Review – Cinderella Man

The tale of boxing legend Jim Braddock is one of those stories that just sort of tells itself. And that’s a good thing, because none of our storytellers here is exacting having his or her finest moment. Director Ron Howard probably has the lion’s share of the blame coming. He seems to be trying to create a blend of 21st century big budget Hollywood and sappy Frank Capra triumph-of-the-underdog, and more often than not it doesn’t work. It’s just hard to get behind a gazillion-dollar production about people so poor they can’t pay for utilities or food. However, this still turns out to be a reasonably entertaining movie. You’ll have to be in the mood for one of these sappy things about a washed-up athlete who makes an astounding comeback, but if that itch takes you then this is a solid way to scratch it. Mildly amusing

Review – Riding the Bullet

The DVD menus were scarier and more interesting than the movie. Honestly, this was a textbook example of how not to make a horror movie. Somewhere between the clichés and the umpteenth time the protagonist appears to die, this movie loses whatever chance it might have had to be entertaining. I know some real stinkers have been made from Stephen King stories over the years, but this one’s down among the worst. Honestly, the closest this whole disc comes to entertainment value is the weird montage of Bernie Wrightson’s sketches in the special features. Wish I’d skipped it

Review – Moonraker

This Bond episode is too desperately a reaction to the Star Wars craze of the late 70s, and a belated one at that. Despite a promising start, by this point the Moore Bonds had degenerated into the silly, gadget-happy farces for which he became known. The story’s not bad: a megalomaniacal millionaire decides the human race needs a little housecleaning, so he concocts a plot to exterminate everyone on the planet but leave the plants and animals intact so his cadre of hand-picked supermen (and women) can return to Earth from a hide-out in outer space and basically start humanity over from scratch. Naturally everyone’s favorite  agent uncovers the plot and manages to foil it via the usual series of chases, gun battles and sexual encounters. The result is a solid mid-packer in the series, not the best Bond by a long shot but nowhere near as bad as some of the worst. Mildly amusing

Review – Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle

Stoners everywhere rejoice! The 21st century still has a place for you. Seriously, I’ll bet this is a terrific movie if you’re so high you can’t focus for more than two or three minutes at a time, because the whole story here is a series of odd little situations of short duration and little or no connection to one another. As straight-laced Harold and his happy-go-lucky roommate Kumar go in search of the title restaurant to satisfy a case of the munchies, they do just about everything from performing emergency surgery to riding a cheetah through the woods. For those of us who haven’t smoked anything stronger than a cigarette for awhile, there isn’t that much to this. Some of the bits are funny, but for the most part this is just silly and meandering fluff. Mildly amusing

Review – King Kong (2005)

I wish I had a big-ass review for this big-ass movie. Unfortunately, all I have to say about it is rather brief. The effects were impressive, especially the re-creation of 1930s New York. The acting was good for the most part. It’s an entertaining show. The only thing that struck me as genuinely bad was the editing. In a three-hour-long movie it’s profoundly disappointing to find gaps in the plot, particularly when the immense run time included so many scenes that were either completely superfluous or more drawn-out than necessary. The result is something considerably better than the DeLaurentiis version but still not as good as the original. Mildly amusing

Review – In Good Company

It’s sad when a production has no greater aspiration than to be a romantic comedy and yet can’t even jump that relatively low hurdle. The set-up is here: fifty-something salesman copes with new baby on the way while his new, much younger boss secretly dates his eldest daughter (and yes, it’s legal, however marginally). If they’d just stuck with that, they might have come out okay. But then the subplot about corporate downsizing and the developing buddy relationship between old-timer and upstart overwhelm the entire picture, especially after the romance goes bad. The casting doesn’t help. Dennis Quaid has finally come to grips with the loss of his boyish charm, but that doesn’t leave him with much beyond a sad sort of Harrison-Ford-wannabe approach to roles. Scarlett Johansson does an okay job as the love interest, though her hair, makeup and wardrobe changes put her through an ageing and de-ageing ping pong match that was unsettling in places. And Topher Grace just needs to stick to TV sitcoms. Overall this movie falls flat because it doesn’t follow the formula well enough to succeed as what it pretends to be, and what it is isn’t interesting enough to survive on its own. Mildly amusing

