Walking Trousers I have such a long list of films to watch that there is often a long lag between the time it appears on the list and the actual watching. Then, part of the fun is figuring out why I was so excited about getting it. My watching during this hour was largely occupied… Continue reading Being Mick (2001)
Category: Ones
Films rated one star out of three
Liar Liar (1997)
Anti Vax Sometimes a film is just a wrapper for a broken person, who when unconstrained amuses us. Robin Williams, Peter Sellers, Jerry Lewis are examples. These are souls we accept because we find an endearing core around which the outrageous behaviour orbits. So far as we could see, Robin, Peter, and Jerry were good… Continue reading Liar Liar (1997)
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
Shoot Me When I’m Dead John Hughes. What a sad case: is it drugs? He started his career with huge promise: he made films that showed he knew how to dramatise the teenage world without using teenage bluntness. These were sensitive little things that impressed not by what they were but by how gently they… Continue reading National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
Fast X (2023)
Neonoir Reversed There are three components to these kinds of products. Action scenes of some kind, a cosmology, and a story to weave them together. Characters and drama are irrelevant. For me, sometimes the cosmology was enough, like the middle ‘Wick’ projects. Sometimes it blows me away, but more often these days I end up… Continue reading Fast X (2023)
Bettie Page: Bondage (1998)
The Previous Edge In all things, there is an inside and an outside and that defines edges. Not edges between, but edges beyond which you can see the difference. There are, I suppose many domains of which this can be said of sex, and the various rituals and totems associated with it. I was coming… Continue reading Bettie Page: Bondage (1998)
F9 (2021)
Blended Family, Family Secrets I can say that I witnessed an appreciative audience as my ten and eleven year old whooped and hollered at the stunts, oblivious to the surrounding machinery. For them, and I suppose many viewers, the movie other than the action sequences is there only to support those segments. So the less… Continue reading F9 (2021)
American Wedding (2003)
A Franchise Matures Wow. There are few things more interesting than the evolutionary forces of the market that push and pull something to ensure survival. I’m a strong believer in how market forces shape film, even our most exotic art films. This isn’t art, of course, not in the usual sense. But it is a… Continue reading American Wedding (2003)
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)
Missed Baywatch I’m constantly amazed at how quickly some fresh, edgy cinematic ideas go stale. This was strange enough it its time to be noticed: the placement of the narrative stance within the sixth grade. Having played its small role in advancing the scope of narrative irony, it is now merely stupid. I guess the… Continue reading Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)
The Basketball Diaries (1995)
Visions of the Other Side Unless you are just filling space until you die, you’re going to want something out of experiences like this. The idea is supposed to be that someone can guide us to alternative worlds and report back with something useful or at least interesting. It is not enough to merely watch… Continue reading The Basketball Diaries (1995)
The Barber (2002)
Hair, Cut “Fargo” without the go, “Albino Alligator” without the wrinkles, “The Gardener” without Angie, “Invisible Man” made visible, “Insomnia” without the light and most of all, “Twin Peaks” with only one peak. McDowell has built a career of his role in “Clockwork Orange:” a demented brilliance of character. It is possible to make an… Continue reading The Barber (2002)