Change Your Image
david_77
Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againReviews
Written on the Wind (1956)
One Train Wreck of a Movie – But I couldn't Stop Watching
The acting is so-so (Bacall), bad (Malone) and very bad (Stack). In comparison, Hudson comes off as an acting genius. The supporting players are fairly good. When the acting of 3 of the 4 leads is that bad, you've got to know the director is behind most of those very bad choices. The color is wonderful – one of the better big-screen DVD movies I've experienced. The script is often clumsy, but you do wanna know how it's going to turn out, don't you? What arises out of the ashes is quite watchable. If you can handle the melodramatic, over-the-top acting, and you just can't look away from an impending train-wreck, you just might get a kick out of this (although you're bound to feel very guilty the next morning). Don't say I didn't warn you!
The Good Shepherd (2006)
Loooong & Booooring
This movie covers a very interesting subject, the birth of the CIA, over a 25+ year time-frame. It is amazing that those involved have made it so uninteresting. There is lots of preening, by many (usually) pretty good actors. Under the surface, I even "see" a great deal of preening by the director (DeNiro-who should get a lifetime ban from working behind the camera for this turkey) and a lot of preening by the writer. Overall, a dreadful waste! My review ends here, but IMDb says that the review has to have more lines!!! Perhaps that is one of the reasons that this movie is sooo bad. It is almost three hours long. To IMDb and to the hack who wrote this movie: stop when you have nothing further to say. Okay?
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
understated masterpiece
One example of why this film is so different and so good: As the story begins, an ambulance chaser is traveling to a small town where a school bus has crashed, killing all on board. Well into the film, we finally witness the crash, in flashback. Now, the modern Hollywood version would feature 100 different angles of the crash, mostly in close-up, lots of pyrotechnics, and lots and lots of terrible noises. In The Sweet Hereafter, a father is following the school bus in which his 2 children are riding. When the bus runs off the road and onto the frozen lake, we witness the whole thing from the roadway, in a long shot, just as the father does. Having the camera, and the viewer, stay with the father has much greater impact than the Hollywood version.