In 1871, a Danish immigrant (Mads Mikkelsen) kills two men who murdered his wife and his young son.  One of these men is the brother of a virile fellow (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) who used to be a good man but is now cruel and wicked.  He finds and brutalizes the immigrant, who thereafter seeks to avenge himself.

Critic Kyle Smith is correct that the 2015 Western, The Salvation, “relies too much on dull conventions,” notwithstanding Smith liked the film and so did I.  Director Kristian Levring might have done better to adapt one of the many nifty Western novels that have been written—one without the dull conventions—but, in any case, his movie provides some not-bad action, some thrills.  It is un-perversely and apolitically entertaining, not like such items as High Plains Drifter, Duck You Sucker or the p.c. Unforgiven.  Yes, The Salvation saves itself. 

The critics in 1970 were right to adamantly reject Zabriskie Point, the American-made Michaelangelo Antonioni film.  It is dumb, anemic and ill-structured.

Signore Director believed the alienation of young people in the 1960s, and of the New Left, was as significant an alienation as that in such earlier Antonioni films as L’Avventura and La Notte.  But ZP fails to convince us of that.  It has no sophistication whatsoever.  Indeed, the straightforward lovemaking between hippies in the desert (presented in a dream sequence) goes on for so long—and ends with a long shot that makes the hippies look like insects on sand banks—that it turns distasteful.  Yes, visually the film is often impressive, but junk is junk.

Zabriskie Point is a free-love, essentially anti-cop movie, and so we can hardly help realizing just how right it seems for our shoddy times.

Cover of Zabriskie Point

The Season 2 Christmas episode of Jane the Virgin ended on an alarming note—once again our sympathy goes to Petra—but it was the “mid-season finale” so we’ll have to wait till late January to see what happens.

Alarming or not, though, there sure was a lot of whimsical stuff this time.  Jane got so angry over Rafael’s deceptive ways that, yep, steam literally shot from her ears.  And she kept appearing in imaginary (story) roles as she tried to write a prize-winning tale—uh, watch the episode online and you’ll understand what I mean.

Jane’s baby wasn’t featured very much this time, and that’s okay by me.  Too much wild comedy went on for a tiny tot to often be on camera.  Really, it was a pretty festive episode even when things were going wrong for the characters.

The Season 2 Christmas episode of Jane the Virgin ended on an alarming note—once again our sympathy goes to Petra—but it was the “mid-season finale” so we’ll have to wait till late January to see what happens.

Alarming or not, though, there sure was a lot of whimsical stuff this time.  Jane got so angry over Rafael’s deceptive ways that, yep, steam literally shot from her ears.  And she kept appearing in imaginary (story) roles as she tried to write a prize-winning tale—uh, watch the episode online and you’ll understand what I mean.

Jane’s baby wasn’t featured very much this time, and that’s okay by me.  Too much wild comedy went on for a tiny tot to often be on camera.  Really, it was a pretty festive episode even when things were going wrong for the characters.

The fight with the lion and the final annihilation of the Philistines wrought by Samson between the pillars are dandy scenes in Cecile B. DeMille‘s Samson and Delilah (1949).  And if you want sensuality, mostly that of Hedy Lamarr (Delilah), that’s there too.

But there are bad scenes to boot, such as the one where Delilah laughably vows to avenge herself on big Samson (Victor Mature) as the Philistine fields burn.  In point of fact, the lady’s will to get even is unconvincing, unlikely.  She so loves and moons over Samson this doesn’t make much sense.  The screenplay here isn’t as well written as that of DeMille’s The Ten Commandments.  Expectably, Delilah is given a much bigger part in the film than she is in the Old Testament account—a stranger and grittier story than this.   

English: Samson and Delilah, Guercino, 1654, oil on canvas. Access number 316. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)