Review – Thunderball

Like scuba footage? If so, boy are you in the right place. I didn’t time it, but it sure felt like the characters spent more time swimming around underwater than they did interacting on dry land. For a movie about diving, that would be okay. But this is a James Bond movie. And a bad one at that, easily the worst of the original Connery set. The villain is a lackluster guy whose sole personality trait appears to be an eye patch. Further, Bond seems to be losing his touch with the ladies. At one point he actually has to blackmail a woman into having sex with him. That might have been considered suave back in the 60s (though I doubt it), but in the 21st century it evokes the word “creep” if not the word “rapist.” Even the movie’s strong points are sub-par. For example, there’s a well-staged underwater battle sequence toward the end, but it goes on and on until even the most patient audience member is bound to get tired of it. If you’re trying to make your way through all the Bonds, you’re going to have to sit through this stinker at some point. Otherwise there are many better uses for your time and entertainment dollar, even in the Bond series. Wish I’d skipped it

Review – The Dukes of Hazzard

Okay, the guilt is on me for renting this when I knew perfectly well what to expect. My only excuse was that I hoped Johnny Knoxville might bring at least some semblance of sarcasm to the production. Instead, the “magic” seems to have worked in reverse, making him as bad as the rest of the movie. And truly bad it was, even worse than my memories of the TV series. Indeed, the only thing that stood out for me amid the general awfulness was the odd handling of the Confederate flag on the roof of the car. Unlike the series – which never seemed to give any thought to the subject – the movie acknowledges that some folks don’t care much for the emblem of the pro-slavery South. I would almost have preferred ignorance or even anti-PC pig-headedness to the attitude here, which had a disturbing “we know it’s wrong but we’re going to do it anyway” feel. Other than that this is exactly what one would expect: the redneck moral equivalent of gangsta rap. Oh, and I never saw the rated version so I can’t say for certain, but my guess is that the main distinction between the theatrical release and the unrated DVD (the version I saw) was the inclusion of a couple of completely superfluous boob shots (and no, they weren’t Jessica Simpson’s). Maybe a drug reference at the end or perhaps a couple of the raunchier jokes. But nothing to write home about. Wish I’d skipped it

Review – A Song Is Born

An audience is bored, is more like it. Rare indeed is the movie in which Danny Kaye gets upstaged, but it happens here for a couple of reasons. The main attraction of this production is the host of big band greats who turn in performances; indeed, fans of the era and its music should see this by all means. Unfortunately, that’s about all there is to it. The bulk of the picture’s running time is devoted to a trite (and I believe recycled) plot about a gangster’s girlfriend who plays a music nerd (Kaye) for a sap in order to escape the police, naturally falling in love with him in the process. Kaye has few if any chances to do the kind of physical comedy that made him a star, so he spends most of his time looking awkward. Come for the music if it’s your cup of tea, but don’t feel like you have to stay for the story. Mildly amusing

Review – Murderball

This is the most honest documentary about quadriplegics that I’ve ever seen. These guys aren’t saintly sweet physically-differently-abled people struggling to overcome their limitations. Instead they’re dramatic proof that rugby mooks in wheelchairs aren’t any different from rugby mooks who can walk. They’ve got the same ultra-macho drive to win games, drink beer, et cetera. And oddly enough, the story of the rivalry between the U.S. paralympic rugby team and a former member now coaching the Canadian squad makes for compelling viewing. At times it gets a little too MTV-reality-show-ish. I also thought the drama would have been stronger if the directors had done a better job covering the games themselves or at the very least keeping things in chronological order. Despite the odd editing, the personalities of the players serve to keep things interesting throughout. Mildly amusing

Review – Godzilla vs. Megaguirus

Oh the indignity! The mighty Godzilla reduced to the level of humble Orkin man. This is the worst job he’s had since he spent most of Godzilla vs. Hedorah working as a sewage treatment engineer. In this one, scientists try to invent a miniature black hole in order to destroy everyone’s favorite fire-breathing lizard (hey, he’s escaped from everything else, so why not try something that nothing can escape from?). The first test produces a dimensional rift, and out flies a giant bug. It lays an egg, and after a few more plot twists hundreds of smaller giant bugs emerge. They attack Godzilla and suck some of his energy out. They then take the energy back to Megaguirus, the biggest giant bug of all. Battle ensues. Overall this is a decent mix of plot and monster fights. If only the bad guy had been a little less buggy. Mildly amusing

