Old Man @ The Movies

I saw a powerful, moralistic medical drama that was dark, deep, and predominantly tragic. Made in New Zealand with the sometimes difficult accents of the actors, it was excellently acted and filmed, including some very graphic operations and technical medical language. In A MISTAKE, Elizabeth is obviously a very gifted surgical consultant, overseeing a student in difficult surgery on a young woman, who subsequently dies.  The patient's parents are distraught, unsatisfied with the explanation of their daughter's death and eventually there is a newspaper article which accuses Elizabeth of mishandling the surgery.  This all comes at a time when the hospital administrators are introducing a new set of dats that reveals numerically individual doctors and their success and failure rates.  Elizabeth objects and she is suspended and soon after her surgical student, wracked with guilt over the patient's death, commits suicide.  The film is direct and points fingers and plods at time

I don't know how or why you can destroy a film that had a unique premise, reasonable acting, great cinematography and special effects and other good things to make it unusual and watchable in the last twenty minutes, but it was achieved in THE SUBSTANCE by its French writer/director.  Critics raved, calling it a marvelous Hollywood satire.  The last twenty minutes made it gross, grotesque, violent, bloody and absurd.  Demi Moore, whom I don't recall seeing in ages, did a good job as a highly successful and beautiful model and movie celebrity, with a star on the Hollywood walk of fame, who is fired from her network fitness show because she's too old (a la Jane Fonda?).  The man who fires her and demands a younger, prettier version to succeed her is a manic and funny Dennis Quaid named Harvey (a caricature of Harvey Weinstein?).   A mysterious and anonymous voice advises Demi that she is able to create a replacement for herself with one injection. Said injection will allow he

I am sorry to report that my 600th review was a genuine stinker, at least in my opinion and despite what critics and audiences believe.  It claims as its genre "suspense," but I would classify it as psychotic and silly.  I should have recognized this from the previews I had been watching for what seemed like six months.  In SPEAK NO EVIL, a naive American couple who live in London and are having rough times meet an arrogant "doctor" and his wife on vacation in Italy and accept an invitation to visit these relative strangers at their home in the West County of England. They take their young daughter.  Dr. Arrogant begins to exhibit some aberrant behavior and you want to scream at the naives to go home.  They don't and things only get worse.  I guess James McAvoy does a credible job as the nutty doctor, but the other actors seem to be playing their parts as if they were in another movie, or at least another place. You will also learn why the movie was titled as it

Described as an action-comedy, THE KILLER'S GAME hits the target of both descriptions. It has an incredible amount of ultra-violent action, and it is funny and farcical.  It stars Dave Bautista, whom I guess I had seen before (after reading his biography), but who I did not recognize.  He's a heavily tattooed likable bruiser (he had been a world-champion wrestler earlier in his career), and I thought he did a terrific job as Joe Flood, a successful assassin, who meets and rescues the love of his life in a dance theater after he kills half a dozen people.  His handler or agent, the one who gives him all his assignments, is played beautifully by Ben Kingsley, and despite the seeming sordidness of their jobs, they come across as decent and genuine friends.  We learn later that although assassination is their business, they only are involved with killing criminals, and Joe does a lot of that.  Joe wants to quit because he is having severe headaches and other debilitating symptoms,

The movie I saw yesterday had all the ingredients of an old time crime drama with an added element.  In the movie, we experienced ambition, pride, arrogance, duplicity, blackmail, adultery, seduction, murder, suicide and something we would have never experienced in the good old days—homosexuality.  In THE CRITIC, which takes place in 1930s London and looks authentic, Ian McKellen, an award-winning fine actor, stars as a nasty but powerful theater critic at a London newspaper who prides  himself on panning performances, and he is particularly cruel in his treatment of a young actress.  I think it's interesting that his character is s homosexual, and McKellen in real life is an outspoken homosexual, having "come out" years ago.  He's in trouble at the paper for his viscous reviews, and to insure his job, he concocts a nasty scheme involving the young actress in exchange for future good reviews for her.  I thought it was a good film and well acted by all.  Critics, of co

