Review – American Experience: My Lai

After an hour and a half, I didn’t feel like I knew a lot more about the My Lai massacre than I did going in (though if you don’t know anything about it at all you will learn quite a bit before it’s through). For me the interesting part was seeing some of the participants – direct and indirect – talk about one of the less proud moments in the Army’s history. Mildly amusing

Review – Centurion

Here we have one of those movies that depends heavily on car chases, gunfights and explosions. But setting it in second century Roman Britain has deprived the filmmakers of the primary tools of their crap-slinging trade. The story of the mysterious disappearance of the Ninth Legion is transformed into a guys-on-the-lam-pursued-by-vicious-gang-members piece to no particular good effect. See if desperate

Review – Every Little Step

If I cared a little more about stage musicals or at least hadn’t already seen a couple of behind-the-scenes documentaries about Broadway productions, I might have liked this a bit more than I did. Some of the background material about the genesis of A Chorus Line was reasonably interesting stuff. On the other hand, the endless footage of casting calls and callbacks and happy singers and sad singers and … well, it wasn’t exactly unfamiliar territory. Mildly amusing

Review – The Bible According to Hollywood

Though this isn’t exactly the slickest documentary I’ve ever seen, it does a better job than expected at tackling the topic suggested by the title. Talking about religion is difficult, and throwing Hollywood into the mix makes it even harder. But the filmmakers walk a reasonable line between witless film historian praise and Bible-thumping moral condemnation. Sure, they miss some things here and there. Overall, however, this is a good introduction to the movie industry’s treatment of subjects from the Old and New Testaments. Mildly amusing

Review – Dorian Gray

The classic Oscar Wilde tale once again gets dragged down from the shelf, dusted off and shot. Though the 21st century allows for a somewhat more explicit (though not particularly gory or pornographic) telling of the tale, it’s still fairly familiar territory. Mildly amusing

Review – Munchausen

Anyone striving to disprove the stereotype that Germans have no sense of humor should do everything in their power to prevent this movie from being shown. Back in 1943 Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels decided that UFA needed to produce something big to commemorate the studio’s 25th anniversary. He also wanted to prove that Germany could create a spectacular fantasy feature to compete with Hollywood productions such as The Wizard of Oz. Not even close. The story starts out with an awkwardly-grafted contemporary bracket before plunging into the tale of Baron Munchausen (and no, there isn’t a trace of irony to be found in this Nazi-spawned picture about a compulsively lying aristocrat). Most of the screen time is devoted to humor that’s at best “quirky” and more often downright bizarre. Quick example: one of the characters is attacked by a rabid dog that tears his coat. Back at home, he puts the coat in a wardrobe with other garments. They all get rabies, break out of the wardrobe and float around the room until he shoots them. Even the picture’s marketing angle is peculiar. The most obvious audience for fantasy of this caliber is kids, but some elements – boring bracket, gratuitous nudity – suggest that it was made with adults in mind. Perhaps the regime just assumed that any people dumb enough to buy Nazism would be dumb enough to be entertained by this. See if desperate

Review – Curse of the Crimson Altar

Once again the English serve up a dull bit of skullduggery about a man searching for his missing brother who disappeared from a creaky old mansion haunted by the spirits of dead devil cult members. The production is one of those low-end-of-medium-budget efforts in which it’s hard to tell if we’re supposed to be able to see the obvious secret doors or if the set builders just weren’t skillful enough to hide the seams. Also released as The Crimson Cult. See if desperate