Review – Godzilla vs. Hedorah

Also known as Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster, at least in its initial U.S. release. And aptly so, as the stupid thing basically amounts to a giant pile of flying sludge with eyes. Godzilla has battled some lame monsters in his time, but this has got to be the all-time lamest. Still, it’s nice to see everyone’s favorite giant, fire-breathing monster taking on the earth’s pollution problem. This is an early 70s production in every way from the clothes to the music (“Save the Earth! Save the Earth! Let’s start a revolution to stop pollution! Save the Earth!” or at least the Japanese equivalent thereof) to the odd animated sequences right on down to the radical environmentalism (Minimata Bay, anyone?). To top it all off, the final battle goes on and on, even after it should logically have ended. Mildly amusing

Review – Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell

You can tell Yvette Mimieux’s character is possessed by evil spirits, because she pretends to want to have sex with Richard Crenna. The creature of darkness responsible for such monstrous wickedness? A dog. A German shepherd (with lights aimed into his face to give him that spooky red-eye effect) that’s secretly a demonic glow-in-the-dark yappy dog complete with little horns. So the movie is almost completely undone by the cuteness of its supposedly-menacing villains, especially early on when the fluffy shepherd puppy psychically sets the maid on fire. With the fright factor gone, this is just an oh-so-70s production about a suburban family who bring a hell creature into their home. I enjoyed this immensely the first time I saw it, but on recent re-viewing I’m forced to confess that it’s a bit of a stinker. Mildly amusing

Review – Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla

Jeez, could this thing have a little more plot? I know an excess of story isn’t something I usually gripe about. But in a Godzilla movie, who wants to watch actors endlessly muddling through some nonsense about space aliens who turn into apes when you shoot them? I’m here for the guys in monster suits smashing miniature cities and breathing fire on each other. Mechagodzilla (the Bionic Monster in the original U.S. release back in the 70s) is cool, even if some of his moves are borrowed from Johnny Socko’s Giant Robot. Godzilla’s ally, King Cesar, looks like a giant Pekingese (apologies to my four-year-old niece, who loves him). Nonetheless, the monster battles are as much fun as usual. They’re just far too infrequent. Mildly amusing

Review – Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah

There was an additional title at the beginning of the movie, “All-Star Monster Mega-battle” or something like that. If that made the show sound like a pay-per-view WWF event, well, that was more than a little apt. The allegiances of the monsters in the Godzilla series are as hard to keep track of as the good guy / bad guy status of pro wrestlers. Originally Godzilla was a bad guy. Then in the 70s he became our planet’s champion against other giant monsters, usually creatures brought to earth by aliens. Now at the dawn of the new millennium he’s back in the bad guy seat again. Likewise, Ghidorah used to be three-headed muscle for extraterrestrial invaders. Now he’s teamed up with Mothra and Baragon to keep Godzilla from trashing Japan. The effects are slightly better than they used to be, or at least they’re more seamlessly integrated with the live action. Beyond that this is what we’ve come to expect from Godzilla movies, nothing more and nothing less. Mildly amusing

Review – Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Normally I don’t have a problem with a mix of action and comedy, but that assumes the action is exciting and/or the comedy is funny. Wrong on both counts here. It didn’t help that the plot was paper-thin. Two glamorous assassins are married to each other without being aware of their partners’ chosen careers. Once each finds out what the other does for a living, they spend a good-sized chunk of the rest of the movie trying to kill each other. And no, the logic really isn’t any better than that. Story aside, however, the movie falls flat because it fails to deliver either thrills or laughs. The gun battles in particular go on for so long and depend on so many ridiculous elements that they almost become self-parody. And the romantic comedy angle never rises above a bad episode of Friends. Honestly, there was as much entertainment value in the five minutes of back-story at the beginning of Spy Kids than there was in this expensive, two-hour debacle. See if desperate

Review – The Exorcism of Emily Rose

This might have been a better movie if only its creators had stuck with the horror angle rather than trying to turn the thing into a theology debate. Early on some of the effects are kinda spooky, and if the film-makers had just relied on this strong point they might have come up with something worth watching. But the story swiftly gets bogged down in courtroom drama that plays like the Scopes trial in reverse. The legal wrangling is filled with a legion of holes, but those are easy to ignore compared to the inadequate handling of the alleged battle between facts and faith. Indeed, once the priest is attacked by cats in the middle of the exorcism, the movie has lost any chance of being taken seriously. Later it turns out that poor Emily is possessed by not one but six different demons, including one that was once inside Nero and one that was once inside Judas. In the words of Father Karras from a considerably better exorcism movie, “that’s like claiming you’re Napoleon.” If that’s the best these folks could do, they should have stuck with simple shocks and left more profound thinking to minds that were up to the task. See if desperate

