60 Second Movie Review: Skyfall (2012)

December 11, 2012 by 1 Comment

It’s been a couple weeks since I skipped out on life on a Monday afternoon and went to watch Skyfall at 11:40 am with a half dozen other people in the theater and a tub of popcorn all for myself.

Other than the buttery goodness, what I remember most of the latest James Bond film is how aware it was of itself as a James Bond film. That’s somewhat true of all Bond films. Sean Connery may have kept a straight face while calling Honor Blackman “Pussy Galore” in 1964′s Goldfinger, but the film was definitely winking at the audience.

Honor Blackman and Sean Connery in Goldfinger

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60 Second Movie Review: Killer Joe (2011)

August 22, 2012 by 6 Comments

It’s an old joke, but for as long as I can remember, I’ve had a poor memory. Blogging is great for that, as I can write what I recall in the moment, and then let it go into the ether. If I forget what I thought of an old movie or TV show, I can use the Google instead of my brain. Unfortunately, when I saw Tracy Letts’ play Killer Joe at the Renegade Theatre Experiment almost two years ago, I didn’t write a review, so I can’t compare the film in great detail. I’ll have to stick closely to the movie with these reactions, which assess the film as a whole, definitely wandering on occasion into spoiler territory.

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60 Second Movie Review: An American in Paris (1951)

August 16, 2012 by 3 Comments

Seeing An American in Paris on the big screen at the Stanford Theatre was my first time seeing it all the way through on any screen. I’ve been a huge Gene Kelly fan since childhood — one of my now not-so-private secrets is that I took a couple years of tap dancing lessons as a kid. My fandom was founded primarily on Singin’ in the Rain, with a dash of On the Town sprinkled on top. But An American in Paris? Whenever it came on the teevee, it seemed a tad disjointed and superficial, without that sustained momentum of my favorite Kelly flicks, so I never stayed with it. I still feel that way, but the movie has plenty of delightful performers and performances.

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60 Second Movie Review: The Apartment (1960)

August 13, 2012 by 5 Comments

The Apartment is one of those classic films that I kept intending to watch, but never quite got around to viewing. I started it once, a couple years ago, but my then-girlfriend was less of a fan of old movies than I am. That’s fair enough, but her tentative interest made me extra sensitive to the slower pace of this particular Billy Wilder flick. The Apartment doesn’t have the same rapid-fire wit and gags of Some Like It Hot, which was released the year before, but it’s deeply pleasurable in its own right, and definitely lifted me out of the doldrums when I went to see it at the Stanford Theatre on a Tuesday evening in August.

Be warned…possible spoilers inside once you step inside…

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Weekend Movie Review: The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

August 3, 2012 by 3 Comments

I went to see The Dark Knight Rises at the Grove and could tell that I was in L.A. because the screen and sound was super awesome. It made for some great visceral fun. Planes in the air! Explosions underground! Chase scenes through the streets that didn’t bore me! So, uh, that’s my review in a nutshell. What follows presumes that you’ve already seen the film — probably before I did! — and I talk a lot about the movie’s politics, so if that spoils the fun you find in watching grown men wear capes, please do not make the leap…

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Weekend Movie Review: Words and Music (1948)

July 26, 2012 by 9 Comments

I went to see Words and Music at the Stanford Theatre knowing that it is a post-World War II MGM all-star musical, so I figured that this highly fictionalized account of the career of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart would provide a series of pretty darn good musical numbers, perhaps tied together by a clumsy narrative. Unfortunately, the songs were fewer in number than I’d hoped, even after accounting for the fact that Rodgers & Hammerstein was much more prolific than Rodgers & Hart. A bland narrative hung over the film like Perry Como (who was actually pretty likable in the film), spiced up by the frequently fascinating presence of Mickey Rooney, who played Hart.

RODGERS: A tune without a lyric is a mighty lonesome thing.

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Weekend Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

July 19, 2012 by 5 Comments

I was on the fence about whether or not to go see The Amazing Spider-Man, but knew I had made the right decision as soon as the lights went down and the trailers began. You know how it can be easy to tell how bad a movie is going to be by how difficult it is for them to find choice moments for the preview? Well, the best line in the trailer for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 was the following:

DUDE: I didn’t expect you to be so — you.

Awesome sauce. I now know not to go see The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2. Seeing Spider-Man already saved me twelve bucks.

Random thoughts on Spidey — including some spoilers — after the break.

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60 Second Movie Review: The Misfits (1961)

June 15, 2012 by Leave a comment

This was my first time seeing The Misfits, which was the last film for Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable. Filming finished on November 4, 1960, and Gable passed away on November 16, 1960. The movie was released on February 1, 1961, and Monroe herself died on August 5, 1962. Add into the mix a Montgomery Clift who had limped along in his life and career since a 1956 car accident, and you have a John Huston flick that gains emotional resonance from the personal lives of the stars — and that’s without even mentioning how Monroe’s husband Arthur Miller wrote the film, although their marriage was already fading by the time it was made, and they divorced on January 24, 1961. If you’re keeping track, that’s a week before The Misfits opened.

Regardless, that’s the last date I’ll mention in my remarks, I swear! Although be warned that I’m not going to avoid mentioning spoilers or pieces of the puzzle…

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60 Second Movie Review: Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

May 31, 2012 by 15 Comments

Rosemary’s Baby is a film I’d never seen before. (And if you haven’t, skip this review unless you don’t mind spoilers.) Sure, it’s been on that fairly lengthy list of movies that I’ve been thinking about seeing since I was, oh, a teenager. I’m starting to realize that I’ll die without having viewed all the films on my list. It’s far from the biggest regret I’ll have while dying, but it’s a small one. I wonder if they have Netflix in the afterlife?

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60 Second Movie Review: The Avengers (2012)

May 25, 2012 by 6 Comments

When I came out from seeing Joss Whedon’s The Cabin in the Woods a few weeks back, the theater lobby looked like it’d been hit by Occupy. Groups of kids all around, sitting on the floor in expectation, phones out. Turns out that The Avengers was premiering at midnight. I determined to be back as soon as the lines died down…

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60 Second Movie Review: “The Pirates! Band of Misfits 3D” (2012)

May 11, 2012 by 5 Comments

Most of us know and love — or at least have a slight fondness for — the Wallace and Gromit guys, more officially known as Aardman Animations. They are the claymation creators behind The Pirates! Band of Misfits 3D, which I saw with a friend at the Westfield Mall in San Francisco.

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60 Second Movie Review: The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

May 4, 2012 by 10 Comments

I’m not a fan of horror films, in large part because I get grossed out by gore. I remember seeing Poltergeist while staying with cousins of mine in California back when I was 12. It was in their living room, late at night, and I was alone. So, yeah, I didn’t sleep well that night. Flash forward a few decades and I’m writing that if you just see one Joss Whedon-written, well-paced, engaging, and inventive horror film this weekend, I recommend that you see The Cabin in the Woods. But if you are scared to go into the woods of possible spoilers, turn back now! This is a review that should probably just be read by those who have seen the film. You have been warned…

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