons (a good thing) and other times like minature sets (a bad thing). Some of the voice acting is spotty (Ray Romaono, I’m looking at you) and a lot of the humor isn’t funny. Still, a nice bit of pathos near the end saves this one from becoming Shark Tale. –I suppose I have a guarded interest in seeing Robots next week.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind –Michel Gondry –2004
Charlie Kaufman writer
*** (out of five)
Well-acted and (provisionally) well-written. I enjoyed “Sunshine” but I could never get away from the nagging feeling that I was watching Charlie Kaufman do parlor tricks. The story is clever to the point that you can almost hear the writer yelling “look at me! look at me!”. –So, a positive experience but with a slight taint.
Prisoner of Zenda –John Cromwell –1937
John Balderston writer
*** (out of five)
The first half of “Zenda” is a blast. It’s light, it’s fun and it’s sharply written. The second half bogs down with some overly-complicated plot machinations and some heavy-handed sentiment. These stalls can’t undermine the fun completely however. –Ronald Colman and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. are both terrific.
Scarlet Street –Fritz Lang –1945
Dudley Nichols writer
**3/4 (out of five)
Scarlet Street is hokey and overwrought but that can be fun in a noir film. I’d say what keeps it slightly below average is the supporting cast. Edward G. Robinson is terrific as the worm that turns but the rest of the ensemble isn’t up to his level.
Still, I hadn’t been down rain-slicked, shadowy streets in a while so it was good to take in a noir.
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