Review – The Big Easy

When doing a lot of location shooting in New Orleans, film-makers should take care not to let the backdrops overshadow their productions. Of course with acting this mediocre and a script this bad, the movie doesn’t stand a chance. Ellen Barkin wasn’t too bad, but whatever good she managed to do was immediately cancelled by Dennis Quaid’s witless smirking and come-and-go accent. The story was some mish-mash about corruption in the New Orleans police force, which turned out to be just as uninteresting as it sounded to begin with. And the sex scenes … yeech! Beyond the street scenes, the only real entertainment to be found here is a brief cameo by Judge Jim Garrison playing Judge Jim Garrison (several years before JFK). Someone with enough insider knowledge of the city to make such casting and location decisions really should have come up with a movie that did a better job of living up to the subject. Mildly amusing

Review – The Bad News Bears (2005)

They could have stopped the title after the first two words. The original was a clever production about a pack of misfit kids on a little league team coached by a cynical drunk with a heart of gold. This one’s ostensibly the same thing, but instead of clever it comes across as trite and vile. Part of the problem is that back in the 70s kids that swore and scrapped and otherwise misbehaved were a welcome divergence from the Brady Bunch vision of childhood that dominated the media at the time. Now foul-mouthed brats are a dime a dozen (and even at that price you’re being overcharged). Further, Walter Matthau worked in the coach role in ways Billy Bob Thornton can only dream of. In short, this was yet another entry in the long list of movies that weren’t crying out for a remake to begin with, and certainly didn’t deserve redoing like this. See if desperate

Review – The Red Shoes

This is a crucial, early point in the development of several film innovations, not the least among which are the extended dance number and the notion that women might actually like watching movies. But beyond its role in history, this is an interesting movie all on its own. A talented young ballerina is forced to choose between the two loves of her life: dancing and her composer boyfriend. Complicating matters is the sinister impresario who demands that if she is to dance that she devote herself entirely to her art, abandoning all else. The ballet that first makes her famous forms a story-within-a-story (not to mention an elaborate production that lasts somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes), transforming Hans Christian Anderson’s outré tale of evil shoes into an allegory about obsession. Worth seeing

Review – Biggie and Tupac

If there’s anyone in the whole wide world who could make a documentary about the deaths of Biggie Smalls and Tupak Shakur and not find concrete evidence of a conspiracy, that director would be Nick Broomfield. But of course as usual he isn’t making a documentary about his subject. He’s making a documentary about how righteously indignant he is that nobody will talk to him. Nobody, that is, except for the usual collection of nuts, pathological liars and a handful of other folks with nothing better to do with themselves than waste time with Broomfield. Oh, and he does manage to get into prison to interview Sug Knight toward the end, but by then Nick’s forgotten his title subjects and instead interviews Mr. Death Row about some hyped-up feud with Snoop Dogg. Snore. Indeed, “snore” on the whole movie. Wish I’d skipped it

Review – Genghis Blues

Blind blues singer Paul Pena is listening to his short-wave radio one night when he happens across a broadcast of Tuva throatsingers. He teaches himself to do this interesting trick, singing more than one note at a time. Then he journeys to Asia to meet some of the folks who do it for a living. He even manages to win a division in a national competition. The singing alone would have made a fascinating five-minute documentary, ten if they ever bothered to explain how it actually works. The trip might have been worth another five. But needless to say, this wasn’t a 15-minute movie. The bulk of the production is devoted to the uninteresting adventures of Pena and his troop of neo-hippie hangers-on as they wander aimlessly around. My personal favorite was the guy who was obsessed with his old pal Richard Feynman. Seriously, this guy just could not shut up about the dead mathematician. The final nail in the coffin was the graphic slaughter of a goat. That one scene alone cost this movie a star, maybe two. Wish I’d skipped it

