Category: Movies Page 45 of 47

Dr. Samuel Mudd Is “The Prisoner of Shark Island” (1936)

On March 4, 2014

The Prisoner of Shark Island (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The John Ford film, The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), is about Dr. Samuel Mudd, who treated the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth shortly after Booth murdered Lincoln and was consequently arrested for conspiracy to assassinate (!) and sent to serve a life sentence in the Dry Tortugas.

When a decent man is victimized by the authorities—this is the message conveyed. As the terrible incidents roll, also conveyed are all kinds of values (and virtues): courage, persistence, belief in God, marital love and, despite the country’s injustice to Dr. Mudd, patriotism. Plus there is military pride, as demonstrated by Mudd’s crotchety father-in-law, an elderly Southern colonel (Claude Gillingwater). Today both he and Mudd would be seen as politically incorrect (yawn): the doctor, you see, is a decent, estimable SLAVER.

Prisoner is still riveting, and I agree with film critic Otis Ferguson about the strength and worth of the prison escape sequence. Nunnally Johnson’s script provides more depth than we generally get from Ford’s Westerns, even if the old American movies never enabled us to feel the ineradicable wound of life. Their unpleasantness was limited.

“Iron Man 3”: Semi-Comedy

By EarlD

On May 20, 2013

In General, Movies

For a man who has threatened a major-league terrorist, Tony Stark—a.k.a. Iron Man—certainly leaves his house unprepared for the savage aerial attack that constitutes Iron Man 3‘s first large-scale action sequence. Where are the robotic guns? It should be understood, though, that the movie’s narrative is fundamentally for children. Everything else, I would say, is for grownups as well as children, which is good news. Shane Black’s film is faulty but fun, a relentlessly commercial family pic (made by Marvel/Disney—again, relentlessly commercial). Predictably, Robert Downey Jr. is unerring in the title role. The one-liners he spouts are only part, albeit the most important part, of what makes IM3 a semi-comedy. Guy Pearce and Sir Ben Kingsley can also be funny. The film is close to being a laugh-fest with explosions.

Another thing: there may be a mini-message in the film—terrorists are invariably ULTRA-villains (Guy Pearce, this means you).

A Silver Overlay in “Silver Linings Playbook” – A Movie Review

By EarlD

On January 2, 2013

In General, Movies

David O. Russell’s first film, Spanking the Monkey (1994), is not a crowd pleaser. Mediocre as it is, it’s tougher than that. His new picture, Silver Linings Playbook (2012) is a crowd pleaser—and it isn’t mediocre. It’s a seriocomic piece that manages to be a lot of fun. Nimble with his camera, Russell adapts a novel unknown to me for what seems like a good adaptation to the silver screen (i.e. the movie stands on its own).

The story is that of a man (Bradley Cooper) just out of a mental hospital and his hopes of restoring his subverted marriage. Presently he befriends a chilly, emotionally disturbed young widow (Jennifer Lawrence) who affects his life in curious ways. The value of marriage, despite the imperfections of marriages, is a theme in Playbook. So is the understandable fight, undertaken by some individuals, to turn away from darkness, from “negativity” (oh, that word!), and concentrate on light—as well as possible.

Funny and buoyant, what we have here is a contemporary Preston Sturges movie, only more touching. Granted, it can be corny too, but I had no trouble seeing a silver overlay in Silver Linings Playbook, however un-tough it may be.

“The Avengers” Arrive – A Movie Review

By EarlD

On May 21, 2012

In General, Movies

The Avengers (2012 film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Joss Whedon’s The Avengers (2012) is consistently entertaining. Its action footage would be more entertaining, wholly exciting, if it contained greater suspense (like the car chase in The French Connection), but no matter. It’s still head-on fun and technically accomplished.

Certain Marvel comic-book movies, most of which I haven’t seen, anticipated this lengthy flick in which Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk and other superheroes band together to–you got it–save the world. (I wonder who’s going to save it from the economic policies of political leaders?) I enjoyed the movie’s humor and was certainly glad the talented, now likeable Robert Downey Jr. was on hand. I mean he’s now likeable as a human being, I think. Like the action, Downey makes us forget most of Whedon’s poor plotting.

When Eminem Was Hot Stuff: 2003’s “8 Mile” – A Movie Review

By EarlD

On November 21, 2011

In Movies, Music

Cover of 8 Mile (Widescreen Edition)

Eminem, in 8 Mile, plays a Detroit post-teenager who dreams of becoming a rap singer, who both has black friends and receives hostility from blacks who don’t like his career intentions. For all its hokiness it’s a good movie, chiefly because of its depiction of working-class life in an American city. Scott Silver’s script is fragile, but Curtis Hanson directs it with flair and know-how. Eminem’s acting is hollow but the other performers shine. E.g., Mekhi Phifer is urban tough but nonthreatening as one of Eminem’s friends, he who asserts he intends to square things with the Lord but never gets around to it. Kim Basinger gives a nicely complex performance as the white rapper’s mother, and the late Brittany Murphy effectively plays, er, an affable slut. It’s not much of a role. It is not even clear that Silver is aware she is a slut.

Another problem: the obligatory embarrassing sex scene. And another: rap music. The one Eminem rap song I have heard in its entirety struck me as trivial and unfunny, and the tripe spewed out in 8 Mile is no better. One wishes we had Duke Ellington and Scott Joplin around to teach this white kid a lesson.