Change Your Image
JeffHaas
Reviews
Heavy Traffic (1973)
Interesting effort that didn't age well
I just saw this for the first time on DVD. It's an excellent transfer.
Heavy Traffic must've been controversial back in '73, and caused quite a splash. But I really don't see why. This is a case where, if the movie had been made completely as live-action, no one would mention it today. The rambling and sometimes incomprehensible plot, extremely stereotyped characters, and subtle-as-a-Mack-Truck "social commentary" would've consigned this to a celluloid footnote.
Some of the animated sequences are clever, but without a strong plot and good characters, I found them to be interesting, but not compelling.
They Live (1988)
Somehow it's a cult classic
I finally got around to renting this on DVD after hearing so much about it from sources that I considered reliable. Normally I'm a fan of John Carpenter, but this movie is really weak. Slow, long, dull, with really stupid characters, Carpenter seems to know he's only got enough story to fill a 1/2 hour Twilight Zone episode...so he stretches every single scene to the maximum. He can't show a guy walking up to a building, then cut to him inside; no, he has to slowly pan with him as he walks down the sidewalk and up to the door. Then we cut inside and watch as he walks through the door and looks around...slowly.
I guess if I saw this when I was 14 it would've been fun. Good thing DVDs have fast-forward buttons. That way I got to the predictable ending much sooner.