Review - The Fantastic Four

After decades of planning to make a movie out of the foursome, this is what they come up with. First the good stuff. The effects were okay an a comic-bookish sort of way. And I came into the experience fully expecting to dish out a DRNPA to Jessica Alba. But oddly enough, she dodged the bullet. Part of her luck was that the script didn’t call on her to do a lot of hard-core science-ing. But what she did have to do, she managed to pull off better than I predicted. Now the bad news: that’s pretty much the limit of the good news. I was especially disappointed in the handling of Victor Von Doom. The doctor in the comic books had a certain Eastern European outsider mad genius quality to him. The guy in the movie came across as just another corporate wiener. Overall this was a mid-packer of a Marvel superhero movie, not as bad as The Hulk but most likely not the franchise feature that Spider-Man turned out to be. Mildly amusing

Review – The Island

I know I’ve griped several times in the past about movies – especially sci fi flicks – that turn out to be nothing but plot elements “borrowed” from other movies. But this is an especially bad case. Almost everything in this production from the big plot points down to the characters and dialogue comes across as vaguely familiar, recognizable from one previous effort or another (particularly Clonus where the similarities were so close that they inspired a settled-out-of-court lawsuit). As a result, this tale of clones discovering the sinister secret behind their true purpose in life will come across as fresh and entertaining only if you haven’t seen a sci fi movie in the last three or four decades. But if you don’t need a Cliff’s Notes primer on the genre, this won’t seem much more than expensive and stale. Oh, and it probably should have ended a half an hour or so before it actually did. See if desperate

Review – The Skeleton Key

The big star of this movie – at least from my perspective – was the atmosphere. I like all that steamy summer bayou stuff. It’s a terrific setting for a horror movie, especially a thriller that uses voodoo as a theme. But like just about every other voodoo movie ever made, this thing falls into the usual racist patterns of assuming that every black person in the universe is intimately acquainted with haints and spells. Even the beautiful, blonde protagonist’s urban black roommate has an aunt who goes to the conjure-woman. Further, the plot was a little too easy to stay ahead of. Beyond the clichés, however, this was an entertaining production. The art direction and audio (I especially liked the creepy old record of the voodoo ceremony) did at least part of what the script and acting couldn’t get done. Mildly amusing

Review – A Christmas Carol (1999)

Worst Dickens ever. I’ve seen this classic tale done by “talents” from Henry Winkler to Mickey Mouse, but honestly I’ve never seen such a parade of mediocre, phoned-in performances from experienced, professional actors. The odd part is that this is one of the few stories that can be overacted with impunity, and yet a cast full of folks with well-established histories of overacting decide to do little more than mumble their lines. Patrick Stewart in particular turns in one of the most lackluster jobs of his career, making his Scrooge almost impossible to feel for. Richard E. Grant also makes a crotchety Cratchet, his bad temper and bad teeth making him authentically English poor but not evocative of much sympathy. The ghosts were all weird as well, though the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come was the worst. He looked like an overblown refugee from Phantasm. As adaptations of Dickens’ novel grow more numerous and more technically sophisticated, it seems they also grow more soulless and dull. Wish I’d skipped it

Review – The Body Snatcher

Val Lewton produces. Robert Wise directs. Boris Karloff stars. Bela Lugosi even has a small role. The source story was by Robert Louis Stevenson. And the best this team of greats could come up with was this dreary little piece about a med school teacher tormented by his association with a “resurrectionist” who turns out to be a bit too zealous in his procurement tactics. The syrupy-sweet paraplegic child is either an interesting contrast to the cynical world of body snatching or just a dumb cliché, it’s hard to say exactly which. But by the time the movie draws to its “telltale heart” conclusion, there’s no doubt about the weakness of the script. The wanton killing of a small dog also served to knock this one down a peg. See if desperate

Review – The Big Sleep

I’ve seen this movie three or four times now, and I’ve completely given up trying to figure out what’s going on. Perhaps someday I’ll read the book so I can piece it together at my leisure. But then again, perhaps I won’t. The bewildering twists and turns are part of the pleasure, just like the hard-boiled dialogue and big-city-after-dark settings. Though I suppose The Maltese Falcon is considered the more perfect example of Bogart’s contribution to the film noir genre, in many ways I like this one better. Certainly the chemistry between the leading man and Lauren Bacall was hard to beat. So just as long as you aren’t trying to get it to make sense, this mystery is a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Worth seeing

