hold2file Reviews

Just Visiting (2001)

a real waste of visual talent

[3/10 · 5 September 2002]

Wow. What a great idea: Christina Applegate, Jean Reno, the reverse of the plot of Mark Twain's "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" in the hero goes forward in time, and great cinematography. What a disappointment. Jean-Marie Gaubert (whose real name is Jean-Marie Poiré) has both miss-directed this mess and miss-cast it. All of the "tricks of the trade" are there: the beauty, the lost hero, the comic sidekick, the deceitful boyfriend, excellent cinematography and state-of-the-art special effects. But it all seems superficial. Applegate lacks passion, Reno lacks intelligence, and Christian Clavier (the side-kick) ISN'T funny.

A lot of money and effort seems to have been spent on this movie, and in other hands it might have been very good.

The Wings of Eagles (1957)

An excellent "non-war" movie about people who make winning wars possible.

[8/10 · 28 July 2002]

Despite the title and the time frame (and the misunderstanding of the movie by other reviewers), this is not a typical war movie. This movie is really a biography and personal study of the obsessiveness and dedication that is necessary in the technological nature of warfare today. In one respect it is too bad that the movie stars John Wayne because the expectation is that it would feature a "gung ho" performance. Instead it is an amazing acting effort by Wayne as a suffering, crippled, insensitive Navy officer and author whose vision and commitment made much of the Naval air force possible. It is an excellent performance by Wayne and almost more of a "stretch" for him than Dustin Hoffman portraying an autistic "Rainman."

Léon: The Professional (1994)

Parenting 101

[9/10 · 4 June 2002]

This movie is also shown on American TV as "The Professional."

As the previous reviewer stated, it has awesome performances by Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, and an unknown child actress named Natalie Portman. Reno's character is successful as an assassin mostly because he is so dysfunctional as a human being. Which is also why Oldman's character is so successful as a whacked-out corrupt cop. It takes Portman's transition form an innocent child, unaware of her parents' drug dealing, to a determined young woman to bring both Reno and Oldman a sense of humanity that is eventually their undoing.

This is a great movie with excellent acting, exciting, realistic action, and a neat plot. It shows Portman definitely as "an actress to watch in the future," and of the "whacked-out" villain roles by Oldman, this is probably the best.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

A Masterpiece

[10/10 · 23 January 2002]

This is one of the most brilliant movies ever made. Kubrick should have won the Nobel Peace Prize for pointing out in such a visible way the insanities of nuclear warfare and how vulnerable the human race is to the stupidities of individuals. It is my understanding that this movie was a major factor in increased communication between the US and Soviet military as to mutual activities, and the implementation of psychological profile testing for all personnel, both US AND Soviet, that have access to nuclear weapons.

Blow-Up (1966)

If a tree falls in the forest....

[2 January 2002]

BLOW-UP is NOT "about the possible dehumanizing effects of photography..." but rather a movie version of the philosophical question: "If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?"

In this case, if a murder is committed and there is no evidence, did it really happen?

While seemingly about a successful, but hedonistically superficial, photographer who films both wartime brutalities and fashion, Thomas (David Hemmings) comes to finally realize that his images only create an illusion of the real world.

He discovers that he has accidentally photographed a murder when he develops and enlarges ("blows up") the images of photographs taken of a couple in an otherwise deserted park. He even returns to the scene and finds the victim's body. But when the photographs AND the negatives AND the body disappears AND there is no report of a missing person, he discovers that he has no evidence of a murder having occurred.

In the end, when he throws back the imaginary tennis ball to the pantomime players on the tennis court, he realizes that what he accepts as reality is really only an illusion.

Sequoia (1934)

Stunning animal photography

[18 November 2000]

This movie has some of the most stunning animal photography I have ever seen. It is amazing to get an adult male deer and bobcat to work together as well as the very impressive scenes of deer and other animals in the wild.