I honestly don't recall if I saw the original Beetlejuice because I have no recollection whatsoever of it.  Thus, did I innocently enter the theater today to see BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, the sequel which starred some of the people from the original, specifically Michael Keaton, Catherine O'Hara and Winona Ryder.  To my surprise, I actually liked it and laughed aloud at times. It is funny, weird, silly, colorful and bizarre, and costumes and makeup add to the fun.  I am reasonably certain all of you know the plot and characters of the original, and I suspect this is just more of the same years later.  It is basically a fantasy of the living and the dead getting together, and the result is fun for all including the audience.  The new actors in this latest version are Geena Davis and Willem Dafoe and they just add more spice to the happenings.  This is a typical Tim Burton production, but perhaps a bit more subdued and likable.  I enjoyed myself so much that i will watch the origi

I saw another one of those based-on-a-true-story, overcoming-all-odds films, and it was exactly like all the others in this genre, except for one thing—a very sad segment in which one of the lead characters is diagnosed with a virulent tumor in his brain.  YOU GOTTA BELIEVE is the story of a team of little league baseball players in a small town in Texas.  They are coached by two good friends, both of whom have sons on their team.  Naturally, all the kids are terrible players, but they end up on the team that their town is obligated to send to compete in the Little League World Series extravaganza.  And naturally, as in the case of all the similar movies we have seen, they become very good players and make it all the way to the final game that determines the world championship.  The only actor I recognized was Greg Kinnear, one of the coaches who is a lawyer and who has a terrible boss.  It's a little too saccharine and sad for my taste, but it is a true story and nothing could be

For the second weekend in a row, Hollywood released a lot of films so I was forced to choose the lesser evil among the group.  When I got to the theater, I made up my mind.  It was a rainy Saturday, the lobby was jammed, and I assumed most were going to see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which appeared to be shown in one of the 16 theaters every 15 minutes.  I opted for the least likely to be crowded—a French language film entitled RED ROOMS.  I was shocked when I saw that virtually every seat was taken.  I was pleasantly surprised despite the subject matter—the trial of s man accused of sexually abusing, mutilating and then killing three young girls.  Much of the action takes place in a Montreal courtroom where two young women are spectators.  They begin talking to one another and somehow they bond despite their very different lifestyles.  One is a fashion model, living in a luxurious apartment; the other, a visitor to the city, who is sleeping on the streets or in homeless shelters.  The h

I don't know if I'm getting more critical or movies are getting worse.  The movie I saw yesterday was just plain awfu—a psychedelic melange of awful characters, amateur acting and ridiculous plot.  And if I'm not repeating myself, Channing Tatum couldn't act his way out of a paper bag, the high point in this film being when he says "I'm sorry" at least nine times in succession, the last time screaming it.  The plot, such as it is, involves a billionaire playboy (Tatum), striving for a new image as a philanthropist. At a social event he is hosting, he meets two girls, waitresses, who have sneaked in, and invites them to fly with him to his private island where the main activity seems to be drug use and mysterious happenings.  The film BLINK TWICE was directed by Zoe Kravitz who must have taken drugs along with the cast, the musicians and anyone else associated with the film. Once again I am baffled by the critics response, where 73% gave it s thumbs up, alo

The Labor Day weekend had two surprises—the release of about six new movies and crowds. I now revert to reading the summaries of movies before going to avoid seeing something I know I will detest and so my first choice was REAGAN, an innocuous decision, I figured.  I was amazed by the size of the audience, the largest since viewing the Taylor Swift concert.  And they were quiet and subdued.  It was a stilted production, stilted in the sense that the cast delivered the dialogue in a somewhat stiff fashion, especially the actress, Penelope Ann Miller, playing Nancy Reagan, first as a flighty and silly young actress, later as a stern, demanding woman in charge.  It follows faithfully as Reagan moves from movies to politics, with flashbacks to his boyhood and it moved well.  Dennis Quaid portrayed the former president fairly well as did old timers Jon Voight as a former Russian KGB leader and Leslie-Anne Down as Margaret Thatcher.  The story is told by Voight weaving a tale of Russian scru