Review – The Eagle Has Landed

This World War Two drama fits quite well with the mid-70s environment that spawned it. The Germans are the heroes, or anti-heroes if you prefer. A team of German paratroopers has been sent to Britain to kidnap Churchill. They’re being aided by an IRA insider (Donald Sutherland, with an Irish accent so bad it’s almost a shame he even bothered to try) and a woman whose family was killed by the English during the Boer war, two folks who seem to have a legitimate reason to want the Prime Minister dead. The plot gets blown when one of the troopers dies trying to rescue a child. In other words, this level of moral ambiguity is a far cry from the days of John Wayne and Audie Murphy. The first time I saw this was when it first came out, and the venue was one of the converted hallways upstairs at the Empire theater. It was hot and stuffy, and it was hard to pay attention to the picture. So it was nice to at least be able to watch it this time through. Mildly amusing

Review – Pope John Paul II

Even by made-for-TV standards, this one’s a stinker. It’s split into two parts (thus technically making it a miniseries), and the title character is played by two actors. In the first part the young Pole is portrayed by puffy-looking Cary Elwes. Then in the second half creepy Jon Voight takes on the role. But the casting is sheer genius compared to the script. Characters pop in and out of the Pope’s life so fast that the audience has little chance to figure out who they are, let alone care about their contributions to the story. The emphasis throughout is heavily placed on Polish nationalism, leaving the impression that the man made no other contribution to the world besides anti-Nazism and anti-Communism. The direction was likewise dreadful; just one of the production’s many faults was the constant, amateur-hour use of awkward wipes to move from location to location. While I suppose the subject had his faults, overall I think he deserved a better tribute than this. See if desperate

Review – Adaptation

As with Being John Malkovich, this production depends almost entirely on its own quirkiness. The story is standard writer-with-writer’s-block stuff, the story-within-a-story (the book the writer is supposed to be turning into a screenplay) is about a writer with the New Yorker working on a story about an obsessive orchid hunter. There’s a lot of ennui, alienation, et cetera, et cetera. A paragraph-review description can’t help but make the production sound silly, even somewhat masturbatory in a guy-writing-the-screenplay-of-his-own-life way. And in at least some ways this movie is just that. But a simple description sells the movie short, because its charm lies in the little twists and turns, the small visual tricks, the details rather than the bigger picture. I’m not sure that it works for the whole running time, but there’s enough fun here and there to keep it at least close to interesting. Mildly amusing

Review – On the Riviera

This old Danny Kaye movie is a remake of an even older Don Ameche movie. For the most part it’s fairly dreadful stuff, a witless little comedy of errors involving a nightclub performer impersonating a wealthy aviator/industrialist. Occasionally Kaye’s brilliant sense of comedic timing shines through, but for every funny moment there are multiple uninteresting plot twists or apropos-of-nothing musical numbers (including renditions of such immortal classics as “Ballin’ the Jack” and “Popo the Puppet”). What a waste of some really good talent. See if desperate

Review – Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star

This is the kind of movie that Showtime free preview weekends were made for. Paying for it – however indirectly – would merely add insult to injury. This movie has only two things going for it: an occasional bit of David Spade wit and a scattering of cameos from actual former child stars. The best part was a whole gaggle of these folk performing a “We Are the World” style song during the end credits. The rest is lame situation comedy and/or touchy-feely nonsense about a washed-up actor who pays a real family to help him relive a childhood he never had. See if desperate

Review – Dragon Seed

What an odd mix of contrary elements. This production is at once laudatory of and condescending to the peasant farmers of China. The first half hour or so is an endless parade of country bumpkin clichés with a fair amount of racist stereotyping (compounded by the fact that almost all the key characters are played by white actors). But once the Japanese soldiers show up to disrupt this rural idyll, this settles into a standard “This is the enemy” propaganda piece from World War Two. The script is stiff and the acting likewise. Katherine Hepburn’s portrayal of a young, idealistic woman is especially disappointing, so rigid that in places she seems to be concentrating so hard on being enigmatic that she actually appears to be blind. Or maybe it was just the eye makeup. Beyond a few interesting dips into socialism, this movie is probably best appreciated as a creature of its time. Mildly amusing

Review – Apollo 13

As one might expect given the subject matter, this is one of those movies that moves from one calamity to the next. As historical drama, it’s interesting. As storytelling, it’s more than a little tedious. Some of the special effects are fun, particularly the weightless stuff. Overall at least some affection for Hollywood and/or NASA will make this an easier pill to swallow. Verdict: mildly amusing.

Genre: Drama

Subgenre: Thriller
Date reviewed: